A Candle in the Darkness (A Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfiction)

Off the Edge of Skyhold

14 Firstfall, 9:41

It was getting dark before Antonia was able to slip away from Josephine's dinner party and hurry up to the top of the battlements. She felt guilty for keeping Cullen waiting, but it wasn't the first time one of them had had trouble making it to their regularly scheduled after-dinner meeting on "their" battlement.

She was relieved to see he was still there, leaning on the wall and watching the sun set over the mountains. Antonia stopped to look at him in the waning light. After enduring a meal sitting between a very short, weedy noble from Tantervale who kept asking her questions in his squeaky voice and being displeased when she knew the answers and a plump noble from Ferelden's bannorn who slobbered over his food and scratched himself at the table, she had a renewed appreciation for Cullen. His combination of intelligence and strength was rare enough, but he was innately a gentleman, as well.

And a damn good-looking one, she thought, looking at his profile.

The anticipation of his touch that had been building all during dinner, as she watched Josephine's ornate clock and did her best to make the Inquisition look good to her dinner partners, caught fire now.

"Ah, there you are," he said, turning to look at her. "I was just thinking it was getting—"

Antonia threw herself into his arms, reaching up to grasp the back of his head and pull it down to hers, kissing him with fervor.

Cullen groaned, returning the kiss with equal passion. His hands dropped to her hips, gripping them tightly.

Hungry for more, Antonia pressed kisses along the edge of his jaw and drew her mouth down his neck, as far as she could before his ever-present breastplate got in her way.

Tilting his head to give her better access, Cullen whispered, "Antonia ..."

"Mm." She was nibbling on his throat now, scraping her teeth along his skin. She dipped her tongue into the hollow of his throat. She wanted more—she wanted to keep going down further, doing things that made him gasp and moan the way he was doing now. Each little sound increased the ache inside her. But the damn breastplate was thwarting her, cutting into her skin as she tried to taste more of him.

Cullen seemed to sense her frustration, or possibly to feel some of his own. Abruptly he lifted her up until she was sitting on a broken piece of battlement, pressing himself impossibly close against the heat between her legs. Antonia heard herself moan at the friction, and at how hard he was against her. She wrapped her legs around his waist to hold him there. Cullen's hand tangled in her hair, tipping her head back so he could reach her neck, trailing hungry wet kisses along it.

Antonia was glad she wasn't afraid of heights, leaning back into space the way she was with only Cullen's strong arms anchoring her. She considered briefly, and with some amusement, the irony of coming so far only to fall off the battlements while kissing the general of her forces. She imagined what Varric and Dorian would say.

Then Cullen was kissing her again, rubbing himself against her, and she couldn't think at all. Antonia reached for the front of his shirt, wanting to twine her fingers in the fabric, but it was stretched so tight across the metal of that damned breastplate her hands couldn't get purchase. The moment was broken.

She tore her mouth away from his. "Cullen. Cullen!"

"Mm?" He blinked at her, his eyes hazy with passion.

"We should really try this inside sometime." So he could take off his armor, and then she could rip his shirt off him. She'd seen him shirtless on the training ground, but now she wanted to see, touch, and taste all at once. Possibly even bite.

"Mm." Cullen lifted her carefully down from the wall, moving away from her to let the cold air begin to relieve the heat between them. Then he looked back at the wall, an expression of horror crossing his face. He looked at her, then over the side at the sheer drop to the snowy ground far below. "Maker's breath!"

Antonia laughed. "You didn't know you'd done that?"

"Um ... no. It might surprise you to know that rational thought was ... a little beyond me at the time. Why didn't you stop me?"

"Stop you? Are you joking?"

"I could have dropped you right off the edge of Skyhold!"

"What a way to go." She winked at him.

"You're not funny."

"So, then, you'll give the whole indoors thing some thought? Where there are surfaces that won't kill you if you fall off them? Where perhaps one of us could be wearing less restrictive—and painful—clothing?" She poked at the breastplate with some irritation.

"I ... will." He looked uncertain, though, and Antonia reached for his hand.

"What's wrong? Talk to me."

"It's not that I don't want to ... take this further. Maker, you know I do. Just thinking about it ..." He shivered. "But this is still so new, and so unexpected, and so ... unbelievable. "

"I can wait, Cullen."

He squeezed her hand in response, then took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. "All right, then. I think I'm going to ... take a walk. Cool off a bit."

"Good-night." Antonia let go of his hand reluctantly. She leaned back against the wall, watching him walk away. At least, if she had to wait, he was a man well worth waiting for.