Old Flames

"In fact, I feel your actions are womanish. They look childish to me." she stood up, the drug giving her strength that she did not possess usually. She did not remember when was the last time she felt that brave.

His eyes flickered with dark as it roamed over the slip of her gown. Her bare single shoulders and a red healing mark on it. A simple man would have missed it but Len had dealt with those marks all his life. His eyes narrowed on her mark.

"And you can see me too." Perhaps she noticed something different in his gaze as she mocked him. "I have thought that I am invisible to you all this time." The jab in her voice did not go unnoticed but he was more affected by the slur in her voice, the haze in her eyes and the way her body swayed when she took a step forward.

"If i can not see you now, it is by your decision." he spoke in an exhausted voice. "So, pardon me if my disinterest has wounded your pride." it did not. She had no pride but the words felt insulting. She did not speak to them.

"Who injured you?" he asked as he took a step toward her. She had taken several already without caring that she was in her night rove that was slipping off her shoulders. He did not understand why he should care then.

He stood in front of her. Their breaths touch each other. She swayed and his hands reached for her waist to hold her. It froze her suddenly.

"What are you doing?" she asked, as if she had finally felt their proximity, his presence and the effect of it.

"Holding you." the words came more breathy than he had intended and it left a shiver down her spine. "To make sure that you did not fall." 

"Ha! How easy it is for you to hold me when i.." she didn't reply but glared at him. Even in her drugged state she could not confess to him. She could not tell him that she was entrapped in that season all her life. She had rooted the emotions which might have been just a fling for him.

"Why? Are you in need of your husband, my lady?" she did not read the mood but She made a sound beneath her breath, a wordless hmph: clearly, with this remark, he had exceeded her lowest expectations. 

"He would be the last thing that I ever need." Her eyes were wary now and she finally struggled to get free from his grip. But letting her go was the last thing in his mind.

"Then let's explore what you want more than your husband?" 

"My freedom." The words slipped before she could control herself. It brought a strange silence in the room before he drew a deep breath full of suspense. 

"Then kiss me!" She would have loved to. She was already leaning on him. He had no idea how much she had missed his touch, his breath, his voice and his words but the way he whispered those words with eyes full of mockery left her muddle headed. He wanted to kiss her while he loathed her so much.

"Why? My lady, you do not want to do it?" oh if only he knew! She would die to do it. Her chest heaved magnificently and he could see the rising and falling of it so well. Yet his face showed not a hint of emotions. As if he felt nothing while holding her. The kiss was nothing more than an entertainment, a physical pleasure a man wants after a weary day.

What made her? A harlot? Or worse since she was married.

"You are…"

"A heathen? Savage? A dandy perhaps?" he laughed when she bit her lips. She only wanted to joke. Or serious?

But looking at the cold smirk on his face, she already knew the answer. Yet, she wanted to do it. Could she blame it on the drugs in the morning?

Her lips twisted into a weary smile as she kept looking at his dark eyes. Was that mockery in them? For once she was glad that she was not sober.

"And you would give me my freedom in exchange for a kiss?" she asked slurry and she felt his grip on her waist tightened.

"You have my words." and what use were they. She had taken his words when he said that he would return to take her.

When he had told her that he would marry her after that mission. When he had told her that he had loved her. And what had she become now. A fool, a puppet, a woman with lost… tears spilled her eyes when she remembered those days and new rage burnt her.

He had done so much to her yet she was leaning on him as if he was her everything.

"Do you want me to write them for you, my lady?" as if he could see that she did not trust him. He offered and she gave a mocking smile.

"No, if you go back on your words again. It will prove that I should be the one seeking revenge, not you!" she pointed with a cold smirk on her face and held her collar tightly. Her chin came up. Her eyes narrowed. 

She lifted her face and shut her eyes. "Do it," she said between her teeth. His breath caught. It was the most erotic thing he'd heard in recent memory. The words seemed to take hold of his groin and give a tug even when he knew that she was reluctant to do it.

He had really gone mad after meeting her. Perhaps, he should have never taken this task, had never come looking for her.