Eye of the Storm

Chapter 7

Tempest did not like to see him walk away, something deep inside of her hurt immensely. For a couple of seconds she was in turmoil, the only way to prevent him leaving now would be to come clean, to admit why she had gotten so upset. She dashed across the room and reached out to grab Lucius’ shoulder.

As Lucius felt the touch on his shoulder he spun around and grabbed Tempest by her throat. It was purely by instinct, his grip on her throat was tight and the motion of turning pushed her backwards into the wall by the door. For a while they just stood looking at each other, Tempest was afraid, she had seen how powerful Lucius was as a wizard and a man, but she had kept on pushing until now, and now here she was, pressed into the wall behind her and Lucius’ hand was crushing her wind pipe, she could not breath, her mind was growing fuzzy and she was slipping into unconsciousness.

Her knees where buckling beneath her and Lucius felt her start to slip down the wall. Part of him was so angry with her that he knew that he just need squeeze a little harder and he would have literally squeezed the life from her. He looked down at her and he was tempted, so very tempted, but then he looked into her eyes and recalled the feel of her as they had made love earlier. He had not sought her out to just kill her again, he wanted her, and he knew if she slipped away again this time, he would never be free of the yearning to be with her.

Abruptly letting her go, Tempest fell to the floor gasping for air as Lucius raged above her. He swung around and roared in anger, as he swung around he swept the dishes off the top of the dining table, sending them crashing to the floor and shattering into broken shards which scattered around the floor.

Tempest stayed on the floor, she raised a hand to her throat, rubbing the sore flesh “why didn’t you just kill me you bastard?” she gasped.

“I did not come here to kill you!” she hissed.

“Oh, and just what did you come here for?” she mocked.

“Do not vex me Tempest… Yes I was looking for you; however it was you who brought me here, with your little schemes and trails of breadcrumbs. You wanted me to come here; you made sure that I found you!”

“I have already told you, that was an error in judgement on my behalf and far be it for me to vex the arrogant Lucius Malfoy!” she snarled at him.

Lucius snapped and rounded on her, slapping Tempest across the face. As soon as he had done this and he saw the look of fear cross her face, he was faced with the unusual sense of remorse once more. Of all the faces he had seen show fear of him – hers was one which he did not enjoy seeing. He was experiencing a pain in his chest when he looked at her and saw the fear and pain in her eyes as she looked up at him.

He bent over toward her and offered his hand to help her up, but she flinched away from him – this sent more pain slicing through Lucius, feeling like a knife slicing through his heart.

Dropping to his knees in front of her, he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly against him.

Lucius just held Tempest for an age, finally his strong arms and the scent of him calmed her and she stopped shaking.

Finally he felt her cold stiffness melting and softening as she dissolved into tears. Lucius shocked them both by saying something neither of them had expected to hear from him. “Tempest, I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt you.”

Tempest looked so shocked that Lucius gave her a half smile and bent forward to kiss the tip of her nose. “What happened between us Tempest?” he whispered “we were so good together – what happened, what ruined that?” She considered for a while “I know you only came after me for the mirror Lucius…”

“That’s not true” he replied “well, that’s not the whole truth.”

“What is the whole truth Lucius, what do you want?” she asked.

Lucius looked down at her “are we both going to be honest with each other?”

Tempest nodded so Lucius continued. “I wanted the mirror – still do – but I needed you! You were haunting me, I could not get you out of my mind or my dreams” he waited for his words to sink in “so?” he prompted.

“I knew, or thought I knew” she started falteringly “what you wanted – but I hoped that you wanted more…” she blushed “I sent the clues to bring you to Egypt because I wanted to see you.” She looked up at him. “I even sent Freya to trap you in the museum. I knew you wanted the mirror, but I hoped you wanted me too…” She was silent for a couple of very long seconds, “then earlier, you said…” she blushed even deeper red “you called me…”

Lucius saw that she was struggling to continue “when I called you ‘my love’?” he prompted.

“Yes” she looked at him again, but her eyes avoided his “when I heard that, my heart leapt, and I wanted to believe you meant it, I wanted to believe you did love me.” She blinked back new tears that were threatening to fall.

“Tempest…” Lucius whispered “look at me” he put his hand gently beneath her chin and raised her eyes to look into his “I have meant everything I said to you, I do want the mirror and I do want you.”

“Really?” she whispered.

“But…” he interjected.

“Ah, always but eh?” she could not help but sound disappointed.

“I do not know if I am ‘in’ love with you” he said flatly “I do care for you, my mind and body ache to be with you.”

“You are not just saying this?” she asked nervously.

He took her hands into his “no, that is true – but I am just not the kind of man who ‘loves’ I am not even sure it is something I am capable of.” He raised her hand towards him and placed it upon his groin. She gasped and looked at him with surprise in her eyes “is this something a mirror can do?” he asked, leaning forward and capturing her lips with his own.

Tempest felt his cock twitch beneath her touch and the familiar hunger growled deep inside her – ‘how can he always do this to me?’ she wondered.

Lucius stood and drew Tempest to her feet beside him, kissing her again; he stepped towards her, each of his steps making her step back until she was standing with her back pressed against the hard wood of the door. He continued to kiss her hungrily, his hands cupping her face and entwining in her hair. Tempest raised her hand and pushed his robe off of his shoulders and down his upper arms. Lucius released her face and dropped his arms, allowing the fabric to slip to the ground. This garment was soon followed by his suit jacket and shirt. He was now standing before her wearing just his trousers and shoes. He bent and removed his shoes and socks, Tempest realised suddenly just how sexy a man wearing just trousers and bare feet could look.

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