Page 45 of Vice
“I can’t stop thinking about Persephone,” Natalia says sadly. “I should have been here, back at the house. I would have been able to talk him down.”
“How many times have you tried to stop him from doing something like that before?” I ask. “And how many times has he ignored you and done it anyway?” I can tell from the way her jaw is set and her cheeks are flushed that the answer to my question, though she won’t admit it, is many. “Today wouldn’t have been any different, Natalia. You can’t hold yourself accountable for every evil thing your father does.”
“Maybe you’re right,” she says. “Sometimes I wonder if I could try harder to reach him, though. I wonder if my own fear of him gets in the way of trying to help these people.”
“Stop. You’re beating yourself up over something you have no control over. There isn’t a doctor out there who wouldn’t diagnose your father as clinically insane. It’s okay that you’re afraid of him. Even if you did stand up to him, it wouldn’t make a difference.”
Natalia sits down on the edge of my bed, head hanging low. “I just can’t stop thinking that—”
“That’s exactly what you have to do, otherwise you’re going to drive yourself mad.”
“They were together, you know. Persephone was here maybe six months before Plato arrived. They became friends immediately. They fell in love some time after that. My father keeps his male and female Servicio separated at night. There are two huge dormitories beneath the house, and they’re guarded at all times. They’ve never slept in the same bed together, never fallen asleep in each other’s arms. But they’ve loved each other for years now. And now my father has even taken that from them.”
Sitting down on the bed next to her, I put my arm around her shoulders. “Simon says don’t think about it right now,” I tell her.
“Simon? Who is Simon?”
“You’ve never heard of Simon Says?”
She shakes her head. “What is it?”
“If I say, Natalia, take off all your clothes, you don’t have to do it. If I say, Simon says taken off your clothes, then you have to.”
She looks confused. “Why would I obey you just because you say that?”
“I don’t know. It’s a children’s game. It doesn’t have to make sense.”
“Children get naked?”
I laugh softly. “No, that’s definitely the adult version of the game.”
“And you can use this Simon Says rule to make the other person do anything?”
“Anything.”
Natalia thinks about this. A small frown line appears between her brows as she considers what I’ve just said. She’s so damn beautiful. It hits me every time I look at her. Would I be this attracted to her if I saw her on the street back home? That would be a resounding fuck yes. I’m not drawn to her because of her damsel in distress status. She’s stunning. I’ll admit, I’m thinking about her mouth wrapped around my dick twenty-four seven, in between fearing for my life and the lives of every one around me. But there’s something else about her. Something subtle and at the same time undeniable that draws me to her. It wouldn’t matter where in the world I met her. I would still be captivated, regardless.
She smiles as she looks up at me, and a surge of blood rushes to my dick. “I want to play,” she says decisively.
“You do?”
She nods. “Anything to stop thinking so much. And…I think this will be fun.”
“All right. Well, you asked for it.”
She lies back on my bed, exhaling, closing her eyes. I wonder if she has any idea how this is going to end, namely with some hardcore fucking? Because Simon is a sick, perverted motherfucker when I’m talking on his behalf.
“Who goes first?” she asks.
“You can.” Instead of lying down next to her, I position myself on the bed, sitting beside her, legs crossed Indian style, watching her as her chest rises and falls. She cracks one eyelid, peering at me out of the corner of her eye.
“Okay. Simon says…” She hesitates. “Tell me why you kissed me the other day.”
“Why do you think I kissed you the other day?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I asked.”
“Because…” Man, this is ridiculous. How can she not know the pull she has over men? “I didn’t have a choice,” I tell her. “It wasn’t something I consciously decided to do. You were soaked from the rain, your hair was everywhere. You turned to look at me, and I had to kiss you.”
