It was a constant push and pull between the two, a dance that was full of caution on both parts.
He seemed determined to keep her forever in his arms, but patient enough that he could withhold himself. Colin knew the consequences of his wants and desires, yet he seemed to think that he could wear her down—that eventually she would succumb to him, wanting to be entrapped with him. She was so unwilling to let her work get mixed with pleasure and now she had no other choice. Fire was indiscriminate when it came to work and pleasure. It simply burned all that was in front of it. She allowed herself to be drawn into him, her body tucking itself against him, much too willing to be a prisoner to him than she liked. But she was human, was she not? Carla had human desires that he determinedly fueled and coaxed.
Take care, dear heart, monsters are to be feared—only monsters can care for monsters. But monsters and men aren’t all that different. One just wears a mask while the other is more open about what lays beneath the surface.
“I leave you to decide whether we burn, or we burn the world down around us.”
Carla’s eyes turned to his, unwilling to look too long lest she be dragged into the crazed inferno that she was playing with. How can a person be afraid of something that they helped to begin? But then his lips were descending on hers once more, caressing her desires, feeding into them. Her will was fighting against her—wanting to watch him burn before watching the world do so as well. Carla pressed against him eagerly, determined to cherish this moment before destroying it.
”I want to watch you burn before I ever succumb to these fires. Then I will watch the world burn.” She shook her head as she began to pull away. “I will never join you, Colin. I will not be caged.”
It was a promise to herself as much as it was a promise to him.
She pulled herself away from him, and he felt bereft without her warmth, the solid press of her body against his own, her lips beneath his, just as hungry and determined. His eyes opened to meet her own, noting the blown pupils, black and endless, a void just as wide and deep as his own. A monster staring back at the monster within him, just as deadly, just as capable of destroying anything in its path. He longed to pull that out, to feed the beast and set it loose on the world. At his side. Together they’d be unstoppable. They’d burn the world down around them.
As soon as she stopped fighting him, of course.
She was so aggravating, resisting him so, denying her inner monster what it desired most. Why couldn’t she just accept it? They were two of the same. They would be together, and with the way she kept fighting, they’d tear everything apart in the crossfire before they could get there.
“Don’t you understand, Carla? You’ll never truly be free unless you do. Because no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to fight the part inside you that belongs with me, to me. ––––One day, you’ll no longer be able to fight me. And I’ll be here, waiting for that day to come.”
