to feel that we exist, even though in pain
♠︎ ♕ ♠︎
“Manon,” he said pleasantly, once he’d reached her side.
He hadn’t been there for her arrival, but it had not, as she’d assumed, taken him long to find out about it. One of the young staff came knocking hurriedly at the door of his office on the bottom of the first floor, as impressed as he was worried when he breathed The Red Rose is back. So quickly did he reach the floor that some of the expressions at her appearance still lingered on the faces of the patrons, curiosity and awe and things rather more lascivious. August knew she must welcome all of them.
He just wondered what made her so intent on finding him.
“You haven’t lost your flair for an entrance, I see,” he said, then leaned in near enough to smell the lightning and rain on her skin, to see the places where the gold gives to turquoise in her eyes. “You weren’t waiting for the storm, were you?” There might have been a part of him that meant the wryness in the words - she had not made things easy for her patrons, there for a few weeks, but the grin he wore was malleable as beaten gold, and his tone was teasing.
She might be a thorn in all their sides (and how many times had that joke been made?) but there was no denying that things were far more interesting with Manon around.
The wind moaned outside, leaning and beating its fists uselessly against the walls, and thunder grumbled in complaint. By now the bulk of the room had turned their attention discreetly away, and one of the younger waitstaff hurried up to them, bowing swiftly before asking whether either of them would like a drink. “Gin, thank you,” August told the colt, and quirked a brow at Manon.
Though it had been his recommendation she go to ground before, August knew that the woman was as uncontrollable as the squall outside, as impossible to direct. Whatever had brought her back doubtless meant another headache for him, yet still he grinned - such was her particular charm.
“So,” he began, once the boy was sweeping away again, “shall we retire to somewhere more private to catch up?”
@Manon | hallo friend
