Part 24: Collision
Cordelia knew this was the moment. She had watched a lot of movies in her young life. Having declared their mutual love, the two leads get swept up in the perfect kiss, cue music and end credits. She probably would have loved that. She should have loved that.
As usual, my timings off. Right now, she didn’t want soft and pure and romantic. She wanted Angel. Badly.
She wasn’t sure who grabbed who, but within seconds, her mouth was being ravaged. There was little she could do besides hang on for dear life and ravage him right back, as best she could.
Angel had kissed Cordy before. Hell, if he tried hard enough, he could still remember the taste of her on his lips, bring back the essence of Cordelia that had coated his fingers and his mind after that night at the ballet. He thought he knew what to expect this time. He waited for the kick, the high to come. And when it came, he still wasn’t ready.
It was coming home. Coming home after two and a half centuries. It was the pressure of her lips and the feel of her body in his arms and the thrill that came from knowing she wanted to be there.
He had always imagined telling Cordy he loved her, pulling her into his arms and giving her one slow, soft, endless kiss. That’s not what this is. This isn’t pretty. But for once, the aesthetically inclined vampire didn’t care. This was better than a pretty kiss. It was beautiful in it’s desperation. It was the two of them struggling to have as much of the other person as they could reach.
Angel felt something, a hunger to rival bloodlust. When he heard her give a small breathy sigh and open her mouth to his tongue, Angel knew. Deep down, he knew he would crave the taste of Cordelia for the rest of his days on Earth. And probably long after that.
Cordelia didn’t understand. Why can’t I get close enough? No matter what she did, it wasn’t enough. She yanked Angel’s hair, grabbed at his shoulders. It wasn’t enough. She wanted it all, all at once. She wanted with a violence that had her biting down hard on his lower lip and shoving up against his chest because oh lord, friction good! Cordy couldn’t breath and that momentarily troubled her. But then Angel’s hands streaked under her shirt and suddenly suffocating was a price she was willing to pay.
Angel didn’t know how it happened, but he was out of control. The kiss was beyond him. He wanted to get lost in the liquid velvet of her mouth. Luckily, some small part of him recognized her need for air and he slid his mouth down to attack her neck. His hands, he knew they were too rough, but he couldn’t make them stop. He was grabbing and pulling and bruising because God, the feel of her skin.
He lifted her up so that the center of everything soft and hot in Cordelia came in full contact with his hardness. They fit perfectly. It’s like she was made for me. The scent of her, her arousal, was intoxicating. It sent a rush of fresh lust shouting though him. We need to stop. This is getting dangerous. We need to slow down.
He started to relax his hold on her butt and lower her back to the ground, but she wasn’t having any of that. She clenched her ass and thrust her hips forward, grinding into him. Angel growled and his good intentions were forgotten. He slammed her up against the wall and pumped against her. She whimpered and he only held her tighter.
Cordelia had never known anything like this. Although, I bet Angel has. I don’t even want to think about how many women he’s been with. This thought might have troubled her more, had Angel not yanked down the collar of her shirt and lowered his mouth to the upper swell of breast left uncovered by her bra. Then all she could do was moan.
Angel licked and sucked at her skin, marveling at it’s taste and texture. He heard her cry out and somehow, that broke the spell he was under. He pulled his head away slowly and looked at her. Her eyes were shocked and glassy. Her lips were swollen, she had somehow gotten a long scratch on the side of her neck and the collar of her shirt was ripped. He had hurt her. And that’s when he realized that he was in game face.
He abruptly let her slide to the ground and immediately took 3 steps backward.
“Cordelia,” he panted as his face slid back into its human form.
“Yes?” She sounded like she was trying to focus.
“I’m sorry.”
Those words sounded familiar to Cordy. The ballet! She smiled. And she had thought all the passion, the heat then had been because they were possessed. But we’re not possessed now. And the heat’s definitely still here. She smiled more.
Angel was worried that Cordy really was going into shock. He had just mauled her and now she was standing in front of him with a goofy grin on her face. Yeah, must be the shock.
“Cordy, I didn’t mean—”
“You’re sorry? You didn’t mean to kiss me? You know Angel, not to critique your way with the ladies, but that’s not really stuff that a girl likes to hear,” Cordy said, shaking her head, but keeping the goofy grin firmly in place.
“No, I just…I didn’t want it to be like that…it wasn’t kissing,” Angel said hurriedly. He needed to make this better.
“Felt like kissing to me.”
“It was me attacking you,” he told her, like she hadn’t been there.
“And me attacking you right back.” She stepped closer to him and Angel put up a hand, as if to keep her away.
“I hurt you.”
Cordelia wondered if it was possible for a heart to burst with love. “No, you didn’t.”
“You cried out,” Angel reminded her.
“I moaned.”
“In pain”
“No, in—well, it wasn’t pain. Believe me, I’ve had pain rather recently,” Cordy said, running a hand over her stomach. “This wasn’t pain.”
“Your stitches!” Angel cried out. He had forgotten that she was only hours out of the hospital.
“They’re fine,” Cordy assured him.
“You’re going to have bruises.” She can’t deny that one.
“I’m sure you’ll have some too.”
Come to think of it, my shoulder is sort of throbbing. Did she bite me? As Cordelia’s practical assurances won the battle over Angel’s insecurities, he lowered the hand he had been using to ward her off. “You’re not mad,” he noted.
“Angel, being slammed up against a wall by a hottie makes me feel a lot of things. Anger is not one of them.”
She seemed so calm. Not mad at what the kiss, what them coming together had turned into. Not surprised either.
Cordy watched as her confused vampire ambled into the living room. He came to stand in front of the couch, but he didn’t sit down. He just stood there. Looking confused. Ahh, now that’s the Angel I know and love.
She walked over to him, pushing him onto the couch. She stood standing in front of him and reached for both of his hands. Then she quietly began to explain.
“Look. I know if this was an episode of ‘Felicity’ or something, it would have been different. It would have been the long slow kiss with the cheek cupping and the whispering of sweet nothings. But this isn’t the WB Angel. It’s you and me. You know how I feel and I know how you feel. Finally. And we have about a year worth of sexual tension to work through. So it’s understandable, us making with the mad groping.” She climbed onto the couch, straddling him. He didn’t move at first, then tentatively his arms came around her.
“There’s still the curse you know,” he reminded her solemnly.
“So?”
“So we can’t do…that.” I’m 250 and all of the sudden I can’t say ‘sex’?
“We can do other stuff,” she said in a voice that excited and sort of frightened Angel. Then she licked up his neck and really scared him.
“What, um, what kind of stuff were you thinking of?” he asked while his brain was still functioning.
“Well, first on the agenda is teaching you the difference between good moaning and bad moaning.”