The Warden's lip twitched as I was escorted into his office, again. Whether he remembered our little accident I had no idea, so I decided to test it out. I started the whole strip tease routine and he stared in shock as his face went red.
"Wh-what do you think you're doing in my office?"
His voice is hysterical. I stop but lean over his desk. My movements are cat like, and I feel the same as a cat stalking a mouse. Guess who's the mouse.
"Ah, but I can't control myself around you, warden."
Kirkland grunts and snaps at me to sit down. His face is still flushed. I lie back in the chair and button my shirt back up. Sex appeal meant nothing, but persistence did. He was becoming more attracted to me, little by little. This was good. Soon I would be able to seduce him.
"I've heard more reports about you, Ms. Morrison. None of them are good."
"How can that be? I'm a perfect little jail girl."
"Your sarcasm is hilarious, really. But how much longer do you plan to keep up this whole innocent act?"
My smile creeps up, like the Chesire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
"When you have evidence against me, Arthur."
"Don't call me Arthur…and if you keep doing what you're doing we will obtain evidence. It will only be a matter of time before we get any."
I nod and look out the window. Marlene is outside, leaning an elbow over a short wall barrier and gazing in the pissed off Italian's direction. She's breaking my patience by doing that. She knows it. I grit my teeth and turn my attention back to the Warden. Revenge is what's needed to be done, to assert myself in front of my business companion. She needs to know what I can do.
Time slows down to a draw as I step over to Kirkland, standing by him on the same side of his desk. He scoffs and goes back to writing, not telling me to go back. I reach up and place a hand on his cheek.
"How is that every time you talk to me your cheeks flush, warden?"
"Because you keep flirting with me."
"You enjoy it then?"
"Sit down, convict."
I kiss him again, this time on the cheek. He doesn't expect it and jumps back. I laugh and plant my hands on the arms of his chair, staring him down. Being passive won't work, I'll have to be assertive. His eyes stare widely into mine. His face is so red it could be a tomato. This isn't the Warden of strict rules, of capital punishment. This is the Warden who has a soft shell on the inside, deep inside. I take off one of his black gloves and suck on his fingertips. He doesn't move, just narrows his eyes. Waiting to see what else I'll do. I suck harder, grabbing it and pushing it deeper into my mouth. He groans slightly and takes my head in his other hand. His eyes are brimming with lust, emotions now surfacing. Our lips are about to meet when the doorknob is rattled.
He pushes me back with embarrassment and orders the guard to come in. It's the Scot. He gives me a smile and leads me out. His hand goes to my back but then he pushes me against a wall. He smirks and I wait for him to act.
"I knew you were doing something, lassie. Just couldn't figure it out at first. Flirting with me, then my co-workers…"
He shakes his red hair and sneers.
"And now you even have the Warden wrapped around your pretty little finger."
I stare back indifferently. He has no proof. Jealousy is what compels him to say such things. I can see the anger, and a little bit of hurt on the side. If he had started falling in love with me I had no idea. I doubted it highly.
"You must be the jealous type, hm?"
I ask with a slick smile. Need to keep up the act, otherwise I'm done for. For the first time the Scot bars his teeth at me. He's angry, enraged almost. But why? It's not like he actually liked me. No, there must be another reason. Something more logical than so-called love.
Suddenly, I noticed it. The eyes, the cold to warm personality, the play-boy attitude. He was Kirkland's brother. He must have put himself in charge of overseeing me personally, making sure I didn't become trouble. Well I became trouble, so now what?
The Scot growls at me but lets me go. I get transferred to the Prussian, who tries hitting on me with demon-like red eyes. I tell him how creepy his eyes are and he shuts up. He was more sensitive than Marcy.
The cell size seems to decrease as I'm pushed in. A few pairs of eyes follow me but I glare back at all of them except Marlene. She asks if I was a dumbass through lip talk. I ask if she's done the pissed off Italian yet. Our eyes narrow at each other and she goes back to throwing one of her buttons on the wall. She throws it, picks it up, then does it again. It's a superb way to remain sane.
I go back to looking at the walls and wondering about the 'love life' I'm now leading. Kirkland wanted me, badly. His blood brother, the Scot, was either jealous or protective. How this would play out I hade no idea. In the past when I got with the wardens it had all been secret, no one else knowing. With the factor of the Scot being there it threw me off. Way off. I needed to think of a recourse plan. I saw Amy giving me glaring daggers as she walked by my cell and I smiled broadly at her. She called me a slut through her lips.
Ah, and there was that too. My drama could fill up the whole cell room if it wanted to. Never mind Marlene, I needed to figure my other problems out first.
One of the outsiders throws a spoon at my head. Ouch, so hurtful. I grip my tray and prepare to pour the excess breakfast over her head when I realize that the guards are watching me. Hard. I keep my grip of both sides of the tray and sit back down, letting the spoons and forks hit me. Felt like little rocks but it still pissed me off.
The guards knew, that simple. The Scot had circulated everything about my supposed relationship with the Warden and if I didn't fix the problem I would be doomed and forced to stay in this prison where every girl has a lady boner for every guy and all the guards act like hot stuff and the place next to us looks like a toxic waste dump and—
No, needed to calm down. Needed to talk to the Scot alone, just us two. For all I know they had just singled me out to make an example of me. Either that or they hated my guts to flirt with anything that moved.
At recreation I throw a big rock at the girl who got me before's head. She turns around with a scowl. Her friends back her up as she challenges me, beating her chest, throwing her voice around. Trying to act tough. She makes the first move, shaking my shoulders. I make the second, pushing her back and slapping her across the face. I then push her to the ground and twist her arm around while bending her head back. She screams in extreme pain. I keep on. Her friends try to save her but my henchwomen come in to help me, using their own punches. Amy's group, ever the attention-starved, creep over and jump a few of mine from behind. Amy throws me off the girl and starts helping her up. I sprint in for a running punch and then—
Bam, the smell of whisky hits my nose and I'm pulled back. I protest but I'm pulled back into a corner. The Scot has me to where I can't see the fight. I try to look past him, to check on my own team, but he forces me against the wall.
He glares at me. I see a cigarette stub in his mouth. He must have been on break when he was called to stop the fight. No wonder he was pissed. He picked the stub out and swiftly threw it to the ground, bringing his face close to mine.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you'll be in for this? There's a first class riot going on in there and no one will dismiss you as a suspect."
"And you care…why?"
"Because you'll see the Warden again, that's why. I don't want you messing with my brother."
I clear my throat and push him back. I'm stronger than him and he's forced to step back. Surprise lights his face but I go on with my speaking.
"Stop telling people that me and the warden are together."
His emotions change from stunned, angry, thoughtful, angry again, and then finally to confusion.
"I had no idea anyone else knew."
"You told me you knew what was going on between us. The guards treated me like crap this morning. Who else would've told him?"
The Scot shakes his head, non-verbally saying he doesn't know. I consider the possibility of him lying to me but then wave it off. It would be a major embarrassment if the other guards knew an inmate had one of his brother's by a string. He glares at me again. Doesn't know what to do, what to say. Only the looks he gives me pass off his feelings. He'll keep the secret a bit longer but I need insurance.
I grab his head and kiss him on the lips. It works wonders. He peels me off and looks ready to slap me. I glance towards the broken up fight. My underlings had won. Amy's army was badly bruised. The outsider girl's were lying on the ground, nursing their wounds. One by one the guards came and carried the damsels to the clinic. I had a feeling some were faking injuries.
A hand gripping my wrists together on my back startles me. I see it's the Scot, blushing but still pissed off. I had insurance now. He wouldn't tell a soul or I would tell of what just happened between us.
Manipulation worked like that.
Marlene gave me daggers in the form of looks as we stood in our cells. She was in the cell on the floor directly across from me. She mouthed the question of where I went and I told her I needed to get insurance. She asks what the hell that means and I tell her through slight whispers. A few other inmates try to listen in but I smile evilly at them to silently tell them stay out of it. When I tell Marlene what happened she shakes her head after. Mouthes I was a crazy bitch. I asked what happened with the pissed off Italian. She gets defensive and lays down in her cot. I chuckle to myself and twirl the bible in my hands. Up and down, up and down, like a juggling act the wisdom-filled book flies. It falls to the ground, opening up to the page about lust. I blink and ponder about the religious riot. It would be good if I started it soon.
Steps down the corridor, it's the Frenchman. Some brave women stick love letters out for him. Unlike other cold guards he gladly takes them and stashes them in his pocket. Convicts tell me that the only reason they like him is because he satisfies their interests. I wonder what they mean by that.
He tells me in a whispering voice that the Warden needs to see me, and I smile to myself. Jealousy is in the air but no one says anything. Not like they can anyway.
The Warden is giving me the slick smirk as I come in his office. Seems out adventure yesterday sent his feelings on a polar opposite journey, and now he loved me. Lust was such a great emotion.
"So good to see you again, Amelia."
The familiarity and warmth in his voice makes me happy. Yes, I'm one step closer to breaking out of here. I lean forward and smile at him.
"Nice to see you too, Arthur. I wish we could see each other more."
"You and I both know that's bullock, but I'll take it as a compliment anyway."
A light laugh comes from my mouth and his eyes glitter with contentness. Then, his smile dims and he pulls out my paper file.
"Inmates and guards have told me that you started the fight today. They say a girl named Fiona instigated you and you tried to, and I quote, 'beat the living hell out of her'."
He looks at me with sad puppy dog eyes. The intensity of it makes you want to cry. I sit, stone-faced. The only emotion he'll get out of me were the ones that came from physical attraction.
"Is this true or not? I mean, obviously it is but I want to see how you'll defend yourself."
"Someone might know about us."
I blurt this out. Make it sound desperate. His eyes widen and he doesn't say anything. The silence in the room in evident. Outside Marlene peps up the last of my henchwomen. The rest have either gone off to Amy's side or this new girl Fiona's. If I don't use the religious debate quickly I could lose my alpha status. Fighting people was all good and well but I didn't want to face the Warden all the time. Not when he wasn't ready to go with me so easily.
After what seems like hours Kirkland throws his voice out.
"Who?"
I'm not surprised by the question. In fact I expect it completely. I look at him with dead serious eyes as I say her name.
"Really now…and you're sure it's her?"
"Yes, Amy Bernard. She hates me because I beat her ass in front of everyone."
"Don't use profanity near me."
"Fuck."
Kirkland glares at me. The old feeling of hate is back. But he's hiding something. The nervous twitch of the finger, the tapping of his foot on the ground. It's vaguely easy to tell. I need to convince him to spill it. Looks like my lady powers will have to be used.
"Really Arthur, don't worry about it. They should know that our feelings are nothing but lustful desires, created through sexual depravation. You have nothing to worry about. I'll sort it all out, I promise. Just trust me."
All while I'm talking I step over to him, lightly and purposely. I brush his hair out of his eyes and am hit with the gaze of forest-green irises. I whisper the words in his ear and nudge my head against his shoulder affectionately. He sighs and pushes my head away.
"Honestly I don't know whether I should trust you or not. Your record isn't one of purity, you know."
I stop trying to comfort him and lay back against the concrete wall. It's cold and cools my hot body down. He rejects my movements easily, yet only a day ago he couldn't control himself. Did he have a finger fetish?
To test out my new theory, I grab his glove and take it off. Kirkland narrows his eyes at me and tries to snap his hand back to him. I keep an iron-grip and kiss his fingertips. The restraint halts. I smile to myself and put a finger in my mouth, covering it with saliva. His calm look transforms into a lustful one and he pins me against the wall. His warm breath fills the air. His lips press to mine and I feel his hands rake down my back, then around the front of my body. I kiss him back and play with his dirty blonde hair. It's messy and unkept, making it harder to run my fingers through. I don't care, just keep going. He does the same. No guards interrupt us this time.
They say that every warden has a secret fetish. For some, it's a shoe fetish, where they like to lick your shoe and then make love to you. For others it's simply the accent fetish, imitating Russian and Swedish to give the audiophile a quick stimulation. For Kirkland, it was his fingers. That and I heard from rumors he had a thing for magical creatures, but this would do for now. The observations made, of course, were by me.
After minutes of hard breathing and deep kissing Kirkland pulls me back. He wants to go further, the eyes say so. But he's not stupid. Committing the act here, everyone would hear it. He whispers into my ear that he'll call me down later tonight. I shiver with anticipation. He then turns into the spiteful warden again and throws me out. The Scot is waiting for me again.