It surprised her when Ryan grabbed her wrist, hard enough the impact had her body jerking.<i>Not away from him, </i>just a flinch, and her already ajar mouth opened a fraction more for a gasp to escape it. Those eyes, that hid nothing from<i><b>him</b></i>and gave nothing to any-fucking-body else, widened. No, wasn’t fear, it was… something else.<i>Don’t? </i>Shock maybe. But then they narrowed. Mau would have been glaring daggers at him if it hadn’t been for his moving her so instinctively she looked down at her feet instead, mind not unable to keep up with the sudden shift and be able to properly mobilize causing her to get tripped up and fall against the island. A pitiful whine shook her shoulders from the crack her hip took on the ledge and the bone crushing grip he had on her arm, but it was… wasn’t all<i>pain</i>which rocked that noise out of her. She had to clamp her thighs together and shift her weight around because Mau was positively aching between them with a relentless yearning for any kind of friction; skin slick at the apex and panties completely sodden. All due in thanks to sickeningly knowing,<i>just knowing</i>, that come morning she’d see the proof his touch, in variable angry blue and purple shades, had been on her.<br/><br/>Ryan was right. She didn’t need to remind him of anything.<br/>The toxic tension emanating off the both of them in a dark kitchen….<br/>...Well. He’d already began to regress.<br/><i>You still want the Ryan from five years ago </i><br/>Mau’s head shook zealously. He was wrong!<br/>She only wanted him, in whatever goddamned shape he was in.<br/>She only wanted him to want her too. And he knew that!<br/>So why’d he act so shocked when she behaved this way?<br/>He knew she would! Had he gone stupid in his time away too?<br/><br/>His squeezing sent sharp shooting streaks up to her shoulder, Mau’s body reflexively twisted in an effort for it to actually loosen, but her mentality won out and she froze;<i>that’s not possible,</i>“Ry--” She tried to get a word in, not so saucy about it now, but his vehement<i><b>Me! </b></i>Had her shrinking only a little. Girl couldn’t get her breath, practically panted, but without her even realizing it she was crying again. Good thing it went unnoticed though, or else it would have just drowned her with shame and Mau was perfectly content to drown in his wrath instead. He couldn’t be that boy for her anymore? She tried to swallow and couldn’t, “Please s-stop…” So that probably came out too weak for him to hear, and too misconstrued form the hiccups for air she was trying to replenish her lungs with. Stop what? She started this, so what the fuck did she have the gall to ask him to stop for? The truth she couldn't handle. Now<i>she</i>was regressing.<br/><br/>Going from the little lawless Irish lady content to do the dirty deeds only a petite, cute gal could since she was less assuming than the big, burly men and right back to his needy little girl on a string. If Ryan thought she wasn’t suffering too and this was all a ploy to woo him over he was a fucking moron. Only difference is Mau had no fear in being upfront about it. No reservations. She wanted him-she needed him. Wasn’t a pharmaceutical gonna cure that. Ryan broke her stability by showing back up -- she was his fucking thing to fix now.<br/><br/>Yes she had seen many a’fella cower and shrivel beneath his boring stare.<br/>Mau didn't Her eyes stayed fixed on his, she did not<i> back. The fuck. Up. </i><br/><br/>Not even an inch. In fact, her head shook again, body arching and quaking with the inhale she took up her stuffy nose that she was hopeful would suppress the sob stuck in her airway, “No.” She told him, finally able to swallow the array of emotions, and her free hands fingers flexed out, itching to scratch and slap his face however, he probably expected that, so instead? It slowly came to land gingerly on his seething face. His eyes the perfect distraction to the unforgiving pain in her other arm, "Ain’t backin the fuck up.” Mau told him, but didn’t have it in her to defiantly lift her quivering chin, “So what the fuck are you gonna do about that, Ry?” And while her words might have meant to sound harsh? They were meek. And they were tired. And they conveyed years worth of sorrow ebbing out of every single one.<br/><br/>But she couldn’t look him in the eyes when he answered her.<i><b>If</b></i>he did.<br/>Too terrified of what she’d see, so they fell to his mouth where the pad of her thumb began to trace to outline of his lower lip.<br/>Deciding to succumb to whatever fate Ryan dealt.<br/>He was her higher power. Always had been.