COVET THY MAN - VEGASPETE

COVET THY MAN

⛔️⛔️⛔️Trigger warning:

Mentions of:
1. Hostage-taking/kidnapping
2. Non-consensual drug-use/date-rape drug/aphrodisiac
3. Trauma
4. Non-consensual sex on both ends due to the drugs⛔️⛔️⛔️

Pete stared at his expression in the mirror. He tried on three types of smiles.

Numer One: With upper teeth showing
Number two: Full-on grin with upper and lower teeth
Number Three: A simple smile with no teeth.

He sighs. Nothing works. Why can't he look happy? Is he traumatized from the kidnapping? Or was it the starvation? The drugging? Or is it Vegas? No. He knows damn well he isn't traumatized in that sense. He sighs louder this time.

Suck it up, Pete! You are a man about to get married. You are going to start a good life with a good woman who you've known all your life, who accepts what you do for a living, someone who accepts you whole.

"Does she really? Accept you whole, that is? Accept you like I do, Pete? Have you, worship you, pleasure you, delve into every nook and cranny of your body and soul. Does she? Could she?"

Pete brushes the flashbacks away, as well as the lingering feeling on his thigh and his whole body. Vegas isn't dead but it's like the ghost of him follows Pete no matter where he goes, or tries to go. He hasn't been able to leave that space he subconsciously created with Vegas but he's no cheater, no traitor who will betray his wife-to-be for a  few wild nights.  Pete's a responsible man.

I can do this. It's nothing. Just a careless mishap that slipped because I was drugged, we both were.

Pete comforts himself and tries on a bunch of other versions of his smile in front of the mirror.

"Pete? Are you ready?" Praew stands behind him as he looks at her reflection.

She's every man's wetdream. A beauty with so much intelligence and depth that Pete couldn't believe she had chosen him. He really does love her. He does, really. She's his childhood bestfriend, childhood sweetheart, and wife-to-be and he shouldn't be thinking of anything or anyone else but as Praew touched his shoulder, he flinches at the reminder of someone else touching him there. He wanted to cry as he stared at her loving eyes from the reflection so he turned around to see those eyes in the flesh and pulled her into an embrace, trying to get rid of the guilt engulfing him.

"Praew, we need to talk" he said as he sat her down on the couch in front of him.

He knelt in front of her, hugged her knees, and rested his cheek on her lap.

"I'm sorry, Praew" was all he could say. He couldn't even look her in the eye

"Pete? Why, what happened?" The alarms that were blazing in her head bled into her voice. Pete forced himself to look her in the eyes as he cried.

"When I was gone for a month, it's true that I was on a mission, what I didn't tell  you was that I was kept---" he couldn't continue in shame and Praew pulled him close and hugged him tight.

"They kept you hostage, didn't they? I know...I knew when the replies I got from you didn't have our code in them. I know, babe. I'm sorry. I was waiting for you to open up." She hushed him as she stroked his hair and the guilt he was feeling multiplied. He pulled himself free. He made sure to tell Praew exactly what it was that he did for a living when she asked him to get married and when she didn't back down, Pete knew she had to be the one.

"Praew, when I-I was there, I had sex with someone" He said and he saw the pain in her eyes as she nodded

"Did they...force you?"