Chapter 12: Chapter 12
"Ben, my newfound friend. You are going to perform various dangerous escapades with me, and we are going to get rich and have fun doing so. I have never had a partner before. Something new. it will be fun to see what happens." She places her fully finished, now empty coffee cup down on the coffee table and begins to slide over the couch towards me, crawling on her hands and knees till her head is right next to mine.
"Oh, okay. And why, pray tell, would I do that? I don't particularly see why I need to become a thief to get rich, and even if I did, why would I do so with you?" So I speak, ignoring her pants brushing against my ear. However, I am increasingly more aware of each pant and breath that escapes her lips and feeling them caress my ears with each one. I stay still and focus my gaze on the TV in an effort to retrain myself, but that just makes my ears more enhanced and more aware of her position next to me and her lips almost touching my ear.
"Hmm, those glasses on the table, they aren't yours, right? After all, you showed up on that rooftop with only the clothes on your body and nothing else, not an identity and not any money. So how did you acquire those glasses, hmm?" Her breathy words sneak inside my ear, and she lays her hand upon my shoulder and inches ever close to my skin, yet there is a thin impermeable barrier between the meeting of our flesh, only a couple millimetres at most. But, of course, she is correct, though not about the money. I confiscated some from those thugs in the warehouse, after all.
"Alright, I'll admit it. I borrowed the glasses from a convenience store, I had nothing on me, and I couldn't just stay dressed as Spider-Man. I needed to be able to go places without looking like the original, and so I had to procure a disguise. unfortunately, I only got as far as the glasses before my midnight rendezvous with you, though I fail to see how that factors into why I would help you in your nighttime fun." Those stupid bloody sunglasses, I didn't even get the chance to use them.
And I myself foolishly revealed my face to Felicia for some bizarre reason I don't understand, perhaps caught up in the moment and swayed by her words. this does make me recall the urgent need I have to get some other clothes and then get rid of all spider related paraphernalia on me.
"Oh, okay, we'll play it like that. You borrowed the glasses, just without the intention to give them back, ever. Come on, Ben, just come and have some fun with me." She whispers, her breath tickling my ears.
"Hm, let me think about it. Okay, thought about it. No, thank you." I curtly answer, my face still blank, though it is taking all my willpower.
"Why not? We are very much alike, you and I, me and you. Us." The words sent a shiver down my spine. Each syllable she enunciates for a bigger impact, her words said with a focused intention behind them.
"Oh. Except for a sense of propriety and decency, an-and a moral centre. Not to mention the fact that I would never be caught dead in latex." I say, trying to undercut her persuasive methods, though I stutter slightly halfway through when she pants heavily against my ear. Maybe my attack on her character will get her to back off before she goes any further, though I can somehow feel her lips curling to my left instead of diminishing like I wanted.
"Ha, you say those words like they actually mean something. You will come over to my side. I know it." Her words carry an insane amount of belief, of certainty, as if she genuinely does expect reality to play out like this.
"You, uh, you seem very certain." Suddenly she moved, and I had no chance to react without expecting it. Before I know it, she has reached past me. She is currently above me cowgirl style, her hands clutching the top of the couch on either side of my head, her legs resting against the sofa on the sides of my legs, her face just an inch from mine with an iota of space between our lips. Yet, annoyingly, there is a slight gap between us that feels like a cavern. We are so very close, and yet not one bit of myself is in contact with any of her.
Her lips move closer to mine, her lips slightly opened and beckoning for me to enter, and I find myself drawn in, controlled like a cobra being swayed by the music from a flute. My lips inch towards her closing the gap, and yet they find no purchase. Our lips were still the same distance from each other, and she had moved backwards as I moved forwards.
Catching myself, I move back to my original position, leaning my head against the sofa. Still, she follows my head backwards, maintaining the distance between our lips, my head now facing towards the ceiling and hers above me looking down.
"One word, sweetie. Curiosity. You long for freedom. You long to do what you want to do because you want it. To act on pure selfish impulse. You want to see what it is like. And one day, one day soon, you won't be able to resist. Because you and I are alike." She sinfully whispers, her lips swaying towards and away from my own, trying to entice me in again and doing a reasonably good job of it.
"I have faith in you, Ben. Do you want to know why?" She asks but doesn't give me a chance to answer, continuing on, our lips still playing a weird game of tug of war, and whoever gives in is the one who loses and falls entirely into the other.
"Curiosity. Now that I have said it, you can't stop thinking about it. You're going to want it. The chance to be free, unfettered from all worries and feel the thrill. And gain the rewards that follow. You won't be able to resist. You're going to want to know... what it tastes like." Then, all of a sudden, she stops maintaining the distance and her lips close in on mine, closer and closer, and she is staring right into my eyes with desire in her eyes.
"I-I do. I want to know what it tastes like." Her lips stop moving just before they touch my own. I don't question it, I have lost this tug of war, and I don't care. I move forward to capture her lips, but I don't. she backs away once more.
"But, I know that as the sort of man that would never perform such selfish acts, you would not take advantage of me and my coffee-addled brain. Seeing as you are a good man, I know that you would never put me in a position that would compromise my honour." I freeze, hearing her words and registering them in my mind. I have no time to do anything, though, since she quickly backs away and hops off of the sofa and onto her feet, moving towards her room without looking back, her hips seductively swinging, exaggeratingly so.
"Well, you don't have to decide right now, Ben. I am going out to do some shopping and splurge on some new outfits and jewellery. While I am out, I will buy some clothes for you as well, since you are so obviously in need of a new wardrobe. You can order room service with the phone. Just make sure you take everything from them at the door and do not let anyone in. they will not be pleased with what I have done with the place. I will be back later this evening. I am giving you time to think, but don't take forever. After all, I could easily change my mind." She opens the door of her room and steps inside, bringing the conversation to a close.
And then, with her back still towards me, she reaches down and grabs the hem of her T-shirt. Then, with one swift movement, she takes it off and flings it to a random corner of her room, gracing me with the sight of the side of her right breast, which jiggles after she completes the action, and I can see her thin neck, her supple waist and her sinful curves.
At the same time, she did not wear a bra. However, it turns out she actually did have underwear on, as I can now see the black panties she has on. But, unfortunately, my observation is cut short as she reaches a hand behind her and swings close the door, leaving me alone with only my thoughts and chatter from the television.
I... I completely lost that exchange, utterly so. In relationships, there is always someone doing the pulling, and someone is being pulled. Very rarely do you see a relationship where there is balance and equality? If the two people try to pull each other into themselves, there is friction, leading to adverse outcomes.
Instead of dragging her into me which I didn't really want to do, or maintaining the exact distance between us which would have been ideal, she nearly dragged me into her. The only reason I wasn't was that she pulled away at the last second.
If I did kiss her, it would have been me being pulled into her, and I know that I would have probably stuck with her because of my libido, which would've blinded me to everything else. So if I accept her offer, I can't do it for such a reason because that way only lies in failure. So I have to do it for my own reasons that don't involve anybody else.
I sit there blankly, looking at the TV, just thinking. At some point, Felicia leaves her room. Still, I don't even raise my head to look at her, and I don't respond to her farewell as she exits the suite. Partly because I am focused on my current problem and partly because I don't want to look at her and feel that same temptation and risk being pulled into her again. I just need to think and sort out my sleep-addled brain and iron things out.
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It is dark now, and I have been in this place since Felicia left on her shopping trip. I snooped around the apartment for a while but didn't find anything of interest, so she must not keep anything she cares about here, which says something as I found a lot of stolen goods around the place.
I watched TV and saw some superhero battles on the news, but I didn't move to help as I had bigger things to worry about and had faith that they would save the day, and sure enough, the superhero defeated the villains and came out the hero.
After that, I started to surf the various news channels. I did this for hours, and never at any single point was there not a superhero fight going on. It was constant, every second at someplace in the world, there was a battle between Superheroes and Supervillains, and this should have worried me, but it didn't. Because at the end of all those confrontations, at the end of every single one, the Superheroes won, and the villains either lost or retreated, this set things into perspective for me.
This world already has everything they need, and it doesn't need me. I am just a surplus, a spare part that was discarded, and nothing is expected of that extra part. This world will be just fine, so I should just live my life and enjoy it, but for that, I need money and proper identification.
Suddenly Felicia appears on the balcony dressed as the Black Cat, clearly having enjoyed her day out, carrying a few duffel bags. She opens the glass doors and enters the room, but I speak before she has a chance to do anything else.
"I'll do it, Felicia. I'm in..."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone