Harder Than You Know

Ari smiled to herself as Zacky twirled her once, and then gave her a soft kiss on her cheek as they continued to dance. They were at another gathering, but it wasn't about business.. sort of. It was just a meet and greet, so Zacky had lots of spare time. So he decided to have a little dance.

"Having fun?" he asked. Ari smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Zacky.."

From across the room, a furious blonde watched the scene in rage. She, of course, was Gena, and she always had the notion of owning Zachary for herself. When he broke things off with her, she bugged him and irritated him to his wits end until he had to go into 'scary-Zacky-mode' and scare her away. She didn't go near him after that, but she was always scheming, planning.

But, no, a little slave had to come in the picture. And she couldn't get just what Zacky saw in that. To Gena, she was more prettier, more graceful, more elegant, and definitely more better suited for Zacky than Aria was. How dare she?

Zacky was quite aware of this. But he didn't want to ruin Ari's night. He had been busy the past few days and knew Ari was quite bored. So he planned on making it up to her tonight, and dancing was just the first part. The night was still young. They'd leave together after she got tired, have some dinner, and then go home.

Then he was going to keep her up all night by hitting on her shamelessly.

He was looking forward to it.

It would all be perfect if Gena didn't interfere..

But he had smart friends. Jimmy and Johnny had taken notice of what was going on and was now annoying her, asking her questions pertaining to her rather provocative sexual life. Who was your new fuckfriend? Didn't that last guy have STD's? Did you ever partake in a threesome? You didn't? No way. We know you did. Liar, liar pants on fire.

They had her storming away from the main floor by then. And after a high five, they went back to their respective ladies, who also congratulated them.

Brian laughed out loud at what took place from where he was with Michelle. They were both dancing, and they were quite good. Val couldn't dance. But Matt didn't like dancing, anyway. They were more of a 'making-out-on-the-couch' kind of couple.

Ari saw many familiar faces. She realized that in a way you showed off your wealth and power by going to parties often. There was that lady with way too much plastic surgery and the man who always wore a checkered neck tie, and Ryan (who she still did not like), and this blonde girl that always seemed to be glaring at her when she accidentally looked in her general direction.

But, whatever. She felt so safe with Zacky and everyone else, the very idea of anything bad happening to her was absurd. She had yet to see him truly angry, and she hoped that she never would, but he never got mad with her. In fact, she was the only one who could change his moods, if she did say so herself.

As the last song ended, Zacky and Ari decided to take a break and went into their room, taking a seat on one of the couches.

Ari stared at anything but Zacky as he studied her carefully. He was always staring, it seemed. Whenever they weren't talking, or he wasn't busy, he'd entertain himself by observing her, never tiring of her flawless (to him at least) features.

"I missed you, you know." he said with a humorous tone in his voice. It was true, though. Being busy and all, he didn't get his quality time with her. "You missed me, right Ari?"

Biting her lip, Ari turned red and didn't answer. Yeah, so maybe she did miss him. That didn't mean she had to admit it straight to his face right? Instead, she shrugged, earning a small laugh from him.

"You don't have to be so shy about it." he said with a wink. "I wonder what I have to do to break that little shell of yours."

Without waiting for a reply, knowing he wouldn't get one, he put his hands on her hips and picked her up onto his lap. "Get used to physical contact, darling. I'm a huge fan of it."

Ari tried to get as comfortable as she could in the dress she was in. She wriggled and squirmed, but couldn't find a good position. Haha, position.

"What's wrong?" Zacky asked, though he knew perfectly well what was wrong.

She answered anyway. "My..my dress is too short..." She gasped when she felt his hand trailing up and down the exposed parts of her thigh.

Zacky growled suddenly, startling Ari, when the door knocked. He sighed and apologized for scaring her before telling the intruder to come in.

It was the blonde that kept on glaring at Ari. Ari wondered if she had special privileges or something. Weren't people supposed to come in after getting permission?

"You're not allowed in here." was the first thing Zacky said. His hand had somehow discreetly left Ari's legs and were now wrapped securely around her waist.

"Oh, Zacky. You can let this one slide can't you? I'm your lover after all."

Ari frowned when she heard this. Lover? That didn't sound good at all! Who on earth was she?

"You were never my lover. You're merely an ex girlfriend, Gena. Now get out before I force you to."

'Gena' ignored this. And instead looked over at Ari, who quickly dropped her gaze to her lap. She smirked knowing that she had instilled a sort of dominance over the little slave girl.

"Don't you dare look at her as if you were better. You are dirt in my eyes, understand? Now leave." Zacky growled, placing Ari on the couch and getting up.

The stupid girl pouted. "Don't be like that, Zacky--"

"Do you think you have any effect on me?" he scoffed. "For the last fucking time, get. Out."

"But what do you see in her?" she whined, completely ignoring his last statement. "She's just a slave girl. You bought her, Zacky. She's worth nothing! She could have been bought by someone else and used as another harem girl."

She looked at Ari, feeling satisfied when she saw that her words had taken the desired effect. Her content feeling was changed to fear, though, when she saw that look on Zacky's face.

"I can order men to come and rip you to pieces." he said in a low, dangerous voice. "I can dispose of you myself and your daddy won't do anything if I pay him right, which won't take much. I should have gotten rid of you years ago, you slut. How dare you compare Aria to a harem. You should be grateful for your life."

He clenched his fists and continued on. "I can kill you now if I want to. And right now, you're pretty undeserving of your life. Don't think I have a soft spot for you all because you're a girl."

And just like that, Gena was out of the room, fearing for her life. Zacky took a few breaths to calm down, not that it helped much, and turned around to face Ari, who had curled herself up on the side of the couch... Far away from him. She refused to look at him.

His anger evaporated just like that, and changed to worry.

"I.. Did I scare you, darling?" he asked, softly, tone completely different from earlier.

She gulped and admitted, "It-it's not you.. It's what.. she said.."

Zacky frowned and was about to say something when she continued. "It's true isn't it..? Anyone else could have easily bought me.. And I might have never met you.."

Sitting down next to her and cupping her face, Zacky whispered, "No, Ari darling. I didn't go to that auction by chance. I knew you'd be there.."

She looked up and him and asked in a small voice. "How did you know?"

"Oh, it was a dream I had." he answered, smiling. "I won't tell you what happened in it, but I actually went to a seer and confirmed it. Then I had another dream telling me of where to go and exactly how much to bid, and after that I kept on sleeping early 'cause I hoped to have more dreams of you. You have no idea how excited I was to meet you."

He went on, pulling her closer to his side. "And when it was your turn, I swear I couldn't see anyone else for a moment but you and even though I knew I was going to win, I was nervous about anyone who would try to get you. Then I won and I was so happy when they brought you over, but I really hated the dress you were wearing because I got jealous of everyone who was looking at you. And you were cold, so I gave you the coat. Then when you fell asleep on me in the car ride back home, it was the best feeling I ever had for a really long time."

Ari was feeling a lot better. She was smiling now, and he continued his story, much to her delight. "When I had to mark you, it was the hardest thing ever, forcing you into it. I'm so relieved you got over it well, Ari. I don't know what I would have done to myself if you got depressed or anything.. But you're a strong girl, darling. And I love that you're so quiet and cute and kind to everyone. You're beautiful like that."

She was blushing a bit now, but she was still happy with what she heard. "Thank you, Zacky.." she said softly.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead instead of replying with words. To him, this would have been the perfect time to, you know, make a move. But he restrained himself. Ari had had enough for the night.

Maybe he'd just skip the dinner part, have some food here instead, and then go home to hit on her shamelessly.