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She lay awake long after Erestor had fallen asleep beside her, the soft embers of the fire dying down beside them. Exhausted from their dance, they had collapsed by the fire, their limbs entwined. Erestor pulled her a little closer as he slept, afraid even whilst sleeping that she would leave him. She lay contemplating the flames, until she felt him stir beside her. He sat up, looking down at her. She turned to look up at him. He had a thoughtful expression upon his face, one that she couldn't fathom, when he reached for one of her wrists. The white network of scarring looked like a spider web in the dim light, and he traced his fingers over each line, as though committing them to memory. She tried to pull her wrist away, but he held onto it tightly.

"No." he murmured, as he continued to trace the lines, some thick, some barely visible, others pink, more silvery white.

"Why must you touch them?" she asked, again trying to pull her wrist away. Without her wrist cuffs, she felt near naked beneath his probing gaze. It took some getting use to. "They are my burden to bare now. I have told you of my past, and this is what remains for me to live with. The consequences of my choices, no one elses."

" No," he murmured again, before he lifted each wrist to his lips, and placed trails of kisses over each of the scars. "They only need to be bereft of their pain too, until they are naught but a reminder of how we were brought together."

She shivered at the feel of his lips. They had kissed but once, her fear of the passion of men making it difficult for her to even accept this without a flinch. She trusted Erestor, but old habits were hard to break. He continued to trail kisses over her inner wrists, until she stopped shivering in fear, and relaxed. Then he moved his lips steadily higher, placing kisses up her lower arm, over her forearm, across her shoulder, to her collar bone, where he stopped and laved a hot tongue across the bone. She shivered. He repeated the movement, and she closed her eyes, and shivered again. But this time, it was not in fear that her body shuddered, but in heat and satisfaction. He continued to move across her shoulders, scattering kisses and hot devastation across her. She stopped fearing for those few precious seconds, and held his head to her closer. He lifted his head, to lean in to place a hot kiss upon her parted lips. His tongue, desperate to taste her, slid in to her mouth, and for a second, he was not Erestor, but the man who had pursued her into the forrest. She cried out, and pulled away, but Erestor held her to him.

"Shhh," he murmured, before gently placing kisses across her forehead, down across her cheek, and then back to her lips, where he kissed her in the same manner again. He controlled his own need, decades of pent up longing and loneliness put on hold for her fear. He kissed her slowly, until her trembling stopped, and he gently began to move his hands across her body, as though they too were dancing. She quietened under the rhythmic movements of his hands, and placed her hands on his back, allowing her curiosity and desire to see more of him overtake her fear, as she began to trace the hard lines of his body too. It was she who started the kiss this time, and it was not the gentle warmth it had been before, but rather a hot reminder of the bond they had forged through music and dance that night. She pulled him to her tighter, and began to let go of her fear. There was nothing similar about the men who had raped her, and Erestor.

She felt her clothing slowly sliding from her body, and the softness and intensity of Erestor's gaze upon her was enough to set he trembling again. She watched as he slid off his own robes, before laying himself back a top of her. Her felt her trembling, and lay still, determined to place her need for comfort before his own desire. He continued to lightly stroke the unmarked skin of her face and then lower, lower until his hands covered her breasts, watching her all the while, his gaze searing through her like a brand. She arched into his touch, determined to let go of this fear, and begin to hold something else in place of her fear. Something else…like the slow feeling of warmth spreading through her, the desire, and the wetness forming between her thighs, in the one place she thought to never share with any male, man or otherwise again. His body sang to hers, as his hands traced every contour of her body, and she hesitantly began to do the same. He felt his control waver at the innocence in those caresses, the unsurety. She may have been had by countless men, but she was still an innocent. And it was slowly returning to her again, all the hands, all the lips, all the tongues that had defiled her, making her unworthy of the gentle lord above her.

He raised himself over her to enter her, and she whispered to him.

"I'm so afraid.", fear clouding her eyes

He nodded to her, gently caressing the side of her face as he made to leave her, determined to keep his own need under control if it would mean keeping her.

He moved to lay down beside her.

"But…."she held him fast. "please don't leave me. Tell me. Tell me what you are feeling, so I can block out my own fears with your words. "

"I can forget my emptiness within you," he whispered to her, as he gently moved to take her. "I can neither think nor act rationally around you. I want you to belong to me, and me alone. I can escape whatever demons my past held, and whatever lines that beg me to cross. I would trade everything for you." She felt him begin to move within her, and she felt her fear being chased away by a warmth that coursed through her, and coated her to the very marrow of her bones, and she began to shake, but not in fear, but in rapture as the feeling grew and grew within her. She could see, through her pleasure filled haze, the control Erestor was exerting in order not to lose himself within her. Sweat dotted his forehead, and his every thrust was controlled and slow. When she let herself surrender to her climax, she leant up to him, "Let go," she whispered to him, "It's alright now" His control waning at the feel of her tightening around him in her climax, her hot words were enough to let what little control he had left snap, and he thrust in to her, again and again, until his own release began to clench his whole body in it's rapture. "Take me," she moaned to him, arching beneath him, feeling his hot seed released deep within her, and she felt him slow his movements, somewhere at the back of her mind, she registered that he had collapsed atop of her, as exhausted as she was in the wake of such powerful sensations. And she knew truly then, what it meant to dance.

A/N; Thank you all who reviewd, but don't worry, it's not over yet! Barbara Neal, it's getting lighter. Now there is hope.

If any of you have read any of my other stories, let me know if you would like to hear anymore from those couplelings. I'm going to finish this story, then write some ficlets I think. But I'd like your opinions. What or who would you like to hear about? Open for suggestions.

Oh Yeah. And what do you think of this chapter?lol/

Next chapter will be considerably lighter after the rest o the story.