She must have nodded off for a moment. One minute, Kagome was calmly lying next to Sesshoumaru on her side–the next, she was sprawled beneath him, flat on her back, gazing up at him in dim surprise as he glared down at her with hooded amber eyes. His silver hair hung in ribbons around her, his bangs obscuring his face in jagged grey streaks. He panted, his skin still shiny and damp, but he wasn’t actively sweating anymore.

Kagome seized the front of his gaping haori with both hands, her heart nearly bursting from her chest in elated relief. “Sesshoumaru! Your fever’s broken–thank the gods!”

The daiyoukai didn’t seem to share in her enthusiasm. His grip tightened on her injured arm, making her wince in pain. Blood blossomed through the strips of her bandage. His heavy lids lifted slightly, his gaze no less shadowed as he opened his hand and stared at the fresh blood staining his palm.

“Miko,” he murmured, his attention shifting back to her face. “You’re alive.”

Hesitantly, she nodded. Even though he was in the clear, he still seemed pretty out of sorts. Mutely, she watched as he licked her blood from his hand, his eyes trained upon her own. The intensity in that look chilled her. Instinctively, Kagome sensed that she was on dangerous ground.

Better tread carefully, she thought.

So when his hand, now cleansed, moved to her nape, she didn’t shy away from his hold. When the full length of his body fell over hers, she didn’t attempt to wriggle out from underneath him. When his mouth fell to the column of her throat, she didn’t try to break the contact. Her head lolled submissively to the side as his lips skirted her pulse, his nose scenting her deeply.

“Kagome,” he rumbled.

She shivered when his tongue trailed along the sensitive, salty casing of her skin, his lips lingering at the junction of her neck and shoulder. Slick fangs curved over the tendon there, biting into her flesh just barely. She whimpered–her first mistake.

He growled into her collar, his thigh wedging between both of her own. Kagome’s fists curled reflexively against his chest, her heart pounding like mad, her breath escaping her in pants now, too. He ground his hips hard into hers–and with a soft gasp, she ground back.

Her second mistake.

Sesshoumaru reared up from her, his eyes tingeing crimson as he raked a hand down her front. The fabric of her camisole snagged on his hooked claws, faint red scratches rising up on her exposed stomach. When the heel of his hand pressed against her mound, her own palm flew to her mouth to stifle her shocked cry.

“Do you want me, miko?” he asked her, his voice low, but astonishingly cool.

Before she could even answer, his forefinger was curving through the damp crotch of her panties, his bent knuckle grazing along her wet tender skin, parting her outer folds as he dipped just barely into her brimming core. Kagome’s head fell back as she arched, helplessly, into his touch.

He leaned back over her, into her. Tugging aside the slim bridge of her underwear, he brought his clothed erection against her bare dripping sex. “Do you want me as badly as I want you?”

He was close–so close. And, still, so maddeningly far. Kagome moaned, feeling as though she was viewing herself from above as her desire for him possessed her fully. She didn’t just want him–she needed him.

It was a fact that deepened, strengthened–sharpened–as he lowered his mouth to her breast, licking and pulling at her hardened nipple through the thin, sweat-soaked fabric of her shirt. Once more his fangs were sinking into her, and she was rising into him, her fingers curling into his heavy hair, nails scraping against his scalp as she urged him on.

“Don’t…don’t stop.”

Without pausing, he released his hold on her stretched-out panties, his fingers going to the ties of his hakama instead. A powerful, fearful anticipation stole over her as she waited for him to free himself with bated breath–

Before his shoulders sagged, and his body went slack on top of hers, his face falling against her throat with gruff exhale. For a moment, Kagome just lay there beneath his unconscious body in stunned, tense disbelief.

“Sesshoumaru…?” she ventured, shifting. “Sesshoumaru, hey…”

No response.

Wracked with desire and now starting to feel distinctly crushed, Kagome huffed, the back of her head hitting the floor.

“Great,” she muttered. “Just…great.”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi