The Height of Hospitality by Aimee Blue

Chapter 1

A/N: I’m not a lemon writer, but I decided that I’d give this a whirl as the idea dug its teeth in and wouldn’t let go. This was written for r0o’s GM challenge.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Inuyasha.

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In the bustling kitchen of her aunt’s ryokan, Kagome hummed cheerfully as she prepared the radishes for the evening meal. In her second year at university, Kagome lived and worked as a nakai in her aunt’s ryokan as it was suitably close to the campus and, provided she worked, free accommodation.

“You’re cheerful today, Kagome-chan,” the chef commented as he fussed over his pots.

Another nakai, passing through with a basket of fresh produce from the town, laughed at his observation. “Kagome-chan is always happy on this day,” she teased and Kagome flushed prettily in response, ducking her head bashfully.

“Hm?” the chef, who’d been recently hired, seemed perplexed, “Why’s that?”

The nakai giggled and tapped at the wall calendar pinned to the notice board. The little box representing that day was embellished rather heavily with gleeful hearts and stars.

“Today is the day of Sesshoumaru-sama’s annual visit,” the nakai murmured.

“Aiko!” Kagome protested, her blush deepening into a crimson colour.

“He’s Kagome-chan’s special someone,” Aiko confided, waggling her eyebrows, “Or at least he will be when she can pluck up the courage to confess!”

Kagome threw a tea towel at Aiko to hide her blatant embarrassment as the shoji was drawn back and the owner stepped into the kitchen, one brow raised in mute question.

“Oba-sama!” Kagome exclaimed.

Huffing in a put upon manner, Kagome’s aunt fixed the assembled workers with a gimlet stare. “Aren’t you all supposed to be working?”

Kagome winced, ducked past Aiko, and slid out past her aunt. Her aunt could be very strict when it came to the maintenance of her precious ryokan but Kagome knew better than most that the love and passion her aunt poured into the ryokan was the reason that it was such a popular respite. Sliding open the door to the room that would be Sesshoumaru-sama’s for that night – it always was, he was very particular about that – Kagome carefully laid out the tea things on the table in preparation for his arrival. The room had been cleaned already and all that was left was to bring in the futon.

Kagome smiled wistfully as she carefully fussed over his room; she’d been infatuated with the dog demon since the first time she had laid eyes on him.

Aged seven, she’d been visiting her aunt’s ryokan with her mother and had woken up in the middle of the night. Mid-hunt for a place where she could perhaps get a drink, she’d stumbled across Sesshoumaru’s room. The door had been slightly ajar and, curious, she’d peeked inside. He’d drawn open the shoji doors and invaded the garden in just a pair of hakama.

The seven year old had watched, entranced as he practised with his bokken, twirling through the garden as graceful as any dancer. The moonlight had added to his otherworldly feel and she had clutched at the shoji door as she stared at him in awe.

That was when it started. She’d become ensnared by this ethereal, entrancing person.

Age, she had thought, was supposed to provide a smidgen of maturity not otherwise seen in emotional teenagers, but she still felt like one at the mere mention of his name. No date she’d ever been on could ever measure up to Sesshoumaru’s tranquil elegance and natural poise.

Not that he’d noticed her infatuation. He probably thought she was always a bumbling idiot. But such feats of amazing clumsiness and tongue-tied awkwardness only struck when he was in the vicinity.

“He’s here!”

This little half-shout snapped Kagome from her reverie and she nearly tumbled over the hem of her kimono in her haste to get to the genkan. Kneeling down alongside the other nakai, she frowned in bemusement as she realised her aunt was conspicuously missing.

“Owner has gone to bed,” Aiko disclosed hurriedly, “Apparently she’s hurt her back and won’t be performing her duties today.”

“What?” Kagome gasped, glancing worriedly towards her aunt’s rooms, “Then....” All at once it dawned on her. If Auntie was indisposed, the duties of okami fell to her. Crap.

The door drew back and Kagome calmly bowed alongside the nakai as their travel-weary guest stepped into their establishment.

“Welcome back, Sesshoumaru-sama, to Kanze ryokan,” Kagome spoke, schooling her voice to sound less like she was five minutes away from becoming a gibbering wreck. “I am Higurashi Kagome and I am acting okami. We are all very honoured that you have returned.” She straightened from her bow.

And drank him in. In a journey-rumpled suit, he radiated the demonic vitality that added a spicy darkness to the air around him. Broad shoulders belied his appetite for physical exertion and clawed, callused hands spoke of his battle prowess. His long hair was pulled into a low, loose ponytail and the escaping silver strands clung to his face jealously. As ever, his mouth was cruelly sensuous and drew her eyes effortlessly.

“I know you,” he uttered, blinking blandly. Those slitted pupils were rather disconcerting and the weight of his golden gaze was heady and made Goosebumps rise on her arms.

“Please, allow us to help you with your luggage, Sesshoumaru-sama.” Kagome managed to keep the professional smile on her face as she rose to her feet, gesturing with a flourish that he should follow her.

Head held high, she strode along the corridor to the room reserved for Sesshoumaru. He was a very... particular guest and always insisted on the same room. The golden gaze felt rather probing and she’d never been more aware of him than she was in that moment. Before, she’d been insignificant but now, she was the centre of his attention. The shift was bewildering and dizzying.

“Your room,” she demurred, keeping the carefully polite smile firmly fixed in place on her face. Aiko and the others carefully filed in with his luggage and bid a strategic retreat covered with a polite bow. “I hope you find it satisfactory.”

Sesshoumaru prowled around the room, looking for who knows what and then turned to face her again. The woman was trembling slightly under his attention, and the sweet scent of her attraction to him mingled headily with the scent of his own desire for her. Was she aware of her own allure? He doubted it; she was watching his mouth with a rather glazed look, even as she went to make the customary tea that he expected upon arrival.

He knelt opposite her at the chabudai on an ornate zabuton, his posture far more relaxed than hers and tinged with the right hint of provocative aggression. Her seiza was impeccably straight and laced with nervous adrenaline that subtly clouded the lust she was attempting to beat away by immersing herself in tea-making.

Every year he had noticed the girl, and each year she had been the reason for his visit. This time, however, he would not be leaving the ryokan empty handed. Not this time.

Smouldering golden eyes latched on to the elegant stretch of her creamy throat; her hair was twisted up into a bun and held in place with hairpins, keeping her neck bare to his gaze. He wanted to taste her throat, to kiss and bite and lick at the smooth flesh until she was begging for him. The eggshell blue kimono she wore was elegant, but it was frustrating him. It covered her beautiful body, hiding it from his eyes. Yet, he could still make out the glorious swell of her breasts and he wondered idly if she was wearing a bra or not beneath the pretty kimono. Heatedly, he wondered what colour her nipples would be, dusky pink or blushing rose?

He wanted to unwrap that kimono with his teeth and find out.

Sesshoumaru’s lust was affecting her, whether she knew it or not, the arousal that was pouring off him in waves making her squirm in her impeccable seiza as her nipples pebbled unbearably. Cheeks flushed as she realised he could probably smell her, he knew.

Tentatively, she met his gaze and blue clashed with gold.

The downy hairs on her arms and skin lifted as she held his gaze and she trembled as, languidly, his eyes traced a burning path along her body. Her breath was coming in little gasps as she felt his gaze over her breasts like a molten caress.

And he hadn’t even touched her yet.

Shaking her head, she attempted to stop this... whatever it was.

“Sesshoumaru-sama...”

He chuckled, darkly amused at her attempt to evade him. Her lust spiked at the sound and he knew that, despite her attempted escape, his want was fully reciprocated.

He stood confidently and she froze where she sat, watching with lust-glazed eyes as he rounded the chabudai and walked to her. Stalking her, he prowled closer and her gaze dropped embarrassedly from his eyes only to catch sight of his erection straining against the zipper of his trousers.

She squeaked and glanced at her lap, franticly wondering what she should do now. The prissy side of her was screaming that this was way too fast, the wanton side of her, on the other hand, was salivating. She licked her bottom lip nervously, earning a rasping groan from the prowling demon.

A clawed finger tilted her chin upwards and she just about had a second to register the expression of primal hunger on Sesshoumaru’s features before he captured her lips with his own. His kiss was ruthless. The hand that had tilted her chin upwards disentangled her hair from its bun, and his clawed fingers entwined with the ebony strands, using her hair to tilt her head back so he could deepen the kiss.

His kiss was crushing, dominating and full of want. Their tongues entwined sinuously and she felt his fangs. A reminder of his status as predator, they sent erotic shivers down her spine and she rubbed her thighs together as heat pooled in her lower belly. His other arm came around her, moulding her to his body so that her soft breasts were pressed against his strong chest. She’d never been with a demon before, and the erotic power he had over her body was positively intoxicating.

Sesshoumaru broke the kiss, using his hold on her silken hair to expose her pale throat to his hungry mouth. His bit down on the creamy skin, enjoying her gasp before he soothed the small hurt with lavishing licks and kisses. Kagome’s hands came up and curled at his collar, pulling him closer incessantly as she moaned low in her throat.

Pulling back, he batted away her hands as they attempted to pull him back to her and reverently pushed the collar of her kimono open so that he could feast his eyes on the swells of her glorious breasts, restrained by a lace bra. Though not fully exposed, her breasts captivated the demon’s attention and he moved to devour them hungrily, biting impatiently through the material so that he could free the dusky breasts. Kagome let out a little gasp as she felt her bra give way and then threw her head back as she felt his lips fasten around one rosy nipple. Fingers entwined with his silver hair, using it to press his wicked mouth closer to her breast as he nipped and suckled at her sensitive nipple.

The kimono slipped further down her shoulders until it collected at her bent elbows, held on by her obi. Tugging at his hair as his lips left her flesh, she hissed as his lips closed around her other nipple. Her incessant tugging caused his silver hair to come loose from its low ponytail and she shivered as the fine hairs teased her sensitive skin, fanning out over her exposed shoulders and mingling with her own ebony tresses.

Growing tired of the obi impeding him, Sesshoumaru cut it from her using his claws and the kimono slid open alluringly. Kagome gasped as the cool air touched her heated flesh and Goosebumps rose over her skin.

Sesshoumaru pulled back from her, enjoying surveying his prize as she sat, flushed and panting from lust, her hair dishevelled. The kimono parted over her breasts and her core was shielded from his gaze by a flimsy scrap of lace. As his eyes traced a lustful caress over her body, she shifted, embarrassed, and attempted to pull the kimono closed over her body.

With an annoyed growl, he moved to cover her body with his own, pressing her down onto her back on the tatami mats. One hand captured both her delicate wrists and pinned them above her head even as she writhed alluringly beneath him.

 Nuzzling his face in between her breasts, Sesshoumaru looked up into her lust glazed eyes as his hands mapped their way down, over her ribcage and hips, to part her creamy thighs so that he could kneel between them. Their bodies pressed together intimately and she could feel his hardness through the material of her panties. Groaning at the contact, she bucked her hips against him and he growled against her belly as he kissed downwards ever so slowly.

His touches seemed to light a fire over her body and, though she bucked her hips again impatiently, he refused to let her dictate his pace, kissing and licking a burning trail down her body at a painfully tranquil pace. His hands still gripped her thighs, thumbs rubbing soft, teasing circles on the smooth flesh just inches away from where she truly craved his touch the most.

Rankled at the unfairness of his clothed state, Kagome’s hands attempted to undo his shirt, but fumbling fingers found it hard to unfasten tiny buttons. Sesshoumaru growled at her as she attempted to take charge, and he bit her hipbone in reprimand before he pulled off his own tie and shirt. His impatience sent the buttons scattering every which way across the tatami.

Bare-chested, he hovered above her as she feasted on the sight of his defined abdominal muscles, strong arms, glistening faintly with a sheen of sweat. Groaning at the sight of the powerful male, Kagome pushed at his shoulders, surprising him into falling back into a sitting position as she crawled into his lap.

Her devious tongue darted out to taste the skin of his neck as her fingernails raked a burning path down his back. She groaned at the musky taste of his skin and ran her blunt human teeth over a nipple, causing him to hiss as his cock hardened almost painfully. She moved down his body sinuously with her lips and teeth and tongue teasing him exactingly. Her random bites were contrasted with the feather light caresses of her fingertips all over his body.

Wicked fingers found the zipper of his trousers and, excruciatingly slowly, she pulled it down. His gaze met hers and the smug anticipation in her blue eyes pushed him over the edge.

With a roar of pent up lust, he was on her, turning her so she was on her knees and ripping the kimono from her arms impatiently. In her new position her breasts were pressed against the tatami as he tied her hands above her head with his discarded tie, latching one end to the leg of the chabudai so she was incapable of using them again. Now, he wanted her at his mercy.

Kagome’s moan was titillating, the sound music to his pointy ears. Her panting caused her nipples to rub against the tatami and gasped at the abrasive feel of it against her sensitised breasts. His absence frustrated her, she needed him, wanted him, now. Throwing her head back, she glanced back at him over her shoulder, hair pooling behind her provocatively as she eyed him, blue eyes darkened with lust.

He’d stripped himself of his trousers and pants, leaving his engorged erection free for her hungry gaze. She licked her lips in anticipation.

She was stunning. Enough to take his breath away. Totally disarrayed, her face flushed with longing, dark nipples brushing against the tatami as she squirmed with longing with that tiny waist and round ass lifted towards him. Her ass was sublime, the way it flared out from her waist, he was almost salivating.

Moving to her, he pressed his lips to her right ass cheek and suckled and nipped at it as he ran two fingers, feather light, over her lace covered core. She let out a shriek that was pure ecstasy and he traced her again with his fingers, unbearably softly as she bucked against his hand, wild with the need to be filled by him. Pressing his palm to her lace covered core, he smiled with erotic humour as she climaxed, light and sweet against his hand. A preamble of what was to come.

Ripping the panties from her impatiently, he left her bare to his gaze.

A groan was ripped from his throat at the sight of her and he pushed into her at once, smooth and hard and fast. She cried out at the sensation of being filled by him without warning and fell forwards until her face was pressed against the tatami. Sesshoumaru moved over her, caging her in with his body, his hands stroking over her back, reaching under her to tug at her nipples as his lips fluttered over her neck. His touch all over her was possessive and she could feel the wall of pleasure building as his touches lit up her body with the fire of passion.

His thrusts were sharp and each filled her mercilessly, making her cry out her ecstasy as he took her. He could feel her, tight and hot around him, clinging to him ruthlessly, moving with him as their pleasure convalesced. He wanted, no, needed, to see her face as she came.

Kagome cried out as he withdrew, glaring at him with lustful anger over her shoulder. “Please...” she moaned.

Sesshoumaru smiled and flipped her onto her back with ease. One minute he was hovering gloatingly above her, the next he was inside her again, filling her, claiming her. She groaned as he thrust erratically, his oncoming climax spurred on by the look of intense pleasure on her flushed face.

“More,” she commanded, voice husky.

Grunting softly at her command, he latched onto one dusky nipple with his lips and looked up into her eyes as he increased his pace feverishly. Pounding into her as he felt his climax begin, he made sure to watch her as she came and her eyes rolled back into her head. She clung to her restraints desperately as she convulsed around him desperately, his name falling from her lips as if in prayer.

And Sesshoumaru came with a roar, his orgasm coming as though Kagome had ripped it from his soul. His heart thumping in tune with hers, he fell forwards, claiming her body in the cage of his own limbs and buried his face in her hair.

That hadn’t been sex. It had been making love; the difference was palpable in the contented peace that descended on the two lovers. Unlike sex, there was no nasty guilty aftertaste. This was pure primal contentment.

Kagome was his.

He was hers.

Simply, truly, irreparably.

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Kagome woke with a start, startled to note that it was nearly pitch black out. But pleased to note that she was safely ensconced in Sesshoumaru’s lap as he buried his face in her hair.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hnn...”

Kagome jumped then, as realisation struck, “Crap! Auntie was in bed! I was meant to be performing duties as okami!”

Sesshoumaru snorted. “The old woman... graciously allowed you the time off,” he muttered against her neck.

“Huh?”

“I believe the nakai were in on her plan to get the two of us together.”

Kagome opened and closed her mouth, but no sounds came out. “Seriously?” she eventually gasped.

“Hnn...”

“I’ll kill her!” Kagome exclaimed vehemently, cheeks flushing, “how dare she interfere!”

Sesshoumaru held her to his chest obstinately, even as she tried to explode from his grasp, and tucked her under his chin. “You will not. I am most grateful. Besides... there are more pressing matters at hand,” he demurred, claw tips ghosting over her bare breasts.

Kagome gasped and decided that Sesshoumaru was right. And then all cognitive thought left her, abandoning her to the wicked mind of her lover.

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed enough to leave a review!