Chapter Two

…as she unerringly brought his lips down hard upon hers…

And something achingly bittersweet inside of her broke free.

At first he was stunned. She could feel in his still resistant frame that he was struggling within himself. Struggling to decide whether to push her away or to guide her closer.

But it wasn't his choice. He didn't get a say in this. Not this time.

Desperate to keep him there, her lips moved over the familiar softness of his, and when that didn't break him, she ran the tip of her tongue over the seam of his mouth. Tasting him. Taunting him. Daring him to react.

And then she felt it. She felt his hands tighten on her hips. Pulling her firmly against him, as her gloved fingers slid into the thickness of his hair. She heard the sound he made deep in his throat at the achingly familiar sensation of her mouth against his, and she knew she had won… she had proven her point. She had shattered his shields.

But she forgot all about her victory when she felt him suddenly come to life under the pressure of her mouth as he took control of the kiss…

And slipped between her parted lips to stroke deeply inside her mouth.

Something wrenched deep inside of her heart and body, as the taste of him reawakened their dormant connection. Her heart bled with the reopened wounds of his abandonment… but her body burned with the desire fueled by the sensation of his tongue sliding against hers. Mimicking harshly the motions of a far more intimate game that they had never played.

His kiss was bruising yet tender at the same time. She knew then that he was as lost as she was.

This was why he had fought to keep away from her throughout his stay. This was why he had run every time he had seen her… He had known all along that it wouldn't have been safe for him to risk touching her, and having this happen… with a hell of a lot more time to do something about it.

She could feel the muscles of his in his mouth, his jaw, his neck working as he held her, pressed into her, explored her... Possessed her. He took from her what he must have craved to have again all these past months. For her, locked inside that moment, nothing else existed.

For her… it was a moment that she never wanted to end.

He moved inside her mouth the way she imagined that he would have moved inside her body if they had ever taken that step in their relationship, and a sound rose in her throat at the sensations it invoked.

The kiss was desperate, passionate, almost punishing. Full of destiny denied, and desire intensified. As if through it, they were desperately trying to hold on to each other. As if they both honestly believed that as long as it continued, the rest of the world wouldn't touch them… and Jess's insecurities couldn't come between them once more.

One of his hands had come up the line of her spine. Kneading firmly and sending shivers across her skin despite the thick clothing separating them. He was seeking bare skin, and he finally found it at her nape, even as the hand still grasping at the curve of her hip tightened considerably. Sinking into the deepest, lowest section of her side.

His warm fingers curved around the back of her neck under the shortened length of her hair, and forced her head to tilt back. Giving him the angle he needed to deepen the contact. Sending a jolt through her body as the slightly calloused pads of his fingers rubbed over her quickened pulse, and the shifting of the kiss to a different position sent a shudder sliding under the surface of her skin.

She didn't require the persistent pressure of his hand so low on the side of her hip to press herself as close to him as she could get. She did that all on her own. Bringing her body flush up against his willingly. Narrow hips nestled tightly into the slight cradle of his pelvic bones as her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

The advantage to kissing someone who only had a couple of inches of height on her, meant that she felt everything that happened to his body as she was pressed so tightly against him. She felt the way the muscles in his chest and thighs rolled and flexed under his clothes and skin, and how the heat from his lower body which wasn't as protected as his torso melted into hers… She even felt him pressed into her lower stomach through the fabric of his jeans and her skirt, and had absolutely no illusions about what would have been transpiring between them if this encounter had happened in private.

It was a moment that brought her body achingly to life, at the same time that it seemed to kill her.

She had always heard the saying 'there is a fine line between love and hatred'. They were both, after all, two of the most powerful emotions that the depths of the human heart were capable of producing. But before it had never held any meaning for her. Not really. Not on quite the grand scale she had heard about… But now…

Now, all she could think about was how ten minutes ago, the only desire she had possessed was to hit him. Lash out. Hurt him physically as much as he had hurt her emotionally… But now her thoughts were consumed by how unfair it was that she wanted him inside her, but she couldn't have him. Even here and now, after almost a year of not being able to touch him, she was denied that right.

She would be both thankful and mournful for that slight twist of fate that had put their reunion on such public grounds… because she wasn't too sure if she would have joined her body with his out of the need to keep him with her… or the desire to destroy him, and in so doing, herself in the process.

When you can no longer decide if you are viewing your partner as your lover or your enemy, then no intimacy resulting from that could never be anything less than damaging… Because at that moment, the line began to blur… and she was no longer sure if she wanted to be with him because she loved him… or if it was because she wanted to hurt him.

Maybe it was a little bit of both.

The tears she had fought to keep him from seeing began to slide down her cheeks. Coursing over the skin towards their joined lips, till the combination of his taste and texture met those of her own tears. Filling her mouth… and his.

She was soaring… she was deep underwater… but all the while her heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. And this time, she wasn't sure if it would ever be whole again.

If she could have crawled deep inside of him, she would have… and considering the fierce edge to his hunger, she knew that he was experiencing the same overwhelming desire...

Except that maybe he thought he could actually pull it off. Kiss her long enough, taste her hard enough, and maybe he could pull her so deep inside of him that he would never feel her loss so keenly again.

But a kiss was just a kiss… it was a moment in time where the past and future melted away. Giving into just the present… The here and now.

And she knew long before he finally began to slow his pace, that here and now was all that he was going to give her. And the pain of that knifed through her like the sharpest of wounds.

The sudden bruising force of his mouth fused to hers began to lessen, and the kiss suddenly turned gentle. Comforting. As if the taste of her tears had brought him back from whatever primal precipice he had been balanced upon, and the knowledge of her pain had turned him inside out. Turning his desire into something less basic and more bittersweet.

Loosening the hold on her hip she feared would be slightly bruised in the morning, his fingers quickly danced over the line of her side till it also came to her neck. His other hand shifted slightly till they were a perfect mirror of one another. With them, he framed the sides of her face tenderly. Thumbs brushing over the sensitive line of her jaw, and leaving a trail of heat in their wake.

AN – I know, I'm just horrible, aren't I?

Actually, I'm a little surprised that I was unable to finish this story up in a second installment… Now I'm not exactly sure if I will even be able to do it in a third, or if a fourth will become necessary… But I'm enjoying the creation of this 'little' story, so I hope that you are as well…

Thank you to all of my reviewers… you really made me feel more comfortable in this genre… I hope everyone reading enjoyed chapter two, and I also hope that you'll take the time to review…

Till next time…