Game on

Annabelle looked at him with mild curiosity.

"Now, why would you be asking me about Peter?" she asked with more than
a hint of amusement in her voice.

Siegfried smiled and mentioned something about psychic
premonitions.

"Well, if you must know, he and I are indulging in rampant fetish
sessions most nights," she said and sipped her drink, a "Caroline",
never taking her eyes from his face.

"Oh, indeed," he said. "Yes, he did admit to that a couple of nights
ago when I had him completely drunk and lying on the floor in the
sitting room."

"So why did you ask then?" Annabelle smiled.

She looked at his face. Siegfried wasn't bad looking at all. Wicked
blue eyes twinkled with intent and made his irregular features come
together very effectively. His long hair had an annoying habit of
getting in the way and so he had developed something of an unconscious
flick of his head which made him look somewhat pretentious. Annabelle
longed to tell him to get it cut. But it was the dangerous smile that
gave his intentions away.

"As I said, just a psychic premonition," Siegfried said and took a sip
from his glass.

He had already given her a critical once over when she arrived.
Annabelle was magnetic, to be sure, and radiated an interesting
seductive charm, but she was innocent and na?ve. He looked at her again
as he sipped his Long Island Iced Tea. She certainly wasn't
unattractive, not by a long shot.
She had long brunette hair that she had loosely tied back in a French
plait and wisps of hair framed her oval face. She had prominent
cheekbones and a small but full mouth but it was her eyes that were the
most engaging.
They were a surprising clear hazel and somewhat appraising in nature
but there was a sense of innocence apparent in them which Siegfried
found rather endearing.

Whereas he was whippet-thin, she had curves. Thanks to years of hard
training, she had an athletic figure enhanced by the low-slung combats
and black T-shirt she was wearing. Added to these were diamante sandals
and sunglasses perched on top of her head. All in all, she was a mildly
eccentric yet interesting mixture.

Siegfried, on the other hand, dressed in black cords and a patterned
slim-fit shirt was of an affected suave temperament.

He turned to put his glass on the antique writing table and listening
to the conversation Annabelle was having with Sarah, her best friend,
had a rather pleasant vision of cornering Annabelle in a dark room
and&;#8230;well, the "and" said it all.

Noticing that both Annabelle and Sarah held empty glasses, he offered
to fetch drinks: an orange juice for Sarah and a "Caroline", a cocktail
consisting of vodka, gin, amaretto and pineapple juice (described as
sweet and an improvement upon closer acquaintance) for Annabelle.

Watching him go, Sarah observed that he was something of a
liability.

"I know," sighed Annabelle, "but he's not misbehaving yet."

"Yet," muttered Sarah darkly, "Just be careful, sweetie."

And with that, Sarah wandered off to go and find her boyfriend, Jacky,
to inform him of Annabelle's misdemeanours.

Annabelle smiled and picked her way through the crowded main room to go
and find Seb.

Seb, or Sebastian as he was more commonly known, was Siegfried's older
brother and one of Annabelle's best friends. Admiring his recently cut
hair which made him deeply attractive, she gave him a light pinch on
the arm and remarked that he was looking particularly good
tonight.

"Not as good as you, darling," he purred. "Having a good time?"

"Need you ask? Any time with you is good," and noticing his smirk,
Annabelle added, "and don't you know it!"

"Oh, I'm as charming as they come, Little Miss Scathing."

"And modest with it!"

"Now, now. Saucer of milk, sweetie darling. And speaking of milk, I
notice you are without a glass of something intoxicating. Never thought
I'd see the day!"

"Well, unlike you, Sebbie Sweetheart, I'm not a permanent drunk.
Anyway, your inimitable brother has offered to get me one and still
hasn't reappeared!"

"Sticks and stones, Bella. I'll go and chivvy him along for you.
Ciao."

Annabelle watched Seb saunter off. He was definitely the
better-looking of the two brothers and had changed a lot over the past
year; he was now a perfect gentleman. After about a ten minute
conversation with Cameron, Seb's best friend, he and Annabelle decided
to move towards the kitchen in the hope of replenishing his glass and
acquiring the long-awaited "Caroline".

On entering the kitchen, a row had ensued over the ice-crusher between
Seb and Siegfried. Annabelle smiled. She knew those two loved each
other dearly but they were such old women in their arguments.
Taking her "Caroline" from behind the cocktail shaker she went to join
Jacky, Sarah, Cameron and Lizzy, Cameron's girlfriend, in the main
room.
Sipping her drink and looking at the long lines of books stuffed into
the long-suffering shelves, she walked out into the hall examining the
framed photos of Seb and Siegfried when they were young.

Suddenly aware that someone was watching her, she studied the photo in
front of her. It was a black and white shadow shot of someone sitting
down and looking out of the window but the focus was soft and she had
to concentrate hard to make out the features.
This someone, however, had walked up gradually until he was standing so
closely behind her she could feel the soft ebb and flow of his breath
on her neck. Just as she made out the features of the face in the
photo, the reflection of the person standing behind her and the face in
the photo merged into one.

"And what would you be doing, Miss Annabelle?" he whispered softly in
her ear.

"Merely observing time in action. Although I have noticed a
discrepancy. We don't seem to have a record of your conquests of poor,
unfortunate, unsuspecting girls in the school staff toilets. What bad
luck." she remarked, softly, not turning around.

"Nine times, darling."

"Prove it."

"I'll leave that up to your imagination, shall I?"

"You wouldn't want my imagination running wild," she said, turning
around slowly, "who knows where it might end up?"

"I rather like the sound of that," he said and smiling wickedly he
stretched out a hand and stroked her stomach lightly. Annabelle sprang
away.

"Now, now, darling. I won't bite&;#8230;hard," he laughed
softly.

"It's not your bite that I'm afraid of, darling," she smiled and with a
wink sauntered off to find the rest of the group.

Siegfried smiled to himself. He enjoyed these games and the best way
to get her to return his advances, he decided, was to challenge her.
She was slightly inflexible in conceding a point and at this moment in
time, he loved her for it. He walked off in pursuit and found everyone
upstairs in Seb's room.

Pinching Annabelle in a rather inappropriate place on entering, for she
was lounging unawares against the door frame, he went over to argue
merrily with Cameron.
Annabelle, on the other hand, went to request Daft Punk from Seb who
gladly obliged. After this and a thorough inspection of the upstairs
bedrooms, for it was a housewarming party, everyone melted downstairs
gravitating towards the alcohol, Siegfried and Annabelle at the
back.

"I've got the Daft Punk animated videos in my room if you'd like to see
them," he whispered to Annabelle.

"I suspect that that's not all you'd like to show me, you horrible
man," she laughed. "Maybe later"

"I'll hold you to that," he smiled and followed her downstairs.

In the kitchen, the whole gang lounged around getting steadily drunk by
candlelight. Siegfried, standing opposite Annabelle, a strategic
positioning on his part, ran a foot up the inside of her lower legs
unknown to everyone except her. She looked up, amused, and received a
wink in return.

Much later on, after many more drinks and rude gestures, for now
everyone was slightly excited and extremely drunk, the group embarked
upon the most revealing and somewhat childish of party games: Spin the
Bottle.
After many spins in which everyone had received at least a kiss on the
cheek and in some cases quite a lot more, Siegfried's spin landed on
Annabelle. And interestingly enough it denoted the "quite a lot more"
to be the clinch of choice. Annabelle looked up, slightly surprised,
and blushed.

"You're not afraid are you?" Siegfried laughed. "Afraid of little old
me?"

"Siegfried, a) you're not little. You're rather tall actually, and b)
why would I be afraid of you?" She stood up, eyes flashing.

"Well, now. Why don't you tell me&;#8230;Miss Annabelle? And please
notice that for the last twenty minutes or so it has been Cameron,
Lizzy, me and your good self playing. Everyone else has either fallen
asleep or staggered off to be violently sick. And now, please notice
that Cameron and Lizzy have, most conveniently in my opinion, left the
room, probably for the night."
And walking up to her and standing so close she could make out grey
flecks in his blue eyes he whispered,
"You're not afraid of me? Not even now?"

"Well, maybe just a little," she said, laughing and backing off.

"Now, Miss Annabelle, we can't break the rules of the age-old
traditional institution of Spin the Bottle can we?" Siegfried smirked
and raised an eyebrow, advancing slowly.

"Not at all!" Annabelle smiled, but still she backed off and ended up
in the dark dining room, empty except for a few floor cushions.

"Hmm, I don't believe you," Siegfried decided, walking into the room.
"Now what would happen if I did this?" he asked, closing the door,
locking it and rather obviously putting the key in his back trouser
pocket.

"You'd give me the key?" Annabelle remarked; she had found a wall
blocking her backwards route.

"Wrong answer, darling," Siegfried grinned. "Shall I tell you?" he
asked, advancing slowly upon her.

Annabelle looked at him quizzically and raised an eyebrow with a smile
playing on her lips.

"OK then. First of all, you can't escape."

Annabelle confirmed this.

"Second of all, we can't break the rules of the game."

"Game on, I say."

"Third of all, I'm going to walk up to you like this." He was standing
so close to her, he could feel her heart racing. It was true, there was
no escape.

"Fourth of all, I'm going to take this hand here," he said, taking hold
of her right hand and raising it to his lips, "and kiss it."

He did so and continued slowly up her arm until he reached her
collar-bone. He then whispered in her ear: "And fifth of all, I'm going
to make you feel very uncomfortable indeed."

He grinned wickedly, put one hand around her waist and with the other
stroked her mouth lightly before lowering his lips to hers. He kissed
her lightly revelling in the sweet smell of her skin and felt her heart
racing. He gently tugged her plait with his other hand to raise her
chin. Although she was wearing high heels, she was still small compared
to him.

When he eventually stopped and looked at her, he was slightly surprised
to see an amused expression on her face. Annabelle raised an eyebrow
and shimmied out of his grasp.

"You call that a kiss?" she said, grabbing a handful of his shirt and
pulling him towards her. Standing on tip toe, she gave him a long and
lingering kiss, running her hands through his hair and making his lips
tingle.
At this point he snaked his arms around her waist and kissed her
hungrily and deeply. However, she pulled back and trailing her fingers
down his neck she whispered in his ear: "Whoever said I was a
nonconformist?"

Then, grabbing the keys from his pocket with a smile, she backed off
towards the door. As soon as he followed, wanting more, she commanded
him authoritatively to stay and with a wink said: "Game over," unlocked
the door and walked out, closing it gently behind her so as not to wake
the others.

Siegfried watched her close the door and slowly sat down against the
wall running a hand through his hair and down over his mouth.

"Christ!" he said, "Maybe not such an innocent after all!" and with
that he went with renewed intent and in hot pursuit after Annabelle,
determined to get her no matter what.