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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 27, 2016 23:40:27 GMT -5
Diana followed Christian keeping the towel wrapped around her body, not for modesty but for warmth. To be honest the idea of strutting around naked and tempting Christian had been vastly appealing, but it also left her feeling too vulnerable, and too cold.
When they were in the room Diana headed straight for the closet. She ignored his arrogant assumption that none of her clothes were in the room. She had been the one who asked Derek to clean up, but he didn't know of the duffel bag Diana had stored in the attic which she had access to through Christian's closet.
She dragged a chair behind her then stood on it. She tried to lift the access panel and hold on to the towel at the same time, but grew frustrated and simply dropped the towel. Once the panel was lifted she reached in and smiled as her hand felt the sturdy fabric of her trusted quick escape bag.
Ironically she had left it behind with Christian when she had 'escaped', a moment of forgetfulness that served her well.
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 27, 2016 23:52:50 GMT -5
Christian watched in horrified amusement as Diana purposefully moved things about in order to get to the attic access. He admired her legs as she reached upward and tilted his head to peek between the break in the towel - effort that was clearly not needed as a second later she dropped the towel altogether. If he hadn't been so angered by yet another piece of evidence that proved they had had a relationship, he'd have taken her right then and there.
"Give me that," he commanded as he snatched the bag from her hands before she'd even had a chance to get down from the chair. He moved to his bed and began pulling out her things. She indeed had clothes in here, but she also had a large sack of money and an assortment of weapons.
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 0:08:14 GMT -5
She had thought about quickly reaching for one of the weapons, but Christian had taken the bag from her. In that small moment of hesitation she knew she wouldn't use a weapon against him. For the moment she was safe, Derek was safe, and other than a few discomforts staying with Christian wasn't the worst plan until things calmed down. He'd protect her if only he thought by protecting her he was protecting himself.
As he sorted through her things she dressed.
"Now do you believe me?"
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 0:17:20 GMT -5
"Sit down" he ordered as she haughtily asked if he believed her.
He continued to go through the bag, inspecting each weapon and periodically looking sideways at Diana for having such an arsenal hidden in his attic. Knives, guns, explosives. "You've got quite the little collection here," he commented, clearly impressed.
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 0:29:24 GMT -5
She sat as ordered, but glared at him when he didn't answer her question.
When he admired her collection she lowered her eyes and hid the smirk of pride she had. Her eyes came when he seemed to look at a particular piece, "We picked that up in Barbados, on our first job together." she said as that weekend cleanly came to her memory.
She knew she was alone in her memories, and not for the first time did she regret her actions.
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 0:41:44 GMT -5
His brow furrowed for the briefest of moments as yet again Diana put up no fight in doing as he said. She looked sideways at her as she sat, glaring at him.
"Barbados?" he asked, intrigued. He turned the weapon over in his hand before a devilish grin came upon his face and he turned toward her. "Tell me you wore a little bikini at some point."
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 0:54:13 GMT -5
She smirked in response, "After the hit we spent the weekend there using Hadelman's suite." she bit her lip almost hungrily as the memories of that trip came back to her, "That's when I learned about the spot on your collarbone."
He had also learned that she was ticklish behind the knees which had horrific consequences as she had accidentally kicked him in the face. But Christian didn't remember any of that, and she couldn't stop thinking about what she had taken from him.
"That knife there..." she said gesturing to an average combat blade, "...I took down four men in lingerie with that waiting for you and Derek to show up."
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 1:08:07 GMT -5
He looked at the knife she pointed to and picked it up. Then he tried to picture her wielding it in battle while wearing a sexy, lacy thing. Unfortunately for Christian his imagination had nothing on the actual scene. Had he any idea of just how alluring that night had been, before all of the injuries, they'd be under the sheets right now. But he didn't remember.
"Do you have a story for all of these?"
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 1:19:27 GMT -5
"What can I say? I'm the sentimental sort." she said making a joke about how nearly every weapon in her duffel had been used and had either killed someone or saved Diana's life. She was either sentimental or preferred to view the weapons as lucky.
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 1:28:22 GMT -5
"Sentimentality? Is that why you stole my memories?" he asked, suddenly angry again. She looked on each of these pieces with a fondness, her thoughts drifting back to something he had no memory of.
He pulled out the remaining clothes from the bag and tossed them in her direction, then placed all of the weapons back inside and zipped the duffle closed. He threw it on the floor of the closet. "Go back to your room," he said roughly. "And when your hungry you can beg me on your knees." He sneered at her, at the control she had had over his life. Over his mind.
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 1:48:08 GMT -5
"I..." she was cut off by his harsh words, and then his command to go to 'her' room, the intent was clear and she was powerless to stop herself from leaving. Once across the hall she yelled at him, "You betrayed me Christian! You had a contract on my life and worked beside me day and night knowing how terrified I was that this supposed God among assassins was coming for me, for you too for all I knew! I couldn't trust you anymore and you knew too much! I either had to kill you or make you forget. I should have chose the former! So yes it was sentimentality that stole your memories, it was sentimentality that saved your life." her eyes narrowed at him, "And I will die before I beg you for anything!" she said with conviction and slammed the door shut.
She was angry. Yes she had caused this, but he wasn't innocent. He ruined her in ways that she didn't know she could be ruined, and she still couldn't stay away from him.
Once she was safely behind the door she dropped the clothes and reached for the photo she had grabbed quickly from the duffel as Christian had inspected her weapons.
It was of the two of them on the cruise. They had been just sappy enough to take the loving picture the night they got married. She traced Christian's features as the handsome figure gave her a devilish grin and the woman next to him hit his shoulder playfully.
Diana felt a weight on her chest and a deep longing to be that woman in the picture, "I miss you..." she said not noticing that her cheeks had become wet with tears.
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 1:59:57 GMT -5
*** It was several days later and Christian was no closer to finding a way out of this infernal Life Bond. He had, however, noticed an interesting trend in Diana's behavior. She did as she pleased, yelling at him and generally being a fiery siren that tempted him something fierce, but whenever Christian gave a firm command Diana obeyed almost instantly. He had begun to really pay attention to it and he could see that while she did or said what he wanted her to do, she wasn't happy about it. That made the angry part in Christian happy.
"Diana, get your bloody ass out here," he called from the stairs. |
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 2:04:38 GMT -5
"You called Master?" she asked traipsing down the stairs. Since their altercation she had mostly avoided him unless he demanded her presence. She also refused to beg for food, proving just how stubborn she was, but when he relented and allowed her to eat she did so with gusto, and perhaps a little fear that he might not allow her to do so again except to keep her alive.
"What do you want now?"
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 2:19:22 GMT -5
She had made him feel powerless by stripping him of his memories all the while reminding him, whether intentionally or not, that her mind was perfectly intact. He wanted to prove that she wasn't the only one with power in their twisted relationship.
"I'm hungry. Go make something nice," he ordered. His eyes narrowed slightly and lips curled up into a grin as he watched her helpless to deny him.
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 2:27:53 GMT -5
Mild surprise registered on her face before bitter resignation took its place and she continued to move toward the kitchen, "So you finally figured it out." she sneered, "It took you long enough."
Once in the kitchen she began to pull ingredients out to cook, but the joke was on Christian, Diana couldn't cook to save her life, even if she had been ordered to make him something nice.
"I can't cook you know. I tried to once, to make you happy. You told me that the happiest I could make you would be out of the kitchen and..." naked in bed "...well nevermind."
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 2:35:30 GMT -5
"If you keep yapping I'll take your memories too. Then you'll be stuck as my slave and won't even know your own name." Then he'd never have to listen to her tell stories of happier days that he had no knowledge of.
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 2:49:39 GMT -5
She glared at him, and wasn't paying attention when she cut into her finger while slicing vegetables, "Ouch! Sh*t!"
Blood oozed from the fresh wound, and she turned to rinse her injured finger in the water.
"I told you I can't cook." she growled uttering a familiar incantation to staunch the bleeding before she resumed chopping ignoring the pain in her hand. She set the stove to heat up and put some chicken on a skillet, and then another burner she put some water and rice.
Fifteen minutes later and Diana wanted to cry, the chicken was burning, she had forgotten to turn on the burner for the rice, and the vegetables were all kinds of mangled from cutting with a wounded hand. The alarm went off just before the chicken caught fire.
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 2:58:53 GMT -5
The spectacle she was making was well worth the wasted food, Christian sat at the kitchen table and watched her, laughing. But as flames appeared and the smoke alarm went off Christian grew upset.
"For f*ck's sake, if you burn down the bloody house you're going with it. Or have you forgotten your confinement?" Christian rose and pushed her out of the way, turning off the burner and smothering the flames with the lid of the pan.
"Oh, stop your blubbering and sit your ass down." Christian cleared the mess she had made and started the meal over.
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Post by Diana Ward on Dec 28, 2016 3:07:54 GMT -5
"I told you I couldn't bloody cook!" she yelled at him as she went to sit down, though it had brought back other memories, not so pleasant. The night that Christian had left her sixteen years ago she merely thought that he had somewhere to be and would be back. She spent hours and hours that day trying to prepare something nice for when he got back to the hotel. He didn't come back for that meal or any other day the second week she stayed there alone, and she didn't see him again for sixteen years.
That was the Christian she was dealing with. The one who didn't give a rats ass whether or not she lived or died as long as he didn't go with her. Every night she fell asleep clinging to his picture, and every morning she woke up to the reality that her Christian was gone.
It was getting more and more difficult to live with him as a reminder of what she had lost, what she had herself, taken away.
"And if the house goes down and I go down with it, I guess you'll be joining me won't you?" she snarled at him.
"Have you even spoken to Derek this week or worked on figuring out who this last board member is?"
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Post by Christian Ward on Dec 28, 2016 3:23:58 GMT -5
"At least I wouldn't have to listen to you telling me about memories I can't f*cking remember!" Christian was pretty sure she didn't realize most of the time when she was reminiscing aloud but it brought on a range of emotions; intrigue, excitement, happiness, frustration, and sadness. But it always ended on the same note. Anger.
Christian was angry that he'd had this supposedly wonderful life and it had been ripped out from under him leaving him with remnants he couldn't put together. He was bound to a woman he didn't know. Having a child he didn't have any connection to. And hunting a man he had no leads on.
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