Page 7 of Kings of Lust
He obviously knew the answer to that question.
‘You seem tense.’
‘It’s probably because of what you told me today. It got me thinking.’
‘About?’
‘Mmm,’ he paused, pacing to the other corner of the room. ‘Let’s have something to drink first.’ The corkscrew twisted against a bottle of red wine even before he got to finish off his sentence.
I could have sworn that I was hearing my heart beating stronger and stronger in my throat as a strange sensation of restlessness was running down my body.
‘Special selection,’ he sneaked the fine crystal glass between my fingers, tilting his own under a pale reflection of the moonlight, transforming him into some lost prince of darkness.
Maybe he was just that, and I had just empowered him with total control of life and death over the whole city.
Maybe I was just as mad.
Maybe even madder than him.
But greatness came from ultimate madness, and I preferred to live for a minute with the satisfaction that I tried than a lifetime with regret that I didn’t.
‘Just one glass. You know what happened last time.’
I wasn’t planning on groveling at his feet again, or who knows what else I did that night.
I had some sort of recollection of that particular evening, and the memory of him impossibly hard under my touch was sending a cold chill across my body from the top of my spine to theplacethat against my will, ached for him.
‘So, what are we drinking to?’ I asked in a lame attempt to get an answer to what was bothering me.
‘I don’t know yet,’ his voice heavy, carrying a burden that scared me.
I couldn’t quite figure out if he was sad, angry, or even pleased in some way. The resemblance to Brax was more and more obvious as myking of darknessseemed unwilling to show any human emotion. He had turned to stone in the few minutes we spent together, managing somehow to petrify even my own reactions.
‘You said something today that made me realize I’m involved in all of this much more than I ever planned to be,’ his empty glass clinked on the table as he sat it there to fully concentrate on me.
I waited for him to go on, but his gaze was lost somewhere in a distant corner of the room, letting the burden of the unanswered question fall upon me ‘Does that mean you’ll help us?’
‘Us!? Did you receive any other answer?’ Ferris seemed confused, or perhaps, Ferris onlywantedto seem confused.
‘No.’
‘So, for now, it’s just you.Youneed me.’ And he was right. I was the only one needing him in that second. Me and the entire city, though I had a feeling he didn’t care for that last part.
Without much thought, I decided to let him hear what he had wanted to hear in the first place, satisfying his need for control over me ‘Yes...Ineed you.’ The words did something to him, with him. They lit a dangerous fire that had little chance of being put down any time soon.
‘What you’re asking of me... it’s a lot. Getting involved in this means to risk much more than some millions, billions, whatever. I’m risking everything. My whole fortune, my companies, my social position. You’re askingeverythingof me.’
‘I’m sorry, Ferris, I didn’t realize_’
‘I didn’t finish yet,’ his now raspy voice cut me off, continuing to divulge what he really had in mind. ‘You said that you thought you should be enough for me to make up my mind. And you’re right.Youare more than enough, Bea. You fascinate me!’
Instead of taking a step in my direction, he took one further away, putting himself a little outside my touching distance, likely in order to continue what he had to say without any intrusions. ‘I believe that inadvertently you let a truth out. Maybe it was a momentary truth, or maybe you felt that way for a while now, but I glimpsed the sadness in your eyes as you were hoping that you were close enough for me to get me to do this. To be a part of your plan.’
My heart must have stopped for countless seconds as his words were revealing a reality I was denying.
I was falling in love with him.
‘It’s ok, you don’t need to answer,’ obviously sensing my awkwardness, he decided to spare me some extra humiliation. I’d experienced enough of that lately as it was. ‘Because as I said before, you are enough of a reason for me to do this. But what I need you to understand is that by doing this, I risk the impossible for you, therefore I think it’s only fair that I will get to own down to the last piece of you.’
