S C O R P I O N
I didn't see my second again for the rest of the week.
But I knew him well enough to know when to stay out of his affairs... however many he seemed to have. The Empress' invitation to Sector 1 was tomorrow. I still didn't know of her plans or even what the night would hold–only that we should look the part to show we are taking them seriously.
I had half a mind to arrive with ten fully armed units just to test her word that she had removed her Dawn Guard.
"What's wrong Alex?" Makayla asked, lying on her stomach with a sketchpad below her. Those sky blue eyes didn't need to lift to sense my unease. Paper sketchpads were surprisingly hard to find in the outer sectors...
I took my chin out of my hand and rose from the desk. I stood before the large bed appraising her half wrapped in bedsheets and gloriously naked. The blue lights from the window kissed her skin.
"Proximo. Dawn Guard. Everything." I answered carefully.
She chewed her lip for a moment in focus before setting the pencil down and spinning it towards me.
"I can tell."
I scanned the image of a woman propped at a desk with a hood drawn in shadow over her eyes and a frown on her lips. I smirked and appreciated the attention to detail she created. I knew she had talent but this went beyond just a hobby.
"Is it too late for me to join an art club?" I said with a knowing look.
"You wouldn't have the patience." She answered in sureness.
I snorted and took a seat on the bed near her. I felt her move before she tossed the pad away and slowly wrapped her arms around my stomach, kissing my neck. I sighed into her and her arms tightened against me along with her body heat.
"I hear the southern continent is nice this time of year." I quipped, half hearted.
She smiled against my skin and murmured near my ear.
"Sure. Another vacation sounds good."
"I doubt the rest here would fare so well..."
"Does Proximo even know what vacation means?" She said dryly.
I smiled and tilted my head to see the side of her own. "At this point I think I need reminding, Makayla." I said, exhaling with a humourless laugh.
Her fingers traced over a scar across my neck before running down my arm again. I let her continue to map every line and bullet mark before she found the tattoos down my right arm and settled for tracing their design.
"Do I pass inspection?" I murmured.
"Not even close." She answered, distracted herself. "I think we need a full body check."
"So it is my body you want me for..."
"Oh no, Scorpion. I want that–" Her finger landed directly over my heart but I played oblivious.
"My breasts? Makayla that is shallow–" She scowled at me before grabbing my chin and making me meet those ice blue eyes.
"You're lucky I love you." She murmured low.
But I nodded seriously.
"I know."
She pushed me back on the bed and sprawled out beside me like a cat. A very naked one. It was hard not to turn my head and stare at every curve and line of her, but I kept my eyes on the ceiling.
"Laying with you like this... Reminds me of the first time you kissed me." She said low.
"Trust me, I remember it vividly." I stated.
"You weren't worried about how I'd react–" She mused, "–you just acted like you knew."
I shook my head. "I didn't have a clue how you'd react. But you'd just held a knife to my throat so I thought we were past that extreme. I could at least find the courage to see what it felt like."
"I'm glad you did." She murmured. "Even the bluff before."
"Actually, I wasn't bluffing." She stilled and rolled onto her side to watch me. "I was... becoming rather detached when you found me. Whatever was left of my soul grew darker every day I held the title. I suppose I'd locked my humanity so far away that not even fear and death mattered."
"Alex..."
"It's alright." I shook the thoughts away and met her pained gaze. "Some Emperor's daughter shot the life right back into me painfully. It all happened so damn fast–it was like a blur of blonde hair and champagne."
She grinned and wrapped her arm around my waist to draw close to my side. I freed my own so I could trail my hand across her back. "You know minus the Underworld and iron rule, I may have been getting closer to where your mind was..."
"Don't tell me rich people have problems too?" I uttered dripping sarcasm.
Her glare made me smile devilishly.
"Okay so my soul wasn't blackening from being surrounded by death and power–but being stuck in a glass tower isn't all its cut out to be–Alex!" I was shaking with laughter under her before she had even finished and her slap just sent me further.
"I'm sorry–continue. Please."
"No. You ruined it."
I smiled and kissed her head. "Please, Xavier. I'll be good."
She raised her head.
"Actually it sounds worse in my head now than it did before." She admitted.
I fought another laugh. But instead traced my eyes over the curve of her body draped across my own. She played oblivious and pushed off me to stretch her arms above her tauntingly slow.
"Sometimes I feel I've corrupted you... Then you remind me how wrong I am." I finally got out.
She smiled faintly.
"And sometimes I feel I purify you... but then you look at me like that." She deadpanned.
I cut my eyes up to her own. They watched me knowingly. Intently.
"You act so innocent when you are anything but." I retorted slowly.
My response disappointed her and I smirked. She rolled across me then, placing her perfectly smooth legs on either side of me. It was a game I knew well, but she had another thing coming if she thought I was distracted that easily.
She propped her arms on either side of my head and lowered herself to me.
"Feeling corrupt yet?" She murmured onto my lips.
I left my hands at my sides and watched her calmly.
"I didn't consent to this." I mocked right back.
She grinned slowly and ran her fingers across my face. I watched the smooth lines of her lips and the way they parted slightly. She was relentless when she wanted something.
"Such a powerful and stoic leader." She teased, running those fingers over my lips lightly. "Right up until I have a say in it."
"Do you see me grovelling, Makayla?" I drawled with a far more amused smile.
She pulled her hand back and scanned my face. Then she shrugged and made to get up. I wrapped my arm around her waist and put her below me in the time it took her to gasp.
I kissed her hard.
Who cared if I did struggle to think clearly with her in the room? No one in this city with a sane mind would–and no one would dare.
Her hands ran across my neck and pulled my head up to meet her kiss. I didn't give her much time to take a breath and she didn't seem to care. The way her body was heating against my own was sending basic needs like oxygen to a far away place.
I ran my hands along her lower back and across her hips. She shivered against me and took in an uneven breath near my neck. Then she started kissing it–with her tongue. It did things to my own breathing. I slipped my hands under her thighs and pulled her knees up around my hips. The way her body pressed me now made her need clear.
I groaned when that need moved tauntingly against me.
I felt my wrist holo demand my attention. I ignored it as easily as I drew in her lips again more intensely. It went off again and Makayla turned and slid it off me before throwing it behind her.
"Scorpion is indisposed today." She whispered, before running her tongue along my neck.
"That has never sounded so good." I retorted breathless.
A knock pounded against the door.
"Fuck off Proximo!" I called, without even glancing at it.
Makayla was still shamelessly kissing my neck but it soon turned into a giggle when the pounding came again.
"Where's my gun."
She placed her hands on my shoulders and shoved me back down.
"I'll get it."
"Like hell you will." I growled, hooking a leg between hers and rolling her back below me the same way an adversary would. She pouted and the knock came louder this time–more intent.
I tore myself off her and left her in the sheets. My pace was fast to the door and I pulled a fusion pistol off the table as I did.
"You better not use that!" She called at my back before I scanned the security bar and it opened to me. But when I levelled the barrel, it was not Proximo I was looking at. The guard paled and his eyes dropped to the floor.
"Scorpion–I apologise–"
"Speak now or waste my time. See how well it goes."
He straightened and the sweat increased.
"Proximo has–and the woman–and there was gunshots in the–his quarters–"
"Stop." I interrupted, lowering the gun. "You mean to tell me you are interrupting because Proximo's stripper has tried to kill him?"
His face drained of more colour when I put it that starkly. He held his hands together.
"Well–yes but it is quite serious–"
"I'm sure it is. Let me know if she lands a kill shot." I answered, letting the door slide shut in his face. I tossed the gun aside and shook my head.
The moment I turned back to Makayla my comm was buzzing in the corner from the close comm line. I groaned loudly and cast my head to the ceiling. "Why does no one in this base have a life without ruining my own?"
Makayla's laugh from the bed made me eye her suspiciously.
She had her own wrist holo raised and set a hologram before us of Proximo standing outside his quarters with a bloody nose and what looked like a high heel in his hand. His door opened suddenly and the Kuzo stripper he was so smitten with emerged with a bag full of what I could assume were belongings–or stolen items.
She slapped him hard across the face and walked two steps before turning back and kissing him hard. Then she stormed off.
My brows went up.
Despite the fact that several agents were watching and documenting the show was something else. Even his own expression was dazed until he caught sight of a guard filming from his holo.
"Give me that NOW!" He roared, before the comm went dead.
Makayla and I stared at each other for a few seconds before the laughter rushed out and she rolled back into the sheets. "What in the hell–is going on with him Alex?"
"Just." I took a deep breath and sobered. "–don't. I want nothing to do with that man's interests. I don't pay him for it."
"You've got to admit you never saw this coming from Proximo."
"From emotionless asexual to sudden heartbreaker?" I drawled. "No, Makayla I didn't see it. But I sure as shit will not let him forget this."
She started replaying the holo again before I could stop her. Before he could stop anyone. It was already on the inner circle feed. I shook my head watching that dark eyed woman slap him hard again in front of a crowded hallway.
Oh Proximo... You really have lost unbreakable edge.
I wasn't naive enough not to see this was a direct result of Artella Maxim.