Chapter 15
Spared Out of Spite (Part 1)
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"I want to see those eyes again begging me to drown you in pleasure, like how you made me satisfied with your mouth..." Red Hilt said this while caressing Arondight's lips with his finger.
It took Arondight long enough to recover from the shock. With a sudden, almost frantic motion, he swatted Red Hilt's hand away, causing Arondight to stumble back in his seat and nearly fall to the floor.
"You..." Arondight's voice wavered with pure disbelief. He can't accept that the man before him was the same person who had introduced himself as Ivan Ross days ago, the unknown bartender from that fleeting one-night encounter three months ago.
"You're...Ivan Ross?"
Arondight felt the room shrink around them for some reason, and the tension between him and the villain was thick enough to taste.
"No! No-fuck! This can't be true!
No sound escaped Arondight's lips as he stared into the eyes of Red Hilt-or rather, Ivan Ross. The shock was evident in his wide eyes-the slow, dreadful realization that he had somehow, by sheer stupidity and cosmic bad luck, slept not just once but twice with the second most famous villain in the city...without even realizing it.
"How could I not have noticed this sooner!"
How could he, really? He'd been so drunk that night at the bar, to the point that he was barely able to remember the bartender's face. If only he'd remembered his face, he never would have agreed to the villain's insane idea of a "casual" hook-up the first time they met as hero and villain.
But no, of course not. It's not Red Hilt's or Ivan Ross's fault, for that matter. All of this was his fault. His stupidity, weakness, and inability to say no when temptation smiled at him put him in this situation. And now, all he could think about was the humiliation waiting for him when the whole world found out he'd slept with a supervillain...twice!
He couldn't even claim ignorance of the fact, that would just make him look even dumber!
Arondight instinctively took a step back, then another, until panic took over and he turned to run. But before he could even take a few more steps, a large shadow loomed before him and cut off his escape.
And then-wham!-a strong hand clamped around his arm and yanked him backward, sending him stumbling straight into Red Hilt's hard, warm chest.
"And where do you think you're going?" Red Hilt leaned in close enough for his breath to tickle Arondight's ear. "Our date isn't over yet. We've barely reached the appetizer, but you're already trying to escape?"
Arondight shoved the villain back, his face was blazing with embarrassment, "It was a mistake for me to agree to come here! This is not right! What will people say when they find out we're doing this!"
He tried to get away for the second time, but Red Hilt's grip on his arm didn't budge, and instead he pressed his face even closer to Arondight's.
"Maybe you do, sure-but come on, we're only human. What's wrong with having a little dinner date with someone you like? Whether a hero or a villain, we all need a bit of social interaction now and then, don't we?" Then Red Hilt slowly brushed his lips against Arondight's neck and ear, making the young hero shiver even more. "Just relax, will you? You're acting like I'm about to eat you alive...though you do look very tasty when you're flustered."
"Stop saying stuff like that!" Arondight snapped as he twisted to pull away, only for his foot to catch on the chair leg, which caused them both to fall to the floor, ending up in a very awkward position with Red Hilt on top of Arondight.
"See?" said Red Hilt, seemingly teasing the hero even more while running his hand into the hero's hair, "The more you struggle to escape, the more likely you are to fall for me. Unless you like this push and pull thing between us, I suppose that's completely consensual."
Arondight's face was burning hotter than a furnace. "You're insane! How could I possibly like a crazy person like you!"
Red Hilt's grin widened as he spoke, "Well... you're just as crazy as I am. What sane person had sex with a stranger, or agrees to hook up with a villain in the middle of a fight? Honestly, you're not so different from me, my dear hero..."
"It's just you, you fucking psycho!" Arondight groaned angrily, trying to push Red Hilt off him as much as he could, only to manage to roll them both and flip positions. Now, it was Arondight hovering above Red Hilt that turned the young hero's cheeks on fire.
"Oh, so this is the position you want?" the villain smirked and teased the hero even more, "Not bad, I suppose. I'm curious to see how you handle being in control for once while riding on top of me."
Arondight glared down at him, almost stopping himself from swinging his fist toward the villain's face. Then he said, "Lucky for you I can't use my power right now," he snapped, "Otherwise, I'd have thrown you across the room by now!"
But Red Hilt did not flinch much from Arondight's threat. Instead, he took full advantage of the hero being on top of him by slipping his hand beneath the edge of Arondight's coat in a slow, malicious motion. The sudden warmth of his touch made Arondight tense and flinch, causing the heat to prickle up the hero's neck despite his effort to stay composed.
Realizing exactly what the villain was trying to do, Arondight's reflexes kicked in, and he immediately grabbed Red Hilt's wrist tightly and warned him, "Don't you dare touch me!"
Red Hilt's smirk deepened as he responded, "And if I did...what would you do then?"
"I'll punch you and ruin your pretty face if I have to!"
"Okay, then do it."
Red Hilt inserted his hand deeper into Arondight's clothes until it reached and touched every bulge of the young man's abs and chest. Arondight was about to snap back when a sudden wave of dizziness hit him so hard he nearly lost his balance.
"What's happening to me?" Arondight asked himself as he pressed his hand against the floor to keep himself steady, while his other hand clutched at his chest as if to stop his racing heart from bursting out of it. At the same time, a significant amount of cold sweat broke across his hot skin.
This was how he felt when he'd been hit with the neutralizer at the warehouse, but he didn't feel this intense as compared to the first. This was way worse, as if someone had doubled the dose in his system.
But that couldn't be right. The hero hadn't been hit with anything...
"Wait..."
Arondight's gaze drifted back to the table.
"It's wine...."
That was the last thing he'd drunk before this all started. Only then did he realize that the wine he had drunk earlier had been spiked with a significant dose of neutralizer that was used to nullify all his powers and abilities.
Arondight's breath caught again as he looked at Red Hilt with fury, "What...did you do to me?"
Arondight tried to get up, but his legs couldn't handle the weakness, and he immediately collapsed into Red Hilt's arms.
"There's no point in fighting anymore..." Red Hilt told him while his arms wrapped firmly around the weakened hero. "It's time for you to fully surrender yourself to me, my dear hero..."