Deep breath…Get into position… ATTACK!
Ensei groaned inwardly. If he was recalling Master Nan's sage advice on kissing, then he really needed to take a deep breath and clear his thoughts. The most he'd gotten out of that wisdom had been a black eye and a broom over his head until he ran away from the brothel girl who'd been the object of his…attentions. At least Master Nan got a lot of mileage out of telling the story, Ensei recalled and his ears burned.
Still, at this moment, with Jyuusan-hime cuddled enticingly against his chest, he might as well have been a kid again. His palms were clammy and his mouth was dry, and he was painfully certain his cheeks were glowing a bright red. Even the butterflies in his stomach had fainted and were now clumped together like a brick lodged in his gut. He inhaled deeply and swallowed the air stuck in his throat.
Ugh. He couldn't remember how to do it.
That is, he knew how to plant one on a barmaid to get himself free sake for the night, but Jyuusan-hime was no barmaid, despite her roguish tendencies. He'd never kissed a princess before, and well…it was damned intimidating for a guy like him.
What the hell? Get it together, man! It's just a kiss!
Yet, the fiery embrace they had just shared intimated that so much more lay smoldering under the surface, waiting for a careless spark to set it off. Her touch, her sigh, her warmth—it had taken inexcusably little to make him lose the self-control and patience he prided himself on when he was with a woman. It was unnerving, especially in light of the painful circumstances of her past that demanded careful and gentle attention, rather than the reckless abandon they'd nearly succumbed to. Just the memory of it set his heart thudding again.
Now, he held her loosely — no, carefully — one hand slowly stroking her back, the other cradling her cheek against his chest. He'd never been as aware of his size and strength as he was at that moment, straining to keep both in check, so he didn't overwhelm her. Even in such a relatively innocent position, he was miserably conscious of the havoc she was wreaking on his body.
He stole a glance down at her face nuzzled into his chest. She looked like she was sleeping until she sighed and turned her face into him. He watched with rapt attention as her lips just skimmed across the rough cotton of his shirt, her warm breath seeping through to his skin. Those lips…like cherries…
"Ensei-kun, it's very simple," he suddenly recalled Enjun-sama's words from long ago. "Always remember that a woman is very much like a fruit."
Ah, that's right. Good old Enjun-sama!
"A woman is tempting, sweet, refreshing, and the best are often difficult to reach," he explained. "She should not be plucked until she is ripe and bowing toward you from the tree. Pluck carefully and gently, so you do not damage her in any way, and then she will give you every part of her and fill you until you're satisfied."
At the time, Ensei remembered, his reaction to the advice was an odd and disconcerting tightness in a certain lower extremity at the same time his stomach growled for his favorite fruit. That was more than he'd gotten out of his master's advice, so as soon as he could, he snuck off to the brothel with a few coins he'd managed to save.
To his horror, the only lady available was the broom-wielder, but he was determined.
"Well, boy, what do you think that's going to get you?" she turned her nose up at the coins he laid in front of her.
"A…a…kiss," he answered and his voice cracked.
"Hmph," she rolled her eyes, but sauntered toward him and he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "If you're going to do it like last time, then you can just take your money and get out!" she barked at him.
"I won't do it like that…I promise," he said and stood up tall, already a man of his word.
The smile that tugged her lips gave him hope.
"All right, then," she said with an impatient sigh, scooping up the coins. "You're the man, aren't you? You kiss the lady." She was slightly taller than him, so she leaned down a little toward him.
Bowing from the tree, he remembered Enjun's advice and knew she was ready to be plucked. Good Old Enjun-sama!
Oh, right…now he was supposed to do the plucking!
He reached up and carefully cupped her chin between his thumb and fingers and gently drew her to his mouth. Her eyes widened when he smiled softly and appreciatively at her and lifted his mouth up to hers, tenderly suckling her bottom lip and tracing his tongue slowly across the opening between her lips. He moaned a little against her mouth, just like he did when he finished off the last of his favorite fruit, succulent and sweet, tingling on his lips and tongue. Mmm…
When he moved to release her, she slid her warm, soft fingers around the back of his neck, drawing him to her. That night, for his few coins, he learned all the ways a woman was, and was not, like a fruit. The next morning, whistling and walking home with a bounce in his step, he decided that it would be rude for him to set Old Enjun straight, especially since he already had a wife, so must have done something right. Master Nan, though, he could use a few pointers.
The fond, old memory left a wide grin on Ensei's face, and with a flutter in a certain lower extremity and a fixation on his favorite fruit, the wide store of information he had gathered over the years came flooding back to him. Yoshi!
"Oi, Kotori," he drew back a little to look down at her. He cupped her cheek and his fingers gently traced the creamy curves of her face.
"Mmm…" she smiled warmly up at him.
"Do you know what my favorite fruit is?" he asked.
"Oh, don't tell me you're hungry again?" she frowned wearily, but still smiled.
"Staaarving," he growled and his smiling eyes twinkled with the first sliver of dawn's light fading in through the cave opening.
"Well, what is it?" she sighed and tilted her head slightly, letting his fingers wander over her ear and along her jaw. "There might be some growing naturally around here."
"Cherries," he answered quietly and the tip of his thumb traced the curve of her lips. "Aaah, I can't resist 'em."
"You say that about all food!" she teased.
"Oooh, no, cherries are special…sweet and tangy, red and juicy," he described to her passionately, while the rough pad of his thumb brushed over the sensitive rise of her bottom lip. "Mmm…when they're really ripe, you just hold up your hand and they fall into your fingers from the tree, as ready for you as you are for them."
"Uh…" she swallowed the air caught in her throat. "There may be some…" she muttered breathlessly against his thumb, now feathering over both her top and bottom lips together. "It's almost morning. I can…um…look for some then." Her lips parted and she breathed roughly against his touch, leaning into his chest, her fingers curling in his shirt.
Bowing from the tree, he thought with a contented grin.
"Un-uh, Kotori, I can't wait," he grumbled hungrily. "Besides, I already found some."
As though he caught a little bird on his finger, he perched a knuckle under her chin, gentle pressure guiding her slowly to him as he bent down to her. She sighed softly as his lips melted around hers. The tender, sensuous embrace of his lips, cradling her mouth in his, lingered on, tumbling them helplessly through time, through the feather-light inhale and exhale of breath blending between them.
Iridescent shimmers of light and heat swept across her cheeks, twirling down the nape of her neck, bathing her shoulders and glittering out in waves over her body. His warm, leathery hands cupped her blushing cheeks, and he tasted her again, moaning appreciatively, before he released her lips to brace his forehead against hers.
"You taste like sake…and rain," he whispered gruffly over her cherry-red lips, wet with his kisses and the moisture in the dewy morning air.
Her soft, shuddering gasp rattled his rickety, patched-together control and automatically, foolishly, he folded her tightly against his chest as he clenched his muscles tighter in defense against his own crumbling restraint. Instantly, the wide plane of his body enveloped her in solid heat, and her hands moved roughly over his shoulders to curl around the back of his neck.
This time…this time, with her lips trembling hungrily just below his…this time, tugging down hard, making him bow to her, this time…she reached up and plucked him.