YET TO COME

..SIX..

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Her scream was short lived this time. She wondered why he derived joy in startling the daylight out of her. His innocent smile got to her as always and she was tempted to slap him. Now, that was something she didn’t normally think about. She only ever got the urge to slap someone whenever she was around him. She spoke so well whenever he was near her, something she couldn’t do with other people except family. He was a bad influence and she knew.

She had met him first in November after her second performance in Silver Fire. He had been waiting outside the door. Till date, she wondered how he had known she was Samantha. She normally wore disguising makeup like other dancers, so thick it could have been a plastic face and an eye mask, with wigs that changed her to a different person. He had addressed her with her stage name. She had been shocked to death because she looked nothing like Samantha. She had denied at first and he had let her be, even allowing her to skedaddle away like some rat, guiltily. But, she regretted doing so that day, running. She wished she had spoken in a confident voice and warned him not to bother her again –as if he would have listened. He had returned the night after her fifth dance. She had run into him as usual, startled. He had caught her with that his innocently mischievous smile on his striking face.

‘Samantha,’ he had said, ‘or should I say Chloe?’ To say that she was surprised would have been an understatement. She was shocked, flabbergasted, astonished and dazzled all at the same time that she shook.
‘How’d you know?’ she had asked in a small voice. He had laughed while steadying her, his strong hands curving around her waist.

‘I know what I wish my sweet,’ he told her.

‘Why?’ she wasn’t sure why she had asked that question or what she had meant to ask instead of that. But he had understood and replied her confused question.

‘Why? I want you Chloe that is why.’ His answer had left her bedazzled and befuddled, totally, confused. She removed his hands from her waist and stepped back.

‘Why?’

‘Why do I want you, you mean?’ his hands came around her waist again, drawing her to him. ‘It’s because you are you Samantha or is it Chloe? You are beautiful, enticing, all woman.’ Now, she was flummoxed. Why? It was because she wasn’t what he felt she was. She wasn’t Samantha, wasn’t beautiful, enticing or even womanly.
‘You do not!’ she snapped disengaging from him.

‘You do not tell me what I want Chloe. I know what I want my sweet, and it is you,’ he said staring into her eyes. He noticed her brown pupils were contact lens.

‘You shall not want me, you will not want me and you must not want me because you can’t have me!’ she told him. She paused to catch her breath and realized then that she had just raised her voice at him, something she had never done before. She was also having a lengthy conversation with someone not family. These were firsts for her. The realization made her quiet for a while.

‘I know there is no other my sweet, and I am entitled to my feelings. Allow me to woo you Chloe,’ he said in a voice that was more demanding than pleading.

‘No!’ she snapped. She could feel her heart beating fast. How did he manage to upset her so? She had no idea. She turned away from him to leave. He caught her hand, causing her to turn. ‘What do you want?’ she demanded.

‘You know,’ he said with that smile.

‘Let go!’