Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Revenge, I Just Love It

Chapter 14: He Wasn't Asking

"Can we stop this now?" Daniel pleaded, his voice echoing quietly in the empty hallway. The hallway where they'd fought and kissed, and where he'd just guiltily, though not regretfully made love to her.

He shouldn't have, that he knew for a fact, Emily wasn't his to touch anymore, not when he no longer held her heart and definitely not when he was the one who had ruined it. The one who had caused the darkness to creep in, and allowed the cold to crystallize her fractured heart.

It was shameless of him... undignified for him to have kissed her like he had, and to have touched her; caressing her skin and enjoying the feel of her flawless body against his own. But even knowing that he'd still done it, telling himself that it was okay to give in, that it was okay to let his passion override his rationale, and that it was okay to try entice Emily into doing the same.

Emily was supposed to be the stronger one though, she was supposed to say NO, to push him away, to NOT succumb to the irrationality of it all...but she had, she had foolishly given in, leaving him no choice but to greedily take her and give in to his no longer suppressed desire to lustfully have her, and it was wonderful to feel one with her again, to hear her moan in pleasure beneath him and to moan and pant himself as his body rocked against hers, and it was beautiful to feel the sensations only she could make him feel and to find his mind floating back to that euphoric place built specially for them, a place he'd thought had long been destroyed.

But what he truly loved most, even more than all of those things was being able to finally feel something between the two of them and their troubled souls. Something other than the feelings of hate, anger, spite and bitterness that they'd been constantly spitting back at each other since that night.

Maybe it was just wishful thinking but he hoped that Emily had felt the same and that she'd soon come to realize that it was time for a truce.

"Emily" Daniel murmured, having just finished buttoning up the last of his buttons foregoing the bow that he knew he'd have trouble putting on by himself anyway and worse without a mirror.

Emily was dressed again too, looking stunning in her beautiful red dress, and really quite sexy with her tousled blonde hair.

As soon as she had come to her senses, Emily had pushed him right off of her, not a single word coming from her tight lipped mouth as she had quickly gotten re-dressed again, a good distance away from him by the bench.

Daniel couldn't say that surprised him though, he wasn't blinded, he knew that when Emily had kissed him back, it wasn't because she had suddenly stopped hating him, but because she had lost control of her own emotions, letting them slip in the wrong moment and then getting carried away by the overwhelming complexity of them all.

He could only imagine what she was feeling right now; the shame, anger, frustration and confusion from what they'd done was probably tearing her stubborn little soul apart. Maybe that's what she needed though, to internalize all her thoughts and feelings towards him and to finally consider looking towards a resolution.

Emily ignored him from where she sat on the bench, a glare on her face even as she faced away from him towards the wall. Her slender semi-exposed back was facing towards him though and as she frustratingly struggled with fully zipping up the back of her dress. Daniel slowly walked towards her, placing his hand on her back shoulder, which caused her body to naturally tense up from his unwanted touch.

"Here I'll do it" he murmured helpfully, as he gently shifted her soft blonde hair towards her front so that it wouldn't get caught in the zipper before slowly guiding the pull on the zip back up her dress.

Though she allowed it, this little action only proved to irritate Emily even further though, which he could immediately tell when she angrily stood up and turned to face him. "No, we can't stop this Daniel!" she said sharply, though the volume in her voice remained low.

"Why?"

Emily's eyes bore into Daniels, "You stole my children" she replied tensely, her voice straining not to shout in her anger. "and every time I think about it, about what I lost...because of you I..."

"I know and I'm not telling you not to hate me!" Daniel said firmly, interrupting her mid sentence with his voice raised loud to get her attention, "I am just saying that this needs to stop, it's dragged on long enough. I can see it in your eyes Emily, in your whole composure, you're exhausted; of fighting, of hating, of putting on facades...of feeling this pain."

"You can't speak for me" Emily replied angrily, her dark brown eyes looking into his with indignation though she knew he was right, "I am much more resilient than you" .

"Maybe...but you're not invincible, you're only human, Emily...that you proved when you gave in to me" Daniel retorted.

Emily glared at him fiercely, "You gave in to me" she replied hotly.

Daniel shrugged his shoulders indifferently, "It doesn't matter who gave in to who because I got what I wanted."

"My body" Emily muttered angrily, infuriated by his arrogance.

Daniel frowned and shook his head, "I got to feel something between us, something other than the feelings of hate and anger that we've been constantly trying to hurt each other with."

Emily scoffed in disdain, trying to mask the fact that despite her attempt to keep the expression on her face rigid, his seemingly sincere words had indeed softened it. And feeling suddenly trapped and not knowing how to respond, Emily turned on her heels and began to briskly walk away, "I should get back to the event, I am the host after all." She replied curtly.

After slipping away from Daniel, having averted another dangerous conversation, one that she knew could have had the potential to make her crack in the current state she was in. Emily had known that before she could will herself to re-enter the bustling happy crowd of her event, she'd need a few long quiet minutes to herself. So choosing the restroom farthest away from the event with the hopes that nobody would be using it, Emily had quickly walked inside.

Emily had gone in there wanting to regain her composure but even for her that was something easier said than done. Daniel was right she was slipping, her strength, her resolve, her energy...god she was tired, so very tired, she just wanted to fall into a nice long peaceful sleep and wake up when it was finally nice again. Sadly that's not how life worked though and as Emily walked up to the marbled counter-tops, and saw herself...her reflection in the mirror, for the first time in a long time she really felt a desire to cry. She longed for it, to be able to let her tears flow freely from her eyes, but her own internal stubbornness was fighting against that desire, and as she stared ashamedly at her reflection in the mirror, she'd found her eyes hadn't even watered.

If they had though, maybe she could have been spared the intensified feelings of shame, anger, and sadness. That way her tears would have blurred her vision and therefore the sad reflection she would have seen of herself in the mirror.

But that wasn't the case though and so as Emily re-applied her makeup, and tried to re-style her tousled blonde hair into something more poised, her mind was still on the sore topic of him; split between the hatred she needed to feel for him and the bit of doubt in her mind that wondered whether a small part of her was actually fighting against the rest of herself, wanting to forgive him...or at the very least call a truce like he wanted.

"Are you alright? You look rather pale" a sweet concerned sounding voice said, the harmonious noise echoing throughout the restroom as the red-headed woman the voice belonged to stepped inside, the door shutting with a soft bang behind her.

Emily cursed silently in her head, wanting only to be alone, and looking into the mirror using it's reflective powers to eye the culprit who'd walked through the door and caught her feeling down, Emily nodded her head, "I'm fine thank you" she said softly, trying to mask her unrest.

Sensing the skeptical eye of the woman in front of her, Emily then added, "I just have a bit of headache", though much to her dismay, the red head still took the liberty of further approaching her.

"I'm Louise Ellis" the woman said introducing herself in her charming southern drawl and with a friendly smile to match.

Emily had heard that name before, if her facts were correct then Louise Ellis was from an affluent family in the South and was the younger sister of a politician. Despite her current mood, Emily smiled back politely, before introducing herself. Though being affiliated with the Grayson's, she'd learnt long ago when she had first started dating Daniel that people quickly found out and remembered your name.

Louise nodded her head, "Yes, of course" she murmured knowingly, "Daniel Grayson's wife"

"Yes I suppose I am" Emily replied, trying to keep her voice light, and the cringe of contempt off her face. She had purposely left out saying any surname because although through marriage she'd attained the Grayson name, she didn't want it and she definitely did not want to be reminded of it.

Sighing inwardly to herself, Emily grabbed her clutch from the marbled counter and began to walk towards the door, irritated by the fact that her moment of solitude had been interrupted.

"Emily" Louise called out, sounding hesitant as she saw the blonde slowly turn back around, her manicured hand still on the door handle a sign that she wanted to leave. Sensing this and Emily's impatience, Louise took a deep breath before looking into Emily's intimidating brown eyes and boldly saying, "He misses you a lot...Nolan. He's worried about you, says that you're hurting yourself being with Daniel. That you're..."

Emily cut her off, her eyes sharpening in a look of irritation, as she replied, "I'm guessing you're his girlfriend."

Louise nodded her head, feeling as though she finally had Emily's full attention, though she wasn't sure that was such a good thing. She was usually quite good at reading people, but even without her good intuition, she could tell that Emily was quite the intimidating women.

"Nolan has a good heart, he's kind and he's loyal" Emily said honestly, her fierce brown eyes staring into Louise's, as if searching to see if she could place her trust in her, "I won't forgive you if you hurt him and you do not want to make an enemy out of me." Emily said warningly, as she opened the door, ready to exit.

"In all fairness, you're the one who's hurting him Emily. You're shutting him out... he says you've changed." Louise replied softly, but resolutely, feeling the need to get those words out for the one she loved.

Emily tensed up, not wanting to hear those words right now, and especially not through someone like Louise, who only knew what she'd been told about her life. "Well I have changed" Emily responded bristly as she quickly walked through the door and back into the busy crowd, making sure to put back up her best party facade.

Picking up his glass of scotch, from where he sat purposely alone and at the end of the bar stool, Daniel put the toxic liquid to his lips and took a slow deliberate sip, feeling as though he needed it to help him cope with Emily, though contrarily knowing that the alcohol had never actually helped him...in fact it had done the opposite for it was in his intoxicated state that he had done far more damage.

Sighing in frustration, Daniel put the glass back down on the bar counter for he knew that if he wanted to pound through Emily's steely composure tonight, then he needed to do it while he was at least mildly sober. If he wasn't then his drunken efforts would only create more of a mess...and that he did not want.

He just wanted to put this behind him...to put Emily behind him.

Flashback

"Daniel, enough, no more movies" Emily said lightly, as she took the TV remote out of his hands. "My eyes can't take anymore TV, what was that our fourth movie?"

The two of them were snuggled up on her couch together, feeling warm and happy in the simple yet refreshing presence of one another.

Daniel chuckled, as he nodded his head, "and weren't they entertaining?"

"Hmm" Emily murmured, "I wouldn't really know, you talked through all of them."

"Did I?"

Emily only laughed, as she untangled herself from Daniels arms, and stood up needing to stretch.

Needless to say they were having a lazy day. The two of them had woken up in the morning to hear the steady downfall of rain outside their window, and when the curtains had been opened, to see the grey cloudy sky cast over the rumbling ocean; a rather infrequent backdrop for summer in the Hampton's. Never the less it was seen every once in a while, and feeling the need to take advantage of the rather uninviting weather, Emily and Daniel did just that by happily cancelling all their meetings and plans for the day so that they could stay inside together.

This seemed practical right? They weren't Londoners, they didn't know how to weather the rain...or well that was the excuse they were going to tell themselves if it meant getting to spend a whole day together undisturbed by the daily doings of life.

Grabbing her by the waist, Daniel playfully pulled Emily back down on to the sofa, tickling her sides, until in her uncontrollable laughter she stopped resisting, giving him the delicious opportunity to pin her slender body beneath him.

"Daniel" she moaned, in feigned protest to his underhand ways of getting her in that position.

Daniel only smirked, as he lowered his head towards her, placing his lips against her own, causing her to lose the breath she'd only just caught back.

"You know" he murmured lovingly, guiding his lips towards her ear where he whispered, "You have one of the loveliest laughs I've ever heard, I need to make you laugh more."

Emily blushed despite herself, whispering, "I laugh though"

"Yeah" Daniel said smiling at her, as his hand brushed tenderly against her cheek, "but not like this, not so uncontrolled, so blissfully."

Emily smiled at him softly, "Well...I'm happy Daniel" she assured him with twinkling eyes.

"I'm happy too" he murmured as he began to lower his lips towards her, but just before his lips could capture her own, Emily used his own move against him and attacked the weak spot of his sides, tickling him relentlessly and causing him to squirm around in bursts of laughter. Not willing to let that slip, Daniel felt for her sides too, until the both of them were a tangled laughter of mess on the sofa, both fighting for control.

Smirking at him seductively, a glint of victory in her eyes, as she succeeded in straddling him beneath her. Emily slowly bit her lip, an action she knew aroused him, as she leant down into him, her wavy blonde hair falling against his face, which he had to gently run his fingers through to hold it back, as she fervently pressed her supple lips against his own.

Flashback END

"Where's Emily?"

Looking up from his glass of scotch, from where he purposefully sat isolated at the end of the bar stool, Daniel sighed in frustration when he turned to find himself face to face with a hostile looking Nolan Ross.

Daniel had never understood Emily's relationship with Nolan, even when the two of them were in a good place. He'd always found Nolan a little too eccentric and a little too "out there" for his own personal preference. That wasn't to say that he didn't like the guy though, he just struggled with understanding how Emily and Nolan, who seemed like two completely different people had managed to form a bond so strong.

Daniel had asked her one time, after a dinner the three of them had eaten together years ago. He still remembered, it was after the stylish, savvy blond had left, that Emily had sat down beside him in front of the fireplace, and tried explaining how Nolan Ross fit into her past, mentioning all he had helped her through.

He had admired Nolan for that; for his loyalty to her and for his love. In fact, even then he had been jealous of it, of how close they seemed and of how much he seemed to know her; all of her, both what she showed to the world and what she hid to herself. He had wanted that with Emily, he really had...now he just wanted her to admit that them fighting was pointless and that it was best for the both of them if they parted.

"I don't know" Daniel muttered coolly, shrugging his shoulders dejectedly, as he begrudgingly took another sip of his drink.

Nolan looked back at him in disgust, "Do you take pleasure in hurting her, or is just your natural instinct now...to cause her harm?"

"I am trying to end this!" Daniel said defensively, his voice rising in a serious tone as he looked Nolan fiercely in the eyes.

Nolan shook his head in disbelief, "Really" he said sarcastically, "It sure looked like that tonight with you trying to knock out the guy who showed innocent interest in her, and then grabbing her by the arm and taking her to god knows where, to what shout at her, threaten her? Who knows with you, I mean if you can shoot her on your wedding day then, I shudder to think what you can do to her on a normal day."

Daniel's eyes darkened in anger, feeling incredibly incensed by what Nolan was insinuating, and standing up from the bar stool, needing to face Nolan from a fair height, Daniel indignantly replied, "You can't stand here and pretend that you understand the fucked up relationship that me and Emily are in because you have no clue! Yes I hurt her and what I did was cruel and unforgivable, I know that better than anyone else, and I never wanted to cause Emily more pain. But she chose to stay, to invoke madness into my already messy life, to ruin me, and there's only so many jabs one can take until they have to fight back."

Daniel's voice lowered even further, and the hostility in it faded as he continued and said, "I don't want this, I never wanted this! I wanted to be able to move on, to work towards repairing myself and redeeming myself for what I had done... and believe it or not I wanted her to heal and eventually to settle down with someone who truly loved her and showed that in ways I failed to do, I wanted her to find peace. I still want that, I am trying to end this here, but she's the one fighting to steady her resolve."

"What do you expect" Nolan replied bitterly, his whole body tense with anger, "Emily's a fighter, she always has been, and she takes her pain and uses it as her fuel, that's how she copes. For you, the pain you caused her is insurmountable, and so the fuel she holds is never-ending. All she wanted, all she's ever wanted since her parents died was a place she could call home, a place she could settle down and be at peace, and as she got older a place she could raise a family of her own. You stole that from her, you gave her a glimpse, you gave her hope and then you ripped that away from her in the cruelest way possible...you broke her apart piece by piece, and now she doesn't want to let you go until she's done the same to you."

Daniel shook his head slowly a pained expression coming through on his face, as he whispered, "I'm already dead inside though".

"Well thanks to you, so is she" Nolan replied resentfully, refusing to give the man in front of him even the slightest glint of sympathy, "and unlike you, she does not deserve that fate." With that Nolan quickly began to slip away, not wanting to be in the presence of the man who had tortured someone he called family.

"Nolan!" Daniel quickly called out, not feeling finished with the conversation yet, not when he had one last thing he needed to say.

Sensing that Nolan who was clearly in earshot had indeed heard him but choose to ignore him, Daniel called out his name again, angrier this time as he quickened his step so that he was directly in front of the stylish blonde, and once he had demanded Nolan's attention, Daniel solidly say, "I have tried talking to Emily, I have apologized all I could and I have tried getting through to her, but she's ... I can see it in her eyes, she's tired, she wants to end this, but like you said, her pain is fueling her resolve to resist and because of what I stole from her, she has a lot of it. I honestly do not know how to direct that pain into a different place, but I feel as though if anyone can get through to her, then it's you."

He wasn't asking, Daniel could never bring himself to ask Nolan for help. Call it his pride or whatever, but it didn't feel right to ask someone who despised him, for help dealing with someone who was ultimately his own deserved burden to bear. However for the sake of that someone and for the heavy burden weighing down on his tired soul, he had to put it out there.

"I know" Nolan replied resolutely.

He'd had enough of Emily's sick games and what they were doing to her, and he knew that listening was not her strong point, but he had come to this event tonight with the full intent of forcing her to listen to him, whether she liked it or not.

I hope many of you enjoyed this chapter, it took quite a while to write, and with lots of little changes but I did it...hooray. I know not too much really happened in terms of Emily and Daniel interactions, but this chapter really paves the way for the next chapter, which I'm really quite excited to write.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, if you did please leave a comment, I really do enjoy reading them, they leave a smile on my face, and I get to know important things, such as what you readers like, what I could do better and what you readers want to see more of.

Anyway have a great Easter, or if you don't celebrate just have a great little break, or a great after Easter chocolate sales buying day xD