Fire on Fire

2. Like a true Lucifer tempting Eve

"You came." Alexander greeted her with a small smirk, beer in hand.

"You sound surprised." Emma mused, walking past him, inside his apartment. The sight of him in only sweats, his tantalizingly rippled abs calling for her could definitely be deemed a murder weapon, yet it was the tattoos that did an overwhelming job at enhancing an already breathtakingly ragged beauty. It was true that she'd always been a tattoo lover, but the lion on his right shoulder and the burning phoenix on his back were nothing short of astonishing. There were nights when she was dying to know the meaning behind them, but she never dared ask.

He chuckled, closing the door behind him. "Well, to be honest, you seemed resolute this time ..."

She turned around to face him, yet remaining far away enough for him not to touch her. "I was ..." she sighed, "I should leave ..." Emma took a few steps towards the door, enough to bypass him.

However, Alexander swiftly put down the beer, and grabbed her arm, pulling her into him. "Hey now ..." he smiled alluringly, pulling a hair lock behind her ear to caress her cheek as he glued their bodies together, "what's the rush?"

"We will both rot in Hell for this." She grumbled, yet without moving. All she did was turn her head to the side, in order to avoid his fiery gaze.

"I never pegged you for the religious type." Alexander joked.

She rolled her eyes. "This place is a mess." She changed subject.

"Uh ... yeah, it was an all-guys Sunday, and I'm ... not great as housekeeper." He laughed, only to then move his lips to her ear and whisper: "If you're still looking for a job, I'm told I'm a nice boss ..."

Emma scoffed, turning to look at him. "We both know I'd spend more time in your bed than actually cleaning the apartment."

"And who says that's a bad thing?" Alexander mused, starting to trail kisses along her jaw, his hands sliding along her sides, until they reached her hips. When he went for her shirt, she stopped him, lightly pulling back, and started opening it on her own.

"You need to learn there's something called buttons." She rolled her eyes, knowing that he would have ripped the umpteenth shirt, had she let him.

"Takes too much time." He shrugged, smirking. "For what it's worth," he said, going to grab his beer from the coffee table, "I did mean midnight snack, so if you want something to eat ..."

"Yeah, cos that ..." she pointed at his sinfully hot body in full exposure just for her, "totally says let's just eat."

"Hey, it's an improvement from last time." He laughed, then took a sip of the beer.

"From boxers to sweats, sure."

He shrugged, half smirking alluringly. "Everything comes off soon anyway." He put down his beer again, and walked back to her, once she was done with the shirt. He turned her around, and gripped the clasps of her bra, taking it off for her. "Besides, it's not about me undressing," he leisurely traced her hips, until he found the hem of her jeans, and, after having unbuckled and unzipped them, he started slowly sliding them down her legs, "it's about this ..." he gently caressed the skin as he pulled the piece of clothing all the way down to her ankles, helping her take them off.

Emma felt her skin burning, her heart once again going ablaze, especially when, making his way back, he started peppering kisses all over her frame. When Alexander moved her hair to the side, having finally reached her neck, and he started kissing it, pressing her back against him, she let out a breathless moan, her body willfully accomplice of this ongoing temptation. If only he merely went straight for it, if only he didn't pay so much attention to the way he touched her, the way he awakened her senses. If only he didn't fuel an already raging war between mind and heart.

☆☆☆

"You know, you could sleep here for once. I won't kill you." Alexander joked, interlacing his arms behind his head as he watched her get dressed in a rush.

"You don't get how wrong this is, do you?" Emma scoffed, putting on her jeans.

He laughed. "We both know you love it. Otherwise, you wouldn't come back for more every time."

"Just because I do, doesn't mean it's not wrong."

Alexander shrugged, lying back down. "You're human, Emma. Let yourself be just as rotten as we all are."

"Spoken like a true Lucifer tempting Eve."

He laughed. "Come on, now, temptations are only that when someone's innocent, and we both know you're far from it." He winked, and she sent him a dirty look. "But the Devil has no role in human activity. We cast upon ourselves our own misery. It's not the Devil, it wasn't Mars or Ares or whatever whichever civilization has called it over the centuries. Humanity is rotten to the core."

He shrugged. "It's that simple. We wage wars, inflicting pain on our neighbors, we sink deeper and deeper into darkness every day. Nothing to do with superior beings plotting against us. It's just us ... corrupted humans living in a world whose beauty we're not able to appreciate, which is why we are inevitably doomed for extinction. Mother Nature will come to collect the bill sooner or later, so why fuss? Life's too short to spend it worrying about the wrongness of what makes us happy."

Emma stared at him intently, somewhat baffled – his attempts at talks that were longer than just a few sentences weren't rare, but it was the first time he'd gone as far as sharing his beliefs with her. "Happiness?" She repeated. "Is this what you'd call ... our arrangement?"

Alexander cracked a small smile, sitting up. "Happiness is a myth, Emma. It's all about the intervals between one catastrophe and the other." He wetted his lips, thinking for a moment. "Think of it in terms of cycles. Like the seasons. The cold and unforgiving Winter where every hope is gone and nothing will save us is followed by Spring, the season of new beginnings, where everything seems possible and hope is no longer a tease, but it resembles so much her cousin possibility.

Spring rolls into Summer, which is the full enjoyment, the endless chances within reach. Autumn is the peak of our path, our zenith ... until it rolls back into Winter with its despair and bleakness." When he looked up, and saw her amazed yet confused gaze, Alexander's smile widened the slightest. "I'm just saying, take life as it is, enjoy your summers, because the winters are always just behind the corner."

Emma stared at him, flabbergasted. So, this was Alexander Adams bared of his sinful temptations, left with nothing but his true brooding self. Proof that he was way more than what the eyes met, that just because their entire bond relied solely on boundless nights of passion, didn't mean he was nothing more than a pretty face and a hot body.

Did Nancy see all this? When she talked over and over about their time together, she never once mentioned this side of him. Was it too delicate, too intimate or even too difficult to portray? Or was she simply blind to it?

Emma shook her head, needing to come back to reality. No. No, no, no. No justifying her deceit. "I gotta go." She said simply, pocketing her phone.

Alexander nodded, albeit disappointed. As he watched her leave, he pursed his lips. She never quite grasped the depths of their bond, did she? These encounters were the favorite part of his day. He didn't even want to know why. The fact that he found himself craving for her was enough. Things were even too complicated at the moment, adding fuel to the fire might just end up scorching them.