Koi

From a distance I watch a seemingly happy couple. They stand close to each other, arms almost touching. The young woman says something to make the man laugh, the smile reaching his eyes causing her to blush. The couple walks a little further, snaking their way around the koi pond. The man takes her elbow and walks her off the path to sit near the water's edge. As I watch I must tense to keep myself from moving closer to keep the same amount of distance between us as was ingrained in me from years of training, for they are not an ordinary couple.

Remembering this I am comforted. She is not only his companion but the assassin Ayla. For just as she is no ordinary woman, he is no ordinary man. He is the young King Yakoh and he is in love with his hired assassin and body guard. Sensing that they require privacy, and knowing that Ayla was more than capable of protecting the young king , I moved on to relieve another guard of his duty.

"Ah, this feels so much better," Ayla said leaning back on her hands as she moved her feet through the cool water of the koi pond, stirring up the fish as she did so.

"Yes it is a rather warm day for so late in October. Maybe we should retreat to the indoors to get you out of the sun, your cheeks are flushed," Yakoh replied reaching out to touch her cheek for emphasis.

Ayla didn't want to admit it to him but it wasn't the unusual heat of the day that caused the blood in her cheeks to rise to the surface. She had spent all afternoon and the better part of the morning with Yakoh and still had trouble adjusting to his casual touch and depth of his eyes when he looked at her.

"I'm fine really, besides it would be just as warm inside only more so without the winds gentle breezes. I would much rather remain here beside the pond," Ayla sincerely told him, only in her mind she added with you.

"Whatever pleases you. As it is, I happen to rather enjoy being here with you, watching you wiggle your toes at the fish like worms to catch. It is a suitable place for us don't you think?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, but I do like it very much."

Taking Ayla by the hand and gently rubbing the smooth skin of the top with the pad of his thumb, Yakoh spoke softly, "I only meant that knowing that koi means not only carp but also love and affection, this place suits us well. I know, Ayla that I have not told you in so many words that I love you, but I hope that I have shown you well enough for you to know it."

By now Ayla had nearly completely stopped. What pathetic amount of air she was able to pull in was ragged and sounded harsh even to her own ears. She forced a deep breath into her lungs and concentrated on pushing it back out without shaking. Could he really mean it? She had always suspected that maybe he had a small amount of feelings for her but love had never seemed possible to her. Always she told herself that he was a king and could not love her. She was thinking about this again when she was startled to realize just how close Yakoh was sitting beside her. Has he been that way all this time?



Too busy with her thoughts, Ayla hadn't realize she had moved her hand over her heart and wore a look of anxious hope upon her face. With her brow slightly furrowed around her light, slightly unfocused, golden brown eyes, and full bottom lip pulled between her teeth, Yakoh had grow concerned and moved closer.

Now that Ayla had come back to herself, she made eye contact with Yakoh and saw all that she needed to know to be sure that he loved her. How could she have ever doubted his love? It was written so clearly on his face and even more in the deep emotion of his dark chocolate brown eyes. They positively glowed with his heart warming love for her, sending it out not in arrows of light but in sizzling strikes of lightning that repetitively hit home in her own heart with warmth that reached deep down inside her and spread throughout.

So much for trying to catch my breath. Ayla's breathing had once again become unreliable. She fought to maintain a steady rhythm and focus on him at the same time. He was so close. She could smell him, feel the heat that radiated from his body. She decided to study his face as she worked to remember how to breath.

He had a slight, thin scar that ran jaggedly across and bellow his left eyebrow. She remembered him telling her how it happened playing as a child, and decided it made him all the more handsome. His bottom lip was slightly fuller that the top and she found herself stuck on that one spot. Unconsciously she slowly licked her own, suddenly dry lips as she stared at his full pink ones.

Then so slowly she hardly realized he was moving until it was too late, not that she would have stopped him, he brushed the back of his knuckles along the edge of her jaw to the base of her head, cradling it in his hand. He slowly moved closer to give her plenty of time to pull away, to stop him if she wanted to. She didn't want to. When their lips touched for the very first time a small sigh escaped Ayla's mouth without her permission and her eyes closed of their own accord as well. But she could care less because Yakoh was kissing her. He was trying to show her that he loved her by gently rubbing his lips against hers as if he could possibly be enjoying this as much as she was.

Suddenly the kiss turned from soft and loving to fierce and demanding. He pulled her face closer to his with the hand he was now cupping her face with. She didn't mind this kiss at all. She actually liked the feel of it and knowing that he needed her just as much as she needed him and she began to kiss him back in earnest now.

Ayla slid the tip of her tongue out to taste his and his became searching and found what he wanted. Her response was more than he could have hoped for. And it turned him on. But he held his testosterone filled hormones at bay because none of that mattered right now. Nothing mattered right now. Not his kingdom, not sex, not that guards were watching them like a hawk. All that mattered right now was that he was kissing her and he knew that she loved him too.

It was in the way that she kissed him, always hungry to keep it going and to feel his lips against her own. It was in the way she mewled a soft sigh of pleasure as he took her bottom lip between his teeth and the way she wrapped her arms around him to bring him closer, to feel more of him.



He wrapped his hands in her hair and held her more firmly to administer the next wave of kisses upon her. Closing his eyes he wished that this moment, their first kiss, would last forever. Knowing all to well that it would be too brief for either of them, but hoping for the opportunity for more.