Ariella was about to suggest that he might want to make his decision quickly if he didn’t wish to deal with the guards, but he evidently figured this out for himself and soon enough, he was climbing up the vines. She turned and walked back towards the door, stopping just outside of the doorway to wait for him to climb from the vines to the balcony.<br/><br/>A slight smile returned to her lips when he suggested that it was unwise to invite strange men into her room in the middle of the night. “They would probably be right,” she quipped as he closed the distance between them much more quickly this time. “It isn’t wise at all,” she added, as he came to stop in front of her. Despite her best efforts to appear nonchalant, her heart betrayed her, beating faster as he moved closer.<br/><br/>She might have added that those same people probably would have also warned that going out alone in the dead of night was unwise as well, or that not wearing silver whenever you left your home was also unwise. She might have pointed out all these things, but instead, these thoughts fled her mind when she felt his lips on hers.<br/><br/>It was a brief kiss, barely giving her any time to react, yet it felt incredible. His lips were soft, and cooler than one might expect from a human, but then again, did she really believe he was a human? Maybe, or maybe not, but that wasn’t exactly what was on her mind at that particular moment.<br/><br/>Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so caught off guard. Perhaps when he’d leaned in, she should have realized what was happening.  Then again, she had little experience to draw from, and even if she did recognize what was happening, she didn’t exactly have a lot of time to process it.<br/><br/>Almost as quickly as he had leaned in, he had pulled back. He didn’t go far, though, only enough to gaze down into her eyes, as if to try to judge her reaction. His guess was almost as good as hers was right about then. She didn’t really know how she was supposed to react, or how she was supposed to feel about it. Then again, maybe she did. Maybe she was supposed to protest, or perhaps she should have pushed him away?<br/><br/>This wasn’t about what she was supposed to do, though, nor how she was supposed to feel. If it were, she wouldn’t be in this situation at all, would she? But she was, because she had chosen to ignore any expectations placed on her, even to ignore what was right or wrong. In this moment, it was about how she truly felt, what she truly wanted.<br/><br/>She gazed back up into his eyes and opened her mouth to say something when she heard the voices of the guards nearby. Having no desire to risk discovery, she grabbed hold of his sleeve and gave it a gentle tug to pull him along with her as she stepped into the room and closed the doors behind her, leaning back against them. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief when she heard the voices of the guards down below the balcony.<br/><br/>The last thing she needed was to get caught. Okay, so maybe if she was doing something she needed to sneak around to do, that probably should have been a sign that she shouldn’t be doing it. Then again, that had never stopped her before, so why start now?<br/><br/>Opening her eyes again, she shifted her gaze up to meet his, giving him a smile that was both innocent and a little playful. “Definitely not wise,” she reiterated her earlier comment with an almost nervous chuckle. It was true, but even knowing that, she couldn’t deny the way her heart was racing, or that she wanted to feel his lips on hers again.<br/><br/>“I’m probably going to regret this,” she said more to herself than to him. This time, it was her turn to close the small distance between them, looking up into his eyes and hesitating only briefly before she leaned in and kissed him. It was soft and timid, speaking to the fact that she had never done such things before. She didn’t linger long before this time it was her turn to pull away enough to look up at him, as if to try to gauge his reaction, and what he would do next.