Devil's Food Cake [✓]

45 | platonicship

I'd been kissed, but nothing like that before. His mouth was insistent against mine; his steady hands were in my hair. He was like a hurricane — there really was no stopping him when he put his mind into pursuing something whether that be a project, goal or person. I sort of melted into him and let him dictate the pace. What more could I have done? I knew it was wrong to allow him to kiss me, but I was too caught up in the moment to think about the consequences. I should have made some effort to push him aside or break away from him, but when something feels so playful, so perfect, so effortless, it would have been futile. Besides, he tasted of chocolate! We both did.

His lips were smooth and decadent like the best chocolate ganache. I wrapped my hands around his shoulders and couldn't help sighing contentedly. He took that as a signal to deepen the kiss. His hands travelled down my body, taking his time to explore unfamiliar territory. It was overwhelming — in the best possible way. His touch was gentle, reassuring and easy. There wasn't any sign of awkwardness or nervousness on his part. He had already broke down my resistance, playing havoc with my emotions, disintegrating the walls I'd built up in a foolish attempt to provide some distance from him.

His hands were wrapped around my back, hugging me closer to him. When he broke away from me, he looked into my eyes, searching for some sort of confirmation in them. 'Are you ok?' He was smiling, a breathless, irrepressible excitement emanated from him. His cheeks were flushed pink. I must have looked similar. It wasn't every day that someone surprised me with a kiss.

'Yeah...' I found it difficult to even speak. He had taken all words from my head. 'Are you?' I said quietly.

Zachary now beamed. 'What sort of question is that?'

In that situation, I did the only thing my body was capable of doing — I laughed. It might have been as a release from the tension, I'm not sure, but it did feel good.

'It's a stupid question,' I managed to say between my laughter. 'Why did you kiss me?'

'Better question!' he said. He was too busy caressing my face with his free hand, feeling every curve and dip as though trying to design a map of my face in his mind's eye for later. I felt butterflies in my stomach, multiplying at a startling pace. How could someone I thought I hated make me feel this way? All confused, petrified and thrilled at once.

'You were petrified. Seemed like you needed it,' he replied simply. 'Besides isn't that what platonic friends do? Comfort each other in times of trouble?'

He tilted his head to the side, studying my face.

I stared at him. 'Platonic friends don't do that.'

He raised an eyebrow. We were so close that I saw how spellbinding his blue eyes were. If I were a painter, I would have liked to tried to mix the exact shade onto my palette, that was how beautiful the shade was. He was daring me to disagree with him.

'I'm sorry. I'm unfamiliar with the friendship rules. I'm still finding my way around...' He was trying to hard to hide any laughter, but it was threatening to spill out of him when he saw my gaping expression. I couldn't believe how the situation was developing. How had a friendly get together developed into my best fiend deciding to kiss me out of the blue?

Before I could fully extricate myself out of this situation, he kissed my neck and I hummed enjoying the feel of his wonderful lips on my skin again. He looked up at me again, a convincing look of curiosity on his features. 'Do platonic friends do this?'

'Definitely not!' I gasped.

'I see.' His tortuous, beautiful mouth shaped into a discontented frown. 'That's a shame.' He lead me back to the coach and encouraged me to sit down. He sat down beside me. This time, he placed one hand on my breast and the other underneath my chin, lifting it up, so he had more access to the skin around my neck. My body embarrassed me by responding to his gorgeous touch. I shivered as he began to leave a trail of kisses on my neck, travelling down to my collarbone. The weight of his hand against my breast was distracting. I grappled for his wrist and plied him off me, trying to clear my confused thoughts. Zachary broke away from me and smile at me innocently. He was such a... bastard.

'Platonic friends must do that with each other. Hm, Candice? You appeared like you were enjoying my attention...'

'Yes.' I dug out Lavender from behind me. She looked accusingly at me as though I'd let the team down. 'I mean—no!'

'Yes. No. What's it to be?' He slid closer to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, leaning forward to kiss my cheek.

He was smiling at me, the intense pleasure we seemed to experience together seemed to raise his spirits. And mine by extension.