Bruised

21.

Natalie's entire body shuddered to a stop.

He kissed her and the room turned silent. It was like lightning had struck her and thunder boomed through her body, shaking all of her bones loose. Her pulse went soaring and every nerve in her body lit up. She was suddenly acutely aware of every brush of his skin against hers.

She felt like thunder, but the kiss was like a whisper.

His lips pressed against hers gently, the way he always treated her.

She thought for a moment that maybe he hadn't kissed her after all. That maybe his lips still hovered a centimetre from hers, like all those times before.

But they were there, on hers. She could taste him. She could feel that light pressure on her mouth and she thought briefly This is what a kiss is.

His touch drifted along her body, light as a feather, as if he was too scared to place any sort of pressure against her porcelain body. She was reminded of how she'd thought of him as a wraith all those weeks ago. A shadow.

That was how she'd describe it. Like kissing a shadow, with how gently he touched her.

She hadn't even realised her eyes fluttered shut until she felt him moving away, his lips leaving hers.

She looked at him, closer than he had ever been to her before. His golden eyes had darkened as he looked at her, his pupils blown wide and unable to focus as they moved from her eyes to her mouth and back again.

A shaky breath escaped his parted lips, fanning over her own ajar mouth.

"Sorry," he whispered. "I should have asked."

"No, you really shouldn't have," she said, and she kissed him again.

This time, she moved forward, pressing her lips hard against his this time, and the shadow took form. She felt his body under hers. She felt his skin, hot and real. And she felt his lips. His teeth.

Natalie had never kissed a boy before, not properly. It was kind of difficult, going to an all-girls school her entire life. Everything she knew, she had learned from movies and books and gossiping with Nyra.

There was the lingering fear that she was bad at this. That she was doing this wrong.

But then Leon's hand moved into her hair and pulled her closer, and all thoughts vanished from her mind.

She sighed into the kiss, her entire body relaxing against his.

And she was moving closer, and closer, until she was pushing him back. She felt herself move off the bed and onto the floor between his knees, anything to get closer, closer, closer. She wanted to feel him all around him.

He must have been thinking the same thing. His other arm snaked around her back, pulling her into him until her hands slid up his chest and circled behind his neck.

She felt his tongue press against her mouth and without even thinking, her lips opened.

When they finally separated, she was breathing heavily, kneeling on the floor between his legs. He leaned back, using one elbow to prop himself up as she practically climbed on top of him.

She blushed, moving back.

Leon seemed to move with her, as if he were magnetically attracted to her. As she sat upright, so did he, his hand never leaving her as it slid down to rest at her waist.

"I'm sorry for what I said," she blurted.

Leon blinked, his eyes still dark and distracted, moving from her lips to her eyes and back again.