Page 38 of Kings of Seduction

The inviting warmth of his lips had crushed on the top of my head, finding their way down in search of my own.

Only, a kiss couldn’t get me back this time, it had to be more, and he knew it.

I didn’t want him to find my lips, especially since he felt so desperate to do that. My selfish ego lived on exactly that miserable emotion that was ruining him. I just buried my head deeper against his chest, unable to hide the sound of my anguishing sobs.

‘I’m so sorry. It’s okay. I promise you it’s going to be okay,’ he cast the words to flow towards my ears.

Could I believe him once again?

Was it really over?

I still didn’t accept his lips on mine. My nose wouldn’t budge from the shape of his chest while my heart still trembled with the effects of what I had just done. A nanosecond and I would have been gone. Ferris was rising up to be not only my destroyer but also my savior. I just needed to know if he would make it last.

‘Let me take you inside.’ He whirled his hands beneath my knees and lifted me in his arms.

‘I don’t want to go inside.’ I just couldn’t return to the same game without knowing if I was at the winner’s or the loser’s table.

‘I don’t know what to do. Tell me where I should go.’ He wasn’t referring to where his steps should carry us next. He was referring to his life.

What could he ever do to make things right?

‘I feel I’m cursed to destroy everything I touch. And I almost did it tonight, with you.’ His fears were real, fueled by the strength of my gesture. In a way, he was right, he pushed me to climb on the ledge, but he was also the one who saved me. That had to count for something.

‘Then stop. Stop living in the past. I can’t keep bringing you back all the time. I’m too afraid of the day I’ll fail.’ Lava tears couldn’t be stopped from springing from my eyes as I just bet all my money on the last wild card. If the near-death experience couldn’t keep him with me, nothing could. ‘Stay... with me. Don’t go running or hiding in dark corners. It’s safe to share your pain. I’m one of the few people that understand it.’

‘I see them die... And every time a part of me dies with them, slow but culminating into a certain road to destruction.’ He was just stating the truth, though I recognized the path he adopted a long time ago.

And I was pleading to the last remnants of his normality. ‘But they wouldn’t want you to die, would they? They wanted you to live. So why fail them? Just because it would be easier?’

He was so far and yet so close to being a coward.

Similar to what I tried tonight, Ferris was choosing the easy way out. Just play mad until he would be all alone to pity himself.

‘Nothing is easy in my life. Look at what I’ve done to you.’ The warmth of a tear fell on my arm, getting me to raise my head from the safety of his chest and glance straight at him. His eyes were wide open, and if I didn’t know better, I could think the bead of water didn’t even come from him. But I could see the salty sparkles in his eyes, even if his countenance was showing no signs of weakness.

‘Then stop. It’s that easy.’ This time, my tears were the ones dying on his arms, unable to keep myself together any longer. I wanted so badly to set him free from his pain that I was terrified I had failed and, most importantly, that I had disintegrated in the process.

I felt as lost as he did, chasing only dark shadows in futile hopes that they could ever guide me towards the light.

But then his lips found mine, the same way his soul was holding on with last drops of hope. It was a kiss forged out of pain and bad dreams, yet it was filled with silent promises— the kiss of a new beginning.

Chapter 9

The specter of the moon was shining from beneath purple clouds, setting the sky in immortal flames. I was still shipwrecked in Ferris’s arms without saying a word, just allowing the humming of my pulse to speak for itself.

‘Aren’t you cold?’ He brushed his lips against my ear, nibbling on the skin he found along his way and sending icy tingles dancing down my spine.

Yes, I was cold. The frost of the incoming winter made me shiver, but it was also awakening something within me. A will that had been locked for too long.

I was finally craving the feeling of being alive.

And I wasn’t ready to let go of it yet. ‘I want to stay here,’ I answered with gentle touches of our lips, asking him to remain there with me.

It took only that small gesture to tempt him to go on a quest for more, using the strength of his arms to raise me on his waist. ‘Your feet were freezing.’ My savior had come to the rescue.

There was probably something wrong with my lips, too, since he decided it was time to warm them up with his own. It felt unhurried at first, like he was trying to heal my soul, gradually bringing it back to life with his kisses. But I could feel the storm brewing beneath the calm surface, fueled by the pathos growing within him.

Soon, he was burning like an erupting volcano, melting my insecurities with the power of being the Ferris I was dreaming of. He was real this time.

---