This takes place… ok, admittedly, I don't know when it takes place. I just wanted to right a passionately romantic Kartik/Gemma fic. So, invent your own time period and maybe it'll work! Don't forget to review at the end!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Libba Bray characters and stuff. I do own the books though they kick butt.

My sigh fills the empty room, leaving a patch of fog on the window. I have my forehead pressed against the glass and I'm looking out. But I don't see anything. My mind is miles away from the room that Ann and I share, somewhere out there beyond the glass. I could feel my head aching from having it pushed up against the cold glass for so long but I find that it doesn't bother me. Not as much as something else.

The rain trickles down the window, blurring any sight of the outside world that I would otherwise be able to see. It's February now and I find that I'm not very fond of it at all. It's done nothing but rain and chill all the girls to the bone. Anne even developed a terrible cough so she had been sleeping in the sick ward for the past two days. I've heard word that she isn't the only one.

I pull my head from the window and walk about the frigid room, hugging myself and shivering. I pass by the dressing table and take a gander at myself. I gasp and frown, seeing a large red blotch right in the center of my forehead where I'd been pressing it against the window. "Oh, bloody hell," I mumble and press it with the pads of three fingers, trying to see what I could possibly do to make it go away.

"Language, Miss Doyle," a laughing voice warns. I spin around and see Kartik standing near my open window, leaning his back against my wall and his arms crossed over his chest. A smile was tugging at his lips and drops of rain fell out of his hair, puddling around his feet.

"Kartik!" I hiss, looking over at my open door. I stumble over to it, poke my head out into the hall and push the door shut with a light click when I was certain no one was coming. I turn and try to glare at him. "I told you, no more night calls," I lecture him without feeling the words.

He just grins at me and shakes his head, the water from his hair flying all over my bed and the floor. My shocked expression makes him laugh and he turns to close my window again. "I know you did. And I also know that you didn't mean it."

He got me there. I hadn't meant it. Kartik had made it a habit to hop through my window at ridiculous hours of the night, especially now that Ann was sick and out of the room. Every time he would always inquire about the Realms and if anything had developed now that the magic has been bound by yours truly. More often then not, though, we'd get off subject and talk about other things. He didn't seem to notice this, but I certainly did.

In fact, I was beginning to wonder why he hadn't asked about the Realms yet. "You know that I'll probably be kicked out of Spence and disowned should I be found with a boy in my room, don't you?"

He just grins and turns around to face me. I notice that his cheeks were flushed pink, probably from being out in the cold rain and then in the sudden warmth; if you even want to call it warmth. His voice is full of warmth, defying what he must physically be feeling, "Yes, I know. And yet you still don't lock your window." His chuckle rumbles in his chest and I could feel everything about me warm up, an involuntary blush spread across my nose and cheeks.

I know it's not right to have a man in my room. I know it's quite improper and that I would have a black mark on my reputation for the rest of my life should we be caught. But something about what we were doing… the danger, the secretivity of it makes my heart race and I find that I'm addicted to the feeling. I walk over to my closet and lose myself inside. "You must be freezing," I comment.

I could imagine him shrugging as he said, "It's not terrible. Nothing I haven't felt before."

Still, when I emerge, I have an old wool blanket in my arms and my hair's in complete shambles from being brushed against the dresses hanging inside the wardrobe. "Here. Wrap up in this and sit there in that corner," I motion to the darkest corner of the room that was also the warmest. He gives me a skeptical look and walks towards me with full, strong strides that make my legs weak. Very slowly, he reaches his arms out and I lay the blanket in his arms, my hands brushing along the inside of his elbows and sliding down the length of his forearms and down his big rough hands before letting go completely. It wasn't until after that he had walked around me to go settle in the corner did I realize that I had been holding my breath.

Blinking rapidly, I try to get my stomach to stop doing flips and, after composing myself respectfully, I turn to walk towards my dressing table only to see that Kartik hadn't gone to the corner like I instructed. Instead, he was bent over and was rubbing at his head with the wool blanket, drying his hair. He spots me looking at him and smirks at him, straightening and tossing the blanket onto my bed. "Thank you, Gemma. I feel much better."

I blush when he uses my name. I sit, facing him and cross my feet at the ankles, resting my hands in my lap. I was a bit curious as to why he hadn't asked about the Realms yet. So, I offer him an answer to the unasked question. "Nothing new has really happened in the Realms, Kartik. There've been a few small scuffles amongst the inhabitants but nothing that should be of concern." I stare at him, waiting for a response or a lecture or both. But he didn't even seem to be paying attention. His eyes were trained on me but he didn't appear to be seeing.

I move towards him and wave my hand in front of his face, "Kartik? Are you alright? Can you hear me?" Panic rises in my chest when he doesn't really respond. I'm so worked up about this that I jump when I feel a hand rest on my waist and I look down to see a large, dark hand there. At first, I don't know how to respond to this so I whisper breathlessly, "Kartik..?"

When I look up, his face is much closer to mine then I remember. His eyes are no longer blank but gazing intently at me. Something inside those dark eyes makes my heart flutter and the breath whoosh from my lungs. An emotion that I hadn't ever seen there before that excites my imagination and body but confuses my civil mind. I open my mouth to say something but nothing comes out so I just close it again and look up at him.

From the corner of my eye, I could see his other hand moving towards my face and with a gentleness that surprises me, he caresses my cheek, his fingers cold and rough. I fear that I will fall over from the sweet bliss that encompasses my entire body and it is as if he has sapped me of all my energy. He has to have read my mind because I could feel his hand, so big near my smallish waist, slide forward until he has it resting against the small of my back. His thumb strokes under my eye and I could feel my lips part and my brain screaming, "Kiss me."

His fingers on my face reluctantly move away and back into my hair, stroking the red threads with such a tender touch that I know I must be dreaming. This couldn't be Kartik. Kartik would never touch me like this; make my heart race in this way. I feel his hand on my back press hard and I'm pushed up against his firm body. I hear myself gasp at the movement, the combination of his body pressed hard against mine and his hand stroking my hair almost too much for me to bear.

Again my mind screams, "Kiss me."

Kartik's lips smile humorously and he lowers his head, pressing his forehead against mine and whispering huskily to me, "As you wish, Lady Hope." It's then that I realize I must've spoken aloud but there wasn't time to blush. His hot lips were on mine before I knew and a moan reaches my ears. I would've normally been embarrassed to know that it was mine, but at the moment, I didn't care. His fingers, tangled thoroughly in my hair, move to the back of my head and he deepens the kiss. I feel my legs buckle and his grip around my body tightens, pushing me ever closer to him.

I feel wet and I realize that the rain on his clothes was seeping through my own. But I didn't care. All that mattered was his hot, sweet lips that tasted like India itself pressed against mine and this tongue-

Oh my.

I feel his tongue lick my lips and I gasp through my nose, opening my mouth just like he'd wanted. He slips it inside of me and I could feel his tongue stroking my own. I'm so much in shock that I don't register very quickly to move my own with his. Eventually, though, he runs it along the top of my mouth and my own tongue flicks to life, beginning the heated war. I moan again, finding that at some point I had closed my eyes without realizing it.

We finally break, the need for air growing greater than the desire gathering in my stomach. It's then when the blood pumping in my ears has died down a little that I realize there are heavy footsteps coming down the hall. Panic grips me like a vice and Kartik pushes away from me, bolting towards the window. I assume that he's heard it too.

"Wait!" I found my breathless voice whispering loudly to him as he scrambles to climb onto the window. He looks back at me, his lips a little swollen from the fevered kiss.

The kiss he gave me. The kiss we shared.

"You can't come back here," I tell him regretfully. After what happened just moments ago, I knew that he couldn't come back without something similar happening again. It wasn't safe, not here at Spence where the maids roamed the halls and there weren't any locks on the doors.

He seems to consider this and says in a rush, "Come to me then. Tomorrow after hours. By the lake." We both stiffen when we hear shuffling right outside my door. His eyes soften and he whispers, "I'll see you tomorrow, Lady Hope." And he's gone.

The door to my room opens and Ann comes in. She still looked rather pale to me as she looked about the room. Her eyes strayed to the blanket piled on the floor to the puddle near the window to the window itself which was open. She sniffled and finally looks at me, staring curiously but not asking questions. I move over to the window and shut it tight. I look out across the lawn, hoping to see the retreating form of the man that would invade my dreams tonight. I press my fingers to my lips, still feeling the tingle of where he'd kissed me, my mouth still warm from his invading tongue.

"Gemma? Are you coming to bed?" sniffles Ann from under her covers.

"Yeah…" I whisper, watching the blotch of fog appear from my breath. I turn and walk towards my bed, slipping under the covers, not realizing until I'm buried in the warmth that I'm still wet from his clothes.

Tomorrow night, I will meet him again.

My skin tingles with excitement. I find that I can't wait, that I want to see again as soon as possible. His name bounces around my head and when I sleep, I see him, bent over me. I feel him, his lips everywhere at once and I whisper his name over and over, loving the feel of it on my lips. It was like water to me when I'd been wondering the desert for days. In my dreams, he confesses his undying love for me, that he'd always loved me.

When I awake, I feel empty. It's then that I realize how much I wish it were true.

Ok, that concludes the first chapter (maybe only. Depends on how much you people like it). I would really like it if you people would drop a review! It would mean a lot to me and encourage me to write another chapter, if you want it.

Thanks for reading! Review!