Kiss Me, Curse Me - By Kate Shay Page 0,43
him new stripes. He loosened his death hold and dropped his head to the floor with a loud, dull thud.
“Let him go.” She pushed at the body as the snake relaxed, still coiled around Ahanu.
Gasping, Ahanu struggled to move and waited till he recovered his oxygen levels. “I can’t move. I’m injured.”
Coreen collapsed to the floor, sitting. It had taken every ounce of energy out of her to rescue her sweet. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to get you out.”
“I’m stuck here. This thing on me. My father. He’s dead.”
“Your father? What do you mean?”
“It’s not just a snake. He was my father. He was a man—a great Shaman.”
“He’s not so great if he tried to kill you.”
“Ugh.” Ahanu closed his eyes in sadness at the thought of it. Deep down a small part of him wanted to know more about this man. What was he going to do now? His father awakened him to the wolf—this path had already been chosen for him before he was born. He didn’t want this path. Ahanu knew that. He hated whatever it was. He felt his fury well up, basked in the pain, used it to squirm, drew on the hate to move and escape the grips of the python, pushing against the scales, against the cool body, until finally he scooted out from the hole and landed on the floor next to Coreen. “Ohhhhh jeez.” He grabbed her. “Coreen, Coreen. You’re here. I can’t believe it. You’re back . . . with me.”
“I never left,” she said. “I knew I could have left. I could have closed the door to this life. But, I held on in the dark. I knew you were there, for some reason. I couldn’t see you, but I knew something. It was just a feeling—I guess.”
He held her close. “I’m sorry it took so long.”
“You were fine. I’m sorry. We’re here now together.”
They sat facing each other. He wrapped his sore, tired arms around her small waist and planted them dead center on her back, which was exposed in the dress. Her skin was so smooth. It excited him. They locked eyes like they had done before, their bodies touching even closer than ever before. He could feel her heart pounding against his, in sync. He pushed her gently down on the warmed stone floor, kept one hand under her head like a pillow, and scooted the other down beneath the curve of her spine.
“I love you,” he whispered. He didn’t care about his pain, his broken ribs—he pushed those sensations away. He was happy finally. She was here with him. “I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you. I knew you would be mine.”
She smiled there in his arms, enjoying those long-awaited words. He’d never said them before. She had waited for those words to have a single moment of completion in her tender heart.
“I want you,” she returned. She could barely speak. It almost hurt to say it, “I love you Ahanu. I want you. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Right now? You don’t want to wait?”
“No. No more waiting. We take this chance, and we take it now, unless—Are you hurting . . . ?”
“I’ll be okay. I already feel better. The pain is easing . . . I don’t know . . . like I’m healing already. I’m not sure.” He examined her face. It was pure of intent. Her blue eyes like a crystal pool, so deep, he could drown in them—innocent, yet not. She’d never said such things. She never spoke like this. It drove him wild thinking about it. He’d certainly thought about it before all the craziness, had wanted her so badly that some nights he just tossed and turned under the trees with the soft moon being the only witness to his burning agony. “I want you, too,” he leaned in closer, pressed his warm lips against hers, and parted her mouth like an open flower. Their tongues danced slowly at first. He pressed against hers, she pressed against his. It was like kissing for the first time, as if they’d never met. They were, after all, two completely new beings embracing in the sensation of their new beginnings. Something deep down in him wanted to bite. He wanted to taste blood, taste her blood—just a little, he told himself. He nipped her top lip, and she squealed.
Coreen broke their passionate seal and tilted her head back, closing her eyes. It