But it seemed like her stranger took pity on her. Prolonging life – hers and his – he pulled back a little, still holding Marinette's neck and pressing his forehead against hers.
"Goodness... woman... Who are you and what are you doing to me?.." He whispered, breathing heavily.
"Apparently, I'm someone who reminds you of Ladybug…" She whispered back.
"Less and less and I like the difference." He admitted, briefly capturing her lips in a short kiss, and pulled away slightly again.
"And... what... is the difference between us?" Marinette asked with genuine curiosity and also leaned into him for a moment to steal a short kiss.
"Well, for once, when I tried to kiss Ladybug she hit me on the nose." He confessed. "But I guess it was for the best, because otherwise I would completely fall for her and wouldn't meet you."
Marinette stared at him in absolute shock for a moment. Then she moved away, carefully examining all the features that weren't covered by his mask.
Blond, neatly combed back hair, green eyes, familiar features... That's why his appearance seemed so familiar and inviting...
And the way he talked to Alya – sharply, on the verge of rudeness… In fact, it seemed only when they were alone that he was softer...
"F-felix…" Escaped her lips involuntarily before Marinette could even comprehend it.
His eyes widened slightly in surprise and peered at her with renewed interest.
"Do we know each other?" The man started. "But how did you…" He trailed off as his eyes really widened this time. "Ladybug?!"
Marinette felt a cold terror running down her spine. No one but the two of them knew that he tried to kiss her that day...
"No!" She exclaimed, shying away from him.
Even though Marinette was still wearing a mask and he couldn't see her face, he heard her name from her friends and he had Alya's phone number…
And it meant a total disaster!
"I'm not Ladybug!" She lied. "I... I... It was on the news!"
The man looked at her with narrowed eyes.
"No, it wasn't." He called her bluff.
"Yes it was!" Marinette didn't give up, holding on to this as the last thread of salvation.
There was a knock on the door, and after giving her another look, Felix got up.
"Don't go anywhere." He ordered as if she could have run away with her injured leg without revealing her identity, given that he was walking towards the only way out of the room except for the half-open window, behind which one of the Venetian canals was turbid...
Marinette was convulsively trying to figure out how to prove to him that she wasn't Ladybug after she betrayed herself like that…
Her lips were still burning from Felix's kisses and she couldn't believe that she received the brightest impressions in life with this insolent man... and even managed to give away her secret identity to him...
But it seemed like the evening had only just begun, because...
"Adrien!" Her no-longer-a-stranger exclaimed, and Marinette turned to the door, where indeed Adrien was standing with a very worried look, holding his mask in his hand. "What time is it?" Felix continued, perplexedly checking his watch. "I know we agreed to meet around…" He trailed off and looked back at his cousin. "Wait, how do you know where to find me...?"
"Fe?.. Mari?" Adrien asked in surprise, looking from him to Marinette and back. "How do you... Do you know each other?"
Marinette looked at him, blinking – not a single thought of how to get out of the situation in her head any more.
Felix turned to her and looked at Marinette, eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Let me guess," He said, turning back to Adrien. "The noisy girl with an orange mask gave you my address." He stated.
"Alya said that Marinette left with a stranger to his hotel and I was worried about her." Adrien admitted. "I would never have thought that this stranger was you... You don't fit the description at all…"
"I wonder how she described me to you then." Felix said as he let Adrien into the room and returned to Marinette's chair.
He sat on the soft armrest, opened the first-aid kit, and took out a disinfectant and a pack of band-aids.
"She said that… uh… you held her hand and… carried her in your arms…" Adrien admitted. "I even thought that Marinette might be in danger and scolded Alya for letting her go."
"First of all," Felix began, removing the shoe from the still dumbfounded Marinette, who was watching their conversation, glad that at least they weren't discussing Ladybug anymore. "Marinette…" Felix threw a pointed stare at her, as if saying 'l know your name now'. "...seems to me like a big girl who can decide where and with whom to go."
He sprayed disinfectant into her wound and Marinette hissed in pain.
Felix bent down and blew on her wound, his eyes fixed on hers.
"Do you want me to kiss it better, my dear?" He asked quietly, but Adrien could surely hear his words.
Marinette shook her head, looking at him in light bewilderment.
Her head was spinning from everything that had happened, but the most terrible thing was that his gentle touches and caring movements brought her back to the feeling of a fairy tale again, despite who this man was, that he almost certainly knew her identity, and even that Adrien, whom she had been in love with for years before, stood a few meters away, watching them.
And even though the words 'my dear' were probably used as a game, because the expression of his voice was now devoid of the frankness with which he spoke to her in private, Marinette couldn't help the flutter that they caused in her chest.
"Your wish is my command." Felix said with a barely perceptible smirk, captivating Marinette's attention with the alluring curves of those lips that conquered hers only a few minutes ago.
He finally broke away from her gaze and began to seal her wounds with a band-aid and Marinette watched his careful, skillful movements, forgetting herself for a moment.
Which she shouldn't have done. Apparently.
"Say, Adrien," Felix called without looking up from his work. "Remember that one time I was in Paris, when your classmates got akumatized and all."
Marinette's eyes widened as thoughts raced in a continuous stream in her head.
Felix was gonna ask Adrien if that not-a-kiss was really on the news!..
And of course it wasn't! And if it was, Adrien would definitely know about it... Because Felix was dressed as Adrien and tried to kiss Ladybug, and she punched him... And if anyone saw it, – it would be all over the city…
So of course Adrien will say it wasn't on the news, and Felix would know she is Ladybug… but also Adrien would ask about the kiss, and may guess that it somehow related to her, and then he might figure her identity as well, and that would make two people instead of one, and even more possible disaster...
"It's hard to forget." Adrien replied. "Why?"
Felix looked up at her and opened his mouth to continue speaking, but stopped when Marinette barely perceptibly shook her head, a look of pleading on her face.
Felix looked at her silently for a moment longer and lowered his eyes to her foot to put on the last patch.
"I was just telling Marinette how much has changed since then." He said in a voice much more like the one he'd spoken to her in private. "I think that meeting with…" He looked up at her again. "...your akumatized classmates literally made me a different person."
He ran his hand along the top of her foot and held it there for an extra moment.
"Feel better now, my dear?" He asked softly, just the way he did before they found Alya and Nino.
"Yes!" Marinette squealed. "Thank you, F-felix." She said, tripping over the letters, as if saying his name again she was letting the situation be real.
Felix put the shoe on her foot and stood up, offering her his hand to help Marinette up.
"Anything for you, dear." Felix said without taking his eyes from hers.
Marinette stood up and found herself very close to him because of the way Felix stood. Her breath instantly stuttered again from the proximity on which their faces were now.
The softness with which he spoke to her, so different from his sharp phrases to other people, that almost tenderness with which he touched her, made her completely forget herself.
"Anything-anything?" She whispered as if hypnotized.
"Anything-anything." Felix repeated, bringing her hand, along with his, behind Marinette's back, thereby enclosing her in a semi-embrace and slightly pulling her even closer to him. "And for as long as you want it."
At his words, a wave of heat ran through her body, rushing down Marinette's belly to her groin, and the girl reflexively squeezed her hips in arousal. Felix's face was even closer than before and Marinette's eyes fell on his lips again, and the memory of their greedy touch swept through her body in a new hot wave.
Felix licked his lips and the girl sucked in a sharp breath, feeling her eyes close on their own in anticipation of another kiss.
Adrien cleared his throat, reminding them of his presence, and Marinette's eyes snapped open in a sudden realization that they weren't alone.
Did she manage to lose her head again because of... Felix?
Who now knew she was Ladybug...
And from whose touch her whole body melted and burned like never before...
Her infatuation with Adrien was so naive and childish, her relationship with Luka was friendly to the core – on her part at least...
Today, for the first time in her life, Marinette felt like a woman. Desiring and desired. Being able to awaken passion in a man and capable of being awakened to passion herself.
And all it took – his one kiss. A chance encounter with a man she used to consider a nuisance...
"So... uhh... How long have you two been together?" Adrien asked, snapping her out of her thoughts and both Marinette and Felix turned to him. "I mean... I understand why Mari didn't tell Alya, – I think she's still mad at Felix for getting her akumatized. But you, Fe! You could tell me you were dating my friend!" He added in an offended voice. "How do you even do it, living in different cities?!"
"We... we're not…" Marinette started.
"...ready to tell everyone about us yet." Felix finished for her. "Akumas and all." He turned to Marinette. "Right, love?" And before she could reply, continued. "I stole her from everyone today so we could have some alone time. Though Marinette really lost her phone."
Marinette looked at him, speechless.
NOW she could recognize the impudent and pushy Felix she met as Ladybug!
And why this man was becoming someone completely different when someone else was around?!
"Is that true, Mari?" Adrien asked, rather formally. "You could've at least told me! Everyone was very worried. I would have found a way... to cover for you…"
"Um... Thanks, Adrien…" Marinette mumbled uncertainty. "We... I…"
Felix wrapped his other arm around her, encircling her in his embrace.
"Why don't you hang out with me and Adrien instead of going back to your friends, my dear?" He asked. "I was going to meet him anyway. Do you mind, Adrien?" He added without even looking at his cousin.
Marinette stared at his smug face, not sure what she wanted more, to kiss him because her body wanted it, or to smack him for his unheard-of impudence.
When did she manage to get in a relationship with him? And how could Felix so easily convince Adrien that they were together? And turn everything that happened today so completely upside down, adjusting it to the scenario that he himself decided?!
But the worst thing was that Marinette wanted to be in the ring of his arms… She wanted to stay with him, and not go to her classmates… She wanted this scenario of his, in which they somehow secretly dated, to be true!..
Because then she could kiss him as much as she wanted, and – oh god! – how much her whole body broke at the mere memory of his kisses! Then she could continue to hold his hand, inhale his scent and cling to his strong chest…
Then she could let him take care of her and everything around her – Felix seemed to be so good at it...
Damn it! When did she manage to fall for this smug brat with such force?!
Maybe when he saved her from the crowd? Or held her hand in the gondola? Or carried her in his arms? Or when he acknowledged Marinette's influence on him in a voice breathless from her kisses? Or treated her wounds?
Did this all happen today? In the last couple of hours?
Was it even possible?..
"Of course I don't mind!" Adrien's voice was heard and Marinette woke up from her thoughts again. "But since you wear a mask and no one knows it's you anyway, why don't we go back to our friends together?" He suggested. "That way no one will worry and we can all spend time together. You can be with me and Mari, and Marinette and I won't have to be separated from our classmates either."
Felix's face became serious and he carefully looked at Marinette, as if testing what she wanted. He leaned down to her face as if for a kiss, but instead gently hooked her nose with his and looked into her eyes again.
"Whatever you want, love." He said barely audibly.
And it felt so intimate, and even the nickname sounded so different because it wasn't said for someone else to be heard as a game, but only for her. Marinette felt the romantic fairytale once again embrace her in a veil of warmth, enveloping her from all sides, just the way his arms were wrapped around her.
"I don't care as long as you're with me." She whispered back honestly what she felt at that moment.
Felix sucked in a little breath, as if under all his scenarios and games he was as emotionally captured as she was, and the next moment his lips were on hers. Marinette reflexively responded to his gentle longing kiss, releasing her arms and wrapping them around his neck.
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it…" Adrien muttered somewhere off to the side.
But Marinette was so happy to kiss those lips again, pressing against Felix with her whole body, that the rest almost didn't matter anymore.