Mayhem Whisperer #2
“What?” she demanded.
“You can’t scandalize me.”
“Is that a challenge, Mr. Mayhem?”
“It definitely isn’t. Miss Sister.”
Her glittery laughter hit the air like a scatter-shot. “You’re funny!”
“You’re shocked.”
“I am, given your name!”
“Well, I can say the same about you, given your name.”
That put her in her place for about three steps. “Do you want to know why I became a nun?”
The question weighed with some test he normally wouldn’t take but it also felt like a wild card he needed. “I do.”
“It was The Sound of Music!”
Of course. “Which music?”
“Not music, the movie The Sound of Music. It’s a classic.
About the girl that isn’t sure she wants to be a nun so attends the Abby to find out.
What she really wanted was to bring joy to people and figured a nun was the perfect job to do that.
The Sisters at the Abby saw her wild spirit and knew the convent walls were not the place for her, so they sent her to be the governess for the widowed husband and father of seven children.
” She shot a smile over her shoulder. “So she wins over the children—who vowed no replacement for their mother—with music and songs and love and patience.” Another flash grin tossed back.
“And that’s not the only thing she won over.
The hardened Mr. Captain George Von Trapp also got himself won over. ”
He waited for more, particularly the logical parts of such a decision but instead got all those useless details she seemed excessively fond of. All the soft, pretty colors. Never mind the blacks and blues and sick greens of reality—colors she eventually met.
“But what exact part of this movie made you want to become a nun?”
“All of it!” she cried. “Minus the falling in love part, I had no interest in that, obviously!”
“Obviously?”
“My grandmother said it was my superpower.”
“What was? Singing?” Her big laugh was like a canon and it made him grin. “You don’t sing?”
“Oh I do sing—all the time! But it’s not my superpower, my Sisters will assure you. It’s my ability to bring joy to others,” she said, quiet for a few seconds. “Apparently, she thought I had a knack for it.”
Sinrik felt all the wrong colors bleed into those last few words. “You do have a knack for it,” he assured.
She turned fully and stopped, her smile returning. “I do?”
He stopped at a distance that allowed for close-up reading. She noticed the proximity and took a step back. He eyed her then stepped forward again. She again took note, but didn’t move. “Are you using your tricks?” she wondered, happy to let him.
“And what if I was?” he said, bothered by it. Bothered she didn’t know him or his tricks or anybody else’s tricks.
She considered the question like it might be a test. “Well… if you must.”
“You need to stop doing that.”
She looked up at him. “What am I doing?”
“Trusting too easily.”
She angled her confused gaze. “How is this trusting?”
“We just talked about personal spaces, Miss Sister, and I just stepped into yours twice. You stepped out once, great job. Why didn’t you step out the second time?”
“Because I thought you were going to use your… body reading trick!”
“Really.”
“Really!”
“And what if my body reading trick required me to touch you? Will you allow that too?”
“Well… that depends on a lot,” she said, adamance creeping in.
“On what?” he tested.
“On where you touch and why you touch. Not all touching needs to be a crime, you realize?”
“How would you know which were?”
She regarded him like it was a trick question. “By… me not wanting it?”
“Oh boy,” he muttered, stepping back.
“What!” she worried.
He shook his head at the trees then eyed her. “Ever experience seduction? Miss Beatrice?”
He already knew that answer, but she sure needed to know it.
Her head lowered.
“Yes and no, I see.”
Her eyes barely made it to his, the pink in her cheeks darkening. “What do you see?”
“That you know but haven’t experienced it.” He crossed his arms with a sigh. “How will you protect yourself if you don’t know the ways of the enemy?”
She contemplated the air between them, brows drawn over a fierce gaze. “Can you teach me?”
Sinrik stared at her, then at the nearest tree wanting to laugh. Fuck. What did he just do? Offer to teach her what seduction looked like? Somebody would sure need to teach her but not him.
“Is this something I need to learn even if I’m…”
He snapped his gaze to her, realizing. “Not if you’re hooking up with a synth, no.”
She chewed at the corner of her lower lip, forcing his analytical brain there. “But I would like to know,” she fretted, looking around. “I don’t know when I’m marrying a soldier and some of the younger men are… behaving strangely. Maybe they’re… seducing me.”
He looked down at her holy robes, adjusting his lens to what any normal man would see.
“What are you seeing?” she wondered.
Interesting. She was the problem because she was the seducer. Her entire persona was layers upon layers of discover me. Forbidden fruit suddenly not forbidden, and every male knew it. She didn’t need lessons on seduction, she needed lessons on ball crushing.
“What is that look for?” she worried.
“You definitely need lessons on seduction. Any man could figure out how to take advantage of your need to bring smiles.” In fact, the first one to realize bringing joy was her passion would suddenly need their dick sucked to brighten their day.
“I’ll teach you,” he said. “Your first lesson is how you interact with males.”
She perked up at that. “How?”
“You don’t. You let other males interact with them. If they have a problem or a need, report it to their Hatch Captain that you mentioned they all have. Report it by phone.”
“That… would be nearly impossible—”
“Not impossible. You make a request, you tell them you’re in training, tell them whatever the hell you need to, but do tell them you will not interact with males.”
Her mouth hung open with her furrowed brows. “Do I even need seduction lessons if I’m never around males?”
“That’s only one shield, Sister. You need lessons for those who slip past it.”
She nodded, back to serious and focused. “What else?”
He considered that while his analytical brain threw up warning signals. Treading in useless waters. “It’s not something that can be taught with words. I’ll have to demonstrate it.”
“You’ll need to seduce me?” she asked, worried.
“That’s the thing, Sister. Seduction isn’t something you see, it’s something that happens while you’re not looking. Behind the words, the looks, the random accidental touches. It’s a set of very subtle moves that lead to a final act.”
She appeared confounded as she glanced around then right at him. “So you’d… have to lead me without me knowing. Like I’m blindfolded and you’re directing me with only words to a destination?”
The vision of her in a blindfold, feeling her way, trusting his voice to lead her moved across his mind. Then morphed into some sick fuck taking advantage of her.
Damn this fucking world.
Oh right. He did that.
What the fuck was he doing? “I need to find Morgue.” He set off down the path, putting his mind on other things.
“I’m coming!” she called, suddenly racing past him, jumping right back into her role of protector and leader and bringer of joy. “So, you will seduce me, and I will have to catch you in the act of it or recognize it and then I’ll know what seduction is. Is that right?”
“Yes, Sister, it’s right. And when that happens it’s too late. You’ll have succumbed to the thing you were being seduced to.”
“Well… all seductions don’t have to be bad, right?”
“I’m not here to teach you about the good seductions, I’m here to teach you about the bad ones, the ones that can hurt you.”
“Ha! I knew it.”
“You knew what?” he muttered, realizing he was starving.
“That you are a good person. That was my bet.”
“Your bet, huh? Hope you didn’t put money on it.”
“Never money, I put something of much greater value.”
“A song?”
Her big laugh made him grin again.
“Waaaaaaaay greater than that!”
“Must be your laugh.”
She stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turned an astonished happy face to him. “My laugh?”
He caught up to her, his legs taking him way too close. “You telling me somebody failed to inform you that you have the best laugh in this dirty fucking world?”
She gasped like he’d crowned her Miss Universe. Now she was jumping up and down in celebration. “Probably because I didn’t have much to laugh at!”
The realization didn’t dampen her mood, but it sure gutted his. He realized he still didn’t know what she’d wagered. “I give up. What did you use to place your bet on me?”
She suddenly gave a closed lip smile with raised, secretive brows. She leaned in close and whispered, “My word.”