Seeds

[Ascendancy]

As he and Evelyn stared one another down in playful competition, Nikolai realized no other woman had ever behaved around him like she did. Plenty were flirts, and others were demure or brazen, presenting themselves in manners they thought he would prefer. In fact, only one woman in recent memory outright dismissed his attention, but he had long ago forgotten her name, if not her face. He had felt a familiarity with her that he found intriguing, but not so much as to pursue it once the opportunity passed. Other than Evelyn, that creature was the only one to ever draw his attention beyond the superficial.

Now, in this moment, while Evelyn contemplated his offer and toyed with his patience for a reply, he realized the reason why he found the young woman so captivating. She stood up to him not in defiance nor bravery, but in determination to match his will. She would have a long way to reach before attaining such a goal, but light above was she even thirty years old? The blink of an eye and she seemed nothing more than a child, but upon another blink, her youth was perpetual, born of vibrancy and passion rather than immaturity. That passion would serve her well. Nikolai was determined that it would serve him also. if only he could discover the depths of its motivation.

Unlike Evelyn, he paid little attention to whomever they encountered in the Kremlin halls that evening. Unless directly approached, such people were usually peripheral, necessary but periperal to the operation of an empire's seat of government. Now, however, his eyes flicked around the room, noting their privacy, excepting of course the two Barrier Preator guards nearby. His heart thudded in his chest, and he allowed his gaze to slip to her hands. Taking them in his own, he lifted her knuckles to his lips and whispered, "I do so promise,"
then touched them to his lips and smiled rather boyishly. "Hold me to them."