She supposed it should have been some sort of foreshadowing. She only noticed it one day when she was checking the mail and there wasn't the normal blare of the TV or the sounds of him moving around her house. Sticking her head into the living room she caught him staring at her swords. It had once belonged to a larger collection, but her father had sold them off through the years to pay for her college education. She had never forgiven herself for that either, and had taken the last two swords her father had left and kept them. It would take more than a late rent payment to get her to sell them, and she wondered if her obsession with them was healthy. There was something in his eyes, something obscure that she couldn't put her finger on. She knew the sword he was looking at intimately.
It had been her father's favorite. The blade itself was plain, with only the usual fuller and an interesting line of kanji. The hilt itself had always seemed to be hand crafted, as if made to fit into the hands of one man. He turned; she must have made some noise, and met her look. She wondered if her expression said how sad she was that she couldn't take the sword out and give it to him.
She wanted to give it to him. He did so much for her and asked so little that the idea of giving him something he really wanted, besides all the books she found herself checking out for him, but knew she couldn't. The warning look on Count D's face and the firm tone of his voice, "You will never allow him to hold a sword" and turned away from him.
She was a woman of her word.
Because things had been going so well, she should have expected things to suddenly go bad. She remembered waking up, her eyes snapping open under her blanket, just as the sounds of muffled breathing reached her ears. Kenshin would have felt no need to mask his moving around her house. Her heart thundered in her chest as she caught the unmistakable sounds of the class case she kept her fathers swords creaking open.
She would let the thieves have anything they wanted, but they could not have her father's swords. Moving with careful movements, incase there as more than one, she maneuvered her body away from the blanket. She had gotten part-way out from under it when someone saw her and chaos erupted. She found herself jerked forward and she simply reacted. Her hand shot up into the man's throat and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. She didn't expect herself to be tackled from behind, she was still slightly sleep deprived, and she gave a startled scream as she hit the floor. She wrestled with the man, attempting to find the leverage, when she was suddenly free from the weight of him.
Looking up she met furious, glowing violet eyes. His eyes burned as he scanned the room, a hot violet, and she gasped a bit. "They're after the swords," she rasped at him, her eyes wide as she accepted his hand to pull her up as another man came after him. Kenshin moved quickly and picked the man up and threw him at the man attempting to move back towards the window and Kaoru lunged after the sword.
Her hands grasped the hilt of her father favorite just as hands grabbed her ankle. Kaoru twisted mid-air and tossed the sword back to the couch. She didn't expect Kenshin to catch it and hardly had time to think about the repercussions of that as she was picked up and glared at. Kaoru glanced over the man's shoulder and froze. Kenshin was holding the sword in his hands like he had never seen one and the air between then was suddenly charged with something...and then things suddenly changed.
Kaoru could only watch as Kenshin looked up from where he had picked up the sword. There was something different, she knew there was. It was in the way his entire body seemed to have changed, his posture suddenly liquid, and his flaming hair seemed to glow in the darkness. Even his skin, pale in the moonlight, seemed to have this unearthly glow to it.
Distracted for a moment, she stumbled in surprise when hand shoved her hard, one hand against her sternum and the other against her thigh, into a wall. She hit hard enough to daze her, and she slipped down in surprise. She lay there, registering the pain in the back of her skull, attempting to blink past it to see what was going to happen. There was the sound of a sword unsheathing, and she couldn't se anything. The glow of the moon seemed almost extinguished, and she frantically looked around as she heard the sounds of steel cutting into flesh.
Why couldn't she see anything?
Suddenly, there was silence. She recognized the sound of her own breathing and the sound of someone else breathing. Had they killed her dragon? She didn't know when she had started thinking of Kenshin as her dragon, but there it was. She had never been one to lie to herself, and there was no denying that she thought of him as hers.
She jumped in surprise when he did appear.
His hair tumbled wildly around his shoulders, a brilliant crimson, even in the lack of light. His eyes were hot and raging amber. His pale face still seemed almost unearthly in the pale glow that stuck to his skin, and when he moved to crouch down in front of her, she fought down the urge to bolt. She sucked in a surprised breath when his fingers wrapped around the bare skin of her ankle.
They rested there, light and almost in substantial, but when she went to pull it out of his reach, they tightened just enough to inform her that he wasn't letting go. They sat there for a long moment, both waiting for the other to break the silence. Kaoru, in her ridiculous t-shirt and nothing else, Kenshin in his draw-string pants and tank-top; both watching the other.
His thumb was brushing back and forth against her skin. Kaoru realized this in surprise and her eyes flickered from his face to her hand and back to his face. There was something in his eyes…they were now slitted almost like a cat's, but not quite; and they sent shivers down her spine. What was she supposed to say?
"Those men?" she finally broke the silence and a sigh like satisfaction fell from his firm lips.
She didn't expect him to actually answer.
"They're dead," he purred at her, and Kaoru started at that. His voice was hot and rich, a deep baritone that should never have come from such a small man. But he wasn't so small anymore, was he? His shoulders seemed broader, thicker, and there was something untamed about the way he stood. That liquid grace again. His fingers shifted against her skin, and there was almost something rough about his touch. As if the skin was being coaxed from scales, and just so; "they won't hurt you again."
Kaoru stared at him. "You...you can talk now?"
A curious smile crossed his face. It brought out the angle in his cheekbones and the curious slits of his eyes. "Hmmm...the spell that was used to give me to Count D is broken, and my price has been paid." He pronounced the word 'paid' in a way that allowed his teeth to click together in something all together predatory. "The spell binding me to my human form is mine again." His eyes gleamed for a moment and she swallowed.
"What..." her question was cut off when the hand holding her ankle flexed and brought her foot towards his mouth so that he kissed the delicate skin at her ankle, his tongue flickering to taste. "What are you doing?" She demanded, breathier than she meant to be.
"You taste good," he told her, a purring note in his voice that wracked her in fine shivers again. He dropped a serious of light kisses up her calf. She stared at him for a moment, while his tongue flickered against her skin in small, dragging strokes. His tongue was slighter rougher than a human's and she shivered.
Then she got under control.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Kaoru demanded, jerking her foot uselessly. Her heart was pounding and blood pooling and all he had done was kiss her calve. Her nails bit into the carpet, and she suddenly realized how vulnerable she was. With the top of her foot resting against his shoulder and her other leg sprawled out, she was more than vulnerable.
"Everything," he assured her, turning his head to nibble a path down her delicate skin, teeth slightly sharper than a humans dragging against her skin and followed with that raspy tongue until he reached her knee. Her knee was bent over his shoulder so that he could suck on the delicate skin where thigh met knee, sensation coursing down to her core. "You taste like jasmine and salt," he told her, turning so that he could watch her as his other hand reached for her other leg. His long fingers settled behind her knee.
Kaoru liked the feel of his tongue against her skin. Liked the sensations he created in her blood. The way heat had flooded her gut and damp invitation gathered between her thighs. However, the idea that he was creating all of this in her, that she wanted it, that each deliberate movement was done for her benefit; terrified her.
"What are you doing?" Kaoru whispered, aware of the strength that coiled in him. The lack of human ness? Humanity?; the sense of starring into the eyes of a creature that wasn't human; that she had come to see as her own. She swallowed hard. When he had been kissing her leg he had been tugging her forward with careful little pulls so that she was braced on her hands instead of the wall.
"Possessing you." He told her softly, suddenly tightening his hand on her knee and pulling with enough force that her hands slid out from under her body and she landed on her back. Something shivered in her core as she realized that he had bent her knee away from her body so that the only thing that stood between him and her was her thin, cotton underwear. "Teaching you." He continued, nibbling lightly on her inner thigh.
Kaoru shivered and jerked against him, suddenly terrified. However, his shoulder stopped one retreat while the hand wrapped around her leg stopped the other. "Now, now," he chided her, "Count D told you not to give me a sword." There was a bit of mockery in his voice. "There must be some consequences to those actions." His breath ghosted down the sensitive skin and puffed against the barrier of her underwear. "However, this is my price, for you." The leisurely kiss, lower this time, sent warmth flooding through her gut. "You know so little about dragons," his words were punctured with more of those nibbling kisses and she bit her bottom lip to keep from whimpering.
All she could do was stare at the ceiling, her hands clenching in the carpet, as his mouth skimmed her thigh. "I will enjoy the teaching," he purred, allowing the hand on her knee to skim up her thigh until he found the hem of her panties. She jerked a bit, and her leg ended partly around his waist from the surprised motion.
"Why should..." her words were swallowed with an inhaled breath of air and she attempted to push herself up on her elbows. He gave a breathy chuckle, pulling the scraps of what was left of her cotton panties and throwing them over his shoulder with a predatory smile. She stared at him, her eyes wide; that smile had a wicked edge to it and it told her everything she needed to know about what he was planning on doing to her. She whimpered, low sound in the back of her throat, and he tugged her body again so that the thigh of her leg was hitched high on his shoulder and her elbows were pulled out from under her again.
Kaoru stared up at the ceiling, the dark ceiling covered in only shadows, trying to piece together exactly what was going on, when the first stroke of his tongue stole her breath. She whimpered and dug her nails into the carpet. She couldn't help it. Wasn't sure she wanted to. The rasp of his tongue was so different from human males and was plundering and stroking so that her hips were twisting of there own violation. Her muscles clenched around his shoulder and waist as she gave into the sensations he was creating. She was burning up, melting into a pile of feminine flesh; writhing as he stole every rationale thought from her mind.
As her leg dangled boneless from his shoulder he gave a satisfied sigh, kissing the skin of her inner thigh before lowering it and letting it sprawl a little onto of the other one, so that her legs curved around his waist. "You have no idea how good you taste, do you, my little dazreel?" His voice was a purr as he watched the way her chest heaved. Her lashes parted to show him the dazed, sated expression there. The surprised delight she was attempting to hide.
"Count D warned you," he chastised as he nipped her chin, sliding one arm behind her to cup her firm bottom, the other to support her delicate neck. "That I would be the answer to all your desires," he picked her up easily, and moved through the house with no problem.
"But," Kaoru tried, forcing her brain to think past the delicious sensations lingering in her blood. The way her body hummed and shivered with memory of his tongue and what he could do with it. "The contract is broken," her voice was muffled against the skin of his throat and she forced herself to pull together and lifted her head. "Why are you..."
Her words were cut off when her body was lightly placed on her bed. His bed. In the room she pretended didn't exist because of the memories and the smell and the way she fought back tears. When she took a shaky breath, it smelled faintly of ginger and something…hot. Like heat...but more of the after scent of something ignited. She wondered faintly if that was the scent of fire. Forcing herself onto her elbows she watched as he calmly pulled the shirt from his back. The way his skin rolled on top of muscles, the way his hair glided across his skin. The way he still faintly glowed in the dark.
"What are you doing?" Kaoru asked, suddenly faintly alarmed at the curve of his mouth. The glint of his teeth. Suddenly her breasts were heavy and aching, the curious throb of desire was beating in tune with her heart.
"Teaching you desire, dazreel." He chided lightly, uncaring that she was watching as he kicked off the pants that had casually hidden him from view. "Teaching you what it means to belong to me." His eyes gleamed fire in the dark. "I was a good little pet, don't you think?" He climbed into the bed, crawling over her legs so that the heat of his chest warmed her heaving breasts as she suddenly found it difficult to breath. "I think it's your turn to be very, very good." He breathed his breath ghosting over her parted lips.
"I never," his mouth glided over hers. His mouth was hot, so very hot. It was an inhuman type of heat and she moaned in delight when that raspy tongue, faintly bitter with her arousal, swept into her mouth. The way her body reacted, melting into the curious puddle of flesh again, her nails and fingers finding his shoulders; had his body pressing into hers.
His tongue stroked and licked, courting her mouth with its raspy caress until she couldn't think with it.
When he pulled back to trace her moist bottom lip wit his forefinger, the clawed edge lightly brushing her top lip, absorbing the way she panted against the digit, he sighed. His sultry eyes closed for a moment, as if he was absorbing the press of her lips against his finger for several long moments. "How long have I wanted you like this?" He asked her, the air between them, and the heat building in them. "Do you have any idea what is like, to need to possess, to take, to bath in the fire of your body and yet unable to do so?" He reached down and nibbled on her bottom lip, careful with his slightly sharp teeth. "To know that I can bind you to me so that you would never be able to leave me, never desire to leave me, and that being unable to do so is almost a physical ache?"
"N-no..." Kaoru managed, unable to look past his glowing eyes. They sucked her in, trapped her, and held her hostage in burning rivers.
"You will," he assured her, never taking her eyes from his as his fingers trailed down her neck to brush her delicate collarbones. "Because you are mine now." His voice was like wet velvet. "I take you as my maiden, my possession, my desire, dazreel, and you shall never leave me again." His words were almost a spell itself as they coursed down her body. She shuddered, still caught in the heat of his eyes, and couldn't protest, not when his hands had found her breasts and were cupping her through the material of her shirt, caressing and teasing her nipples. Her back arched high, and only then was she released from his spell as he dipped his head to suckle her through the shirt, denying her the direct heat of his mouth.
His hands moved away from her breasts and she made a noise of protest. He smiled at her as he lifted her head, taking in her flushed face and dilated eyes. He was positive she wasn't aware of the needy expression written all over her face. "Don't worry," he soothed, stroking her bottom lip with his forefinger, loving the unsure expression in her eyes. "I have already admired the way you taste. I want to know how the rest of you feels." His eyes flickered down to the shirt between them. The only thing between them.
His fingers easily tugged at her shirt so that she had to lift her lax arms to slide it over her head. He took a deep breath, breathing in both the scent of her skin and the scent of her body's heat. He pushed the shirt away from her breasts, and he admired the pale skin and dusky tips, peeked from his earlier play and all but begging for his mouth and tongue.
Instead he sampled the skin in the valley of her breasts, tasted the soft skin of her tummy, the well of her navel. He trapped her legs with his when she shifted and writhed, her body shifting against his; begging. Her hands were running and down his back and he loved the catch of her calluses on his skin. Her eyes opened in surprise at the feel of him, the way his skin had a rougher texture than a human's. Her nails scraped and his eyes fluttered closed and he purred. He kissed her bottom lip, sucking lightly. She tasted so good, felt so good, as he cherished her body. Teaching her to writhe under his hands and learning how she sounded as she came sobbing into his hands. Her eyes parted enough to show the darkness of her eyes and he brought his gleaming fingers to his mouth so he could lick them clean. The remembrance of her wet insides around his fingers, the way she had tossed her head against her pillow, the sensation of her thighs clamping against his hand, tempted him.
"I wonder if you feel as good as you taste, dazreel?" He mused, dragging the tip of his tongue down his bottom lip to catch the rest of her essence. Anything she might have said was lost with the movement of his hips, the sensation of being taken.
He lowered his head to her neck and growled, pulling away from her with a great deal of self-control, only to plunge back in. Her voice rose in the air and reverberated in the air, and he sucked on the skin in the juncture of her throat for a moment. Then he lost himself in the feel of her. In her cries. The way her nails bit into his shoulders and her body moved in counterpoint to his. There was no resistance, nothing to keep the bond of dragon to maiden from binding them so tightly together that she couldn't escape. Nothing to keep him from feeling the surrender of her body.
As the shattering heat filled her belly and exploded outward, down to the tip of her toes and the ends of her hair; she knew something had changed. It was in the way her body felt as the after-glow settled into her muscles. The way his body purred under her hands, the way he licked the salt from her skin with his tongue.
However, he made no move to separate their bodies while they recovered. Instead he continued his exploration of her collarbones and shoulders, the graceful line of her neck. Kaoru moaned a bit and dug her nails in when he found a particularly good spot with his tongue. "Why are you..." Kaoru started, attempting to meet his eyes with hers. He pushed himself up and propped up on one elbow and traced her face with those curiously padded fingertips.
"I know you very well, dazreel," he soothed, "and if I don't take precautions to make sure you can't get up and run on me, then I would have to chase you down." He kissed the tip of her nose, his eyes glittering. "Not that I would really mind, dazreel, I do love a challenge, but I have other plans." He leaned down and took her mouth, his lips moving lazily as his tongue plundered hers. So when his hips shifted inside her, and her eyes flew open in surprise and pleasure. Her body moved to hold him without her permission and he wreaked havoc on her body for a second time that night.
This time he let her lie there, judging her from eyes that were hooded and slightly covetous. Kaoru gasped and panted, her breasts heaving; damp with sweat. His mouth quirked up at one corner and she barely had time to open her lips before he was kissing slow circles around the aroused flesh. He took his time, finding each sensitive nerve-ending, careful to coax the rushing heat from her tired body. Allowing her to coat the part of him still half-buried inside her body; so he took his time and enjoyed her breasts, giving each equal attention.
Kaoru gave into her body's demands and simple let go of reality after when he finally decided to take her sanity from her again. The darkness crept into her conscious, her body heavy and floating; as a hot, lithe body tucked around her, and hot little kisses were dropped along her neck and shoulder.
Kaoru woke up to the sun falling into her eyes brightly. That was displeasing that early in the morning so she attempted to roll over and hide. However, a very uncomfortable twinging low her in her belly had her making a noise in the back of her throat before she could help it. She thought she heard something like laughter float in from another room but she was to busy attempting to relocate into a position that was both not painful and out of the sun.
"Morning, Kaoru," Kenshin's voice breathed into her ear and she swatted at him. She really didn't expect to hit him, but the fact that he caught her limp hand and laughed at her, while dropping a few kisses on her knuckles; was anything but nice.
"Go aw'a'" Kaoru complained as she pushed her nose back into her pillow, suddenly aware that she was sticky and probably smelly from last nights activities. He really chuckled then and Kaoru squeaked a little when she was simply picked up out of the bed and hoisted against a naked chest. Kaoru suddenly realized that it was around noon, yet the man holding hadn't put on a single stitch of clothing.
"I thought you would be a bit sore," he teased as he moved towards the bathroom. Kaoru glared up at him and snorted.
"I wonder why?" She grumbled, feeling slightly irritable. He chuckled again and lowered his mouth to kiss her lightly before he opened the door. Kaoru suddenly noticed how easily he held her, as if he barely noticed her weight.
"You weren't complaining overly much last night, dazreel." He reminded her with golden eyes flickering over her face. "However," he bent down and Kaoru suddenly found herself immersed in water hot enough to almost burn. He brushed a finger down the arch of her nose and sighed. "My hot springs would have been much better but this will do, for now." Then he left her to soak out her soreness.
Kaoru stared at his retreating back (telling herself it had nothing to do with the fact that he was naked) and reached behind her to gather her now wet hair up and pin it to the top of her head. Then she sunk down low enough that the water hit the back of her neck.
What did he mean, for now? What on earth was he doing, talking about hot springs? Kaoru shivered a little as she remembered last night and his words, the hinting that she was to become a maiden. She chewed on her bottom lip. Count D had told her that this dragon could fulfill her desires but she should be careful, because sometimes you didn't want all your desires fulfilled.
Lying there, in the tub of water, she wondered if he hadn't meant something else. There was something in the dragon's eyes as he looked at her now, something possessive and dark and watchful. Even with the night before, even with the gentle teasing this morning, she wondered if she had gotten herself into something she would learn to hate. Everything he had done had hinted at a larger picture, had hinted at something she couldn't understand. As if she was his now and that meant she was only his. Biting her bottom lip even harder she stared at nothing.
He had been with her for almost a month now...what conclusions had he drawn about her desires? What was he going to do? Once the worst of the ache had left she stood up and turned on the shower and washed her body with her favorite jasmine soap and scrubbed her hair clean. Normal things. Soothing things. Things that had nothing to do with human skin that was almost scales and a tongue that did things that should have been illegal.
What about that sword last night? Her father had always complained that he could never find the exact origin, and last night...she didn't want to say it glowed. There had been something there, however; that suggested that it wasn't just a sword. The lingering scent of heat in the air, and she felt a surge of fear flutter in her belly at the idea that the bodies were still in her living room; why hadn't the alarms gone off last night?
Growling she stepped out of the shower and found her favorite comfort clothing waiting for her on the bed: big baggy pants a soft shirt. It was then, seeing him in her kitchen cooking bacon and another, larger slab of meat she knew she hadn't bought; recognizing the sword belted at the hips now clad in trousers. It was the way he turned and looked at her, the curious reflection of her form in his eyes, the way his mouth curved to show off teeth that were slightly pointed and the muscles in his shoulders; to show the raw power, that she understood. His eyes were all hot and claiming, and she felt the bottom of her stomach fall to her feet even as her heart rose into her throat. Pleasure that he could look at her like that, fury that he thought he could possess her and the unstated desire to be possessed all warred within her.
She wanted to be wanted. Wanted to be devoured by his eyes; had come to look forward to those little touches he gave her throughout the day. The brush of his fingers against the nap of her neck when she struggled with her emotions, she had become so used to the knowledge that, even as she shook with the remnants of the nightmare of her parents death, if she peeled back her blanket; a set of oddly set eyes would be watching her. Waiting for her to acknowledge him so he could...well, apparently ravish her senseless.
Licking suddenly dry lips she crossed the last barrier between them and met the claiming in his eyes with the unsurety of her own.
She supposed only time would tell.
My very first cross-over! Let me know what you think! And remember if you want the entire smut scene you will have to go to Guilty Pleasures or Shattered Theories. Guilty Pleasures is listed as my homepage and Shattered Theories's link shall be posted on my note section!
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