The Samurai That I Loved

第25章

Eliza felt awash with emotions, some good while others were not. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about Shojiro after everything that had transpired between them. It was a sad and bitter truth she had to face after living in such complete and total trust of all people, only to be taught thoroughly in the lesson of reality.

And the reality was that she was frightened at the prospect that this may be a new method of his to get her to come along with him compliently. Quite frankly, she was terrified.

Alas, her fear was not enough to quelch the desire to be kissed by him, to be held in his strong, warrior's arms. There was a palpable vibrancy that rushed through her body whenever he was close. She could not help but to tingle with the awareness of his prescence.

He was a beautiful, dark mystery that she feared would be her downfall, but if she did indeed end up falling...

Oh what a sweet descent it would be.

Despite her conflictions, there was simply one choice to be made in the matter. She would follow him. To the bloody Emporer himself, the Shogun, the sea, to the ends of the very Earth.

When he gave her the third only kiss she had ever experienced in her life, her heart whispered of wishes and fantasies that she knew were impossible, but they had still left their mark.

From his ravenblack, shoulder-length hair, to his piercing ebony eyes that angled and narrowed with such elegance, to his slow and sensous exploration of her lips, his restraint that bordered on ardent haste, she was utterly enraptured by him.

She had been a bundle of nerves and shyness, unknowing in the art of kisses or anything else, yet she was a willing student and hesitantly she allowed him to teach her.

Each silken, soft sweep of his lips pressing and forming over hers had caused tremors to flutter down her body to her stomach, and she was vibrantly aware of his lean body melded above hers, keeping her pinned to the damp ground.

His own lean form was rigidly hard as if he were holding himself back from something she knew not what. Although the longer they remained entwined, mouth to mouth, body against body, his kisses became longer, deeper in an overwhelming slow haze of possessiveness that made her become nearly lost. As if he wasn't just kissing her...he was boldly claiming her mouth and ensuring every kiss she would ever experience in the future would never be felt without the reminder of him.

When at last his lips left hers, Shojiro tucked her head against his chest and covered her deftly with his robe. She could feel the fierce beating of his heart through the soft material while his slender fingers threaded through her hair and down her back in a lingering caress.

The feel of his hands against her body, curiously learning her left Eliza breathless, yet still guarded. She wanted to simultaneously flee from him while at the same time, wrap her arms around his neck and lose herself inside the wondrous, intoxicating realm of the most basis human nature with him.

Her heart felt heavy, too clouded with fear, guilt, and confliction to carry on in her foolish stubborness.

Staring at the arrow wound on his shoulder while he held her close and breathed softly against her hair, Eliza finally faced the locked door on her foolish, childlike heart. The one she believed could be ignored and tossed beneath the old rugs of time. There was no more running, no more debate.

Shojiro was not the enemy. He never had been. She was.

His guarded heart was bound by honor. His very identity was dictated by the unwavering duty of a Samurai. She had illegally trespassed into his lands. How could she fault him for doing what he was born and trained to do?