Smutcraft

This certainly isn’t the Lord of Fleabottom’s first visit to your brothel. The Magic Pillow is as good an establishment as any, with excellent dancers and musicians -- not that your clientele are there for music or dancing. No, what’s unusual about Daemon’s visit on this particular evening is the fact that he’s come calling while Mysaria is away.

Say what you will about the Targaryen prince, but he’s a creature of habit like any other man, and he rarely passes a night at the Magic Pillow without Mysaria. If not Mysaria, he tends to favor your pillow sisters with pale hair and skin like his -- like a Targaryen’s. You’ve grown accustomed to seeing the same three or four women with the prince in his finely tailored doublets, or in his armor as the Commander of the City Watch.

This evening you’re wearing a sheer gown that ripples along your body like a fountain of gold, the color coaxing another layer of warmth from your flat brown eyes. You’ve worn your hair in a simple plait that’s bound to come unraveled by morning, looking every bit the unruly Dornish woman you are. Amara Sunstar is your fitting name around the pillow house, inspired by the spiky scar on one of your hips.

As you adjust your jewelry and eye your prospects for the evening, you catch Daemon eyeing you with a curious look. Not long after, he saunters over to the brothel owner and leans in to speak privately into the man’s ear. Is it just your imagination, or does Daemon gesture in your direction with the slightest jerk of his chin before disappearing up the stairs? Moments later, the brothel owner hustles over to you with eyes wide as saucers.

“He’s sent for me?” you ask, confused. 

Lord Egen is equally perplexed. “Requested you specifically by name, Amara. And said there was ‘a "dragon's den of gold" in it for the Dornish woman, if she’s lucky.’"

You snort, making a show of being unimpressed, though the mention of so much gold has you thinking wistfully of all the things you could buy. Passage on a ship, for example…

"I'll see to the prince," you say, averting your eyes, as if the brothel owner could read your thoughts in them. "Where is he?"

"The round room," he replies, nodding upstairs. "Best get to it."

You smooth your hair and stop in your chambers to apply a light coating of powder and blush before making your way to the large turreted chamber that is the round room. Just before you enter to greet Prince Daemon, you take a deep breath and lift your shoulders back.

Daemon is lounging on the plush red cushions of the round room, idly toying with a tankard of ale as you enter the room. Never one for subtlety, tonight he wears a fine black doublet tailored closely to show off his arms. A dark cloak with fur trim lies discarded on the floor already. As you approach, his eyes rake over your body from the ground up, lingering on your toned arms and calves in particular. The pleased curve of his mouth suggests he has special plans for you as he gestures for you to join him, patting an empty cushion beside him. 

"Amara Sunscar," he says, his voice low and rich. “Thank you for joining me.”

"At your leisure, my prince," you say, settling herself beside him. You lean forward to pour yourself a small measure of wine, hoping to settle your nerves, but Daemon places a hand over the top of her cup to stop you. He lifts the cup away without a word of explanation, and you stifle a burst of irritation at his presumptuousness.

"I would like to know," he says smoothly, still offering no explanation for your forced sobriety, "what brings a Dornish beauty such as yourself to King's Landing. I hear you were banished from the brothels in your motherland?"

You swallow another gust of irritation. "I was," you say between grit teeth. 

Daemon's eyes dance with keen interest. "Care to explain?”

You sigh, wary of spreading the tale any farther than it already has. "A useless drunk with no coin forced me to defend myself. Unfortunately, I defended myself...too well." Though this was years ago, when you were just learning the skin trade, you can still picture the dead man's torrent of blood spilling from his neck.

Daemon, strange man that he is, doesn't look put off by your admission. Rather, he looks more keen than ever. 

"Banished for ridding the world of another useless louse,” he muses. “I find that to be a rather backwards rule." He considers you more closely now. "And what would you do differently, given a second chance?”

You answer honestly, sensing Daemon will see through any attempt at subterfuge. "I would have slit his neck from the front, so I could see his expression."

Daemon grins, a feral expression that says he might just like you for your candor. "Ah, but I can think of a better weapon for a Dornish viper such as yourself." 

He rises from his spot on the cushion and moves to the corner to retrieve his Valyrian longsword.

Of course the brothel owner has made an exception for Damon to bring a weapon into the inner chambers, you think to yourself as Daemon retrieves his longsword. The black metal glints under the candlelight as he presents it to you, hilt first. 

"Dark Sister," you say, surprising even yourself by knowing the name.

"You know your history," Daemon comments with approval. "Yes, this is Dark Sister. A sword crafted for the likes of a legendary woman." 

He gestures for you to take it, watching intently as you accept. You're no Queen Visenya, of course, but an undeniable thrill runs through you as you lift the sword by the hilt. 

"Go on, then. Show me what you know," he encourages, leaning back against the wall to watch. Your admiration of this fine blade must be clear to Daemon; his look of pride is almost unbearable.

You grip the sword more firmly, lifting it as if in challenge. You move the blade through some simple movements, the cold metal slicing through the air in a way that's surprisingly... pleasant. All the while, Daemon observes you with mounting intensity. When you finish in a fighting stance, your arms sore from wielding the heavy blade, Daemon gives you a slow, showy round of applause.

"A formidable opponent," he says as you reluctantly return Dark Sister to him to sheathe and set aside. "Tell me, how does a common whore come to know her way around a longsword?"

The insult is nothing you haven't heard before, but it stings for being so unexpected.

"I was borne into a family of blacksmiths before our village was set to the torch," you spit at him. "And how does the prince of the seven kingdoms come to shed his highborn manners so quickly?"

Daemon chuckles with an expression as sharp and calculating as a wolf's. He says nothing in reply to your retort, merely looking pleased with himself as his attention shifts to the tone of your upper arms. Slowly, lazily, he seats himself at a low table.

“I see you are not one to shy away from a challenge,” he says. "So let us have another. You say you would have enjoyed watching your target’s expression as you defeated him -- let us see if you can bring a Targaryen to wince in defeat." With that, his hand falls open in a clear invitation to arm-wrestle.

You consider Daemon with a slight frown. You've received your fair share of unusual requests from patrons, of course, but this is not one you've ever been presented with before. "If I win?" you demand.

"If you can best me, you will leave this room with a small fortune and my sincerest admiration, Amara Sunscar."

Your mind resolved, you take a seat and roll up the sheer sleeve of your golden robe. "I accept," you declare. "I will show the prince how Dornish steel is forged."

Daemon chuckles at that. "By all means," he says, rolling his own sleeve with mischief in his violet eyes.

Your hands grip one another tightly. Despite your bravado, the solid lock of Daemon's non-dominant hand does nothing to assure you of your chances of winning. Not to mention that his pale forearm outsizes your darker one by a healthy margin. You shake your head, focusing on keeping a steady grip as you count down aloud from three to one.

Daemon's smirk is unwavering, even as the countdown concludes and the game begins in earnest. To your fury, he eases back in his seat and allows his gaze to wander down the bodice of your gown. He looks wholly unconcerned with the outcome of your game, even as you throw all of the strength you can muster into your right arm with sweat beginning to bead your brow. Your wishful thinking of the prize money begins to chafe as the seconds wear on.

All the while Daemon’s arm is unwavering, statue-like, with a fire burning brightly behind his unusual violet eyes. The prince's expression, as always, remains a mask of composure. His eyes flick up to meet yours with an almost teasing gleam. "Do you tire, Amara?"

You do, and greatly, not that you'll give him the pleasure of admitting as much. You merely shake your head, unwilling to let him hear the strain in your voice.

As a full minute ticks by, Daemon seems to sense your determination. His grip tightens, and for a moment you wonder if you've bitten off more than you can chew. The prince's expression remains unreadable as his gaze returns to your face, drinking in the obvious strain on your brow. "You are a fierce little creature, aren't you,” he marvels.

You grit your teeth at his teasing. The longer the arm wrestle goes on, the more the muscles in your arm begin to twinge and ache. 

"Perhaps we ought to renegotiate the stakes?" Daemon offers with a crooked smile, his eyes sparkling. "A small concession in return for an easier victory."

"What have you in mind?" you ask, fighting to keep from panting. 

"A kiss.”

You snort but hesitate, knowing you can't possibly hold on much longer.

"One embrace," he says, leaning in, "And you will have your prize."

You almost roll your eyes, but the fact that the prince is letting you keep the 'small fortune' regardless of losing toes you in line.

"An agreeable compromise," you say between grit teeth. "I'll let you keep your dignity, my prince."

As soon as the mutual embrace of your hands slackens, Daemon’s hand lunges forward to grip your thick plait of hair.

The table topples as he rushes you forward, pinning you to the wall with his lips as much as his grip. It's such a far cry from the smug press of his lips you were anticipating that you squirm in panic, kicking at whatever parts of Daemon you can reach. 

"Now, now, no need for such resistance," he chastises after breaking the kiss - if you can call such an ambush a kiss at all. Just as quickly, he releases you. "You have spirit, that much is clear." He leans closer, the heat from his body almost palpable as he whispers, "I can think of ways to use such spirit."

"I believe you owe me a prize already, my prince," you say hotly. 

Daemon's lips twitch in amusement. "Very well." He reaches into a pouch at his side, tossing it to you with a regretful smile. "For you, my Dornish viper."

You force yourself not to gape as you count the generous sum. "I did not realize men would pay so handsomely to touch my hand alone," you jest. 

"And what a lovely hand it is," Daemon says lightly, impatiently. "Tell me, Amara Sunscar, will you accept one final wager?"

You hesitate, unsure of what the prince could possibly challenge you to next. "I will hear your terms," you say at last.

Daemon smiles, pleased. "The terms are these. I shall leave this room and wait outside for one minute's time. When I open this door again, you will try to slip past me and escape this chamber by any means necessary. If you can manage that, you won't need to take another man to bed so long as you're alive. Should you fail, you shall be rewarded handsomely, but not extravagantly. Do you understand?"

You swallow, your throat tight. You can do this, you tell yourself - it's not an impossible task, considering that you are much lighter and faster on your feet. To Daemon, you repeat quizzically, "By any means necessary?"

Daemon smiles more deeply, seeing you puzzle out the possibilities in your head. "Any at all," he confirms. "I leave even Dark Sister at your disposal."

And with that, he strides from the room, the heavy door closing behind him. You're alone in the round chamber, the fire still crackling warmly on the hearth. And time is ticking.

Your first thought is to hide. The round room has few hiding places: under the bed, behind the door, and behind a floor-length tapestry. But something tells you that Daemon has not survived so many battles by being clueless enough to waltz right past his mark, and hiding under the bed would leave you precious little room to move. Quickly, you dart behind the tapestry, hoping Daemon will think to look under the bed first. As he does, you might be able to bound over the bed and reach the door in time…

While you consider your next move, the door flings wide. A delicious tension hangs in the air as Prince Daemon steps inside with lithe movements, moving as though he anticipates an immediate attack. Finding none, he grins, and you could swear he looks more pleased than ever.

His gaze sweeps the room with practiced precision. You can practically see his clever mind at work as he assesses your potential hiding spots, honing in on the bed as you brace yourself behind the tapestry.

"Dear Amara," he calls out playfully, "I fear you cannot hide for long."

You watch as Daemon turns a slow circle, looking completely unbothered at the prospect of losing enough coin to make your head spin. His careful steps about the room suggest that everything before this moment has been a prelude to what the prince really wants: this cat-and-mouse game between the two of you.

"Where are you, my Dornish viper?" he calls, his voice thick with lust. "I see you’ve not armed yourself with Dark Sister. Does this mean you plan to outfox me?"

You watch with your heart in your throat as the prince kneels to lift the bedskirt. With a sudden burst of adrenaline, you spring from behind the tapestry and attempt to leap over the bed and out the door to victory.

Unfortunately for you, Daemon is much faster than you'd anticipated. In an instant he's snagged you by the waist and lifted you, trapped, within his unyielding arms. "Not today," he says, his voice low and heavy with triumph. 

Disappointment and rage courses through you at being restrained so easily. But it's the thought of that "dragon's den of gold" slipping between your fingers that drives your next desperate bid for escape: You seize upon a nearby candelabra and swing it forcefully into Daemon's chest. 

Daemon's hold on you falters at the impact, and you tumble to the floor with a curse. But as you scramble back to your feet, ready to make another run for it, you freeze in place at his low laugh. "A dragon does not fear fire, foolish girl." 

You ignore the prince's taunting to crouch low, mentally planning your escape, but Daemon mirrors you in every direction you look to, his hands outstretched, a lustful glint in his eyes. 

Clearly, he's relishing the chase. And though you're faster on your feet, you can't seem to outmaneuver him.

"Come now, Amara," he purrs, "What will you try next?"

Your answer is to fake right and break left, toward Dark Sister. Not that you have any intention of maiming the prince, but if you can put the longsword between you and Daemon, you just might be able to -

But Daemon sweeps your feet out from under you, catching you yet again like a babe fallen from a tree, before his lips collide hungrily with yours. Despite the distraction, his hold on you never wavers as you attempt to squirm free. 

"I have you now," Daemon whispers along your jaw. He seizes one of your hands in his and brings it to the front of his breeches, showing you how strained the fabric has become, how painfully erect he must be.

Inspiration strikes a second time as you reach lower, to make a squeeze at his more vulnerable parts.

Daemon drops you with a shout. You’ve barely hit the floor before you're scrambling upright, breaking for the door as though the room were on fire. But Daemon is already hot on your trail, and your stomach sinks as his arms seize you by the waist for a third time. Only now, instead of clutching you to him, he turns and throws you forcefully to the bed. 

"Crafty little viper," Daemon snaps, the words rough with both anger and arousal. As you watch, Daemon tears away his doublet, leaving an expanse of bare-chested skin that you're suddenly dying to nip and bite at. Instead, you look to the door behind him, your nature not allowing you to give up even now. 

Following your gaze, Daemon chuckles. "Still not giving up, are we? An admirable quality in a whore," he taunts, stoking your competitive nature all the more. "Let's have it, then. You may try as long as you like. I’ve nowhere I’d rather be.”

Soon enough you've lost count of how many flight attempts you've made, only to have the bare-chested prince seize you by the middle like some disobedient animal and return you to the bed. His fingers dig into your skin, his touch firm but not painful as he wrestles you into submission, over and over. Each time he returns you to the bed, he returns to the same stance in the middle of the room, his hands clasped behind him and his eyes pointed to his feet.

As time bleeds together, your defiance starts to fade. Perhaps it's the way his eyes glint with a hunger that's become harder to resist with your every failed attempt to escape. Perhaps it's the way he looms over you like a stormcloud, and all you want is to be the lightning that cracks through him. Or maybe it's just the realization that you're sore and tired and still no closer to that dragon's den of gold.

Either way, you find yourself squirming beneath Daemon's grasp, no longer out of desperation to flee, but an entirely new source of heat building inside of you.

Daemon's lips quirk in satisfaction as he senses the shift of defeat in your body and spirit. He bends low, his breath hot on your ear as he murmurs, "Good girl. At last you understand."

He brings a hand to the edge of your bodice. With a swift tug, the laces are loosened enough that he can pull the gown off one shoulder to reveal a swath of creamy skin.

Teeth graze your neck, nipping gently. "You're mine," he repeats, as if claiming you. His lips trail down to the hollow of your throat, the stubble on his chin scratching pleasantly against the tender flesh.

As his hand drifts, his fingers brushing lines along your collarbones, he looks up at you like a lion on the brink of supping at last. "Are you going to deny that any longer?"

The stare he fixes you with in that moment is what does you in. 

"No," you answer, almost too softly to be heard.

Daemon smiles, the wickedness in his eyes clear as day. He claims your lips in a savage kiss that leaves you gasping when he finally tears you away by a fistful of your hair.

"Good girl. Then let's begin," he murmurs, and he pushes the bodice off your other shoulder, tossing it to the floor. He traces your curves with his fingertips, dipping beneath your chemise to cup one of your breasts.

You whimper under the long-awaited grip feel of him, a sound so raw and unguarded that it seems to spur Daemon on. His lips make an eager path down your torso, nibbling and sucking at your skin as he goes, until he reaches the juncture between your thighs.

Daemon wastes no time burying his face there, lapping at your folds. You cry out, your fingers digging into the sheets as you arch your back, offering yourself fully to his whims. His touch only intensifies from there.

You hiss and writhe with pleasure as Daemon works at your core, lapping at your wetness with an urgency that borders on madness.

The Prince of the seven kingdoms looks like a man possessed as he forces your thighs farther apart. His tongue lashes and lathes between your legs as Daemon learns how to coax his favorite sounds out of you, his hands brusquely forcing you flat against the bed each time your hips start to lift of their own accord.

You gasp as Daemon works at your clit next, alternating between a gentle suckling and a slow pattern with the tip of his tongue that quickly has you feeling light headed. He chuckles into you as you grip at his long silver hair, your need palpable and rising still higher every second.

You sense Daemon’s own need building, the scent of your arousal and the sound of your moans driving him onward. His tongue plunges deep inside you, flicking against your entrance as his fingers pinch at your clit with just enough pressure to send shocks through your body.

Soon enough you're quaking on the verge of orgasm, panting as if you’ve run a marathon.

Daemon smiles into the damp curls between your legs before he rises to his feet without granting your release. "Patience, Amara," he admonishes.

But patience is not a gift you possess, and the state Daemon’s left you in drives you to pounce instead, driving him back into the mattress as you snake your legs and arms around his. Daemon’s reaction is immediate but surprising: at first he obliges with a groan, his head lolling slightly backward, his gaze surprisingly tender. But this effect doesn’t last long. You soon find yourself grappling with Daemon, enjoying the battle of wills -- not to mention the opportunity to exercise your strength to the fullest, to exert yourself in this way you’d nearly forgotten.

Your exertions don’t last long, for Daemon pins you to the bed once again and lords over you like the smug highborn dragonrider that he is. "My little viper is insatiable. But I suppose that's why she’s irresistible, as well.”

With those words, Daemon settles himself between your legs. His thick shaft nudges against your entrance, and you can feel the heat radiating off him. He grinds against you, teasing the wet opening with just the tip of his cock. "Ready for me?" he asks lazily.

Through your haze of lust, another wicked idea occurs to you. 

"Wait," you whisper, pushing your hands against his chest. Daemon obliges, easing his weight from you with a quizzical smile. As he does, you guide him into a new position, settling him behind you while you face the door on all fours. 

Daemon's eyes flash as he understands what you want from him, seizing you by the hip with one hand and seeking your wet core with the other. He doesn’t wait for an invitation this time, but pushes inside you slowly, stretching you open to accommodate him. 

Once he's buried to the hilt, Daemon seizes you by both hips and pulls you slowly back against him. He drives into you a second time, then a third, until he seems to forget the world around you both and begins to take you in earnest.

"Daemon," you groan as the prince bottoms out within you over and over. At the sound of his name in your mouth, he gives a beastly groan and drives into you with a primal greed that leaves you breathless. Delicious as it is, you are distracted…and with good cause.

You decide to help the prince along using your usual tricks. You arrange a pillow beneath you and grip the base of Daemon's cock with one hand, adding a pressure that has him groaning louder than ever before. 

"Are you going to spend inside me, Daemon?" you croon. "Or spill your princely seed on my  ass? I've not had a chance to ask Mysaria which you prefer..."

You're pleased to hear another feral grunt at your words.

"Keep talking like that and I'll forget every whore I’ve ever lain with," Daemon pants as you work him, your hand squeezing his cock in time with your hips rolling with each thrust. His own hand comes to rest on your lower back.

You wait for his grunts to pick up before forcing his hands to his sides, using the force of your own hips to impale yourself upon him over and over.

Daemon's breath hitches at your boldness. "Damn you, woman," he curses. "Are you trying to drive me mad?"

You answer by turning your head to fix him with a coy smile that you hope will urge him ever closer to the end.

"Cum now," you order. "Make a mess of my cunt or ass, I care not, only do it now."

Daemon's breathy chuckle at your insolence quickly becomes the sound you were hoping to hear: the faltering grunts of a man's pleasure about to reach its mark.

It's then that you spring into action, using your hands to springboard from the bed and onto the ground, adrenaline leaping along with you as you make for the door.

But as you scramble for the door, you make the fatal mistake of looking back.

Daemon's face is wild in the aftermath of his ruined orgasm, thanks to you. The shock of your flight -- your final, most clever escape attempt -- strikes him plainly, like a slap to the face. That quickly, his look of surprised irritation elapses into rage, and the snarl from Daemon’s chest is filled with rage as he comes charging after you. 

You have the door open now, you can hear the sound of the musicians from below --

But Daemon comes up fast upon you, his fist forcing the heavy oak door closed again mere inches from your nose.

His other hand shoots out to grab your throat, an iron grip that keeps your back pinned against his chest.

"Silly slut. You think you can toy with your prince so shamelessly and get away with it?" he hisses in your ear. His hand around your throat squeezes even tighter as he speaks, digging tightly enough to steal your breath.

As the room spins, you register being forced back onto all fours, this time onto the chamber’s bearskin in the center of the room. And this time with Daemon in front of you, not behind.

He slaps the head of his swollen cock against your lips until you part them. After that, there is no tenderness as he claims your throat, his every thrust a punishing one. You hear Daemon’s anger in each seething breath through his nose. And yet, even with his hand still gripped tight around your throat, you can’t deny it - you like it this way. Daemon thrusting into you relentlessly, his pale hips pistoning into your face with the force of revenge as much as lust.

"You’ve lost, little viper,” he growls. “My sneaking Dornish whore.”

You can barely hear him through the whirling between your ears and the pain around your throat, and still you can't help moaning weakly. It's an odd combination: fear and pleasure, humiliation and ecstasy.

You never want it to stop.

With a triumphant smirk, he releases you, allowing you to fall back and draw breath. 

“Daemon,” you sputter, air filling your lungs, the simple pleasure of it flooding through you. 

Daemon watches your reaction with a mix of satisfaction and contempt. As you watch, he kneels to the ground to retrieve his belt, which he cinches around your naked waist like reins. 

Your head falls back as he positions himself behind you once more.

He thrusts into you from behind again, this time without mercy, his movements brutal, as if each slam against your hips is another slap at your pride.

"Now," he breathes in your ear, "You will beg."

"I won't," you hiss. Even now, you can't resist stoking his anger further, curious to see how far you can push the Rogue Prince.

Daemon chuckles darkly at your defiance. He slams into you, his thrusts more forceful than before. Your body is a perfect fit for him, taking every inch without hesitation. He tightens his grip around the belt, making you feel more than ever like a vessel for his enjoyment and amusement.

“You will.”

Overcome with need, you press your eager fingers against your cunt and turn your head to beg Daemon with your eyes instead, hoping to maintain the last traces of your dignity.

"Beg, Amara," Daemon orders again, clearly losing patience, his eyes never leaving yours. Just as you feel yourself teetering on the edge of desperation, of the most carnal need, he stops, pulling away in silence.

The longer he leaves you teetering, the more your desperation mounts. It's not until your voice cracks do you give in, and the words leave on a sob.

"Please, Daemon," you manage, your face flushed from need and shame. "Let me.”

“Let you what?”

“Let me cum,” you say without meeting his gaze.

He smirks at your submission, his eyes glittering with satisfaction as he slides back inside of you. Daemon's cock fills you again, the return like a promise made good. He grips your hair and starts to pump into you, the pace faster, the angle sharper, each thrust more intense than the last. His pace is relentless, driving into you without mercy, taking your body with the same ferocity that he's taken everything else in his life.

You can hear your own cries mingling with the sound of flesh meeting flesh, and it's only a matter of time before you approach your edge again, trembling under his unforgiving thrusts.

When you do, you can no longer contain yourself, your pleas for release tumbling out of your mouth. "Please, Daemon, please, let me come."

"With me,” he growls, the command unmistakable. He doesn't slow down, only continues to drive into you with a fervor that makes it clear he's determined to take you both over the edge at the same time.

As the wave of ecstasy builds within you, so does Daemon's own need. He thrusts more wildly than ever, his hand reaching out once more to seize you by the throat, that tight hold that both terrifies and delights you.

“I have you,” Daemon snarls again. “Did you truly think you could get away from me? That anything in the seven kingdoms could keep me from claiming this sweet, perfect cunt of yours?”

Sensing Daemon about to come undone, you look back to relish the prince's expression and see his face set in a grimace of wild pleasure that mirrors your own. Whereas Daemon looks more like a ferocious beast bearing down on its prey, however, you feel more like the prey on the brink of reaching safe haven. 

The moment he reaches his release, a twin spark ignites inside of you as well. You cry out as your long awaited orgasm rips through you, and Daemon’s along with it. As your shuddering stops, he pulls out to spend along your back; you can feel the warm traces of it against your skin. 

As he collapses next to you on the bed, Daemon's chest rises and falls in deep lungfuls. Sweat glistens on both of your skin. You're spent, utterly drained, but satisfaction hums through your veins in a way it rarely does with paying customers.

“Well played, my prince,” you say after a minute of blissfully exerted breathing. 

“To you as well,” he replies with his eyes closed. 

You might sulk if you weren’t so spent. You’ve lost the wager, after all; now the prince will pay you “handsomely but not extravagantly” for your troubles. You let your eyes fall closed as well, exhaustion threatening to overtake you, but you open your eyes again as Daemon runs a callused finger along your collarbone.

“You indulged my game admirably, little viper. And I do so love a challenge.”

You smile ruefully. “So long as this is your game, you’re unlikely to find a better challenge than I.”

He pauses at your words, as if considering. “Your fierceness is certainly unrivaled. Or your greed, perhaps…”

You say nothing.

“You may keep the whole of your prize money, then,” he murmurs. “Ten gold dragons, all yours. On one condition.”

You swallow nervously, wondering what else the prince could possibly ask of you. “Yes?”

In one swift motion, he turned me to face him. His gaze burned into mine, dark and possessive, leaving me breathless as he laid me down onto the bed behind us.

His movements were deliberate, almost agonizingly slow, as he peeled the dress from my body, layer by layer, exposing more of my skin to the cool air—and to him.

"Does he know you're already spoiled?" His voice was a low, teasing growl, filled with mockery.

The words, sinful and heavy, came as his teeth grazed the tender skin of my inner thigh, sending jolts of pleasure through me.

I gasped, my fingers tangling in his silver locks, pulling him closer.

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him," I murmured breathlessly, my defiance dissolving under the heat of his mouth as he descended between my thighs.

The moment his lips met my core, I could no longer hold back the soft moans escaping my lips.

He moved with expert precision, his tongue and lips working together in perfect harmony—licking, sucking, tasting.

I could feel the tight coil of pleasure building inside me, overwhelming me with each stroke of his tongue.

My fingers raked through his hair, clutching tightly as the sensations coursed through me, a wave of heat and need.

His hands gripped my thighs, preventing me from closing them, holding me open and vulnerable to his every move.

My legs rested over his shoulders as he devoured me with such skill it drove me to the edge of madness.

I bit down hard on my lower lip, struggling to suppress the sounds of pleasure spilling from my mouth.

My back arched off the bed, and I felt myself unravelling, the pressure building inside me unbearable as his mouth moved deeper, hungrier.

He was merciless, and I was lost in the storm he created within me, no longer caring about promises, duties, or the name I had whispered earlier.

All that existed was the pleasure, the undeniable pull of his touch, and the way he claimed every inch of me.

His mouth was relentless as it moved between my thighs, claiming me with an intensity that made my entire body tremble.

His tongue teased and coaxed, stroking me to the edge of pleasure again and again, while his lips sucked at my most sensitive spot, sending shockwaves of pleasure through my core.

My hands fisted the sheets, my breath coming in shallow gasps, my mind clouded by the overwhelming sensations he dragged out of me.

Each flick of his tongue, every teasing suck, was another step toward losing myself entirely.

My legs trembled, barely able to stay over his broad shoulders, but his firm grip on my thighs kept me open and exposed to him.

He wouldn't allow me to hide from the pleasure he was giving me.

I moaned loudly, my back further arching off the bed as I struggled against the onslaught of sensation.

There was no mercy in the way he worked me, his mouth intent on nothing but my undoing.

The world around me disappeared; there was only him and the fire building inside me, threatening to consume me completely.

His tongue moved deeper, his pace quickening as my body shook beneath him. I was on the verge of shattering, my mind lost to the pleasure that seemed to roll through me in endless waves.

Just when I thought I couldn't take any more, when the pleasure teetered on the edge of unbearable, he pulled away, leaving me gasping and trembling on the brink of release.

His breath was hot against my inner thigh as he chuckled softly, a low, dangerous sound that made my pulse quicken.

He lifted his head, his silver hair wild from where my fingers had tugged at it, his eyes dark with desire.

He pressed a final, lingering kiss to my thigh before raising himself over me, his body hovering inches above mine.

He smirked, his thumb brushing across my swollen lips, swollen from biting back the screams of pleasure.

Without warning, he pushed it past them, his eyes darkening as I instinctively sucked, the taste of his skin mixing with the lingering heat that pulsed through me.

My breath hitched, and he chuckled lowly, the sound vibrating between us.

His fingers trailed down my body, teasing my folds, stroking me with maddening gentleness.

I trembled, my body betraying me as I arched into his touch, desperate for more. He watched me intently, a predator savouring his prey.

"Tell me," he whispered, his voice a mix of command and seduction, "how do you think your northern brute will feel when he discovers his bride-to-be has already been ruined? Or perhaps he won't care."

I moaned softly around his thumb, unable to form words as my body responded to the pleasure he expertly coaxed from me.

His fingers played with my most sensitive parts, keeping me on edge, just out of reach of release. His thumb pressed deeper into my mouth, silencing me, owning me.

"Maybe he won't even notice," he mused, his thumb slipping free from my mouth, wet with my saliva, "or maybe you'll just lie there, thinking of me, wishing it was my mouth on you instead of his."

I trembled beneath him, my body aching with the need he had so expertly awakened in me.

His words were like a challenge, daring me to deny the truth of what was happening, what I was feeling. But I couldn't deny it.

Not when my body still hummed with the pleasure of his touch, and the taste of him lingered on my lips.

He leaned closer, his lips brushing against my ear.

"But if you asked," he murmured, his voice dark and seductive, "if you begged me to take you away from all of this... from him... I would. I'd make you my wife. I'd claim you completely, and no one—least of all that northern fool—would ever touch you again."

The weight of his body hovered above me, and I could still feel the pulse of my racing heart in my ears, the remnants of his earlier touch leaving my skin hot and flushed.

His offer, still fresh in my mind, lingered like forbidden fruit—dangerous, tempting.

He could take me away, make me his, and destroy everything I was bound to. All I had to do was surrender, to let myself fall completely.

But I knew, deep down, that I wouldn't. And neither would he—not without my permission.

"You know I would never ask that," I whispered, my breath catching as the words left my lips.

I looked into his eyes, their depths filled with a mixture of lust and something darker. His body remained still, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off him, his lips hovering just inches from mine.

"And I know," I continued, my voice soft but steady, "that you would never do it without being asked. We're both too proud for that, aren't we?"

His expression shifted slightly, and then a low, deep laugh rumbled from his chest.

It was dark, full of amusement and something rawer, more primal. His eyes gleamed with desire as his smirk widened, lips curling into that wicked grin that made my stomach tighten.

"Too proud," he echoed, his voice rich with irony. His fingers ghosted over my bare skin, trailing from my collarbone down to the curve of my waist, sending shivers across my body.

Every touch felt deliberate, calculated to make me want more. "Pride can be a dangerous thing. It keeps us from asking for what we truly want."

His words were like fire, igniting something deep inside me, but I wasn't ready to give in so easily.

My lips curved into a teasing smile of my own, defiant and playful.

"Maybe," I purred, my voice daring, "depending on how good you make me feel tonight... I might consider it."

I watched the shift in his expression, the way the playful amusement in his eyes darkened, replaced with raw, unfiltered hunger.

It was as though my words had sparked something inside him—a challenge he intended to meet head-on.

He arched a brow, his smirk still in place as though my offer was insignificant, but the tension in the air said otherwise.

Without a word, he shrugged nonchalantly, as though my challenge didn't faze him in the slightest.

But the glint in his eyes told me differently—he was more than ready to prove me wrong.

Without hesitation, he buried his face between my thighs once again, his breath hot and teasing as it brushed over my sensitive skin.

A sharp gasp escaped me as his lips found my core, soft yet commanding, every touch sending sparks through my body.

His mouth closed over me, his tongue flicking out with a precision that made me moan instantly, my fingers reaching down to grab at his silver hair once more.

But this time, there was no mercy in the way he devoured me.

He wasn't teasing, wasn't playing with the idea of giving me release—he was determined to make me fall apart, piece by piece.

His tongue moved in long, deliberate strokes, each one hitting perfectly, drawing sounds from me that I could no longer control.

I arched my back, my thighs trembling as I fought to keep still, but the pleasure was too intense.

His hands gripped my hips firmly, pulling me closer to his mouth, holding me in place as his tongue swirled and flicked with expert precision.

He knew exactly how to touch me, exactly where to press, exactly how to make me unravel beneath him.

The heat between my legs grew unbearable as his tongue traced every inch of my most sensitive spot, sucking and licking with such skill that I couldn't hold back the moans spilling from my lips.

Each sound seemed to fuel him, his tongue working faster, harder until the pressure building inside me became too much to bear.

"Gods," I gasped, my fingers tightening in his hair as my body trembled uncontrollably.

He didn't stop—his mouth only became more insistent, his tongue delving deeper as his lips wrapped around me, sucking with a hunger that left me breathless.

I cried out, the sound raw and desperate, my back arching off the bed as my legs shook.

My body was on fire, consumed by the pleasure he was dragging out of me with every flick of his tongue, every press of his lips.

My mind was a blur, my thoughts drowned out by the raw need he had unleashed.

I could feel the tension building again, higher and higher, threatening to tear me apart.

My legs trembled on either side of his head, my hips grinding helplessly against his mouth, seeking more, always more.

He was relentless, his grip tightening on my thighs as he held me open, his tongue never stopping, never slowing.

I was on the edge, teetering between control and absolute release, and he knew it.

He could feel the way my body was trembling, the way my breath came in short, desperate gasps. He pushed me further, his tongue delving deep inside me, his lips sucking at my swollen heat until—

I shattered.

A scream tore from my lips as the pleasure finally broke through, my body convulsing as the orgasm crashed over me in waves.

My thighs clamped around his head, but he didn't stop.

His tongue continued to work me, drawing out every last drop of my release until I was left trembling and spent beneath him.

My chest heaved, my entire body still tingling from the intensity of what he'd done to me.

He lifted his head slowly, his lips glistening with evidence of my pleasure, his eyes dark and filled with satisfaction as he looked down at me.

For a moment, we just stared at each other, both of us knowing there was nothing left to say.

He had made his point. And I had felt every bit of it.

Then, with a final smirk, he leaned back in, as though ready to do it all over again.

He’s much taller than you thought he was—that’s the only conscious and coherent thought you manage to have as he approaches you. Being the subject of his gaze is overwhelming in a way that you sort of expect, but it still makes you want to sit down and close your eyes. He looks you over, his gaze lingering briefly on your nametag from work.

“Show me your wrist,” he says.

You don’t think he’s using his powers, but you comply automatically, extending your arm toward him, wrist turned up. There’s a frisson of electricity that buzzes along the back of your hand when he touches it—if there were any remaining doubts about who he is and his relationship to you, that feeling surely puts them to rest. You know that he must have felt something too from the way he looks at you sharply, as though he thinks you’ve done something intentional to cause this. You can only hope that your wide eyed bewilderment convincingly conveys your innocence.

His expression betrays nothing as he examines the mark on your wrist, which is now glowing a bright gold that would be pretty if the circumstances were different.

It’s funny, you think. You’ve been waiting for this moment your entire life and all you can think is that you wish it wasn’t happening.

He releases your hand and looks at you in a calculating sort of way. “Come with me,” he says finally.

You do, of course. What other choice do you have?

*

The next several hours are a blur.

You are shuffled from place to place. Usually there is at least one guard—you’re not sure why. The idea of you being able to do any damage to him is laughable and escape doesn’t exactly seem like an option. Where could you go that he could not find you?

It’s a depressing thought; you try not to think much about it.

You know exactly when the news breaks because it coincides with your phone basically becoming unusable due to the flood of notifications, calls, and texts. You put it on airplane mode to compose a short message to your family and friends. Your reassurances feel a little trite given the circumstances: I’m fine, I’ll call when I can.

You can’t exactly type what you’re really thinking, which is more along the lines of I’ve just learned that my soulmate is the homicidal maniac who led the successful takeover of our planet. I’m doing about as well as you’d expect.

You turn airplane mode off long enough to send the email. Once it sends, you power down your phone. It doesn’t seem prudent to leave it on, at least not right now—right now, it only serves as a reminder of a life you know you’re going to have to leave behind and you’re not at all ready to confront that particular loss.

They eventually take you to what you assume are his rooms. You’re surprised by how traditional the decor is—you had expected a cold sort of minimalism, but there’s more wood and warm colors than you would have thought. You are informed that there are clothes for you in the closet; you nod and say nothing, though you wonder how they managed to pull an entire wardrobe together in the span of only a few hours. Magic, perhaps.

You are finally left alone, though you’re fairly certain that you would find guards stationed outside if you were to look.

You take one of the elegant velvet throws from the bed and wrap it tightly around yourself before settling on the couch next to the window. You’re not exactly cold, but it feels like a necessary armor between you and this unfamiliar place.

You stare out the window for a long time. You’re too high up to people watch and you’re not sure that you could handle that anyway—it would be yet another reminder of the fact that your life has changed in a massive, earth shaking way that you can’t even begin to understand. Instead, you stare at the tiny cars on the city streets below, snaking their way to destinations that feel so far out of your grasp that they might as well be on a different planet altogether.

*

It’s late when he finally shows up—so late that you’ve actually gotten ready for bed, donning one of the silk nightgowns that had been left for you. You can tell it’s more expensive than any sleepwear you’ve ever owned in your life. You’re just glad that it’s modest—you had half expected to find that all your pajamas were bustiers, thongs, and thigh highs in some sort of ill considered attempt to seduce you. But this is elegant and understated, with a matching robe that you cinch tightly around your waist.

You sit on the couch, the throw still wrapped snugly around you. He looks at you, the corner of his mouth curled up in a slight smirk.

“I hope you don’t intend to stay there the entire night,” he says.

“I hardly know you,” you say before you can even contemplate whether it’s wise.

He looks…amused isn’t quite the right word, but there’s a subtle tilt to the corner of his lips—not quite a smile, but maybe somewhere in the vicinity.

“Give it time,” he says, and something about that makes you shiver.

*

You intend to sleep on the couch, at least for these first few nights when everything still feels so raw and strange.

Or that was your plan, anyway.

Loki doesn’t say anything else as he prepares for bed and you stare resolutely at the window so as not to invite any more conversation or prompt any invitations to join him in bed. Eventually, the lights go out and you are left alone with your thoughts in the dark.

The room is much colder at night.

You’re not sure if it’s on purpose, though you wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Perhaps he likes it like this. Perhaps it’s to lure you to him, to tempt you into seeking out the warmth of his bed and body.

You pull the blanket more tightly around your shoulders. Eventually, you allow your eyes to drift shut.

You wake some time later in the middle of the night. The room feels even colder, the velvet of the throw and the silk of your nightgown and robe a scanty defense against the chill. You burrow against the couch cushions and it’s sort of bearable.

But you also have to pee.

You hold off for as long as you can, but you eventually summon the will to leave the couch and seek out the bathroom.

The bathroom is even colder—perhaps it’s all that glass and marble that makes the difference. You’re wearing your robe and you’ve still got the blanket wrapped around you, but your teeth are chattering by the time you wash your hands. You run the water as hot as you can stand, but it only does so much. If you were braver—if it wasn’t your first night here, you would run an extra hot shower and stay under the spray until your fingers and toes pruned and the chill was chased from your bones.

Instead, you hustle back to the couch, burrowing against the cushions, throw and robe wrapped tightly around you. But you still can’t seem to shake the cold. You huddle on the couch, shivering, trying to calm your body.

Time passes and you don’t grow any warmer. You wonder if you can steal another throw from the bed—surely he won’t miss one—when a voice speaks from the darkness.

“Come to bed,” Loki says.

You clear your throat. “What?”

“I can hear your teeth chattering from here. Come to bed and stop being absurd.”

You hesitate, staring into the dark. You consider the cold, the slight kink in your neck from the way you’ve been sleeping on the couch, the late hour, the way that sleep pulls at your eyes. A bed is appealing. Maybe more appealing than it should be.

You find yourself getting to your feet and slowly making your way across the room.

You pause on the other side of the bed—your side, you suppose, though calling it that still feels too intimate. You can just make him out in the dark.

“You’ll stay on your side,” you say, like making it a statement will make it so.

“Well, you hardly know me.” His voice is clipped, more bitter than you expect as he echoes your words from earlier.

You can’t help but scowl. “I’ve known you for less than twenty-four hours and it’s the middle of the night. I’m not doing this right now.”

He laughs. It’s sharp and brittle and unexpected, but it’s a laugh all the same, and something about that helps, if only a little.

You don’t say anything else as you climb into bed. You find that the blankets are warm—warmer than you expect—and heavy. There’s a part of you that expects yourself to be too nervous and on edge to fully relax, but the coziness of the blankets piled around you is oddly calming, even with Loki mere inches away. You hunker down underneath the blankets, situating yourself on the pillows.

He doesn’t say anything and it’s not long until his breathing becomes steady and even.

And after a while, yours does, too.

*

Consciousness creeps up on you slowly the next morning, a far cry from the jarring alarm on your phone that usually disrupts your slumber. You are warm and cozy, cocooned in the blankets, safe from all of the bullshit that had happened yesterday.

It’s such a peaceful, easy awakening that it takes you a moment to realize that you aren’t alone.

It takes another moment for you to realize that your cheek is pressed against Loki’s chest. And to make matters worse, not only are your arms wrapped around his him, your right leg is also flung across his waist, like you can’t bear to be parted from him for even a moment.

But before the panic sets in, there is a barely perceptible moment where your body just enjoys the feeling of being pressed against him. It’s quick and you’d deny it if asked, but the rush that you get from giving into the pull of your soulbond for even that brief moment is nothing short of incredible.

But it’s just a moment and your mind quickly turns to the matter of extracting yourself without drawing his notice. Ideally, he’ll just stay asleep and you won’t have to deal with any awkward fallout. If you move very slowly and carefully, perhaps he won’t notice.

You carefully start to move your leg from his waist.

“To be clear, you’re on my side of the bed,” he says.

God fucking dammit.

You abandon all subtlety and quickly peel yourself away from him.

“I must have rolled over in my sleep,” you say, incredibly conscious of how stupid that sounds.

He smirks, which is somehow worse than if he’d said anything.

“It won’t happen again,” you say.

It does.

This is your new routine: you start every evening on the couch, wrapped up in your robe and throw. You wake some time in the night, teeth chattering. Sometimes, Loki will tell you to come to bed. Other times, you quietly give up and slip under the covers on your side of the bed.

But every morning without fail, you wake tangled around him.

Sometimes, he’s spooned up behind you; more often, though, you’re the one clinging to him. It’s as though your body has a homing device that leads you over to his side of the bed in your sleep, dutifully ignoring all of your stern warnings about who stays where.

The worst part of it is that you’re fighting your own instincts. On a very basic, physical level, you yearn to be close to him. There’s a part of you that revels in these unintentional moments of closeness, that wants to allow yourself to enjoy the feeling of him, to allow him to put his hands on your body, for you to put your hands on him.

The fact that he wakes up noticeably hard most mornings does not make this any easier.

This is a problem that you’re not entirely sure how to solve and the second week in, your desire for information finally outweighs your desire to avoid social media and the deluge of emails and texts that you know are waiting for you on your phone.

You turn your phone back on and immediately delete all of your social media apps. You don’t know what they’re saying about you and you don’t care to. You turn off all of your notifications, even the little number icons that show you how many unread emails and texts that you have. You want absolutely no distractions.

You open a private browser window and pull up Google.

Newly connected soulbonds are the hormonal equivalent of pouring out a bunch of gasoline and striking a match. Soulbonds are intended to be consummated. You know this. There are people who wait it out for one reason or another, but that’s very much the exception—it’s a physical and emotional test of endurance. And you’re beginning to understand why.

The internet is not very helpful. You already know what happens when you don’t consummate a soulbond promptly—increased arousal, restlessness, vivid dreams, and so on as time goes on. You’re more interested in mitigation. You find a few blogs that have entirely irrelevant suggestions like cuddling on the couch or holding hands. “While you’re waiting for intercourse, why not try some outercourse?” one post muses with a level of earnestness that causes you to immediately turn off your phone and fling it across the room.

You’re going to have sex with him at some point. That’s inevitable. On a very basic level, you want him—it’s more or less coded into your DNA. But that is at odds with the reality of who he is and what he’s done. It might feel good to wake up tangled around him, but it only takes a minute to remember the battle of New York and it nearly extinguishes the desire burning within you.

But only nearly and only for now.

*

The third week is when things start getting increasingly difficult.

Loki seems content to wait things out. You can feel the burn of his gaze on you, but he doesn’t push, doesn’t prod.

You, on the other hand, find yourself slipping into a heightened state of arousal that is becoming impossible to ignore. Midway through the week, you finally give in and try touching yourself in the shower in the hope of some relief and you come so quickly and so hard that you have to clap a hand over your mouth to keep from crying out and your legs very nearly buckle from the force of it. A few twitches of your fingers has you sprawled on the shower floor and coming again, harder than before. You repeat this trick a few times but even as strong as it is, it doesn’t really help—you’re back to where you started within minutes.

Worse though, is the fact that it’s his face that you see when you come. Every. Single. Time. You imagine him over you, his gaze dark and intent as he watches you come; slack jawed and hissing in pleasure as he pushes into you; growling in approval and impatience as you take his cock into your mouth. The images come entirely unbidden and stick in the forefront of your thoughts like a burr clinging to wool.

When you see him later that afternoon, his gaze lands on you in such a way that it feels like he knows everything you’ve done and everything you’ve seen, from that moment in the shower to the shameful thoughts you had as you came.

The dreams start shortly after, and they are objectively worse.

The dreams are far more vivid than just images. In the dreams, he’s touching you, coaxing you to peaks you could never have imagined, pressing into you, taking you hard and fast and achingly slow and everything in between. The dreams leave you out of breath and shaky, aching for a touch that you know that you should not want, but do with every fiber of your being. By some miracle, they only seem to occur while you are on the couch and not when you’re in bed, but that luck won’t hold forever.

Perhaps more importantly, you know it’s only a matter of time before you give in. Deep down, you’ve known this from the moment the mark on your wrist started to burn. Your resistance is eroding like a sandcastle at high tide and it’s only a matter of time before you crumble.

But not yet. Not yet.

*

Five weeks after your arrival, you wake sweating and out of breath from another dream.

You take a few deep breaths. It was similar to the ones you’d had before. Thinking about the details makes your core ache and your clit throb so you try to keep them out of your mind.

You’re half surprised that you’re not tangled around Loki, given the content and subject of your dream, but that makes sense when you realize he’s not in bed. Instead, he sits on the couch, staring into the middle distance. Perhaps he is struggling with the same kinds of dreams.

The idea of you making Loki too hot and bothered to sleep is more appealing than you’d like to admit. You hastily dismiss the thought before it can bring any more heat to your already too warm skin or add more fuel to the flickering desire that seems to have settled permanently in the cradle of your hips.

You slip out of bed and go to the window, folding your arms across your stomach as you stare out at the sleeping city.

“You were calling out in your sleep.”

More heat prickles at your skin.

“Hm,” you say, trying your best to sound casual.

“What were you dreaming of?” he asks.

He’s only asking because he already knows the answer. You know this. But the lie still slips from your lips: “I don’t remember.”

He laughs, a quiet and dangerous sound that stokes the fire in your belly. “Have you forgotten, darling, that I am the god of lies?”

You can hear him walking toward you, but you keep your back turned. Has the room always been this warm?

He waits until he is directly behind you to speak again. “Will you lie again when I ask if you were dreaming of me?” His voice is so close, full of depth and a little husky. 

“You flatter yourself,” you say.

You can hear the smirk in his voice, feel the whisper of his breath on your neck. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” He pauses for a moment. “But you were calling out for me.”

Your lips are dry. You want to deny it, but it feels useless. Worst case scenario, he’s still mostly right: you were dreaming of him and you can’t even really deny crying out for him because you were asleep and you don’t know for sure.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he continues. His voice drops. “Every time I close my eyes, I see you writhing in pleasure beneath me.” He pauses. “Or I see myself between your legs, worshiping you with my mouth, bringing you to ecstasy over and over before I finally take you.”

Your heart is pounding and every nerve in your body feels as though it’s connected directly to your clit. You are warm—too warm—and you can feel your pulse pounding in your throat.

“What were you dreaming of?” he continues, his voice barely a murmur.

“Nothing,” you say.

He clicks his tongue. “Try again, darling.”

You say nothing and after a moment of silence, he seems to decide that it’s time to switch strategies.

“You must be so wet,” he murmurs, his tone low and soothing.

Your stomach and your cunt clench. If he starts talking dirty to you, it’s over.

“We’re not meant to go this long like this,” he says. “We both know that. It’s been five weeks. Your poor cunt is probably aching for me, just as I ache for you.”

Your breath is coming in shaky gasps. You need him. You can feel your resolve starting to slip.

“Yield to me.” His voice is rough with wanting, like this is just as hard for him as it is for you. “I know you feel it. I feel it, too. You yearn for me, you crave my touch. Let me make you feel good, darling, let me ease that ache. Yield and I will give you everything.”

You draw in a shaking breath and slowly turn to face him. He’s looking at you with an intensity that you expect, but it takes your breath away nonetheless.

The remnants of your resistance are lost to the wave of him and the only thing that’s left in its place is a raw need like you’ve never experienced before.

You don’t know what to say, so in the end, you settle for his name. Just his name, said quietly with all the desperation and longing that has been making your life hell these past few weeks.

You get a glimpse of the fire in his eyes before he’s on you.

There’s nothing gentle about this kiss. It’s the kiss of two people who have been deprived of each other for too long, your teeth bumping against each other, tongues twisting and tangling. You end up pressed against the wall next to the window, your leg wrapped around his waist, his hand supporting your thigh. He presses his hips against you and you moan into his mouth at the feeling of his hard cock dragging against your swollen, sensitive clit. He draws back slightly to look at your face as he slowly grinds his hips against yours, his free hand moving to palm your breast over the silk of your nightgown.

You moan again, your head dropping back against the wall. The soft, slippery friction of the silk of your nightgown against your nipple and the soaked lace of your underwear rubbing against your clit is enough to make you go cross eyed, a slow tease that only fans the burning embers within you. Your body is overheated and too tense, but Loki is blessedly cool in a way that somehow both soothes and inflames.

“You’re drenched. I can already feel that,” he says, his voice thick with desire as he moves against you. “I could make you come like this.”

You whimper, rocking your hips back against him. “Please.”

He shakes his head. “Another time. Tonight I want to feel you when you come.” He drops his hand from your breast, trailing down your stomach and moving in between your legs. His fingers slip beneath your underwear, and you let out a needy whine as he strokes the slick folds of your sex. “Is this all for me?” he asks, his voice slipping into a low growl.

You barely manage a breathy affirmative.

“Sweet thing.” His thumb rolls over your clit as he slides one finger into you, and your back arches automatically, your breasts jutting out. “We’re going to have to do something about this, aren’t we?”

“Please,” you breathe.

“How can I resist such a sweet plea?” he says, sliding another finger into you and curling it just so. “Or such a wet and needy cunt?”

“Don’t stop,” you say.

“I ought to make you beg me for it after everything you put me through.” His eyes darken as his thumb presses against your clit and you moan. “But perhaps I can be generous. I can feel how much you need to come on my fingers.”

You nod, slack jawed and panting.

“You’ve been waiting for this,” he murmurs. “You’ve tried to deny yourself, but you need me, you need my touch.”

You whimper, your hips rocking.

“Say it,” he says, stroking your clit.

“I need to come,” you moan.

“A good start,” he says, his voice a stern purr. “But not quite what I asked, my love. Try again.”

A twinge of irritation manages to work its way to the forefront of your mind. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly in a state to be playing twenty questions.”

His eyes light up with a predatory gleam that heralds the arrival of something that you know will end enjoyably for you.

“Oh, darling, that attitude won’t do at all.” His fingers are immediately and conspicuously absent and you very nearly cry out in frustration. But before you can, he is sweeping you into his arms and making the journey to the bed in several long strides. He sets you gently on the bed and looms over you, green eyes flashing as his hands stroke up your thighs. You lift your hips and he pulls your underwear off, tossing it to the side.

“Let’s try that again, shall we?” His voice is a growl. “Tell me what you need.”

“I need to come.” You know it’s the wrong answer, but this particular game of cat and mouse and the predatory gleam in Loki’s eyes are making you even wetter and god, you need him.

His eyes flash with a barely concealed delight. “Try again.”

You spread your legs rather conspicuously, hiking your nightgown up to your waist. “I need to come.”

He’s looking at you intently, lips slightly parted. “You’re trying to distract me with that pretty cunt, you wicked thing.”

“Is it working?” you ask.

He lowers his head to kiss the inside of your left knee. “It would work much better if you answered me properly and told me everything you need.”

You think you have an idea of what he wants to hear, but you’re not quite ready to give up the game yet. Instead, you pull your nightgown up and over your head and toss it to the side. His eyes are dark as he looks at you, his gaze lingering on your breasts and trailing down to the apex of your spread legs. You wonder what it would take to make him lose control, to take you in the way that you both need.The thought sends another flood of heat to your aching core. 

You lick your lips. “Will you make me come, Loki?”

Another wolfish grin. “Closer. But not quite. Try again.”

You let your hand slide down your stomach and between your legs and you part your sopping folds so he can see the full extent of what he’s done to you—every dripping inch. The look he’s giving you now only heightens the feeling.

“Should I make myself come?” you ask and you’re immediately rewarded with an almost feral look and a sharp smack to your ass.

“Don’t you dare,” he growls.

You put on your most innocent expression, even as his visible hunger makes you ache. “I thought you’d like seeing me touch myself.”

“Oh, there will be time for that later,” he says, his eyes still dark. “I’m particularly interested in seeing what prompted those intriguing little noises I kept hearing while you were in the shower. But every tremor of pleasure that wracks your body tonight will be from me alone. Now,” his eyes glitter and his hand replaces yours on your cunt, his long fingers spreading you open, but not touching you, his expression rapt with undisguised greed, “tell me what you need.”

Your capacity to tease and resist him was well and truly exceeded when he smacked your ass and was further obliterated by the monologue he just delivered. “I need you to make me come, Loki. I need you so bad.”

His smile is filled with dark promises and a hunger that you have every interest in sating several times over.

“Good girl,” he says.

And his fingers slide back into you as his mouth envelopes your aching clit.

You moan as your hips lift and your hands tangle in his hair. He mumbles something that sounds like “perfect” against your clit, first teasing you with the tip of his tongue and then pressing it flat against you and rubbing in slow circles. Meanwhile, his fingers have found that soft, aching spot inside of you and he presses against it in slow, firm thrusts that make you tremble.

You initially think that you’ll be quite quick to come because you’re already so wound up, but Loki seems determined to find the edge and keep you there for as long as possible—and he’s really, really good at it. He falls into a rhythm where his tongue strokes your clit once, twice, three times and withdraws; his fingers pick up the thread, stroking your walls once, twice, three times and withdrawing, only for his tongue to resume where he left off. In this way, he keeps you balanced on the edge in a perfect kind of torture. It feels so good, but it’s not quite enough to get you there just yet.

You make liberal use of his name—it’s a plea, a curse, a benediction, a moan, a sigh. Instinctively, you know that he likes this, but it’s not enough to distract him into letting you fall even a moment before he wants you to.

The ache that’s been building in your hips for the last couple weeks is growing, burning bright and warm. Your body feels electric in the best way, your nerves humming and buzzing and straining for release.

“Loki,” you moan, partly as encouragement and partly because you want him so badly.

You’re so close. Your entire body is tense and trembling; all you can think about is how badly you need to come, how much you are aching for your release.

So close.

“Loki, please,” you moan, truly desperate now. “Please let me come. Make me yours—”

You’re not sure if it’s what you said, the desperation in your voice, or pure coincidence, but in that moment, he shifts his rhythm so that his mouth and fingers are no longer alternating, but are instead moving in sync. And this is what you need to tip you over, to allow that wave to finally, finally crest and then break.

Your orgasm hits you hard, pulling a loud moan from deep within your chest and making your entire body quake. Sparklers are dancing along your veins, champagne bubbles fizzing along your muscles, stars bursting behind your eyes. You have never felt anything like this before—you are satisfied but also aching for more, falling apart and being remade over and over again.

It’s only when you’re decidedly in the blissful wave of the aftershocks that he dares to lift his head and he looks you over like you’re something wonderful. Before you can raise your hands to reach for him, he’s crawling up to you, claiming your mouth in a kiss that feels deeper than the ocean.

He slides his hand in between your legs and you whimper, shivering at the sensation of his thumb stroking your sensitive clit. But somehow, he finds that particular angle and pressure that’s just enough, but not too much. You moan and he slides a finger back into you, rolling in the same rhythm as his thumb on your clit.

“That’s it,” he murmurs. “Keep going for me, darling. I want to watch you come this time.” His voice is so firm and authoritative and it strikes sparks up and down your spine.

“Fuck,” you gasp, your hips rocking with his hand.

“You’re doing so well getting ready for me,” he purrs. He lowers his voice to a rough growl. “I can’t wait to fuck you until you’re trembling and coming all over my cock like the wicked, filthy girl that you are.”

It’s the combination of his words and his voice and his perfect hands that does it this time. A rolling, fluttering shudder fizzes through your body, building to a peak that has you letting out a guttural moan as you clench around his thrusting fingers.

“Yes, that’s it,” Loki says as he watches you through hooded eyes. “You are gorgeous when you come undone.”

He kisses you slowly, fingers moving steadily until the final shudder rolls through you.

Somehow, through all of this, he’s remained fully clothed. There’s an aspect to this that’s appealing—it makes everything feel particularly decadent and a little forbidden—but your palms are practically itching with your need to touch him. You need him inside you, but you also need him close, bare skin on bare skin.

Your hands sneak under his shirt and you suck in a sharp breath when you feel the heat of his skin underneath your palms. You tug his shirt off him and make quick work of his pants before drawing back to look at him.

He looks like art. It’s a silly thought, but there’s some truth to it—there’s an almost ethereal quality in the sharp angles of his face and the elegant symmetry of his musculature. 

Your gaze drifts down to his cock. He’s long, thick, and hard, the tip flushed and slick with pre-come. An ache courses through you—something about seeing the full evidence of his arousal makes everything seem more real, makes you want him with renewed ferocity.

You want to touch him and so you do, your fingers curling around his shaft.

“Can you feel how much I need you?” he asks as you stroke him slowly. He is remarkably composed, though you catch the slight hitch in his breath and it sends a thrill through you.

“Will you show me?” you ask.

“Every day,” he says.

It’s an answer you’re not expecting. You were speaking strictly in the immediate, physical sense. This feels deeper, more meaningful. You’re not quite sure what to say, so you kiss him and he kisses you back with an intensity and thoroughness that makes your toes curl.

He rolls over you, his body covering yours. It’s almost overwhelming how good his bare skin feels against yours. You take his cock in your hand again and stroke him, slowly rubbing the tip from your clit to your entrance, coating him in your slick.

You expect him to just push forward when you guide him to your entrance and you’re almost disappointed that he doesn’t—you’ve both waited so long for this and your need for him is burning inside you like an inferno.

But instead he pauses, his eyes locked with yours.

“Will you have me?” he asks. There’s vulnerability in the question, a softness in his green eyes that you don’t expect. It feels like a loaded question, though not necessarily in a bad way.

You don’t hesitate. “Yes,” you breathe.

Something like relief flashes briefly in his eyes before he leans in and kisses you. You tilt your hips up again and this time, you feel the blunt head of his cock slowly press into your waiting warmth.

You’d read people describing first times with their soulmates and it had always sounded so hyperbolic and silly. They’d throw around words like euphoric and transcendent and all you could do was try not to roll your eyes.

But the moment Loki is fully seated inside you, you finally get it. Every overwrought, overused cliché seems to occur to you all at once—puzzle pieces falling into place and locks and keys and halves made whole and all that bullshit—and it all makes sense in a way that it hadn’t before.

Loki’s eyes are stormy above you, to the point that you think you may have angered him, but then he kisses you with a ferocity and possessiveness that steals your breath and makes you tighten around him.

“Mine,” he growls against your lips. “Mine.”

There’s a lot of emotion in that word. There’s history in that word. It’s the sort of thing that the two of you will probably need to unpack later. For now, though, you wrap your legs around him and meet his demanding, hungry kisses with your own.

“I’m yours,” you murmur against his lips. “Take me.”

You expect him to respond to that plea with a frantic pace. But instead, his first thrusts are slow, like he’s savoring it. Your body yields to him instinctively, your muscles drawing him in and then tightening further as he withdraws. You are so slick, so ready for him that it almost feels a little obscene.

“You are exquisite,” he rasps as he sinks into you, his head bowing to kiss and nip at your neck. “I have been aching for you.”

“Yes,” you breathe. “Please.”

You’re not entirely sure what you’re asking for—more of this, more of him—but he seems to know anyway. He kisses you deeply as you wrap your legs around his waist, rolling your hips up to meet his.

In one fluid motion, he rolls you over so that you are on top. He looks up at you, an irrepressible smirk curling at the corners of his lips.

“Go on,” he says, his voice low. “I want to see you take your pleasure from me. Claim your throne, my love.”

A shiver works its way up your spine. This is a man who single-handedly conquered the entire planet and he’s telling you he wants you to ride his cock until you come. It is raw and sexy and undeniably hot and the way he’s looking up at you makes you feel beautiful and powerful.

You lean forward, bracing your hands on the mattress, tilting your pelvis until you find the right angle, the one that makes your stomach tighten and your breath stutter. 

A smile twitches at the corners of his mouth. “Right there?”

You let out a shaky breath and rock your hips. “Yeah.”

It takes a moment for you to find your rhythm, but you find that you want—or perhaps need—to go slow and steady. Loki watches you, his hips rocking with yours as he lets you set the pace, his hands sliding from your hips to your breasts and back again, like he can’t get enough. His gaze is intent and intense and you get the sense that he’s cataloging every movement, every gasp or sigh, furrowed brow or bitten lip.

The coil in your hips is starting to wind tighter and you know it won’t be long. 

As though he knows, Loki slides a hand down your body, palm gently pressing against your lower stomach. A fantastic pressure begins to blossom in your hips and you whimper.

“You’re doing so well,” he purrs. “So tight and wet. You’re perfect.”

“Getting close,” you breathe.

“I know, I can feel you,” he says.

You’re at a point somewhere beyond words, riding that wave, chasing bliss that you can almost feel. A choked whimper falls from your lips.

“That’s it,” rasps Loki. “Be a good girl and come on my cock.” He flicks his thumb against your clit and you completely unravel.

It was good the first two times, but having him inside you as you come sends you to another plane of existence entirely. Your orgasm seems extended, the feeling of his cock against the spasming muscles of your cunt creating more even rippling pleasure. And the noise that he makes, the filthy praise that falls from his lips, the way that his fingertips dig into your hips just makes it all better.

He rolls you over onto your back just as you’re starting to feel boneless, and pulls you into a deep kiss.  He thrusts into you, a little faster than the pace you had set, but still slow and steady.

“I want to feel you come again,” he breathes. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this, how good you feel?”

You shudder as his cock drags again against that spot inside you. He repeats the motion and you keen, tangling your fingers in his hair.

“That’s it,” he rasps, bringing your leg up over his hip to press even more deeply inside of you. “Come on, darling. Let me feel you.”

You wrap your arms around his neck, meeting his hungry, demanding kiss with your own. You roll your hips with his, chasing the flickers of bliss that he’s steadily stoking to an inferno once more.

“Please,” you mumble against his lips. “Need you. Please.”

He groans and increases his pace just enough to make you whimper. The desire inside of you is catching fire.

“I…fuck, I—” Your hands are gripping his shoulders, your body shaking as you approach your end.

Loki’s eyes are wild, his teeth bared. You can tell that he’s close, that he’s chasing the same incredible feeling that you are.

“I want you to come for me,” he grits out. “And the second I feel your tight cunt start to tremble around me, I’m going to come inside you.

You moan, fingernails digging into his shoulders. You are unbearably close.

“Do you want that, darling?” he says. “Do you want me to come inside you? Do you want your perfect cunt filled with my seed?”

You are almost beyond words, but not quite: “Yes. Please.”

Despite how close he is, he still gives the impression of being entirely in control. He lowers his head so that his lips graze yours and his eyes are all that you can see. “Then come for me,” he says.

Two more deadly smooth rolls of his hips and you do. A guttural, plaintive sound falls from your lips as your whole body trembles with the force of your orgasm, your cunt squeezing around the girth of his cock. He groans, mumbling something in a language you don’t recognize before he, too, starts to unravel.

His face is rapturous when he comes, his head tipping back and his mouth falling open, brow furrowing. If you weren’t so distracted with the rippling shocks of your own pleasure, you would try to commit it to memory. Instead, you simply try to enjoy the feeling of him emptying himself inside of you, the stuttering thrust of his hips, the soft groan that falls from his lips. Finally he stills, resting his head in the crook of your shoulder. You can feel his heart pounding against yours.

You feel…it’s not different, exactly, but there’s a kind of ease and connection that just feels right. The restless ache inside of you is finally quiet and you feel loose and languid and pleasantly sleepy.

Finding your soulmate isn’t necessarily the same as falling in love. Sometimes it all happens in the moment. Sometimes it’s years in between.

The shouting could be heard down the hall. Daemon had rounded the corner just as your voice cracked from desperation. Tears were streaking your face.

No one was listening to you.

No one cared.

They were more focused on filling the large tub in the middle of the bedroom with warm water; you were merely a nuisance  to be ignored.

The maester had insisted that all of this was simply a bout of hysteria; you didn’t need people to buy into your stories, you simply needed a hot bath and some rest.

“Can someone please just-” you were cut off mid-sentence by the handmaids. The women each offered a curtsy before murmuring a soft ‘your Highness’ as Daemon stepped into the small room.

“What’s going on?” Daemon asked.

“The maester-” One girl began to explain. But, Daemon shot her a look that made her turn her eyes toward the stone floors.

“Your Highness, she’s-” another one began, but the words died in her throat before she had the chance to add the finishing ‘being difficult.’

Tears stained your cheeks as you turned to your husband for some kind of help. That was all Daemon needed to see.

“Leave my wife be. I’ll tend to her.”

“But, sir…” One of the girls tried to argue with him.

“Now!” It was an order. With that, the girls quickly filed out of the room, pulling the door closed behind them. 

“You’re back early.” You commented. He seemed to disregard what you had said. He was more concerned with the scene he had walked in on.

“You’re scaring your handmaids. You’re also scaring me.”

“I don’t need handmaids. I’m perfectly capable of bathing myself.” You said as you stepped into the water. 

“When was the last time you slept?” He asked. 

You sat down in the hot water, feeling it cover you up to your narrow shoulders.

“When was the last time we shared a bed?” You asked. You had curled up beside him afterward and fallen asleep; that was the last time you hadn’t awoken in a panic.

Three days. Daemon winced.

“I can’t sleep. Anytime I try to, I see horrible things.”

Daemon had always known that you had issues sleeping. He would often awaken to you pacing in the corner of the room or to you huddling around a candle as you tried to read to clear your head. However, those things usually did little to help. Other times, he would come into the room late after a day of busying himself with his important duties, only to find you sitting on the bed waiting for him. On those nights, when he could feel the exhaustion seeping into his bones, he would often strip down and climb into the bed beside you. He would shoot you a grin and then lean back against the wooden headboard, daring you to find some kind of comfort in him just as he had found in you. On those nights, you could carefully straddle one of his pale thighs before lowering yourself down so that your naked folds were against his warm skin. Then, with his encouragement, you could grind against him until your head went fuzzy with pleasure. It was always easier to get you to sleep after that.

“It’s fine, Daemon.” You said. However, that did little to help the deep scowl that painted his features.

“Take off your dress.” He instructed. You grinned, turning your attention toward the bed that rested on the other side of the room. 

“I missed you, too, my Prince.”

Daemon made a low tsk with his tongue. “No, you’re going to take a hot bath and go to sleep. If it’s what the maester recommends, then that is what you shall do.”

“Daemon, I’m not in the mood.”

“Nor am I. Now strip.” He commanded. It reminded you of the time he had made you strip in the great hall at Dragonstone so that he could ravish you on the floor. But, when he had ordered it then, he had also been removing his own clothing.

Now, he seemed more like a man trying to get his pet to obey.

“Only if you get in with me.”

“I’m not in the mood for a bath. Unlike you, I’m exhausted and would like to sleep eventually.”

“Then go crawl into bed. I’ll lay beside you as you sleep.”

“Nice offer. Now do as you’ve been told.” He was challenging you. He tried to keep his features stony and unreadable, though he quickly caved when his violet eyes met yours.

“Be good and you'll earn a reward.”

He had tried commanding; now he was bribing.

“What kind of reward? I need to know whether or not it's worth it.”

He sighed as he stepped forward. Without warning, he ducked downward and crushed his lips against yours. You tried to gasp, but his mouth swallowed the sound before it could escape. His lips moved against yours, gently prying your mouth open. 

Meanwhile, you felt one of his hands drift down the curve of your spine before he groped your ass. His other hand drifted up your back, moving toward your shoulder. Fingers traced your shoulder before they dipped inward, tracing your clavicle. You waited for them to dip further to cup your breasts, but instead, Daemon twisted his fingers inside one of the thin sleeves. 

Material ripped under his fingers as suddenly pulled it downward.

You gasped, giving in to his roaming hands as they pulled your nightgown over your shoulders and then pushed it down so that it could fall into a puddle at your feet. 

You slipped your fingers under the material of his top and began to push the material upward. If you hadn’t been so distracted by your attempt to undress him, you might have noticed Daemon bending slightly so that his arms could curl around the backs of your knees. Then, without breaking the kiss, he lifted you bridal-style into his arms.

You felt your feet leave the ground and then he stepped forward with your now-nude body. “Daemon?” 

You had broken the kiss just as he dropped you in the warm tub of water.

You gasped, feeling the water soak every inch of you.

“Fucking hell!” You yelled. Water had splashed all over the floor of the room from the drop. It was something that Daemon would have one of the maids deal with later.

“You’re a real prince among men. You know that, Daemon?” You wiped your face with your hand, trying to swipe away some of the water that had splashed across your cheeks.

“I’ve been called infinitely worse things. You’ve called me much worse before.” He said, his tone flat. He was electing to ignore the complaining at this point.

Now that he had you in the water, he wasted no time. 

Daemon dipped his hands into the water before he carefully dragged his fingers over your skin, wetting the tops of your shoulders that were still exposed. Once he was happy with his work, he reached for a dark gray bar of soap and carefully began to rub the bar under his calloused fingertips, forming a white foam.

A part of you wanted to climb out of the water or just start shouting at your husband. But, you knew that despite how sweet he had been in the past, he was more than capable of dragging you back into the water and holding you there. He had always towered over you and had taken pride in being able to pin your hands above your head while in bed.

The energy faded out of the room; it had slipped out so suddenly that neither of you noticed until it was too late. You leaned your head against the edge of the basin, watching your husband as he gently began to wash you.

“I had a dream about you again.” You said.

“I dream of you every night.” He said it so casually; as if it were a given that you took up every corner of his thoughts.

“Daemon, you don’t understand.” Your dreams weren’t of you two making love or of your wedding day; your dreams were of fire and chaos; blood and death.

“I know.” He whispered. His voice was low and soft; he wasn’t challenging you to a fight. 

You felt a twinge of guilt as you sat there. Other Targaryen men had been married off to elegant ladies who would spend their days embroidering and enjoying one another’s company; Daemon had been shackled to a nut-case.

You had been so lost in your thoughts that you had not noticed Daemon beginning to wet your hair. Once he was satisfied, he had reached for the white bar of soap that rested beside the tub.

“You don’t have to do this.” You said, your voice low. The fire crackled in the corner.

“I’m aware.” He said. His fingers carefully worked the soap through your hair, stopping every so often when he would encounter a tangle. When it was time to rinse, he leaned over and reached for another pitcher of water. 

“Lean your head back for me and close your eyes.” You did as you were told. Then, without a word, Daemon gently poured the pitcher of water over your head, washing out the soap that he had so lovingly covered you with.

Once he was content with his work, he placed the pitcher on the ground beside the tub. You opened your eyes. Just as you did, you caught your husband’s pale gaze.

“Would you like to tell me about what you see in your dreams?” He asked. 

“It’s been the same thing for weeks now. It’s always fire and screaming and you.”

“Me?”

“You get maimed or you die, every single time.”

“You’ve been wrong before.” He offered. He wasn’t trying to challenge you to an argument, or even tell you that you shouldn’t be scared. It was the only thing he could say that he knew could offer some kind of comfort to you. 

You nodded, taking in his words. Daemon let out a low sigh as he leaned his head closer to you. You wanted to say something, but the idea died in your throat before it had the chance to come out.

He pressed his forehead against yours, silencing you. He didn’t need to say anything else. 

“You’re warm.” You whispered. His violet eyes seemed to shine in the dim light. 

He had always been gorgeous; but now, he seemed irresistible. You wanted to touch him.

You leaned in and quickly pressed your lips against his. This kiss was softer; less demanding. Your lips danced over one another, slowly falling into a familiar rhythm. It was one that you had both practiced many times.

His hand dipped into the water. One of his hands quickly found your left nipple. His fingers were calloused from years of handling swords. The friction felt like heaven as his tongue carefully traced your lower lip.

He gently pinched your nipple, pulling it into a hard peak. Once he was satisfied, he closed his palm around your chest, groping you as you deepened the kiss.

You wanted so much more; you could feel that familiar ache between your legs. You missed him; you needed him.

Then, without warning, he broke the kiss.

He carefully pulled his mouth from yours. You grumbled a complaint under your breath.

He rolled his eyes as he grabbed one of the blankets that the handmaids had left beside the basin. Daemon stood upward and then unfolded the blanket. As he worked, you couldn’t help but see the erection that was straining painfully against his pants.

“Stand for me, darling.” He instructed. 

You quickly did as he had asked. You pushed yourself upward, moving so that you were standing in the middle of the basin.

Daemon leaned forward and wrapped your upper half in the blanket. Then, he carefully scooped you up into his arms, lifting you exactly as he had earlier. You curled your arms around his neck as he held you to his chest.

“Was that so hard?” He asked as he pressed a kiss against your wet hair. You weren’t going to dignify him with a response. 

A warm glow coated everything in the room. In this light, he really did look like a dutiful prince.

He carried you through the room, careful not to move too quickly. With each step that he took, he made his way toward the large bed that you two shared.

“I don’t know where the handmaids keep my dresses. They discarded the ones that I moved here with and they don’t let me pick out any of my own clothes.” You said. But, that did not seem to phase him. 

Daemon moved to stand at the very end of the bed. He moved one hand upward and gently pried your arms free from around his neck. Then, without a word, he gently dropped you down on the bed. You gasped at the suddenness of the motion. 

As you landed on the bed, you grabbed for the blanket that he had wrapped around you. It was the only thing that was preserving your modesty at this point. 

“Uh uh. Hand it here.” Daemon commanded. He reached his hand outward and motioned for the blanket. You frowned, but still obeyed. You quickly unwrapped the blanket from around your form and then handed it to your husband. 

Without a word, he dropped it on the floor at the foot of the bed. 

“Daemon!” You shot upright, reaching for the blanket that he had stolen just to discard. However, before you could reach it, Daemon kicked the blanket underneath the bed.

Your skin was still damp from the bath. The cold night air kissed your flesh, making your nipples pebble. You were freezing and he had stolen one of your only sources of warmth. 

“Lean back.” He commanded.

You obeyed, leaning backward so that your palms pressed against the large bed.

He made a low tsk-ing sound with his tongue.

“All the way, darling.”

You let out a low groan as your back fell flat against the bed. You didn’t know what he was planning, but you did feel like complaining was the right course of action.  

A lantern flickered in the corner of the room, casting long shadows across his face. With his silver hair and sharp features, anyone who didn’t know Daemon could have been convinced that he was an angel. Hell, you knew him and could have been convinced of that. Then again, you had never been on the receiving end of his cruelty or brutality. 

He pushed his knees into the mattress. A warm hand landed against your knee, holding you in place as he crawled closer to you. 

“Daemon.” He hummed in response. But, anything that you could think to say to him died in your throat as he filled the last of the space between your bodies. He moved his body so that he was hovering above your hips.

His hand slipped downward, moving until it was in the middle of your thigh.

One hand firmly grasped your leg, guiding it to the side so that your thighs fell open. Once he was satisfied with the space that he had created, he leaned downward and guided your right thigh over his shoulder.

“Daemon, I-” your voice trailed off as you felt his warmth breath on your bare core. You knew that the handmaids were lingering outside the door. You also knew that, should either of you make a single sound, they would spend the next week hiding their giggles behind their hands whenever they looked at either of you. 

“You seem to be needing my attention. The maester agreed that you need something to help you sleep.”

“Yes and while I truly appreciate you, I don’t think this was exactly what the maester had in mind.”

“Then tell me ‘no.’” He quirked a blond eyebrow. You didn’t dare tell him that. You could feel a familiar want swirling inside of you. If Daemon decided to just leave right now, you might cry. “I’m your husband. I would consider myself entirely useless if I couldn’t help you.”

With that, he leaned his face downward. He spread your folds with his fingers, exposing your clit. Then his warm, wet tongue landed just above your slit. He dragged it upward, taking his time as he felt your leg tremble against his shoulder.

He flicked his tongue over the bundle of nerves.

Fuck!

One of your hands flailed outward. You grabbed the well-worn blanket that lay beneath you. You were sure that you heard several threads pop under your fingers as you clung to the material for balance. 

Daemon grinned at the way that he already had you trembling. 

He pulled one of his hands free from your leg. He moved his hand so that his palm was facing upward. Then, suddenly, two fingers prodded at your entrance.

“Relax for me.” His voice was low; it was clear that he was getting a perverted joy out of this. 

His fingers slipped inside of you, searching for that spongy spot inside of you. Once he found it, he curled his fingers, making you shiver.

Every fear and worry began to fade into the recesses of your mind as he worked. That was exactly what he had been wanting.

He expertly massaged that spot inside of you as his tongue lapped at your clit. 

Fuck, he was good. Too good.

You dug your hand into the blankets, desperate to hang on to something. Daemon immediately reached over and grabbed for your hand.

Daemon pried your fingers off of the bed and quickly moved your hand to the back of his head. Silver tendrils of hair danced around your fingers, daring you to pull them.

That was what Daemon was wanting too.

If you need me, use me. I’m yours to own.

His tongue danced over your clit. You gasped; you wanted more of him.

You pulled his hair, begging for more. You could feel him grin against your core. He was pleased with himself.

He curled his fingers inside of you, brushing that sweet spot again. 

“Oh, fuck!” You gasped, pulling on his hair as he continued to lap at your clit. 

He was relentless and desperate for you to get to finish; he had always been a demanding lover. 

Your back arched again, feeling him pick up the pace as he buried his fingers inside of you.

You could feel that spring inside of you tightened, begging to be broken free. You fluttered around his fingers. Daemon glanced up from your legs. For a moment, his eyes met yours. He knew that look.

Don’t stop; please don’t stop.

Then, without warning, you felt a burning wave of pleasure wash over you. Your legs spasmed and your head fell back against the mattress as you writhed against his unrelenting mouth. All the while, his tongue and fingers never stopped.

You bit down on your lip, fighting the urge to scream. One of Daemon’s hands clenched your hip, holding you down so that you didn’t squirm away from his mouth. Your fingers tugged on his silver hair; it was the only thing keeping you grounded.

 As the pleasure began to subside Daemon slowed to a stop, offering you a moment to catch your breath.

It felt like your bones were made of jelly. You glanced down at your husband. His perfect face was painted with a smug grin.

The exhaustion that you had been fighting back was beginning to eat away at you. It was getting hard to think clearly as a peaceful heaviness coated you.

You watched as he pushed himself up from the end of the bed. He quickly walked around the perimeter, moving until he was standing beside you. 

“You’re so beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that?” You asked. 

“No, I don’t believe they have.” You could hear the smile in his voice. 

Daemon smirked as he slipped his arms under you. He quickly lifted you upward, moving you up in the bed so that your head was on a pillow. He then reached over and grasped the corner of the blanket that you were laying on. He lifted you off of the quilt and then pulled it to the side, making room for you. After a moment, he lay you back down, pulling the blanket on top of you so that it covered your damp skin. 

Daemon wasted no time climbing in beside you. He laid down on his stomach, turning his face so that his violet eyes met yours. 

Pale scars marked his back. They were the remnants of battles that he had managed to walk away from. But, as you lay there, that familiar dread came creeping back in. 

“I can’t lose you.” You didn’t realize you had said it out loud until you saw his brow furrow. 

“You’re not going to.”  

You can’t promise that. The thought swirled through your mind, but you knew that that could wait. A long silence filled the room. Daemon’s eyes fell closed. He would be asleep soon. But, before he slipped away, his hand crept through the blankets. His hand landed on your chest, directly over your heart.

“Everything will be okay in the morning. You just need to rest.” His words were slurring together from exhaustion. 

You traced your fingers over his hand. A smooth scare covered his thumb; it was evidence that he had been kissed by a sword and managed to keep his fingers intact.

“You’re always so warm.”

“Shhh.” He cooed.

“I love you.” You whispered.

Sleep pulled at the both of you. You knew that neither of you would be awake for much longer. 

Daemon wet his face in the basin, his fair skin caked with dirt and sweat from a day of training in the yard. He lathered a generous amount of milk soap into his hands and began to wash his face. He’d really prefer to take a bath and clean thoroughly, but he simply didn’t have enough time if he was going to wet his cock in you before supper.

Grinning he began to think of you as he ran a wet cloth under his armpits and then down to his groin. Standing buck arse naked in his chambers, his cock is already growing rigid in his hands at the thought of you, his little bird, his dragonseed, his secret paramour, and how hard he was going to fuck you when he got his hands on you.

Just as promised, he’d proffered you a position within the castle at Dragonstone easily enough, an assistant cook in the kitchen. Given you were so young and fit, the staff didn’t mind having another set of legs to fetch and carry things to and from the pantry. And given his high status, it wasn’t as though any of them would dare deny his request either.

The arrangement has been working out perfectly well for both of them so far. And since Rhaenyra never even bothered to join him in bed as of late, it had been painless enough to bring you into his chamber whenever he wished it. And oh how he had wished for it often, enjoying every moment of breaking in his new lover, and you were always so eager to please him. The biggest challenge was keeping you quiet so that his wife would not hear your screams of pleasure from down the way; he quite often accomplished this by covering your mouth, whether it be by his own hand or a gag of cloth to silence those heated moans.

Fuck, he was already at full mast, his manhood throbbing and twitching at just recalling the image of your full bosom bouncing beneath him as he restrained the sounds coming from your pretty little lips. Oh, how he’d love to let you go and hear every beautiful tune you might sing as he plunged his cock into your depths, but he’d rather not listen to the bitching that would ensue from Rhaenyra’s cantankerous mouth as a result.

Daemon finishes the quick job of freshening up, rinsing his body with more water from the basin and drying off before he gets dressed again. He rushes as he ties up his shirt, not wanting to miss the opportunity to have you sooner, rather than later tonight. His blood is pumping even more than usual today after some exceptionally good sparring with the other knights on the island, and he feels like he has enough seed stored up to take you at least three times, maybe even four.

He wears a knowing grin as he saunters through the halls of the keep, still half hard as he makes his way towards you, his toothsome little firebird. Daemon has a half a mind to take you wherever he finds you, loving the idea of a public fuck. Let one of the servants see him staking his claim on you, for it would make the act even more tantalizing. He wonders where he might take you, that self-satisfied smirk never leaving his countenance. Perhaps in the root cellar where the potatoes and wine were stored- or the pantry, or maybe even the larder? He finds himself further enticed by the idea of fucking you beside a full leg of mutton, after all, you are his piece of meat and he cherishes you for it.

There are a series of narrow hallways in the servants quarters, smaller rooms where they sleep, where you sleep when you are not keeping his bed warm. Daemon navigates them, slipping past other house staff that seem alarmed by his presence, but don’t offer any argument to it. The corridor opens up into the massive kitchen, a long rectangular room with an open stove in the center of one wall. Opposite the fire is a massive table that takes up much of the chamber, and women are busy preparing different elements of food to be served with dinner. Freshly cooked bread is laid out as well as several biscuits all arranged neatly on a silver tiered tray.

It all looks rather delicious, but no delicacy in the castle could compare to the taste of you. And Daemon is starving for you, ravenous with hunger for the sweet cunt between your legs, seemingly unable to get enough of it. He sees you standing at the table, your back towards him and your long silvery tresses glowing from the dancing flame of the fire-pit. He’d hoped to find you somewhere a little more private, but that doesn’t mean he can’t take you to another location to have his way with you.

As Daemon takes a step into the kitchen, he stops in his tracks, pausing in place as a consternated look appears across his furled brow and crinkled nose. A man, broad of chest and dark in his features comes to stand beside you, resting his hand on your shoulder and looking down at you with far too much affection and familiarity.

How dare that piece of shit touch you. You belong to him! He’d already stolen you away from your husband and in fact had the marriage annulled. He’d realized after talking with his maester, that as the lord of Dragonstone, he has the legal authority to deny any wedding among the peasants, and so he did. But, now some upstart ruffian from the kitchen was going to try and steal you away from him? How many men would he have to dispose of before he could be at peace with his claim on you?

It wouldn’t do at all. Daemon would need to make an example of him. Show everyone what happened when they touched what was his.

He strode up proudly, his back straight as his Valyrian Steel longsword, Dark Sister, as he approached the pair and cleared his throat, his hand clenching down on the man’s shoulder viciously. The scamp let out a startled yelp as you turned to see what was happening, a look of concern flashing across your eyes as you saw Daemon standing there. He saw the tremulous fear in your periwinkle eyes as you began to grasp the situation and sneered with a wild look of abandon in his eyes.

“What do you think you’re fucking doing?” Daemon roared out, squeezing even harder into the man’s meaty shoulder.

The fellow sunk under his grip, instantly relinquishing his hold on you as he attempted to turn and face his assailant.

“No, you can stay right there prick,” he said with a scathing venom in his tone.

The kitchen staff had all stopped what they were doing, gazing upon the scene with terror as though they knew blood was likely soon to be spilled.

“LEAVE US!” Daemon roared out loudly, the sound bouncing off the walls in echo as every single servant jumped in fright before rushing to leave the premises.

He reaches past you to pick up a chef’s knife from the table and spins the offender around to face him. “You see this knife, you fuckwit?” he asks with condescension. The man nods stupidly, wearing a veil of abject dread upon his face. “If I ever see you so much as look at her again, I’m going to make you a fucking eunuch. You understand?”

The man simply stared up at Daemon, disbelief rife in his slack jaw. He did not answer immediately and it angered the King-Consort even more.

“DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND!? You are not to touch her! EVER!!” he screams and wraps his giant hand around the man’s face, slamming him back against the heavy wooden table.

“Yes! Yes, m’lord!” the whelp finally replies, falling to his knees with his hands clasped up and pleading.

Disgusted, Daemon scowls and shoves him to the side, away from him and towards the exit. “Get out of you filthy mongrel!” he spits derisively. “Before I change my mind…”

The peasant chef or whatever the fuck he was, shambled to his feet, tripping and falling twice before he made it out of the room. The silence was cumbersome as Daemon eyed you, his gaze hard and vicious as he decided how he should punish you.

“Why did you do that?” you are asking, but your voice is so far away, barely noticeable against the ringing of his furious heartbeat in his ears.

“After everything I’ve done for you?” he begins tearing into you, his words savage and his voice hateful. He cups your face in one hand, stroking your cheek almost tenderly, completely juxtapose to the angry expression on his face. A squeak of surprise escapes your lips as he then runs the dull backside of the knife along the opposite side of your face. He is pleased with the fright in your features, after all, he wants you to know how grave an offense this is.

He turns you swiftly, shoving you against the surface of the table and pushing you down with a strong hand to the middle of your back. You try to get up when he tosses the knife with a clatter across the table, but he slams you back down causing the table to groan with the weight of his force. “Stay fucking down,” he hisses with frustration as he unlaces his trousers.

“But I didn’t do anything,” you whine sorrowfully, still trying to play dumb.

“Like fucking hell you didn’t, you little whore!” he spits back, pulling his stiffened cock out from his smallclothes and letting it hang freely. “You let him touch you. I fucking saw it! Saw the way he looked at you. How he wanted you.”

Daemon begins to pull your skirts up, shoving them up and over your waist until he can see your bared cunny before him. “Did you want to fuck him, girl? Did you think he’d have a bigger cock than me? Think he could fill you to the brim and make you ache like I can?”

You’re already whimpering, a soft mewl of tears in your voice as you try to make excuses. As you try to implore him to cease in being so upset. As though anything could calm him down now that he’d seen another man’s hands upon you.

“I will never let another have you, firebird.. You are fucking mine! You belong to me!” he shouted with a gruff and spiteful voice.

He pressed the head of his cock against your wet center, pressing through without warning and sinking all the way in until he thudded roughly against your womb.

“Fuck!,” he roared as you continued to whine against the hard surface of the counter. “I need to remind you, hm?” he asked, one hand coming to your hip and pulling you back roughly onto his member as he thrust into you again and again. “That you are just a little thing, a prized cunt for me to fuck whenever I wish it?”

That actually makes your breath catch with fresh indignant cries of pain. Oh you haven’t cried like this for him since the very first time he had you and he is relishing the way you keep trying to pull your tender core away from his impending wrath. It’s not like you have anywhere to escape to though, not like you can get away from his grip, pinned between him and the table, forced to take him like a good little trollop.

“This tight little hole belongs to me, girl!” he seethed, losing himself completely in your wet heat, his fury unbridled as he pounds into you relentlessly. “Say it. Tell me what you are and who you belong to. Say it now!”

He knows you won’t like that, understand all too well how proud you are, but he has to break your spirit further if he’s going to keep you under his thumb. He has to make you realize that you’re nothing without him. You stay silent besides the sound of your wailing, your dismay at how he is taking you and how low he is trying to bring you apparent.

“Say it, you little fucking slut!” he howls, raising his hand from your hip to slap you viciously on the the round fat of your arse.

You let out an alarmed yelp, followed by a wail of outrage as you finally relent. “I’m…I-I’m your cunny to fuck, Daemon!” you squeal with the sharp sting of embarrassment clear in your tone as your tight core clamps down on him in response.

“Damn fucking right you are,” he leers over you with a primal growl of arousal and conquest. “You like it don’t you? Like being my little whore?” He slaps you on the arse once more, this time hard enough to leave a crimson handprint on your flesh. Daemon can’t help but grin at the sound you make and the way you clench down tightly on his cock each time he slaps your rear. “You really do enjoy it,” he smiles smugly, loving that his filth has this affect on you. “I wonder how much coin I could fetch for you back in the brothels at King’s Landing? I bet you’d be the biggest earner on the Street of Silk… And you’d love every moment of it wouldn’t you?”

The inner lining of your center contracts violently around his length as you peak, causing him to wince in pain as he pushes past the taut muscles. “My dirty little bird,” he pants, grinning from ear to ear as you go limp against the table and he plunges deeply into you, pounding endlessly as he chases his own release.

He spills into you with the heat and thickness of molten lava, his cockhead slamming roughly against your womb as he pulls your hips onto him firmly, pulsing seed inside of you as he groans with the pleasure of subduing you completely.

“Fucking hellls!” he bellows out, falling on top of your back with nothing but his arm to keep from crushing you, holding himself up slightly from the wooden counter.

Daemon stays inside of you, not in a rush to leave the safe and welcoming heat of your cunt. As he steadies himself on his forearm, he reaches up to brush your hair aside, wiping salty tears dotingly from your cheeks as he takes in your expression.

“Are you hurt, little bird?” he asks with a hint of regret in seeing your reddened eyes and cheeks. “Was I too rough?”

You shake your head slightly, still not making eye contact with him as your body shivers beneath him. He smooths your bright locks of hair back against your scalp, still panting as he tries to recover.

Gods, he thinks you look beautiful like this, ravaged and spent, and still impaled on his cock.

“I don’t want him,” you finally say quietly, almost pouting. “He means nothing to me.”

Daemon sighs, feeling a pang of guilt at how decisively you say that, without a hint of doubt. He withdraws his length from you, leaving a slick mess of your combined fluids as he lets your skirts fall down again. He puts his now softening cock back in his brailes and turns you around to face him.

“I know,” he says pressing a kiss against your lips, before pulling back to take a look at you. “I can’t control how I feel about you, my searing firebird,” he says more softly, peppering kisses on your cheeks in between words. “It drives me mad with rage to think of another man so much as touching you.”

There was something about fucking you that always dulled his sharpest edges. It was as though every bit of pent up rage and aggression just fell away once he spent inside you. You were the only one who could sooth his ferocity like this, quell the savage beast that he always became in your absence, or even at the thought of losing you.

“I would never leave you for another, Daemon,” you say reassuringly, brushing your soft hand along the hard line of his jaw. “I don’t want anyone else but you. You must know that by now?”

“One day, I’ll learn,” he offers with a playful little smirk as he snatches your hand in his, and brushes a gentle kiss against the back of your knuckle.

“Well, isn’t that sweet?” an all too familiar voice cuts through the tender moment.

Daemon snaps his head towards the shrill sound, knowing exactly who he’ll see, his wife Rhaenyra. He looks back at you, realizing that he’s been caught and worried about what it could mean for you. He turns back to the would be queen and offers a feigned smile of surprise.

“I’m sorry, wife,” he offers complacently as he lets your hand go and smacks you on the bottom dismissively, signaling for you to leave. “Did we make too much noise?”

You scamper off obediently, retreating into the hallway and out of sight much to his relief. He doesn’t want Rhaenyra getting a good look at you, doesn’t want her getting any ideas concerning retribution against you.

“When the staff is not allowed into the kitchen to prepare supper and we are all made to wait… Well, it certainly sparks one’s curiosity as to what is causing the delay, husband,” she says, her voice cold and distant.