Chapter Seven
Option B
The door opened and I watched Asia hobble out. I leaped out of my chair toward her. I had completely forgotten about her ankle. I cursed softly; as I noted the pain it caused her to walk.
She didn’t draw back from my approach, which was surprising. Some part of me expected to see my own knife being used to disembowel me, but she let me swing her up into my arms without protest. I sat her down in the chair at the table, as I got down to my knees. Gently, I brought her leg up. Her ankle was only swollen slightly, but I felt around the joint carefully just to make sure the damage wasn’t worse.
“It’s just sprained not broken.” I said glancing up.
I was captured by the look in her eyes, as she watched me feel at her ankle. Her eyes seemed to peer into my soul and uncomfortably I looked back down.
“I saw some athlete tape a few floors up. I’ll be right back with it.” I said hurriedly getting up and leaving the room.
I found the tape in short order and made my way back down to Asia. She was sitting, as I had left her waiting patiently. She seemed oddly surrendered in some way that I couldn’t place. It was actually kind of unsettling.
Her ankle taped up securely I started to rise, when the tips of her fingers grazed my cheek, “Thank you.” She said softly.
There she was with the nice manners again.
“You’re welcome.” I said briefly before turning away.
Her nice manners made me feel like scum. All I did was daydream about what I wanted to do with her intimately. She in return continued to thank me and offer to share her food with me. If she wasn’t careful someone would take advantage of her kindness.
Who was I kidding! I was that someone and knowing that made me feel oddly guilty. I got out what food I had to offer along with water and we started to eat in silence.
For being a woman she didn’t talk much. I found myself wanting her to speak more, which was weird. Typically that was what I most wanted to fast-forward through. I stifled a groan. She was driving me crazy with the way she was licking the chocolate off her fingers. She’d said something.
“What?” I asked, blinking in an attempt to refocus some corner of my intellect from where my mind had been concentrated.
“You said we were going to talk today.” She repeated herself cautiously.
I came fully back to reality, “Yes, I did.”
I reached down and pulled the small drives out of a pocket and set them down on the table between us. Her eyes rose to mind and as usual I couldn’t really tell what she was thinking. I didn’t like that.
“I used to work, as an agent for a highly clandestine type of organization if you will. Needless to say I did something that earned me exile to a remote island off the coast of Alaska, where I’ve been for the last five years alone. I had no knowledge of this Code’s takeover of the world, until members of this agency came to visit me. They, like you, want this Code broken and the world restored, as it was before the Code took over, along with all the freedoms and other such nonsense. Anyway they’ve been unsuccessful in their attempts to break the Code, but they have the resources to do it and to implement a strike back at the people behind the Code itself, which is where you come in. They know you hacked into the Code and that you possess the abilities to break it given the right equipment. However, they thought a plan to rescue you from the city was shear suicide and doomed to failure, which is when they thought of me, the crazy war hound left in the closet to rot. And here I am. I am to take you back to my island, where you will find the equipment and the safety you need to work on and break the Code. You’ll be there for up to a year, while the agency collaborates a global strike against the Code. The year off of any serious activity is also supposed to lure the Code people into a false sense of security or something like that. The battle won, the Code and its masters vanquished, everyone’s happy and they start manufacturing candy bars again and selling cheap rotgut food at fast food restaurants all over the nation, as everyone tries to put out of their memory how they almost ate great uncle Fred or as the case may be for some, did. Then judging by my own experience of the way politicians work, I’m sure that with so much freedom stealing, regulation will be put into place to make sure something like this never happens again. The weight of those oppressive regulations will in turn ensure that it will happen again, as some bright boy or girl out there gets the entirely unoriginal idea to play God, because they know what’s best for everyone, which is just a dark outward delusion best put in that they want everyone to worship and adore cute little evil minded them, even if they have to arrange it at the expense of torture, as they make everyone’s lives a living hell.”
A slight smile curved Asia’s full lips, “A little sarcastic don’t you think?”
“Being the half crazy person in the room I’m allowed at least two half-baked paranoid conspiracy notions a day before my medications kick in.”
She laughed softly and I found myself wondering how I could make her do it again. She was looking at me in all seriousness now.
“So I’m to be with you on your island for a year, while I work on breaking the Code?”
“That’s right and perhaps even longer.”
Her gaze became somewhat sarcastic itself, “And you agreed to your part in all of this, because you want to save the world?”
“Nope. The world’s done nothing for me, so why should I risk myself and save it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like what I’m seeing in terms of destruction, but I don’t have a dog in the fight so to speak.”
“Then what payment were you offered to perform your duties?” She asked cautiously.
“You. You were offered as payment. You and a request from an old acquaintance are why I’m here.”
She stood up stiffly, as she put weight on her ankle, “I don’t like your deal!”
“I don’t imagine that you would, but the deals been made and all that remains is for me to collect payment, which I will.”
She backed away from me then to the bedroom and closed the door and locked it. I sat there staring at the door in brooding passion.
I stared at the door all day long.
I wanted to give her time.
Why did I want to give her time? Exactly! There’d been enough time gone by already.
I rose to my feet and approached the door. My foot lifted and I kicked the door hard and it shattered backward, even as I stepped into the room. She swung around toward me and it was clear that she knew what was coming, as she started backing away from me, as far as the room would allow.
“This only has to be as hard on you as you make it to be.” Was all that I said, as I approached her, even as I willed my aroused consciousness sparked by the fear in her eyes, to be silent.
She wasn’t succumbing quietly, but whacked me several times with articles that she could lay a hand to. She was still too weak from the fever to really resist though and I picked her up with relative ease and tossed her on the bed. She tried to scuttle off of it, but I pulled her back and pinned her beneath me.
I let her beat at me with her fists unimpeded, as I captured her lips in a savage kiss of need. My need.
I let her mouth go and she gasped for air in panicked fright. I grabbed her shirt and tore it down the front and pulled it apart to reveal her smooth skin. I debated about tearing the pretty bra off, but I didn’t need to rush this and doing so might hurt her.
I kissed the upper swell of one breast above her bra line, as I worked my way up toward her neck. I felt the point of the knife dig into my side enough to break the skin. I had been expecting this.
I continued on my journey, as I dared her to plunge the knife in deep. The knife pressed in deeper and it hurt, but all I did was to continue to press kisses against her throat. The knife left and I heard it clatter to the floor, where she’d tossed it like I knew she would. She wanted to break the Code more than anything and to do that she needed me alive.
It was a dirty underhanded way to get the best of her, but it had worked and now she was mine for the taking. She’d gone still beneath me and showed no further sign of resistance to the inevitable. Curious I drew back a little and met her eyes. She was still breathing a little hard, but her face was strangely calm and her eyes direct, as she watched me.
“Can we talk a little before you continue?” She husked out softly.
I couldn’t deny her that and I nodded my acceptance of a temporary lull in the action.
“Thank you. I don’t even know your name.”
“John.” I said softly.
“John may I ask you a question?”
I nodded.
“What do you want most?”
That seemed like a silly question, “You!” I said for lack of a better answer to the obvious.
“Your deal with this Agency, although I don’t like it, I have to admit that it’s binding, because as by now you know that I would sacrifice anything in order to break the Code and you give me my best chance to do that.” She gestured with her head off to where she’d tossed the knife for emphasis of her point.
“But deal or no deal John, I don’t deserve to be treated like this.” She pulled both of her hands up to lay beside her head and exposed her wrists to me in a sign of surrender.
“I’m yours John, but you can only have me one of two ways. I won’t fight you anymore. You can do with me as you please, but know this John! If you continue to take me now against my will, I will hate you for it! Whatever joy you hope to achieve from being with me will disappear and you will long for the day, when you can get rid of me. There is, however, a second option open to you.”
My hands gripped over top of her wrists and I pressed them into the bed, as I more or less growled into her face, “I’m not letting you go!” My head started to descend back towards her neck.
“Please hear me out! Please John!”
I stopped.
“Thank you! I’ll make it quick I promise!”
There she was again with the infernal manners!
Her tone was utter sincerity as she spoke, “If you stop right now and give me the respect that I deserve, as a person, I will pledge myself to you for forever!”
“What?” I exclaimed completely baffled by her words.
“If you give me time to get to know you, understand you, and even care for you, when I’m ready I’ll become your lover. I’ll do anything you ask of me and I’ll try to please you in any way that you want. I won’t hold anything back from you. More than that I’ll cook for you, and anything else a mate would do for her spouse. I’ll bear your children and I’ll give you my heart, if you want it. John you can have a small part of me or you can have all of me. The choice is yours, either way I’ll honor my part of the deal and be yours.”
I couldn’t believe it! How did she twist up words so emotionally? I pressed down on her wrists harder trying to gain some measure of control over the situation that was spiraling away from me.
“I’m the one who’s in control here!” I shouted down into her face.
She was crying softly now, “Yes you are and I hope you make the right choice for both of us!”
I stared at her feeling my astonishment grow.
“Why would you offer me so much of yourself?”
“I have the option of learning to enjoy the rest of my life with you or spend it in shame shattered and broken by you. Which would you choose?” Her eyes were completely sincere, as she stared up at me imploringly.
I had never expected anything like this! I didn’t know what to think!
“You’re just saying all this to get out of me taking you!” I accused hotly.
She shook her head vigorously no, “No I’m not! I swear it!”
“I’ve been tricked before!” I said not letting up on her.
“But not by me! I swear it on my faith that what I have said is the truth!”
“Faith! What good is faith?” I raged.
“It’s all I have left.” She responded softly looking up at me in complete sincerity.
I was probably hurting her wrists. I let go of them. I didn’t want to hurt her. I just thought that was the only way I could ever have her.
“What’s wrong with you?” I accused harshly.
I swung away from her and onto my feet and with a roar I sank both of my fists into the wall. My fists busted through the drywall and out the other side, but it did nothing to calm the wrath that I felt.
“What the hell is the matter with me!” I raged out, as I stalked from the room.