I do not own the rights to Inuyasha.

Their lips crashed against one another like two life-long lovers, seeing each other for the first time in years. There was an urgency to this kiss that the other two had been missing. A fire. Lips and tongues danced around and into one another — the perfect balance of teasing and touching. She nibbled on his lip and he growled — pushing her up against a slick wall. She gasped at the sudden impact and moaned as his tongue and teeth played with her neck. Wrapping her legs around his waist, her hands wasted no time pushing at his armor and pulling at his kimono.

Sensing her urgency, he pinned her hands above her head in one hand, and skillfully discarded his armor with the other — his lips never stilling against her flushed skin as his hips pressed into her — pinning her between himself and the stones. He loosened his grip on her hands, allowing her to explore his body.

Her hands danced to his chest, pushing back his kimono. Her dark eyes drank in his alabaster skin. His muscles tensed under her explorative touch. She traced his collar bones with the tips of her fingers and bent her head to place gentle kisses in her fingers' wake.

Sesshomaru stilled his roaming lips to bask in her gentle touch. He yearned for her to both apply more pressure and to keep her touch just as gentle. Shivers of pleasure shook through him as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back. Her nails lightly running down his chest made his eyes fly open and wrenched a hiss from behind his clenched teeth.

She looked up at him, her eyes swirling with lust and curiosity. "Did I hurt you?"

He shook his head slightly. "No. It was very…pleasurable…" She ran her nails down his chest again — a playful gleam in her eyes. "...but I warn you, Kagome, soon it will be my turn to explore you." She almost moaned at his words and shifted her hips against his, gasping as she felt his arousal press against her already wet panties. He growled against her motions and moved his hips in response. This time she did moan.

Her hands tangled in his hair as her lips quivered in anticipation — begging to be kissed again. "I won't make her beg...yet," he and his beast thought while his lips captured hers again. The softness of her lips mixed with her unexpected nibbles and licks had his beast screaming to claim her.

He ran his hands up her sides and grinned devilishly as she shuddered against him. He allowed his fingers to graze against her bra — resisting the urge to tear the garment to shreds. Slowly, he hooked his fingers under her straps and began sliding them off her shoulders. Her lips stilled and her hands flew to her chest.

Sesshomaru froze, confused by her sudden actions. "You do not want this? Your previous actions and scent say otherwise, but now you try to hide yourself from me. Why?" His voice was low, distant, protected. He was suddenly seized by a feeling he had never experienced before: fear.

She lowered her eyes and watched her fingers feverishly picking at a tiny string on the edge of her bra. Shaking her head slightly, she answered him. "It's not that. I do want this...want you. I've just never been with anyone before. And…" she took a deep breath and then her words came tumbling out, "I don't want you to think I'm a slut because I mean, we've really hardly even spent any time together, and I know I feel so much for you, but what if you don't feel the same back and I don't want to make you feel like you're supposed to feel the same but with it being my first time and all I really want it to meant something and I feel like it could mean something, especially with you...unless you don't feel the same then I'll feel stupid and what if I'm terrible at it and you decide that maybe if you could have felt the same about me you definitely won't now and then you'll just toss me aside, because that's what happens...I get tossed aside, because...well...really I'm not good enough for anyone and especially for you because you're intelligent and kind and driven and handsome and I'm just a second-rate-miko who doesn't even have her whole soul."

He tilted her chin up and moved his lips to her cheeks, kissing away the tears that had begun to fall in the midst of her confession. He continued his gentle kisses — traveling over her cheeks, across her eyelids, to her forehead, and down the tip of her nose, until he planted a very soft kiss on her lips. "I do not think you are any sort of concubine or 'slut' as you called it. I can smell that you have never been touched before. Even if you had been, I would trust your judgement that it was with someone you had deemed worthy. However, your discretion only pleases me more. That you have traveled with so many other youkai, humans, and even the half-breed and not found any of them satisfactory pleases me primarily because it means that you have found me satisfactory above all of them. As for your concern about the amount of time we have spent together, I believe I speak for both of us when I say that it is not the amount of time spent that matters, but the strength of the bond. I believe you feel the bond as strongly as I do, which is why I will never toss you aside. You have been belittled so much by the half-breed that you do not see your own strength and worth. You are intelligent, you are driven, you are kind and fair, you are beautiful, you have untapped powers beyond your wildest dreams, and even without your complete soul you are by far the most complete and perfect being I have ever met," he paused, "And Kagome, I will get the rest of your soul for you — not because I find you lacking without it, but simply because it belongs to you and you desire it. Do you understand? Do you understand now why we began crossing paths? Do you understand why I did not even think of abandoning you when I smelled your blood in the air? Do you understand why I need you by my side?" His voice was steady, but his eyes were filled with need and fear — fear that she would leave him.

"Oh, Sesshomaru," she breathed his name and traced her fingers down his magenta stripes. Pulling his face down to meet hers, she kissed him slowly and deeply, tears trickling down her cheeks.

He wrapped his hands around her back and stepped away from the wall — her legs still firmly wrapped around his waist.

"I will not have you against a wall in the bath house for your first time. Now come, let me bathe you — it is time you were treated the way you ought to be." He turned and began walking the two of them into the warm bath.

"Sesshomaru?

"Yes, my Kagome?"

"If you won't have me against a wall for my first time...how about my second time?"

He smiled at her. "Perhaps, little minx, perhaps."

A/N: Thank you all for your supportive and kind comments and for sticking with me during my unreliable uploading schedule!