"—where did you put it?" Megamind said, looking at Roxanne with an intensity of focus that stole her breath.
She couldn't answer, couldn't say anything. Megamind held her gaze for another moment, and then slowly, deliberately, he let his eyes rake down her body. Heat followed, sweeping through her in the wake of his gaze like fire through dry kindling.
"—maybe you'd better search me," she said, without planning to.
Megamind went quite still.
(what are you doing? Roxanne screamed at herself internally, an edge of panic to the thought. what are you doing; why would you say—)
"I mean," Roxanne found herself saying, "if you're so certain that I have it. Maybe you'd better search me."
Megamind's breath hissed through his teeth.
"You think I won't do it," he said, a thread of anger in his voice.
Did she think that? Roxanne wasn't sure what she thought; she wasn't really thinking at all at that moment. The idea of her thinking he wouldn't do it seemed to get under his skin, though, and she wanted—wanted—
Heart racing, she leaned back against the desk and, amazed at her own daring, let her lips curve into a smirk.
"Don't test me, Miss Ritchi," Megamind said.
Roxanne let her smile widen.
Megamind made an inhuman kind of growling sound, low in his chest, meant to scare her, she thought, but the frisson of feeling that went through her definitely wasn't fear.
(he was looking at her now; he was paying attention to her now, no longer ignoring her; she had his full and undivided attention now.)
She held his gaze.
Megamind took a step forward, and then another, eyes on hers. Roxanne didn't move.
He stopped quite close to her, but not quite touching, the hem of her dress just brushing the toes of his boots.
"Give it to me now," he said in a low voice, eyes fixed on hers, "and I won't."
"Oh—" Roxanne said, breathless. She could feel her heartbeat in her throat, in her wrists, "—but I think you won't anyway."
Megamind made that inhuman growling sound again and dropped to his knees without warning.
Roxanne took a sharp breath, and he paused, looking up at her, angry tension in his face, in the line of his shoulders. When she didn't speak, he made a soft sound of suppressed fury and slipped his right hand beneath the material of her skirt.
His hand touched her shoe, then slid up her foot—a shock went through her at the sensation of that; he wasn't wearing gloves; he'd never touched her before when he wasn't wearing gloves, never actually touched her—
His fingers curled around her ankle, found the edge of her shoe's strap. He kept looking up at her, his eyes locked with hers, as he unfastened the buckle of the shoe.
He slipped his other hand up her foot, took hold of her shoe by its arch. Roxanne leaned her weight back onto the desk and lifted her foot for him.
(the look he gave her as she helped him pull off her shoe seemed more frustrated than if she'd refused to let him.)
She put her bare foot down on the floor, tile cold beneath her sole.
Megamind glared at her and pulled her shoe from beneath her dress, turning it over in his hands, examining it. Then he set it aside and slid his hands over her other foot, unbuckled that shoe. He glanced up at her, still as if he expected her to object. Roxanne lifted her foot for him instead, and he pulled off the shoe.
He examined it, of course found nothing, and put it down with the other one. Then he looked up at Roxanne again.
She arched her eyebrows challengingly.
He gritted his teeth visibly and slipped his hands beneath her skirt again, slid them up her right calf.
—his hands, god; his hands had no right to feel so good against her skin—
He stopped, his hands just short of her knee, paused there a moment—then slid his hands back down. Roxanne bit back a noise of frustration.
His hands felt just as good when he slid them up her other leg, and again he paused just short of touching her knee. The pause was longer this time, long enough that Roxanne thought maybe he would slide his hands up—
He slid his hands back down her leg.
His mouth was set as he looked up at her for a long moment, the tension and the silence pulled taut between the two of them.
Slowly, he rose to his feet.
Without the extra height of the heels, Roxanne found herself looking up at him, which was—unexpectedly exciting.
He looked down at her, eyebrows drawn together in a forbidding glare, shadows beneath his sharp cheekbones, his mouth a hard line.
She tilted her head back, lifted her chin in challenge.
Megamind reached out and took hold of her left wrist.
He looked absolutely furious, but he lifted her hand quite gently, and Roxanne felt her breathing pick up at the contradiction.
Still holding her wrist, Megamind reached for the top of her glove with his other hand, the move slow and deliberate, letting her see what he was doing. His fingers slipped just barely beneath the fabric, touching her skin lightly, so lightly.
—and then he stopped.
Roxanne's breath caught.
An expression flickered in his face—not just anger, but—
He couldn't do it. Roxanne read it in his expression.
He couldn't make himself pull it off of her, no matter how much he wanted to. The realization tugged at her heart strangely, and she found herself reaching up for the top of the glove herself.
As soon as her hand moved, Megamind let her go, his hands pulling sharply back from her, and she read in the shift of his weight that he thought she meant to push him away, saw that he was planning on stepping back when she did.
She didn't push him, though, just slipped her own fingertips beneath the edge of the glove.
Megamind took a sharp breath.
Roxanne held his eyes with her own as she slid the glove down her arm.
Confusion warred with anger in Megamind's expression. Roxanne slid her other glove off; held both gloves out to him.
There was a beat of tense and silent stillness in which he was completely motionless, and then he took the gloves from her. Without taking his eyes off hers, he ran the gloves through his fingers, testing the fabric.
Then he tossed the gloves down onto the desk.
Another beat of silent stillness, and then frustration flashed in his expression and his eyes flicked away from hers, his gaze flickering down over her dress, and then back up again.
His eyes met hers again. She arched an eyebrow.
Megamind's lips twisted into a snarl and he took a step forward, into her space, pressing her back into the desk.
"You," he growled. His hands slid up her arms to her shoulders. He ran his fingers swiftly down the material of her dress straps. "It's always like this with you; everything is always so much more difficult than it has to be—"
Roxanne gasped as his hands slid down the sides of her body to her hips.
"Tell me," he said, running his right hand up the outside of her left thigh, "are you fundamentally incapable of cooperating with anyone?" he ran his left hand up the outside of her right thigh. "Or is it just me?"
He palmed the small of her back and Roxanne could barely stop herself from arching into him.
"You," she said, "definitely. Definitely just you—"
His left hand curled over her hip and he slid his hand up between her shoulder blades, the move bringing their bodies close.
"You drive me insane," he said, his mouth next to her ear. Roxanne felt his fingertips run down the line of her zipper. "You do know that, don't you?"
"Do I?" Roxanne said, scarcely aware of what she was saying. "Maybe you should do something about that."
"Don't tempt me."
He shifted back just enough to glare down into her face, one hand on the small of her back, the other on her hip. Roxanne smiled mockingly up at him from inches away.
"Oh, am I meant to be scared?" she said. "Big, bad supervillain! Built any charity hospitals lately, Megamind? You couldn't even take off my gloves."
His breath hissed between his teeth, his hands jerking against her in shock. Roxanne laughed and he growled in frustration.
"You absolute harpy—"
"Domesticated villain," Roxanne said.
"Sharp-tongued, provoking—"
"Your virtue is showing," Roxanne said.
His gaze flickered, his eyes dropping to her mouth and for a white-hot instant, she was sure he was going to—
He looked up.
"Your lipstick is smudged," he said.
Humiliation went through Roxanne like a lightning bolt down her spine, burning rage following in its wake.
Her lipstick was smudged? Her lipstick was smudged?
"Is it? Is it?" she hissed. She swiped her hand over her mouth then reached up and wiped the lipstick off onto the pristine white collar of his shirt. "There. How's that? Is that better?"
Megamind looked at her in outraged shock, and Roxanne glared up at him in fury. And then—
The light flicked on.
"Okay, folks; come on; I already told you once, this is a restricted—"
...to be continued.
Day 19 of my Birthday Fic Month! Thank you all for continuing to read and review; I hope you all enjoyed the update!
( }: D~
MWAHAHAHAHA! (/evil laughter)