Satine | KTH

34. Dropping Like Flies

Everyone was avoiding him.

"My girl," Tae whispered, welcoming her to stand prettily between his legs. He twirled a strand of her fiery hair, watching intently as she began fiddling with the string of his joggers.

She looked thirsty, but not in the way he expected. It wasn't about the pleasure or the desire to be touched by the man she loved; it was simpler than that.

It was the rarity of having his undivided attention.

Her sloe-eyes anchored their attention on the man opposite, studying him with an intense longing.

"I haven't been good to you, have I?" Shame crinkled his brow as her feline eyes enlarged.

"It's a subjective question," Satine responded instantly. As much as it pained her, she couldn't confront him. It had been engraved into her brain with a bloodied knife to give him her all.

Taehyung shook his head. "I've taken advantage of knowing you'll always be there. I'm sorry, I'll do better."

They both let out a breath and Taehyung pressed a kiss against her bare chest.

Trying to hold back tears, Satine opened her mouth without thinking. It was overwhelming, coming face to face with the man she adored and having him confess his wrongdoings. The words were on the tip of her tongue.

"I love-"

But Taehyung interrupted before she could even finish. "What do you wanna do, Red? We can do anything, you name it. We can watch TV, order some takeout, lie in bed?"

Composing herself quickly, she wrapped her arms around his neck and stomped her feet happily. "Really?" She gasped, barely able to contain her joy.

A saddened frown invaded Taehyung's handsome features. He was offering her the bare minimum and she took it as the world. "I just haven't been there for you recently, I've been selfish, so let's do something you want to do."

Satine reminded him more and more of his mother as the days went by. She always had a smile on her face too, and avoided focusing on the inevitable heartache that loomed in the future. It seemed history was intent on repeating itself. Taehyung's father was a dirty cheat, sometimes right in front of his mother's nose. It was all an act of control, taunting the woman he loved with competition, hoping she would suddenly develop the initiative to fight.

All psychopaths want is to be admired and respected. They want the person they obsess over to want them just as much; to match their crazy.

It's just not how love works.

One will always love the other more, and as fucked up as it sounds, the reason Taehyung's father was so psychotic was because he was insanely in love with his wife. He was just never going to get the reaction he so desired.

"We could go up to the roof and throw water balloons at people walking past... or knives?" Satine's voice lowered as if she was trying to seduce him with mischief.

"Tempting," he nipped at the skin around her breast. "Or we could do something else..."

He traced her nude body down, grasping her outer thighs. There was no getting used to a body like Satine's, she was steeped in blood-red passion and dripping seduction.

"What are these?" He suddenly asked as his eyes landed on a littering of red bruises on the inside of her leg.

Nothing fuels fury like the audacity of another man.

That evening he walked out of his bedroom to Satine glowing, he realised that it couldn't have been his doing. Somebody else was watering his rose and he wanted nothing more than to put that spark out.