Chapter Ten

Seto wouldn't remember the cab ride back to the hotel in the morning or, at least, the parts of it that didn't include Miss Miyoshi's lips or the gentle slide of her skin against his hands. His fingers couldn't get enough. They sought and searched, slipped under fabric for more of her to touch. Under one cup of her bra where his fingers could squeeze and tease. Up her spine. She shivered and gasped and Seto separated their lips to latch himself to where her pulse beat fast and hard in her neck.

She reciprocated with maddening slow traces of her fingertips. Along the inner seam of his slacks, between the buttons of his shirt. She trailed a finger against the growing bulge of his desire and he bit down, sharp, but not hard enough to break the skin. She gave as good as she got, answering his teeth by pulling the lobe of his ear into her mouth and tugging. Her gasps were breathless. Her voice teetered on the edge of madness.

"You want me?"

"Yes."

They didn't realize the cab stopped until the driver cleared his throat. Seto jerked his wallet out of his pocket and threw a handful of bills at him.

She was giggling as he helped her out of the car and all but dragged her toward his room. Still drunk on the electric high of the show, perhaps. Or had he become the new drug that clouded her brain, edged her senses to new heights? He could only hope.

Seto didn't have the mind to make sure they were alone in the hall before pressing her against the door. Her hands dug into his pockets for the key. Her fingers brushed the sensitive seam where his pelvis met his thigh and he moaned into her mouth, pressed in harder, pushing the tension in his slacks against her.

She abandoned her task and slid her hands into his back pockets instead. She grasped, squeezed, pulled him tight against her where there was no hope for escape.

That was fine. He didn't want to escape anyway.

She turned her face to the side and Seto attacked her neck with teeth and tongue. She gasped when his hands dug under her shirt again, pushing up the restrictive confines of her bra and leaving her breasts exposed to the air.

"In… inside," she said.

Seto stopped long enough to find his key and unlock the door. Then he was on her again and the door slammed behind them.

It was a dance across the room that Seto barely remembered the steps to. Her hands were insistent, seeking. Undoing each button while he struggled with the clasp of her bra. He gave up and pulled the sheer shirt over her head instead. Bobby pins clattered to the floor.

Her hands slid up his bare chest, under his collar, and across his shoulders. Fabric peeled from skin. Her fingers inched around the back of his neck, then down.

"Take it off, boy. You need to be taught a lesson."

Seto's jaw clenched. He grabbed her arms, hard at first, then more gently at the shock in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but he silenced her question by pressing his mouth to hers. Hard. Insistent.

Now was not the time.

He worked at her jeans. Opening them. Pulling them down. Her hands disappeared behind her back and a moment later her bra was flung across the room.

His hands replaced it. Squeezing. Teasing. His belt was thrown aside.

The backs of his knees hit the mattress and he was falling. His back hit the duvet and he spared the ceiling one glance before pushing to sit up. She was peeling her jeans from her legs, for how else could he describe the action. There was a brief hint of lace before that was pulled down as well.

She was bare before him. Skin aglow in the streetlights pouring in from the window. Alabaster. Carved from the finest marble, save where ink marred her skin. The tips of her tattered black wings crested over her shoulders. The band of ink circled her left wrist. Flowing script above her right hip. She looked at him with a hunger that left him breathless. She placed herself between his knees and kissed him, hands cradling either side of his face. Fingers brushed feather-light against his temples. Thumbs stroked along his cheekbones.

Seto let his hands explore. Across her hips and up her sides.

She laughed into his mouth and pulled away smiling. "That tickles."

He smoothed a hand down her left arm to the wrist and ran his lips over her pulse, feeling it jump.

She smoothed the hair from his forehead. "You like it?"

He hummed against her skin. "You do seem to have a thing for dragons."

"What if I told you I was a dragon?"

Seto cut his eyes up at her, one brow raised. "That so?"

"Yeah." She nestled herself closer, lifted one knee to rest on the bed next to his hip. Her lips hovered above his. Eyes bright and full of challenge. "What do you think, Mr. Kaiba? You fancy yourself a dragon tamer?"

She captured his lips before he could answer. She trailed his fingers down her abdomen, feeling the muscles jump and twitch. His fingers slipped into that sensitive heat between her legs and she gasped, rocking against his hand. He worked at her, finding the right combination of motions and pressure that left her leaning against him for support, her legs too weak to stand. She unlatched from his mouth. He took a pert nibble between his lips, lathed his tongue across it, enjoying the gasps and moans his ministrations caused.

She began to shake. Every muscle under his hands was as tight as wire. Her hands dug into his hair. Clenched. Pulled. She was forcing his mouth open with her tongue.

"Be a good boy, now."

"-to?"

Her fingers were smoothing through his hair. No longer tight, but massaging gentle tingles down his spine. Her face was flushed, skin shimmering with a faint layer of sweat. She was like jelly in his hands. Loose and languid. There was worry in her eyes.

"You okay?" she asked. "Your eyes went all… distant again."

"I'm fine."

"We can stop if you need to."

"I don't want to stop."

It came out more forceful than he intended. If they stopped then he'd have a chance to think, to rationalize, to find every reason to stop before it went too far. He couldn't look at her, at her probing gaze and heart-aching worry. He pressed his forehead between her breasts and breathed deep everything that was her. Sweat and sex and citrus. He wanted it all.

He clenched his eyes shut. "I don't want to think."

Her arms wrapped around him. Her hands smoothed through his hair, along his shoulders. She applied gentle pressure and the tension slowly seeped from his muscles.

"You want to keep going?" she asked.

Seto nodded against her. "I want you."

He felt her sigh. She pushed against his shoulders, easing him back onto his elbows.

"Alright." There was a determination to her expression. "But promise to tell me if you need to stop again. Okay?"

All Seto could do was nod.

He watched her kneel in front of him, hands working to undo his slacks and pull them off. The coil in his abdomen curled tighter at the mere sight of her. Scorching tingles trailed after her fingers as she smoothed them up his thighs to where he lay bare before her.

She was on him, with fingers and tongue and lips encircling his cock, and his mind short-circuited. It was indescribable bliss. Wet heat and pressure. He struggled to keep his eyes open, struggled to keep them from rolling back. He wanted to watch, but that coil was tightening.

Hard. Tight. Numbing. He was sure he was going to explode.

He put a hand in her hair, pulled her head away. She looked up and licked her lips.

That was it, he was done for.

She crawled over him, eased him onto his back. "You look cute like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I just blew your goddamn mind."

He laughed, actually laughed, and it felt good.

She smiled down at him. Her hair fell in a curtain around them, shielding them from the rest of the world. She leaned on a hand to brush her hair over one shoulder, out of the way.

"I hope you're ready," she said, "cause this ride ain't over yet."

Seto groaned deep in his throat. "I don't have condoms. I was not exactly expecting-"

Her lips silenced him. He could taste himself on her tongue.

"You're thinking again," she said. "Just lay back and enjoy the ride."

She sat back against his hips, raised herself on her knees, then with one hand guided him inside her.

Smooth and tight. Searing warmth and slickness.

Seto's eyes rolled back. It'd been too long.

Her pace started quick and sharp, with rolling hips. He watched through hooded eyes as she moved above him, the way her body arched and flowed, the flush of her skin, the feel of her hands pressing into his chest, keeping her balanced. Time seemed to fall away and she drew it out even further. Whenever his hands tightened on her hips, her thighs. Whenever his back arched and his head pressed into the bed, her pace slowed. She leaned forward, kissed him long and languid as she eased him in and out at a frustratingly slow pace, pulling him back from the edge of his orgasm. He did all he could to add to her pleasure, smoothing his hands over her ass, her spine, into her hair to grasp and pull her in deeper. When she sat up to start the wild ride again he teased her breasts, her thighs, slipped his thumb down between the folds of her sex to rub her clit.

She leaned forward on her hands, clenched the duvet on either side of his head. Every jerk of her hips was erratic, with no rhythm. She teetered on the edge, then fell with heartstopping grace. She pulsed around him. Her body trembled, threatened to fall. Her skin was flushed from her face to the tops of her breasts and the slopes of her shoulders.

Seto clenched his jaw. It took all he had not to follow into that sweet oblivion. He rolled her onto her back. She enveloped him, folded around him. Arms and legs and lips. He plunged home and lost all sense of where he began and she ended.

She moved with him, around him, her hands on his hips, fingers digging, urging. Her breath was in his ear. Her gasps brought breathless words of encouragement.

Faster.

Harder.

Deeper.

She scrambled for purchase. Fingers slid beneath his shirt, edged toward hell. He took her arms and pressed them into the mattress. Her legs widened, lifted, her knees to her shoulders.

They were one person. A writhing mass of limbs that moved in ebbs and flows.

The coil was tightening. His movements were erratic. That steady pace lost in a sea of pleasure so deep he could drown.

"Se...to. Please."

"Again." Seto buried his face in her neck, breathed her in. "Say it again."

"Seto."

He buried his hands in her hair. "Again."

Her arms circled his neck, clenched his shirt, her grip tight enough to tear.

She gasped into his ear. "Seto."

He jerked against her, let out a moan so guttural and hoarse he couldn't believe it was his own. The tension in his abdomen uncurled, relaxed, and he was spilling into her. He didn't know how long they stayed that way. Connected and curled around each other. When he finally pushed himself up to look at her his breath was lost all over again.

She was soft and languid beneath him, her tired eyes steady on his. Her hair lay in a wild fan on the sheets, stuck to her face, to her chest. Seto ran his fingers over her cheeks. She smiled and his chest flooded with warmth. She pulled him down and he went willingly, their lips sliding together in a slow, satisfying rhythm.

He didn't want to think about the flight in a few hours. He didn't want to think about work or Mokuba or even the tabloids. All that mattered was that moment.

He could have stayed in it forever.

Even in the early morning hours, Berlin didn't seem to sleep. Seto sat in one of the armchairs by the window, watching the slow roll of traffic down below and the glitter of lights beyond the treeline. He still had on the shirt he'd been wearing when he'd taken Miss Miyoshi to bed and the pair of slacks that had been discarded in their rush to disrobe.

He didn't dare sleep, not with her by his side. He couldn't risk the nightmares that always seemed to hide in the shadows, waiting for him to put down his guard. He'd planned to slip out from under the sheets once he was sure she was well and deep asleep, but he ended up staying for hours. The ease that melted over her frame as she drifted off. The slight parting of her lips. The gentle rise and fall of her body as she breathed. He wanted to memorize it, immortalize it in his mind.

Seto ran his fingers over his lips. He'd let things go too far too fast. He was supposed to be careful, calculated, but it seemed difficult where she was involved. There was nothing careful about her. She was elegant and temperate. Wildfire and sin. The former had attracted him, but the latter had hooked him. He never would have thought himself attracted to such unpredictability, but she was in his blood now and there was no cure.

He didn't even know if he wanted one.

After a while of silence there came the sound of shifting sheets from the bed. He didn't turn to look until the soft padding of her footsteps signaled her approach. She had slipped on one of the hotel's complimentary robes, tied loosely around her waist.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked.

"Some days I can't."

He held out his hand. When she took it he guided her to sit across his lap. She leaned into him, her head on his shoulder. They sat in comfortable silence for many long minutes, fingers laced together as they watched the lights pass out the window and the slowly brightening horizon.

"What were you thinking?" she asked.

He rubbed his thumb into her palm. "I'm not usually so reckless. If anything were to come of this, I want you to know that I would take care of everything. It would be my responsibility and my-"

"You're overthinking again."

Seto looked down at her, mouth curling into a frown. "I don't know if this is something you should be making light of."

"I'm not making light of anything. I had an IUD put in when I decided to stay in Germany long term." She smiled. "You've got nothing to worry about. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."

That was reassuring. He didn't know yet where his stance lay with children. There was a part of him that toyed with the idea. Kaiba Corporation would need heirs someday. He was not about to trust a stranger with running what he had worked so hard to rebuild. A part of him that hesitated with saddling children with his damage. It feared a repetition of the cycle that made him who he was.

"Had it really been four years?" Kisa asked.

"Near enough."

"She must've been terrible."

Seto chuckled, put his nose to her hair, and breathed deep, enjoying how his scent mingled with the citrusy fragrance of her hair.

"Why'd you wait so long?" she asked.

His fingers slid down her spine. "Let's just say the experience wasn't… pleasant."

She leaned away to look at him. "She was your first?"

"Unfortunately. The act itself hadn't been wholly unpleasant. There'd been some flashes of memory when she did certain things, but what came after had been far worse."

"After?"

"She was an heiress. The kind of woman that thrived on scandal and gossip."

"So a bimbo."

The disgusted grimace on her pretty face brought a small smile to Seto's lips. "In no uncertain terms, yes. I won't justify it by saying I was young. She tried to use my age to paint me as a reckless child to the press, unfit to run a company as large as Kaiba Corporation. Her ultimate plan had been to bring down the share price of my company so her father could buy it out from under me."

"I'm glad it didn't work."

"I gave as good as I got. That was one thing my father taught me. Sex can be as much a weapon as a bargaining chip."

Her smile fell. "Your father?"

There was a faraway look in her eyes.

"What is it?" Seto asked.

"He was-" She seemed to catch herself and shook her head. "He sounds terrible." Her hands played with the tie of her robe, idly wrapping it around her fingers. "You said stuff she did brought back bad memories. I didn't… you know…"

"Nothing that couldn't be corrected."

"Like touching your back and pulling on your hair. There any other places I should know about? I don't wanna, you know, hurt you."

Seto had to remind himself not to underestimate how perceptive she could be. He cupped her face and tilted it up so he could kiss her. Her fingers slipped under his collar to hold the back of his neck.

Seto brushed his thumb over her cheek. "Now is not the time. Perhaps later."

"Here I thought you liked your private life private." Her voice was breathless, sending that familiar slow burn coursing through his veins.

"It seems you've slithered your way into my private life."

"Slithered?" She laughed. "I like it! Makes me sound dangerous."

She threaded her fingers through his hair and massaged the back of his head in a way that seemed to calm his mind. Seto nuzzled his face against her neck. He let his breath tickle along her jaw before kissing behind her ear.

"I never took you for the gentle type," she said.

"I have my moments."

She moaned, head tilting to the side to allow him better access. "Mr. Kaiba, I should-"

Her sentence cut short, interrupted by a gasp when Seto nibbled at her pulse. "I would rather hear my name from you."

She sighed as she leaned her head back, his name a whisper on her lips. "Seto."

He groaned against her throat. His hand slid beneath the edge of her robe to grasp her breast.

Miss Miyoshi's hand found his searching one and stilled it. "W-wait."

"I believe it's a bit late for 'waiting'."

She pushed at his shoulder. "Idiot."

Seto lifted his face to her and smirked at the sparkle in her eyes. "Careful. I may decide to stop being gentle."

She licked her lips. "If you think you can handle me."

"I believe I've proved that already, but you told me to wait."

"I just- I want to know where we stand."

Seto leaned back, letting his hand fall to rest on her thigh. It was a very good question. His thumb rubbed circles into the base of her neck as he considered.

"I would rather keep things uncomplicated," he said, "for now."

Her brows shot up. "Uncomplicated? Like… unattached?"

He glowered at her. "If I catch another man putting his hands on you again-"

"Kidding! Kidding. I saw what happened the last time someone put their hands on me… who wasn't you."

Seto stroked along her thigh to rest his hand against her hip. "As in, I'm not sure where this should go. You are a beautiful woman, Miss Miyoshi. Intellectually and physically stimulating. However, relationships have never been something I considered, at least not for myself."

"Then let's take it one day at a time and see where we end up." She lifted a finger in front of his face. "On one condition. You have to call me by my first name too. No more of this 'Miss Miyoshi' crap. It's annoying."

He took her hand and pulled it away. "You drive a hard bargain." He pressed his lips to her calloused fingertips, his eyes never leaving hers. "Kisa."

She made a sound deep in her throat, almost like a purr. "Say it again."

Seto wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close so he could bite at her neck. "Kisa."

She pulled away and got off his lap just long enough so she could straddle his waist. She towered over him, hands on the back of his neck easing his head against the cushions. Her lips hovered over his, close enough to feel the ghost of her touch.

"You have no idea how long I've waited for you to say it," she said.

Seto had only enough time to wrap his arms around her before she devoured him.