Two Years Ago: A Kiss

A smirk lifts the corner of his mouth and he looks down again, as though to hide the expression. He knows the power he has over me, and it pleases him. That’s undeniable.

‘A dangerous request, Miss Lana.’

‘It’s a dangerous situation,’ I pause, lifting a hand to press against my chest. ‘Should I be…worried that you thought I was a whore? That…it’s your usual way to bed a woman who has been paid?’

He shakes his head quickly, grey eyes glinting as he looks up at me. ‘It’s not my usual way,’ he replies, quiet. His voice is firm, calm as he watches me face. ‘I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know what I was thinking.’

He kneels up, lifting his hands to the arms of the chair instead. Away from the skin he’s been torturing so delicately. But he’s between my knees as he leans forward, and holds his face level with mine. I edge my knees wider to accommodate his width and see a spark flicker in his eyes.

‘You wanted to kiss me?’ I can barely find the bravery to speak my hope aloud. Can it be that he saw me and wanted me? Me, Lana Nix. The bookish youngest daughter of the Duke. The one sister that people barely notice. I’ve never minded, but it has been lonely at times. But Thade saw me, the moment I fell through his door I felt that.

‘I wanted you,’ he growls. The fine hairs on the back of my neck lift. My whole body pulled taut, like a soldier standing to attention. I’m pinned back in the chair, there was something deep in the sound of his reply. Something primal that speaks to my soul. I lift my hand, hopelessly pressing it against my heart. It’s hammering so hard that it hurts. ‘Every single part of you, I want to kiss and devour. I want to claim you as my own, body and soul Lana.’

‘Why didn’t you?’ He moves closer still, between my legs. His nose brushed the tip of mine. I’m going to lose my mind. Any second now and I’ll lose the last thread of my sanity and succumb to his madness.

‘I’m also not in the habit of ravishing virgins,’ he murmurs against my cheek.

Yet everything in me screams in response that I wouldn’t mind if he ravished me. I want to beg for him, for his touch. For the sensations and the knowledge that I’ve never experienced.

‘I want you,’ I whisper, and my heart constricts again. Everything warning, every considered thought is fading fast as his mouth brushes my skin.

‘By the Otherworld…’ the words were spoken against my lips. I inhaled them, dizzy with proximity. ‘I’m going to kiss you Lana,’ he nudges my cheek again and I close my eyes. Is it possible to feel sick with desire? The overwhelming crush of emotions and feelings. I want him to touch me, all of me and all at once. I try and focus on his breath on my face, eager and waiting for his kiss to fall.

But he moves away, the brush of his body lifting from between my legs. My breath comes in sharp pants and I wait, confused before peeking. Why is he moving away, if he agreed to kiss me? He’s watching my face with a grin as he drops his hands from the arm of the chair and slides them down my thighs. He wraps his fingers around my buttocks and I gasp. Muscles clenching involuntarily.

‘Breathe,’ he smirks at me and I don’t think I know how. But he’s firm, pulling me forward towards the edge of the chair.

‘Wha-’ I swallow my questions. Maybe this will be a better position for him to kiss me? Rather than leaning between my knees? I try to find a smile, uncertain as he bites his lip, roguish.

‘Spread your legs Lana…’ he orders and I blink at him.

‘Thade?’ I exhale and he places his hands upon my knees, encouraging them apart. Even further than when he’d been between them. Beneath the blankets, I feel exposed, without any underwear or any shift to warm my body. The temperature of the room is cooler and my womanhood feels as though it’s burning. Pulsing and wet with desire.

‘I’m going to kiss you,’ he promises as he bends. ‘But I didn’t say where.’

He holds my gaze as he shifts the blankets. Peeling them back from my legs and leaving my thighs bare. I gasp, holding the air tight in my lungs as I watch, fascinated by his actions. He bends and kisses the inside of my left knee. I lift my hand, covering my mouth as my body pulses in response.

‘You say that you want me, but you don’t know what you want - you don’t know what this is..’ he murmurs against my skin. His hand smooths over the creamy expanse of my thigh as I gasp again. Skin lifting to his touch before flinching away. I feel like a foal, skitterish and jumpy. He smirks against my thigh, stroking one while he presses soft kisses along the top of the other, then moves, swapping sides but kissing the inside of my thigh.

‘Breathe…’ he whispers against me again and I try to. The air rushes from burning lucks before I suck it back in again. It’s impossible to refuse his commands, even if they are to breathe. He could tell me the opposite and I know that I would obey.

His head moves towards my most intimate place, my rose, the petals swollen and slick with unspent desire. Will he not find it offensive? Would it be strange to be so close…that’s not how people make love, is it? I’m trying to remember any of the illicit drawings I once stumbled across, I don’t remember ever seeing something like this. It feels strange for him to be so close. Lewd and exotic, exciting.

My legs are quivering, moving back together on either side of him as he teases me with his lips. Was that his tongue against my thigh? I can feel his breath upon my slit and I jump. He grins, looking up at me and shakes his head again.

‘Spread your legs, Lana,’ it’s another growl, one that hits the primal place of my soul and I obey, legs falling aside of him as he holds grips the tops of my thighs, thumbs brushing the soft hair that covers my core. I shiver, licking my lips as he looks up at me.

‘Lean back,’ he encourages and my back hits the back of the chair so I’m angles, pelvis towards him. He holds my thighs in place, stopping me from edging back over the seat. His eyes are hooded, heavy with desire as he looks between my face in the firelight and the glistening flower before him.

‘Tell me to stop,’ he growls.