Chapter 42 - Chocolates

This chap is a bit... hot. Decide yourself if you wanna read or not. I'm just warning you :D

~Freakzilla

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She is right, Nathaniel thought when he remembered the maid. She really had always been a fearful little mouse, frightened at the sight of him even from afar. That was if he didn't see how she acted last night. The little mouse had disregarded his command when Pete and Jack didn't dare to. He remembered what Sam told him about the maid's past. It was surprising how bold she had become given her former status. She was not that bad a seedling, actually. But...

He looked at Katherine and saw her sad gaze, the hope and loneliness, and sighed. Most likely the change in the maid was Katherine's doing anyways, so it wouldn't be of much use to him. "If that will make you more comfortable, I will be glad to gift her to you. You will be responsible for her pay from now on."

"Yes! Thank you!" The hope blossomed into a full-grown smile and if they weren't in the carriage, she would have danced out of happiness. Hazel was her very own maid now. She would make sure to raise her well.

Her smile made Nathaniel's mouth go dry. Suddenly, he didn't care about the food anymore. When he started to eat, he had not felt hungry. Now he was. Just that it was a different kind of hunger that couldn't be satiated by food alone.

Her lips looked... delicious. Pink and full. He imagined biting them, feeling how soft and elastic they were. Maybe they were so tender that it would leave a red bite mark. Her lips with his mark... a fire blazed in his abdomen.

"Is something the matter?" She stopped smiling when she noticed his gaze on her. It was a strange gaze, deep and unfathomable. Was he angry again? Unhappy about losing a maid?

"Nothing." Her question made him snap out of his fantasies, but the heat was still cursing through his body. He lowered his head. When his eyes fell on the chocolates, they suddenly started burning. It was a bad idea. A very dumb thing to do. It would only torture him more. "Do you still want the chocolates?"

"Hm?", Katherine made, confused, before remembering how the whole discussion started. "Of course, I want them! They're chocolates after all!"

"You can have them. If you answer my questions truthfully." Even if he gave them, he was not the type for charity. And he couldn't let her know of the attraction of her lips.

"Shoot." She was eager to get those little pieces of heaven.

"How old were you when your power awoke? Year and month."

It was a simple question, so simple that she would have answered even without a chocolate. "Five years, two months. In October."

With his gloved hand, he picked up one of the chocolates carefully. Before she could react, it bumped against her lips lightly. "Eat."

She flushed red. Eating it directly out of his hand? What was his intention? Shyly, she looked up at him. His red gaze was deep, and she couldn't read his emotions. Arrogance flooded out of every pore when he raised his brow in a questioning manner as if to say: What? You don't dare? He looked damn s.e.xy right now like an immortal demon lord feeding his concubine.

She exhaled slowly, trembling a little. Was he testing her? With fluttering lashes, she met his gaze again before looking away shyly and slowly, nearly involuntarily, opening her lips.

Nathaniel's eyes wandered down to them. He didn't expect her to be this obedient. There had been different methods in his mind to convince her, but now that wasn't necessary anymore.

She looked tempting with her blushed cheeks, her fearfully averted gaze and those slightly opened lips. Like she wanted to be kissed.

His breath hastened, all his attention on those red lips that were opened for him. His lids lowered. He didn't want it to be over with her just eating it hurriedly, and she made no move to take it either, just sitting there with her slightly opened lips, waiting to be fed. Slowly, he brushed her lower lip with the chocolate, melting some of it on her mouth. Have taste first, little girl, he thought and involuntarily licked his lips. He wanted to have the whole meal already.

How would she feel beneath him? Would she be this soft and willing, letting him kiss and fondle her white skin as he pleased? Would she spread her t.h.i.g.hs wide so he could lick and salvor in her taste? Or - suddenly, she grabbed his arm.

Startled, he looked up from her lips and when saw her face, he couldn't avert his gaze anymore. Her cheeks still red, the shyness all over her face gave the daring side of her a mesmerizing flair, when she held his gaze and bend forward. With fluttering lashes, she stuck out her tongue and started to lick the chocolate slowly. She would looked like a professional seductive right there if it wasn't for the obvious embarrassment in her eyes. He couldn't move. He felt like his whole body was frozen and set on fire at the same time. When the chocolate got smaller, her warm and wet tongue flickered over his gloved fingers.

The atmosphere turned dangerously hot. He was itching to let go and turn into a wild beast, doing just as he pleased - but he his last strand of sanity held him back. With a frustrated growl, he shoved the chocolate into her mouth, pulled back and exited the carriage in a haste. "Eat the rest yourself!"

The bang of the carriage door was as loud as the one in Katherine's head.

.

The earl didn't come back into the carriage. Later, Katherine confirmed that he took one of the horses and rode back himself. She was devastated.

Did I go too far?, she repeatedly asked herself. Would he hate her now? Think bad of her? But he was the one who started it! What should she think if he fed her by hand?! She didn't want to just obediently sit there when there was such a perfect opportunity. It had taken all her courage, but now... she felt hopeless.

When she got to the mansion, she walked straight to her chambers and fell on the bed like a lifeless corpse.

"Hazel, I don't know anything anymore. I'm so confused.", she told her maid exhaustively. He was sending mixed signals all the time. From hot to cold, from volcano to glacier... how should she still tell his intentions.

Besides, she was hurt and angry. It was her first time doing something so l.e.w.d like l.i.c.k.i.n.g chocolate out of someone's hand. Before today she didn't even think about it. She didn't even have her first kiss yet! But it was like her body was possessed with these dirty thoughts in her mind. She hid her beet red face in the pillows. How did it turn out like this? It had to be those damn romance novels!

Though she had never done anything like that, when he let this chocolate glide over her lip time and time again, teasing her, she felt embarrassed and strangely hot, but at the same time, the urge to tease him back awakened. To let him have a taste of his own medicine. After all, he was the one who started. And she reminded herself that it was just the opportunity she had waited for to seduce him. Sometimes, her courage would lead her to do dumb things. Like this time. She shouldn't have done it.

Only when she felt soft fingers stroking her arm, did she remember her maid.

"Leave!", she barked out from under the pillow. She wanted to be alone with this shame. Nobody should see her this vulnerable.

The hand shook but wasn't removed. "Milady, I want to stay with you... let me help you." She felt Hazel pull on the lashes of her dress. She didn't stop her, just lying there quietly with the pillow on her face. When the dress was removed, she could breathe a bit better. That was when it knocked on the door to the anteroom.

"You go", she murmured. "Tell them I'm sleeping."

It was Sam. She heard them speak about the dinner date for tomorrow. It was cancelled. The reason was simple: she already discussed her terms in the carriage. Lying on the bed, she thought that this was not everything she wanted to discuss, but she felt too tired to get up and correct him. Like that would change anything. Nathaniel didn't want to see her, that was for sure.

The pillow was turning hot and wet slowly. Strange. She'd thought all her tears had been drained in the cave. Obviously, she was wrong. How much water did a human have to cry that much? And why would she even shed tears over a cancelled date? It was not like she liked him, right?

The door fell shut. She pulled her legs up on the bed and curled into a tight ball. A bit later, she felt Hazel pull the blanket over her rolled up form, and finally hesitantly lying a hand on her head. "Milady, everything will get better. You are strong. Don't be sad."