Aide Me

Chapter Eighteen - Push Me

She couldn't believe what was happening.

Aide softly kissed her back, angling his head so he could kiss her better. His lips were so much gentler than she had expected. He pushed away a lock of hair that had fallen out of her braid and then gently cupped her head, running his thumb over her cheek.

Emaia felt a soft moan escape her lips, and she leaned in, grabbing his tunic. He tasted like thyme and fresh forest rain. When his tongue swept across her bottom lip, she felt a tightening in her lower abdomen. Her heartbeat fastened.

It was unbelievable. She couldn't believe she was actually kissing him. This was her first kiss. And she had started it. After weeks of silently thinking about it in the back of her mind - what it would be like to kiss those lips - it was finally happening. And the real thing was a million times better than her flimsy imagination.

Emaia pulled at his shirt to get him closer. She wanted more—needed more. Her fingers started fumbling with the threads of his tunic, untying them with shaky hands. She expected Aide to stop her, to pull away, but he didn't. Instead he deepened the kiss and let his tongue swirl out to tease the seams of her lips. She parted them.

She couldn't breathe. She didn't want to pull away to catch her breath, in fear that he might stop them. Besides, she was pretty sure even if she did, Aide would take away her breath again.

Her hand ran over the smooth, pale tattooed skin of his chest, testing the muscles against her shaking fingers. It was so soft. Underneath her palm she could feel his heart beat steadily and strong. She wondered how he could keep so calm when it felt like she was exploding.

She let her hands travel lower, gliding down to the fabricated part of his stomach, where the split of the tunic stopped. It was when her hands reached lower, that Aide's hands caught hers; He stopped them.

"Emaia, we need to talk," He broke apart from her lips and allowed Emaia to catch her breath. He met her eyes.

He wanted to talk? Now? After all the times she had wanted to talk to him, get to know him, where he had turned her down with a smile, he chose now to want to talk?

"Talking can wait," Emaia breathlessly replied. She leaned in to kiss him again, but Aide pulled away this time.

"Trust me, Emaia, it can't wait. You want to have this talk before you do something you'll regret."

Emaia honestly didn't care about what he wanted to talk about. She was finally experiencing her first kiss, her first make-out, and she didn't want it to stop so suddenly. And besides; What would she possibly regret? This was Aide. The man who had saved her and protected her so many times, she was loosing count.

"I don't care," Emaia replied, looking at his swollen lips. "I know what I want."

When she leaned in again, Aide rose his voice. "Emaia, stop. You need to know this about me."

"What?" She snapped, getting irritated. He was ruining a perfect moment. "You've been secretive about yourself from day one and now you want to open up?"

"Yes," He firmly said and pierced her with his eyes. "You have to understand that I'm only kissing you because you want me to."

Emaia let his words sink in, but they didn't make sense in her head. "...What?"

Aide sighed bitterly and looked down. "I know you've been falling for me."

She couldn't see anything wrong with that statement, except him not telling her that he knew, but that didn't matter, did it really? They were right here, after all. "So?"