He had shook his head because he was not dissatisfied. It was overwhelming to see someone like this. Ownership to this degree was not unheard of, but he'd not seen the point of it before this campaign had convinced him to try. No prints, there'd been, no mark to maker her her own. Just this pleasant form. She was perfect to hold, he was sure it was on purpose, and her temperature was perfect as it arrived on her skin whenever his touch was near.<br/><br/>"Iris, then." It felt good to say the name. The jacket on her insinuated some things. Like they'd had a tryst, and she was going to walk around on his floors without wanting to put her own clothes back on. Iris had never owned clothes. She could keep the dinner article if she wanted. He should a brought something better, but they'd not told him to.<br/><br/>What she said about herself, he supposed was exactly what they'd promised. It was made real with the certainty in her eyes, in that she wasn't insistent at all, only singing the facts of her world as she knew them. Beyond religion and knowledge. So far in her life, Iris had breathed, and Iris had told the truth. It was a pointed destiny, it seemed, when she underlined it by holding the jacket open, so that he could become even a little hungrier for her beasts. How had they known to make them perfect like that, the way he'd never seen on other women? He almost took her wrists to stop her from exploring her skin the way he had.<br/><br/>In a fit of searing curiosity, he thought of a mark on his sister's shoulder when it had been caught in the car door. Kedrick reached to slide into the sleeve of the jacket, and pinch her there, softly on her shoulder, like he was pressing two buttons at once. When she let the outwear fall back into place, he forgot about it.<br/><br/>He didn't know why her continued declarations made him so anxious, and why the nervous energy went directly to the meeting of his legs in his own body. Was he this kind of man? Had they known by reading his blood? His hands traveled but couldn't arrive in time to save her antler from breaking by her own twist. "Ah, no..." he said, but the sound of awe was the very anthem of hypocrisy. His mouth watered when he held his palms out for her to deposit the piece of her.<br/><br/>Even in its dying, the panicking hyphae were caressing his palm when they detected that it was him. Pleasant contact, that pulsed beautifully with needled precision. A summer rain held in his palm. And then it was still. Like she'd said. It's life had only been for him. What a devastating fate. And how deeply he knew that he wanted it.<br/><br/>"Then..." he started and lifted her up, hands under her now clad arms to put her on her feet. She was barely taller than him, even now. He wanted to try her, he wanted to suckle her perfect rounds and see what flavors she had between her limbs, also. Help him, he wanted to play with her crown and make it into small drift wood. He wanted to eat those things to know their texture and crunch. He wanted to see her eat them herself. He wanted to hear her beg for it.<br/><br/>"Could you forgive me?" It was an old desire, and the purest he could think of.<br/><br/>He didn't know what that meant, forgiveness. There were so many ways, though inadequate so far, to be given reprieve from regrets. Maybe, his heart thought, if she could convince him that he had every right to this being that was immensely alive, he could be free to play with her. The lengths men will go for recreation.<br/><br/>All manner of totems for absolution ran through his head. His sister had hugged him for the clipping car door, and kissed him. Sister Ana had smiled and touched his face three times. His mother and stroked his hair firmly. A lover, Lise, had come to him years after his bastard actions, to make love to him one more time, in a beautifully mad and filthy way, simply so he'd know she didn't hate him, anymore. It had been their final catharsis.<br/><br/>He looked down at Iris's feet, a consequence of lowering his head, and felt a sudden hope. But it was a dark thing. He wanted something like a blessing so he'd dare take advantage. They had not completely finalized his coming to own this product, and it was already marring his soul. "I don't want to hurt you." but that made him a liar and she was made to hear that.<br/><br/>He would hurt her. It would be his greatest game. He couldn't wake to take her home.