Guarded Love (COMPLETED)

Afterglow

Wow.

Wow.

That's enough, time to be serious and focus.

Okay, maybe a few more wows worked into the mix for good measure, then liberally sprinkled with 'Yes!'

Alistair felt like he was flying a good twenty or so feet through the air and all without an ogre having kicked him off a cliff. Against his naked body pretend slumbered Reiss, her hair fanned out over his chest like a golden blanket. It'd been so long since he had a woman curled up on him, her breaths matching his, her soft and so damn tempting body warming him to a cheek breaking smile. That leg of hers was straddled around his, her thigh on occasion bouncing close to his satisfied bits, but he didn't worry. She seemed to be as drained as he felt -- ecstatic enough for his soul to climb mountains while the body lay at the summit and gave a hearty thumbs up.

The cat grew tired of trying to stay on top the warm but always twitching human and headed off for that perfect sunbeam elsewhere in the kennels. Alistair had slid off Reiss, prepared to let her gather her clothes and probably pretend none of it ever happened, but she wrapped her arms around him and curled up in the crook of his arm. With one hand draped down her back, his other free fingers kept darting close to her face. He couldn't see much above his eyes aside from the holes in the kennel's roof that needed patching, but he could feel her breath wafting against his skin and that drew a satisfying smile to his guts.

He hadn't anticipated that reaction when he came to talk to her. Alistair gave it odds that either she'd admit there was a crush and it should go no further, deny it and say for the sake of her job it'd be best if he ignore it, or he'd blush himself bad enough to cause spontaneous human combustion and accidentally immolate the kennel in the process. What really happened was beyond his wildest dreams.

"Mm," she murmured, never really asleep, but not quite in the waking world either. Alistair was shocked he was bright eyed awake after all that. Maybe he was too busy doing an internal dance to let rest wash over him.

"Are you still with me?" he asked while glancing down at a crown of blonde hair.

"I believe so, but I fear it will require a scouting party to find all of my displaced clothes."

"Like looking for a pair of knickers in a haystack," he chuckled glancing over at the straw pile they'd mostly stayed out of and for good reason.

Reiss seemed to have the same idea as she lifted her head and stared over at it, "I'm surprised you didn't want to, uh..." He curled his fingers over her cheek to feel the blush, while well aware he had one to match, "in the straw."

"Dear Maker, no. That stuff's as itchy as a chantry sister's cassock. I think I'd rather have sex on an actual stack of needles," Alistair laughed before pausing and shuddering at the thought. "Actually, that might be a tossup."

"You've slept in straw?" At that she pushed up on her hand to beam those always watching green eyes into his. She didn't buy it for a second.

"I did as a child, not so much now unless something's gone horribly wrong."

She blinked at that and glanced downward, "Oh, when you were the..."

"Forgotten bastard son of the King? Yeah, good, good times. All the food I could swipe, free days to roam the countryside falling into every mud puddle, and a warm bed of straw next to a war dog growling in his sleep. The perfect childhood," he chuckled, hiding away any pain behind the veneer of laughter. It was what was, and Alistair didn't have the means to alter it. There seemed little point in dwelling upon it now.

"I'd feared you were going to tell me that sometimes you trade places with a peasant who bears your exact likeness so you can know what it's like to be a commoner for a day," Reiss said while nuzzling against his chest. She couldn't stop rubbing her hand haphazardly against his shoulder, as if she was trying to measure it for a coat.