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Chapter-70. Questions(18+)
[Asher]
"Mad at you?" she chuckled; her voice dripped with bitter sarcasm. "I am sorry, alpha, but I don't remember ever having the luxury of being mad at you. And for what? For bringing me into this delightful, traumatizing dark room where illusion blurs into reality with sheer madness?"
Xanthea licked her lips, letting out a mirthless laugh that seized at once as her eyes locked with mine for a few seconds before they wandered around me. A glance into her eyes was enough to twist something inside me.
"No. In fact, this is the most romantic date ever! Every married man should bring their wives here. She's going to lose her mind after ten years of marriage, anyway! So, why not do it in ten minutes? And maybe that's why you brought me here - because I have less than a year to live, anyway! Right?"
She snapped at me in one breath, her breath quickening from the intensity of her outburst. I had witnessed her wrath before, so her audacity didn't shock me. Yet, I found myself more captivated than ever.
I observed her heaving chest and the way she placed her palms on her waist, trying to calm herself down.
I tried to focus on reading her emotions, but my eyes kept losing focus and so did my thoughts that traced her skin and realized that her skin should be in touch with mine all the time.
"This is insane," she mumbled, panting as she tried to control her words. Biting her lips, she ran her fingers through her hair.
The room had a peculiar vibe unsuitable for free thinking. So the way she controlled herself was highly commendable.
She shut her eyes and I could discern her thoughts in the disappointed and frustrated creases on her face. She was trying to understand why or how I knew a place like this. Why I brought her here?
I hoped she wouldn't vocalize those questions because if she did, I wouldn't have any answers for her.
Unnoticed, I stepped closer to her.
With a curt nod, she let out a deep breath.
"Asher," she said in a frustrated but calm tone. "The game's over now. I found you. I won. So, can we please leave now?"
"No," I said simply.
She clenched her jaws, holding back her anger.
"I want to go back," her voice turned more commanding. "Now."
"To Ezra?" I asked.
Confused, she frowned, squinting her eyes.
"What?"
"Do you want to go back to Ezra?" I asked.
She shrugged and then nodded with a quick gulp.
"Yes. I want to go back to him. Away from this place."
"Away from me?" I cocked a brow, closing the distance between us even more.
She parted her lips to speak, but all that escaped her lips was a shuddering breath carrying the sweet scent of her heat.
"N-no," her frown deepened. "I just don't want to stay here anymore. This place is suffocating and unbearable."
"What if I want to stay here with you?" I reached out and gently glided my hand down her arm. She stiffened her body, allowing the wash of tantalizing charges to run between us. I brushed my fingers with hers, holding her hand in mine. "Will you stay with me a little longer? If I hold your hand in this darkness, will you hold back mine a little tighter?"
She took back her hand from me, breathing heavily.
I curled my fingers into a loose fist, dropping it to my side.
'Asher, let's just leave. There's no point. She doesn't have to go through all this-' Xanthea cut Icifer's voice off.
"I didn't want to ask these questions, but..." she blinked fast and asked. "What happened here? Why are we here? And the most important question - what does this place mean to you?"
Nothing even close to what you mean to me - I thought, but for some uncanny reason, I couldn't provide a voice to my words.
She waited for my reply, but all I did was gaze at her tears that beautifully lined across her eyelids. Her eyes tried to search for mine in the darkness, but in vain.
Her patience seemed to have been disrupted and interfered by the illusions of the room. She held her head, fighting the battle of filtering illusions from reality.
"If you aren't going to answer my questions, then just get me out of here!" she snapped again.
"No," I said. "We're not going anywhere until you answer the question I am about to ask you."
"What question?" she grunted.
"First, stop looking at me like that."
"Like what?" she asked, her annoyance increasing.
"Like you are in love with someone else," I said.
All the tension on her face faltered into an impassive expression. Her heart raced a little faster. Xanthea's breaths came in shallow gasps, her fingers trembling as she struggled to maintain her composure. She tried to act as though my words hadn't just shaken her.
"Love?" she winced.
"Yes. Love..." I reiterated in a soft whisper. "How does it feel to be in love, Xanthea?"
Taking a tight gulp, she stepped away from me.
"Stop playing with me, Asher. I am not a toy..." her voice quivered.
"I am not playing with you. I am honestly curious," I said, stepping closer to her.
She remained silent for a while and then gave a determined nod to herself. I was about to hold her hand again when she turned around and trudged towards the wall.
She began feeling the texture of the wall for the door again.
"Xanthea Asher Xipher, come back to me right now!" I growled.
"Asher Xanthea Plath, if you want me close, you'll take me out of here! I am not going to entertain your mind games anymore, and I am done begging! I don't need you. If you won't take me out of here, I'll find a way myself." She banged on the wall whenever she found depression, calling out, screaming for help when the room overwhelmed her mind.
'This needs to stop! Right now! Asher!' Icifer growled. 'You seek answers from her, so why don't you directly ask her what you have been holding back? If you can't do it, then for her sake, I will!'
'Are you sure you can handle this?' I asked him.
'Of course.' Icifer replied.
Icifer smoothly took over me and covered the distance between Xanthea and him in a few strides.
"Someone-" she was about to slam her hands against the wall when he seized her hands and pinned them over her head.
"Let go of me!" she squirmed against my body.
Icifer pressed into her, trapping her between the wall and my body.
"Don't touch m-"
"You are in love with Ezra, aren't you?" He asked.
Xanthea froze against the wall, almost paralyzed. All her struggles against me ceased at once. I could feel her heartbeat thunder in her chest, as though I had just caught her committing a sin. Her reaction tore through the lust that darkened my eyes and Icifer became even more restless.
"Just answer the question and I promise I'll take you out of here," he said.
But she remained silent and motionless. The uneasiness webbed denser in Icifer's soul, blurring his reasoning and rationality with apprehension.
Letting go of her hand, he distanced himself from her just enough for her to turn around.
Her hands limply dropped to her sides, and she kept facing the wall, taking deep breaths through her mouth.
He grabbed her upper arm and turned her around just to meet the petrified look on her face. His grip tightened around her arm and she tensed up her body with no resistance.
Icifer grabbed both her arms with a jerk.
"Ah!" Xanthea yelped with a broken gasp, whimpering as he leaned closer to her face.
"It's a simple answer, wife. Yes or no?" he snarled against her lips.
"L-let go..." she let out shaky breaths.
"Yes! Or no!" he growled.
"Stop it, Asher. Please... you are hurting me..."Belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - All rights reserved.
"Yes or no?" Icifer asked with increasing impatience.
"Stop it! You are scaring me!" she yelled, pushing me away from her, but couldn't free herself from Icifer's grip.
"DO YOU LOVE HIM OR NOT!" Icifer screamed at her face.
"NO! NO! NO! I don't! You bring me here! You, of all people, make me relive some of the worst traumas of my life and then you ask me this! What does love feel like? If anything, it doesn't feel like what you are making me feel right now!" she broke into tears.
Losing her strength in her legs, she slumped on her knees as I let go of her arms.
'Damn it!' Icifer ran his fingers through his hair and I instantly took back my control from him. Their breathless exchange still hung in the darkness.
I allowed both of them to collect themselves and calm down and when they did...
"So you don't love Ezra." My voice came out as a silent whisper.
She shook her head, hugging herself.
"I'll never dare..." she gasped, her voice cracking.
I took a deep breath to help Icifer calm down a little more and squatted in front of her.
I wiped off her tears. Holding her chin, I lifted her face.
"But you dared today... with your eyes, your lips, with every inch of your body, you loved him tonight. You accepted him," I said.
"Sex is not love," she said. "I am in my heat. I lost control. I am sorry."
I was about to withdraw my hand from her when she clasped it in her trembling, icy hands.
"T-this is a punishment, right?" she hiccoughed. "I knew I did something wrong. I shouldn't have..." she bit her quivering lip and continued. "I-I shouldn't have enjoyed... the sex. I am sorry. I promise it will never happen again. Please don't leave me here. It's scary. Please."
Her words ignited every nerve beneath my skin.
"I'll do whatever you-ungh!"
Wrapping my palm gently around her throat, I pulled her into a desperate, rough kiss, swallowing all her whimpers and moans.
Sparks instantly clouded our minds, and I watched her knit her brows as she tightly shut her eyes. My cock throbbed with an ache that craved to bury itself deep inside her and make her believe with every thrust how much she deserved to enjoy the sex.
Even when my whole body rebelled I tried to pull away from her and let her know exactly how she deserved to be fucked mindless, but her fingers clawed on the front of my shirt.
She kissed me back, deepening the kiss with every stroke of our tongues, claiming my lips as though she feared she'd never get to taste my lips again.
I held the back of her thighs and made her straddle my hips. She pressed her complete body against mine, grinding her pussy against the bulge in my pants.
The madness of the room drained between us. Our bodies intertwined in a passion as hazily insane as the illusions, our lips fought a war of dominance as scary as the reality, and our souls seemed to have merged into one.
Her fingers impatiently fumbled with the buttons of my shirt. Holding her hand, I parted from her. Unbuttoning the top buttons with two fingers, I pulled the shirt over my head and tossed it aside.
"Asher..." she said through her breathless gasps and shaky moans.
Wrapping my palm around her nape, I pulled her into my embrace.
"I am here, love. And I am going to make sure you enjoy every second of our fuck. I'll make sure every fiber of your body is satisfied tonight," I whispered against her ear, licking and biting her earlobe.
With her breasts tightly pressed against my chest, she buried her face in my neck. Once she had drugged herself on my scent, she began planting searing, wet kisses from my neck to my throat to my collarbone. Her tongue ran up my chest, leaving behind a cooling trail as she slowly crawled between my legs.
Caressing the erection in my pants with her palm, she kissed it through the fabric.
I let her unzip my pants. She pulled down my pants and then my boxers, taking them off. Her cold hands wrapped around my burning cock as she began stroking it.
A hoarse groan originated in my chest.
"This is your toy, love. Play with it however you want. Hold it, fuck it, own it. Do whatever you want with it and my cock will make you realize how badly I want you to enjoy it. I didn't bring you here because I wanted you to punish you for fucking Ezra. The truth is, I don't know why I brought you here."
I reached out and caressed her cheek, stroking her hair.
"Not a single soul across the three realms is aware of this place - not my family, not even Raven and Ezra. But you are here, sharing my secret with me." I trailed my hand down to her breast, and then to her hard nipple.
I pinched her nipple and her grip on my cock tightened, and I was sure she could feel my blood throb through my veins.
"You are the first person to know this place, to come this close to me. But you weren't supposed to be here. This secret wasn't supposed to be shared. But..."
I squeezed her breast, enjoying the way she clenched her thighs together. Her arousal turned stronger. She held my wrist and trailed it down to her pussy.
"But?" she asked.
She took in a sharp breath through her clenched teeth as my fingers trailed across her folds. She was dripping wet, smothering my hand in her juices, and I craved a taste. Pulling away my fingers. I cradled the back of her head, and I flipped her onto the floor beneath me. Parting her legs, I knelt between them and leaned over her.
I licked my fingers, relishing her taste. Her breaths kissed my lips as I whispered gruffly.
"But I lost control. And I am losing my control bit by bit and it's all because of you."
"Is this place... so important to you?" she asked.
"Significant, yes."
She dropped her eyelids.
"You won't tell me why, will you?"
"I have already told you things I wasn't supposed to say."
She pressed her lips into a thin line and nodded.
"I understand," she whispered. Even though her chest rose and fell faster, she looked a lot calmer than before.
"I am sorry for tonight. You didn't deserve this. Let's go back," I said, getting up from her when she held my hands tighter and stopped me.
"No, let's stay here... I-I want to... s-stay in this darkness with you... a little longer..." she said hesitantly.