The Red Wing Mansion

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The scary thing about the fire is the smoke billows out in such a strong black cloud of death, I can't even see the flames.

I just see a cloud of death and ash floating around me, getting thicker.

Claudius had pulled me off the staircase railing, onto the stairs themselves.

He had discarded my panties, pulling them down until they slipped to my ankles and I stepped out of them, moving back against him.

He backed up one step, allowing me to move a step away from the fire and the heat.

My bra is next, he's unclipped it and slipped it off in seconds.

I'm naked with his hands on me, one over my breast, over my heart... the other hand is slipping down my front, his fingers inches from my mound and my pussy.

I slap my hand over his hand.

I find a lick of hesitancy in my action, and now he feels that in me too, as I stare at the fire... and I feel... terrified.

Claudius' movements were precise. If fantasy sex was real, he had mastered it. I had to be careful with that.

As my heart beats, I feel his palm, feeling my rising distress.

Claudius leans down to kiss my neck, sliding his fingers up from my heart to my hair – gently moving aside the loose strands to get to the pulse on my neck. He kisses all the way up under my jaw.

The smoke in front of me blasts out into my face – and it goes straight up my nose.

I immediately choke and struggle to breathe, freaking out and struggling to stand – but Claudius holds me up and kisses the side of my choking, gasping lips, stopping me from getting away.

His kiss pulls out the pain, like threads, but it's only pieces of me that I was too weak to hold onto it while faced with a growing fire we both agreed to ignite.

What the hell was I doing? What the hell was he doing?

As I wheeze on a breath, feeling dizzy, I almost fall forward, but Fontaine wraps his arm around my waist and sits back on the stairs, holding me to him.

The smoke blasts aside for a moment and I see the fire has reached the ceiling, licking toward us in slow motion, while it engulfs the front door and spreads to all the rooms.

Fontaine holds me, but he doesn't fuck me.

He just stares at the fire.

"If you don't take me –" I gasp, I'm going to die. I don't even finish it aloud. His hand is holding my head up, so I keep breathing in the smoke.

Evil.

"Oh, sweetheart... it's all you," Fontaine whispers, "It's whatever you want to happen."

Claudius abruptly releases me from his hold, and I notice his hands tremble as he forces himself to release me.

I am conflicted, though.

I think he has just waited for the fire to grow so large, I couldn't run forward, backward, or anywhere. Only up the stairs, if I dared.

I stand up, crawling up the stairs, trying to get to some fresh air.

I wheeze as I climb.

When I look for him, I see Claudius is just... gone.

Fuck!

My whole heart believed.

Believed a... a lie? How could I?

Well, it was too late now to feel anything, I was in the Red Wing as it was burning to the fucking ground and Claudius Fontaine was gone.