Chapter Nine: I Know Places

Elsa looked into the guard's eyes, confused as they were and with a deserved wariness about them, and threw caution to the wind. Her hand found the back of his neck at about the same time her mouth found the crest of his lips.

Gerrik didn't respond in the slightest.

She broke away, and the swift movement and her foggy head and the dim light of the Emerald Glory's cabin left her a bit disoriented. She wasn't quite sure where she thought she'd been, maybe an unused parlor in the castle or a warm forge or the welcoming, familiar folds of her own bedchamber blankets. It was a few hours and a few glasses of wine after the dinner she had enjoyed with Captain Zissou, and it was a bit easier than she'd thought to lose track of events. But the Royal Guard in her arms was her focus, and thankfully he spared her from having to find her words and ask what was wrong.

"Shit. I'm headed for the gallows, aren't I?" Gerrik closed his eyes and put his palms to them, every bit a man perturbed.

Finally Elsa did find her words. "What?" Then, "Oh Jesus and Thor. I'm sorry, Gerrik. That was. . . really stupid of me." Very, very late, she untangled her arms from around his neck and put some space between their bodies. "I shouldn't have. . . oh shit what have I done."

"No, I- Your Majesty, it's just that. . ." Gerrik was at a lose for words himself, but eventually managed, "I'm not a half-bad guard, Your Majesty, and. . . I just really don't want to be tried for treason. And there's no way I'm getting out of that, is there? Every instinct I have as your guard says that I shouldn't let anyone as close to you as I am now, but at the same time you're the Queen and if there's something you want. . . and not to mention if you feel like it you can just-" he snapped his fingers, "and I'll be through."

Elsa's mind was fairly foggy, but she managed to follow his line of thought and said, "Psshh, you think that's bad? If anyone finds out about me, my country will go down in flames. Gerrik, I assure you as your Queen, you're going to be fine. I'm not going to call for your head, and I'll make sure anyone who does is out of power within a week, assuming mine isn't on a pike by then."

"What? I- thank you, Your Majesty."

For some reason she found that funny. "For the pardon or the kiss?"

He couldn't help but smile at that, and. . . was that a blush on his cheeks?! "I- I wouldn't let anyone put your head on a pike."

Elsa laughed a giddy huff in response, warmth flowering within her again. "Oh my god, I've definitely had too much to drink." The thought earned him a sideways glance. "Wait, how much did you even drink? I know I had quite a bit, but I didn't think the Captain passed that Château around."

"He didn't, but we've been here talking about Arendelle and sipping on this bottle for quite some time now." He lifted said bottle and took another swig. "I don't know how much catching up I still have to do, though to be honest I wasn't keeping track either."

"Oh yes. We were talking. About Arendelle. You said you liked the mountains, before I. . ." She couldn't bring herself to say, "Before I kissed you."

"I did, and do. I have a question, though."

"Yes?"

"About a week after the Kingdom settled down, I was on guard duty above the castle gates. A certain Queen returned in the middle of the night, her hair disheveled and her temper on a sharp edge. Well, I wasn't about to be too familiar with the Queen at the time, but I've been curious ever since. What was that about?"

Elsa blushed furiously. "Well, if you must know. . . I kidnapped a blacksmith in the dead of night and had my way with him."

Gerrik laughed. "Oh really? And why do I find that hard to believe? You've been beating yourself up over just a. . . slip of the tongue?" At her quizzical look he quickly kissed his hand and she understood, her blush deepening.

"Arendelle men can be quite persuasive when they want to be, it's one of the things I like about my realm. What was it that Victoria had mentioned at dinner? She said she liked the flowers and the glog." The Queen furrowed her eyes. "I'm mad at her, but I don't remember why."

"Well if you can't remember then it's not very important, is it?"

Elsa continued in spite of that logic. "She said that during the freeze, our people were kept calm and warm. Arendelle was safe."

Gerrik's fingers went to his chin and Elsa tracked their motion like a hawk. She wanted them to go other places. "Yes, I remember that," he said.

"She. . . she didn't say his name, but it was Hans who did that. Hans kept my people safe during my freak blizzard and I can't even keep the peace when it's full summer."

Suddenly the Royal guard's hand moved from his chin to her shoulder. Elsa didn't flinch away from the contact, but it was a near thing. The cold fear that her magic would harm him and the warmth coiling in her stomach both flared, but the fear melted away as he spoke. "Elsa, don't think like that. You're here now on this voyage to Fredrickstad ready to marry some prince you've never met because you, Queen Elsa, are willing to do everything you can to protect Arendelle. Hans saw it as a prize, but you see your kingdom as the hard responsibility it is. You see that it's not a trophy to be won, it's a country to be led. I know that. Victoria knows that. You know that. And when everything is settled and Arendelle is safe, your people will know it too."

Elsa's breath caught a bit. The fingers resting lightly upon her shoulder were a source of a myriad of feelings. But looking around with a bit of panic she asked, "Where's Victoria now? She might come back and find us here."

"I believe she said she wanted to see what it was like above deck this time of night. Fawkes went with her."

"Oh gods, do you think they're doing what we're doing?"

Gerrik laughed. "Talking? Yes, I imagine they are."

"Oh yeah," Elsa said, suddenly blushing furiously herself. "I'm, uh, really sorry about earlier, I shouldn't have done what I did." And suddenly she couldn't help but laugh.

"There's that laugh again. What's so funny?" he asked.

"It's just that you thanked 'your majesty' for a kiss! Not only is it ridiculous to thank someone for a kiss, but you'd think after such a thing the two who shared it would be on a first-name basis."

Gerrik didn't seem to know how to respond to that. After a moment he sighed and asked, "So it looks like both of us would be in pretty big trouble if someone caught us right now."

"We would indeed. Loose lips sink ships all the damn time."

And then it happened again. Elsa caught his eye and found herself almost falling into them. She wanted to do it again. Her teeth found the flesh of her bottom lip as she remembered how she'd just done that and he'd completely shut down. It wasn't a good idea. Oh but she wanted to so badly. . .

"Then I guess we've both got everything to lose," Gerrik said, without breaking eye contact.

"We do indeed," Elsa said. Her fingers found his neck again.

This time he didn't freeze up when she pulled their lips together.

Mature Content Warning.

Elsa couldn't help the shuddering breath that escaped her as she ran her hand across Gerrik's tunic. The danger was very real, but secluded here in the commandeered Captain's quarters they were free to do as they wished. Her guard's hand slid to her waistline and she relished the thrill of it.

It took her but a moment to stand and pull her ice dress over her head. Standing there in nothing but her small clothes, her only regret was that she'd had to break the contact with the handsome royal guard that sat wide-eyed on the bed.

A different feeling hit her then, one as foreign as an Englishman. Gerrik wanted her. She could see it plainly on his face. He lusted for her. And she knew with the tingling and the wetness between her legs that she lusted just the same. The young queen was tempted to tempt a little longer, to play with this new sense of power as Gerrik's eyes raked over her body, but she knew his body had more than eyes to play with.

"Well?" She asked with a coy eyebrow as she sat on the bed herself. "Isn't it your turn?"

Her guard lept to her suggestion, and as he started fumbling with his breeches he somehow thought a fit response would be, "I can't believe this is really happening." It was low, though, so he probably didn't mean to think aloud. It was followed by something that had 'queen' in it. That just made Elsa smile as the rippling expanses of lean muscle on the royal guard she was taking to bed fanned her passion.

Then his breeches were off and he started to pull his tunic over his head. She caught a tantalizing glimpse of his hard manhood before he immediately lost balance and fell backwards onto the bed next to her in a tangle. Before he could free himself from his clothes she took the opportunity to pounce.

Woah.

Elsa had hopped onto Gerrik playfully, trying to make it more difficult for him to untangle himself from his tunic. She hadn't planned on how her nether regions would settle across his member, only her smallclothes between them.

It. Felt. Amazing.

Without thought, Elsa rolled her hips. Her sex rubbed against his so enticingly that it was difficult not to get lost in the feeling, and for once she didn't particularly mind losing herself. She rolled again and this time a moan accompanied the motion. Gerrik was hard beneath her and it created a friction along her sensitive folds that was unrivaled, not even by her brief tryst with the blacksmith. She'd laid almost flat along his body to try to pin him, so he poked up between her thighs. She shifted down along him so he ran firmly across her intimacy.

"Elsa. . ."

Her name drifted up from the crumbled tunic still partly wrapped around Gerrik's head. She assumed he was moaning her name and continued slowly rutting against him, but then he continued.

"Elsa, I- I can't think straight long enough to get out of this if you keep aagggggghhh"

She slid herself along him once more for good measure, then rolled off him quickly. By the time he was finally free of his tunic his Queen was finally free of her smallclothes. He looked at her and she was atop him again immediately.

This time she felt him right on her entrance. He gasped. Whether it was from the feeling or the shock that she would jump straight to that she never knew. All Elsa knew was that she was ready. She rested her opening right on the head of his member and reached down to align them before sliding herself down his length.

As he pressed into the lips of her sex, there was suddenly pain. "Ah!" she called out sharply. He was barely inside her and since she froze immediately it wasn't much, but she hadn't expected pain.

"Shit," Gerrik said quietly. "You're- well I mean of course you're a maiden, you're. . ."

He made to move but that caused another pain and she hissed, "Do. Not. Move."

For a moment they were still. The sting was followed by an ache inside her,

"Elsa, the opening is a bit small around the entrance. When I go in further it stretches and tears the entrance of your womanhood."

The Queen had her eyes tightly shut, and otherwise they were very carefully still. "That's silly. Men and women do this all the time, as evidenced by all the children in the world. No woman would do this if she's ripped open in the process."

"Well, only a maiden goes through this. Then the flesh is opened and the woman can enjoy the lovemaking."

Her passion was burning low now, but by no means was it out. "Ridiculous. If we just. . ." She still held his member with her guiding hand, and where she was damp he felt dry. Instead of trying to press in, she ran the tip of him through her lips again. Elsa couldn't help but shiver.

"Oh! That's cold, Elsa!"

The sensation had made a bit of her frost form at her hands, but the way she was feeling it took no effort to thaw it away and get back to what she was doing.

He was a bit slicker now with her juices, and very hard. She let go of him and put both her hands down on the bed to either side of his chest. She couldn't angle him, but she could still very precisely rub herself against him. He was ridged around the head of his member and as she rolled her hips again it pulled lightly through her delicate folds.

The heat that had suffused her cheeks had spread wildly now, inflaming her breasts and thighs and upper arms and all of her neck, she could feel it. And every touch across Gerrick's manhood stoked the fuel. And that flame started to pool where her sex met his. The muscles in her abdomen tightened, and she knew she was ready to try again.

She arched her back a little higher and they came closer to aligning again. His manhood caught at her opening instead of raking over it and titillating the coals of her passion. It wasn't quite right but it was closer to what they'd had earlier so she pushed herself up off her hands so that she stood above him on her knees. His eager sword found her sheath immediately this time, but as she pressed down and he pressed up it hurt again. She hissed in pain.

"No, you don't push. Let me." And he was still once more.

That was all it took. With his pole erect beneath her, in a minute she had carefully slid the head of his member inside her. It ached a bit, but there was no sharp ripping. Then, slowly so that it didn't hurt, Elsa leaned forward and her hands found the bed again. Then she took a little more inside her. The head had been the widest part, so it didn't hurt nearly as much. She kept going.

Each inch pushed the ridge of the head across tender and previously unexplored area. The passion that had been pooling inside Elsa was now an ocean somehow being held back by a very small dam, and she could tell that dam was close to giving way. That was it. She didn't know what would happen when that wave hit, it certainly felt different from what little she had done previously, but she knew that was what she was after. That was what the blush on her cheeks and the tingling on her skin had promised. She didn't know what it was, but she was ready to find out.

As the heat of their midnight passion subsided, Elsa pressed her shoulders back against the broad chest of her lover. She felt the slight chill of a frosting on the bedding, a bit of ice she had conjured without noticing. It was steaming away quickly, but in that moment the harmless expression of her magic was perfect.

Soon she could hear Gerrik's soft snores behind her. She knew that the Emerald Glory would be reaching Fredrickstad any day. Soon she there would be negotiations, ones that would decide the fate of Arendelle. She would almost certainly have to offer her hand in marriage.

But as she snuggled into the warm embrace of her lover, Elsa couldn't help but let those worries slip from her mind.

The next morning wasn't so kind.

AN: This story is not updated regularly.