Page 40 of A King's Oath

“You might sometimes…” he teased and let out a bellow when she bodily pounced on him. He fell back on the grass, laughing, Ava’s tiny body over his. Her face came over his, the hair escaping her ponytail falling on either side of her face. Samarth reached out and tucked it back behind both her ears, cupping her face. His thumbs rested on the base of her cheeks, moving back and forth, registering the feel of her skin on his thumbs.

Ava moved over him, her face closing in. Samarth’s breath caught. His mouth opened. What were they doing? Were they doing this? Or was he imagining it?

“Av…” he couldn’t even complete the two syllables of her name as her big blinking eyes, looking as clueless as he was feeling, came closer. Samarth opened his mouth again to ask her if she knew what she was doing. But she beat him to it.

“Yes?” She asked.

He stilled, awed. This girl was asking him for his consent?

“Yes,” Samarth grated, his throat dried up. He cleared his throat — “But I haven’t done this before.”

“Neither have I. I don’t know how…” she gulped, her eyes straying to his mouth.

“Let’s practise,” he managed to utter before her mouth was on his, closed tight, pushing on his lips. He kept holding onto her jaw with both his hands, caressing her, reassuring her, letting her do as she willed. But she pulled back slowly.

“What happened?”

“You are supposed to kiss me back,” Ava accused.

“I am,” he smirked.

“Not like this!” She got off him and sat up on her haunches, hands on her hips. “You are supposed to grab me or something and show me how it’s done!”

He got up on his haunches too but she was so tiny that he chose to get back on his backside and cross his legs — “But this is my first time too.”

“Uuughhh!” She slapped her hands on the grass to push herself up. “Let’s do it some other time!”

Samarth grabbed her arm, pulled her in his lap and kissed her full on the mouth. Her lips in his. Her belly shuddered against his as he pulled her flush, cupping her face in both hands again. Her arms came around his neck and he realised he was doing something right. That is when Samarth threw caution to the winds and let himself loose. He brought to practise all the he had ever seen and read and heard.

He pushed one hand into her bound ponytail and slowly let his tongue lave the edge of her lips. They tasted of mint. Peppermint. And were smooth, soft, like a juicy ice apple in the thick of summer.

“Oooh…” Ava’s breasts shuddered, pushing tighter into his chest.

“Open, Ava,” he demanded. And like he had once commanded her to use a walking stick and she had obeyed, she opened her mouth today as well and obeyed.

“Umm…” she made a strangled noise but her fingers fisted his hair as he pressed his tongue inside her mouth. He licked, slowly, and then when he knew how pleasurable it was for her, and him of course, Samarth grabbed her around the ribcage with both hands and went all in.

She responded, letting him kiss her, creating something new between them, letting her tongue meet his, then retreat. Samarth pulled back, kissing the corner of her mouth. He let her catch her breath, took a few of his own and went back. Like two divers, they kept coming up for air and going back, having discovered something so pleasurable and addictive he wondered how he had lived with Ava without kissing her all these years!

“Why did I waste it…” he panted on her mouth, eyes closed.

“What?”

“The time. I could have been kissing you like this long back.”

“We were in 7th when we met first,” she chuckled, panting, her sweet breaths warm on his cheek.

“And people were gettingcosythen too…” he complained. Now he knew what Advay and gang were doing in the back trenches. He didn’t want this with anybody else but if it was like this at the get-go, he didn’t want to imagine how good it would become as they grew older.

“I like this,” she asserted, pushing her face back from his. His eyes popped open. Samarth frowned.

“You just said youlovethis ten minutes ago.”

“I mean I like how we built up to this. You are my best friend, Samarth. You are the person I go to. For anything and everything. I don’t like showing it to you all the time but you know naa that I always want to be with you. I missed you on all my vacations. I miss talking to you every day in class now. I miss you in my cricket practises too…”

Samarth smoothened his hands down her ponytail and framed her delicate face in his hands — “It’s the same for me too.”

Her soft confession passed, and his naughty Ava pecked his lips, then his nose, then went ahead exploring his face with her pecks like a little bird. Samarth sat back and let her, enjoying every single moment of it.

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