Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Gwen

Crap, what sort of situation have I gone and gotten myself into! We’ve had a great day and I’ve gone and ruined it. I saw it in his mind; he didn’t seem to notice me snooping. I watched him recognise the tension in my body and see that something was bothering me and now he won’t let it go. First I can’t stand to be around him because he’s a stalker and a creep. Then I realize that I find him incredibly attractive and now, over the last few days, he just had to go and be a good guy! I’ve never felt this attracted to someone and, even more importantly, I’ve never had someone try and make me say that I am. It’s not love, this isn’t a Disney movie. I can’t just fall in love with someone after a few days and wait for my happily ever after, but there is definitely lust and my thoughts in his apartment were headed in that direction before I pulled myself together and remembered that the bastard can read my mind. After a day of flirting, innuendo and fun, how could they not go there when I’m standing in his bedroom and he’s standing so close beside me that our arms are touching?

Now, he’s staring at me over my own table, waiting for me to confess that I’d prefer it if he wasn’t wearing his wonderfully tight t-shirt and he was standing a hell of a lot closer to me. This. Is. Not. Good.

“Well,” I finally say. “Dinner was great. I guess all I have left to do is clear the dishes; shower and curl up in bed with my book.”

I stand up, hoping to get away before he can try making me speak again. My hopes are dashed when he gently wraps a hand around my forearm, caressing the intricate icy swirls that are still etched painlessly into my skin. Lightning and fire shoot through my body from where he’s touching me and I almost drop the plates in my hand. His hand pauses on my arm and he looks up at me, a surprised expression on his face. I look into his mind and see that he’s just seen a few of the things that I was trying to hide, and I nearly die then and there. My concentration must have slipped while he was holding my arm and he took the opportunity to invade my thoughts.

“You shouldn’t have seen that,” I say, backing towards the front door and getting ready to kick him out. What he’s seen is what I felt when he touched my arm and a few of my thoughts from his apartment that involve how attracted I’ve realised that I am to him. He’s also seen a few made up scenarios that involve him kissing me, and I have a great imagination, so they’re detailed.

“Is that all this was about?”

“Is that all?” I say, incredulous as to how simple he’s made it out to be.

“Gwen, that really isn’t bad,” he says, beginning to close the distance between us. I’d run out the door, but that would just be a lot more embarrassing.

“Those ones weren’t that bad, the other-“ I feel my face light up in a furious blush that I’m betting glows brighter than any of the lava in his apartment. I cannot believe I’ve just said that.

“The others,” he grins. “I have to see those.”

“Nope,” I say, completely mortified by what he’s seen already. “You really don’t.”

“What do you think has been running through my head all day? Not just today; for the last week.”

That pulls me up short, cutting off my next sentence. I was about to kick him out, now I don’t even think I can remember how to speak English.

“Will it make you feel better if I show you what’s been going on in my mind all day?”

Nope, it probably won’t, my experience with guys is limited so this situation is entirely out of my comfort zone. It’s not like I’ve never been with a guy but I’m in no way experienced in relationships of any kind. I dive in anyway, too curious to let my anxiety stop me.

It starts off sweet; him realising that he’s attracted to me and being surprised by it because he hasn’t felt anything for anyone in years. Then it goes to something a little more heated; him wanting to kiss me in a myriad of different ways. Then, it goes a little more toward where I’m at; he apparently thinks my clothes would look fantastic on the floor. I bring myself out of his mind to find him standing right in front of me. He reaches out and runs his hands down my sides, letting them rest on my hips, teasing his fingers beneath the hem of my tank top and running his fingertips across the smooth skin at my stomach and sides. I nervously reach my hand towards him, moving them beneath his t-shirt and splaying them across his hard stomach, running the tips of my fingernails across the ridges of his well-defined abs. He shudders and, in one swift movement, picks me up, wrapping my legs around his waist and pinning me against the velvety rose petal wall of my apartment. Having me pinned against the wall and no longer needing to hold me up, he moves his hands to my thighs, exploring them, his fingers never moving higher than the hem of my denim shorts. I can’t comfortably explore his six pack from here, so I move onto his arms; tracing every bulging muscle. The tension between us is so thick I’m surprised both of us are still able to breathe, neither one of us want to break it, both of us are waiting for the other to close the remaining space. I can feel him in my head, testing to see what I want him to do and how far he can take this and I give him exactly what he wants. I move my hands to the hem of his shirt and begin lifting it over his head. I’m not sure getting naked with him right now is what I want, I’ve only known him for a week, but I definitely want him to be minus his shirt so it’s not in the way, and I can keep exploring his torso. As I throw it across the room I notice that he has a scar spiralling around his chest and arms that I decide to ask him about later, but right now he’s in my head again and I want a little more.

“It’s up to you,” I tell him, bringing an image of him kissing me to the front of my mind and looking into his eyes, watching him make his decision. His hands move back to the hem of my tank top, and he starts lifting it over my head. I feel a little self-conscious but since I’ve just taken his shirt off I make no move to stop him, it’s only fair. Besides, I’m still wearing my bra. Thankfully it’s a nice one.

“What do you want, Gwen. Tell me. I’m not pushing you any further than you want to go.”

“You’re in my head so you can see that this is far from pushing me.”

I had decided that sex probably wasn’t the best idea, but honestly I’ve been questioning that decision since I took his shirt off. He smirks, hearing my thoughts, and moves his hands further up my stomach, towards my chest. In his mind I can see that he’s very appreciative of my breasts.

“Tell me, Gwen.”

I think for a moment and decide that not getting naked is still probably the best decision for now…well not getting more naked.

“No sex.” I set the limit and he finally breaks the tension.

His hands move to cup my backside and he presses his mouth to mine in the most exquisite kiss of my life. He kisses me hard and I return the pressure, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him closer. He growls low in his throat, a sound I never knew could be such a turn on, and deepens the kiss. He carries me over to the couch, sitting down and positioning me so that I’m straddling his hips. The way we’re sitting makes me taller than him, putting his head on level with my chest and neck, something I realise he’s quite enthusiastic about. His lips move from my mouth, kissing across my lower jaw and down my neck, gently biting across my collar bone before he reaches my breasts. He slowly moves his hands up my body until he reaches my chest, his fingers tracing the underside of my breasts beneath underwire of my bra. I make a noise in the back of my throat, a sound I didn’t even know I was able to make, and he responds by returning his mouth to mine even more hungrily than before. I move my fingers through his hair, pulling slightly, angling his head to the side and making him groan again, giving me access to his neck. I run the tip of my nose across his jaw and down, nipping his earlobe before kissing across his chest.

“Maybe we should stop now,” he says.

I pull away, reluctantly, not wanting to push him anymore than he wanted to push me.

“Okay,” I say, slightly disappointed. His hands are still stroking across my ribcage and I linger, my hands still on his sculpted chest.

“I should probably get off you,” I say, not really wanting to stop, but climbing off him anyway.

I feel a bit awkward again, but at least I wasn’t rejected or laughed at, so there’s a humungous plus.

“Don’t feel awkward,” he says. He must still be in my head, I’m a little too happy with the last twenty minutes of my life to worry about blocking him out.

“I’m trying not to, I’m just not used to any of this,” I smile shyly, trying to get rid of any new tension that I might be causing.

He smiles back, clearly amused by me.

“I kind of had to stop, you set a limit and if you kept kissing me like that then I was probably going to pick you up and take you into the bedroom.”

“I wouldn’t have complained,” I say, surprising him with my confession and bending to kiss him again before standing up to find my top. He watches as I put my tank back on, hang his t-shirt over the back of the kitchen chair and start clearing away the dishes that I discarded on the table. He stands and comes over to help, drying the few dishes I have and putting them away once I’ve washed them. After finishing the dishes I go to leave the kitchen but Derek grabs my hips, lifts me to the counter top and pins me there, putting a hand on either side of my body so I can’t jump down.

“Why were you so terrified of telling me? You took on eight Recruiters without a trace of fear, but you nearly run out the door at the thought of admitting that you’re attracted to someone?”

I definitely wasn’t expecting this question and I don’t know how to answer it.

“Oh no, you don’t,” he says, leaning down to kiss me. “No freezing up on me now. After the last half hour you’re not allowed to freeze up on me ever again.”

He’s right; I was just practically naked from the waste up and straddling him on my couch. How could just talking to him be a problem?

“This might come as a bit of a shock to you, Fabio, but I’m not all that experienced with guys. Answering the probing questions of a very insistent and attractive guy is terrifying for me.”

“That’s does come as a shock to me, actually. I find you nearly irresistible, I can only imagine how the humans felt.”

“Yeah right,” I laugh, placing my hands on his chest to push him away. I pause, remembering that he still isn’t wearing a shirt and getting my first real look at him since I took it off. My hands go from pushing him away, to pulling him closer and looking up at him I say;

“You might want to put your shirt back on.”

Instead he just presses his body closer to mine, a wicked grin on his face.

“And why would I want to do that?”

Recognising that he’s toying with me, I change the subject, hoping to distract both of us. I begin tracing the scar that spirals around his body.

“What happened here?” I ask. He doesn’t stop me from exploring his scar as he replies.

“It happened the day I got my powers. I was on a date and Recruiters jumped us in the park. They were tracking me because both my parents are Elementals, so it was definite that I would be too. They killed my date, Claire, and pinned me to the ground. I was able to get free and ran for it, but they were faster. One of them wrapped fire around my body to hold me in place. It burnt down to the bone, which is why I have the scar.”

I don’t really know what to say, I was thinking maybe a training accident; not an attack, murder and attempted kidnapping. I almost don’t notice when he starts speaking again.

“That’s how I met Hank, he’s a friend of my parents and he’d been keeping an eye on me because he thought something might happen. He came tearing into the alley, killed the Recruiters and healed my wounds the best he could. I was pretty confused, my parents very stupidly decided not to tell me about all of this and it almost got me killed.”

“I’m sorry that happened,” I’ve still got my hands on his chest.

“It doesn’t bother me, it was three years ago and everything I’ve gotten to do since then makes up for it.”

I still running my hands over his chest and he grins, moving a hand to the back of neck and angling my head so that he can kiss me again. It takes a minute or two, but I finally manage to pull away and ask the first question that pops into my head to distract us.

“What are we doing tomorrow? I’m supposed to start training, right?” I say, leaning back on my hands to keep them off him. His mischievous smirk tells me that he knows exactly what I just did.

“Yep. We’ll meet Hank at nine in the morning and we’ll see how the day plays out from there.”

“Okay. They’re not expecting much from me are they? I don’t want them to get their hopes up for anything, only to disappoint them and have them decide I’m not worth the time.”

“That won’t happen. The flying, vibrations, storm clouds, water bracelet and changing eyes is enough that they’ll be fascinated by you forever.”

He tried, but I’m not as reassured as I think he was going for.

I get off the counter and move back to the table. I take his shirt from the back of the kitchen chair and hand it to him.

“You really need to put this back on,” I say.

He grins and pulls his shirt over his head, winking at me when he sees me looking and making me blush all over again.

“You should probably go.”

“Kicking me out already, oh well, I’m just down the hall if you want me. Or if I want you.”

“Cool your jets Turbo, I’ll be going to bed and sleeping.”

“That’s a shame,” he smirks, moving toward the door.

“Yeah, you seem truly crushed,” I smile back. He laughs as he walks out the door and says;

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The second he closes the door I put walls up around my mind. No way is he allowed back inside my head, I don’t want him seeing what is bound to start running through it any second now.

Thought one is that I’m an idiot:

a. For letting him affect me at all and

b. For setting a limit

I shower quickly and curl up in bed, not bothering to read or sketch before I close my eyes and let myself drift off into an anxious sleep, half expecting Derek to show up in a dream.