3
It's been a month after Athan arrived. I got on peacefully enough because I did my best to avoid him. Our conversations-if we happen to pass each other at hallways-are obligatory, nothing more.
That's why I was startled to find him knocking on my door today.
Blast.
"Do you need anything, Prince Athan?"
He whirled around to face me. "No, nothing."
"Then you must have lost your way now, did you?" I watched him as his eyes narrowed. "If you just turn right at the end of the hall, you'd find yourself back to the east wing." I couldn't help but add.
"Damn it, Gaia, stop acting so formal!" He exploded. I tried not to squirm as he stalked over me. "You stand there looking so proper when we both know it's the other way around, right? I know you're only doing that to irritate me-"
"And why would I do that?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you just want to get under my skin so that I would notice you." He taunted.
"Please!" I threw up my hands in the air in exasperation and stepped around him to enter my room. "You're cocky, do you know that? You think everything is about you! You might have a title but you are still a conceited, arrogant jerk!"
He followed me inside my room. "And you're a hardheaded, frigid woman!"
I froze and suck in a much needed supply of air. Frigid? Frigid?! I could feel my eyes misting over and he must have noticed it for he brought a hand up to appeal more. But before he could say anything else I said in a cool voice, "Are you done insulting me, Your Highness? Because if you are, I would like you to leave my room now."
He turned and walked towards the door. I almost doubled over in pain. He said I was frigid and he's just going away without an apology? Ha! He must've been a bigger ass now than he was all those years ago.
But he surprised me by banging the door shut and swiftly rotating to stare at me. He looked away again as dragged at a hand through his hair and appeared so tired. "I came here to talk to you, alright? I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings with the things I said but..." he shot me a weary glance. "You get on my nerves with your coolness."
I lifted my chin. "But I'm not frigid."
The corners of his mouth twitched a little. "Maybe just a little."
I knew he was teasing but I nonetheless rose to the bait. "No, I am not even in the slightest way frigid."
He raised a brow. "Really? Can you prove that?"
One moment we were standing a several feet from each other and the next thing I knew he was kissing me. And I was kissing him back. The kiss was unlike all our other kisses in the past. I could taste the impatience, the need and the passion. An arm was around my waist, pulling me closer and closer to him, while a hand stroke the side of my face.
My hands were everywhere. His face, his hair, his shoulders. I missed this. I missed being wrapped around a man, being kissed by a man. As we tumble onto the bed, my mind shouted that what we were doing is wrong. But before I could push him away to put an end to our kissing, he let his hands roam over me and I was lost.
--
Athan's mind could only register a few things: he was kissing Gaia, she still taste as sweet as she looks and that she smells like heaven. He did not even feel her nails dug into his shoulder as he kiss her slender neck.
He was freeing the buttons of her blouse when something tugged on his pant leg. He ignored it and went back to kissing Gaia's pretty mouth as he caressed her here and there. She moaned and sent the blood pounding on his head. But as he kissed her thoroughly this time, the tugging grew more insistent.
"Damn it!" He sat up and glared at the puppy biting his pants.
That seemed to wake Gaia from wherever he brought her to. She looked alarmed as she lie there beside him. "Oh, my God."
Athan shrugged the puppy off and quickly turned back to Gaia. As he lowered his head to hers again, Gaia pushed him as she, too, sat up.
"What's wrong?" Athan asked while she looked at him anxiously.
"What we did is wrong." She babbled. "We shouldn't have done that. We...it's not right, Athan."
"No, it is."
"How could you say that?" She asked him skeptically.
He reached for her and pulled her to him. "Because we're still good together." She struggled in his arms. "And when I kissed you, I realized how much I missed you."
Gaia froze. "Don't say things like that."
"Like what?"
"Like things you don't mean." She said in a small voice.
I sighed and kissed her hair. "I mean it, Gaia."
She pulled back. "But you said 'damn it' when you were kissing me. Stop lying." Athan laughed and her eyes narrowed on him. "What's so funny?"
He kissed her nose. "You." Her eyes. "Me." He cheeks. "And your dog." Her lips.
"My dog?" She asked dumbly.
"I was cursing your dog." To prove it, he scooped the dog and explained. When she blushed in embarrassment, he rolled on the bed so that she was on top of him. "So, can we get back to kissing now?"
She looked thoughtful for a second. "I don't think so."
He growled. "Why not?"
"I have to get back to work."
"Screw work. You could help Fia later," Athan assaulted her mouth with his.
Gaia let him for a minute but jumped away from him and from the bed afterwards.
"I'm not talking about helping Fia in the kitchen."
If he heard her, he gave no indication. "Gaia, get back in here."
"I'm working on something really important..."
He growled once more as he tried to sling an arm around her. "You can't say that when you're standing in front of me looking like temptation with your buttons undone."
Gaia looked down at her blouse and gasped. She hadn't realized he almost got her naked. "Nice."
"Thanks." Sarcasm dripping in his voice. "Now, come here."
"No." She grinned as she fixed herself. "What I'm making is really important."
"What is it? Let someone do it for you."
She pouted her lovely mouth, delicate from his. "I can't have someone do it for me!"
"Then I'll do it for you, if you want."
She chuckled. "You can't do it. You can't make a dress. Or can you now?"
He stood up from the bed. "You're making a dress?"
She nodded.
"With the machine you were given?"
She nodded again and he smiled. "So, that means you have to go, Athan." She all but pushed him out the door. "'Bye."
He put a hand on the door before she could close it. "How about a goodbye kiss?" He leaned over her and touched his lips to hers. He pulled her in an embrace that left her reeling. "We still have to talk, Gaia. About things, us and this." He whispered before he left.
--
What had just happened? I let Athan kiss me like everything that has happened in the years between us was nothing.
And worse, I liked it!
What the hell should I do? Pretend it didn't happen? But Athan just said we have to talk. About things, us and this. The kiss. Ugh! What possessed me to make out with him? I promised myself that I would resist him.
Wait, no. I didn't make that promise. Because I told myself I was over him. Which is now obviously wrong.
I just kissed him and every feeling, sensation and emotion came rushing back to me. And I did nothing to stop it.
--
The next days, Athan and I would see each other and have silent agreements to escape. We would take a walk to the woods, talk a little, kiss. Or sometimes we would take a drive, eat with the locals, kiss. Then there were days when he'd come to my room, watch me finish the dress and kiss.
Tamara would send me meaningful smiles but I only turn my back to her. Even Ciro knows that I'm hanging out with Athan again. I mentioned this to him but he just shrugged. That's him. He doesn't care what other people think as long as it's not bad. He's over-protective to the people he cares about when sleazy rumors come out.
We haven't really talked about us. The Conversation we were suppose to have. We avoid The Conversation. Instead, we talk about simple stuffs. His work in London, my work in Sovandara. Things are fine. But I knew in my heart something is not right.
(Author's note: I was so busy at school I haven't the time to post this sooner. Hope you liked it. :D)