Chapter 1: Public Speaking

Warnings: Smut all around.

All eyes were on her. All of them. As she stood at the podium fiddling with her thumbs and looking down at the crowd she did not see one set of eyes fixed on anything else but her. She had more than their full attention and it made her nervous. She coughed to clear her throat for the third time.

How was she supposed to concentrate when all of their eyes were on her? All of these beautiful people giving her the highest praise. Looking up to her like a blessing and checking her out as if she were an angel.

The majority of the men had their eyes set on her mouth and she knew they weren't just waiting for words to come out.

Iron Bull was sitting with his legs spread wide and his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair and watched her lips. She swore she even saw him lick his lips at one point when they made eye contact. That was probably the reason why she started twiddling her thumbs.

Or maybe it started when she saw Solas. He was nowhere near as blunt as Bull, but he certainly had a way of making his interests known. He sat in a corner and stared into her eyes so intense and powerful she found it hard to breathe. His gaze lowered and still he remained focused and unperturbed. His only expressions made her knees go weak. He gave a cocky grin when he saw the top of her chest. As she had unbuttoned about 6 buttons that day from the heat. And when he looked up into her eyes he chewed his bottom lip with one of his elven fangs. The act all the more intriguing as he was hidden in the shadow of the corner of the room.

She coughed again. Damn everything why did she have to be the one to give the speech?

"Why do I have to give the speech again? I'm not a noble." She asked outwardly to anyone listening. They all were and they all put their two cents in. All with gasps and shocked because you must especially from Josephine. Cullen, however, gave her a different answer in the way he looked at her. Unlike the others there wasn't just a lust in his eyes, there was a need. And that was the only subtle part of his gaze. The rest of him was so perfectly sexy and charming she could…she could stop that thought. But she cursed at him in her head for having those longing eyes paired with that perfectly charming grin. Her focus hated him right now. Especially when he dared to compliment her. "Because you are the Inquisitor, noble or not you are very influential and very…" His needy eyes dropped to her lips and then the exposed skin of her collarbone. "Persuasive. " He slurred that last word and she could faint.

Instead she just swallowed and looked down at her notes trying to recompose herself and failing yet again when Cole presented himself. He hid himself in his usual way. Only she could see him and feel him standing right beside her. A moral support she supposed. The problem was he made her that much more nervous. He could read her thoughts, feel her feelings. And she was thinking about how gorgeous and alluring her advisors were. Seeing him turn to a lust filled man as he mirrored her feelings made her that much more nervous and guilty for feeling this. But who could blame her? Everywhere she looked there was another distraction. Even Dorian her safety net was far to handsome for her to stare at for an hour long speech without at least a few times getting distracted by his perfectly sculpted Tavinter bred body. They literally planned his birth to make the fittest male specimen possible.

She kept trying.

Looking to Blackwall hoping his stoic seriousness could keep her mind focused she took a deep breath and exhaled. Starting her speech. A few words in realizing her mistake. Blackwall may be incredibly broody on the outside and that may have seemed like a safe bet, but now she realized it wasn't. He lowered his eyebrows just so and opened his mouth just a bit giving her this pout that was so fitting yet so sad on him it made her want to kiss the pain away. He looked vulnerable. And this look only came out when she spoke as if she was the perfect song to him. She inspired him and it showed. Now she took to squeezing the sides of the podium and staring at the wall. The wall that damn Solas painted. Her eyes shifted back to him and he caught her. Of course he caught her. This whole time he had been waiting to catch her like a hunter and she was definitely prey to all of these beautiful people. He sat now with his elbow on one knee and his fist holding up his face. Looking like a man in deep thought. She wondered herself what exactly he could be thinking about so deeply when looking at her. And then he flashed his fang again and bit his lip and she wanted to faint.

Only Cole's presence helped with this fear of public speaking. He emerged to her side and kept talking her through it. "Don't be afraid, you are bright, they know, you can't do wrong. "

She continued her speech and about halfway through the noises started distracting her. As if their bodies didn't do enough.

Varric's chair screeched whenever he tried to dangle his feet as he was too short and too stubborn.

Lelianna and Josephine were softly giggling to each other and despite their efforts to keep themselves quiet and respectful they couldn't escape when Lavellan's ears caught it all.

The Iron Bull was now cracking his knuckles in a dominant display of his muscles. Which she admitted did keep her focused on his hands and arms for a good 20 seconds before the next noise got to her.

The sound of Cullen letting out exasperated little gasps. As if he was as nervous as her for the speech. One look at him proved that he was mirroring her pain. He was stressed for her and it was distracting. The worry on his face and the longing in his breath to help her. She swore she even heard him mumbling the next words of the speech. He was adorable.

But his words were hard to determine when Solas's came to distract her. His were easy to unscramble. He was whispering a familiar elven chant. A spell.

And then she felt it. The spell. He had put a literal spell on her. The nerve…

She tingled all over from the overwhelming of the elements.

She started to giggle at some of the little wisps of air that busted her feet and the heat waves that came down her front. Then the ice that he sent down her back. She was going to kill him. Or molest him in the middle of his rotund where everyone could see. She honestly had no idea right now. All she did know was there was no chance of salvaging this speech.

Biting her lip with one fang as a bolt of heat was sent further down she gave squinted eyes to Solas and then turned to Varric. "Varric you'll have to finish my speech I-I have to go. "

She dashed from the podium to…as far as she could get.

She needed a breath away from these distracting people.

If only she had better sense she would realize she was being followed by just about every man in that room. Except Varric who like a true friend stayed behind and finished her speech.

Cullen and Solas racing to her side. Hearing their footsteps she walked faster which got them to break out into a run.

"Inquisitor you need to come back!"

"I can't!" She squealed and like any nimble elf would she climbed the nearest vine up the wall to her balcony.

All that was left to do now was figure out how to stop the pooling heat in her stomach.

Expect more distractions next time. Also I don't have a main ship for this story, but you should know that I'm slightly biased when it comes to Solas and Cullen so I'll probably make them the main men most of the time. All in all though this is just a story about the struggles of the Inquisitor.