Chapter 14

In the darken room, illuminated only by the city lights, he traced the curve of her mouth with his fingers like a blind man. He seemed fixated on her mouth, touching it, kissing it. In the beginning, their loving making had been feverish, impatient, and little aggressive. Now they seemed to have fallen into a sleepy respite. Arthur had pulled her into him, burrowing deep in the dangle of her hair. In the beginning, he'd unbound it, against her protest. She felt his breathe on her neck, the steady rise, and fall as he fell in and out of sleep. She couldn't sleep, her mind raced as the realization of what she had done and what she was doing played like a never-ending movie. Arthur seemed to sense her tension, stirred, and held her tighter. He thought she would run. She thought she would run, until she felt his touch. He'd pushed back her hair, and trailed kisses along her neck in an attempt to calm her.

"What's wrong?" He asked his voice still drowsy with sleep.

"Nothing," she lied and turned away from him.

"You don't lie very well Guinevere," he said as he traced the contours of her body, with his hand. She knew this as a prelude to something more. Arthur's answer to any distress was to touch.

She thought about it for a long time. Taking in what she had to say and with forethought, she would tell him the truth and that would be that. She would give him the chance to back out. She took a deep breath and spoke.

"What happens to tomorrow?"

"What do you mean," he asked. He stroked the place above her hip.

"When we go back into the office. Me dress in what I wore the day before and you with a grin on your face?" She tried to sound upbeat, but she couldn't hide the doubt in her voice.

"Well…" He sighed. "I will try my best not to look like a bloody satisfied fool and I'll call Merlyn to get you something to change into."

"What you can't call Merlyn." She sat up to face him and, pulled the bed sheet around her. She was mortified that Merlyn might know what they'd done.

Arthur laughed. "The same Merlyn who sent you down to look for me, knowing full well what would happened." He gave her a knowing look. "He told me if I didn't do something about you, he'd lock us both up in a supply closet and through away the key."

"He did not," she exclaimed.

Arthur propped himself on his elbow to look up at her. He wore a mischievous grin. "Lately, I have not been kind to Merlyn. So if you don't get over this, I will have him drawn and quartered."

"That's not funny. If Merlyn knows so does Grey. Andf Grey knows, your father can't be far off." She tightened the sheet around her.

Arthur shook his head in exasperation and fell back on to the bed. He gave her a size way glance before trying to tug the sheet off her. She held firm.

"My father doesn't pick my dates," he said frustrated when he could remove the sheet.

This time she gave him a knowing look of her own. She'd seen the news photographs of him escorting a famous model, or the daughter of some billionaire. Aldrich Penn had an idea who Arthur should or should not date. It wasn't some brown skin girl from Brooklyn, who barely made ends meet and whose idea of splurging was a dress from Garneau's discount rake. She knew the truth of that if Arthur refused to accept it.

"He can't know." She said emphatically, panicked at the ideal of Merlyn blabbering to anyone who'd listen.

"What!" This time Arthur sat up and glared at her. "You have lost your mind. How am I going to manage that?"

Gwen shrugged. She hadn't a clue, short of quitting her job and never seeing him again. When she suggested that, she thought he might strangle her.

"You truly have lost your mind. I'm a grown man and no one dictates who I date, including my father," he said sternly.

"We're not dating!" she shot back.

His look of incredulity almost made her laugh. He sat up again and glared at her.

"Guinevere, I don't think we can undo what we've just done, and if you think I'm stopping now, you're sorely mistaking. You can't tell someone they've won the lottery and say, oh sorry, I need to take the money back."

She smiled at the thought of him thinking of her that way. The smile was a mistake. Before she could say another word, he'd grabbed her by her leg, pulled her down onto the bed, and pinned her.

She groaned in frustration as she struggled to get from beneath him. The more she tried the harder he pressed. When she stopped, he relaxed his hold on her, propped himself on his elbows and hovered over her and grinned.

"Arthur, I'm trying to be serious." Though she knew, it was hard to be serious in the position she was in but she tried.

"I see that you are."

He sounded a bit condescending, but she ignored it.

"The moment your father finds out, he'll go ballistic and don't forget Keira. She'll probably think you slept with me just to get me on your side."

"I hadn't thought of that," he said, thinking it over.

"Arthur!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Can we talk about this later," he insisted.

"No, because there won't be a later," she said sternly as she tried to wriggle from beneath him. When he refused to budge, she gave him a devilish look, and tickled him just below his armpit. Arthur yelped and rolled off her and away from her offending hand.

"What the bloody…," he said shock surprised, as she bounded out of bed, taking most of the bedding with her. He looked at her and the spot she touched as if she'd found some secret switch.

She knew about Arthur's sensitive areas from the Arthur of her past and if she used every bit of them to get the present Arthur to see the seriousness of her complaint she would. She stood several feet away from the bed and glared at him.

"I will not have a walk of shame Arthur or have your father look down on me like I soiled something. I need time to adjust to this, whatever this is."

Arthur sat up and stared back at her, rubbing the spot she'd had tickled and sighed.

"What is this anyway?" She demanded and gestured between the two of them.

"I could say, I want to get to know you better, but that seems moot. I know you Guinevere. As odd and as arrogant as that sounds, I know you." He said.

She didn't know how to respond to that, especially given what Cassandra told her. Cassandra considered them destined to be together. She thought the woman mad, but now she wasn't so sure. Their first meeting, Arthur's constant intrusion into her life and now, he need to possess her. How could she explain they were destined to be together thing to him when she could barely explain that to herself. No matter what Cassandra said how they were fated, she lived in the real world. In the real world Aldrich Penn would not take this well, despite the ravenous look his son gave her.

"Okay, how about a compromise." He offered playfully.

She didn't like the sound of that. He was a lawyer and a Penn. She gave him a dubious look.

"What do you have to offer?"

"My silence for…a month." He said.

"I don't understand." She stepped closer to the bed.

"I promised no one will know we're dating. Everyone who does know will keep it from my father, on pain of death."

"What about Keira?"

He nodded. "Only for a month, afterward, you just have to wrap your mind around it."

She didn't know how she would do that. She was about to agree and climb back into bed when he held up a hand to stop her.

"I have terms," he said formally.

"Terms?" she said with caution.

"First, while I will not blatantly flirt with you at work, I do reserve the right to do so after. Secondly, because you choose to handle this in this manner, I will for appearances sake treat you like the annoying Keira assistant you are. Just because this whole arrangement pisses me, off. Lastly, if not importantly, I'm falling in love with you, if I haven't already, so if I act like a wanker, I mean jerk, you have to forgive me.

Gwen stood with her mouth opened, unsure of what to say. Arthur loved her.

"You barely…"

He held up a hand to stop her, rolled out of bed, and walked over to stand in front of her. Briefly, he scrutinized her before he unceremoniously yanked away the bed sheet she clung. Before she could complain, he drew her into a tight hug.

"Promise first you will not freak out," he warned.

Frozen by his words, it took all her effort to nod in agreement.

"The day I first met you and you fainted, something happened." His words were soft and just above a whisper. "It was as if someone jabbed a hook in my heart and threaten to yank it out. It frightened me. I know that doesn't make sense, but I felt it." He tone had turned serious.

The connection they obviously both felt didn't make sense to anyone. Yet she could explain that sense of lost she felt every time he left the room. Something inexplicable was happening to him, to them both. If Aldrich didn't hate Cassandra so much, she'd take Arthur to Cassandra's shop downtown and have her explain all, over a steaming hot cup of – something.

"I think it best we try not to make sense of this," she suggested and gave him a weak smile.

"Then we're okay," he asked She nodded and stood on her toes to kiss him.

Despite their nakedness, she felt warm, almost hot. Arthur ran his finger through her hair and pushed the kiss deeper. She sensed his urgency and guided back toward the bed. They barely made it as they fell in a tangle of bedding. She wondered if he felt it, that thin steel thread that held them together and wrapped around them. She felt it as it grew tighter and tighter. A part of her struggled against it, its confined and just the edge of pain it wrought. She could barely breathe, yet she didn't want him to stop. Everything in her churned as if some alchemist's experiment to turn lead in to gold was about to come to fruition. She couldn't stop, no more than she could stop the rain and wind. She moaned as she merged into him, the two becoming one.

"Arthur!" she screamed as everything exploded. Arthur quickly followed and shuddered as his heat drained away and he lay next to her chilled. His hair damp with his effort and skin covered in gooseflesh, she covered him with bedding to give him warmth. His breath came quick and hoarse. In the dimness of the light, his blue eyes stared down at her in understanding. Their fire had burnt away everything they were.

What was left?

Arthur and Guinevere.