Black Devotion
Violet Goddess

Hello my darling readers! I know by know several of you are picking yourselves up off the floor from the shock that I have finally updated. Yes it’s true this is an all new chapter. But before we begin class a few words...

After readers pleading, growling (yes readers growl) and complaining I finally managed to get this chapter out. I tried not to get frustrated the more shall we say, umm, forceful people got in their requests for an update. Though sometimes I wanted to be peevish and just dump this project all together or scream at certain people that I too have a life, instead I continued on. After climbing my way out of bills and papers and homework I am here. So I better get some reviews people!

Important little note: This chapter was really hard to complete. Taking into account ffn.net’s policy on lemons and my own wish to make this tasteful I have compromised on a few scenes in this chapter. If there is a big outcry for a major lemon scene I may lengthen it, but for now enjoy!

onward and enjoy the show!

Chapter 6

        The earth was hard beneath his feet, packed liked fine steel from the many feet that had tread across it. Battousai stared resolutely forward, but couldn’t stop himself from listening for her footfall, soft though they were. She walked behind him, each step made with depressing reluctance. Each foot dragged before the last with a grim resignation. Damn it all! She was pouting again. Honestly, sometimes he hated women! Kaoru moved from hot to cold, tempting to sullen with the wind. It had been two days since they had left Sano behind, two days of brooding and wary silence. He brooded and she stared at him as a frightened rabbit might a hungry wolf. She was always on edge, always watching him, her eyes clinging to his every movement. It seemed she was finally beginning to fear him. Funny how in the beginning that had been the very thing he had sought, and yet now it left a bitter taste in his mouth. Her fear was something that stung.

        He knew there was passion between them, felt it to his very bones. And yet, and yet he wanted more. He growled softly in frustration because what he didn’t know what that “more” was. He wanted her, craved her body, her lips, her scent and yet he wanted her laughter as well. He wanted her smiles and tears. He wanted all of her.

And she wanted him.

        An arrogant smirk spread across lips sinfully full. He saw it in every look, frightened though it might be, she passed to him. He wondered if half the wariness she felt might not be from the attraction that crackled so strongly between them? Wondered if she might not be fighting herself as much as him?

        He had watched her with Sanosuke, had seen the caring beneath every snide insult and scathing remark. An easy camaraderie that she had never shown with him. It was a relationship that was free of the weight of frustrated desires and clashing strengths. But even this knowledge did not hold him secure against the jealousy that emerged so swiftly at the image of her in his brother’s arms. It seemed he had a bit of a possessive streak

        He tossed a fleeting glance at the young woman walking behind him, wondering how long this could continue. Her silken bow hung limp in the summer heat, wisps of hair clung wetly to skin. Her shoulders were slightly slumped against the weight of her pack as her eyes stared blindly forward. Battousai sighed in annoyance; this had to end, this fear for her virtue. He had wondered at first if she were still untouched, but her every reaction to him had been too sweetly innocent for her to be anything else. Though he cursed that virtue, that one thing that might stand in his way, he still savored it. Something primal inside him, something carnal and dangerous, basked in pleasure that she was innocent. That he would be the first to touch, to taste, to drown in her.

        Conscience held no power here, though he felt that same prick of honor that had always guided his life at the thought of deflowering her. And yet it changed nothing. Her voice drew him slowly from his thoughts and he smiled slightly as he heard her mumble something about the “damn heat” and futilely kick at the ground. So she was a virgin, she was still his. And he was tired of this game of cat and mouse, tired of sleeping with her across the fire from him rather than in his arms. It was time this ended. And was there ever a time like the present?

“I have to admit, I’m surprised you’re still a virgin.” It was said so casually that for a moment Kaoru stared dumbly.

“Excuse me?”

        His grin spread wide at her angry question. Nothing like shock value, he mused. He stopped abruptly when he noticed that she now stood stock-still in the middle of the road, gaping at him. Granted it was an old, deserted road but she still made quite a sight.

“I said-”

“I know what the hell you said!” She shouted back. Her cheeks were flushed with color now and she was practically bristling with animosity. This was his Kaoru. “I just can’t believe you said it.”

“Why not?” He looked all that was innocent as he stared back at her but she wasn’t buying into his act for a minute. What game was he playing now? She wondered as she blew at her bangs in annoyance. She felt hot and sticky and she was fairly sure her entire body was covered with at least two layers of dust.

“Because I didn’t think you were that much of a bastard.” The words were snarled at him as her hands clenched into tight fists at her side. Blue eyes flashing dangerously, Kaoru stood ready for battle, her body rigid with anger.

        Battousai merely smiled indulgently and walked carelessly forward.

“My, my, quite a mouth you have on you.” He was standing in front of her now, his body tentatively touching hers with every breath. His muscled chest brushing her breasts almost teasingly, making them suddenly feel tight and heavy. What was happening here? How had he once again turned the situation into some sort of erotic sparing? How did he always manage to -

        Her thoughts were cut short on a gasp of shocked pleasure when a strong, supple hands suddenly cupped her sensitive breast, caressing it almost lovingly.

“W-what are you doing?” She had meant to sound reproving but her breathy voice couldn’t hide the shocking pleasure those talented fingers were giving her. Her gaze flew to his as she spoke and was met by amber eyes gone molten. A strange emotion spilled through her that caused both fear and a strange anticipation to form. There was something so unbearably exciting about it all, so that Kaoru never thought to stop things, never thought to call a halt to something that she had been secretly craving.

“I’m doing what I’ve been wanting to do since I first saw those pretty breasts of yours.” His words might have been crude but the effect they had on Kaoru’s innocent body was like fire. Her head fell back helplessly, spilling long black hair down her back as her now forgotten hair ribbon fell silently to the dusty ground. The simple action unwittingly exposing the vulnerable line of her slender throat. Battousai’s eyes flared at the innocent invitation, the naive and instinctive enticement. Muttering a curse beneath his breath he bent helpless to that soft skin, raining hungry kisses along her creamy flesh.

“This is wrong.” She whimpered even as she drove her small hands into his flaming hair to hold him against her, even as she titled her head to give him better access.

“I know, but it only makes it sweeter, doesn’t it?” The words feathered softly across her skin as he seemed unable to stop his sensuous trek.

        Kaoru’s voice seemed lost in her throat as she found herself only able to moan softly in reply. Her fingers weaving impatiently through his silky hair, holding his close. He moved upwards until his lips brushed her lips tantalizingly as he spoke.

“What I wouldn’t give for a soft bed and a strong door and lock.” He growled. Teasingly he bit her ear as if to soften the his anger and then sighed in something that sounded like annoyance.

“Sometimes the world doesn’t know when to just back off.” And then he was gone. The hot days seeming oddly cold next to the absent warmth of his body. Kaoru stared ahead blankly her body still rippling in dazed pleasure, her mind unable to grasp that Battousai was no longer next to her. What the hell had just happened?

* * *

        Rui sat tenuously against the bark of the cherry tree. He had been perched there for hours, sitting on a thick branch high in the tree, his position obscured by the lingering blossoms of summer. The neglected, beaten road wound lazily beneath him and off into the horizon as he stared at it absently. Everyone had known this was just a perfunctory precaution, this post on the edge of a forgotten and deserted road. What army would trudge through that scarred bit of dirt, with its deep wagon ruts and winding maze of branching trails? None! And his commander had damn well known it.

        He was still brooding over his jackass superior and that condescending smile of his, when he had seem them. Two people steadily making their way towards him, a man walking purposely in front of the drooping form of a woman. They had fought and then suddenly they had been locked in a what he could only guess what a lover’s embrace. He had stared avidly as the two had practically devoured each other in a lustful quest.

And then the red haired man had suddenly disappeared.

        Even as Rui had sat there gaping he felt the prick of steel. The metal abnormally warm from the heat of the day as it lay menacingly against his throat. Funny that when he had joined Hoshi’s army he’d dreamed of honor and glory. Even death in the heat of battle at his enemy’s sword had honor. Even that had glory in the stories they might tell of his infamous death, of his courageous battle. But never as he had envisioned his life had he though he’d die sitting in a tree watching a dusty, abandoned road. It appeared you couldn’t predict fate and her fickle humor.

“Who are you?” The voice hissed softly at his ear. Absently he noted the blossoms that the afternoon breeze plucked float past him even as he wondered if they might not land on his body after this man was done with him.

“Rui.” His voice wavered with fear and his skin felt slick with sweat but if he was going to die he would die with honor, that much he could control.

“Well, Rui, since you’re sitting up in the middle of a tree, watching a forsaken logging road I’m going to assume you’re under Commander Murai. That bastard always was anal about his ‘perimeter .’”



        Rui’s head jerked around abruptly, nearly forgetting about the steel held so expertly against him, and merely stared blankly at the man behind him. He was met by cold amber eyes that held a hint of anger and definite frustration. Odd for a man who seemed so totally in control of this particular situation.

        Battousai felt mild annoyance surge through him at the confused look plastered across the soldier’s face. He could already tell this was not going to go smoothly, as if it ever did, he thought acidly. The fact that this nuisance had interrupted his exploration of Kaoru’s delectable little body did not place Rui on Battousai’s good side. His body would ache for hours still but the frustration that simmered just below the surface was nearly overflowing. He had to get Kaoru somewhere private and soon, for the sake of his sanity if not his body.

        Turning his thoughts to the terrified little soldier in front of him, Battousai nearly groaned in disgust. Staring at him Battousai admitted that he was really no more than a boy, perhaps 20, if that. They’re taking them young these days, he mused. He supposed with all the conflicts raging that beggars couldn’t be choosers when able bodies were needed.

“Lets get this over with.” Rui felt his heart skip a beat at those words. Get it over with? Was he going to die now? In a tree of all places? A tree?! Irrational anger flooded through him at that moment. Die he might but not in a damn tree.

“No.” Battousai nearly smiled at the determined look on the boy’s face.

“No? Care to explain?”

“I refuse to die in a tree.”

“Excuse me?” A grin did spread across Battousai’s usually hard mouth then. This was the most ridiculous situation he had ever been. Here he was balanced on a branch in the middle of nowhere, thirty feet from the ground, arguing with some boy about death in a tree. It seemed there were still a few surprises left in life.

“I said I refuse to die in a tree.” Battousai relaxed his sword and pulled it away from the boy’s throat so he could turn and face him.

“Oh? And why is that?” He made no effort to keep the mocking gleam out of his eyes or the grin from his lips but the boy didn’t seem to notice either.

“Because there is no honor or glory in dying in a damn tree!” He finally exploded as if Battousai had to be simpleminded not to know.

“Ah so this is about honor and glory?”

“Isn’t everything?” The youth asked in all innocence. Battousai merely sighed in exasperation and casually kicked the boy off the branch. He listened to his body thud against several branches before it unceremoniously hit the dusty ground. He slipped his sword back into its sheath as he descended to find the boy’s slightly bruised body being hovered over by a tittering Kaoru.

“Oh, he’s fine so don’t look at me like that.” Kaoru had been trying to glare him into the ground, he wondered if he should tell her that that look only made him want to kiss her senseless. Better not if the rigid stance of her body was anything to go by.

“And how exactly did he end up like that?” She asked as she blithely walked over the groaning body to stand nearly nose to nose with Battousai.

“You mean you didn’t hear him screaming like a woman as he fell out of the tree?” Battousai asked with that damnable grin plastered across his face.

“Oh don’t act the innocent with me. First you run off, presumably to go play in the tree with him,” she spat as she pointed heatedly behind her as the boy tried unsuccessfully to sit up only to collapse again. “And then the next thing I know he falls not ten feet in front of me. Out of a tree of all things.”

“And?” Battousai watched as those fascinating sapphire eyes of her spit flames at him.

“You pushed that poor boy out of that tree, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you dare deny- Yes? You admit it?” Battousai stepped forward and bent down just enough to stare eye to eye with his little vixen.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Kaoru growled threateningly at him as she moved closer, her lips nearly brushing him.

“Because,” she began softly, her eyes flickering between his lips and his eyes, “decent people,” Battousai felt his breath catch as her breath feathered across his face and her lips fleetingly brushed his with every breath, leaving the taste of her on them.

“DON’T PUSH PEOPLE OUT OF TREES!” She screamed and pushed him away from her. Battousai merely stood there, his face blank with surprise as she stomped away apparently to help the still groaning boy. What the hell had brought that on? His Kaoru was normally not so tempting, not so blatantly teasing. What had caused that sudden change? Was she beginning to feel safe with him? Battousai smiled at that. More the fool she. Walking up behind her Battousai stared over her shoulder at the body lying on the ground.

“Amazing how all that sound can come out of that delicious little mouth of yours.” Kaoru blushed scarlet and opened her mouth to scream at him again only to have protests captured by Battousai’s lips. Pulling slowly away Battousai stared into blue eyes gone misty with passion. “Now none of that, grab tree-boy over there and let’s go.” And with that he turned and started back down the long, winding road toward their northern destination.

Kaoru merely stared after him in blank astonishment for a few moments, her thoughts hazy from there kiss. But with a start Kaoru realized that Battousai was indeed heading on and so ran back to the crumpled, battered body that was still covered in dirty and leaves. She had to say one thing, life with Battousai was never boring.

* * *

        It was utter chaos that met them when they finally crested the last rise and came upon the military camp of Commander Murai. Men scurried from place to place with obvious purpose and a feeling of urgency fairly crackled in the air. Kaoru stared around her in awed confusion, watching men hurriedly checking weapons and strapping bits of leather armor onto legs and arm or any bits of exposed flesh. Even to one as innocent as Kaoru it was obvious that this was the scene of men preparing for battle. She felt her mouth go dry at the thought, was she about to be thrust in the middle of a battle?

        Battousai felt the bloodlust saturating the air course through him, something he had unknowingly missed these last few months. Hoshi’s idea of service was more intrigue and reconnaissance than actual fighting. Now he found the idea of a fight caused his blood to sing out in anticipation. This was what he had been trained for, this was his element. He, like Kaoru, knew that these men were preparing to attack and Battousai smiled at the thought of joining them. With a swift glance behind him he motioned Kaoru to follow him and began to weave expertly through the mass of anxious men.



        Though Battousai seemed at home dodging sweat lathered bodies and the jostling of rushing men, Kaoru was not. Supporting the battered form of the soldier she had learned was name Rui, his body leaning heavily against her shoulder, she tried to follow Battousai’s lead. Inevitably she fell behind and ultimately lost sight of that powerful body amidst a sea of soldiers. It was with panic she turned to Rui, holding his arm across her shoulders, only to find him looking just as lost as she was. The boy had barely been coherent the entire time they had been together, the nasty bruise at his temple testament to a lost battle with a few unexpected tree limbs. Cursing Battousai yet again for the arrogant ass he was, Kaoru pulled her burden along and set out determinedly in the direction she had last seen Battousai. Surely it wouldn’t be hard to find him, after all this was not a particularly large encampment, just near bursting at the moment.

        She should have known there was going to be trouble.

        It wasn’t long before she garnered attention. At first it was only curious glances and a few ribald remarks but all to soon it escalated. Kaoru had been so focused on simply moving along with Rui and avoiding a collision with anyone that she never noticed their approach. It had been the broad chest that had suddenly filled her view that had finally caught her attention. Kaoru had looked up with dread only to groan when as found herself surrounded by half a dozen very capable looking men, all smiling mockingly.

“What have we here?” The apparent leader asked. He was tall, perhaps six feet, and used every inch to tower over her. His black hair and eyes stood out against the deep tan of a man often out doors. He was not an ugly man, she admitted, but the cruel slant to him mouth kept him from being truly handsome. Black eyes stared down at her, going over her body with insulting slowness and intimacy. It was obvious from his casual, taunting manner that this was a man used to intimidating others and felt secure that no one would stop him. But Kaoru had never been a coward and the Kamiya blood flowing through her veins balked at anyone treating her so basely. Not even Battousai dared to look at her like that. Squaring her shoulders she stared evenly at the man, her blue eyes blazing rage.

“Is this yours?” She asked, one eyebrow raised in question as she motioned her head toward Rui. Their expression as they all looked at Rui’s slumped form were comical as they took in his battered appearance. The leader’s eyes came back to hers, startled by both her boldness and by the fact that she was fairly dragging one of his comrades next to her.

“What the hell happened to him?”

“Had a falling out with a nasty tree.”

“A tree?” A voice off to her left said that.

“Yes,” she huffed in exasperation, “a tree. Now do you think you could help me with him? He’s damn heavy!” No one moved as they waited for their leader’s directions, wondering what his reaction to this courageous, if foolhardy, woman would be. Kaoru felt her heart pound fearfully in her chest but her face remained stoic, determined to give nothing away. She needn’t have worried for a moment later a huge grin split the man’s face and he laughed.

“Well I’ll be damned. You heard the woman, help her with Rui.” Kaoru sighed as Rui’s heavy weight was lifted from her shoulders and she flexed her arm with a grimace, already sore from lugging the soldier about.

“I’m Kyo.” The leader said with a grin and suddenly Kaoru was swept into two powerful arms. She found herself crushed resounding against a rock hard body that made Kaoru blush becomingly. Instead of putting her down as she had expected, Kyo lifted her up to eye level and simply waited. It was few moments before Kaoru found her voice and then it was uncommonly high pitched.

“Umm, I’m Kaoru. Nice to meet you.” Kyo only laughed and Kaoru blushed harder. She was still pressed almost intimately against Kyo when she heard that cold voice shatter the air around her.

“Well, we’re feeling friendly today, aren’t we?” Battousai stared with narrow eyes at the scene before him. Kaoru was pressed snugly against every inch of the hard male body of the soldier. He felt a jealous rage flood through his vein at the thought that someone was touching Kaoru so intimately. His hand itched to pull his sword, absently caressing the hilt in challenge. Kyo didn’t miss the small gesture, a mocking smile alighting his lips.

“Hello Battousai.” There was definite amusement there but Battousai merely stared ahead, his eyes cold and dangerous.

“You can put her down now Kyo.”

“Now why would I want to do that?” Kyo murmured as he turned back to look at Kaoru’s slightly apprehensive face. “It isn’t everyday I find a beautiful women in my arms.” Battousai ground his teeth as he listened to Kyo’s annoying banter. Kaoru watched silently as Battousai’s amber eyes disappeared beneath red bangs and the air fairly crackled with leashed tension. And then suddenly Kaoru was sprawled across the ground and Kyo was flat on his back, Battousai standing over him, sword poised threateningly above him. Battousai merely stared at the bigger man now lying so unceremoniously at his feet with grim satisfaction shinning in his eyes.

        It was a strange scene; Kenshin’s lithe, short body standing victorious over Kyo lumbering size. Kaoru might have laughed if fear hadn’t seized her throat. Kyo wasn’t a fool, he knew what Kenshin’s display had meant. He was stating his claim on Kaoru and they would have to deal with him if they ever touched Kaoru. Kyo merely smiled at Kenshin, his face covered with dust. Kenshin nodded in understanding and then gracefully sheathed his sword and walked to Kaoru.

        Kaoru had watched the whole scene from her sprawled position in the dirt. It wasn’t until she felt Battousai’s strong arms around her that she shook herself out of her shock and stared at the enigmatic face of the man carrying her. It seemed etched of stone but one look from those blazing amber eyes told her eloquently that Battousai was raging. The arms that held her were like steel but they didn’t hurt her as they made their way quickly to the edge of the camp, towards an unremarkable white tent set slightly apart from the neat rows of countless similar tents.

        Battousai entered the gloomy interior, Kaoru still held tightly in his arms, and made his way towards a pile of blankets and furs tossed haphazardly in the corner to form a pallet. Battousai eased Kaoru down, sliding her along his lean body, his eyes closed involuntarily as if to savor the feel of her. Kaoru stared up at him as her feet touched the soft fabric of the pallet, her blue eyes wide and curious.

“Where are we?”

“Where you are going to stay until I return.” He turned to go then, releasing her reluctantly from his grip.

“Wait! Where are you going?” She flew after him, her small hands clutching at his arm. He didn’t turn to face her, he merely stopped at the door and stared straight ahead.

“To war.”

* * *

        The storm had been raging for hours, lighting a darkness that had long ago spread its inky wings across the sky. Kaoru sat huddled in the corner, staring sightlessly at the cloth walls, watching at the striking silhouettes of lightening slashing across the night. The rain thudded endlessly against the roof but Kaoru found no solace in its normally soothing rhythm. Her entire body felt on edge, her mind wrecked with images of bodies and war. He had gone to battle.

        Battousai had left her this afternoon and blithely walked away to join the forces that had been marching out to attack rebel forces encamped just north of them. She hadn’t said a word, too stunned to move and so he had pulled his arm from her numb fingers and walked away. His red hair catching the sunlight like blood before the tent flap had dropped and hidden him from her tortured blue eyes.

        She sat now, huddled amid the tossed remains of her pallet, her skin pale as she gnawed worriedly at her lips. He had been gone so long. Was this normal? What if something had happened to him? How would she deal with the prospect of never sparring with that exasperating man again? Though she was a trained swordswoman she had never felt the rigors of war, had never sat behind while other’s fought for their lives. For her, fighting had been something to be done only as a last defense, more a principle than something she used with any frequency. She felt her body clench in denial at having to kill another human being, of having to look in their eyes as the life slowly drained out of them. For all her warrior’s training and understanding that in battle lives were lost, Kaoru was not a killer.

        Strangely enough her thoughts wandered briefly to Yahiko. She had thought about him little these past days and she felt guilt flood over her. Truly he should have been utmost in her mind since it was his actions that had catapulted her into their situation. Perhaps it was because she knew he was safe and well fed, if probably chafing under the guidance of Megumi, their doctor and friend. A free thinking woman who had had a few run in with various rebel groups early on, Kaoru knew that Megumi would protect Yahiko with her life. Indeed the woman had told her so when Kaoru had shown up on her doorstep, bedraggled and desperate and pleaded for her help. Megumi had only raised one black brow and pulled Kaoru into her arms, her eyes shinning with understanding.

        She could even now imaging the chagrined expression on Yahiko’s face as she made him clean out the house or do some detested chore. But he would bear it and in the end he would sleep at night safe and secure. That knowledge had comforted Kaoru as nothing else could have in this troubled time. Perhaps it was the thought of the danger that Battousai was in that drew her mind to her younger brother, made her dwell on his secured safety, made her long to hold him in her arms and soothe his fears.

        A sudden and overwhelming urge to hold Battousai in her arms, as she might Yahiko, assailed her without warning. Her arms fairly ached to drawn his body next to hers, to run her fingers across his skin and know that he was still alive, still whole. The image of sliding her hands across his hot skin suddenly turned to something darker, more erotic as her pulse began to speed up. She could almost feel the muscles that would bunch and pull as she traced them, could almost feel the lips that would grasp at her passing fingertips. Could almost feel....

        She opened her eyes on a bright burst of lightening only to see Battousai standing before her, his body outlined harshly by the jagged light. His clothes clung to that lean body as rivulets of water slid ceaselessly down. Darkness returned abruptly but Kaoru could still see those amber eyes, shining like molten gold. Thunder boomed distantly as the rain continued to pelt endlessly against the roof, but Kaoru heard none of it, her eyes riveted to the man before her. There was something different about him tonight, his body was tensed, like a sleek cat ready to pounce.

        Random slashes of lightening displayed fleeting glimpses of his body as he continued to stare at her unblinkingly.

“Battousai.” Was that breathy whisper her voice? Her heart felt as though it would rip from the feeble confines of her body as she sat staring at him, helplessly watching him. He cut a dangerous, compelling figure, his body outlined by stark flashes, his robes clinging sensuously to a body honed like steel in the fire of battle. Kaoru wet her lips nervously, sensing some change in the air, some difference in their relationship that was not tangible and yet very real.

        His hands hung loosely on the hilt of each sword, his fingers sliding absently along the leather hilts, slowly tracing their smooth surface. But his eyes, his eyes never left her. They saw her rapid pulse and her soft, wide eyes as they ran over him and his own breathing grew ragged. Battousai tried to calm himself, tried to tell his body that he could not take her now, not while the scent of battle still filled his senses but he knew it was useless. The blood lust was still running strong in his veins, still singing to seize today what might be lost to tomorrow. It was a siren call he was helpless to deny. And so he did what any man possessed of the frailty of humankind would do.

He went to her.

        Kaoru opened her arms like a lost child offered the world, with a sense of wonder and inevitability that drove the fear from her body. His wet clothing soaked her own but she never felt the chill that should have slid through her body. His hand were rough as they tore at her clothing and his own but she never protested, her lips instead clinging to the feverish onslaught of his. It felt as though the storm had moved inside her body, that it now raged endlessly beneath skin that was suddenly burning and sensitive. She cried out at the first feel of his skin against her, in wonder at the new feelings running dizzily through her body at the caress of his callused palm against her tender flesh.

        Battousai drew a sharp breath at the feel of her silky skin laid bare to his whim, to his touch. She was warm and soft beneath his fingers as he slowly drew fingertips down her bare back as he drew off robes that bore the tattered evidence of his feverish grasping. It had been so long he, mused, so long since he had felt this. This tender acceptance. Oh there had been bodies, bodies that had, in the dark, feed a need he had never been able to deny but it had never been like this. He had never craved like this, had never wanted her lips on his skin, her hands running across his flesh like this. And yet now he did, now he wanted tenderness and violence all at once where always he had wanted selfishly for pleasure.

        Distantly Kaoru heard the clatter of metal as Battousai’s swords fell to the ground, thrown hastily away. It was the feel of her flesh messed with his as he drew open his robes and pulled her inside and her breasts were meshed against the muscles of his chest. Her gasp of pleasure mixed easily with his tortured groan and further with the thickening tattoo of the rain. Almost in a daze Kaoru reached up, her fingers sliding through rain slicked hair to remove the small leather strip that pulled his hair into that high style that was the signature of fighters. She sighed blissfully as that crimson hair fell down, soaked and slick it felt like heaven as she drew her fingers through it, pulled it towards her and drew back to slid it across her breasts. It was decadent and forbidden and so addictingly sensual that virginal Kaoru had suddenly turned wanton and it was lovingly delicious. Kaoru only smiled at Battousai’s stunned look of pleasure and drew him forth, pulling her handful of hair and met his lips with hers.

        Gasping for breath Battousai let the kiss turn demanding with intent. He couldn’t let her go now. Gods help him, he could never let her go.

* * *

12 pages, three more then normal so no complaints. So did you like it? let me know with reviews.

Note: The next chapter should be out soon but don’t expect light speed on this. I have several exams coming up but I will try to be faster than this pervious time. Promise!