Could she have imagined she'd be bedding the man she dragged out of a crater?
Never. Not in a hundred-thousand years would she imagine she'd bed, much less befriend, a mage, not even to speak of a mage who from another world haunted by wraiths.
Did she think naughty thoughts when she tied him up? What?!
Her laugh was breathless with surprise and cut off short with a whimper of pleasure. "Don't, ah...don't be ridiculous, I—"
"God. I liked you far more when you were begging me on your knees--where you belong."
Hrk.
Emery's face flushed a deeper shade of red that was definitely not just from their coupling. Unfortunately, she remembered everything from that fateful night (and she really wished she didn't, because fuck she was a monster) and she vividly remembered saying that. Did he remember her saying that? Why on earth had such a big dumb thing come out of her big dumb mouth back then? Had she felt it even back...?
"Only God knows," she said at last, giving him a wicked smile. "But I'd be thrilled to truss you up properly anytime." And then she shut him up with another kiss and urgent roll of her hips.
It didn't last long.
Alkereth was a talented man in many areas, that much was obvious—and he had shown he was equally adept at worshipping her with his words as well as his body. It was playful banter, she told herself, and she was happy to indulge as she rode him, meeting each kiss fiercely and clinging as though afraid to let go. For a moment, while she was with him like this, she could forget everything—her insecurities, her pain. She could lose herself in a fantasy, pretend she wasn't broken, pretend to have something she didn't deserve—because that was all it was, right? A fantasy? That was all it ever was.
So she told herself. Because the possibility of anything else, of getting that close and letting someone in...
Of fucking everything up.
Of losing everything and everyone again.
And then Alkereth held her, his eyes meeting hers as he said the words that made her heart squeeze. She met his eyes, the ones she adored, his own expression so earnest, so sincere—
Oh my God.
He meant it.
He actually meant it.
Panic flashed in her green eyes and she went stock still. Her stomach twisted, sharp and sickening and almost painful and she felt her breath catch in her too-tight throat. Oh no. Oh no, no, no...
"Whoa...a-ah, wait..." she panted, cupping his face with her hands to get his full attention. And then for a moment she just stayed like that, catching her breath, scrambling to search for the words, trying to think. After a moment she lifted off of him, but she settled again in his lap right after. They were not having this conversation while he was balls deep in her.
"Alkereth, what...what do you mean by that, exactly?" she said slowly, hardly breathing.