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It was another dreadful party Marisa had to attend, and as always, Edward had to flaunt about how ‘educated’ his wife was compared to the rest of the women attending the gathering. It became such a habit of his that Marisa couldn't just evade the conversation, instead she just smiled gently and took a sip from the wine they had served earlier. She had been dragged all the way outside of town for this specific party, and for some reason her dim-witted husband hadn't even told her who was hosting it.
She decided to take advantage of the spare time she had before being dragged into another ludicrous conversation involving her looks and intellect by talking to her... presumably friends, although most of them had the personality of a roadside rock.
"Marisa, what a pleasure to see you here tonight!" a woman said.
Ugh.
"Always nice to see you Margaret," she replied with a fatigued gleam in her eyes that could only be noticed by her daemon, which sadly had to interact with the woman's pesky little otter.
"I assume you're quite ecstatic to be attending this party, since it is centred around your field of study, isn't it? Rusakov Particles, if I'm not mistaken?"
"Yes," she began saying, slightly confused as to why that was of interest to her, only to be interrupted again.
"Goodness, if I knew a man like Asriel Belacqua would be interested in theology I would've studied the topic a long time ago..." the woman spoke.
Marisa's heart quickened and if you looked closely you could see how flustered she was all of a sudden. It was also quite inappropriate of her to say such things, given the fact that she was already married. Her husband was quite a dull man to be fair, but who was she to criticise? Wasn't she the one having an affair with the man? No more, her daemon said, just nod and smile.
"Such a shame that he hasn't come down yet, quite impolite of the host to not greet his guests..."
"Quite so," she managed to say, before excusing herself and making her way outside where there were less guests to run into, except her husband had apparently gone there as well.
"No worries dear, I will see you later in the evening," Margaret said, before returning to the other ladies with the same interest in gossip as her. Typical trophy wives, the monkey thought. Indeed, she said; for once there was something they could agree on.
"Marisa, love, where did you run off to earlier?" he spoke, kissing her gently on the temple.
"Don't worry, darling, I found Margaret and we had a little chat about the party, and I've heard that Lord Belacqua is hosting it?"
"Yes, yes, a very peculiar man, doesn't like sharing too much about his personal life."
I'd say.
"In fact, you've met him before, haven't you dear? At the Royal Arctic Annual Gala that was held earlier this year?"
"I did, and there were some other rare occasions when we crossed paths," she replied.
"He was actually here a second ago, in the garden, greeting some of the scholars."
Her heartbeat quickened again, making her step on the monkey's tail, him slightly grunting underneath the pressure whilst Marisa bathed in the feeling of her own pain running across her body.
As if that summoned him, Asriel appeared from a crowd of women basically throwing themselves on him, Stelmaria walking regally by his side.
"Ah, Lord Asriel, we were just speaking of you," Edward said to the man, avoiding eye contact with his daemon which seemed as if it was about to make a cynical remark regarding his choice of wardrobe for the evening, though he wanted to argue that he didn't put a lot of effort into his either.
"You remember my wife, Marisa, don't you? I've been told you've met a few times?" he smiled, hand making its way around the woman's waist as if he was a cowardly dog protecting its bone.
"Yes, Mrs Coulter, a pleasure to see you again," he kissed her palm, though suddenly she felt a cold shiver run down her spine. Slightly turning her gaze down to the monkey, she noticed the snow leopard clearly nuzzling him, giving her a tremendous amount of fear and discomfort.
"Lord Belacqua, pleasure of seeing you as well. I was wondering if we could discuss your thought process regarding your newest thesis?" Marisa gave him a stern look and signaled to a corner where they could talk privately without being interrupted by anyone.
"Certainly," he said, "Mr Coulter," he bowed his head, guiding the woman to an empty corridor.
“What in Authority’s name do you think you’re doing Asriel, letting your daemon caress mine in the open, when you clearly saw that Edward was right beside us?” she lashed at him, digging her ivy green nails into his wrist. “Even if he didn’t see, there were plenty people in the room which could’ve and- “
“Would you stop whining? More than half of the people in that room were either drunk or too preoccupied with their petty little husbands to pay any attention to us,” He replied, eying her from the top of her head to her heels and pining her against the stone wall behind.
“Asriel," she breathed, “No, you can’t seduce your way out of this,” she said, still struggling under his firm grip, the golden monkey pinned to the floor by Stelmaria.
“Can’t I?" he whispered hotly in her ear, shivers running down her spine, body aching for his touch.
"Not tonight..." she finally said, controlling her urges of ripping his shirt off right there and then.
"Marisa..." he sighed discontently, "What's bothering you, love?"
It makes her heart flutter slightly whenever she hears him say word love, given the fact that whenever Edward says it, it leaves her with nothing more than residual distaste, although she would never admit it.
"I promise you will have your way with me, but it's too delicate of a situation tonight," she finally said, giving him a passionate kiss, his hands making their way around her waist, pulling her in close to his chest.
"You love tantalising me like this, don't you?"
"I can't say I don't," she giggled as he pressed a kiss on her neck.
"I'll be attending the Gala at the London Academy in two weeks," he breathed into her hair as she nibbled on his earlobe.
"I'll be looking forward to it, Lord Belacqua," she finally said, meeting his eyes and biting his lower lip, it bleeding slightly as she pulled back.
"As will I, Mrs Coulter," he replied, giving her one last kiss as they broke off, Marisa leaving the dreaded, empty corridor first, Asriel following behind a few minutes later.
"Ah, Marisa, how was it?" Edward spoke, putting an arm around her whilst holding a glass of Tokay in the other.
"It was a very interesting discussion," she told him, finding her lover's gaze a few tables across, a grin spread wide across his face, she couldn't help but smile to herself.
Later, on her way to her apartment she was sitting in a cab with her husband, glaring out the window, the street lights illuminating the path at which was now close to two in the morning.
What a night, the monkey thought to her. What a night indeed, she thought back sighing.