DICHOTOMY™

• TRIGGER •

The man clenched his fists over the next second. He eyed her so intensely that it felt he was burning her entire being into flames. But instead, he was the one burning in an even intense, inexplicable miasma.

She was facing him now with such a confident expression. Their faces were too close now. Their breaths mingled and diffused into each others, and she was wearing her usual, pretentiously sweet and professional smile.

This was not the smile he wanted to crush. This smile, which seemed as if she had been trained on gunpoint to practice it a thousand times.

"It has been so long that I have been so rude. And have forgotten to express my gratitude.

Thank you for such a generosity, Sir.", she said in a soft voice but which was stern. It was empty of any meaning. She never wanted to express any gratitude to this man.

Even more absurd was that he was probably many years her senior. And yet she was not timid to face him.

Stubborn Woman!

He smirked. He liked a good challenge. He liked how she was his main challenge. This was the reason he had designated her as a pastime.

She was unpredictable.

He had expected her to at best, get blood rushing in her body and fall weak on her knees for him; at worst, just cover away and cry out in fear.

But this unpredictable beauty was smiling to him so murkily. Her words sounded so contradictory to what he could see in her.

She loathed him. She was tensed inside. But decided not to show it. Stiff. Indignant. Her straight posture with head up screamed that she will not back away. Her empty smirk still screamed power and dignity.

Alex maintained a fierce eye contact with him from which none of them backed down. His beautiful black crystals pierced through her warm brown ones. It was a demonstration of power. One to avert their eyes lost. She had learnt it the hard way.

"Yes, Alexandra." he replied, his voice hoarse. These moments were his saving graces. When he was able to prevent himself from not completely destroying her.

The voices in Alex's head quieted as soon as they heard him. She felt as if they were still there, but were caving away in a corner, and were shaking into submission. His voice quietened her voices, tamed them and even satiated them.

But, the President's own hands were itching to do something. Anything. They staved off the ache to do something truly reversible and horrible. Anything that could break her.

Break that poised facade named Alexandra Bridgette.

Alexandra was indeed a bit tense on facing him. But she wanted to prove that she will not allow herself to be played in his palms. She was here to work, she would get lost then. He had no control over her to humiliate her as he did on that day.

So, she wanted to appear stronger than she actually was. But she did not assume that the President was seeing right through her. Like a transparent glass doll.

A glass doll he would love to stain in different colors and then smash it into million pieces.

He raised himself from her face still keeping his eyes on her. After quiet a while, the heavy tension filled air between them dampened as a gentle voice yanked him to reality.

"I have all your meetings arranged and recorded by Mr. Harry and as you instructed, I have all those materials covered in the meantime. I hope I can be a capable - "

"How long have you been there?"

"I came up not long ago, Sir.", she answered with a slight frown. She was standing utterly disheveled due to her recent episode. But was she not stuck on ignoring him? Why was she trying to outsmart his nerve now when she knew she would fail miserably.