Author's Note:

I feel like this couple just doesn't get the attention or love it deserves as a shipping in general. I've found a few fanfics that I've actually enjoyed reading regarding this couple, but not many. If you're reading this, thank you and please don't forget to review!

Chapter Six

It hit her all at once and Serena staggered from the onslaught of emotions. He kissed her with a passion that both frightened and enlightened her. He needed. He wanted. He took. She gasped the moment his lips touched hers and he swooped, taking advantage of the opportunity, his tongue thrusting past. Had anyone ever kissed her with such passion? Absolutely not. Not even...

Diamond tasted like a fine wine aged with time. He tasted dark. He tasted powerful. She could feel the hum of energy flowing to life between them as Diamond's fingers tangled in her long hair, tilting her head back further.

More. More. More.

God help them both, it was more than he could have ever dreamed.

She could taste his anger and that alone frightened her. Where had that come from? Why was he angry? Kissing her with such passion, his tongue tangling with hers. Luring her in until she was kissing him back.

She moaned.

Diamond broke the kiss, their lips inches apart, his heated violet eyes staring into her blue ones. His beautiful Queen moaned. So beautiful. So breath-taking. Her cheeks a rosy pink. She was blushing and she was moaning for him. Finally. Something in him snapped, a deeper darker desire just waiting to be set free. And just like that he took her lips all over again. Did she know that she tasted like sweet heaven to him? She tasted like the light of goodness that would never be his.

She was still reeling—struggling to understand when he went in for that second kiss. Prince Diamond didn't just kiss. He took. She tried to focus on the sudden change in him, but his bruising kiss threatened to block out all else. She was confused by the sudden violence—but the need she felt from him. Which one? So many emotions that made her weak in the knees. He wasn't shy in the least and how could she ever have forgotten the kind of kisses he gave? You didn't forget a man like Prince Diamond.

Talk about making her weak. She braced her hands against his chest and pushed. He didn't move. Instead, he nipped her bottom lip in a stinging bite. She gasped. She needed to breath. She broke the kiss and turned her head, her lids lowering when she felt the trail of lips sideways over her cheek and then down her jawline. Oh my...

"Diamond..." Serena gasped out, her fingers twisting in the fabric of his shirt. Another stinging bite against her throat. Moving from one thing to the next. Kissing. Touching, his hands moving down the sides of her body, settling over her hips.

She was his. She should have been his long before now. He wanted to lay claim to every inch of her delectable body.

Her heart went into overtime when he latched onto the skin above her pulse, his tongue laving the pounding vein right beneath. Sucking. Marking.

He was angry. He was desperate.

Serena forced her eyes open. "Diamond..." She whispered again—another sweet moan. Why was he angry? Why was he...

His right hand slid sideways, long fingers spanning her stomach before slowly moving upward.

He moved down her body, her head spread like a halo around her head. His lips left a trail down her throat, lower over her collarbone. She moaned as his tongue left a hot, wet trail over the curve of her naked breasts and then his lips were closing around a bare nipple...

She felt the sudden heat of his palm cupping one breast. Those long male fingers squeezed and she inhaled roughly. Memories. Memories of the two of them in his bed. Memories that she didn't remember, but they were hers. They were there. So they were surely real. Of course they would. Why wouldn't they? A man with this much passion...

And there was surely a passion in her.

He wanted her. She wanted him. So why did she panic when he touched her like that? She wasn't ready for this. Her body said otherwise, but she wasn't ready.

"Diamond." Serena whispered again, panic in her breathless voice. He squeezed against—her nipple stabbed against his palm. His other hand drifted around her back and lower, settling at the small of her back to tug her hips against him. Until she could feel him. She could feel him pressing against her stomach through their clothing. He wanted her in the most basic way that a man could want a woman. But she shook her head suddenly, fear in her blue eyes. "Stop. Please." Because he was a stranger. His touch felt like a lovers—but for the life of her...

His thumb slid over her nipple and pressed and her heart skipped a beat. Pleasure. And fear.

The hem of her dress bunched as his fingers began to gather the material. His lips teased the indention at the base of her throat. Pleasure. Fear. Want. Confusion. Passion. So much lust. She didn't know this side of their relationship. A part of her wished she did. But she didn't. It was too much—too fast. A shuddering moan filled her throat and she grabbed the wrist that was steadily pulling the hem of her dress upward. Higher to her calves. Past her knees.

"Stop..."

She was begging.

Diamond bunched the hem of her dress in his fist, stopping at her thighs. Just a little higher...and then he could touch. He could taste. But she was fighting him. She was still fighting him.

She was still fighting him.

He warred with his inner self—Wise Man had said that she would be his from the very beginning. That kiss. She wouldn't fight them. She would give in. She wouldn't fight this. She wouldn't fight him. But she was and it sent that same desperate and angry need through him—she was his, dammit.

...please...PLEASE.

His eyes flew open and he jerked his hand away and staggered back. Disgust filled him—she was begging him. She was begging him to stop. His eyes churned; she was afraid of him.

He was disgusted at himself. She was begging him to stop and he'd almost...That was real fear in her eyes and it had his stomach twisting on itself. He had every right to take her. But he stopped himself. He couldn't stand what he saw in her eyes, what he heard in her voice.

His own loss of control shocked himself. He never lost control. And yet he'd lost himself to his own anger and nearly forced himself on the one woman that he swore he would never hurt again. He wasn't prone to that kind of anger.

"I'm sorry." Diamond said gruffly. A muscle in his jaw ticked. "I didn't mean for that to happen." He could have continued. He could have taken her right then—right against the hedge of dead plants behind her. She would have been powerless to stop him. He would have had it been a different time and place. But he had stepping ground with her this time. He didn't want her by force—not this time. He knew she would come to him on her own eventually. He and the Wiseman had ensured that. There was no one to save her. No one but himself—to save her from herself. But he wouldn't force this.

He wouldn't see that look in her eyes again.

What was wrong with him? Who was he becoming?

"Forgive me." Diamond forced the words out. An apology. When was the last time he'd done that? Ever.

Serena stared at the one constant in front of her. There was so much that she remembered, and yet it was as if she were looking through someone else's memories. "It's not your fault." She said softly. She couldn't blame him for that. "You thought..." Of course he would think that they could continue as if nothing had happened. A happy life. And this was obviously something constant between them. The kisses. The touches. Her cheeks heated.

Sex. She couldn't imagine a viral man like him not...having sex in his relationship. She'd had sex with him. Of course she would. It was a normal thing between couples. His kiss alone and the brief touches were enough for her to realize that she would have enjoyed herself. And for a moment there, she had.

Her lips still tingled, a reminder. Her heart was was still pounding.

"It doesn't matter what I thought." Dammit. Diamond didn't want to ruin what ground he had finally crossed with her because he couldn't control himself. When had that ever been a problem? Never. His jaw clenched. It wasn't Serena who wasn't herself, he thought sarcastically, he was the one who wasn't himself. The darker side of his conscious pushed at him to take what was rightfully his. But something else deep down had come to the surface when he had given his life for her. It told him to wait. He had her now. All he had to do was wait.

A foundation built on lies.

Serena bit her bottom lip. "I know we've..." She didn't want him to feel guilty for something that was out of his control. She lifted her hands and pulled his head down to hers. She kissed him softly—anything to ease the look on his face. "...I remember, but..." Lord, she was faltering over talking about what should come natural.

Diamond gave a sarcastic smile. Indeed, she remembered. She remembered what he had put in place for her to remember.

"That's not me."

He hadn't expected that.

"I know it doesn't make sense and I'm sorry..." Sorry for what? "I see these things in my head, and I know they're me. But it's like I'm watching from the outside." Like they weren't her. Like she hadn't done any of those things. She hated herself for putting Diamond in this position. For putting them both here.

Diamond stared down at the blonde in front of him. He hadn't expected that at all. She shouldn't doubt any of the memories put in place. He was going to have to go to the Wise-man regarding those doubtful memories. Oh, how powerful his Serenity was. More powerful than he had imagined, even before she had come into her full power. He wrapped his arms around her slender body and pulled her into him, reveling at the way she fell into him so easily. It wasn't a complete failure. He could build around those memories. He could create new ones physically—like he was right now in the aftermath of his own stupidity.

Some day she would realize how much he loved her. He knew what she thought. She had to follow that damned destiny of hers. Crystal Tokyo. Her and her precious human prince were fated. Because of Destiny. But hadn't she said she was tired of fighting? She was tired of being strong. Hadn't she once said that the future Queen wasn't...her.

She didn't want that Destiny. Not yet. The burden...she was just one person. Didn't she know that she could write her own Destiny? He stared with violet eyes over her head. He was going to write Destiny for her.

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