Warning: This chapter is essentially a reincarnatedNarKag lemon (is that even a thing). And what is a better way to wrap this arc? You're welcome to skip this chapter if the pairing offends you. Sesshy doesn't appear once…or does he?
"Making love was never about you and me in a bed. We made love whenever we held hands."
- Iain Thomas, I Wrote This For You
Love Me Tender (Part 2)
She felt him shift beside her. His heavy eyelids creaked open, and then a low murmur.
"Good morning," Kagome greeted beside him.
Jyohaku grunted softly. He rolled in bed, not wanting to get up. His feet touched hers and they felt like ice.
"Gosh, you've freezing." She pulled the blanket up to him, and he snuggled closer.
"...yes."
"Even though the rain has stopped?"
Jyohaku woke up as if she had plunged a pin up his bottom. He sat up in bed and looked outside, rubbing his eyes.
"Would you look at that?" he murmured groggily. "For once the windows are not wet."
It was their last day in Paris and it had rained again last night. "What can I say?" Kagome observed. "It's purely and simply…"
"...by the grace of the gods," he finished. He looked at the time through stilted eyes. "It's seven, but it's still pitch-black outside. Usually by this time we'd already be up and ready for work."
"Ugh," she went, wrapping the whole blanket with her, "...don't remind me of work, Jyohaku-sama."
He dived back in bed and fought for the blanket for a while, until she relented begrudgingly and let him settle under the warm covers with her.
"Can I hold you?" he asked in a small voice, sounding like a schoolboy.
"Asking me that when your arm is already around me—you're a sneaky one."
He chuckled and pressed his nose against her bare shoulder. Kagome was wearing a red chemise, thin and inviting. And she smelled good even after sleep.
Lately their interactions had gotten better. Amazing what a breath of fresh air could do to them. The last few days saw them visiting the Lourve, catching the Mona Lisa from afar in a sea of heads. They stood in the beautiful remains of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, marvelling the beautiful glass-stained windows whilst the stone gargoyles glared from above. Their maps had them wandering through the artful alleys of Le Marais where Kagome had a portrait of her drawn. They even caught a show at the Paris Opera, of which none of them understood what was happening.
Their walls were slowly eroding, and they learnt to appreciate each other in silence. He rubbed her smooth, warm arm. She kicked his cold feet away.
"Hey," Kagome called softly, just when the lull of sleep had caught him. "Someone's wide awake down there."
Jyohaku shirked his body away as if she was made of fire and he had gotten burnt.
She watched him with a smile. "Why are you so flustered? It's a natural thing in the morning, isn't it?"
He adjusted his sleeping robe, almost angrily. "I'm embarrassed. Aren't you?"
"No, not really," she replied, brazenly giving him an once-over. Then her wandering gaze ended back to his eyes. "That's because I've learnt to look at our bodies in a different way. Your body is not your body, Narumi. Just as my body is not really mine. In the pursuit of procreation, you're just a tool and I, a mere vessel."
"A tool and a vessel? Since when have you been this practical?"
"Since I got married to you." She settled back into bed, beckoning him to do the same. "Don't lay so far."
Jyohaku stilled for a moment as he contemplated over her words.
"You know, I never felt like you were just a vessel to me, Kagome," he divulged as he held her once more, the distance closer this time, their warm bodies touching.
A wry smile curved her lips. "That's good to know."
"Even though I do want a child from you, I…" He was getting his words in a jumble, his thoughts incoherent.
"It's alright. I offered myself even though you'd changed your mind. So, really."
"And I suppose I'll never know why."
"Because I want to be the head of Yukino-jingu, that's why."
The abruptness of her reply set him aback. In response he merely laughed, and his low voice sent a traitorous stirring into her womb.
"Then the stars have aligned for you, Kagome."
"You wouldn't have married me otherwise, would you?"
"How would you know?" he whispered in her ear. "If I wasn't in this predicament, maybe I would have chosen you all along to be my partner."
"Well. It doesn't matter now, does it?"
He pressed his warm lips on her shoulder, and in reflex her back arched, feline, coquettish. It was as though her body wanted to melt against him, but perhaps it was just his thoughts running wild.
And then her derriere nudged him, sly between his legs, and all of his breath left him. His body was on flames.
His hand ran down her arm to her hip. Cautiously he pressed his body to hers. A subtle roll of her hips came in reply, nearly grinding him. He tried to stifle the groan forming in his throat.
She shouldn't… She shouldn't want this, right?
Surely, this was going to be a different fumbling in the dark.
He turned her carefully on her back, as if she was made out of porcelain, and matched her fluttering gaze. His hand reached for hers, their fingers woven together.
Tell me you want me.
"Narumi," she breathed.
He leaned down and kissed her.
Her mouth was small and pliable, her soft sighs feeding his growing passion. Sweet. Her kisses were sweet.
He moved, and she felt his eyelashes brush past her cheek, a hand palming her breast through her chemise. She closed her eyes.
Butterflies. She tried to imagine that his touch were butterflies on her skin, and not spiders.
He took his time tracing each part of her body with the tips of his fingers, and his curious mouth. He revealed her imperfections, uncovered her flaws. And still he found a temple within her, and paid his homage.
She became a sopping mess down there, he discovered to her embarrassment. The urge to taste her was too compelling. He parted her legs open, inviting himself.
Kagome covered her face with her pillow. When he pulled it away, she shielded her eyes with her arms.
"I want to see you," Jyohaku said, his hot breath tingling on her tender flesh, his voice sunken with need. In a startling move he locked both of her wrists in a single grip, holding them against her pelvic bone.
Kagome threw back her head and quelled her rising moan as he tasted her.
"Tell me how you want it," he said. She squirmed, trying to adjust her body to his ministrations. She never wondered about how she wanted it, because it was always served right to her.
"I want your fingers inside me," she pleaded with shame, her hips bucking in his face.
He slipped one large finger inside her, and then two. She was tight but so ready for him.
"Like this?" He curled his fingers inside her, stroking her sensitive roof. The heel of his palm lightly kneaded against her wet, swelling bud.
Her arousal churned in her womb almost painfully. Her feet found themselves on his back and rubbed restlessly across the wide expanse, her thighs shaking as her pleasure crested.
"Harder," she cried breathlessly. "Harder please."
A dangerous storm brewed inside her, on the verge of erupting. Jyohaku rose and kissed her ardently as she came, his fingers remained inside, wreaking havoc on her nerves. Somewhere in the midst of that senselessness, she could taste herself.
It was a different taste from their wedding night. When was the last time she had pears?
Jyohaku stroked her awry hair from her flushed face. It felt so good, but so wrong at the same time. Kagome draped her weak arms around him. "Let me reciprocate."
He took away her arm and kissed her hand. "I already feel good."
"Better," she insisted. "I want to make you feel better."
Her hands fluttered like doves across his chest. His body was still brawny despite having shed a few pounds. She liked to twirl on his dark dusting of chest hair that trailed down to his abdomen. But she also knew he liked it better when she touched him at a certain, sensitive place.
He arched from the lingering caress of her soft hands all over his back. He groaned softly and dipped down for another kiss, but she turned away. Instead she rose to scatter kisses on his face; his eyelids, his cheek, the scar on his jaw.
She nuzzled his neck and wrapped herself in his scent. Of lingering menthol and warm musk and something else. The beckoning scent of a human male.
"Shall I tell you something? I like the way you smell too, but always," she confessed.
"Always?"
"All the time."
"Shall I tell you something too?"
Kagome nodded.
"I can't believe you were sniffing me out at work all the time. What a naughty little priestess."
Kagome's face flushed red, and she glared at him. "Idiot, that's not how it was."
Laughing, Jyohaku rolled on his back and she crawled down him slowly. She teased him whilst on her way as a comeback to his remark; a nip on his neck, a brush on a nipple, and her long hair sweeping on his lower torso. He was beyond aroused.
A trickle of fear lurked beneath his mind. A wave of pain could come to attack him anytime. This pleasure would then only be momentary.
Kagome unravelled his robe open. She could see his strained erection vividly outlined against his briefs. She kissed along his covered length. A spot of wetness leaked from his crown.
"Kagome, don't feel obliged to do this."
Her round eyes peered up at him. "I'm doing it because I want to. Not because I'm returning a favour. It's the same for you, isn't it?"
He nodded, and sucked in his breath when she pulled his briefs down. His passion came unbridled in her hands. His skin was scorching hot, and her sensual touch only sent him further into the deep sizzling throes of fire. When her wet mouth enveloped him, he cried out a curse.
"It's baffling," she muttered, his sex glistening in her grasp. "How something of this size could enter me. No wonder it hurts all the time."
His eyebrows lowered. "Hey, you don't get to make such comments."
"I thought men would take it as a compliment."
Her hand grasped and slipped him, and he bit through the fluctuating bouts of pleasure she tormented him with. "Nothing is ever a compliment from you—ah! Kagome, you little minx!"
"Really? Seems like I have to pay it a different way then."
She took him in her mouth again and his fingers wove tighter into her hair, his senses dulating between pleasure and then a loathing for that pleasure. His whole body writhed, roasting in flames in an open pit of fire, his breaths those of a dying man.
"Kagome, I'm close…"
"Narumi. Can you grant me a wish?"
"...yes?"
"When we're doing it, please don't be gentle. I want you to break me into pieces."
He took her from behind. He indulged her with his surprising vigour and she matched him with her rocking enthusiasm. Yes, she wanted him, all of him. Each time he thrust deep into her far insides, kissing her cervix, her mind would explode just a little and she would forget why she was there.
Her body was a ragdoll, her limbs pulled to his whims, his manner callous and insensitive, the way she wanted him to. His strokes grew wild and feverish inside her, trance-like, the way he imagined in his sick fantasy, and in that order they both broke themselves.
His fingers danced across her nether lips. His deep voice rasped into the inner recesses of her ears.
"Should a mere vessel like you partake in so much pleasure?"
Her dark mind shivered.
And because she didn't reply, he took her silence as an affirmative. He caressed her pleasure centre, teased her swollen bundle of nerves without mercy.
She clenched him tight as she came again, sucking him in deeper into her wet canal if that was possible. In return her ministrations wrung him out, drawing forth his own orgasm. She could feel every fibre of their being shiver and shake. Their knees collapsed as they climaxed together, her around him and him inside her.
"Why did you say that?"
By then the sun had begun to creep in through the windows, basking their bodies in its golden glow.
"What?" Jyohaku voiced wearily, but sated. He was still inside her. It was the first time their intercourse had not rendered him in pain. He could feel both of their hearts throbbing in a single pulse on their skin.
"Asking if a vessel should feel so much pleasure."
Her tone implied that she was hurt by those words. Jyohaku was stunned.
"I never said anything like that."
Sighing, he brushed back her hair and kissed her temple. "Oh Kagome, have you been hearing voices in your head?"
"You must think I'm insane, don't you? Nightmares, getting anxious for no reason, and now this."
"And still I love you."
His words were met by her cold, piercing stare. It stabbed through his chest like an icicle.
"Don't do that. Don't ever utter those words in vain."
Jyohaku's dark eyes barely flinched. "Then I must be the insane one, and incurable at that."
He took her deeper in his arms. "What burdens you, Kagome? Heave them to me. Your fears and your worries. Your sins and your transgressions. Just as you've soaked my every emotion, I will take and carry them all to my grave."
Kagome looked at him as though he was mad. Then again they both were mad people. "But the gods will punish you for it."
"And they have, haven't they, so what is a little more? I must have done something bad in my past life to deserve this fate."
Kagome remained still in his embrace. She rolled each of his words like a pebble, weighing them judiciously in her palm.
"No," she said. "I won't let you die that easily."
To be continued…