Chapter 70 - First kiss

"Your face is really red," he said, laughing. The way he was staring at me made it harder for me to ease my heartbeats, and I couldn't even hide my blushing face because he was holding my hands with his own. 

"L-let me go," I said. 

"Will you run if I let you go?" he asked, tilting his head in amusement, "I don't want you to run from me." 

My lips pressed into a thin line, not able to give him an immediate answer to his question because I was indeed planning to run the moment he let go of my hands. I lowered my head in an attempt to hide the redness of my cheeks, biting on my lower lip when I said, "I won't run."

Luke looked at me with a narrowed eyes, wondering if the words I said were the truth. After a few moments of thinking, he decided to put faith in my words and finally let go of my hands. Not a second after he let go of them, I immediately turned on my heels and ran from the man.

This time again, he caught up to me in a matter of seconds, and soon, my legs were no longer standing on the ground but hanging on the air. The man had thrown my body over his shoulder, carrying me as if I was a bag of rice. I let out a shriek, clenching on his back to not fall. 

"Luke!" I shouted, "Put me down!" 

Luke sat me down on a window sill, placing his hands on both sides of my thɨġhs, "It seems that my rabbit is a bit of a liar," he said with one of his fingers poking my cheek, "I am not a man who take lies very well, rabbit. You should only say truthful words," he leaned closer, showing me his smile. "Now, shouldn't we continue what we left off before?" 

While he leaned closer to me, I leaned further away, trying to distance ourselves but to no avail as my back had touched the window behind me. I placed my hands on both of his shoulders, stopping him from coming closer, "W-wait, Luke."

"Stop pushing me," he took one of my hands, closing his eyes before planting a kiss on my palm, "You don't know how hard I am holding myself back right now." 

When he opened his eyes, they searched for mine, gazing into me with an indescribable amount of affection and longing. The crimson of his eyes was the prettiest one I have ever seen, and I found myself to be lured deeper into it.

He let go of my hand and went to the side of my cheek, ċȧrėssing it with his thumb, "This time, can I really kiss you?" 

"But... I don't know how to kiss," I whispered, blushing. For the second time, I felt the nervousness of being so close with the man all over again. I have read some stories about a man and a woman who loves each other deeply, but never have I thought I would have such a man for myself. 

"Neither do I," he chuckled, saying, "We can learn by trying." His eyes then slowly flickered down from my eyes to my lips, then back to my eyes again, "Shall we start learning then?" 

Just a moment ago, I was busy running away from the man. But now, I was back in the same situation which I tried to escape from before. I was utterly shy, not used to be in such a situation. I was used to being alone, but now that I have another presence in my life, everything felt awkward and new to me. I didn't know how to respond to his advances nor how to respond to his touches.

If by learning I could get used to them, then I might as well learn—as there was a big possibility that I would be living with this man for the rest of my life. So I slowly nodded my head, and in turn, he let out a mesmerizing smile before going in for the kiss.

He leaned forward, the two of his hands going to either side of my cheeks. When the distance between us decreased, he closed his eyes, and I followed suit. Then slowly but surely, he tilted his head, and finally, our lips found their ways to each other for the first time. 

The moment we touched, the flutters inside me only intensified. Everything around me blurred away, as if we were the only ones in this world. I could only focus on the taste of his lips, on how soft they felt against my own. The man stole my breath away, invading all of my senses with a wave of his warmth. 

All thoughts were nearly silenced, and the smell of him hypnotized me beyond reason. At first, I stayed still, not knowing what to do. But Luke seemed to know better than me at this, so I followed, moving my lips the way he moved his. 

The kiss was slow and gentle but very much affectionate. 

I could feel my toes curling and how my fingers were clenching on Luke's shirt. My whole body was tense, but when I felt him stroking my cheeks reassuringly, I found myself relaxing by a bit. My heart was thumping violently inside my ċhėst, and so was his—it was both of our first. A little weird and awkward, but still. 

"You taste good," he said, his eyes still lingering on my lips. He used his thumb to stroke my lips, and as if it was not enough, he leaned closer, wanting to go for another kiss. 

Noticing that he was going closer, I quickly placed my fingers over his lips, "W-wait. I-I think it's enough for today," I mumbled, turning my face sideways.

The eyes that were on my lips then moved to my eyes, "Why? Do you not like it?"

"It's not that I don't like it..." I faltered, gulping down the lump in my throat, "I... I don't think I would be able to handle any more than this," I took a little peek at the man, and my cheeks flushed harder. 

Hearing it the man laughed, saying, "Ah, right. My little rabbit is not good at handling too much shyness at a time, can you?" He then cupped my cheeks, raising my head to look at him, "You are really adorable, do you know that?" 

"What about you?" I asked, "Are you not shy?"

"No," he shook his head, "I have kissed you a lot of times..." he said, and my eyes immediately grew wide, not knowing when it happened until he added, "....in my imagination."

"W-why did you imagined such a thing?" I pushed his shoulders, wanting to get off the window sill. But the man won't budge and returned my question with another question. 

"Are you really asking because you don't know the answer?" he asked.

"B-because you are curious?" 

"No, silly," he denied, gently flicking my forehead, "Obviously, it is because I am head over heels for you. And I want to do countless of things with you, but unfortunately, you seem to be taking your time in warming up to me, so all I could do was to imagine," he explained, taking a lock of my hair and planting a kiss on it, "But now I had enough of imagining things."

When I received the hidden meaning behind his last sentence, I coughed out loud, choking on my own saliva due to the shock. I didn't know what kind of things the man had imagined, but if he kept them on his head all this time, that means it was something that I was yet to be comfortable with.

I wonder what other things there were in his head? I couldn't even imagine going in for another kiss! Even thinking about it made my heart race.

"What are you thinking?" he grinned, and by the looks of it, I ȧssumed my whole face was as red as a tomato. He always seemed to enjoy the sight of me with flushed cheeks, moreover if he was the one who turned them red. 

"W-what? I am not thinking about anything," I shrugged, but my eyes wouldn't meet the man. 

He let out a hearty laugh, patting my head, "Don't worry, I did say that I would wait for you, remember? I won't rush for our second kiss, but surely," he smirked before adding, "I won't be too patient as well."