Innocent Temptation

Chapter Nineteen: First Kiss

Aira’s scream was muffled by a large hand on her mouth and as she blinked in the dark she realised that her nightmare was very much real. Someone was in her bedroom. She thrashed on the bed, trying to run away. But the man gripped her around the waist and pulled her tight against his chest.

Her heart pounded, still racing from the nightmare. But slowly, her fight started subside as her senses alerted her about the things she was unable to see with her bedroom in pitch black. She mumbled against the hand clamped on her mouth in that familiar manner that she’ll know anywhere and she relaxed against his chest as she inhaled his familiar scent.

“Are you okay?” His low voice made goosebumps rise on her arms. “You are safe.”

For a brief moment Aira clung to him, taking this rare chance to feel him so soft and close to her like he had never been before. And it occurred to her sleepy mind that it could be all a dream, but the cool touch of his tshirt on her cheek and the steady rhythm of his heart where her ear was pressed told her that it was all real.

It wasn’t a nightmare turned into dream, it was the reality.

Mac was here. In her bedroom. In the middle of the night.

And as he slowly withdrew his hand, she shifted away from him and turned the bedside lamp on before facing him.

“Macalister.”

“Will you stop calling me that?”

She ignored his question as she asked her own, a very important one. “What the hell are you doing here?” She almost screamed and when Mac glanced at her bedroom door, she hissed out, “Are you crazy? And, how did you even get in here?” His eyes went to the window answering her question without a word. She glared at him, her breaths still coming choppy from the scare he gave her. “Why are you here, Mac?”

He looked at her, his eyes boring deep into her. And as Aira looked down at herself, she bit down on her lip to see that the strap of her pink silk gown had slid down from her shoulder. And because she wasn’t wearing any bra, her nipplés were poking through the soft fabric. She grabbed the comforter to her chest and looked at him, waiting for him to answer her.

He raked his fingers through his hair and looked anywhere but at her as if he was now questioning himself for being in her bedroom. He said something in such a low voice that she couldn’t make out the words. “What?” She asked. “I can’t hear you.”

He turned his eyes on her and answered, “I heard you crying in your sleep.”

For a moment, Aira was stunned as she stared at him. Then, she asked as if talking to a kid, “You heard me crying in my sleep so you decided to climb through my window in the middle of the night?”

His face remained hard and his eyes empty as he shrugged. She sighed and then she slipped out of the bed and came to stand before him. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and had to tilt her head way back to look up at him as she decided that it was a great opportunity to have it out with him when he himself stood here.

For some reason, she didn’t care much about the fact that he climbed through her window and was in her bedroom uninvited, rather if she was honest, it filled her heart with those soft gooey feelings that she didn’t want to experience once again. But his words made it difficult for her as he just told her that he was here because he heard her crying in her sleep and there went those feelings, clamoring for something out of reach.

She pushed those thoughts away though, because there were more pressing things to focus on like what he did to poor Greg. Glaring at him, she demanded, “What did you do to Greg?”

Mac narrowed his dark eyes on her as he said, “I didn’t do anything to him.”

“You know what I am talking about, Mac. How could you interfere with someone’s job!”

He took a step towards her and despite her resolve she took one back. “I told you not to test me. It’s on you so don’t blame me. I warned you about the consequences.”

Her eyes widened and she gritted her teeth. “I am not your puppet or you my master, Mac. I will do whatever I want and it has nothing to do with you who I date or go out with. You had no right to ruin someone’s carrier.”

He scoffed, unrepentant. “I hardly ruined his carrier, he can find many such projects back in London. I just wanted him out of here.”

“You mean away from me.” He didn’t say anything. She bit out, “That wasn’t your decision to make.”

“I told you, he wasn’t good for you.”

“And you know that how?” Aira looked him in the eyes as she said, “Listen to me, Macalister Evans Colson, you can’t just control my life like that. You don’t get to decide who’s good for me and you sure as hell can’t play with my feelings and someone else’s life like this.”

Mac’s expression shifted, his eyes darkening, the softness from moments ago replaced with something hard and unreadable. He didn’t move, didn’t try to close the distance she had created between them as it was becoming impossible for her to stay in one spot.

His silence was maddening. Aira could feel her heart thudding again, this time not from fear but frustration. She had always known Mac was protective, but this was different. This was manipulation. This was control.

“You can’t do this. It’s not like you want me for yourself that’s why you don’t want to see me with someone else, so just let me live my life the way I want.” She waited for him to say something and when he didn’t answer, her heart sank. She hadn’t expected him to confess to anything, but his silence spoke volumes. She felt her heart gave a painful pang but she swallowed her emotions and said, “I don’t want you to interfere with my life anymore. I don’t want your help in anything, even if I’m falling from the top of the building. And, I don’t want to even see you anymore. Next time just make sure you change your direction when you see me and I’ll do the same. And if you think this will stop me then let me clear it for you, this won’t. And more you try to control things in my life, more I’ll d exact same thing you don’t want me to.”

“Does this mean you won’t stop seeing him?”

Aira smiled at him. “Yes.”

He nodded. “Fine. Then don’t come after me when I do something else.”

“What are you going to do next? Kîll him?” At his silence, her eyes widened. And she stammered, “Y-You won’t, right?”

“I won’t have to if you stay away from him.”

She wanted to scream but all she did was turn away from him before she let her frustration out on his giant body. Breathing heavily, she whispered, “Just leave. Please.”

Aira thought he will leave then because it was what he did best but then she felt him standing behind her as he closed the distance between them. She took in a deep breath and was ready to demand that he leave her alone once again, but he spoke not giving her a chance. He said, “All I am trying to do is to make sure that you're safe. I am not trying to control your life. All I ever wanted was to keep you safe and away from anything that could hurt you.”

You hurt me! She wanted to yell at him, but all she said was, “I never asked for you to keep me safe.” She turned around to look at him and realised that he was too close. She sucked in a breath as she looked up at him. “And, you can’t go around ruining people’s lives and carriers to keep me safe.”

“I can.”

“Why?”

Seconds passed as they looked at each other. Minutes. And then he was grabbing the back of her neck, pulling her up against his hard chest as his head bent down and his mouth hovered above hers. He was close now—too close. Aira’s senses were overwhelmed; his scent filled her nose, a mix of coffee beans and something strong. Was he drunk? She was thinking that if it was true then it will answer his sudden appearance in her bedroom.

But then all her thoughts seized to exist when his lips brushed against hers. Once. Twice. And, then he was claiming her mouth like he had been waiting for it his whole life.

Aira’s eyes widened in surprise before they closed as pleasure thrummed through her entire being. Mac was kissing her!

The kiss was everything that she used to dream about. Fierce and demanding, igniting a fire that left her breathless. Aira’s body responded instinctively, her hands curling into the fabric of his shirt as she melted against him, all thoughts of anger and frustration slipping away as she moved her lips against his. She was tentative at first and when his tongue pushed in silent demand against her own to give him access to her mouth, she acquiesced and sighed when his tongue met hers. And, it was as though the entire world had shrunk to just the space between them and where their lips touched and kissed and claimed and marked.

It was her first kiss. She didn't count that pressing of lips against Zurich’s when she was eighteen. He was like her brother and she had only done it out of spite, but this… This was the kiss she had always wanted and needed it as her first. Because unlike him she didn't break her promise.

When he finally pulled back, their foreheads resting against each other, Mac’s eyes searched hers, the intensity still flickering in their depths. “God… so sweet, angel…” He kissed her again as if he couldn’t stop himself from doing so.

And then, surprising her, — making her tremble in his grip from the desire and unknown— his lips travelled to her cheeks, to her jaw and down the slope of her throat. She let out a quite whimper, her small fingers slipping to the back of his neck and gripping his small hair there. She stood up on her tiptoes as she arched against him when his mouth travelled lower and he kissed the exposed skin of her breàst.

The intensity of the moment overwhelmed her senses. His lips were firm and demanding as he nipped her soft flesh, and she felt a jolt of electricity that seemed to dissolve all her hesitation. Her heart gave an excited leap as she melted like hot chocolate in his arms, her earlier frustration giving way to a desperate longing as she thought if this was the moment she had been waiting for all her life.

But then Mac pulled away from her with a low curse. Her heart beating crazily against her ribcage and she almost swayed on her feet without his tall frame for support. When she looked up at him, she froze. All her warm feelings dissipated as she saw the cold look of disgust on his face. “I shouldn’t have done that,” he said quietly. “It was a mistake. I don’t know what came over me. It won’t happen again.”

Aira felt like he had just slapped her. She felt her insides curdling as if someone put her in the boiling water and then forgot about her. But then the anger came with quick ferocity. She lifted her eyes to his, and pleaded to God that he couldn’t see her heartbreak as she said, “Of course, it won’t. I’d rather kiss hundred ugly frogs than you.”

His lips twisted. “Like you haven’t already. I am sure you weren’t a chaste wallflower with your boyfriend back in Paris.” She sucked in a breath and he took a step toward her as he said, “It won’t happen again because I wouldn’t want to be the another name on the long list of man who’d already had you.”

She slapped him then, surprising herself and him. And she thought he was going to retaliate again with something more crueller than the words he’d already said. But thankfully he didn’t get another chance to flay her open with his words as her mother knocked on her bedroom door and called from the other side, “Aira? Are you okay? I heard voices?”

She gulped and swallowed the urge to cry. When she looked at him Mac was already striding toward her bedroom window. He didn’t even glance at her as he disappeared out of sight. “Aira?”

She wiped the tear that slipped down her cheek and turned to open her bedroom door to assure her mother that it was just a nightmare. Only a nightmare, nothing else. Nothing as heart-breaking as a rejection that she should be accustomed to by now.

.

A. Gupta