Both of them wisely got out of the pool and scurried back into the house. Lindsay picked up a large white spa towel from one of the tables and held it open beside the pool stairs.
“Out. Now.” he said.
Shannon waded to the center of the pool. With each passing second, she looked more and more like a frightened doe in the woods.
That was when it hit him. She'd been in the pool that day smarting off to Brian when her life had come undone. And now here Lindsay was, making threats. It was the same set-up—or close enough to trigger her.
“Lindsay, I don't want to play with you. I didn't agree to any of this. You don't have to do this to keep me from killing myself. I... I won't. Just stop this. Let's just go back to how it was before where we just ignored each other.”
“Sir,” he said. “And we are well past the ability to ignore each other.”
Shannon's mouth remained in a firm, resolute line.
“I will be merciful and forgiving if you correct your behavior now. But if you make me come into that pool after you, you will regret it.” He refused to allow Brian's misbehavior to change his own. He was determined not to show weakness with her again.
“S-sir.”
Lindsay nodded. “Good girl. Now come out of the pool.”
Shannon hesitated another moment.
“I'm not Brian. I'm offering mercy and a single get out of the dungeon free card. But if you abuse this kindness, know that the next punishment will be twice as bad.”
“Y-you're not going to hurt me?” she asked, edging her way to the pool stairs.
“Not if you get out of the pool and come with me now.”
“W-what are you going to do?”
“Shannon.”
“Okay, okay. I'm coming.”
As soon as she was out, Lindsay wrapped the super-sized towel around her and carried her back into the house and up to his suite.
He carefully dried her off and then tossed the towel on the floor. Without a word, he removed her bikini. The little blue scraps of fabric joined the towel.
“Lie down on the bed.”
“Lindsay...”
“What did we say about that?”
“Sir... I can't do this with you.”
“Why?”
Shannon bit her bottom lip and looked away.
Lindsay stood behind her and bent so that his lips brushed her ear. His voice was low when he spoke again. “I should have taken you as soon as you'd healed from Brian, but I thought you would hate me.”
“I do hate you.”
Lindsay placed a hand between her legs, unsurprised at the warmth and wetness he found there.
“Your body doesn't.”
“What's your end game?” she asked, as she squirmed away.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we aren't going to live happily ever after, here,” Shannon said.
“We aren't? Why not?”
“You know why not.”
“No,” Lindsay said, “I don't. You wanted me once. You still want me. I want you. This is not complicated. Lie down.”
He took a step back to give her some space. Finally, after a few moments, she laid back, her pale skin seeming to glow against the dark green duvet.
“Good girl. Now stay.” Lindsay loosened his tie and carefully removed it. He folded and formed it into a neat little roll and crossed the room to put it back in the drawer. Then he took off the coat, shirt, shoes, socks, belt, pants. Each item, he folded and laid down carefully in two stacks on the dresser. One stack was for the dry cleaner, one for regular laundry.
He watched her as he undressed. The look of raw hunger on her face was unmistakeable. So whatever little protest this was had absolutely nothing to do with what she truly wanted and everything to do with what she felt she should want. Or shouldn't want.
“If you don't want me, explain the starving woman in the desert look you're aiming at my abs.”
Her gaze flew up to his face—guilty—as a scarlet red flush crept over her skin.
“I-I'm not doing that.”
“Okay. What should the punishment for lying to me be, I wonder?”
He left his boxer briefs on and stretched out on the bed beside her. She tensed.
He sighed. “After all you've suffered, you're really choosing to deny yourself pleasure because of some weird need you have to not allow it to come from me?”
“You're why I've suffered.”
“I didn't leave those marks.”
“But you brought me to the monster who did.” Shannon rolled away from him.
Lindsay allowed his fingers to trail absently through her hair. She pretended not to notice but she didn't pull away, so he kept doing it. He pressed a kiss against her exposed shoulder.
She flinched, and he wasn't sure if it was because he'd kissed her or because of the scar his mouth had briefly touched.
“Let me be clear with you. I'm training you. For myself. I'm keeping you. For myself. And I don't give one flying fuck what you believe you think about that because you want me as much as I want you. I can't apologize for what happened to you because it won't fix it. I can't time travel. We have nothing but now and the future. Do you want to hear that I should have trained you for myself from day one? What difference does that make now? I didn't, and here we are. The way I see it, we can move forward, or we can keep punishing ourselves forever.”
Shannon remained absolutely silent during his monologue. She may as well be asleep, but he knew from the stiff way she held herself that she clung to every word.
“Keep punishing ourselves forever,” the African Grey said, adding his vote to the mix.
The tension broke for a moment with the bird's antics. Shannon laughed as the parrot landed on the bed and stared at her with one beady eye. He edged closer to her and leaned down as if to really get a good look and assess the situation. She reached out and stroked his beak, and then the little shit pushed his fluffy ruffled head into her hand for more attention.
When she stopped petting him, Ralph looked at her again and said grimly, “Forever.” Then he flew off into the tropical foliage calling out “Forever, forever, fuck me harder. Forever.”
This time Lindsay laughed. “That goddamned stupid bird. Every day he reminds me why I should have kept him at the office.”
“I like him. He's funny.”
“He thinks he is.” The bird might not have a human understanding of the meanings of words, but he somehow knew which words and phrases would get the biggest reactions, and he always went for the big payoff.
Lindsay got up and went over to the largest of the bird cages and called Ralph. When the bird was settled inside, he closed the door and covered the cage with a blanket. The smaller parakeets were already settled in their cages, so he draped those as well.
When he returned to Shannon, she was back to the closed-off expression again.
“You can't fuck me back to life. Your dick doesn't have magic powers.”
Lindsay felt the smirk inch up his cheek. “You don't know that. You've never had my dick.” It wasn't as though he wasn't aware of how arrogant this all seemed. How presumptuous. But he hadn't imagined the way she looked at him. On a purely rational level he understood why she was punishing herself this way. But practically speaking... the behavior was... what was the clinical word? Batshit?