Book of Desire by Demona Leigh

Prologue

a/n: Okay, this prologue has been re-edited, so if it feels a bit disjointed much apologies. Wow. I haven't even gotten to the sex and someone is already asking about kids. Well...I really don't think my story is going that way. It's rather...well, I can't consider this a conventional romance. Though really, I don't feel that I write romance, anyway. I write romantically tinged erotica. Yes, I do split hairs when it comes to my writing *laughs* . Here's hoping it's enjoyed anyway. There's a lot of unconventionality going on in this story.

"Book of Desire"

Prologue

Sessho-Maru had ceased reading five minutes ago, distracted by the shift of Kagome's long, muscular legs. As she was absorbed in her own book, she was blissfully unaware of his watchful gaze.

He remembered when she was a mere slip of a girl. Her quest for the jewel shards had shaped and molded her body as well as spirit. Sinewy muscles shifted under tawny skin, relaxing and tensing with each movement.

Sessho-Maru stared at her legs, bare under the hem of her short skirt. They were smooth and ridiculously long despite her rather short stature. His eyes traced over a small scar on her upper thigh, just barely concealed by the thin fabric. He felt the purely visceral impulse to lean down and trace it with the tip of his tongue.

Sessho-Maru smirked to himself, knowing that she would let him. He was not ashamed to admit that the kiss that they had shared under the god tree had not been their only time. Sessho-Maru had long ago made his peace with his attraction to her and now enjoyed the current of desire that shimmered between them.

They had been innocent thus far, limiting their intimacies to kisses and idle touching. Yet he could sense a slow change in her, an awakening awareness that was far from innocent. He liked the hunger that mingled with her fear and anxiety when she looked at him. Something inside her was blooming and, though she'd been tasted, she had never been truly tested.

Kagome eventually noticed him and blushed, "What are you looking at?"

"You," He was being honest, not necessarily flattering her.

She looked away coyly, chewed her lower lip. Sessho-Maru watched in fascination at her newly acquired habit. It had popped up in greater frequency since he had requested that she please not wear lip gloss. He had hated the wet feel of the viscous stuff on her mouth and the taste of the sickly sweet artificial flavouring.

Her legs shifted and the hem of her skirt inched higher. The scar that he'd been eying earlier was in full view. It was light and old, barely more than a crease in her skin.

The sound of Kagome laughing softly startled him out of his reverie, though he did not show it.

"You actually seem to be staring at my legs," she teased, "What? Did I miss a spot shaving?"

Sessho-Maru met her eyes and quirked his eyebrows at her, "No, your legs are fine."

Kagome flushed once more and Sessho-Maru smirked slightly as he added, "I very much like you legs."

As she flustered with innocent desire, Sessho-Maru grew bored with subtle flirtation. He took her off guard with is superiour speed and pushed her onto her back. Though his couch was narrow, he easily maneuvered himself over her body.

The air hovered between them, thick with tension and her eyes widened. Kagome's book fell to the floor with a soft thump and the shudder of fluttering pages.

Confusion and a little bit of lust flashed in her eyes as he brought his face close to hers. "You needn't be so coy, dear miko," Sessho-Maru whispered, his lips nearly touching her mouth. A hard thought would have closed the distance.

Her tongue swept out to moisten her lower lip and the gesture tightened his lower belly and sent the first tendrils of arousal shivering down his spine. There was a war being fought out in her eyes, a skirmish within her between desire and fear.

"Sessho-Maru...." Her soft exhalation caused him to forget himself a little bit. He kissed her deeply, drawing her out. Kagome's tongue darted into his mouth shyly, growing more confident as he responded in kind.

There was little innocence in their kiss, only the burgeoning awareness of sensuality. Darker, more illicit thoughts teased the edge of Sessho-Maru's reason and self-control. In his mind's eyes, he saw her nude, skin flushed and glowing, nipples swollen, eyes shady with lust. He though of pushing the flimsy panel of her underwear aside and tasting her sex; he wondered how she looked in the moment of ecstasy, wondered if she would scream for him or if her release would be silent and breathless.

As their lips parted, Sessho-Maru buried his face in her throat. She smelled of magic and wildflowers. He ached for her, longed to let go of the last small tether of his self-control.

Not just yet, Sessho-Maru soothed the savagery of his lust. When I have her, it will be of her own volition, not through the subterfuge of seduction.

*~*~*~*

She spent every weekend with him and sometimes managed to sneak in time during the week. Their relationship was strange, if it could be called such a thing.

They were not lovers, though the level of intimacy that they shared was confusing. Sometimes Kagome felt like the only thing that separated them from this label was the fact that they did not sleep together.

Well, not in the sexual sense anyway.

Kagome had slept in his bed before when she had needed to be close to someone, when she had wanted to pretend that she was loved.

Sessho-Maru, of course, did not love her but he did seem to...care or some such thing. Kagome had long ago realized that she would never understand fully how his mind worked or how he felt emotions. It was often frustrating as she did not always know where she stood with him. He would be affectionate as a boyfriend one day and distant as s stranger on another.

Yet she treasured the days in which she could imagine that they were a couple, two people that were falling in love.

Of course, Kagome did not love him. He excited her, fascinated her, and confounded her; he was a puzzle box that she could never solve. Sessho-Maru returned to her the magic and thrill that mundane activities had taken away from her.

He was her greatest secret, her darkest desire.

To be continued....