Chapter Text
As soon as they got into a dancing pose on the dance floor, the look of relieved gratitude instantly disappeared from her face.
He expected it, of course.
It was surprising that she even accepted his hand instead of agreeing to dance with that old creep who had been almost rubbing up against her all evening.
But this wasn’t the first time that Felix saw the same asshole near Marinette at Parisian fashion evenings, and the old perv didn’t understand — or, more likely, didn’t want to understand — that she was maintaining a conversation with him solely out of polite condescension, and clearly not to encourage his lewd glances at her figure while he diligently praised her latest design which she demonstrated on herself.
When he saw that today Marinette’s dress from her new collection “Young And Daring,” fiercely promoted by Amelie, exposed her entire elegant back, Felix set out to be nearby, knowing full well that if not one bawdy scoundrel, then another would want to loose his hands, and he will need to snatch her from their obscene clutches in time.
Marinette has always been too sweet and polite to openly avoid the impudent attention of the more disgustingly persistent representatives of the so-called Parisian elite, who believe that everything that is open to their eyes at such evenings can be taken as freely as snacks from the buffet tables. Felix often noticed that, unlike the invited models who were present to demonstrate samples of new collections, such attention was clearly unpleasant for her, but Marinette preferred to endure the attention of bastards who made their compliments clearly not to her talents in the field of design but to her other natural talents, from which they didn’t take their eyes off even for the sake of basic decency.
Not that he wasn’t one of the same obscene bastards who devoured her curves with his eyes, but at least Felix could control himself and absolutely impeccably observe the boundaries of decency. And no matter how contentious their working relationship was, Marinette knew — or at least was supposed to know — that her boss’s son would never violate her personal boundaries.
This, however, didn’t stop him from drawing pictures of his innermost desires in his mind when his gaze slid over the open (and especially closed) areas of her skin, but Felix had no remorse about it. He knew how to hide his thoughts well behind a calm mask of composure, and allowed himself to look at her only when it was unnoticeable. And since what was happening in his mind concerned only himself, it didn’t violate anyone’s personal boundaries.
Therefore, when he saw the same short, plump old man, who, apparently, with age was only losing the ability to control his vices, walking back to Marinette after he had gone to the musicians for a minute, Felix immediately came out of his hiding place, intending to interrupt the plan that was obvious for him. The old creep had clearly paid for the next song, because after a series of light fast compositions, a slow melody suddenly began to play, just as he was approaching his potential victim. Marinette stood there suspecting nothing and only exhaled with relief a moment ago, naively believing that she had finally been left alone.
“Miss Dupain-Cheng,” the bastard drawled, sneaking up behind her, apparently already knowing that she tried to avoid him if she saw him approaching in advance. “Would you be so kind as to give me this dance?” He wiped the sweat from his plump palms on the back of his trousers, sweating in anticipation of touching something that didn’t belong to him, Felix noticed with repulsion.
She doesn’t belong to you either, he reminded himself, watching Marinette’s face contort for a moment in slight disgust, which she immediately hid behind a forced artificial smile, while her eyes nervously slid around the hall, looking for a reason for the refusal that both she and the bastard knew her politeness wouldn’t allow her to give otherwise.
Felix found himself in a pleasant feeling of being this salvation for her, although he didn’t have doubts that he was doing it for himself first of all. The very idea of someone touching this woman brought out the worst in him, and since he knew that his possessiveness wouldn’t be appreciated by Marinette, Felix usually convinced himself that there was nothing personal in it, only the desire to protect an employee of his company at the moment when she was performing her work duties.
Marinette’s doomed, extinguished gaze had already returned to old creep and she opened her mouth to inevitably accept his invitation when Felix stood next to her, placing the hand that he offered her between the woman and her unwanted suitor.
“I’m afraid that Miss Dupain-Cheng is already otherwise engaged.” He said coldly, without even addressing the asshole or looking at him, his imperturbable gaze directed into Marinette’s surprised eyes. “All her dances while wearing the samples from the new collection are included in our marketing contract and cannot be performed with non-employees of the company.”
After a moment of confusion, blue eyes flashed with understanding and Marinette obediently accepted his hand, turning to the older man with an apologetic smile, which, however, was much more sincere than her doomed smile before, and the relief in her voice that the girl couldn’t even hide explained why. “I’m sorry, Mr. DeRose, but being the only other representative of our company on the event, Mr. Fathom really has exclusive rights to me this evening.”
Despite the fact that Marinette obviously expanded the excuse he invented only to spare herself from the attention of her creepy stalker for the rest of the event, Felix felt an electric jolt pierce his groin at the words ‘exclusive rights’, his body completely ignoring the details that limited this statement, and he had to urgently turn around facing the old man in search of something disgusting that would sober his wild imagination and reduce his sharply increased level of arousal.
The scoundrel continued to eagerly examine Marinette’s forms, without even raising his gaze to her face, although a slight disappointment bordering on malice appeared in his gaze. “It’s Éliott for you, dear miss, I’ve told you this many times already!” He corrected her, licking his thin lips in the corner of which a drop of sauce had stuck. “Fine, fine,” he muttered to himself, “I don’t mind working up an appetite...”
Felix felt his arousal subside under the pressure of sincere anger, and he instantly took a step between the old bastard and Marinette, dragging the girl on the dance floor with a more persistent gait than he initially intended. Even though Marinette gave him an unspoken agreement to save her, at this point her opinion probably wouldn’t matter to him if she didn’t, and Felix would take her away from here even if she wanted to continue playing the sacrifice. He couldn’t tolerate this disgusting impudence for another second next to her, and even as close as in her line of sight.
“Don’t think that it somehow justifies your rudeness, even if I’m grateful to you for the interference,” Marinette said as soon as they were on the dance floor and her face became serious and stern — the face she used when talking to him and which usually meant the beginning of another argument between them. “I know what I’m signing up for by agreeing to demonstrate designs on myself, but Amelie believes that the designer in an item from her own collection sets an example of lifestyle and inspires the target audience to…”
“...actively purchase the product in order to satisfy the desire to belong to the life standard that you represent.” Felix, who originally came up with the concept, finished for her. “This doesn’t mean that you don’t have the right to personal safety.”
“I was fine,” she muttered, but slightly turned away from him, because they both knew that she was not. “He’s usually not so disgustingly clingy, and sometimes even turns his attention to one of the guest models. It’s just that this dress...” Her shoulders shuddered, as if from an unpleasant memory, and something told him that she mentally returned to the moment when the old creep was about to place his thick, sweating hands on her naked back.
Felix made sure to keep his own hands only within the fabric of her dress, and although this meant moving them a little lower than he would normally do, almost onto her hips, he couldn’t afford to hold her waist, which was now bare. For the sake of preserving his own sanity, mainly.
At the moment, the way he held her while dancing was still within the bounds of decency, but if he had raised them higher, they would have been lying on her skin, and Felix wasn’t sure that his carefully hidden fantasies would continue to be just as hidden, if only because of the undeniably visible reactions in his body that he barely managed to eliminate just now.
“I’ll talk to my mother.” He said with harsh resolve. Even if Marinette didn’t evoke in him all those... emotions that she did evoke, but was simply one of the representatives of his company, he would insist that her stay at fashion evenings be comfortable. “It can’t go on like this.”
Her eyes flashed at him with hot determination. “No, you won’t.” She snapped without raising her voice, but the rage in her quiet tone still did the trick. “I am able to cope with my work and I don’t need any mitigating circumstances. I design these dresses myself and I want to understand what the woman who will wear them would face.”
“Then you need to learn to give old perverts a rougher treatment rather than smile at them and let them think that their advances are somehow acceptable.” He spoke coldly, intending to resolve this issue one way or another. The idea of watching someone force their disgusting attention on her again seemed especially unacceptable, almost unbearable tonight.
Following the change in music, Felix spun her away from him, holding her at arm’s length before Marinette could object. “Women who have the audacity to wear revealing dresses usually have the audacity to let the men they want to stay away from know that they must keep their distance,” He pulled her back to him, making Marinette spin so that for a moment her back was pressed against his chest and she was enclosed in the ring of his hand. “And to let the men they want next to them, how close they need to get.”
The music returned to its previous rhythm, and Felix spun her away at arm’s length again and took a step after her to return to the previous position where they stood next to each other, face to face.
Marinette looked at him, blinking in surprise, and he didn’t immediately understand what confused her. Then he replayed his words in his head and rolled his eyes, realizing that she could have decided that he was talking about himself at the end.
“I nearly hinted that if a woman puts on such a dress, she shouldn’t only be able to lure whoever she wants, but also be ready to fight off the creeps who will inevitably come running like dogs that have been shown a piece of fresh meat.”
His gaze fell on the skin on her bare shoulder and internally Felix felt like that same dog, because he wanted to touch this skin. He wanted to lick it, bite it, leave his marks on it, own it and...
Down, boy, he reminded himself, breaking off his internal monologue and risked returning his eyes to her face. But judging by the fact that Marinette was looking to the side, her eyes downcast and a blush burning on her cheeks, she didn’t notice how the animal in him burst out, because Felix was sure that for a moment he had lost control and his eyes ceased to hide what was going on in his mind.
“Maybe I’m one of those women who started with a dress but haven’t yet learned to either repel those who are disgusting to them or attract those they want...” She muttered quietly, without raising her eyes to him. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a chance to learn it one day...” She bit her lip, as if lost in her thoughts, because this action threatened to quickly rub off her lipstick and she clearly didn’t realize it.
Another thing she didn’t realize was that this action of hers also threatened the safety of his peace, because Felix instantly locked his eyes on the abused lip, desperate to bite it himself…
It seemed that even his breathing caught from how much he wanted to suck it into his mouth, smearing lipstick all over Marinette’s face and ruining her perfect makeup with his greedy kisses. He wanted to explore her mouth, invading it with his tongue, covering her face with kisses, breathing her in, licking her skin, going down her neck to her bare shoulder...
Felix closed his eyes, knowing that otherwise he wouldn’t be able to hide what was written in them if Marinette looked at him right now, and before his inner gaze the imaginary scene began to unfold more intensely. His lips slid down her shoulder, his tongue leaving a wet trail on her skin, then back up until they rested against the fabric of the dress on her collarbone. He would grab the hem of her dress with his teeth and rip it off, and she would watch — with impatience and hunger — as he uncovered her stunning body.
And under this dress, under which, of course, there wouldn’t be any bra, two perfect curves of her breasts would be revealed to him, just as daring as the woman who decided to wear this dress really was, no matter what she thought about herself. Her nipples would have instantly hardened even before his touch, from the mere fact that he was looking at them, breathing on them, wanting them, just as every man who saw Marinette this evening wanted them, but only he was allowed to be face to face with them.
He would bite into her nipple, causing Marinette to moan his name, throwing her head back. Or maybe she would even grab him by the hair, forcing him to be even more domineering with her, and Felix would obediently suck her nipples one by one, pulling the whole areolas surrounding the excited mounds into his mouth, and she would soon begin to beg him to go lower, where she already needed him unbearably.
And Felix would tease and torture her a little longer, sliding his hands along her naked back, which he so wanted to touch all evening today, along which he so wanted to run his tongue from the very bottom to the very top and back. And then he would lower her dress, gradually exposing what was still hidden from him, and her panties would be tiny and soaking wet, and she would beg for him to take them off, driving him crazy with her moans.
And to drive her crazy as much as she drives him crazy Felix would slow down and raise his hands back to her back and tease her with soft strokes, making her plead him to come back down… Felix could practically feel how smooth her skin was under his palms, how she trembled with desire in his hands, how deep was the breathing of her open lips, awaiting his new kisses...
“Please, Felix...” She would ask… she did ask?
He suddenly opened his eyes, finding himself on the dance floor among the swirling couples. The musicians were already playing another composition, and Felix couldn’t say for sure whether it was the next one or whether they had been dancing for a much longer time.
Marinette was looking at him with huge blue eyes, her lips parted, her breathing deep and unsteady. A bright blush burned on her cheeks and Felix suddenly realized that his hands were lying on her naked skin, and it seems that before he opened his eyes and froze, they were shamelessly stroking her back...
He checked her lips with restless anticipation, fearing that in his sudden madness he might pounce on her unnoticed, doing the same thing that the Felix in his fantasies did… but her lipstick was there, perfectly in its place.
Good, good. This means that not everything was yet lost, Felix reassured himself, sharply lowering his hands to her thighs, covered with fabric, although now even this touch no longer felt permissible.
Don’t panic, Felix, you’re capable of talking your way out of any situation, even out of one as unequivocal as this one. Marinette can’t stand you anyway, so it’s unlikely that this will worsen your relationship even more. At most, she will rightfully classify you as one of the perverts who drooled looking at her tonight…
He needed to say something. To answer? She told him something, didn’t she? What did she say?
‘Please, Felix...’ His mind prompted, rewinding his memory.
Please?
What did she ask him to do? Maybe she was talking to him and he missed everything she said, drowning in his daydreams about her?
Felix cleared his throat, realizing that they hadn’t been dancing since he came to his senses, just standing at the same position, but it wasn’t the most awkward thing that had just happened, so he could shrug it off for now. “What... what did you ask me to do?” He managed, deciding that information was now more valuable than not appearing like an idiot, because he had already succeeded in the latter anyway.
“Take me away from here, please,” Marinette asked (repeated?), and then did something unexpected. She pulled herself up on her toes, just a little, because her high heels were already making her taller than her usual height, and whispered in his ear. “I think I’ve already learned the second part...”
She pulled away again and continued to look into his eyes with a languid, darkened gaze, which didn’t at all coincide with the image of a sweet, polite lady that she demonstrated when talking with unfamiliar people this evening. This new look belonged to a predator, that daring woman about whom he had told her before, capable of luring exactly who she wanted...
Oh.
Was this the second part she meant?
But... wouldn’t this mean that he was the one she wanted? That’s what she meant to tell him, right?
But Marinette can’t stand him! That’s why he kept his feelings to himself for months, waging their usual comfortable war in the office... Wait... Feelings? When did he stop thinking about desires and start thinking in terms of feelings…?
Felix probably was silent for too long, digesting the new information, because for a moment doubt flashed across her face and Marinette narrowed her eyes at him. “Or you can just let me go and leave me here alone to be torn apart by old perverts, so that I can learn the first part — how to tell them off,” she suggested without taking her studying eyes off him. “But something tells me that it was not in vain that I wore this dress tonight, which I designed specifically so that the one I want would take it off me.”
With these words, she pressed her hips against his hardened length, demonstrating that it was no secret to her how much he was attracted to her, and…
Did she just say that she wore this dress especially for him?
Felix felt even more blood rush to his groin, leaving less and less resources for the rapid functioning of his brain, but there was still enough for him to realize that it was time for them to get out of here.