Rose Thorns & Love Letters

28 ➪ Love, Beatrice ꨄ

•Camilla•

2/1/1898
To whomever may be reading this,
I kid. Benedict, my love, I have missed your warmth. The cold winter has broken the hot summer's promise, and it reminds me so closely of how you broke your promise to me. I thought you'd never leave me.
Love, Beatrice

_________________

My consciousness crashes down on me like a meteorite. I do not even allow my eyes open before I am squeezing them tight. My hand is released from the warm duvet draped over me, and finds a resting place over my eyes.

The throbbing in my head is no match for the pulsating beat of my heart as I recall the events of the day prior. My throat tightens as I renew the feeling of that burning liquid sliding down, so quickly yet so excruciatingly slowly.

I remember the look on the frat boy's face when my legs surrendered and my awareness drifted away. Achievement. I feel a raging storm in my insides and the sudden need to bring back whatever it was that I ate last. That feeling has nothing to do with the spiked drink, and everything to do with the guy who forced it on me.

When I can finally bear the light shining from the one window in the room, I look over to the bedside table and spot the unfinished glass of water Phoenix assisted me in drinking last night. My heart skips a beat at the sight and I can't tell whether it is because the gesture almost made me swoon or because even after all that happened yesterday, I still woke up to a barren bed.

I sink back into the mattress, already tired of being awake. It does not take much for someone like me to realise that this is Phoenix's bed when our proximity is always so close; I could probably smell him coming from a mile away. The black, silk sheets also give some things away.

My eyelids begin to slowly fall again due to the slight lack of commotion happening in my brain. Just when I think I have found peace and quiet, the bedroom door swings open and I am met with the sight of Phoenix in grey sweatpants. Only sweatpants.

His tattooed chest exposes his silver chain more than it should but I can't focus on two things at once as I am also trying to feast my eyes on his sweatpants that hang oh, so low, revealing his V line and leaving very little to the imagination.

Phoenix notices my heated stares and makes a move into the room after standing at the doorway like a sculpture. "Want me to put a shirt on, sweetheart?" He questions as he peels the duvet off of my skin. It is only then that I realise that I am no longer wearing any of my clothes. Just an oversized T-shirt and oversized shorts.

"Yes, actually. I do." I tease. Phoenix grins and pulls my arms up so that I am now sitting up in his bed. He snakes his hands under my ass and pulls me into his lap. He hooks his finger on the neckline of the oversized T-shirt that I am wearing and tugs at it.

"Well, I'm gonna need my shirt back for that. And that would mean you would have to undress. That would get me distracted. If you ask me, I'd tell you that it's a lose-lose situation."

I roll my eyes and pinch his neck at his teasing words. "You have other T-shirts, you idiot."

He stands us up and my legs instinctively circle his waist as well as the way my arms wrap around his neck. He walks over to a door, but not the same door that he came in through.