the part of him that still clung to anger, that festering resentment that was always so present to the world, the rage simmering beneath his dark surface - it was there, that part of him. a quiet whisper in the back of his mind to taunt her, make her pay. make her put herself out on the line, and leave her there to hang off it. raleigh could laugh and leave, and what power it would give him to be the one to twist the script and leave her wanting. show her that the world, his at least, wasn't in orbit to hers. that he could still perform his freewill.
but he couldn't. the whisper was only that - a whisper. years of life had done enough to dull his taste for revenge, and he'd spilled blood enough already to satiate it. in her eyes, so close to his that amber flecks caught his attention, there wasn't the same snooty little girl he thought he knew. " fine. maybe you were. i remember you laughing at me. you weren't the worst of them, but yeah, you were still one of them. "
there was a quiet understanding, it grew with her words. she wasn't laughing now, her body weighting his down against the bed and fitting into his arms magnetically. it dawned on him how smoothly he'd found himself under her, how the trail of her finger to the tender underside of his lip left tingles anywhere it touched. god, he wanted to be mad so bad, his heart skipping a beat with her apology. he tried to stoke the flame of it, to remember the way he'd cursed the whole lot of them and wished them dead, but the memories faded as a different want roared to a wildfire.
he let it linger. the wanton, the heat, the sentiment, the need.
desire sounded pretty on her lips, and for once, he didn't think she was bullshitting. the words, as hot as they were, came out with such sincerity it felt like a confession to something more. this was the moment where he could sink the knife in and twist; leave her now, humiliated and alone.
" ah, fuck it. " raleigh consented finally, stomach churning with a wave of flutters as he rooted himself into whatever fantasy he'd stumbled into, and angled his upper body forwards with an elbow digging into the bed for support to close the gap between them. he'd absolve her in other ways.
when he kissed her, it was all consuming. there was no hint of the shy nature she'd remember him by, but instead, with the liberty of a man who knew it was better to take from the world than to give. a crash of passion, his tongue grazing against her lower lip to seek entrance beyond. the hand on her hip moved upwards, raking trimmed nails across the exposed strips of her back through the dress. fingers fell in her hair, tangling as he pushed her closer, eliminating any space to wrap him up within him.