Now, things in Genovia just got a little bit harder for Clarisse and I just wanted to give you all a heads up that there may be some scenes, that involve a bit of violence, in this chapter that you might not like and wanted to apologise for them in advance.

Well, here it goes…

He's Gone - Part 3.

"Well…" he began, and then the door suddenly opened, causing Clarisse to jump. He seemed to smile at her movement, "Are you alright?" He exclaimed while putting his leg down and quickly sitting up. "You're very jumpy today."

"Yes, I'm fine," Clarisse exhaled, as calmly as she could as she got to her feet and holding up one hand in a bid to stop him from coming closer. But the truth was, his behaviour was unnerving her. "I had forgotten about the tea," she exclaimed in an attempt to add levity to the tense situation and turned to look over at the maid.

The well-rehearsed maid moved across the room to lay out the tea tray on the coffee table between the pair, "Oh, on the sideboard today I think, Maude." She said, gesturing towards the sideboard as she walked over to it, wanting it as far away from there, from him, as possible, and began to fuss with the vase of flowers there, shifting them to the side a little as the tray was set down. "Thank you."

"Your majesty," Maude turned and curtsied before leaving the room as Clarisse tried desperately, but failed, to think of reasons to keep her there. Just so she wouldn't be alone with him.

"Coffee, prime minister?" She queried while turning back to him still sitting on the sofa, her eyebrow rising as she spoke, a knowing tone to her voice.

"What a good idea," he said and again, seemed to give her this knowing smile as he slapped his hands down on his thighs, "yes, thank you. Why not!"

Giving him the smallest of smiles, she turned back to preparing their drinks and added sugar to his when she became aware of him moving behind her, of his shadow crossing the room to receive his drink. She felt this cloying sickness in the pit of her stomach, wondering if it were right and proper for her to sit behind the desk in there instead, to really add a boundary between them. Apprehensively she picked up his cup and turned to find him stood only a few feet behind her, his eyes fixed on her, his gaze trailing down her body.

"Prime minister," she said, thrusting his cup towards him and handed him the drink.

"Oh thank you," he said, his fingers brushing hers as he took the cup from her, "and please, like I said on Friday. Call me Henri."

She wanted to get out of this, to change the mood in the room. "Alright, Henri," she said wearily, her heart beginning to pound in her chest as she stepped back from him, as much as she possibly could before she felt the sideboard press into her bottom.

"Now then," he said and took a step or two closer to her, closing the distance between them so that she was now wedged between him and the sideboard behind her, and close enough that she could smell the several whiskeys that he'd consumed at lunchtime. "About my proposition," he said, extending his arm out past her and placed his cup back down on the tray, before trailing his gaze back up to meet hers.

Having been through so much already this past weekend, this really was the last thing she needed right now. And even though she knew that she should move, get away from him, her legs failed her, she seemed to be frozen on the spot and found herself nodding instead. "Yes, your proposition," she said quietly and looked up at him towering over her as her heart raced. Oh how she wished Joseph was still there to save her.

"I was out on a lunch date at the golf club when it occurred to me," he said and stepped even closer to her while placing his hands on her sides, "what's been going on right under our noses all this time."

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Clarisse said while instinctively pushing his hands away from her sides as he laughed and turned his head to the side. "What's been going on all this time?" She asked with a small, but defiant, shrug of her shoulders as he looked back at her.

"Something you said on Friday, concerning your good self and Joseph," he smirked while tilting his head slightly and averting his gaze first to her lips, then down lower as he raised his hand up, placing it on the side of her neck, his thumb resting against her jaw. He could swear, from her reaction that he could hear her heart pounding in her chest and it amused him. "You are more than just friends, and have been for some time."

"I must warn you that the maid will be in shortly to check and make sure that I am okay and that everything is as it should be," she exclaimed while trying to push his hand away from her neck, but he was too strong, too overpowering. "She will alert security."

"I better get to my point before she returns then, hadn't I?" He laughed while lowering his hand from her neck and placing it back on her side while pressing his body against hers and pinning her back against the sideboard. "That speech your son gave yesterday, telling your precious country that you hadn't left the palace all weekend, so the lady in those intimate photos taken on Saturday with your bodyguard couldn't possibly be you, was quite something."

"It wasn't me, I have been here all weekend," Clarisse declared, her breathing shallow as he eyed her like she was some sort of prize, reward.

"Oh dear, dear, dear, do you not remember what you told me on Friday when we met in your office?" He asked, searching her face.

"No," Clarisse said and shook her head, her body starting to shake in fear at what he might do. What he could be capable of, if given the chance. She was no match to his towering frame and that terrified her. "I don't remember."

"Then let me remind you, shall I," he smirked and slowly moved his hands lower down onto the sides of her thighs as he continued. "You quite happily told me about your weekend away, a belated birthday gateway with three of your closest friends, wasn't it?" He said as her eyes searched his. "One of whom was Joseph."

"So what if I did, doesn't mean to say I actually went," Clarisse replied.

"You know, you have a gorgeous body, one I have fantasied about many times," he said coldly. "I just wish it was me who had the forethought to take the photos myself instead of letting someone else do it," he said and laughed as she closed her eyes, the thought that he, like everyone else, had seen her in an intimate situation sickened her to the core.

"It was you," she said, her voice barely a whisper as she opened her eyes and looked back up at him. "You arranged for the photos to be taken, didn't you?"

"Yes it was me," he growled in a deep, menacing voice.

"But how? How did you even know where we were?" Clarisse asked, trying to remain as calm as she could given the situation. But it wasn't easy.

"Do you really think that I would willingly tell you how I knew where you were?" He laughed and shook his head as she tried to once again push him back.

"Stop it," he snapped while grabbing hold of her jaw firmly in his hands grasp and pushed her back forcefully into the sideboard, knocking the vase over behind her as her body banged into it, and spilling water over the edge of the sideboard, down onto the floor and soaking the back of Clarisse's skirt in the process. Things had undoubtedly become sinister now and he thrived on it. "You will only make matters worse. And we wouldn't want that, would we, your majesty."

"Please, you are hurting me," Clarisse begged, her hands wrapped around his wrist as she tried desperately to pull his hand away from her jaw.

Ignoring her pleas, he continued as he began to slowly gather up the bottom of her skirt in his other hand. "I also know that you and the King have been in an open marriage, I am in one myself so I can spot the signs," he said and momentarily studied her face before continuing. "And so, I thought, we could, or rather, might, come to an arrangement ourselves. You know, to prevent me from informing the press of that conversation we had in your office on Friday, and telling them that it was in fact you on that balcony with Joseph that night."

"You wouldn't dare," Clarisse said as she stared up at him.

"Wouldn't I?" He said and laughed as he grabbed hold of her now bare thigh with his other hand, causing her to inhale a sharp intake of breath at the feel of his hand on her. "Now that Joseph's not here anymore-,"

"You disgust me," she snapped, interrupting him, and put her hands up on his chest trying desperately to push him away as he briefly tightened the hold on her jaw and turned her head to the side as he leant in closer to her.

"Now, now your majesty, don't make me lose my temper. You won't like me when I am mad," he snapped in her ear, when to his surprise she began to fight back against him, and needing to gain control back of the situation, he let go of her jaw and quickly grabbed hold of her wrists instead.

"You won't get away with this," Clarisse snapped in his face as there was a momentary struggle between them and knocking the sideboard in their struggle, the vase that had already fallen over when she was pushed into the sideboard earlier, rolled over the edge and smashed to the floor beside them, causing Clarisse to scream out in a panic before his hand closed off the sound as it covered her mouth, cutting the air to her body, her eyes filled with tears as fear over what he might do next finally took hold.