A/N: Firstly, a very special acknowledgement to my dear, sweet friend, StringInRepair. Your review was truly everything to me and more, and your constant and encompassing support of me has never ceased to amaze me. For this, you have my deepest thanks.
And lastly, I hope that this update isn't too awfully shocking. And if it is, I'm sorry.
Sorry...
Sorry...
I'm sorry...
Sorry...
...
...psych...
A heavy silence fell upon the moment when that playing card had been placed along the desk's smooth surface. Yellowed and brown from extreme heat, the man immediately recognized his own, somewhat pretentious calling card. The King of Spades. A card chosen from the deck to both lord his superiority over The Joker and sardonically mock his enemy. The same exact card he had left along the outside glass of the entrance to a building he had burned to the ground with his own two hands.
...The Ha Ha Hacienda...
Riveting, exotic pale blue eyes lifted themselves from the familiar item at an almost agonizingly slowed pace as he finally gazed upward through his attractive reading lenses towards the woman who had re-gifted him with this bold memento. And the knowing look he spared her was as frighteningly cold as it was fearlessly indifferent in the face of what she had just shared. That she knew who he really was. What he had done to her employer's shabby establishment while looking for them. That his message had been received and, after all this time, was being answered in the form of a visit.
He had moved from the eye of the storm back into its destructive fury, and he welcomed the danger with open arms.
"So," The man murmured lowly as he continued to regard the woman leaning provocatively against his desk with a frigid oceanic gaze. "your boss sent you to come after me, then?" The tone of his voice came cool and unperturbed, wholly lacking the concern that should have been provoked with the precarious nature of the situation he found himself in. "I mean..." His voice came low and smooth through the dwindling space between their bodies as he eyed the woman with an almost leering gaze. "If he's honestly thinking that someone like you is going to kill me, I have to say I'm really not that impressed."
"Ha!" The woman spat this projectile laughter towards the man's fearless indifference. "Kill you?!" She exclaimed with that same crazed stare as she grinned. "That's funny!" She laughed again. "Why would we want to kill you?" The woman asked, brushing away this theory. "You've got Mr. J all wrong, hon." She chuckled, meeting the man's intense mesmeric stare through a curled smile. "He likes your style." She said.
"Does he, now." The man countered dubiously with the lift of a single brow, and the woman's expression came almost humorously serious.
"Mr. J's a big believer in bullets an' gasoline." This came earnest in its delivery through the woman's unrefined accent.
"They're cheap." The man retorted flatly. "And they're effective." He tacked this on monotonously, merely as an afterthought, which caused the woman to smile widely.
"See!" The woman exclaimed, a bit excited. "That's exactly what Mr. J keeps sayin'!" She said. "And what you did back there to his joint? Burnin' the whole thing to the ground. That was a real piece of work, Mr. Mitchell." This praise came along a brief pause before the woman continued. "Took a big set of balls, too."
"So...if your employer doesn't want me dead," He effortlessly brushed off another of the woman's complementary statements as he held her gaze with an intimidating, almost predatory stare. "what does he want?"
"I was hoping you'd ask that." The woman grinned at him. "You see, our organization is...small." She said as she peered down at him through her oversized frames. "But we've got some room for...aggressive expansion." The woman explained, each word coming slowed with purposed and effect. "The truth is, we could use someone like you on our team working in this city to...enforce...our interests." And the man narrowed his gaze with the faint cant of his head.
"Wait..." He eased himself back in his seat to stare the woman down. "So," This came lowly uttered from thin perfect lips. "Let me get this straight. You're trying to recruit me?"
As he reclined in his seat, the two held each others gaze in a moment of silence before the man burst into laughter. Laughter that was as wrong as it was enticing, and the weight of it caused his whole torso to tremble with the effort. When he regained himself, he smiled. A wide, predatory smile that promised pain.
...he smiled as if he planned on hurting the woman...
"Oh," Thick dark lashes fluttered against those cold ocean eyes as he gave the cant of his head. "you were being serious, weren't you?" His smile shifted into an amused, cockeyed smirk. "I should've laughed harder."
The woman seemed unamused towards the man's antics as she pushed her shapely figure off of his desk and slowly moved from the outer edge. Having elegantly maneuvered her body into the small gap between the man and his precious desk, the woman finally rested her ample hips along its dark, smooth surface as she faced him. Her expression serious as she gazed down at him through her stylishly overstated frames.
"The only time I ever leave Mr. J's side is when he's serious." Her voice lowered as she stared him down. "You should feel honored by my arrival."
"So...what?" The man's icy gaze openly drifted along the woman's body before coming back to her captivating face. "Are you suppose to be the company perk?" He asked dubiously. "Or some sort of signing bonus?" And the woman giggled towards this, seeming unfazed by the man's crude assumption of her position.
"Please." She scoffed, holding the man's stare. "I'm here to negotiate."
"Negotiate what, exactly." The man retorted in a flat deadpan.
"The terms of your agreement to join us." She replied through the simper of a smile.
"I see..." The man murmured lowly as he gazed at her through the lenses of his own designer frames, the expression along his face cool and giving nothing away of what he felt or thought. "If that's the case, then you and I are going to have a bit of a problem." He said. "Because I'm not much of a 'joiner'." This came through the infinitesimal lift at the corner of his lip. "I don't play well with others." And, to the man's surprise, the woman smiled at this.
"Mr. J thought you'd might feel that way." She said, sliding her hips from the desk as her delicate fingertips began to slowly inch up the hem of her already skimp, skin-tight pencil skirt. "Which is why he gave me all the leash I need with you at the bargaining table."
Like chips cast along the betting table, the woman effortlessly and quite gracefully straggled the man's lap with the mobility she'd given to her thighs as the added weight in the office chair eased the both of them back a bit. The two of them came nose to nose before the woman slightly righted herself and began to unloosen the knot of the man's electric blue tie. A corporate power tie that complemented the color of his vibrant ocean eyes. And...he didn't stop her efforts in loosening the masculine piece of business attire from around his neck. Nor did he bother to dissuade the woman as those same delicate feminine fingertips began to tenderly unfasten the top buttons of his crisp business shirt. Yet they came to stop themselves of their own accord at what they had uncovered. The alluring glint of a small, delicate gold cross that hung itself suspended around the man's neck. The woman's fingertips tenderly caressed down the length of the chain to gently brush along the metal of the small charm. And those steel blue eyes lifted toward the man's face and his unmoved expression as their eyes met.
"Pretty." She whispered with a strange little smile as the two held each others gaze . "Are you a God fearing man, Mr. Mitchell?" The woman asked lightly.
"I'm not inclined to fear much of anything." The man responded with cool impassivity, and the woman slowly inclined herself so that her lips brushed along the man's ear as she breathed in a whisper.
"Maybe that should change..."
The man gave the smirk of a smile against her cheek in response to this suggestion before brushing his nose along the length of her neck, inhaling her fragrance. Something wholly intoxicating and unique, like the arousing combination of sex and the familiar scent of gunpowder.
"I doubt it will anytime soon."
"Mm," This came a softly purred hum through the woman's lips as she felt his hands effortlessly find themselves along the curves of her waist. "We'll see about that." The woman sighed before those hands began their gentle exploration underneath her suit jacket along the planes of her lower back.
"So tell me..." The man whispered lowly in her ear, deepening his voice. "Were you planning on negotiating with the muzzle of your gun?" And the softest giggle loosed itself from the woman's lips.
"Only if I have to." She whispered playfully in reply towards the man having discovered the gun concealed at the waistline of her skirt. "The way I see it, there are two guns out on the table, now." The words that followed came in a breathless whisper against the shell of his ear. "Mine," She whispered as the weight of her hips pressed just a bit further into the thrown she had claimed in his lap. "and yours." The weight of her against him caused the faintest groan of a sigh to pass the man's lips as he felt her smile against him with the response she had received from the use of her feminine wiles. "And which one I end up using is completely up to you, Mr. Mitchell." The woman leaned back slightly to look the man in the eye, their faces mere inches from each other as she held his unnerving stare and the flat affect of his handsome features. "Not that I'm partial or nothin', but between you and me, toots, I think it'd be a lot more fun for you if you just let me play with yours." She said with the makings of a coy little smile. "If you get what I'm sayin'." And the licentious smile she offered the man was mirrored in the smirk of a side-smile he reflected back to her.
"Really..." The man murmured quietly as his hands slowly drifted themselves from the small of the woman's back to cradle the curves of her back-end. "Is that what you think?" He said this with that same cockeyed smirk of a smile, the two of them holding each others gaze before those pale exotic eyes slowly drifted down from the woman's face towards the ample curves of her upper body before lifting towards her face once more.
Without verbal warning, fingertips pressed themselves into the supple curves of the woman's back-end as the man held her hips firmly in place against him before effortlessly lifting the both of them up from his chair in order to seat her along the surface of his desk. As he re-positioned himself between her legs, he felt the woman's fingertips run themselves through the dark, attractive mess of his hair and down along the back of his neck. Like hands boldly soothing a dangerous beast. The two stared at each other a moment, the woman somewhat captivated by the man's beautiful face and almost savage animal magnetism. And when he looked into her eyes, the woman seemed pleased. Though no deal had been struck between them, yet, it appeared he had decided to proceed in these dealings without fight or threat of violence.
"There's a good boy." This came whispered encouragingly into his ear before the woman slowly tilted her head back with the infinitesimal arch of her chest towards the way he dipped his head and almost tenderly brushed his lips against her neck and lowly along her exposed collarbone. "Mr. J will be happy to know you decided to come over to our side." Thin perfect lips brushed the length of the woman's jaw-line and set her flesh in a cold fire.
"Funny." He breathed in her ear. "I don't remember ever actually agreeing to that." The man slowly eased his weight against her, causing the woman to be slightly pushed back by him.
Placing the palms of her hands flat against the desk to brace herself, the man slowly placed his only slightly larger hands upon hers. His slender fingers interlaced hers as her palms came further pressed against the surface of the man's desk. Having pinned and somewhat restricted the mobility of her body with his own, he began to gently brush his nose the length of her shoulder.
"Mr. Mitchell..?" The woman sighed his name.
"I'm not done exploring all of my options."
"What other options could you possibly have?" The woman's voice sounded as perplexed as it was thready.
"A few come to mind, actually." The man murmured quietly as he pressed her body a little further into the unforgiving surface of his mahogany desk. "And with the current mood you've just put me in," His voice grew thick and husky in her ear with the breath he produced as it caused a strand of the woman's hair to flutter. "I guarantee that all of them will turn out deeply unpleasant for you. But please..." He whispered. "..by all means..." The woman felt the curl of his lips into a smile against her skin as he said this. "... do keep trying to entice me over to your side. See what happens."
Those pale, exotic blue eyes found the woman's startled expression as her face quickly flinched away to create a small gap between them as the two held each other almost nose to nose. And the expression she bared witness to was so horrifically unkind. Cold. Severe. And as terrifying as it was devastatingly handsome.
Their wills now seemed so vastly at odds. And the look he spared this woman through the lenses of his reading glasses as he held her pinned against the desk with his own body indicated that what he truly wanted to do to her was far darker and more grotesquely violent than what she had just offered in way of physically consummating this precarious partnership.
A/N: To note some inspiration. The gasoline and bullets comment from my original character, Kristean Mitchell, came inspired by Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker. As was the comment from Harley Quin about 'room for aggressive expansion.'