& OPEN NSFW POST ( i. )

[aeneia]

NSFW OPEN POST ( I. )
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[mahalakshmi]

[ He wants slow - taking his time. She can do that, might even be a relief. To draw this out. It's not something she ever considered but now that she - is, she takes a breath. Shifting her weight that little forward. Turning to face him properly. Not that she moves to put herself in his lap so immediately, but just to take him in. To smile just for the thought that she can without worry now. Amazed he'd never - noticed her looking over him so, too many times. Well, he could see now. As her gaze lifts to him.

Doesn't say anything else really. Lets herself respond, instead, taking a deep breath where she feels that shiver under her skin for where his hand settles so carefully. He doesn't have to be careful with her, not like that, most wouldn't. But she's here because he's not most, not most and that little touch is enough to make her swallow. Lays fingers over his, her back pressing up ever so slightly to let him hook against that curve, sure that he has her there. Yes, she wants him to touch her, as often and as much as he likes. A barely perceptible sigh for it. Felt good, to be held, war had left her to be carved open, left her empty. A whole burning city that lived inside of her. A thousand empty rooms of a palace that did nothing but echo, anymore.

She takes another breath, steeling herself. Just her fingers and nothing else, the edge of nails, that trace up his arm by the line of her fingertips, a waved motion that follows lifelines on his skin. One finger by his wrist, two by his elbow. Not direct, playing against the soft dip of skin that wasn't so warn, still that little sensitive, as she leans with the rest of herself. Up and up and up until she's a hair breadth away from him, still looking at him until she can't, until she's looking at his mouth, the set of his lips and she presses her own to him. Her whole palm coming to set flat to his chest and - kissing him, takes a sharp breath out of herself, to do so once, and then again. Not half so declarative, just to do it at all, to smile, and kiss him again. To enjoy it and not have to think about anything else as she moves into him as she nips lightly with her teeth and lets out a warm breath of something like laughter, something like eagerness, giddiness. Something like contentment. ]

[komarran]

[ The way she moves against him has him holding his breath. The way she carried herself, the purpose in ever movement always had his attention when he saw her move through the room. His hold on her is light, not out of fear she'll break, but out of respect for where he may be stepping over a line he can't see. In retrospect it's a strange concern to have with a woman who had stripped down and waited on his bed for him to find her, but it's a lingering doubt in his mind.

His grip on her tightens for a second, fingertips pressing into her waist and feeling the shift of fabric there. Beautiful and already she felt like a comfortable weight against him. His kiss is tentative as he presses against her lips. This could go horribly lopsided very quickly if he made the wrong move and he's eager to ensure that doesn't happen. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ She moves close, encouraged, her hand staying on him still, her mouth parting against him in a thready sigh. Eager, content, one kiss that follows into another and into another. If she could any indication that she likes it - she can't think of a more pointed way than that to express it to him. Shifting closer, caught between wanting to press into his hand and pressing into the solid heat of his chest, and settling somewhere between the two. Draping against him comfortably. ]

[komarran]

[ There's a part of him that knows they should stop kissing at some point. That there's a large amount of getting to know each other they still have yet to do. That part of his mind is ignored in favor of kissing her more, sucking lightly on her bottom lip when her mouth parts. If that was all right with her, dear god he hoped it was and--

He makes a point to stop thinking. At least until he needs to catch his breath and he pulls back from her though it's just enough to speak and nothing more. ]

My apologies if you've been waiting long to do that.

[mahalakshmi]

[ It gets an eager response, stifling a muffled sound into his mouth at the catch of his teeth. More than right with her, high and catching in her throat in enjoyed surprise. Sparking warm and full in her limbs as she slips her arms over his shoulders, tilting her head to angle it better. Pressing into him fully, her chest to his, to feel the rise and fall of him as herself. Because the flush on her face, this time, has nothing to do with pleased embarrassment, when he pulls back. She wants to tangle her fingers into his hair, she wants to drag nails over him, oh she wants, and she wants, and she wants -

Opens her eyes, and there is a thought for the chatter of the women who taught her about such things, about wanting too obviously - try to keep it out of your eyes, Lakshmi, always too much there - but it wasn't something she ever learned how to stop either. Swallows, smiling a little. ]

I could feel your fingers on my back all night. I thought I was going to go mad. [ and she kisses him again, not half so polite, surging up against him with that impatience, that frustration that had been sitting building for so long now. ]

[komarran]

[ The intensity catches him off-guard. He can feel his own body reacting to the embarrassment of his self-control. Thankfully whatever his hips want to do, he keeps it in place and loosens his hold on her waist. Slow was going to be harder than he thought when he had been starved for touch and affection.

Her words flow over him, warm and melodic, ringing in his ears as she presses back into him. At least until he realizes what he said. That had been far from his intention and he wonders if all he's been doing this entire evening is causing her tension.

His brows furrow as he pulls back from the kiss momentarily to ask, ] Ah, should I have moved them elsewhere?

[mahalakshmi]

[ The last thing she wants is him to let go, as she swallows down on her own - press forward, march, screaming herself hoarse on battlements as she issues orders and - breath Lakshmi, not everything had to be a battlefield.

Because yes, tension, that sits in her shoulders and stiff in her back that she keeps if only to hold in the shiver, to keep herself still and not - taking the path of water against him, slipping over and around him, to run over every part of him that she could. Turns her face away, slow - and did not do to be falling over herself. Wetting her lips, a scrap of her teeth against her lower lips and she shakes her head. Of course he would be the only one to take that statement and think it had to be fixed. If it did, it was not in the way that cautious little frown of his was suggesting. ]

It would not matter if you touched my hands, my ankles or my back, it still would be first in my thoughts. [ Another little bite, a thought she doesn't share. anywhere she wanted him to put his hands would not have been fit for company. ]

[komarran]

[ So everything was all right still. Good. Then why won't his heartbeat calm down or his palms stop dripping? Good god, was he a damn schoolboy with the way she made him nervous? She wasn't the first woman he'd had over him despite the fact it had been well over a decade since he had anything close to this. Yet something unique about her had him wanting to be as close to her possible.

Slow. He was the one that insisted and he knew it would be better if they took time, at least some time, before fumbling together. ]

If I ever touch you in a way you do not want... [ A soft reminder. She's more than in her right to tell him off. ]

[mahalakshmi]

I have never let anyone take those liberties with me. [ That at least she can assure him. Pulling back levelly to meet his gaze flatly. ] I tend to make it plain when it comes to such matters.

[ She settles a little further of him, where she's - well, slow, no good to crowd him now. Nor her, as she presses her fingers to her lips, smiling into them. A thought coming back to her, seemed half a world away now. ] Which - there might be a young man that I made it expressly clear to this evening about what would happen to his mouth if he dare put it to my skin.

[ It might have involved a sword, it might have involved acid. Who knew. Probably some guard, that he went white and complained to about her indecency too. Hopefully he just went off and claimed to someone else about some half mad woman. ]

[komarran]

I didn't think you had. [ But he wanted to be sure she felt she could even here.

When she pulls away, he reaches to comb his fingers through her hair once more in a slow, absent motion. With how long they'd been sharing a space together, he's certain her beauty won't dull in his eyes. ]

Did you scare him bad enough I'll be hearing about it tomorrow? [ His tone is unperturbed. If he does, it will likely be the rumblings of a bruised ego and how the mysterious foreigner had been to one of the Imperial gatherings. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ She settles into the bed and it's hard not just to tip, to lay still so he could keep putting his fingers through her hair as much as he liked - oh she had forgotten how good it felt. Her eyes slip shut and she shifts instead to lean into his shoulder. No more than that. Her legs stretching out against the blankets. ]

Oh, quite probably. He looked alarmed with the idea at the least. Promised me no one talks to him like that. I told him lions talk to mice however they like.

[komarran]

I'm sure the water cooler talk will harm his ego further. [ Not all men on Barrayar had stood up against formidable women, but it was about time they experienced it first hand. It would be good for them.

He continues to stroke her hair as his other hand hesitates before he wraps his arm loosely around her. ] Do you have a list of men who's hopes you've dashed?

[mahalakshmi]

... Water cooler talk? [ Was that something else, like Vor, Datapads, spaceships and God knows what else she had some how missed.

She settles where he does, warmer for it, more comfortable. Tentatively, in reply, she lets her own arm move to his waist. ] Only four or five, this evening. Hopefully they will go off and tell their friends that I am more trouble than I am worth. [ Spoken for, now, she thinks happily, shutting her eyes briefly with that thought. Finally.

Doesn't tell him that half the men and women she'd spoken too so far, had already made that assumption on his behalf, more than one to inform her that she could do better than some Komarran. ]

[komarran]

Ah, yes. Casual talk done at work. [ A very old turn-of-phrase that took place around a very different looking device than when it was invented.

One of his hands goes to rest on hers and he stifles a laugh. ] Only five? I thought the number would have been higher. [ High enough to count on more than one hand. It's more than he's had approach him though with how he didn't notice her advances, perhaps he was underselling himself. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ A shrug. ] Only five that seem to think my bared skin means I should deal with their overt ah, passion for me. Like dogs, barking at my heels.

[ Which is the politest way of putting it. Saw skin, didn't see the scars that adorned it as much as gold did to realize how someone got like that, wasn't through accepting such things. ]

'My lady, let me make love to you.' [ She does her best impression of a gruff, barrayaran accent. Comes out guttural mocking and utterly awful. ] 'So you never have to use that sword and ruin your delicate hands.'

[komarran]

[ That gets him to laugh, unbridled. There were many Barrayarans Duv met that were progressive and remarkable in their own ways, but that didn't mean there weren't a good deal that fell into the stereotypes. And that he didn't enjoy poking fun of them at times. Some of his holovid shows from Komarr were his favorites for a reason. ]

You should do that for Miles next time you see him. He'd appreciate the out opinion of his countrymen. [ And know that the ones she's mimicking damn well deserved it. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ It's good to hear him laugh, to make him laugh, wrapped up by him and around him. ]

I am sure he will. I have quite the vocabulary of these little compliments now. [ She starts laughing, in part because he is, and for the list of endlessly terrible things she's so far had to sit through. ] There was one that told me - [ fixes her face as serious as she could, scowling something fiercely. ] 'I like a woman that knows her weapons, it means I would have strong sons with her.'

[komarran]

[ Laughing is not something he does nearly enough. He shakes his head, smiling and clearly amused still by the mental image of her telling such a clueless man off. ]

I'm not sure even your intelligence could outshine their stupidity. Strong is all he would be. [ Perhaps harsh to say when he doesn't know the individual in question, but they would have to be if they approached her like that. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ She likes hearing it, likes how beautiful it sounds. Glad that they could laugh about it. She doesn't think she could be with anyone if there wasn't some kind of laughter involved to it all. She grins at him, pleased and content before she wriggles back from him, detangling from him to flop back into the bed, the jangle of bells from her anklets and bracelets as she settles. ]

A big brute that would grunt at everyone. [ Her nose wrinkles, turning her face away into the pillow huffing with that thought. ] Mercy to me, I know you said it was a crime, but it would have been more useful to give them a thrashing for all my talking didn't get through their head.

[komarran]

[ He smiles, somewhat shyly, and rolls onto his side to keep his attention fully on her. ]

Sadly it is, but I have confidence in your ability to verbally shame him in front of his peers. [ In fact, he regrets missing any displays she may have put on earlier. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ Slowly, slowly, slowly, she thinks, as she watches him roll over to face her. Letting him get used to her. Easy to act comfortable to let him be so. Laughs rich in response, her head rolling back as she does, hair a mess on the pillow. ]

Just so, it isn't quite so satisfying as proving myself their better in every way.

[komarran]

[ Her hair may be a mess, but he loves it. With a tentative hand, he reaches to twirl a few loose strands around a finger. ]

You don't need to prove it. [ Not to him or anyone who truly knows her. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ She has more than enough for him to fiddle with. Might be have been more once she thinks mournfully looking at it. She had not cut it as a widow should, shaved it to a bare head. Instead, she had hacked off a foot of it to her waist instead, still that length now. Practicality more the purpose. ( a danger in growing complacent in thinking on what if, she cannot give that wholeheartedly ) ]

You know as well as I that it does not matter until I do, that they'll dog me like a piece of meat.

[ but oh, if it isn't a pleasure that she does not have to with him. ]

[komarran]

I've taken joy in ignoring them as I rise above them in rank, [ he muses aloud.

Ignoring them while they're forced to deal with him. It was the ultimate revenge. Already he's risen higher than most in the Imperial Service would get. ]

[mahalakshmi]

[ he lifts a hand to sweep against his cheek, the back of her knuckles to trace over the plains of his face before she lets it drop. ]

As you should. You will be a very great man, even someone as new to this place and its politics as myself can see that.