57: The pull between them

The pull between them

Adela couldn't meet Egon's gaze as he delicately lifted her mask with his thumb and index finger then placed it in the pocket of his black trousers. Instead, she stared long and hard at his shapely lips as they twitched down.1

"Let's start with the most recent triggers,"

With every word he spoke, Egon's warm breath tickled her ear. He held her cold hand with his gloved one, intertwining their fingers. Hers were unusually small for a woman of her height, almost childlike in comparison to his large hands.

"Perhaps I was jealous when he held your hand,"

A jolt of electricity coursed through her palm as he placed his other gloved hand on the small of her bare back. She gasped at the sensation.

"Is this where he held you when you waltzed together?" 

No! She wanted to object, but fear held her tongue. She didn't want to come across as pleading.

"Did he lose himself in those rebellious eyes of yours... like this?"

Her heart raced with pain and anticipation as his dark brown eyes bore into hers.

"Egon…"

He brought their intertwined hands to her mouth and brushed her finger against her own lips. His eyes grew even darker beneath his furrowed eyebrows, his lips parting, his chest heaving just as fast as hers.

"Did you ever think that I was jealous when you laughed with others the way you never do with me? Or when your hand grazed another man's cheek... like this..."

He placed her hand on his cheek and leaned his face into hers, pressing against her palm with a tortured expression. He dipped his nose and inhaled deeply at her wrist.

Her head spun and her knees buckled beneath her. She was trapped between the wall behind her and the wall of muscle in front of her, every part of her body was set aflame, she felt his leathered fingers digging in her flesh at the lowest part of her back, carrying some of her weight for her.

"Egon…"

She required clarity of thought, yet her mind felt somewhat disengaged. If only he would afford her some space, if only for a moment to catch her breath.

"Egon…"

The tremor she felt where their body touched was startling, and with her disorientation, it took her two seconds to understand that her body was not the source of the shivers. 

"I can't" his deep voice sounded strangled right before he moved forward a step, pinning her to the wall behind them with his hips, keeping his gloved hand between her exposed back and the cold wall behind her.

For the first time in her life, Adela wanted nothing more than to surrender. She closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side.

As if he had been looking forward to this opportunity, his soft lips – the only soft part about him – brushed across the side of her neck, leaving small, very sweet kisses in their wake.

"This is neither the place nor the time," 

His anguished retaliatory words couldn't have been aimed at her. However, she had no words of comfort for him, knowing that he was responsible for putting them both in this situation now of all times.

Not possessing the power to wince anymore, she slightly frowned when his leathered fingers grasped her chin and lifted her head, holding her in place under his mercy.

"Open your eyes," he whispered.

The gentleness of his request made her eyelids snap open. The last thing she expected to see was an equally gentle look on his face.

"Do you want me to continue?" he asked.

What? His campaign to completely possess her mind, body, and soul? Or was he referring to the jealousy stories he had harbored for so long?

She managed to shake her head once, her eyes finally meeting his. She was once again taken aback by how warm they appeared.

"I have stories that go back to the day I first saw you arguing with your beloved knight outside that wretched cottage," he said.

"Were you...were you there?" she asked.

He smirked bitterly. "It was the first time you ran away from me, and I have been following you ever since."

The urge to memorize every part of his face and savor this moment in the depths of her memory was overwhelming and ill-timed. She wished she had some power left in her hand to trace his handsome face with her finger. It was only fair for her to touch him too, he certainly touched her too much.

"Adela!" Arkin's urgent voice called from behind the window.

Egon's deep voice quickly followed. "Ignore that call if you do not wish me to take you right here, right now, never to return you again."

She didn't know if he was making a death threat, but when Egon's eyes returned to her lips and he brushed his leathery finger against her full bottom lip this time, she certainly felt like she was about to die.

"I have been stuck in a limbo between man and monster for so long now... Will you be the final nail in my coffin, Adela?" he murmured, his finger now tracing her slightly thinner upper lip.

His words were far from resembling romantic ones. So why was she willing to do as he said just now? To go with him and never return again to the only place she ever knew and loved?

"Adela!" Larissa's voice interrupted this time.

Her heart ached, her body objected when Egon pushed himself away from her. Without her permission, her hand grabbed his arm.

"Stay close to me...it hurts," she placed a hand on her chest.

He took one more step backward. "Do you...are you feeling the pull too?"

"A pull?" It felt more like shackles, ones she never wanted to be free of.

Something else had kept her up for the last two nights, something that came to her after repeating every word Egon had ever told her. His mostly incomprehensible sentences had gained new meaning after that.

Having caught her breath, she looked up at him with clear green eyes. "How come only I can see the change in your eyes?"

Were they both beasts? Did that connect them?

Before he could provide an answer, Egon retreated to the furthest corner of the balcony just before Larissa came out.

She looked horrified when she turned around and found her sister.

"It's Father! We must hurry to him!"

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