Defy Not The Heart. Amy Blankenship

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СКАЧАТЬ feel warmth in his veins as her fear eased from seeing that he was alive.

      Shinbe spoke in a raspy voice, “Kyoko, please. Help me… get it off.” He strained to shove the dead beast off, but his arms were trapped between it and his body. Even possessed, the mindless demon should not weigh as much as it did, and should not have put up such a fight. His eyes narrowed sensing a shattered piece of the crystal so close to him, “Kyoko, it’s riding the power of a talisman… find it.”

      Kyoko quit pushing at the gigantic creature for a moment, trying to focus her power to scan its body. When the guardian heart crystal had shattered and rained down across the demon realm, it had sent demons of all sizes into a frenzy to find the powerful shards. This must have been a small scorpion at one time… until it was lucky enough to be possessed by a demon then come across one of the missing pieces and get one hell of a power boost.

      â€œThere!” she gasped as she noticed a small electric blue glow coming from its neck. Stifling the urge to retch, Kyoko looked into its still open mouth. Making a face, she reached in and grabbed the crystal, watching as the scorpions size automatically began to shrink. Quickly, she pushed and it slid to the side enough that Shinbe was able to push it the rest of the way off before it shriveled up smaller than the size of her hand.

      Kyoko looked down at him, his long midnight blue hair obscuring his face, but from its movement she could see he was trying to catch his breath. Her gaze traveled his body looking for wounds. His side was bleeding profusely where the demon had hit him hard with its pointed leg. She looked around blindly for something to stop the bleeding. Then she ran to her towel, knowing it would be good to press against the wound.

      Shinbe sat up giving a disgusted glare at the dead little bug. With his hand over the slice in his side, he turned his attention back to Kyoko and silently watched her run to get the towel she’d discarded in her haste. His gaze roamed her body, completely forgetting about the pain he was in.

      'She has forgotten she is still unclothed,' he thought, 'Well, I’m not going to remind her.' He tried to keep his expression calm as she came back with the towel.

      Kyoko sat down beside Shinbe, tugging on his trench coat, trying to see the wound. "Shinbe, do you think you can remove this," she fingered the cloth. "I need to see where all of this blood is coming from."

      Her voice was still breathless and soft to his ears, almost seductive sounding. He was so mystified about how much she really cared that he forgot to fantasize about her asking him to take off his clothes.

      Shinbe removed his robe-like coat, and undid the icy-blue shirt underneath. It fell off his shoulders and slid down his arms to lie in a pool around him, baring his chest and taunt stomach muscles to her, along with the gash on his hip. He reached down and pushed that side of the lose pants down a couple inches, so she could better see, but left his arm across his lap to hide the evidence of his erection.

      Kyoko swallowed as she tried to stay focused on the wound, instead of what surrounded it. Placing a hand across his exposed skin to steady herself, she pressed firmly with the white cloth, watching it turn crimson. She felt his muscles jerk under her palm and it sent heat shooting up her arm. Her startled emerald eyes went quickly to his, locking with his amethyst gaze.

      He noticed the blush spread across her cheeks as their eyes met and wondered at it, feeling his own flesh heat where her soft hand was touching him. "Kyoko, are you all right?" He watched her nod weakly as she looked back down at the towel, removing it gently to see if the bleeding had stopped. Seeing it had, she went to wet the rag so she could clean the rest of the blood off him.

      Shinbe looked down, thinking to himself, 'No wonder it quit bleeding, all the blood has rushed to another destination.’ He sighed, quickly clearing the thought away as she came back and kneeled over him, giving him another view of her bra-clad breast. His darkening amethyst gaze darted back to her face. He knew she had to put some clothes on if he was to keep his dignity.

      Kyoko was slowly wiping the blood from his skin, making sure to be very, very gentle when she heard him say her name in a husky strained voice. She stopped her movements and lifted her face towards his. But the way she was leaning, she found herself only mere inches from his face. His eyes almost glowed and he seemed so much larger than life at that moment. Her focus slowly lowered to his lips as neither of them said a word.

      Shinbe watched her lips part, and his body moved with a will of its own as he closed the distance between them. He brushed his lips across hers in a feather-light kiss that was only the calm before the storm… his breath heated across her cheek. Then a roaring blur of red and black slammed into him as pain shot through his wound that his guardian powers had just started healing.

      Shinbe was hauled backward and slammed into the ground by a very enraged Toya, who now stood above him, pointing one of his twin daggers directly at his throat.

      "What the hell do you think you are doing kissing Kyoko, you bastard?" Toya screamed, shaking with rage. The sight of Shinbe kissing Kyoko was forever burned into his retinas. "I left her in your care and you decide to molest her?" he yelled, infuriated.

      Shinbe's amethyst eyes darkened to a deep purple.

      Kyoko shoved her way between them, her back to Shinbe as if protecting him. Glaring at Toya, she demanded, "Don’t you dare!" She threw out her hands in a shielding gesture. "It’s not what you think, Toya."

      Toya lowered his dagger with a snarl, "Oh yeah, then why the hell are you naked?" His silver eyes lowered on her bare skin to make his point.

      Kyoko's world came crashing down on her, and she just knew the gods were laughing about it as she froze in place. All of a sudden, she felt the breeze across her bare skin, and could feel Toya's eyes heating her skin just as fast. Dropping her arms back to her sides, her gaze sought out her clothing, seeing they were now dry and laying on the rock not far away.

      Snapping her eyes back to Toya’s, she hissed, "I was attacked and Shinbe saved my life. I was helping him because he was wounded protecting me, and so what? I kissed him, big deal. It was a thank you!" She tried to ease her way out from between them and toward her clothes, but changed her mind when Toya again pointed the dagger at Shinbe's throat.

      "You asked her for a kiss as a reward for saving her? You damned pervert!” Toya growled out, now even more furious with the guardian. Then with one quick jerk, he grabbed Kyoko's arm, pulling her behind him and out of his brother’s sight.

      Shinbe's eyes flashed with anger at Toya's treatment of Kyoko. “Put the blade away, Toya," Shinbe's words began to ice as he stood up brushing his pants off, his chest still bare. He towered over Toya menacingly, being the taller of the two, getting ready to fly into him. After all… no one had ever called him a coward.

      Kyoko hurried back around and slipped between the brothers once again. Her breast accidentally brushed Toya's chest at the same time that her back grazed Shinbe's hot skin because they were in the middle of taking a threatening step closer to each other. Her eyebrow began to twitch.

      "I kissed him. He didn’t ask for it. Now, both of you go away so I can get dressed." She looked up, searching Toya's silver gaze and softened her voice almost pleadingly, "This is bad enough without making it worse."

      She felt Shinbe back away and without turning to look, she knew he was getting dressed. She could hear the rustle of the material as he slid it on with jerking motions. Knowing better then to turn and look, she kept her eyes glued to Toya waiting to see if he had any more tendencies to injure Shinbe. She almost sighed in relief as she heard Shinbe’s retreating footsteps as he СКАЧАТЬ