Let's get these two hearts beating faster
Chapter four
-
"Are you ready to go?"
Ichigo turned at the sound of his wife's husky voice.
Rukia had pulled her hair into a messy bun leaving her face exposed to his view. However her carefully controlled features and wary gray gaze told him nothing of what was going on in her mind, nor why she had chosen to come rather than send for his brother to see him leave the hospital.
She had called him last night too, ostensibly so that he could tell Kyuuka goodnight, and genuinely asked how he was feeling and interested in his answer. She didn't rush him to get off the phone when he was finished taking to Kyuuka and wanted to know what the doctor had to say about his condition.
Ichigo didn't want to discuss Dr. James' visit and chose to bring up Rukia's altercation with Orihime. When he told her that he was displeased with her actions her tone of voice grew artic cold. She hung up right after that with an emotionless goodbye. He didn't expect her to show up at his hospital room this morning.
She made no move to take off her coat, but stood straight and proud and ready to exit the door as fast as she can if he said the wrong thing. Either she was the best actress or under her fake mask she was as vulnerable as she looked.
"I've been ready since an hour ago."
She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin in a defensive angle. "I'm sorry you had to wait. The doctor said ten thirty."
Her body language screamed, Do not touch me…stay out of my space.
The hands-off attitude hit him raw, especially considering how he spent the morning stewing over the implied relationship between his wife and doctor. Ichigo found himself crossing the room to pull her into his arms before he even thought about it.
He might not remember her but this woman was his wife and no way was she going to hold back from him as if he had herpes.
She gasped when their bodies collided. "What are you doing?"
She didn't sound so composed as she had a moment ago and he was satisfied by that.
His mouth hovered over hers, "Greeting my wife."
She opened her mouth and he closed his over it. He watched in satisfaction as her blue eyes begin to widen and then slide shut, thick black lashes fanning her pale cheek. He closed his eyes too, allowing sensation to take over.
Their lips fit together with perfection he never had with any other and she tasted as sweet as candy. Not at all like a money-addicted whore with dollar signs in her eyes.
Her lips trembled underneath his and he deepened the kiss, claiming possession in a way that was entirely instinctual. She let him, her entire body trembling now as he explored the warmth of her mouth.
He closed his hands around her waist and lifted her against him, his own body shuddering at the contact. It felt incredibly familiar when her arms slid around his neck and her tongue slid along his with tentative aggression. He couldn't believe the impact of one small touch had on him, but he was ready to toss her on the bed and make the sweetest kind of love to his forgotten wife.
Was in fact aching with the need to follow through on the promise of her pliant lips against his.
He broke the kiss. "You taste like I know you."
"I do?" Danm why did she have to sound so hopeful, he felt for the first time guilty for forgetting her.
"Evidently my body remembers you even though my mind doesn't."
She winced as if the words hurt her and maybe they had.
"I enjoyed it."
She let go of her hold around his neck, pressing against his chest as if she wanted him to release her. "Yes. Well, sex was never a problem for us."
It was his turn to wince. She made it sound as if that was the only thing they got right and that it wasn't her fault too. He couldn't deny it but his pride smarted at the possibility.
He released her coat. She stepped away and, looking down smoothed her coat. He let her get away with a small evasion, needing a moment to collect himself as well. He couldn't remember a single kiss being so devastating to his senses. If their sex life was always this explosive it didn't take a genius to figure out how this marriage even began.
So did the birth of his son.
"I was expecting Kaien."
"He's waiting in the car."
"I didn't expect you." He pointed out.
"I didn't tell your family that we got into an argument."
"So they expected you to come?"
"Yes."
"Why don't you tell them?"
She looked at him her expression scornful. "You want me to share our personal problems with the family?"
She was right. He rarely revealed anything to anyone even his mother and older brother. It bugged him that she knew things that not even the closest of his friends would know.
"No."
"I didn't think so."
"So you did it cause you knew I would want it this way?"
"Not really. Yesterday I didn't particularly care what you thought."
He didn't know why but he didn't believe her. "You didn't?"
"No." She frowned at him like an evil midget and he almost expected her to come charging towards him like a bull. "I didn't but it either when the doctor said you were worried and sent him after me with my coat either."
"He was being kind. It was his idea." Ichigo said feeling stung and annoyed she was right that he didn't think about how she was feeling.
He disliked it even more when guilt began to push through with the knowledge she had of him.
She turned away, but not before he saw the look of hurt that crossed her features. "That's what I thought."
"If you're so angry why didn't you tell my family?"
"I didn't see a reason why I had to make everyone worry more." She took a deep breath and turned back to face him once more, this time her face as smooth as marble.
If her lips weren't still red from his kiss, he would never have guessed what had happened between them.
"You Kurosaski's have so much pride on your ability to have strong marriages and family relationships. If your mother or brother knew what was happening they would worry and I don't need them to worry about me. They have enough to worry about with the accident and your memory loss."
"Are you saying we have to pretend that we're a happy loving couple in front of them?" If she knew him well enough she would know that although he was private he never lied to his family.
"You know that's impossible. But I was hoping that you could be a little helpful because your family and our son aren't use to seeing us fight. I don't want Kyuuka to see his parents fighting. He's had a rough couple of days."
"Of course I will. Why do you make it sound as if we're going to fight more?"
"It's inevitable now because of our difficult situation."
"It doesn't sound as if we had the most tranquil of marriages."
"On the contrary. One of the reasons why I want you to be helpful is that before this trip to New York, we got along great and they've never seen us fight seriously but my tolerance is low at the moment. It's practically nonexistent."
"Why is that I wonder?"
"I don't want to discuss this until you get your memory back."
"Your so sure that I'm going to challenge your tolerance?" She made it sound as if he beat her and he never hit women in his life.
"As long as that bimbo Orihime is in our life she'll do anything to get us to fight. I'm not going to stand by as she tries to break our marriage and because of that we are going to fight."
"She's my long-termed employee and my friend. I don't want you to say things like that about her."
"Whereas I'm only your wife…that at least has not changed memory or not.'
Before he could answer the implied message of her words the morning shift nurse came in with a wheelchair.
"What is this for?" Ichigo demanded.
"Hospital policy," she said with a flirtatious smile that made his wife purse her lips cynically. "You have to be escorted downstairs."
Rukia's eyes glowed in provoking mockery, but she said nothing. It was obvious that she knew how much he would dislike being pushed in a wheelchair like an invalid. Her amusement was too much for his liking. She obviously didn't mind watching his arrogance going down a notch.
Ichigo glared at her and then the nurse who had dared flirt with a married man. She was nauseated coy all morning.
"I'm not sitting in that danm chair. You can follow me out but I'm not sitting in that wheelchair." He strode from the room to the sound of the nurse's anxious arguments and his wife's mocking laughter.
-
Rukia sat in the back of the Mercedes and listened to Ichigo and Kaien talk business on the way to the hotel. Ichigo was just as demanding and full of energy as he was before.
The more she thought about how he remembered everyone and everything added to her hurt which seemed to roll around in her belly. Hurt that seemed to grow like a mushroom shape after an explosion with no end in sight.
He was even gentlemanly as they exited the hospital by opening the door for her and helping her get in even though he was the discharged patient. He had made his position clear to the hospital staff that she was his wife.
Knowing it had to do more with his pride than any real desire to reconnect himself to her, the casual touches had netherless left her breathless. Her lips still tingled from his kiss but she wasn't dumb enough to think it was personal either.
She knew what the kiss was about and it had nothing to do with undying love, or primal recognition that happened at a deeper level than the conscious. She wished she could believe it but she spent too much time have fantasies about her husband.
Reality was that even though Ichigo was a modern man in many ways, he was traditional when it came to others. He was also a competitive alpha male who would chase and conquer without conscious thought. He might not remember her, but he knew she was his wife. Which meant that he expected her to be fully open to him.
She knew the mistake of her remote stance the minute the predatory intent came into his eyes. But she was angry at being taken to task over Orihime, without ever once being asked for her own side. Rukia was not a violent person. Ichigo used to know that.
Telling herself he didn't remember didn't help. He would never accuse her of such things when they first met and they were strangers.
So she held herself aloof when she arrived in his room only to regret her stance later. Only by then it had been too late to push off his natural instinct to establish his role as her mate. He kissed he and she had fallen into it like she always did, proving once again she had no self-protection where Ichigo was concerned.
It was not a pleasant revelation.
