Dominated (Obsessed II)

37.

Bianca Dawson
    Let's Stay Here

Five days had passed, and I haven't given Dominik any reason to believe anything had changed between us. I slept beside him, woke beside him, ate breakfast across from him and listened to him talk about things that suddenly seemed insignificant. I laughed when I was supposed to laugh and kissed him when he reached for me, allowing him to believe that whatever secret he had been keeping remained safely buried. The irony was almost comforting. Dominik probably didn't spend any time worrying about what I might discover so he had probably never considered what I would do once I did.

The small vial of Vesper-9 sat inside the locked drawer of my desk, wrapped carefully in black cloth. I hadn't acquired it easily. Nothing about it had been easy. I had to pay Dominik's groundsman an amount large enough to make asking questions seem less important than the money he'd been handed. He just needed to get it and bring it to me. I didn't need to know everything about a weapon to understand what I intended to use it for.

After all, I couldn't ask Dominik to get it. I wouldn't want Richard to be any more wiser.

I closed the drawer, locked it and slipped the key into my pocket. Then I went downstairs and had breakfast with the man who no longer knew anything.

By evening, the rain had finally stopped. The Hungarian countryside looked almost painfully beautiful beneath the clearing sky, the fields dark green and glistening with moisture while the last of the sunlight spilled across the property. Water clung to the leaves of the old oak tree, falling in slow droplets whenever the breeze moved through its branches. Somewhere beyond the hedges, birds called to one another, and the distant fields disappeared into a haze of gold.

Dominik had suggested we had a picnic today so I was happy the weather was cooperating because I would hate to see all the efforts I made making this picnic absolutely memorable, go to waste.

He carried the blanket beneath the oak tree at the edge of the property while I brought the basket from the house. He arranged everything himself, placing the plates between us and opening the wine before settling onto the blanket. Bread, cheese and two separate bowls of fruits we like filled the basket. It was beautiful.

I sat across from him and poured myself a glass. Dominik leaned back against the tree and looked toward the horizon.

"Today feels so weird." He said looking like he was literally trying to shake off the weird feeling

I turned toward him. "Weird how?"

He shrugged, his eyes still fixed on the fields. "I don't know. I woke up with this weird feeling that something was off. Nothing happened. Nothing I could point to. But I just couldn't shake it."

"Yeah that does sound a bit odd, maybe you're just in your head too much" I offered comforting words.

"Yeah probably." He gave a little smile, though there was something uneasy beneath it. "I kept telling myself I was imagining it."

His fingers moved absently around the rim of his glass before he looked at me.

"But what kept me going was knowing we were doing this."

"This?"

He smiled.

"Our picnic date."