Sesshoumaru’s knees hit the floor with a blinding flash. Beneath the tatami mats, Kagome could hear the sound of the wooden floorboards splintering outward from him still. The ends of her bangs ruffled as her breath escaped her in a huff. Well that was certainly a bit of overkill on her part—but perversely satisfying nevertheless.

“This is how I like you best,” she said softly, letting her eyes roam him up and down. His own amber gaze was narrowed and searing. “Well, almost…what are you wearing all that armor for, anyway?”

“Battle,” Sesshoumaru said, glaring up at her.

Tilting her head, Kagome noticed now the black blood flaking his breastplate, shadowing the spikes of his pauldron. “Oh, I see. For a second there, I thought you meant with me.”

Still unable to lift his sunken claws from the floor, Sesshoumaru furled them with a malicious half-smile. “Would you like to fight me, Kagome?”

The miko flushed against her will. Was it adrenaline? Raw desire? Maybe it was some combination of the two that heated her blood and tightened her stomach, as she closed the distance between them.

”I think I would like that,” she murmured. “I’d really like to light you up. But not here. Not anywhere close to here. You know that.” Her eyes glittered darkly at him as she hooked a finger between his armor and silk-clad chest. “Now get rid of this bloody junk before I do.”

She stepped back a little so that he could. If he wanted to, he could have all that armor off him in an instant, but he took his time unpiecing it along some series of invisible seams, which split apart magically at the press of a claw. She hadn’t said anything about his clothes yet, but he removed them unhurriedly also, piece by silken piece.

Kagome wanted him stripped down, even if it didn’t seem to faze him. On principle she wanted him exposed. Still it would’ve been nice if he’d shown some resistance or reservation to it. But that was wishful thinking on her part. He wasn’t the least bit modest.

Maybe modesty was just a trait that demons lacked—

Or maybe it was just him.

“It’s like you’re still wearing armor,” Kagome remarked with a twist of lip, as she pressed her fingertips lightly to the iron muscle of his chest. “You really should’ve just stayed wherever you were. You’re not so out of control these days that you need me around to chaperone you.”

Sesshoumaru’s glance was piercing. “You know nothing of what I need.”

“Great,” Kagome scoffed, rolling her eyes against the stab of unease that she felt. “More cryptic bullshit from you. Just what I’d been hoping to—”

A gasp burst from her as he snared her around the hips and dragged her to him. Kagome’s hands flew reflexively to his shoulders, singeing him to no avail. Seizing her through the silk of her robe, he wrenched up the back of her thong like he was bringing her to rein, the rest of the fabric pulling so hot and tight over the mouth of her sex that she struggled to breathe in the grip of it.

“Take off that robe and turn around,” he rumbled, releasing the elastic against her with a snap that made her yelp. “I want to see what you’ve put on for me.”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi