Kagome’s heart stuttered. In her earlier preoccupation over the bite marks on her breast, she had completely forgotten about the ones on her neck. They were fainter–just the barest of indentations, a neat set of pin-pricks in her skin. But now they tingled and twinged like bee stings, and the way he was pressing down on them wasn’t helping matters.

“I did this to you,” he spoke at last.

It wasn’t a question, so Kagome didn’t feel the need to answer. Instead, she swallowed, her fingers tugging and twisting at the hem of her shirt. When she tried to glance away, his hand moved suddenly, clawed thumb and forefinger steering her back by the chin.

“Tell me,” he said, his voice low and forbidding, “what happened last night.”

Kagome stared at him in trepidation, but his own stare was level and unblinking–demanding. Words rose up and lodged themselves firmly in her throat, a fierce blush stealing over her entire face as she attempted to pry them out.

“You–last night, you…ah, that is, we–”

“Out with it, girl,” he nearly growled.

“You tried to have sex with me!” she blurted.

Sesshoumaru frowned. Kagome flinched. The crackle of the hearth resounded like thunder in the silence.

“I see,” he said after a moment, his eyes falling to her throat again. “And you prevented me?”

“No!–I mean…you were obviously really out of it, Sesshoumaru. After a few minutes, you kind of just…passed out.”

His gaze snapped sharply to hers. “A few minutes…what are you saying?”

Kagome blanched. She really was making a terrible mess of this…

“You didn’t try to stop me,” he accused, icy anger replacing the disbelief in his tone. “You would have let me…” He bit off, eyes closing briefly. “I would not even have remembered.”

Guilt surged through her. True, she hadn’t tried to stop him–but what could she have done, short of purifying him? Although she had never consciously made the decision, Kagome realized now that no matter what happened between them, she could never do that to him again. She could never bring herself to hurt him–ever again.

Her eyes softened as she reached for him. “Sesshoumaru…”

Hard fingers wrapped around her right wrist, hauling her toward him. Kagome quailed, her left hand falling against him as she braced herself in his hold. Though his expression was stony, his irises were framed in a tinge of red. Without a doubt, he was as furious as she had ever seen him.

“You will tell me every detail,” he declared, his face an inch from hers. “You will not stutter. You will not mince words. I will know what transpired between us.”

Fear gripped her even as a tendril of arousal unfurled within her. Maybe it was the rumble of his voice, the pressure of his touch, the anticipation of what she was about to say–maybe it was all of these things combined that caused her palm to flatten against his chest as she drew closer to him and nodded her assent.

“Okay, Sesshoumaru–I’ll tell you.”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi