chapter 16 | short circuit

"a masterpiece of tragedy"

- v e n t u m



Blake POV

I didn't expect her to jump on me like that, when I entered the room and saw her cowering on the floor I thought something might have happened but then she said in that extremely threatening voice of hers that only makes me hard "If you say anything I will murder you" and I honestly never wanted to be killed more, if it meant the last thing I saw were her eyes, sign me up. Instead I laughed only to piss her off more, to see if she snaps again and she did, way faster than I thought she would and I lost all my balance.

Did I have to grab onto her like there was no tomorrow? No, no I did not have to do that.

Was it the highlight of my week that, even though she knocked all the air from my lungs, she was straddling me and her hands were on my chest? Yes, yes it was.

"Shit! I'm so sorry I didn't..." I ignore her words, well try to, but every time she talks it's kinda hard to focus, but with years of training behind me with half a thought I flipped us around not missing her gasp, a noise I would like to get more out of her in the future and whisper in her ear.

"If you wanted to be on top all you had to do was ask, cupcake" I use my most sultry voice. The voice I know makes the girls at clubs throw themselves at my feet.

But that's not Aria's reaction.

Aria POV

THE AUDACITY.

Before I even manage to connect two thoughts together my hand has a mind of her own and next thing I know I slap Blake, hard. And when his grip loosens I crawl from under him, get on my feet and now I'm the one looking down at him.

My brain is overworking trying to get control over the situation.

What he said, fuck. It's the hottest thing someone ever said to me.

And cupcake? Fuck him and his british accent. But for the first time ever I don't know if the meaning of that sentence is literally or figuratively.

But my brain short circuits again when I make eye contact with Blake. I slap myself mentally and prepare the best comeback of my entire life:

"That" I begin gesturing to his cheek "was for the laughing asshole, and about the who's on top discussion, you should be the one asking to be there because I was pretty content on top and you were the one who flipped us over without permission, cupcake" the last word comes out in a mocking tone.

I exhale and try to breathe in and out through my nose because my heartbeat is increasing with each second I maintain eye contact. And it doesn't speed up because I'm afraid or intimidated by his gaze. Nope. My heart beats faster because of anticipation. Because I want to see what he does next.

Blake slowly gets on his feet. Never breaking eye contact. My heart beat increases. He starts taking slow steps towards me. He has a small smirk on his face. I take slow steps back. He looks scary. Scary and hot as fuck. Like a wolf stalking towards their prey. And Blake does look like a wolf, with his tall frame, quit steps and the shit eating grin he has on his face. This little tandem walk ends when my back hits the wall. He takes two more steps until he's close, very close, like on the plane. I can feel the tension coming from him in waves.

I'm trapped, between him and the wall and I know my faith is sealed when he braces himself on the wall using both of his hands caging me in.

It takes me a few moments to regain control over my brain and formulate an escape plan but my efforts are shattered when he leans in. I can feel his hot breath on my ear and I've never been more turned on in my entire life but I would rather shoot myself then give Blake the satisfaction of seeing how much he affects me, even though I think he knows, I'm not exactly keeping the best poker face on. He takes a deep breath, like he's inhaling me and proceeds to utter the hottest words I've heard in my entire life.

"Aria, may I have your permission to be on top?" he makes a 2 second pause "I promise I can also be a good bottom for the right person"

My brain melted, exploded, it didn't short circuit, it was a whole power outbreak and now the emergency generators are turned on and they can just focus on me breathing in and out. They can't form a single coherent thought. I can't form a single coherent thought.

What the flying fuck? Part of me is still processing these words and part of me still can't believe this is real. Maybe I'm still dreaming, this can't be real.

Blake returns his gaze on my face, probably analyzing the effect his words had on me. The asshole, yet I can't bring myself to move, speak. All I can focus on is breathing, because I can't faint right now.

"Did I leave the great Aria Felker speechless?"

Hearing my full name coming from his mouth snapped me back to reality.

"Nope dipshit I was just trying to formulate a good enough response" I put my determination mask on "to tell you that permission isn't granted, I'm always on top." I don't know what game he's playing but I can join. I can play his game. My brain started functioning again and millions of thoughts per second started racing again. Gosh I already miss the silence.

Yeah he's hot as fuck and yeah this situatuion is hot as fuck and I'm extremly turned on but him saying my full name was like a buket of cold water dumped on my head. This is not a random guy I can fuck just because he said two hot things, this is not a normal apartment and I'm not in a normal situation. He's Blake, an MI6 agent, I don't know who's apartment I'm in, probably his, and I was kidnapped, attacked and sedated all because my parents are apparent spies. Yup now I'm definitely back with my head on my shoulders.

Blake probably saw the shift in my demeanor and just smirked "We'll see about that" and pushed himself off the wall turning his back on me and leaving the room, finally giving me time to breath.

"In your dreams" I yell after him.

I hear him laugh.

Blake POV

Oh Aria if you knew how close to the truth your remark actually is.

I can't even begin to think about all the dreams I had about her.

Before she fell from the bed and everything I was actually on the phone with Monique. I call her back and she answers after the first ring.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, Aria fell out of bed, I had to help her up, she's still weak" I lie smoothly.

"It took you 10 minutes to put her back to bed?" she asks suspiciously.

I roll my eyes.

"Yeah Monique, the girl has just been through hell and back, I can't just dump her in my bedroom and lock the door on my way out.", if I ever had to do that I would lock us both in and through the key. "She had questions I had to talk to her, calm her down"

"How much did you tell her?"

Before I can open my mouth to answer I hear footsteps behind me. Aria is standing in the middle of my living room with a look that promised pain on her face, she is gesturing frantically to her clothes, well my clothes, when I brought her in last night, the T-shirt was dirty and filled with blood so I put one of my shirts over it, with the pants as well. I didn't remove any article of clothing, just added. Which if I may add, is a first for me. I never had to add more clothes to a girl, it's usually the opposite.

I raise an eyebrow at her gestures.

"Enough to calm her down, no important information was divulged, Monique, calm down"

At my response it's Aria's turn to raise an eyebrow. She mouths something along the lines of 'who are you talking to?'

'My boss' I mouth back

"Calm down, calm down Blake? They infiltrated our facility, 3 of our men are dead and majority of them got away, as far as we know they are looking for the girl right now." she screamed the whole sentence and I see Aria flinch. She probably heard everything. I don't want to keep this information from her, she deserves to know what to hell just happened.

I look at Aria again. She's not looking at me anymore. She's looking around the room, headed straight for the windows and looked outside, like she would see the people from last night lurking on the sidewalk down below.

I sigh.

"They can't find her here, you know that, she's safe..."

"For now" Monique interrupts me. "You might be a good agent Blake, but even you can't go in a fight with 10 others and expect to come out alive, especially since you have to protect her at the same time. " she sighs, it's clear from her voice that she's tired and probably didn't sleep at all last night.

"Then we accelerate the plan. She'll stay here for now and you know the protocol. You can't come and visit because they might track your moves, so just continue your routine and I'll talk to Aria and prepare everything. I'll call you again when everything is done."

Monique sighs again. She clearly doesn't like my plan but knows I'm right. She can't come here and if we move Aria we might risk the others finding her.

"Fine. But don't forget the rules" and hangs up.