#dioeftv

She steps across the floor, her nightgown a fluid movement across the white marble. "Callisto," she calls out softly.

Her voice wound into his ears and he feels possessed as he wraps her into his embrace, burying his face into the crook of her neck. He breathes in, her natural scent underneath the florals of her shampoo.

"Penelope," he whispers into her ear. Usually, she would melt into his arms, her ears burning red- but she was oddly rigid as she dug her fingers into his back.

"I hate it," she mutters quietly.

"...Hmm?" He leans back a little to look at her, raising an eyebrow as he rewinds that sentence. "Hate what?"

"I hate that they cling to you during balls, that I'm not declared your fiancee yet and that I have to wait by the sidelines as you return from war." She grinds her teeth, and her nails scrape down his back.

Her whisper was deadly sweet. "You're mine, Callisto. Mine. No one can take you away from me because you're the only person who will ever truly be mine."

He chuckles a little, finding her endearing as he places kisses onto her forehead and onto her eyelids, slowly making his way down her face to her neck as he smooths out her wrinkled brow. "Only yours, Penelope, my love."

She doesn't tell him of the intrusive thoughts that barrage her day in and day out, how she wished to aim her bow at the ladies who tried to flirt with him. How she wished no one would dare to go near him- and how she wished she could utilize the title of "Mad dog of Eckhart" in a way that was useful to her for once.

All he had to do was reassure her, and her fears would melt away. She wished that were true. She licks her lips and cards her fingers through his hair as she sighs, her body relaxing into his grip.

She decides she would never tell him of how she looked on with cold eyes at the lady that she tripped earlier that day. Of how she watched as her mirthful grin grew at the sight of that gaudy fan breaking under her heel and how red dyed the stream and nearby rocks.

Callisto was always so sweet to her. Her eyes wander to his neck. She touches him softly, just with her fingertips- sliding down as she presses her lips onto his skin.