Animal

One-shot inspired by a song- by MPHknows

Iggy Griffiths loved and loathed clubs. They were loud and smelled of horny people and cheaply mixed drinks, but they were also bleeding adrenaline and thriving with insecure women who didn't need but two drinks and they'd be trying to take their clothes off.

Those weren't the ones Iggy was drawn to though. They weren't decent prey. Sure, if he had a busy day and just wanted something simple, he could pick out a decent one, but they weren't right for nights like these.

He had just gotten a raise, the maid had just come by his loft today, and he had a high priced bottle of champagne waiting for him. Now he just needed the girl to go with it.

This girl couldn't be easy. She had to be a prize, someone he could play with and not be afraid she would fall apart. But she couldn't be invincible either. Who would throw away a toy without breaking it first?

He wasn't talking about sex. Sex in itself wasn't a game to him anymore. He wasn't so easily amused. No, it was the emotions tied to intimacy that he loved to play with. To break a woman's heart slowly and sweetly without her even realizing she had put all her faith in him, then leaving the shell with a heart so torn apart she wouldn't know what to do.

What else to do when you have no heart but to devoid others of theirs?

He reached his long fingers up to brush through his strawberry blond hair, icy blue eyes scanning the crowd as they seemed to move in a hive like fashion. None of them were unique. They all dressed the same, all looked the same, and all smelled the same.

Except one.

She was parted from the crowd that Iggy so easily looked over the heads of, leaning against the wall farthest from the speakers. Her dirty blond hair was pulled back but still managed to cascade down her back due to its impressive length. As he pushed through the crowd skillfully, Iggy made note of how smooth her slightly tanned skin looked and how her hourglass figure had no other rival in the whole building.

Her black dress was off-the-shoulder, cut just low enough in the front, and reached halfway down her thighs. Her long legs led down to short boot heels and her arms were crossed loosely in front of her as she seemed to drown herself in the music. And, as Iggy finally approached her, he could see that her strikingly gold eyes were trained on him.

Rust red lips and dark eye shadow brought out her already defined features, and her face held a look of amusement. Iggy didn't slow as he noticed her eyes on him, but kept at his average pace until he was standing a foot away from her, as was the maximum amount of space allowed in a popular club.

He smirked, eye scanning her body even though he had already checked before he even moved towards her. This was just show. "This doesn't seem like your kind of place," he spoke smoothly.

She didn't move from the wall, taking her sweet time to check him out, "Doesn't look like yours either."

Iggy glanced down at his dark blue suit with a chuckle, knowing that it was his outfit she meant, though he spoke of her demeanor. He looked back at her, leaning slightly in her direction as if he was trying to make his words better heard, "You seem like you'd be in a music bar, maybe one with a stage."

She laughed dryly, seeming amused, "You get that from just looking at me?"

"I like to think I can read people very well," he spoke lower, making sure to keep eye contact. "What's your name?"

"Lupo," she stated proudly. "Yours?"

"Iggy," he answered, placing his elbow against the wall a ways away from her head so he could lean even closer to her without getting in her face. "Do you want to leave? This place is a bit too loud for my tastes, and I bet we can find someplace better."

She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow, smiling slightly, "We swap names and you think I'm going to leave with you?"

He shrugged, not responding as he glanced around the rest of the club, making her think he had other options.

But she wasn't objecting, and her response came out sooner than he expected, "Sure."

The streets of the city weren't as busy as Iggy expected, the cold air probably making people flee into buildings as fast as they could. But Iggy loved the cold. He could relate to its sharpness and unforgiving nature.

Save the poet talk for the women, he told himself, watching Lupo as she walked beside him. She didn't even seem effected by the cold air, bare shoulders strong and proud.

The proud ones were always the most entertaining to see shatter. They think no one can get to them, but they never met someone like him.

"Why were you in the club tonight?" Iggy asked, walking close enough beside her that their arms would occasionally brush against each other.

Lupo gave a small smile to herself before answering, "I usually go out with a few friends, but they were all busy. I figured it wouldn't be much different without them."

"Was it?"

She looked at him with her eyebrows knitted together, "You tell me. I was standing against the wall talking to no one, after all."

Iggy shrugged, "You seemed to be enjoying the music."

"They play some good ones sometimes," Lupo noted before looking ahead. "What about you, why were you at the club?"

Iggy paused for a moment, making it seem like he was questioning if he should tell her, "I just got a raise and decided to try and celebrate. The club and I have a love hate relationship, though."

"Why not celebrate with friends?"

He chuckled, "I have acquaintances, but no friends."

"Family?"

"I left them behind a long time ago."

She seemed intrigued, but didn't ask. Not like he would tell, anyway. "Where are we even going?" she asked as they kept a casual pace down the sidewalk.

Iggy sighed, not really contemplating, "I don't know. Have you eaten yet?"

She shook her head, "No. I know some good restaurants, though."

"How about you come back to my place and I cook? It's cheaper, and I must say I'm pretty good at it."

She thought for a moment, golden eyes lost in the distance, before smirking up at him, "Why not?"

One arm was stretched across the back of the couch while the other led the glass of champagne up to his lips. Iggy watched Lupo as she sat quietly next to him, nursing her own glass. She had remarked only a few minutes earlier that she liked wine more, but Iggy explained the champagne went better with the kind of pasta he served.

Food and women, his chosen forte.

Lupo finished off her glass, reaching to set it down on the coffee table. She relaxed back to his side, her eyes moving to watch him. Iggy took his sweet time, enjoying his champagne and making her wait.

"Quite impressive," she commented, making him raise an eyebrow. "I had no intentions of going home with someone tonight."

Iggy chuckled, "This night isn't exactly as I planned, either."

Did I say isn't? Iggy joked to himself. He may have not planned this exactly, given he never knew who he would find, but the night was definitely going the way he wanted.

She wasn't at all what he expected. He figured she would be good, but he never thought he'd be fighting for control. It had been a long time since he had a night like that.

Iggy sat up in bed, another glass of champagne in his hand. At least he had given up smoking, but he still craved a drink afterwards. He leaned against the headboard, taking a long sip from the glass as he watched Lupo who was on the verge of sleep.

She had taken the tie out of her hair, letting it fall against her shoulders. The blankets only came up to her naval, one hand gripping the edge of the sheets while the other fell over her head. His love bite was clear on the base of her neck, and Iggy knew she had left a few on him along with the scratches on his back.

He didn't expect the fire in her eyes or her scorching touch. They usually felt so cold, yet Lupo had a flame in her that came out to lick at the empty space in his chest every time she touched him.

This worried him, but Iggy brushed it off with ease, locking the feeling in the same box he shoved every other one into.

He couldn't feel. He refused to.

It was the next night, and she was back, just as he knew she would.

Iggy was up against the wall, her slow kisses torturing him in a way he would never admit. She was toying with him as much as he was with her, but Iggy refused to believe someone could be as good as him.

As the night continued, Iggy could tell what she was doing. She was clawing and searching for a place inside of him, a place that could feel and wash away the cold he had been filled with for so long.

The thought made him ache, and he couldn't explain why. He didn't try to, locking it away the same as everything else. This woman pulled too much out of him, tearing the gap that was nothing but ice open even more.

He hated it, but he couldn't stop her. Every time he tried to break her, she'd come back without a crack.

He was determined, though. He wouldn't let her win. He couldn't. He'd be the one to leave her an empty shell of her former self. He'd be the one to put out the flames that made up her being.

Or else she just might melt the heart he didn't think he had and burn it to a crisp.

"I wish I could give you my love and my soul

But inside my chest there is nobody home"

-Animal by The Cab