#gwyncath

“Is something a matter?” came Ifan’s voice, jarring Opal out of her resolved, ferocious reverie. “You look…peeved.”

Relaxing her shoulders and feeling her body ease up around him, Opal shook her head. “Oh, I’m all right. Rather, I have a matter that requires your awareness.”

“Oh?” Both eyebrows rose up at a curious, intrigued angle and he bade for her to continue. “What is it?”

“Apparently, Lohse and Beast have this bet going on about us regarding who will kiss whom first.” Her bluntness caused Ifan to nearly trip backwards in bafflement. From this, she ended up receiving a nice view of a tattoo along his torso. She wondered if he got that tattoo during his time with the Lone Wolves or earlier, when he served Lucian. 

“You’re jesting, aren’t you?” questioned Ifan as he recovered, squeezing the remaining water from his hair. His entire visage was now quite inscrutable. 

Opal scoffed. “If I wanted to play a jape on you, I would have devised a far better one! I simply wanted to warn you in case Lohse or Beast decide to ratchet up their wager by daring us to go through with the kiss.”

“Is that all you’re here for, to warn me?” There was no mistaking the wryness as well as a faint husky edge  in his tone, lips curving into a wolfish grin.

“Hm, well, I was contemplating in kissing you to tend their bet,” Opal bantered coyly, shrugging nonchalantly. She expected the mercenary to get a little taken aback by her boldness or at least act slightly bashful yet what he executed next astonished her. He moved in so nigh to her that their bodies were a hair breadth away from each other. Any attempts to make light of the shifting mood betwixt them or tease him for his abrupt serious nature was caught in her throat and died there. The intrigued glint in his grey eyes was enough to confirm he actually was entertaining the notion of another kiss. Her heart performed a couple of somersaults even as his seemingly hungry gaze met hers and never wavered.

“Is that the only reason why you’d kiss me, Opal?” Ifan remarked humorously, grinning toothily. 

Now he was trying to play dirty by being an absolute tease to her. Two could play at that game!

“Oh, Ifan, did the kiss in the Undertavern teach you nothing about kind of lass I am?”

With the growing, devilish glint in his wild and fierce eyes, he appeared much more impish than before, as if he was waiting for the right moment to pounce. “Maybe but care to fresh my memory on that kiss?”

Whether he was challenging or subtly pleading her to follow through with the kiss, Opal was too curious and proud to back down from such an opportunity. And judging from the lower register in Ifan’s voice and the longing expression flickering across his hardened, bearded face, he desired this kiss to betide as well. 

Guess there was no need for me to have been anxious of us not being on the same page then.

With as much dignity and grace as she could muster, the dwarven cleric climbed up onto a tall, jagged boulder behind him, the enormous stone giving her enough additional height so her head was now leveled with Ifan’s nose. Placing her hands on her hips, she cut him her best sensuous, inviting simper prior to saying, “Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and kiss me, you fool.”

She was nearly knocked off her feet by the amount of intensity in his eyes or how much strength lied in those hands of his as he cupped her face to deliver her a searing, tender kiss that propelled her to stand on her toes and utterly took her breath away. She teetered forward and Ifan then placed a hand over her back to steady her, increasing their proximity so much that his beard was pressed firmly against her chin, tickled the skin. Her hands grasped his leather jerkin for support as her legs turned into jelly and all her brain could ponder about was how much more she craved of Ifan and for this kiss to never stop and—

“Whoo-hoo! Kep at it, you two lovebirds!”

Lohse’s enthusiastic holler startled both Ifan and Opal out of their kiss and the dreaming haze that had settled over them earlier. Now their faces were flushed from exertion and embarrassment, their chests heaving, and Opal couldn’t help but notice Ifan’s mouth appeared a little kiss swollen. Gods, what she’d give for them to be along so she bite that tempting lower lip.

“Consider your stupid wager with Beast over!” she yelled back. “Because Ifan and I totally won that bet.” Ifan’s lips twitched upward into an amused smirk.

Lohse’s laugh was positively devious. “Oh, there was no wager. I completely made that story up so you could have an excuse to kiss him.”