How adorable this is. A bird of prey like Monet looking like a terrified pigeon in his grasp. She is trying so hard to hide it, to maintain her composure, but Trafalgar Law sees the look in her eyes, feels how rigid she is under his touch. Even her voice telegraphs her fear, words wavering. Yet, he can hear how sincere sheâs being. There are no lies here, she truly loathes the sight of someone else getting close to him. Law canât stop the way his features soften.
  âAh, Monet,â he sighs, a smile spreading across his features. He looks rather pleased. âMy darling Blizzard Queen, you continue to remind me there are no others that understand me as you do.â
  Lawâs hand slides from the back of her neck and onto her cheek, a thumb gently caressing the soft skin. He tugs her closer to him but doesnât release the hand he has grasped. His grip does loosen, no longer the bruising anger of moments ago. No need for that rage anymore, even if he still plans to punish her. Now is the time to soften this.
  âWhat you felt,â Law starts, tone serious and without a drop of regret. âBefore you killed any of my lovers is what I felt when I murdered the scum on my operating table. He was not worthy of you in all your chilling glory. He never deserved to feel your supple skin, to listen to your seductive voice. So I killed him for his arrogance. I killed him, for you.â
  After all that argument and denial perhaps it is strange to confess now but her own words provide such a wonderful chance. A way for them to become closer, for Monet to be drawn further under his control. All he has to do is show her he cares, and in some sense he does. Trafalgar Law always takes care of what belongs to him. Finally he releases her other hand, his own moving to cup the other side of Monetâs face.
   âDo you believe itâs wrong for us to act like this?â
She is still feeling stiff in posture even as that grip softens. Though she does lean the slightest bit into the thumb caressing her cheek almost subconsciously, seeking some form of comfort from the man threatening violence and rage just a moment before. They were in fact similar in many ways despite how she purposefully ignored the higher tally of how many times sheâs had to give into his whims instead of him to her on occasion.
She could rationalize that it was all about rank and power as to why that divide existed in the first place and not about the darker implications of such a relationship. After all, she was doing the same as he did to her, it was only fair he could be just as pissed off as she would about flings disappearing as fleeting and unimportant as they were.
For now, she was content to let him speak his mind, only stepping in to speak when prompted with a question.
âI donât think so. In the end doesnât it show how no matter what there is nobody that can divide us? That not even the best fuck in the world or the sweetest touch is going to make us sway in our devotion together.â
Goddamn it for sounding like some fucked up proposal but it is what she was thinking the moment the question was brought up so why not continue to be truthful? She clearly did not want to see that dark flash in his eyes even if she had to make herself sound pathetic in doing so. Never had she been so verbose in her devotion to another since Doffy and that alone still managed to scare her somewhat.
âAnd if that is the case, then why should we hide it by sleeping around with others when all thatâll do is leave a trail of corpses?â
By now her released hands reach up to gently clasp the hands cupping her face, now seeking out that touch rather than fleeing away from it.