The Fairest Stars

Chapter Thirteen: 'Give me my sin again!'

‘You’re not sure?’ Kael inquired. It was taking all his strength to stop him from just sweeping her into his arms and kissing the all of the breath out of her. ‘How was it?’

She tilted her head. ‘Better than expected.’

He laughed. ‘I’m flattered that you had such low expectations.’ There was silence. Kael watched the light suddenly fade from Isis’s eyes.

‘Why did you do that?’ she asked, quietly. ‘Were you feeling sorry for me? Was it a sympathy kiss?’

Kael raised both eyebrows. ‘Sympathy kiss?’

Isis inclined her head. ‘Well, you said you’re a ladies man as well. So either you just wanted a random kiss to top you up, or you felt sorry for me.’

Kael frowned. He could hardly admit that he had been spending a great deal of his waking (and sleeping) hours lusting after her. He seriously doubted that she’d approve. Or that she’d feel even slightly the same. ‘Well, er, neither.’

Isis frowned back, trying to read the expression in his eyes. He didn’t look guilty for kissing her, and he didn’t look as if he was disgusted by what he had done either. Her mind flickered back to that moment when he had attempted to kiss her during their fight. She’d been so close to touching lips with his… and now she had.

Kael moved closer, reaching down and brushing a strand of hair out of her face. Her stomach performed a series of flips, a funny little dipping sensation she‘d never experienced before spreading through her abdomen. ‘Isis, I…’ he faltered.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ she butted in, wanting to say something, anything, to take away the feeling that she was actually anticipating his kiss, actually already imagining the feel of his lips on her own.

‘Don’t worry?’

‘It’s fine,’ she said, airily, as if she couldn’t care less about the fact that he’d just bestowed upon her the most beautiful (not that she had anything to compare it to) kiss in the world. ‘You don’t have to explain it.’

Kael dropped his hands, not exactly moving back, but severing all contact between them. ‘Are you sure?‘

Isis nodded. ‘Thanks for giving me that er…‘

‘Kiss,‘ supplied Kael, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

‘Yes.‘ Isis noticed Lydia through the windows of the classroom and breathed a sigh of relief. ‘It was very generous of you.‘

Lydia came up to the door, unlocking it.

‘It’s fine,’ he murmured, so quietly that Isis wasn’t exactly sure if she was meant to hear it. ‘I enjoyed it.’

*

I’ve been kissed, thought Isis, in a slightly dream like state. I’ve been kissed.