Chapter 2

Everything in this place was unknown to me. This was his domain, not the home I'd made or the one I'd come from, and yet something in me told me my place was here as he swept me away to somewhere, I knew he didn't allow many to go. As he did, I was always pressed close to his chest, I could hear the thrumming beat of his heart, and it enticed me as he moved us towards our destination. I wanted to be there already, so we could share this passion, and then I could be cold again even if it pained me to acknowledge that future. With each footstep he took, I found I couldn't breathe. I was overwhelmed with a deep sense of anticipation, my nerves quivering beneath my skin in a way that almost surprised me. That was until I heard him kick the door open with a boom then kick it closed again with a quick resounding thud. That was when I left his arms altogether and I was on his bed my eyes immediately staring up at him.

"I've been wondering how you'd look in this room, on this bed…you beat my every expectation…just as I thought you would" his voice was rough in that moment with hints of beaming pride that I recognized just as I did the look in his eyes. My husband had always been a creature of habit and now was no different.

"Black always did make me fall in love with you…the way your skin dances in the candlelight like the scales of a dragon…nothing you do…not even that icy glare can make me resist you" his words almost pulled me into his thrall, but I always reminded myself not to believe his lies even as they made my skin burn our eyes never parting even as he knelt before me the way a man might his queen.

"My beautiful dragon, so filled with fire, and I must admit…I do enjoy how it feels even as you burn me" in that moment, I knew he was asking for me to give into him once again. I found the gesture unnecessary as he gripped my waist with his hands. I had already done so, or else I would not be where I was now, but somehow, I knew he needed to hear it again. When I didn't stop him from touching my waist, from holding me in place where before I might have protested, this must have been enough, for suddenly our eyes were blazing as one together.

"Do what you will" I hadn't meant to say the words, somehow, they just came, his tongue licking across his lips in that moment as his hands parted my legs enticing him to crawl in-between. I wasn't surprised when he ripped my skirt down the middle. Theo had always liked to rip my clothes away. When we had first met, he had said it was so he could replace them, so he could spoil me. It had been much the same once we were married and had not changed in the wake of the chill. He ripped them and replaced them and each time I suspected he had other motives, but I never asked about it. I simply let him do it, maybe because it enticed me or maybe because when he did it, I found I liked the way it reminded me of a time when our story had been better than it was now. I really didn't know, but as he did it in that moment, I decided not to care as I let myself secretly enjoy this moment.

Theo didn't stop at my skirt. Everything I wore followed right after that and when he was done, I was naked with only the warmth of the candles on my skin. Our eyes were still connected as I leaned back in an enticing arch, I knew he'd enjoy. He immediately rose from the floor to stand over me. I was filled with anticipation as he removed and folded everything he wore, so calmly. I knew he would come to me soon. That we would lay siege upon each other and when he was bare, I found him on his knees in front of me again. Theo pulled me by the hips to the edge of the bed to kiss me then my legs parting to wrap around him.

I had never been more tempted to kiss him back. To plunge my tongue into his mouth and remind him that he had loved me once. That moment tested all my resolve, for this all felt so familiar, and it made some part of me sob inside. Because it was as if I was his love again. As if when he kissed me, I was his woman again instead of simply a necessity. I was caught completely in his grip and I never wanted to let go, except in the back of my mind all I could do was remind myself that this was all unreal, and it left me unsure of what to do with any of it.

"How I've missed you, my dear, there's nothing quite as entertaining as you are in my presence" his breath washed over my whole body in that moment causing a shiver beyond my control as his lips left me only to stay tightly sealed to my neck his breath heavy as he held me there. Then just as suddenly, I felt his hands at the small of my back, and he was moving me. I found myself lifted until my head was encased in pillows and looking up at him, he loomed just above me then until with a seductive purr I felt as he spread me wider for him. My body moved almost on instinct, my arms going around his neck to touch his back, and my fingers found his hair as his lips moved sensually over every inch of skin they could. I would be lying if I said his attentions didn't feel nice as I arched under him.

"Riempimi" the Italian words came out on instinct as he inched all the closer to me and at the sound he was there. Theo filled me completely a harsh grunt of his own filling my ears. He had always liked the unadulterated Italian that left my lips when he least expected it and now was no different as he placed my legs up high around his hips. In response my hands left his hair just as harsh to glide down his back until his skin was under each of my nails and at the pain, I caused him, he rocked into me for the first time. He did this again, then again after that, and I couldn't hide anything anymore. I couldn't pretend to be cold or not feel what he was doing. I could only fix my hands on the skin of his back as the air in my lungs left me altogether.

"Theodore" his name was the only word then as it kept echoing in my mind with each of his powerful movements his control faltering then just at the sound.

"That's right, my love, speak to me" the words were a growl then as he continued to have his power in this moment, rocking into me at the pace he chose making my body shake as that growl continued as my nails dug into his again.

"Cazzo…non fermarti…mio marito" it was the first time in a long while that I found myself lost in him as his eyes came to look at me, his forehead suddenly touching mine as he moved inside me his hand touching my face as another stayed always holding me to him. There was something almost hypnotic about us then as we looked at each other. I almost wanted to believe that we had regained something we had lost, but I couldn't let myself even as he moved inside of me. That was when I brought my hands to his chest, holding them there as if to brace myself, for if I didn't, I feared I'd give into him completely as I suddenly noticed in him all the things that had made me fall so in love with him.

I never did fall into him, at least not that night, but I received that sharp reminder all the same. Because I loved all these things in him. The way he held his power so surely, the way he looked at me with the look of a man who knew his desire so completely, and that's what made my heart break. Because I knew after this moment was over that that look would fade from him. That he wanted me now because I was a woman, and he had the same use for me that every man had for a woman. Nothing about us was the same anymore. It made my longing for this moment to never fade all the greater. Because when my truth was known it would be that I loved him. All of him and that I always had. That was why it was always so painful for me to hold myself at arm's length without ever telling him that I knew his truth. That any love he'd had for me had somehow gone away. I wanted him to love me back again, but that we had lost seemed never to return. Yet as he was fucking me so intensely with his hands touching me wherever they could, it didn't seem that way, he always seemed to trick me with his words and his actions. This moment reminded me harshly of that as he continued in his vicious thrusts until I knew if I had been a weaker woman that I might have given into his trick. It was this cruel taunting that pained me as he slanted his lips over mine in a kiss I couldn't return.

"Come on, my love, give me your fire" the way he said it shook me.

"You shouldn't taunt a dragon, husband" my eyes focused squarely on his own and he did not give, he simply held my stare until I knew I had no choice, but to show him the fire he thought he was seeking. My hands found his shoulders and our eyes met as I released the dragon, he wanted within me. I took all his power from him and laying him on his back, I straddled him laying my hands over his shoulders, so he couldn't move. This time he was the one catching his breath and he was the one waiting to see what I would do. I was slow, precisely so as he laid beneath me always waiting until just when I thought the time was right. That was when I lowered myself down until he was filling me.

Everything was still as our eyes met and when my nails dug into his chest, I returned his vigor with my own.

"You wanted me to burn you, Theodore, you wanted me to show you my fire…well, you watch that fire now, you watch as it burns you to ash" I felt his hands on my wrists then as he let me hold him in my grip as the words left me. My teeth were clenched as they did, my eyes burning almost tenderly into his as my body shook above him until only the creak of the bed beneath us broke through the sound of us. It all seemed to heat the room in that moment. Him, me, the shear power that seemed to come when we came together this way. That was when his hands seemed to caress my stomach as he made his way to my waist. His hands gripped me there, but I held him fast. I wasn't going to allow him to take back control and yet when I looked at him, I quickly saw that that was not his plan. I saw as he held me close using his grip on me to angle his thrusts up to join my own. I knew it was his way of seducing me now and I found I didn't mind it even as I was using all my power to hold him in place.

"We always seem to leave our mark on each other" I didn't expect him to say it, yet I knew he was right as I felt the beginning stages of his bruises on me just as I knew he would have the outline of my nails on him; that was when I chose to let him overpower me as an enticing type of fog left me no way to protest. Theo rose until his head was in my chest his hands holding the small of my back and with our fire turning to embers our movements began to slow.

"Theodore" I couldn't keep my voice from being softer now as I felt the kiss of his lips against the rounded tops of my breasts even as my hips ground harshly still over him.

"Theodore, mio marito" I felt the softest part of myself laying there for him to bear witness to then and I couldn't lock it away again as this moment for us ended and closing my eyes, I held inside myself the tears that were there always threatening to spill over me for him to see.

"Make love to me, husband" he acted as if all I was doing was asking him to finish what we had started, but holding him then, I knew what I was asking him even as we continued in our movements as if I hadn't spoken my cheek touching his in a final moment of tenderness reminding me that this was the last thing that remained of what we'd had once. This wasn't love and it wasn't lovemaking. It was just a lustful act with no love to it at all. A mournful closing that always came when we came together this way. It wasn't what it had been, and I was harshly reminded of that even as I was softly nuzzling him as he kept his cheek pressed close to mine. Briefly, I thought of our moments like this before. When we had first been married and before things had dared to slow this way between us. Back then we could hold each other, love each other with our lips meeting in a series of kisses that burned each of them every time. It was those moments I longed for as I sat in this life with him each day in a cold state of denial. I was always waiting to see the man I had known appear somewhere, but he never did and that always pained me. That didn't change in that moment as our movements ended far more suddenly than they had when they first began.

"I love you" I thought it in that moment, but I didn't dare say it as I found myself just holding him, my fingers in his hair lightly combing it just as he liked, his fingers pressed into the skin of my back just as he always did as if to somehow let me know he was still there. After coming down from our highs one after the other, the remaining moments left to us were slow. I could hear our breathing. Each of us inhaling together then exhaling. We did this until the time came for our separation. That was when he left my body his touch gentle as he laid me on my back on the bed and when he looked at me there was almost a warmth to his eyes. He kissed me and when he pulled away, he was looking at me with that pride in his eyes.

"You have no idea how I've missed you. How I love you, Vivian, you are very important to me. I love you, so very much" he said it in a way that made me want to believe him. His voice was soft, his eyes sincere, but even as he said the words, I found myself flashing back to that moment when he'd so harshly said the opposite to all those monks who he trusted so very much. It assured me of the falsity of his words, so much so that I knew I had no choice, but to turn my back to him as that memory stayed with me always. I looked at him remembering that night when I caught him with the monks, and how he'd said so coldly that he didn't love me.

I couldn't look at him in that moment, so turning away I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Don't say things you don't mean" the words were almost automatic as I felt the bed shift as he laid behind me. He didn't say anything else, but when he thought I was asleep, I felt him kiss my shoulder, and bring the covers to fold over me. The affectionate move made the tears in my eyes slide silently down my cheeks as I spent my first night in Gotham city crying myself to sleep. Those tears were outlined on my face when I awoke the next morning.