Author's Note: Thanks for all the amazing reviews! Sorry for the three months delay with this one, but I'm working on another story at the moment, so I took some time off of this one to work on that. (I'm not done with that story yet either, so it will still cause delays with this one.) Anyway, I felt really bad about neglecting this story and Amarah/Jaime, so I made sure to carve out a block of time last week to write this next update. I'm definitely not finished with the story, though, so please don't worry that I've abandoned it. Most of the frequent updates will start back up again in the summer when I have the time off of work. So please just bear with my infrequent updates until then. Your patience with me is very much appreciated:) Anyway, here's the new chapter. I hope you all enjoy it!
Amarah opened her eyes the following morning to find a rather cheerful Jaime Lannister peering down at her from under dun colored lashes. "Good morning," she mumbled a bit shyly on seeing his pleased expression, with very little doubt in her mind as to what had put him in the uncharacteristically happy mood.
He answered her polite comment with the grin of an intent debaucher before pulling her naked form underneath his in a movement so swift, she wasn't entirely sure how he had accomplished it. "It could be a better morning," he returned in a sleep-graveled voice laden with seduction.
"Jaime!" Amarah sputtered indignantly at his lusty remark, but the protest was somewhat undermined by the startled laugh that escaped her lips at his brazen behavior. "I've think we've done quite enough of that for now."
She sensed his disagreement rather than glimpsed it as he presently had his face buried in the crook between her neck and chin, gently nuzzling the delicate skin there at a leisurely pace that belied his urgency of moments ago. "There can never be enough of that, Princess," he murmured while never abandoning his gentle exploration.
"Overindulgence can many times lead to eventual dissatisfaction," Amarah reasoned aloud in a remarkably clear state of mind despite the nearly six feet of aroused male currently pressed against her.
Jaime gave a clearly audible sigh at her continued resistance toward his plans for more lovemaking before rolling off reluctantly to plop beside her with a dull thump. "Gods save me from the logic of women," she heard him grumble in ill-concealed annoyance.
"You don't believe in the gods," Amarah was quick to remind him.
Jaime considered her observation for a brief moment before he started towards her again, a silent warning in his jade colored eyes that cautioned her to tread carefully. "Do you know what happens to impertinent little stags foolish enough to poke the hungry lion with their horns?"
"I'm certain I'll soon find out."
Amarah was annoyed to find a breathless tone creeping into her voice that caused her to sound suspiciously like those silly maidens who would spend countless hours at court dreaming of the golden knight Jaime Lannister. She had always fancied herself so much wiser than those ridiculous females. Now she wasn't so certain.
Jaime made certain to pin her securely beneath him, effectively cutting off any means of escape, before replying. "The lion devours them, of course."
Amarah was sorely tempted to let him have his way with her after that deliciously sinful response, but a niggling doubt in the back of her mind prevented her from succumbing wholly to his sensual pull. "Before the devouring commences," she held off his advance with a pale hand pressed gently to his shoulder. "There's something I wished to talk about."
"You sorely try my patience, woman," Jaime informed her, the passionate light in his eyes dimmed slightly by annoyance at yet another delay.
Amarah returned his ire with a pleading look. "Please, Jaime."
"Very well," he finally agreed, but his frustrated groan made it clear that he was not pleased by the request.
Amarah waited for him to remove himself from atop her after his compliant response, but when he neglected to shift even an inch she regarded him with a raised brow. "Do you plan to lie atop me for the duration of this talk?"
"We can converse as well from this position as any other," came the smug response, accompanied by a superior expression which hinted at his belief that he had managed to regain the upper hand. "Tell me, Princess, what is so important that we must discuss it instead of indulging more satisfying pursuits?"
"You're beginning to sound like Tyrion."
Jaime's look darkened with ill concealed displeasure at her evasion of his question. "Amarah."
"Very well," she huffed before complying with the tersely worded order to proceed. She knew the topic must be addressed, but she was loathed to speak the words aloud. "What has happened between you and Cersei since we last parted?"
She had half-expect Jaime's eyes to darken in anger at the mention of his sister, as they always had when she broached the topic in past conversation between the two, but he surprised her by returning the question with an even tempered gaze that reflected more curiosity than anger. "Why do you wish to speak of her?"
"Because even when she is not present, you sister haunts me like a ghost reluctant to release her hold on you. How do I know unless I hear it from your own lips that I'm not some convenient cunt to rut in while your thoughts remain solely of her."
Jaime's face drew back a fraction at her blunt language. "Is that what you think?"
"Sometimes that doubt creeps into my mind," Amarah finally confessed after several moments of taught silence. Her pride made it hard to speak the words aloud, that Cersei might forever retain the heart of the man that she wanted for her own, but now that the words and doubt had been spoken aloud for him to hear, she felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Jaime contemplated her request for a few moments with his golden brows drawn together in a contemplative look as he searched for the right words to put her mind at ease. "Most of my life I dreamed of my sister," he finally spoke, but the words did little to put Amarah's doubts to rest. "I loved her greatly, more so that any other person in this world. I always dreamed of her and none else. That was all I ever knew, the love I had for her. Then I saw the truth of what she was, that I had loved an illusion of what I thought her to be. I saw that she could never love me as much as she did herself."
While he spoke, Jaime's gaze had looked past Amarah's, wandering somewhere in the distance of a recollected memory, but then it returned to hers with stunning force as his gaze burned bright green in his skull, searing her with its intensity. "When I left the capital, my dreams started to change." He continued to speak but reached up his one hand to clasp hers and drag it down between their bodies to the place where his desire for her was most evident. "I dreamed of a little dark haired princess with cool, grey eyes and a sharp, biting tongue who had invaded my thoughts so completely till I could think of nothing else but her. I dreamed of these hands," he emphasized, pressing the one he held captive against his arousal. "Of this mouth."
He ceased speaking for a brief instant in order to reward that mouth with a thorough kiss that left Amarah rather breathless once he pulled back to finish his thoughts. "When that wench of yours told me that you needed my help, I didn't hesitate to come. I'll always come for you, Princess. Doubt my honor if you wish. Doubt the goodness of my black soul. Gods, doubt anything else you wish, but never doubt that I care for you. You're not a convenient cunt." She flinched a bit at the crude word he flung back in her face. "You're the woman I'd very much like to rut with."
Amarah couldn't help the smirk that turned up one corner of her mouth as he finished such a lovely speech with such a male sentiment. Once she was certain he was finished speaking, she leaned up to whisper in his ear. "You may devour me now."
He wasted no time in complying with her request. As Jaime plunged in and out of her body with relentless force, sweeping her mind away on a tide of passion, she heard him command something of her before he would allow her the release she craved. "Never doubt that, Princess."
She was beyond the capability of speech, but she pulled him into a desperate kiss that conveyed the promise she wished to give. Never again. With a satisfied smile, Jaime gave her what she wanted before following into the pleasurable abyss.
Amarah stared at the beast before her with a growing sense of unease. She had informed Jaime and Brienne that she was perfectly capable of traveling to the Quiet Isle, and she had fully believed her own words when she had uttered them that morning. Though, now that she was faced with proving her words, she wasn't so certain to the truth of them anymore.
"You usually have to mount them yourself. Staring doesn't generally get the job done" came a teasing voice in her ear.
Amarah turned to give Gendry a less than amused expression. "Thank you for deigning to share with me your vast knowledge of horses. Now be gone with you." She gave the curt dismissal with a distracted wave of her hand before turning her attention back to the problem before her.
Gendry paid no heed to her attempt to disregard him and moved to stand beside her as she pondered her difficult situation. "It's not a smooth journey to the Quiet Isle," he reminded her in a low voice so the other soldiers milling around wouldn't hear. "You can ride with me if you like."
"An attempt to soothe your guilty conscience?" Amarah questioned him with a raised brow.
"And what if it is?" he asked in return. "Isn't this entire search we find ourselves in due to the guilty conscience you harbor over abandoning your cousin to the blood thirsty lions?"
Amarah quickly pulled him towards her in an effort to hush his increasing volume. "Be careful who you insult," she warned him in an urgent whisper. "They are the very men who escort us now." Once she was certain Gendry could keep his hot-blooded temper in check, she took the time to address the charge he laid at her door.
"I had no choice but to leave the capital. Had I stayed, Sansa would still be lost to the Lannisters and my head would have accompanied my uncle's along the spikes of the city gates."
"Whether you were afforded the choice or not, the guilt still stays," he wisely pried the truth from her words.
"You're rather clever sometimes for a blacksmith's apprentice," she told him then, attempting to leave the conversation of her guilt behind.
The tactic seemed to work, because an amused smile graced Gendrey's handsome features at her generous estimation of his intellect. "Your words do well to soothe my injured pride," he informed her with a secretive smile that she did not entirely understand. "I've been told before that I'm a stupid boy much of the time."
"Who would – ?" Amarah began to question him about the source of the insult before they were interrupted by the towering form of Brienne.
"My lady, it's time to leave."
Amarah nodded her head in agreement and glanced towards the snorting creature before her with an apprehensive look. "I'll be riding with Gendry," she finally informed her faithful knight, before departing in the direction of Gendry's mount.
Brienne's long legged stride easily fell into step beside her as they moved through the swarm of armored soldiers. "Lannister will not approve."
Amarah delayed her brisk pace at Brienne's warning. "Why do you say he would disapprove?"
Instead of replying, Brienne inclined her head toward the man in question who stood several paces away with a dark look brewing on his face that slightly resembled the black clouds that clustered above in the stony sky.
"Leave him to me," Amarah assured Gendry who sported a look of slight trepidation once he had caught sight of Jaime's countenance as well. "Just give me a moment."
After making her excuses, Amarah changed course in direction of the glowering knight. When she had last seen him, he had been sleeping peacefully as she had slipped quietly from his bed to return to her own. If the look on his face was any indication, he felt significantly less peaceful now.
"You're likely to scare the horses looking like that," Amarah commented lightly as she approached him.
Jaime's mouth, which was hardened into a firm line of displeasure, failed to relax at her humorous observation. "You'll not ride with the boy."
She didn't even attempt to argue with his abrupt order, choosing instead to pursue a different tact. "What's put you in such a foul mood?"
"Perhaps waking to find a cold space beside me," he returned, drawing closer so that only she could hear his bitterness fill words. "It's not terribly flattering to find your lover gone without a word, as if your coupling were an unclean secret not fit for the knowledge of others."
On hearing his heated words, Amarah understood the reason for his soured mood. She had unintentionally made him feel the way Cersei had for all his life. As if she didn't care for him enough to let others know the truth of her affection. Reaching out to clasp his forged hand, she waited until his eyes were on her before answering his accusation.
"I didn't leave because I was ashamed," she hastened to set his mind at ease. "I'm an unmarried woman of noble birth, and it would besmirch my reputation and the shame name of my house were it known I took a man to my bed outside the marriage vows. Please understand the caution I must take."
Jaime's hard, glittering gaze softened the slightest fraction. "Your house has suffered worse blows than word of a Baratheon taking a Lannister to her bed."
"Even so, I've no wish to cause any further damage than has already been done."
"Then we'll exercise greater caution if that is what you wish," Jaime answered with an expression that turned suddenly bored.
Amarah frowned slightly at the shuttered look in his eyes that kept her from seeing his thoughts. He had been angry before, but now she wasn't entirely certain how he felt about her request to keep the finer details their relationship from the prying eyes of others.
"Thank you for understanding," was all she could think to say before moving to return to Gendry despite Jaime's earlier order.
However, the sound of his voice held her footsteps in check. "Are you in any discomfort?"
Amarah considered the possibility that he might be referring to her slow recovery from illness but knew the true source of his question was the current raw soreness between her legs. "A little," she admitted softly, a flushed heat stealing up the back of her neck all the way to her delicate ears.
Jaime's shuttered expression turned slightly remorseful then. "I should not have taken you more than once."
Glancing back up at him, Amarah cautiously sidled a bit closer until her lips were close enough to touch the outer shell of his ear. "I would have let you take me ten times that if you had wished."
There was no guessing his thoughts now. Giving a pleased smile of feminine satisfaction at the heated look he rewarded her softly worded confession, Amarah left him there to return to her escort. She could feel his gaze burning into her as she crossed the field once again to find Gendry but resisted the urge to turn back.
Once she had been pulled into the saddle alongside the hard muscled blacksmith, Amarah found Jaime seated comfortably atop his own mount, ready to lead them out. Ignoring the twinge of discomfort in certain regions of her person she didn't care to think about, Amarah attempted to settle in for the journey. As they began a slow canter over the uneven ground, she felt a sense of growing expectation slowly settle around her. It was time to hunt the Hound.
So there it is! More of a morning-after scene to give Amarah and Jaime a little time of peace before the storm, but next chapter we really get back in the swing of things to hunt down Sandor Clegane. I'm so exited about adding him into the mix and working in all of the little plot points that are beginning to come together. All comments are always appreciated! Thank you so so much for reading!