Sinquisition

Chapter 1:

Home. She was finally home. Wearily, Mirian handed the reins of her horse to a stable boy and turned as snow began to fall in earnest, around her, the lights of the keep blurring. Cullen was there, the only person to greet her at this late hour, likely having run from the keep to the heavy gates as she crossed the bridge. He smiled his lopsided grin and held out his strong arms to her, his coat in his hands as he wrapped her in it while she hugged him.

"My lady! I cannot properly express my joy in seeing you home at last. How was it?" he asked as she snuggled into his armored chest. He was so warm, so wonderfully warm.

"Painful. The report is in my bag, written and ready to go. Poor Bull has added another scar to his collection. He's proud of it, though. Still… I needed to use a salve to help it heal, even with my magic. He took the wound for me. How are you? How are your headaches?" she asked as her fingers brushed his cheeks and lips, which kissed them as they met.

He drew her close while they crossed the courtyard to the main hall and kissed her lips from time to time as they talked. There was no longer any attempt to hide their affection, though he cringed when he heard even innocent gossip. "My nightmares and the headaches that accompany them are still bad. Very bad. But when you're home, it all feels so much better. When I hold you, I feel like they are easier to bear."

He kissed her deeply, his tongue wrapped around hers as he hungrily showed her how missed she was. Her arms held his neck tightly as he enfolded her in his strong embrace. Her hand reached between his legs and squeezed his alert cock, making him grunt and hold her tighter. They were unaware of the location of their kiss, which happened to be the entrance of the main hall, where everyone watched the tender reunion with smiles and open appreciation. "Get a room, you two," Varric chuckled from his seat by the fire.

"We plan to," Cullen smirked.

"Anything exciting happen while I was gone, Varric?" Miriana smiled as she held onto her lover with both arms.

The dwarf made a face and looked like he wanted to say something but hesitated. "I'll…have more later. There's something but…"

"I don't like 'buts,' Varric. 'Buts' are bad. Unless it's 'but, you're awesome.' What's going on?" she asked as she turned around in the circle Cullen's warm arms, hands on her hips.

"Eh, better to see if I can get more information first. You know how it is. When I have enough to give you, I promise, you'll be the first to know. Unless… Well…"

"I don't like 'wells' either, Varric, save the kind that give us water."

"Bear with me, Lady Inquisitor. I'm working on it! Now, if you don't mind, I have another chapter to write for Swords and Shields and I'm certain you need to defrost. It's cold as Cullen's balls are right about now and you look like you could use a hot bath."

Cullen cringed at the reference and took Miriana's hand. "My…ahem. Nothing is cold about me, I can assure you."

Snorting, Varric peered up at the Commander and said, "Bullshit! You sit in that drafty office of yours from sunup to sundown and do your reports and ask if we've heard anything from our illustrious lady here and then you crawl back into your hole and push your papers around some more. Brr! I actually prefer it when she's here because you're more likely to leave your cave. I think hibernating bears get out more than you do."

Miriana turned around and pressed her body against Cullen's as he glared down at the dwarf with his dark brows drawn low over his light brown eyes. "Now, you listen here, dwarf…" he started to bark. Miriana smiled sweetly as she interrupted. "You know? He's right! I really could use a bath and you sound like you're desperate for a break. You can debrief me in the tub, my love."

"Nothing wrong with a clean finish, eh?" a courtier quipped as she drifted by them on her way to the door.

Cullen's focus went from the lady and back to his beloved, his stormy expression gaining a new target. "That's the second odd comment I've received from strangers in the last couple of days and you know that I'm never around here unless I'm seeing you." He took her hand and led her to her quarters as he continued to speak. "I have asked Varric if he is aware of anything and I mentioned it to Leliana but she only chuckled and said something cryptic about 'bored people.' It's one thing for her to remain silent but Varric will talk your ear off. I'm worried."

"I'll work on Varric while I'm here. I suppose I might stick around for a week or two!" she laughed ironically. Usually she only lingered a few days at most so a week was a fine stay indeed. Cullen hugged her and reached for the second door to her suite.

"Close your eyes, my lady. I will steer you into your abode and hopefully, you will approve. Thankfully, one of Leli's scouts spotted you and gave me an accurate time of arrival. I was able to plan…" He led her into the room and stopped, his voice low and husky with emotion as he murmured, "…this. I love you, Miriana."

The opulent room was filled with flowers many, many bunches of fresh flowers of every variety, their heady scent filling the room. There were even rose petals scattered upon the bed, tens of scented, flickering candles lit on every surface. The fireplace was welcoming, crackling happily away and potpourri simmered from a pot over the flames. She was awestruck as she walked around the room, sniffing flowers and fingering the velvet petals. Miriana did not normally allow herself to enjoy softer, feminine things in her life because of her life on the road, running the Inquisition and being the figurehead she had become. Such frivolities were a rare and pleasurable delight but having them presented to her by her beloved… Who had vanished from view for a moment.

Unaware of his disappearance, she turned and started to tell him how she felt when he stepped back out of the place he'd disappeared to and held the door wide, revealing her bathroom. "You desired a bath, my love? Ask and you shall receive."

If her jaw had been capable of it, it would have fallen to the floor.

A couple of weeks after moving into Skyhold, she had jokingly requested a marble tub from Josephine and upon her arrival from a lengthy scouting mission, she was startled to find a huge marble tub, complete with special, dwarven-made pumps and brass fixtures for bringing hot and cold water directly into the tub and a plug for releasing it into the cistern. It had some issues sometimes like when air got into the pipes and caused an explosion of water upon whomever was unlucky enough to be in the blast zone. Or the time the pipes froze and had to be slowly warmed by the dwarves in charge of maintaining the technology to prevent them from bursting. And they creaked sometimes.

Usually, though, the technology worked beautifully. Cullen's excuse for living in her quarters as much as he lived in his office (Varric be damned) was to keep water flowing through the bath fixtures. He really did it because he loved waking up in her bed even when she wasn't home but he only said so to her. Cullen was an extremely private man who nevertheless enjoyed his secret pleasures. The look on her face filled him with great pride as he watched her very slowly walk toward the bathroom, entranced.

There were many, many more candles of every shape, color and size, dancing upon the basin, on a stool, flickering upon a board covering the privy and flowers had also spread into the bathroom and floated in the tub of hot, richly scented water. Miriana leaned forward and let the aromatic steam wash over her as her delicate fingers swirled the soothing liquid. When she looked back up at him, there were tears in her eyes. "This… You did all of this? For me?"

He shrugged out of his armor and hauled off his coat as she walked back into the bedroom. "Yes. I had some help from Josephine for acquiring the flowers and candles, Cassandra supplied the idea for the rose petals in the bed and the bath and Leliana kept me posted on your arrival. Not exactly a group effort but they did assist me. The idea for the scented candles and…other…things were entirely my own."

"Nobody set it up for you? I'm just… I don't… Maker… I'm rendered speechless!"

Pleased, he pulled off his boots and chuckled softly. "Maker, no! It is bad enough people know that we are- intimate- but they don't have to know all the sordid details. Some things should remain sacred, should they not?" He was down to his pants alone by this point as he reached out to her and undid the layers of fabric, silverite mail and fur-trimmed leather that made up her traveling armors. The front of his breeches was tented, his desire very obvious even to the casual observer.

As his deft fingers moved to unbutton, unbuckle and untie her attire, he bestowed upon her frisky, flirtatious kisses. Miriana didn't dress like a typical circle mage, preferring a light armor consisting of leather breeches, tunic, some kind of mail and a coat that moved with her body rather than robes, something he rather enjoyed about her. Plus, the challenge of removing each layer was a pleasant, sensual process, one they both enjoyed, especially as he reached that last layer, a silky chemise that acted to prevent her pert nipples from chaffing on the restrictive leather vest that bound her breasts beneath her outer garb.

His fingers slowly caressed her nipples and teased the hard red points through the gossamer fabric with his thumbs as his lips worked their way across her throat. Miriana murmured to him as she leaned into his gentle, erotic touch, "Nobody has ever done anything like this for me before. You're like every noble girl's dream come true, Commander Cullen. You know that, don't you?"

He grinned and slid his lips across hers in a velvet kiss. Without removing them, he murmured against her, "Is that so?" His pants had now joined his boots upon the floor, his semi-hard erection inviting her to touch it, which she did.

Then she looped her bare arms around his neck and kissed him before pulling away so that their eyes met. "When I was little, I used to fantasize about a strong, handsome hero showering flowers upon me and raining kisses upon my lips and eyelashes. But then I was taken away to the circle and those fantasies were dashed, disposed of and buried as my lessons and my job took precedence. When sex happened, it was fleeting, an impassioned coupling in a closet or dark corner, sometimes with a Templar, usually with a fellow mage. Sometimes things got…heated… Ahem, unintentionally so in my Application of Controlled Elemental Magics for Therapeutic Use class. Often such applications of magic was used by mages to, eh, aid in sexual stimulation, personal or otherwise. As I've shown you." Cullen chuckled and helped her with the remainder of her clothing. The coin he'd given her several weeks back gleamed on a silver chain around her neck, between her breasts. It was the only jewelry she allowed herself to wear. It filled him with bliss to see it against her soft skin.

"In the circle, romance is forbidden. Children are forbidden. Love… Love is forbidden. And yet, here I am, a freed mage in love with a man, my 'hero,' who is showering me with flowers, raining kisses upon my eyelashes and lips and is about to join me in the bath he planned just to make me happy. You've made my dream come true, Commander Cullen Stanton Rutherford, and I don't know how to thank you. I… Maker, I love you. I'm so, so much in love with you that I feel near to bursting with… Whoa!"

That moment was when he swept Miriana's naked body up into his arms and carried her to the bathroom wearing a loving smile that warmed his eyes. After he lowered her gently into the hot water and slid in across from her, Cullen wiped the tears from her eyes with his thumbs before kissing her mouth. "You're home, alive, my love. It is the only 'thank you' that I need. Every time you leave, I fret until you walk back into that courtyard. Your letters give me some small measure of reassurance but they are nothing compared to having you in my arms. You are my gift and you are all I need. I love you, Miriana."

She rose to her knees and pressed her body against his, kissing him deeply while her right hand reached under the sloshing water for his cock, which was helpfully growing firm without assistance from her. It had been in a pleasing state of semi-arousal since she first pressed her body against him when he met her at the gate. He moaned as those expert fingers curled around the thick shaft and moved slowly to the thick, bell-shaped head. Miriana had had larger men and smaller men but few men had the aesthetic beauty that Cullen's muscular body and beautifully shaped penis possessed. There were battle scars but they only added to the exquisite man whose lap she now straddled as she sought to plunge him deep inside her.

But the hasty attempt caused him to unexpectedly slide under the water, forcing both to become momentarily submerged while more water sloshed onto the floor. Laughing, the amorous pair burst from bathwater with Miriana's hair blocking her eyes and both spitting out water. It smelled good but, Maker, the taste was foul! "Maker bless you, that was wonderful," Cullen laughed as he planted his lips against hers in a funny, playful kiss. "I needed that laugh, love. Should we focus on bathing or are you determined to- Never mind." He was inside her, her hips slowly grinding as he stopped laughing and focused on Miriana's hot, glistening torso in front of him. She was obviously smug, pleased with her success. The water in the tub rose and fell with each motion between them and his mouth found her nipples while his fingers stroked her clitoris. She closed her eyes and moaned softly, her hands alternating between touching her breasts and running though his thick, wet hair.

Heavy-lidded violet eyes narrowed in growing desire, Miriana felt Cullen's left hand squeeze her left buttock and his teeth and tongue teased her breast, devouring her nipple and stimulating her thoroughly with his fingers until she could feel her heart pounding against her chest. Her body was quivering as the sensations rippling up from her submerged pubis filled her from there to her ears. "Fuuuuuuuck!" she moaned as their grinding, pulsating thrusts quickened. Cullen controlled the action, like he usually did even when she was on top; relinquishing control to him was always a nice change now that she was in charge of the Inquisition. And he never failed to pleasure her in the process.

"Does this feel good?" he whispered against her throat. She nodded wordlessly; she had no words at all in this moment. He was a tender and attentive lover, a man for whom his partner's needs exceeded his own. Though she did her level best to meet him half way, Cullen never met half way; for him, it was all the way or he felt bad. Thus far, he hadn't had reason to feel that way and she never had to worry about self-release save on the road without him or as a part of their lovemaking. Her fantasies were always of him, of them, of this. In a way, even when they were apart, he made love to her through memory and dreams of his ardent hands and lips upon her body.

Only when she was crying out in multiple waves of frenzied euphoria did Cullen allow himself those last few intense thrusts that would finish himself off inside her. He crushed her body against him, his face buried between her breasts as he came, the slowly cooling water sloshing lightly against them as he moaned, face red and body quivering tightly against her. "I love you," he whispered hoarsely. "Maker, you're beautiful…so damned beautiful…"

When it was over, they disengaged their bodies and Cullen encouraged her to sit on her bottom facing away from him. She loved this part. He adored just washing her soft, reddish-gold hair and she treasured those times when he washed it. The way his fingers leisurely massaged her scalp, rubbed the floral-scented soap through her hair, base to end, both relaxed and excited her. Sometimes, she touched herself intimately while he cleansed her hair, something he rather enjoyed and enjoyed watching her do during lovemaking.

She remembered back when they were first starting out as lovers the first time Cullen had asked her masturbate across from him while he watched, his own hand on his shaft. It had startled her, being something nobody had ever asked her to do. "I want to learn what makes you aroused the most so that when it is my turn and I must use fingers instead of my tongue that I do you justice. And, ah, I really do just love watching your body and watching your release. It will hopefully seed my mind with happy dreams rather than nightmares when I sleep at night, or so one would hope." It then occurred to her that watching him do it to himself thrilled her in return.

She sighed against him as he poured water over her head and rubbed out the rest of the soap. "I'm not letting you go, you know," she muttered as they switched positions, her breasts pressed against his shoulders and her hands kneading soap into his soft, wet waves of blond curls. He reached up and squeezed her right nipple playfully. "Not ever!" she declared.

"As if I would allow it, my lady. Dare I say you're stuck with me? I am yours, my lady, as you desire."

"To which I will say, 'Good! As it should be.'" She rinsed his head thoroughly and unstopped the bath tub with her toe as she rose to her feet. By now the water was getting chilly and both were eager to climb into the inviting, petal-strewn bed. Miriana looked down at the floor and sighed at the massive puddle that had consumed the stone tiles. Cullen threw a few towels down to absorb it and then turned to grin at her as he rubbed her head with one towel then wrapped her body in a second. Once again, he swept her off her feet, kissing her sensuously as he carried her to the rose-petal strewn bed and laid her out in it. He laid her down upon it and carefully removed the towel from her damp skin, revealing her graceful curves, flat stomach and long, graceful legs. He sighed as he always did when his eyes drank her in.

The man had a keen eye for tender romance that belied the stern, brave military man he presented to everyone else. This contradiction was something only his fellow advisors were aware of outside of this room, and even they had only an inkling of just how sweet he was. It was a side of himself that he hid well and preferred to keep hidden save from her. She enjoyed knowing his secret, especially as guarded as he was.

"So, Commander… The briefing…?" she asked with a teasing smirk, arms above her head and her bosom thrust high for his pleasure as he supported his body above her on his hands, the bed covers pushed aside and their bodies exposed to the fire-warmed air. His amused expression was intent as his answer was to first lower his mouth to hers and then slowly work his lips down her naked body until they stopped between her thighs.

She decided the debrief could wait until morning as he devoured her luscious lower lips, her stiff clitoris and plunged his tongue inside her, sucking and nibbling her until she couldn't think about anything but him.

To Be Continued…