A Shade Darker ✔️

{Chapter Twenty Two}

Woo

June 25th, 2017

Mike

Once I felt the feeling of Ashley's lips on mine, I wondered how I ever could've gone this long without them. All those empty kisses from women over the years I used to think were satisfying, but after Ashley gave me the tiniest taste of something new, I was certain that I could never go back. That those other kisses were so empty and hollow like my past mistress's words. They didn't mean anything, but this, this precious gift I held in my arms was something I could never imagine letting go of.

Somehow, someway I had gotten Ashley to look past the monster she saw on the outside, past my pale complexion and fangs, past my thirst for blood and being a cold blooded animal. How could she peer so deeply into my soul and find something good? How could she?

Her lips are so soft, just like the rest of her. They're full and wanting, waiting for something great to happen, waiting for me to give them all I could give. With her kiss comes the truth, the desire she had been hiding, with the trust she gave up to me. Finally, my wife trusts me. She trusts me enough to not run away, to not be afraid of me, to give up her emotions and let me be the one to see into her soul this time.

Giving myself up to the kiss is like walking through the dark with a lantern that slowly dims with each step. Every step takes you deeper, and the more you give yourself up the easier it is to get lost as your light fades away and leaves you with darkness.

But my light starts to come back as her lips slowly break from mine every other second, with short little gasps of air until I can barely stand the contact we're losing and go back to her so she can rescue me. With each small kiss that I begin placing on the corner of her lips, the more air she is gasping for, the more of her breath that puffs out against my cheek. 

A small laugh bubbles in her chest and her hand leaves my grasp as her arms wrap around my neck and she forces my body to move with hers while we begin to sway again.

She forces the look on her face to go neutral again, to appear normal to anybody who may have been looking. But to me it was so hard to ignore, so hard for her face to go unnoticed. The pink hue to her cheeks, the rising and falling of her chest as she tried to get a steady breath, the slight swelling of her lips, and the bright look of her eyes that signaled that she was feeling anything but normal.

A wish of mine had come true for the first time, and she had been the one to grant it. To not run away when I kissed her, to kiss me back and keep her promise. It meant a bright future for us, I could tell it.

Her light voice snaps me out of a daydream.

"How many men do you think will be drunk by the end of the night?" Her struggle to make conversation is obvious, but curious as her eyes wander around to all the men that hold glasses of liquor in their palms.

"Too many. That is why the women leave early, in order not to meet up with a drunken fool in a corner somewhere" Her eyes flash to mine but I nod at my words.

"It's true. The males around here are animals. They take advantage of the women every chance they get...I should know, shouldn't I?" Her eyebrows narrow.

"And why would that be? I can hardly tag you as a man to intoxicate himself and then go harm a woman..." Her words ring true before she smiles playfully "Although I think we can all agree that some may see you as an animal"

I pull her closer to me, so that I can feel the air rush out of her lungs when she gasps. So that there is no space left between the two of us.

"And do you see me as that? As an animal?"

"Only sometimes...But not a violent one" I raise my eyebrows.

What else would classify me as an animal? The name I held? What?

"If not a violent one, then what?"

She grins, shifting in my arms.

"The way you can crush me and hold me so tight without realizing your strength, the way you..." She seems breathless again as she sighs and searches the air for her right choice of words.

Was I holding her too tight? Was I hurting her with my unknown strength? Slowly, I release my tight grasp and feel her chest rise with a sharp intake of breath.

"The way you look at me so intensely when you try to intimidate me" This she laughs at and I can't help but share a smile.

"The way you're so cocky when you try to impress me. And the way you carry yourself with you head so high and your arms behind your back when you wish to play a mind game with me" Did I really do all that?

A smile comes to my lips when more of the truth escapes hers.

Being cocky- Her favorite word to describe me- I hold my head high and gaze down at her.

"Anything else you'd like to add to that list?" She smirks. Her lips tilt up and I find myself growing hungry for another kiss, wondering how that tilt of her lips would feel against mine.

"As a matter of fact, I do. Did you not see yourself when we walked in here? You hold yourself so high, but you walk with me so close and so tightly as if you were afraid someone was going to steal me from you..." She smiles and adds "What I mean is, you're proud to have me at your side. And you walk with me so boldly because you want everyone to know that I'm yours"

I'm yours.

She didn't say it in an accusing manner like when she had gotten angry before. When she was tired of being reminded that she was my wife, that she belonged to me.

Now tonight, she calls herself mine.

"Who wouldn't be proud to walk into a room full of people with you on their arm?" She rolls her eyes, laughing.

"Okay. Now you're just trying to woo me" There's that word again and I have to ask.

"What does that word mean? 'Woo'?" She giggles.

"It means you're trying to sweep me off my feet, make me fall in love with you" I smile down at her before pulling her close for another dance that has begun.

I lean my head down, pressing my nose into her hair that smelled of flowery soap.

"Then I believe I've already 'woo'd you, my love" I can feel her cheeks rise when she smiles.

"I believe you have, too" Her words ring so true and sweet, make my heart feel warm and full.

I close my eyes and our feet stop. We stand in the middle of the floor with people dancing around us, just holding each other.