Chapter 9

Victory through surrender

V found it must unnerving that unlike him, Evey could always find excuses to touch him and even when she decided –not- to touch him, she'd still manage to keep him obsessed with touching, just the way she'd done for the last week and a half. He didn't know if she actually created opportunities to make him jump with the tip of one finger or if she simply took advantage of every opening he offered. Oh, that last one would imply that he kept… offering. Is that was he was doing? Was he unconsciously offering himself like a virgin whore?

He wondered what he would look like from Evey's perspective; he expected to be seen as an elegant and desirable well-read gentleman but he suspected that wasn't all Evey saw. He'd caught her staring at him more than once, narrowing her eyes and licking her lips. She looked at him as if he were a tender morsel, cooking slowly but almost ready to be eaten. And she wouldn't even need a fork. Would she play with her food? Would she nibble on him? Would she swallow him whole? He was shocked at finding such thoughts so amusing but he was still trying to learn from his rag doll teacher, so easy-going and fond of merriment, pillow talk and vibrators. The hedonistic bastard.

The first time he'd mimicked the behavior of such teacher he'd gotten more than expected and one short week of frenetic eroticism and insomnia proved it had really happened. Granted he was still annoyed at Evey because she would not touch him and he was twice as annoyed because he couldn't find a good excuse to take the lead and touch her as the silent agreement seemed to command. He couldn't even look at her in secret because she sensed it and that only added points to her favor.

But at the end it wasn't even a contest; he was supposed to enjoy what was going on, was he not? A beautiful girl was determined to eat him right up and there were more things to life than murder and explosives. He'd spent too much time with himself, apparently. On the other hand, Evey seemed to have put her "normal life" on pause and not having something better to do and regardless of her involuntary withdrawal from the world, she was enjoying the chase. It reminded him of a movie… Oh yes, he would represent the very stunned Cameron and Evey was… damn, Evey was Ferris Bueller…

"Ferris" had decided to take a bath before watching Gordon Dietrich's show and was now sitting on the leather couch, with a thick towel wrapped around her head and wearing one of her infamous shirts, rubbing in her favorite orange blossom body lotion, something she should have done –in theory- in the bathroom or in her room but her bath had lasted more than expected and she didn't want to miss one minute of Gordon's silliness.

At least that's what the official story stated; V suspected "Ferris" did it just to feed a poor masked man's obsession in the comfort of home, while she watched television next to him. He could have left, he was free to do whatever he wanted but he chose to stay and face his destiny with courage and good humor.

She was done with her arms and poured a good amount of lotion in her hand to continue with her bare legs. V suspected she'd spend more time than necessary rubbing that lotion in. Very well, she was flirting again. He decided to continue with the teachings of a doll and flirt back. Of course he wasn't going to put up a show, spreading out his feathers like a peacock. No, he had his own style. Once more he'd become the enemy, he'd mimic, he'd reflect, he'd conquer.

V sighed content and leaned back on the couch, stretching out his long legs and letting his arms rest comfortably on the back of the leather couch, not touching Evey, not even trying to. He let his breathing follow a slow and deep pace, letting tension abandon his body. He wanted to be near a light trance to attempt flirting his way. If she could sense when he stared at her or when he was in a seductive mood because he broadcasted his energy, there was no reason for her not to pick it up if he did it on purpose to get her attention.

Little by little he summoned images to his mind, one at a time to make sure they were clear. Out of them he picked one memory he'd collected a week and a half ago and that he liked very much; that of Evey caressing his belly with lazy devotion. He focused on feeling what he'd felt that evening, lying on the rug, with those small hands on him, making him tremble. It was very easy to accomplish and once he'd done it, he breathed out slowly, releasing the feeling into the room, letting it find its way to Evey.

V enjoyed his recollection, letting it fill him with warm sensuality and before it abandoned his body completely, chose another, this time a very personal one; his excitement at stealing her unmentionables to then hide in his room and play with the delicate garments. Of course she wouldn't be able to actually "see" anything in her mind but the feel of it seemed to charge the air around them. V sighed and for the second time, released a wave of pleasure.

Evey was busy with her lotion and it took her a while to notice the subtle change in the air but her motions finally slowed and the television seemed to have lost some of its charm. She appeared to be listening to something that eluded her. There, she couldn't fight what she couldn't even find.

Time for a third little present, wrapped in warmth and slightly dirty thoughts. V thought she'd like something different this time; perhaps something focused on her. That would require a little more effort from him since he'd have to modify things slightly. For this he'd picked that portion of a dream including her and a naughty doll, this time replaced by the real person it represented, purring filth in her ear and making liberal use of a certain pink toy…

Evey squirmed in her seat, unable to concentrate on the show or the body lotion she was supposed to be rubbing in. She seemed to be a little hot in that t-shirt as well and the pinkness in her cheeks had very little to do with her recent bath. She tore the towel from her head, probably blaming it for the change in temperature and tossed it on the stone floor, having remembered the rugs had not been weaved by a machine and therefore deserved more respect than a wet towel abandoned on them.

She tried to appear in control but kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, at the same time not knowing exactly what to do with her hands, which in a way amused her. She didn't know why but she was in a very good mood. There, he'd proved his point; it was perfectly feasible to use his will alone to turn Evey Hammond on. It was better than making her fall asleep on her feet and improved his chances of success.

"Evey, about the other night…" V started, still on that placid state he had reached.

"Yes?"

"You know, here." meaning the television room. "On the rug…"

"Mmhmm…"

"I enjoyed it." There, he'd said it. What the hell, perhaps being a little more forward was just what the situation called for and she wouldn't know he was blushing anyway.

"I know you did." She acknowledged with a sly smile, glancing at him briefly and refusing to take the bait she was offered, supposed to make her reveal her thoughts about that evening.

"You enjoy teasing me." He pointed out, not accusing but simply stating an evident truth.

"Yes but not as much as I enjoy actually touching you." She admitted with perfect candor and when she'd felt like it, the shameless little bitch, V thought. She had no trouble saying such things to him, right in his face and now looking straight at him, the television already forgotten. He thought he had been in control so far but on this particular subject she was the professional talking to the amateur and she'd just rearranged the hierarchy to show him who was in charge. But he didn't care, his heart was beating faster and just listening to her saying she enjoyed touching him made up for a whole lot of things and he still wanted his kiss.

"You have avoided touching me for days already. I checked." It slipped out his mouth, it just did. Evey could have laughed at his confession but she didn't and reached for his hand instead, pulling at it gently, removing his arm from the back of the couch to place it on her lap.

"True, I wanted to encourage you to respond in kind but you didn't. I could tell you wanted to but you wouldn't, not even when you had me against a wall." She said while turning his hand to caress palm and fingers with tender devotion, not really expecting a coherent explanation. Her body language was subtle and complex but V could still tell she wasn't exactly disappointed but curious mostly. She probably thought she was dealing with someone with at least some experience, someone who would react by engaging in an exchange of touches and signals, something he had failed to accomplish so far.

"But now I'm touching you again. Better?" She asked with no trace of arrogance, at once offering to continue where they'd left off and looking for his consent. V nodded and abandoned his hand to her care, feeling slightly foolish for not following protocol but immensely happy for being touched again. Evey smiled and reached for the remote to turn the volume down. Gordon's show was over and she wanted something playing on the background to break the silence but the jukebox was too far away and she didn't want to abandon her favorite anarchist, especially now that he seemed to be meditating, relaxed and alert at the same time. The news was on but nobody seemed interested, at least not on the television.

Evey focused on her task, the tip of her little fingers practiced drawing circles in the palm of V's hand, moving slowly from the outside to the inside in tighter and tighter patterns, until she reached the center by then intensely charged and warm with living energy. Once there her gentle touch changed into something as gentle as a breeze, teasing an already sensitized area and making him shiver with pleasure.

V lost track of time and settled for enjoying without thinking or questioning what he was feeling but eventually he tried to be a little more aware of his surroundings. He had to make an effort to focus after the last little explosion to glance at the clock and noted that Evey had spent at least the last 20 minutes tormenting him, repeating the process over and over, once in a while removing her attention from his palm to then focus on his fingers, obviously to let him rest and keep him from reaching the point of numbness.

Such a clever little torturer she was. Of course he could reclaim his own hand, could he not? No, he had already tried and his mind didn't seem able to order his body to do anything but stay there, shivering and humming with warmth. V didn't know where she'd learned how to do that but when she touched his hand and made him shiver, a good deal of things stopped having any importance. But there was something he had to tell her, something that did matter…

"Evey, would you…" The little vampire certainly seemed satisfied with her mischief, fully enjoying being able to touch him again, smiling and looking up just at the right time to watch him tremble at the end of each cycle of torture. She liked it twice as much when he gasped. He'd never told her his senses were slightly different from hers, or anyone else's, but she'd already discovered on her own that what worked on regular people, doubled for him.

She worked him so gently that it took V most of those 20 minutes of torture to realize that she could perfectly make him reach completion just by touching his hand. It was tempting, so tempting. Another twenty minutes and he'd be there anyway. Perhaps if he surrendered and let her continue, his current suffering would end sooner.

"Would I what, V?" She asked with a smile. Then he remembered he wasn't even finished making his request. He had been unable to make it that far. He looked at her and the smile in her lips was his downfall. If he had seen any smugness there, any trace of manipulation, he would have snapped back into control and then she'd lose her grip over him. Although, he did not see any of that; in fact she seemed just as enthralled. Her cheeks were flustered and her pupils were so dilated that her eyes seemed to be black, not brown.

She did enjoy touching him. He'd already convinced himself of it but he'd yet to see it so clearly. Perhaps it wasn't too early after all and she would agree to his request after all.

"Evey…" He managed at the end, deciding that a possible refusal was the worst thing that could happen at that point and even that would break the status quo that until very recently had kept him up at night and filled his sleep with uneasy dreams –if- he finally slept at all.

"Evey, would you… kiss me?"