Shuriki x Esteban Requests

Night Terrors Part #7

Shuriki kept smiling at the man who was touching her when all she wanted to do was snap his fingers off one by one and shove them down his throat. The man, Grisha Averchenko, didn't notice as his hands continued to roam her body. She had to focus all her self control to keep from tearing out his throat in-between kisses. Did the fool truly believe she'd forgiven him after what he'd done to her decades earlier?

"More wine?" she asked, slipping free of his grasp to grab a half empty bottle of wine resting on the handrail of her balcony.

Grisha nodded and allowed her to refill his glass then took a drink before kissing her again.

Shuriki leaned into the kiss fighting the urge to cringe when he put his hands on her rear end. Every instinct she had told her to gouge out his eyes and drain him dry of his blood and other bodily fluids, but Shuriki pushed her dark, predatory nature aside. Avalor needed his death to at least look like an accident in order to avoid war with The Northern Islands.

"You're wasted on that Avaloran," he remarked.

"Esteban is my husband," she replied. "He's a good man and treats me well."

"Not well enough," Grisha countered, "The heathen's too stupid to give you what you desire."

Shuriki frowned. "He's wary of me and I understand his cautiousness. I've wronged him on more than one occasion. Esteban will come to me in time, but it will be on his own terms, not mine. I'm fine with that. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't refer to my royal consort as a heathen. Esteban's intelligent, refined, handsome, exhibits excellent etiquette, and is a stickler for decorum. He makes certain that I'm well cared for and that I want for nothing."

Grisha snorted. "If that was true, he'd be the one sharing your bed, yet here we are..."

Shuriki narrowed her eyes at him as he stood there, his arms outstretched. "Your arrogance is astounding."

Averchenko must've misunderstood. The fool thanked her for insulting him.

Shuriki rolled her eyes. She'd grown tired of this. "That wasn't meant as a compliment."

He's even more of an embacile than Victor Delgado, she mused.

Grisha didn't have the chance to react to Shuriki's change in demeanor. He'd barely managed to register the danger he was in when she dropped the whole seductress act and made her move.

The sheer force of her shove sent him flying back over the handrail and off the balcony. Realization struck. Grisha tried to scream. His arms and legs flailed in a desperate effort to find and latch onto something-anything-to save himself, but it was too late.

Shuriki watched his body crash into one of the garden paths below. Blood spilled out onto the bright, warm marigold and cinnamon red stone pavers coating them in a glossy sheen of crimson.

Shuriki took the wine bottle and dropped it. The guards wouldn't find Grisha until they made their evening rounds. When they came across the body, they'd think he'd fallen off his own balcony due to his drunkenness. She had made certain multiple servants and guards were around to see him down half a bottle at supper and that none of them had seen him enter her rooms through the disused and never guarded servants' entry door. No one would have reason to question her.