Raven of Water

Chapter 15: Lust

"I'm cold." I sighed, leaning my head back and shuddering as the leather upholstery from the booth stuck to my skin.

"You're drunk."

"A little. I'm mostly pissed." I nodded, opening my eyes and regarding Kai who'd been sitting there and grinning like an idiot ever since I'd told Jackson off.

"You're amazing, Lex. Has anyone told you that you're amazing lately?"

I snorted and rolled my eyes before looking at my hands folded neatly across the table. The live band had finished their last set. Now a sort of peaceful quiet had descended over the bar as the few lingering patrons cleared out, but Kai and I still sat in the booth, simply enjoying one another's company. It had been helping me, talking to someone about all the stuff that had gone down with Jackson, even if the someone I was talking to was a demon.

"Literally no one ever has told me I'm amazing."

"Well, you are."

"Why are you so nice to me?!" I groaned, glancing over to find Kai regarding me with a smirk I was sure he thought seemed innocent. But, it made my stomach twist into knots nonetheless.

"I told you, darling. I know you. Well. And you deserve all the niceness." With that, he removed his suit jacket and held it out for me. For a moment, I eyed the jacket skeptically before sighing and taking it from him. The thing dwarfed me, but it was warm and soft and as I was rolling up the sleeves, it dawned on me that it smelled like Kai.

And it would make me smell like Kai.

And that thought had me smiling.

"What are you ginning about?"

"I smell like you." The words tumbled from my alcohol-loosened lips, and I flushed as I looked over to find Kai staring at his drink and frowning. "Sorry. That was a weird thing to say. I just—"

"It makes me happy, Lex." As he spoke, he continued to stare at the alcohol rather than looking at me. "I just... I wish things weren't like this. That you would remember and I... I didn't have to be what I am."

"What are you, Kai?" As I asked, I scooted closer to him, leaning towards his warmth, giving myself over to the magnetic pull I'd felt ever since the day I'd met him. "There's something off about you. I... you don't feel like a demon."

"That's because I wasn't always one." His words were a growl so low I'd almost thought I'd misheard him. The man looked away as he lifted his glass to his lips, taking a deep gulp and leaving me confused as I watched the corded muscles in his jaw flex.

The dark skin on his neck just under his ear looked so inviting, and my lips were seeking him out before my mind could tell them not to. He tasted like musk and warmth, and I groaned before scooting closer and straddling his lap so that my mouth could nip and tease its way down his neck to his shoulder.

"I want you." I pulled back with a gasp, grinding myself into him as I felt him hardening against my stomach.

"I'm not going to fuck you while you're drunk." He whispered, seemingly unsurprised by my sudden affection while he wrapped his arms around my waist and squeezed me to the point that I almost couldn't breathe.

Almost...

And the almost not breathing felt really, really... exciting.

Then his lips found mine, and my head swam as we tasted one another, my hands exploring his torso before finding their way to his belt buckle and fumbling over it.

While I tore my lips away from his, I mumbled. "I'm not drunk."

"You are drunk," he said with an amused exaltation of air from his nostrils as he looked down at my fingers trying to work the metal clasp, "You only get like this when you're drunk. Well, you're always like this, but you're extra like this when you're drunk."

"I..."

Before I could think of what to say next, he was grabbing my hands, stopping my sloppy attempts to undo his belt and kissing me again. My heart thundered in my ears, and when he pulled me closer and made a noise of desire, it happened. That's when I remembered just how much I loved him, and the realization stole my breath.

I didn't just find him attractive.

I didn't just want to fuck him.

I loved him.

I loved the way he always wanted to watch the sunset with me and the way he'd always used his powers to keep the rain from falling on me when we'd go on walks through the woods. I cherished the way his smile lit up the room when we'd meet new people and that he wasn't even aware of how desperately charming he was, especially for someone who'd never lived around humans. I remembered the way the firelight would play over the muscles of his naked body as we'd lay there, in my cottage, listening to a storm roaring outside.

"Lex..."

He wasn't kissing me anymore, and I gasped again and as everything around me grew blurry. When I looked down at my lap, I no longer saw myself wearing the dress Jackson had picked out for me. I was wearing a cloak of green crushed velvet that shimmered in the dim lights of the bar. My ears were ringing now, and Kai was saying something that I couldn't understand as I felt myself being called... down.

Down into the woods where a storm was raging.

Down into the bed that we both shared.

I was being called home, and I cried out because I knew that the home I was remembering was long gone, and so was the man I loved.

The raven.