Fire Ch. 05

"I don't think I have ever laughed that hard in my life." She gasped, still catching her breathe.

He gave her a wry look. She held up her hands in surrender.

"Seriously though" she smiled, crossing her heart with one hand, "I can honestly swear to you, I just thought of it. Really" she added when it looked like he didn't believe her, "I can't recall having any rational thoughts until just know."

His expression was still wry, though less concerned. "And that was your first thought." She bit back another fit and shook her head.

"I assure you, no."

"Care to enlighten me then?" He smirked at her.

"Absolutely not." She fought her blush as she imagined telling him exactly what she'd been thinking when she'd regained her lucidity. He leaned in toward her, his eyes flicking to her mouth, and smiled faintly.

"Why not?"

"If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you." She said softly back, suddenly very much aware that they were both still completely naked, and him quite casually so, one arm propping him up, the other resting languidly on his still bent knee. Someone should paint him, she thought, picturing him as some sort of sensual woodland god.

His expression was certainly befitting the image. She hazarded a glance at his lap and noticed his expression wasn't the only thing up to that particular challenge.

He took her chin in his hands and turned it back to his face with an amused expression, and leaned in, his eyes darkening.

"I must warn you, I'm very effective at extracting information from unwilling victims." He let his mouth drag ever so lightly over hers. "So we can do this the easy way," his arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her off her knees and up against him, "or the hard way." She pressed her palms against his bare chest.

"There wouldn't happen to be a very hard way would there?" She asked, already beginning to shift anxiously against him. He gave her a dark smile and leaned in against her cheek.

"That happens to be a personal favorite."

"Then I swear you'll never make me talk."

"I should hope not." He nipped at her ear and started to trail his mouth back down her neck, then paused. "And I absolutely forbid you from thinking about our little problem for the rest of the night." He pronounced absurdly, sliding his mouth lower along her collar bone.

She frowned. "You can't forbid someone from thinking somethi...oh dear gods."

Clearly he could, and did, because not for a second that night, or well into the morning, did she spare a single thought for the warring Huroth, for her past, or her future or anything else so far removed from the immediacy of that which took place on the happier side of her bedroom door.