Came for the Low- Revised

Untitled Part 13

DAY 15

    "Christine."

    Her eyes sprang open alarmed and embarrassed when she realized she'd fallen asleep.

    The immediate exchange between them was silent. Her eyes searching, hoping he hadn't betrayed her trust and vulnerability. 'Please,' she was saying without moving her lips and he, with his eyes of golden brown calmed her fears 'Of course not'

    She sat up quickly on the couch realizing the warmth on her thigh was his hand which he'd used to shake her awake. She could not feel it, but she could see the way he stroked her leg with his thumb, the movement almost instinctual. And there above it was her holstered gun untouched.

    "Your shift is almost over." He said still very close to her.

    "It is?" She looked over her shoulder and back. "You let me sleep through the entire thing?"

    Zemo smiled with a nod. "I think you sleep less than I do."

    She tucked her chin not sure how she felt about him thinking of her when she wasn't here, but then she certainly thought of him the very second she stepped across the threshold of that crooked doorway. "Thanks." She answered looking back up. They really were so very close.

    His mouth, she noticed and not for the first time, was the sort that makes you wonder what it would feel like to kiss. He didn't have the full pout of some model but the straight somewhat harsh line of a serious man. When he wasn't smiling and his mouth turned down, Helmut Zemo could look quite intimidating, or enticing, perspective is everything and in this moment she'd never wanted to kiss someone more.

    "You'll regret it." He said softly, the right corner of his mouth twitching up, threatening a smile to break the stoic look.

    "What?"

    "You'll regret it."

    He seemed to read her mind as well as he did Machiavelli. How does he do it? She leaned away but he took her hands.

    "I don't want to be on your list of mistakes." He confessed. "And before you say anything, everyone has a list"

    Oh. Christine smiled which brought out his own. "Zemo... I don't... I just." She stopped and looked down at the ground. "I will make thousands. Each one a little less terrible than the last."

    He laughed softly and then the feel of his hand warm on her cheek made Christine shut her eyes. She wasn't sure if she felt excitement or fear when he touched her, honestly she didn't care to dissect it at the moment.

    "In all of it, this was the most unexpected part. I don't know what to do about you." He said shaking his head a little.

    "What does your heart tell you to do?" She asked not ashamed to say that the way he cradled her face made her feel so special and delicate she hoped he would hold her just a bit longer.

    "Oh I stopped listening to my heart eight years ago." He said with a distant sadness masked under a playful tone.

    She understood but looked him directly in the eye and made her meaning clear. "Then what about your body?"

    His gaze shifted from distant to direct and his hand slipped further back curving around her ear, the other in the cuffs hooked under her chin, lifting her face.

    Helmut took a final look at her and shut his eyes.

    The kiss he pressed to her lips was warm and soft but confident.