In His Arms

All previous disclaimers apply.

Author's Note: Warning: Lemon/Lime, Don't like, please don't read.
Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story. I'll try to update sooner from now on. As always, if you feel the need to flame, please be civil about it. With thanks!


Kagome smiled softly, content with herself and with the evening, as she ran her comb through her newly washed hair. The dinner had not lasted as long as she had anticipated it would and she had been excused to bathe by Sesshomaru just after the last course. He had some business to take care of, some more planning to do for the Great Gathering, but he would come to her rooms when he had completed it, and he expected her to be ready for him. As beautiful as she felt in the formal make-up and kimono, Kagome knew that neither the make-up nor the elaborate hairstyle would be very comfortable when she was on her back, Sesshomaru on top of her, making love to her. She set down the brush and set a hand to her stomach when she felt the arousal start low in her belly. It was an extremely new sensation, but one that was not unwelcome in any way. She had only felt it once or twice before in her life. The first time was when she had first known Hojo, before she had been pulled into the well and had her life turned upside down. The second time had been the first time she’d ridden on Inuyasha’s back. Of course, it had quickly evaporated when he had been such an asshole about something or other almost as soon as they had stopped for the day. She set the brush down and looked at herself in the new mirror placed in her room sometime in the afternoon.

She smiled as she surveyed herself. She had lost weight during her illness, then regained some of it during her training period, but not all that she had lost. The baby fat was gone from her face, giving her the look of a grown woman. Her hair, once wildly untamable, was smooth and sleek and fell down her back in panels of deep black, so black it was almost purple. Her skin was clear and a little paler than when she had come to Sesshomaru’s palace. She was sure that was due to the fact that she had not been outside nearly as much as when she had been travelling around the country. Her eyes, though she couldn’t say why, had taken on a slightly lighter tint, making them not so deep a brown, but more of a gently red-tinted brandy color. They were really quite beautiful. Perhaps they had always been that color, she mused, but she was just now noticing it because she finally realized just how beautiful she was. She was as beautiful as the others had told her time and time again. She looked like Kikyo.

She cocked her head to the side as the thought popped into her head. Yes, she did look more like Kikyo than she had in the past. But, while Kikyo’s beauty would always be aloof and cold, Kagome knew hers would never be. She had children. One was lost to her, true, but it didn’t change the fact that he was hers. There was something in her eyes and in the way that she smiled that would never be on Kikyo’s face. It was love. She could remember reading “Peter Pan” as a young girl. She had always been fascinated with the description of the kiss hidden just in the corner of Mrs. Darling’s sweet mouth that Wendy and her boys could never seem to get at because it was meant only for the child who would never have a mother but would always long for one. She was being overly fanciful, she knew, in her happiness, but she could just barely make out that there was one in the corner of her mouth as well. She wondered if all mothers had one as she set two fingers to the corner of her mouth.

She was brought out of her musing when the door to her room slipped open and Sesshomaru stepped inside and closed the door behind him. She brought her fingers away from her lips and smiled at him. He always looked so immaculate. The expression on his face was unreadable. It was not as cool as per usual, but at the same time it was not warm and open. She turned her knees toward him and bowed so that her forehead was almost to the floor.

“You did very well this evening, my favored. You have pleased me very much.” He crossed the room to her in two quick strides and knelt next to her, cupping her chin in his hand and coaxing her slowly into an upright position so that he could look into her eyes.

“I thank you, my lord, for your praise.” She took away complete subservience with a wry smile and a quirking of her eyebrow. Remarkably, almost, he didn’t seem to notice either.

“I have a gift for you. A reward for your excellent performance at the ceremony.”

“I need no reward, my lord.”

“Never-the-less, you shall receive one. All of my concubines are rewarded when they please me as you have done tonight.”

“Very well, may I make a request as my reward, Lord Sesshomaru?”
Now Sesshomaru’s eyebrow quirked in annoyance. She was being very brash, demanding to choose her reward when he’d already chosen a fine kimono for her from the store that his mother had kept while she was still alive. Sesshomaru had never gifted one of his mother’s kimonos to any of his concubines and thought he was being very generous. Yet, the way she made the request intrigued him. The light in her eyes as she looked at him intrigued him. The laugh in her voice intrigued him. There was something different about her now then there had been when they’d had their encounter in the bathing room this afternoon. He couldn’t say exactly what it was, but it had him intrigued enough not to be particularly angry with her. Who knew, perhaps her request would be amusing.

“Make your request and I will decide whether or not I wish to grant it, Miko.”

“May I please be allowed into the city now, my lord? I give you my word that I will not stray past boundaries you set for me, but I wish to be visible to the people of Nishi. And I grow restless, stuck inside the palace and the gardens all the time.” The last had been added as an afterthought and Kagome wondered if she had overstepped her bounds in complaining. Sesshomaru looked at her for a moment, no expression on his face at all, then nodded slowly.

“That is agreeable. Take care that you do not leave without an escort, either Miyuki, Paru, myself, or any of the other concubines. And have a care as to the respect you show me, Miko.”

“Yes, my lord. I am sorry for being so brash and presumptuous,” There was a light in her eyes and she smiled at him wickedly. It was a smile meant to seduce, one of Kaida’s signature moves. Yet, Kagome seemed to have mastered it as well. He felt himself begin to harden to think about being inside of her as he had not been for weeks, “I would like to share your bed now, my lord, if it is agreeable as well.”

“Very agreeable, my favored.”

“Well, then, it seems you have entirely too much clothing on. May I undress you?”

Sesshomaru could only nod, as his voice seemed to have deserted him. She made quick work of his heavy ceremonial robes, but slowed considerably once she was down to his inner clothing. She knelt behind him, slowly slipping the fabric down his shoulders, kissing the pale, bare skin as it appeared. He drew in his breath slowly as she kissed the scar on his arm where it had once been severed. As soon as he’d left it to heal it had regenerated rather quickly, but the seam between new and old flesh was still rather sensitive. When his clothing was pooled around his waist, she moved quickly so that she was in front of him, sitting in his lap with her long legs wrapped around him. She smiled when he put his arms around her and then leaned forward so that she could place gentle, smooth kisses to his neck. He tightened his hold on her and tossed his head back, giving her full access. In the back of his mind he wondered what made him so very comfortable with her. The position he was in made him very vulnerable should she decide to attack him. He was not stupid, he had felt the awakening of her powers in the hall before the ceremony. Yet, here he was, baring his neck to her, trusting completely that she would not attack him. Though, that could be fun as well. He’d often wondered, if the Miko’s power ever awakened completely, what type of a fighter she would be. Would she be a match for him? Would they be a match for each other? Perhaps that was the better question.

“Miko,” he gasped, as she jerked her hips forward to meet his, effectively pressing his erection between them.

“You went far away,” she smiled almost innocently in response, “I had to do something to bring you back to me, didn’t I?”

“Perhaps,” he growled in response and set his hands to her hips, pulling her clothed center to his naked arousal and pressing upward.

“Hmm,” she moaned, burying her hands in his long silver hair, “Do that again.” He smiled when she gasped in arousal as he did as she said, then did it again and again, establishing a fast rhythm that would soon be the rhythm of their bodies as they were joined. He could feel himself growing harder as he watched her, riding him through her kimono, head thrown back, mouth open, tiny mewling sounds issuing every time their hips met. It was the sounds that undid him. He gently laid her down on the bedding and slashed the kimono she was wearing down the center with his claws. He hadn’t the patience to deal with it at the moment. He growled from back in his throat, controlling his animal side, when she screamed uninhibitedly as he buried his face between her legs and thrust his tongue into her, copying the rhythm he had set before. She was thrashing and moaning around him before he was through, but he could feel her frustration when he pulled away. She looked at him accusingly.

“I haven’t . . .”

“No,” he laid himself lengthwise on top of her, supporting the weight of his upper body on his elbows, “I will be inside of you when you do.” He took her lips in a harsh kiss and was pleased beyond words when she wrapped her arms around him tightly and gave herself over to him. He pulled away sooner than she was expecting however, and she made a sound of disappointment in her throat.

He suppressed a chuckle to see the pout on her face. Yes, she had truly awakened. No longer would she be the wilting flower. She was the strong, defiant woman he had always admired, though he would never tell anyone, and she expected to get what she wanted. Only now, she was his. And no one would ever take her from him. She was exactly what he’d been looking for in a woman. Strong, capable, yet still vulnerable and innocent enough to think that she needed him. She was less annoying now that she was out of his brother’s company as well. But, what was it that you found pestering, actually? The voice in his head did not bother him as he gazed down on her. Did you find her pestering, or simply the fact that this gorgeous being was in your brother’s company and not yours?

Take her! Make her ours! Mark her! His inner beast growled at him and he growled back in his mind to quiet it. He was prepared to admit that he wanted her physically. He’d even admit he was growing fond of her. She was good with his ward. Daughter, he reminded himself. He’d adopted her tonight. But, he would never mate a human. That was simply absurd.

“Sesshomaru,” Kagome moaned, “Please stop going so far away and make love to me. Please, Sesshomaru.”

“Yes, Miko.” He allowed himself a smile when he slipped into her more than willing body and she arched to take him deeper. Her reactions were perfect and her heat threatened to make him lose all control. But, he’d done that once. He would not do it again. He moaned himself and dug a clawed hand into the futon as she continued kissing his neck and collar bone, making the same mewling noises that had undone him so earlier.

“Please,” she whispered in his ear, “Oh, please.”

He found it did not take long, nor considerable skill to have her screaming his name and digging her nails into his back. He was not surprised. His concubines always claimed that he was a great lover. It was a fact he was considerably proud of. What surprised him was the fact that she bit down on his shoulder in her passion as she came and that small action pushed him over the edge as well. He spilled his seed into her supple body and shook with the effort it cost him to keep himself from collapsing on her when he was spent and completed. She seemed to have an answer to the problem right away and surprised him with her speed as she used the force and inertia of her own body to roll him onto his back so that she could lie on his chest. She purred like a cat as she made herself comfortable, laying her head just above his beating heart and pulling her arms in close to her sides.

“Only a short rest, my favored,” he chuckled from deep in his throat as he felt her begin to drift to sleep, “We have much lost time to make up for.”

He was content when she simply made a small noise of acknowledgement and drifted away completely. He pulled one of the heavy robes from where it had been left and covered them both, tucking her head beneath his chin and wrapping his arms around her. She was incredible, as he’d expected all along. His brother had been blind for not seeing what was right in front of him for so long. Well, Inuyasha’s loss was his gain. He was drifting off as well and didn’t have the energy to wonder at why he was so possessive over her. For, he knew that she was his now, in almost every way. No matter what happened, she would be his for the rest of her natural life. He would never let her go. Never again.