You Smell Like... Mine (Book 1 in the 'You Smell' series)

Chapter 9- First Kiss

Ivy's POV

The first brush of his lips against mine is whisper soft. He starts to pull back but I'm not done, yet. I reach up to his cheek, guiding his lips back to mine. I move my mouth slowly, savoring his sweetness. It is a chaste kiss, true, but it's my first and I love every second of it. I slowly pull back, looking at him from beneath my lashes, and ask," Is that a yes?"

"Of course it is, I'm sorry I didn't say anything, I just wasn't expecting that." He pushes my hair behind my left ear and slowly caresses my cheek before giving me another gentle, heart-stealing kiss. " I would be honored to be your boyfriend."

I smile at him and lay my head on his shoulder. He begins to play with my fingers and I suddenly remember that I never got the answer to my question. " When is your birthday?"

"I'll turn 20 on October 12th. When is yours?" He asks.

"March 3. Where are you from?" I ask, needing to know more about my wonderful mate.

"I'm from here. I grew up in a house about 10 miles north of here. My parents still live there. I usually spend my weekends with them. What about you?" He asks while lacing our fingers together and placing our hands on his thigh.

" About 30 miles south of here actually. I never spent any time here though, because there is a closer town that we could go to. I have a big family and they all live there." I tell him, being as honest as I can for now.

"Oh yeah? That must be nice. I have only ever had my parents. Don't get me wrong, they are great. They have always been very supportive, but I always kind of wished we had more people around. Dad lost his parents when he was only a teenager. Mom never knew her father and her mother died a few years after I was born. They were both only children, too, so no aunts, uncles, or cousins." He says softly.

I squeeze his hand, " Well maybe one day soon, you can come to meet my family. They are a rowdy bunch, but we all love each other. I'm sure they will all love you, too." I peek up at him, trying to gauge his reaction.

With a wistful smile, he whispers," Yeah, that sounds really nice."

Deciding that we need to change the subject, I jump up, pulling him with me. " Come on, let's go to my room. I have a PS3 and tons of games. My roommate may be there, but she is cool. You'll like her."

He quickly agrees, so we head back in the direction of Willow Hall.

Once we arrive at my door I make him wait in the hall while I step into the room, wanting to make sure Emily is decent. I find her exactly where I left her 3 hours earlier, but she seems to have showered and changed at least. " Hey Emily, do you mind if we have some company for a bit?" I ask after partially closing the door.

Without looking up from her game, where I see she is relentlessly trying to climb a steep mountain, she says, " Sure, I guess. Who is it?"

"Asher. We finished our coffee, and I thought maybe the three of us could play for a while." I say hopefully.

Her head snaps up as she pauses the game. " Of course! I can't wait to meet the guy that you have been going on and on about!" She practically shouted this. I hear Asher coughing in the hallway, and I cringe. He definitely heard that. She mouths a sorry and shrugs. Nothing to be done about it now.

I walk back to the door, opening it slowly to find a red faced Asher trying to compose himself. He is grinning at me, though, so he must not be put off by what he heard. "You have been talking about me?" He asks softly.

I roll my eyes. " Of course I have. You know I really like you, so that shouldn't be a surprise. Come on in." He steps into the room, and I lead him closer to Emily. " Asher, this is my roommate Emily, Emily, this is my boyfriend Asher." They smile and nod at each other. Both being kind of shy, I doubt there would be any conversation if I wasn't here.

As Asher turns around to take in all of my gaming posters, Emily quietly whispers, "He is so cute."

The lowly growled, "Mine." was out before I could stop it and Emily's eyes widen. I try to cough to cover it up, but she just nods. I'm glad I didn't scare her.

The three of us spend the rest of the afternoon taking turns on different games. It didn't take too long for Asher and Emily to hit it off, but I noticed that Emily was sure to keep a respectable distance between them, which I'm sure was due to my earlier slip, but we all had a good time. We ordered pizza for lunch and had leftovers for dinner, too. At around 8, Asher decided it was time for him to head back to his own room to get ready for classes tomorrow, so I walked him out.

I follow him out to the front of my building, and when he turns around to face me, I pull him into a hug. " We really need to exchange numbers if we are dating now." He whispers into my hair.

I grin, " I already put mine in your phone while you were playing earlier."

I can feel his chuckle before I hear it, " Well that's good. I'm not sure when I will be done with classes tomorrow, but I'll let you know when I'm free, ok?" He asks, pulling back to look down at me, but not removing his arms. I nod. "Ok, well I guess I should go. Goodnight, Ivy." He quickly presses his lips to mine before, seemingly reluctantly, releasing me while stepping back.

"Goodnight, love." I say with a smile.

"Goodnight my mate." I hear in my head as Emersyn sighs dreamily. She has been quiet today, but ever present. I can tell she is falling just as hard for Asher as I am.

With a small wave, he turns and walks down the sidewalk. I watch him until he turns the corner before I follow. I shadow him to his dorm, not wanting him to think I don't trust him to take care of himself. When he makes it safely inside, I turn and run back towards my dorm. I go around to the back and take the trail that leads back towards Asher's tree. When I reach it, I quickly strip down before calling Emersyn to the surface. She happily jumps forward, pushing my body into the shift. It isn't painful, but it does sound pretty bad. It feels like a nice stretch after being in a cramped position. My muscles stretch and pull as my joints pop and move. My bones don't break, more like they reshape themselves. My skin prickles as I feel the fur sprouting out all over.

In under a minute, I find myself on four paws racing through the woods. In this form, my senses are even more astute. I give control to Emersyn because I know she needs a bit of freedom after spending most of the day with our mate without being able to really talk to him. She is anxious for me to tell him what I am but understands why I need to wait. If I do it too soon, he might not be able to handle it.

I don't even try to convince her not to run back towards campus. She stealthily stays in the shadows until we are behind Slater House. I mentally roll my eyes as she begins to scent mark the building, but I just let her have her fun. Once she's finished, she lets out a melodic howl, saying goodnight to our mate in her own way before taking off back towards the forest. When she makes it back to the tree, she relinquishes control back to me, allowing our body to once again transform. I quickly redress and head back to my dorm to get some sleep.