HERE COMES THE BRIDE

CHAPTER FOUR: EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE.

I am so, so sorry this took so long! Thanks to everyone for reading and favoriting. I had to struggle a lot with this chapter and I´m not a hundred percent happy with it. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks to Mari for her help (You said I write fast, but you see how long it took me to post this? lol).

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE! =)

Before it started ringing, Diana took a deep breath and ended the call. It felt like the most hurtful thing she ever had to do. I´m not like this. I´m not a cheating slut. I´ve got a fiancé and it´s not him. I shouldn´t be seeing him anymore. She put the phone aside before her fingers started calling again. But why do I wish it was him? When did I move from being annoyed by his presence to crave his company, to want him as I do? What have you done with me?

I am not like this. But this is so hard.

So Diana decided she had no other choice than staying alone, staying by her own. Staying with the shadows and her thoughts. She splashed some water over her face to refresh her skin. She had a lot to think of, because the last few hours had really changed everything in her life. It was more like the latest events messed it all up in her life. And not only hers. She started crying again. She hated doing so. It made her feel weak and silly, and she wasn´t so. But somehow, the tears seemed to ease her feelings. So she closed her eyes to let them flow. I am just so glad Steve will be away for another week…

She rested her arms on the window ledge and whispered sadly.

"If only you hadn´t left… Bruce."

Only the few seconds she took to wipe the tears from her face passed when she heard the voice and turned around in shock.

.-.-.-.-.-

Bruce was frankly disappointed with the course of the night events. It wasn´t at all like he had planned them to go. Of course he enjoyed every delicious second of what he did with her. And yes, he would kill to have her in his arms again. But he wanted more than that from the princess. He didn´t want to be the one she fucked with when her husband wasn´t around. Because, soon enough, she would be committed to that man forever. He felt capable to strangle the guy if he ever met him, so it better not be. He felt the urge to stop her, he desperately wanted to do something about it. But what?

Still, when he disappeared from her apartment, he did no more than standing in her balcony. Since it had a glass door to her bedroom and the lights were off, he was leaning against the wall in the dark. So he saw Clark come in and leave, because the next room was lit and the window was shining like sunlight. Like heaven… where she was waiting. But the shadows around him were enough to hide his presence, even to the unaware man of steel. That was a very lucky thing.

He wanted no more than to spend the rest of the night lying beside her. But he also had to respect her feelings, and she had just made very clear he wasn´t the one she loved. That was the ugly truth, and no one said it had to be good or easy. When he was ready to finally leave, he heard her voice. And it gave him the slightest hope than maybe not all the chances were against him. He walked back in through the balcony doors and stepped into the living room, right beneath her. He couldn´t help to think she was breath-tackingly beautiful.

"I didn´t leave, Diana." He whispered, loud enough for her to hear.

She turned around startled and her eyes opened wide, yet she didn´t say a single word. His arms wrapped around her slim figure, feeling her tense body relax and lean against his own. The three words were clearly stuck between both heroes, but none of them was brave enough to say it.

He placed his finger under her chin to pull her face up and meet her gaze. Their lips were inches apart, but the moment was too intense for any of them to move.

"Are you okay?" He whispered in resignation. When she nodded, he took her hand and slowly guided her into the bedroom. Diana suddenly felt exhausted, and she didn´t know if she should be relieved or mortified by his presence. Her ideas were a blur, and the amazon wanted to rest. She just crawled beneath the covers and he didn´t wait for an invitation to follow her.

Bruce wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close against him. Diana snuggled up against his masculine frame and wrapped her arms around him too. So many times had she felt the worst person in the world during the night that she decided not to think about it anymore, it was the fastest way to fall asleep soon. Being in his arms felt so right than convincing herself it was wrong was harder every second. Because she belonged there.

"Good night." She whispered, just a minute before falling asleep. The dark wasn´t so lucky, and he spent a long time stroking the ebony locks of her hair before he surrendered to Morpheus too. After all, he wouldn´t have had it any other way.

He was the first one getting up the next morning, still restless because of her silence. Even when watching her sleep was wonderful, he knew he had to leave. Partly, he had to attend to his daily obligations. Partly, he was still afraid to confront her. He brushed her lips lightly and left the bed as carefully as possible. He remembered Shayera´s words, and for the first time, flowers didn´t sound like such a bad idea. In a brief sequence of minutes, he grabbed her key and descended the stairs to buy a bucket of roses, running back immediately. He left them on a vase, over the table next to her window. It would be the first thing to catch her eye when she woke. A smile bloomed on her face and he left with the idea she was dreaming of him.

Hope is definitely hard to kill.

Short and quick, the night between them had been magical. His message for her was loud and clear. It was her turn to make the next move. So, until they had to meet in his mansion two weeks after he wasn´t going to reach her. That gave him a lot of time to think about it all and decide what to do then. It was hard, but giving her a space was the right thing to do. A necessary thing to do. Because if he was a little bit smart he would know the woman of his dreams –engaged to someone else- was completely off limits for him.

Now… who said he was actually that clever?

She was the one to make the big decision now. He just didn´t know how big.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It is the strength you show when taking the blows what makes you a hero.

And after a sigh, he left.

.-.-.-.-.-

When Diana woke the next morning, she was invaded by a gleeful joy she didn´t understand, until she remembered Bruce coming to spend the night with her. She saw the flowers, and she didn´t need to look for him to know he was gone. At least, it meant he wasn´t mad at her… and it also implied that he would wait for her to reach him next. That was alright with her, perfect indeed, because she wanted to keep him away until she decided what to do. She needed a cold head, and think. If just things weren´t as complicated as she made them with her behavior…

.-.-.-.-.-

The first week went by, too quickly for Diana´s liking. She had kept her conversations with Steve as short and scarce as possible, to the point he actually started to suspect something. But he wasn´t the real reason for her heart´s consternation. She knew she didn´t have a right to want Bruce to call her, but it hurt anyway. What was actually causing her an excruciating pain was the realization that she didn´t want a life… without him. The man was a real mystery to her: despite how confusing her feelings were, he was even worst. She wasn´t sure about what did he want with her. At first, she thought it was just sex, and the idea wasn´t really nice. But she kept thinking, once and again, about the fact he came back to spend the night with her, even when he left so suddenly. She couldn´t ask him otherwise. She couldn´t ask him anything. But he could ask her… and she would do anything.

Bruce. Steve. No matter how hard she tried wandering around it, she didn´t find a logical, fair, reasonable way to solve the situation she discovered a week before, and given the actual state of her mixed up feelings, that was too much of a long term problem.

When Steve called, Diana alleged she was too tired to pick him up. Then she could postpose her meeting with him until the next day and it was an incredible relief. She put down the back of groceries she got to keep her thoughts occupied during the night –away from Steve, Bruce, and everything she cared about, just for a few hours- and removed her boots. Stopping in front of a mirror, she rearranged the ebony locks of her braid and adjusted the hairband around it again. She loved those little things that made her feel normal. As soon as she reached the remote to turn on the TV, she heard the bell ring.

"Who the…?" she mumbled frowning, since she wasn´t expecting anyone. The last thing she wanted was her last hours of quiet and peace to be disturbed.

Diana was about to decide not to open the door, when she remembered who was the only one who showed like this before. Her heart lifted to the point it made her feel guilty. Suddenly, it was pounding like crazy. She felt guilty as hell for it –so guilty she deserved Hades to take upon her soul, since it meant she lied to her fiancée to spend the night with her lover-, but she couldn´t avoid the happiness invading her when she thought she would see Bruce again behind the door. You stupid woman, you shouldn´t be willing to see him. She opened the door with the biggest smile on her face… and her soul painfully shattered

She was lucky he kissed her immediately and didn´t catch up on the disappointment in her eyes. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around his neck and responded to the kiss. But it was a very lame, emotionless kiss anyway…

"I missed you, angel."

"Hey, Steve. I wasn´t expecting you. Come in…"

He followed her in and discarded his suitcase next to the door. As he walked into the kitchen to get a drink, she breathed deeply and tried to compose herself. Oh, shit, this is not good at all.

"Are you okay?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her waist and kissing her again. She could taste the scotch on his lips and it made her grimace. "You seem disappointed to see me."

"No, no. I´m just… surprised to see you."

"Good. I wanted to surprise you." He smiled and left the glass aside. "I can´t wait to take you to bed."

Exactly was she was dreading. She nearly groaned.

It became an understatement when he removed her shirt and kissed her once more. This time his lips were eager and hungry over hers and his tongue forced its way into her mouth. With Bruce still on her mind, having this kind of intimacy with Steve was the last thing she wanted. But he was her fiancé still and she didn´t have any valid reason to deny it to him. She would have to swallow her feeling and allow him to take her. At least until she decided what to do. If it was only about the two of them, it would be so easy. But it wasn´t. It was true she was stronger than him, but she didn´t want to make him angry either.

He unbuttoned her jeans too and pushed her down to the sofa. He was constantly asking why was she acting so coldly and numbly, she could only reply she was indeed tired. He climaxed and released himself inside of her, but it was finished before she felt anything. Nothing at all. She didn´t even bothered to pretend. He had never failed before in giving her an orgasm and it deeply hurt his pride. Wasn´t a woman in her condition meant to be very sensitive? She kept saying she was just exhausted and claimed that was the reason. When she saw him stand up and walk into the bathroom she was sure the emptiness she experienced was the very same one a woman felt after she was raped.

And she knew she would never want to do it again if it wasn´t with Bruce Wayne.

He already accused her of having a lover. She couldn´t look into her eyes and say she didn´t. But she found enough strength to look away and pretend to be offended.

She got onto the bed facing her back to him and, for the third night in a row she fell asleep crying. She angrily fought the tears, but it fell as she was mounting them up inside her heart and the pressure on her chest was rising. The last thing she remembered before closing her eyes was praying he wouldn´t wake up the next morning willing to prove he could still make her come, because Diana didn´t think she would have the guts to go through it all again.

What he did was much worst.

A/N: Please let me know it you want a next chapter xoxo