Dirty Break (18+)

In Which Plans are Made

Lydia's eyes were bleary when she woke, and despite the fact that it had seemed a good idea at the time, she was very much regretting drinking so much vodka. And, oh god, she'd stolen Leon's whiskey too. At the thought, the alcohol in question made a bid to escape from her stomach. She closed her eyes again in response.

"I did tell you it was a bad idea, duchess."

The sardonic voice did not make her feel better in the fucking slightest. For Leon he sounded almost chipper and she was so not a morning person it was scary. She debated not opening her eyes and seeing if he magically went away but she suspected that that would not be the case. Cracking one eye open as a test she was relieved to note that the room wasn't spinning and her head was only pounding a moderate amount.

"Fuck you, and your I told you so. If I want to get shit-faced, I will. If I want to strip naked and salsa around the place I fucking will."

Ah, and there was that sexual crackle that had bloomed last night and she had hoped to avoid. Her brain was ridiculous sometimes and had obviously thought 'sexual tension is the elephant in this room, let's amp that up' so ...well done brain, she guessed?

"Feel free. Won't even try to stop you."

His grin grated on her, and she could tell it wasn't going to be a good day. Not that she'd ever really thought it would be, with the mix of anger and fear she had towards Leon, and towards what was going to happen in her life going forward.  It didn't seem real, somehow, even though she'd been missing for over 24 hours now. Andrea would have raised the alarm and surely her disappearance would be linked with that of the criminal who'd been en route to his trial - and the men who had accompanied him.

"I'd really better not. I don't think criminals tend to be the best at resisting temptation."

"Undoubtedly it would be hard, duchess, but I think I could just about manage."

Now that her nausea had worn off slightly and she had managed to sit up in the bed, she noticed he was showered and dressed in clean clothes, looking for all the fucking world as though he had just woken up on his first day of holidays. What she looked like probably didn't bear thinking about.

"As discussed yesterday, we're on a tight schedule. You need to be ready to leave in half an hour. I've laid out some clothes for you in the bathroom, and there's a toothbrush and some deodorant. Have a quick shower and see if that makes you feel any better. I'm just going to speak to Conor, but I'll be back to collect you."

Yay. She couldn't wait. Still, having a nice, soothing shower and being away from Leon or any of his fucking entourage for a while sounded heavenly, so she headed straight to the bathroom, sticking her finger up at him as she caught his look of surprise at her capitulation.

***********

"Sleep well?" Conor smirked as Leon walked into his room, catching his brother attempting to do his tie, which always caused him problems, no matter how long he'd been doing it.

"Really well, thank you - on the world's most uncomfortable chair. Still better than a prison bed though, so there's that."

Conor looped and swooped and then gave up in despair for a couple of minutes, taking a deep drink from his coffee cup.

"You didn't insist on sharing the bed? You're losing your touch, brother."

"I don't think that not taking advantage of the woman we used and then kidnapped is really classed as me losing my touch, Con. Much as I'm sure you like to think you could, I'd like to see you fuck a woman under those circumstances."

He hadn't expected Conor to be chastened, exactly, because that wasn't something that his brother was capable of as far as he knew. The 'challenge accepted' grin that he displayed was a bit disconcerting, however.