Page 25 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Not like that.”
“I missed you.” Finn kissed my forehead. It was a sweet gesture and it made me feel warm all over, but I had missed Finn too, and standing in his embrace, breathing in his scent, I wanted more than an innocent kiss among friends. And so I leaned up and pressed my lips to his.
He hesitated for only a second before taking me up on the invitation. The moment he responded to the kiss, every rational thought that might still have lingered in my brain was gone. His lips were warm on mine, rough and soft at the same time in a way that I couldn't even explain. My heart was beating like crazy, and my blood felt electric as Finn's tongue touched mine.
I knew that I shouldn’t start anything with Finn while my days were numbered, but the voice of reason in my head turned to nothing more than background noise--easily ignored as Finn ran his fingers into my hair and I let myself melt against him. I'd dreamed of this whenever I'd needed to distract myself these past few days. I'd told myself that I was going to make it back here and... do exactly this.
Eventually Finn stopped to catch his breath and the expression he regarded me with was full of wonder, as if he wasn't sure we'dreallyjust kissed. He was cute that way, so I kissed him again, just briefly. That seemed to reassure him, if only for a moment.
“Are you sure you want to be doing this?” he asked, his hands on my hips as if he wanted to stop me from running off again.
“I'm a free man,” I said. Sick and without a cure, but free.
Finn grinned like a dragon who'd just found hidden treasure. Leaning in, he spoke into my ear. “Do you want to be free or do you want to be mine?”
The words sent a shiver down my spine and I knew immediately which I wanted. I also knew that it wasn't that simple, but that moment, I didn't care. “Yours,” I said, and he tightened his grip on me as he kissed me again, harder this time. He was still gentle, because he was Finn, but there was an intensity to the way he kissed me that made my knees go weak. I'd sensed that he was attracted to me before, but it wasn't until then that I got an inkling of how deep his feelings for me truly ran.
I should have stopped then, but I didn't. Instead, I ran my hands beneath Finn's shirt and reveled in the feeling of all those hard muscles under my fingertips. Jin had been fit too, but his strength had intimidated me where Finn's reassured me. He would never hurt a soul. Except maybe for Jin. The fire in his eyes earlier had been real.
But if it came to that, I wouldn't stop him.
Breaking the kiss, I took Finn by the hand and led him to my bed.
Once there, I took his clothes off piece by piece. I'd already seen him naked once before, at the hot spring, but now I could take my time and feast my eyes on each part of his skin as it was revealed, because I wasn't Jin's anymore and I could finally reveal just how much I wanted to go down on my best friend. And he was every bit as gorgeous as I remembered. He smiled at me as the last of his clothes came off and nothing obstructed my view of him anymore. He didn't appear to be the least bit self-conscious, but I'd never known him to be.
I was a different story. Finn looked at me expectantly, and I knew that he wanted me to follow his example and get naked, and Ialsoknew that he'd seen me without clothes before, but... my face wasn't the only part of my body that showed signs of abuse.
I didn't want Finn to see the bruising. He'd only get upset, and I didn't want that to spoil the night.
“Is something wrong?” Finn asked when I hesitated.
“No, it's just... Can I make an odd request?”
Finn tilted his head. “You can ask for anything you want.”
I gave him a soft smile. “Could we turn off the lights?”
The request made Finn frown. “You don't want me to see you?”
“I'd just be more comfortable that way.”
I saw understanding dawn in Finn's eyes. “Is this because that bastard--“
I held my hands up. “Let's not get into it now, okay?”
Finn bit his lower lip, but then he nodded. “Alright. If that's what you want...”
“It is.” I drew the blinds, switched off the light, and the room fell dark. Not completely dark, but just dark enough that you couldn't see details. Then I approached Finn again while taking off my shirt. “I want this to be about you and me and nobody else.”
“But if I don't see where you're hurt, how do I avoid hurting you further?”
“Don't worry. It's not that bad and I know you're going to be gentle whether you can see me or not,” I said, fiddling with the zipper on my pants.
“I would never want to hurt you.”
“I know. You're not going to.” In that, and so many other things, he was fundamentally different from Jin. Maybe that was why I liked him so much. After Jin, he was the only dragon who didn't make me uneasy on some level.
As soon as I'd gotten rid of my clothes, I pulled Finn into a kiss, and onto the bed with me.
