Dalliance - Z.M. (An Exquisites Original Story)

14; Echoes Of Silence

Chapter 14

"You're such a masochist and I ask why. And you reply, I like the thrill."

(Raine's POV)

He's lit up another cigarette by the time we reach his house. No, not the frat house - the secret house that he told me never to tell a soul about.

I watch him as he runs a hand through his hair, his cigarette balances loosely at the corner of his mouth. Silent the whole car ride, Zayn hasn't said anything after I basically told him that I want to fuck him. It's not at all what I expected from a man who has been waiting for that since the moment he first laid eyes on me this year.

Locking the apartment door, he walks over to his bedroom, opening the door and walking inside. I'm left standing in his living room, alone, confused and a little bit worried about Zayn.

After kicking off my slippers and working on untying my scarf from my neck, I follow him into his bedroom to see him sitting on his bed, his cigarette between his fingers, his back arched as he leans over and rests his elbows on his knees.

"Zayn?"

He looks up at me with hooded eyes and a deep passion. I catch my breath, but I just walk over and sit beside him on the bed. His eyes follow me until I'm sitting brushed up against him, and even then his eyes are on me.

"What's wrong?" I ask, taking the cigarette from his hands and bringing it up to my own lips. He watches me, his mouth parted, his eyes focused on my lips and I inhale in the cigarette.

He lets out a breath the same time I do, completely taken. "I'm worried about you, Raine."

"Why?" I turn to look at him, my eyes focused on his darkened ones.

"I got you into this mess," he admits, his shoulders sinking. "What if I can't get you out?"

"That's not your job." I set my hand on his jaw, stroking his beard softly. "It was my fault for following you and now I have to face the consequences."

He sighs, knowing that I'm right. I shouldn't have followed him in there, and that's the plain truth. Then, I wouldn't have seen a man die in front of me tonight, coldly and ruthlessly.

Shaking my thoughts out of my head, I focus on Zayn, the only good thing coming out of all of this - my distraction.

"I don't want to talk about all of that," I brush him off, standing up from the bed and looking around for an ashtray. Once I find one, I crush the cigarette and spin around to see Zayn walking towards me, his bottom lip caught between his teeth.

"Listen to me, Raine," he husks, taking my face in his hands and gripping firmly. Swallowing hard, I look up at him, my heart racing. "It's not going to get better. Tonight you saw a man get shot, tomorrow you might see one being tortured until he bleeds out. This isn't going to get easier."

"Zayn, I don't want to talk about it."

He shakes his head. "You have to, Raine. Tell me what's on your mind, I want to know."

"Zayn," I snap, my tone apparent with an edge on it. "If you brought me here to talk, then I'm not going to, alright? I don't want to fucking talk about what happened tonight, or what's going to happen tomorrow night, or any of that. I'm just asking you to be my distraction, to take me out of whatever I got myself into for just a couple of hours. That's it."

He clenches his jaw under his skin, his eyes dark with anger. For some reason, he's upset that I'm not talking to him. But I don't want to talk, for fuck's sake. What happened tonight was cold-blooded murder and there was no way around that. I could've prevented it and didn't, and now there's a man dead because of me. How can I talk about that?