Chapter 57 Sentimental
\[Lilia\]
I know of him as someone I characterized as a monster. One without a soul and a heart of stone to anyone around him. Yet, right at this moment, I could only see a man.
Just a man that holds something sentimental.
I could not say that the place where he brought me was beautiful since it was practically night and dark. Only a sheer glow from the moon illuminated the surroundings. But, as I stared at Kael, I could make out the outline of his solemn feature. The relaxed and serene visage that I haven’t seen on him since.
“How did you come across this place?” I ask, moving around, looking apprehensively in case some wild animals were residing in here aside from us.
Yet, aside from the occasional noise coming from cicadas, there hasn't seemed to be anything that causes us harm.
“I found this place since I was ten,” Kael responded to my inquisition, taking my attention back to him.
He walks towards the drier part of the sand, and he finds a large rock with a flat surface and seats himself there. Under the light of the moon, the water droplets that had collected on his skin glistened, and my eyes followed them as they made their way down to his bare torso. Kael only wore black trunks, and bits of sand had clung to his legs.
“Ten? You used to live here in Italy?” My eyebrows went up quizzically, quite surprised to learn that a Russian magnate is actually a bit sentimental over a small island around Italy.
“My mother was an Italian. We used to come here every summer,” he supplemented his statement. He must have seen the perplexity drawn to my face.
I only nodded, not knowing what else I could say or, better yet, ask him. My mind was essentially blank at the moment. Or, to say the least, I have learned something new about him. He's a half Italian, not that too uncommon nowadays, but an important matter, I guess.
I turn my eyes upon the shore we came in. However, I didn't know which direction should I face.
Silence had befallen us one more, and I moved to his side, occupying the space next to him.
I didn't want to stray away from Kael for fear that something might suddenly jump out of nowhere, startling me to death. Even more so, ironically, I felt safe being near him.
Surprisingly, it wasn't that cold here, and it seemed as though the arching rock had kept the place warm at night, and the wind wasn't blowing as hard as I had anticipated, unlike the shore.
“Are we safe in here?” I abruptly chimed for the nth time already, turning my eyes to him, still slightly anxious about the place, although he had already told me that everything in here was safe.
“kukla, I won't bring you here in the first place if it was,” he chuckled, raising his hand and brushing his knuckles on my face. His mere action immediately sends sparks and jitters down my lower belly that I have to clench both legs discreetly, hoping he won't notice.
I cleared my throat, fighting down a moan, and grip myself not to lean to his touch.
“No snakes? Poisonous octopus? Sharks?” I continued my investigation while leaning back and using my arms as braces on the rock. I then lifted my head and gazed into the moon.
“No, just us.”
I could feel the weight of his stare lingering on my face, but I opted to ignore it even though it was already burning me up on the inside.
While I was struggling to keep a straight face while trying to work out my thoughts, the question of why we were at this location began to weigh heavily on my mind.
“Why did you bring me here?” I finally voiced out, taking an interest in the visible craters of the moon above us instead of looking at Kael because I was very sure that once I met his stare, I would lose every control I had gained over my body.
“I don't know. The idea just came to my head, and the next thing I know, we were swimming straight up to here.”
That seems to be the only logical explanation he could give me. Well, I was just peacefully sitting in a collapsible chair when he suddenly came up to my side, asking if I wanted to swim with him.
“Hmm,” I simply hummed in response, still refusing to look at him.
I wonder if Aya and Val were looking for us. Did Val know this place too? Surely, Aya would be bombarding me with a series of questions about where we had gone off, and I am not even sure if I am allowed tell her about this place.
I was too consumed with my own thoughts when a warm, rough hand cups the underside of my jaw. I was caught off guard a little bit, startled in my seat, and I almost lost balance in my arms. I tilted my head and finally gave in, meeting Kael’s gaze as his thumb ran over my cheeks.
“Why aren't you looking at me, kukla?”
I blinked up to him, my mouth parting, but words could not come out, having any idea what else we should do here. I tried to think of an alibi, and the moon was the first that came up to my mind.
“I was too busy looking at the moon,” I blurted before I could think of anything.
“Should we go back?” he suggested, his hands moving down to my neck tantalizingly slow, muddling my head with the rough texture of his palm grazing on my skin.
My mind momentarily went to the two, wanting to use them as an excuse. They were probably wondering where we were, but that thought of them immediately snatched away from my head just as Kael’s thumb rubbed circles at the back of my neck.
“Do you not want to stay here?” I rasp out, sucking up the air and filling up my lungs as I hold it for a second. My body, once again, thrummed for more of his touch, and the need burning between my legs became intolerable.
“I want to stay here with you for a little longer,” he whispered softly, his voice so low that I couldn't almost hear it, along with the sound of waves gently splashing on the shallows.
Kael pulled me closer to him by wrapping his arms around my waist, which ultimately led to me standing in front of him. As I laboriously attempted to reach his chest at my height, the sand began to tilt under my toes. His large palm splayed widely on my spine as I leaned back to look at his face.
My heart thundered the same way it did when we were on the plane, and it confused me so much as to why I was feeling this way towards him.
“What is this?” I gasped, catching his one hand on my neck and holding it as though my life depended on him.
“What is what?” His puzzled face loomed down on me, his nose inhaling the salty scent of my hair, and I felt his arousal poking at my belly.
Butterfly went off within me like a bomb. My knees are becoming too jelly to stand, and if it weren't for his hold on my lower back, I would have already skidded on the sand.
“This, you're making me feel this,” I said softly, moving his hand down to the cadent beating of my heart, pressing his palm so he could feel the erratic pounding of my chest.
My breath was shallow, my mouth gaping as I stared at his lips, wanting to claim his mouth as mine.
“Do you not like it?”
I shook my head subtly, closing my eyes, as I reckoned the times when he wasn't like this when he held a gun to my head. Where he violated me and took me without my consent, those are all red flags waving just before my eyes. Nevertheless, it seems that I was unable to recognize any of these cautions.
All I am feeling now is him and nothing else.
“I am supposed to be hating you, not the other way around,” I say to him, moving his hand even further down and having him slip a digit to the cleft between my mounds and brush his roughened finger pad on my fully hardened nipple.
“Shhh, you don't have to say a thing, okay?” he moaned, circling his finger on my nipple, eliciting a sudden gasp escaping my lips, throwing my head behind.
His grip on my back tightened, pushing me even closer to the bulge of his arousal as one of my hands wandered to the band of his trunk.
“You got me addicted to your touch, Kael.”