Vex'ahlia was, well, vexed. Things at Uriel's palace had gone tits up from nearly the get-go, and despite the fact that two days had passed she was still feeling the sting of defeat.

If there was one thing Vex hated more than overspending coin, it was failing in any and every way. Her plan had been nearly flawless if not for the rest of Vox Machina, but especially her idiot brother.

Whom she of course loved dearly and rejoiced in the fact that said idiot was alive and sleeping soundly down the hallway.

Still…she was vexed.

"Fuck," she muttered into the half-drank glass of wine as the book meant to distract her sat ignored on her lap.

Her focus was on the firelight and how it played on the tapestry hanging to the right of the open massive doorway, and she nearly forgot why she'd taken up residence in the reading room instead of wandering off into the wilderness with her bear to clear her mind. Under normal circumstances, reading did calm the more tedious thoughts and put her in a better frame of mind to listen to advice or work through tense situations.

This being the second night attempting to reach a relaxed state with at least fifteen different books, she decided that she must fucking hate reading.

It definitely wasn't her. It definitely was the books and how they conspired against her.

Frustration bubbled as bile into the back of her throat and she roughly set the glass down while flipping the book off her lap to the floor in a series of smooth and swift motions. The book thumped as it landed crookedly folding several pages, and the last unbroken stemware chipped against the marble inlay of the wooden side table.

Vex'ahlia was now compounding irrationality on top of frustration.

The harshly whispered, "FUCK," that left her lips renewed her feelings about how the night was going, and she stood from the chair intending to do exactly what she should have days ago: take Trinket, leave a note, disappear into the woods for a couple of days.

'Oh yes, that's a fantastic idea. This way, you'll be alone when the fucking liches and wraiths sent my the damned Briarwoods come find you. Smart, sister.'

Why Vax'ildan was in her head she didn't know, but his smarmy voice embodying her subconscious was unfortunately accurate. Leaving the grounds of the Keep was a terrible idea, and she knew that to be the true reason she'd been trying to drown her disappointment in books and wine the past couple of evenings.

Another thing she was failing.

With more care in the recovery than its deposition, Vex reclaimed the book and attempted to smooth the pages back into order before closing the cover. In three steps she'd replaced it on the shelf opposite the chair where she could try again tomorrow if they hadn't spirited away to some other place.

The particularly loud snap from the fireplace caught her attention, and she was temporarily ensorcelled by the dancing flames as they licked the walls of the firebox. Lost in her own thoughts, she used the time on another bout of wasteful berating with regard to the situation from two days past, and a real voice made her jump.

"I didn't mean to startle you, Lady Vex'ahlia, my apologies."

She hadn't understood what had been said at first, but her eyes took in the concerned face of Jarett, their Captain of the Guard, as he stood just outside the doorway of the room watching her.

"Feel free to tell me that it's none of my business, but you seem to be stewing for the second night in a row."

She compartmentalized like a champion and turned on him with a disarming smile while stepping away from the fireplace. "Oh, I'm fine. Just…trouble sleeping, I suppose."

His rich brown eyes narrowed but weren't threatening. "Can I speak freely, my lady?"

"It's just Vex. Of course, Captain. Er, Jarett."

He grinned and gestured for permission to enter, the she-elf giving it with a nod and wave of her hand that screamed stop being so formal, I'm not royalty. As usual, he ignored this request.

"You can't bullshit a bullshitter. You may as well tell me what the problem is, that way I can at least be ready if whatever, or whomever, you're worried about attacks the Keep."

Jarett's at-ease position was two feet inside the doorway, one hand resting palm-down on the handle of the shortsword at his belt, the other relaxed with the thumb tucked nearest to the hanging crossbow on his other hip. His eyes danced and the fire bounced off of the darker skin of his cheeks before being absorbed by the black of the long-sleeved tunic. Above that was the rich blue of the overcoat buttoned to hide the studded leather armor worn between the layers. His lips looked almost pouted in the light and Vex'ahlia felt something pulse from her heart to her extremities, though she saw his eyebrow raise as she stared instead of commenting further.

Deciding she truly wanted her privacy, "I'll…leave you to your wine, my lady. If you do need anything, you know where to find me. Wake me as needed, it's what you pay me for." Then he grinned and winked, Vex'ahlia taken by surprise at the action as it caused another burst of something to rise from her stomach and pulse through her limbs turning them slightly more jelly than sturdy.

'Is…is that what my wink does to people? Well…that's not fair. I get it now."

She came to her senses and squeaked out, "of-of course, Captain. Thank you…for your concern."

Silence quickly returned once he left. The guard's quarters were on the other end of the Keep from Vox Machina's adjacent hallway of rooms. Jarett's preferred location for duty just so happened to be Grayskull's rear wall, and the path back from his shift took him past their quarters and this reading room each night. He'd said one day that he preferred the back wall because he had a view of everything from every direction, and his route back past their rooms allowed him to make sure no funny business was happening to his meal tickets in the wee hours of the morning.

Something broke in her the moment his footfall faded from her sensitive ears, and that same something forced her legs to move into the hallway before her brain could put the pieces of a plan together. Her mouth was also apparently tied to an independent system as she called for him without realizing she'd done so. It was loud enough to be heard and stop his departure but quiet enough, she hoped, not to wake any of her companions behind the heavy wooden doors and stone walls that separated the rooms from the wide hallway.

"Jarett?" She sounded winded. The fluttering in her stomach and the rush of air in and out of her lungs wasn't because she had exerted herself in the twenty or so feet out of the room and several steps into the hallway - it was because she had a strange form of need rushing through her veins.

He stopped and turned, hand never having left the hilt of his sword.

"Yes, Lady Vex'ahlia?"

The young man's words were equal in both volume and softness to hers, but he stayed put as she slowly walked toward him. He'd made it nearly to the end where the path turned toward the dining hall, and she knew the rest of the route would lead him to the guard rooms and stairs past the holding cells and their Tinkerer's workshop. His feet were still on the padded long length of fine blue and gold-trimmed rug that ran the full length decorating the hallway, hence why his steps had been so muffled.

This surface made Vex's steps silent, and he marveled with a grin at her ability to move without sound unconsciously as her mind was very keenly focused on something else.

Finally she stood closer, her mouth moving but offering no words. Loosening his stance he angled his hip and, with a smarmy smile, lifted his eyebrows while interrupting the flustered archer.

"Instead of trying to wax philosophical, why not just say what you need from me?"

"I have a favor."

He cocked one brow higher than the other, "have I asked for one?"

'Shit.' "N-no. I…I'm asking for a," she swallowed mid-sentence, "for a favor."

He would have laughed heartily at how she stuttered if he didn't know how deadly she was with both a bow and the flare of burning light behind her brown eyes. Something inside those eyes that he hadn't seen before caught his attention and sharpened his Captain's focus. As she fumbled over what to ask, his eyes took her in from bottom to top.

Nothing about Vex'ahlia's appearance would signal that she was distressed. Her knee-high leather boots were fitted well to her calves and immaculately laced. Missing was her shin-guard armor, but she'd been reading not preparing for combat - none of her armor was present. He also found no hints in her attire. The leather trousers looked comfortable but fit like she'd been poured into them, accentuating her thighs and, he assumed, her ass. The false corset of leather fastened by three wide belts across her midsection held the blue tunic against her torso, again - nothing amiss, skewed, or out of the ordinary.

A flush tinted her cheeks up to the delicate points of her half-elven ears, and her parted lips seemed redder than he'd noticed back in the reading room. Her hair was a perfect and tidy plait swooping over her shoulder, the preserved blue feathers still perched behind her right ear. Moving back down, he saw what was setting off his alarm bells: the rise and fall of the ample amount of cleavage at the top of the v-necked tunic were as if she had run to catch up to him rather than a slow saunter from the reading room.

Vex'ahlia was a ranger. He knew she would be completely silent when relaxed, and right now, she was anything but. He could almost hear the soft rushed breaths between her phrases, and his eyes settled on the expanding blush previously only on her cheeks, lips, and pointed ears that now colored the pulse point at the junction of her neck and collarbones.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath through her nose, Vex centered herself before parsing the air slowly out through her pouted lips. She calmed as she figured that honesty would probably be the best course of action. She knew what she wanted from him.

"It's been a…a frustrating couple of days," she began, Jarett merely agreeing but keeping stoically quiet. "You're right that I've been stewing. I…I'm at a loss on how to handle something," she paused, her eyes focused on the lamplight as it bounced off of the shining metal ornament near his neck at his right shoulder that held the cloak behind him around his neck.

"I'll never get used to failing. Though, Dawnfather knows I've done it plenty," she continued and he grinned. "What I mean to say is, I do so hate being wrong, or maybe it's being proven wrong? Something along those lines."

"You're saying you're very used to being in charge, and when that is taken away, you stew. We are…a lot alike, my lady."

Vex's eyes finally met his, and her nod was breathless, "yes! Yes. That…that's it exactly."

A moment of silence punctuated the air between them, the young man tilting his head forward with a raised eyebrow in an attempt to prompt her to finish the thought.

'Fuck it.'

She sighed and a seductive gleam narrowed her eyes. "I don't want to be in charge tonight."

Jarett's heart slammed into his ribcage with how quickly the blood surged from his head to his cock. "You…y-," it was his turn to stammer and his voice dipped lower, "you…what?"

Vex'ahlia moved closer and his eyes were irresistibly drawn to the sudden sway of her hips. "Tonight, Captain, I don't - want to - be in charge."

Every other word was punctuated by a step, and his hand gripped the knobby end of the sword hilt until his knuckles turned white.

"If you're…amenable," she said in that low, sultry voice that, until today, had never made him think of stripping the clothes from her skin and tossing her into his cot, "I'll give you that power so long as you truly accept that…I mean it."

Today was apparently a new day, and he was thankful that the length of his waistcoat hid the growing reaction at the front of his trousers.

Surely she was messing with him. Vox Machina was nothing if not a band of pranksters - perhaps more than they were a band of mercenaries.

'But what if she's not?'

Thus began his internal conversation over the next six seconds.

'What do you mean?'

'What if she's deadly serious?'

'That's a fool's wish.'

His body decided for him as his brain flooded his blood with endorphins.

'Then let's be fucking fools!'

"Jarett? Captain. To clarify," she said quietly while taking the final step into what he would consider his personal bubble, "nothing about our relationship will change, I give you my word."

She wasn't touching him outside of a well-manicured nail that tapped the gold pendant holding the crimson cape around his shoulders. Still, he could feel the warmth radiating from her. The scent of the honeysuckle perfume and woodsy beech campfire smell of the wilderness that clung to her skin hit his nose and he couldn't help but tilt slightly forward and slowly breathe it all in.

"Lady Vex'ahlia," his negotiations began.

A soft gasp strayed from her parted lips as the gravelly, altered timbre of his voice went straight to her center.

"Allow me to clarify some things for my own…ignorances."

Her eyes moved up from the bead of sweat journeying down his swallowing adam's apple when it disappeared into the collar of his coat, and she was surprised to see a hunger in his eyes staring back at her as they darkened to a near black.

"By all means, Captain. Name your terms." If he wouldn't drop being formal she may as well join him.

"I would like you to define what you mean by giving me your charge."

The tilting grin made her eyes sparkle. "I've made several very poor decisions in the past days and I'm done. Tonight…my only decision is you. Honestly, it's because you're the only one here at the moment."

"You…you seek solace? Wouldn't someone else be-" she interrupted with a quiet chuckle that sounded like an angel was flying using the devil's wings.

"I seek anything but."

Jarett swallowed hard, and similar to her voice acting on its own earlier, his did the same now. "I'm to be in charge then?"

Victory shone in Vex'ahlia's eyes. "I take it you're quite amenable?"

Where he'd stopped on his trek back to the guard rooms was fortunate, he thought, as the person of his current desire's bedroom door was closed just to his left.

"If I'm too rough, you'll tell me," his voice was pure sex at the moment and it was her turn to swallow in reaction. He saw a scoff on her face and silenced it with a glare, "you will tell me."

She nodded.

"Say it," he demanded, his figure suddenly imposing above her and she realized that he stood nearly a full head taller than she did, but Vex wasn't afraid. She was, however, excited.

"I will, Captain."

Like taking the lid off a jar of lightning his hand left the sword to grab her hip and drag her to him as his mouth swallowed her gasp of surprise. His lips and tongue demanded her acquiescence and she gave it without another thought. As she attempted to meet his fervor, her body left the ground as his arms held and turned her, her back roughly thudding against the smooth granite of the hallway wall between the wooden jamb of her doorway and the iron sconce of the lamp.

Bathed in overhead light, her eyes closed from his overwhelming onslaught of her senses and her body reacted automatically by attempting to hook her legs over his hips. She managed to swing above and behind the sword hilt, though it was now digging into the outside of her thigh. The other leg hadn't quite made it before settling lower against the crook of his knee as the crossbow proved to be too bulky to get past. The contraption distracted her briefly until the tightening of her leg at the joint made him fold harder into her upper half. The result was her breasts crushed against the hidden hardened leather behind his buttoned jacket and the better part of his thigh coming into contact with the furnace between her legs.

She moaned and he pulled away from her mouth. He redirected to the column of her throat and moved down to where it connected to her shoulder to leave behind an indention of his teeth where his lips sucked a red ring. It was very pleasurable pain, and behind clenched teeth, Vex'ahlia stifled another groan.

Behind the closed heavy wood of the door, a deep warning rumble made them both freeze. The growl was followed up by heavy thuds and scratches as the bear on the opposite side was trying to get to what he was interpreting as his distressed mother.

The only sound was their ragged breathing, hot on each other's skin, and the pumping rush of blood in their ears. It was all, of course, followed by another warning growl and more scratching.

"If," pant, "if your bear eats me, I'm no longer amenable."

The Captain's lips fastened once more to the racing pulse point of her throat, his joke relieving the tension in both of them as her laughing breath fanned his ear. She unhooked from his legs and Jarett set her to the floor, and if it wasn't for the iron grip he had on her waist she probably would have landed on her ass for all the good her legs were at the moment. She turned in his arms and opened the door, Trinket slinking forward ready to attack. The bear immediately relaxed as Vex pet the floof between his ears.

"Go sleep in the hall, darling," she ordered, the creature seeming to frown as he turned to obey with quiet steps until his clawed feet left the rug and scraped against the stone floor.

Jarett waited until the brown mass of muscle and teeth was well out of earshot before he set his hands on her backside and pushed her ahead of him into the bedroom. Once the door was both closed and latched, he turned back to see her standing much as she had been on her initial hallway approach, though her lips were delectably more kissed now than before. They were both breathing harshly and he could feel the heat building up behind his tunic, armor, and coat. It was compounded by the fact that warm flames were crackling in the fireplace to keep the room cozy, apparently for the sleeping bear, and he knew he'd have to get out of these layers before he melted.

"Still game?" The raw sound of her voice and the rekindled twinkle in her eye dropped his stomach again, and he nodded.

"You?"

Vex nodded.

"However," he swallowed, and he saw her face fall a bit until he continued, "I have far too much on at the moment. While I know we both do, I'm hot. So if you would be so kind," he left off with a gesture up and down his frame, she took steps back toward him and set her hands to work.

Her hands were rocksteady, but he expected nothing less. First went the weapon belt, the heavy thing hitting the floor with a thud, and she used her boot to kick it to the side and out of the way. Next was the golden pin that loosened his cape, Jarett feeling it brush against his calves as she swooped it away, tossing it to land on the chair at her writing desk. Per usual, a perfect shot as she hit her target.

The jacket was next, her fingers methodically undoing the buttons from their respective holes as it opened to reveal the armor below. Once removed, the jacket joined the cape and she only faltered in her movement when his fingers brushed a strand of hair that had fallen from the braid against her neck, his touch tingling her sensitive skin. Just the ghost-like pressure was enough to send electric bolts to her center, and he chuckled a breath against her temple.

She pressed her mouth to his throat intent on tasting him, but the side of his finger tilted her chin up to face him, "are you taking charge now, Vex'ahlia?" Gone was 'my lady', and she found that in this instance she didn't miss it.

"N-no," she stammered.

"Keep to the clothes for now," he ordered gruffly, determined to keep to the parameters of the evening that they'd agreed to before beginning.

She grinned and nodded. "Yes, Captain."

That was the moment Jarett had fully expected her to renege on giving up her power - that it wasn't worth it and impatiently clap him with a quip while asserting her dominance, but she didn't. Vex'ahlia didn't shrink, he would have stopped this game then and there if she had. The last thing he wanted was her fear. This was the favor she'd asked of him, and he was merely the facilitator. She was, however, closer to accepting her role for the evening. Relaxing her stance, she continued to undress him.

She stayed on task until the bare skin of his chest was revealed, her hands resting palm down against the warmth as the hairs tickled her palms. She could see and feel several scars but chose to ignore them. This wasn't why they were here. She wasn't seeking to learn more about Jarett, she was seeking to use him to chase away her bad feelings.

'Use seems a dirty word, but he's apparently fine with being used tonight.'

His hands came back to her hips to force her close once more as he reclaimed and overwhelmed her lips. Skimming down and following the sprinkling of hair across rippled abdominal muscles, she felt the tight band of the leather belt. While she's sure the belt had a function outside of moments like this, the stiff hardness pressing the fabric out and into her hand would have had no issue holding up the trousers on its own, sans the leather.

It was his turn to groan as she brushed him two or three times while loosening the belt and three buttons beneath, but once the opportunity presented itself, she stood surprised as his cock bounced free from the v-shaped opening.

'I owe Pike and Scanlan five gold each. Our Captain of the Guard doesn't wear underclothes. Well…what they don't learn they can't exact and I can keep my ten gold with them staying none the wiser.'

"Frozen, Vex'ahlia?"

She was beginning to enjoy the casual way he bandied her name about. He would absolutely be back to 'Lady Vex'ahlia' after tonight was over, but for now, it put her on the back foot rather than in a place of power.

It was exactly what she'd hoped to achieve with this proposition.

His hardness curled up out of the black pants and she desperately wanted to wrap her fingers around the shaft to compare it to the lovers she'd had in the past. The moment she touched him, however, he stung the back of her hand with a slap.

Surprisingly, she wasn't surprised.

It was very hard not to take control at the moment, and she assumed it would only get harder as their night progressed. She genuinely hoped that no one needed her at full attention tomorrow for that absolutely wasn't happening. She was going into the next day, or rather - the rest of this day, exhausted, but the anticipatory feeling in the pit of her stomach convinced her not to care.

Juxtaposed to his harsh smack a moment earlier, his hands traced soft lines up her bare arms until he cupped her face with large, calloused hands and brought his lips gently against hers. The kiss was languid and exploratory, Jarett taking the time to drink her in as well as offer something of an apology for the slap. He knew he was playing by the rules, and every moment he took charge over her was a rush according to her breathing and shining eyes and his pounding heartbeat, but right now, it felt like something for him to get used to.

Jarett's mind was trying to convince him that at any moment she'd call an end to the charade and send him and his erection packing to the guard bunks, and the fact that he had his own small enclosed room as captain was the only consolation.

He didn't actually think she would, though. The fact was that she'd not only asked for this, but she'd given him permission.

The slap was him following her instructions, and he was very good at following instructions. Breaking the kiss suddenly, he dropped her cheeks and stepped away nearly letting her topple if her reflexes weren't so high. Sitting on the edge of the bed he took her in from head to toe once more, and she noticed behind his hooded eyes that he'd accepted the mantle of whatever power she'd given him, fully understanding what tonight was about.

Release the tension. Free the soul. Have some sex.

Vex could see his frustration now too - the threat against the king and the constant worry that Grayskull would be overrun with specters, liches, and vampires, and he was likely looking just as forward to this as she was now that they'd begun. They'd both lost some of their ability to control the situation, but while she was looking to have the rest taken away and just be a cog in the machine, as Percival would say, he was looking to reclaim as much as he could to at least set the machine facing in the right direction.

Bending and trapping the stiffness against his stomach, he let out a soft groan and reached for the laces at the front of his right boot. His eyes, meanwhile, never left hers.

"You probably don't need your boots."

Simultaneously they shed their footwear. Jarett gained what amounted to a predatory stare behind his grinning lips as she bent low at the waist to undo both the right and left, the laces going from the top of her foot to her knee affording him ample time to stare at her swaying and jostling breasts behind the low-cut tunic. It took her longer than him, and by the time Vex rose from the task, her eyes never made it up to his face.

The Captain had tipped back to prop on his left palm as his right hand evenly and slowly stroked his arousal while he eyed her intently. Her mouth went dry. It had been nearly two months since she'd gotten any action, and she found the heat of want threatening to overbear her senses.

"Trousers," he ordered, his hand continuing the tantalizing up and down that proved so distracting.

With her chocolate gaze finally meeting his, his iris nearly black, she unclasped her belt, pulled it free of the loops, and let it fall to the floor around her feet. First, she undid the laces at the top, the tip of both leather cord strands slowly being fed through the eyelets until it was sufficiently loose to allow for the release of the clasps below.

Each small opening drew his eyes as he saw tan skin beneath, grinning when he realized she too wore nothing below her leathers, and he pinched the sensitive head of his cock with an approving hum at the patch of dark curls hiding her sex from his hungry gaze. The wiggle of her hips as she slid the tight hide down her thighs and her kick to send them out of the way chanced him a glimpse of her most intimate area, and he felt his hand still against himself.

"Come here," he ordered harshly, and another thrill shot from his stomach to the pit of his stomach when she did what he'd demanded. He let himself go, the rod slapping back against his stomach, and Jarett brought his hands up to unbuckle the leather corset around her middle and open her tunic. His breathing quickened and cooled her skin as he pushed the fabric until it all fell from her shoulders behind her to the floor. He sat back a bit to admire her full nakedness as she basked before him in fire and lamplight.

His fingers started at her collarbones and skimmed down, each breast receiving attention and a slight pinch to the pebbled nipples. Following his digits, his mouth claimed one to work with his tongue and scrape with his teeth as his hand palmed the other, her breast filling it completely before he switched and lavished the other side with the same fervor.

Vex's hands alighted to his shoulders and he could feel the sharpness of her fingernails as he explored the soft, tender flesh of her tits. Before moving south, he sucked a light bite into the side of the tan roundness, another red oval to match the one where her neck met her shoulder, and the feathery moan that left her parted pouted lips went straight to his cock.

Jarett's hand against her stomach pushed her into a forced step backward, and as she made to complain and question his motive, their eyes met. His stern glare and crooked smile were rebuke enough and he saw the complaint die on her lips as she rocked back on her heels to step away. She hadn't been prepared for him to drop to his knees, loop his arms around the top of her thighs, and plant an open-mouthed kiss on the sensitive skin just below her navel. One hang clung to his shoulder while the other wrapped around the back of his neck to dive into the hair and hold fast so she didn't collapse to the rug below them.

The first touch of his tongue against her folds nearly crumpled her, but he slapped her backside and pulled his head back. "Stay upright," came the command, and she knew she'd have to fight to keep this one. Fortunately, if she failed, it wouldn't have been from an attempt to wrest control, it would simply be a loss of limb function. Definitely not her fault, though the spark of desire that arose from the light smack had been a welcome surprise.

The spot where he'd smacked her ass didn't tingle, it hadn't been hard enough to actually do anything but redirect her attention, but she realized that they hadn't discussed any form of punishment if she weren't to obey his charge. All thought of wondering about punishment went out the proverbial window as his tongue graced her clit, the bundle of nerves causing electricity to shoot from her lower stomach to the top of her head, and the long, sighing moan that left her lips made them both glad that the walls were made of stone. The way he worked her folds and clit with lapping motions and alternating speed rushed Vex'ahlia to the edge of orgasm before he backed her slowly away, controlling the climax she chased.

Jarett was memorizing each and every sound that came from between her lips. Those were his clues, and he realized as she'd raced toward one of many finish lines how easy it would be to push her from the waterfall over and over again.

'That would, however, be outside the game. Let's see how long you last, Vex'ahlia.' His brain would have chastised his devilish conclusion if it hadn't been delighting in the salty-sweet taste of her against his lips and tongue.

Each moment that her hand at the back of his head attempted to push him where he'd do the most good for her starving need, he stopped moving altogether and recoiled from her center. After three attempts, two of them honestly accidental and reactionary twitches of her hips, she actively tried the fourth time and his response was to not only pull away but turn and sink his teeth into the skin of her inner thigh with a bite that didn't break the skin but would absolutely bruise in a day or so.

Gods did it feel good, which she knew was the opposite effect on her it should have had. Her brain had officially decided that pain equaled pleasure. The pinch was definitely there. She could partition it to the forefront if she focused, only she didn't want to. Letting it slip back behind the curtain of sensuality, she loosened her grip at the back of his head in hopes that he would continue the blitz of his tongue against her center.

He brought her to the edge again and had now essentially mastered differences in the tone of her moans and hums. The pinched whine escaping the back of her throat was his indicator, and he backed off accordingly. He knew it was torture, but since the bite, she'd not attempted to control the angle or pressure for nearly two cycles of bringing her close to climax, and beneath his hands, he could feel the tremble of her thighs and rear as they contracted to try to keep her upright despite the fact that each sweep of his tongue against her clit put her at risk of falling over him.

"Please," the faint squeak made it to his ears.

Jarett grinned against her mound as her juices danced on his lips and chin. That's what he'd been waiting for. One last suctioning kiss to her center and he dipped past her wobbling legs to stand quickly and grab her hips from behind before she could turn to follow his movement. Pushing forward she happily let herself fall to her knees on the edge of the bed, a lovely respite for her tensing muscles. The closeness of their bodies and her now bent angle pressed her backside against his taut stomach just above his navel, and the weeping head of his arousal fit along the slit of her slick opening.

High and low-pitched groans filled the chamber as he shifted his hips and pushed forward to coat the shaft with her wetness, the bulbous purple head bumping and rubbing against her swollen bundle to make her shudder and gasp. He did this two or three times until they were both panting, and she felt a tug at the back of her scalp as he wrapped the long end of her braid around his fist and pulled her head toward him. This arched her back as his other hand spread to flatten against her lower end and keep it horizontal before sliding around to wrap just at the top of her thighs.

He'd assumed she was flexible, but this test proved it. Vex's pleasure-filled gasp as he pulled her hair to angle her how he wanted informed him that he wasn't overstepping, but it could have been that she'd been too turned on to complain about the roughness. At the moment, everything was intoxicating. The new position put her ear nearly against his mouth as he leaned over, and both of her hands grasped at his arm wrapped just below her waist in an attempt to hold tight to him as she could no longer reach the bed before her.

"Tell me once more this is exactly what you want," he demanded, his voice husky and nearly unrecognizable.

Her response was to tip her hips back and rub against him, a failed attempt at slipping him inside where she wanted him most. The response was another push of his cock against her clit and a harder tug of the hair still trapped in his grasp to yank an even deeper bend out of her acrobatic frame.

"Say it, Vex'ahlia!" he growled.

"Yes," she nearly sobbed, actively forcing her body to not push against him.

Jarett felt her relax as she fully gave him the last of her control, succumbing to her baser needs.

He loosened his hold but didn't let go of her hair completely, but this allowed Vex to catch herself on her palms against the down-filled mattress. Both of his hands landed at her hips, fingers digging in hard enough to leave behind oval-shaped bruises that she was excited to find in the morning.

His entrance wasn't gentle, and she was thankful she'd been worked into such a wet frenzy as he plunged deep and full against her core. Jarett bottomed out with a groan as she cried out with both the pleasure and the twinge of muscle-stretching pain at being filled so completely after an absence of sexual activity.

Vex'ahlia was grateful for the moment he took at being so deeply surrounded by her heated walls, feeling his forehead press between her shoulder blades as he panted against her sweaty skin, the two becoming accustomed to the intimate feel of one another.

"Alright?" His question would have been sweet had she entered into this night under any other arrangement.

"Stop asking," she growled and took it upon herself to rock back, though he wasn't able to go any deeper.

A deep laugh that reverberated through his cock into her core filled her stomach with bubbles of excitement as he stood up tall and gripped her hips once more, lighter than before, and she found she was sort of missing the aching grasp of his digits. He didn't disappoint, however, with his first thrust.

The emptiness she felt as he pulled free was gone a split second later as he sank back into her until the flat of his lower stomach was pressed against the dripping wetness of her labia, and three similar thrusts followed.

Vex was a goner. The sensations overloaded her senses and she no longer attempted to keep her voice down as she hummed and moaned her pleasure. She would have buried her face into the bedspread if his hold on her braid would have let her head low enough, but it kept her spine arched before him and he loathed to give up the silken strands that so controlled the angle of his thrusts.

In the hallway, a fresh sandwich dripping mustard onto the rug as well as his Gnome hands, Scanlan was mid-bite when the moaning from behind Vex's door snapped his dirty mind to attention. A masculine voice echoed a second or so later, and he couldn't place the person that was clearly sharing the half-elf's bed. Sharing being the optimal phrase.

It had been months since he'd abused his powers of invisibility to sneak a show from someone - anyone - but especially Vex. She wasn't particularly shy and had, on occasion, led a gentleman to her rented rooms at an Inn, fucking him mindlessly to her own pleasure without even checking to make sure the door had been latched behind her.

'In a past life, Vex was definitely a siren luring fools to their deaths.'

Pressing his pointed ear to the wood of her door, the telltale sounds of slaps against skin and alternating moans high and low signaled to him that not only was intercourse taking place behind this barrier, but doggy-style was also happening.

And he hadn't been invited.

"How fucking rude," he whisper-grumbled before reaching up ever so slowly to attempt the handle. To his dismay, the door didn't open. Latched from the inside, his entry was now a challenge.

The hairpin from his pocket was at his fingertips when a sleepy, feminine, and authoritative voice from behind froze him in the act.

"Scanlan Shorthalt, absolutely not. Go back to bed," Pike ordered, and he turned to see her with her hands akimbo and her sleep tunic and pants rumpled around her body.

"Aren't you wondering who's in there with her?" Scanlan thought if he appealed to Pike's curiosity he may be allowed some voyeurism tonight, but the glare in her blue eyes conveyed otherwise. "C'mon, Pike! Just…just one peek. A short one."

The fellow Gnome silently pointed down the hall toward his door, the lamplight flickering from inside to dance on the rug where he'd left it open. The bard's trudge back to his room, sandwich all but forgotten, was made all the more awkward by the throbbing erection that led the way.

Pike waited a few moments, her eyes darting around the hall in an attempt to not focus on the frankly erotic sounds coming from Vex'ahlia's room, and after several minutes passed without Scanland reemerging, she moved back into the comforting dark interior of her own chamber before closing the door. Several seconds later, her rushed footfall and the clicking of the forgotten lock were the last sounds to hit the empty hallway.

Jarett wiped at the sweat tickling its way down his neck with his shoulder, one hand running a smooth line to trace Vex'ahlia's curved spine up to the back of her neck before he dug in his trimmed nails to scrape red lines back to where her rear end slapped against his stomach. Her response was to push back against his thrusts, and this time he didn't even punish her. The redness of her right asscheek in the fading firelight showed that one of his means of staying in charge had been striking his palm against the soft globe when Vex tried to gain the upper hand. Alternating between spanking and a firm tug of the braid still in the fist of his left hand had elicited sounds of pleasure from the half-elf below him, so he took it all to mean she was enjoying every inch of him.

The first slap had been gentle as he ate her out - mostly audible and not as physical. The second matched but her sultry laugh and, "that was adorable" comment quickly made his hand sting, so he could only imagine what it felt like to her after a couple of well-placed strikes.

His ears tuned in to her moans becoming mewls with a distinctly higher pitch, and he slammed his cock in deep before holding still as they panted while he killed her most-recent orgasm, not moving for at least thirty seconds as he twitched inside her. The flames being fanned in his lower stomach left him to wonder how many times he could deny her a climax when his was cresting the horizon. If he'd been in a giving mood, she would have likely come five, six, who knows how many times tonight. However, not even one allowance to ride that wave had taken place, and he knew by the wetness on his thighs and lower stomach that her body had been craving it since they'd started, and definitely since his tongue had worked her to a near frenzy. It was only a matter of time before she broke and begged him for it, and until then, he'd keep thrusting into her velvet-lined box and let the need build behind the overworked dam of their centers.

Vex'ahlia was living in an extended state of heightened arousal she'd not experienced before, and while it was insanely enjoyable, her body yearned for release. During past ruts, a decent partner could bring her to two, maybe even three orgasms if he not only lasted long enough but was able to hit the right spots. Jarett, it seemed, could not only last longer than she thought possible for any Exandrian male, but he filled her deliciously with each stroke. The flared head of his cock rubbed against her internal button while the occasional slap of his sac against her clit with a hard enough thrust left her humming, but she'd yet to come once all night, and the want was starting to create an ache inside. She knew she would have to risk prompting it as the last of her reserves was dangerously close to running dry.

Unsure if the punishment she would receive would be the full pull of her hair to arch her back and bring her to his mouth so he could nip at the lobe of her ear or bite her neck, but she hoped that would be the case. Worst case scenario, and it was still one of the most pleasurable worst cases she could arouse, his hand would slap the already red and welting skin of her rear and she'd have to risk it again after he denied yet another earth-shattering release.

Vex threw off his rhythm with a swirl of her hips, and though he groaned in pleasure at the sensation it prompted, it was clearly an attempt by her to dictate the pace. To her delight, he curled the braid in his hand tighter and slowly pulled her off the tips of her fingers as he leaned forward to bring her shoulder blades flush to his chest. The open gap between their bodies provided the perfect angle so that he didn't have to stop the punishing thrust of his hardness into her pliant body to regain control, and his mouth bit the crook of neck and shoulder garnering himself another satisfied groan.

Her plan worked, however, and the panting plea from her throat hit his ear.

"Please, I…I can't anymore," she begged, and it caused his thrusts to falter. "Just…let me come."

Relief filled his chest as quickly as the panic had taken residence. He thought he'd crossed a line and wasn't sure what to do with that information - wasn't sure how they could just…stop if she'd asked. He would have, of course, but was insanely glad not to have to. The roil in his loins was reaching a fever pitch, and with her breaking below him, Jarett knew they were done. Their frustrations had been fully satisfied with one another, and each sought the end of their game.

He immediately released the silken hair, let go of her hip, and grinned at the complaint from her lips when he pulled from her warmth to let her fall to her own weight on the bed below. Panting heavily on her hands and knees, he fought the urge to yank her back and sink in to lose himself and retain the last remnants of the upper hand, but there was no longer an upper hand. Vex'ahlia had no control, and this was his chance to yield some back to the willing she-elf.

His hands tipped her sideways, Vex twisting to end up on her back as he fell to his left palm beside her head. His knees hit the padded bed and he realized how much of a relief it was after standing and thrusting, and as her legs reactively wrapped around his backside he realigned their bodies and sank slowly and deeply as he could.

"Are you losing your steam, Captain?" She pressed her palms against his chest to force him upright above her, and his left hand came to rest on her knee in the same fashion that it had on the hilt of his sword.

"Never, Lady Vex'ahlia," he groaned, renewing his tempo. His ardor had calmed a bit with the maneuvering, and he had, for the first time, a chance to watch pleasure ripple across her face. While he did miss the lines of her shoulders and back as they swooped inward to her waist before flaring into the pear-shape at her hips and backside, nothing beat the bounce of her tits as he bottomed out with every thrust of his hips into her thighs.

Though the fireplace had been dying down, enough lantern light glittered across the wetness on his shaft with each exit from her body and he found it mesmerizing enough to slow down and watch. The purple crown bulged her labia before he slid back in, and he could feel the internal muscles beginning to flutter against the length of him.

"You don't think you've earned one, maybe two?"

The flat of his thumb swooping over her clit forced her eyes closed as her pouted lips formed a beautifully red 'O'. The reverberating moan that flew from her throat as she was allowed to finally tumble off the cliff and into the waiting pool of warm darkness and shocks of stars made him laugh through a groan as she tightened like a vice around his still-moving cock. Someone definitely heard that one, and he only hoped that he'd remembered to latch the door lest someone come to see if the archer was in distress.

Settling his palms against the bed but maintaining his stance above her, he redoubled his efforts to take them both to the end of the evening as he drove her into the bed over and over again.

Times two and three he also didn't keep her from enjoying, and her legs hooked high over his backside to change the angle slightly and force him to shudder at the sensation. On her fourth, Jarett joined her, his hoarse shout commingling with another of her wanton cries. Cascades of pleasure forced him to close his eyes as he pulsed into her channel the culmination of his desire. He dimly felt the pain of her fingernails as they dug into and through the skin of his forearms, but he wouldn't have been able to care about the injury with how much pleasure was overloading his mind. His arms gave way and he rolled to Vex's side to keep from landing on top of her, the pair a panting and sweaty mess.

It was a long moment they stayed that way, side by side as they descended the peak back into the valley together. Once their breathing had settled they both shivered and broke out in gooseflesh at the chill that seeped into the room through the walls. The fire had officially snuffed out having been reduced by time and lack of upkeep into a smoldering mess of used wood.

It was then that he hauled himself upright and tossed his legs off the edge of the bed. Breathing deep, Jarett set his elbows to his knees and turned his head to seal a glance and see how his companion was faring.

Vex'ahlia met them with a smile and a wink.

"Thank you, Jarett."

The gratitude was genuine, and her eyes went back to the ceiling before slow-blinking once, twice, then staying closed the third. He was pleased to see a serene look of satisfaction and lack of worry relax her features as she fell asleep, and fatigue dug in and prompted him to seek the same.

Re-stoking the fire to keep her warm throughout the rest of the night, he slid his trousers back over his hips, loosely fastened his weapon belt around his waist, slung the tunic over his head, and gathered up the rest of his belongings before silently leaving her room. The sweat drying in the cold of the night air caused his arms to sting, and he looked down to see three or four half-moon shaped punctures and a few one-to-two-inch lines carved into his flesh with fresh pearls of blood where she'd dug herself in during her climax at the end.

The wounds, like all the others, had been given to him, but none had been so pleasurably given as these.

…

A/N: You know, normally I stick to OTPs or pairings where I can be overly romantic and fluffy and build on a relationship. But…there's something really freeing about "hit it and quit it" when writing, I have to say. One more part is coming and then we'll be done with this little side idea! Where there's give, there's take - amirite? Let me know what you think in the comments!