Ben couldn't help but smile as Mal slammed the door playfully as he hopped down from the huge tree. He wasn't sure what had done it, maybe the distance from the castle, or their honest conversation, or even their screaming match, but something had changed. She seemed more free, more open since guests started arriving at the castle and the council started. Then again, it was the longest he had seen her in the past several weeks.

He caught her hand and pulled her tight to him, wrapping his arms around her. It wasn't like she had too far to run anyway. "You really want me to show you how bad I want to break this promise?" He asked, brushing her long bangs from her forehead gently. "You trust me enough to show you?" He continued.

"As long as you don't kiss me." Mal answered with a small smile. "Well on my lips." She added with what he considered a wicked smile.

She had to know what she was doing to him.

"I can work with that." He answered, willing his voice not to crack. "Though for various reasons I am going to have to tell you to keep your lips to yourself." He continued with a smile, brushing his thumb across her cheek gently.

Her evil smile only got wider. "Just try and tell me to keep my hands to myself." She answered back, moving her hands to his cheeks and pinching his cheeks gently.

He laughed, and began moving her toward the bed behind the curtain. Her rules were simple enough and he knew exactly where to draw the line from their previous experiences.

"So," he said, his voice low and gentle in the fading light of the cabin, the last rays of sunlight, peeking through the windows, leading her back further until he couldn't push her back any further. "As soon as the promise is broken, I'm going to take you into my arms and lean in close," he leaned in closer, she hadn't said anything about teasing. "And kiss you with the gentlest of kisses."

He could see the blush across her cheeks, even in the low light. He couldn't help but smile as he pulled one of her hands in his, gripping it tightly, intertwining their fingers and joining their palms as he guided them down to the mattress gently. He could feel her eyes on him as their weight shifted into the mattress bringing up a cloud of thick dust.

Mal sneezed a short sneeze, and he was sure he felt an electric shock against his palm. She sneezed again and fire flew from her fingertips, narrowly missing him. He stared and then she started to sneeze again and he pulled her up from the bed and away from the dust. She sneezed again and the dust around them became snow before falling to the floor.

"I suppose I should be thankful you don't have allergies?" He asked, brushing her hair from her eyes again gently.

"If I am ever sick, stay far far away." She warned. "On the isle, it was just a holy terror, but with magic, you might just die." She explained.

"Who would bring you chicken soup and wrap you up in blankets?" He asked, running his fingers through her hair. "I can handle fire and electricity and snow." He continued bringing his lips to her hair. "And as far as showing you how much I want to break this promise, shall we try again?" He asked, gripping her hand tighter, then pulling himself away briefly.

He turned his attention to the bed and the dusty comforter, pulling it from the bed and tossing it aside. The sheets beneath were much less dusty and he turned to beckon her back to him.

She nestled into his arms again and he wrapped his hand around hers again gently, his other arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close. "After that," he gripped her hand a little tighter, "Once I know we're safe, then all bets are off." He told her, turning her back toward the bed and guiding her down even more gently than before. "You're going to have to beg me to stop kissing you." He whispered.

He tried to pull his hand away from hers, but she gripped it tighter. "I don't beg." She answered.

Ben laughed into her shoulder. "I'm not saying I want you to beg for it." He said, rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand. "There are a lot of things I would love to hear you beg for, and that is not one of them." He told her, his voice barely above a whisper, his other hand moving to her neck with the gentlest of touches.

She turned toward his touch. "You are such a flirt." She groaned, wrapping her free arm around him and rolling him into the mattress. "And what should I make you beg for?" She asked, forcing him further into the mattress, her smile growing more wicked by the second as she ran her palm against his cheek to grip his chin. "I do have more torture tactics." She reminded him, leaning forward until she was just close enough to tease him.

All's fair in love and- well...

He could feel his heart beating in his ears, his breath quickening and the butterflies flying up a hurricane in his stomach, as she continued his torture that wasn't really torture. "For strawberries and jelly donuts maybe." He answered with a little smile, moving his hand up the side of her bare thigh and around her hip with the gentlest of pressures.

He didn't miss the shiver it caused or the smile that pulled at his cheeks more.

"And I am the one who is supposed to be showing you." He said, hooking his hands around her hips and sitting them up in one fluid motion and holding her close. He didn't miss the small gasp that escaped her lips as her grip lessened around his chin.

He forced his gaze up at her face, the vantage point definitely not missed, and definitely not under appreciated. "From that first kiss on your lips, I would continue down your neck," his fingers gently stroked the pulse point on her neck, the same place that had made her moan before, he could see and feel the shiver run through her, her eyes barely closed and quivering. "And lower, if you would allow it." He spoke quietly, brushing his fingers down her chest experimentally, but stopping just before the fabric of her dress began.

He could feel her laugh through his fingertips. "Not in front of your parents." She spoke, her voice breathy, her eyes still closed, deep in her imagination.

"Later then." He whispered, moving his lips to replace his hand on her neck. "After the festivities are over and everyone else has gone to bed." He explained, closing his eyes too, catching a bit of her collarbone as he dipped lower, her closeness intoxicating him further.

It might just get dangerous.

"I'll light about a hundred candles," he continued the trail down her neck, making as little contact as possible, as if that would save them if it indeed counted as a kiss, "spread enough rose petals to put my father's rose garden to shame," he continued the gentle motions and she didn't seem to want him to stop, her breath getting caught in her throat, behind her full pink lips, only coming out in short gasps every few seconds. "And kiss every inch of you that I can reach." Her hands snaked up his back and onto his neck and into his hair, gripping him tighter, closer it seemed, crashing his lips down further onto her delicate skin, his hands gripping her hips tighter in response.

A never ending loop of building tension it seemed. Until something snapped in her.

"You're making-" Mal started, but was unable to continue, having to try and take another deep breath. "You're making it really hard to be rational," She stated, her eyes catching his briefly, her hands moving from his neck and to the buttons of his vest, working deftly and efficiently.

"Welcome to my world," Ben told her in a breathy whisper near her ear, snaking his hands up her back. "Six years still seem like a plausible solution?" He teased as her hands moved back up to the buttons of his shirt, working them as quickly as she had the vest buttons. His hands held her close, his lips dangerously close to what he considered the danger zone.

"Six seconds seems like an eternity," Mal whispered breathlessly shedding the vest and the tattered shirt from his skin in one quick motion. He couldn't help but laugh into her skin.

"Do you trust me?" Ben asked, a phrase he had no doubts that she was used to by then, as he shook the sleeves from his arms in haste. "Will you let me try something?" He continued when the only response was her short hum against his lips.

She answered in the affirmative and he pulled his lips from her skin and guided her down to the pillows, hoping that they wouldn't make her start sneezing again. With a trembling hand, he started his fingertips at the base of her neck and began the gentle descent down her chest, unbuttoning the large buttons as he went, willing himself to keep his hands steady enough and gentle enough, calibrating carefully how many unexpected shivers he could give her.

She molded like putty to his hand, her skin aching for his touch, goosebumps raising up on her bare skin wherever his fingers trailed, her eyelids fluttering with every shaky breath. He smiled at the thought of what was to follow that as he reached the end of the buttons at the juncture of the high waistline.

He watched her carefully as he brought his lips to the little patch of skin between her bra and where her dress continued into the A line skirt. He could practically feel her skin vibrating beneath him with a potential that was driving him crazy, and then the slightest little moan escaped her throat and she relaxed into the sheets, her hands gripping him tightly.

"I don't want you to be rational," Ben told her, once he pulled his lips from her skin briefly, not wanting to break whatever it was he had built up in her.

Then he ran his tongue between her cleavage gently, following it with a little wisp of air, making her shiver into him, a louder moan escaping her lips, her hands gripping whatever they could around her, her eyes closed tight.

"One of us has to be," Mal answered after a few seconds. "And it definitely can't be you." She opened her eyes briefly to reveal a flash of the bright green magic within her.

He couldn't help but laugh a gentle laugh into her skin. "Spelling me again?" He asked, raising his eyebrow at her, but knowing full well she wasn't.

She shook her head in a small motion. "Me," She explained quietly. "But you are barreling through my defenses like a bull in a china shop," She admitted.

"Defenses?" He asked, brushing his fingers between the mountains of her breasts, hidden behind the black bra and watching her shiver markedly.

She nodded again, her focus on his hand and then flashing to his lips. "I'm not taking any chances until I know that a kiss is just a kiss," She explained. "Especially with you."

So the electricity he had felt against her skin hadn't been him at all, but a magic kind of barrier between them.

"Would you rather I didn't?" He asked gently, pulling himself further from her, his hands leaving her skin, and sitting up.

She followed him up too. "No," she answered quietly, pulling him back to her and pushing him into the pillows with a force that he enjoyed more than he would ever tell her at that moment. She held him there in the dimness of the room, his heart beating in his ears harder now. "But I want you to close your eyes," She told him with a forceful yet playful whisper, the only light seeming to be from her neon green eyes.

He closed his eyes without a second thought. "They're closed," He told her, even though he had no doubt that she already knew that.

In the space of a few short seconds he felt several things shift. Her weight against his hips shifted forward, her hands moving from the mattress toward the pillows he guessed, and he swore he could feel her gentle breath against his neck.

So she was planning on teasing him as he had teased her. He took as deep of a breath as he could and tried to steady himself. He knew in an instant he could rearrange and readjust if he felt her in imminent danger from several sources, himself included.

He practically jumped, his throat tightening, his hands gripping hard into the bed sheets as what felt like her lips crashed down onto his neck with a gentleness that felt like an electric shock. It wasn't the good kind of gripping the bedsheets. He gripped them out of fear.

"Mal?" He asked, his voice cracking in fear. He swallowed hard when she didn't answer, the feeling of her lips still against his neck. She seemed to be playing with something very dangerous, and it didn't seem she was being rational at all.

She shushed him rather close, the feeling of what was most likely not her lips moving from his neck. "Just relax and let me show you what I'm going to do once I can kiss you," She whispered, then the feeling of her lips came closer to his clavicle with a little more pressure. "Trust me," She continued.

And he did.

Then she continued to kiss, or what felt like kisses, down his chest and his abs, his breath getting caught in his throat every time, the urge to grip her, pull her to him and really torture her with his lips building further and forming a moan in his throat. Then she moved even lower, reaching the waistline of his pants and he felt the distinct softness of her lip against the skin just under the fabric.

He thought of every evil or dark or gross thing he could think of, trying to hold back the sound that threatened to ruin him in the back of his throat, but the moan of pleasure broke through anyway.

Then everything stopped.

No sound, no sensation of her against him, nothing but the darkness behind his eyelids.

He opened his eyes tentatively, afraid of what he might find. He let out a sigh of relief as he found her, sitting up, watching him, her neon green eyes trained on him like a predator in the darkness.

"You're not the only one who can torture," She told him with a smile that was pure wickedness.

He couldn't help but smile and sigh a sigh of pure relief, as he leaned back into the pillows momentarily. "Who taught you that?" He asked, as far as he knew she was innocent in the acts of dating, making out and what making out usually led to. "Because they are so getting a stern talking to when we get back."

"You're not going to even ask how I did it?" She asked, a little disappointed it sounded like. "You really thought it was my lips, didn't you?" She wondered.

Ben sat up just slightly. "It wasn't?" He asked, trying to find her in the darkness and get a reading on her.

"Nope," Mal answered, brushing her fingers across the pulse point on his neck, and getting the same reaction as if it were her lips. "It drives Doug crazy when Evie does it while she's waiting for her lipstick to dry."

"I should have known it was Evie," Ben answered, feeling a smile pull at his cheeks, as he watched her, her fingers trailing shivers across his skin.

"Never walk into our dorm if there is anything hanging on the doorknob, and I mean anything," She explained, though he already knew that. He had been there too. "I'm pretty sure I know more about their anatomy than my own," She admitted, with a blush he was sure.

Ben leaned forward, pulling Mal closer to him again. "You know," he whispered into her hair, wrapping his arms around her, "I could fix that," He told her, rubbing small circles against her clavicle, just under the straps of her dress, moving them from her shoulders gently and placing his lips there gently, hearing her breath catch again as he pulled her closer and under him again, her gasps only growing into moans.

"Hey, Mal?" Ben's voice came from beside her as she leaned against the pillows, the sheets wrapped around both of them in various states of dress. She turned back over to face him, and met his eyes in the candlelight. "That will be better when we can actually kiss," He told her, brushing her hair from her eyes.

Mal smiled as his hand moved down her neck and onto her shoulder gently. "I have no doubts about that," She answered, snuggling into him, draping her arm over his abs and resting her head against his shoulder, his heartbeat steady in her ears.

They lay in the silence for several long seconds, and she began drawing lazy circles against his skin as he rubbed her back.

"Hey Mal?" He asked again, after a few more seconds, suddenly sounding more nervous. "Remember when you were asking about what I was doing at Dwarves and Sons?"

She hummed in response, her eyes closed, comfortable enough to fall asleep after the long day of everything.

"I realized that I haven't actually given you anything besides my ring," He continued, his hand still moving against her back. "So I picked something up," He explained.

Her eyes popped open, her nervousness almost tangible. No one had ever really given her gifts without expecting something in return, or ever really. "Do I have to close my eyes for this surprise?" Mal asked, trying to portray her usual calm demeanor and trying her hardest to relax into him.

She could feel Ben laugh beneath her. "Your eyes are already closed." He answered, "And you look like you could crash for the night," He continued, "And while I wish we could, we do have to be back for the council tomorrow."

Like she didn't already know that. She pushed up from Ben and the bed, opening her eyes only after she sat up to look at him.

His hair was perfectly tousled against the pillow, one hand behind his head, pulling his muscles tight and making him look like a model. The smile on his face, and his dimples, making her head and her heart do crazy things, or maybe that had been his hands earlier. The sheets crumpled around his waist only making her consider further options that they had yet to explore, that he had told her they wouldn't explore until he could truly kiss her.

She caught his eyes and watched as his smile only grew wider, his dimples moving deeper into his flawless skin. She took him all in, from his hair and his dimples, and his muscles and his presence there and she felt a strange few words rising in her throat and getting caught there.

"What?" Ben asked, as he turned over to face her, leaning on his other arm, his eyes on hers and not anywhere else, though she knew she was close enough to naked that he shouldn't be so focused on her face.

She could have said them, she knew that, but instead she swallowed them down again. "You look like one of those models in Atlantia and Flounder's," She covered.

"The ones that are practically naked?" Ben asked, raising his eyebrows. He was practically naked himself and didn't have much room to talk, and she just nodded, trying not to think about how naked they both were. "Let me guess?" He continued, "All that's missing is the crown?"

"You said it, not me," Mal answered with a little smile. "I have to say, I like you better without it," She admitted, snuggling back into him, "Well for certain activities, anyway," She continued, enjoying to heat of his skin against hers.

He brushed his hand through her hair. "As much as I wish we could continue," he said, "We do have the council tomorrow morning."

Mal groaned. "Do we really have to go back?" She asked, looking up at him. "Can't we just stay here?"

Ben laughed against her. "Yes we do," He answered, "but we can come back again if you like, maybe after the council is concluded," He suggested, pulling them up to sitting again.

Mal groaned again. "Fine," She answered, untangling herself from him and standing to search for the clothes they had discarded.

By the time she dressed again and turned, he sat there in his silk boxers, a little green box in his hand from Dwarves and Sons. He stared at her, his eyes soft as he offered it to her, and she stared at it as if it were a viper, about to bite her.

After a few long seconds of deliberation, she took a step forward, closer to him and whatever mystery the box contained. She took the dark green box with the gold lettering and opened it slowly. She had never been one for too much jewelry anyway.

As soon as she laid eyes on the necklace inside, she stared in surprise. On a dainty gold chain, surrounded by what had to be priceless tiny diamonds, was a decent sized stone with several shades of greens and blues and purples in the shape of a heart. She stared at the pendant, then up to Ben and then back at the pendant again. It must have cost a royal fortune.

"It's a rainbow topaz," Ben told her, standing and pulling his pants on. He moved closer to her. "I thought it would bring out your eyes," He said.

She closed the box and handed it back to him, trying to keep her face as neutral as possible. He just stared at her for several long seconds. "Help me put it on?" She asked, knowing a smile was about to peek through on his face.

Sure enough, he broke into a smile before she turned away from him, pulling her hair to the side as he draped the chain over her neck and fastened it in the back, his fingertips ghosting against the nape of her neck followed by his lips before he turned her to face him.

"Just as I thought," he said, "Perfect." She felt a blush coming to her cheeks. He offered her his hand. "Shall we head back?" He asked her.

She nodded and then turned her attention to the small kitchen table where two tea cups sat. "We forgot our tea," She teased and he laughed as he dumped them and rinsed the cups, blowing out several candles as he went.

Then he returned to her once there was only one candle remaining lit near the door. He offered her his hand again and she took it. "We could always have tea next time," He told her as he switched on a flashlight.

"Right," Mal answered, "Because the thing I will be most concerned with once I can kiss you, is tea."

The summer castle was deserted as Ben led her up the stairs to the west wing and her bedroom. They were quiet already, but Mal put her finger to her lips as they passed Audrey's room next to hers. She knew how light of a sleeper she was and though it would be a little fun and evil to rub it in her face, she just didn't feel up to it that night.

"I'll see you in the morning," Ben whispered quietly, her hand intertwined in his tightly. "Thank you for an amazing date," He continued as he pulled her tight into his arms.

"Thank you," Mal answered, muffled into his chest. "For everything," She added, looking up at him in the dim light, those same three words threatening to bubble up again as he brushed her hair behind her ears, his eyes so soft and kind.

"Anything for you," He whispered back, planting the gentlest of kisses into her hair.

Then they reluctantly separated and Mal watched him descend the stairs for a few seconds before entering her room, a smile on her face that nothing could remove.

That is until something hit her in the darkness of her room, knocking her to the floor and blurring her vision to the point of losing consciousness.