Labyrinth

Chapter 23: Play with Fire

Chapter 23 Calida Pov

When I return to the Tower, I'm not surprised to see Bucky still in the sitting room waiting on me. the last few weeks with him has been difficult to say the least. Hes has been either acting like a child with his tantrums or a grumpy old man with his glaring and grumblings. After a while, I gave up on trying to talk to him. when he's ready to talk to my like a mature man, he knows where to find me.

I just don't understand how he could be upset with me for dating. He didn't want me. he left me on the bed hot and panting. Plus, it's not like I'm going to marry the guy. Its something to do since I'm not an avenger, or a shield agent. I'm on house arrest and I'm limited to move about the tower and 1 mile in any direction.

I groan when our eyes meet. I wait for him to say something and when he doesn't, I turn down the corridor towards my room. I can hear him following me. I close my door in his face, but he catches it with a loud slap against his hand. I take off my coat and turn to face him. "what?"

He watches me for a long minute then ask, "I thought you would be back at 10?"

I sit on the bed and remove my earrings, "or 10:30."

"its 10:47. Where have you been?" he demands.

"I'm 17 minutes late. big deal." I remove my heels, rubbing my aching feet.

"did he touch you?"

I smile as I look at buckys red angry face, "define touch?"

"I'm not in the mood for jokes." He moves towards me and kneels down in front of me and removes my other shoe. There wasn't anything inherently sexual about it, but my next retort gets caught in my throat as my breath hitch. With one hand on my calve and the other sliding my shoe off, I watch as his eyes glides from my foot, up my legs, over my flushed body as he gazes into my face.

He set my foot down and without tearing his eyes from mine, he places his hands on my thighs. His fingers slipping slightly up my dress. I bite back a moan. He ask, "did he touch you like this?"

I make a face at him. "way to kill a moment. you ass." I push him but he barely budges as he watches me stand up and walk towards the closet. I step into the walk-in closet and begin to strip when I hear him say, "I don't like him."

"you don't like anyone." I yell back. once I'm in my pajamas I step out and say, "I willing to bet you weren't all that fond of me either when we first met."

he frowns and shakes his head, "I knew you were different."

I decide to humor him, "oh yea. how?" remembering the way he use to look at me with so much disdain when he wasn't looking at me like he wanted to fuck the shit out of me. which was how most men looked at me aside from Tony, Steve, and Clint. I smile knowing I could add at least one other person to that list. Sammy.

He stands and watches me before saying, "I just knew."

"you just knew? How? Was it when I tried to blow you up in that warehouse? Or maybe it was when I stabbed Loki and kicked Tony out of the window.... Or maybe it was when I left you, Steve, and Wanda to fend off my fire samurais." I walk into the bathroom to wash my face, and he follows.

He watches me from the doorway and smirks, "as much as I enjoyed watching you stab Loki, yes even then, I knew you were special. you had everyone else convinced, but not me. I saw you. the real you. I saw how much it pained you to have to do those things."

I huff as I dry my face and begin brushing my teeth. I watch him through the mirror and when I'm done, I say, "so what." I brush past him back into my room and say, "maybe your wrong about brock. He was nothing short of a gentleman. Okay." I pull the blankets back on my bed and then sit down. "he pulled out my chair for me. stood when I excused myself to bathroom. He made very polite conversation."