He's Fire and She's Playing with It - Mafia Version

The End Part I: Sweater Weather

Ally followed Benjamin to his car. Snow had fallen during the night and coated the world in a thin layer of flakes. The air wasn't too cold but the wind was filled with ice and roars of winter spirits. Ally pulled her jumper tighter around her. Benjamin threw his coat onto the passenger seat, closed the door, and turned to her.

"Get home safe", she said and bit her lip.

He leaned forward and forced her teeth to let it go by a stroke of his thumb.

"Don't do that."

She frowned. "Why?"

He shot her a wicked smile. "Because then I won't be able to leave."

She narrowed her eyes and gave him an equally wicked one. "And that's suppose to motivate me to not bite my lip?"

His hand, who had been carressing the side of her face, moved down to her throat.

"Do you really want to go there?" he whispered, his voice low but lethal.

She inhaled a little too quickly, making his smile turn triumphant.

"Glad to see that I have an effect on you." He let her go and leaned back against the car. "I need to... I mean I... This was fun."

She nodded. "Maybe this should be a one-time thing."

She had gotten out. She could leave their life behind and turn her back to all the cruelty and bad decisions and just - live.

To do that, she couldn't be around Benjamin.

"Or maybe it shouldn't", she said it before the thought had even settled into her head.

Benjamin couldn't deny that Ally's 'maybe this should be a one-time thing' felt like someone had shoved something ice cold into his heart.

The pain was intense, but quick, and soon left way for a kind of grey sadness.

"Or maybe it shouldn't."

He watched her inner struggle, her face as easy for him to read as an open book. He sighed. He should be aiming to be a better person. She made him want to be and the truth was that she would be better off without him. His life would sink its claws into her no matter how much he tried to keep her away from it. Her relationship with Adryan had put her life in danger and hurt her tremendously in ways that he could never understand and never heal. He couldn't fool himself into thinking that being with him would be any different.

Yes, she would be better off without him.

It wasn't until she asked "What do you want?" that he realised that he was brutally selfish and weak.

"You."

Benjamin said it simply, as it wasn't a big thing. The butterflies in Ally's stomach leapt into action.

"Okay."

She didn't know what else to say. His one word had erased every reasonable doubt that she had had. She felt herself melt into his answer. This was dangerous ground.

Lucky for her, she liked danger.

She bit her lip and released it, the feeling of the cold blade of the knife against her skin replaying in her mind.

"I just came out of a... I don't know, a relationship."

Disappointment invaded his face, but she wasn't done.

"I need to go slow. To not... I can't rush into anything. I don't know what this might be or lead to, but..."

It felt as if his eyes stared straight into her soul when he said: "Slowly."