Flower Wine Ch. 03

Isonei woke feeling hungry and bruised, being bounced and rocked as if she were on a horse. The air was stifling and she realized she was completely wrapped in a black cloak. Trying to push her way out of it, an arm clamped down on her.

"Isonei, don't-don't fight me." Draeseth's deep voice sounded almost anguished.

"I'm not, but I need to breathe." There was a moment's pause and she pressed her hand to what felt like the side of his chest, "Draeseth?"

The cloak was pulled back enough for her to breathe and she realized he had her not only wrapped but tied in his cloak to his torso with her legs bound together to his thigh. Looking up at his face he was careful not to look at her, staring stonily straight ahead.

"What happened?" Isonei reached up to stroke his cheek, feeling that it had grown rough since the morning.

Draeseth took a deep breath letting his eyes half close for a moment. "They tried to take you from me."

A bitingly sharp voice came from somewhere near him. "The black bastard managed to sour relations that had never been so cordial and then almost managed to kill the who-" the sound of a blow being struck made the speaker pause before he continued resentfully, "the enchanting creature he soured them for. That's what happened. Lady Isonei." The inflection of her title was mocking.

She watched as Draeseth's jaw clenched and felt him tense. "I don't understand. I remember... I remember coming to find you after you called for me. And you threw me over your shoulder and knocked the wind out of me. You didn't let me move to a position I could breathe in. You kept..." Draeseth looked sick. "You thought I was fighting you?"

He looked down at her with a bitter smile. "Why wouldn't you? You were already regretting your choice."

"My flower wine... I thought you understood I still-" She wanted to explain herself but he looked angrily away and she lapsed into silence looking at him and wondering how wrong she had been to choose to stay. Andnaeuth might have been right. Perhaps she should have listened when he told her to stay at the table.

"You don't want to tell her about how you left her brother and a dozen of the palace guards in a heap in the stables? Or about how our servants were forced to abandon most of our things including father's carriages?" The sound of blows being traded made her bury her face in Draeseth's side in fear.

"Enough!" He barked, keeping her close. Sounding bitter and tired he added more quietly, "She's frightened enough."

Isonei heard someone else mutter something she didn't understand and Draeseth growled and responded in a coarse guttural language. She'd never heard Torgan being spoken, she'd only ever been told that it was a brutish language unfit for a lady's ears. "Is that-is that Torgan?"

"You don't recognize it, Lady Isonei?" Someone she thought might be Burgath asked curiously.

"No, I don't think I've ever heard it." She didn't lift her eyes to look at Draeseth.

She was almost surprised when he bent his head and spoke softly, "You have. This morning in bed when you were..." A glance up into his blushing almost hopeful face eased her fears somewhat.

"You were making words?" He raised his head and looked as though he were trying not to laugh for a moment.

"How have you never heard Torgan, my jewel? Your father seemed to want to trade with us and your brothers at least understood it."

"I was told that it was...," she hesitated not wanting to give offense, "unfit for a lady's ears."

Draeseth gritted his teeth. "Unfit." He spat something in Torgan.

"She doesn't know." The one she thought was Burgath spoke reassuringly.

"What don't I know?" She looked up at Draeseth's furious face with trepidation.

"Unfit was used to describe the black bastard more than once today. Your brother, for example, was adamant that the Beast of Kroscur was unfit to so much as kiss his sister's feet." The sharp voice she thought must be Shoban gleefully informed her.

Isonei whispered, "Did you tell him you'd already kissed my finer parts? You could have seen the vein pop out of his forehead."

Blushing, Draeseth looked down at her with glittering eyes. "Woman, are you teasing me again?"

"What did she say?"

"Nothing for your ears." Draeseth almost smugly answered. He squeezed her. "We should ride harder. I want to be out of Ara as soon as possible."

"We won't be out before nightfall and the sun is almost setting, your Highness. We need to stop and make a defensible camp." That was unmistakably Krouth.

Responding with a grunt, Draeseth made a sharp gesture with his head and the horse came to a halt. "Help him find something." He commanded brusquely beginning to untie her legs and free her from the cloak.

He eased her to the ground and promptly dismounted, righting his cloak. "Why am I wearing only one shoe?" She looked at him questioningly as she stretched, rising on her toes.

"We left in a terrible rush, Lady Isonei." Burgath gave Draeseth an accusing look. "It probably fell off in our haste."

She balanced on one leg, resting her one stocking foot on her shoe, and looked around. They must have been riding hard to get this far, they were out of the wooded part of the royal forest. The land was open, low rolling hills dotted with rocks jutting out of the ground.

"Are you standing on one leg?" Ougath asked looking at her as if she were mad.

"Yes." Isonei looked at him as if he were the odd one, lifting her hem slightly and poking out her white stocking covered foot. "It'll get dirty."

The Torgans began to laugh. Ougath almost fell from his horse laughing as he dismounted. "Arans." He shook his head looking at the grinning Draeseth. "At least you'll have clean toes to kiss."

Draeseth's grin widened and he carefully picked her up, cradling her instead of throwing her over his shoulder this time. "She's light. If keeping her toes clean is what she wants I can carry her easily enough."

Isonei shook her head and smiled wryly, "Very thoughtful for someone who lost my shoe."

Pulling her higher to kiss, he murmured fiercely, "I didn't lose you, my silver Aran jewel." She kissed him back with a sigh wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning her head against his shoulder. Running her tongue over the soreness of her lower inner lip, she couldn't help but think that when he wasn't angry with her it was easy to remember why she'd chosen to stay.

A sharp whistle over a small rise put Draeseth in motion. Burgath took the reins of his horse as Draeseth carried her away from the road. Krouth had found a hollow that he referred to as serviceable out of sight of the road and the servants with him had already put their saddles on the ground in a semicircle and were seeing to the horses not far away. Draeseth sat her gently on an outcropping of rock and went to speak to his brothers. Hearing them speaking Torgan was strange, she shivered. It was something she would need to get used to.

"Are you cold, Lady Isonei?" Krouth asked her with a frown.

"A little. And starved. There's no chance that Draeseth managed to leave my shoe but bring some of the lovely roast chicken they were serving in the garden?"

The man frowned and narrowed his eyes. "Should I remind you that his Highness didn't get a meal in the garden before he fled with you?"

"I didn't either." She returned his frown. "I had one bite of the chicken and two sips of honey wine. The rest of the time was spent talking."

"Talking?" Draeseth returned to her side and wrapped her in his cloak.

She nodded and winced as she started to chew on the inside of her lip. Draeseth came to kneel in front of her. "Tell me." He brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "It was unpleasant?"

"I chew on my lip when I'm nervous sometimes." She gave him a half smile. "I've chewed it bloody today." He reached up and touched her lip and gently pulled it down to look.

"You still kissed me."

"One kiss and you weren't chewing on my lip." She teased him gently making him smile.

"What did you talk about?" He looked at her as if he already knew.

"About you, about why I'm bruised. They told me I couldn't be bound to you against my will, that I didn't have to go." Draeseth's face was hardening as she spoke. Isonei slipped off her shoe and pressed her feet to his thighs. "I told them that I was afraid and that I didn't want to go to Torga but that you had done nothing wrong, and didn't deserve to be deserted. I told them," She felt him grip her ankles. "I told them you weren't a brute or a beast, that you were sweet. I told them I would go." His hands slid up the backs of her calves as if he were caressing the silk of her stockings.

"I want to kiss you but I can't hurt you anymore today." He moved his hands slowly back down, his eyes were glued to her lips. "Tell me you still..." Isonei slid her feet up his thighs, feeling the embroidery in the slits of his pants. "Woman. Tell me."

"I'm still willing to come with you." She leaned forward pressing a soft kiss to his lips.

He pulled her feet to his groin and she could feel him hardening under them through the layers of fabric as she tried to stroke him from base to tip, moving her feet slowly, not wanting to hurt him. "Woman." His voice was a quiet growl.

"Draeseth!" Ougath barked at him. "Stop playing with your Aran toy and come help. Rocks need to be moved. Impress her with your strength." Draeseth gritted his teeth and blushed.

"I love that you blush, my flower wine." Isonei stroked his black hair and tried to pull her feet back while he clutched at her stocking covered calves squeezing and massaging them. "I will be right here." She gave him another kiss and teased at a whisper, "I only have one shoe, I couldn't leave if I wanted to."

He pinched the back of her leg. "Woman, don't tease about leaving me."

"Draeseth!" Ougath barked again.

"Go. Move rocks and impress me." She grinned at him impishly.

Draeseth growled as he rose. "You may never have more than one shoe again, woman."

"I like when you call me that, I know exactly where your blood is flowing." Isonei laughed as he blushed and stepped closer.

"I will put you over my knees if you continue teasing me tonight." He drew his thumb along her jaw to her chin and she looked at him in confusion.

"Why?" At her mystified question, he gave a snort. She tilted her head.

"Why what?" Burgath asked looking at Draeseth with annoyance. "Why he doesn't want to help as he was asked?"

"No, why would he put me over his knees?" Isonei turned her baffled look to Burgath.

"Ha!" Burgath looked at her as if she were saying something profoundly amusing.

"I don't understand, why is that funny?" She looked at both of them.

"Your father never put you over his knees?" Draeseth looked at her intently.

"Why?" Their amused incredulous looks were starting to annoy her. "I don't understand what you mean."

"He never bent you across his knees and applied his hand to your ass?" Burgath mimed a striking motion.

"Hit me?! Never!" Isonei looked at Draeseth in horror and watched the amusement fade from his face. "You want to hit me?"

"My jewel, I was trying to tease you."

"That explains a great deal about Arans." Burgath shook his head with a smirk. "Soft and spoiled." He clapped Draeseth on the shoulder. "We have work to do while your jewel sits and looks pretty."

Isonei slipped her shoe back on, keeping her stocking foot on top of the other, and sat watching them move rocks to tie the horses to and dig two holes in the ground. She couldn't get Draeseth's attempt at teasing out of her head. It didn't make any sense to her that he would be so concerned about causing her pain that he wouldn't kiss her with her chewed lip, but he would think threatening to hit her was supposed to make her laugh. She'd called him a mystery in the garden, and he seemed to be trying to prove he could remain one.

"Did anyone bring a pot?" Shoban sounded proud of himself as he came back to the hollow clutching a pair of limp hares. Isonei covered her mouth.

The Torgan noticed and came closer shaking the hares, "Have you never seen your food before it's served?"

"You don't eat those!" The thought made her feel ill. "They eat their own" she dropped her voice, "excrement."

"And they taste delicious." Shoban's split-lipped grin was malicious. The gap of a missing tooth was obvious when he did.

"Prince Draeseth will be delighted to remind you of your manners where his Lady Isonei is concerned, your Grace." Krouth almost sounded pleasant, and Isonei gave him a grateful look.

"I didn't call her whore or offer to let her su-" His words were cut off by a rush a wind leaving his body as Draeseth hooked a blow into his side from behind with a loud THUT. Shoban crumpled as if he were in agony.

"You were warned," Draeseth growled. He stepped over Shoban and sank to his knees in front of Isonei again. Her eyes were glued to the man on the ground with his eyes squeezed closed. "My jewel. Look at me." Draeseth turned her face and brushed the backs of his fingers up and down her jawline.

He had a strong earthy smell and Isonei wrinkled her nose. "You need a bath, my flower wine."

Grinning, Draeseth leaned against her knees, "I had one this morning. And you volunteered to help me with my next one, until then, you'll get used to my smell." He kissed the corners of her mouth.

"You're trying to make me eager to arrive in Torga?" She reached out of his cloak and touched his face feeling the roughness on his jaw.

"If bathing me makes you eager to arrive I won't even rinse." He reached into the cloak and gripped her waist as he kissed her neck. The roughness of his face against her skin was somehow titillating.

Parting her thighs to let him get closer and resting her stocking foot on his calf behind him. "You are terrible, my flower wine." Isonei breathed into his ear. She felt him start to push her skirts up and her face flushed. "Draeseth, we're not alone."

Draeseth stopped, leaning back with his eyes closed. "Come with me."

"Where?" She studied his face, he was as eager as he had been when he'd torn her chemise.

In answer, he lurched to his feet and pulled her off of the rock she was sitting on. Wrapping her arms around his neck she let him pull her legs around his waist. She buried her face in his shoulder so she wouldn't see the looks they were getting as he carried her away from the camp.

"Patience is not one of your strengths, my Draeseth," Isonei whispered as he stopped and sank to his knees laying her on the ground on his cloak.

"Woman, I've been aching for you since you put your silk covered..." He took hold of her ankle and growled as he kissed the top of her foot and nipped at her covered toes making her laugh and try to wiggle out of his grip. Draeseth pulled her shoe off and put her feet against his shoulders, sliding his hands up and down her legs before reaching to the top of the bands and peeling them down to kiss the skin beneath. "I will make you call my name, Isonei."

"My Draeseth," she curled her toes into his shoulders as he kissed his way from her knee to her ankle.

"What would your brother say," Draeseth murmured against her skin as he took the stockings off and kissed the inner arch of her left foot, "to see you flushed with your fine legs spread before me."

"He'd probably ask again if I've lost my mind. Perhaps I have." Isonei tried to sit up but Draeseth kept hold of her legs and leaned forward forcing her back down.

"You are mine. I would have you know that you belong in front of me with your fine legs spread." The look of zealous desire on his face made her breath catch and her heart beat faster. "Tell me."

"My Draeseth, please." She caressed his face as he leaned over her.

His eyes glittered. "I can make you say it." Draeseth ran his hands down her legs and squeezed her thighs. "I will make you say it."

"My Draeseth, this is only for a year." His grip tightened painfully.

"No. You," He looked anguished for a moment and then his face set into a calm determined expression. "You are mine, Isonei. MINE. I will not give you up." Draeseth began to move, forcefully turning her. She felt the fasteners of the dress give as he took hold and violently wrenched at the fabric. He stripped the dress from her, pulling it down over her hips leaving her in her white chemise.

Isonei pulled away, earning a growl from him before she lifted the hem of the chemise and took it off herself. "If you tear all of my clothes I won't have any by the time we reach Torga." She gave him a half smile.

"Krouth can fix the dress." He tossed it to the side, "Come to me."

Coming closer, she tried to explain, "I need to you understand. Being exclusive is not something to be-"

She shivered and stopped speaking as he pushed her down roughly and began to kiss and nip at her throat. "Woman, you are mine." Draeseth moved to her breasts and she knotted her fingers in his hair as he lingered suckling and teasingly applying his teeth to one nipple while rolling and pinching the other."

"Gods. Draeseth, yes." Isonei wrapped her legs around him. He growled and turned his head to take the other into his mouth. She writhed beneath him, "Mmn, yes Draeseth." Draeseth slid his free hand down to her wet sex and began using his thumb to make the slow circles she had showed him in exactly the right place. "Draeseth, my Draeseth, my flower wine." She was breathless and more than ready for him. "Please, I want you, please, my Draeseth."

He groaned and lifted his head, "Tell me. You are mine. Say it." Isonei looked at him helplessly and Draeseth lowered his head to kiss his way lower. "You will say it, my Isonei."

"I-" Her back arched off of his cloak as he put his teasing mouth to work sucking gently before letting the flat of his tongue roam. "My flower wine, please!" He growled against her and she squeezed his head between her thighs as he slipped two fingers inside. "Mmmmn, my Draeseth, please! I need you! My flower wine!" He didn't stop and the pleasure became almost unbearable, her thighs began to tremble.

Draeseth pulled back. "Tell me." Isonei pulled her hands free from his hair and tried to touch herself needing to feel that release. Draeseth took hold of her hands and laughed, "No, you get no release until you tell me, Isonei."

For a year it would be true, it wouldn't be a lie. She bit the inside of her lip and winced.

"Don't bite yourself." He came to lie next to her pulling her close. "Why are you nervous?"

"You don't know what you're asking me to say. I don't want to lie and if I say that I'm yours, not just for a year..." Isonei closed her eyes and swallowed. "You don't know what you're asking, you can't know." She pleaded with him, "My flower wine, you're asking too much, too fast."

Kissing her face he began to pluck the silver hairpins from her hair. "I know what I ask. I know what I want, what I need from you. You are mine. I only ask you to admit that truth. When I tell you I will not give you up, that is not a lie. It is not a hope. It is the truth, you are mine, Isonei, I will not part with you."

"And when you said that if-if I wanted to leave you, you would bring me back?"

"Do you want to leave me?" He gripped her by the back of her head and pressed her face to his own.

"No." She sighed, "I should. I know that I should. But you are..." Isonei tried to find the word to express the strange feeling.

"Yours." Draeseth murmured with a smile.

Smiling, she took a deep breath. "Mine." She kissed the pleased curve of his lips. "As long as you are mine, I am yours." He began to grin and she cautioned him, "Don't. I beg you, my Draeseth. Don't make me regret my choice."

"You will not regret me." He sounded more certain than she had ever felt about anything in her life.