The risk is well worth the reward in more ways than even he anticipated. While he had expected retaliation, the tips of those claws digging into the softer flesh of his neck sends a thrill down through him from the point of contact. He can't remember the last time he got 'butterflies' but that's probably the closest way to describe it; yet, he does lament a little how no blood rolls down from those divots and the pain is very surface-level.

More importantly though is that even though the threat is there and real, Ravus also doesn't draw back. Their lips meet and he... doesn't pull away. Oh, indeed. His clawed hand comes to rest fleetingly on Ardyn's heart unexpectedly soft and the man wonders if that was intentional or not. When Ardyn sighs out the anticipatory tension, it's in a frosty exhale that rivals the outside autumn air.

He thinks that it wasn't enough for several reasons. He wants to grab the other man again and kiss him like he means it, to let this unexpected lust and ache for aggression both out, but bites back the urge somehow. For now. His icy breath comes in a shudder next as he tries to compose himself. His pupils have widened though and he no doubt still looks slightly like a predator about to pounce its prey. He'll have to divert this energy later somehow.

Ravus has every right to have torn his throat out and he by all rights should have- "You couldn't have," the redhead offers though. And it's lucky, actually, that he didn't truly attempt to since things would have gotten much sillier after Charlie's decree that no one could fatally wound the man after Ignis had. It took too much power to revive people, he'd said, and if Ardyn had so many enemies that wanted him dead- He'd just remove the ability for them to. "Not for lack of trying, mind, just that... Charlie made sure of that." The ultimate cockblock.

"But at least now you can't claim you've never kissed someone before."