Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Negotiate Part 1

The numbness of my left hand in union with the thunderous clacking sound of something that went on forever forced me to pry my eyelids open. I darted my bleary eyes towards the source of the annoying sound to see a cloudy figure sitting against the headboard of the bed, basked under the warm sunrays that went through the cracks of the long curtains. Wondering who that was, I squinted my eyes into a pair of slits, adjusting my eyes until the figure finally came into focus; revealing a shirtless Mark.

He was sitting against the headboard, the white duvet obscuring everything below his waist, whilst a laptop was resting on his lap. What explained the loud clacking noise that I have been hearing. His eyes hardened behind his reading glasses as they were profoundly focusing on the computer screen, making me wonder what he was looking at while aggressively typing away.

Using my elbow, I propelled myself slightly against the headboard. With my mind being foggy and my eyes still narrowed from the tiredness, I looked at Mark. Groaning while rubbing one of my eyes with my hand, I ushered groggily, “Mark?”

He didn’t look my way as he was still typing, only answering, “Yes, kitten?”

Pushing myself up so that I could lean back properly against the pillow, my eyes flitted curiously to the laptop screen. I pressed my shoulder against Mark’s shoulder, leaning in close to take a better look at what Mark was working on so eagerly. “What are you working on?” I questioned, only to have the laptop slammed shut in my face before I could even catch a glimpse of what he wrote in there- the slamming sound of it startling me in fright.

“What was that for!?” I yelled, trying to rein my racing heartbeat as I glared annoyed at him. He returned me the same look and answered, slightly ticked off, “When will you finally stop sticking your noise into something where it doesn’t belong to?”

“And when will you finally realize that doing this in my presence and not expecting me to be inquisitive about it is a fool’s thought?” I retorted back. “I thought we had established camaraderie back in the hotel. I guess I was the only one who thought that.” Came out, my grumbling voice petulant, the disappointment radiating off me as my shoulders slumped down. He should have realized that it was better to include me in his plans than keeping me in the dark.

After a moment of me feeling down, Mark tched while raking his fingers through his already unruly inky hair before speaking with a heavy breath, “I’m devising a plan to permanently get rid of Casper.” He opened his laptop again, the screen brightening up to reveal tabs and emails. He pointed with his index finger at one picture that he brought forth, it showing the charred hallways that he had acquired from the security cameras of Casper’s hotel. Many of the paintings and decorations burned to dust. “Casper is a perfectionist to the core. He likes to do everything according to his plan. He didn’t count on you crawling to the vents nor your beautiful fire bending performance.” Mark explained and brought forth a tab with Casper’s schedule on it. Next to each meticulous description were pictures of Casper at different locations.

“He must go crazy right now, thinking of different ways to kill us and having to plan that all over again. So, I am planning to slaughter him before he can utilize his next plan.” Mark finished, snickering as he reveled at the thought of his enemy’s demise.

“I see…” I drawled, feeling astonished at all the information that he had gathered. I glanced at him and called out his name carefully, “Mark?” not sure if it was wise for me to say what has been lingering on my mind.

He hummed, his mind still musing for other ideas on how to get rid of Casper before diverting his eyes from the screen to focus entirely on me. At the sight of me, the hardened look in his eyes mellowed down whilst the corner of his lips curved up, bringing his hand up to pick out the crusty mucus that settled itself in the corner of my eyes. His thumb then follows to caress my prominent eyebag, and I had to stop myself from leaning into his warm touch.

“How are you feeling? Did you sleep okay last night?”

His voice that still had some residue of drowsiness left sounded huskier than normal, bringing forth a slight heat onto my skin before I could answer him with my own hoarse voice that had been worn out from all the screaming and crying. “I had worse, but I am feeling pretty okay.”

At my nonchalant answer, he nodded his head, but his eyes told me he didn’t believe me and he was right. It felt like thousands of people had stampeded over my body, every inch of my muscles being in utter agony and I barely had a wink of sleep. Partly I blamed my mom’s unannounced visit for robbing me of my sleep, but at some point, at night my thoughts were wiped to a clean slate and instead got dyed with thoughts of Mark.

Him listening to my story without his normal sardonic remarks to him trying to cheer me up in his own way brimmed my heart with this unexplainable bliss, making me feel almost light-headed. So much that I didn’t mind it when he took me by surprise by claiming my lips. To the contrary, I wanted him to kiss me. Whether the cause of my sudden urge for physical contact was because I felt so vulnerable from what had transpired that day didn’t matter. What mattered was that my heart was yearning for Mark. I was so lost in the tantalizing kiss I didn’t even regard the hand that went for my breast, shattering me out of my daze.

When my eyes flew open and met the piercing sea-blue eyes that were smoldering with heat, my heart that was beating all this time paused for a second, and like a defense mechanism my hand reached out to grab for his hand- thwarting any of his further movements. His lips pulled up in a teasing smile, causing my heart to thunder loudly against my ribcage, rendering me completely speechless.  

And when his voice that was densely cloaked with thirst mixed with mischievousness flowed the word “No?” out of his mouth, goosebumps run over my body, making me shudder with a rush of excitement. My body and heart wanted to be devoured by Mark they wanted this man to conquer every inch of me, but what they felt didn’t align with my thoughts that was shrouded with worries and doubts about what it would really mean to belong to this man.

No matter the circumstances, I can’t just dismiss all his wrongdoings and ignore the fact that he takes pleasure in hurting and killing people. The safety of the people that I love will be in constant danger unless I somehow get him behind bars or unless I use some other ways to stop him.

So, when he got up abruptly, telling me I should go to bed, a surge of relief washed over me despite the panging feeling in my chest when the cold air prickled my skin at the absence of Mark’s touch.

Mark, who waited for me to continue with what I wanted to say, gazed at me. Staring him in the eyes as the remembrance of our shameful act filled my mind reignited the heat in my core, leaving me flustered. I averted my eyes and, without meaning to direct them on his lips. I felt my own lips that were swollen from all the kissing tingles in response. Lowering my eyes further down as my thoughts were getting too much for me and my breath got caught in my throat at the sight of the sculpted valley between his pecs.

God, why is his body so sculpted? Was he born like that, or did he gain those muscles from all those years of killing people and dragging their dead body around? A drool was about to escape my agape mouth when a finger hooked itself under my chin, tilting my head up so that I looked in those mesmerizing blue eyes.

A smile that infuriated me, but still caused a skip in my chest got unleashed on his face, the bottom of his eyes smiling as he mused, “I would normally love your undivided attention, but since we are talking, I would like to remind you that my eyes are up here kitten.”

A throb that I cannot ignore pounds like a visitor knocking; waiting to be welcomed inside. My mind can wander around- ponder if the Stockholm syndrome has finally caught up to me, but it was already too late as the effect that he had left on me was irrevocable.

I like him.

At the realization of my inner feelings, my face caught on fire, fumes being exuded out of it while the sizzling sound could be heard. “I need to go to the toilet.” I spoke hastily, my voice pinched as I threw my legs over the edge of the bed. Standing up with the thoughts of quickly disappearing out of the room so that I could finally breathe, only to be yanked back by my left arm.

Letting out a startled yelp, my back landed back on the bed. Something has been clutching tightly in my left hand this whole time, causing me to lose any sensation there. Snapping my head around to see what was going on, I see Mark’s hand engulfing mine whilst his other hand rested on the keypad.

My eyes were strained on our linked hand before sparing the small alarm clock on my nightstand a glance, reading eight A.M. on it. Looking back at Mark, I hesitantly opened my mouth to ask him, “How long have you been holding my hand?”

“Five hours.” He answered bluntly, as if it was the most normal thing to do.

“Why?” I queried, the disturbance in my voice being clearly heard in response to his weird action. I tried to wiggle out of Mark’s hand, his fingers tightly entwined around mine, but he refused to let go and shrugged nonchalantly at my question.

“It’s pretty lonesome working behind a laptop for many hours and your hand also looked lonely as it was sticking out of the blanket.” He brought our mashed hands up, bringing the back of my hand to his lips so that he could give it a chaste kiss. My hand tingled at the sensation of his soft lips. “Now we both look less lonely.” He smirked playfully.

Not wanting to engage further with him as the thudding sound of my heart hasn’t found its normal tune yet I reiterated my wish, “Well I can’t feel my hand anymore and I would like to use the toilet, so can I have my hand back?”

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“Sure, you can go to your toilet to recollect your thoughts and feelings,” Grinning as he knew what went through my mind, he gave my hand a slight squeeze and said adamantly, “But before you go, I would like to hear what you wanted to say.”

“It can wait.”

He snorted through his nose mockingly, finally letting go of my hand to use both his hands to cup my face as he sneered slowly, “No, it cannot wait. You’re behaving weirdly and when you behave that way it’s never in my best interest and it only makes me want to combust in anger.”

He fixed his dark gaze on my anxious face as I squeaked out, “You don’t have to combust in anger if you keep an open mind to my suggestion.”

In response to my comment, I received a silence stare from Mark, one of his perfectly shaped eyebrows arched in amusement, his eyes glinting with derisiveness asking me if I was serious right now.

My shoulders drooped down, and I sighed, defeated. My eyes were aimed down at the empty space between us before petulantly looking up below the small gaps of my eyelashes- making them flutter as I tried my best to look meekly. “Promise me you will hear me out until the end.”

“We will see if I am benevolent enough to do that when I hear what you want to say.”

‘Dick.’ I grumbled internally. My eyes shooting daggers at the unfazed Mark whilst I mumbled under my breath, annoyed, “Fine.” before I proceeded to carefully enunciate my idea.

“Do you think Casper has a heart big enough to leave our dispute behind us and talk things out?”

I had thought about this ever since we arrived back from that hellhole. We cannot go through something like that again. This time we were lucky because I had my one second crafted flame tower at the hand, but one wrong move and I would have met my dad again, forever. And even if Mark somehow kills him, how long will that take? How many tries? I don’t doubt Mark’s competence when it comes to his dexterity of human disassembly. However, the number of armed men and connections that Casper has is something not to reckon with.

And I want to live a peaceful life.

Mark’s eyes narrowed into two slits as he barked, “No.” his hands letting go of my face to go back to typing on the keyboard of the laptop.

I huffed before taking his laptop away, shutting it close to put it behind me on the nightstand behind me- receiving a warning glare that made me quail, but I kept up a strong front. “Will you just listen to me! We have to resolve this peacefully.”

Mark closed his eyes, they resembling the crescent moon while he bestowed me a smile spread with ridicule. “Oh kitten~ you’re the only one who wants this to end peacefully.”

I groaned. “We can’t have this keep happening to us, Mark. Like you said, Casper will come up with a new plan to kill us. We will fight him back and the infinite cycle will go on. Do you really want this to repeat forever?” I questioned.

“There won’t be a forever when I kill him and burn his body.” He snapped.

Is he serious right now?

I tightened my jaw and barked frustrated at Mark, my hands flailing around to express my feelings. “You’re outmatched by him, Mark! He has gunmen, mobs and God knows what! We will just come out worse- if at all if you keep fighting him, you dumbass!” Wide-eyed, I glared hard at him.

He scoffed at me, brushing what I said off of him. “I don’t know what you’re so worried about we can just-”

Like a knife that has been meticulously chiseled, I cut him off, using words that were clearly used to get flung out to hurt him and to end this argument. “Do you despise him more than that you love me?”

He froze, his face morphing from shock to anger. He was bristled. “Of course not, how the fuck could you ever say th-”

“Then help me resolve this without bloodshed.” My voice that rose an octave higher before coming back to its normal volume. It was low, like the whispery wind as my hands grabbed Mark’s hand, my fingers clasping around it. Pushing out my bottom lip and enlarging my eyes, I pleaded, “Please Mark.”

His mood softens from furious to mild annoyance. He stares at me pensively, before he breathed out defeated, “Fine.”

Letting his hand reluctantly slip out of my hold, he pulled out his phone and dialed in a number. Pressing the speaker icon, the entire room was filled with the ringing sound of the other line. Raising my brows confused, I opened my mouth to ask him who he was calling, only to be silenced by his index finger that was pressed against my slightly parted lips.

When the person on the other line finally picked up, Mark removed his finger and grimaced while I jolted in surprise at the familiar jovial voice that sounded through the speaker.

“Mark, my dear friend! To what do I ow this pleasant phone call?”

“Casper.” Mark said gruffly. 

My head craned towards Mark, my jaw slack as I was flabbergasted.

‘He had his fucking phone number!?’

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