Sin With Me; One Night with the Bully

Years of Florian Hunt

ROXANNE'S P.O.V.

I hesitated by the door of the mansion, my hands wrapped around me. Florian stopped walking and turned to me, his brows furrowed. I hated just how fickle my mind was, and now all I could see when I looked at him was the feral anger he had shown just earlier.

I wasn't even sure why I felt the way I did, but I did have a few guesses. Maybe it was because that scene of him was so different from the person I really knew him as. Maybe it was that I knew he was hiding something from me now. Maybe it was because there was a possibility he had done all of those for some other woman.

I was leaning more towards the last.

Call it demons or the devil himself, but there was something about thevwayche had acted earlier that made me yearn for that sort of reaction. It had warmed me seeing what he did to Damien, but now...

"Rox."

I bit down on my lips. "I need to know, Florian."

He put his hands behind his back, his brow raising. "Won't you come home first?"

"Exactly. I need to know if this... this place was really meant to be my home, or if I am a placeholder for a woman you lost."

His expression didn't change much, and he nodded slowly. "I have a feeling whatever I say won't make you come in."

"Do you blame me?"

"I do," he said, his voice low. "I honestly do blame you because this is not the first time you are doing this. This is not the first time you are refusing to trust me against Ronan. Weirdly, between your brother and I, only one of us has proven to be untrustworthy, and it isn't me."

I blinked, my chest tightening with guilt and doubt. I knew what I had seen. I knew the things I had seen in his eyes. I am confused. Lost. I feel like I am walking with no destination, and it all feels so unreal.

And he was right. Ronan was untrustworthy. He had done nothing to warrant my trust. To warrant this level of truth I keep attributing to his words.

"Give me something to believe, then. I beg of you, Florian."

He took in a deep breath. "Come in, Roxanne. It's laye and you haven't, had anything to..."

"Food is the last thing on my mind right now, Florian. I don't care about..."

"I do," he said, cutting me off, his eyes dark. "I care about what you do to yourself because despite everything, you are still the first thing on my mind. You always have been. You always will be."

I blinked, my chest heaving. I could remember Ronan's words, about the gallery, about the way he was with...

I shook my head, my heart beat slowing. Down dangerously.

"You... since back then... your friendship with Ronan... the frequent visits, the flowers..."

"Why are you asking these when.."

"I didn't word it as obsession. The most I thought about was... a wishful crush."

He went silent, and for a few minutes, he said nothing. Just watched me, like he was disappointed. I probably would be disappointed too if I did everything for a woman and she...

"That's on me," he said slowly, taking one step towards me. His eyes were glassy, beautiful, dark, intense. He looked like the sacrifice that never gets taken. The sacrifice that is too devilish for the gods and too dark for the demons.

"I was a coward. Every time I saw you, I chose to be a coward. Every time I yearned for you, I chose to be a coward."

I felt a lump rise in my throat, my chest heaving. "Ellinel?" I asked. I couldn't get her name out of my mind. The mystery surrounding her made it so hard to concentrate on the fact that Florian was right in front of me, admitting to wanting me. To loving me. It was messing with my brain, and I hated it.

"Can't you see, Roxanne? Your bedroom. This mansion. Your closet. Whatever is remaining of my soul... Can't you see that you own it all? Do you sincerely believe that I had your dream room in a house I never came to because it was my aesthetic? Do you think I look at you this way because you are a replacement? Do you think I let Ronan go tonight because of a wishful crush? You think I waited years for a woman I could very well end up losing?"

A single tear ran down my left cheek, and I swallowed, my eyes wide. My chest felt far too tight, and hell, like my world was a little illusion. Like all of the hatred I believed Florian showed me, the taunts, the bullying, like it had all just been a figment of my own imagination.

Now, as I stood there, all I could see were the stupid wild things we had done together. That one prom he had leaned to me, tucking my hair back and called me beautiful. The countless roses he had left me, the first kiss he had stolen, the way he looked at me that never changed throughout those years.

He moved away from the door, and I snapped out of the trance he put me in, my eyes lifting to meet his.

"Come home, Roxanne. I don't believe there is anything worth keeping yourself out here for."

I blinked, trying as hard as I could to stop the tears. I took a slow step forward, my mind in shambles and unable to put together a coherent thought. All thoughts of Ellinel pushed themselves away, and all I could think of was the way he had treated me exactly like I had begged Damien to treat me, and Ibhad missed all of it because it had be masked under a thin film of annoyance and taunts.

I walked slowly to the door and stopped. My feet wouldn't move anymore, and I turned slowly to Florian. He was watching me, his eyes thin, but holding more emotions than I could count. Holding more insight into his soul than I had bargained for tonight.

All I wanted was a meal. Now I have a confession. A secret. A side to the man I live with that I have never seen before. It was all so much.

My eyes darted slowly across both of his, and I could feel the tight bottles of my emotions overflowing as I gulped his, and all of my insides felt tight.

"Florian..." I said softly, my lips staying parted even after I said the word, just because I had no strength in me to close them.

Was I like this because I missed out on years of Florian Hunt? Was I like this because this was the last thing I had expected? Was I like this because I no longer recognised myself and was far too broken and different from the innocent Roxanne he had made that closet for?

His eyes slowly left mine, and every bone screamed in me. Every nerve stood on end, and my own heart stood ready to betray me.

It came like lightning. Like a shooting star. Unexpected.

He covered the distance in a flash, his hands taking my face in his, his lips taking mine into his wet warmth. A shiver ran down my spine as he gently pulled my body to his, his heartbeat echoing in my ears, his body heat causing my temperature to rise.

He broke the kiss for a split second, biting down on my lower lip, his hands running down my face and neck.

"A second choice?" He said against my lips, causing tremors to run down my body. "I am not even my own first choice when it comes to you, Rox."

I believed him. Right now, I believed him. My lips in his, his body against mine.

But in the tiny part of my mind that absolutely hated me, I knew... this wouldn't be the last time I hear of Ellinel, and this wouldn't be the last time I see that side of Florian.