For a moment, nothing happened. His hands remained warm cupped along my jaw touching just below my ear and curving around the back of my neck. It made me feel small. While I waited, his fingers twitched slightly before stilling again.
Opening my eyes, I was surprised to see him locked in place. The ochre, which had intruded in the black swirling in his irises, had disappeared. Pure black once again claimed his irises. He looked slightly shocked and I had the horrible sinking feeling I’d misunderstood the whole situation.
“Morik, it’s no big deal. I’m not asking you to kiss me. I was just ...”
He slowly moved his thumb, over my bottom lip silencing me. His gaze followed his thumbs, back and forth movements.
“There are rules.” His voice had dropped on octave, rumbling in his chest. “Because my abilities put humans at a disadvantage, nature created a few basic laws I can’t break, unless through an agreement.”
“Like a deal?”
“Yes. A part of a deal. One of the rules is that I can’t interact with humans, unless they call on me. The deal with Belinda’s father gave me a loophole to get around that rule. Another rule is that I can’t touch humans. The original deal allows me to protect you, but not touch you.” He removed his hands after a final touch. “The deal with you allows me to touch you since you touched me.” He ran his fingers through his hair and then continued. “The rules are meant to protect you from my kind. To negate the natural advantages I might have.”
He stopped speaking and met my gaze expectantly. I wasn’t sure I followed his line of thinking and was afraid to ask the real question on my mind. ‘Do you want to kiss me or not?’
Instead, I asked, “So if I want a kiss I need to make a deal with you?” Gee, that sounded real pleasant. It’d be like forcing him to kiss me. I didn’t want that for my first kiss.
“No. You just need to kiss me first.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know what to do. He stood there watching me expectantly. Instead of doing the crazy little flip that got me into this mess, my stomach hatched an army of ninja kicking butterflies.
All the color that had flooded my face moments earlier drained. I’d have to initiate the kiss. My first kiss. What if I messed up?
“I think I need to sit down,” I mumbled weakly.
He scooped me up into his arms and moved to a large leather chair. Instead of setting me down, he sat, keeping me on his lap. The butterflies didn’t stop kicking.
“It’s okay,” he whispered and rubbed my back soothingly. “Kissing isn’t part of the agreement, Tessa. I never thought it would be.”
That killed every butterfly in my stomach. Did that mean he didn’t expect me to kiss him, but would like if I did, or that he didn’t want to kiss me, but told me how to kiss him because I had been curious? Having depleted my store of courage for the day, I didn’t ask for the clarification. I was too worried the answer would be the latter.
We sat quietly for a few moments. Slowly, my coloring and heart rate returned to normal.
“Would you like to see my home?” he offered.
Relief flooded me. If he was willing to drop the subject, so was I. Nodding my agreement, he led me through his house, which from the view out the window appeared to be in a suburb. Each room, spaciously built and tastefully decorated in light colors with vivid accents, drew my attention. With a total of three bedrooms and three baths, the house felt very empty with only him living there. It lacked pictures or any other personal items to show he had a past. Everything was pretty, but nothing felt lived in. It felt staged.
The open kitchen with its large breakfast bar was made for entertaining. He had a television in the living room with cable and boasted of several gaming consoles that he stored elsewhere. He declared his love of the internet, which allowed him to obtain the things he wanted without actually interacting with humans. Another loophole in nature’s rule.
When I saw almost an hour had passed, he took me home just in time to clean up the jewelry in progress before everyone came home. He stayed for dinner and another movie. Before he left, I asked that he help me sleep. I wouldn’t be able to turn off my thoughts without his help.
As I drifted off, he promised to give me a ride to school in the morning.
Chapter 12
Opening my eyes the next morning, I lay in bed thinking. I knew I’d overslept again, but didn’t care. Thinking about Morik and how he felt about kissing me took priority. Taking risks wasn’t easy for me. All the rules I’d grown up with stressed exercising caution. Just being with him broke that mold. I could kid myself and say this uncharted course didn’t scare me, but it did. I smiled mockingly to myself. I wasn’t afraid of a fang, horned, being with constantly changing eyes, but I was afraid of what he represented… an unknown future.