A/N: Hello! I just wanted to say that if you don't enjoy reading explicit scenes, you might want to skip this chapter! Sorry for the interruption, anyways, read on! :)

Threads

Chapter 20

As Eirene placed pillows on the ground, she wished that they could sit in front of a fireplace and relish in the heat. But they were in a war camp tent, and they had to work with what they had.

Eirene sat on the rug and waited for Edmund to settle himself next to her. She refilled her cup with wine and Edmund did the same. As Eirene took a sip, she watched Edmund's movements with care, as if in slow motion. The candlelight graced his profile as he poured himself another cup. His eyes were focused on the falling crimson liquid. Eirene watched his hands, how they moved with almost surgical precision. She also noticed how veins trailed down from his arm onto his hand, like a map of rivers merging into one another.

She licked her lips. She noticed how his linen shirt wasn't tied, and how it was messily tucked into his pants. She watched his still semi-wet curls, styled backward with its stubborn curl falling onto his forehead. She noticed the thickness of his brows and how his eyelashes danced when he blinked. She followed the trail of freckles down his face onto the bridge of his nose, onto his full lips. She caught her breath, remembering how she had devoured him by the lake.

He trailed his eyes upwards to meet hers as he took a sip of the wine. Eirene held his gaze, although it undid everything within her. She'd known men before, but her heart pulsed as if with the anticipation and naivety of a virgin.

Everything about him felt like a breath of fresh air, but one that intoxicated her.

Eirene set her cup right in the space between them and laid sideways, her head on a pillow. She turned her back around so she was flat on the ground. Edmund mimicked her, and she heard him sigh. Her mind wondered how his breathing would sound if—she stopped herself.

Oblivious to her thoughts, Edmund turned sideways to face her. He too considered how the candlelight created beautiful shadows on her profile, and how it made her olive skin glow. He noticed her azure robe, cross-tied across a nightgown he could only guess was as translucent as the one at the lake. He noticed how she fiddled with a strand of her wavy and dark hair. He noticed how delicate her touch was and how she gathered a breath from her mouth from time to time. He wondered what she was thinking about, and if he was part of those thoughts as often as she was in his.

He noticed the rings on her fingers, one with her family's royal emblem, and the other with a much more Narnian design: with the band shaped like two vines wrapping around her finger, with a flower on its midst. He noticed the twinkling of a gold chain dangling from her neck, but most of it hidden within her robes.

Edmund watched Eirene close her eyes and gather a deep breath. She exhaled and he watched the way her body moved and how the fabric nestled in it. He burned for her like he never had for anyone.

"I cannot stop thinking about what happened at the lake," Eirene suddenly said, her eyes still closed. "I can't seem to stop thinking about you," she said sincerely, "Not ever since I met you." Edmund swallowed hard.

She then turned on her side to face him, opening her beautiful forest-colored eyes, meeting his.

"I can't stop thinking about the lake, neither," he said lowly, looking at her intently.

At his words, Eirene's senses were immediately activated with an extra awareness of every sensation. She couldn't unfocus her attention away from his breath, and she couldn't tear her eyes away from his mesmerizing eyes. Meeting his gaze was like plunging into the deepest parts of the ocean, and the only thing she wanted was to keep exploring its depth. Her skin was on fire, ignited by the low rumble of his voice. It ignited a new awareness of the weight that her clothes had on her body, of the way the folds rubbed lightly on her skin as she breathed. The slightest touch threatened to set her on fire, and how she longed for that.

Edmund noticed the slight change in her breathing, how it became more rapid and jagged. Her mouth was agape once again, and Edmund devoured her with his eyes. He scooted closer towards her, already burning with the thought of her. They stayed like so for a second, none of them saying anything, but thinking a million things at once.

Slow and steady, Eirene crept up to his face. She breathed in and out, trying to savor the moment of having him in such proximity. She looked at his face, at how the tip of his nose almost touched her own.

She'd glanced at his soul for a bit, earlier in the night. And now, perhaps, it wasn't so bad to want a bit of his body, too. She could feel her heart sing his name, and the fire within her threatening to devour her if she didn't do something about it.

Eirene saw Edmund open his mouth in turn, and took that as her cue. She scooted closer to him, and Edmund reached her the rest of the way. It was slow, a soft caress of the lips, at first.

He moved his head closer to her and grabbed the back of her neck to bring her closer to him. He tasted her, as much as he could, as if she was the air he needed to breathe. He tried to contain himself, to savor the moment.

Edmund felt his heart shiver with every nibble she gave to his lips. He wanted to steady himself, to control the raging desire within. But he couldn't; Eirene placed her body next to his, making him feel her breathing. Her hand was on his chest, and Edmund could have sworn she could feel his heartbeat. She divided her tongue onto his mouth, and Edmund skipped a beat. She was intoxicating, and she was poisoning him in the loveliest way there was.

Eirene was perfectly aware of the effect he had on him. She wanted more each second that went on. She could feel his muscles against the palm of her hand, as she pressed it against his chest. And if she had to be honest, she had to say that she was able to feel it throbbing against her lower stomach. It was that hardened sensation that made her kisses get hungrier, and Edmund sensed it. He fastened the pace.

Edmund moved his hand onto her left cheek, as he used his other arm to prop himself up. Eirene's breath was rebelling against her ribcage, making her breast heave up and down. Edmund was completely aware of her every movement, of her every faltering breath, and he was sure to tamper with it more.

He shifted his entire weight to his right side, allowing him more mobility in his right arm. Eirene, as if reading his mind, laid back down, her back completely flat against the ground. She enjoyed the sensation of his hand cupping her cheek slightly, playing with her hair, too.

Their lips were still locked with one another, sharing oxygen. Both their lips tingled and were inflamed with each other, flames nestling in their bellies. It was a quiet heat that slowly traveled to through their navels, into the tender points where their legs met.

Edmund dared to let his hand move beyond her face, caressing her jawline and neck with soft but steady fingers. He felt her shiver, and couldn't help but smile at her reaction. He was only getting started.

He kept on kissing her lips, reducing his speed and mimicking the caresses with his fingers to those of his lips. He let his hand travel downwards to the nape of her neck and onwards to her upper arm. Every inch he moved left a blazing trail behind on her skin.

He broke away from the kiss.

"Do you want this still?" Edmund asked. Eirene nodded. She opened her eyes when she did, revealing her eyes to be wild with desire.

Edmund relished on her blushed face, her lips wet and open to receive him. He lightly moved his hand from her upper arm onto her breasts. He leaned back to her, kissing her lips and moving onto her neck as he slid his hand within her robe. He dragged his fingers across, letting his thumb and index finger play with what he found, pinching it lightly. Eirene gasped.

He enjoyed the fullness of her breast for a second longer before he moved again. His lips returned to hers and he pulled his hand out of her robe. Before he moved it further away, Eirene took his wrist and placed his hand on the knot of her robe. Her fingers moved under him, pulling the knot apart herself. When she undid the lace, Edmund pulled the robe open. Once again he let his hand rummage the rim of her nightgown. He pulled the sleeve of her right arm downwards, and Eirene felt her skin erupt on fire as he uncovered each centimeter.

Eirene pulled her arm upwards to let it free of the gown, and Edmund pulled it downwards to expose her left breast. Edmund resumed his activities and played with her bosom a little more. He felt how Eirene squirmed with each different movement. His palm then tenderly cupped the rest of her body, enjoying the warmth that the nightgown led through to the palm of his hand.

He held on to her, his fingers around her hip and his thumb on her lower stomach. Eirene moved her hand to his chest. He darted his tongue back into her mouth, increasing the intensity of the kiss.

Eirene was growing restless, and he knew it. She was scorching with fire in every part of her body, and she needed him to do something about it. Eirene moved her hand from his chest downwards to his stomach, and further down. She graced him in the exact moment where Edmund's hand passed over her womanhood, making Eirene gasp into his mouth. He carried on traveling through her left thigh, making Eirene's back already arch with almost desperation to be touched. In that hasty second, Eirene's hand began to undo the lace that tied his pants. Edmund broke away from her again.

"Wait," he said, "you first."

Eirene stopped and flabbergasted, enjoyed the determination present in Edmund's eyes. She watched his steady hand traveling downwards, making strategic caresses where she ached. As he reached her knee, he began pulling her dress up, until the middle of her thigh.

He caressed her thigh with the back of his hand, aware that Eirene was begging him to touch her. He nestled his hand grabbing her inner thigh. He leaned his lips closer to her ear, feeling the goosebumps his proximity provoked.

"Tell me if you want me to stop," he said, in a husky voice before his hand traveled where her legs met.

As he moved his head moved downwards, somewhere between her neck and the beginning of her breasts, he moved his fingers downwards within her. He kissed her neck again as he moved his fingers up and down with the lightest of strokes. Eirene bucked are hips backward ever so slightly and spread her legs apart. Eirene moaned quietly as he pushed his annular and ring finger inside her.

He moved his fingers and she moved alongside him, a slow and tranquil rhythm, filled with pleasurable sensations that she only wanted to elongate.

Keeping a light pressure, Edmund kept on trailing up and down, getting to know her. Eirene bit her lip, moving her hips with him. Edmund pulled away from the nook at her neck and watched his work on her reactions.

Edmund enjoyed the view. Her back arching, her hips moving in a circular dance. He drew lines slowly within her, in every direction. Eirene responded to them all by fluttering her eyes close with shy moans that ripped his world apart with its quiet sweetness.

Both of his fingers moved in circles then, pushing slightly harder this time. Eirene opened his eyes, her expression lanced with desire. She quivered under him and moaned louder this time. Her head craned backward, and her hand groping her breast. Edmund's breath quickened at such glorious scenery, as Eirene unraveled with the pleasure he provoked her. It was then that he dived those same fingers inside her.

Her moans and gasps had been delicious but quiet music to his ears, but as he moved his fingers, the decibels of the encounter changed. Eirene opened her eyes, looking at him and his hand, bewildered by the ocean of sensations over her. Her eagerness was clear, and his mischievous expression told him this was only teasing.

He kept on stimulating her, and she was already desperate to pull all of her clothes away from her body. Her moans were spiraling as Edmund bent down to her mouth again and kissed it. Eirene engulfed him with desperation, biting his lips. He kept track of the frequency and the voracity of her moans, and it was until he was sure that passion was about to overcome her, he stopped.

"Edmund," Eirene said out of breath, opening her eyes.

They kissed again, slower, but not tender. He repeated the same motions, but slower this time. He kept an ever-burning fire but didn't let the fireworks explode for just now.

Edmund realized he burned alongside her; her pleasure was his own. Eirene prompted up on her elbows. Edmund stopped and she shivered. He noticed the goosebumps appearing on her forearm, and he guessed they were present all around her body, too. Edmund watched her lick her lips, her eyes still full of passionate drive, the one that that pending ecstasy promised.

Eirene stood up to her knees, chest heaving, and only half her breasts covered. She pushed Edmund down to the ground as she sat above him. She moved her hips around on top of him for a second, getting comfortable with him. Edmund's eyes were wild with desire from the sensations he was provoking on her. He pulled the rest of her nightgown down, resting on her lap.

She tilted her head back and Edmund got his back off the ground. He moved his lips to her uncovered bosom, his tongue going around in circles. She began pulling his linen shirt upwards. Edmund flung it over his head, and Eirene caressed his biceps. He searched her face and body hungrily. Her nakedness was a sight for sore eyes, and not even the outline of her he had seen at the lake compared to actual reality.

Their kisses were clumsy and slippery as she wrapped her legs around Edmund's lap. Edmund, holding her from her waist, stood up. They kissed and Eirene relished on the sensation of his tight muscles.

"I'm going to let you down now, love," Edmund whispered on her ear, slowly and quiet.

Once steady, Eirene unhooked herself from the knot around Edmund's torso. Her nightgown flopped down to the carpeted ground as soon as her toes touched the ground.

She let herself be admired by him for a second, before stepping closer to him. When Eirene advanced towards him, her hands went immediately to the lace of his pants. She undid it slowly, relishing in his desire. As she undid the knot, she made sure to grind her hands against him, provoking that her touch received a lustful groan as a reply.

She pushed his pants down to the ground. Edmund stepped out of them as Eirene propped up her tiptoes to kiss him. Edmund moved his hands to the small of her back, and then lowered them slowly.

Eirene then moved her right arm away from his shoulders and started caressing his neck, the contour of his jawline. She moved her hand slowly down his defined abs up until his navel.

He kissed her ear, quiet groans erupting from his throat.

"I would have driven myself mad with the thought of you," he growled in her ear. "Of watching you and not being able to touch you," he gave her another kiss, somewhere between her shoulder and her neck, "at least not in the way that I wanted to."

She smiled.

"And I with the thought of you, Just King."

Eirene took his hand and guided him to her bed. She threw herself on it, with her back to the mattress. The cover was cool, compared to the high temperature of her body. Her breathing was heavy, and Edmund took in the sight just as she did of him.

"You can have me any way you want," she said, clutching the sheets.

Hungrily, Edmund lowered himself down to her.

"I'll have you as tenderly as I can, my princess," he said in her ear, as his lips trailing down. Eirene placed her hands on his curls, and then Edmund pulled himself upwards, nestling between Eirene.

He looked into her eyes, searching for her naked soul. Eirene kissed him as she had never kissed anyone before. It was then that she felt him completely and sighed in anticipation.

With their lips wrapped in each other, both moaned into each other's mouths.

With half of her already floating in the sky, Edmund stopped and looked her in the eye. Both their gazes were filled with more love than lust, feeling how perfectly they fit together.

"Make love to me," Eirene said, "we'll steal the night away, just for us both."

Edmund closed his eyes and kissed her deeply, knitting his eyebrows and doing as he was told. Her moans were his favorite song, and he wanted to keep on replaying them until she came that night, time and time again.