Eric

[borgiafatale]

Lucrezia did not take Eric's advice and leave her silver at home. But she did have the silver knife inside her purse with absolutely no intention of bringing it out unless it was a matter of life and death. After talking to Michael (and then, inevitably, Cesare, because Michael simply couldn't keep anything from her brother), she was even more wary of the idea of vampires than she'd been before. Her brother had also very intentionally not warned her away from them, and she was smart enough to know that he probably saw how she might be useful. And that didn't bother her. She was a Borgia, after all. And she had a lot of anger and unrest at the moment. Best to distract herself. And finding out more about vampires seemed like an awfully good distraction. As did finding out more about her brother's connection to vampires, which he hadn't exactly been forthcoming about.

So she went back to the Blood Diamond one night. Alone, this time. It was a warm night, one of the first in a while, and so she was wearing a white fluttery dress spotted with red cherry blossoms, and red heels. She wondered if there was something she should or should not wear to look more or less like a snack. She had no idea. Would a tight black leather dress have been better or worse?

She garnered a few looks as she walked in, going to the bar. She ordered an old fashioned, and looked up to the balcony, wondering if she would see Eric. She supposed she could ask for him, though she wanted to look around a bit first.

Comments

[thenorthman]

"That might be a long wait," Eric remarked. It might be more beneficial not to simply wait, really.

[borgiafatale]

"Then I may create a beneficial moment," Lucrezia said evenly, just as the man returned with her drink. She took it from him with a smile of thanks.

[thenorthman]

It was obvious that the human waiter wanted to linger, taken in with Lucrezia, but Eric dismissed him with a simple look. He turned back to Lucrezia. "And how do you expect to benefit from it, exactly? What is it you're after, Lucrezia?" He asked the question as he started playing with a lock of her hair, his arm lined on the back of the couch again.

[borgiafatale]

Lucrezia's gaze lingered briefly on the waiter as well, before looking back to Eric.

Her pulse may have sped up just slightly when he touched her. Just slightly.

"I want to have the upper hand," she said, and then rolled her eyes. "He has a mistress. Which is hardly even a scandal anymore - he'll probably marry her right after, talking about true love, and no one will fault him for it. Meanwhile, I am the woman who inexplicably cannot keep her husbands happy, a twice-divorced spinster not yet thirty. And I suppose there's money, too, but that's secondary beyond what losing it will do to his pride." She lifted her chin a bit, realizing that she'd begun to look down at her hands. "And this isn't about being a jilted wife. If he'd been honest with me I would have told him he could fuck who he liked so long as he was discreet. If I found out, I can't imagine who else has."

[thenorthman]

"It's a well-known secret," Eric confirmed. Of course he kept up to date with what was happening to the politicians, especially the ones residing and wielding power in London. "But anyone who hasn't remained stuck in century-old morality won't find fault with you."

[borgiafatale]

"Well of course not," she said crisply. "But I'd much rather be thought immoral than a fool. Besides, there's a pre-nup." She smoothed her skirt around her legs. "Infidelity alone doesn't break it. So either I wait for him to break it off instead of me, or I catch him in something worse." Or orchestrate something worse. "Apparently his father did not entirely trust my family when we were wed."

[thenorthman]

"Apparently his father knew what his son was like well," Eric replied, since infidelity was, as far as he knew, one of the usual breaking points of prenups. Then again, he hadn't been paying all that much attention. Marriage was not exactly an interest. "Unless you were unfaithful first?"

[borgiafatale]

"No," said Lucrezia, not sounding particularly happy about it.

She took a long drink from the glass in front of her. "This is embarrassing." She shook her head. "Suffice it to say, I will find a way to turn the situation to my advantage, in the end."

[thenorthman]

"Suffice it to see," Eric replied, since intentions were well and good, but he liked results better. "Have you cheated on him since?" Her embarrassment let on that she might not have, but he wanted to ask and make sure.

[borgiafatale]

Lucrezia took another drink. "I think you owe me a few answers in exchange first," she said. She was not particularly thrilled with having laid out what was arguably a vulnerability in front of him, and did not really want to answer that question.

There were things that Cesare had not been able to tell her, particularly about Eric. (And Michael had seemed to know more than he was willing to tell her, which did not surprise her.) And now she was curious about him, not just vampires.

"How old are you?" she asked.

[thenorthman]

"I think I owe you one answer first." Eric was smiling. This might well be the first question she asked him she did not know the answer to. Might, of course; he had no way of knowing how much Kersen's human knew, or might have told her. "I was born a viking," he answered her the way he usually did, specifically enough for anyone who hadn't lived in that time.

[borgiafatale]

"Two," Lucrezia corrected. "You asked me about my relationship with my husband, and then you asked me what I wanted."

She crossed her legs. "You were a viking," she repeated. Did some mental math. Well that was... impressive. "How did you become a vampire?"

[thenorthman]

"You'd asked me -" Eric quickly played the conversation back through his mind, with perfect clarity, thanks to vampiric memory, "three. But I'll humor you. I was chosen. By a vampire much superior to any other in London." Including himself.

[borgiafatale]

"Ah yes, I suppose I did answer one question before we made the deal," Lucrezia conceded, but was pleased he decided to answer her anyway. And then, to his answer - "I imagine he must have been." Which was intended as a compliment. "Is he still, ah, around?"

[thenorthman]

"He's still alive," Eric confirmed, amused at her phrasing. How fucking delicate. "You owe me two. Have you cheated on him since?"

[borgiafatale]

Lucrezia wasn't sure if vampires counted as "alive" though that seemed a particularly rude inquiry.

"No," she said, without elaborating. She wished she had a better answer. She should have cheated in Milan. Too bad male models were so fucking dull.

[thenorthman]

Eric's fingers brushed against her hair again, and he smiled. "Do you want to?"

That was his second question, but it was a good one, and it was as much question as invitation.

[borgiafatale]

Even she felt her pulse speed up at that, and so she knew that he could.

She answered in a call back to his earlier answer. "With you, or in general?

[thenorthman]

Eric smiled at her comeback. "I'll owe you an extra question." Which meant, of course, both.

[borgiafatale]

There were reasons that she hadn't. Not really looking. Wanting to maintain the moral high ground. Not wanting things to go as they had last time. After all, look what had happened to Paul. Not to mention...

She thought of the baby she lost, and looked down at her hands briefly, before looking up at him.

"Yes," she said quietly. Because she did want. She wanted very much.

[thenorthman]

Eric took that to mean a yes to both. He shifted closer, very aware of how big he was compared to her, and moved his hand to cradle her jaw, thumb riding down her throat. "Yes?"

[borgiafatale]

Lucrezia let out a breathless, slightly nervous laugh. "You can feel my heart beating, can't you?"

[thenorthman]

"Feel, and hear," Eric confirmed, his thumb riding back up her throat. An elevated heartbeat could mean a great many things.

[borgiafatale]

"Do you want me?" Lucrezia asked him. Partly because she did not want to risk making a fool of herself. Partly because it would be nice to hear it, after a time of not feeling particularly desired.

[thenorthman]

"Answer me," Eric asked of her, without the power of the glamour to compel her, for all that he was looking into her eyes as he asked. If she did, she would have her own answer.