The Founders

Chapter 47

Her nose was pressed to soft fabric and she was surrounded by warmth. Her eyes gradually registered that she was inside the living room again, and that Alexander was holding her against his chest, breathing slowly. Trembling as if she were cold, she fisted her fingers into the front of his sweater. Her breathing gradually slowed and settled and they both listened to its rattled course, until it became steady.

"You okay?" He asked quietly. He was running one hand up and down her back soothingly.

Pulling back, she tilted her head to look at him, her hands still around his waist. He looked back at her, his green eyes lowered and fringed darkly against his cheekbones. He looked like a Caravaggio painting, one side of his face illuminated by candlelight, the other obscured by shadows. His eyes weren't alert like they usually were; instead, they were unfocused and dark as he watched her.

Reaching up deliberately, she pushed the hair out of his eyes and then slowly looped one hand around the back of his neck, and then the other. He swallowed, still watching her, his pupils blown wide. Stretching up on her tiptoes, she pulled his head down and whispered into his ear. "I'm waiting for you to kiss me."

He stilled completely, and his fingers, resting on her back, curled almost involuntarily around her waist, sliding down to her grip her hip. He took a breath and Kyra could feel it shuddering in his chest before he dropped his forehead down to hers. "Please, Kyra. Don't do this. Don't use me to distract yourself. Not if you don't want me," he rasped.

Kyra tangled her fingers in the curly hairs at the nape of his neck and pulled back, meeting his gaze steadily, her own pulse beating quickly. Still, she needed him to understand, and she enunciated every word very clearly. "Alexander. I want you. Someone is trying to raise one of the cruellest wizards in history, and I still want you. I'm standing in the house of my dead parents, and I still want you. I don't know if that's wrong, or selfish, but it's true."

She took a shuddering breath and dropped her gaze, blushing slightly. "Look, I- I don't mean sleep together. I don't think I'm ready for that, and anyway, I'm probably not in the right state of mind to make that decision. But I would like to kiss you. And I would like to wake up next to you." She looked back up at him, fingers on the soft skin of his neck. "Please," she whispered. "If this is all we'll have- if when we get back, we have to deal with the guilt of a millennium, please can we have this."

She kept looking up at him, waiting for his reaction. "Just one kiss?" he asked.

She nodded, still watching him. "Just one kiss."

Alexander dropped his forehead down against hers, eyes still watching hers, and slid a hand behind her neck. He tilted up her jaw carefully, running his thumb under it and bent his head down, breath skating her ear, her cheek. "Okay, Kyra." He left a feather-light kiss on her ear. "I'll kiss you." He left a kiss on the top of her cheekbone. "I'll wake up next to you." He titled her head to the side so her could kiss her jaw. His lips were beside her own now and she could the movement as he murmured, "We'll have this."

His lips slid over hers, warm and soft and damp, one hand behind her neck, the other at her waist, pressing her closer. He ran his tongue along her bottom lip, nipping gently, and she gasped, reaching up on tiptoes to pull him closer. He reached down, his fingers digging into her thighs as he swung her up, wrapping her legs around his waist.

She pulled away slowly, she leaned back and looked down at him, her arms looped around his neck. Breathing shallowly, she fiddled with the hairs at the nape of his neck, a smile curving her lips. "Well. I thought you were home-schooled."

He let out a bark of surprised laughter, ducking his head in her shoulder, and she held him against her, laughing as well. When Alexander pulled back to look at her, she smiled, dropping her forehead against his. "Can we go to bed now, Alex?"

He walked her backwards to the sofa, gently depositing her against it and straightening up. "I think this might have to be the bed," he said apologetically.

Kyra was fine with that, glad that she wouldn't have to explore the rest of the house until tomorrow. She watched him move around the room, pulling a rug off the back of an armchair, and she lay down on the sofa, using one of the cushions as a pillow and tucking herself into the corner.

He brought the rug back over, draping it over her and then moving back towards the empty fireplace. The room was still only lit by a few candles, so he knelt in front of it, arranging some logs from the basket beside the fireplace, and the flames from his wand quickly caught.

Flickering orange shadows were thrown across the room and framed his silhouette as he walked back to Kyra. She shifted back, making room, and folded the rug open as he pulled off his sweater and took off his belt.

He climbed carefully under the rug beside her and they lay facing each other. She could feel his breath skating over her lips and stirring the small hairs at her temples. Alex reached over and brushed back a strand of hair from her face. Kyra smiled and closed her eyes, feeling the warm traceries against her cheek where his fingers had passed.

She looped an arm across his waist, her fingers just grazing the skin underneath his t-shirt, and felt the muscles there jump. As she hooked a leg over his, his hand slid to her shoulder blades, and he pulled her more tightly against him. Kyra's eyes were still closed, and her face felt hot.

She felt him lift himself up on one elbow and very gently tilt her face up, kissing her once, softly. He settled back down beside her and she hid her smile in the cushion. "Goodnight, Alex," she said in a muffled voice.

"'Night, Havard."