Title: Illicit

Rating: T

Pairing: KyoyaXRenge

Prompts: love affair, adultery, old man-young woman-marriage, sweethearts

Mistress. The word embedded itself in Renge's mind with surprising force. The heiress stood, her back to the couch, staring at Kyoya in a stunned fashion. Stormy eyes regarded her with the warmth of the proverbial iceberg as Kyoya's mouth set itself in a thin taut line. Only then did it occur to Renge that he was serious. She blanched and took a seat, fearing that her legs would give way otherwise. Kyoya was nothing if not bold in his approach; to presume that she was so venal as to accept such a proposal, Renge visibly shuddered. She had her duties to abide to.

"I beg that you wouldn't approach me with such an offer. Kyoya, I am a married woman. What would people say? What would my husband say? I can't do this to him," she explained, hoping that he would let the matter drop and not taunt her with such impossible things. She refused to be responsible of shaming her husband.

As unyielding as a stone wall, Kyoya pressed on, "Your husband doesn't have to know, Renge. But if you really want my opinion, I don't think he would care either way. He is too tangled up in his own lovers. After all, I wouldn't have to ask this of you if you had done what you did." When he put his mind to it Kyoya could be cruel.

Renge flinched noticeably; it was so like him to throw her foolish refusal back in her face and remind her exactly why he pursued her so. Of course she knew about her husband's extramarital liaisons but that was the way it had always been in their sphere; she never cared much for that. It was not her place to judge. "Kyoya, you are my friend and I care about you; however what you're asking of me is not done. You know that."

"Madam," Kyoya replied frostily,"I care little for what is done and what is not. You've already obtained what you wanted of your marriage to that old fool. Or have you misled me all those years ago? Do you really prefer your husband's attentions over all others?"

Taking a moment to consider his words she also thought about the elder gentleman her family had forced her to wed, thus landing her in this position. At sixteen she had been madly in love with Ootori Kyoya, a third son who didn't have much to offer. Her parents had forbid her to see him and then foisted her on the old widower who was to become her husband. Renge had tried every trick she knew to escape, yet nothing deterred the suitor her parents approved of. In a desperate bid to get rid of him she had told Kyoya everything. He suggested they let her wooer understand where her affections stood. It was all for naught, of course, as the old man hadn't even blinked at catching them kiss behind a tall oak.

"I love you. That much hasn't changed. But surely you can understand-" she was cut off by Kyoya's lips deftly taking hers. Sparks erupted behind her eyes and she was plunged into her memories once more. Far from considering his job done, Kyoya deepened their connection.

Her supreme act of defiance was sleeping with this man before her. Days before her wedding he had climbed two stories, all the way to her room. Renge had been mortified but opened the window nonetheless. He laid claim to her in her own bed, her parents only a few rooms away. In the morning he had asked her to come with him, to marry him instead. She had been tempted to accept, knowing that this transgression her future husband would not overlook, yet fear prevented her from agreeing immediately. How could she leave behind everything she'd ever known? Before she could reply he whispered a time and place in her ear and off he went.

It hadn't been for the lack of trying that she didn't reach him, not at all; her mother had suspected something all along, it seemed, so when Renge was ready to flee they locked her in a closet. Because of that she never got to the place she was supposed to meet Kyoya at and he left, perhaps thinking she didn't care for him. Until the wedding day Renge had cried her eyes out, hoping against hope that Kyoya would pop out of somewhere and rescue her. As fate would have it, it did not happen. With nothing else left to do, she put herself through the wedding with the widower.

The husband she acquired never asked much of her besides consummating the marriage which did not happen. Her spouse breathed in relief when she told him she was no virgin and said that he would not bed her. As peculiar as it seemed to her, she said nothing and took it as it was. Prickling her finger she squeezed a few drops of blood on a clean bed sheet and left it at that. She was content to be a wife only in name. Only later did she understand that she was the perfect cover for her husband's affair with a well-known matron.

Lingering a moment longer, Kyoya brushed a stray strand behind her ear in a gentle manner she hadn't expected of him. Renge looked him in the eyes and curled her fingers around his hand. There was something about him that called to her, a pull so strong she couldn't ignore its effects. "I never stopped loving you, not for one second." she whispered, heart thudding in her chest. The words passed between them like a soft caress and Kyoya simply brushed his lips to her forehead in a chaste show of affection. While he said nothing, Renge was not bothered. Holding onto him she leaned in closer. "He is an old man Kyoya, who never graced my room for more than a few minutes in all these years. One day I may tell you." His grip tightened around her.

Too many Regency romance novels...what can I say? Enjoy. This is the last drabble of this year. Updating next year, darlings!