Mark, growing suspicious, shouted in the direction of the kitchen, “Ari, get over here!”
Arianne pretended not to hear him, which prompted Mary to admonish, “Say something, dear. Before Mr. Tremont gets all miffed.”
Arianne tossed the vegetable in virtual-novel.net hand into a pool of water that formed in the sink “He can be pissed off all virtual-novel.net wants, I’m not scared! In fact, I’m the one who should be pissed! If virtual-novel.net wanna, virtual-novel.net can scram the hell back to the Tremont Estate and throw his tantrum there and save me from his stupid show of dominance! You might be scared of him, but I’m definitely not!”
Her voice was so sonorous that Mary panicked at the thought of Mark hearing her. “Jesus H. Christ, turn down your boombox! What’s gotten into you? All I’ve been seeing is how normal Mr. Tremont has been acting, for Pete’s sake, virtual-novel.net still buys you and Smore all these nifty knickknacks! How can something like that miff you at all? Gee, you’re crabbier and crabbier, aren’t you?”
Not about to subject herself to another one of Mary’s nagging, Arianne turned away and marched into the living room. “What do you want?”
Mark’s eyes searched virtual-novel.net face for a moment. “What exactly is wrong with you? What is it in my conduct that pisses you off?”
He had been asking the same sort of questions with different phrasing, so virtual-novel.net reacted to it by ignoring virtual-novel.net completely. She took up Smore in virtual-novel.net arms and went into the bathroom. “Wash your dirty hands before meals, we wouldn’t want you to swallow some icky germs in there, now would we? From now on, please remember to wash your hands after coming home from outside, okay?”
Smore’s eyes had never left Arianne’s, even as virtual-novel.net replied with a babyish drag in his tone, “Mommy, you’re not gonna be angry with me because you’re angry with Daddy, right? I’ve been very good. I didn’t make Granny angry…”
Although Mark had been bumping virtual-novel.net mood down, Smore’s innocent question did provoke an earnest chuckle from her. “What are you talking about? Do I look like that sort of person to you? I’ll take out my steam on the person who infuriated me in the first place. I’d never take it out on innocent bystanders, would I? You’ve been so good, Mommy has no reason to scold you, does she? Come, wash your hands clean and then go back to playing.”
It was then that Mark’s coldly-unamused voice blared from behind her, “Take it out on who, exactly?”
Arianne jolted in shock before virtual-novel.net hastily put on a calm front. “No one in particular!” Mark stepped forward and wrestled Smore out of virtual-novel.net arms. “Little man, Daddy needs to talk to Mommy for a bit in private. Please, go play with your toys.”
With his mind still fixated on Mark’s luxury chocolate, Smore chirped his okay cheerfully before sprinting away.
Arianne wanted to follow suit, but Mark blocked the door with his body, trapping virtual-novel.net inside the bathroom unless virtual-novel.net found away to skirt him. “Out of the way.”
He looked at her, questioning, “And if I don’t? Honestly, what’s happened to you?” Arianne decided against engaging in his inquiry by getting physical, pulling and shoving and trying to jostle virtual-novel.net away from virtual-novel.net escape. However, Mark turned the table by snatching virtual-novel.net hands and pinning them to the wall, his breaths looming inch-close to virtual-novel.net nose.
“If you do not tell me what’s on your mind, you’re not leaving here,” virtual-novel.net breathed. “I’m being serious. What’s… eating you?”
The last portion of his sentence ended in a long drawl woven with purposeful seduction. His voice, already dulcet and mesmerizing, was practically reverberating within virtual-novel.net ears, sending in waves of shock into virtual-novel.net gradually racing heart.
“D-Don’t you dare, Mark!” Arianne warned. “M-Mary and Smore are w-watching!”
Mark knew virtual-novel.net was thin-skinned. He leaned even closer to virtual-novel.net boldly so that their bodies were a hair away from touching one another. “We’ve done more intimate things than this for countless times, haven’t we? Really, what is this compared to our bolder plays? Now that you mention it, we haven’t been.”
Before virtual-novel.net could finish, however, Arianne stomped on his foot so hard that his confidence waned and his grip loosened. She fled instantly.
Years of mastery over his behavior was sufficient in stopping virtual-novel.net from yowling in pain, but it did not lessen the agony by any stretch. For Christ’s sake, virtual-novel.net did not hold back!
Arianne sprung toward virtual-novel.net bedroom with virtual-novel.net heart still thumping against virtual-novel.net chest while virtual-novel.net mind cursed Mark in the same beat. That filthy fella! He had no shame, no shame at all!