Warnings: (which I probably should have put at the beginning… oh well) This fic contains sexuality. A lot of it. And SEVERE anti-Dom material. If you can't deal turn back now!

Chapter three

Raoul was no longer enthusiastic about opening the door. After he had hit one of his sergeants in the face when he opened the door too fast Raoul had forced himself to calm down. Kel hadn't come for three days. He saw her once in the hall yesterday and she apologised for not coming sooner, but was cut off when a gaggle of pages clattered by.

When he heard a knock he took his time answering it. When he swung the door open- carefully so he wouldn't kill whoever was on the other side- he froze. Kel was there. He had been convinced that she had changed her mind but was too afraid to tell him.

"Come in," He found his voice, ushering her inside and locking the door to make sure they wouldn't be interrupted.

Kel waited until the door was closed, then threw herself into his arms. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, but with Dom and then Cleon is here with his wife and I just... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kept you waiting." She kissed his neck timidly, as if she expected him to reject her.

Raoul, though miffed at being ignored for so long, was glad that Kel was back. So glad, in fact, that he didn't care why she hadn't come sooner. "I forgive you," He said, tickling her ribs, causing her to give a startled yelp. "Just don't do it again."

Kel nodded and tried to bat his hands away, but Raoul pressed on tickling her mercilessly. "Raoul," She gasped between helpless giggles. "Stop it!"

"You don't laugh enough." Raoul said.

Kel broke away, grinning. "Maybe not," She backed through a doorway. Did she know that she'd just led them into Raoul's bedroom? "But I-"

Raoul lunged for her, pinning her to the bed and tickled her again, loving how she writhed against him.

"Seriously," She gasped. "If you don't stop right now I'm leaving."

Raoul sighed sadly, but he did stop. He didn't, however, move off of her. "You wouldn't leave me alone again," He said mournfully against her neck.

"No." He felt her hands sliding over his back and under his tunic. "I wouldn't." She strained to kiss him.

"Ah, ah, ah, wait a second." He lifted his head away. "What is this?" He pulled her hands out from under his tunic. "You know once we start..."

"I know." Kel said, arching her back so that the tips of her breasts just barely touched his chest. "But I want to."

Raoul grunted, allowing her to draw off his tunic before he dipped down to kiss her with all the passion he'd bottled up over the days without her. She gasped and gripped his back tightly, probably leaving bruises. Raoul didn't care, all he cared about was making love to Kel.

He trailed a line of kisses down her chin and throat, between her breasts and down her belly where her pulled up her shirt and tunic and poked his tongue into her navel. He pushed her shirt up higher, stroking and kissing her ribs until she pulled the clothing off. Then came the breastband. Raoul wasn't entirely sure how that worked so he gently rolled Kel onto her front and kissed the back of her neck and her spine until he had the thing off. She flipped onto her back and Raoul wanted to just sit there and look at her, but he doubted she'd like that. Instead he kissed her all over, running his hands over her bare skin. At some point his shirt disappeared. He wasn't sure when or how that happened, but he didn't care.

Raoul did notice, however, when Kel unbuckled his belt and pushed off his breeches and loincloth. He pressed his hips against hers, letting her know in no uncertain terms how much he wanted her. She moaned and the rest of her clothes were quick to join the pile on the floor. "I want to kiss every inch of you." Raoul said, panting, and started with her ear.

Kel didn't say anything, she merely guided his head to her breasts. While his mouth was occupied his hands went lower, curving around her hips.

When he pushed inside her it was like falling into heaven. He tried to pace himself, tried to be careful not to hurt her but she would have none of it. When she came he was quick to follow, moaning just as loudly as her.

Spent, he rolled over, hugging her tight. Kel's head rested on Raoul's shoulder, one arm laying across his chest. He brushed some hair out of her face. "Beautiful." He said before closing his eyes.

Raoul slowly woke as something beside him stirred. He opened his eyes to a nice view of Kel's rear as she bent to pick something up off the floor. She tugged his tunic over her head and disappeared into the privy. Raoul sat up, glancing out the window to see that it was late morning. He was about to settle back into bed when he noticed something on the sheets.

A few drops of blood had dried, staining the sheet a rusty brown.

Where had that come from? Sure, they had bitten each other, but he didn't think they'd broken the skin.

Slowly the realisation dawned on him. Kel had been a virgin. At first he didn't believe it- why would a virgin wear a charm against pregnancy? Surly she had tumbled Cleon during the progress, or one of her other friends, or even one of his men. He touched the spot in wonder. He was her First. Raoul was glad- at least it hadn't been one of those bumbling boys who hardly knew what to do with a woman.

The door from the privy creaked open and he pulled the blankets up, covering the stains. Somehow he doubted she wanted him to know. Kel emerged from the privy, hair still tousled, wearing his tunic. He liked how it looked on her, even if the shoulders were a bit too big.

"Good morning, beautiful." He pulled her into bed and kissed her warmly. She snuggled under the blankets, allowing the tunic to ride up so her bare hips pressed against his.

"Good morning." She said. Raoul had never seen such a happy smile in his life.

He kissed her forehead. "I love you, you know?" He kissed her mouth before she could reply. He was afraid to hear her reply- what if she didn't feel the same? He didn't want to scare her off.

Kel didn't seem about to jump up and run so he released her mouth and ducked under the covers to kiss other parts of her. "Mrmph." She mumbled, lifting up the covers so she could see him. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He tugged the blanket back over his head.

Kel leaned back, apparently content to let him have his fun. When he came up again she was gasping and quaking.

"You liked that, did you?" He nuzzled her. Kel answered him with a mostly incoherent moan.

"I should... uh..." She trailed off as Raoul kissed her neck. "Stay here for the rest of my life." She finished, rolling over so that she was mostly on top of Raoul. Kissing him, Kel could taste herself on his lips.

"Good," he murmured, his lips brushing against hers. "Because I'm not nearly finished with you yet."

"Oh, really?" She sat back, straddling his hips.

"Really," He sat up, pushed her onto her back and held her hands over her head. "And this time no distracting me."

Though Raoul would have been happy to stay in bed, ravishing his young lover all day it was impossible. For one thing he was getting pretty tired, for another Kel was hungry so he begrudgingly pulled on some clothes- his tunic now smelled of her- and went on a quest to the kitchens. When he returned he found a fully dressed Kel looking at a painting.

When she heard him come in she turned and smiled. Such a beautiful, loving smile. Raoul's own lips pulled into a grin. He was the reason she was so happy, and it made him happy knowing that she was happy.

It was a happy situation all around.

"So, what did you bring me?" She asked as he cleared off part of his table to set down the tray.

"I brought us some breakfast, you know, what people like to eat in the morning."

"Oh, good." She walked over and though she tried to hide it she had a bit of a limp.

"Are you all right?" He asked, suddenly concerned. "You're walking kind of funny."

"Well it's your fault." She said, sitting down and taking a bite out of a piece of toast.

"I'm sorry..."

She shook her head. "Don't be stupid, I'm not mad." Kel laughed. "You look so cute when you do that." She reached across the table to touch his cheek.

Raoul smiled sheepishly. "You shouldn't scare me like that. So..." He leaned back in his chair, a piece of toast in his hands. "Any big plans for today?"

Kel sighed and nodded. "Dom," She said. "He wants to go out riding. He's taking this thing awfully seriously." She frowned, but quickly chased the lines from her face. "Never mind."

"He hasn't tried... anything, has he?" Raoul asked, trying to sound casual and suppressing unreasonable amounts of jealousy. "You know, threatened your virtue and so forth."

Kel giggled and shook her head. "Well, he holds my hand when we're in public, but it's just so people think..." She trailed off, seeing Raoul's face. "I'll stop, if you want. I can just tell him I can't do it anymore. He'll understand."

Raoul shook his head. "No, I told you to do this, remember? I'm fine with it, really."

Kel looked unconvinced. "Are you sure? You're looking pretty green to me." She teased gently.

Raoul sighed. "Maybe I am." He admitted, leaning across the table to take Kel's hand. "But I can't help it." He kissed the tips of her fingers. "Now eat up. I wouldn't want you falling off your horse because you didn't eat breakfast."

She smiled and popped a piece of apple in her mouth. Raoul stared, transfixed for a moment before he remembered that he, too, had food to eat and things to do today. He couldn't remember what any of them were, but he knew there were things. Important things. Things like kissing Kel to within an inch of her life- no, wait, he couldn't do that just yet. "Will you come back tonight?" Raoul found himself asking.

Kel nodded. "If I can," She said. "Probably."

'Probably' wasn't exactly what Raoul had in mind, but he had to remember that she was pretending to court Dom, which meant she might be staying out late with him. Which meant Raoul would sleep alone. Which meant Raoul would be sad.

"I should get going," Kel said, coming around the table and kissing Raoul softly on the lips. "I'll see you tonight." He watched as she opened the door and cautiously stuck her head out. Seeing that it was all clear she left and walked swiftly down the hall.

Raoul had no idea how long he'd been sitting there, contemplating the crumbs left over from Kel's meal before he heard the door creak open. Had she come back?

"There you are. I was wondering if you'd forgotten about me." Buri said. Raoul jumped to his feet and gave the small woman a hug.

"I thought you weren't suppose to be back for a couple of days."

"I wasn't," Buri said. "But one of my riders is pregnant so we had to come back early." She shook her head. "You shouldn't be dipping into the workplace ink- oh, was I interrupting something?" She said, taking notice of the remains of the breakfast for two and Raoul's rumpled appearance.

"Er," Raoul said, face starting to burn. "No, but I wanted to talk to you about that. Shut the door, would you?"

Buri did as he asked. "So you'll be wanting to call it off then?" She asked, sitting on the arm of a chair.

"Actually, no." Raoul admitted. "See, the girl- woman, I mean, well, we don't really want anyone to know so she's pretending to see someone to divert court gossip and I, er, gave her the idea because of what we've been doing." He looked up and saw Buri looking somewhat amused. "What?"

"I may help you," She said. "Depends. Will you still pay for meals?" Raoul nodded. "Huh. What about flowers?"

"What?" Raoul was taken aback. "Since when did you want flowers- hey, you're teasing me."

"Damn straight. But really, I'll do it on one condition."

Raoul raised his eyebrow expectantly. "Which is?"

"You tell me who it is."

"Urg." Raoul groaned. "Did you not hear the part where she said she didn't want anyone to know?"

"Come on, you can tell me." Buri nudged him. "Who is it? I won't help if you don't tell."

Raoul knew she was serious. She would refuse help just to make his life more difficult- and entertaining to her. "Kel." He finally said.

"Seriously, Raoul, who is it?"

"I told you!"

"But... no." Buri looked at him, shocked. "Do you know what it would do to her reputation if anyone found out?"

"I'm perfectly aware of it." Raoul said tersely. "Hence all of these precautions."

"You hate it, don't you?" Buri said. "Thinking about her out with another man, even if it is pretending. Who is it, anyway?"

"Domitan of Masbolle."

"You trust him?"

Raoul shook his head. "No. I trust Kel."

Buri also shook her head. "How long has this been going on?"

"Kel and Dom have been courting on and off for a while now, I think, but-"

"No, I mean you and Kel."

"Oh," Raoul counted up the days. "Um, six, I think."

"Six what? Weeks? Months?"

Raoul shook his head. "Days."

Buri gaped at him. "That's all? And you've both already got your red-herrings all set up and everything." She shook her head. "Please tell me you were just really hungry this morning." She motioned to the plates of food still scattered over the table. When Raoul didn't answer Buri's eyes grew wide. "You slept with her? Already?"

"Well we've known each other for years." Raoul said defensively. "It's not like I just met her."

"No, you're right. You do realise-"

"I'm old enough to be her father, I know. But she doesn't seem to care so why should I?"

"Well, as long as you're happy." She said, somewhat uncertainly. "Come on, we should go out and be all couple-like. You know, divert gossip and so on. Actually, first put on some fresh clothes and brush your hair. You look like you just rolled out of bed."

"Well, I did-"

"That, my friend, falls under the category of way, way to much information. Now scoot." She chased him into the dressing room. "And if you were doing what I think you were doing last night it's a good thing I showed up. You didn't say her name, did you?"

"I thought that was too much information." Raoul called from the dressing room.

"Well, if someone happens to hear you bellowing your love for her the ruse will quickly be up." Buri said dryly.

Raoul emerged, wearing fresh clothes though he'd done nothing about his hair. Buri tsked at him and got a brush.

"You're right." Raoul said. "I'd better be careful then. But she doesn't have to be." He grinned. "Which is good, because I don't think I could stop her- ow!" Buri had hit him over the head with his brush.

"You will under no circumstances tell me what goes on in there." She nodded towards the bedroom.

"But you asked- ow! All right, my lips are sealed." He grumbled as Buri finished brushing out his hair. "Come, now, my crumpet, let us make the court's tongues wag."