“Thank God you’re safe …” Zen murmurs into her hair. He presses his lips down onto the top of her head and kisses her softly. He tries to convince himself it’s his imagination that he hears her breath catch in her throat, lest he think all sorts of other thoughts, other places he might kiss her …
Suddenly, Kassi is pulling away. No, that’s not quite it – she’s simply rolled onto her stomach. Zen’s arm rests along her back, by the hem of her shirt. No, no, he thinks to himself. He will wait for Kassi to be ready. He wants her to feel safe and loved here, and will let her decide what she is comfortable with. Zen can wait.
Kassi’s eyes meet Zen’s, and she looks away, then down to his mouth, up to his eyes, and off to the side once again. “Zen ….” She’s so close he’s inhaling the air she’s breathing out. It smells faintly fruity, like the tea she drank.
He can’t hold himself back. Zen takes the hand that had been at her back and puts it behind her neck to bring her face those few inches closer to him. Their lips meet for the briefest of moments and Zen feels like fireworks are exploding inside his heart. The kiss is short and sweet, but he pulls back before anything else happens. That’s as far as he’ll allow himself to –
Her lips are on his again, but this time it’s Kasumi pressing close to him, her hand against his chest. She slides it up until it’s cupping his face and kisses him much longer than he had her.
“Sorry,” she gasps when she pulls back. She catches her breath quickly and adds, “Actually no. That’s a lie. I’m not sorry at all. And I won’t apologize for this, either.”
She turns until she’s nearly on top of him and flips her hair out of the way before kissing him once again, much more aggressively. One hand is balled in the fabric of his shirt and the other is by his neck supporting some of her weight. She pulls him up towards her and flicks her tongue out along his lower lip. Zen opens his mouth almost immediately to let her in, and she deftly explores the inside of his mouth. He feels nearly delirious with pleasure, a great happiness filling him up just from being so close to her.
“Zen,” she says softly, pulling back slightly to speak. Her voice seems lower, a little short of breath. “If at any point you want this to stop—“
“Don’t stop,” Zen almost growls, and strains upwards to meet her lips again.
She lets him kiss her once, twice, but doesn’t open her mouth this time to let him in. She exhales in a soft chuckle. “Oh, you asked for it,” she says. She kisses him on the corner of his mouth and Zen instinctively moves his head to meet her lips with his, but she pulls back. “Let me do this,” she says, nudging him with her nose so he’s facing the ceiling again.
She begins a slow trail of kisses from his mouth, along his jawline, and to his earlobe, which she teasingly takes between her teeth and runs her tongue over the sensitive skin there. Zen’s hand drops down to cup her butt before he realizes what he’s done and hastily moves it back up to her waist, but she grabs his wrist and moves his hand back down. Damn she could be persistent. He circles his other arm around her hips and lets his fingers gently brush the bare skin at the bottom of her shirt. To his delight, she stops kissing his neck for a moment to inhale sharply and let out a soft moan of pleasure. Then she resumes kissing a line of fire down to his collarbone and it’s Zen’s turn to voice his ecstasy.
He feels like his nerves are liquid fire. “Kassi…” he moans. “Kassi … don’t stop.”
Her hand is by the bottom of his shirt now, too, gently caressing the bare skin there at his side. Zen has trouble forming any coherent thoughts beyond embracing Kassi. He squeezes her close to him and at last, at last, she raises her lips to his once again.
Zen can’t help himself. He shifts her to lie completely on top of him, presses her down with the arm circling her waist, roams an arm up the back of her shirt until he can feel the clasp of her bra. He won’t … won’t take it off. Not today. Just the sensation of her bare skin against his hand is enough. She shivers in response and hooks her leg around his, presses herself close, pulls back to kiss his neck a few times before meeting his lips again.
Then … she buries her head in the crook between his shoulder and the side of his neck, breathing heavily. “I …” she giggles a bit and sighs happily. “I should … we should … go to sleep, haha ….”
Zen can’t reach her lips any longer, but that doesn’t mean he can’t kiss her neck. She seems to melt against his body. She’s so warm and soft. “Mmhmm,” he murmurs by way of agreement.
They lay like that for what seems like ages until both of their breathing has steadied. Zen lightly uses his fingertips to draw patterns on her back, which cause her to go boneless aside from the occasional bout of shivers that are brought on when she’s particularly ticklish. It’s so endearing that sometimes Zen tries to purposefully find the places where she’s most ticklish, just for her r