Chapter 5: The Elevator
Mary sat there, unmoving as she felt her arms shaking in her lap. She knew she didn't want anyone else to be with her, nor did she wish to upset him so, yet she had easy enough. She found it rather difficult to move at the moment, knowing that he was angered and possibly more so than that. She stared at her purse and the stun gun he had placed within it, her head shaking slightly as she stared downwards.
"Great job Mary..." She mumbled to herself, not sure if getting out of the car was such a wise idea at present. He was right, she was acting impulsively and quite selfishly at present, but she didn't want to hurt him.
She undid her seatbelt, and very slowly got out of the car and stood against the side of it. She wasn't sure what to say, she couldn't even bring herself to look at him right now. She made her way towards him though, but stopped as she tried to figure a few things out. "Bash...I..." She paused, gazing down at the ground as she held her purse in her hands. She was emotional yes, but she was also pretty sure that if he wasn't with her she wouldn't be the same.
Almost impulsively she reached out for his hand, but quickly dropped her hand back to her bag and turned to the side. "I won't be long..." She said, in regards to the trip to the mall. She knew what she wanted to get, and yet the reason for going to the mall had been just to spend time with him, yet here they were arguing over her own selfish emotions and feelings that she had so boldly declared for him at the rest stop.
Weak, selfish, foolish girl. The thoughts were stronger now, and she didn't want to continue thinking about them right now.
Bash, who had been furiously taking drags of the keretek cigarette - to the point that the short, black cigarillo was almost to the filter in only a couple seconds - kept his eyes on anything but Mary has he put out the cherry with his thumb and index finger before replacing it back into the carton. He started moving with her, walking beside her at her pace, even though he really didn't want to be near her. No, if Bash was being honest, he wanted to kiss her as he had at the truck stop, only much more thoroughly. He wanted to shake sense into her. The urge to simply ignore her in his anger and the urge to give into his desires for her in his anger sparked a tumultuous tug of war within him. Id or Ego? Id and Ego? Both options were at present way too satisfying.
Did she really not understand where he was coming from? Or did she simply not care? The latter thought sent a shock to his system, sobering his desires and leaving him more than a little taken a back. It had nothing to do with her feelings. Though, yes, he was still a bit uncertain, but should she really no longer love Francis, then, why the hell would he oppose that?Come on, man, really. Sometime between his twentieth and twenty first birthdays, Bash had realized that he wanted Mary. It was an incident in which he had found out she was sneaking out of her room at night to go to parties with her friends from school.
Truth be told, she was very clever about it - wearing all black and sticking to the areas in the house that were almost beyond the cameras' reach. If Bash hadn't grown suspicious, and wasn't the very best at what he did, he probably would not have her figured it out. But it wasn't the party that he followed her to - and dragged her back from, after some horny, teenage douchebag decided to be a little too rough with her (lucky for the guy he didn't even see the tiniest of action, save an ass grab or two which Bash fully had compensated when he later broke three of the guy's fingers. And really, what could the guy even do, after finding out that his psychology teacher also happened to be the son of the King? Not that any of the school administration chose to believe the student anyway. Sufficed to say, though, the boy never did so much as even look at the 'hot Scot' again. Serves him right). It wasn't this incident that made him realize exactly, but what happened after, after Mary was scolded and grounded by Henry (Bash had already said his piece on the ride home), and had retired to her room.
Bash who had decided to remain posted by her door for 24 Hour Watch, had instantly worried when he thought it was way too quiet in her chamber. Her lights were still on and he knew she should have been awake still. He'd called to her from the door. When she didn't answer, he walked in. His eyes scanned the empty room for, assessing everything, worry in his brow. He heard the bathroom door open then and turned...to find her barely dressed. A royal purple towel was wrapped around her body, a matching towel in her hair. Her pale skin glowed and was flushed, droplets of water still dripping from loose strands of hair.
He found himself slowly assessing her, from the body towel to the tips of her toes, and back up again. They both stood in a three second silence - though to Bash he felt as if moments had passed - before Bash turned on his heel and left. His heart was racing too hard than what it should have been - for it was Mary, his brother's fiancée, and it certainly wasn't the first time he'd seen a young woman in a towel - and there was a liquid heat coursing through his veins that should not have been there. He cursed out loud against the sudden yearning in his body and that night, he ordered one of his finer agents to remain posted at her door while he monitored everything from his computer and safety of his bedroom. He never brought it up or discussed with her, hoping that he could treat it as a trivial happenstance and have it be truly, in the end, a trivial happenstance. As it turned out, though, nothing about his relationship with Mary would prove to be trivial from that point on. He realized that much later.
It had nothing to do with her feelings, for him, if that were really true and he really did still have doubts on that. But, come on, how could she throw caution to the wind? How could she be so careless? More accurately, how could she just not care? She didn't have to lie, but she should do things properly. Rumors could have spread at that truck stop. The House of Valois, the House of the King of the entire Country, could have been mocked and made a fool of. Her own house, the House of Stuart, could have been defamed and stripped of its very respect. And everything he had worked hard for would have been reduced to nothing. His relationship with his family, his brother, reduced to nothing. A person's worst case scenarios were never novel when it came to Royal affairs. As a queen, Bash figured Mary knew that, but he supposed she didn't.
Her unconcerned attitude, her selfish whims she all but seemed to demand he cater to - did she really not understand why he couldn't in their present space and time?
And, maybe a little irrelevant in comparison to the bigger issues - she wanted someone new to be her detail? As if someone else could do a better job than he did? Or would she just project her wanton feelings on the new guy instead? He almost wanted to call Jackson or Connor right then and there and see.
Not that he was hurt she said that. Why should he be? Him, Sebastian Poitiers-Valois (though the latter of his name wasn't usually so extended) of all people.
Breathing through his nose, Bash flexed his fingers; he really had too much steam he needed to blow off.
Mary walked in silence towards the small parking garage elevator, it was usually enclosed so nobody could see in or out of it. She could tell there was tenseness in the way he walked, and in truth she had never forgotten that day he walked in on her. She couldn't shake the thoughts from her mind as she stepped into the elevator and waited for him to do the same, she had to take a secondary chance. Perhaps while the elevator went up, in the secrecy where nobody could see them?
She watched him enter with her, and almost instantly she reached out as the elevator doors closed and she pushed the manual stop button. She took a breath and moved her body in front of the buttons and in front of him, "Bash..." She spoke softly, a whispered word upon her lips as she tried to sort out what to do next.
So much needed to be said, she would start it off first. She had to clear the air with him, lest she lose him for good. "I don't wish for anyone else...there is only you who can do the best, keep me safe. Despite my selfish reasons, though they may seem...I care deeply for you. Actions could be better thought out perhaps, but at times I am still just a girl with feelings and emotions. I act impulsively and make decisions before I see the consequences. I am a Queen by my right, and yet I don't wish to be seen as that around you...I don't want to order you to do things for me, I wish to ask you to do them instead." She said, lifting her head up to gaze at him as she found herself moving closer to him.
She knew that in the enclosed elevator none could see them, they were alone in their own little time until one of them turned the elevator back on. She reached out and took hold of his hand, grasping it firmly within her own hands as she looked into his eyes.
"I wish to see how you truly feel, in regards to it all...and I apologize for my earlier actions as well, I did not wish to put you in any type of situation that would be...strenuous for you." She said, still holding onto his hand.
His eyes followed to her hand that held his, and his jaw tensed. "This is really not the time to discuss this, Your Grace. I don't know how much of this I am going to listen to. I don't know what you want me to say. Press the start button. You have about two more minutes before the security system gives off a silent alarm that alerts the operator that there's an issue with the elevator."
Mary sighed, knowing she wasn't going to get the reaction or answers she wanted right now. She dropped her hold on his hand, turning her back to him and jabbing her finger tightly against the start button. She adjusted her purse, and hooked it over her shoulder as she kept her eyes on the elevator doors.
Once the doors opened, she was out of them in an instant, and making her way to the nearest store that she had wanted to go to. It was the surplus store, wasn't there something she had wanted to get him? Yes, she had put an order in for something that his security detail needed at present and they had informed her that it was ready to be picked up. "Wait out here." She told him, not commanding but merely requesting it.
She walked to the counter, looking around as the man behind the counter approached her. "I have a pick up, please see to it that it is packaged and prepared to go immediately." She said, as she walked to the other end of the counter and glanced out towards Bash.
A simple present was all she had wanted to get him, and she had procured the newest model of weaponry for him. He had talked about the gun to her once, but she figured he had forgotten about it. She shook her head, glancing over everything in the store as she tried to imagine where things would go from here. This was her only errand, but perhaps buying a new dress wouldn't go unwanted today.
Once the man returned with the package carefully wrapped and placed in a bag, she took it and nodded her head. "Thank you, I appreciate your swift delivery of this item." She said, earning a respectful bow from the man as she turned on her heels and walked out. She passed by Bash, looking over at him. "I'm going to the dress store now." She said lightly, keeping the bag close to her arm as she walked towards the dress store for a new dress to suit her needs.
