Assailant
He is glad that he had decided to step away from her, glad that he could witness her reaction. The sight of tears coursing down her cheeks stirs a conflicting ache in his chest; at first, there is an overwhelming desire to reach the ends of the earth in an effort to stem their flow. On the other hand, he sees a raw vulnerability as they fall and he finds them, finds her, to be devastatingly beautiful.
Her apology is barely audible, but he shakes his head as it comes out. Then, it is nearly forgotten as she sinks into his offered embrace. A deep purr of satisfaction rumbles through his chest as he wraps his wing around her possessively. So great is his awe of the natural fit of their bodies pressed together, one might think that they’d never done this before.
Although, in a way, they haven’t. Before this moment, there had been so much nervous tension between them, every touch laden with hesitancy as they both tried to determine the depth of the other’s affection. Now, the electricity that sparks at the feel of her lips against his neck is magnified tenfold by the acceptance he has found in her remorseful eyes.
She steals the very breath from his lungs as she trails her kisses down to his chest and he instinctively turns to tuck the top of her head into the arch of his neck. Remembering her words, he huffs lightly; it is not to dismiss her apology entirely, but rather to convey his disapproval at her attempt to assume full blame for their separation. She may have been the one to walk away, but he was not without fault. He lifts his head to press his lips to the spot between her ears, where he nibbles at the red and gold hair as he murmurs softly, “I am sorry as well. I should have taken your concerns more seriously.”
The warmth she exhales onto his chest is comforting as is, but when she tells him that she needs him too, an entirely new sensation ignites and spreads through his body like wildfire. He recalls how he had been going back and forth on how he would manipulate flames if he could, on whether he would destroy or protect. For a terrifying moment, his anger had flared so high and hot that he’d toyed with the idea of using flames to give her a taste of the torment her desertion had given him.
But, now that he is here, clinging so desperately to the most precious thing in his world, he knows that even if they never crossed paths again, even if it meant eternity of nightmares after finding her with someone else, he cared too much to watch her go down in flames of his own creation. He would have destroyed himself if it meant shielding her from futher heartache. But he is thoroughly grateful that fate has given them another chance and if he could, he would use the fire in his chest to build a fortress that no harm could ever penetrate.
He believes her to be finished speaking and he is content to continue their embrace in silence, but then she whispers again into his chest. The warmth that had bloomed beneath her lips flares into an inferno and once again, he is acutely aware of the time of year. A shiver races the length of his spine, carrying the heat with it so that it can settle elsewhere.
But now is not the moment, so with great effort, he restrains himself yet again. He does not feel a need to put her through any paces to prove her loyalty, the fact that she is here, that she has faced her fear and expressed the truth in her heart. That is what he has needed all this time. He pulls away from her, his body shuddering at the loss of contact. He positions himself so that he is facing her now and he touches his nose to hers. He lingers there for a while, then slowly drags his lips along the curve of her mouth, then the side of her face until he eventually lays his cheek against hers.
“Nothing,” he says quietly. He is not sure that she still needs to know, but he decides to give her the comfort that he should have given her that night. “There has been no one since I first laid eyes on you. I am yours, only yours, for as long as you will have me.”
His mouth moves against her again, silently expressing his desire to know every inch of her, to show another side of his devotion to her. He can feel his willpower giving way to the wickedness rising within him, but still, he takes his time in grazing his teeth along her neck, over her shoulder, over the length of her spine. As he reaches the dock of her tail, he bites at her flesh more firmly than he had been. His breath falls heavily over her skin as he asks, “Why don’t you let me show you just how much I need you?”
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware
--Martin Buber
@Adriana