Sesshoumaru knelt down. His claws curved firmly around her nape.

“No more outbursts.”

Kagome nodded. Releasing his hakama, she latched to the front of his haori instead. Sesshoumaru considered her a moment longer, before gathering her to him, blanket and all. Blinking her watery eyes to clear them, Kagome relaxed in his hold. Her panic subsided at the feel of his strong arms cradling around her. Faintly, she sighed, ashamed at her neediness. Her immaturity. A child, carrying a child. Abashed at the thought, she curled her fingers deeper into the silk of his collar.

Her cheek lay pillowed against the downy pelt cascading from his shoulder. Closing her eyes, she turned her face slightly. The fine velvety ends tickled at her nose as she breathed him in. He was warm, solid, comforting. She imagined the musky scent of his fur, masculine and earthy, exotic and wild. She imagined it—

Kagome’s brow creased as she frowned. “…I can’t smell you.”

Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember the last time she had. In her mind, he had a scent—constructed from traces of memory and her own vivid imaginings. But she realized now that her brain had simply been filling in the gaps, overlaying this imagined scent in their encounters. It was only in this rare moment of stillness between them that she registered its absence.

“I’ve been masking my scent,” he said, meeting her gaze. “And yours.”

Blushing, Kagome ducked her head. “Oh.”

Of course. She should have known her own efforts to rid herself of his scent would never have been enough to deceive Inuyasha. Only someone with a nose just as sharp would understand what it truly took to hide the evidence. Feeling doubly foolish, she clung to Sesshoumaru even tighter. She may have been the one to set this plan into motion, but he was the one who had seen it through. Left to her own devices, everything would have fallen apart from the start.

Everything…

Kagome’s lashes lowered as clawed fingers sifted through the spill of her hair, untangling the knots and scraping soothingly along her scalp. When he reached her bangs, she gazed up at him. The warmth of his breath mingled with hers. Her hand unfurled from the neck of his haori. Her touch trailed up from his chest. His eyes darkened at the brush of her fingers along the line of his jaw.

“You should sleep now,” he said, fitting his hand to her own cheek as she traced the fine, suede-like texture of his markings.

Raising herself up, Kagome closed the meager distance between them as she whispered, “Not yet.”

At the first press of her lips to his, Sesshoumaru remained curiously still. Drawing slightly back, she cast a brief, uncertain glance at his hooded expression before leaning in to kiss him again. Tentatively, she glided her tongue along his lower lip before flicking it lightly over the seam. The grip at her cheek tightened abruptly. When she started to retreat in surprise, his mouth slanted open against hers.

Molding herself back to him, Kagome slid one hand into his hair as she tugged at him with the other. Sesshoumaru’s tongue swept against hers, claiming the breadth of her mouth in a series of plunging swipes. As Kagome deepened her exploration of him in turn, he followed her down at her insistence, pushing her back into the bedroll once more. Desire flared within her as his weight settled over her. His lips broke from hers to graze hot and open along the column of her throat.

Kagome whimpered, arching into him as he laved at her pulse. Both hands buried themselves in his cool, silky tresses. She gasped when he bit at the scar on her neck. Arousal jolted through her, just as sharp. Her breasts surged up toward him. Her nipples were twin points of pain, aching for his touch. Nicking her at the collar, he molded his palm mercifully over her, squeezing her through the thin cotton fabric that lay between them. Kagome groaned at the pressure and friction, urging him on with the scrape of her buried fingers.

Her sex throbbed with heat as his fiery mouth continued to descend. His claws hooked under the neck of her yukata, wrenching it to one side. Peaked and full, her breast sprang free. Another gasp escaped her as he fell upon it. His lips and fangs closed around that needy tip, sucking it into the cavern of his mouth as his rough tongue rasped against it. Kagome writhed—in torment, in ecstasy. Her hands released him only to slide down between their bodies and undo the sash at her waist.

As she bared herself to him, Sesshoumaru withdrew. Flushed and glistening, her naked chest heaved. Her folds parted wetly as she opened her legs to him. Between the gap in her thighs, Sesshoumaru knelt. His heavy-lidded eyes raked over the length of her body, lingering on her swollen, panting lips as he divested himself of his clothes.

Kagome watched him hungrily, devouring his sculpted figure with her eyes. The gods couldn’t have crafted a more seductive form, she thought. Even the stark, asymmetrical slash of his stomach marking was so fiercely, startlingly carnal. But the raw lust glowing in his eyes was the most erotic of all. Captivating, utterly hypnotizing in its sensuality. As Kagome stared at him, she felt as though she were trapped wholly under his spell—unable to stop herself from wanting him, unable to resist his allure even if she tried.

As he cast his hakama aside, she followed his eyes down to her drenched, ready sex. Spreading her legs further, she angled her hips up to him in offering. His youki simmered at the wanton display. His fangs glinted as he gave himself a slow, savoring stroke.

Kagome’s gaze clouded at the sight. “Do that again.”

His feral eyes cut to hers, shining green-gold in the gathering dark. After a moment of predatory stillness, he wrapped his hand around the base of his shaft and eased it up again. Kagome’s heart pounded as she watched those powerful, deadly fingers work over his massive girth. She imagined the crushing strength in them as they fisted fully around that stony hardness, bulging it slightly as they went.

His free hand cupped the junction of her thighs. His fingers kneaded at her slit, pumping into her slippery flesh as he continued to pump himself. Grinding greedily back into his touch, she licked her lips when the clear liquid milking from his tip pearled to white. Sesshoumaru smirked at her reaction. His thumb swiped over the slim opening in his sex, collecting the dew drop of his first seed and gifting it straight into her open mouth.

Kagome sighed at the heady taste of him, wondering just how much richer and fuller his flavor would be if she could only scent him, too. His thumbnail pressed to the corner of her lips. With her teeth and her tongue, she stripped him of every last trace of his essence. His shadowed eyes bore into hers as she gazed up at him in hazy worship. His fingers left her wetness to slather it over his cock.

Rumbling deep in his chest, he leaned over her, bringing the slick head of his erection to her entrance. “I don’t just want you to fuck me, Kagome.” Her back bowed. Her nails set themselves against his shoulders as he penetrated her, just barely. “I want you to give yourself to me.” Growling, he pulled fleetingly out of her only to thrust the tip of himself back in again. “Submit to me. Surrender to me. Give me everything.”

A deeper thrust punctuated each terse phrase. An iron hand at her hip prevented her from impaling herself on him further. Kagome whined. Her stretched walls screamed with need as much strain. She was certain she had never known true desperation until now. Every fiber of her being clamored for him to fill her up in the way that only he could. Her features crumpled in agony at his absence. Her trembling hands clasped his face in urgent plea.

“Take me, Sesshoumaru,” she breathed. “Take everything from me. Take it all.”

His mouth crashed down on hers as he plunged into her, so hard and deep and perfect that she could feel herself splintering from the unadulterated bliss of it all. Tears spilled from her shuttered eyes. Her euphoric cry smothered beneath his exultant roar. His hips slammed into hers as he seized her supple flesh. Her split cheeks strained to meet his demands. Her chafed folds stung, bruising at his ruthless domination of her. As he forged a ferocious new path inside of her, Kagome’s pleasure plateaued at its height. Her arms clutched around him. Her lips fell to his ear as he set his fangs against the left side of her throat.

“Don’t stop,” she begged him as he bloodied her there anew. “Don’t ever, ever stop…”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Revised 9/8/22