~It would appear that these flames tell a different story, one even I am too afraid to face.~
Present.
~Willow~
"You are, aren't you?" He was laughing now, a humorous, dangerous laugh, shaking his head like he couldn't believe it either. Well, I could.
I really could.
I was scared.
Then, abruptly, his laughter ceased. I swallowed hard, my heart pounding so loud I was sure he could hear it. He stepped closer and I instinctively raised my hands in front of myself to... I don't even know what.
I tried to back up some more even though there was no longer any space left behind me, and something hard hit my back. The pain made me wince, but I didn't dare take my eyes off him.
His smirk grew wider, wicked, and my body stiffened. If he came any closer, we'd be touching. And all I could think about was how he was still practically naked.
Another step brought my palms flush against the hard planes of his very warm, very hard chest, and he froze. I could feel the tension ripple through him, muscles locking under my fingers. His reaction was subtle but unmistakable, as though my touch had breached some invisible barrier I wasn't supposed to. For a heartbeat, I thought he'd pull away and lash out, but he didn't.
My breath hitched; the contact had heat flooding my cheeks and I should have been terrified. But instead, I couldn't help but think...
'Why does he have to be so damn gorgeous?'
The thought slithered through my mind, uninvited and inappropriate.
My palms tingled from the feel of his skin, as if it burned, and my hands itched to push him away, but I couldn't risk doing anything that'd provoke or bring him any closer in the process.
His face was so close now, and it became impossible not to get caught in the magnetic pull of the storm about to break.
All I could see was fog, smokey and imposing, blurring my vision and muddling my senses. This fog was icy and piercing. Intense, yet captivating, not unlike-
Eyes.
I was looking up into the lightest and most peculiar pair of gray eyes I had ever seen. They weren't just gray; at first glance, yes, but then, as the light shifted, subtle flecks of color revealed themselves. Hints of blue, like the edge of a stormy sea, mingled with the faintest glimmers of lilac, and around the rims of his pupils, an almost iridescent green flickered, elusive and fleeting. A rare kind of heterochromia that was nearly imperceptible unless the light hit just right.
His eyes were framed by those unruly waves of hair that added a wildness to his otherwise strikingly chiseled face. Strong angles, sharp cheekbones, and a jaw that could cut glass; attached to a large, hard, and unyielding body that had me solidly pinned to the wood.
This man even smelled like the wind after a storm-and damn, those unexpectedly sensual lips...
His eyes dropped slowly, following the path of my hand as it rose and fell with his chest. His gaze lingered there for a beat as if torn between ripping himself away and...something else. Then, without warning, his gaze snapped back to mine and the intensity in those eyes took on a new, darker edge.
They were alarmingly beautiful, especially now that he was just inches away. The longer I stared into them, the more I felt trapped as if they could unravel every defense I had. Then he spoke, penetrating the fog in my mind.
"What are you trying to do?"
What? Oh- "S-sorry," I quickly removed my hands, but then he was still too close. I licked my lips and his eyes flicked to them instead and heated. The tension between us simmered, intensifying. My skin tingled where his breath brushed against me, and a new wave of panic flooded my veins.
His chest was inches from mine, and I could almost feel my nipples harden in response to his heated proximity. His scent penetrated my nostrils-clean, crisp like the cool breeze, with a faint hint of cologne that the shower hadn't managed to get rid of, and I swallowed back a moan.
What was happening? What on earth in this situation was such a turn-on?
Pale eyes, like prowling clouds in a thunderstorm, thinned into suspicious lines. "Interesting," he mused, his minty breath fanning across my face, washing over my senses and having me struggle to bite back another moan. Was it just me, or had his voice gotten surprisingly deeper, accentuating a slight British accent I hadn't noticed before?
"I-" But speaking was futile. My brain had short-circuited. I distinctly remembered I was supposed to be doing something, saying something at the very least, but none of that mattered, not when his attention was centered on me like this. His gaze was predatory, and my breath came faster, shallow, and erratic. My skin prickled, my heart hammering as a wave of heat washed over me.
"I- um," I tried again, trying to blink myself out of the haze I was under, but he was looking me over with smokey half-lidded eyes through dark lashes in a way that made my knees weak.
What... the... hell?
He was a stranger, and yet I found myself pinned in place by stormy glaciers that dangerously heated my skin everywhere they roamed, warming my blood and somehow chilling my bones at the same time. In the span of a nanosecond, my entire brain had burst into flames and crumbled into a pile of ashes.
Oh God.
I had to leave. I had to-
"I s-should probably l-leave," I stammered, agreeing with my own frantic thoughts. This was messed up. I needed to run.
"Something tells me you want to stay."
Yes, please.
"Y-You're mistaken," I denied, my voice a trembling whisper, though the heat surging through my body betrayed me. I hadn't felt attraction like this before; hadn't felt attraction at all, if I was honest. What I had with Julie had been safe, a comfort rooted in emotional attachment, but it lacked the spark that now ignited beneath my skin. This was different. This burned. My pulse quickened, my breath uneven, as I tried to make sense of the raw, physical pull that tightened my chest and made my limbs heavy.
I couldn't tear my eyes from his; they held me captive, their dangerous beauty a stark contrast to the raw power emanating from him.
"Am I?" he murmured, his breath hot against my ear. I shivered, my traitorous body betraying me again, drawn to the danger he exuded like a moth to a flame. His chest rose and fell beneath my palms. Wait, when had I...? What the hell? I dropped my hands again, trying not to hyperventilate. I hadn't even realized they'd somehow made the journey of their own back to his broad chest. And his heart had been thundering, hard and fast... because of me?
Another shock jolted through me.
No, that couldn't be right. This was... nothing. Perhaps he was just trying to rein in his anger. Yes, that had to be it. Yet, he didn't seem angry to me anymore; he appeared... preoccupied.
I forced my eyes away, averting my gaze to look at anywhere but him, but that too was futile and when our eyes met again, my heart skipped a beat. Then resumed its pounding. My lips parted as I struggled to breathe, my mind spinning.
His lips brushed the shell of my ear, a feather-light touch that nearly had me jumping out of my skin. "I advise you get comfortable," he whispered, his breath warm against my skin. "Because you're not going anywhere."
His voice was low, deliberate, and final, and I knew I was doomed.
Author's Nonsense:
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𝕷a̸͟͞d̸͟͞y̸͟͞𝕽𝖊𝖉༊𝕱𝖆𝖊.
ORG: 11/10/24
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