THE PRICE, PT 2

Accept the good things as they come, love.

***

CHAPTER XXXVII

*****

He remained still, letting me adjust to his full size for a second as I caught my breath and blinked the tears out of my eyes.

“Are you ready?”

But he was already moving in and out, each thrust stealing my breath away as I wasn't sure whether to cry out from pain or from pleasure.

I placed my hands on his shoulders, but he peeled them off and placed them above my had instead. He took a hold of my leg and held it up high against his waist as I dug my fingers into the soft pillow beneath me.

“Are you okay?” he asked, making me look into his eyes only to see them shine with concern. Why was he worried?

“I'm fine—” I cut off quickly as a moan tumbled past my lips.

The concern on his face flew away and he smirked down at me. “Now I know you're fine,” he said, referring to the fact that I hadn't made a sound until then.

His thrusts picked up speed and he placed one leg on his shoulder, hitting deeper into me and rubbing up on my g-spot as I arched my back beneath him. I wanted more. I needed more.

“Daniel...” I whined, craving for him to touch me somewhere other than my legs.

“What is it, sweetheart?” he asked, leaning down towards me as he continued to fuck me with my leg on his shoulder. “What do you want?”

I cried out in frustration at not being able to voice out what I wanted. I grabbed onto his shoulder, brushing my hand over his scar as I clawed at his skin.

“Do you want this?” he pulled out of me completely before slamming back into me sharply, making me moan loudly in pleasure. I tried to close my legs, but he grabbed them and held them open as he continued to fuck me roughly.

The bed squeaked beneath us and the headboard slammed against the wall with ever thrust, but none of us cared. There was an aching pain between my legs and I knew my vulva was going to get puffy after this, but I needed him. It felt too good.

“Yes, Daniel. Right... There.”

He brought his hand up to my breast and cupped it, letting my nipple brush against his palm as the cool metal of his necklace sat right in the valley of my breasts.

He leant down, my leg still on his shoulder and kissed me roughly, taking his hand away from my breast and to my hair instead which he smoothed out of my face. He wiped away the tears that I didn't even realise were trailing down my cheek before continuing to fuck me rougher than I had ever been fucked before.

“It's been too long, princess.”

*****

“You know, it's kind of fucked that I came here to talk to you and this what we end up doing.” I said, buttoning up my uniform as he ran a hand through his hair and ruffled it up.

He looked at me with these really tired eyes and I felt my heart break for him. I couldn't help but remember what happened before we got distracted. Why was he so scared?

Leaving the last three buttons of my dress undone, I walked over to where he was sitting in his armchair and crouched in front of him, placing my hands on his thigh. Slowly, I lifted my hand up to his face and inspected his features as he watched me do so lazily.

“What's the verdict, doctor?” he joked, rolling his eyes, but I couldn't find it in me to laugh.

“Daniel, when was the last time you slept?” I asked as he groaned and pushed me away from him gently.

“This afternoon,” he said, getting up and heading to the bathroom . “In fact, you were the one that woke me up.”

I thought back to the nightmare he had seemed to be having when I walked in and the fear in his eyes when I woke him up. Obviously, something must have been tormenting him because Daniel didn't get scared easily.

I subconsciously began playing with his necklace again, twirling it around my finger as I thought about what could possibly be wrong. I didn't even notice that Daniel walked out until he had taken it out if my hold and placed it back in my dress, cupping a feel of my breasts as well.

He carefully stroked my cheek, pushing my hair out of my face as I looked at him. “Do you want to do something for me?” he asked as I nodded my head enthusiastically.

“Anything.”

“Go down to the medicine cabinet and bring me the sleeping pills in the blue bottle.”

I nodded before racing towards the door to get what he wanted. I raced down the stairs, into the kitchen and towards the cabinet, looking through all the bottles filled with pills and finding the specific one I needed. I closed my eyes, wanting to ignore the memories holding the bottle brought to me as I stuffed it in my pocket and began making my way back to Daniel.

I drugged him... I had drugged him... and because of that he died.

How many people had died because of me? Directly and indirectly? How could I call myself a good person when I had blood on my hands? I just wanted to be good. I just wanted to run away from all my problems and never come back, but I knew that couldn't happen.

I had to stay for Daniel because I wanted to do everything for him. And wherever I would go, my problems would always follow me. Unless...

My hands wrapped around the blue pill bottle, considering it for a minute before shaking my head and continuing back to Daniel's room.

I quietly let myself in, just in case he was already asleep, but unsurprisingly he wasn't. He looked up at me as I quietly closed the door behind me and made way over to him. As I reached him, he not only grabbed the pill bottle from my hands, he also grabbed me and sat me down on his lap.

“Talk to me,” was all he said as he took four pills out if the bottle and swallowed them two at a time without any water. I resisted the urge to start reciting the dangers of that and instead sighed and leaned against his chest.

“Why didn't you tell me that you killed Miguel?” I started off by asking. I guess if I couldn't produce the answer to some of my questions myself, I would find them elsewhere.

“I didn't kill him and I assumed you wouldn't care,” he answered nonchalantly, making me turn around to look at him.

“Did he die because of me?”

“I don't know what Lucien's reason for killing him was, but I know he wouldn't waste a man because of a woman.”

“He did it to punish me, Daniel. He told me today when he hit on me. He told me that he killed Miguel because I had beaten him up. I—” my words were cut off by the ball that lodged itself in my throat, making it both harder to breathe and to speak.

Taking me completely by surprise, I felt Daniel's hand on my back, rubbing soothing circles into me in a comforting manner. When I looked to him, tears trailing doen my cheeks, I half expected to see him half asleep and doing it without his own will, but he was wide awake. He was looking out the window into the garden and just listening to me talk.

It was either he cared enough about me to try and comfort me or he knew how to for the longest time and he was just keeping it a secret. Maybe it was both.

Either way, he wasn't doing that a bad a job of it.

“Did you shoot the gun at his forehead?” he asked me as I shook my head. “So you didn't kill him. You can't say 'maybe if I didn't do this' or 'if I did that instead'. If it wasn't you, it would be someone else and Miguel would still be dead today. You didn't kill him.”

“But I killed Vincent.” Daniel didn't say anything; he couldn't. There was no way around it. There was no way I could justify it. “Everytime I close my eyes, I still see him. I dream about him. Sometimes if I'm with you and I close my eyes and get lost in the moment, I mistake you for him. I think he's there with me. I think it's him who's touching me. And I don't do anything because I can't.”

Daniel sighed behind me, making me wonder if he was thinking that I was too fucked up to handle.

“If your friend - what's her name again? The maid one?”

“Anna?”

“Yes, her. If Anna was in the same position you were in with Vincent and you found out she killed him, would you start blaming her for doing it?”

I shook my head quickly, not even wanting to imagine what I would do if Vincent did that to Anna.

“Then why is it different for you?”

That same lump came back to lodge itself in my throat as I fought the tears that were threatening to spill out. I had no value for myself, that's why. If nobody cared about me, then why should I care about me?

“It's complicated, Daniel,” I murmured, resting my back against his chest as I sighed and closed my eyes. “Sometimes I just want to sleep and never wake up.”

He chuckled behind me, letting me know that he probably felt the same. “When I tell you that I do God's dirty work, I mean it. I only kill people who deserve to be killed. Even if I don't plan on it, that's how it always works out.” I said nothing and sintead stare up at the ceiling. “I didn't plan to kill Vincent, but now he's dead. And the hundreds of women that he forced into prostitution are free now. See how it works?”

“I—” I didn't know what to say. All I could do was think about those poor women who were forced to do that. My heart hurt for them.

“You were the one who killed him,” he said, his voice coming out softer. “You were the one who ended their pain.”

That made my heart hum with a sort of peace I hadn't experienced in a long time. And to think that I found it in Daniel's arms. Daniel that one could safely say was the most troubled, most dangerous man alive.

“Are you okay?” I found myself asking him as he wrapped his arm around my waist loosely and leaned into the chair with me still on his chest.

He let out a breath of air, blowing my hair every which way as the room filled with a calm silence. “When am I ever?”

*****

So we get a tiny little glimpse into both Araceli's and Daniel's mental state. Will this mean anything in the future or...? I guess we'll have to find out.

Well, not me. I already know.

I kind of want to upload more than one chapter next time, but, like Araceli's future motto, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.