Orsino was half awake, still resting his head on the small of his lover's back. His finger slowly moved up to her back, tracing lazy lines meant to wake her. She remained still as stone and he added sweet, tender kisses to his caressing. As his warm lips touched her skin again and again he heard her sigh, and felt her adjust the shapely legs on either side of him.

Hawke lifted her head and turned it slightly, not able to look at him but showing she was awake. In response Orsino pressed his kisses a little more, lifting himself slightly to move them up her spine to the nape of her neck.

He laid his body back on hers letting her feel his early morning hardness, and thrust just once against her soft ass.

"Are men ever not in the mood?"

"Occasionally," he made sure to blow in her as he spoke, "But as long as you are near, I have no hope of a clear mind."

Hawke laid her head on her arms and let him nibble her ear and caress her sides, his slender fingers trying to wiggle between her and the mattress to cup a breast.

Her groggy mind dwelt idly on the ridiculousness of having the First Enchanter lying on top of her naked and begging her for another bout of lovemaking.

Of all the people to not invite to my bed now, he is the top of the list; but…

She let the thought hang as she nudged him, telling him to give her some room to turn over. Orsino was tender, romantic love personified. Not forceful and frightened at the same time like Fenris, or desperate and consuming like Anders, Orsino seemed content to savor his every moment with her like aged wine.

As she turned to him he ran his mouth over her neck, leaving little marks. Hawke liked that. She liked wearing his brand, even if only she knew who had put it there.

The last week they'd played out countless fantasies that had for years been burning in their minds.

"I can't recall the last time I was so content in a man's arms." She murmured as he teased her sex. It made him smile against the crook of her neck.

"The fact that you are even here is still hard to reconcile." He replied. He lifted himself onto hands and knees and looked down at her, sweet moss green eyes suddenly full of longing and fear.

"I could swear I'm still in some corner of the Fade, and you'll become nothing but vapor the moment I touch you."

Hawke resisted the urge to just grab his cock and give it a squeeze to show him how real she was, that would be a little on the mean side. Instead she ran her long nails from his groin to his neck, then tickled a tapered ear with one hand and gave his back a soft scratching with the other.

"Are your dreams typically this vivid?" she asked coyly.

Orsino's eyes rolled behind the lids as she kept teasing his ear, his finger balled in the sheets as he yanked his head away.

"Oh," he shook his head, collecting himself. His ears were by far more sensitive than Fenris's. Hawke had been very pleased when she found that out, and even more pleased when she was able to bring him to literal screaming climaxes with that trick. In retaliation Orsino used one of his own tricks. His hand shot to her sex, found her mons with ease and gave her a mind melting shock with his magic.

The slightest touch with fire and electricity and he could make Hawke writhe and squeal.

Anders had done similar things but not with anywhere near this level of finesse. A bonus to coupling with a First Enchanter she had figured. Orsino only worked her like that for a few seconds then took his away just as abruptly. He smirked as Hawke came down, revved up and unsatisfied.

So it'll be this game again.

They both liked to tease in bed, a tiny taste here and there till someone can stand it no more, and even then, holding back all the best till just before an orgasm. Hawke wasn't sure if she had the patience for it right now. She could practically feel his smooth, supple body grinding against her, she wanted to wrap her legs and arms around him; she wanted all those best tricks now.

She reached up and gripped him, firmly stroking then lifted her legs to try to push his hips down. He fought her a moment, still wanting to play but then glanced up to the window above them. The sunrise was just starting to tint the sky pink and his bedroom had long since been illuminated by early dawn.

He relented, letting her guide him down and slipped into her with ease, sighing as her welcoming body enveloped him.

"Not long, eh?" she asked. She knew well he was expected in his office all too soon, and she herself would have callers coming at home in only hours.

Orsino shook his head, and began the smallest gyrations, just barely moving inside of her.

"Were it possible," he murmured, again breathing into her ear, "I would forsake all of this to be yours."

She tightened her legs around his hips and matched his movements; that slight change in angle letting him hit the bottom of her quim and make her a little light headed each time.

"You are." Was all she could manage to say. Orsino brought his lips to hers and claimed a deep, long kiss as they moved together. As much as both wished to savor the feelings, pleasure and the delight of sex mounted and they ground faster, mouths finally separating as he started thrusting hard enough to make an audible slap. Hawke felt dizzy with the pleasure he gave her, the physical feeling intensified with the surge of mana she felt on his skin, like static shocks jumping from him to her and back again. Every point they touched she felt electrified, from her toes on his calves, her thighs around his hips, her belly and breasts as he kept his chest pressed against her, his lips nearly seared her neck and ear, and whenever his cock gave her a jolt so deep in her sex she saw brilliant stars.

Hawke's climax snuck up on her, she thought herself ages away but was seized by it, it welled up from her belly and sent ripples over her body, all meeting back in her sex to convulse and torment him into his own climax. As her rapture held her she watched his mouth fall open and his green eyes go glassy, his body caught in near convulsions. She wished she could share his orgasm and open hers to him, how many times would their sex be intensified?

As a weary and completely blissful smile slowly appeared on his face, he settled back down onto her, still buried inside her.

"I had a wild thought while we made love," he whispered after a few moments, "I thought of myself being taken by slavers, but bought by you."

A small lump of worry came up in her throat when he said that.

"Orsino… you wouldn't wish that on yourself would you?"

"Of course not," he lowered his face, hiding it against her bosom, "but even being a slave of yours, I'd be happier than I could ever possibly be as is."

"I hate the idea of that, slavery." Hawke said, trying to keep the anger brimming just beneath her contentment down. "No one can be happy when they're viewed as no more than property, doubly so when they share the view themselves. Please Orsino, don't think of such things as good."

"I don't." he raised his voice a tad and lifted his face to hers. His expression was set, authoritative. "I don't." he repeated.

Hawke offered an apologetic smile.

"I missed something again."

Orsino pulled back, slipping out of her and shifted to lie on his side, pulling her to him.

"I thought of it, and a few other scenarios because I feel cheated. Being a slave just…seemed one of the few ways I might have met you…and been able to love you and stay with you."

"No more regrets." Hawke whispered, "Ill fated lovers we are, dashed together by cruelest chance, if we must part that I can bear, but to spend every moment offered grieving for the soon to be lost, that I cannot."

Orsino furrowed his brow.

"A quote?" he asked.

"From a Fereldan play. An old favorite."

He looked at her again, his eyes now showing a curious, intelligent and hungry gleam.

"I don't think its printed in the Marches," she put a hand to his lips before he could even ask, "it's an old one. But I managed to smuggle a copy with me on the trip here."

Again before he could ask, she stopped him.

"I'll lend it to you, but be gentle with it, it's seen better times. And in return, you have to promise me something."

"What?" he cocked an eyebrow at her, and she bit her lip.

"You have to read a few of the hero's speeches to me aloud. I want to hear that sinfully sexy voice of yours in his part."

Orsino laughed and she squirmed in his embrace, already hearing those make-you-melt words in his voice.

"Alright. But I have one stipulation." He said, a thin, wicked grin growing.

"And that is?"

"You don't get to move till I'm done. You've just stumbled across my little secret vanity, and as one of the only times I get to perform for someone, I don't want to be interrupted."

Hawke's own excited grin widened and she nodded, already wondering how exactly she was going to make through that one steamy, seductive monologue without pouncing.

Less than a half hour later Hawke slipped through the long shadows of the Gallows, heading for the tiny, one person boat hidden beneath a pier. The Templar guard were changing, and the dockworkers hadn't even woken yet when her little boat went gliding across the water to Kirkwall proper. As she climbed up the dock on the other side she glanced towards the Gallows. Harsh sunlight gilded the building, making its foreboding fences and spikes seem sharper, and its imposing walls seem thicker.

Only a few nights and she'd be back with the setting sun. She lifted her chin and recited another line.

"The beginning made the bitter end, the end made the sweet beginning. Were Fate could reverse itself so, I'd never have cause for sorrow or lamentation."