Beautiful Cries

Chapter Sixteen: A Break in Time

A startled sound made its way from the back of Alena's throat, heat rushing to her cheeks at the feel of Damari's luscious lips on hers.

She couldn't speak. Couldn't think of anything that could possibly explain how and what she was feeling at that exact moment in time.

Her body felt frozen, but as Damari slanted his lips and changed the intensity of the kiss, pulling her closer, she felt her confusion melt away, replaced by the heat that warmed her to the core.

Her hands that had been limp at her sides moments before now smoothed up Damari's arms, over the muscle and sinew until she was grasping his broad shoulders with fervor, not pushing him away, but pulling him closer in response.

She felt pressure on her lips, as if he was directing her to do something and she didn't know what, like he was pushing for something just out of reach, bringing her head closer with the insistent tug of his gentle hands in her hair, sending Alena's senses swirling.

And then she knew, instinct guiding her... to cautiously open her mouth to his ministrations.

A deep groan left his throat at her innocent willingness to be so open with him, giving him everything when she didn't even know what she was giving.

He pulled back quickly while he still had the strength and dropped gentle, drugging kisses on her neck and collarbone before trailing back up to leave one last kiss on her forehead.

Inhaling her jasmine scented hair, Damari believed he would never be able to get enough of her, not in any lifetime. But with the danger ahead of them, he knew there might be a day he'd have to part from her, causing his heart to pound with dread.

He ran his hand through her tangled locks and held her tightly to him before releasing her at arms length, sighing deeply and returning to the side of his horse.

"I do care about you, Alena. More than what is probably good for me, but I do."

"I know," she whispered, touching her lips with wonder while her brow furrowed, "but how can you? Your mother had said she feared you had lost reasoning for care or...for love. Your father did as well."

Damari's fingers twitched as he pulled away to adjust the leather straps on his saddle, eyeing the bag that still remained strapped to Alena.

"I never said I loved you. I may care for you, but never love you. I can't."

Alena's head snapped up at his words, making her nearly fall to the ground in attempts to get atop her hippocampus.

"I don't understand."

Damari raised an eyebrow, his attention still on her bag. "Why is that? Just because someone cares doesn't mean they love."

"That kiss we shared wasn't 'caring', Damari. I felt something and I know you did too, you're trying to hide the way the bond is making you feel. Remember, I know how you think, you can't hide it from me no matter how hard you try."

"Then I suppose I'll have to try harder," he surmised, setting his steed back into its lolling gate. "Love gets you nowhere, it only causes you pain so unbearable that you wish you could cast it away from you as fast and as far as you could."

Alena grew silent, settling into her saddle while listening to the water as it went through the hippocampus nose and back out its mouth with a ruffle.

After what felt like hours of tense silence between the two, Damari pulled his hippocampus over to the side of the path, unloading his day pack along with his blanket and the bag that was strung over his back.

"We should make camp here and prepare everything for night fall. Seeing as how we can't start a fire down here I certainly hope the Queen packed food that doesn't require heat."