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‘So, what are you saying? That you did it for the city?’ The perspective was amusing me, and no matter what came out of his mouth, I knew the real reason for which he broke into the governor’s house. No one could take that away from me.
‘Save the city so I could get myself a comfortable seat at ruling it. You were right when you said I wanted a piece of Echo City, and if I remember correctly, that too was a part of our deal.’
‘So, you’ll be in for the money?’ The perspective began to scare me since I knew what Brax was really capable of. He wasn’t exactly the most generous person in the world, much closer to Scrooge than to Robin Hood.
‘In for the money... that sounds so bad coming from your mouth. But I guess you could say that. I reckon my wealth will grow considerably, but not for the reasons that you may think.’
He stirred my curiosity. ‘What reasons then?’
‘We will try and set a smaller proportion between the Hills and Pit cash flow. To sum things up, the people in the Pit will live better, therefore, they’ll have a lot more money to spend at my establishments.’
It did sound logical but— ‘How are you planning on doing that?’
‘Simple. I’ll have the Elite give up their lush gardens and extra tennis courts that no one uses anyway and have workers from the Pit do agriculture. Almost all zones are lit with artificial light that allows vegetation to grow even without the sun’s rays. So why grow grass when you could grow food?’
‘The Elite would never allow you to do that.’
‘They won’t have a choice. If you hadn’t noticed, I don’t really ask for people’s permission. Besides, by my calculations, the harvest would surpass by far what our city needs. We could trade the rest for nice money. Believe me when I say, filling the Elite pockets would ease things up for this process to happen. It will be a win-win. The Annelids get better jobs and a lot better money, the Elite fatten their bank accounts, and I—’
‘You would be the Annelids God.’
The thought certainly agreed with him. ‘As I said, win-win for everyone involved.’
‘And for me?’ They were all coming out as winners, while I was the coin that got flipped around to settle the bills.
‘It depends on what you want.’ He was getting an idea of where I was going.
I let him wait for a few seconds, then walked straight to the minibar in his office and poured two glasses of his favorite whiskey. ‘What I want… You tell me what I want.’
‘Bea, what are you doing here dressed in that same black dress, same make-up, same fucking everything? If I didn’t know better, I could say you’re trying to stir up some memories, or maybe even more than memories.’ His absinthe eyes burned into mine as I opened his fingers to place one of the whisky glasses in his hand.
‘I’m here for the whiskey.’ I smiled, downing the contents of my glass and then setting it on his desk with a loud clink.
‘Are you?’ He leaned himself on the corner of the desk, keeping his legs slightly apart to make room for me to join him. ‘What are you really doing here?’ he asked again the instant I was in the position where he wanted me.
I didn’t want to say the words. I think I was afraid that I would sound fake. Or maybe I would sound too true. Either way, I would end up losing.
I just let one of my fingers slowly trail the lines of his Italian suit while my eyes continued to avoid his. I was the deer he likes to hunt, this time, spiced up with the drug of irresistible attraction.
‘Did you miss me?’ he asked.
The exact question I was expecting. I knew sooner or later his arrogance would get the best of him.
My answer didn’t come with useless words. I just let my head rest on his shoulder, leaving my gesture to speak for itself. It meant I was admitting defeat, granting him the dominance that he needed to assert. I wanted him to think that he had full control over any emotion that ruled me. And the same arrogance was leading him to believe that I could ever come to bow my head in front of him after what he did. I was much stronger than that, and he should’ve known it. But he was a man, and his ego shadowed even his wit.
Catching the upper side of my arms between his hands, he peeled me off from him to properly savor his achievement. He was carefully analyzing every single feature of my face. So carefully that I caught a glimpse of the man I saw that night at the pool. He was there again, blazing through the mask that usually protects Brax’s every studied gesture.
But then the beast took control, and nothing could stop him from claiming my lips as his.
The union was demanding, consuming, and altogether a desperate result of a desire that wasn’t able to be set alive for too long. Strength, the feature that defined him best, was slowly transposing into mystery. It was impossible to fight with himself, yet he kept doing it, trying to turn the calling of his soul into mere primal urges. Little did he know that he couldn’t stay forever on that path, and with every moment spent together, his body was sending out hints, betraying his real suffering.
There were times when I thought I was making a mistake. That it was only a product of my imagination, born out of my own desires and fantasies. But what about his gaze? The momentary splinters of confusion and unadmitted sorrow?
There has to be more than what he was proudly displaying. And I was betting all my money on that wild card.
Patience was never one of his virtues, and the hands that rushed to push down the straps of my dress were certainly confirming it. He was even more eager than I expected, and I felt I was reliving one of my previous visits to the same office.
He was groaning in satisfaction as his tongue was rolling over the round shape of my nipples, while the realization of the time I chose for the visit was getting on his nerves. ‘You couldn’t have said what you wanted the minute you walked through the door?’
