The Devil's Proposal
by my NeverNever land
Sometimes it takes an unwavering faith
and a passionate, muscular discipline
to coax the light out of the darkness.
Sometimes a man must go alone into the forest
and die into its heart
so that he can bring back
the forgotten pieces of the world,
a world kept alive only by this:
our constant remembering
our constant telling
our constant calling out
far into the bright burning.
-Daverick Leggett (The Bright Burning)
Burning Hearts
A/N: Happy New Year!
I'm very sorry for the late update. I know you were looking forward for this chapter and for that, I'm truly madly deeply asking for your forgiveness and support. School and exams took almost my time (and life).
I hope you find this chapter amusing and exciting. Once again, forgive my tardiness.
With many hearts and kisses,
-my NeverNever land
I stood outside the huge, white house the next day. Surely Hyuuga had given me the wrong address? No, he couldn't have, and then, I saw the name plate which confirmed my uncertainty, Hyuuga in a gold bold lettering. I scanned the whole area. There had to be at least three floors to this house. I saw a garden on the left part of the house.
I rang the bell three times and then stood back from the big door, praying that it would be someone except for the devil that will answer the door. Of course, when was I ever that lucky?
He was wearing striped dark blue and white pajamas without any shirt on. I noticed first his firm muscles on his arms as he stretched his arms on the panel of the door, then, to his messy bed hair that made him look seductive. I gulped as my eyes travelled to his broad shoulders, down to his abs. My throat abruptly became dried at the scenery that was in front of me. It was not like this will be the first time I will saw a toned body of a man. I saw perfect sculptured body but his was far from those body, however his abs somewhat made my throat dehydrated. Slowly, I was enjoying the view that was laid in front of me.
"(cough)... Are you finished?" He asked with an amused grin plaster in his face.
I tilted my head on the side trying to comprehend on what he said. "What?" I asked him, completely lost on the reality.
"I said, does the view satisfy your eyes?" He said while grinning at me. And I suddenly felt my cheeks reddened because of my scrutinizing-act on him awhile ago.
"Er..uhm. W-what view? Ahh. Your house...is...nice." I stammered. Damn it! Me and my big mouth.
He slightly chuckled as he stared at me. "You are really one funny little girl." He muttered. Then he effortlessly picked up my luggage and he started walking toward the stairs without so much words or look in my direction. I hesitated briefly, before hurrying after him, jogging slightly to keep up with his long strides. I remember his smile awhile ago, that was the first time I saw an emotion except from his conceited demeanor. Then I bumped on his back.
"Ouch." I rubbed my sore forehead.
"This will be our room and that will be our bed." I stared at a wide king-size bed in the middle of the room. And for the nth time, my cheeks warmed. Our bed...
"I-I can sleep on the couch on that side." I pointed to the couch on the left side of the room. Actually, I already had given a thought yesterday about the scenario on our sleeping arrangement.
"Why will I let you sleep on that couch? It's uncomfortable there, and besides, our bed is big enough for the two of us."
He said it again.
"I'm fine. Really, I can manage to sleep on the couch. And we don't need to rush things right?" I asked half laughing. I am still not ready for those kinds of moment.
"Don't worry. I do not rush things...yet. And I insist that you will sleep on the bed."
"Bu-"
"No more buts. I'll leave you for a while and you rest first. I will call you if the dinner is ready." Then, he left me alone in the room.
I dumped my bags on his carpet, sighing as I looked around the perfectly tidy bedroom that felt more like a jail cell and thinking of the next few weeks, months, or years that felt like a prison sentence rather than a simple contract.
"Don't leave." Hot tears beginning to roll on my cheeks as I tried to stop him.
"I have to." His eyes pierce through me with a tone of finality.
The hands I gripped was slowly fading into the thin air, I felt my lungs constrict with my heart beating rapidly in my chest. No! Not now. "No, Please! Don't go! I love you..." I instantly grabbed his face and crushed my lips into his. I kissed him with urgent and desperation trying to seek a return from him. "Don't go." I murmured between the kisses. "Please..." As I chanted the words of desperation, the warm sensation seething through our kissed slowly fading away...
"AHHHHHHH!" I gripped tightly on the blanket and retreat backward until my back hit the board of the bed.
"What th—" I looked at him. He looked confused, angry and...frustrated?
"What did you do?" My voice quivered. He brushed his fingers in his dark hair.
"N-nothing." His eyes seemed uneasy and gazed away from me. Then, there's a moment of silence. I looked hard at him.
"How dare you kiss me?" The blanket that covers my body fell from the bed as I rose and went to him. "You insolent, pervert-egoistic person."
His hands instantly hugged my body approximately to close on him. My cheek reddened by his hand. "I didn't kissed you, my love. It was you who clung on my neck and pressed your lips on mine." He said in a deep low murmur. His breath fanned on the top of my head. I can feel his normal beating against my chest. I slowly turned my eyes on his face. There was amusement in his eyes.
"I didn't kissed you." I insisted, though oblivious to what was really happened.
"Yes you did. You keep whispering 'don't leave.'" His eyes travelled on her face to her chest that was pressed on his warm, hard chess. He suddenly felt the heat crept in his vein. He looked again in her eyes with ardent gaze. His arms tightened on her waist.
His eyes became a deep ruby, like molten lava. I can saw the raw passion emitting on it. I gasped when his arms tightened on mine. The surrounding became instantly warm. I squirmed against his iron-caged grip but he squeezed me more.
"I-I didn't." I murmured.
His head lowered until our lips were inches apart. I gulped and my knees weakened. Slowly, the kiss I dreamt earlier became so vivid. The warmth reddened my whole face. It can't possibly happen. The terror and shocked were penetrating my mind and it reflect visibly on my eyes.
He can saw her eyes shift from confusion to terror and shocked. He was amused by her expression and he wanted to kiss endlessly her parted lips. He grinned and without deliberating, he descended slowly to capture his oasis.
My eyes widened by his abrupt action. My logical sense went to turmoil. The heat rushed from my toes up to my head. His lips were on mine in a slow passionate kiss, as if testing my indignation. I was suddenly swept by an unknown force that my knees went to gel. I clung on his broad, solid shoulder supporting my stance. His hands that were on my back travel on my face and held it firm. My mind screamed of struggle and flailing but my muscles stopped on working.
He felt her stiffened body under his sturdy arm, then she trembled and tried to squirm though he only tightened the bond he molded. His mind went to oblivion at the contact of her lips on his, again. He can't seem to think rational when she kissed him earlier. He was stunned by her dreamt especially her action. He was trying to tell her that the dinner will get cold but he was bewildered by the events when he leaned on her angelic figure.
He caught his breath when he entered his room. She slept soundlessly on his bed with his robe as her only clothing. His throat went dry as he scanned his fiancée. The term was still uneasy for him, the thought of her being his wife was like water and oil. He thought that he will get used to it, to this demigoddess on his bed.
He growl on frustration. He can't get enough of her sweet lips. His movement became urgent, deep and intoxicating. Slowly and painfully, his hands wandered on his robe. The soft cotton hanged loosely on her petite body. His hands moved on his own accord. Memorizing every curve of her tempting body.
Words weren't important now. His hands roaming on my body made me ticklish and feverish inside. I gasped when he slid his warm hands inside the robe to my back. He caressed every inch of my skin, and leaving burn on his trail. His kissed became urgent and ardent. My hands clung on his nape as if it was my life line. This cannot be happening. I tried to think rational, but my mind was clouded by the movement and feelings. The sensation of this kissed made me imbecile and I was acting like a complete naive! I was kissed before by my former partners but never, never in my life I was kissed like this: a hungry, enthralling, passionate kiss. And He was a devil. My composure reached its limit and found myself returning his kiss with an equal passion.
That was the final blow. When she returned his kissed, he was lost and made him stagger backward.
Her hands nested on his hair.
"Mikan." He murmured in between their sweet kissed.
She was kissing him back. He thought. Her mouth pressed eagerly on his, and that mouth was warm, soft, and fresh like an oasis on a desert. She smelled of soap—strawberry soap—and Woman.
He moved his big hands unsteadily over her bare back and shaped his trembling fingers to her dainty waist. He had never before held anything like her—so sweetly slim and supple and curved to his perfection. His chest tightened and ached and he wanted to weep.
Damnation. This wasn't supposed to happen. He thought. His mind seemed on chaos as he tried to stop the uncontrollable feeling of bedding her on that moment. She was his reprisal, not the other way around.
Mikan Sakura. The Sakura's were his enemy, and she was his own vengeance for the death of his family. All these years, he pursued, worked until he cannot move his limbs and arms anymore. He acquired all his wealth by his own sweat and blood. Never will he allow such demented female will wobble his mind, especially his life.
He jerked away as though that he was struck by lightning. The realization hit him hard on the core.
I was left dumbfounded, my hands went shaking helplessly on my side.
A while ago, his gazed was dark, hot, scarlet lava penetrating on mine. But now, it returned to a cold crimson magma and all the burning desires he awakened inside me froze into an ice.
He growled and scowled. In a dark low voice, "If you're hungry, there's a meal downstairs." then he turned and left.
My face became chilly and paled. My knees were wobbling and I had to clutch my hands on the bedpost to regain my senses.
There were many things happened in one day.
First, from now on I'll live in this house with him as my husband.
Second, I—he kissed me without my consent. (Well, I was the one who first kissed him subconsciously, but he was the one who kissed me consciously!)
Third, in my unconscious state, I assaulted him with the same passion and intensity as he kissed me.
Fourth, though as I tried very hard to fight against his iron arm, I still fell hopelessly and undeniably in his embrace.
"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" I muttered, pounding my aching head on the bedpost.
He brushed his hands on his hair and trying to erase the indecent thoughts about her that happened on the room minutes ago. Damn! I should have controlled myself, he thought. With a throbbing pain on his head, he marched down straight to the bar and poured himself a glass of whiskey for his already burning throat.
His fixed mind was in uproar and he was on his wits end to decipher what was going in him. He was always aloof and composed and never had he left his self unmasked on his perfect facade to any one, especially to the opposite sex. But because of a woman, a mere woman, and just one day, she already ruined his perfect controlled life.
He never readied his self for her. He'd known she was trouble—had to be, as every woman was.
"They are all the same," he'd told his friends often enough. "Once you let a woman—virtuous or not—fasten upon you, you become the owner of a troublesome pet, where it forever nagged and revolt and that you are also forever in its paws to please it with food and lust."
He'd wanted her, yes, but this was hardly the first time in his life the unacceptable sort of female had stirred his lust. He lusted, but he was always aware of the miry trap into which such women must—because they'd been born and bred for that purpose—lure him.
And the hateful part of it was, he'd walked straight into it, and somehow he didn't avoided being caught, but there was no returning back now, no mire thick enough, to hold him.
Then what holds you? He asked himself. What mighty force stirred in you to kiss her passionately?
Her sensuous lips.
That's revolting, he told himself.
He should have thought twice before he done the damage. Now, he was the one who felt the impact.
He hated himself for what he wanted and hated her for making him wanted it.
And so, setting his jaw, Natsume straightened and he told himself she'd pay. In time.
Everyone did. In time.
1/24/2011