Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or anything associated with the concept. This goes for Chapter 8 as well because I forgot to put the disclaimer at the top.
AN: I would like to thank those who have read and reviewed this story and the first chapter of my new work which will be a collection of one shots called Playing Games. I greatly appreciate your praise and suggestions and I hope to tie up . . . (Miroku is now sitting next to me looking expectantly at me with his hands clasped under his chin. No, Miroku, I'm not going to tie up anybody. So get your mind out of the gutter. "I didn't say anything." Yeah, but you were thinking it, now go away before I call Sango. Miroku gets up and slowly backs away from me in fear.) I hope to tie up a few loose ends left over from other chapters in this chapter.
Chapter 9 – Are You Serious?
On the drive to the penthouse, Sesshomaru's beast still felt very playful from the earlier events and encouraged his master to play a game with their intended. Sesshomaru grinned and reached his long arm over to Kagome and placed his hand on her knee squeezing it. Watching the city's night skyline through the window had lulled Kagome into a hypnotic state. She was almost asleep when she jumped as the result of Sesshomaru squeezing her knee. "God, Sessho!" She exclaimed as she swatted his hand away, "Why'd you do that?"
"Because I felt like it," was his reply.
"Well, don't," she was now seething, "You scared the jeebies out of my heebies!"
"Fine," Sesshomaru said. As soon as she turned to look out the window, he grinned and squeezed her just above the knee making her jump again.
"Stop it!" Kagome whined as she swatted his hand away once more with a little more gusto.
"Sorry, I just couldn't help my self," he apologized in a playful tone as he shrugged his shoulders. She narrowed her eyes at him before crossing her arms and looking strait ahead, the whole time she was trying not to laugh.
He put his possessed hand on the steering wheel to lure Kagome into a false sense of security and it worked. She still had her arms crossed signifying she was annoyed with him, but she had turned back to look out her window only to keep him from seeing the grin tugging at her lips. He grinned again. This time he slipped his hand onto her inner thigh making her jerk her body sideways against the door. She swatted his hand and then attacked the rest of his arm several times with both of her hands making him pull his hand off of her so he could defend himself from her battery, all the while the dog demon was chuckling at her annoyance with him.
"Sesshomaru," she tried to sound angry but she couldn't help but giggle while she was hitting him, "You jerk! I told you to stop. You're gonna' wreck the car and get us killed!" She finally stopped her attack and shifted back to the position she was in before he laid his hand on her. She turned to him and hit him one more time for good measure.
"Okay, okay," Sesshomaru said breathless from his laughing. He quickly regained his composure and became serious, "I'll stop."
Kagome turned back to face the front but watched him from the corner of her eye. They both grinned as he once again let his hand stray to her leg. This time she grabbed the frisky appendage and laced their fingers together, "Not this time, mister," she said holding her captured trophy in the air showing him he had been defeated.
He pulled their hands to his lips so he could kiss her knuckles and then lowered their linked hands to the space between them. He smiled and sarcastically said, "Alright, I know when I'm out witted." Kagome opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind but was interrupted by him saying, "Oh, look. We've arrived," as he pulled his trapped hand out of hers and placed it back on the steering wheel. He turned into the underground parking garage and came to a stop when he reached his parking space. They exited the vehicle and met at the rear of the car. Sesshomaru opened the trunk and pulled out Kagome's bag then closed the trunk.
When they got to the penthouse elevator, Sesshomaru pulled out his key to open the doors. Once inside the elevator, Kagome went to one side and Sesshomaru followed her in turning to face the button laden panel and activated the button to the penthouse. When he turned back around to join her, he saw that she moved to the opposite side from him. He gave her a questioning look and started to move next to her but stopped when she said, "No way, Jose. You stay over there so I can keep an eye on that Miroku-possessed hand of yours."
There was an awkward silence between the two before the elevator came to a stop and opened up to the spacious penthouse. Kagome made a move to enter Sesshomaru's home but he stopped her, "Wait right there," he commanded as he stepped to the entrance and bent over to put her bag inside. When he bent over, Kagome could not resist the urge – it was as if his well muscled butt was had a sign that said "pinch me." He jerked up with wide eyes as she goosed him and quickly turned to face a grinning Kagome. His eyes narrowed at her as he scooped her up bridal style and accused her, "Now who has the Miroku-possessed hand?"
"Sesshomaru," Kagome protested, "What are you doing?"
"This is the first time you've been to my place." He said as he carried her inside, "I wanted to carry you across the threshold as my mate but, since we are not mated yet, I'm going to carry you across now."
"Awe," Kagome cooed as she kissed one of the stripes on his cheek, "You're such a romantic."
Sesshomaru set her on her feet and cupped her face with his hands, staring into her eyes. As he leaned in to kiss her, Kagome closed her eyes and relished the way his lips gently brushed against hers. He pulled back and brushed his thumbs across her cheeks. When she opened her eyes he smiled at her and said, "Why don't you go get ready for bed? I'll be there in a second."
"Okay," she said in a daze as she walked in the direction he pointed for her to go.
As soon as she was out of sight, his smile faded and he quickly tip toed over to his CD collection next to the stereo system. He quickly ran his finger up and down the rows of CDs looking for the music the Kagome had mentioned earlier that had better not be in his music repertoire. Sesshomaru did not realize that he had so many of the said CDs Kagome disliked. Almost one quarter of his collection was sappy make out music. He looked around for a place to stash them. A place she would never look, 'aha', he exclaimed to himself as he ran over to the oversized urn he used to store his umbrellas. "Sesshomaru," Kagome called out causing him to carelessly dump the CDs into the urn causing some of them to slide inside one of the umbrellas, "do you have a shirt I could borrow to sleep in?"
He scooped up her bag and hurried into the bedroom just barely missing running into her. "I thought I said you would not need to wear anything when you are in bed with me," he reminded her as he set her bag on the bed and took off his shoes and socks.
"But," she started, "I don't feel comfortable being naked with you right now." She watched him move his hands to his belt to unbuckle it and then unbutton and unzip his pants to pull out the bottom of his shirt. In doing so, he showed her his ripped lower abs causing her to blush deeply and quickly avert her eyes. She could not believe he was casually stripping in front of her as if they had been mates for years.
"I don't see why not," he said and smirked as he removed his shirt to reveal his remarkably sexy well built upper torso to his shy female. "You're not shy about wearing a bikini around me, besides, we'll be seeing each other naked – a lot," he emphasized the last part of his remark by wiggling his eyebrows as he dropped the shirt on the floor.
Kagome bit her lip in frustration and said, "Fine, I'll wear a bra and underwear to bed." She looked at him just as he slid his pants down to his ankles and kicked them off next to the shirt. She swallowed hard as he was now wearing only black silk boxers that she thought made him look super sexy.
"Alright," he said slyly as he opened her bag and reached inside pulling out two articles of the same colored lingerie, one of them being the thong he insisted she pack, "but you have to wear these." He dangled the delicate under garments in front of Kagome who snatched them from his grasp and mumbled "Fine" under her breath as she headed to the bathroom to change.
While he waited for Kagome to come out of the bathroom, he set the alarm clock, removed his boxers and got into bed under the covers. He lay on his right side with his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles as he propped himself up on his right elbow. He positioned the covers so they were resting across his waist revealing only his upper body to her when she exited the bathroom. Sesshomaru heard the bathroom door opening. He and his beast were anxious to lay their eyes the sight they were about to see. Both were extremely disappointed to see Kagome in his big terry cloth bathrobe. He sighed heavily and cocked a questioning eyebrow at her. Her shoulders slumped in defeat and once more said, "Fine." She untied the robe and let it slide off her body onto the floor revealing, much to his delight, her very skimpily clad body.
This time it was her turn to sigh heavily and cock a questioning eyebrow at him. Sesshomaru smirked as held out the clawed index finger of his left hand and pointed it down while making a circling motion in the air indicating he wanted her to turn in a circle for him. She rolled her eyes and quickly turned in a circle. "Again, please," he requested, "slower this time."
"Are you serious," she asked in an irritated tone. His only reply was him smirking while he twirled his finger. This time she complied with Sesshomaru's request. She turned around little by little allowing him to absorb the sight of her curves and beautiful skin. As she turned to reveal her back, he began to become aroused at the sight of her uncovered rear end. 'Gods, how I love thongs,' he thought. He was brought out of his fantasizing when she asked, "Can I get in the bed now, I'm really tired and I need to go to school tomorrow."
"Certainly," Sesshomaru answered as he pulled back her side of the covers and patted the spot next to him, "Come on in. I won't bite . . . much." He grinned at her as she gave him a look of irritation.
She slid into the spot next to him with her back towards him and pulled the covers up to her neck before saying, "Not tonight, dear. I have a headache caused by the 15 stitches in the back of my head." She thought to her self, 'There, that bucket of ice cold water should put out any burning desires he had for tonight.'
Sesshomaru's grin faded as a look of concern washed over his face. Keeping the covers between them, he pulled her towards him until she was tightly snuggled against his chest. He gently kissed her head wound and moved down to her neck to nuzzle it. "I'm sorry, I did forget. You make me forget just about everything when I'm with you," he confessed.
"Just like you forgot to turn out the light," she asked playfully. He laughed a little and reached behind him to turn off the bedside lamp. She took his left hand as he placed back on her waist and linked it with her own left hand. She pulled it to her lips and kissed his knuckles before she curled their hands in between her breasts just over her heart and fell asleep. Sesshomaru and his beast were content with this display of affection. With the signature Inu yokai purr rolling from his chest, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.