Just For Tonight
By Misha
Disclaimer- Not mine. I’m just borrowing them for a little while and will return them when I am finished.
Author’s Notes- This is the next part of my Kenna/Diavolos modern AU. This is set between “Sweet Surrender” and “Too Much” and is the response to the prompt “tipsy kiss”. I originally had a fluffy idea planned for that prompt but it didn’t work and instead they went angsty on me, or at least Kenna did. Diavolos kept being his sweet, determined self. All the DJ Cotrona Gifs are working their magic and making me very inspired.
Pairing- Kenna/Diavolos
Rating- PG-13
Summary- Kenna goes out drinking with her friends and ends up at Diaovlos’s apartment. Part of “A Modern Romance AU”.
Words- 1622
“What about you Kenna, any hot romances brewing?” Kai asked as she sipped her drink.
Kenna hesitated, almost sloshing her drink on the table. It was their monthly girls night and she knew she should have expected questions about her love life, but she’d been hoping to avoid it. After all, it wasn’t like she could be honest.
“No,” she answered finally, “you know how it is, work and all that.”
It was a good excuse. Since everyone had the table worked with her some capacity or another, they all knew how focused she had been on rebuilding her company and that romance hadn’t been on her radar. Or at least it hadn’t been until a few months ago when she had fallen into bed with the last man she should have and ended in something she refused to call a relationship, but had no idea how else to define.
Val groaned. “Yes, we know how it is. We had to drag you out here tonight.”
That led to some good-natured teasing but thankfully it was directed at her workaholic tendencies, not her love life. Though Kenna saw Annelyse watching her thoughtfully during the exchange, but thankfully she didn’t say anything.
The rest of the girl’s night went quickly and then they all piled into various cabs. Kenna got into the cab.
“Where to miss?” The driver asked her.
Before she could stop herself, Kenna found herself giving the driver an address and a short time later, she was being dropped off outside a luxury apartment building. Just not the one that she happened to reside in.
Kenna went inside and the doorman looked a little surprised to see her so late but waved her up without comment. Which, she realized, was just another example of how deep she had gotten in her current situation. She got off the elevator on the top floor and walked down the hall.
Once she reached her destination though, she froze. Should she knock? She had a key. But he wasn’t expecting her and it occurred to her that it would be over-stepping their arrangement to just show up unannounced in the middle of the night. Fuck, what if he had another woman there?
It suddenly hit her what a truly terrible idea this was and Kenna considered going back to the elevator and catching another cab to take her to own apartment, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave. However, she couldn’t bring herself to knock either.
Instead, she took out her phone and typed a message. I’m in the hallway.
If there was someone else there, then he’d tell her to go, right? It would be humiliating, but it would also be less awkward than her crawling into his bed to find it already occupied. And if there was another woman in his apartment, that was his right, because they weren’t anything, she reminded herself.
Kenna leaned against the wall, cursing her drunken impulse and waiting for a response. She glanced at the time 1:30 a.m. He could be asleep. He was probably asleep. Gah. This had been such a monumentally stupid idea. She should just go home.
Just then the door swung open.
“Kenna?” Diavolos asked, stepping into the hall. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of black gym pants, and it was obvious that he had just gotten out of bed.
“I shouldn’t be here.” She told him, trying not to think about just how good he looked and how badly she wanted to touch him.
“Well, I’m not complaining,” he said, motioning for her to come inside.
Kenna did as instructed, stepping into the apartment. Diavolos locked the door behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to hers in a quick, friendly kiss.
When he pulled away, he was grinning. “I’m guessing you’ve had a fun evening. Social function?”
“Girls night,” Kenna said, wondering if he could taste the alcohol on her breath, and then sighed, “I came here from the bar, but it’s silly. I should have gone home.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” he assured her warmly, “though you could have just let yourself in, I wouldn’t have minded.” He grinned. “In fact it would have been a delightful surprise, to fall asleep alone, but wake up with a beautiful woman in my bed.”
“I wasn’t sure you had fallen asleep alone,” Kenna admitted before she could stop herself.
“I haven’t touch another woman in three months, Kenna,” Diavolos told her quietly, “not since the first night I took you to bed.”
Kenna knew she shouldn’t feel happy about that, since she and Diavolos had never made each other any promises, couldn’t make each other any promises, but she did.
“I haven’t either,” she assured him, “been with anyone else in that time, I mean.”
“Good,” Diavolos told her, his tone a mixture of satisfaction and possessiveness. Both qualities should have bothered her, but didn’t. Probably because of all the martinis she’d had to drink.
“What are we doing?” She asked instead, looking up at him.
“What do you mean?” He asked, running his thumb gently over her bottom lip.
“I was out tonight and they asked me about my love life and I froze,” she admitted, “I mean I couldn’t tell them that I was having mind-blowing sex with the son and heir of my biggest business rival, could I? And I can’t say I’m dating someone, because they’d want to know who. Besides, I’m not. It’s just sex.”
Diavolos had grinned at the ‘mind-blowing’ sex comment but the grin had evaporated as she continued talking.
“That’s not all this is,” he told her fiercely, stepping back, but looking her directly in the eye, “I can get ‘just sex’ from anyone, I’ve never had a lack of willing participants. Yes, the sex with you is the best I’ve ever had, but that’s not what this is, Kenna and we both know it. It’s not why we have keys to each other’s apartments, why we spend any free time we can find together, it’s not why I reach out for you those nights I fall asleep alone, expecting to find you there. This is about a whole lot more than ‘ just sex’ and we both know it.”
His words hit her like a truck. Kenna knew he was right. It had never been ‘just sex’ between them. Even before that first night, she’d liked Diavolos, found him funny and charming and if he was anyone else… But he wasn’t. He was a Nevrakis and she was a Rys and that was why it had to be just sex. She tried to find the words to say that, but they didn’t come.
Instead, to her mortification, she began to cry. Diavolos immediately wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.
“Don’t cry, baby,” he whispered against her hair. She continued to cry harder, yet at the same time clinging to him. Diavolos just continued to hold her and whisper assurance until the tears subsided.
“I’m a mess,” she said after a few minutes, embarrassment setting in. “I don’t even know why I came here or…”
“We don’t have to figure it out tonight,” Diavolos assured her, “why don’t we go to bed and we can talk in the morning, ok?”
Kenna hesitated.
Diavolos sighed. “Kenna, it’s almost 2 a.m, it doesn’t make sense for you to go home, but you’re welcome to sleep in the guest room if you would prefer.”
Kenna could hear the frustration in his voice and she didn’t blame him. “I want to be with you,” she admitted, not sure if she was talking about tonight or in general.
Diavolos nodded and held out his hand. “Then let’s go to bed.”
They walked across the apartment in silence. Once they got to his room, Diavolos wordlessly handed her a t-shirt and she changed into it, aware that he was watching her as she did. She also knew that he wouldn’t touch her, not tonight.
They got into the bed, both settling on opposite sides. They laid there for a moment and then Kenna couldn’t take it anymore, she shifted so that she was next to Diavolos, placing her head on his chest. He immediately wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight against him.
Kenna let out a little content sigh, this was how she slept best, wrapped in the security of his arms. She pushed that thought away, because it would lead to unhappier ones and she’d had enough of that one for one night.
“We’ll figure it out,” Diavolos whispered in the darkness. “We have too.”
Kenna didn’t share his optimism. There was nothing to figure out. He was who he was and she was who she was and their last names and their family histories meant they could never be more than this. It was too complicated and there were too many other people involved. They couldn’t just decide to be together. There would be consequences.
Yet, every night she spent in his arms felt right and she hated the idea of it being the last one. Kenna knew it had to come to an end, preferably sooner than later, but she had no idea how she would be able to do it. And for tonight, she wasn’t going to think about that or the tears would come again.
Instead, just for tonight, she was going to curl up in Diavolos’s arms and pretend that they really would be able to figure it out and that, somehow, their nights wouldn’t be limited. That they could have a lifetime of this. It was a nice thought and one she’d cling to, if only for one night.
- End
