As it Was

Lasair watched out of the corner of her eye at his display of guilt, his further apology. Her lips pressed into a thin line – she’d accused him of meeting with someone else at the tavern and he told her she was right, and her heart twisted in violent jealousy, agonizing of how she’d not been enough. Who did he meet with to make his mood shift so completely? Who did he --

-no. No, she didn’t want to know. She’d stop having eyes on him, stop chaining him to her side, because it clearly brought tension between them she didn't care to experience twice. She didn’t want to hear of anyone else he ran to, she just wanted to have him when he was here with her.

He offered tender words and searched for something and offered it to her, letting it sink into her palm in a rustle of chain, and she could feel the spark of magic in it. She met his gaze, searching it, wanting so badly to believe him when he said the words she wanted most to hear, and let her eyes fall to the necklace, turning it to the candlelight.

She turned it gently, letting the golden light catch in its gem, as if it were amber and she could see what was caught within, its magic close kindred with hers. “A bird...?” She whispered, the meaning of it swelling in her chest with warmth, and she let out a breathless, quiet laugh. “I’ve never flown before.”

Her fingers closed around it, a symbol of his promise. She swallowed roughly against the rise of emotion, her gaze moving back to his soft smile, the way he always bit his lip in a way that always made her want to bite it for him, and she let her answer be the way she pulled it over her neck, letting it fall right over her sternum. With a hushed sigh of wanting, her hands found his shirt and pulled him in. She ached for a quiet moment with him, a return of who they used to be, who they were supposed to be before everything had gone wrong, and he was giving it to her, soothing the need to run away from it all – but at the same time, she also wanted his devilish grin, the way she sank her teeth into his skin to make him flinch and cry out underneath her, the pleasure mixing with the pain. Her gaze fell from his soft eyes to his lips, and she stifled the dissatisfaction in seeing him so gentle, craving the threat, the risk, when all else left her wanting -

- once again she stopped her train of thought. She shouldn’t think of it that way. She needed danger, even if it hurt, even if it broke her. As she pulled him closer, her lips just a moment away from his, she knew he was simply a different kind of dangerous. One that quietly stole her reason, infiltrating her defenses and turning the locks from the inside. He offered traitorous temptation of the sweetest kind, and she took it with a kiss, slow and patient, tasting every inch of him and his offered promise. He had every opportunity to ruin her completely, and it was that she leaned into.

Jericho had called her foolish earlier tonight, and she knew he was right.  

Her hands roamed all over his chest, finding the buttons and undoing them with a rising need until it slid to the floor in a hush of linen. She leaned her hips against the end table, unaware of how the candle was moved to the mantelpiece in a hurry as she sat on the end table’s surface, pulling him to stand between her legs, inviting him to hike up her skirts and make do on his promise, to take her before she could think to regret letting him in.