Koi – chapter 2

Just as if his very thoughts had summoned him, a guard appeared a few feet behind them and cleared his throat. Reluctantly Yakoh broke the kiss he wanted so much to continue and disentangled his hands from Ayla's full honey colored hair but replaced it with her hand, before looking at the guard.

Trying to keep his calm he asked "Yes?"

Bowing before Yakoh the guard said, "My lord I am sorry to interrupt, please forgive me. Your mother has sent me to attain a meeting with you for dinner. She asked of me to wait for your reply."

That woman is nothing but trouble. Of course I would be meeting with her for dinner as I have been for the past three nights that she's asked it of me. She must be somewhere near by spying upon me and Ayla. Well let her!

"Of course I will be there. Please tell her to meet me in the main dining hall at six. You may take your leave now."

"Yes your highness." With that the guard bowed graciously to Yakoh and nodded to Ayla before turning on his heal and walking towards the castle.

Ayla didn't know what to do. She had just been enjoying the happiest moment of her life, and it had been interrupted by the guard, but she didn't blame him. It was her, Yakoh's mother, Yukika who was nothing like the snow flower she was named after. A carnivorous flower would do her more justice as a description. Yukika was very beautiful especially for a woman of such advance age, but she was as deadly with her tongue and hateful heart as a flower that uses its beauty to lure in innocent victims.

Lately her choice of prey had been Ayla. Yukika did not approve of the growing relationship between her son and the hired help. It simply made Ayla sick to her stomach to think about how Yakoh's mother treated her when he wasn't around. She would not cry to him about it. That was out of the question. She had to be strong for him, to protect him, to be with him. With that last thought she smiled up at Yakoh and told him that she loved him.

Yakoh was stunned. He had waited such a long time to hear those very words come from her. He just didn't want them coming from the train of thought he knew Ayla was having. Even if she didn't tell him how his mother treated her, he heard about it around the castle, and he knew that it was Ayla's determination to be with him despite what Yukika wanted that made her say she loved him.

Frowning to himself he whispered to her without looking at her face, "I wish you would've told me without my mother's face in your mind. I can fix that."

He swept her in to his arms and made sure that she was looking him in the eyes so that she could see the love he had for her before he kissed her. He kissed her like he was a starved man who wanted nothing more than to eat his fill of her and leave nothing left of her to be shared with anyone else.



Slowly her response grew to the same heightened amount of intensity as his. She pressed herself closer to him, wanting to feel the length of him along her body, a small sigh of pleasure escaping her as she did so. There was something important that she needed to tell him, but she couldn't remember. All the kissing had made her dizzy.

She pulled slightly away from Yakoh so that she could see his face. It was beautiful. She fancied that it was the face of an angel and felt a warm tingling sensation run amuck in her stomach and she knew what it was that she wanted to tell him. Yakoh however, seemed to have other thoughts on his mind as he made clear by rubbing his lips along her jaw line and sprinkling kissing down her neck to her collarbone.

Wiggling further away from him she took his face into her hands to still his impatience at kissing her again. She couldn't resist and stole a whisper of a kiss before saying, "Yakoh, I love you. I love you more than the air I breathe or the ground I stand on. You have always been the anchor that holds me to this life and I want to be with you."

"I love you too Ayla. More than anything, I love you."

His body tensed as he heard and said the words he needed to hear to survive. He knew she felt him by the way her face turned a deeper shade of red, if that was even possible, and she shifted her eyes to look bashfully up at him. He wanted her so badly it hurt.

Thoughts of taking her right then and there ran through his mind, but he knew she wouldn't approve of such a public display. I could always take her to my room and order the guards to stay away for an hour, two hours…all night. No that would never work his nosey mother would come to investigate, demanding to know why he hadn't shown up for dinner. Then there was the fact that Ayla was still a virgin. He didn't want her first time to be rough and he didn't know if he could be as careful with her as he wanted to right now.

The only thing left to do was to leave her right now, because if he didn't, well she would have to be ok with a public show. He pulled away from her, holding her body at arm's length away. He saw the confusion on her face as she took in the way he was holding her and for a minute hurt flashed in her eyes but was quickly gone.

She was smart and understood what he was doing without having to be told; still, she would like to hear him say it. She wanted to hear him tell her how much he wanted her to… Before she could finish her train of thought he spoke it aloud for her.

"This, what is happing between us is like a lightning storm. I feel the electric fire deep inside of every part of my body and it craves for an outlet to ground it. As fiercely as I want you Ayla, I do not want you to get burned by the storm raging within me."

"But I feel it too." Ayla wasn't as willing to end her newly declared passion for him to end. She pushed her way back into his arms rather than being held away by them and pressed her lips to the hollow at the base of his throat. "I feel the lightning strikes hitting me in waves rather than short bursts, they roll 

and twist in my belly. Their hot tongues lash out at my heart and wrap themselves around it forcing it to beat erratically. It doesn't burn. It is just a taste that leaves me craving more."

"Please, don't tell me things like that. They are exactly what I want to hear but far from what I need to hear. I do love you Ayla but I must go for now to let the fire settled before it consumes me. Meet me for a walk tonight through the gardens I won't accept no for an answer."

"I love you. I will be here."

The held each other for a long moment the only sound that which nature makes and their heartbeats. Careful not to linger Yakoh kissed her gently on her full soft lips and backed away, not as quickly as before and walked back towards the castle.

Ayla couldn't move. She didn't want to. She stood there watching him walk away, but frequently turning to look at her as if to be sure she was still there. She didn't want to move an inch for fear of losing the feeling of his kiss on her lips. Eventually she turned to face the pond again and sat down as she had before with her toes in the water. She still didn't want to leave, this was the place Yakoh first told her he loved her.

At some point she must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew the sky was begging to purple on the horizon. It was beautiful. The clouds danced like pink water lilies on blue-purple lake. The sun was a warm orange and Ayla wished that Yakoh was here to see it with her.

Tucking her legs beneath herself she sat up and stared at it much like when she was a child sitting in her mother's lap. She would sing to Ayla and rock her side to side while stroking her honey-blonde hair. That was the way a mother should act. She sighed to herself and was thankful that she still had her wonderful mother. She had lost her father but was able to get through that with the help of her loving mother, Manami.

Mother. Hmp.

Yakoh's mother was nothing like Ayla's mother. Where Manami's character was that of love and encouragement, Yukika was a woman of rules and discipline. Manami would reward good behavior or a job well done with hug or sweets if available. All poor Yakoh had receive as a child for good behavior or learning something new was a new task or assignment that would help him to be a better king.

Even now as an amazing king, his mother still tried to interfere with his life or push him into the direction she believed would help him to be better still.

Ayla knew that Yakoh loved his mother very much, but that it was hard for him to like her. It made her sad to know that the one she loved so much didn't have the same motherly love did. Well he could… No. She refused to think that way, especially so soon. To think of him asking him to marry her was simply preposterous. After all he's the king and she is only a guard in a sense. Still, I can at least dream.



She rose to her feet as the thought of how it could be, a slight smile on her face, and stretched her limbs to remove the cricks that had formed while being immobile for so long. Her stomach growled impatiently at her and she remembered that she hadn't eaten since early that morning. Better go see if mother has anything delicious left of dinner.

As she walked toward the part of the castle where her family was quartered she became aware of the lack of guards on patrol. She was puzzled, but not overly worried about it after all she could handle it if someone were to attack her.

Ayla immediately understood why there were such few guards the moment she heard Yukika call out to her from behind. She had ordered them to different parts of the castle so that she could ambush Ayla and harass her without any witnesses to inform Yakoh.

Taking a deep breath for encouragement, Ayla braced herself and turned to meet the eyes of the woman who wished to destroy her new found happiness.