Pulling Each other's Strings.

Raziah had this uneasy feeling again. She stopped when she got to her destination and turned around to check if there was anyone following her. This feeling wasn't as thick and chilling as the one she had felt back at Erandell, mostly when she had received that blade with the written paper wrapped around it, but she was sure someone was watching her here too.

His Majesty spontaneously opened the door in front of her, canceling her train of thought. His big frame stood in front of her, and she could see that he was now properly dressed to leave the room. His hair was still wet and dripping down his face and back, and his thick majestic clothes held the emblem of Erandell kingdom which happened to be a phoenix bird dripping with larva.

"Your Majesty, I need to talk to you about something," She stumbled out softly and walked into the room. Forcing him to move back so he would let her in, she closed the door behind her. Her cold eyes had this undeniably upset look in them, and she crossed her hands over her chest.

"Hazel, did something happen?"

"What does the word 'guest' mean to you? Does it have a different meaning other than the one I know?" She questioned, trying to keep the annoyance out of her tone.

She expected him to give her a solid answer. Who knows he might have a very valid reason for introducing her to everyone at that, but once again the man just had to smirk lazily, his eyes dancing with the inflamed fire, "No, it does not,"

Raziah's body stiffened, and her brows creased, "So you have no reason for introducing me to everyone here as your whore?"

"What if I say I do? And what if I say I don't?"

Raziah's eyes twitched badly. The man surely knew how to piss her off, "Do you know who a whore is? What they do for a living? Man or woman? Do you know what it means to...?"

"But you're MY whore, Hazel,"

Her hazel eyes froze, and they hardened to an unknown height. She stared him straight in the eye, and even took a threatening step toward him with no intentions of backing down, "Would it have killed you to tell everyone that I'm your prisoner, or slave? At least if you told everyone that I was your slave-whore, then I would know that it's because a slave has no choice. But a whore? A woman who sells her body in return for something? Do you know how much you've plummeted my status? I've been forced to play along all these while but the more I think about it, the more my blood boils through my veins and I feel like tearing..." Raziah stopped to catch her breath. Her voice trailed off, her hands clenched till her knuckles hurt.

And all this while, even with her outburst, the man still retained the smirk on his face. It angered her to levels she couldn't even explain.

"Do you even understand what I'm saying? Won't you do something about this? Will you keep introducing me as your whore? Will you? Is that why you got married to me, olive?!"

Her throat burned and itched, and her temperature got hotter and hotter. He wasn't saying anything, and that made her look stupid. It looked as if he wasn't listening to her and was simply enjoying her outburst.

"You..." She drawled, taking another threatening step toward him. Her face had changed its color, and her hands had fallen to her sides, "Who are you?" She asked.

Aragon had tried so hard to keep the smile from showing. She was clearly frustrated and angry with him, and the least he could do was comfort her and try to make her understand. When he had told tati that she was his guest, he had expected her at that moment to question him, but she had been quiet about it. He also knew what could befall her if he had Introduced her as any other thing other than his guest. He didn't know whether she was just so good at pretending like it wasn't happening, or she was just naive about the fact that she was known as his whore - but whatever had been the option here for her, it seems she can't take it anymore.

"I asked who you are, olive." She repeated strongly.

He shouldn't have smirked, but he was already smiling before he knew it. He had always seen her as nothing but calm. He felt like her calmness was like a facade, a mask, to hide the identity she was holding back, and this outburst might just be a glimpse of who she really is. Aragon was planning to unveil her, unravel all the mysterious swirling in those hazel globes, and it just keeps getting more and more exciting with Raziah.

"Olive burner," He finally replied.

And Raziah lost it at that moment. Every self-control that had been holding her back, the restraints, her mother's words, everything snapped off at that second and her body moved before she could think twice. She jumped fluidly, her body maneuvering itself in the air with a swoosh, right before her legs came up and gave him a hard slap on the cheeks.

"Wham!"

The sound echoed loudly in the walls as she dropped back to her feet to see his head had been whipped to the side, his hair clinging to his face, hiding the devilish smirk he had right there. As Raziah fumed, trying to catch her breath - a thrill ran down her spine and the whole scene felt like it had happened before.

Wait a minute. She suddenly recalled the man she had slapped the night of her introduction, and it whole thing played in her mind again. No way...!

Slowly, her eyes widened in realization. That man had been putting on the same Khaki clothes his Majesty had been wearing that night. Plus, the hair and the height...and even the citrus scent! Raziah's hands flew to cover her mouth. Her insides were running wild, and she was a mess.

She didn't know when she cupped his face to look at him again properly. The print of her shoe, the dust was right there on his cheek again, and she also recalled seeing it during their dance. Their eyes met, and this time Aragon used every ounce of control to make sure the amusement didn't show on his face.

His eyes blazed, and his face was as hard as a rock, "You don't want to be my whore? After you slapped me, twice?"

Raziah swallowed hard, "I...I didn't know..." Her lips trembled deliriously, "I didn't m..mean to. You touched my backside and I..."

"Are you still trying to defend yourself, snow-white?" He questioned sternly, placing his warm hands over her cold ones on his cheeks.

"If that's the case. If it's because I slapped you the other night that you decided to do this to me...then it makes us even. I think I'm beginning to understand the type of person you're, your Majesty. You're the type that enjoys his revenge. Your eyes burn because you enjoy watching your prey suffer, and sometimes for certain reasons you seem distant and you turn into another person." She stated.

"And what about you? You always look so distant and act like you don't care when you actually do. You say you're not attracted to me, but you always freeze whenever I renew you. Your eyes are cold and empty, but you have a big heart that can't help but worry about others when they need you. All in all, you put on a mask to hide your true self from others. I don't do that. When I'm pissed off, I don't hold back and when I'm cunning, I don't hold back too," his palm on hers slowly moved down her skin lazily like he was testing her.

Raziah's eyes retained their coldness as she tried not to feel the heat radiating, moving along and setting her pores aflame. He got to her shoulders, and down her back. When he moved even lower and grabbed her derriere, she almost gasped from the electrifying warm tingles that drove her legs weak.

Without notice, he pressed her closer to him till her small body was squashed against his, "And do you still think you're not attracted to me, Raziah?" Her name was gentle on his lips, yet it sounded husky and extremely dangerous to her ears and evoked another Stupid feeling she hated.

"This is nothing, your Majesty," She followed up in his sinuous demonstrations with her own. Her hands cupping his cheeks languidly brushed down to his neck, and she stood on the tip of her toes so she could reach the crook on his neck, inhaling his impaled scent that rushed down to her greedy lungs.

Raziah wasn't stupid, or naive. She had read books, she knew how Intimacy worked. She had read many ways to turn on a man, but she never thought she would be trying it out. In fact, her body was simply moving on its own right now because she was determined to make him eat his words, "It doesn't matter how much you touch me, Your Majesty," she boldly licked his earlobes, around it and underneath till she saw him half-biting his lips, "But once I do this to you..." Then, she suckled hard on his neck, targeting a protruded vein as she bit softly, pushing on his restraints till she heard a soft sigh leaving his lips, "As you did to me all night the other day..." And then, she nipped on it again to suffice the pain she had caused, before licking him throughout, following the steps she had read in a certain book before she abruptly pulled away.

"You..." He breathed, gritting his teeth.

"Then it's game over. Opposites attract, yes, but not in this case. Look at your Majesty," For the first time, she was the one wearing a devious smile on her lips, "You look very needy," then, she pointed at his pants where his throbbing member had clearly been awakened without a doubt.

Before he could say anything else, Raziah had already scurried out of the room.