Not Playing by the rules

Chapter 2

He still wore the same perfume which he used to wear eleven years before. Athena did not need to look up at the man to know that this was the man she had been engaged to eleven years ago, whom she had adored since childhood and loved since she was a teenager and dreamt of marrying when he came back from law school. Well, that did not happen since he took off from their engagement party without even taking a look at her or knowing who she was.

It was eleven years since she had hated this man for ruining her life. And today he was here finally standing in front of her. It was as if a cruel joke was being played on her. When she had headed out from her home to a new path never in her wildest dreams had she considered the fact that she would be encountering the man that she had hated since the last eleven years..

But at some corner of her mind she wanted this man to notice her which is why she called out for a second drink.

“If you don’t mind may I have this seat please?” asked Leon, his voice as sexy as always, maybe a bit more. Athena looked up at him and decided that time had been generous while treating this man.

She smiled knowing that if not attract it would intrigue him and said,” Would it really make any difference if I say no to you? This is an empty place with only two inhabitants as far as I have noticed, so you can do whatever you wish.”

Leon’s brows shot up to his fore-head. What kind of answer was that at all?

“If I am bothering you under any circumstances then I should certainly take my leave. You enjoy your drink Miss. I think my advances are being considered unwelcome here,” said Leon and turned away to move towards another table.

“You did not probably understand the meaning of what I said,” called back the red-haired beauty and Leon turned back at the comment.

“What was there to misunderstand?” he asked, as if retorted.

“What I tried to say was that I had not expected any company at this dilapidated place any time soon but when you are already here, then I would sure would not mind your company. After all they say, that good company always eases time and pain much easier than being in solitude,” said Athena.

“Don’t let Flora hear you saying that. Our hostess might not exactly like if you call her establishment ‘dilapidated’,” said Leon, as he took a seat and smiled back at the invitation.

What she did not want was to lose a chance of conversation with the man who had never exactly paid any attention to her while she was growing up apart from the occasional nods at the family gatherings and parties. She had been never a looker like the blonde blue-eyed precious dolls who were the Queen-Bee at school but that did not stop her from day-dreaming about the hottest boy everyone drooled on.

“The women I normally meet in my daily line of work do not like drinking anything other than half goblet of wine. So are you nursing a broken heart, if I am not too intrusive?” asked Leon watching her intently.

Athena who was wiping the rim of the whiskey tumbler looked at him and peered in his eyes and smiled once again. Then she said,” Broken hearts are for those who have one. I don’t.”

“You don’t actually believe that, do you? That you do not have a heart? It is very stoic thing to say for someone as gorgeous as you,” said Leon as he nodded his head in amazement.

Leon watched her eyes for any sign of malice but found nothing in them other than curiosity in them. Flora came in with the bottle of whiskey, tumbler and a pitcher of ice and few more pieces of lemon in a tray and placed in between them and said,” So I shall leave you two to it..”

“To be quite honest I must say that I have never found anyone so much interesting since back when I was in my teens. And that too my interest were the heroines of Sidney Sheldon,” said Leon taking his tumbler and pouring a generous amount of whiskey in it and dropping three cubes of ice.

Athena watched his hands move and three ice cubes dropped in his drink. The last time she had seen him doing this was when she was wearing her ice-blue princess gown and sneaking peeks on him before the announcement was made formally. Three ice-cubes was Leon’s signature that he was in his comfort zone, according to his mother.

“I am terribly rude to ask you this but I cannot help but wonder why would you drop three ice-cubes in your whiskey when the normal count is even?” asked Athena still looking at him drinking his masculine handsomeness like she could never before.

“It is just an old habit I picked up at college, and as they say old habits die hard,” said Leon with a wink and then added, ”And it is terribly rude of me to have not introduced myself. I am Rhys and you are Miss?”

“I am known as Alice,” replied Athena when she heard him saying a false name.

“Wow!! Parents fan of Lewis Carol? Alice in Wonderland was definitely one of the most interesting reads in my childhood,” said Leon as he took a swig of his whiskey. Athena knew that it was his favourite book as a child which was precisely the reason she said that name.

“And who was your favourite character? Please don’t tell me it was Jabberwocky!!” said Athena as she laughed at her own words.

“Well not favourite character for sure, but favourite monster definitely. I recall that I had written an essay on Jabberwocky and his importance in the whole novel but my favourite character was the Red Queen. I could relate to her extensively,” he replied, a bit thoughtful.

“Why with the Red Queen? You don’t particularly look very villainous to me which was essential in order to relate with her,” she commented.

“I never thought her to be the villain. I always have considered her to be a figure of power who knew how to keep her subjects dominated, under control, she was the rightful heir to the crown and the throne but because how everyone treated her from childhood she grew bitter but the basic background remained absolutely same, that she knew how to wield power. I think that it has not been interpreted this way but for me the Red Queen was the very first domme I came in contact with in literature,” said Leon, looking at Athena.

“I would consider that to be a very interesting way of putting it considering the fact that I was named after one of the principal characters but still I never thought it like that,” replied Athena, keeping up the pretense of being Alice.

“That might be because normally children are not hard-wired to think things in that way at all. Domination, submission, these are foreign concepts to still most of the people who think introducing bondage means that they have become experts of b**m,” said Leon, looking at woman sitting opposite to him carefully to check what would be her reaction to his comments.

Athena looked back at him not casting down her eyes. She knew that he was trying to gauge the waters, he was trying to understand where they stood even after his admission. It was a battle of wills. She smiled inwardly because if Leon had considered that he was going to shame her or make her buckle down under the words that he was deliberately speaking then he for sure was going to lose always. Because she for anything was not going to lose any single battle with her worst enemy. He might be same hot and delectable as he was before but that did not stop her from hating him even an ounce.

“You have a very interesting choice of words and topic even if we are having this for the very first time. If you see it that way then life should be pretty well very interesting for you I consider,” replied Athena as she took another gulp from her glass and opened the bottle to pour another two fingers of the liquor.

“I only wish that what you were saying is true. To my utter misfortune I am yet to meet someone who understands me as well as I need her to,” said Leon, with a wan smile tugging at his lips.

“Well Rhys if you don’t mind. I have travelled a long way tonight and I am really tired. I would like some rest,” said Athena as earnestly as she could as she rose up from the table.

“You don’t look tired at all to me, probably because you are so radiantly beautiful. Sure I can’t tempt you for a night cap? In my room?” asked Leon huskily as he went closer to her with a mere distance of two fingers between their lips.

Her breath grew faster and her heart started racing and her palms grew sweaty. Athena knew that she should slap him and leave the place but her body betrayed her as she closed the distance between them and placed her lips on his.

Leon was expecting her to do so and pulled her in closer to his body as her odour invaded his senses and he deepened the kiss tasting strawberry, vanilla and whiskey all at the same time. He placed his hand just beneath the arch of her breasts and gripped her back and held her neck in place as he kissed this woman he met a few minutes ago with reckless abandon. They both came up breathless from the hot kiss they shared.

“I think that I am tempted to take up on the offer,” replied Athena huskily with her eyes closed and lips still on Leon’s.

“Good thinking and right choice. Because if you had not I would have carried you away to my room and locked you there till you said yes,” said Leon even more huskily as he caressed her cheeks and sought the key of his room which was on his tray.

“And now you won’t?” asked Athena raising her brows as if a challenge.

Leon growled and swung her up in his arms after pocketing the key and went towards the stairs which were just beside the reception table and went up while Athena hung upon him like she had no weight of her own.

Leon opened the room placing the key in the brass keyhole expecting a dirty tattered room with an equally dirty bed but the room he stepped into was something he had dreamed of always. He did not waste time by saying or observing the room anymore and placed Athena on the bed and kissed her without warning. Athena kissed him back making him shrug off the jacket as they lip locked.

“You must lock the door Rhys,” said Athena stressing on his name hoping to get his attention. Leon pulled off with a groan and locked the door from inside placing the key on the shelf adjacent to the mirror.

Athena raised her feet on the bed and watched him walk back towards her with one singular intent on his mind. Ravishing her. She stopped him with a finger and said one word,”Strip.”

Leon raised his brow as if in question but stood there without moving. Athena looked back at him with a smirk as if he could not rise up to her challenge.

And just at that man of her dreams and her nightmares smiled.