There was snow on the way. A few tiny crystals stung Karai's nostrils as she leaned into the wind despite the cold pressing icy fingers into her face and head, barely protected by her closely-shorn hair. Still, she drank deeply of this freedom; she preferred having the space to breathe for herself over warmth any day.
It was late night, the sky colored pale yellow with a thick coating of high, murky clouds. The wind stung her eyes as she squinted into the shifting shadows of the back city streets below. She had been staring at the same manhole cover for hours, her body frozen in a crouch: This, her father's information network told her, was where they came and went.
Karai smirked, almost imperceptibly. They were supposed to be ninja, presumably trained since early childhood, and yet they didn't have the sense to disguise their movements properly. In their shoes, she would pick a different manhole every night, making the bulk of her movements below ground where she couldn't be seen.
In the midst of her analytical reverie, a tiny sound reached her ears, drawing her out: the tiniest *clink* of metal on concrete. She stared more intently, but there was no movement near the manhole cover.
In a bare instant, her ninjatou was out of the sheath. Before Karai had made even half her range of motion, her arm was stopped dead. Now she didn't think, didn't even look, just fought with the instinct of a cornered tiger. It made no difference. Her fighting was more like squirming, really; her blade was tossed aside as easily as a kite in a gale. Scarlet lips curled into a snarl, she glared at her attacker.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?"
Despite her mindless struggling, she had sensed the correct answer immediately. His musky cinnamon scent and pattern of warmth were familiar to her. Tawny brown eyes met acid green, both narrowed to predatory slits as they faced off on this shadowy rooftop.
Raphael ignored the question, knowing it was rhetorical anyway. Furthermore, despite her fighting skill, her weight was less than a feather against his. Grabbing her slim shoulders hard enough to leave bruises later, he backed Karai into the brick wall behind them, fencing her in with his sheer muscular bulk.
She was trapped. No, more than trapped: immobilized. Karai's knee swung out, looking for a sensitive target, but he caught it easily. She felt hot breath washing over her ear and neck, seemingly that whole side of her body, then a low growl that vibrated her entire being.
"Stay away from us."
"Fuck you."
He seemed nonplussed by that. If anything, Raphael leaned in closer, and Karai suddenly found herself drowning in his heat; it was as if the January night around them had never existed. Now, he spoke so close to her ear that she could feel the moisture on her skin.
"Stay away from my brother."
It was risky, Karai knew, to anger this one. He was the strongest and the most ruthless of the four; when he'd caught her following them to TCRI, he'd been merciless in twisting her arm behind her and holding her down. It was the devil in her that let out a mocking laugh now despite that memory, or perhaps because of it.
"Why? He's cute. So sweet, always concerned for everyone else..." She stared at him, and Raphael could practically feel a dagger cutting into his soul, revealing everything to her. "Nothing like you...maybe I'd like to show him some real fun."
The lilt on those last two words left no doubt in Raphael's mind what she was referring to. He suddenly realized just how close he was to Karai; closer than he'd ever been to a woman, closer than he'd ever dreamed of being to one. Her scent was thick, heady with sandalwood and anise and a hint of fear, and something in him snapped.
The growl in Karai's ear was a little softer this time, infused with a hint of breathlessness.
"He can't handle your 'real fun.'" The skin of his nose was a bit cooler than the rest of his body, making her shudder as Raphael nuzzled almost imperceptibly into the supremely sensitive space where her neck and ear met. "Stay away from him."
Dimly, Karai was aware of the heat rising in her face. No, her entire body. She sensed that this was a moment on the brink, that he might put her down and let her go if she just agreed to leave his precious big brother alone.
The devil made her smirk.
"I don't take orders from you, Red. I can teach him how to handle it." In the next instant, her mind calmly announced what she had truthfully known well before she spoke: Wrong answer.
Now Karai was pressed back into the bricks with such force that she felt stonework between her ribs. She gasped for air as suddenly his lips covered hers, and from the clumsy urgency of his kiss, she knew it was an answer he'd half been hoping for. There was no hesitation in his tongue plundering her mouth, surprisingly sharp teeth nipping at her tongue and lips until they felt heavy and swollen.
Raphael pulled away at last, watching her face. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, smoldering golden fire at him under thick black lashes. She was so flushed that he vaguely wondered if it could be Karai's first kiss too...no, it couldn't be. He didn't smile, but the intensity of his expression was almost frightening as he stared at her for a long, tense, moment.
Karai let out a startled half-squawk of surprise as the wall of heat left her. He had dropped to his knees in front of her, still pushing her against the wall, but now holding her by the knees instead. She couldn't resist fighting for the sake of fighting, but it had as much impact as breathing; powerful three-fingered hands forced her thighs apart, draping her legs over broad shoulders.
Though he fumbled momentarily in the haze of lust, Raphael pulled one sai from his belt. Catching the rounded tip in a fold of her tights, he grunted with the sheer force it took to rip the tough fabric. Karai's inner thighs were ghostly white under the pale night sky, her spicy scent even stronger here. The panties she wore were nothing more than a scrap of black sheer and red ribbon, sending a lasting bolt of raw aching need through him. She was so womanly, yet so tiny, that he was sure he could eat her in one bite.
At first she felt only nuzzling against her less sensitive outer lips through the thin fabric, but that was enough to put Karai on edge and turn her to a liquid all at once. She had to bite her tongue to keep from begging him not to stop, though she knew from his inferno of a temper and steely will that there was no danger of that. Her panties were quickly soaked, though she couldn't tell if it was from her body or his mouth.
The wet fabric molded to every contour of her perfectly-formed sheath, like rain sheeting over a jungle orchid, and Raphael couldn't resist tracing each curve with his tongue. He had seen enough video to know what to do, but he took his time, teasing slowly up the shallow cleft at the center. He wanted to stop, just for the sake of taunting her, but some force beyond himself was urging him on now.
Unwittingly, Karai had wrapped her legs around his thick neck, trying to force him closer. He caught the wispy material of her panties in his teeth, pulling them aside with a slight snarl until he could fully bury his face in this luscious, sweetly-scented nest.
"Oh!" Though he was totally unskilled, Karai barely held back a scream as the thick and muscular tongue swept over her seemingly electrified flesh. It dipped into her hole, laving out creamy moisture that he licked up as hungrily as if it were honey, then returning to play over her clit. The way she jerked away when he lapped at the swollen bud so roughly made him ease back almost instinctively; as he sucked and traced circles on it, her legs tightened so much that he felt lightheaded. Raphael chuckled, earning a hiss of pleasure as the deep sound vibrated her, nearly sending her over the edge.
"So, it isn't just my brother you wanted." His voice was sardonic and amused all at once, so thick with lust that he could barely get the words out.
"Maybe." Karai's mouth was utterly dry, her voice cracked when she spoke.
"Then let me give you something to remember me by." In a smooth motion, Raphael was on his feet again. The muscular thigh shoved between Karai's own rubbed against her mound made her whole body ache with pleasure just out of reach, and she again bit her tongue to stop herself from begging him to touch her again.
There was a tiny, odd tenderness in the motion as Raphael leaned in to kiss the side of her neck, content for a moment to breathe in the essence of Karai even as he still tasted the sweet tang of her juices on the back of his tongue. He had been so caught up in teasing her that he'd temporarily forgotten his own painfully insistent arousal, and seeing her utterly surrendered and needing against the wall brought a new rush of blood.
Karai moaned and tilted her head back as he covered her neck in tiny, yet almost brutally hard, bites. It was as though he couldn't help it, like he was trying to devour her, and she felt a hazy fear in the back of her mind. What if he was really more animal than human? What if he mated with her and then killed her, or something worse? With a careless flick of his wrist, the armor she wore was gone; Raphael paused just long enough to tear the skintight black fabric beneath away from her breasts. Karai didn't get a chance to feel even a ghost of the cold air before his head was buried in her cleavage, suckling at the pale flesh and leaving red marks in his wake. She snapped out of her fear as she felt his hand, strongly and oddly warm, cupping her face.
"Look at me, Karai."
With a slight moan, she did so. The green eyes were storm-dark now, clouded with desire and, all the same, a steely and unyielding determination. Raphael held her gaze, forcing her to meet his own as his hand moved between their bodies.
"What the f-" What she felt against her thigh was nearly eight inches long, thicker than any she had ever felt, and hotter than his tongue and fingers by magnitudes. Instinctively, wildly, Karai tried to pull away as the felt the bulbed head probed her still soaked and limpid outer petals; her body was still pleading for him despite that bolt of fear that had already dissolved into a sheer ache of wanting.
"How...wh..." The last word was clipped as the pleasure stole her words. Though she felt utterly impaled on a hot length of steel, stretching and probing her to the point of pain, his manhood was covered in hundreds of tiny bumps that massaged her inside, setting nerve endings on fire. She was electrically aware of being slowly, roughly, fucked up the brick wall; rough stone scraped the back of Karai's neck, but she the slight pain was just a delicious counterpoint to the slow-burning, slow-building ecstasy that spread through her center. His mouth had found one nipple, already painfully hard from the cold and her arousal; he scraped his teeth roughly against the velvety skin, then soothed it with a hot and wet tongue.
Karai's hands were restless now, fingertips literally itching with the need to touch him. Grabbing for his shoulders, she found purchase at last, digging her sharp little nails into his biceps, rock-hard with power and his own tension. If he noticed the prickle of pain, it didn't show in the unrelenting thrust of Raphael's hips between her legs, punishing her and pleasuring her with every brutally deep stroke. Her brain was screaming for more oxygen, pressed so tightly between the wall and his equally hard and unforgiving body as she panted shallowly for every breath.
"I can't...I'm going to...someone will-" Karai moaned over the words, reaching for him without thinking, trying to bury her face in his shoulder. He pushed her away from him, back into the wall. His lips were hot on her neck and ear once more, and Raphael's voice was a half-growl, half-rumbling purr that filled her senses.
"Go ahead and scream." He didn't care if anyone heard; he just wanted to see the ice-cold kunoichi lose control. He nipped at the hollow of her throat. "Just be sure it's the right name." She felt him smirk against her skin, and suddenly a cry of pleasure was ripped from her lungs as the bubble of ecstasy burst inside her, setting every neuron on fire. Karai didn't know his damn name and didn't care; she was lost in a private tsunami of sensation.
"Oh yeah, fuck yes..." Another animal growl against Karai's neck made her moan; every bit of her skin was still supremely sensitive, and even his breath seemed to set her on fire. It turned into a strangled groan as Raphael thrust one last time, releasing a lifetime of barely-leashed rage and frustration in a spurt of seemingly molten heat that bathed her insides.
Dimly, Karai became aware once more of the wind around them, now sharp with big flurries of snow. The heat was gone from their embrace, and the full weight of what they'd done descended on her.
"Put me down, you asshole." He obliged uncomplainingly, setting her on one of the few dry patches left on the concrete roof. Her clothing was so torn now as to be useless. She could feel the still-warm liquid leaking out of her, dripping down her bare inner thighs and puddling on the ground beneath. She glared up at Raphael, only to find him looking at her with some unreadable emotion: not hatred or scorn, but something more thoughtful. When their eyes met, he turned away.
"I still don't know your name." The words flew unbidden from Karai's mouth, angry and impulsive. It was just sex, why should she care about his name? There was a hesitation before he spoke.
"Raphael." He glanced more than briefly in her direction, and Karai was transfixed by the angry heat in his gaze, still tinged with lust. His expression now was not quite hateful, perhaps not as mistrusting as before, but it was stony and cold. Though he spoke quietly, his words carried on the wind as surely as if he were inside her again, purring in her ear.
"Never come near my brother again, Karai." In the dimness, she thought she caught a blade-thin smile. "Next time, you won't get off so easily."