Martin stared out of the window on a wild, windy October evening and waited for Celice to arrive. His heart was pounding, and he had to clench his fists and force himself to stand still and not pace.
He had been friends with Celice for two years. And in the course of that time, he had hidden a steadily growing desire to have her in a way that went far beyond friendship.
He was a man with a rare gift for insight, something that had helped him a good deal where Celice was concerned, because despite being a good listener and friend, Celice kept a careful distance from everyone, Martin included. Had it not been for his gift of reading people, he would know so little about Celice that it would have been difficult to even call her a close friend.
In the past six months, he had actually managed, by some miracle of luck, to get her a little bit drunk, and she had admitted that the few sexual encounters she had had were extremely disappointing and painful to discuss. She had offered no further insight, but as she had spoken Martin could almost see her slipping comfortably into a coat of supreme self control, which she probably wore even to bed at night and in the shower. She lived by her own rules, and Martin knew that she was not a woman to be owned forever by anyone. He had no desire to do that. But he had often seen, in those distant green eyes of hers, a small spark behind the mask, a spark that he longed to fan into flame. Though he would not own her, he knew that if he handled her just right, he could have her, even if only for one night.
And he wanted her. He had ever since he'd known her. It was not only her physical beauty, though that would have been reason enough. She was small and delicate, and her face reminded him of a favorite cameo pin his grandmother used to love. But those emerald eyes of hers haunted his dreams, always cool and distant, never letting anyone or anything in for even one minute.
After two years of longing, Martin finally realised that he had a choice to make. He either had to end their friendship completely, or he had to tear that protective coat off of her and make her reveal the passion within herself that she denied. And make her accept and enjoy it, or he knew he would lose her even as a friend. He had often caught her looking at him in an almost regretful way, and she'd always looked away quickly when he tried to meet her eyes, but not quickly enough sometimes. He had seen unmistakable interest in her eyes several times.
It was a chance, but he was willing to take it. He certainly could not stand the tension and the longings within him any longer.
After days of trying to come up with a plan, he finally realised that he was going to have to improvise, because Celice was unpredictable, and he could not be sure of her. The only thing he did know was that she was going to fight him. She was proud of her control, and he knew she was terrified of losing it. He would have to be very careful, and win the fight without hurting her.
So he had called her an hour ago and asked her to come over and help him with a problem he said he was having with his computer. Celice knew a good deal about them, for she had helped him in the past. Despite the steadily growing wind and rapidly building black clouds in the sky, Celice had agreed to come over.
The wind had picked up a good deal by the time her car pulled up outside, and rain was beginning to pelt against the glass of the living room window. Martin took a deep breath, gathered together all of his nerve, and opened the front door before Celice could even ring the bell.
"Whew!" she said, dodging inside. "I just beat the rain, thank goodness."
"Looks like a hell of a storm brewing," Martin replied, closing the door against the now howling wind.
He watched Celice take off her trenchcoat and drape it over his shabby couch. She wore jeans and a button down white shirt that showed off her slender body and delicate curves, and he stared, something he had always tried not to do in the past.
Celice, aware of his penetrating gaze but clueless as to the cause of it, decided to just focus her attention on the reason he had asked her over. She started toward his workstation, which was in the living room, but before she could touch the computer there was a terrific howl of wind, a brilliant flash of lightning, and the lights went out, plunging the room into semidarkness.
Excellent timing, Martin thought.
"Well, you don't have to worry about your computer problem at the moment," Celice said, trying to sound casual. But she was uneasy, especially now that the lights were out. Being around Martin had always unsettled her in a way that she had always completely shut her mind to. And as soon as she had stepped into his house, she had sensed that something was different, but she could not quite pin it down. At least not until his stare had burned into her and made her whole body tingle. He'd never done that before.
"I guess not," Martin replied, and in the darkness his voice was very, very quiet. Alarm bells jangled in Celice's mind. She did not know what had come over her friend, but she couldn't ignore what her mind was telling her. That trouble was about to start, and there was a tension in the air that had not been there in the past, and she should not be enjoying it as she was.
There was only a dim light in the room, broken by occasional flashes of lightning, but when Celice turned around she could see Martin standing directly behind her. Not close enough to touch, but blocking her path to her coat and the front door.
She risked a look up at his face, and instantly regretted it. His brown eyes burned with a fire she had never before seen, and it burned her to the spot that she stood in. He wore no smile on his face, and his fists were clenched by his sides. She could see the muscles in his arms taut with strain. And she could hear a change in his breathing.
Get out, her mind said firmly. Get out of here now, move!
Martin saw realisation enter Celice's eyes, immediately followed by determination-and that same spark of interest he had seen before that she did not know showed through to him. He still had to be careful, because the determination was a hell of a lot stronger than the interest.
"Martin, what's the matter with you?" Celice asked. Her voice shook a little, which enraged her.
"Nothing," he replied in that same quiet tone. He never took his eyes off of her.