Elven Legacy

Chapter 107

But Noah inhaled sharply and reached up for more, deepening the kiss almost instantly, a desperate yearning about the way he did so. The light around them ebbed, flailed then vanished.

Jaden let him take the lead, because clearly Noah wanted to, from the way he explored and teased with his tongue, how he nibbled then claimed Jaden's lips in all the sweet nuances he knew to show off.

Until emotions rose too high, raced too fiercely across his skin, and it was all so powerfully intense that Jaden had no choice but to break for air. Not quite pulling away, he held himself up on hands and knees, catching his breath.

"You're shaking," Noah breathed, and Jaden chuckled. It started out a chuckle anyway, it ended in something like a quiet sob. "Hey, it's okay," Noah whispered, still panting slightly himself. "Just lean on me. You're not too heavy."

So Jaden gave up and did just that, until every part of them were touching. Another shaky breath with the impossible rush of it all. With how long he'd wanted this. And still he held back, because the last thing he wanted right now was to scare him away.

Jaden had one hand pressed into the flattened grass beside Noah's shoulder, and he'd tangled his other hand in Noah's hair. Noah appeared to be looking at him, hard to tell in complete darkness. Clouds had slid over the moon like a veil covering an orb, whilst the wind rushed them like a tide, cooling their flushed skin.

Noah tucked Jaden's hair behind his ear, then he wrapped his arms fully around him again. Jaden drew in a calming breath, before he pressed himself closer once more – never mind that he was still trembling, never mind that, for some unfathomable reason, he found himself on the brink of tears, never mind that his heart slammed against his chest faster and harder than those festival drums ever could.

He recognized the moment for the ephemeral slice of time and space it was, so Jaden gathered everything that he had and gave it to Noah. One more kiss, a dance of timing, of pulling slightly away at the right moments, of leaving him guessing what he would do next. A game of listening, of paying attention to his reactions, to the gasps and shivers, to the twitches of his leg and the arching of his back, so that Jaden could crack the code and discover what he liked.

Jaden managed to reach back and take hold of Noah's hands, then he gently pinned them on either side, as he lowered himself again and stole Noah's lips one more time. Jaden held up some of his own weight with a knee pressed to the ground beside Noah's hip, and just as he sensed that Noah might be running out of breath, he moved on up his jaw instead.

Noah breathed in sharply with what sounded like pleasant surprise as Jaden nibbled at his ear, then he explored down the curve of his neck. Every kiss, featherlight or intense, every brush and graze across Noah's skin different than the last.

He felt Noah's arms twitching, then downright struggling for freedom, and Jaden let him go. Noah's arms snared around him with silent need, his hands crawled feverishly under Jaden's shirt to hold waist and hips skin to skin. Tingles raced like the sweetest lightning across Jaden, threatening to send him over an edge there was no coming back from.

Jaden reined his focus back in as best he could and dropped kisses down Noah's chest. He nearly let himself get to where the thin stone was embedded in his skin, but Jaden knew how sensitive the skin around it could be, sensitive in a unique, possibly uncomfortable way. So he stopped himself in time, except Noah still made a low moan and arched his back slightly into him, hips against hips and—

Gods, I can't . . . Jaden let himself collapse helplessly, shaking, breathless, tears fluttering from his eyes. He snaked his arm under Noah's waist to hold him close, as close as possible without being one and the same. To hold him like this, to just stay here like this, because it was all he could do not to make love to him. He couldn't, wouldn't scare him away by going too far, too fast. He knew Noah. He liked to think he knew him quite well. So Jaden laughed softly, as he surrendered himself to what was both the sweetest and cruelest embrace. He laughed, because otherwise he might cry, it was all so much.