Torment walks calmly up the stairs inside Athena's apartment complex and knocks politely on the door to her apartment at the tenth floor.
It's about time they talk.
He needs to understand the attraction there are between them, needs to know that she feels the same as him. And the last thing he wants is to take advantage of her, if she doesn't want to have anything to do with him.
She opens the door after a while and takes a surprised step back at the sight of him. But her optics slowly roam along his frame, and he leans against the doorframe and studies her while desire fills him.
"Will you let me in or do I have to invite myself inside?" He asks in a non-threatening voice.
She takes a long, deep and shaky breath and releases it slowly, as if to calm herself, before she silently takes a step away from the door and invites him into her home.
"Thank you, Professor." He says grateful, using her title to take on a professional distance in an attempt to reassure her that he first and foremost is there to talk with her.
What happens afterwards will completely be up to her to decide.
He follows her into the apartment and then into her living room, where she suddenly seems not to know what to do with herself. She begins to shake and deliberately refrains from looking at him while she stands paralyzed in the middle of the room.
"Relax, Athena."
He walks over to sit in a chair by her coffee table and observes her softly.
She is above the average size of a female carrier and would fit perfectly against his frame. He is small for a male sire, but size is not everything and his smaller size is a benefit in his work as an assassin. His size also has a tendency to make his opponents underestimate him. A mistake they only realize when it already is too late.
After a few minutes she finally walks over to sit on the couch across from him, but she still doesn't want to meet his optics.
Fear radiates from her whole being and he decides, that right now isn't the right time for the talk that he had wanted to have with her. Instead he will have to try to reassure her that he won't hurt her and ease the fear his presence fills her with.
Give her back the feeling of control.
This timidness is so unlike her, and he will at all times prefer her to be angry at him because of what he did to her instead of showing him this vulnerability, this complete lack of self-preservation.
It reminds him of how much he has hurt her.
He knows that not all wounds are physical.
Knows that the invisible wounds can go deeper than any dagger can stab.
Where are your bravery?
"Why are you here?" Her voice is low and trembles, and she hugs herself in an futile attempt to steady her nerves.
He begins to smile.
"Look at me, Athena."
Athena slowly lifts her gaze and stares at his lips as they curve into a smirk.
"I want you to tell me what you want."
His voice is low and seductive, and there is absolutely no doubt in her mind about what he means with his seemingly harmless request.
What do you want me to do to you.
A gentle quiver runs through her frame.
What does she want?
Now that he is here right in front of her she doesn't know what to do with herself.
"I want you to hold me." She finally whispers and her cheeks blush with embarrassment.
Did she really just say that when it is obvious that what he wants is something else? Something more?
But he rises and walks over to sit down beside her without any complaint and pulls her into a gentle but strong embrace, that allows her to thoroughly scent his unique masculine scent as it envelopes her.
She leans her head against his chest and notices that there among his frame's black and various dark grey tones are dark green nuances.
It fits perfectly with his matt varnish.
There is nothing glamorous about him. He is deeply professional in everything he does, even his choice of appearance.
Her internals quiver with small tendrils of fear.
It's what makes him so dangerous.
A sane, deliberate, no-nonsense killer is the most dangerous killer that exists.
A digit below her jaw line forces her gently to look up at him and she holds her breath while he lowers his lips to hers. The kiss is chaste, but slowly turns more passionate, as if he is testing her boundaries to see if she reacts negatively to his advance.
This is not what she would have expected from him. That he along with his mercilessness and brutality possesses a gentle and considerate side. That he would hold himself back for her sake and not just take what he wants.
She opens her mouth slightly and he obviously takes it as an invitation for more, because his tongue slides slowly into her mouth to gently play with hers.
A soft moan escapes her.
Primus!
It is too much and not enough.
Her spark pulses erratically while her valve has begun to lubricate, and she is lost in a haze of growing desire.
"Give in to me."
His words are so soft they are barely audible and they do something good for her, because tears begin to fall from her optics the next moment when the built-up stress from the whole situation with him uncoils all at once, and she begins to sob uncontrolled.
He doesn't withdraw from her, but kisses gently the running tears away while whispering soothingly to her, encouraging her to let go.
"That's it."
"Let it out."
"You have nothing to fear anymore."
She clings to his strong frame while releasing all her overwhelming feelings, and he lifts her in his arms and carries her into her berthroom, where he places her gently on the berth. Then he lies down behind her and wraps his arms protectively around her.
For once his presence is soothing and much needed after the period with constant fear, stress and confusion that followed their first meeting, and she slips rapidly into recharge in his arms.
Torment stares at her as she calmly recharges against him, and a sincere, unguarded, affectionate smile plays on his lips while he allows himself to enter a light recharge.
Shift will contact him if he is needed.
When Athena wakes she is alone and she sits up with a feeling of loss in her spark.
Of course he didn't stay.
She rises from the berth and walks out into the hallway, but suddenly stops.
The door to her home office is closed and she can hear his muffled voice on the other side of the door.
Who is he talking to?
She curiously opens the door as quietly as she can and sees him stand with his back turned to her in the middle of her office. He immediately stops talking and turns to face her, and she realizes with an awkward, embarrassed blush in her cheeks how stupid and pointless it had been of her to try to sneak up on someone of his caliber.
Of course he had known she was there.
"I'll have to go." He tells the one on the other end of the communication.
His voice is cold and serious, but his optics are for once full of feelings as they stare at her.
He is a deadly predator, but strangely enough she no longer feels like a prey.
"I didn't want to wake you." He leans relaxed against the nearest bookcase and winces startled when the act causes a few datapads to fall noisily to the floor.
It is a comical sight and she fills with mirth when she realizes, that he isn't as unaffected as he wants her to believe. The power she realizes she has over him fills her with confidence, and she turns away from him and walks into her living room.
And in that moment, the strong and mutual desire that they harbor for each other gets turned into a psychological game between them to see who will break first.
Torment curses loudly while he fights against the urge to immediately follow after her as if he was a tamed turbofox puppy.
A strong, intelligent and confident carrier who knows exactly how much she affects him is going to be his doom.
He knows his limits and knows that she without a doubt will challenge them, but if she wants to play, then he will indulge her.
It please him that she seems to have overcome her fear for him if she dares tease and flirt with him.
And to have her come on to him like this turns him on more than he ever could have imagined.
She is his little firestarter, the one who has set him on his current course and he is intent on seeing it through.
Whatever happens between them in the future, he is content with what they have right now.
He picks up the datapads, that had fallen to the floor, and puts them back in the bookcase before he calmly walks out of her office.
When he reaches her living room, he stops in the doorway and enjoys the sight that greets him.
She is reclined on the couch with an energon cube in her hand, and stares at him like a predator assessing her prey while she slowly drinks the energon.
His optics darkens with lust.
Does she even know how breathtakingly gorgeous she is with that predatory glint in her optics?
Athena scrutinizes intimately every curve of his sleek, strong and masculine frame.
He is perfectly built.
Has the perfect size for her.
He is still bigger than her, but the difference between them is not that large, that interfacing with him would be awkward.
Her valve lubricates at the thought of him inside her.
Is he able to scent her growing arousal?
It has been a long while since she last has been with someone. Mostly due to the lack of time.
He keeps standing there, observing her, and she decides that it is time that she ups their game.
Her valve cover slides aside and lubricant begins to slowly seep out of her to pool on the couch below her.
His optics darkens further in response and a deep growl of pure carnal lust escapes him.
A dark and teasing smirk begins to play on her lips.
Come and take me.
She moves her hand between her legs to stimulate her anterior node, and his resolve breaks.
The next moment she is forcibly thrown against the dining table in the middle of her living room, and her arms get restrained in a firm grip on her back, before he penetrates her valve and claims her with measured hard and deep thrusts.
The sound of his deep and animalistic groans as he takes her ignites a fire within her and she twists in pleasure when an overload slams through her.
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
Her spark sings with joy and contentment.
This is what she sinfully has fantasized about ever since their first encounter.
His rhythm begins to falter and she shudders delightfully at the sound of his climax, before the sensation of him filling her gestation chamber sends her crashing into another and more intense overload.
Torment breathes heavily and enjoys the feeling of her clenching valve around him before he slowly pulls out.
That had been...
He has no words to describe how it had felt to finally be with her, and he begins spontaneously to laugh heartily when his processor gets affected by the endorphins that has been released by his intense overload.
This spontaneous reaction is so unlike him, but at the moment he couldn't care less about what this show of feelings do to his image as an cold-sparked killer.
He looks fondly down at his new lover and releases his grip on her before he gently helps her to stand.
"Are you okay, Athena?"
A glance into her hazy and satisfied optics reassures him that he hadn't been too rough with her.
She stumbles a bit and leans against him for support until her legs are able to hold her weight.
"That was..." A satiated smile plays on her lips and she leans affectionately against him, "...amazing. Better than I could ever have imagined."
He kisses the top of her head and wraps his arms around her.
"It pleases me to hear."
He frowns as he looks down at her.
Shift had contacted him to inform him, that Torrent less than an hour ago had broken out of the Joint Investigation Unit's detention center with the assistance of some of his team members, and he can't stay with her no matter how much he wants to.
It feels so wrong to have taken her and then leaving her so soon afterwards.
As if he had only used her for his own sexual gratification.
As if she doesn't mean more to him than a simple interface.
But his presence is needed elsewhere.
"I would like to stay, but I unfortunately have to go."
His words sound so pathetic.
He has had the best interface in a very long while and now he leaves her, as if she was just a cheap prostitute.
She grabs a hold on his arm when he withdraws from her.
"Will you at least tell me your name before you go?"
"Torment." He answers, and then sends her a communications ID, "If you ever are in trouble, contact this ID and I will be notified. Shift is a close friend of mine. You can trust her."
He kisses her one last time before he teleports away.