"Irene, get off of me please."

Feeble words, feeble strength. How was she ever going to take me seriously?

"I don't think so," She whispered with words coated so sickeningly sweet. "I really don't think so."

Her hips, so provocative in its dainty sways from left to right, enticing, inviting… wanting for your eyes to wander, to behold, to crave and yearn…

I felt the weight of her hand, the warmth of it, rolling my shirt upwards into folds. Another warmth, another hand, gently gliding across my bare chest.

There it was again, a dangerous wanting glint in her eyes, the hue of dark brown becoming an enthralling shimmer of crimson red. I tried to look away, turn my gaze elsewhere, but all it took was a single slender finger caressing my cheek to tilt my stare back into those velvet eyes of hers.

She tore my mask from my face with one swift swipe, flinging it across the room, chuckling softly as she did, before setting her lusting sights back onto me, licking her lips, and giving it a damp shimmer.

I am so literally fucked right now.

"Hey… do you prefer the view from above or from below?" She asked, her reddened lips barely grazing the surface of my own. "I've never really asked you before, haven't I? I really should have. I've always wanted to know your preference."

"You're not you, Irene," I muttered, puckering my lips inwards.

"On the contrary…" She leaned over and blew a breath in my ear, sending jittery tingles running down my spine. "I've never felt more like me in my whole life before than I am now. Why don't you just enjoy it? This is your Irene in all her glory."

"Irene…"

"Why don't you just enjoy me?"

"We can't…"

"Shh, don't play prude, Mr. Goody two-shoes. Of course we can… after all, we're already right here, aren't we? We kissed once… what's the harm with another?"

She planted a small peck at the tip of my nose. "Following that train of thought, what's the harm if we go even further than another?"

"No."

A giggle.

"I like you stubborn."

A little downwards, the trail of warm breath stopped short at my neck, I felt her lips, felt her suckle… the slight moans that'll escape her, the ones that'll escape mine, it was overcoming me to the point of immobility.

I couldn't move my body no matter how much I wanted to - it didn't want to… or maybe I didn't want to.

Resist, you gotta resist… you've done this before, you've been through this before, this time was like any other time, barely a difference in circumstance. Just pull away, pull away!

I pried, I struggled, I yelled.

"Irene!"

"What?!" She snapped her head back instantly, her brows immediately in a furrow. "Why are you shouting at me? What did I do wrong? You don't like me nuzzling you? Well, how do I know anything if you won't tell me!"

"I don't like you doing anything to me, thank you!" I said, taking her sudden annoyance with me as a chance to heave myself away from under her. "Least not with the way you're being right now."

"I don't know what that means!" She yelled back, flailing her arms about like rustled feathers. "I don't understand, what am I doing wrong? Why aren't you liking me? Why aren't you wanting me?"

It all felt like a dream. A very hot and spicy dream. The only thing that was keeping me rooted in the belief of true reality was the crystal-clear image of the sleeping beauties back at home, Adalia and Amanda too…

Wasn't going to let them down. Not now, not ever. My raging hormones can scream and it can cry, my libido can have its way clawing and tearing all it wanted, doing its best to spring free from my pants with the promise of a sensation like nothing else…

Alas, the joy I'd garner from it would only be temporary, while their sleep would be eternal.

Took a deep breath, and continued to resist.

I left Irene as a bumbling, mumbling jumble of incomprehensible mutterings, as I took a moment to collect my bearings, swiping my shirt back down while standing back up with some struggle, surveying the rest of the interior with very flabbergasted eyes.

Carol mentioned that Irene had been staying for a little over a week now, but judging from the state of the room itself… it seemed to suggest that she's been here for a lot longer.

That or Irene simply liked living in a pigsty.

Heaps and mounds of instant-noodle cups littered almost every inch of the place, and those rare few spots without them were instead occupied by empty perfume bottles, crumpled clothes, bras, and panties draped over anything and everything - it was like a goddamn whirlwind took hospice for few nights and then left without ever bothering to clear up.

That's without even mentioning the windows, and the vents, they all had sheets and blinds chucked into them, leaving the queen-size mattress almost as bare and naked as Irene was.

"You're a pig," I said to her, giving my hair a rough ruffling with trembling fingers. "What the heck happened to you?!"

"I still don't know what that means!" She said in genuine confusion, her knees still sprawled onto the floor. "Tell me the truth, I don't get it, do you not like me?"

I met her eyes and saw that glow of scarlet had dissipated, replaced instead by a sincere worry brimming inside her hazel browns. Was she really putting me on the spot here?

"Well, yes, yeah, I like you," I said, feeling my lips narrowing as I continued to speak. "As a friend…"

"What, what the…" Irene immediately sprang up to her feet, her face an expressive mixture of shock and betrayal. "What - what's wrong with you? Why would you say that?!"

"Wha - well, we can be more! Yeah, we can be more!" I suggested, trailing closely by her as she stomped about in utter disbelief around her room. "Look! Maybe! I'm not saying it's off the table! Anything can happen, you know?"

"So let's make it happen!" She spun around, gripping my palms tightly with both hands. "Come on, two of us, here, alone, man and woman, I'm sure we can work something out. I hear the bed over there is a good place to nurture new ideas if you catch my meaning."

"Irene, no…"

"How is it that you're denying me?!" She wailed, raising her hands to the air as if expecting the stained ceiling to relinquish her inquiry with an answer. "You're a virgin. You're easy pickings. You're supposed to be like taking candy from a baby!"

It was my turn to look affronted. "Excuse you. As I recall, you're a virgin too, aren't you?"

"Win-win, then!" She said, pulling my arms again to where the bed was situated. "Let's go ahead and rectify that for each other with an erection!"

"There's nothing here that needs erecting."

"Come on already, Hero!" She yelled, clutching my shirt with rigid fingers. "You better unsheathe that greatsword of yours right now and start swinging or I swear to the Divines - !"

"You swear what?"

"I don't know yet! But…" She took a step back, her head vigorously shaking back and forth. "Look… don't you… don't you want me? Am I not attractive to you?"

"Irene, what are you on about?" I said, shaking her to her senses. "You're a succubus, everyone is attracted to you!"

"Yeah, but I don't do this for just anyone, you know!" She said, "Do you know what I did to the people who knocked on that door that wasn't you?"

"You had visitors other than me?"

"Mmm-hmm, lots and lots!" She said, giving me a glare as if expecting me to try and refute her. "And every single one got a door to the face the very second they tried to talk me up."

"And if they had the balls to come knocking around a second time…" Irene folded her arms, smirking at me with a half-grin. "Well, let's just say they're now having a difficult time going number one after that."

That's not really a graphic image I wanted to see in my head, but okay then. Thanks for the phantom pain in my loins, I guess.

"So what's your point?" I asked, veering my eyes away from the little minute adjustments she was making to try and accentuate to me her finest 'assets'. "What're you trying to say?"

Clearly, she didn't appreciate the notion that I would rather stare blankly at a wall than appreciate her little show at enticement, otherwise, she wouldn't be looking so sulky in my peripheral view.

"Can you please look into my eyes when I'm talking to you?"

I scoffed. "Which? The one down there you're practically shoving in my face, or the one up there? Which do you really want me to stare at here?"

"Both preferably," She said, "Come on, I remember you looking at them when I first met you!"

"My eyes wandered," I admitted. Hey, it's hard to control your inhibitions when you're half asleep, alright?

"Then let them wander away again, I promise I won't disappoint. They look much better without the uniform in the way anyway."

"Yeah, I don't doubt it," I muttered under my breath, rolling my eyes. "Just - please… why are you acting like this? Why to me?

"Why I'm acting… why to you?! I - " Irene plopped herself at the end of the bed, her gaze a disbelieving one. "Mr. Dense… I like you. I want you. I want to be with you."

"Irene, focus..."

"No, you focus!" She snapped, her tone growing harsher. "Focus on me."

"Irene…"

"Don't 'Irene' me, I hate that stupid name."

"We don't have time for this."

"You're right," She said, quieter, more somber this time. "We don't. So decide already, dummy. Do you want me or not?"