FEVER
Laura Smith
It's hot. Not sultry, not steamy. Hot. Hot enough to make me lethargic and weak. Hot enough that I can't think, can't reason.
"Giles?"
I open my eyes, the burning sun halo-ing out behind her. It's only appropriate, since the coolness she presses to my lips is like a gift from an angel.
Soothing, cooling water glides through my parted lips to ease my parched throat. It's not a glass she's using. It's as though she's offering me some sweet nectar from her very lips.
I dart my tongue out for another taste and she laughs softly. Not laughing at my need. She would never laugh at that.
"Will you sleep?"
I try to answer her, but her beauty holds my tongue. Her hands reach out, stroking my overheated skin, leaving trails of fire in her wake.
"You're so hot."
This time her hands are cool as they separate the clinging material from my skin, pulling it away, allowing the warm, but comforting breezes she's brought with her to caress me as carefully and lovingly as she herself is doing.
I try to cry out as she moves on top of me, straddling my thighs, but I have no voice to express my pleasure.
She pulls me to her, running her hands up my back. Her neck smells of something exotic and I breathe it in, needing the scent of her far more than oxygen.
She coaxes my shirt from me and I surrender completely. She lays me back, her fingertips like butterflies against my skin.
I try to control myself as a heat of a different kind, although no less intense, rises within me.
Can she feel it? How can she not know how my body burns for her?
Her hands are done with my chest, a relief, as I fear any more arousal will drive me, plummeting, over the edge.
Yet I ache for her as she pulls away. I feel incomplete without her healing touch. Then her hands return to me, easing the rest of my clothing off my body.
I anticipate the cool of her calm presence to ease the burning I feel, but instead her eyes ignite desire and need. My body responds as she gazes down at me, and I fear I will never be cool again.
She kisses my forehead and smoothes a cool, damp hand across it. I lift my arm as much as I'm able, held down by the pulsing heat.
I wait for the sound of her leaving me, opening my eyes when it does not come. I see her bend down and kiss the swollen tip of my cock and I feel as though I were a vampire dying in the sun.
And then she is gone, as if she'd never been. And, despite the heat, in the wake of her departure, I begin to feel the cold.
***
Time has passed. I no longer feel as though I am on the surface of the sun, but rather on the dark side of the moon.
I shiver violently, reaching out, trying to find her. A hand catches mine, pulling it close to her breast. Another shiver rocks me, this time far deeper than the cold ever could.
"You're freezing." She withdraws from me and I hear a soft thump. Perhaps the sound is my heart.
Her hands touch me again, a slow burn replacing the cold that had crept into me. She strokes my flesh, warming me. Her hands falter at my waist and I growl softly.
Misinterpreting my sound, she pulls away. I feel the suffocating heat as she covers me with the sheet. It feels as if the weight of the world rests on my weary body.
Another blanket follows, but neither alleviate my shivering. I reach for her, taking her hand again.
She sits beside me, stroking my damp hair back from my forehead. She rubs my arm with her other hand, worrying over the tremors of cold that course through me.
I wonder if she realizes that I no longer feel the cold. I only feel the heat coursing between us. I can't control my need for her as my body starts to respond to her nearness.
She again misunderstands my reaction. "You're still so cold." She moves away and it takes all of my control not to cry out for her
After what seems like an eternity, I feel the blankets move and I feel the length of her press against me.
She spoons her body around mine, and I can feel the hot flush of her nervousness and embarrassment pressing to the planes of my back.
"I hope you understand," she whispers against my skin. "I hope you forgive me."
She holds me; her nipples harden as they meet my skin through the thin cotton of her shirt. Her hand snakes over my hip, taking a tentative hold of my erection. Even in my weakened state, I'm intoxicated by her touch. I unconsciously thrust into her hand.
She moans, low in her throat, taking courage in my movement. She breathes hard, the hot moisture coursing along my nerve endings straight to my groin.
The heat finally penetrates the cold chill and I lose control, my seed coating her hand as she rubs the sensitive tip. I cry out her name, regretting my words immediately when she pulls away.
"Oh Giles," she whispers sadly, moving to the opposite side of the bed. "I wish…"
I close my eyes, giving in to the fatigue that consumes me, knowing that I'll dream of her.
Wondering if I already have.
***
Morning dawns and I wake with it, the feel of the sun's rays a light touch instead of the iron heat of the past few days.
My dreams of the day and night before dance behind my eyes and I risk everything as I turn to look at the opposite side of the bed. I don't expect the sight I see, wondering for a long moment if it's real.
If she's real.
Auburn hair cascades across the pillow and her eyelashes flutter against her cheek. I reach out and touch her soft skin tentatively. Moving closer, I brush my lips across her forehead.
Her eyes open and immediately widen. "Oh God, Giles."
"Willow." My voice is still harsh from my illness. "Thank you."
"Thanks?" She asks quietly.
"For taking care of me."
"I was worried. You were so hot."
I stroke her cheek. "Are you sure it wasn't simply because you were so near to me?" I surprise myself as I speak. Perhaps my resistance has disappeared with the fever. "Let me repay you for what you've done for me?"
I think she realizes that I'm still naked next to her. Perhaps she even realizes that her nearness has begun to have an effect on me. "Repay me?" She squeaks softly.
"Will you let me?"
I begin to ache as I wait for her to respond, all the while wondering if I've made the most horrible mistake of my life.
I don't see her move, but I feel her lithe, hot body pressed to mine. Her lips mold to me and I want to die as her hands slip over my back.
They are the same hands that soothed me while I slept, but they aren't soothing now as they sear my skin. She's pressing me close to her, her leg slipping between mine.
I slip my tongue into her mouth, hardening even more as hers duels with mine. Her mouth is like an inferno, making me wonder how her heat will feel surrounding my aching cock. I want to press inside her more than I've ever wanted anything.
She breaks the kiss and for a moment I simply stare at her. All I can see are her eyes glazed with desire. "Shall I stop?" I ask quietly.
She's shivering now, and I wonder if she's coming down with something other than need. She shakes her head. "I don't want you to stop, Giles. Not until you come inside me."
Her words spur me into action. I push her onto her back and move over her, bending my head to take her tight nipple into my mouth. The cotton fabric of her shirt grows wet and I pull away to see the dark circle of her breast. "We need you to be naked," I say softly. I move back, resting on my heels. I'm still slightly weak, but the need to see her magnificent body gives me strength.
She nods and sits up. Slipping the shirt over her head, she tosses it over the side of the bed.
I can't help but stare at her. She is perfection. Her skin is a soft ivory; the dark nipples like roses on cream. I guide her back to the bed and wrap my mouth around the hard nub again, tasting her this time. I had thought her intoxicating before, but nothing could prepare me for the feel of her skin against my lips.
Moaning softly, she arches her back up to me. I slide my hand beneath her, holding her in my arms as I devour her breast. I lick and suck and nibble the nubile flesh, thousands of fantasies I've tried to deny myself dancing in my mind.
"Giles," she gasps as I move to her other breast. Her body is grinding against mine and I can feel the wet tip of my cock as it rubs on her stomach. The heat from her body burns me and I realize I want so much more.
I unwind my arm from around her and begin kissing my way down her stomach. I trace the outline of her navel, dipping my tongue inside before continuing. I ease her panties down and off of her legs before moving back to the mound of dark red curls. They smell of sex and musk, damp with the sweat of sleep and the juices of her excitement.
Parting her legs wide, I slip between them and lower my face to her sex. The dark red lips part at the gentle guidance of my thumbs and I inhale her. The nub of her clitoris is throbbing with desire and I can sense her body's growing excitement. Taking a deep breath of her essence, I lean in, flicking my tongue across her clit.
Willow's body rises off the bed and she cries out. I suddenly wonder if there is anyone else in the house, not truly caring. Rather than tease us both, I take the nub between my teeth and torment her a bit before taking it into my mouth and lavishing attention on it.
She writhes around me; her thighs tight against me, keeping me trapped between her legs. Hearing her soft whimpers through the rush of blood that seems to fill my ears, I lick the opening of her vagina, tasting the pure, unadulterated essence of Willow.
It's like a drug that I know I'm now addicted to. I won't be able to forget the taste and scent of her. I won't be able to forget how it feels to slide my tongue along the tight passage and feel her body surrounding me.
She begins thrusting against me, eager for penetration. I don't know that I've had my fill of her, but I know that the insistence of my erection is becoming almost too painful to bear. I move forward, giving her one last, lazy lick across her clit. I watch her body react, her breasts moving with every breath and every thrust.
Positioning myself above her, I look down into her green eyes. She smiles at me, her body begging me to give her release. "This might hurt."
"No." She arched up. "I'm ready for you."
I press the weeping tip of my cock against the red lips and slip inside her. The passage is tight and her muscles clamp around me. I slide into the hilt, realizing that she's not a virgin. Somehow, I always imagined she would be. I fill her, stopping to allow her to adjust to me. "Tell me when," I whisper.
Her face is closed down for a moment and I realize that perhaps I am hurting her. She manages a smile at my worried look. "You're just…bigger…than I expected." After a lifetime of waiting, she leans forward and kisses me deeply, her tongue entangled with mine.
We thrust together, both of us close to the edge and needing release. Our bodies move in unison, an unspoken bond allowing us to move past all the fumbling new lovers have and come together in amazing synergy.
I can tell I an getting close, the intensity of her hot channel and tight muscles gripping my aching cock making it almost impossible to maintain control. I look into her face and realize she's close as well, but holding back for me. I want to ease her fears, but cannot find the words.
Moving my hand between us, I roll the hard nub of her clit between my fingers. She gasps, perhaps unaware that it is possible to do both. Her body stiffens beneath me and I feel her lock her legs around mine as she presses hard against me, burying my cock deeply inside her.
The warm rush of her orgasm is incentive enough to push me over the edge. I thrust hard a few more times, emptying myself inside her. Spent, we both lie there for a moment.
Carefully, she unhooks her legs, easing them back underneath mine. My strength, sapped from my illness, fails me and I lay atop her. Finally, mustering what I can, I roll away from her, carefully disentangling our bodies. I stay beside her, wondering what she'll do.
She curls up against my chest and tugs the blankets back over us. I look down at her, trying to push away my conscience as I realize what has just occurred. Her green eyes are serious as they meet mine. "I don't know what it means, Giles. But I'm not sorry it happened."
"Neither am I, although I'm afraid I'm suffering from fever induced hallucinations."
"It's all very real. I'm very real, Giles." She yawns and presses closer to my chest. "And very tired. You're a demanding patient."
"I'm demanding in a lot of things."
She nods, her hair tickling. "I noticed. Maybe you could be demanding a little bit later…again?"
"If you think you'll be up to it."
She turns her head and raises up a bit to place a soft kiss on my lips. "Doctor's orders."