The Mark of Cain (15 page)

“Mm-hmm.”

“And what about this one?” she asked, picking up a
yellow, stringy flower.

“That’s a chrysanthemum. It means that you have a
secret admirer.”

It was the perfect time to ask about why he wouldn’t
kiss her, but the insinuation in his words made her nervous. Instead of saying
something that would undoubtedly be lame, she picked up a purple daisy.

“And this one?”

“Innocence.”

She set it down and picked up the sky blue one with
five petals completely opened, the middle being a tube that went down into the
flower shaft.

“Forget-me-not.”

“I can guess what that means,” she said with a
smile.

“Yes,” he said with a small closed-mouth grin of his
own. “It means that I’ll remember you forever. There’s a story behind that
flower, just like there’s one behind the anemone.”

“Really? And what is it?”

“For which?”

“Both.”

“Well, the anemone is said to have sprung up from
Adonis’s blood when he died.”

“Who’s Adonis?”

His expression told her that he was surprised she
didn’t know who that was. “Adonis was said to be the perfect man, in love with
Aphrodite, and she with him. She left to take care of her goddess duties. While
she was gone, he was killed. She was so distraught that she made anemones pop
up wherever his blood had spilled.”

“That’s sad.”

“Most stories are.” He seemed so sad for a moment
that she couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking about all he had lost: his
wife and baby; his family.

Eager to change the subject, she asked, “And what
about the forget-me-not?”

Brightening, he said, “There are quite a few
different versions of that story. However, my personal favorite is that, during
medieval times, a knight and his lady were walking along a river. They came
across some posies so he picked some for her. However, because his armor was so
heavy, he fell into the water. Just before he drowned, he threw a posy to his
lady and yelled, ‘Forget-me-not!’”

“You just like the tragic stories, don’t you?” she
teased.

“Like I said, most stories are that way. Tragedy
speaks of realism. Fairy tales are just that: tales. Tall tales. Life isn’t
really like that.”

“What about this purple one?” she asked, touching a
slightly bell-shaped flower. She didn’t want to talk about anything depressing
at the moment because she didn’t want to cry in front of him; she was a
notorious baby and thought that would
majorly
turn him off.

“Mmm. Hyacinth. It means sincerity. And this last
one,” he said, grabbing a white bunch that, up close, consisted of numerous
four-petaled flowers. This bunch was all white but, mixed in the bunch still in
the vase were ones with violet in the center of each petal ringed with the
white as well as completely purple ones. “This last one is lilac. It means
first love,” he said, handing it to her.

To hide the rush of emotions she felt, she sniffed
it. It had a strong fragrance; a sweet mixture of fruit and floral. She really
liked it. It was like heaven.

“And the purple ones? Do they mean anything
different?”

For a split second, an emotion she didn’t have time
to read showed in his eyes before his pleasant expression took back over. “Yes.
Purple ones mean death.”

“So do those purple and white ones mean that my
first love will be the death of me?” she teased, still not wanting a somber
mood to take over.

He smiled. “Of course not. I just added them to tie
everything together better.”

Before she could think of something to say, Inac
stood up, reaching a gentlemanly hand out to her. She took it, bringing the
white lilac with her. He then walked them over to one of the many built-in
light gray couches on the deck to watch the sunset. She felt so relaxed that she
couldn’t help but lay back against him. As she settled the back of her head on
his chest and placed her long legs on the couch, he wrapped his arms around
her. Because he had put them under her arms, leaving hers free, she then placed
hers over his. It was as they were playing with each other’s fingers that she
finally got the guts to ask him.

“Inac?”

“Hmm?”

“Is there a reason you don’t want to kiss me? Is
there something wrong with me?” she asked as she sat up and turned so she could
look him in the eye. She could see wheels turning inside his head. “I can take
it if you don’t like me like that. I guess I’m just confused because one minute
you act like you like me, and then the next…?”

She couldn’t
believe
she had brought this up.
It must be the wine. She didn’t feel as shy as she usually did.

His mouth a tight line, he said, “There’s nothing
wrong with you, Hara. You’re a beautiful woman; inside
and
out.”

“Then why don’t you want to kiss me?”

“It’s not that at all.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t want to move too fast for you.”

Out of everything she’d thought he might say in
response, that had
not
been one of them.

“What makes you think that would be too fast?”

“You just don’t seem like someone who would want
just
a physical relationship.”

“And you think kissing me would do that?”

He was silent for quite some time, digesting his
thoughts.

“I think,” he finally said, his brow furrowing like
it was difficult to say this, “that you aren’t used to feeling this way. If we
move that direction, I know with how attracted to you I am, that I wouldn’t
want to stop. I also think that, because you don’t know what you’re missing,
when you find it out,
you
won’t want to stop either. I don’t want to be
something you regret.”

She wanted to melt. It was so sweet that he was respecting
her as much as he was. She wasn’t just falling for this man, she
had
fallen for him. And hard. The white lilac was definitely right that this was
her first love.

The excitement from her realization made her want to
move so she stood up, pulling one of his hands. Laughing, he stood up too.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his smile so large
that the corners of his eyes crinkled. The effect made him seem innocent.

“I want to dance,” she replied as she began twirling
around. As she did, she unbuttoned her ruffled, creamy silk blouse and threw it
on the couch so she wouldn’t sweat all over the fine, expensive material. She
left her white silk camisole on—it would be okay to sweat on the camisole since
she usually wore it under something.

“I think you’ve had too much wine,” he said from
where he stood slightly back, watching her dance around by herself with her
face to the sky and her arms outstretched above her, her knee-length skirt
twirling around her like flower petals.

She stopped to look at him, offering her hand.

“Come dance with me.”

“There isn’t any music.” But he was smiling as he
stepped up to her and took her in his arms.

“The ocean can be our music,” she said, looking up
into his eyes, a part of her registering and loving the fact that he was so
much taller than she was. Finally, she’d found someone who made her feel like
she was actually a delicate girl and not some Amazonian giant….

Inac took the lead, moving her this way and that,
twirling and dipping her until she began to feel dizzy from the combination of
dancing and him. To right herself, she laid her head on his chest, finally
getting the opportunity to really breathe him in. He smelled amazing. A little
bit like the ocean, some like the rich forest, more like spices. She could
breathe his musky scent in forever. It was like it was made just for
her
enjoyment. Now that she thought about it, it was remarkable how similar it was
to how she had imagined it to be. Surprisingly close to the scent she’d been
sure she could smell in her room that fateful day before her date with Eric.

Now that her ear was over his heart, she could hear
it hammering, and he seemed to be swallowing a lot. Because she knew that she
was doing the same thing, she was sure why his body was acting this way. He
wanted to kiss her as much as she wanted to be kissed.

Hara pulled her face away from his chest to look up
at him, to which he responded by putting a hand to her face, his thumb tenderly
brushing across her bottom lip. Her brain didn’t know what to do, but her body
did. Without any conscious thought to do so, she felt her mouth open only
enough to kiss the tip of his thumb.

With a small lick of his lips, he moved it away as
he brought his other hand to her other cheek, cradling her face between them as
his freshly-moistened lips slowly made their way down to hers. This time, he
didn’t pull back.

The moment before Inac’s mouth was going to meet
hers, she sucked in a shallow breath. It had barely filled her lungs when she
felt the soft caress of his lips. Why had she never kissed someone before? It
was
amazing
! Better than she’d ever imagined! Electricity, beginning
where his mouth was touching hers, was surging throughout her entire body,
deliciously singeing her nerves.

The sensation ended too soon because Inac pulled
away. But she wasn’t ready for it to end; he had only given her a couple of
small, tantalizing kisses.

“Mm-mm. Don’t stop,” she begged in a breathy tone,
putting one hand to the back of his neck to pull his mouth back down to hers as
she played with the prickly stubble there—just as she’d thought, it was like
rough velvet. The moment she could feel his mouth touch hers, she eagerly
pressed her lips against his. It felt so nice that she wanted to push the
envelope; to get more than this.

Trying to think of something she could do to take
this further without it going far enough for her to be labeled any of the names
Crystal was labeled with, she began playing with the bottom of his shirt at his
back with one hand, lightly grabbing at the bare flesh under it. Probably
following her lead, Inac tore it off himself before throwing his arms back
around her waist and his mouth back over hers. This time, he gently slipped his
tongue into her mouth. She could now feel that it contained a piercing, though
it wasn’t a spike like his other two facial ones. She wondered why she’d never
noticed his tongue piercing before….

A part of her was saying, “Girl, you barely got your
first kiss and now you’re
Frenching
him? And he isn’t even wearing a
shirt either. You have to
stop
, girl.”

But another part was saying, “But I don’t
want
to stop. This is so nice. I want
more
. I want
everything
.”
Apparently, her brain was playing its own Angel versus Devil game.

She let her hands explore his broad, muscular back
as their mouths memorized each other’s—she was surprised to find that the
silver spike under his lip didn’t hurt when it rubbed against her. Soon, Inac
began maneuvering her and she was more than willing to follow. It wasn’t until
he laid her down on something soft that she realized he’d moved them back over
to the couch.

She looked up at him, for the first time seeing that
the large black tribal tattoo that covered his right arm moved up over his
shoulder and disappeared around to his back, as well as running along one
entire side of his torso, connecting to the one on his neck. In the middle of
it was a fresh scar from his bullet wound. Before, she’d always been shy about
looking too much at the skin of his that she’d been able to see. But, now that
she had exposed the tight muscles she had felt under his shirt, it was all she
could look at.

She didn’t get to appreciate the tattoo, or his hard
abs and chest, long enough because he soon laid over her, moving his mouth back
to hers. But she did get an enticing glimpse of his rippling muscles every once
in a while.

He only kissed her a few times before shifting his
lips to her neck. A voice in her head kept telling her to stop, that she was
being an S-L-U-T, but another one told that voice to shut up. With every lick,
nibble, kiss, or sucking motion on her neck, ears, and collarbone, she just
wanted more and more…especially since his round tongue piercing felt so
absolutely wonderful wherever he rubbed it against her.

Taking a page from his book, she rolled them over to
do the same to him, though she straddled herself around his waist to help her
balance. He was obviously enjoying himself as much as she had been. Plus, now
that she could hear the moans and ragged breaths he made with each movement of
her mouth, she didn’t feel embarrassed for the ones she had made—apparently
they were as instinctual as all of this seemed to be.

Her hair kept getting in the way, falling into their
mouths and forcing them both to pull away to dislodge it before they choked on
it, so she sat up to tie it into a knot. Inac watched her as she did so, a
smile on his face showing how pleased he was, as well as promising of better
things to come.

“Are you sure you’ve never kissed a guy before?” he
asked, his voice deeper than usual as she began lowering herself to kiss him
now that her hair was out of the way.