Ivory Kisses

She saw him whilst reading in the bookstore.

Selena had been sitting in the comfy overstuffed chair for the past hour, lost in the words of Bram Stoker, occasionally sipping her now long-cold tea. Lemon and honey. She had been deep into the story, when she felt that telltale frission of awareness, telling her that she was being watched. This was odd in and of itself because normally it would take "World War III", as her sister laughingly said, to distract her whilst she was deep in an interesting story.

She glanced over her book and there he was. She looked back down at the words, then up through her eyelashes, so that she could examine him without his notice. He was still staring--not a rude stare--just a pensive, albeit smouldering, gaze. She felt a blush being slowly drawn out of her.

He was a beautiful man, just the type that she had always dreamed about, but to whom she had always been too shy to talk. Even leaning against a bookshelf, she could tell that he was tall, probably about 6'1", she surmised. His hair, a thick, wavy, gleaming ebony, reached down past the collar of his black silk shirt. His skin was pale, with a pearlescent luminescence. Ebony and ivory. He had thick, black eyebrows that arched like quizzical wings, a proud, poetic nose, and high prominent cheekbones. His mouth was a deep red, with a full, sensuous bottom lip that promised gentle kisses, but it was his eyes that mesmerized her. Even from this distance, she could tell that they were a rich, clear grass green. His mouth slowly curled up into a provocative smile, making her realize that he knew that she too, had been staring. She blushed an even deeper crimson.

She became flustered, knocking over the dregs of her tea as she reached for it. Standing up quickly, she put down her head to let her long, curly, blood-red hair cover her flaming face. Through the screen of hair, she saw him straighten and mentally gasped. 6'1"? Try 6'5". She backed up, bumping into the armchair. He didn't stir, but stood there following her with his eyes. She decided to take the only logical avenue of action. She grabbed her purse, and went home.

**********************************

He watched with lazy amusement as she hastily retreated from the room. Looking down, he noticed that she had left something behind. Walking over with feline grace, he flipped it into his hand. A slow smile melted its way across his features. Her wallet. He opened it. Selena Outlaw. Anyone looking at him now would have decided to make it an early night. After all, one would have to be awfully tired to imagine a man whose smile... Something else caught his eye--ah, yes, the book that she had been reading. He left it there; his sharp eyes had already picked up the title whilst he was across the room. Dracula. Pocketing her wallet, he sauntered out of the bookstore, into the crisp autumn night.

************************************

Once home, Selena made a beeline for the bathroom. She needed a long, hot bath to wash away all thoughts of the mysterious, handsome man. She cut on the water and poured in the jasmine scented bubble-bath. Sitting on the side of the tub, she braided her hip-length hair, and then wound it into a messy bun. Her tabby cat, Artemis wound herself between her ankles. Picking her up, Selene went to the kitchen to pour her some goat's milk, and then crouched down to stroke her soft, furry back. Artemis purred her feline pleasure. Laughing, Selena wandered into the living room to choose some soft, soothing music. 'Let's see, Shankar, Liszt, Barber, Tchaikovsky, and...'--she ran her finger lightly over the titles—'Hm, well, why not?' she thought—'The Bram Stoker's Dracula soundtrack. As a matter of fact,'—here she grinned ruefully—'why not make it a night?' Biting her generous lower lip, she discarded some of her earlier choices and chose the Interview with the Vampire soundtrack, as well as the Queen of the Damned score, and placed them into rotation on her CD player.

As the first strains of music drifted through her flat, she wandered back into the bathroom, cut off the running water, took off her clothes, tossed them into the hamper, and climbed gratefully into the steaming, scented water. Sighing, she leaned back and let the water engulf her weary body. Her mind drifted off...and ran right into that infuriating man. The way that he had been looking at her with those delicious eyes...she shivered. Like he had wanted to consume her alive... She tried valiantly to turn her thoughts to more mundane matters, but soon admitted defeat. Taking the sponge and loofah, she proceeded to bathe herself, intent on the looming oblivion of sleep.

Stepping out of the tub, she pulled the plug and absentmindedly watched the water run down the drain, her thoughts drawn to the man in the bookstore. He had been just so...tall. Selena had always loved tall men, the taller the better. And his hair...she sighed. She had always loved dark-haired men, as well. Her hands positively tingled with her desire to run her fingers through his luxurious raven mane. Not to mention his lovely eyes... Standing up, she went over to the mirror, looking deep into her own forest green eyes, whilst she brushed her teeth, wishing idly that it was his emerald ones into which she was gazing. Walking over to her bathroom closet, she took out her aloe lotion and began to rub it into her already soft skin. The comforting, familiar motion began to lull her into a softly sleepy state.

She walked into her room and rummaged in her drawer for underthings and pajamas. Pushing aside her comfortable flannel, Selena reached for her scarlet silk pajama bottoms. Her hand stopped. She looked down at her choice and chuckled ruefully. 'Ah, well,' she thought, 'as long as I already have them in hand...' Donning a matching sleep bra, she moved over to her bed to draw back the curtains, and turn down the sheets. Artemis sauntered in, leapt upon the bed, curled up, and began to purr. As Selena started to walk away, she lifted her head, uttering a single, "Mew?". "I'll be to bed in a bit, love." Selena crooned. Striking a fireplace matchstick, she glided from candle to candle, lighting all of them, breathing deeply as the scents of lemon, jasmine, and various others began to waft throughout the room.

"Move over!" she laughingly exclaimed to Artemis. Indignantly stretching, Artemis stood, arched her back, and sauntered over to the opposite pillow, plopping ungracefully down upon it with a look of feline defiance. Lying back against the soft, lavender scented pillows, Selena once again allowed her mind to wander...and wander it did, right back to the man in black. She sighed, relenting. She snuggled underneath the covers, the crisp breeze from her open window playing with the escaped curls of her hair. She began to drift off to sleep, with thoughts of his gorgeous red mouth... ***************************************

A sharp knock on the door jarred her awake. She sat up, blinking sleepily at the clock--10:30--she had only been asleep for a half hour. Another rap at her door brought her fully to her senses. She pulled back the curtains and stumbled out of bed, yelling, "Just a minute!". Shuffling to the door, with Artemis at her feet as her self-appointed bodyguard, she muttered, "Who is it?"

"You left your wallet," a delicious baritone voice with a strong English accent intoned. Instantly jarred awake, Selena leaned against the door, knowing--just knowing--exactly who it was. Looking through her keyhole, she discovered that her surmise was correct.

"Oh," was all that she could think of to say.

He held up her wallet to the peephole. "See?" he inquired.

"Just a minute!" she called.

Walking over to her armoire she withdrew a dagger and slipped it into the back of her pants. He may be Eros incarnate, she chuckled to herself, but she wasn't stupid enough to open the door completely unprepared--a dagger and her proficient experience in not a few martial arts should take care of most problems. She walked back to the door, took a deep, steadying breath, unlocked and opened it...and stared into a black expanse of silk-clad shoulder. Selena had always been proud of her 5'9", but compared to him, she was almost average. She looked up, and was immediately arrested by his eyes, just as vibrant as she remembered. Eyes like two soothing pools of green, so like her own and yet, despite their lighter colour, deeper, somehow, darker. The motion of her head caused her to catch a whiff of his scent. Clean laundry, some sort of shampoo, and....another breath...him. 'Wow,' she thought pensively, 'What are they putting in the laundry detergent these days?' "Hi," she managed.

"Hi." He gently smiled down at her. After a few beats he said "Your wallet?", and held it out to her.

"My wallet. Right." She stood back and leaned against the door, the movement prompting his eyes to slowly travel down her body. She blushed as she remembered that she had failed to put on a proper top. She straightened her back, embarrassment causing a full body flush, as she vainly sought to cover herself without seeming obvious about it. His eyes once again met hers, but there was no trace of disrespect, no leer. "Well?" she prompted.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" At this Artemis hissed and growled deep in her throat.

"Invite you...('How quaint.' she thought.) Right. Yes. Of course. Please, come in."

Smiling kindly, he swept in and she closed her eyes, breathing in his scent. Opening them quickly, lest he catch her, she closed the door. He handed her the wallet. Artemis ran at him, hissing, but was quickly scooped up by Selena, who walked over to her bedroom and tossed the cat gently on the bed, closing the door.

"Thank you," she softly murmured as she returned.

"You're welcome." He gave a small bow, eliciting a laugh from her.

"Oh, by the way, my name is--"

"Selena."

"Oh, right. Wallet. So...what's yours?"

"I'm Adrian."

"Adrian. That's a lovely name. Can I get you anything? Are you thirsty?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," he admitted.

"You can sit. I'm afraid that all I have is juice, milk, and water. I don't drink wine." For some odd reason, this caused him to throw back his head, cover his mouth, and laugh. She peered at him quizzically.

"It's just that, I noticed that you had been reading Dracula in the bookstore and one of the most famous lines is, "I--"

"--don't drink...wine," they finished together, laughing.

"Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, what do you want to drink?" she inquired. "I have pomegranate juice, grape juice, cranberry juice..." her voice trailed. His eyes caressed her face, and quickly flickered down before he said,

"Ice-water is fine, thank you."

"One ice-water, coming right up." She turned to leave, when he said,

"What's that in your pants?"

"A hairbrush," she lied, not missing a beat. She made a detour to her bedroom and, as soon as she opened the door, Artemis ran out and disappeared somewhere into the flat. Shrugging, Selena went in and rummaged in her drawer for the matching top to her bottoms. She then went into the kitchen to procure the water and a glass of cran-grape juice for herself. Walking back into the living room, she handed him his water, which he gracefully stood to accept, once again looming over her. She sipped her juice, and then stopped, noticing that his eyes had fixed on her, with that same intensity that he had demonstrated in the bookstore, seemingly concentrating on her drink. "What is it?" she asked.

"Well, it's just--red hair, red mouth, red pajamas, red drink. Let me guess, your favourite colour?"

"Elementary, my dear." She laughed.

"It's your colour."

"Well, thanks." Putting down her empty glass, she suddenly noticed that he hadn't had any of his water. Following her eyes to his glass, she asked, "You're no longer thirsty?"

"More than ever."

'Of course," she thought, 'Water, who wants water? He was just being polite and here I am acting like--' but he was suddenly moving...leaning down until he was on her eye level. "So, is there anything else that I can get you to drink?"

"Actually, yes." His mouth was a thought away from hers. She slid her hand behind her to the dagger. "You."

Jumping away from him, she pulled out the dagger and took a defensive stance. He straightened and gave her an amused glance. She blinked and suddenly the dagger was gone and he was behind her, one arm around her waist, the other around her breasts in a tight embrace. She opened her mouth to take a breath, to fight, and he moved his arm from her breasts to place his hand gently over her mouth. She indignantly stood there, offended that he thought that she was cowardly enough to scream. "You just do not want to scream," he whispered in her ear. He lowered his hand.

"Wasn't planning on it!" she snapped, head-butting him.

He stumbled back, letting go off her as she ran for her weapon, her hair coming out of its bun and trailing behind her like a flag. Just as she was about to reach for it he was in front of her, between her and her dagger. Blast, he was quick. He didn't move, just stood there, as if he had all of the time in the world. Diving over the couch, she reached her armoire, heaved open the doors and pulled out her staff, swinging it around just in time to connect with some part of him that made a funny noise as down he went. Leaping back just in time, she kept herself from being thrown off balance by his scissoring legs. He leapt up, laughing and growling.

She went on the defensive, holding the staff as he slowly circled her. He suddenly made a feint to the left that she anticipated, turning as he planned to catch her off guard on her other side. She pretended to fall for it, then turned and swung at him as he went for her. Her back was too him as she felt the full impact of the staff hit something. She knew that she had made contact, but there was no thump of him falling to the floor. She spun around, only to find that he had caught the end of her staff in his hand and was holding it lightly! The amount of force behind her blow should have shattered the bones of his arm all the way up to his elbow. He grabbed the staff, throwing it out of her reach.

"You are quite strong," he conceded with a tilt of his head. He started towards her and she spun, hitting him in the middle with a kick that took him back several feet. He straightened, brushing off his stomach as if nothing had happened. "Very fast, as well, I see." He smiled and she saw that both his canines and lateral incisors had lengthened into points. Sharp and white. Suddenly he was behind her again, this time squeezing deliberately until she began to pant from the lack of air. He loosened his hold slightly and there was no sound other than her sharp, staccato breaths and the quiet strains of Eliot Goldenthal's "March Funabre" from the Interview soundtrack.

'How appropriate,' she thought.

"Adrian, please--" she began.

"Oh, no, no, no, no," he whispered seductively into her ear, rocking her slowly back and forth, inhaling the scent of her hair. "Don't beg. That comes later." He spun her around to face him, pressing her trembling body close to his and she saw that his pupils were vertical slits, like a cat's, his irises a pale silvery green, like moonlight on leaves. He gently brought her head to his shoulder and lazily began to unwind her braid. Still rocking back and forth he caressed her hair. Selena's heart pounded against his cold body.

Taking the nape of her neck in one hand, he gently pulled her head to one side and lowered his mouth to her neck. She closed her eyes. Several beats passed and still he didn't move. Finally, he whispered, "You smell...absolutely lovely, but you know one thing that I'm not scenting? Fear. Now, why is that?" She didn't answer. He buried his face in her soft hair, inhaling deeply, his eyes slightly rolling back in his head. Selena just held her body as stiffly as she could. Holding her against him, he began to sensuously laugh. "Ohhh. I see, then. You are afraid, just not for your life, but for something else...what is it?"

Suddenly he thrust her at arms length, looking admiringly down over her body, then into her eyes. He narrowed his own, as understanding dawned over his face. "You're a virgin!" He smiled. "And you're afraid that I will...relieve you of that particular malady." His sarcasm made her flinch. He brought her slowly back to him. "Relax. I'm not going to rape you," he said in a singsong tone. She allowed her body to loosen slightly. He went on, "No, that would be entirely too kind," she stiffened once more, "letting you play the martyr." He laughed out loud. "I wish that you could have seen the look on your face. False hope," he sighed. "I love it. No, my dear," he crouched down, looking into her eyes on her level and lifted an eyebrow, "I promise you that you are going to enjoy this. There, there, dying's not so bad. I've done it once, myself," he drawled.

With that he swept her up into his arms and began to take her into her bedroom. Artemis shot out and stood in his way, legs planted, her back arched, every fur on end, hissing loudly. Growling, he bared his teeth at her.

"Wait!" Selena called out, "Do not hurt her!" He chuckled.

"At an obvious disadvantage and still giving orders. I like you. Fine." Bending down, he scooped the scratching, biting Artemis up with one hand, tossed her gently out the window onto the fire escape and deftly closed it, with Selena still in his arms. She had planned on trying to escape, but he really was quite fast...

Adrian set her gently down on the foot of her bed, crouched over her, one arm on either side of her, and looked into her eyes. His own had returned to their normal grassy green, the pupils reassuringly round. He leaned over her, bringing his face closer and closer to hers, causing her to crawl backwards towards the head of her bed to try to get away. He crawled after her, like a cat, until her back bumped the pillows. Bracing himself with one arm against the wall, he took her chin with the other and lowered his mouth to hers. Selena closed her eyes, determined not to react.

He nibbled the sides of her mouth and then gently kissed her. His lips were soft and he didn't apply any pressure, just kissed her tenderly as if he could spend the rest of her life kissing her. A sharp bolt of electricity ran from her mouth down to her stomach, causing her breath to quicken involuntarily. As soon as she opened her mouth to gasp, he used his lips to suckle her bottom lip. Moving his hand from her chin to the nape of her neck, he deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue slowly into her mouth, drawing hers out, tickling it with his own. She pulled away her mouth to try to breathe. Adrian moved to her ear and breathed into it, eliciting an involuntary shiver from her. When he snaked out his tongue and traced the seashell curve of her ear with it, then dipped it inside, she bit her lip as a wave of sensation rose over her. He moved his head lower, placing his mouth over her neck. She tensed, waiting for the bite. He opened his mouth and something powerful brushed her throat--it didn't hurt--but shards of light exploded behind her lids and a tremor ripped through her body, making her feel weak and feverish. Selena gave up. If it was going to happen anyway, why not enjoy it?

She ran her hands through his hair, bringing his mouth to hers and kissed him with all of the passion built up in her from years of yearning. Her flavour and scent sent all the blood his body had to spare right to his cock, which was throbbing so hard that it hurt. He moved back slightly and then began kissing down her throat, to the top button of her shirt. He moved one leg so that his thigh was between hers and deftly undid the buttons, kissing her heated skin after each came free. When he reached her navel, he ran his tongue around the small silver barbells that resided there, causing Selena to arch slightly. Moving to one side, he undid the string holding up her pants and, looking into her eyes, drew them off with a gentle tug. Climbing back to his original position, he undid the clasps on the front of her bra, cupping her breasts as they emerged from the carmine fabric. He ran his thumbs over the dusky rose tips, huskily whispering, "Is this how you like it?" An involuntary gasp was ripped from Selena's throat and she arched her back, driving her breasts into his palms. She felt his cock pulse against her thigh. Sitting up, Selena tried to undo the buttons of his shirt, with little success. Adrian ran his hands over her breasts, whilst biting her earlobe, and she ripped his shirt with a small cry of surprise. Pulling his shirt over his shoulders, Selena accidently brought her breasts to his lightly furred chest. She had always hated chest hair, but he had just enough to create a friction that made her close her eyes and squeeze her thighs around his. He closed his eyes in silent appreciation when he felt her hot sex open like a flower on his leg.