Dante was an attentive lover, he paid quite the attention to detail of those that he bedded, even if the encounters would normally be brief. When it came down to Lotus however, their encounters had been numerous, more so than any previous one he had ever been through ever. It was situation that seemed strange for him but then again she was unlike anyone else. Logically speaking, if they were going to keep meeting like this, they knew where their encounters would lead to. It was just a matter of where they could get away with things. Such private thoughts made him smile brightly, and that would likely clue her in on what he was thinking.

Anyway, because he was so attentive, he could tell that something was a tad different in her from when he started to speak of his suggestion. It started with her kiss, as sweet and supple as any other that they shared. Dante didn’t pay it too much mind, but by the end of it, he was more suspicious of her behavior despite her approval. He held onto her tightly against him, enjoying the feel of her body against his, her scent engulfing and mixing with his own. She seemed like a tropical forest, and her exotic nature and form only served to make it all the more intoxicating. His fingers lightly drummed against her as she spoke with an edge of seriousness. Aside from Colden, she had never spoken like this before, and even then this was different. Dante listened and watched, his eyes locked onto her with a blank gaze as she confessed to him some of the things that were kept at bay.

“Lotus. I would be surprised truly if you were completely alright after having a horrid mother like Cyprus. I knew that some way she had harmed you just like the others, but I am not amused with what she had done.” He glanced into the reflection in the water and pointed it out to her to look again. “I find it a shame that she was able to make you feel that way about yourself. You are beautiful and strong, cher. If you are broken, I won’t be deterred from you, if that is your worry. ”

He truly didn’t give a damn if she was or wasn’t. Nothing to him changed his thoughts over her and the matter they were speaking of. “We do have a connection, and though neither one of us could claim to be completely faithful, and nor should we lie to one another and ourselves, I feel that it can be possible to care for the other.” They were on opposite sides and surely that would cause for alarms if they were together, but he was unconcerned with it for now. His fingers gripped around her waist before cupping her chin and motioning to tilt her head up slightly. “Perhaps you wish to be sated in knowing more about me than where I am ticklish at”, he said with a devilish grin. “Oh Lotus, if I was ever scared to learn more of you, I wouldn’t have suggested this at all. I do not wish to cage you, but merely flock with you when the time calls for it. Any other time you are free to do as you wish.”

Lotus laughed a bit and shook her head. “Anyone who comes out feeling they are alright has other issues with them… especially to have lived with what I have.” She frowned just a bit at his words but knew he was just trying to make her feel more beautiful and better. She decided she would tell him about what her mother had done to her. About why there was a threat to Cyprus should anything more happen to her? “You are sweet on your words Dante and you’ll be the only one who will ever hear these things from me.” She was a private person but it helped when you didn’t keep the same crowd of people around you.

“Love has nothing to do with being faithful my sweet. That is just a silly thing that good mommys and daddys tell their sweet children.” It is true that Lotus could feel. She knew she could but she didn’t let herself. She was temporarily scared of becoming her mother but she also knew that Cyprus had been born that way. “I don’t wish to lie to you, Dante. There is definitely a connection here and it does make me excited when you are around.” She was afraid of her feelings which were a good thing in her mind.

She let herself be pulled into him and snuggled her head into his hand. It felt too natural and it made her heart race. This was new uncharted territory for her. “Let me tell you a story.” She reached up and took his hands. “You know in the beginning I looked a lot like my mother.” She put his hands up to her eyes. “Two red eyes. Long black hair. I was kind where she was horrid. Even when I was young I knew what I would do when I was older but… never was I unusually horrid.” She frowned a bit. “But my mother came to me one day in her regular fits of rage… Told me that no one would look twice at someone damaged. No one wanted a damaged girl. I didn’t know what she meant until she took my eye out. She used her thumb.” She moved his hand and put it over her one red eye. “And pressed hard. I had been minding my own business in the library. She wanted someone to take her frustration out on.”

A deep breath came from her. “So my siblings rushed me screaming through the gates that belong to Angela. They pleaded with her to stop the bleeding, the screaming. Angela in her kindness did more than that. She told me… that she had always been sad that I got my mother’s eyes. They were so bleak and ugly to the world. So she made them beautiful and a focal point of conversation.” She removed his hand from her gold eye. “Gold. She said gold was a beautiful color and unique. Now I have one red and one gold. Many people have fallen in love with them. That was just one thing she did to me. That is why my father told her if she did it again he would kill her.”

She held out her hands and showed him the silvery scars. “She’s cut off my fingers before and like my eye, Angela made my scars beautiful. Angela is a divine being. She is good but I wouldn’t say good in a way that is like what we fear. It is more justice that she seeks. As long as her family is fine she doesn’t care what you do. She doesn’t move unless she has to. She gives and gets but never does she ask for much. I pass information to Angela but not everything. That’s what I owe her for keeping me alive. Angela doesn’t pry. If I say I’m sleeping with you, she won’t ask. She’ll just tell me to be careful and watch my step. She’s always been there in the shadows. She couldn’t outright kill my mother and I’ve always wondered why. I’m not mad about it.” She shrugged. “I figured it had to do with how the Rosenite thrones work.”

She ran his hand over her scars. They were soft and they glowed a little when the light hit them just right. Lotus laughed a little and kissed his hands. “These are but a few of the things she has done to me. Not counting her words or what things she has taken from me. She’s taken many things from me.” She was sad for a moment. “There was this boy once. I knew I was never made to be with anyone but I liked him… One day I got into an argument with my mother and… she killed him. She broke him and made me watch. It was the last time I argued.” A deep frown set on her face.

“I hate her and I hate her red eyes. I hate looking at myself because I see her. I see her in that one red eye.” She shook just a bit as if she had opened a floodgate to everything she had held in for so long. She hadn’t ever told anyone now that she thought about it. Tears welled up in her one red eyes and it was noticeable that the other was quite fake now as it lacked the ability to cry. Though like the strong flower that she was, she pulled her hand up and got rid of the tears before they could roll. “I just want her dead. And to stay dead. Colden is a damn fool to even trust that woman but he does. I hate him for it sometimes. Everything she’s ever done to him and he still loves her. But that’s her and her honeyed words.”

He let her guide his hands upon her face as she started to spill the tale of her upbringing with Cyrpus. He wasn’t a completely evil creature, no he just did the few terrible deeds that his father would instruct him to do,simple as that. Other than that, he was often left alone to his own devices. Xunatar was far from being a good parent but he at least didn’t treat his children completely as things that were meant to be broken. He had often wondered where Lotus had gotten that golden eye of hers. Unfortunately it a part of a woeful tale, and of course he couldn’t be surprise that she had gained it after her wicked mother had stolen one of hers. A terrible pity that she was marked by her; likely out of pettiness and envy. He didn’t shy away from her nor from her damaged hands.

“Cyprus isn’t one to follow directions. Father had clearly told her to stay away from him but she’s relentless in her hunt for power.” The woman would clearly not stop for anything in her path, her own flesh and blood included. She had damaged Lotus, she had damaged Colden, killed most of their siblings and surely would damage the last child of the Black Rose if her madness didn’t stop there.

He was peeved that the woman still drew breath in this world, but the clock was ticking for her. One false move, and one of her enemies would surely finish her. Oh wouldn’t that be a satisfying day. He was not one for violence as his first solution, but the demon shouldn’t have been underestimated for he was as deadly as he was elegant. “She wouldn’t dare try that onto me, cher. Or in ribbons she will be laid to rest”, he spoke nonchalantly. “You are not her, Lotus. You both are completely different people, my dove. She will slip up and when she does, she will wish and beg for death.” Father had called for a manhunt to take place, so her options of hiding were limited and growing smaller as each day passed. He suppose that both families could agree on one thing, her existence was an abomination and had to cease. He wiped the hot tears away from her face. “Colden is a special case. True, he is broken himself from her abuse but how much do you really know of him?” Dante was cryptic yes, but he knew that there were other forces in play as far as how the little monster operated. Had she known of what the man before her was capable of? “Like myself, he is a carrier of sin. Mine is likely an obvious one, and he is that of Envy. A product of ambitions of both your mother and my father. That is why he’s so hellbent on wanting that throne of your courts. He was spoonfed to believe it was his right to have it and he’s willing to burn everything around him to get it. From what I have learned of Cyprus, she’s likely play along with his delusion until she’d done with him.” He wasn’t excusing the boy for his crimes, no, that was perfectly his own fault.”

He removed his mask, growing bored of the masquerade and twirled it around his fingers. “But why dwell on that? Tonight is ours, is it not?” He leaned back down and gave her a passionate kiss. “The only thing I wish for right now is the person right here. Broken or not.”

Lotus gave an amused frown if such a thing existed. “If death told Mother to live, she would rebel and slit her own wrists. My mother goes against most things for better or for worst. The more we tell her not to do something the more she is likely to do it… If she wants something she will have it or she will die for it.” 

A smile came to her lips as she knew that Dante could defend himself. He was older than her mother was. He was fierce but he was a lover before a fighter. She knew this. Still, there was doubt in her eyes when he said she wasn’t her. It would take a time to undo the damage that woman did to her. “I hope it is the most violent painful death there is. She deserves no peace.” A smile came to her face. “Angela has arranged for Cyprus to go to the deepest bowels of Porta Inferi. Once we kill her… there won’t even be peace in the afterlife.”

She listened to her lover as he wiped the tears from her. She smiled at him. “I’ve always figured there was something special about him but I didn’t know what. I admit I know nothing past what I knew what home. I got thrown out before I could learn more but Colden loved Mother dearly. Envy is a deadly thing to have and I’ve seen it destroy many people.” Lotus nodded and thought about it more. “She will… she’ll whisper everything he can have. The thing he won’t know is he can’t have the throne until Kirika is dead. Even then… if he tries to take it. The trial will rip him to shreds.” The trial… she had never mentioned it. 

“In Arri, we don’t just hand the throne down. There are trials after one’s death that they must take. Of the five, Light and Dark are the two that can outright kill a person for just walking in. I’ve heard stories about our trial but I’ve never been foolish enough to try it. Kirika? She was only ten when she decided she wanted to try it. She had heard the stories… she did it anyway. She said that she was the leader and she would be the leader no matter what it took to prove herself. She was the first person in the history of Arri not to be almost murdered in the damn thing. It took five months for my mother to recover from her injuries from it. I can’t tell you what is in it… but Kirika? She doesn’t speak about it often. If Colden took it… it would most likely kill him.” He didn’t have what it took for the trial to be completed. Not if he was this hellbent.

When he got rid of his mask she gently removed hers and let it fall on the ground. She too was tired of playing dress up and she would rather play dress down with Dante. “This is true. We have forever in a day to talk about serious matters.” She kissed him back and held his face in her hands. “And I wish for you.” It was a soft set of words that escaped her lips as she kissed him again.

“What do you have in that devious mind of yours? I would love to see it in action.” There was her playfulness. It sparked right back up as if she had a switch she could throw at any moment. “This halo is ours to corrupt all we wish. Damn anyone who comes to watch.”

“Well, we at least knows where Colden’s rebellion streak comes from then”, he teased as his fingers danced upon her slender shoulder. Lotus’ skin was so silky smooth and he loved the feeling upon his fingertips. He wanted to simply rip the dress off of her and indulge in his carnal desires, but there was some loose ends to tie up with them. He was no fool; the things that her mother had done to her couldn’t be reversed by sweet words. No, he suppose that actions would prove more valid. Dante could see that his proposal had shaken one of the things her mother had told her. He could see it in her eyes and how open she was towards him, and he wasn’t speaking of her legs in this case. “Only the best for her indeed”, he spoke sarcastically. He truly did want her to burn, like so many of her enemies and even family wished for.

His arms wrapped around her as he pondered about his little brother. This trial thing, could prove to be deadly and yet had his father known about this little setback. No, no, he couldn’t have- he wanted the boy alive and surely if he’d known about the trial then he would have deterred Colden from his horrible dream. “Then he will be stopped. Father won’t allow for his self destructive behavior to really end him. He has yet to tap into the powers that are within him. If he does, then even Cyprus will find it hard to use him as her puppet. Let’s just say that, love.”

He nearly cooed as he saw her face freed from the mask, even with that little imperfection she was stunning. He was growing bored of the conversations that didn’t place them as the center topic. What he did find intriguing was her lips against his in tantrum.

Dante broke it off for a moment but kept his closeness to her. His voice grew deeper and more seductive as he breathed heavily into her ear. “What’s on my mind is to take you over and over again all over this place.” His hands hiked up her dress and felt for every exposed inch of skin he could. “Dealer’s choice on where to do it first, Lotus. Would you rather fuck in the garden or in the water?”

Lotus nodded to Dante and her arms swam around him. “To be honest, I am afraid I would be weary of it continuing should we pursue each other. We are on two sides… As long as Colden continues his damn quest everything we build from this moment on is in jeopardy.” 

A chuckle left her lips and leaned her head into his so she could feel his breath down her neck. She felt shivers for a moment and smiled. “That’s all I want right now. Again… and again.” Her eyes watched him with interest as he pulled her dress up and felt her. Her fingers were nimble as she undid his shirt and felt his chest on her fingertips. 

“The garden… if we did the water first it would be messy… and I would love to end it there…” She nipped at him. From there they either ripped their garments or tossed them aside. It didn’t matter. Her hair was let down and whatever was holding it up got flung somewhere into the flowers. They made the gardens their playground. Over and over.

When people came up and gawked she made sure to put on a real good show. She didn’t care there were people there. She cared about his pleasure and he hers. At the end, no matter how long it had been, how hard they had gone, who bruised what, they were in the river. She was straddled on his lap wrapping her arms around him. The cold crisp water made her shiver but still, she laid against his warm form. She laid a few kisses on him here and there. 

She was tired now and she could see the tired in him. It wouldn’t last long she was sure but they sure knew how to tire each other out. That was the glorious thing about each other. “Maybe we should go find a warm bed. I should make you cuddle with me to make this chill go ahead. When we are more awake… we can continue our fun. We can ruin whatever room we find ourselves in.” She pulled his hair so he could come down to her and she kissed him again. “We’ve defiled every bit of this halo as we could. I quite liked it.”

He thought for a second about it; the conflict with Cyprus and Colden and everyone in between had to brought into an end. What would be the end result? He didn’t know since there were so many variables in the game, so many players with their own agendas. Surely even though it seemed like his father was willing to play ball, it was only because of his needs for his plans. Colden served as one of those tools so that’s why he was protective of the boy. Dante did it out of both his father’s needs and that of Lotus’. After all, it was her that convinced him to help her in his safety as well as with her sister’s. Then again, the promises of sex…he was a sucker for them and she had never disappointed yet.

But the conversation went exactly where it needed to be- with the two of them making this their own playground of lust and desire. Lotus followed suit and soon he was without a shirt as he felt her fingers glide about his chest. His own slipped beneath the dress now, caressing her thighs to his delight. Dante loved the dress on her, but he’d preferred it off of her and he wanted to savor her again. “As you wish”, he offered once she made her choice and before long they were in a heated embrace. Their clothes were removed one way or another before they fell back into the gardens. They were free to pleasure one another as they saw fit, and the extra eyes of guests that befell onto them only served to make the whole thing all the more exciting. He didn’t care who watched or what they thought as he kept his focus on her, getting out every single moan he could out of her with his accompanying hers. They were rough with one another, but they knew the limits and didn’t go pass it. It felt like ages before they made it from the gardens into the waters. He enjoyed the bitter coolness of the river along with her warm body against his as they continued to make love until they were both spent.

In the end, he pressed his mouth on top of her shoulder as he held her onto himself. So…I take it that we made out courting official with that?”, he smiled slyly as an idea came to mind for where they could escape to. “I know of a place nearby. I kinda keep it on reserves for me at various times. “I’m sure that they won’t mind us dropping by this late.” And damn whoever was in his room at this time. He took her head on in the kiss, his hands beneath the water and cupped her thighs. “I do as well, love. Let’s see about warming you up then.” He helped her out of the water and without a care for any of their clothes, he gate them through to a lavish room at an inn in Nisshoki. There was plenty of space and everything that they would require for the time being as he made it towards the bed and crawled from the foot to the head of it. “Does this suit you?”