Madame Masseuse

by princesspvmpernickel

Kagome Higurashi is a recently single massage therapist at "Madame's", a luxury spa in downtown Tokyo where client anonymity is the number one priority. Needing a distraction, Kagome picks up a shift the same night the spa is hosting a bachelor party. Just when Kagome wants nothing to do with men, there's a certain client she can't get out of her mind or keep her hands off.

15. The Games We Play & The Prizes We Claim

Madame Masseuse

"The Games We Play and The Prizes We Claim"

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There was something about seeing Inuyasha with a glistening, wet mouth and carnal look in his eye that had Kagome so aroused she was monstrously useless. All she could think about was the sensuality of Inuyasha's tongue. Her palm tingled with phantom sensations from how he had licked her. Her womanhood throbbed, her panties slick and cool against her lips with arousal.

Kagome clenched her thighs tightly, eager to get her shit together as her eyes bounced between Inuyasha's.

God, she was failing so, so miserably at getting her shit together.

She wanted that tongue between her legs so, so badly.

"That—that was—" Kagome licked her lips, words failing her. The devilishly proud and goading look Inuyasha gave her made her cheeks go hot—like she-could-probably-melt-an-ice-cube-on-them hot.

Holy shit, that was... That was really, really fucking hot!

Inuyasha tucked a piece of damp hair behind her ear, a fang poking through his smile. "I thought you needed an example of what marking should look like. Your palm was right there, makin' it easy enough to show you. There's eight spots total we'll be markin' on each other. Looks like I'm down to seven."

Her mind screamed. Is this jerk really trying to make a game outta this? Of course, he would freaking do that!

"Um..." Kagome stuttered. Her heartbeats were so heavy she felt breathless. "Oh...kay... Any preference for where I start?"

Definitely not the groin, her mind basically gulped. For...reasons.

Inuyasha smirked at her. "No, but you're lookin' a little...dazed, Kagome." He quirked his right eyebrow like he knew what that did to her. "I don't mind workin' on your other palm while you work on catchin' your breath."

"Shut up, Inuyasha," Kagome snorted indignantly, her face warm. "I don't need your...your..."

Goddammit—where were her words?

Kagome licked her lips.

Lips.

Mouth.

Tongue.

Inuyasha's tongue.

Holy baby Jesus's mother, this guy knew how to wield that thing and Kagome liked it way, way too much.

Inuyasha's half-smirk grew until a tooth-bearing, eye-crinkling grin took up his whole face. It was the kind of smile he didn't show to the world that often. He was so beautiful when he looked this happy—it made Kagome's heart pound with affection.

He inclined his head to press a teasing kiss to the corner of her mouth. "What's the holdup, darlin'? I thought you wanted to mark me?" He chuckled like a scoundrel, making Kagome narrow her eyes at him. "And that was just your palm, too. This is gonna get much harder for you, Kagome, if me lickin' your hand has you speechless."

Kagome closed her eyes with a blithe snort, willing her brain to stop replaying the way he called her darlin'.

That was the second time he's called her that. She wanted to not like it as much as she did.

"Don't pretend like you can't smell me right now, Inuyasha," she said in a low whisper, her eyes still closed. Her voice felt cagey at best, like a hushed tone was the best her larynx could manage right now. Thankfully, she knew his demon senses would allow him to hear her.

"Oh, trust me, Kagome—" She could hear his friggin' smile— "I can—I just didn't think talkin' about it would do you much good right now."

Kagome's eyes snapped open to glare at him. His golden orbs shone a twinkling playfulness through his wry expression. She wanted to slap that smug look right off his sexy, alpha face.

Stop being such a useless baby, Kagome! Her thoughts reprimanded. Yes, okay, that display just now was hot as fuck, but you got a job to do! The very least your lust-shook brain should be able to do is rub this back in his face! You gotta lick him, too—two can play at this game!

Okay, deep breath—I can do this. Forehead, armpits, palms...that area, and soles of his feet. I can do this. I can lick him...eight times.

Inuyasha grinned at her like he could tell she was participating in a mental pep rally.

Kagome's scowl deepened.

Oh, I can do this, alright, and I'm gonna make it sexy, too, you smug bastard... We'll see who's speechless by the time this is over!

Outraged determination began to battle her lust for primary emotional control.

Kagome shimmied further up the bed until her chin was in line with Inuyasha's nose. She extended her neck to kiss his forehead through his bangs. Balancing the awkward curve of her body, she placed a hand on his chest, over his heart. Her other hand rose shaking fingertips to caress the side of his face. Her movements becoming more confident, she brushed his hair away from his face, exposing his forehead. Leaning forward, her lips caressed the curve of his skull, the hollow of his temples. Kagome lengthened her exhales, coating his skin with the heat and moisture of her breath.

Her heart was throbbing, but she didn't allow that to stop her from adding the slightest of super-feminine moans when she breathed out against his mouth before kissing him.

She could hear the smallest of responding tremors in Inuyasha's breath when their lips parted. She could feel the increased beat of his heart beneath her palm.

Good.

Good!

There was no way Kagome would allow herself to be the only one affected by this claiming process.

She grinned, pausing to inspect the look on his face: the closed eyes and parted lips, the slightly downturned eyebrows with a solid crease between them. He looked like the anticipation was eating away at him.

Good! her mind repeated.

Upon feeling the lapse of her attentions, Inuyasha's eyes opened questioningly. "What're you—? Kagome, you don't have to drag this out... You just gotta—"

"Hey, I didn't complain about your approach," she grumbled. Her voice was far more gravelly than she wanted it to be—all breath, no bite. Her brown eyes lowered until she was sucked in by a warm, amber bath of smoldering heat. She squirmed as something in her stomach flipped. "You don't get to comment on how I do this, Inuyasha. Don't forget that this is me claiming you. Let me do it how I want to."

He sipped a greedy rush of air, his cheeks colouring in her periphery. Inuyasha gave a couple slow, unsteady nods of his head.

His reaction brought a smile to the edges of her lips.

Kagome removed his bangs from his forehead again, continuing her trail of kisses along his hairline. She steeled her resolve, knowing what she needed to do next.

Seeing him a little flustered, kind of off-kilter, seemed to be a good motivator for her. She doted on that as she allowed moisture to build within her mouth. Soaking her tongue, Kagome reminded herself that sloppy was perfectly acceptable before she opened her mouth to press the full flatness of her tongue to Inuyasha's temple.

Inuyasha gasped with the first touch of her tongue. He actually gasped.

Okay, that breathy little sound of sexual shock had moisture re-dampening her underwear. It wasn't that often she got to Inuyasha like that, but holy crap, Kagome needed to find more ways to evoke that sound from him in the future.

Kagome clenched her eyes. Her movements suddenly felt less assertive. She was too aware of the obvious pitch in his breath. She couldn't ignore his sudden, heaving intakes of air that made her pulse throb between her legs, the way his body seemed to instinctively flinch closer to hers.

The pressure and wetness of her tongue were doing things to him, and that, in return, was doing things to her.

Kagome compelled her focus to her tongue, willing her mind to see only her objective. Now wasn't the time to let her mind wander, to get distracted by how his aroused body pushed up against hers: his rigid hipbone driving into her thigh, his nose grazing her collarbone, his chin in her cleavage, the sultriness of his hot breath on her breasts.

Focus, Kagome, her mind breathed. Focus, it instructed. This reaction just means you're doing it right!

But Kagome could barely focus. Her tongue froze, shaking with the onslaught of her nerves. She could only feel the raging flurry of her heart, the places of her body that ached for his touch.

Saliva built up along Kagome's teeth, under and over her tongue. A twinge of panic shot through her chest with the realization that she could very well drool all over Inuyasha's face if she didn't keep moving.

Drool.

Saliva.

Scent.

Marking him.

While this was a type of intimacy they'd never shared before, it wasn't just a random sensual act they stumbled into—she was claiming Inuyasha with this gesture. She was doing this to make him hers.

And somehow, remembering that fact was all she needed to snap out of it.

Recalling his sheepishness, his endearing acceptance of her decision to claim him—which then turned into him being a beast of a willing participant—Kagome's heart gave her a little kick, like the organ knew her motivation had stalled. This wasn't the time to hold back.

If Kagome felt so sure about wanting him, how could her actions waver? How could she not see this through?

Really, what was licking him eight times in the grand scheme of things? Especially when she enjoyed the way he tasted, enjoyed having her mouth on his body? When she wanted to bring him so much emotional and sexual pleasure?

According to the laws of demon society, after eight—very wet—kisses, Inuyasha would be, for all intents and purposes, hers.

For a limited time, at least.

Until tomorrow, when he fucks me and/or has sex with me and/or makes love to me and we make this claim on each other a little bit more...more. When we make ourselves a little bit more of a...

A what?

A thing? A couple?

Kagome felt her heart ramp up as soon as the labels came out to play.

She took a deep, deep breath, desperate to nip the fear and panic in the bud before it ran amok.

She didn't want to harbour on the worries she dreaded earlier that morning. She didn't want her insecurities to taint this special moment between them. She didn't want her tendency to panic, to question her emotions, to distract her from the intimacy she longed to experience with Inuyasha.

For the first time ever, Inuyasha's words rang with simple clarity. There was nothing simpler than the fact that they cared about each other and that they wanted each other. If Inuyasha wanted to claim her, and Kagome wanted to make him hers, why couldn't they? Why shouldn't they?

Kagome shut out the insecurity Hojo made her feel, the whispering hisses of self-doubt and fear. She squeezed her eyes, focusing her heart on the way Inuyasha made her feel.

Because that's what this was about—the way Inuyasha made her feel.

She decided she didn't need a word for it. She didn't need a roadmap to see where this would take her or a blueprint to map out every detail along the way. Inuyasha made her feel cared for. Inuyasha made her feel wanted and desired. Inuyasha's touch made her feel safe.

Her mind replayed the way he called her darlin', the heart-clenching way the endearment rolled off his tongue. She thought about the vulnerability and tenderness he showed her as a human; the confusion and upset on his face when he admitted his jealousy. Kagome's heart throbbed and ached with every reminder of the gentle times he looked at her; the sweet or supportive words he'd uttered; the passionate moments she'd surrendered to his kisses; the times he used the gloriously sinful lines of his hard body to communicate just how much he desired her.

She focused on all the occasions and ways he used his actions to tell Kagome that he cared about her.

And that became enough.

Knowing how she, too, showed her affections through touch, Kagome infused every last bit of confidence, of conviction, into the way her tongue stroked Inuyasha's skin.

Her pulse accelerated with a stouthearted fortitude. She had never felt so sure of anything in her life.

Her tongue would be her paintbrush, her saliva the means by which she'd make him hers.

Inuyasha moaned in response to the way she licked him, causing a groan of her own to murmur in her throat. He clenched his fist in the material of her shorts over her hip, moving his own hips closer, until he dug his arousal into her.

Kagome's breath almost caught when his lips brushed kiss after kiss to her sternum. The sensation of his mouth somewhere new brought a jerk to the motion of her tongue.

The most she did to acknowledge his reaction was place a hand on his, lacing their fingers together above her hip. Otherwise, Kagome refused to let Inuyasha's response distract her.

She clasped her fingers in his hair and towed her tongue along the curve of his browbone. Saliva dripped down her chin from her slow saunter across his forehead. She took her time to allow her scent to mark him. Her spit shone on his forehead, smelling like a hint of espresso and the mint of her toothpaste from that fleeting brush of her teeth and tongue. A dribbling line of drool warbled down his temple as Kagome finished drawing the curve of his forehead.

She all but slurped her tongue back between her lips.

She was slow to release his bangs, letting the pearlescent locks fall back to his forehead. Her wrist rose quickly to clean off excess saliva from around her mouth, her chin. A nervous giggle escaped her as she reached forward, wiping up the largest bead of spit that dripped down the side of his face.

There was a heavy silence between them before Kagome sunk back down, shifting her body to lay beside him again. Her eyes couldn't help but loiter upwards, observing how his bangs stuck to the moistness her tongue left behind. With a strengthening inhale, Kagome met his awaiting gaze, squeezing the fingers he still clutched to her hip.

Inuyasha's eyes were wide, his lips parted, his breaths noticeably dramatic as a swelling and settling of his broad shoulders.

Kagome found herself lost in a maze of swirling, undefinable topaz.

As was usual when they found themselves in an interlude of silence, Kagome felt obligated to break it. "Looks like we found ourselves a tie," she said, feeling smug about her words despite the bashful hue to her cheeks.

Inuyasha blinked at her a few times, his eyes skipping between hers.

Kagome's heart was feverish, impatient. "R-right? Because we're both now down to seven?" He continued to blink at her, like his brain was lagging behind his mouth. Kagome giggled. "Inuyasha? You okay?"

"Yeah," he answered around clearing his throat.

"Was that...okay?"

"Uh, yeah. That was—" He cleared his throat again— "Fine."

Kagome smiled at him, leaning forward until their lips were barely touching. "Just fine?"

Inuyasha caressed her nose with his, some of Kagome's hair getting stuck to his forehead. "Were you hopin' for me to say somethin' else?"

He closed the space between their bodies. The hand he had on her hip palmed its way to the small of her back. Kagome fought back a shiver from how he applied just enough pressure to her spine to hold her against him, penning her hips against his.

"Oh, I dunno..." she replied softly, her fingers brushing a lazy trail across his collarbone. "I guess it could be nice to hear I did a good job for my first time. Or, that you found it a little sexy. Or—I dunno—maybe even something like you like how wet I can make things for you."

Inuyasha's aroused chuckle had Kagome's pulse actively in her throat. "Trust me, Kagome—I think it's pretty obvious what that mouth of yours does to me. I also happen to like how wet you make things. You smell fuckin' divine, by the way. I'd say she liked lickin' me almost as much as I liked bein' licked."

"She might like the taste of your skin," Kagome remarked flirtatiously, tipping her head back to look him in the eye.

"I'm not stoppin' you from sampling more of me, Kagome."

She giggled, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. "Any requests for what I lick next?"

"Yeah—but I think that request's gonna have to wait until tomorrow."

Kagome's heart tweaked. "You're bad," she chuckled into his mouth.

With a wily chuckle of his own, Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her, rolling them until he was on his back, Kagome laying above him, along the length of his body.

She flushed as he inserted a hand between them to adjust his erection. The swells of her breasts were so close to his face, he'd dip his chin in her cleavage if he declined his head. That made Kagome's stomach spin, thinking about Inuyasha's gentle kisses to her chest.

He caressed his palm down the side of her head, his fingers interlacing with her hair. His eyes jumped over every recess and surface of her face, a keenness to speak present in the way he looked at her.

Kagome's eyes were glassy and wide, her lips and cheeks a flushed rouge from her attentions to Inuyasha's forehead. She couldn't help biting her bottom lip at the unnervingly silent way he scrutinized her so closely.

She really just wanted him to kiss her.

"I probably don't say it enough—actually, fuck, I dunno that I've ever said it out loud..." His cheeks coloured as his eyes dropped from hers. His tone was quiet, unsure.

It was only a couple of silent breaths before Kagome's brow was creasing with confusion.

He cleared his throat. "Uh—you're really—I mean—" He exhaled loudly, an obvious sound of flustered frustration— "You're beautiful, Kagome."

She blushed, her eyes falling to his chin. She didn't know what felt more fidgety after the compliment, her heart or the flutter in her stomach. "That's...very sweet of you to say."

"I mean it," he snorted, his palm continuing to stroke her hair despite his refusal to look at her.

She had told him she appreciated his sweet words and here he was, using them, regardless how unpolished he seemed about it. The fact he was willing to do something for her that went against his natural instincts had a warmth swooning inside her.

She leaned forward to kiss his chin. "I know you do, Inuyasha."

On the next pass of his hand over her hair, Kagome grabbed his wrist. Whether it was his willingness for nice words or she felt inspired from Inuyasha's own approach to licking her palm, Kagome rose onto her elbows, gripping his wrist firmly in both hands.

"Have I ever told you how much I like your hands?" she asked, turning over his appendage so she could inspect it from all angles.

"I don't think so," he encouraged, a cheeky grin blossoming from his lips on the coattails of his blush.

She made a thoughtful sound, bringing his thumb to her mouth, kissing the tip. "Well, in that case...I really like your hands, Inuyasha. I like how small they make me feel. I like how rough they feel on my skin. I like how big your fingers are..."

As her words trailed off, as if to accentuate her point, Kagome engulfed his meaty thumb between her tightened lips, sucking him in over her tongue. She drew him in until she felt the digit twitch in the back of her throat.

"Holy fuck, Kagome," Inuyasha hissed, his hips reflexively bucking against her.

She moaned a chuckle as she slid him out of her mouth. She moved onto his index finger, licking the tip before trailing kisses down the length of it. Then she did the same with the rest of his fingers on both hands. For...reasons, Kagome deep-throated his other thumb, as well.

Once she felt satisfied his digits had been properly kissed, her attention centred on his palm. Kagome used the peak of her tongue to stroke his flesh, tracing the grooves and pathways in his skin like a palm reader. With one final slow, sensual draw of her tongue, she lifted the organ from his skin with a curl, her eye meeting his.

Inuyasha's chest vibrated with a sound of arousal. He clenched his jaw, a muscle feathering in response. It had Kagome giggling softly, seductively.

"You're a fuckin' tease, you know that?"

Kagome met his eye for the briefest of moments while she re-moistened her tongue. "I have no idea what you mean."

Inuyasha grinned. "I bet you don't."

With a kittenish little smile, she flattened her tongue on his wrist, sliding it up his palm. Kagome braced his hand, firm and steady, between both of hers. Her movements were so slow that his inhales became a sharp hiss. Kagome moaned, unable to avoid giggling when Inuyasha's hips—and the deliciously long length of his arousal—ground against her stomach.

The skin of his hands had a saltier tang than his forehead, and the flavour had Kagome moaning a low hum in her throat. She was rigorous in how she bathed his palm in her slaver, using the tip of her tongue to flick him when Inuyasha's own moans had Kagome feeling particularly playful.

By the time Kagome finished marking his second palm, her mouth was desertic, despite the slobbery state of her chin. However, Kagome was pleased—his palms were thoroughly, thoroughly drenched. His wrists glistened. She watched him curl both hands into fists, moisture teasing between the tight lines of his fingers.

Kagome wiped her chin dry with her forearm. "I believe we're now sitting at three-to-one, Inuyasha. You're falling behind," she added with a teasing, sing-song lilt to her voice.

Inuyasha's mouth was on her before Kagome could draw her next breath. He seized her lips with a bestial grunt, his tongue forcing its way past her lips to suckle at hers. Her mouth caught every little rasp and groan of his like a net. She was so attuned to every reactive jerk of his erection, the way her thighs instinctively parted to make more space for it against her.

"Fuck, Kagome, you have no goddamn clue how much I love that fuckin' tongue."

"Mmm, I think I have an idea," she murmured through a smile as Inuyasha sucked on the side of her neck.

She made to reach for his erection but Inuyasha caught her wrist, squeezing tightly, making her gasp. There was something so naughty about his firm hold on her, the sealing wetness of his flesh against hers. Kagome was a bit shocked she didn't receive a verbal reprimand for her boldness. Instead, Inuyasha gave her a reproachful, wicked snigger and a shake of his head. Then he sucked her earlobe between his teeth like he had a different kind of punishment in mind.

Inuyasha fused their hands together, her saliva on his palms a tackiness between them. As if he was inspired by her recent actions, or pissed that he had fallen behind in their Marking Game, Inuyasha cupped the back of Kagome's neglected hand and brought her palm to his mouth.

His tongue practically feasted on her flesh.

When he was finished marking her second palm, he laid kiss after kiss up the inside of her arm, licking the crease of her elbow.

Kagome shivered.

An authoritative growl curdled from his throat as Inuyasha flipped their bodies again, restraining Kagome beneath his. He barely censored his weight, allowing his heaviness to sink into her, pushing her into the mattress, pinning her. He maneuvered a knee to separate her legs, settling himself between her thighs. Then he pushed up on his palms, creating unwanted space between their chests.

Kagome felt self-conscious from the all-consuming way he looked at her.

"She doesn't got much of a lead anymore," he chirred, lowering himself until his mouth grazed the side of her head, his hot breath in her ear. He pressed a quick kiss to her skin before pushing away, resuming the space between them.

Kagome sucked in a breathy gulp, looking up at him, loving his weight and how close it made her feel to him. She was painfully aware of his eyes tracking the rise and fall of her breasts with every turbulent breath. Her nipples hardened under his stare and she felt, rather than heard, his pleased growl.

His palm left streaks of her saliva on her biceps. Hers left smears on his shoulders. Kagome's fingers gripped his skin like she was scared he'd disappear if she let him go.

Straddling her, Inuyasha walked himself backwards on his knees until he reached her shins. He wore a cocky expression, gave a quick flourish of his eyebrows, and then, with a speed that Kagome found unnerving, he reached forward, grabbing Kagome by the hips, and dragged her down the mattress between his legs.

She panted his name in surprise, her eyes wide, her heart a berserk, torrential thing. She didn't realize her tank top had ridden up until the soft tickle of Inuyasha's nails around her bellybutton had her quivering, stifling a giggle.

Inuyasha's grin was sly and beguiling as his eyes shamelessly roved her body. The intensity of his stare had Kagome's cleft oozing arousal.

"You like when I do that, Kagome? Take control of your body?"

Kagome nodded, her breaths frantic, her blood pumping in her ears. "Very much."

In a fluid stroke, he wrenched Kagome's arms above her head. He stacked her hands, one on top of the other, before pinning her wrists with his left hand. She was just beginning to think the pressure of his hold was too much when Inuyasha distracted her by waggling his hips from side-to-side, settling his manhood against Kagome's slick heat.

She was so vulnerable and open to him like this, her arms held captive above her head.

Holy crap—she liked this way, way too much.

Kagome lay beneath him, out of breath and flabbergasted by how pathetically un-modest her tank top had become and how little she cared about her modesty. The material drooped into her cleavage, revealing the fleshy swell of her breast and some of her bra cup, her nipple just hidden away from view. Inuyasha's dragging her across the mattress had the garment ruching above her bellybutton. Kagome had never shown so much of her torso to Inuyasha before, and with the way his eyes devoured the allure of her breasts, scanned her up and down, he seemed to be a fan.

A quirk to the edge of her mouth, Kagome flapped her elbows and raised her shoulders, testing the durability of his hold. It brought a laugh to her lips, how obviously futile escape was. The click of Inuyasha's reprehending tongue and the lone raised eyebrow were enough to have her slackening into the mattress, accepting defeat.

There was nothing but pure dominance in his hold. There could be nothing but pure submission available to her.

Inuyasha wore a cocksure smirk that had Kagome's heart thumping. He obviously knew how much she liked this.

Her eyes wandered helplessly all over his body, devouring the sight of his rippling muscles, his erect nipples, the veins in his arms. His thick member prodded her vulva, leaving a hollow ache burning up Kagome's middle. There was something so outlandishly attractive about him being shirtless with his pants unbuttoned, towering above her with his face so close to hers, her submissiveness completely irrevocable. That red band of his boxers was a seductive little temptation when her eyes feasted on his abdomen, daring to glance lower.

Kagome wanted to taste him so badly she could visualize herself with that red band between her teeth.

When it came time to marking his groin area, who knows, maybe she actually would.

"What're you thinkin' about?" Inuyasha's husky voice demanded. He adjusted his hold, keeping her arms pinned down by weaving their fingers together, depressing the back of her hands into the mattress.

"Your body," she answered honestly.

Inuyasha leaned forward. "What about my body?"

A playful glint shone in her eye as she raised her chin at him defiantly. "I want to sink my teeth into it."

"Where do you wanna bite me, Kagome?" His returning grin was downright sinful.

"Wherever you'll let me."

He purred a sound of agreement, running his free hand down her arm as he bent over her mouth. "I like you like this," he whispered into her swollen, red lips before licking them with the tip of his tongue.

Kagome snapped her teeth at him, which resulted in him answering her with a bruising kiss. His mouth was so rough, Kagome assumed it was meant to be punishment for lashing out at him with her teeth. Coming up for air from their kiss, she asked, "How do you like me, Inuyasha?"

He pushed his tongue between her lips, coaxing her organ to his before he caught it between his teeth and sucked it deeply. A moan breathed to life from her lips, and Inuyasha's mouth was so greedy he swallowed that, too.

"It's fuckin' hot when you're so into me you turn into this feral, needy little thing."

Kagome returned his stare with heavily half-lidded eyes. "What do I need, Inuyasha?"

"Me," he breathed into her ear. "You need me so bad it aches, doesn't it, Kagome?" He leaned in, his tongue painting the outline of her ear until Kagome's lips trembled, her neck straining as she pushed herself into the mattress, like she needed to escape how good this felt.

"Kiss me," she moaned, clasping her fingers around the palm that kept her hands confined to the mattress.

She was a little surprised when Inuyasha's lips were on hers instantly. She would have expected a fight—or at least an absurd amount of teasing beforehand.

"Wanna know a secret?" she whispered against his mouth when he drew back.

"What?"

Kagome licked his upper lip, catching him off guard. "I'm still winning by one."

He tightened his hold on her wrists, leaning into her neck for a sumptuous whiff. "Ever think I'm letting you win?"

"You're not," she cried out as he sucked and nipped and licked at her neck, her shoulder. "I'm just—" She paused for a rush of air as Inuyasha ground himself against her— "better than you at this."

Kagome barely had time for another breath before he claimed her lips hungrily. She drank him in, pulling his lips and tongue deeply into her mouth until their teeth clashed. She grunted in protest when their kiss was cut short by Inuyasha. His mouth tore from hers with a loud smack.

He sat back on his haunches, looking ever the predator. He lowered a long finger to her chest, meeting her eye for a few seconds before he began dragging his nail across her chest, tracing the swelling arches of her breasts. His finger never moved closer than the dip of her cleavage over her sternum, but the sensation was enough to make Kagome feel edacious.

Her heart pounded such a disjunct, chaotic rhythm, she swore Inuyasha should be able to see it thudding through her flesh.

"You want me to touch you, don't you?"

Kagome could only nod, sucking a bottom lip between her teeth and biting down. She didn't trust herself not to ask him for more than this.

The thinness of her satin, unpadded bra did nothing to hide how much she liked what he was doing. Inuyasha leaned back on his heels, watching her nipples harden to little pebbles. Kagome felt his cock throb against her.

Dear God, the look on his face as he stared at her tits...

Her nipples puckered achingly as he continued the tickling, blazing sensation back and forth. From armpit, over the supple 'M' of her mounds, to the other armpit, then back. She had never known a thin line scratched across her flesh could bring her so much desire. She wished he would lose control and grab her breasts in those powerful, meaty hands.

Kagome's hands twitched beneath his hold.

"You like my claws, Kagome?"

So, he refers to them as claws, huh? Okay, duly noted.

She looked up at him, biting her lip. "Remember how I said I like your hands?"

"Yeah."

"That implies I also like your claws."

Inuyasha's eyes lingered on her breasts before they made a slow ascent to meet hers. "Can I share a truth with you?"

"Always," she answered, wishing he'd lean back down to kiss her. He seemed pretty content to straddle her hips, though, his eyes focused on her erect nipples with a predatory intent.

"I wanna see your tits covered in lube again. You have no idea how many times I've thought about that."

Kagome closed her eyes and worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Wetness bloomed between her legs, her core running hot. "Glad to know I made an impression."

He leaned forward, stealing her lip from underneath her teeth, sucking it into his mouth. "I think you know exactly what kinda impression that left on me." Inuyasha flexed his cock so it pulsed against her. Kagome bit back a moan.

Before she could deepen their kiss, Inuyasha was leaning back again, his eyes consuming the flushed state of her.

"Come back down here," Kagome whined, wiggling her hips beneath him.

Inuyasha grinned. "Why?"

"Because I need more of your mouth."

"Told ya you were needy." He leaned forward, his hair tickling her chest as he tightened his grip on her hands. Kagome's fingers felt so small and rueful between the potence of his.

"I don't care," she exhaled. "Kiss me, Inuyasha."

"I don't really think you're in a position to be demanding much of anythin' from me, Kagome."

She scoffed a breathy little sound. "I think you like this a little too much," she teased in a low, husky voice.

"Whadduya think I like exactly?"

Kagome beamed up at him playfully. "Holding me down like this—I think you like the idea of having me docile."

Inuyasha bent his neck to suck on the skin above her collarbone. "Oh, darlin', there ain't nothin' docile about you."

His words, his tone, that bloody term of endearment—the combination had more arousal gathering in Kagome's already slick panties. She was panting by the time he finished kissing a route down her throat.

Darlin'—there it is again, her mind sighed happily.

"I like that," she whimpered, bowing her neck to give him more to kiss. The words were out before she could even consider reigning them in.

"My mouth on your throat? The way I graze my teeth like—?"

"No," she interrupted, her breath thin and terse, her heart feeling reckless. "When you call me that."

Inuyasha stared at her for a couple of seconds, his mouth gaping as he searched for an explanation in her eyes. It wasn't long before his lips were back on hers, his kiss far gentler than it had been a few heartbeats ago. "Do you really?" he asked, his tone heavy with incredulity. When she nodded, a sheepish curve to her lips, Inuyasha grinned—a private little smile that Kagome wasn't sure he meant for her—and then said, "What do you like about it?"

Kagome kissed him then crinkled her eyes with her smile, her cheeks glowing pink. "I...like the way you say it. I like the way it makes me feel."

His expression turned earnest. "How does it make you feel?"

Kagome blushed. "Do you—do you only say that—?"

"I've never called anyone else that before."

Kagome's downturned eyes and pleasant smile had Inuyasha's heart pounding. "Knowing that makes me feel—" She paused, her eyes lagging in their return to his— "special to you."

She could tell from the look on his face that words were failing Inuyasha in that moment, so she leaned forward with a reserved chuckle, kissing his chin. Inuyasha's grip on her hands heightened in response until Kagome winced. He was quick to loosen his purchase on her, offering a mumbled apology.

Kagome giggled, inclining as far as his grasp would allow to nuzzle his chin, his jaw. "I'm getting a bit of an impression he might be into bondage."

Inuyasha chuckled, exposing a fang. "Is that so?"

Kagome nodded dramatically, the gesture causing her breasts to shake.

Inuyasha's eyes lowered to watch—of course they did—and he tongued his bottom lip. "Fine, I'll be honest. I'm really likin' you like this, Kagome," he said into the side of her neck, his breath a hot chuff in her ear.

She groaned a soft sound, pressing her head back into the mattress. "Like how?"

"Completely open to me. I could do whatever I wanted and you couldn't do shit about it."

Kagome leveled him a challenging, eye-tapering stare. "Is that an empty threat, Inuyasha?"

"I don't do empty threats, Kagome."

And then his mouth was on her left armpit and Kagome wailed a girly, giggling shriek.

She tried to squirm, to shrink and recoil away, but Inuyasha's body was too powerful, his tongue resolute. There was no escaping him, no weaseling away from the dogged pressure of his slurping tongue.

"Oh my god!" Kagome squawked with a shoulder-shaking laugh, frantic to loosen his grip on her wrists to absolutely no avail. She bucked her hips, but he barely seemed to exert any effort to keep her from moving. She could feel him smiling as he licked her ruthlessly. "Oh my god, Inuyasha! It tickles!" She cried out with laughter, gasping, tears in her eyes. "Fuck, Inuyasha—I can't! Hurry—get it over with! Hurry up!"

His hold on her wrists was relentless, unyielding, regardless how much she flailed. His hips pinned her lower torso to the mattress, her legs unable to do anything to shake him. Inuyasha was quick to swap to her right armpit, noisy smacking sounds accompanying Kagome's squeals of laughter, her wailing his name, her pleading, rushing gasps.

Kagome cackled a horrific, throaty sound that had Inuyasha scoffing back a laugh.

When Inuyasha finished marking her armpits, he rolled onto his side, freeing Kagome from his grip, from his body. From Kagome's perspective, he didn't so much roll off of her as he seemed to fall over with laughter.

"That was fun," he guffawed, turning his head to smile wickedly at Kagome. "I wouldn't've guessed you'd be that ticklish, Kagome."

Kagome scoffed with an exaggerated eyeroll, clenching her biceps to her sides, feeling his saliva drip from her armpits onto the bedspread. "If you thought that torture was fun then that just proves how much of a sadist you are, Inuyasha." Kagome couldn't help giggling at the look he gave her.

She grabbed onto his bicep and used it as an anchor to pry herself on top of him. Her palms lay on his chest, her elbows at an acute angle. Her breaths were wild but slowly deescalating, a wide smile on her face. Her cheeks were red from the laughter still lingering on her lips.

He beamed up at her. "Couldn't've been that torturous if she's still wantin' to get on top of me."

Kagome snorted, self-conscious of the slick wetness beneath her arms. It was an incredibly strange sensation. "Consider yourself lucky that I like you, I guess."

Inuyasha chuckled, brushing her hair over her shoulder before straightening a kink in her tank top strap. "Trust me," he answered, his tone deepening, quieting, "the fact that we're doin' this? That you're wanting to mark me? I'm feelin' lucky as fuck, Kagome." He snorted. "A little confused, maybe, but lucky regardless."

"Why confused?"

Inuyasha shrugged half-heartedly. "It's one thing to be claimed through sex. Doin' it this way is—I dunno—there's just more intent behind it, doin' it this way."

Kagome thought she could understand that.

For demons, being claimed through sex was an automatic byproduct—one didn't necessarily have to want to claim or be claimed in order to fuck; yet, sex and claiming were a package deal. For a moment, it made Kagome wonder how one night stands worked among demonkind—if demons even engaged in that sort of thing, given the whole implication of scent-marking.

But then Kagome remembered that Inuyasha had had sex since they'd met, which meant that maybe demons did do the one night stand thing...

Kagome wasn't sure if she wanted to ask him how that worked or not. Something gross slithered around her stomach following the thought of Inuyasha being intimate with someone else.

Until engaging in this marking business with Inuyasha, Kagome wouldn't have realized how much intentionality there was behind marking someone with one's saliva. It required a conscious and deliberate effort to ensure all concentrated glands were covered efficiently enough to combine their scents.

It would be really hard to claim someone accidentally with saliva.

She wanted to ask him why her wanting to claim him like this left him feeling confused, but the question refused to form on her lips.

Kagome's heart convulsed from the vulnerability of his tone, his words. Her expression softened from the honesty he wore on his face. She cupped his cheek. "You're a good guy, Inuyasha. Me wanting to mark you has nothing to do with luck."

Inuyasha snorted. "This has everything to do with luck, Kagome—you kiddin' me?"

"How?"

"'Cause I'm so fuckin' lucky I found you in the first place."

Her cheeks flushed.

A silence settled between them for a few heart-pounding seconds before Kagome broke the silence with a soft, scoffing snort. "I see how it is," she gibed, not meeting his eye. "You take the lead with that tickle torture, and then have to go and make my next turn super awkward."

Inuyasha tilted his head to the side with a questioning grin. "Whadduya mean?"

"I have to choose between armpits, feet, and your groin next—none of which are a casual segue from the lovely things you just said to me. So, I just have to go and be a weirdo and start licking you."

Inuyasha laughed boisterously, wrapping his arms around Kagome's waist. "I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not even a little."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "I mean...I guess I could mark your armpits next, since I seem to be working my way down your body."

Inuyasha lifted his right eyebrow at her teasingly. "Even though you're itchin' to get your mouth on my—?"

"Don't even," she interrupted with a throaty laugh, her cheeks pink.

Inuyasha laughed, running his fingers through her hair. They lingered like this a while before Inuyasha's face tranformed into a more severe expression than he had before. "You really feelin' awkward about this now, Kagome?"

Kagome extended her neck to kiss him, her thumb trailing over his cheek. "I didn't mean marking you as a whole feels awkward. I've been enjoying myself—" She paused to chuckle gently— "It's just—the other times I marked you, I wasn't really thinking about it too much." She laughed. "I don't know how to move onto the remaining parts that I have to mark."

"Y'know, you could just go for it. You don't need to lead up to anythin'. I know what's gotta happen, Kagome. If you're serious about seein' this through—"

"Which I am!"

"—you're not gonna make anythin' weird by just...doin' it."

"Being that direct about it just feels...weird to me, though."

Inuyasha played with a loose strand of her hair that fell over his biceps. "So, what can we do to not make it feel weird?"

Kagome puckered her lips, drawing them to the side as she thought.

Inuyasha smirked at her expression, seeing it as an open invitation. He leaned forward, cupping her nape and using it to tug her face closer until he could kiss her.

It was the gentlest, sweetest of kisses they'd shared all day.

His mouth moved against hers, his tongue languid in its exploration of her lips, the seam of her mouth. His organ was tentative, as if he was asking permission to enter—something that had Kagome's heart tripping over itself. She sighed as she opened up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling their bodies closer. Inuyasha's grip tightened, holding her so close Kagome felt the familiar sting in her breasts from the pressure. He stroked her tongue with tender sweeps, his nose caressing hers as he adjusted the angle of their kiss. His palms and fingers were so soft in their exploration of her hair, in the way they held her face to his.

There was no teeth, no battling for control, no dominance, no alpha-ness in this kiss. It was meaningful in the way it was uncompromising, hardened without being rough.

It was a sensual embrace of their mouths, a sensuous entanglement of their tongues.

The way Inuyasha kissed her was downright romantic.

Kagome moaned into his mouth, her palms on his cheeks, her heart voraciously knocking at his chest. There was nothing rushed or frantic or chaotic or flustered about this kiss. It was emotional; it was delicate—it was honestly a little vulnerable. This kiss made her feel. This kiss made her brain grow quiet.

This kiss was everything.

When Inuyasha pulled away from her, his palm resting on her cheek, his eyes searched hers, like he wanted to make sure the change of pace had been okay with her. Kagome was incapacitated by the scorching conviction in his golden stare, the intensity she found there. She became too aware of how fast her heart was pounding, how fantastically her stomach swirled, how her body temperature rose.

Kagome felt paralyzed and borderline tearful by how much she felt for him.

"What was that for?" she found herself asking, her voice sounding winded.

She felt winded.

The right side of Inuyasha's mouth twitched into a grin. "I need a reason to kiss you now?"

"Well, no..." Kagome flushed. "But, that was...nice." She placed a hesitant palm to his chest, like she wasn't sure if she trusted herself to touch him. "Like, really nice."

"And my other kisses haven't been nice?"

"No, that's not what I meant." Kagome blushed, moistening her lips. "Obviously, they have been. It's just—things with us don't typically feel so—" God, what was the right word?— "gentle," she landed on. But even that didn't feel right to fully capture what she meant.

"Gentle?"

Kagome flushed and nodded, turning her eyes away from his lifted eyebrow.

"She gonna expand on that?"

How was she supposed to explain this feeling to Inuyasha? This large, overwhelming, unspeakable loveliness that had settled into her heart like a cat snuggling in for a long nap?

"Can I ask you a weird question to hopefully help explain my point?"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"Have you ever made love before?"

Inuyasha leveled Kagome an audacious expression, eyebrow lifted and all. His look had Kagome gulping and sliding her eyes away from his. "Yes, Kagome, many times."

Kagome felt her heart tremor. "I don't mean having sex though, Inuyasha. I mean truly making love. Like, it's not fucking, it's not rough or detached or this frenzied, carnal act. I mean the kind of sex that's so emotionally charged, so tender, you feel more connected to the other person than you ever thought possible. The kind of intimacy and act where the only outcome is truly that love has been shared, expressed, made."

Inuyasha's cheeks coloured when Kagome met his eye again, and for some reason the look on his face had her heart doing parkour in her ribcage.

"Oh... Well, uh, in that case, no." He looked flustered for a few breaths before he said, "I'm guessin' from your very specific description that you have?" His cheeks flushed, and his tone had a slight edge of irritability, like he was annoyed at the thought Kagome had experienced something so monumentally intimate with someone else.

"No," she answered quickly, shaking her head. Kagome became very aware of the way Inuyasha's arms constricted around her waist, the heat of his palms on her back. "It's never been like that for me either; although, I've thought about it a lot and would like to experience it eventually," she continued, her heart pounding as she recognized she was rambling, "but I've never felt that emotionally connected to someone for sex to mean anything like that."

Inuyasha snorted, his face still flushed. "Lemme guess, then...books?"

Kagome blinked at him a few times, not following.

Inuyasha chuckled. "I'm guessin' you've read about sex like that in your books?"

"Oh," Kagome blushed. "Yeah, I have."

Inuyasha shifted underneath her. "Why'd you bring this up? I mean—why'd you ask?" A heavy silence had hung between them before Inuyasha asked his question, whether curiosity got the better of him or he saw the colour of Kagome's cheeks and thought to put her out of her misery.

"Oh, uh, the way you just kissed me? I was gonna compare it to...that. Not because of anything dramatic—" She was quick to say with a heat behind her words that mirrored the one in her cheeks— "but just because our previous kisses have been...just...really different from that last one. You were gentle with me and, honestly, it was a little...romantic." Her cheeks burned. "If all our previous kisses were like fucking, then that last time was more like..." Kagome's words trailed off.

She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, hoping that doing something with her hands would distract her from the embarrassment scalding her face. "Aaaand, now I feel dumb," she laughed nervously, too mortified to meet Inuyasha's gaze.

Inuyasha brushed his fingers through her bangs. "You're not dumb," he sighed around a soft laugh. "I get what you're tryin' to say."

"Do you?" Kagome blew out her breath. Her mind was spinning and her stomach was fluttering and her heart was raging.

Inuyasha caressed her cheek with his thumb, his fingers sliding into her hair below her ear. "You like it when I'm gentle with you, Kagome?"

She nodded, closing her eyes when Inuyasha fully cupped her cheek. She turned her face into the heat of his touch to kiss his palm.

"You sayin' you want me to be—" He paused like he had to feel out the next word over his tongue before he spoke it— "romantic?" He extended his neck to press soft, whispery kisses to her hairline.

Kagome's breath caught in her chest. Her one hand reflexively made a fist where it sat on his chest. "Maybe. Sometimes," she found herself saying. "I—I like the variety."

"Variety?" He echoed with a smirk.

Kagome couldn't help but smile at him despite the heat coating her face like a second skin. "That's one of the things I really enjoy about you, Inuyasha—it's never the same thing over and over again. One minute you have me feeling so desirous, like that wild thing you talked about earlier; and then there's times like this...where I feel—when you—" Kagome's breath stalled as Inuyasha circled the tip of his tongue around her temple, licking her cheek.

"When I'm what?" He spurred around a smile.

Kagome inhaled deeply. "When you're tender with me. Those times when this...feels like something."

Inuyasha kissed her temple. "What does this feel like, Kagome?" His words were gruff, yet smooth, like rocks eroded over time by chaotic waters.

"Like—" She paused to lick her lips. "Like—" She stopped to fill her lungs, wishing her insecurity away. "Like...we're more than friends."

She heard the crackle of his lips parting into a smile beside her head. "Because friends don't mark each other?"

With that, Inuyasha used both hands to draw back Kagome's bangs, cradling her head in his palms as he made love to her forehead with his tongue. There was nothing playful about the motion of his thick, hot organ. If anything, it was a little intense. He alternated between leaving a thick trail of saliva across her skin with long sweeps of his tongue and placing small, wet kisses across her browbone.

The breathiness of her next moan had Inuyasha humming a low growl of pleasure, a smile tugging from the corners of his lips. Her palms turned to fists over his chest.

When he pulled away, a dribble of spit tickled on its descent into her eyebrow. Inuyasha kissed the spittle away, then moved his lips between her eyebrows, placing a few more kisses down the bridge of her nose until he reached her mouth.

"Or is it 'cause friends don't kiss each other the way I kiss you?"

"Friends, technically, don't kiss at all," Kagome replied, smiling against his lips.

Her mind felt like a blur as she looked at him, her heart quivering from how much she felt for him. Kagome wanted to ask him what he felt about her—about there being a them. She wanted to ask him what he wanted out of the two of them together, why he wanted to claim her at all.

But the premise of opening her mouth to form any those words had her clamming up.

I hold parts of myself back with you, Kagome—for a ton of different reasons. I don't plan on holding anythin' back from you on Friday—see what happens after that, see how it makes me feel.

Kagome didn't know why those words of his from last night came back to her now. Was it the way Inuyasha so adeptly shared honesties without really saying anything at all? Was it her own insecurity and need for validation that made doubt or worry so quick to come to mind?

Was he holding back with her even now? While they were in the middle of claiming each other?

Inuyasha leveled her a stare like he saw the turn her mind took, and Kagome didn't know whether that should make her laugh, pout, or cry—that he knew her well enough to read the minute changes in her facial expressions.

Kagome took a lungful of air and let it go as a courageous exhale. "Could I ask you for a truth, Inuyasha?"

Her face was definitely an open book to him because Inuyasha's countenance quickly became guarded, clearly having seen her reservation, her concern; yet, he still agreed with a sharp nod of his head.

"You told me last night that you hold parts of yourself back with me. Are you...doing that now?"

He took a while to respond, like he didn't quite know how to answer that. "Yeah," he finally said with another curt nod.

"Can I ask why?"

For a moment, Kagome didn't think he was going to answer, and she wondered if it was weird to instigate this conversation while she lay on top of him. But it turns out, Inuyasha just needed a couple minutes to sort out his thoughts. When he opened his mouth to speak, he cupped Kagome's biceps, pinning her to him like he needed her body heat to help him get through what he needed to say.

"For how long it took me to figure out, there was a lotta shit between me and Kikyou that wasn't compatible, and instead of doin' what I should've—and break up with her—I just...squashed the parts of me she didn't like, and—God, I feel like such an asshole talkin' about this."

"I'm sorry," Kagome was quick to say. "We don't have to—"

"No, it's—" He rubbed at his face— "It's fine, Kagome. I just—" Kagome laced her fingers through his, bringing their entwined hands to rest below her chin, and his eyes seemed to fixate on that— "I've never talked about this shit before. It's hard not to feel like an idiot..."

"You're not, Inuyasha," Kagome said quietly, rubbing at his shoulder with her other hand. "Don't worry about how it comes out. Whatever you say to me won't change anything between us."

Inuyasha stared at Kagome's hand in his like he'd find what he wanted to say there. His heart beat a wild meter beneath their intertwined fingers. "There were a few times I put myself out there with Kikyou. Bein' open about what I needed and havin' her turn that shit down? It—it fuckin' hurt."

Kagome looked at him with such sincerity in her gaze, wrapping her other palm around their joined hands. It took very little effort for her to fill in the blanks. "You're holding yourself back because you don't wanna put yourself in that position again, with me."

He wore a look of surprise, like he couldn't have imagined his sensitivities being so obvious, so transparent to someone else. He mulled over Kagome's words, embarrassment coating his features, and then he nodded. It was a forlorn, contrite bow of his head.

Kagome squeezed his fingers between hers, wanting him to know she understood, that she heard him, that he was safe with her.

Inuyasha's next words came out with a ripening energy, like he was just getting started, like he was winding a slow, laborious crank to start up a piece of machinery. "It's just—what the fuck am I even doin', Kagome? Do you know how much it fuckin' sucks second-guessin' myself all the time? Like—fuck—I know what I want but I can't fuckin' do anythin' about it 'cause I don't wanna make an ass of myself again!"

Kagome blinked at him in rapid succession. "Inuyasha, I'm sorry, but I-I don't under—"

He cut her off with a frustrated groan.

His eyes focused on their joined hands again before he clenched them shut, as if speaking behind his eyelids felt safer. "You and me've already talked about how touch matters to me, right? Well, it's not that I just like it—I can't fuckin' survive without it. Nothing matters more to me than physical contact, than sex." He sighed, looking flustered and annoyed. "I dunno if it's a dog demon thing or what, but—I can't do kinship or affection or whatever the fuck you wanna call it without this constant need for contact, that level of closeness you can only get through sex."

Kagome became inundated by an upswing of frantic thoughts. Despite the churning flurry of her mind, she dared not utter a word, not when Inuyasha looked like he was struggling to put his next words together.

He sighed, a thoughtful expression on his face. "You know when you were tellin' me about why you like your job? About touch bein' important or whatever? Bein' physically close with somebody, havin' sex—it's like that for me. Words don't come easy, but touchin' somebody? Being touched? Giving or receivin' pleasure? I'm a fundamentally sexual person—it's the only way I know how to do intimacy."

"Inuyasha," Kagome said cautiously, her eyes wide, her fingers squeezing his. "I told you before that I—"

He scoffed, stopping her words dead in her mouth.

"I know you mean well, Kagome, but words don't do much for me. Like, sure, yeah, talkin' about stuff and sayin' shit is necessary and helpful or whatever, but I need more than that. Feh—physical closeness is somethin' I need, but it hasn't been easy with you, at least—" He paused to growl with vexation— "sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't."

Kagome stumbled over all the different things she wanted to say. She withheld a mortified wince following the pitiable words that decided to fly out first. "So, I'm not meeting your needs at all? Because we're not having sex?"

He offered her an expression that was equal parts pained and apologetic. "I can't be close to somebody without sex, without bein' physical—it's just how I am." He paused to sigh, detaching his fingers from Kagome's. "And then to top it all off, I dunno how to do this with you without fuckin' panicking that you don't actually want it or that you're gonna hate it." Inuyasha scowled as he let loose a self-deprecating, joyless laugh. "It feels so goddamn pathetic—complaining that I want somethin' when I'm too chicken-shit to actually do somethin' about it..."

A tense, thick silence hung over them.

Kagome didn't know what to say—well, that wasn't true. There was a lot she wanted to say, but she felt too overwhelmed to figure out where she should start. A part of her just wanted to ask for his hand back, her fingers missing his warmth. Her eyes flittered closed when Inuyasha reached forward to stroke a knuckle down her cheek.

When Inuyasha spoke next, there was less heat in his tone despite a lingering fervency, like an ember that was less intense but could still burn. "I wanna touch you without worryin' about it, Kagome. I want you to touch me because you want to and not 'cause I asked you to or gave you permission. Shit," he laughed bitterly, removing his hand from her face, "is this how you feel when you overthink shit to death? It fuckin' sucks!"

Kagome made a face that concluded in her biting her cheek. She tucked her hands beneath her chin. "Words might be subpar for you, Inuyasha, but you know you can always talk to me, right?" She knit her brow as an unsettling sensation took up residence in her gut. "It makes me so mad for you," she whispered heatedly. "How could Kikyou, the woman who was supposed to love you, do such—?"

"Kikyou just didn't wanna be touched all the time," he ground out, his jaw clenched. "She called it unnecessary. Eventually, I just learned to...keep that shit to myself."

"Inuyasha..." Kagome mumbled, her heart hurting for him. "If sexual chemistry and physical connection are so important to you, and she didn't—wouldn't—meet your needs, how could you stay with her?"

Inuyasha grunted, offering Kagome an unenthusiastic lift of one shoulder—like he honest and truly didn't know. "When I told you before that I want my next relationship to not be what I had with her, that means I won't sacrifice what I want anymore. I need somebody who understands how important touch and sex are to me and won't turn away or deny me that."

Kagome's nails dented her palm from the intensity of her fists. "I'm so sorry she treated you like that, Inuyasha." She lifted her head off her hands to look him in the eye for the first time in a little while. "As for me, though—um, us, I guess—I-I didn't realize—" She sighed with frustration, quickly dropping her gaze again— "Inuyasha, it was never that I didn't—"

He exhaled loudly, distracting Kagome from her train of thought.

He rested a palm over her merged fists. "When you and me started hangin' out, and I realized I wanted you, I was like a deer in fuckin' headlights. But then you started bein' all honest and shit with me, wanting to play that truth game, and I found it easy to talk to you, when talkin' isn't ever easy for me. But then you said you didn't want a physical relationship and somehow, there I was a second time, just...havin' to keep that shit to myself all over again."

"I didn't know that emotions and sex get all tangled up for you," Kagome lamented, the urge to cry making her throat feel thick. "I thought I was just gonna be a one night stand or something, Inuyasha. I-I wish you had told me—"

Inuyasha cupped Kagome's cheek and it startled the words from her tongue. Her bottom lip quivered as she withheld tears behind her closed eyelids. His thumb paced across Kagome's cheekbone.

"Then making out became a thing for us," he continued with a snarky chuckle, "and I found that holdin' myself back was different with you than it was with Kikyou. 'Cause I didn't feel wholly unwanted for a change. 'Cause I could see how fuckin' conflicted you were, Kagome. Every time you kissed me, I could feel it—how much you wanted me. You just wouldn't let yourself."

He sighed, his thumb stilling, Kagome's cheek growing warm and clammy under his loitering touch. "And even though I know now why you did it, it was still so goddamn hard when you kept bein' all hot and cold with me—wanting me, escalating things, drawin' back, changin' your mind. It just reinforced the worry that I was gonna be denied all over again."

"I'm so sorry," Kagome repeated in a hard, whispering tone, tears burning her eyes.

He sighed, cupping the side of her head, sinking his fingers into her hair. "It's been a weird fuckin' spot to be in—to want to get closer to you but needin' to watch myself 'cause you're still tryin' to figure shit out after Hojo—all while I'm also tryin' to figure out the bullshit I suppressed with Kikyou." Inuyasha tongued his bottom lip, glancing up at her briefly. "I don't know how to want you, Kagome, and that leaves me feelin' like a dumbass 'cause I dunno what you want, what you like, and—"

"Inuyasha," Kagome sighed heatedly, cutting him off. She held her breath like that would prevent tears from falling, and she wanted to curse herself for being a crybaby. She licked her lips, feeling consumed by a sinking, hollow ache that felt a lot like guilt. "Have you really been holding back and denying yourself what you want because of my relationship issues? Because you think my needs are somehow more important than yours?"

"Don't do that introspective, guilt crap, Kagome," he growled, his eyes narrowing. "That's not the reason I brought this up."

"Yes, I'm an emotional work in progress—we've established that already—but how else am I supposed to feel about this? All that stuff that Kikyou made you repress? You've been so preoccupied with me and my shit that you haven't worked through the things you need to. You've basically swept your needs under the rug this whole time! How could I not feel guilty about that?" She turned her face away from him angrily. "It's also a shitty fucking feeling, Inuyasha, hearing that I made shit worse for you without even knowing it either!"

"Kagome," Inuyasha chastised on a slow exhale, squeezing her fingers. "I never brought any of this up before 'cause I don't like the way this shit makes me feel. I can just handle it on—"

"Growth and closure isn't always comfortable, Inuyasha, but talking about it is necessary—trust me on that."

Inuyasha growled. He angled his torso until Kagome slid off of him, laying beside him with her hand over his chest, her other clenched over her heart. She looked up at him with a heated, defensive stare.

"I don't want to talk through my shit, though, Kagome!" he seethed. "I just wanna do what I want with you, when I want, and not worry about it! I just wanna be past all this—but I fuckin' can't because Kikyou tellin' me no all those years has left me all kinds of fuckin' confused!"

"Inuyasha, I'm not her!" Kagome cupped his cheek, willing his gaze to hers. "I don't want you to hold yourself back with me! I don't want you to feel like you can't be yourself with me! I don't wanna feel like I'm incapable of meeting your needs! What have I done to make you think I don't want you?"

"You haven't wanted sex when I have!" he answered frigidly. "So, what am I supposed to do about—?"

"Maybe I was scared of jumping into bed with you in the beginning, but I do now, Inuyasha! I want to—I've wanted to. Every friggin' day, you've known how much I want you! How many times have I tried to touch you, but you're the one who stops me? You're always the one who—"

"Because you didn't seem like you were all that ready for it! 'Cause you seemed fuckin' scared of me or whatever you convinced yourself in that head of yours was gonna happen as soon as you fucked me! 'Cause I wouldn't be able to fuckin' handle it if you thought it was a mistake!"

"You could've just been honest with me about how important this was to you! You made it seem like you only wanted detached, unemotional fucking! You made me feel like I was just an itch to scratch, that you were just looking to get off and I was good enough for that! I didn't know that sex, for you, is this...act that helps you foster closeness with somebody! I didn't know sex had so much meaning or baggage or significance for you, Inuyasha! I didn't know being intimate was your way of managing your feelings!"

Kagome wiggled backwards until she sensed she was at the edge of the mattress. She needed space to think, space to cool down. Between Inuyasha's body heat and her anger, Kagome was starting to perspire. Maybe if she started sweating it'd be easier to hide tears that were threatening to escape between her laboured breaths.

Kagome tucked a hand under her pillow and avoided meeting his blistering stare. "I don't have the best relationship with sex," she said in a withdrawn tone, her eyes low. "I never have thanks to all the shit Hojo put me through. Sex has always been something I've wanted to enjoy more than I have. You've changed physical intimacy for me, Inuyasha. The idea of sex feels different with you—I've never wanted it so badly, actually thought I'd enjoy it, until you..."

Inuyasha blew out a frustrated breath and rolled onto his back. "You asked for a truth and I gave it you. Why the fuck are you fighting me about this?"

"We're not fighting, Inuyasha—we're having a...a heated debate."

He snorted and rolled his eyes.

The urge to wrap her arms around him was too irrefutable to deny, and Kagome sighed, deciding the space between them was bullshit. She inched forward towards him, dragging herself with a hip and elbow until her front met his side. Despite how flustered and frustrated this conversation made her, she wanted to be close to him right now—she'd just have to survive overheating.

She reached out to cradle his face in her hands, guiding his head until Kagome could lean her forehead against his. The contact made her skin feel damp beneath her bangs. "Inuyasha, listen to me...I know words don't mean much to you, but hear me out, okay? Because I'm gonna say this now and I promise I'm gonna prove this to you later. I want to be intimate with you. I want to give you what you need. I want you to give me a chance to meet your needs, but I can't do that if I don't know what your needs are."

She pressed a kiss to his cheek, her heart a noticeable throb in her throat. "I can so, so appreciate not wanting to open up a part of yourself that you hid for years 'cause you were scared of rejection. You're talking to the expert here," she laughed, adjusting her hold on his cheeks. "But, don't hide who you are and what you need from me, Inuyasha. If you and me aren't compatible, we're not gonna know that if we're not open and honest with each other."

Kagome couldn't help smiling at the irritated grumble that murmured in Inuyasha's throat at her mention of potential incompatibility.

"I don't want bits and pieces of you," she continued through her grin. "I told you before, Inuyasha—I'm an all or nothing kinda girl. I like touch. I like the way you touch me. I like touching you—and I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to really like having sex with you," she laughed again.

Her heart felt more at ease when she saw her last comment encourage the corners of his lips to twitch with a smile.

Kagome sighed, closing her eyes. "When you've been trained to feel or think a certain way for so long, I know you can't just flip a switch to think or feel differently. But, I'm not Kikyou, Inuyasha... I want all of you, all of it, unrestricted, uncontained, unabashed, all the time."

Kagome opened her eyes when she heard Inuyasha exhale loudly. Swirling pools of gold locked onto her, unspent tears making her eyes glassy.

Inuyasha's arm curled around her waist, pulling Kagome into his chest.

Her next words she spoke into his Adam's apple. "The next time you find yourself wanting to hold back from me, either just don't do it, or talk to me about it. Let me know you're feeling panicked in whatever way you can—give me some kind of sign, okay? And again, I know they're just words, but I want you, Inuyasha. I. Want. You. I want you so much it's probably illegal somewhere in the world to want somebody as badly as I want you."

Inuyasha's blunt laugh was a quivering, breathy rush of air. He pressed his lips to Kagome's forehead. "I just wanna touch you the way I need to touch you, Kagome. How the fuck can somethin' so simple not feel simple?"

Kagome squeezed her eyes shut, confusion clouding her vision. "But you do touch me..."

"Yeah, but not always the way I want to, to the extent I want to. When you first told me how you felt about stuff—me—I just gambled, assumin' it'd be okay to touch you a little after you said you had feelings for me." He sighed. "And then you started sayin' more and more nice shit to me, and havin' nice reactions when I tried to say somethin' nice back or when I touched you, and—"

"Why is it necessary to make us wait for everything, Inuyasha? If you want me right now, and I want you right now, why wait until tomorrow? Why won't you just let us have each other?"

Inuyasha worried his bottom lip so aggressively, Kagome feared he'd tear through the skin. "Be-because I—I'm worried it's not what you really want—that I'm not what you really want. I'm not oblivious that I came into your life immediately after that shitshow of a relationship with your ex. It's not impossible that you could change your mind about what you want as you start to process shit, Kagome." He exhaled a heavily frustrated sound. "I make us wait 'cause I want you to be physical with me because you wanna be physical with me, specifically, because you want me—not 'cause you wanna experience something new with someone new, not because you think it's what I want." He paused to sigh, to look away. "Givin' you a deadline just gives me a timeframe to not get my hopes up."

Kagome's heart spasmed with both heartfelt deference and incredulity. She stared up at him from underneath incredibly tight, wrinkled, furrowed eyebrows. "I told you I have feelings for you close to a week ago, Inuyasha. I've wanted to have sex with you for almost an entire week! We didn't have to postpone on principle, not if you've been struggling this whole time! Like—way to put me in an impossible position, Inuyasha! All week you've been freaking out, thinking I don't want you physically, when you haven't let me get physical with you because of this arbitrary deadline we set for ourselves!"

"Kagome, I—"

Her growl of frustration shut him up.

His eyes widened as she rose onto her hands and knees to climb on top of him.

Kagome sat on his hips, resting her hands on his stomach. "You're lucky we're halfway through this marking stuff," she huffed, "because otherwise I'd be teaching you a lesson by having sex with you immediately."

Inuyasha stared at her blankly for a moment before he burst into laughter. His hands pitched upwards to palm her thighs. "You would not."

"You wanna try me?" she challenged, leaning into her palms on his pectorals. "I've never been more serious in my entire freaking life! But I'm not giving up on marking you with my saliva, Inuyasha—don't think this little conversation has distracted me from that. I will never forget the look on your face when I told you I wanna do this. I told you I want to claim you, and I'm gonna see this through—because I want to show you that I want you to be mine—"

"Kagome..."

"—because this means something to me. Yes, tomorrow the whole claiming-by-sex thing will make what we did today a bit redundant, but I don't care. I've enjoyed doing this with you, Inuyasha, being close with you in a way we haven't before. I like knowing that you want to mark your scent all over me. I want you so much that I am going to finish marking you and you're not going to interrupt me. Do you understand?"

"Kagome, you—"

"Because this isn't temporary for me, Inuyasha," she added with a blush. "I'm not gonna change my mind about you, and I'll keep marking you over and over again if I have to to prove it."

Kagome laced her fingers with his, tugging his arms out to his sides until he looked like a stunned, brawny snow angel. With a flourish of her head and neck, Kagome flicked her hair over her shoulder, bending over to lay an assault of kisses to Inuyasha's jaw and neck, trailing tongue-tipped kisses across his chest.

"Kagome," he groaned out. His back arched off the mattress, squeezing her fingers, as Kagome dragged her tongue down the line separating his pectorals. She'd never had her mouth on his chest like this before. "Kagome, let's—" he paused to hiss out a breath as she licked his nipple— "Let's talk about this."

"No," she said, lifting their fused hands until they nestled on the mattress, bookending Inuyasha's head. "I'm done talking, Inuyasha."

As Kagome's mouth descended on his armpit, there were a few thoughts that came to mind that shocked her. The first was that the smell of his sweat—the poor guy must've been nervously sweating his way through that conversation—was more of an aphrodisiac than a turn-off, and that made Kagome question if something was wrong with her. The second was that Inuyasha barely had any armpit hair. Not that she'd thought about that in depth before.

As if Inuyasha saw her line of sight, her curious expression, and understood her thoughts, he offered as an agitated mumble, "I found your disposable razors in the closet—I thought this would be...easier on you."

Kagome was about to extend her tongue from her mouth but halted, casting a softened expression at him. "Inuyasha...you didn't need—"

"It's fine," he interjected, his cheeks colouring.

Kagome watched him lay his head back down and stare at the ceiling for a few breaths before his eyes drifted closed. Kagome smiled, seeing how he obviously was resigning himself to letting her mark him—finishing her claim on him.

It surprised Kagome that marking Inuyasha's armpits and the soles of his feet wasn't as awkward or uncomfortable of an experience as she was expecting. Perhaps it was the occasional sucking in of a breath she heard from Inuyasha, or the way his right foot twitched like maybe her tongue tickled, that had Kagome's heart pounding with the novelty of what she was doing. But by the time Kagome only had that one spot left to mark, her heart was feverish, her mouth so dry she wanted to kick herself for not thinking to bring water for them to drink.

Staring down at Inuyasha, she felt pleased with herself. She hadn't let herself stutter or stumble over marking the parts of his body that she thought would throw her off course. She had said she felt weird about being direct about marking him; yet, she had gone about it so effortlessly.

But then again, Kagome had always been competitive. Not only did she have a point to prove, but she had a game to win—and perhaps a half-demon's nose to rub her victory in for turning marking into a game in the first place.

The gloating smugness of being pleased with herself continued right up until Kagome's eyes feasted on the line of hair beneath Inuyasha's naval that guided her sight to the bulge in his pants. It was like watching herself in the third person, as she said, "I don't think I'll be able to mark your groin with your pants on like that. Either I can take them off, or I'll need you to, please."

Please—like she was asking him to vacate a seat or pick something up for her. Not like she was asking him to remove his bloody pants of all things.

Take them off, take them off, take them off.

It was a chant in her head as Kagome walked backwards on her knees until she was sitting above Inuyasha's feet. She felt more like her usual unsteady self when the pure, masculine smirk on Inuyasha's face preluded the arc of his hips, the hiss of his zipper, and the shimmy of his trousers until they bunched beneath his thick thighs, below his knees. Kagome was mesmerized by the exposed red boxers and the substantial erection that domed the fabric.

Staring at his erection like it was staring back at her, Kagome suddenly realized she had no fucking clue what she was doing.

Inuyasha cleared his throat, his cheeks the pinkest Kagome's ever seen when she slowly lifted her head to look at him.

"You don't have to—uh—that is, you don't gotta do anythin' about...that." He nodded at his throbbing erection and then cleared his throat again. The colour of Kagome's face rivaled that of his boxers. "For marking, think of it like an upside 'U' that you gotta, um, lick—" Dear God, he sounded flustered; it had Kagome gulping— "from the seam of one thigh to the other."

Kagome nodded, licking her lips. She lowered herself onto her hands and knees and crawled up Inuyasha's torso.

His eyes widened as her face neared his, and then her breasts hovered over his face as Kagome reached for the hair elastic she spotted on her bedside table. Wrapping it around her wrist, she crawled backwards until she could sit back on Inuyasha's stomach, drawing her sheet of hair behind her and tying it back into a low knot.

Inuyasha looked enthralled, watching her silently, his eyes wide and taking in every minor detail. Kagome smiled as she returned his gaze, her eyes lingering on the endearing, blushing pinkness that dusted his features.

Sitting up on her knees, Kagome took a few deep breaths until his erection was the focus of her attention again. She replayed his instructions—upside down 'U', upside 'U', upside 'U'—so her mind couldn't loiter on anything other than the task at hand.

This entire time, Kagome had toyed with the idea of just taking him into her mouth, giving him pleasure as a way of showing him that she wanted him, that she wanted to have a physical relationship with him. But, now that she found herself slinking nervous fingers beneath the waistband of his boxers, Kagome realized she didn't have the guts to wrap her teeth around that band let alone suck his cock.

So, with a face so hot she felt sweat prickle her brow, Kagome drew his boxers down his left hip with both hands, using her forearm as a shield over his erection to keep the material in place—like Kagome Higurashi was actually concerned for the guy's modesty of all things!

Kagome's heart was a frenzied rush as more and more of Inuyasha's skin was revealed.

When the dark, manicured curls of his pubic hair appeared, Kagome's breath hitched, her lips tucking in over her teeth so she could bite down on something to avoid saying anything or moaning.

When the seam of his thigh was visible, Kagome's mouth went dry, forcing her to build up more saliva over her mouth.

When the base of his shaft appeared, Kagome froze. A lump grew in her throat that felt a lot like an aching, hungry thirst. She became acutely aware of how cool and damp her panties were, feeling them stick to her labia with every shift of her hips. She felt Inuyasha fidget beneath her, his upper torso wriggling like he couldn't get comfortable, like he suddenly didn't know what to do with his hands.

The smell of Inuyasha's skin had her eyelashes fluttering. There was something darker about his scent down here, like it was him but headier, muskier, fleshier.

There was nothing dry about Kagome as her eyes feasted on that window she was granted of the width of his cock. There was barely a quarter of an inch of him visible to her, but it was enough to drive her wild with lust.

It was such a strange feeling—being simultaneously intimidated by that thing but also feeling desirous enough to want to taste it, to touch it.

Snapping her head back into focus, Kagome gave her lips one final confidence-boosting lick, then opened her mouth to speak. "Could you, um, open your legs a little—?"

Inuyasha's movement was instantaneous, causing Kagome to startle from how quickly he shifted, and how suddenly Kagome fell off his legs onto the mattress, now between his legs. She giggled despite her nervousness, despite her arousal, then thanked him.

Then, remembering why she was doing this in the first place, Kagome kept her forearm over his erection to hold the red garment in place—and to keep his dick from springing upwards at her—and then leaned her head down to lick the crease between his thigh and his cock.

She pretended Inuyasha was silent as the grave. She pretended she didn't hear the blood rushing in her ears. She pretended Inuyasha's hips weren't trying to thrust upwards in response to the wetness of her organ near the most intimate part of his body.

I'm not licking next to his junk, she forced herself to think. Jesus, even the voice in her head sounded flustered. This is his gracilis muscle, adductor longus, pectineus muscle.

Fuck me, her brain cursed, when the side of her tongue grazed his testicle.

The goddamn sound Inuyasha made had arousal oozing from Kagome, the wetness leaving her slick and squirming.

Kagome's tongue left a sopping trail through his dense, dark curls, her heart aching with every upwards thrust and flex of Inuyasha's cock against her forearm.

Don't rush, she commanded. Leave your scent, go slow. Leave your scent, go slow!

Kagome shifted, righting his boxers over his left hip, drawing it down over his right, using her left forearm as a safety shield. Her movements were smooth and quick until she was pressing her tongue into the crease on his right side, Inuyasha's leg twitching to the side from the pressure—or maybe it tickled.

Thinking about his assault on her armpits, Kagome hoped it tickled. It kinda pissed her off, if she was honest, that Inuyasha's armpits hadn't been nearly as dramatic of a marking as hers had been.

Okay, this is good, Kagome thought, her mind feeling steadier, despite—

Fuck—yup! There're his balls again.

Kagome took a long inhale through her nose, coaxing her tongue upwards until she reached his hip. She placed a gentle, tongue-tipped kiss to his hipbone before she slid his boxers back into place and slowly climbed up the length of his body.

When she lay herself down on his chest, looking him in the face with a flustered, lazy smile, Kagome giggled when she saw his reluctance to look at her.

"So...how's it feel?"

Inuyasha grunted a sound that seemed partially flustered, partially...annoyed? "You seriously askin' me how it felt havin' your mouth near my cock?"

Kagome tongued her bottom lip. "Um, no, I—uh—I actually was asking how it feels to be marked or claimed or whatever..." she concluded, sheepishly.

"O-oh," Inuyasha mumbled, his face red.

"Y-you okay?" Jesus, it's like his being flustered was contagious or something!

When Inuyasha didn't look at her right away, Kagome placed a palm to his flushed face, his cheek warm. She slowly turned his head until his eyes flicked to hers. "Tell me what you're thinking. Please?"

Inuyasha licked his lips, his eyes dropping to her mouth. "I really fuckin' like it."

"My tongue sorta around your cock?"

He snorted a laugh. "No, dummy, being claimed."

Kagome giggled, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. "Yeah? Does it feel any different?"

"Physically, no."

Kagome chewed her cheek, reaching out to play with a strand of his silky hair. "Emotionally?"

Inuyasha nodded, looking away. "Yeah, that, might—uh—feel a bit different."

Kagome giggled. "Good."

"Are—uh—you good for me to, um—?"

"Claim your spot in second place?" she teased.

Inuyasha cocked an eyebrow at her which elicited a breathy giggle from Kagome.

"I marked you first," she said proudly, her grin spreading all the way up to her eyes. "I won our little game or whatever. But don't worry, Inuyasha, there's nothin' wrong with coming in second."

He rolled his eyes at her before kicking his pants off the rest of the way. Kagome's face coloured as she listened to them fall to the floor in a muffled splatter, knowing that he was now in bed with her in nothing but boxers.

Before she could return his gaze, he startled her by flipping them. He rolled their bodies over so quickly that Kagome felt a little disoriented before she knew he had her on her back. She giggled, finding herself momentarily and unexpectedly speechless when Inuyasha draped her leg over his shoulder, his lips kissing a wet trail from her knee down her shin, down her ankle.

Kagome gasped when he sucked her big toe into his mouth.

She didn't know how to feel getting so aroused over Inuyasha marking her feet. A part of her brain started going down the route of foot fetish until Inuyasha's brilliant and wickedly talented tongue stole all thoughts from her brain. There was nothing about the pressure he used that tickled or made her uncomfortable. Coating her foot in a thick layer of saliva, he moved onto her other foot, licking up the entirety of her size eight, moaning like foot was his favourite flavour.

Kagome couldn't handle how much she liked that he liked this.

She genuinely thought she'd need not just new panties but new shorts by the time he finished marking her.

It was kind of crazy to think that she had marked him. She had actually claimed him.

Any demon who stumbled upon Inuyasha would scent Kagome on him and know Inuyasha was hers.

There was something nice—really, really nice—about that.

When Inuyasha finished marking her feet, he climbed up Kagome's body with a feline grace. His chin was still wet and his eyes were predatory as he dove his fingers into her hair and hauled her mouth to his.

Kagome gasped out a keening, pleasurable sound as Inuyasha kissed her with a passion that had her arching her back off the bed, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You're almost mine," he said against her lips, his fingers gripping her nape with a tight force that had Kagome squeaking against his mouth.

Inuyasha growled, a low, toe-curling, bestial sound before detaching from Kagome's mouth. With a hastiness to his movements, he stepped off the side of the bed to stand behind the footboard. Bending at the waist, he reached forward. He gripped Kagome by the hips and tugged her towards him until her ass bumped the footboard, her feet dangling over the edge of the bed. There was a frantic, drumming rhythm to her heart as Inuyasha stepped between her legs and hinged at the waist, his mouth joining with hers once more.

She moaned into the kiss, Inuyasha's other hand caressing her side, coming to a standstill over her hip. Kagome gasped, bucking impetuously when Inuyasha's index finger dipped below the waistband of her shorts.

She watched him start to kneel and Kagome felt arousal pool from her core, slick muscles clenching heedlessly. Despite the tremor of her heart, the excited panic, Kagome couldn't look away.

When Inuyasha's chin neared her hipbones, his expression changed, his confidence seemed to wane, and he looked at Kagome with a pained look before he rose to his feet again. He crooked forward, his palms on the bed, one on either side of Kagome's hips. He groaned, his head hanging low, his hair hiding his face from Kagome's view.

"Shit—I dunno if I'm gonna be able to do this," he anguished, his voice a gruff, sexy whisper over a strained breath.

That excited panic she felt turned into plain, old panic-panic. "Why?"

"You smell wet, like...real fuckin' wet."

The panic disappeared like it had never been there in the first place.

Kagome grinned up at him, liking the arrangement of their bodies perpendicular to each other. "If I can do it, you definitely can," she said encouragingly.

Inuyasha snorted. "Except my cock wasn't soppin' wet for you with arousal."

Kagome lifted an eyebrow at him, her cheeks a rich crimson. "You saying you don't like how wet I am for you, Inuyasha?"

"Not when I gotta stop myself from tasting what's gonna be mine."

Kagome's heart was a libidinous, uncivilized beast that dropped into her stomach as she heard herself say, "So...don't stop yourself, then."

Inuyasha's fingers stilled in the waistband over her hip. His gaze shot to hers like he hadn't heard her properly. Kagome devoured the sight of him, shoulders lean and prominent, hovering over her, his golden eyes glassy with lust. Her eyes drifted down his long torso before snapping back to his.

Those beautiful amber eyes that promised vulnerability and so much pleasure were waiting for her.

"I really wanna taste you, Kagome."

Kagome propped herself on her elbows, straining her neck until he bowed forward to kiss her gently. "So taste me then."

He backed away, his eyes searching hers, like he was looking for the lie behind her truth.

"I want you, Inuyasha," she stated with a hushed cadence. "If you're worried you can't hold yourself back with me...if you're worried you won't be able to claim me because what you want is in the way, then don't hold back."

Inuyasha cupped her cheek and devoured her mouth in a formidably intimate kiss. "I wanna bring you so much pleasure, Kagome."

"Okay," she whispered back into his mouth between kisses.

"I wanna lick that pussy 'til you're all I can fuckin' taste."

"Holy shit, that's hot," she keened against his lips, her chest heaving under the intensity of her breaths.

"I wanna make you come, Kagome. Tell me I can. I fuckin' want to so bad."

She grinned against their kiss. "What's the magic word?"

"I wanna fuck you with my tongue?" He smirked back.

A shiver erupted down Kagome's spine. "That's close," she giggled, her voice a low, husky temblor, "but not quite."

"Please," he responded with a sanguine grin, "please let me fuck you with my tongue."

"Well," she scoffed, kissing his cheek, his chin, his jaw. "How can I say no to that? Especially when you asked so nicely."

Kagome's heartbeat went wild when Inuyasha's large hand clamped down on her shoulder, pushing her back until she was fully horizontal on the mattress. Anticipation, lust, and maddening desire swirled in her stomach, her heart aching in the confines of her ribcage as Inuyasha inched his way down her body. He lay sporadic kisses in his descent: to her jaw, her sternum, to her bellybutton, one over each hip.

When he stilled, his head hovering over her aching womanhood, he looked like he was downright salivating. "I can't even begin to explain how fuckin' appetizing you smell right now."

Kagome propped herself up on her elbows to look down at him with a blushing smirk. "I've been marinating, remember?"

Inuyasha chuckled before barking an order at her to lay back down.

"What—you're saying I can't even watch?"

"Kagome..."

"What?"

"Lay. The fuck. Down."

"Or else?"

He quirked that right eyebrow at her, refusing to give her a response and Kagome stuck her tongue out at him childishly before flopping back down on the mattress, her body to bouncing.

Kagome's eyes scanned the ceiling like impatient windshield wipers. Her body felt hypersensitive, on the lookout for any movement from Inuyasha. She couldn't figure out his angle, why he didn't want her watching him when he was gonna go down on her.

Oh sweet God—Inuyasha was going to go down on her!

Kagome covered her face with her palms, the burning sensation in her cheeks and the pounding of her heart too much to bear.

She chewed the inside of her cheek, wondering why he wasn't doing anything yet. Was he just sitting or standing there looking at her? Why wasn't he—?

Kagome's back arced off the bed as Inuyasha pressed his nose and mouth against the crotch of her shorts and inhaled so deeply it rumbled his chest. His movements became frantic then: his hands and claws rubbing vertical strokes on her thighs, drawing her legs over his shoulders. The back of her knees ignited from the heat of his skin, her toes and heels grazing his lower back.

Kagome cried out when Inuyasha took a second whiff, a groaning shudder that shook his shoulders as he pressed his nose against her, wriggling his face into the dampness of her shorts.

"Jesus Christ," Kagome could barely breath out.

"Fuck's sake, Kagome, nothin' smells like you," Inuyasha ground out.

A scorching heat tingled up Kagome's core to feel his breath, his words, his mouth move against the place where she ached for him most.

His fingers descended beneath the band of her shorts and Kagome gasped. Knowing what came next, she was expecting embarrassment, nervousness, insecurity. Yet, as she felt Inuyasha remove her shorts—the slow graze down her thighs, over her knees, past her ankles, and then disappearing entirely as a soft splash of material on the floor—it was like those emotions were completely eradicated from her library.

There was something so beautifully sinful about the feel of Inuyasha's hot, chiseled shoulders beneath her naked legs.

Her panties exposed to him, discoloured from her arousal, Kagome only knew an aching, carnal want. There was only desire so deep it became who she was, what she was. She was a creature of lust in love with the man between her thighs, the half-demon who was breathing in the scent of her arousal, drawing the smell of her into his lungs to imprint the scent there. For how much she felt for him, there was no room for Kagome to feel anything else.

"What's the fuckin' point of these panties anymore?" Inuyasha huffed, nuzzling her labia with his nose, causing Kagome to buck against him, a whining sound leaking from her throat. "There's not a spot left on these things that's dry."

"Your fault," Kagome moaned, arching her back, digging her heels into his back.

Inuyasha lifted his face away from her wet heat to cast her up a mischievous grin. "You feelin' impatient about something, Kagome?"

"I thought you were gonna put me out of my misery."

Inuyasha looked back at her violet panties, now a deep burgundy from how wet she was, the outline of her lips just visible to him. It seemed to be taking all of his willpower not to either discard them entirely or cast them to the side, exposing her sex to him.

"I didn't realize that's what I was doin'."

"You said you wanted to taste me. Why are you just...sitting there?"

Inuyasha snorted, leaning between her thighs to caress his lips against her covered wetness.

Kagome jerked against his face. The heat of his smile caused a shiver to pucker Kagome's skin.

"You want me that badly, Kagome?"

"Yes!"

"You want me to lick you?"

"God, yes!"

"You want me to fuck you with my tongue?"

Kagome drove her head into the mattress, bowing her back off the bedspread. "Inuyasha."

"What?"

"Stop talking."

He chuckled, rubbing his mouth over the wetness of her panties. When he leaned back, his lips had a sheen of dampness that he licked away with a delicious moan.

Kagome's eyes wanted to roll into the back of her head from how intensely she was overcome by desire.

"You wanna feel my mouth against you, Kagome?"

She nodded.

"You want my tongue?"

She hummed an affirmation.

"I'd ask if you want my fingers, but maybe I'll save that until tomorrow. Don't wanna give you everythin' you ask for on the first go-around."

"Inuyasha, please."

"Please what?"

"Put me outta my misery."

"You wanna come for me, Kagome?"

"So badly, yes."

He smiled against her pussy, nuzzling his nose against the aching bud that sent a fierce rupture of pleasure through her bones. "What's the magic word?"

"Please."

He snickered at how quickly she answered. "What else?"

"Inuyasha!"

"What?"

"You—" Words didn't exist for a moment when Inuyasha wriggled his face against her panties, his nose separating her lips as he inhaled deeply, coating her scent to memory— "You just want me to beg."

"I'll be honest, Kagome," he smiled. "I'm not expectin' you to, but it sure would be nice."

"Why?"

"'Cause you're not the kinda girl to beg for somethin' unless she really, desperately fuckin' needs it."

"I really, desperately fuckin' need your mouth on me, Inuyasha."

He grinned. "That's not bad, but it's not quite what I'm lookin' for."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome propped herself up on her elbows to scowl at him.

He was kneeling between her thighs, his mouth hovering over her soaked panties, his hands gripping the footboard so tightly Kagome worried there'd be marks from his fingers once he let go.

"Yes, Kagome?"

"I said please!"

"Please what?"

"Mark me."

"I plan to."

"And taste me, fuck me with your tongue, do whatever the hell you want with your stupid, sexy mouth, but just...do something other than talk!"

Inuyasha laid a trail of kisses down the inside of her thigh while he chuckled and it had Kagome shuddering. He concluded his path by pressing a firm kiss to the apex of her thighs, to the puckered, tender flesh that burned for his attention.

"Inuyasha, please—I need you."

"And?"

Kagome buried her hands in her hair. "I need to come, Inuyasha—please."

"What else?" He nosed her clit and it had Kagome gasping a silent breath.

She clenched the bedspread in a white-knuckled grip. "Inuyasha, please! Please! I'm going to fucking die if you keep up this torture. Please!"

"Kag—"

"Inuyasha, please! I'm begging you, you stupid, alpha asshole!"

He grinned, placing another hard kiss to her clit before saying, "See, now was that so hard?"

Kagome had thought he would remove her panties and dig right in, but was pleasantly surprised—arguably appalled—when he drew her panties to the side, exposing her sex to the bedroom air. His approach was...not what Kagome would have expected from a man starved for sex and ravenous to give pleasure.

"Fucking God," he hissed, leaning back to stare at her intimate, wet folds, his thumb holding back the thin strip of linen. "You look good enough to eat."

Kagome felt something along the lines of self-consciousness start to slither up her insides. She palmed her cheeks, embarrassment turning her body hotter. She couldn't believe he was just kneeling there staring at her most intimate parts.

His palms were hot on her inner thighs as he spread her legs a little bit wider, stretching her folds until she felt beads of moisture leaking from her opening. Inuyasha groaned a husky, desperate sound that had Kagome's pulse racing.

"Inuyasha..." she mumbled from underneath her hands, like there was comfort to be found in hiding her face behind her palms.

His tongue darted out and licked some of her juices that had daubed the crease of her thigh. The heat and moisture of his powerful tongue so close to where she needed it had Kagome's head slamming back into the mattress.

"I think this is the juiciest, most edible pussy I've ever seen," he cooed against her thigh, placing a kiss there.

Kagome clasped her hands to her face even harder. "Inuyasha!"

Oh my God! He has the filthiest fucking mouth I've ever known!

Holy shit, I like it!

While Kagome hid behind her hands, embarrassment walking alongside her desire but never fully disappearing, Inuyasha licked his way around her vulva. It took Kagome a few heartbeats to realize that he was marking her first. He kept her wetness open and exposed to him, even though she didn't have to be vulnerable for him to mark her. The bastard was just keeping her uncovered so he could pause to admire the saturated, pink appeal of her whenever he needed to shift her panties away from the path of his tongue.

The sensation of Inuyasha's hot, wet organ over her thighs, against her labia, was one that had Kagome feeling dizzy, overwhelmed, beside herself with need. His tongue never slid between her lips, never ventured near her clitoris. For how wet she was and how much of her arousal he had to lick through, Kagome marveled at his willpower to stay on task.

When Inuyasha finished licking the creases of her thighs, he let her panties slip back into place, covering Kagome temporarily. He curved an index finger into the band at the front of her underwear and pulled down. He paused when he exposed her pubic mound. "Well, fuck—that's the sexiest little surprise."

Kagome wanted to look up, to perch back on her elbows, but didn't have the guts or coordination to manage. Instead she just asked her ceiling, from behind her hands, "What is?"

His answer was a dripping tongue stroking the strip of hair on her mound—the only hair to be found on her womanhood.

Kagome's face scorched beneath her hands and she moaned, unable to help wriggling as Inuyasha finished marking her. As she felt his saliva trickle down her vulva, tickling her lips, Kagome realized that it was Inuyasha's plan to make her come for him only once he had made her his.

While she was not in the mood for patience, there was a part of her that thought that idea was a little...sweet.

Inuyasha mumbled a purring hum in his throat, pressing a soft kiss to her pubic mound before he removed his finger from her panties and climbed his way up Kagome's body.

When she felt Inuyasha prying her hands away from her face, Kagome met his glazed, aroused smile that softened when he saw the flush of her cheeks.

"You doin' okay?"

"I think so. Why are—um—" She paused seeing the lifted eyebrow her question raised from Inuyasha— "Why are you up here?"

He smirked at that. "Because I finished marking you."

Kagome chewed the inside of her lip. "And?"

"And I wanted to kiss you."

"Oh."

Inuyasha leaned forward, wrapping his fingers around her chin to tilt her head back. "Is that not okay?"

"Of course it is."

"'Cause you seem—I dunno—disappointed?"

Kagome watched his mouth loom closer before her eyes shot back up to his. "Never—you know how much I love kissing you."

"Do I?"

"You should—we've only been doing it forever."

Inuyasha grinned before pressing the faintest, softest pucker against her pillowy lips. "Does it feel different?"

"Kissing you?"

"Being mine."

Kagome's eyes bounced between his. "Am I yours?"

"You smell like mine." He cupped her nape and nuzzled her chin with his nose. "But you didn't answer my question—if bein' mine feels different?"

"Being claimed feels different."

"How?"

She kissed his cheek, the corner of his mouth. "It's just...better."

Inuyasha claimed her mouth in a greedy, lascivious kiss. His hands roamed from her hair, to her cheeks, to her jaw, to her throat.

Kagome wrapped her arms around him until her forearms overlapped, drawing him in tight to her, feeling his heart beat against her chest. After a few minutes of heartfelt kisses and gasping moans and grunts of pleasure, Kagome found herself giggling against Inuyasha's mouth, his teeth grazing her lips as he smiled.

"What?" he asked.

"I thought you were going to...you know." She flicked her eyes down to imply her meaning.

It feel really naughty—in the best way—for them to be so physically close with their bottom halves only wearing their respective underwear. Kagome really, really liked feeling his erection against the cool wetness of her panties.

Inuyasha grinned. "You think I'd forget?"

Kagome responded with a playful, exaggerated shrug of her shoulders. "You seemed pretty intent to mark me first and then, coming back up here, you seemed pretty distracted with kissing me. It could've been possible you forgot."

"Feh—I thought you liked kissing me?" He snorted.

Kagome chuckled, running her thumb across his cheek as she cupped his jaw. "I do—very much. But you did promise to put me out of my misery."

"Is it that miserable wanting me, Kagome?"

She leaned in to kiss him, running her fingers through his hair. "It is when you don't do anything about it."

Inuyasha chuckled, kissing the end of her nose. "Trust me—now that you're mine, I'm gonna take very, very good care of you."

"Oh, yeah?"

He kissed her nose again. "Yeah."

Kagome leaned in to trail her tongue down his throat, placing a kiss against his Adam's apple. "You gonna elaborate on how?"

Inuyasha snorted, wrapping his hand around her nape and pulling her back so he could look her in the eye. "And ruin the surprise? Not fuckin' likely."

Inuyasha grasped Kagome's wrists so quickly, so tightly, it had her squealing with surprise. He lifted each hand, placing a tender kiss to the heart of her palm, and then positioned her hands, palm down, on the mattress. Then, he offered her a toothy half-smirk before he descended her body, dragging his hard, masculine chest against her womanly curves until he was back on his knees, his chin over her stomach.

Kagome's heart was pounding when he reached up to tangle his fingers between hers.

"I've changed my mind," he said, his voice so hoarse and gravelly with lust that Kagome couldn't take it.

She jumped up onto her elbows to look at him, her fingers squeezing his. "About?"

"I want tomorrow to be the first time I fuck you."

Kagome knit her brow. "But...you're not—"

"I was gonna fuck you with my tongue, but I'm not gonna, Kagome."

Disappointment hit her hard, settling in her stomach like a burning regret. He didn't want to do this after all.

"O-oh—um, okay. Yeah, that's—"

"But I don't need to be inside you to bring you pleasure."

It happened so fast.

Inuyasha laid a palm to the inside of her thigh, pushing her open to make space for his head. His other hand slid inside her panties, tugging them to the side. His mouth descended on her pussy like he was a man starved and he would gorge himself on the first bite of his meal.

When Inuyasha said he wasn't going to penetrate her, it should have dawned on Kagome that the undivided attention of his tongue would be on her clit. Yet, the first powerful stroke against her aching nub had Kagome bucking off the mattress, her body shaking with delirious, desirous surprise.

She screamed at the way he lapped at her aroused, budded flesh. Her fingers gravitated towards his hair but he kept moving her hands back to the mattress. Her thighs wanted to close on their own accord—the pleasure too much to handle—but Inuyasha kept prying her knees apart, scorching her pink heat with a driving flutter of his tongue.

She kneaded her breasts, tangled her fingers in her own hair, rocked her hips along with the motions of Inuyasha's conquering organ. His tongue was a energetic, driving force against her. Her body was alive with her pulse, her nerve-endings on fire from the provocative way he pressed himself against her, flicked her with the tip of his tongue.

Inuyasha assaulted that little bud with the full force of his tongue like he wasn't trying to bring Kagome to climax but coerce it out of her. He groaned and keened and growled and moaned all the huskiest, sexiest noises in response to Kagome's sounds of pleasure.

Not only was he a fucking god with his tongue but Inuyasha was enjoying himself, and that made Kagome enjoy herself all the more.

His large hands bore down on her, pinning her bucking, frantic hips to the bed. He held her down when the pleasure became too much, too sensitive, too fast, that she needed to escape from it. She clawed at the sheets, flung her head back to dent the mattress, her back arcing up, her legs shaking.

"Oh my—oh, yes! Inuyasha!"

He burrowed his face in her labia, his mouth, chin, and cheeks growing slick with the amalgam of her discharge and his saliva. He siphoned that little pink button between his lips, growling with her between his teeth, the rumble vibrating into her flesh and causing her to seep more arousal.

Inuyasha sucked on her so deeply, so forcefully, Kagome felt a borderline bite of pain from it. He sucked on her like she was the thickest milkshake and it was only with the deepest pulls and draws of his lips that he'd get what he wanted in his mouth.

A twisting, curling, coiling, burning ache dashed up Kagome's core. A fluttering sensation in her stomach turned into an electric, dizzying heat that was taking over her body, curling her toes, making her hold her breath, tightening her fingers into fists.

"Inuyasha! I—holy shit, Inuyasha! That feels so, so good!"

He chuckled, pausing his suction to lick and stroke and fondle her clit with his tongue. He drew hard circles, he attacked it from all sides—he gorged on her pleasure nub like he was mapping it out, mesmerizing where he licked that had Kagome sucking in a breath, how he sucked that had Kagome crying out his name.

"I'm close, Inuyasha—fuck, oh my God—right there! Fuck, Inuyasha—right there!"

He hummed a sound of pleasure. She could feel him smiling against her labia, a rumble in his chest that sounded downright villainous. When he started flicking that sexual button with a feverish lashing of his tongue, Kagome yelped, panting Inuyasha's name, digging her heels into the mattress, squeezing the bedspread until her fingers ached.

The assault of his tongue was something Kagome could never have imagined—dreamed of, abso-freaking-lutely—but holy shit! His tongue was more relentless than some of the sex toys Kagome kept in her bedside table drawer.

"Inu-Inuyasha! I—I—fuck!"

He siphoned her clit between his lips, sucking like she was his own personal lollipop.

"I'm gonna come, Inuyasha—oh god, please don't stop! I'm gonna—fuck, I'm gonna—Inuyasha!"

Kagome's orgasm was an intense, powerful wave that had her body rigid, her back arching, her eyes squeezed tight, her mouth open as she screamed his name. It rocked her body, pulling her under, obliterating everything else around her except the sensation of warmth, joy, happiness, and mind-numbing gratification and contentment.

Inuyasha sucked and sucked on her sexual organ, her body quivering and convulsing around his mouth. His tongue accentuated her orgasm, causing uncontrollable and overwhelming shivers to explode through her body. His refusal to stop sucking caused an eruption of oversensitivity to leave Kagome screaming with laughter, gripping his head, arcing her hips up, begging him to stop, to let her go, crying out that it was too much.

Inuyasha was slow to release her clit, but he did so with a smug laugh. He could have been watching Kagome the whole time and she wouldn't have known, because when she opened her eyes, the skin around them ached like she'd been clenching them tightly for too long.

Inuyasha didn't rise up right away when Kagome's climax began to settle and her breathing slowed. He nuzzled her clit, causing a shudder to ripple through Kagome, which just brightened his smile.

Kagome's body felt numb in the best way possible in the aftermath of her pleasure, but an overwhelming rush of lust slapped her in the face when her eye met Inuyasha's. He bowed his head, extended his tongue, and licked a brutal stroke from her perineum to her clit. Inuyasha lapped at her once, twice, and on the third time, he paused at her entrance to slurp at her juices, extracting all the arousal and cum that his mouth could access.

"Holy fucking god, Inuyasha!" Kagome cried out, collapsing from her elbows back onto the bed. It was insane how sexually attractive this man was to her. Kagome couldn't stand it.

She felt stupid from how good that orgasm was.

Inuyasha was all wicked grins and sly chuckles as he ascended her body, kissing his way up until he reached her neck. How this man had any more use of his tongue or saliva to expend was beyond her—but there he was, lapping a wet trail up her throat, kissing her jaw.

Kagome was a menace when she dove for his mouth, wrapping her arms around him, clutching him like she'd never let him go again, like he needed to get used to spending the rest of his life attached to her mouth.

The frenzy of her kisses—her thank you, her admittance of her feelings—had Inuyasha giving way to laughter, running hands down her head to smooth her hair. When he pulled back, Kagome felt her stomach swoon with arousal at the swollen, red deliciousness of his full lips.

The smile he wore for her, the way he looked at her...Kagome's heart had never felt fuller.

"Inuyasha, that was—" Kagome blew out a breath and he succumbed to more laughter.

"Was that good for you, Kagome?"

"Very," she said against his mouth, kissing him tenderly. Tasting herself on his lips was the sexiest thing in the entire universe.

It was getting to the point with Inuyasha where everything was the sexiest and it was starting to become difficult keeping track of what kept first place.

"Thank you," she whispered, kissing him again. "Oh god, that was so good. You will most definitely be doing that again."

Inuyasha brushed her bangs away from her face then cupped her cheek, his eyes falling closed as he drew her close enough to kiss, but not so close that he couldn't say one last thing before he devoured her mouth again.

"Anythin' for you, darlin'."