Thistle and Stone [Chaennie]

Chapter 9

ACHE

Jennie pressed up onto her toes, wanting to be closer to Roseanne, wanting her mouth on her more fully. Roseanne responded by cupping the edge of her cheek in her hand. She pulled her in, her fingers on the back of her neck, her thumb tight under Jennie's jaw, feeling her quickening pulse. Her thumb ran over the thin ridge of the scar along her neck and Jennie shuddered in response.

"What's this?" Roseanne murmured as she pulled back slightly, ignoring Jennie's unintentional whine at the sudden distance between them.

"It's nothing." Jennie reached for Roseanne again.

"Doesn't look like nothing." Roseanne tilted Jennie's head back, peering closer at the long scar that snaked across the expanse of her skin, pale and silvery. Leaning down, Roseanne pressed her lips to the bottom of the scar where it trailed to an end in the middle of Jennie's throat. Jennie's breath caught in her chest as she let her head fall farther back. Roseanne brushed the rest of Jennie's curls gently away, her lips working up the scar, occasionally pausing as her tongue flickered over the raised flesh. When her mouth found the beginning of the mark, a clean slice that nestled behind the curve of Jennie's ear, Jennie gripped onto Roseanne to keep herself steady. Roseanne mouthed the scar, the shell of her ear, pulling her lobe between her teeth hard before pressing delicate kisses to the soft skin between Jennie's ear and her cheek.

Jennie felt feverish under Roseanne's touch, almost delirious. The anger that had consumed her only moments before was still there but less immediate, now simmering under the surface of her pleasure. Roseanne kept one hand firmly against Jennie's jaw while the other pushed under her shirt. Jennie arched into her touch as Roseanne's fingers kneaded softly over one nipple before finding the other, her mouth light but firm against hers. Her touch was foreign, and Jennie gasped into Roseanne's mouth at the newness of her fingers against her skin. She pushed her tongue harder into Roseanne's mouth, needing to be closer.

"Roseanne," she whispered between breaths, "more, I need more." She didn't fully know what she was asking for, but her skin was on fire and the bond pulsed between them so tightly its energy made it feel almost visible. Jennie clutched at the back of Roseanne's neck only to feel herself become unwillingly pushed away.

Roseanne wrenched herself back, her breaths coming in short bursts. Jennie's eyes blinked open, glazed and dilated. She felt like she had been plucked from the fire and thrust into a freezing lake, the absence of Roseanne against her a cold shock.

"What the hell, Park?" She turned her bewildered stare onto Roseanne. She couldn't read her expression, but her brows were pulled together, her jaw set. Through the bond, her emotions felt turbulent. The intensity made Jennie pause.

"It's the bond, Kim," Roseanne spoke through her teeth. She stared back with dark eyes. Her throat working as she swallowed.

"What about the bond?" Jennie was impatient. The lack of Roseanne's skin under her hands felt almost painful. All she could focus on was the need, the desire, the deliciousness of Roseanne's mouth on hers. She wanted—no—she needed more.

But Roseanne was working to put more distance between them, her voice insistent. "The other night, when I kissed you, I was just playing around. Seeing if I could get into your head. But this," Roseanne shook her head, ignoring the black curtain of hair that fell into her eyes, "this is different. You said so yourself you could feel something. This isn't even what we really want."

Jennie steadied herself against the wall. Roseanne's words reached her slowly, echoing and ringing in the back of her mind. The anger that had bubbled below the surface now swam before Jennie's eyes, enveloping her.