Lost in Technicolor

Furious

"Darling," he said as care-freely as he could, stepping forwards as he took off his coat, which he was about to hand to her, but gave it a second thought as he remembered the amount of mud she was dripping with. "Um," he muttered slowly, "why don't you take off your wet clothes-"

She didn't utter a word, but merely stared at him as if she thought that she could pierce him with her eyes. "Um," he said again nervously, "my bad?"

He felt the cold running up her wet clothes quickly freezing them to her body and thought to her, come on stop being a baby. Take off your clothes. I have some spare ones in the trunk. You're not getting in my car in that muddy junk.

As he dared to take another step closer to her, she slapped him across the cheek. It stung, but he kept still and caught her hand in the air forcefully. It was freezing cold. "Quit it."

"No, I will not," she spoke finally, brimming with exasperation as she tried to free her hand, but he used it to yank her closer to him.

"You're soaked and it's below zero," he said emphatically, "don't make me force you to get undressed."

"You wouldn't," she mocked him with a shivering laugh. "you're afraid of your own power because it's so much like Damien's! You've never even used it. You can't."

"Don't push me dear," he warned her, squeezing her hand harder and harder, until her eyes were watering.

"You're hurting me," she whispered through the pain and so he released her.

Whereupon, she breathed into his ear, "Then unzip my dress, because my arms are frozen to my sides."

"Gladly," he hissed, jerking the frozen zipper down when she turned for him.

"S-still can't move," she complained as he lifted her dress and yanked it over her head harshly, ice breaking and falling off. God, he was so cold!

"Erik," he said as he continued to undress her as if she were a child, "stop gawking and get the dress from my trunk and bring it over here, please."

He undressed her until she was in her undergarments only with her arms wrapped around her middle, breathing white clouds into the air as she glared at him unwaveringly. He wiped the mud off with a rag in his coat pocket and then sighing he wrapped his coat around her shivering body and turned towards Erik, who was holding out the dress.

"How much did this thing cost," he marveled, running his hand along the fabric.

"A lot," Drake snapped, "for someone who won't be appreciative of it."

However, Jade's eyes did widen as she studied the delicate white dress and she even whispered to Drake in a grateful voice, "You didn't have to."

"I know," he growled as he traded her the dress for his coat, "and I shouldn't have, but I felt sorry for you, yet again."

Jade took the dress and held it to her body. It was so soft and it even smelled expensive. Although she was suspicious of Drake's motives, she took it gratefully and it wasn't too long before the three of them were back in the car and driving towards Erik's home again.

She couldn't stop staring at the dress and the ruffles, the pearls and diamonds that made decorative designs on the corset.

"So you like it then?" Drake smiled at her.

"Yes," she said quietly, "thank you."

But why did you really buy it? For Petra? She asked skeptically.

"No, why the hell would I do that?" He answered aloud, "It's for you. Like I said I felt sorry for you."

Again? She thought to him, Isn't that becoming a little too repetitive?