Description: Daine boldly asks to touch Numair making him lose control.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. Everything belongs to Tamora Pierce.

Author's Note: The idea that Numair loses control of his magic when he's with Daine was inspired by the fact that his Gift forms an aura around him or crackles when he gets angry. I don't know if it will get mentioned in the Numair Chronicles, but I just get this feeling that he is not always entirely in control of his Gift. It's what he's struggling with in Tempest and Slaughter.

Chapter 13

Daine leaned forward and very carefully released Numair's hair from its tie to tumble around his shoulders. She smiled at him running her fingers through his mane as she moved in for a kiss. He returned it surprised at the tenderness.

"I like your hair loose," she whispered as her fingers stroked through the black, wavy strands.

"I noticed," he replied huskily.

The young woman started to unbutton his shirt eagerly, but Numair caught her hands. Daine looked up at him confusion warring with hurt.

The mage cleared his throat. "Darling, if you have your mind set on this –"

"I do," she said determinedly.

"Can we – go to bed?" he asked plaintively.

Her eyes warmed as she smiled, climbing off his lap and held out a hand. Numair took a steady breath and allowed her to lead him to the bedchamber. He felt like a shy, awkward sixteen-year-old again as the mage removed his boots and lay on the bed, propping up his head with pillows. Daine knelt beside him and set back to work on swiftly undoing his buttons. Opening his silk shirt, she ran her fingers appreciatively down his chest making him shiver. There was a hungry look in her eyes he'd never expected to see.

"As nice as this is, can you take it off?" she asked looking at him from under her lashes.

That look alone had Numair removing his arms from the sleeves and throwing the shirt onto the floor. "Better?"

"Much," the young woman smiled trailing her fingertips over his skin.

With a mischievous grin, Daine rubbed her nose into his chest hair and placed a firm kiss there. The mage closed his eyes sucking in a breath, feeling his nerves tingle. When he opened his eyes, Numair found her looking at him smiling gleefully as her fingers traced maddening patterns over his chest. The mage cupped her cheek, stroking it tenderly at a complete loss for words.

"You're not going to stop me this time?" she asked daringly.

"No," he breathed out. "If you're certain it's what you want – if I'm what you want."

"Absolutely!" Daine surged forward to capture his lips in a passionate kiss.

Numair wrapped his arms around her as she buried her hands into his hair. This wasn't the quiet examination he'd made of her body; this was fire and passion. When she broke the kiss, her fingers delicately stroked down his neck to his chest making him shiver. The mage could see apprehension in her eyes but overpowering that was the heat of desire which took his breath away. Bravely, she leaned in and trailed a path of kisses down his neck making him moan as he buried his hands into her curls.

Numair gave himself over to her as Daine enthusiastically kissed and touched his torso exploring many of the areas he knew she enjoyed being touched herself. It would take time before his lover would feel confident enough to explore him properly. None of that changed the fact that Daine was enjoying touching and kissing him and that only succeeded in making the mage more aroused.

Very slowly the young woman moved out of reach and down to his breeches where the obvious sign of his arousal caught her attention. She ran her hands over his thighs, but her interest was solely focussed on his groin. Very carefully Daine undid the ties making him gasp as she brushed against him. He lifted his hips obligingly, allowing her to tug the breeches off and throw them onto the floor. Licking her lips nervously, the Wildmage shifted up the bed again to slip her finger under the edge of his loincloth. Numair grabbed her hand firmly as she started to slide it down.

"I want to see you," she looked at him, her pupils fully dilated.

He was impressed he didn't ejaculate from the sound of her voice. "I haven't seen you yet," the mage argued feebly. "The loincloth stays on."

His lover looked disappointed but stopped what she was doing. Swallowing nervously, she looked into his eyes and reached out tentatively to touch him. Numair closed his eyes and hissed out a breath. Very slowly Daine circled the tip making him moan while he fought the urge to thrust his hips. Even through the cloth it was enough to make him squirm as his firsts gripped the sheets. When her fingers slid inside his loincloth, she destroyed his ability to think.

Daine gently traced her fingers up and down exploring the entire length of him. His world centred solely on her fingers and the erotic torment she was giving him. Numair disgraced himself pathetically by whimpering when she stopped stroking.

"I'm not sure what I'm doing," his lover admitted shyly.

"You're doing – just fine," he gasped as his body begged her not to stop.

"I want to do this right!" the young woman said defiantly.

Numair opened his eyes to see the stubborn set of her chin. Groaning, he took her hand in his and guided her fingers around him. He stroked her hand up and down twice before letting Daine take over. He surrendered to her like he'd never done for anyone else, moaning loudly when she continued the motion. The mage knew he wasn't going to last long, already too far gone when she started this. He hoped Daine didn't judge his stamina too harshly because she was stripping him of every ounce of control. The pressure built quicky as he clung to the edge not wanting this to be over so soon. Opening his eyes, Numair saw her watching him and came completely undone by the sultry look in her eyes.

"Daine, I –" It was all the warning he could give.

With a strangled cry the mage came hard and could have sworn he saw stars. He may have passed out for a few seconds but wasn't sure. Daine's hand was still stroking, sending aftershocks of pleasure through his body as Numair blindly grabbed her wrist stilling her ministrations while he tried to remember how to breathe.

"Um… Numair, I think something exploded," the young woman said confused.

He snorted immaturely but didn't respond. Daine wasn't that naïve.

"In the next room," she clarified in a firm voice.

Numair didn't care if there was an army standing outside his door. He wasn't capable of anything more than breathing right now.

"Why is your magic everywhere?" she asked.

The mage opened eyes and realised the darkness and possible stars were a result of his magic surrounding them. Well, that hadn't happened in a long time!

"I'm going to check out what that explosion was," the young woman said getting off the bed and heading to the main room.

"Daine, wait –"

Numair swore silently because now he had to get up and his body refused to cooperate. Taking a deep breath, the mage retrieved his Gift thankful that all his wards were still intact and none of the protection spells around his workroom had been breached. Peeling off the soiled loincloth, he used the other side to wipe up the mess before throwing it into the wash basket. It took a lot of effort to crawl out of bed and grab his breeches from the floor. Numair almost fell over struggling to put them on before staggering to the bedroom door to assess the situation.

Daine was crouched in the middle of his ruined central room picking up chunks of rubble from the crumbling fireplace he had exploded. There was a fine layer of ash covering everything which explained what had happened to the firewood.

"Well, at least nothing is on fire," the mage chuckled.

His lover glanced up at him unimpressed as she placed some of the rubble where the fireplace had once stood. It was a good thing they hadn't lit the fire in his bedchamber or things could have been much worse.

"Come back to bed," he sighed.

"We should clear up this place first," she argued stubbornly.

"I'll get the servants to do it later. Come back to bed," he purred seductively at her.

Daine huffed out a breath but stopped what she was doing. She always preferred to tidy herself and not leave it for others to do. The young woman looked over at him and her eyes travelled over his body with a look he'd never expected to see in her eyes.

"Alright, but you're helping me clean some of it up later," she approached and slid her hands up his chest.

Numair pulled her back into the bedchamber and rolled them onto the bed, capturing her lips in a heated, demanding kiss. "You are the most wonderful woman in the entire realm, Daine Sarrasri."

He kissed her again to prove his point, wrapping his arms around her tightly. His lover giggled and snuggled into him returning the embrace.

The mage was almost drifting off to sleep when Daine spoke. "Why was your magic everywhere?"

Numair stirred and kissed the top of her head. "I lost control," he said quietly. "You know, of course, that the Gift, like wild magic, is affected by strong emotions. You've seen over the years where my control slips occasionally when I'm angry and an aura of my Gift surrounds me. This was a more – spectacular failure in my self-discipline. Only one other person has made me lose control like that before."

"Varice," the young woman guessed, half-snarling the woman's name.

The mage smiled softly, touched by her jealousy even though she had no reason to be. "Yes, Varice. I can't change that she was my first love," he tangled his fingers into his lover's curls and looked into her stormy eyes. "It didn't happen the last time we were together if that's any consolation and it has never happened with anyone else. It had been so long I'd forgotten it happened at all."

Daine's eyes widened in understanding. "I made you lose control?"

"Yes, sweetling," he chuckled pulling her into a searing kiss, not releasing her until they were both breathless. "You really have no idea what you do to me, do you?"

"I think I'm starting to…" the Wildmage licked her lips as she searched his eyes looking utterly stunned.

Numair eased his lips over hers, teasing her until she trembled in his arms. "I might suggest –" he whispered seductively against her lips. "If you ever decide you want to touch me again –"

"Oh, I do. I really do," she interrupted eagerly.

His breath caught as he pulled back to look at her. It completely blew him away that someone so young and beautiful could want him this much. "Then we should ensure there are no open flames in our rooms."

"Numair, it's winter," Daine laughed. "We'll freeze without a fire!"

"I'm sure I can figure out a warming spell I can place on the walls," the mage grinned.

"You should definitely work on that," the young woman agreed brushing her lips against his seductively.

They lay in bed content to just kiss each other for quite some time. When they finally separated for air, Numair gazed adoringly into his lover's face. If she figured out how to touch him as quickly as she had mastered kissing, then he'd be lucky not explode half the teacher's wing. The mage made a mental note to place his most powerful protection wards around their rooms at the earliest opportunity.

"I never did get my lesson," Daine giggled.

"We could do it now. If you want to bring the book to bed?"

She grinned and hopped off the bed returning with the book in her hands. The mage levered himself up and settled against the headboard as the Wildmage tucked herself into his side.

"I've never had a lesson in bed before," she wrapped an arm around his bare waist and rested her head on his shoulder.

He chuckled thinking that there were definitely things he planned to teach her in the bedroom in the future. "Let us begin – magelet." His old endearment for her no longer sounded quite right nor did he really want to think of her as his student. Even as they reviewed the lesson on frostbite and hyperthermia, the mage found it was more of a discussion instead of any instruction on his part.

The snow had been falling for a week and lay thick on the ground. Daine had risen early every morning to check on the horses and the animals in the royal forest. The Wildmage worried about the People getting too cold or not being able to find enough food or shelter. When she started to consider sleeping back in the stables in case anyone needed her Numair decided to act.

One morning, after he and Kitten had shared a relatively early breakfast for them, the mage left the dragonet inside, wrapped himself in a warm cloak and trudged out into the snow. The pages had been assigned to dig paths so that people could travel between the buildings. When he entered the Rider's stables, Numair saw the horses had more than one blanket over them and someone had tied cloth around their hooves. Cloud and Spots stuck their heads out of their stalls to watch him

The mage called on his Gift and drew several runes onto the stones and carefully poured his magic into them. They glowed faintly as the spells took effect and the walls began to radiate a steady heat.

"If you're looking for Daine she left over an hour ago with some foxes," Onua grunted as she dumped a bale of hay onto the floor and grabbed a fork.

"I wasn't but thank you for letting me know," he replied.

The K'miri frowned coming up beside him to look at the runes. "What mischief are you getting up to in my stables?"

"No mischief, I promise," the mage smiled at his friend. "I'm just adding some warming spells," he removed his hand with the runes continuing to glow. "When the light dims come and fetch me, and I will renew the spells. They should last for about a week."

"Warming spells?" Onua asked.

"Daine has been worrying constantly about how cold this winter is predicted to be. This is something I can do to ease her concern for the horses at least," Numair explained.

The K'miri grinned up at him. "You're very sweet."

The mage smiled shyly as he went to greet Spots and feed him an apple he'd pinched at breakfast.

"It's good to see you smiling again," Onua commented.

"Daine makes me happy," Cloud nudged and lipped at Numair's sleeve, so he fished out the other apple and gave it to the mountain pony.

"She always did," the K'miri regarded her tall, thoughtful friend. "It's good to see her so relaxed and happy again. Reminds me of that summer at Pirate's Swoop after the siege. I never thought she'd look like that again, not after the war."

"I shall endeavour to keep her smiling," the mage promised, winking at her over his shoulder.

"You're quite serious about her, aren't you?" Onua leaned on the pitchfork frowning in thought. "I wasn't sure if this would last long – even though I hoped it would."

He sighed and turned to his friend, his face deadly serious. "I am quite sincere in my desire for matrimony."

The K'miri nodded slowly. "It's just – none of us have ever seen you like this before. I know there was that woman in Carthak who you were serious about at one time, but there's never been anyone since."

The mage glanced outside a wistful look passing over his swarthy face. "That's because there hasn't been anyone who could tolerate or understand me like she does."

"I thought we all tolerated you quite well," Onua teased.

Numair chuckled meeting his friend's green-grey eyes. "To a point, yes. You aren't particularly fond of my academic enthusiasm."

"Daine's no scholar, either" the K'miri stated.

"No," he smiled fondly. "But if I find the right topic, she can rival my own enthusiasm and desire for knowledge. Daine's also not afraid of me."

"I'm not afraid of you!" his friend scowled taking offence at the last comment.

"But my magic makes you uncomfortable sometimes, especially if I'm doing one of my more powerful spells," the mage said quietly. "Maybe it's not fear – but you'll find somewhere else to be."

Onua looked away ashamed. "I didn't think you'd noticed."

Numair smiled faintly at her. "It's happened all through my life. You don't draw the sign of evil at me." He winked at his friend trying to elicit a smile. "Daine took me by surprise because she expects me to use my Gift. She doesn't care how much of my power I draw on or what spell I use so long as everyone is safe and well at the end. Kitten is the same, but she is a dragon so that's not wholly unexpected."

"Surely Alanna isn't afraid of you," the K'miri argued.

The mage winced. "I remind Alanna of her brother sometimes. She isn't afraid of my Gift but what I might do with it. She doesn't entirely trust me not to draw on dangerous magic to do something stupid."

"Is she right to be afraid?"

Numair met his friend's concerned gaze thinking this was a very serious talk they were having. "She knows the lengths I would go to save someone I care about." He ran his fingers over his hair thinking of the white stands there. "I think she worries my academic curiosity might lead me towards doing something similar."

"And would it?" his friend asked.

"No," he answered gravely. "I paid a great deal of attention to my tutor's warnings at university. From what I know of Thom, he preferred independent study. Had I not had such devoted teachers from the age of ten then perhaps I might have ended up the same way. The learning and discipline required to obtain a black robe – it teaches you a great deal of respect for order and balance and what one misguided action – or mage – could do to disrupt that balance."

Onua nodded in satisfaction. His magic may disturb her, but she did trust him and would take the mage at his word. "How's Daine finding living with you and all your books? Does she miss the animals?"

Numair blushed. "They still visit her."

"They used to share a bed with her…" The K'miri paused and gaped at him. "You don't mean they still –" the mage went crimson and refused to answer as Onua burst out laughing. "I know Thayet said they left your bedchamber when she found you, but I didn't realise…" the woman collapsed into a fit of giggles. "I don't know many men who'd accept sharing their bed with animals. I think you tolerate each other well enough."

Numair turned away from his friend not wishing to discuss this any further. He patted Spots affectionately and prepared to leave when Onua caught his arm and looked up at him kindly.

"No one else is going to say this to you, but I just wanted to thank you for being so patient and not rushing Daine into anything," she said gently. "Most men would have just taken her straight to bed."

The mage swallowed and looked away shamefaced. "Don't thank me – I'm not doing it for her. My motives are entirely selfish. Daine is more than anxious –" Numair couldn't finish the sentence as he took a shaky breath. Onua squeezed his arm looking up at her friend supportively. "I don't want to move forward – until she agrees to marry me. I don't know what I'd do if –" he ran an unsteady hand over his face trying to regain his composure.

The mage knew, in truth, it was already too late. The moment Daine had agreed to move in with him Numair was aware he wouldn't survive losing her. She was too much a part of his life as it was, now she was his life.

"You've got it bad!" The K'miri teased squeezing his arm lightly. "Daine is happy enough. She's not mentioned any plans to leave you and she doesn't even look at anyone else. I think you're safe."

The mage smiled gratefully while he tried to bury his fears. "She's still young. What woman her age knows who she wants to marry or spend the rest of her life with?" he winced and glanced at his friend apologetically. "I'm sorry. That was thoughtless of me. This isn't a topic we should be discussing."

"It's alright," Onua turned away and picked up the pitchfork again. "I'm not the best person to speak to about marriage, I'll admit. Mine was arranged. Daine's lucky to have someone who loves her so much." She stabbed the fork into the hay bale and started to refill the trough for the horses. "I know you wouldn't ever hurt her."

Numair watched his friend feeling guilty for bringing up the subject of marriage. Until now there had never been any danger of them even mentioning such a painful topic. The mage didn't want to leave his friend dwelling on the past.

The K'miri glanced at his concerned face and grinned wickedly. "I'd have married you if you weren't so bad with horses."

"I can ride!" he laughed with mock indignation.

"You stay on, it's not the same thing!" she argued.

Numair shook his head and approached his friend wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Will you let someone love you one day?"

Onua elbowed him in the ribs and glared up at him. "The trouble with people in love is they always feel the need to play matchmaker. I'm perfectly happy as I am, thank you! If you get as bad as Thayet then I'll burn all your books and fill your rooms with horse dung."

The mage held up his hands defensively backing up a step. "I'd make a terrible matchmaker. I barely noticed when I was falling in love."

The K'miri barked out a laugh. "That's true enough!"

A thought occurred to him as Numair touched her shoulder. "Would you grace me with another dance at midwinter?"

Onua scowled up at him. "You'll be far too busy with Daine."

He smiled softly at his friend. "I can spare one dance."

"I'll think about it," she grumbled avoiding his eyes.

Numair bent down to kiss her cheek gently. "Is there anything else you need before I head to the noble's stables?"

"Freedom from well-intentioned mages," the K'miri retorted. "Be off with you!"

He grinned and waved to her as he left his friend in peace. Numair cared a great deal about Onua, she was one of his dearest friends. There had never been anything romantic between them for either of them, but he still wanted her to know he was there for her if she needed anything.