Adriana sighed as Neil entered the room, not even looking up from filing her nails.
“Can you please stop leaving dead bodies on my doorstep? You’re worse than a cat.”
Neil grunted. “If people stopped trying to break in, I wouldn’t have to kill them.” He glanced back at the front stoop, where a mangled form lay. “Little fucker got close this time.” He shook his head, spraying water across the room.
Adriana wrinkled her nose, brushing droplets off her skirt. “Neil, really? I just had this cleaned.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” Neil growled. “You hired me to do a job. You didn’t say it had to be neat.”
“I would have thought that would have been obvious,” she snapped back, glaring at the man before her. “I run a very discreet business, and having to explain blood on my front steps isn’t good for anyone.”
Neil glared right back, and took a step closer. She saw his eyes flash, and held back a growl. If he thought he could pull some alpha shit, she would put him back in his place. He was her employee, and she would make sure he knew it.
“If you wish to stay in my employment, you will clean up. No more t-shirt and jeans, you’ll wear a suit. You will be respectful and discreet, and you will do your job cleanly. Is that understood?”
He took another step forward, and now they were only a few feet apart, staring each other down. Anyone else would have withered at the matched ferocity in their eyes, but both held their ground.
“That was quite a speech,” Neil said casually. “I don’t think you mean all of it, though.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve seen you watching me. The way you look at me.” His grin turned wolfish. “I don’t think you mind my appearance as it is. In fact,” he looked her up and down. “I think you like it.”
“You bastard,” she said taking another step forward and poking him in the chest. “You will keep a civil tongue in your head, or I will rip it out.”
“Yeah?” he goaded. She stared at him for a moment, then whirled away in a swish of skirts.
“You think very highly of yourself, don’t you?” she asked calmly, settling down in an armchair before the fireplace. Neil looked a little surprised at the change in tone, but took it in stride.
“I do. Many of my clients do as well.” He walked over to the mantle, and leaned against it. He studied her, trying to figure out what had changed. She looked up at him idly.
“Well, apart from your habit of leaving fresh meat on my front steps, I am satisfied.”
“Are you?” he said, raising an eyebrow. He thought he saw the faintest flicker on her face, but her expression stayed smooth.
“Yes, I suppose I am.” She glanced at the empty fireplace, and he thought he saw it again. The faintest flicker that something was going through her head, something she didn’t want other people to see. He took a step closer. She tilted her head slightly, but said nothing.
“What’s the point of all this, Adriana?” he asked quietly.
“What do you mean?” she asked, for once not staring him down.
“Is this life really what you want? The constant threats, the clandestine meetings, the constant running?”
She sat up a little straighter in her chair. “This is what I am good at. What I was trained for since I was a child. And someone needs to do it.”
He took another step closer, and saw wariness in her eyes. He didn’t care.
“It sounds lonely.”
She snorted. “Love is for the weak and the stupid. It just brings more trouble.” She hoped she kept her voice even as she spoke. Connecting to people just made her vulnerable, to her competitors, to her clients, to herself. Even as she leaned toward Neil, ever so slightly.
“You really think that?” he asked.
“Don’t you?” she countered, and saw him consider the words. “How can you live in this world, in this line of work, and not think that?”
Neil took a moment to answer. “I suppose you are right.”
She nodded, then stood. This conversation was getting uncomfortably intimate, and she needed to reassert some kind of order.
“Thank you for your work, Neil. I’ll have someone clean up the mess.” She swept past him, intending to leave the room, end the meeting, but his voice stopped her.
“Adriana.”
It was a question and a command, and she stopped, turning toward him. He crossed the room, slowly, as if afraid she would run. Adriana held her head high. She never ran. He stood before her, so close she could feel the heat radiating off his body. She felt herself lean into him, but pulled back, hoping he didn’t notice. But the glint in his eyes told her he had.
“Adriana,” he whispered, the word sounding like a caress. He still hadn’t touched her, but she felt like he was everywhere.
“Damn you,” she whispered, and leaned forward, pressing her lips to his and twisting her fingers in his hair. He kissed her back fiercely, passionately, and she moaned into his mouth. She felt him smile against her, and her knees almost buckled as he started trailing kisses down her jaw, her throat.
“Just tonight,” she gasped, arching toward him, needing more.
“Tonight,” he said, making his way back up her neck to whisper in her ear, “but I don’t think it will be just the once.”
She shuddered, knowing he was probably right and, for the moment, not caring. Maybe she did need a partner after all…
Inspired by a writing prompt from The Character Comma’s prompt generator.
© The Lightning Tower, 2020