The Love That Bonds Us

Chapter 25 : A Kiss To Remember

But she never stopped it. She never pushed me away. After a moment of nothing, she astonished me by relaxing into the kiss. Her arms winded around my neck and I felt it safe to cup her face with my hand, to trace the curve of her cheek with my thumb.

It felt so surreal. But I couldn't be dreaming.

And even if I was, I never wanted to wake up.

A smile slowly stretched across her lips and a warm, fuzzy feeling - similar to the first time I'd realised I wanted her - erupted in my heart and, while it was difficult to keep the kiss going, I just couldn't pull away. Not yet.

In fact, we remained entwined like this for ages until we had to come up to breathe again, and then we simply stared at each other, inches apart, hearts beating as one.

It felt like a wave had hit me and then left me floating in this deep abyss of nothing and everything at the same time. I didn't know what do to or what to say.

Eventually an odd, throaty noise filled the silence and it took me a moment to realise that I had made the sound, but I couldn't think of anything to follow it up with, so we relapsed into silence for a while, until:

"So ... having a good Birthday?" I asked her.

She bit her lip momentarily before saying, "It's even better now."

My heart skipped a beat and my eyes widened with surprise and relief; that gut feeling may have been right.

She leant forwards then, a grin playing on her lips and an eyebrow rising, "You didn't think so?"

"Well - I, err ... I wasn't sure whether you'd let me ..." I muttered, unsure of how to phrase what I meant to say.

"Let you?" she cried, "Agnarr, I've been waiting for this moment for years." then she visibly shrank back, blushing.

But I almost didn't notice her embarrassment; excitement and surprise flooded through me like a fresh wave of emotion, "You have?! Really? So have I! I've never worked up the courage before and then I realised that I couldn't let you go and -" I was struggling again to put my thoughts into words, but was saved from having to as Iduna pulled me into another deep kiss.

It was too good to be true and my head began to spin, making me feel dizzy.

I was only just reacting when she suddenly pulled away again, her hands sliding from my collar.

I peered into her face as it fell downwards, etched with confusion and doubt.

"How would your advisors take the news of this." she said, as if voicing a thought. I could hear the worry in her tone and realised I'd have to think about that a lot sooner than I'd have liked.

I scratched my head as I wondered how I should approach the question. "Well, I mean, they may not take it lightly, I suppose." I didn't suppose, I knew. They hadn't mentioned anything about courting or marriage yet, but I didn't doubt they were thinking about it. And Iduna wouldn't exactly be on their list.

I took her hands in my own then, shifting the other to her chin to lift her eyes to meet mine, "But who cares what they think? After years of denying our chemistry, I've finally realised how much time we've wasted. Let's seize our moment."

My hand longingly slid over to her cheek again and she leaned into my touch.

"I guess so." her voice was small and quiet, but I still heard her in the silence surrounding us.

A peculiar sensation hit me squarely in the chest. Maybe my gut had been wrong after all, maybe her feelings weren't as intense as mine. I attempted to grin, but I was conscious of the fact it didn't quite meet my eyes, "Don't sound so enthusiastic."