The kiss engulfs him like a flame from the moment it commences.

Killian had not expected it at all. In fact, what he pre-empted was his flirtatious taunts to be received indifferently as they always had been. He was preparing himself to conceal his disappointment with a typical smug smirk, until she gripped his collar like life depended on it and he lost all sense of reality. The world cataclysms around him, such hypersensitivity sending his system into overdrive.

It is unlike anything he has experienced in a long while. The kiss swallows him whole, unfamiliar to the detachments he is so accustomed to. The heat which accompanies the kiss does not die instantly — instead it combusts further into a wildfire, spreading through his veins and disintegrating any resistance.

Not that Killian wants to wield any resistance. It is more his habit of having control over any given situation, the upper hand. But this time around, with Emma's lips bruising against his own, he releases the fingers playing with stands of her hair and lets her have all the control.

It is a dangerous thing to do, Killian realises, when the kiss draws to a shuddering close. They are left inhaling each other's air, with her hands still clenching at his collar and the closeness intoxicating him. He is addicted to this passion, even as she whispers against his lips that this is a one-time thing, cutting off his glazed comment of appreciation.

Killian feels her walking away before she has even begun. He watches her withdraw from his presence, tantalisingly slow, the scent of her dissipating. Then she has turned on her heel, with a disorienated step that assures Killian something is at least mutual. Her speech is hurried and he hardly grasps a comprehension of it, only wanting to abide by her words with a breathless "as you wish."

As she disappears into the distance, Killian raises a hand to his lips, which are pulsing as if he is burnt. He thinks he is burnt, trying to play with a spark that cultivated into a blaze he couldn't control. Dread fluxes into his being, a phantom pain reminding him of the loss he knows all too well. He tells himself he shouldn't fall too deep, cannot fall too deep.

But Killian knows he already has and worse, he is left needing more.