On the plus side, Renard found that he really didn't dwell so much on the impotent rage that he had upon finding that they were already accounted for in the case of Mae's death. A big part of that probably had to do with how Vivian was just such a bubbly force of fun that evening. She'd been doing a lot to try and help banish his bad moods if she ever saw them, and much to his surprise, her methods seemed to work pretty well.
He'd tried Kyrie's method of putting his emotions into the garden, but it just didn't really work for him like it did for Kyrie. Any time he walked into that part of the garden it would dredge up what he'd rather stay down while for Kyrie she could just turn the page and never have to look at it again. In the end he had torn it up to put something else there, deciding that the best way to express his rage on the flowers was by tearing them up rather than trying to display it.
As a result, he was adopting Vivian's methods, both in trying to look on the bright side of things and in accepting her comfort. At the moment Vivian's hands were almost soothingly playing with Renard's hair as they lay in bed, folding the golden strands into tiny braids while Renard simply relaxed. He had to admit that it felt quite good to be sitting with her like this, and the irritation that he'd felt earlier in the day was all but gone for now.
Out of all the hobbies Vivian had been experimenting with, hair and clothes were the ones that she had settled on. It had been a couple weeks since Kyrie had revealed her art to the entire house and Vivian's mood had only been improving in the days that followed it. Not necessarily because of the fact that Kyrie revealed her art, but because she was really starting to find her own niche with her hobbies. She was at the point where she was getting good at them, and it was no wonder with how much she practiced; she spent time messing with Renard's hair because he really didn't mind her loosely shaping it and of course she was working with Kyrie's hair every day. At dinner Kyrie almost always had a different hairstyle nowadays, and both Vivian and Kyrie quite enjoyed the praise that she got for her hair.
Renard had also gathered that Vivian had been making more sewing progress: Raine had shown off the new dresses for her dolls to just about anyone that would listen, though Vivian herself hadn't actually shared much with Renard about it. Every time he asked about whether she intended to do anything for herself an almost sly smile rose to her features as she responded that he'd just have to wait and see. Clearly she was going to surprise him with something and his imagination had run wild. He had to be careful to check his musings though, because he might try to imagine more than Vivian was capable of. Better to be pleasantly surprised than slightly let down.
All in all, it was nice to see Vivian so happy with herself; their own interactions had improved as a result of this, mostly in how much they were connecting. When Vivian wasn't solely focused on her jealousy and negativity then she was more receptive to Renard's words, and at the core of it Vivian was a fun-loving person which was something that had in the past gotten horribly stifled by unhappiness. That's not to say that Renard hadn't enjoyed his time with her before, but now he felt like he knew just who Vivian was a lot better aside from just knowing her body.
Before Vivian was able to start her fifth little braid, Renard decided that it was time to take advantage of this good mood that Vivian was in to play with her a bit. His form of play was him suddenly grabbing her hands and nuzzling into her neck, prompting a giggle from the woman next to him.
"What, you're still not tired?"
There was the usual teasing quality to his voice as he spoke, and Vivian flexed her arms a bit, pushing down on his arms as she rolled over on top of him. Her fingers laced with his while a look a determination hardened her features: in her good mood she was starting up a playful fight, and a wolfish grin rose to Renard's features when he realized it. Still, Vivian felt confident, or at least too playful to really find this to be a warning.
"Nope! You'll have to work harder than that!"
Letting out a soft grunt as Renard began to move, she tried to overpower him only to find herself rolled over so that he was pushing her arms down to the bed. Kissing the sensitive spot on her neck that he just loved to tease, Vivian let out a soft noise as she tensed up, trying to push back against Renard's grip.
"I think maybe it's you that needs to work a little harder. You can't even get out from under me."
Spurred into the fight by his words, Vivian's legs wrapped tightly around Renard's torso, and she gave them a sudden hoist to the side, trying to roll them over so that she was on top again. She didn't quite make it all the way around, but she had effectively knocked him off from on top of her.
The two of them struggled with one another for a couple minutes more, and while Vivian couldn't really get Renard in a pin, she was pretty consistently able to squirm out of his grip enough to throw him off his game. Anyone looking at them would clearly determine that Vivian was losing this silly battle and yet she continued, laughing and trying to push back all the same.
Eventually though, they made it to a point where Renard had her pinned with her face to the bed and she just didn't have the strength to be able to get out from underneath him. Breathing hard from all the exertion, she vainly struggled a little before Renard leaned down to kiss the back of her neck.
"Mmm... I do so love it when you fight."
A shiver coursed through her from both the kiss and the words, and she let out another breathy laugh, though now he could feel her body trembling with arousal. He was feeling it too, and he couldn't help giving her spine a few more soft kisses. She was pretty thoroughly stuck beneath him now, and even though she tried to shift her wrists a little, in the end she simply fell limp beneath him with a soft sigh.
"So now what, oh mighty victor?"
His hands slowly trailed down her naked arms that were glistening with sweat, and he murmured softly against her skin.
"Now you're going to provide me with a different kind of entertainment."
Once again kissing her spine at the back of her neck, he slowly trailed kisses down her body, his pin getting less and less restrictive, though his hands still remained on her arms. He ended his descent with a small kiss to her tailbone, and Vivian shivered from that kiss so low on her body. She didn't try to turn around though, instead she simply gripped the covers on the bed as she tried to resist the arousal.
"What was wrong with me braiding your hair?"
"Nothing, really; in fact, I like that you're so happy with your new hobby. What I have a problem with, however, is just how awake and perky you are after spending some time with me! It makes me wonder if you were even invested, and that means we need a round two, one that you'll actually feel this time."
He was teasing her, clearly, but at these words Vivian gained a little burst of strength as her arms tried to squirm away from him again.
"Not invested?! If you thought I wasn't invested then you weren't paying any attention. We certainly are going to have to go again with that sort of takeaway!"
A grin rose to Renard's features at the fight in her, and while she still wasn't able to overpower him, he did loosen his grip enough for her to be able to turn around and face him. Her chest was still heaving, both from exertion and arousal, and she wanted so desperately to pull him in for a hug to show him exactly how hot he made her, but his arms had gone back to holding hers down now that she'd rolled over. Instead of hugging him, she jammed her lips against his, allowing Renard to read the sheer amount of passion conveyed through their lips.
When they broke away from the kiss, Vivian looked at Renard with a hazy expression, silently trying to tell him that she wanted more. Chuckling softly at this, he did not disappoint: he leaned in to give her another brief kiss to the lips, then the cheek, then the neck... He was getting lower and lower on her body, and each inch he made downwards just set her body even more on fire with arousal. The evidence of their lovemaking the first time had all but disappeared by now, but even still the idea that he was going down on her after already cumming inside of her was one that greatly appealed to her.
As Renard moved lower on her body, her arms became unpinned, so she brought them down to dig her fingers into his hair, partially undoing the idle braids that she'd made earlier. She loved it when Renard pleasured her like this, it just didn't tend to happen as often as just pounding into each other did. Don't get her wrong, she loved the feeling of having his erection slam into her but there was something about his lips pleasuring her that just scratched the right kind of itch. Sure enough, when his lips finally made contact with her sex her grip on him tightened while she let out a soft moan.
His tongue moved all along her sex, pushing in a little bit before pulling back out and just sucking. He knew how to pleasure her, and he was working to get Vivian wholly and thoroughly aroused. He was also a terrible tease though, so while he worked her body up into an aroused frenzy, he was soon stopping his stimulation dead in its tracks before she was able to reach release. This pause left Vivian trembling and she let out the softest of whimpers. He didn't move back right away though, instead he lightly breathed on her sex and gave the area some soft kisses as he thought for a moment. When Vivian was aroused like this she was much more susceptible to ideas, so this might be the perfect moment for him to bring up what he'd been planning... Ever since Kyrie had shown her art publicly he felt like that would somehow be an in towards introducing Kyrie into his sex life with Vivian, but he hadn't quite nailed down how that would work.
He was pretty sure he had it now though, and it was just a matter of finding the right time. Vivian was in an excellent mood at the moment and highly aroused... This seemed perfect.
Sure enough, Vivian was already starting to feel the desperation win out over her own pride. He was spending so long just sitting there doing nothing... She could feel his hot breath though, and it just about drove Vivian crazy as she tried to squirm enough to get the touch of his lips again. So crazy in fact that she trembled something fierce and bit her lip when he began speaking so close to her sex.
"Have you ever wondered..."
Here Renard trailed off a little, giving her sex another long, slow lick and coaxing a moan from his lover.
"If Kyrie draws scenes like this?"
"K-Kyrie?"
The sudden change of subject threw Vivian off quite a bit, but the expression on her face wasn't quite hostile so Renard continued on.
"It's just that it's always a treat when she shows us pictures of ourselves, I think it'd be nice if we could also see pictures that memorialized moments like this."
For emphasis on just what kind of moments he meant, he let his lips meet her lower ones again, sucking and letting his tongue wriggle its way inside of her. Sure enough, his lover writhed on the bed beneath him, her breathing only getting heavier from a mixture of his words and actions. After the initial startle of pushing into her though, he removed his tongue and simply went back to kissing, making it clear that he wasn't going further until she gave him a response.
Honestly, the more she thought about it, the more it would be really nice to have a picture of what they were doing. Kyrie was usually so good at catching the nuances and details of emotion; if Vivian was to just look at a picture of such intimate acts while Renard and she were separated, she had no doubt that it would do wonders to her own happiness. Still, Kyrie making a picture like that was never going to happen, and Vivian let out a soft scoff.
"I suppose it could be nice, but there's no way Kyrie would ever do that. She's way too shy to do scenes like that, and how would she, anyway? She has no idea what goes on between us."
"What if we showed her though?"
It took a moment for those words to sink in, but once they did a rather bright blush rose to Vivian's features, and Renard couldn't help but think just how becoming a blush was on Vivian's face. It didn't happen very often, and that made it a much rarer treat as opposed to Kyrie who was blushing practically all the time.
"W-what?!"
A smile snaked up to his features to see just how flustered she was, and he trailed kisses back up her body, lacing his hands with hers as he lay on top of her. Pressing his body up against hers, he leaned in close to her ear to gently bite the earlobe.
"You heard me. What if we had Kyrie watch while we did something like this?"
As he spoke, completely without warning, he slid his erection into Vivian's sex. She was wet enough down there that there wasn't the least bit of discomfort, but she gasped in surprise because she hadn't been expecting it at all. Her fingers curled tighter around Renard's, as if bracing herself for the movement to come, but he wasn't moving, he was only staying inside of her like this. He did continue his soft kisses though, and these began to trail down to her neck. He was waiting for another response from Vivian, so she struggled to put their current connection out of her mind to actually give him one.
"Do you even realize what you're asking?"
It was clear by the tone in Vivian's voice that she didn't at all approve of this suggestion, but Renard didn't miss a beat.
"Oh come now, Vivian, you can't tell me it bothers you to display affection in front of others?"
Vivian bit her lip at that, because she didn't really mind. Honestly, it felt a bit like marking her territory to onlookers and that was something she highly endorsed. Still though... Having Kyrie watch them?
"B-but Kyrie wouldn't do it!"
"Wouldn't she, though? If her best friend asked her for a favor, would she really be able to refuse you?"
Somehow, this whole thing felt horribly dangerous, and she looked at Renard with almost a kind of desperation in her eyes, looking for him to relent on this topic. He wasn't relenting though: just as he'd pinned her with his body earlier, he'd now thoroughly pinned her with his words. He combated the thoroughly unhappy look on her face by grinding his hips into hers a little, shifting his sex around in such a way that made her moan and squirm in his grip.
"Don't you want to be able to see yourself in these intimate moments? How will you ever know what we truly look like unless someone else shows us what they see?"
The idea appealed to Vivian more than she wanted to admit, and she made a soft whimpering noise as Renard kissed her neck again, eliciting a pleasured shudder from his lover. Still, he couldn't make her completely forget the possessiveness that she had towards him, and she clenched her eyes shut as she tried to voice just what her concern with this proposal was.
"But these... These moments are ours..."
"And they still will be. All Kyrie would be doing is sitting over in the corner not saying a word. You won't even know that she's there, especially if it's dark and the only light will be what's needed to illuminate ourselves."
Once again, Vivian was stuck with no real viable protest aside from the unhappy feeling in her gut. Kyrie knew just how much Vivian loved Renard, she would never butt in on that relationship, not unless Vivian actually wanted her to. Kyrie also loved Isaac too much to really care or bother with Renard. Vivian knew that it was absolute folly to worry about Kyrie becoming attracted to Renard, but she just couldn't seem to help it.
Opening her eyes, her features were set into a heavy furrow, and she wriggled her hands out of Renard's grip (which he allowed), so that she could grab both sides of his face to get him to look squarely at her.
"If I'm going to agree to do this, you have to promise to not even glance in whatever direction Kyrie's in. Your attention needs to be on me and me only."
Renard met her seriousness by leaning in to give her a slow kiss, one that eased the creases out of her own features.
"That should be easy enough, you tend to fill a room with your presence whenever you enter it."
Unsure whether she was flattered or offended, she made a motion to lightly smack his cheek but he intercepted her with a soft chuckle. Grabbing both of her hands once more, he pushed them up and over her head so that she was completely put on display for him. For a brief moment, he simply admired her figure, his eyes trailing up from her stomach to her breasts and finally settling on her face.
"This is a plan then? You'll bring it up with Kyrie the next time you see her?"
Vivian puffed up in outrage at the fact that he felt the need to make Vivian say it in no unclear terms, but her outrage only looked cute to Renard, so it didn't quite have the intended effect.
"Yes, yes! The next time I see Kyrie I'll ask her about drawing us having sex!"
Moving to turn her head away from him in a mighty pout, this got interrupted by Renard pulling out and pushing back inside of her. Even though she bit her lip to try and keep from moaning, she couldn't help the sensations rolling through her body from his actions.
"Good. Now, let's see about getting you properly tired, shall we?"
Vivian pouted at him a little, but that pout quickly disappeared as he began his motions in earnest.
Everything was moving exactly in the direction that he wanted: Vivian was becoming more and more receptive to the idea of others in the bedroom, Kyrie had a good intro excuse to be in the bedroom, and Renard had no doubt in his mind that he could work things so that Kyrie started to get a little action while Vivian was around as well. All of this was certainly the beginning of something that everyone could enjoy. … Well... Everyone but one. But Renard would figure him out eventually.
For now, it was time to lose himself in the pleasures of Vivian's body.