Crushing Lust

Six: In which he explains (pt 1)

 Titus pulled into the driveway of a large and expensive looking house after a mostly silent car ride. Aria thought it was possibly the best house in the neighborhood. A 'for sale' sign was in the grass outside, a sticker with the words 'sold' in capital letters. It was only a street down from her house.

"You coming, minou?" Titus said, snapping her out of her observations. She nodded and followed him into the house.

Immediately she noticed a certain coolness inside. Not just a physical coolness, but a lack of emotion; it didn't feel like a home. The house was staged beautifully, but that's all it was: staged. A mirror was hung on the wall, and she caught sight of something in her reflection. Peeking from the collar of her shirt was a large hickie. Aria touched it lightly in shock, but Titus dropped his keys onto a table in the foyer; the clatter distracted her before she could think too much about it. He then beckoned Aria into the living room and sat down on the couch.

Aria decided on a seat directly across from the couch so she could see his face as he spoke. "What the hell is going on?" she asked, repeating her earlier question. "Who was that woman? Why did she-"

"Slow down, minou," Titus said, a teasing smile on his face. He leaned into his couch and put his arms on the backrest casually. "I'll tell you everything, but you have to listen to everything I say before judging me. No questions right now."

She hesitated, but nodded, desperate for answers.

"Good. First things first, I don't have a family, as you may have noticed," he stated smoothly. Glancing around again, she wanted to say that it was pretty obvious. "No, I'm not an orphan, no, I do not have any estranged siblings or long lost relatives. I already checked." Aria snorted, finding that oddly amusing, and Titus laughed a bit. He leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs in a relaxed position.

"As Jezebeth hinted, I don't normally go by Titus," he said, a little more solemn. "Most people call me Asmodeus."

"Like one of the princes of hell?" Aria burst out, unable to hold it in.

Titus chuckled. "I had a feeling you wouldn't be able to hold back for long," he commented, shaking his head good humoredly. "Yes. Specifically the demon of lust, one of the seven deadly sins. But, with you coming from a very religious household, you already knew that.

"You're most likely going to laugh in my face, but..." his words trailed off, and he looked directly into her eyes. A chill went down her spine at the raw honesty filling his.

"I am a demon."

Aria searched his face, trying to find any sign of lying, but wasn't surprised to find none. "Okay."

Titus- Asmodeus?- blinked slowly, unable to hide his shock. "Just 'okay'?" he asked cautiously. "No screaming in terror, no calling me crazy, no running out of my house and never looking back?"

She shrugged. "What am I supposed to say?" she asked. "I can't do anything about it, and, honestly, it kind of makes sense."

"How?" he asked curiously.

"Well, seeing as how every time you touch me I feel like fucking the nearest person, which conveniently always happens to be you, I guess something was strange about you," Aria said nonchalantly. "And I'm pretty sure that you've been muckin' with my dreams for two years."

His smile turned devious. "You enjoy them almost as much as I do, minou," he said, his eyes boring into her and sending a shot of arousal through her. The smile changed a look of faux innocence when she scowled at him.

"Stop doing that," she ordered.

"Doing what, minou?"

"Doing... that!" She gestured wildly at his body.