Penance - a vingette - (part 7 of ?)

[Cloud Dancing]

Hey everyone! So sorry for the long absence. Work/real life had been suitably hectic. However, I'm taking advantage of the bank holiday to do some much needed updating.

Wow!! I was *SO* excited to see more of this up- I cannot even tell you.

So many parts that had me grinning and I love the feel of this piece. All the best with figuring out where your female character is going to go next (I've had similar issues w/ certain characters). This is brilliant and I can't wait to see what is next.

Tma: so pleased to hear your enjoying it. This story is still so confusing. I can't tell you how many times I have written and rewritten this last bit. I'm finding it hard to get the tone right. The only thing that is easy is torturing poor Adian. Then again...I'm not sure he doesn't deserve it.

Oh I just loooove how fascinated he is by himself! And how deliciously sick. Mmmmmm. I was so exctited to see a next part. Yum yum yum!

Pig: Thank you for your feedback! He is so deliciously arrogant isn't he? I make no apologies for how sick he is. It's not as if I enjoy it or anything.

This is absolutely fantastic!!

Ichi: You're too kind. It's a little weird and I'm still not sure how happy I am with it, but very pleased your enjoying i!

YESYESYES!!! Simply lovely. I'm a bit of a cough-whore as well .__. so this was great

Jules: Hehe I can't resist a bit of coughing either. Included a bit more than I usually would in the next part, just for you!

Please Please Please MORE!!!! This is so awesome. Slightly twisted and deliciously sickly! Best combination ever!

Alexys: More is coming....in exactly 2 minutes. Watch this space...

[Cloud Dancing]

Okay, so here is the much redrafted part 6. A slighty warning, there is a ill disguised euphemism in here. I hope I don't offend anyone. Oh yes...and a few swear words. Sorry, Adian is a swearer. Naughty boy!

Let me know what you think.

Penance

Part 6

“You planning on a career change…the circus perhaps?”

It was an attempt at an amusingly flippant comment on his awkward hunched position but it fell flat. Her eyes were boring into him and she was partially biting her lip with her teeth. Adian knew something was worrying her. Maybe it was the fact he looked strange in another man’s clothes, presumably her new partners clothes. Adian wondered what he was like. Unusually, he couldn't picture him, no matter how hard he tried.

“Naturally I would be the ring master …I’m too pretty to be in the *cough*...freak show”

The arrogance of his tone seemed to calm her slightly. Despite his strangled efforts to swallow down the bubbling coughs he felt developing he still managed to exude that air of crafty confidence. Mayra acknowledged it with ill-disguised familiarity. Huffing appreciatively she reached out her hand.

“Time to sort you out”

Adian’s hand shook as he stretched out to take hers.

Her fingers closed around his and there was a brief moment of added pressure. She was deliberately squeezing his hand, but Adian couldn’t work out whether that meant she was accessing how steady he was on his feet or that she was offering to sleep with him. Woman had squeezed his hand before, and each time he had ended up on his back staring up at the ceiling. Then again, given his deteriorating state of health, he was considering putting that particular type of aerobic exercise on the back burner for a while. There would be no use in rushing things. Slow and steady won the race. Actually, in Adian's experience is was the fools that rushed in who were the ones to win the race but what did it really matter? It was all bollocks anyway.

Mayra led a heavily congested, sniffling Adian back into the living room, where a box of tissues, a piping hot cup of water and a biscuit tin rested on her antique glass-topped coffee table. A couple of large figure hugging arm chairs were arranged around the table with a small sofa in between. The domestic picture it painted acted like an analgesic to Adian’s throbbing head.

“Sit. I’m going to check you out” Mayra commanded evenly, once again demonstrating her impressive relative strength as she pushed down on his shoulder with her open palm.

Adian obediently collapsed into the nearest arm chair, about to retort, but he was cut off, another painful sneezing fit making its presence known. Shuddering in anticipation, Adian smothered his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his t-shirt.

“You…hha…hhaa.coul….iisSSSHOOO! Isshhoooo! …could…ughh…IsshhhOOO! IsssshhhaaaaAA!”, an agonised wheezing breath escaped his lips. The sound of his sneezes masked Mayra’s tremulous gasp that escaped her without warning.

Recovering admirably, sniffling deeply and wiping his now streaming nose on his sleeve, Adian flopped back into the chair, his head swimming slightly. Myra had bent down next to him, tissue box held out, giving him one of her piercing looks.

Adian took one and blew his nose, the sound thick and heavy in the relative silence. Myra’s eyes narrowed a fraction, and a small empathetic smile flitted across her face.

Adian’s heart constricted.

It had been so long since he had seen that look, so long since anyone one had looked as if they were actually studying him, felt sorry for him. Sometimes, in his rarest moments, he considered that being so handsome was a curse, (for he knew he was handsome, there was empirical evidence for it) his good looks were a barrier to reality. No one could see past his face, no one except Myra.

“I’ll try that again,” Adian practically croaked, “What I meant to say was that you could at least wait until I am naked to check me out” He finished the delivery with a beaming smile, his flushed cheeks only adding to his look of youthful exuberance.

“Incorrigible flirt. I’d like to see you try and seduce me in this state”

“I’m all about the seduction…” With each syllable Adian inched forward in the chair, closer and closer to Myra’s lips.

Myra stood her ground, appearing unmoved, but out of sight her hands tensed, preparing for the onslaught of feelings long buried.

Unconsciously Adian licked his lips. Everybody knows that dry lips are a turn off. Tilting his head to ease his passage to her lips, Adian could smell autumn sunlight and roses. She still smelled the same. Adian mused how this boded well for him. She had never been abler to resist his flattering attentions.

Myra held herself still, like a statue at the centre of a disused fountain.

“hheeeeh-ASHOOO”

Relief and intense annoyance burst into being.

The force of the sneeze had propelled Adian to the side and over Myra’s shoulder, the spray from his nose and mouth narrowly avoiding her face. Myra, instinctively and quick as a cat, had leant into him to prevent him from falling out of the chair. Eyes closed and bitter disappointment gnawing at his heart, Adian rested his head on her shoulder, sniffing a little pathetically.

They stayed like that, one providing support and the other accepting it, for several long minutes. The effortless way their breathing synchronised was alarming, at least to one of the participants.

It was Myra’s constricted voice that broke Adian’s dark and comfortable world.

“Ready to sit up?”

Adian nodded mutely into her shoulder. He wasn’t sure he trusted himself to speak.

Myra slowly pushed him back into the chair and immediately turned away to the coffee table and busied herself with rummaging around in the biscuit tin for painkillers.

“I have…” Adian coughed harshly,”…something to tell you…”

Myra didn’t react but continued to empty a packet of freeze dried medicine into the hot cup of water. The sound of it fizzing was Adian’s only real sign that she was really there, and not some sort of fleshy mirage, sent to torment him.

“Myra, listen to me…” Adian launched himself forward and grabbed her upper arm, hard. “…I have something important to tell you…”

Myra looked at him, her face blank and silent.

“Adian…” It was a warning; her tone was enough to indicate that. She was cautioning him not to speak.

Adian paid no attention. How could she know he was about to make her the happiest woman alive? She had never known what she wanted, it was up to him to tell her, now, without delay.

“I quit my job today…” Adian began, his old energetic look creeping into his pale face.

“I know”

“I quit my job because I realised I was…am…in love with you…”

“I know”

“I saw you, in the conference room, and knew…you should never have left me…” He saw the wince that time. The tightening around her eyes was unmistakable. He ploughed on, encouraged by the sight, he had her on the run.

“We were meant to be together, you and I. None of it matters, none of the shit. You are just what I always needed.” He was getting excited, his chest was tightening with every passionate breath, “Don’t you see? None of it matters. Who cares about the past? It’s dead and…*cough* and done! “

“Slow down Adian…” Myra said quietly, her hand moving against her will to his rest on his knee.

“Slow down? What does that mean? Slowing down be damned! I just walked into Clive’s office and told him to go fuck it. The whole of it. He tried to talk me out of it but *cough* talking *cough* is just noise, it’s not important. What is important is that I know now I love you…*cough* you…and…*cough* no one else…”

It took nearly a minute to Adian to get a handle on his coughing, in which time, his captive audience had managed to press the hot cup of lemon infused medicine into his hand.

“Drink it while it’s hot”

Feeling petulant, Adian angrily gulped down the liquid in one go, ignoring the way it burned his throat. Adian heard Myra sigh. He was trying to make amends and she just kept shutting him down. He knew he was supposed to atone for his sins but this was getting ridiculous, and now his throat was hurting.

“Did you listen to anything I said?” Adian asked the air angrily.

Myra sat back on her heals and regarded him with an open expression. The halt in the conversation had given her time to regroup.

“I heard you. I’m just not clear on why you would quit your job…”

“So you weren’t listening then…” Adian growled, reaching for a tissue to wipe his nose.

“Adian, how much do you get paid a year?” She was staring at him again, but her expression was unreadable.

“I told Clive I didn’t care about the money!” He had forgotten how maddening she could be. She would have made a good lawyer had she chosen to make something out of her life.

“I’m not Clive, and stop avoiding the question…how much money do you make a year?”

“ enu…uhhh…uusshhumMMPP!...enough”

“Bless you” Myra offered him a tissue which Adian practically snatched out of her hand.

“I make more than enough…don’t worry about that” he muttered frostily. Not for the first time that evening he wished himself in a bed somewhere, a pretty tender someone looking after him. Instead he was here, trying to press his advantage. He must be mad.

“Adian…”Myra almost whispered his name. This time it was not a warning, but a signal. She was trying to tell him something, but Adian felt himself too put upon to listen, “let’s be reasonable for second. You will need to make money; everyone needs money to live on. There’s your flat in Knightsbridge, your sports car, that expensive fish tank in your bathroom. At the very least you’ll want to replace your suit and shoes…”

Adian suddenly stopped rubbing his temples and looked at her sharply.

“Are they ruined? I love that suit. Plus those shoes were expensive, I bought them in Rome…” The thought of all that ruined silk and leather was too painful to contemplate. Angrily, he drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. Walking in the rain had been a bloody stupid idea.

Myra flashed him a subtle but sad smile, “The suite might be salvageable, with the help of a very good dry cleaner…”

“Oh for fuck sake Myra…” Adian was just in time to catch Mayra grimace, the words clearly as sharp as he had intended them.

The air crackled, the silence whip-sharp and just as biting. Had they been in a court room, Adian would have interpreted this silence as victory. As it was, he suddenly felt miserable, weak and so totally unlike himself that he decided to cut his losses. Paying penance was about suffering after all. A bit of humility wouldn’t go amis.

“…I’m sorry. It’s not your fault….” Adian lay back fully in the chair and closed his eyes again, his head throbbing, feeling suddenly deflated, “I’ll call my tailor tomorrow…”

It took him a few seconds to realise that Myra was resting against his knees, one hand tantalisingly near to his hip, the other pressed to his forehead. He opened his eyes and could not fail to notice her wide alert eyes.

“Did you just apologise?” She sounded disbelieving, her hand moving to his neck, presumably to check his pulse.

Adian clucked despite himself, “Looks like it…”

“You’re really not well are you…” Myra’s hand was still at his neck, her cool finger tips like icy kisses.

“Go fish…” he said lazily, a little impressed by how quickly the fantasy of falling asleep with her pressed against him had materialised. Nice to know the little man downstairs was not feeling the strain as badly as he was.

“Iih’ ekgSCHHuh! Hh—EKSSCHt!”

Adian just managed to cover his nose and mouth in time. He was, however, incapable of preventing a small but emasculating moan escaping his lips. Despite the warmth of the room, he shivered and pressed himself further into the chair. Time to stop being clever, just accept you’re sick.

The unmistakable sound of someone making a decision floated about in his cotton-stuffed brain.

“Okay, we’ve talked enough. Time for you to get some rest.”

For the second time that day, Adian felt the awkward surprise of being pulled bodily to his feet by someone nearly half his size.

“Whatever you say captain.” He countered weakly, inaudibly relishing the way her body slotted into his as if they were made for each other.

“Now you’re finally talking sense…” she echoed quietly.

Adian had the good sense to know when he was being dismissed. As he leant heavily on Myra, he glanced around with glassy eyes at the book shelves, picking out the few books bearing her name. There was no denying her name did look good in print. In times gone by, he remembered how fondly he had coveted each new volume. It was with a small stab of shame that he realised one of those volumes was now probing up the pipe to his leaky boiler.

As they made their steady way towards the front door he mused that it had gone rather well, all things considered. He had certainly sown the seeds, but she was right, time for him to crawl back to his penthouse – he only hoped she would call him a cab. But then…this was Myra, of course she would.

It wasn’t until Myra took an unexpected swerve away from the front door that Adian’s brain kicked back into gear. Taking matters into his own hands, he stopped their collective progress by grabbing the banister and succeeded in nearly overbalancing them both.

“Where are we going?” he asked hoarsely, annoyed about how quickly it had taken his sexy smooth voice to turn into that of a chain smoker. Come to think of it, he really should give up smoking.

“Upstairs, you prawn. Where do you think we are going?” asked Myra, breathing a little heavily. Adian was tall and strong, and she had hardly had much practise lugging men all over her flat. Glancing at the stairs, she almost wished she lived in a bungalow.

“You’re not sending me home?”

Myra had to try exceptionally hard not to find the confusion in his voice and look of hopefulness on his face endearing. She almost, almost succeeded.

“Don’t be ludicrous. You think I’d send you home like this? Knowing you, you’d pass out and get amnesia, pneumonia or something suitably dramatic”

A smug, if tired smile raced over Adian’s face. When he spoke, he practically purred, “I could be your *cough* charming male friend with amnesia who needs constant supervision…”

“You’d like that wouldn’t you…” Myra said evenly, unable to resist smiling. Damn the man, “Someone to wait on you hand and foot…”

“Not someone…you” If Adian had been a betting man, he would have wagered she hadn’t see that coming. His own charm amazed even him sometimes.

Luckily for Adian, he was not a gambler. The familiar eye roll was his only reward.

“Come one, I haven’t got all day…” Bracing herself under his shoulder again, Myra put her foot on the first step.

“But I have…I’m all yours…” Adian murmured, kissing the top of her head. Summoning his remaining energy he climbed with her, in tandem, up the stairs.

Myra was grateful, so very grateful Adian was unable to see her face.

As they climbed the stairs, she discreetly wiped away a traitorous tear.

***

To be continued...very soon

[LeadaAlexys52]

First: I love the fact that you used bollocks in a complete sentence. Made my day!

Second: Oh My God this is awesome!!

Third: OH MY GOD THIS IS AWESOME!!!!! LOVE

[Cloud Dancing]

First: I love the fact that you used bollocks in a complete sentence. Made my day!

Second: Oh My God this is awesome!!

Third: OH MY GOD THIS IS AWESOME!!!!! LOVE

Well thank you very much! In response to your first point, I think the more irish you sound when swearing, the more satisfying it is.

Really, really pleased you think it's awesome! . More to come by the end of the week.

[Sitruuna]

Very soon? When exactly will "very soon" be?

...No, I'm not lazy and slow to comment, no. B|

Anyway, this is so adorable. So adorable. I just want to go on reading~

[Cloud Dancing]

Greetings all, I promise I am not dead, just slammed with paperwork. I have let real life get in the way and I apologise for keeping you waiting.

Here is part 7. Bascially I just had fun with it, no idea if it is any good. As the story is drawing to a close I thought I should be a little cheeky. BE WARNED: There is more irrelevant swearing in this part. Sorry.

Hope you all enjoy! Feedback is always welcome, both positive and constructive! Thank you to all those who are still being so nice about this odd peice of...whatever this is.

Penance

Part 7

Myra, still shouldering a half slumped Adian, struggled through the door frame and into her largish (for a townhouse) but smallish (by Adian’s standards) bedroom. The bed was big, mercifully free of cushions and bright pink accessories, and was about the most inviting thing the exhausted man had seen since he had taken his new Jacuzzi bath for a spin.

Ripping himself from his human crutch, Adian woozily stumbled to the bed and flung himself dramatically onto it; face down, his long legs hanging off the end. He pressed his face into the soft coverlet and sniffed wetly. It smelled faintly of sunny, windswept hillsides in Devon – fabric softener no doubt – but it was not unpleasant.

“Heeshoum!! He…hettcchhUMMMM!..heesheooOOOMM!”, the sneezes were painful, gut wrenching and he was struggling to suck enough air into his lungs, but then with a face full of duvet, air was not exactly forthcoming.

“Trying suffocation on for size?” Myra’s disembodied voice portrayed a hint of mild amusement. There was a firm tug on his shoulders and a bright shaft of light blinked into begin as he was turned carefully onto his side, air rushing into the vacant gap around his face.

“Hee…ehhheettcccHHHHHAAA!” The final uncovered sneeze prompted Adian to curl in on himself, foetus-like, bending like a sprung sampling. Simultaneously, another large shiver rippled over him. Emasculation be damned, this time Adian was not bitter about the moan that escaped his lips. Dying people were defiantly allowed to moan aloud in their misery.

“Bless you.”

Adian merely waved in her vague direction. He was grateful for her care and all, but he felt too horrible to find an elegant way of expressing it. He would send her an email in the morning, maybe even a bunch of flowers if his secretary could find the number for the florist. Poor Cindy, she was pretty enough but several eggs short of a dozen.

“Do yourself a favour and crawl into bed. I’ll get you a jumper.”

His head was spinning and the optimistic amber hue from the street light outside the window was glaringly bright. He was feeling sulky and uncooperative.

“I’m *cough* quite content to be*cough* left*cough* where I am thank you…”

The coughing replaced the sneezing as his most immediate bodily concern. Somewhere in the corner of his brain Adian thought it would be more humane of Myra to just take him out and shot him.

A soft cool hand came to rest on his cheek. It lingered only long enough for him to settle his breathing before it was withdrawn. Little black and purplish spots danced before his eyes.

“Adian, you’re being childish. For once in your life, stop trying to be clever and go with what your heart wants…”

There was a pregnant pause that hung in the air, the kind where the brains of people who have known each other for a long time temporarily short circuit and two long suffering hearts finally have the strength to scream as loud as they can.

“What do you want Adian, right here and now?”

Adian was almost 99% positive that this was the hardest question he had ever had to contemplate answering. Simplicity was just not something that featured in his life. Myra’s question was dazzling, blinding in the sense that it had no easy to reach answer.

“To be in bed…” he answered haltingly, hoarsely, as if the breath had been sucked from him, “…with you.”

Myra nodded slowly, the shadows of the room closing their wings about her face.

“Okay then.”

Uncurling himself and resisting the urge to try and stretch his aching body, Adian sat upright, watching with half closed eyes the ease at which Myra pulled back the bedclothes. Once finished, she stood back a little, the invitation open for him.

Adian just stared at her, deploring how irrational his cold addled brain had become. It really wasn’t going to take much effort to get up and slide into the bed. Why was it so hard to make his stuffy head listen? A few simple movements were required to stand, step and sit. He was a successful professional , for Christ sake, a formidable lawyer, a bloody good one if his pay-packet was anything to go by, but right now, it all paled by the wayside. Nothing existed for Adian outside of the space stretched out between him and Myra.

Halting and jerky movements closed the space and it didn’t take long for Adian to experience the thrilling sensations of the gentle hands of his…what was she?...Guardian Angel? Nurse? Lover?…tucking him into the bed, her small hands slipping around the contours of his body as she secured the sheets about him.

Adian was no stranger to being pampered, his parents had spoiled him, his girlfriends indulged him, his work colleagues were free with their admiration of him, and yet Myra’s ministrations felt different. Sniffling wetly, his head resting against the silk headboard, Adian mused that Myra was like a finely tailored Italian suite, bespoke and perfectly calibrated to fit him in all the right places. He smiled slightly, he was getting quite poetic in his old age. He should tell Myra that, she’d find it amusing.

“Did you know I’m getting qui…quihhh…hhhhEETTCCCHOOOO! *sniffle*...quite poetic in my old age”

“Bless you. Are you? I thought you hated poetry…”

“I do, writing it is a pointless exercise in self-reflection and only those who are pathologically emotional find any solace in the ill-conceived drivel of others…”

Adian looked sideways at Myra as she sat on the bed next to him, rummaging in the bedside table drawer. God he loved the way she held her glossy haired head, the arching curve of her neck, her tendency to look down she was talking to him.

“Do you still write poetry?”

“Yes. Now as much as I hate to kill your philosophical flow, I’m going to put this in your mouth,” Myra held up a thermometer, looking him directly in the eye,” which means you’re going to need to shut up.”

Adian opened his mouth and closed it around the thermometer with equanimity, ignoring the look of strain in Myra’s eyes. He had to admit he was loving this. It felt like he was living his 17 year old fantasy of being in a Carry On film. Pretty soon Myra would transform into a big busted Barbara Windsor and seductively suggest she take his temperature orally.

The rough way Myra yanked the thermometer from his mouth shattered this vivid hallucination. Surprised and feeling a little manhandled Adian was about to comment but a server tickle in his nose meant that he was occupied for at least two minutes sneezing roughly into his crooked elbow. When he finally surface from the grip of his sneezes, he’d forgiven her ungraciousness. Feeling so sickly was clearly making him a more generous person. Thank heaven he was normally so robustly healthy.

“You’ll be unsurprised to hear you have a high fever and probably should not operate heavy machinery…” Myra muttered, shaking the glass phial.

“I have no immediate plans…*cough* to *cough cough*leave this bed” Adian patted the space next to him, doing his best to look seductive, blissfully unaware of how red his nose was, or the thin sheen of sweat covering his brow.

Myra only looked at him blankly, the ghost of a smile appearing as she turned away from him.

“More drugs then a good night’s sleep…” she announced clinically as she stood and pulled the rest of the comforter over him.

“Whatever you say Florence…”

Myra did laugh at that, her laugh sounding beautifully melodic. Adain would have reached to grab her hand had the thought of actually doing so not been too much like hard work. Myra handed him two pills and he deftly dry swallowed them, a feat of manliness which earned him a flicker of admiration.

“Your attempts to be complimentary are getting worse” Myra said lightly, straightening up, her arms wrapped about her.

“Aha, but you see *cough* it wasn’t a compliment…I meant to comment on how you have not lost your peculiar Victorian frigidness…”

You fucking idiot Adian!

Myra’s eyes immediately clouded, her hand flexing imperceptibly. She turned on her heal so swiftly that Adian had to blink rapidly to process what was happening. She disappeared into the on-suite bathroom and Adian immediately felt cold and regretful. His idiotic mouth had ruined his chances.

Closing his eyes and finding a thin solace in the darkness, Adian wondered why he said things like that. It’s not like he didn’t know how offensive they were, it was just that he wasn’t very good at the whole internal censorship gig. Myra had, was, resisting him. He could tell by looking at her. Some people might call that frigidness. He hadn’t lied, he hadn’t exaggerated, he has said what he thought. She knew what he was like.

You really are a massive cock sometimes…

Oh shut up…

Good come back. I’d like to see you try and make me. I’m your conscious remember. I’m here until you die…

Oh brilliant. Good thing I’m dying right now! At least I won’t have to suffer your company for long…

You need me…

Fuck off…

Adian was grateful for the sound of water running in the nearby bathroom. It was the perfect distraction to interrupt his weird Aristotelian argument with himself. He knew he should go to her and apologise but Adian was losing the heart to stay awake. The bed was so comfortable, and his head felt so heavy. The flashes of hot and cold which were using his body as a playground barely bothered him. All he wanted now was to surrender to the black oblivion of sleep.

There were muffled sounds around him, not loud enough to drown out the crackling of his chest or his congested sniffs, but as his whole body started to relax, he caught the odd sounds of someone rearranging furniture, of soft things being arranged, the click of a door locking.

It took the sound and feel of the duvet on the other side of the bed being drawn back to bring him back to the waking world.

Myra, now having shed her high necked, boring navy coloured dress, was preparing to slip into the bed next to him, wearing a very familiar silk negligee. Granted it wasn’t one of her manufactured sexy-lacy numbers, but even the restrained cut did wonders for her figure

“What are you doing?” Adian almost choked out, struggling valiantly to keep his eyes on her face. His efforts were short lived.

“I am getting into bed” was the sighing reply.

“But I’m sleeping here…” he said, his words slurring slightly. The drugs were finally kicking in, or at least he hoped that was the reason. God help him if he were slipping into a powerful erotic coma.

“Adian…I am not sleeping on a sofa bed in my own house. Either you share nicely or I’m calling you a taxi.” Well, who could argue with that?

Having expended the last of his energy repositioning himself so he was lying flat under the covers, Adian watched with foggy eyes as Myra turn the lights out and lie awkwardly, flat on her back, mirroring his position.

“Soo…” he said sleepily, mistaking assuming his body had enough left to try one last stab at pillow talk.

“Sleep Adian…just…sleep” Myra pleaded, her voice cracking with tension. Her proximity to him was close to being unbearable. Even in the dark, vivid images of his shoulders, hands and face were dancing close by.

There was a sudden rustling and Myra had to stifle a gasp as a fever heated arm snaked about her waste and a head of ruffled hair found lodging near her collar bone.

“Thank you…”

The dark became absolute. Adian’s breathing evened out, became rhythmic if distinctly wheezing, and Myra lay, rigid and stiff, her muscles aching for sleep. She fought them, fought herself and stared resolutely up at the ceiling.

The hours stretched out before her. Myra cursed herself, cursed the man curled around her, cursed heaven and hell together. Why had she opened that damn door?

***

It was 3am.

Myra stared ahead of her, her eyes alight with wakefulness. She had propped herself up slightly, her hands folded neatly. She felt like a sentinel, a solider charged with a night watch. About 20 paces from her Adian was trying for the thirtieth time to open the bedroom door. She’d locked it, so he was in no danger of succeeding, but that still didn’t stop her watching him anxiously.

His movements were lazy, ineffective and comical. Myra would have laughed had she not being exhausted by her concern and lack of sleep. She had expected this of course, anticipated it as soon as she had realised how ill he was. In times gone by she had always been able to predict when he would have an episode. That had been the main reason why she had not sent him home. She couldn’t bare the idea of him alone in that flat with those treacherous flights of stairs, the glass coffee table and the razor sharp sculpture in the living room. There were just too many things he could have bumped into, or even cut his head open on.

Adian banged loudly on the door and then slumped against it, his energy reserves seeming to leave him.

“Bloody door” he muttered testily. His voice was very hoarse now, and Myra winced inwardly when she thought about how painful it would be in the morning.

After what seemed like an hour of Myra holding her breath, praying that he would give in, Adian’s knees buckled under him and he slipped into a crouching position, poised elegantly next to the pile of cushions and extra duvet Myra had purposefully arranged next to the door. Sure she had had to move the ottoman but it was a small price to pay. She’d had no desire to be chasing him around the house at some ungodly hour of the night.

It didn’t take long for Adian to flop sideways, his head craned at an odd angle. He resembled a limp puppet, his string cut, his long limbs sprayed out on the makeshift bed.

Myra, feeling confident the coast was clear, slid from under her covers and pattered quietly over to him. Bending down, she heard his muffled snores. She delicately brushed hair from his well sculpted face. Sleep had reclaimed his features and he looked relaxed, pale, but peaceful. She itched to trace his jawline, just to run a finger over his cheek bones, but she knew the way to the devil.

Complete resistance was her only chance of survival. He’d be gone in the morning. Then she could mourn.

Drawing the extra blankets over him Myra allowed herself a small smile. The whole situation was ridiculous. Painful and ridiculous, but somehow, at that very point in time, it felt unavoidable. A leopard can’t change its spot and Myra couldn’t be anyone other than who she was.

The room was much colder than she had realised and she shivered. Retreating to her bed, she finally felt able to relax. Turning on her side, scanning the vast emptiness of her bed, she thought, not for the first time, that she deserved this.

She deserved what was coming to her. She had opened the door and she would have to live with the consequences.

***

TBC...

[obsessed]

dundundun!