24

Anita looks really pretty in the short red backless dress she’s twirling in. Six-inch heels I would never think of wearing, she wore with pride. The dress hugged her curves, advertising her cleavage. Her thin lips are a bloody red, earrings sparkling. She is dressed up, looking all nice and lovely, for a murderer.
“You know, it was stupid of you to think that you can come in between Sia and I. He would never allow anyone to separate us, so don’t bother trying,” she says snarkily. I roll my eyes at her antics.
“I learnt my lesson the hard way. I can never do such a thing now that this already healed wound would be a constant reminder,” of how much I hate you, I wanted to add.
“Whatever. Sia says red suits me, you know since I have red hair,” she says, checking herself again in the mirror.
Red is not the only thing that suits you. Blood is. How can she be so comfortable with this slutty outfit? Shouldn’t he be worried that another man would look at her? It’s jealousy I know, but I don’t want this dinner to end well for them.
“What’s taking Sia so long? He is the only man I know that spends years in getting ready.”
“And the only man that loves you,” Sia completes, crossing his arms, leaning against the doorway. No, he’s not. Lyles loves Anita and I’m sure that wherever Leo is, he won’t stop loving his mate, irrespective of how fucked up she is.
Sia looks sexy in a tuxedo. His hair is gelled back, and I noticed he has gotten a haircut. The silver rings he wore on his fingers, winked at me. His wrists support two golden watches, and his feet is hidden in Italian loafers. He’s not wearing a tie, three buttons popped on his inner shirt, giving me a glimpse of his hard chest. Sia licks his lips, and my eyes catch sight of the signet ring gracing his middle finger.
“Sia!”, Anita cried out. “Why aren’t you wearing the red tie I bought you?”
“I didn’t like it,” he says, eyes glued to her. “I thought you burnt this dress?”
So, he doesn’t approve?
Anita walked closer to him, heels clicking the floorboards, and pecked his lips. “I loved it too much to dispose of it. Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere,” he said. This guy hasn’t even looked at me. “Just go outside and wait for me,” he added, creating space for her to pass.
She huffs and obeys him like a lost puppy. Sia shuts the door, cracking his knuckles. I swallow hard as his eyes flicker to me.
“You aren’t dressed,” he says, approaching me. I stagger backwards, looking down. “Why?”, he asks, hooking his fingers under my chin and jerking it up, forcing me to look at him. He squeezes my jaw. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to,” I sputter.
“You look cute when you’re jealous,” he says, pinching my cheek. I shake my head, not wanting his hands on me.
“I’m not jealous,” I stammer. “I just don’t want to watch you guys have fun.”
“Well, I can’t let you stay here alone. You would run away.”
Dammit. How did he know that’s exactly what I was planning on doing?
“You can’t keep me here forever Sia. I am not your wife.”
He plays with his rings chuckling. “No, you’re not. You’re something much better. You are my little whore.”
How dare he call me that? “I don’t and I will never belong to you. I’m nobody’s whore.”
“I won’t let you spoil my good mood. The day is just too good for that.”
“Tell me something Sia. What do you gain when I’m hurt? Why are you so happy when I’m in pain?”
Sia is about to answer my question when Anita calls out from outside, “Baby! What’s taking you so long?”
Sia rolls his eyes, buttoning his shirt, but simply ignores her and focuses on me chuckling.
“Once upon a time, there was an alpha who hated rogues. She captured a rogue and tortured him brutally for her own pleasures. Should I go on?”
My eyes widened. “You are doing all this for revenge?”
I thought he had done it a long time ago.
He clicked his tongue. “Revenge, vengeance, call it whatever you want. My father taught me one thing. That the only way to hurt a person is to break them. And the only way that can happen is to toy with their emotions.”
I gasped at his confession. “You’ve been playing me all this while. What am I to you, a game?”
“A game I’m going to win. You will only and ever be just a pawn. Wisen up my pretty little whore. Beware of the man you think you know.”
******
“It doesn’t hurt,” I winced.
Ruarc rolled his eyes at me, reaching for the next brandy bottle and opens it with ease.
“Of course, it does. Stop being a bitch and sit still,” he says, reaching for the injured wrist I’ve pulled out from his grasp. He empties the alcohol on my burnt skin and I wince. Ruarc presses my hand and I bite my lip, hard enough to draw blood. Fuck, it hurt.
“I don’t need you to take care of me Ruarc. I’m fine and I don’t need your help.”
Ruarc bandages my wrist, kissing it, as if his kiss would make it better. It does in a way.
“You need more than just my help Crinka. Tell me something, have you lost it?”
“I’ve not lost my sanity Ruarc. I just had a bad day that’s all.”
“I had a bad day too and you certainly didn’t see me burning my hand in a fire I made myself. Why did you burn your hand Crinka? What were you thinking?”
Why does he care? I don’t want him to care for me, so why is he taking his time to do so?
“I don’t have the answer to your question Ruarc. I really don’t.”
“Yes, you do. You were crying and hurting yourself. Did Sia do something? Did he hurt you?”
Hurt me? Was him taking Anita to dinner hurting me? Absolutely not. But it would definitely hurt Lyles.
“Sia didn’t do anything to me Ruarc. I did this to myself. Don’t involve Sia in this.
Ruarc strokes my bandage, smiling sadly at me. “You love him, don’t you? You love him so much it hurts.”
How did love enter this conversation? I chuckle bitterly. “Love? I don’t even know what love is to even know talk about loving someone. I can never love a butcher.”
“So, he told you? He didn’t even tell Anita. I don’t know about you, but I think Sia is attracted to you.”
“I once thought that you know? With the way we were intimate and all that shit. But it was fake. He can never see past his so-called love for Anita.”
Ruarc sighed. “Start from the beginning. Tell me everything that happened.”
“It’s not like telling you would change anything.”
“I just want to know, so I can know how to handle this.”
“What will I get in return?”
“I’d get rid of Anita for you.”
“You’d do that for me?”, I ask hopefully. But that hope quickly dies down when I remember Sia’s words. “That’s impossible. Sia will know it’s you and only hurt you. Plus, why would you do that for me?”
“Because I hate Anita as much as you do and I would do anything to make her disappear.”
“I don’t want you to kill her,” I mumble. “I just want you to separate her from Sia.”
He frowned. “That desperate huh? Fine, we have a deal. Now start talking.”
*******
The night was young and, well, lovely too. The grass licked my feet as I trudged past trees and hedges in one of Anita’s revealing dresses. Curiosity is the pure reason I am here. I thought Sia would have taken her to the city, but he settled in a remote and nearby place, the sweetheart garden. It truly was a candlelit dinner with the burning candles Sia had laid out on the flowers. I spot them a distance away, seated, drinking and dining. Anita is laughing at something he said, holding her wine glass to her lips. Sia is enticed by her beauty, a wry smile on his perfect lips, which parted a little when he gulped down some expensive wine.
I moved further, looking for a hiding spot before I came across more candles arranged very well. I move closer, to see that the candles were arranged to form the heart shape. Jealousy and maybe anger swelled within me because I knew exactly what was supposed to happen here. They are done with their dinner earlier than expected. I can hear Anita giggles as Sia sets her naked body in the middle of the burning candles, looming over her giggling frame.
He starts to kiss her, and I can’t watch any longer, running away from there, hot tears flowing down my cheeks. I pry off her clothes, disgusted to be wearing them. I ran into the cabin naked, filing through the place for a match box. I found one, started a fire and burned her clothes. I watch the flickering flame, approaching it slowly, wishing Anita was there in place of her clothes. I stretch out my hand, the very hand that had touched Sia’s dick. My hand is burning along with her clothes but I don’t care. No wound can hurt more than the wound of the heart.
*********
“And you know the rest,” I say. Reliving those memories was painful, but I have to keep myself together or I’ll lose my sanity. And my hatred for Anita is not worth losing my sanity.
“I don’t think you told me everything,” Ruarc said, drawing circles on my palm. “I think you’re lying.”
“Think whatever you want Ruarc, but I’ve kept my part of the bargain, now it’s time to keep yours.”
“Your story isn’t entirely true and you know it and I’ll tell you why. You’ve watched them kiss before but it didn’t make you run away. Something else happened right? Something bad enough that you fled, seriously hurt. What is it?”
I wipe away a stray tear. So much for keeping myself together. “I’ve already told you enough Ruarc, what else do you want?”
“The truth,” he says fiercely, digging his nails into my bandaged palm. Son of a bitch!
“But I told you the truth,” I cry out in pain.
Ruarc grabs my shoulders, tightening his grip on them. I let out a whimper. “Bullshit! You were lying and you know it. Tell me the truth. Why did you run away?”
“Because I felt like. Let go of me Ruarc. You’re hurting me.”
“And I would continue to hurt you until you tell me the truth.”
I don’t say anything and Ruarc smiles. “I didn’t know it then, but now I do.”
“What are you talking about?”, I ask, my eyes widening.
“The truth you were hiding for so long. You ran away because you couldn’t stand it. You couldn’t bear the fact that he was with another woman. Another woman that wasn’t you.”
“You’ve hit the nail on the head Ruarc. Are you happy? Are you?”, I screamed in his face. He releases me.
“I told you to stay away from him. If you had listened to me, seeing him with Anita wouldn’t have affected you so much.”
Even if I stayed away like he told me to, I would still be affected because of the bond between us, but I don’t tell him that.
“Stop talking about him! Hearing his name is giving me a migraine! I don’t want to talk about them Ruarc. I want to forget them Ruarc. Help me to forget them.”
Ruarc sighed. “Well, I don’t know how to erase memories, but if you want to forget my brother, even if it is for a little while, then give me that lapdance I have been patiently waiting for, and don’t give me any stupid excuses.”
I agree.
+++++
After Ruarc has dimmed the lights, he sits down on a sturdy chair in a slouched manner. I don’t make eye contact like I should, taking off my clothes. I circle the chair slowly, caressing Ruarc’s shoulders and neck. I stand before him with my chest leaning towards his face and my butt slightly out, lowering myself slowly onto his lap. I wrap one leg around the back of my chair for support, and then the other, to prevent me from falling off. I wrap my arms around his neck as I move my body up and down. I lean in for a quick kiss on the lips, leaving Ruarc in a needy state.
Slowly, I unwrap my legs from the chair and stand between his spread legs. I place my hands on his knees, moving towards his face, lowering my body slowly until I am moving my body from side to side with my face near his abs. I placed my hands on his sides for a second, slowly working my way back up. I make sure my clit is at eye level before I do what I have in mind.
Just to tease him, I slide two fingers into my panties, touching myself, biting my lip. Ruarc throws his head back, grinning.
“You are such a tease.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
He reaches for me and I move away, wagging a finger at him, tsking.
“No, no, no Ruarc. You know the rules. You don’t touch the dancer or you pay a fine.”
“I’ll pay any fine. Money is not a problem. Just give me what I want,” he says, reaching out to grasp me. I moved out of his reach.
“You’re interrupting the lapdance I’m giving you, Mr. Lancaster. What else do you want?”
“All you’ve done is tease me. Teasing not dancing.”
“It would be boring if you didn’t suffer. Exercise patience. It’s not like I’m running away.”
Ruarc rolls his eyes, slumping back in the chair. Tired of torturing this poor man, I sit in his lap, my back to his front.
“Better,” Ruarc whispers in my hair.
I rotate my hips slowly against his crotch and Ruars moans in pleasure. I rub my back against his chest, grinding hard against him without facing him. He moves his hips with mine, our hips moving in sync. Aroused, Ruarc pulls down my cup, pinching my nipple.
“Face me, fuck! I want you to face me.”
And face him I did. “Forget about the lapdance,” he says, cupping my butt cheeks. “Let’s do that kiss you were suggesting earlier.”
“Aye, aye captain aye,” I say leaning in. Ruarc kisses me with so much need. When Sia and I kiss, I don’t submit, but I submitted wholly to Ruarc, and fuck it was amazing. He strokes my behind and I moan in his mouth, closing my eyes. I open them when he squeezes a breast and I regret doing so. I push Ruarc away forcefully and he falls off the chair, while I land on my butt. I stand up breathing hard staring into furious white eyes.
One word, three letters.
Sia.