Page 49 of Emma & Edmund

"I..." Emma's voice cracked, "I have dreamed of you. I don't know how or why, but it all felt so..."

"Real?" He supplied, brushing a brazen kiss over the tip of her nose.

"Yes, every bit of it." There was no more reason to lie.

"And what did I do in your dreams?"

"Please don't make me repeat it..."

"Were we at Belmont together? Did you lead me deep into the woods?"

Emma gaped at him, each specific memory burning in her mind as he recalled them. "How did you..."

"And," he continued, swiping a thumb over her lips, "the first time I held you in my arms was the first time I kissed you?"

"Edmund!" Emma tried again to push away, but her laughing captor didn't move a bit. "How did you know?"

"My dear friend," he all but purred in her ear, "I don't know how, and I don't know why, but I have dreamed of you, too. I share the same memories, and I am reminded of them all as I hold you now."

Whipping her head up, Emma searched for any sign of deception in his face but found none.

"How is that possible?"

"How am I possible?"

"That's a decent point, I suppose."

The burst of laughter that coursed through Edmund shook Emma with the fervor of it, and she couldn't help but smile along. It was all so ridiculous that it almost made sense. And it most definitely felt so ridiculously right, so dangerously good.

"Emma," Edmund lowered his voice once more, still shaking from the remnants of his laugh, "despite all good manners, I find myself unwilling to let you go."

She couldn't meet his gaze, her heart beating so loudly that he surely heard it as readily as she heard his. But even in her embarrassment, she didn't find herself pausing with her answer. "And I find myself wanting you to prove yourself."

"How?" He asked, already lowering his face to hers.

"If you truly shared my dreams, then kiss me as you did in the willow."

There was never a time that Emma felt Edmund to be a danger, not since the very first moment they met. He had only ever been as gentle and as caring a being could be from the second she awoke in the cabin. But the wicked grin he shone down on her couldn't be described any other way.

In one smooth, swift movement, Edmund swooped Emma up by the back of her knees, cradling her close to his chest. Cupping her face, grey eyes bore into black for one brief moment before the space closed between them. Emma couldn't tell if it had been him or her that leaned in first, but it truly didn't matter once their skin touched.

She should have kept running, she realized too late, for she was not willing to leave his arms now. Not when his simple kiss chased all propriety from her mind, sending all manners scattering as heat pooled lowly in her stomach, just beyond her belly button.

When he pressed his massive, slick tongue into her mouth, Emma lost herself completely.

With a desperate moan practiced in her sleep, she wrapped her arms around his thick neck, pulling herself in just that much closer. He obliged her, cupping her in closely as he turned back to the cabin.

Edmund proved to her just how much he knew every inch of the path, the reach of every tree, and the spot of every hidden stone. He navigated them entirely by blind memory alone, lips never leaving Emma's spare for the wild catch of a breath.

They remained unparted when the safety of the cabin was before them. In his rush to catch her, Edmund had left the door open and swinging, which only made it easier for him to kick out of their way. The thunderous boom of wood against wood shook the walls, reverberated through the air, but failed to stop the two.

"Where?" Edmund breathed over her face, only pausing long enough to speak the single word.

"What do you mean?" Emma, with effort, successfully asked. It was quite difficult to talk when your lips were being stolen every other breath.

"Where will I finally be gifted a taste of you? Just one drop could satisfy me for a lifetime."

"Edmund!"

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