InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lips Sealed ❯ Part One ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Lips Sealed

"No offense, Nee-chan, but you -ah, you really suck at betting," Souta lounged casually on Kagome's bed and doing his best to look sympathetic even as he tried unsuccessfully to smother his laughter. "Unless you're playing Janken, you always lose."

Kagome shot him a glare, but soon enough she lost interest in that, dropping her head to her desk with a soft thump and a groan of misery, "I can't believe this. What was I thinking Souta?"

A giggle broke free, "Now I know why you decided to stay out at our cousin's house a few extra weeks. You were waiting for it to heal up so Inuyasha-nii-chan wouldn't notice it, weren't you?"

"I liked you better when you were short and unobservant," Kagome muttered, the sound muffled as her face was still hidden in her folded arms.

Souta grinned and bounced off her bed to bend down and give her a reassuring hug, "Ah, don't worry about it so much! I'm sure you won't have troubles, and I'll even help you keep it a secret from Okaa-san until you're ready to tell her."

Kagome lifted her head to give her not-so-little-anymore brother a dry look, "Somehow after a few years of skipping school to wander the past with a grumpy half youkai, I don't think a little thing like a piercing is going to faze her, Souta."

He gave her a rueful grin and rubbed the back of his head, "Didn't think of it that way…. So you don't know what he'll think of it. Is it really just Inuyasha who has you all worried and nervous? "

"More like terrified," she grumbled, opening her mouth to study the innocent looking metal ball resting on her tongue. She reached up the press one finger against it before she let it back down in her lap and stuck her tongue out at her reflection, "I think it's safe to say he's never seen anything like this and god only knows what his reaction would be."

Souta shrugged, leaning against her chair and crossing his arms as he studied her disgruntled expression in the mirror, "So I take it you aren't going to tell him?"

"Not a chance in hell," she dropped her head in her hands and sighed.

"Well…. you can just make sure you don't stick out your tongue," he reached down and tugged on her tongue when she stuck it out again. "Don't open your mouth very wide when you talk, or cover your mouth with your hand if you do."

Kagome blinked in surprise and then stood, grabbing his chin and yanking his mouth open to peer inside. He was chuckling and stuck out his own un-pierced tongue and gave her an innocent smile, "What?"

"How in the-?" Kagome's eyes filled with confusion.

His smile turned smug, and he struck what she had silently dubbed his "Inuyasha" pose before he answered the searching curiosity in her eyes, "Honestly, Nee-chan, I'm not a little kid anymore. You'd think I'd never helped someone hide a tongue piercing. By the way, Toshio says to be careful when you're eating. He accidentally bit his and spent an hour yowling like a dying cat."

She blinked again, this time in amazement before finally shaking her head and ruffling his hair with a grin, "Really? I had no idea you were such a bad-ass, Souta."

Souta blushed, still not totally used to hearing his sister talking like that, and swatted her hand away, "I wasn't about to turn into a pansy and let you get stronger than me!" He wrapped his hand as far around her muscular bicep as he could and made a face. All that adventuring in the past had done wonders for his sister's physical appearance, and he'd been supremely jealous until he started building up his own, "It would have been embarrassing."

Kagome was the one to chuckle this time as she patted him on the head, "I'll take your word for it. So… was Inuyasha angry that I wasn't here?"

"He's due any second to check and see if you're back, you can ask him yourself," Souta shrugged and gestured to her window. "It's been like clock-work for the past three weeks. He comes, Okaa-san bribes him with ramen and potato chips, he grumbles, swears, pouts, and then he goes back through the well."

"Somehow I get the feeling that's a highly edited version," she raked a hand nervously through her hair.

"He got his mouth washed out with soap when he…. ah, said some particularly interesting things in front of her, so now he waits until it's just me," he grinned, proud that he was privy to the "uncensored" Inuyasha.

Kagome gave him a highly suspicious look, "And just WHAT have you two been talking about?"

Souta put on his best innocent face and found something on the ceiling quite interesting, "He was just a little curious about how we do things in this time."

She knocked his feet out from under him and tackled him to the ground, wrestling with the ease of long practice until she had him pinned to the floor, "I know that look, you little brat! What THINGS, Souta?"

He was trying hard not to laugh outright at the equal mix of anger and concern on her face, but it finally bubbled over, "He even asked Jii-chan! You should… Gods, you should see your face!"

Kagome did her best impression of a growl, digging her fingers into his ribs mercilessly, and making him squeal and squirm in an effort to get away, "Spit it out!"

"Okay! Okay!" he yelled, still giggling and breathing heavily as he fought to catch his breath. "He wanted to know…. how adults punished disobedient `pups' in this time."

Her eyes widened and she sat back in a hurry, the color draining from her cheeks, "He asked Jii-chan what?!"

"He asked what kind of things we use for discipline, what we think is appropriate," Souta was reveling in the apprehension on his sister's face. "You're just lucky he didn't realize I was talking to you on the phone sometimes when he came in."

Kagome dropped her head in her hands and groaned loudly, "Oh my god. What did you tell him?" she demanded, cheeks flushed in embarrassed agitation.

Rather than answer, Souta cast a look at her window, "I don't think I'd have the window closed right now if I were you."

Her thoughts came to a halt and attempted to redirect, "What? Why?"

He shrugged, leaning back and pretending to be completely unconcerned, "You're the one who told me that he can smell anyone a mile away. What happens when he comes through the well and smells that you're here finally?"

Kagome winced, glaring at Souta even as she pushed herself to her feet and went to the window to slide it open, "I swear, Souta, you always take his-erk!!!"

Souta blinked in surprise when the clawed hand shot through the now-open window, fisting in the front of his sister's shirt and quite abruptly yanking her off her feet and out onto the roof. "Wait! Inu-nii-chan! Her pack!" Souta grabbed the much-abused yellow bag, stumbling for a moment under the weight before rushing to the window.

Inuyasha stood poised to jump at the edge of the roof, Kagome carelessly slung over his shoulder and his free hand held out expectantly as he growled to the younger boy, "Tell your mother Kagome will be gone a long time."

Souta grinned and nodded enthusiastically, huffing a bit as he managed to wrestle the pack out the window to the scowling hanyou. Kagome was swearing in frustration, turning to glare at her brother when he let a chuckle escape and leaned against the window ledge to wave, "Have fun in the past, Nee-chan! Remember, be careful with how you talk!"

Kagome went silent, biting down on her lip while her face flamed, eyes promising all sorts of violent retribution against her little brother over how much he seemed to be enjoying this. Inuyasha had already turned, and sneaking a glance up to make certain he couldn't see, she stuck out her tongue and flipped him a rude gesture just before the hanyou dropped off the roof and went racing off to the well.

"Where the fuck did you run off to, Kagome?" Inuyasha growled at her, vaulting the edge of the well and relaxing slightly when he felt the shifting magic all around them. `Fucking finally…' He was still bristling angrily when he leapt out into the clearing, dropping the bag and dragging her forward to set her on her feet in front of him, flexing his claws on her waist, but not removing his hands, "Four weeks. You were hiding from me for four fucking weeks, Kagome! Where were you?!"

"At my cousin's house, Inuyasha! Didn't my mother tell you not to worry about me?" Kagome shot back, but tried to keep her face averted as she spoke, fighting her guilty embarrassment while trying to keep Souta's advice about not opening her mouth in mind.

Inuyasha's hand gripping her chin and forcing her face up, indicated he had other plans, "We agreed on three days, bitch."

"Something else came up, all right?" her cheeks flushed and she batted at his hand, more flustered than she thought she should be by the feel of his hand. What's wrong with me? It's just Inuyasha and I feel like my stomach's turning flips! Is it just because I'm worried? Or just that I've been gone so long?

"Something more important than being here?" he growled, stubbornly squeezing her chin and not letting go. "We fucking need you here!" then it was his turn to look flustered, and he looked away, hurriedly stammering to cover up. "To find the shards and... and the others miss you."

Kagome blinked, her own internal thoughts put on hold by Inuyasha's obvious discomfort. Sighing, she briefly fought a war with her conscience and then leaned up to brush the back of her hand over his cheek and startle him back into looking at her, "I'm sorry, but I'm here now. If it makes you feel better, I won't fight you about going home for at least four weeks."

Inuyasha felt a wash of relief that he was at least getting equal consideration, but puffed up arrogantly with a snorted "keh," he had a reputation to uphold after all, "Damn right, you won't. Now come on, we have work to do and you need to stop those bastards from beating me over the head and asking what I did wrong."

She followed beside him, absently reaching out to take his hand as she frowned in confusion, "What you did wrong?"

"About why you stayed away," he scowled angrily. "You're going to tell them that I didn't do a damn thing!"

Kagome gave him a faintly apologetic smile, but her shoulders were shaking with laughter, "Hai hai, I'll tell them."

Inuyasha snorted again, not looking at her but closing his fingers to hold her hand more firmly in his own. When he was sure she was no longer looking, he cast a curious, sideways glance at her profile. His brow furrowed in suspicious speculation as he tried to decipher what about her behavior was nagging at the back of his mind. There was just something... he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he hadn't expected her to be so agreeable so quickly. He'd expected more of an argument, maybe a few empty threats, some insults, the usual...

Something was definitely going on.

~

Inuyasha was still growling to himself, cursing and pouting while Miroku, Sango, and Shippou glared at him from the other side of their little camp. He'd only been concerned for fuck's sake, and Kagome had started screaming "sit" before he'd gotten anywhere near her! They'd stopped for lunch and been eating with that same carefree sense they always had when it was nice out and they weren't killing things when Kagome had cried out and clapped her hands over her mouth.

They'd all been startled, but where the others had remained where they were, he'd been the one who'd tried to grab hold of her and figure out what the hell was going on. He'd barely taken a step when she opened teary eyes and... well, panicked. There was no other description for the look that had entered her eyes or the change in her scent when she tried to scramble backwards and barked out the one word that could bring him down.

He hadn't been the only one shocked by that, but annoyingly he was the only one who didn't buy her explanation of biting her tongue and then just not wanting to be bothered by unnecessary concern. They'd mistaken the panic for surprise, but they didn't know Kagome the way he did. And they couldn't smell her.

A sandaled foot coming down in the back of his head to almost knock him forward brought him out of his angry and suspicious musings. The contact snapped his attention up to the bored looking monk above him, snarling as he smacked the foot away and jumped to his feet, "What the hell was that for, bouzu?!"

Miroku gave him a mildly irritated look, "Inuyasha, we are attempting to relax and that is difficult to do when you are muttering and growling to yourself."

"So don't listen," he scowled and stuffed his hands into his sleeves.

"Kagome-sama explained to us what happened and her reaction, why can you not let it go?" he frowned in disapproval.

"I already told you why," Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched.

"You are being paranoid."

"And you aren't concerned enough!" he shot back defensively.

"Calm down, Inuyasha," Miroku sighed as Shippou clambered up the monk's back to perch on his shoulder.

"Why can't you just let it go, baka?" Shippou snorted and glared at him. "You overreacted and got sat, so be done all ready."

Inuyasha growled darkly, making the little kitsune squeak and dart behind the monk's head to glare from that safer position, "I'm not overreacting, but I'm fucking sick of arguing about this. Stay here, I'm going to look around."

Sango finally glanced over at them, her expression quite clearly saying she was completely and totally bored by all of their arguing in general and being stuck `babysitting' the men of the group specifically, "Stay away from the hot spring. Kagome said she wanted to be alone, and I don't think she'd appreciate getting spied on."

Inuyasha jabbed an accusing finger in her direction, "Then fucking keep this bouzu on a leash! I'm the not the pervert here!"

Miroku looked perfectly offended by that, "I am a monk!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and turned his back on all of them, "Whatever, just leave her alone. I'll be back later."

The hanyou vanished into the trees, leaving a charged silence behind him until Shippou dryly remarked, "He's going to peek."

Miroku and Sango silently nodded in agreement before going back to their relaxation.

~

Kagome swore in frustration when she opened her compact only to have a dozen or so slivers of glass sprinkle out of the plastic and into the grass around her, "Oh, now that's just perfect."

Of course there was no way to tell at what point in time the little mirror had been shattered, not with the amount of abuse her bag went through during their travels. Sighing, she began to feel around cautiously, searching the grass for the pieces to keep from cutting herself by accident after she finished her bath. Chewing on her lip absently to try and figure out where to put them, she finally shrugged and just slipped them into the front pocket of her pack before carelessly stripping out of her clothes and setting them aside.

As she lay back in the steaming water, she lifted a finger and ran it searchingly along her teeth, searching for any chips or cracks. It had certainly felt like she had broken something and she was suddenly feeling remarkably sympathetic towards Toshio. The moment her teeth came down on the metal ball she had felt the most unbelievably shooting pain go from her jaw all the way to her toes and back up, throbbing through her and making her think she'd just broken no less than every tooth in her mouth.

However, her finger was telling her that nothing was wrong with her teeth and she sat back with a huff, Now how the hell does one little thing like that hurt so much? And why didn't I listen when Souta told me to be careful?

That was probably the most annoying thought, she thought and wrinkled her nose. Souta had given her the best advice, but she hadn't really taken to heart more than the bit about needing to be cautious about speaking. She was too accustomed to yelling and that meant opening her mouth wide enough to show the little ball, and she wasn't so stupid as to think Inuyasha would ignore seeing that.

She stood slightly to lean over the rocks and reach for her shampoo, sighing again in frustration, "I'm such an idiot. One of these days I'll figure out that I couldn't bet to save my life."

Unbeknownst to the muttering girl in the spring, Inuyasha had indeed left the camp and made a wide circle to come around behind it. He'd been the one to find it after all, and he already knew which direction had the largest boulders to hide his presence until he was ready to reveal it. IF he wanted to reveal it.

At the moment, the only thing he wanted to do was watch her and try to figure out what the hell was going on.

All right, maybe it wasn't the only thing he wanted to do...

He could feel the tension smooth out of him as he sprawled on his stomach atop the largest boulder and stared down at her through the mist rising off the heated water. He knew his eyes warmed and softened as he propped his chin up on one hand, following her every move almost hypnotically. This was always the best part about camping outside, with Kagome's perfect obsession with being clean, she'd bathe even if the closest water source was icy.

Those icy baths were some of his favorite to watch, when she would be trembling from the cold and her body obviously responding... He had some of his best erotic fantasies about her while he was watching her take cold baths, mostly picturing her shaking for a different reason while he took his time examining the body he'd been admiring from afar for the past few years. His only complaint was that they didn't last anywhere near long enough.

Not to say he was disappointed when she had access to a hot spring, those were highly enjoyable in their own way. After all, she would take her time in the hot water, and her movements were slower, unconsciously sensual, and usually beyond frustrating. When the heat turned her entire body rosy, and the mist made everything almost surreal, like a dream. Those were the baths where he pretended she knew he was there, and every slow glide of her hands over her skin or through her hair were just for him.

Inuyasha winced, shifting his weight when his thoughts returned to the present and he became aware of the uncomfortable ache of unfulfilled desire. He very nearly growled until he recalled he was hiding his presence from his sensitive little miko below. Nothing killed a good fantasy like getting your head slammed into the ground with magical force.

He was absently kicking his feet, scratching at his ear when he remembered he'd come with the intention of figuring out why Kagome had been in pain just from eating. He scowled down at her and then alternately in the direction of the camp, Fucking bastards. I'm being paranoid, my ass! Something's up.

But how did one go about making the most stubborn female alive, one with the singularly unique power to subdue him with a word, stay still and actually talk about something she obvious didn't want to talk about?

Inuyasha absently chewed on his lip as he rolled that thought around in his head, eyes wandering away from the bubbles sliding down the graceful curve of her spine to prevent his thoughts from coming to a halt again. He was staring at her bag and the little pile of clothes without really seeing it when an absolutely brilliant idea popped into his head.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed as his lips quirked upwards in a slow, perfectly wicked smirk.

~

Kagome heard a swishing sound and abruptly sat up, her arms folded protectively over her breasts as she dropped down to her shoulders in the water. A frisson of apprehension skated down her spine and her heart started to pound, "Who's there?!"

Inuyasha took a deep breath, preparing himself for the painful trip he knew he was about to get, "Calm down, Kagome, it's only me."

Her eyes widened and her cheeks flamed when the hanyou came around the rocks, sinking with a splash to her chin and shrieking, "Kyaaaa!! Hentai!! Sit, sit, SIT!"

He went crashing to the ground, swearing blackly at the painful jolt that went through him from his face all the way down his spine with each screamed word. No matter how much he prepared himself, every time it still hurt just as much, although he had to admit she was helping his already ridiculous pain tolerance get even stronger. Not that it made getting subdued any more appealing, but he did occasionally try to be a little optimistic.

From his prone position, he heard the sloshing sound and then the faint squick of a wet, bare foot in the grass beside him, "I swear, Inuyasha, if you look up I'm going to 'sit' you so hard you won't move from that spot for a month!"

Inuyasha growled at the renewed slam, gritting out into the dirt, "Dammit, bitch, all I want to do is talk to you!"

"You could have waited until I wasn't naked, Inuyasha!" she hissed furiously, stepping over him to search for her towel and her clothes. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"That if you're naked you won't fucking run off before I find out what the hell's wrong with you," he muttered, nose still buried in the grass.

Kagome froze in the act of searching the darkness, a curl of realization making her grit her teeth as her eyebrow started to twitch with suppressed anger. She turned back to his side, crouching down awkwardly in an effort to hide her nudity with one arm as she reached out with her free hand to grab his ear and yank his head up. She ignored the yelp and ground out in a falsely sweet tone, "Inuyasha... is there some reason my stuff seems to be missing?"

He blinked and tried to look unconcerned at that tone, ears flattening back as he challenged, "Is there some reason you're being defensive?"

Her eyes narrowed sharply, "Clothes, Inuyasha. Now."

Inuyasha bit the inside of his cheek, sending a quick hope skyward for a little bit of leniency on her part, "Not until you talk to me."

Embarrassed anger leapt into Kagome's eyes and he would have sworn he actually saw flames dancing in the usually gentle depths, "Until I-? You arrogant sonofabitch!!"

A whole pissed off sentence without a "sit," maybe this will work after all! His hands fisted underneath him and he barked up at her, "How did you hurt yourself? And don't give me that bullshit about biting your tongue either! I saw the look on your face when I tried to check you."

His brows lifted with a sense of triumph when he saw the anger in her eyes instantly shutter with defensive self-consciousness. Kagome had momentarily forgotten her state of undress, nervously releasing his ear and running her hand through her damp hair, "That's really all that happened. I bit my tongue."

Inuyasha started to growl again, "Don't lie to me, bitch."

Kagome's heartbeat skipped in fear of getting caught, cheeks darkening as she averted her face and stammered, "I'm not lying!"

"Not lying?!" he hissed and worked his hands underneath him to push himself up on his haunches. "What kind of an idiot do you think I am if you think I'll buy that load of-!?" he broke off with a grunt, looking down in confusion at the unexpected feeling of something jabbing into his middle fingertip.

Kagome turned back at the way he cut off his tirade when she was absolutely certain he was just getting started, following the line of his gaze down to the thin line of blood trailing down his finger. She blinked in concern, all other thoughts blanking from her mind as she reached out for him, "Here, let me see."

Inuyasha looked up, his eyes wide with surprise at her change in attitude as her small hand circled his wrist and tug it closer to her, "Kagome?"

She ignored the questioning tone and turned his hand over, wincing when she saw the glass protruding from his finger, "Gomen ne, Inuyasha, I thought I'd found them all."

Inuyasha, however, had just become much more distracted by the lapse his superficial injury had just caused in her sense of modesty. His eyes dropped from his hand in hers down to her exposed breasts even as he murmured absently, "Doesn't hurt."

"Maybe not, tough guy, but you're bleeding," she smiled affectionately and eased the sliver out of his finger, tossing it in the general direction of the rocks. Forgetting that her pack had been "hidden" by the hanyou in front of her, she started to glance around, instinctively, automatically popping Inuyasha's finger into her mouth.

Inuyasha went completely rigid, eyes going round with shock at the action.

Of course, almost immediately that changed, a warm curling charge of desire hitting him hard in the gut as he stared transfixed at her lips around his finger. All he could do was gape soundlessly, swallowing hard as his other hand curled into a fist against his thigh.

Kagome had his entire finger in her mouth, gently sucking on that wounded digit and sending an answering pulse through his blood and straight to his groin with every slight pull. When she started to turn in her search for her pack, applying enough pressure to pull him with her, he nearly fell flat on his face in his rush to comply. The rational part left in his mind knew that she was bound to realize what she was doing sooner or later and stop, but until then, he was damn well going to enjoy himself.

His eyelids were starting to drift close as he continued to watch her lips around his finger, half disgusted with himself for using his injury and distraction to serve his own long suppressed desires. Yet the other half (the much louder half) was reveling in the blood pooling in his groin with every smooth glide of her tongue.

Especially the remarkable sensation of that stiff, unyielding bead rubbing up and down along the centerline of his finger in the midst of that velvet smooth interior.

Wait...

Inuyasha's eyes snapped open, his thoughts abruptly redirecting from an amorous bend to a confused, curious one. "What the hell is on your tongue?!" he pressed down, startled when she yelped and immediately released her hold on his finger.

"Ite!" Kagome rubbed beneath her chin to soothe the ache that had started when the other end of the barbell pressed down into the sensitive flesh under her tongue. Her own thoughts returned to the present in an embarrassing rush, cheeks steadily darkening as her eyes shot up to his face, Oh... oh gods... I was sucking Inuyasha's finger?!

Inuyasha grabbed her chin when she tried to move back, his eyes intense and heated as he searched her flushed face, "Open."

"No," she muttered stubbornly and clamped her mouth shut.

"I WILL get it open, Kagome," he growled at her, leaning closer and squeezing her chin. "Easy or hard?"

She scowled up at him mutinously, "It's not important, Inuyasha."

"I'll decide that," his brows lowered in annoyance.

"It's my mou-ack!!" Kagome's retort was cut off when Inuyasha quickly stuck two fingers in her mouth, preventing her from closing it again.

"Tilt your head back," Inuyasha instructed impatiently, spreading his fingers and shifting closer to her, the other hand on her back to stop attempts to squirm away.

Kagome bit down hard and tried to yank out of his hold.

"Dammit!!" he hissed, stubbornly keeping his fingers in place and lightly digging his claws into the skin on her back to "encourage" her to stop pulling. "Bitch, that hurts!" he snapped at her.

"Goo!" the mutter was garbled by the fingers still preventing her from closing her mouth, a blush darkening over her skin from head to toe when the prick of claws reminded her of her state of undress.

Inuyasha shrugged nonchalantly, "All right, we'll do it your way."

Kagome let out an alarmed shriek when she was suddenly plucked up and dropped flat on her back in the cool grass with Inuyasha straddling her waist. He smirked down at her, pressing on her teeth to gloat about the fact that he hadn't lost his hold there while he maneuvered awkwardly to pin her hands down with his knees.

"Open," he barked again. "What the fuck is on your tongue?"

Kagome bit down again, arching in a futile, obstinate attempt to get him off her.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed and he bristled at the continued defiance, bringing up his other hand to wedge another finger into her mouth and carefully pry her jaw open, "Quit fighting me, bitch! Just show me your fucking tongue!"

Despite the nagging truth in the back of her mind telling her this was not going to end her way, Kagome continued to twist and squirm underneath him. Any and all thoughts of dignity getting quashed in her effort to hide the barbell.

Inuyasha, however, was strong enough and stubborn enough for all her wriggling to just annoy him while his own mind told him this was apparently a damn good secret. With that thought at the forefront of his mind, Inuyasha continued to pry until he saw the glint of something shiny... metallic if he wasn't mistaken, "What the hell?"

Kagome made a guttural sound of denial, straining in one last-ditch attempt to unsuccessfully escape the determined hanyou.

His answer was a sound of impatience right before he settled his weight on her, rumbling absentmindedly when she "omphed" in surprise and finally stilled, "That's better. Just fucking show me, Kagome, it's easier that way and the wiggling thing is getting old."

She scowled angrily, but her jaw was starting to ache and she was absolutely certain there would be more than one bruise on her hips from Inuyasha sitting on her come morning. That and she was fully aware of just how nauseatingly patient he could be at times like this, especially with his fingers preventing her from using her word spell...

Giving an impressive growl for a human, Kagome finally heaved a defeated sigh and let her jaw go slack.

"'Bout time," Inuyasha grumbled and leaned closer to peer into her mouth, his brows snapping low the moment they found a perfectly round and apparently metallic bead resting on the center of her tongue.

Kagome's entire body grew more and more taut the longer he silently stared into her mouth, but there was just something about his body language that warned her he wouldn't tolerate any more hindrances to his examination. Two of the fingers slid slowly out of her mouth, the remaining one moving to tap the claw against the ball before pressing down inquisitively.

"What the fuck is this, Kagome?" Inuyasha tore his gaze away from the ball momentarily to meet her nervous gaze. "Is this metal?!"

She nodded slowly, helplessly transfixed by the myriad of emotions chasing around in his eyes.

Curiosity and anger warring for dominance in his mind, he growled and hooked his claw under the ball to lift it, frowning at the thin metal pole that went down... through her tongue?! He slid the thumb of that probing hand into her mouth as well, feeling under her tongue and finding the identical ball in line beneath the other. "The hell is it for? When did you-? Why did you-? Dammit, Kagome, answer me!"

Kagome cleared her throat, trying to get her tongue away from his fingers in a reminder of just why she wasn't answering the abortive questions.

Inuyasha looked down at her blankly until his confused thoughts caught up and he reluctantly drew his fingers away from that odd metal thing he'd been manipulating, "Oh."

Swallowing her embarrassment, she muttered at him in annoyance, "It's just a little hard to talk when there's a hanyou trying to cram his hand down your throat."

He bristled defensively, "I wasn't trying to 'cram my hand down your throat,' Kagome, I was keeping you from closing your mouth so I could see what you were hiding."

"You didn't know I was hiding anything, until I..." she broke off, cheeks darkening all over again as she recalled just how the hanyou had figured that out. "At any rate, I just didn't want to show you. I... knew you wouldn't understand it."

Inuyasha glared at her, biting the inside of his cheek to fight down the images that were popping into his head from her absent ministrations to his finger, "Why don't you try me, bitch? Now, for the last time, what the hell is it?"

Kagome sighed and set her jaw, looking at a point past his head as she haltingly explained, "It's called a tongue piercing. Like the hoops in Miroku-sama's ears, but a straight piece of jewelry."

"Piercing... What the fuck possessed you to pierce your tongue of all things?" he sat up, fisting his hands on his thighs and continuing to glare, but unable to hide the bemusement and curiosity in his gaze.

Her cheeks darkened all over again and she coughed before reluctantly admitting, "I... ah, lost a bet... to my friends."

Inuyasha blinked at her silently.

She started to squirm, "Look, I know it was stupid, okay? But I made it, I lost it, I'm going through with my end of the thing."

"What could you possibly bet to have to puncture your tongue when you lose?" his head tilted to one side as he demanded. That's... that's so barbaric! I thought Kagome's time was supposed to be peaceful! Safe, goddammit! Not a place that shoves metal through a young bitch's tongue!

"I'd rather not tell-"

"Get over it," he cut her off with an impatient shake of his head. "Answer."

"You could at least pretend you aren't the most arrogant, over-bearing ass ever born, you know," Kagome scowled up at him.

"I'll pretend a different day," he shrugged nonchalantly. "Now talk."

She muttered a few disparaging comments under her breath before she made a face and complied, "It really was stupid. My friends were trying to set me up and I told them that if it were anyone besides Hojo, he would say no. So they said if they could find a total stranger who said yes, I had to get my tongue pierced."

"Set you up?" he frowned in confusion at the unfamiliar term, ears flattening and flicking forward as he turned it over in his mind. "They were trying to get you in trouble?" Hojo's that little human boy... What the hell is that punk thinking to get Kagome injured in such a deliberate way?!

"No, no, not like that," she shook her head and looked faintly frustrated with herself for taking the slang for granted. "Setting up is for going on a date. You know... hanging out with a guy alone? Holding hands? That kind of thing."

Inuyasha's eyes darkened, and his voice was flat when he responded to that, "What?"

Oblivious to the rapidly souring mood of the hanyou pinning her down, Kagome sighed and muttered to herself before trying again, "This would be so much easier if you had any idea what dating is… If your friends are insane and don't stay out of your personal life, they bully you into going out with boys they think you'll like. Or sometimes they don't even care if you like them, they just want you to go out period because they think you need to get out more."

One eyebrow twitched, "Alone."

"You're making it sound a lot worse than it is," she snuck a quick peek at his angry expression before looking away again. "You might be on a date alone, but you're always surrounded by people. It's not like anything could happen."

Inuyasha growled low in his throat, his arms tensing as he leaned down, "You go around alone with a boy you don't know because your friends think you should?"

"You're making it sound worse again," she pointed out in a small voice, a bit intrigued by the muscle ticking in his cheek.

"That entire situation is wrong and dangerous on so many different levels that I can't believe I'm having to tell you that you shouldn't be doing it," he hissed out furiously. Not the least of which being the fact that you're going back to your time to run around with a bunch of fucking human boys while I'm here thinking you're at your school thing!! "If you're feeling so goddamn starved for that kind of attention take a fucking walk with Miroku! At least I can find and kill him for it later, and you're not unprotected!"

Kagome blinked up at him, her brow furrowing slightly as she tried to decipher whether the hanyou had just accidentally complimented her or purposefully insulted her, Knowing Inuyasha… it's probably both.

"I'm not `starved for that kind of attention,' whatever that's supposed to mean," Kagome tried to fold her arms across her bare chest, but Inuyasha's knees still held them pinned down. "It was just a stupid misunderstanding, and this doesn't mean anything's different. It's just a barbell."

"What about the dating thing?" his voice lowered menacingly.

"What about it?" she blinked up at him in confusion.

"Is that all you're doing when you go to that time? What about that fucking school thing? Is it a lie?" he demanded, grabbing her chin to keep her from looking away. He wanted to see her eyes when she answered to see if she really was telling the truth.

Kagome looked at his tense expression in complete and total disbelief, "A lie? Baka, you think I'm making up school?"

"Are you?" he pressed.

"Of course not!" she seethed, twisting to try and knock him off her again. "You think my books are fake? My tests? The homework I do?"

"Sometimes you smell like human males," Inuyasha's brows lowered, but he felt an odd sense of relief at her irritated responses.

"Boys go to school too, Inuyasha," she grumbled sourly at his stubborn refusal to budge. "I can't help what your nose picks up!"

He grunted at that, making a sound of frustration, "You're not an immature bitch anymore, and-"

Kagome's brows lifted at the abrupt drop off in his tirade for the second time in this bizarre argument, and she frowned up at him, trying to see his face through the curtain of his hair, "Inuyasha, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

She could see him swallow hard as he tried to think of a good way to vocalize his thoughts without sounding incredibly stupid, "You haven't… been with anyone, and you're older than most human bitches are when they start wanting… that."

Inuyasha's ears twitched when Kagome went rigid beneath him, her breath sucking in sharply, but not saying a word. Nervously he glanced back down at her, but blinked in surprise when he saw the look on her face. Kagome's eyes were huge, her lips parted and trembling, and heat radiating off her pink skin.

"Wanting… that?" Kagome squeaked out, mortified at being caught for this particular discussion in this position, and with none other than Inuyasha.

Her heartbeat was racing everywhere they touched, and his nose twitched when her scent started to change, Oh hell, oh hell… No, no, no, Kagome! Don't start smelling like that! Not now! Not when my control's stretched thin enough as it is!

The embarrassment turned almost instantly to anger when Kagome connected that not only was Inuyasha commenting about her possibly repressed sexual desires, but the comment was right on the heels of demanding to know if she was dating in her time, "Wait… You bastard!! You think I'm going out in my time and having sex?!"

Great fucking gods! You just had to get angry didn't you, bitch?! Inuyasha's pupils dilated as he stared down at her, the air around him shifting subtly with something perfectly dangerous. She was naked, smelling absolutely fucking delicious, eyes hot and vibrant with indignation… and she was pushing every one of his buttons.

"I don't have time to get into that kind of a relationship!" Kagome was hissing at him, unaware of the struggle the hanyou was having with his own desires. "If it's not school, it's running around here, and do you think I'd be stupid enough to be doing something like that where you might come in and blow it out of proportion?! Even if I did meet someone I wanted to sleep with, where would I do it?"

Inuyasha clenched his jaw hard, "Stop it."

"This is like that thing with Kouga-kun all over again!" she scowled, yanking harder against his hold and snapping at him in frustrated rage. "Is that what you think of me? That the second I'm out of your sight I'm all over any guy who comes close? Dammit, Inuyasha, don't you think I'd tell you if something like that happened? If I-"

The clawed hand fisting hard in her hair at the nape of her neck cut off her rambling in an instant, her eyes going wide as she belatedly noticed the dark look in Inuyasha's own gaze. He leaned down with an exaggerated care that had her throat constricting and her pulse leaping all over again, but to her growing alarm, it wasn't exactly from fear…

"I said, stop it," Inuyasha growled almost silently, his face close enough that she could feel each puff of warm breath that came with his words.

Kagome felt the bottom drop out of her stomach, a faint trembling starting through her taut muscles when he stayed unmoving barely an inch away from her mouth, "I think… you should get up now…"

The hand in her hair tightened fractionally, "Why?"

"I…" her voice completely failed her, mind blank as to why exactly the hanyou should get up. All she could focus on was the feel of him pressing her down, his strength obvious and giving her a sense of vulnerability that she thought would have irritated her, should have… but her body wasn't reacting the right way.

His eyes slowly narrowed down on her, contracting her focus until her eyes were caught and locked on his own, "Why do you want me to get up?"

Kagome swallowed hard, opening her mouth, but closing it when the only thing that emerged was a faint squeak.

"What if… I don't think I should get up yet?" his voice lowered, something in his eyes making hers widen even more with sudden realization. `What's wrong, Kagome? Did you forget that I'm just as much male as the fucking bouzu? As those human boys in your time? I protect you… I have more of a claim than any of them,' he was dying to say those thoughts out loud, but not yet. Not until he was certain that vocalizing them wouldn't bring a stop to the confrontation that had been building for god knows how long.

She tried to focus on breathing, deep and even to prevent the hanyou from seeing just how rattled she was. She knew better that to try and speak yet though… she was having troubles swallowing from the way her throat had gone dry, talking was definitely out of the question. `Oh gods, oh gods…this… this isn't real. It can't be! It's Inuyasha, for crying out loud, and he's looking at me like… like…'

"What does it feel like, Kagome?" he tilted his head ever so slightly, the look in his eyes arrogant and taunting, as though he could see right through her soul to the thoughts going through her own head.

Kagome blinked rapidly, a choked sound automatically coming from her throat as she tried to shake her head and reveal her confusion.

Inuyasha's hand tightened in her hair, lips pulling back in a dark smile, "Open."

On pure reflex, Kagome sucked in a sharp breath at that snapped demand, lips parting, and the moment they had, Inuyasha closed the remaining space between them.

Kagome's hands snapped up to his biceps, tangling in the fabric and clenching hard over the bulge of muscle as her entire body went rigid in shock. His hand turned her head, mouth coaxing her lips to open wider before his tongue slipped inside to find the answer to his earlier question on his own.

Inuyasha would have laughed in euphoric relief at the way she slowly melted back into the grass under him, her body turning pliant and welcoming as her lips softened before hesitantly pressing back. Would have… if he hadn't been so focused on just how good it felt to have Kagome's hands pulling him closer, and her tongue following the direction of his with growing enthusiasm.

He growled into her mouth when he felt the metal bead rub down the center of his tongue, that sensation sending a jolt straight to his groin. An image popped into his head, foreign and unbidden, but so blatantly arousing that it pulled a deeper groan from his throat while he shifted and let his weight settle completely over her.

Kagome made a faint sound of surprise in the back of her throat, momentarily tensing again when he kneed her legs apart and settled down between them. Her eyes flew open, but Inuyasha's were still closed as he adjusted his position, grinding the hard ridge of his erection between her legs. `That's-?! Oh my…'

Inuyasha probably couldn't have opened his eyes if his life depended on it, all of his attention directed down on the miko gradually relaxing under the slow rub of his body along hers. `Is this real…? It has to be, there's no way in hell I'd ever imagine that thing in her tongue. I never have before, even if they have seemed pretty damn realistic… But it feels… fuck, it feels good.'

Kagome let a soft moan of her own when he rubbed against her again, the friction of their lower bodies making her shudder and cling to him while his mouth grew more insistent over hers. The barbell bumped against Inuyasha's lips when she finally started to grow bolder, tracing her tongue along the edge of his teeth and over the points of his fangs curiously.

This time he did smile, just the faintest quirk at the corners of his mouth before his head turned and the hand in her hair arched her neck up to make it easier for him to deepen the heated kiss. Inuyasha shifted slightly to one side, his hand moving to close over her breast and squeeze, finally matching the feel of her to the sight he'd long-since memorized.

When Kagome tensed, arching into his hand and letting out an almost apprehensive gasp, he growled against her mouth, adjusting the touch to knead leisurely, "Do you like that, Kagome?" He didn't really expect an answer, but he could smell her, and he could feel her heart lurching against his chest even through his layers of clothing. She wanted him to touch her, needed his hands on her as much as he needed to have them there.

"You think about it as much as I do, don't you?" his eyes narrowed shrewdly, determinedly… There was no way in hell she would just be suddenly aroused by this, by him… it just wasn't her way. She had to have had fantasies too, and he was just as driven to find out the answer as he'd been in finding out her last secret.

"Think-?" Kagome repeated in a shaky whisper, as though he'd just spoken some foreign word she had absolutely no comprehension of.

He bared his fangs, brushing his fingertips across her nipple once more to watch her body jerk in surprise before trailing that hand slowly down over the prominent ribs, "I can smell it, you know, and I can feel your heart pounding."

Her mouth opened to say something, anything to salvage a bit of her pride, but his claws had moved to skim across the dip from ribs to waist and back out over the curve of her hip. Under the feel of Inuyasha's leisurely stroking hand moving ever lower, Kagome's throat closed tighter than before, and all she could do was stare at him in a rather dazed way, Think about it? I… I tried not to. I wasn't allowed to… have fantasies… not when I thought he'd never feel the same.

Inuyasha smirked arrogantly this time, growing more confident at the way the muscles under his hand were starting to shiver and tense expectantly wherever his fingers drew near. His voice dropped to a low rumble as he caught and held her eyes intently, "You do, don't you? Does it haunt you at night, Kagome? Drive you so crazy that you think you'll come apart?"

His hand moved down over her thigh, squeezing in a gesture of false comfort when it predictably tensed, "How often do you wonder what it would be like? Having me inside you?"

Kagome's eyes went impossibly wider, her breath drawing in harshly, Oh…!

At the abrupt, severe spike in her aroused scent, Inuyasha's own eyes flashed dark and dangerously triumphant, fingers trailing closer to her over-heated core. Wanting to smell that spike again, he leaned down, mouth hovering barely an inch away from hers as he taunted purposefully, "You want to feel it… You want me to be so deep inside you that you'll never get me out of your blood. You want to feel your body stretch around me… fit to mine... You need it, don't you?"

She gave a nearly inaudible cry when his fingertips finally brushed the edges of her slick folds, his ears flipping forward to catch the sound and memorize it as her throat worked to produce some form of lucid communication, "I… Inu…"

He bit down hard on his lower lip to distract himself and maintain enough of his control to draw this out, the low growl in his throat steadily gained volume, "I want to hear you say you want me, Kagome. You owe me that." His fingers trailed closer, applying just enough pressure for the pads of two fingertips to catch in the natural dip marking her entrance and his claws to graze the surrounding flesh, "Almost as much as I want to feel your legs wrap around me when I'm pushing into you."

Kagome felt an unbelievable jolt of heat go through her stomach and even lower to throb and pulse around the fingers that eased just barely past the tight muscles to explore the wet, velvet heat. Her body arched, hands fisting even tighter where she gripped his sleeves as she managed in a choked moan, "Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha chuckled softly, pushing his fingers deeper as she tensed around him, "You want more, Kagome? You're going to have to tell me."

Kagome eyes fluttered shut, her chest starting to rise and fall in panting rhythm when he eased back only to repeat the shallow push. Her thoughts were racing furiously, but refusing to settle on any one thing except for the incredible feelings Inuyasha was evoking, and then even more when he pressed his thumb against he nub he'd exposed to the cooler night air. She gave up on any chance of regaining coherency whatsoever when he started the firm, circular massage over that highly sensitized flesh.

She felt him shift, felt the hot puff of breath against her ear a moment before he'd taken the lobe in his teeth and nipped gently, but firmly, "It's not so difficult, is it? Just a few words… All you have to say is `deeper, Inuyasha…' or `harder, Inuyasha…'" His lips quirked in an arrogant smile just below her ear, "I'll even be satisfied with a nice, standard, `I want you in me, Inuyasha.'"

"Please…" Kagome whispered in a tiny voice, the sound breaking on a cry when he pushed those probing fingers in to the knuckles, her body helplessly arching into his hand.

"Please what?" Inuyasha urged; his own breathing getting choppy, harsh with the effort it took to restrain himself from letting go and just pinning her to the ground while he slammed into her. She wasn't going anywhere, and even better, she was moving willingly, erotically with his hand. It took a lot to keep his fingers positioned in such a way that his claws weren't damaging her from the inside; however, it was all worth it to hear her mewling, too softly for a normal human to hear, but to him…

"I… can't…" her body rippled under a wave of sensation, momentarily blanking her mind to everything but the rush of blood focusing everywhere they touched. "I… please just… Inuyasha!" she bucked upwards, pressing her face against his shoulder and clinging to him as her entire body started to shake at the abrupt addition of a third finger.

"Try, Kagome," his eyes were gleaming with dark, heavy-lidded arrogance as he turned his head to look down at where she was trying to hide her expression against his shoulder and throat. Some perverse part of his mind delighted in making a mockery of her token restraint, using her obvious pleasure at his touch as a balm for all his frustrations with her, and urging him to challenge, "Do you want me to stop?"

"No!" she gripped him even more fiercely, too far gone in his ministrations to be embarrassed by the desperate edge in her voice. "No, don't…! Inuyasha, please!"

Inuyasha paused, nearly laughing again when she let out a sound suspiciously close to a whine, but swallowing his reaction in favor of using his free hand to untangle her hands and push her down until her back was against the grass again, "Stay still…"

Kagome's breasts rose and fell rapidly in a frustrated pant, eyes taking on a liquid sheen with emotion as she tried to protest, "But-"

He shook his head, shifting his position down to keep her thighs held apart by the width of his chest, "This time, I just want to hear you tell me how this feels. I want to watch your face."

"This time?" her breath left in a rush when he resumed that even, repeated thrust and extraction of his fingers.

Inuyasha gave her a perfectly wicked look as he started to dip his head, "Years of fantasizing and you think I'll be done with you in one shot, bitch? Have a little respect for my imagination. You're going to be lucky if you'll have enough energy to fucking speak within the next year when I finally decide to take a break."

Kagome didn't have time to react to that growled promise, tensing as she felt his lips brush her stomach below the navel, belatedly realizing just what he'd moved down her body to do, "Inuyasha… what are you-?"

"Enough," he nipped her chidingly, an involuntary grin pulling at his lips at the way her thighs clenched against his ribs. "You know what I want to hear… Anything else is just noise, bitch."

Kagome's lips moved soundlessly as she watched him dip his head closer to her, her hands coming up to tangle in his hair, but she forgot why the moment the texture registered against her skin.

Of course, Inuyasha flicking his tongue across the nub he'd been massaging had nothing to do with her sudden inability to focus.

Inuyasha opened his eyes to look up the line of her body when she cried out, her hips arching up against his mouth hard. His free hand moved up to press down on her hip, preventing her from repeating that action and turning his head for an even deeper taste, `Because of me. All this… this smell, this taste…She's been wanting me as much as I have her.'

"Inuyasha…" Kagome choked out breathlessly, hands clenching in his hair fiercely as her entire body tried to curl around him.

It was difficult… there was no possible way she had any idea just how difficult it was for him at that moment not to give in, not to jump on top of her and lose himself in the instinct to possess every last inch of her, body and soul. If he gave in now, it could be dangerous, that thought only ingrained more firmly in his passion-fogged mind as he realized he'd been thrusting his fingers into her more forcefully than he'd intended. They wouldn't be soft, or slow… every pant and gasp told him that they would consume each other, primal and brutal… Unfortunately that thought was only sending the searing lust in his blood to even greater heights.

Inuyasha's ribs expanded and contracted rapidly with the sharpness of his pants, eyes gleaming with something feral and dangerous as he watched her flushed face. He swallowed hard, feeling his heart slam against his ribcage; eyes hungrily drinking in the way her closed eyelids were twitching, her mouth trying unsuccessfully to form more words. Her body was practically vibrating around his fingers, sending an ache all the way to his soul as he struggled against the need to replace that privileged hand with the part of him that needed to be inside her.

A stark red haze was slowly taking over his concentration, his heartbeat rising to a dull roar in his ears, just enough to block out nearly all the sounds around him. Kagome's gasps and nearly sobbing cries the only clear noises penetrating through to his consciousness. His instincts were teasing him, whispering that it would be so easy to slide up over her and tear into her. Kagome wanted him, she would still be making those sounds and smelling so delicious if he was holding her hands beside her head and learning how it felt to thrust his erection in and out of her instead of just his fingers.

It was pride more than anything that stopped him from giving into that part of himself. That little corner of his mind that wanted to see Kagome come completely and totally apart at the seams and scream for him, beg him to give her that deeper contact before he complied. He wanted to hear her telling him that she needed to have him in her, then she would be the one who started them on that ancient path to mutual gratification. She would be the one who opened them both to the violence humming just below the surface. It was sneaky and probably more than a little selfish…

And if Kagome hadn't been arching against him so demandingly with each pass of tongue and teeth, he may have felt guilty about that.

It was that nagging compulsion to hear her vocalize that she wanted him as much as he did her that had him slowing his rhythm, backing her away from the edge she'd nearly reached. He was smirking triumphantly when this time she did whine pleadingly, leaning up and dislodging her hands from his hair as he whispered to her, "I still haven't heard you say what I want to hear yet, Kagome."

Her eyes snapped open, glazed and unfocused as she felt a faint stirring on anger at the way he'd eased the touch, "You-!"

"Say it," he moved up her body, bracing his palm beside her head to spear her eyes with a stark intensity that had her instantly breaking off what would have been a rather frustrated, and likely less than flattering, snap.

He watched her eyes twitch at the command as though it was a fight to keep them open; his own eyes narrowing in response as he couldn't resist giving her one more strong thrust before going back to that teasing glide she was starting to hate, "I can still stop, Kagome." Like hell, but she doesn't need to know that… control, dammit! She has to know who's going to control this!

"No!" Kagome panicked slightly at the second threat, hands snapping up again and fisted in the robes over his chest while her thighs clenched together to trap his hand right where it was. She opened her mouth, but at the seemingly sporadic way he gave her the kind of touch she craved, they scattered all over again until he slowed and they re-collected to tumble haphazardly through her mind, Damn you, Inuyasha, you can't…! I want… I need you…

That bastard was holding off right there, right there… if he would just move his hand the way he had a moment ago…

"Well?" he couldn't prevent the faint waver in his voice, the instability brought on by the harsh pants and low growls he was losing control of. Inuyasha gritted his teeth against the renewed stab of lust through his gut when her back arched, the entire line of her throat bared to his rapidly darkening gaze. Damn you, Kagome, SAY IT!!

One of her hands dropped to grip his wrist, squeezing him with surprising strength and gritting out in a rapid, shaky voice, "Inuyasha, if you don't fucking finish what you started, I'm going to-!"

Inuyasha clamped his mouth down over hers to cut off that frustrated tirade, drawing a ragged moan from her throat and draining the strength from her hand as she again twisted upwards in an effort to persuade him. When he finally pulled back from nearly vicious duel of lips and tongues, he gave her a strained smile, his eyes glinting with helpless amusement and affection beneath the heat of desire, "Stubborn to the core, aren't you, Kagome?"

She had opened her mouth again to respond when he balanced enough weight with his legs to use his other hand and catch her nearest wrist, dragging it over to grind her palm against his erection. Her attention immediately snapped down between them while he drew in a deep breath and groaned, "How am I supposed to know what you want me to do if you won't tell me?"

He was taunting her again, the smug look in his eyes when they opened again to watch her said as much, and she… hell, who was she kidding? She was naked in the grass, Inuyasha had already said he could smell how she felt, and she was pretty sure it'd take something close to a disaster of mammoth proportions to get him up any time soon. What was the point in being proud when he had called her on just about every buried fantasy she'd ever had?

She clenched her jaw and looked up at him, fingers flexing curiously around his thick length through the hakama. His smile faded on a quiet hiss, amusement fading and replaced again by intense heat so rapidly that in any other situation she might have been alarmed. All it did now was reassure her that she wasn't the only one pretending to be in control.

Kagome had no idea how she managed it with the way she was shaking, but one minute she was lying in the grass and the next she had tightened her awkward hold on his erection and lifted herself up so that her heated whisper brushed across his open lips, "I need you inside me, Inuyasha..."

Inuyasha's mouth went dry in the charged silence that followed, the moment frozen in time and scorched into his subconscious to haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.

"That's all I needed to hear," his eyes were almost closed, the dark whisper barely decipherable through the growl gaining volume in his throat.

His mouth came down on hers again at the same time she felt him tense and resume the forceful rhythm of his fingers, robbing her of coherent thought yet again in favor of panted whimpers and pleading cries when their mouths parted for air. She hadn't even realized he'd been holding back before until she felt the change in him, the bruising drive to push her past any sensation she'd ever known until she was doing nothing but clinging to him, her body winding tighter with each push, every rumbling encouragement.

"First like this," he ground out roughly, his lips moving over her jaw and down her neck. "Let go for me and I'll give you what you want," he bit down harder over her collarbone before he was arching to bring his mouth back to her breasts.

When she felt the points of his fangs sink lightly into the skin around her nipple she let out a shriek, reaching up with her free arm to wrap it around his head while her back arched sharply. Kagome's knees involuntarily drew up, curling her around the hanyou when she felt the first quiver of orgasm ripple through her body.

Inuyasha lifted his head again, drawing his fingers back to give her the push that would send her over the edge when his ears snapped around backwards ay a not so distant cry that sent a freezing jolt through his veins.

"Kagome-chan?"

"Fucking goddamn sonofaBITCH!!" Inuyasha snarled out with enraged, deadly violence, for a moment absolutely certain that he was going to lose it and rip the exterminator apart the second she set foot in his line of sight for forcing him to stop long before he intended.

Frustrated literally beyond anything he'd ever known, Inuyasha withdrew his hand and rapidly sat up on his haunches, every line of his body taut and radiating with fury at the approaching disruption. A shift in his peripheral vision had his narrowed, nearly scarlet gaze snapping around to where Kagome had started to shakily push herself up on her elbows. She froze under the unconscious command in those eyes; her own eyes wide and chest heaving in deep pants at the blatant hunger in his expression and unaware of the way the moonlight made her sweat-damp skin almost iridescent to him.

Sango's voice was closer, filled with concern now and drawing both their gazes to the tree line where the taijiya would no doubt put in an appearance any moment.

Through a bizarre, silent connection, their eyes turned back to each other at the same moment, and Kagome started to fidget nervously under Inuyasha's unrelenting stare. He finally spat out a curse under his breath that had her eyes rounding in amazement and reached out, gripping her chin tightly and yanking her forward for a searing, all-to-brief kiss.

Inuyasha only pulled back far enough to easily capture her eyes, squeezing her chin in his hand and growling out in voice thick with nearly menacing promise, "I'm far from finished with you, Kagome."

She swallowed hard and nodded, her blood still making her body throb in unfulfilled frustration even as he was just suddenly gone, her hair billowing faintly from the speed of his passing.

Kagome had just pushed herself to her knees, clasping a hand to her racing heart when Sango entered the grove and gasped, "Kagome-chan! What happened? Are you all right?!"

Kagome bit down hard on her lip and nodded, forcing herself to give her friend a reassuring smile as she groped for the rocks of the spring behind her, afraid her legs would refuse to support her, "I'm… I'm fine, Sango-chan." Liar. "I just… thought I… saw a snake," she told the annoying voice in her head to shut up and tried to sound convincing.

Sango dropped to her knees when she reached Kagome's side, gently helping her rise and looking at the spring suspiciously, "You're burning up… Did you stay in the spring too long?"

Thank you, gods!

"I think I might have," Kagome latched onto that excuse in a heartbeat, nervously looking around for her clothing and praying Inuyasha hadn't taken it with him.

"Kagome-chan, if you had fainted in the spring you could have drowned!" Sango scolded and helped her brace herself against the warm rocks before she turned her attention to finding her friend's uniform. She shook her head when she caught sight of the familiar green fabric fluttering off the edge of the larger rocks and moved to stretch up and collect the clothing. "You need to be more careful."

Kagome mechanically let the older girl help her dress, her body still on fire and aching in frustration as she mumbled a reply, `Good gods, Inuyasha… he…we… We almost… Oh, Sango, why did you have to come look for me now?! If you hadn't…'

"Inuyasha's off pouting somewhere-"

`You don't know the half of it…'

"But he'll probably return soon," Sango was saying, oblivious to the thoughts racing through Kagome's head. "You know you'll never hear the end of it if he hears that you fainted by the spring. He'll probably insist you never bathe by yourself again."

`I doubt that.'

Sango fumbled awkwardly with the unfamiliar fastenings and carefully helped Kagome stand, "Come on, Kagome-chan, you're shaking. I think we need to get you back to camp so you can sit down."

Kagome nodded, allowing herself to be led away, but not without casting a longing glance back at the hot spring and unexpectedly finding Inuyasha crouched on the rocks and staring after her, his eyes glittering and unblinking, predatory. She swallowed hard as he lifted the hand he'd been using on her and started to lick it clean with slow, languorous strokes, all without taking his eyes off hers.

Kagome could still see that image with crystal clarity and hear his voice echoing its promise over and over in her mind when she finally managed to fall asleep.