15.
~ Ariadne trembled slightly as Arthur ran his hand up her bare leg. A leg not protected by stockings or even underthings. He was looking at her strait in the eye. A strange intimacy gripped hold of her she wasn't used to feeling.
It was an odd feeling, too meet someone in the eye like this. She couldn't remember ever having done it before. Now, she wasn't prepared for the way Arthur's eyes looked into hers.
It was as if he was baring his heart to her. His face looked casual enough. Content and comfortable with her seated on his lap like she was. But his eyes were searching hers. Looking for that part of her that would crack and become what he wanted her to be.
"You look very fetching in my dress shirt, Mrs. Brandon." he said and leaned back in his chair as his hands explored up her calf and to her bare hip. His fingers touching the skin that was always hidden by her constant modesty.
"Well, you left me with little options." she breathed.
Her heart was racing as she realized she liked the way his hands felt. Caressing her skin just now. It was wrong to be here in her own sitting room, half naked with Arthur just now. He was looking at her in that way again. The look that meant he was pleased with her and wanted affection from her.
"I should go back to my room and rest." she breathed and tried to move away from him.
"It's too cold upstairs, Mrs. Brandon." he said and his large hands halted her retreat. "I don't want you to fall ill."
"Arthur." she breathed and couldn't stop a smile from blooming on her face as he pulled her closer to him.
"You look very fetching, indeed." he murmured before his lips started attacking her neck and his hands, those devilish hands, were moving up his dress shirt and discovering she wore nothing under it.
Quickly, before she could utter a protest, he had moved her small body to straddle him. Her legs resting over his lap like she was going for a ride. His hand pushing the shirt up to exposed her abused and redden bottom to the cool air. While his other hand had easily freed the buttons of his shirt and her breast were uncovered to the warmth of the fire.
He wasted no time at all as his lips started to kiss her nipples and she let out a soft moan at the touch. Her body once more his play thing as she could feel a knowing hardness rise up to meet her. Her softness could feel the impending maleness beneath his pants as she tried not to give in. Tried not to let her body take over.
Her legs were still sore and her bottom still painfully red and abused. She doubted she could do this again.
And in the sitting room no less. The picture window just a few feet away where anyone could see them! It would be a crime!
"You're so beautiful." he was whispering. "You'll be happy, I promise."
She wanted to say something to this, her hips rocking next to his as her skin started to feel hot again.
The fever, the fever was coming back.
"Once you're a mother, you'll be happy. You won't be so confused." he was saying as she took delight in the feel of her naked womanhood grinding on the hardness still trapped beneath the fabric of his pants.
She was suddenly overcome with nausea.
Again the talk of babies and her being a mother. She could picture it now. Arthur going off to work, meeting at social clubs with his friends. She at home with a litter of young ones, crying and demanding attention all the time. She wouldn't be allowed to see her friends ever again. She technically wasn't allowed to see them now. Once she had a baby, she wouldn't be able to leave the house unless on some silly errand for the child. Or to social functions her tyrant of a husband approved of.
She would be trapped. She was trapped.
She was drowning again and she felt the urge to suddenly throw up.
"I don't feel well." she whispered and nimbly moved off him.
"Ariadne." he was saying in a choked voice that sounded like he was in pain.
She ignored him as she raced up the stairs. The smell of his aftershave was everywhere. It permeated her skin and it was making her sick.
She felt the rooms were spinning as she almost crashed into her own bedroom. She barely got her door closed before the dizziness over took her and she had to sit down.
Her world had frighteningly taken a horrible spin and she wasn't sure how to make it stop. Her blood was panicking now. Her mind racing with dark thoughts that seemed to turn into black birds. Birds that fluttered in her brain and screamed like newborn babies.
She laid down on the cold floor of her bedroom and waited for the spinning to stop. Waited for the urge to throw up to stop.
She was crying as she wanted this sickness to end.
~ It felt like a long time before her panic subsided. Before her stomach decided to settle down and she could think more clearly.
She sat up slowly and her body felt heavy and stupid.
'Bath.' she thought numbly.
She didn't want to be bothered, so, she used the old trick her school mates had done when they wanted to torment each other. She took her oldest shoe and wedged it under the door. Effectively making it hard for Arthur to come into her room unless he wanted to break down the door. In his state however, Ariadne worried he might just resort to it.
She drew her own bath and didn't bother with the salts. She glanced at her naked body in the mirror and felt sick again. Her bottom was still red with the whelps Arthur had delivered the past few nights.
She was feeling nauseous again, and almost fell into the bath water as a means to make the spinning stop.
The therapeutic waters worked their magic, and she felt slightly better as she cleaned her sore body and washed her painfully short hair.
She missed the long locks Arthur found so appealing, but he had to admit that it was much easier to manage now.
Lost in the actives of girl primping, she felt better.
She oiled her hair as it dried and combed the shorter locks into a suitable style.
She found it curled naturally around her shoulders and she decided to wear it like that. She scrubbed her face clean and dressed in a rust colored skirt and blouse.
She despised winter colors. Hated how drab they were and how they could double as mourning clothes. She didn't like the idea of being mistaken for a widow just because it was unseemly to wear bright, summer colors in fall.
She would go out, she decided as she felt more like herself in her own clothing. Her undergarments keeping her safe and her shorter hair looking exotic and extremely fashionable.
There was a hard knock on the door.
"What do you want?" she asked the door. Knowing full well it was Arthur.
"I thought you might want to go out to dinner tonight, Mrs. Brandon." he said. His voice hard and edgy.
"I've got plans with Mary and a few others from my group." she told him as she pinned a fashionable hat to her head and admired how trendsetting she looked just now.
"I thought we agreed-"
"We agreed on nothing." she interrupted him. Her new look, giving her courage as she kicked the old shoe way from the door jab and walked past the tall, sleek form of her husband and down the stairs. Not even looking back at him.
"You ordered me about as if I were a child, punished me as if I were a child and expect me to listen to you? I'm not a child, sir." she told him as he raced to keep up with her.
"Ariadne, you will not leave this house like that. You will not leave this house at all!" he commanded as he grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her roughly to him.
She wasn't afraid of him, she realized. Arthur wouldn't hit her like her father had. He wasn't the type to give over to rages like a spoiled child who didn't get his way.
"Let me go!" she shouted and pulled her arm free.
Her husband stood flabbergasted on the front steps of their home as she marched away from him in the cool afternoon air.