The courier arrived the morning after Lelah had jilted Gideon's attempts to extract an adequate apology from her at the inn. Instructed to search the studios of 21twelve before he found her, or else leave the gift at her home, the man had done his work with silent diligence. He left behind a garment bag containing a red dress, strapless, the matte silk of its fabric wrapped and draped to cling tight at the bodice and give way below hips to a soft flow that fell clean to the floor, modest save for the sweetheart neckline and the off centered slit that ran clear from where the thigh met hip downward, the swath of it hidden in the sweep of the pouring crimson fabric. The label of the dress inside emblazoned with the name of a house of couture that would have made even the most jaded starlet blush with a guess as to how much the dress could have possibly cost. Pinned to the dress was a note in a scrawling, spidery masculine script.


You owe me. Dinner tonight at 8. Will pick you up at 7:30. Wear the dress.

~G

Lelah stood in front of the full-length mirror that hung on the back of her bedroom door, eyeing herself critically.? The fact that the dress fit like a glove was a little worrying.? It said uncomfortable things about Gideon's familiarity with her body...uncomfortable things that nonetheless lit certain parts of her on fire.? She leaned in, examined her makeup, checking that it was flawless - no lipstick on her teeth, no lash marks on her cheeks from her mascara.? Then she tried to decide what to do with her hair.? If she pulled it up, there would be nothing between the neckline of the dress and the nape of her neck and she wasn't certain she wanted to leave all that flesh exposed.? So she gathered the silken mass of curls into a side ponytail and fastened it with a single bloom from an orchid.?

She slipped her feet into five-and-a-half inch heels, glad she'd taken the time to give herself a mani/pedi last night and then went out to the floor-to-ceiling windows to wait.? Would he send a car?? A carriage?? She glanced down at the Alfa Romero in the drive, wishing she felt confident enough to drive it herself.? It would give her a measure of reassurance if she didn't have to rely on Gideon to ferry her.

What the hell was she doing?? She'd told him last night that she would gladly pay for the tie she'd ruined.? Somehow, though, he'd gotten it into his head that she owed him much more than that.? So much more, in fact, that he'd sent her this dress and practically demanded she have dinner with him.? So, what the hell was she doing?? This was bad, dangerous bad.? It would cause all kinds of havoc with Ori, which would cause all kinds of havoc at work, which would cause all kinds of havoc with her investors...? She frowned.? Alain.? Somehow, all of this was Alain's fault.? He'd introduced them, after all.? What was the man thinking?? How could his judgment be so off about Gideon?? Couldn't Alain tell that there was something not right about him?? Maybe it was just the fact that Alain was a man and she, a woman, that made alarms go off in her head every time Gideon was around. It went a great deal towards explaining why Alain seemed to feel comfortable around Gideon.

It might have spoke volumes about Gideon that he had sized Lelah up from the moment he met her, but it spoke even more that he had demanded dinner with her and not thought even twice that she would refuse.? The night had turned cool and beautiful with the passing of the rain, and the slowly clearing skies were streaked with a palette of purples from the dark bruise of deep plum at its furthest edge to the palest lilac where the sun had just made its triumphant exeunt.? Gideon strolled up the street toward Lelah's home and took the steps two at a time.? He rapped hard knuckles against her door and turned his back to examine the yard and the porch as he smoothed a hand over his tie, fine silk a shade calculated to perfectly match Lelah's dress, tucked into the vest of a darkly pinstriped three piece suit that looked as if it had been made for him, which most probably it had been.? No off the rack rag fit lines the way this suit did.? He shoved hands carelessly into pockets, waiting, the shadow of a pleased smile toying with one edge of his mouth. Eyes lit upon the Alfa in the drive and his face brightened.? Living in London with a private driver had left Gideon ill equipped to get around in Rhy'din, with no car and no means of purchasing one after dark.

Oscar, of course, went nuts at the sharp rap at her door.? "Shush," Lelah said the little dog, pressing her fist against her chest, trying to calm her heart.? The knock had startled her, though to be fair, she was already very much on edge.? Oscar ignored her.? "I'm banishing you to the bedroom," she said and picked him up, tossing him gently on her bed and quickly closing the door.? Then she smoothed her dress down, checked for stray dog hairs and tugged open the door.? She gave Gideon a pleasant-enough smile, eyes moving over the bespoke suit with appreciation.? "Hi," she said softly and stepped back, inviting him inside.

He turned as the door opened, at the sound of the catch in the latch, tearing appreciative eyes away from Lelah's car only to have their fires re-ignited as they landed on the woman herself.? The hand smoothing his tie froze as he drank her in, and the expression of deeply pleased shock was genuine.? "Lelah... you look..."? He laughed softly, dropped his head, suddenly keenly aware of what a pathetic stereotype his reaction seemed.? He glanced at her from under dark brows, abashed.? "...Stunning.? Just.? Stunning."? He offered up a warm, slightly bashful smile as he accepted her invitation inside, reaching for her hand once he was across her threshold.

Oscar's barks went from the normal, there's someone at the door kind, to the warning, there's a bad bad person in my house kind.? Lelah frowned softly at the change, but was quickly distracted by Gideon's expression - that bashful smile looked as out of place as a fish on a bicycle.? "Thank you," she said softly, dropping her eyes coyly even as she held out her hand to him.? "I...well, it's because of you, you know."? She darted a look at him, something akin to terror in her face.? "The dress!? You sent it.? It's all the dress," she explained quickly, lest he think she'd gussied up solely for his benefit.

Eyes strayed toward the hidden source of the barking with a bemused smile before drawing back to the beauty before him as he shook his head.? "No, the dress was nice enough on the hangar.? On you..."? He breathed a quiet sigh and simply admired, taking her hand to turn her around, once, slowly.? "No wonder people want to stare at you for hours on a screen, luv.? You are exquisite."? Again the barking and that amused grin.? "Am I going to get to meet your bodyguard?"

She spun obediently enough, secretly adoring the cling and sway of the silk against her bare legs.? She glanced over her shoulder at her closed bedroom door then shook her head before turning back to Gideon.? "I don't think that would be a good idea.? I've never heard him this...angry before.? I wouldn't want him to hurt you or himself."? She took a deep breath, feeling strangely awkward.? "Just so we're clear about something," she said at length.? "This isn't a date.? I'm...? Well, I'm seeing someone.? And this is...repayment for...for what I did to you earlier this week.? All right?"? She dared to meet his eyes.

In spite of the way he prickled people, rubbed them the wrong way sometimes, Gideon did have a small gift with animals, and he'd never met one who hadn't warmed to him, but he was not about to press the issue.? He shrugged away the disappointed look and laughed softly at her question.? "Oh, this is a date, luv.? You did promise me one, remember?"? Well, she had promised to get a drink with him sometime; this was taking that promise to extremes.? "Plus...I thought perhaps you could just make it up to me that you, for some inexplicable reason, thought I was the Devil himself and tried to send me back to Hell."? Broad, teasing smile reassured that he was not, in fact, angry about all this, and did have a sense of humor.? "That and the fact that you ran from me last night like I was some kind of rapist when we were talking out on the porch."? He shoved the hand not lightly holding hers back into his pocket as he dropped his gaze, ran a thumb lightly over her knuckles.? He'd fed, and was not cold, felt almost normal to the touch for once.? "I thought perhaps I'd just demand a second chance, since trying to ask you didn't work out as well as I had planned."

She took a deep breath, bristling a bit at his assurances that this was, indeed, a date.? "I never promised you anything.? And I'm very sorry that I thought you were a demon.? Apparently, I'm more gullible than I would have thought," she added, a bitter tone to the words.? As to the porch scene...? "You cornered me, Gideon.? You had my back up against that railing with no way out.? How was I supposed to take that?"? She delicately took her hand back from him, curling her fingers into a loose fist at her side, as if trying to keep his touch locked away inside a cage made from her hand.

He blinked in surprise and let his hand fall as he regarded her mildly.? "I just leaned toward you...you looked ready to run or clobber me with the beer you were holding before I even got a word out.? What would you have had me do, Lelah?? Fall on my knees and beg you for your forgiveness?"?? He raked fingers through his hair once more as he shifted, restless, unwilling to get drawn into another argument with her.? "I don't understand you, Lelah.? You run hot and cold too quickly for even me to keep up.? One week you let me kiss you in the marketplace and promise me a date, the next week you are trying to banish me to Hell and running off when I lean toward you. I just..."? He gave her a hurt glance and moved to open the door.? "I just don't get you, luv.? If you'd rather I just leave you alone, so be it.? The reservations are at Gerard's.? You're welcome to go enjoy it yourself if you wish."

"Oh, f*ck," she said without heat.? She took a step closer to him, laid her hand on his arm, looked up into those too-blue eyes.? "I'm sorry.? I'm an idiot sometimes.? This whole place is just so confusing.? Demons and dragons and vampires and freakin' dragons, you know?? I'm just a simple girl from the Upper West Side.? I feel like I'm out of my league with you.? With this whole city."? She sighed softly and gave him a contrite smile.? "I'm sorry, Gideon.? Let's just...try to have a civilized meal.? I promise I won't throw condiments at you."?

He paused at the hand on his arm and regarded her for a long, silent moment, considering. In the end he gave her a guarded smile, not one of his bright, charming best, and the lack of such brilliance left the other feeling empty.? "Nothing about you is simple, Lelah."? He opened the door, and the limousine he hired was waiting outside to meet them.? He offered her his arm.? "Alright, but only if you promise."? A bit of humor returning to those eyes that slanted just a touch.

"I promise," she said, tilting her head to the side and offering him a sly smile even as she crossed her heart with a crimson-tipped finger.? She paused just long enough to pick up her bag before going to open her bedroom door.? Oscar shot out, still growling and yodeling up a storm.? "Behave," she told him and then headed for the open door.

"You and me both," he intoned under his breath as he gave Oscar an apologetic look before he drew Lelah outside and down the stairs after she'd closed the door.? He opened the door of the car for her before stepping in himself.? It was a short ride to the restaurant, short enough to make the limo seem like even more of an extravagance, but he was not about to make Lelah walk, not in that dress in this city.?

"How different?" He asked, rubbing thoughtfully at his chin as dinner arrived, lobster tail unshelled, draped over an orzo in creme sauce, topped with a pile of exotic fruits. "For what its worth? my own childhood was fairly empty. Boarding school, summers away. Then prep school and college. If I could name one whole day that I ever saw my parents I can't remember it now." Strange slip of the truth that, some small offering for her troubles.

She frowned softly at his confession and then eyed the lobster with something akin to lust. Taking up her seafood fork, she delicately plucked a nibble from it and chewed it slowly, savoring it before answering him. "Very different. Not clouded by...by Hollywood or...anything else. I gained a certain amount of clarity after leaving LA."

The look she gave the lobster was one to be envied, and he enjoyed it thoroughly, even as he ignored his own plate for the moment, empty fork and knife in hand. He considered her for a long moment, not unlike the way she considered her plate, and with no less thinly-veiled lust. "What do you want out of life, Lelah? What is it exactly that's driving you?"

She paused for a moment and then smiled a bit at him. "Haven't we discussed this already? I distinctly remember a discussion like this, on the front porch of the Inn, over a shared cigarette."

"Mn, yes. I remember some avoidance too." Broad smile to call that bluff. He cut lobster slowly, into minuscule bites, absent of attention.

Her eyes narrowed a little at that. "I want to be respected and remembered," she answered. No prevarication about it this time, only the blunt truth.

"And the means to that end were what I was after, luv." He prodded gently. "Through film? By strangers?"

"Through film, through the way I live, the choices I make." She shrugged a little. "I'd rather it not be strangers, but... If that's all I've got, I'll take it."

"Is that all you've got?" He asked with a curious glance from under eyebrows as he shoved the food around on his plate a little.

"All I've got? What about you?" She was far too engrossed in her own plate to notice the dance occurring on his.

"I have no desire to be remembered or adored or respected, luv. I don't need anyone around for that as a result." He used to have people, family, nearly, and friends. They hated him now, as they should, or were scattered to the winds. "I have...family... in London." The bitterness that dripped from that word was palpable, though his expression gave nothing away. "That's enough."

"Sounds lonely," she mused and pushed away a nearly empty plate. She was not one of those girls who ate like a bird on a date...or even a not-date.

"Not at all." He set his fork down and picked up the champagne glass in lieu. "Harder to get hurt that way, though. Or to hurt." She was getting a lot out of him tonight, but cut raw as he was, it was little surprise.

She nodded, her face reflecting the fact that she knew exactly what he was talking about. "It's easy, I think, to be cut off and safe, to hold yourself away from others so that you don't get hurt. It's not fun, though. It's not living. It's...existing. Nothing better."

Dinner was removed and replaced with a raspberry creme confection layered between rich vanilla cake. He refused the thing outright, his expression somewhat distant. "There's nothing easy about it, but you get by." Had two people ever been so alone in each other's company? It took a force of sheer will to bring himself back, shove away from that dangerous-edge truth presented like a delicious cliff face just begging for the fall. "You know, for all your noble causes and endless busy work... I just can't figure you, Lelah. I think we could go round in circles like this forever and you'd be happy to do just that. Have you ever let anyone in?"

She nodded, licking a bit of cake and creme off a spoon. "Once. Twice, maybe. No more, though. Have you?"

"About the same." He replied. Perhaps one more. Brows drew together as he abandoned the champagne flute for a cigarette. God bless Rhy'din and its ashtrays. No one he wanted present at the moment, and the expression that clouded his face sung it in a hallelujah chorus. He abandoned the inquisition for silence and the slow, sweet curl of smoke, watching the quartet at their work, stringing soft strains of Chopin.

She watched him watching the musicians. Then she said, "For all that you accuse me of being confusing and hard to read, you're not exactly a Dick and Jane book yourself, you know."

He broke from his reverie at that and glacial blue eyes flickered to meet her soft browns for a half a second before sliding away. "Yeah, well. Fool me once..."

"So how can you expect me to open up to you if there's no quid pro quo?" Desert done, she fished in her bag for her own pack of smokes, lit one and deeply exhaled, letting the smoke wreathe her head like a dubious halo.

"What do you want to know, luv?" He asked, flicking his own cigarette's ash into the crystal circle provided. "You've asked me damn little aside from my preference of hair color and whether or not this was a date."

She sighed deeply, her brow furrowed in minute lines. "Who do you love?" she asked softly after a moment's pause.

"No one." The answer came too easy, too quick and far too hard. She'd put a damned point on the tip of her dagger sharp enough to skewer even the hardest of armors. "Anymore." He added, with less heat, chewing hard at his lower lip. "Pointless thing, love. Don't you think?"

"No. I don't. Not at all." She met his eyes boldly. "I think that's the saddest thing I've ever heard, Gideon."

"Is it?" He asked brows lifting in interest. "Half of love is really lust in disguise, come soft to knock you over and steal things like a thief. The other half of love is just grief and loss when you realise - and everyone does eventually, Lelah - that love is nothing more than one person wanting another more, and never getting enough." Cold matter of factness as he ground out the butt of his cigarette. "Don't believe your fairy tales, luv. Don't buy into your scripts. They lie every time."

She shook her head, not buying what he was selling. "Who was she, Gideon? Who hurt you so badly that she made you think like this?" Her voice was soft, gentle, coaxing even.

She. He gave her a broad smile, endless aching beauty of a thing, terrible in its glorious generosity and the way it perfected pale features. "Life, Lelah. Didn't you know? She's the cruelest thing to fall in love with of all."

"Wow. So cynical. So jaded. So sad." She stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray between them and took another sip of champagne.

He chuckled quietly. "I'm sorry to color your opinion of me, luv, but I've been burnt enough to know. Someday I think you will be too, if you haven't already and are just not ready to admit it." He eyed her in a measuring way, not judgmental but weighing. "Life has a way of stealing everything you want, or have wanted. It finds those little dreams and eats them while you sleep. In the end? All you have is what you make and fight for and hoard to yourself, and even those fade away in time." He shrugged. It was all matter of fact, bitterness long since faded into resignation. "Have fun while you can, and damn the rest." He tossed his lighter upon the table and rose, reaching out a hand in offering to her as the quartet picked up the soft chords of Nocturne Op. 9. A broad smile challenging.?

Corners of his mouth tugged down as he considered that question, head canting to one side.? He was silent a long moment, and it let the soft sounds of the rest of the dining room flood back in.? "I don't know, luv.? Someone to fight with, someone to have a bit of fun with?"? He gave her an amused glance. "If you ever let yourself have fun, that is."? He lifted a shoulder in a small shrug.? "I really never think that far ahead, honestly.? You're a fucking vision, Lelah, you think I didn't want to find out what a kiss of yours tastes like that first time I met you?"?

She closed her eyes briefly, sending up a silent prayer for strength.? Then she opened her eyes once more and fixed him with an appraising look.? "One kiss wouldn't be enough, would it?"? Was she asking him or herself that question?? Staring at him for a beat longer, she nodded, as if coming to a decision.? Then she stepped closer to him, tilting her head up, dark eyes hooded with desire.

"Probably not."? Gods and he grinned like Lucifer, all generosity and lies, dark promises that swam in ice-water blue.? Hands lifted, cradled her throat so thumbs could trace the smooth curve of her jaw. He bent close, the gaze that slid over her face more intimate by far than any touch could have been, before he bent to brush his lips against her forehead, the bridge of her nose, and then her mouth.? He took his time as he kissed her, closing the cupid's bow of her upper lip in his mouth, the silk of his tongue stroking against the delicate inner flesh of her lip. He sucked lightly and released her lip, moving to catch the fullness of her lower lip next, the barest hint of teeth resting in the give of her silken flesh.?

She went still, passive and unresisting under his hands and his mouth.? When she felt the edge of his teeth graze her lip, she shivered and reached for him, pulling him firmly against her, her hands grasping desperately at him, feeling the valley of his spine between the muscles of his back.? A sighing moan escaped her mouth and she greedily returned his kiss, brazen now as any further thought of resisting him flew from her mind.

Stomach tightened with that slow coil of lust that curled tight like a constrictor as she drug him closer.? The pressure of her fingers was hard against fine fabric that covered solidness that moved beneath.? He felt like stone, like marble statues that moved, had muscles solid under their facade.? So little give there.? Her greed fed his own, flung fuel on that fire as he parted her mouth under his, tongue drawing hers forward to suckle, caress.? She tasted sweet, champagne and vanilla, cinnamon and hint of smoke like wood fire in the background, smoldering.? The noise that escaped her made him want to knock the table beside them clear and do things to her on it that would most likely get both of them arrested.

"Let's go," she murmured against his lips, breaking the kiss but not the contact.? She felt that rush of hunger in him; it raised the hairs along her arms and down her spine, causing a sweet, fiery pain to spring up low down on her body.? "Now," she added urgently, breaking away from his embrace only to grab his hand and practically run for the doors.

He was all too eager to agree with a soundless nod.? He stopped long enough to toss money on the table for the tab, far too much no doubt, and let her pull him after her toward the door at a near sprint, smiling to himself at her rush.? He flung the door to the limo open for her and ducked in behind.? Wonderful, discreet driver had the privacy shield up the whole time, and those dark windows gave nothing away as he drug her across the smooth, wide leather seat and onto his lap, a leg on either side of his hips, which gave the slit to that damned dress a whole new meaning.? One hand curled over he knee, slid up her thigh slowly as he pushed the satin aside.? A thumb stroked teasingly at that tender, tormenting little hollow at the very inner join of her thigh and he raised hungry eyes to beg another kiss from her as he bit at her chin.? "Lelah..."? No one could say a name like Gideon, and growled like that, the lilt of her name sounded like the slide of sheets against bare skin.

Once she was settled - if settled was the proper word for what she was feeling right now - she captured his mouth once more, tongue and teeth and lips stoking the fire in her belly.? Nimble fingers made quick, careful work of his tie and waistcoat and shirt and she ducked her head, leaving a trail hot, wet kisses down his jaw and the column of his throat as she pushed at the suit jacket.? "Too many clothes," she growled, forcing herself to take care.? It would be a mortal sin to ruin such a fabulous suit.

Damn the suit, drown the suit.? Head tilted back with a quiet, strangled noise of pleasure at those warm, wet kisses, and he shrugged out of? jacket, shirt and waistcoat, chuckling softly at her endearing impatience as he shoved the things to the floor of the limo.? Hands slid up her arms, over bare shoulders and fingers pulled the tie of her pony tail loose.? Letting that hair fall as he groaned, bit against the rise of her collarbone as hands gathered the spill of her hair, pulled gently.

For all that that taste of him was mind-numbing, white hot glory, when he tasted her it was warm, perfect, endless ecstasy...boundless sea of bliss and blackness that comforted, engulfed the nerves of skin and the expanse of emotions both with the slow building crest of a wave of pleasure that washed the world away...like the blood it lasted, the only sound the hard, slow thudding metronome of her own heart...the sound that drew her back, away from that sweet escape, back to where vision swam into focus again and Gideon was simply sucking a kiss from the palm of her hand before placing it upon his shoulder and stroking her arm lightly as he turned to smile wolfishly at her.? Sweet plums, incense, rich dark cocoa, the spice of saffron...she was an exotica of flavors.? He ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek.? "I think we should get out of the limo, luv..."? They'd been home for nearly an hour.? He was going to have to tip that driver damn well.

She blinked.? The rush was gone.? The high was gone.? She was left with a hunger for more that she somehow sublimated long enough to croak out a word - "What?"? He was speaking, she knew that - she could hear his voice, see his lips moving - but it might as well have been Korean for all the understanding she got from it.? Then the world sort of popped back into existence and she realized what had happened, what they'd done.? "Oh, God," she groaned and crawled out from underneath him.? The limo was stopped.? Covering herself as best she could, she sat up and looked out the window.

He sat up, pulling pants with him and did himself up before grabbing the wrinkled mess of his shirt and shrugging it on, looped his tie over his shoulders and pulled his waistcoat then coat over, not bothering to tuck anything in as he buttoned his shirt back up and laughed softly at how out of it she seemed.? He moved to the other end of the limo and tapped on glass, which rolled down an inch, enough for the exchange of money, before he resumed his seat next to Lelah and followed her gaze out the window.? "What are we looking for?"

"Where we are," she answered distractedly.? Then she seemed to notice how close he was, how her blood sang out for more of him.? She shrunk away from him, embarrassed and ashamed of all that had happened...? And speaking of...what the hell had happened?? No sex partner she'd ever had - and granted the number wasn't in the double digits, so there wasn't a wealth to compare - had done to her what he'd done.? How...??

He smiled at her in amusement.? "Your house."? And then she shrunk away, and the smile faltered.? "Come on, chickadee."? Voice quiet, a small touch of hurt there at her reaction.? He leaned, pressed a brush of a kiss to her shoulder and reached past her to open the door she sat beside, swinging it open with a push.

She sat frozen, torn between staying and fleeing, that innocuous kiss on her shoulder doing absolutely nothing to help her decide her course.? "Th-thank you for dinner," she managed, even offered a somewhat shaky smile and slid out of the car.? Her knees were weak and she gripped the door and the edge of the roof until she stood squarely on two feet.? She glanced over her shoulder at him, dark, kohl-lined eyes moving over his face as if memorizing how he looked.? "I guess I'll...I'll see you...sometime."? There was a note of desperation in her voice and in her eyes.

He got out of the car behind her and shut the door, waited for the limo to pull away before turning back to her, one half of his generous mouth curled upward.? "I'd invite you back to my place but I have a house guest at the moment.? Family."? Eyes seemed to darken slightly at the word that dripped bitter on the tongue.? He stepped toward her, reached out to catch a dark curl of her hair in his fingers, tucked it back behind the curve of her ear.? Eyes flicked from her ear to her face.? "See me sometime?"? No chance to be invited in for a drink then. Silent laughter behind glacial blues as he teased her.? "What a brush off."? He stepped in, pressed a kiss to her cheek and withdrew, shoving hands into the rumpled pockets of his trousers.? Undone, he looked like someone had mugged him, or else like he'd been attacked by some sex-mad starlet in the back of a limo; either way, it was a good look on him. "Have a good night, chickadee.? Thanks for the date."? He turned and started the stroll down her driveway, preferring to walk.

She stood where she was, watching him walk away, still more than half-confused at the night's events.? Then when he was past the bricked wall that separated the estate from the road, she turned and hurried up the steps to her loft.? She needed time alone to trace back over what had happened - if she could remember, that is. And then... Well, then it was time to face the music and talk to Ori.


((Many thanks to Gideon's player for this scene.))