Chapter Text
“But you’re not alone, are you?” Niko snapped.
Eve didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t wrong. She might be alone at any given time, but there was always the feeling that she was around. That both frightened and aroused her and, in a twisted way, made her feel safe. Villanelle might do what Martin said and turn on her one day. She might one day decide that she was bored of Eve, that she was no longer worth the trouble. Would she just kill her then? Eve wasn’t sure, but she did know that, until that day, Villanelle would not allow anyone to hurt her.
I’m just looking out for you, Eve.
Villanelle’s words in the woods still haunted her, made her feel warm in ways that were both euphoric and wrong.
Niko scoffed, “I knew it.” He threw his bag over his shoulder, and turned to walk out the front door. “You know what? No.” He turned back into the living room. “How did she know?” he seethed, the venom dripping off his words caused Eve to take a half-step back.
“What?” For the life of her, Eve couldn’t figure out what he was talking about.
“How did she know that you would like that?” There was a heavy pause between them as Niko waited for an answer to a question that Eve wasn’t really sure she understood. “Yesterday, when I met Villanelle ,” the way that he mockingly said her name made Eve an irrational level of angry, “I was so angry at her for what she has done to us, to me. I pinned her against the wall. And she,” he threw his bag on the floor. “And she, told me I should try that with you.” The confusion on Eve’s face seemed to only make Niko angrier. “So, I came home. I didn’t want to believe that she could know more than me about the sexual preferences of my wife. So I gave it a try.” He began to stalk toward her, Eve taking a step back for every step he took in her direction. “So, Eve,” the fury and possessiveness in his voice sent a shock wave of fear through her. Not a fun one, but one that told her to run. “How. Did. She. Know?” Each word was punctuated with another step and Eve was starting to feel cornered.
“I-I don’t know.”
“Bullshit. Has she been here, Eve? Has she pushed you against the wall?”
Eve didn’t know how to answer that question because, technically, the answer was yes, but it hadn’t been in a sexual way, had it?
“What were you doing in her bed, Eve?” Eve’s head snapped up, her eyes meeting his again. He released a dark chuckle. “Oh, yeah, she told me about that too.” Eve’s back was fully against the wall now. He was still a few steps away from her, but he was advancing. “She said you laid beside her before you stabbed her. Did you fuck her too?” Eve’s breath shallowed as his face hovered so close to hers that she could smell the toothpaste on his breath. Where had the man that she married gone? A pang rippled in her chest as she realized that he probably asked himself the same thing about her.
Niko grabbed her face, palm under her chin, fingers digging into the sides of her face. “Did you stick your face between her legs before you stuck your knife into her stomach?”
Now Eve was angry. “No,” her voice was even but flat and full of venom.
“You like to be afraid, don’t you? Maybe I should stop waiting for you to come to me and just,” he tilted her head up sharply, “take what I want.”
“No.” Eve repeated the word but, this time, her voice faltered a bit. She did not like this type of “play”, not when his eyes were filled with such hatred, anger, and pain, all directed at her. Eve felt the hair raise on the back of her neck, a cool sensation running through her veins telling her to run, but there was no way to get around him.
“But, you like it rough, Eve, how do I know that your ‘no’ does not mean ‘yes’?”
“It means no, Niko,” she gasped, his hand had shifted and was now closing around her throat. Eve was truly afraid now. The thought briefly registered in her mind that she was more afraid now than when Villanelle had her pinned against the wall with a knife to her throat.
She barely had time to register the thought before Niko’s hot mouth was on hers. She grunted, pushing against his chest. He pulled her forward by the throat, slamming her head against the wall as he roughly pushed her back into it. He used the pain that it caused her, the subsequent gasp to shove his tongue into her mouth. He seemed to enjoy her fighting him. He laughed as he used his leverage on her throat to throw her to the ground. She hit something on the way down, a vase, if the cracking sound was anything to go off of. Eve didn’t have time to register what it was, however, as she immediately curled into a ball to protect her already bruising stomach from the kick she expected.
But the kick never came. Eve scrambled to her feet and immediately bent over, grasping her stomach and gasping for air as her whole body protested the rapid change in posture.
Eve’s eyes burst open, widening as she registered the sight in front of her. Villanelle was dressed in khaki pants and a white oxford shirt, her hair was down. It struck Eve that this was the first time that she had ever seen it down.
Villanelle barely struggled as she somehow held Niko’s arms back while simultaneously holding a knife closely against his neck. “Oh, Niko,” she crooned saccharinely, “you better stop wiggling so much before my knife slips. Somehow, I still don’t think Eve would allow me to kill you.” Eve felt hot coals drop into her stomach when Villanelle’s eyes met with hers. There was a fire there, and a question. Was she really asking Eve for permission to kill her husband? Eve was frozen.
Villanelle returned her attention to Niko. Tired of fighting to restrain him, Villanelle performed a move that Eve had only seen in movies and quickly had him pinned against the floor, arms and torso stuck between her legs, one arm supporting herself, the other holding the knife to his throat once again.
Eve had to shake her head to rid the image of herself in his place before she got too aroused.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“You seem to have misunderstood our conversation yesterday, Niko. When I said ‘you should try this with your wife’, I felt it was implied that I meant with her consent. It seems to have worked for you last night.”
“Eve! Do something!” He shouted, but she couldn’t. She was glued to her spot. She wasn’t even positive that Villanelle would have listened to her anyway. But, she also didn’t really want to try.
“Did you think I wouldn’t come to see the fruits of my labor? Of my suggestion? You really should close your blinds. You don’t know what kind of perverts might be looking in,” she chuckled. She stroked her fingers over his forehead, using her ab muscles to keep herself suspended over him, the knife remaining at his throat. “Don’t worry your fudgy little head, Niko. I didn’t watch after you went upstairs. But, to be honest,” her voice was now at a whisper so low that Eve could just barely make out what she was saying. “I would have if I thought I could stomach the sight of you on top of her gorgeous body. Let me guess, that was the first time you tried anything other than missionary?”
“You bitch,” Niko roared in her face, doubling his efforts to get out from under her, but she was too strong. The hand not holding the knife was placed in the middle of his chest, keeping him down as she smiled viciously at him.
“Yes.” She snapped his head to the side, pinning his cheek to the ground. She brought the tip of the knife to the soft place under his earlobe. “Look at her,” she hissed, and Niko did as he was told. If looks could kill, Eve would be a dead woman. “Now, apologize.”
“Call your guard dog off,” he snapped at her.
With two flicks of her wrist, and a cry out from Niko, Villanelle had scratched a small “x” onto the side of his throat. She turned her head, flashing a devilish smile at Eve, “Sorry, baby.” Despite herself, Eve felt the already pulsing heat between her legs beat faster. She wanted to say something, wanted to tell Villanelle to stop, to let him go. But, she also didn’t want to let Niko think that he had, once again, told her what to do. And another, not-so-small part of her was delighted in the show of violence, in the protective way that Villanelle was talking about her.
Villanelle turned back to her prey. “I get it, Niko, I really do. Your wife,” Villanelle groaned a bit under her breath and Eve couldn’t tell if she was just just putting on a show to make Niko jealous. “God, Niko, your wife is just so fucking sexy. But, when a person says no, that means no, Niko.” Her tone of voice was casual, as if she wasn’t straddling his body, as if one flick of her wrist wouldn’t slice his throat. “Unless, of course, you have set up a safe word and discussed that no does not necessarily mean no. But you’re just,” her face scrunched up in disgust, “so vanilla , I don’t think you have had that discussion.”
“Now, to address your accusation, I have not had the pleasure of enjoying your wife’s body. Believe me, if I had, you would have heard about it in our first conversation. If I had,” she leaned ever closer to his face, “she would have not come home to you.”
“Vil,” Eve snapped, letting the nickname that she had been calling the younger woman in her head out for the first time. “That is enough.”
Villanelle turned her face to Eve, almost pouting. She was enjoying this little power play just as much as Eve was enjoying watching it. The thought sent a shiver down Eve’s spine. She should be disgusted by the thought, but she wasn’t.
Without warning, Niko used every last ounce of anger and the courage it spurred in him to spit, right into Villanelle’s face. Quicker than lightning Villanelle’s knife was replaced by her hand, a sick smile crossing her face. “Eve, baby, please leave the room.” The endearment shot straight through Eve’s body but it was quickly replaced with a feeling of fear. She didn’t want him dead.
“No.”
“Eve,” hand still on his throat Villanelle turned to look at her. “I promise you that I will not kill him. But I would like to have a chat with Niko,” she looked back at the man who was just beginning to turn purple, “in private.” She released his throat a little bit. She needed him alive for their talk.
Finally, Eve moved, walking past the pair on the floor, trying desperately to not look at the exposed skin the many open buttons on Villanelle’s shirt left bare to see.
“You’re going to believe her?” Niko croaked. “Don’t leave me alone, Eve!”
Eve turned back to him just before rounding the corner to go up stairs. “The thing is, I do believe her.” She started to walk away again before she was stopped by a slithery feeling of rage that entered her body, the culmination of so many months of fighting, of so many months of feeling as if she wasn’t good enough because she also loved her job. “And, Niko,” she was barely able to meet his eyes with her head barely turned over her shoulder. She felt a sense of connection, of camaraderie with Villanelle as she watched the other woman force Niko to look in her direction. ”You aren’t alone, are you?”
And with that, Eve left her husband alone in a room with the world’s most prolific international assassin whose resulting dark chuckle, Eve knew, would haunt her dreams and fantasies for the rest of forever.