Come Winter Time
Part 2: A Wolf's tail
Once he started Robin found it very difficult to stop kissing her. It was getting rather ridiculous if you allowed yourself to be honest about it, but those cool lips were so soft and sweet against his and every time he broke off she pulled him back in by just being there. Then she started to smile and laugh and be so generally irresistible that he finally backed off just to regain some of his sanity.
His shoulder still ached and his limbs trembled by the cold yet his body seemed to find itself rather more preoccupied with the relative closeness of his Marian. His heart was throbbing hard and fast like it tried to rush the blood in his veins, forcing it to run south before his mind started to think things through. It was impossible to stop smiling so he grinned like a fool when he moved over to the hearth to light a fire, kneeling down on the hard floor. There was a familiar knocking sound as he fumbled with a piece of flint and a fire-steel and he could feel Marian's eyes in his back, watching him intensely. It made the chore of lighting a fire just so much harder. He tried not to feel embarrassed when he dropped the flint into the ash and had to rummage through the logs and coal to pick it up again.
"Slippery little thing," he mumbled.
"What, the stone?"
"Well, I think it is a bit worn out," he explained in the manner of men of all times that have refused to acknowledge their difficulties in technical matters. He could almost hear her rolling her eyes at him.
"Do you need help?"
"No, no I just need to--" He let his voice trail off into an inaudible murmur and frowned as if he was occupied with something requiring his entire concentration. The problem wasn't really the piece of flint, it was the stiff hands that shook and trembled and the brain that refused to focus on anything else than Marian's presence. It was an annoying but inescapable fact that he only ever feared his own performance with her, in the times when he needed his cheeky cockiness the most. The couple of rare occasions that they had broken through the social limits of their relationship were the most vulnerable moments in Robin's life; intense, exhilarating and terrifying tiny pieces of heaven. Obviously it was rather embarrassing that he thought of Marian's closeness as heaven so he kept that sentimental detail to himself.
There were finally sparkles from the fire-iron and the touchwood flared up within moments, dancing soft flames licking and scorching the logs in the hearth. Robin turned a triumphant grin in Marian's direction and nearly tumbled into the fire place when their eyes met. She stood in the middle of the room where he had left her, serene but intense and her posture almost regal under the knee long cloak. It took Robin aback to realise that she was studying him with open curiosity, the blue eyes probing his body in unabashed and avid attention. It was difficult to know what went on behind those blue eyes, what thoughts occupied her mind as she watched him. The sheer serenity of her demeanour scared him a little - it made her seem distant and collected while he was loosing every trace of self-control. He licked his lips, gave her a cheeky grin to hide his insecurity and stood up to face her.
"It will be warmer soon," he smiled as Marian drew a trembling breath and breathed out another cloud into the chilled air. Her eyes were nearly black in the faint light from the fireplace, the big pupils surrounded only by a pale blue halo and little stains of light danced like fireflies in the darkness. He tucked in a lock of hair behind her ear and cupped her cheek to give her another kiss, soft and tantalizing as in lingered on. She wiggled in her hands under his jumper and rested her palms on his chest, clenching her fingers around the rough linen in his undershirt. Robin stifled a low moan as he felt his body react to her touch and he restrained the impulse to throw her down onto the bed and get rid on the mass of irritating clothes that lay between them.
"Robin," Marian breathed into his mouth.
"Hmmm?"
"Robin-- your sword," she murmured. "It is hard."
Robin flinched and gave his love a bewildered look shifting between embarrassed anticipation and suspicious confusion. She seemed serious, although the big blue eyes were a bit dim and dazed. Yet he had a feeling that his brain was suffering from the lack of blood and didn't quite follow the conversation. "What?" he stammered "My sword?"
"Yes, your sword," Marian repeated with a tad irritation in her voice. She pulled a way a bit and lowered her eyes to about waist level and Robin swallowed hard. "It is pressing against my leg, take it off!"
"Oh? Oh!" Robin grinned nervously. "That sword! Sorry--"
"Well, what sword did you think I meant?"
"Nothing! It's just that in the king's guard when you said sword you sometimes meant," Robin grinned and tilted his head innocently, "you know! And you said it was--" He blushed and bit down hard on his lip before he finished the sentence.
"But surely you wouldn't expect me to make such innuendos?" Marian insisted with a mischievous tingle in her eyes. She shifted her weight ever so slightly in Robin's arms and he almost swallowed his tongue when he felt her brush against the strained laces on his pants. Surely she didn't do that on purpose? Surely? He cleared his throat and took a step back, but instead of regaining a safe distance it made her tumble into his arms and press her entire mass of soft alluring femininity against him. She was far to close for Robin to feel comfortable, whatever self-control he had left hung on a thread thin like silk but not quite as strong. He winced and took his arms from her waist, putting them gently on her shoulders while remaining stiff and tense like one of Sherwood's trees.
Marian still trembled from the cold and crawled closer to Robin's chest, pushing her forehead up against his cheek as if she tried to force him into cradling her.
"Robin," she mumbled. "Please don't pull away."
"I didn't!"
"Yes, you did," Marian sighed and turned to look him in the eyes. "You are scared stiff--" She shut her eyes and smiled at the choice of word. "I mean, you are terrified to be inappropriate with me. But what does that matter now?"
"It matters," Robin insisted and moved his hands around her neck.
"Why? Because I am a lady? Robin, I would forgive you anything and yet you chose hide from me whenever you feel vulnerable. I wish you weren't so afraid of me."
"I am not afraid of you."
"Yes you are!" She watched him silently for a while, her trembling breath a bit laboured and her eyebrows cocked as if she was challenging him. "Would you lie with me?"
"Marian!"
"Well it wouldn't be the first time. Every time we say it's the last time yet this is all a charade. You want to do right by me but the limits always break when we push them, and then we feel ashamed and promise never to push so hard again---"
"Marian, we do not have this conversation!"
"Yes we do! For once I would like to love you because I choose to, not because I cannot choose not to!" She drew some shivering breaths to calm herself and Robin grazed her cheek with his thumb, caressing the brown curls that were damp from melting snowflakes. "Please," she smiled faintly, almost pleadingly. "Be with me. All of you - every flaw, Robin, and every fear. Not who you think I want you to be. Just Robin. I can handle it."
"But perhaps I cannot," Robin mumbled. It was difficult not to be captured by the plain sincerity in her way to talk to him, and he felt a moment of immense pride over this woman who insisted on loving him. How could he deny her anything? He wanted her so much it ached and yet she felt she had to beg him to be with her, as if he was granting her a favour.
Marian smiled and took his hand in hers. "Come," she wheedled. "Let me take a better look at that nasty bite at least."
He followed her obediently to the bed, still a bit too dazed and intoxicated to think in a straight line. The air was slowly warming up by the fire and the skin on his thighs was itching as the heat came back. He sat down and Marian stood in front of him, starting to tug the scarf that was tied around his shoulder. Robin shuffled away her cloak and let his hands rest on her waist, running his palms slowly up and down the gentle curve while studying her cautiously. It hurt a bit to move his arm but not more than he could live with and he realised that Marian had stopped what she was doing and rested her hands against his shoulders, clenching them into two loose fists around the cloth of his jumper. He let his eyes meet hers briefly, giving her a warm tender smile. Then he followed her neck down to the collarbones that heaved with every deep breath, further down over the full breasts and down to her abdomen where he knew she still had a scar from Sir Guy's dagger. She seemed tense but with anticipation and lust rather than nervousness, and she moved one of her hands to the back of his head to play with the soft neck curls.
Robin took a firmer grip around Marian's waist and stoked her up to the side of her soft breasts, then down around her back until he held the back of her thighs and gave them a decisive tug. She gave out a short hoarse laughter as she lost balance and tumbled down on him, gripping around his neck as he lifted her gently. Finally she sat straddling his legs and he could feel her weight heavy against his body, two people shivering by lust rather than cold and two hearts beating nervously. He hardly touched her at first, only grazed the cloth with his fingers and let her take the lead. He quite liked to do that, enjoyed to see the hunger in her as she gripped his hair and pulled him in for a kiss. It started soft, a bit restrained before she deepened it and pushed her arms around his shoulders to pull him closer. He gave out a content sigh and grinned at her when she broke the kiss for air, then watched her breathing heavily against his neck for a couple of moments.
"You know you kiss very well Marian," he coaxed and gave her ear a tug with his teeth. "I wonder- did you get a lot of practice when I was away?"
"I do not think you would wish to know the answer to that."
Robin felt a faint jolt of guilty jealousy hitting against the wall of lust and raw craving but found it rather easy to push away. He didn't mind much if she fumbled around a little with some clueless nobleman years ago as long as it never happened again. "Was it Bernard of Ashton?" he grinned and found a spot under her ear where he started kiss her gingerly.
Marian giggled a little. "Oh Bernard was after me like a lovesick puppy," she whispered to his ear, her voice thick and a bit strained. "And he kissed much the same way."
Robin frowned, pulled his arms tightly around her waist, kissing her harder and gently nibbling the sensitive skin. "Really?" he growled. "How?"
Marian smiled mischievously and pulled out her tongue, trailing it along his neck. "Like this," she mumbled and he moaned and clenched his hands around the cloth of her dress. The image of the fool that was Bernard of Ashton licking his Marian made its way into his head, even though he knew she was only teasing him, and he sucked on to her skin hard enough to leave a deep red mark. Jealousy had the power to make Robin excessively possessive, and it made the situation all the more tantalizing to know that she probably knew that it was so and played on that knowledge.
Robin moved one hand up to Marian's neck and untied the cloak, discarding it on the floor. The room was getting warm and smelled of wet wool, smoke and a trace of lust that hung heavy in the air between them. He let the other hand move down over her body, stroking her all the way down along her thigh and pulling up the skirt so that he had her knee under his palm. She wore breeches under the dress, as well as an undershirt, and he sighed a bit over the frustrating fact that women wore altogether too much clothes in the winter. With a grin he let his hands disappear under the masses of skirts and pulled her closer with a jerk to the belt, feeling her balance shift until her abdomen was pressed tightly to his stomach.
"Your shoulder doesn't hurt?" she asked between the kisses.
"Mmm." It did hurt, but it was a dull pain that drowned in the sheer mass of more powerful sensations. It was the fresh crisp feeling of her skin against his lips, the warm tingling that slowly grew to a force to be reckoned with inside him, the pounding blood that tuned every inch on his body into desire. His entire being was aching for her, caring very little for the feeble pain in his shoulder, and it sent little shocks trough him every time she kissed him back or responded to his touches. Then he felt a push, forceful enough to rip him from her heat and make him fall down with his back flat against the bed. Marian held a hand to his chest and leaned down to kiss him before she disappeared up again, and Robin gave her a puzzled look. Then with slow, almost floating movements she started to undo her dress. Robin hardly breathed, simply watched and forced himself not to pull her down and rip than stupid dress to pieces. She was so slow it hurt, unlaced the dress it bit by bit while touching herself in the process. She did it in an absentminded way that seemed accidental even though the occasional mischievous glance in his direction made him think it probably wasn't. And it was driving him senseless.
The soft yellow glow from the fire made shadow's dance on her golden features as she finally pulled the dress over her head and lay herself down over him. He followed the movement with his hands, rested then on her back beneath the undershirt and touched and touched the soft skin.
Marian had little goose bumps all over her body and her breasts seemed fuller with the heightened sensation, pressed to his chest under the shirt. She had never understood his fascination with them but still enjoyed the power they had over him. They seemed to enchant the young man and now he let his hands move forward under her shirt until he cupped them gently. She sighed a little at the feeling of his rough hands against her sensitive skin, then bit into his neck to stifle a low moan from escaping her lips. It was such an intoxicating contrast between the cold outside and her skin that remained a bit chilled, and the glow from the fire place and Robin's eager touches. He pulled the shirt over her head and turned her over on her back, the wool of the bedclothes rougher but not unpleasant against her bare back. Then he took his own jumper and shirt and discarded them with the rest of the clothes. He leaned most of his weight on his healthy arm, his skin against hers, his stomach against her stomach, his arm against her breast, and briefly his scar against her scar. The tissue was wrinkled and ugly there over the ribs, and she knew that he hated when she watched it and touched it. Perhaps it was less about vanity and more about what it represented. A journey to a land so far away, leaving her behind and killing all those people, lost innocence and a mistake that cost more than it should be allowed. It was not a part of himself that he was proud of, a chapter of his life story the he would prefer to keep to himself. She moved her hand to the scar and caressed it gently, held her hand there even though he tensed, squirmed uncomfortably and tried to shy away.
"All of you, Robin," she mumbled, and he slowed down and let her touch him. He did it reluctantly first, then with something like relief that seemed to take him by surprise. She thought she saw a hint of gratitude in those eyes that were so endlessly sad yet keen with a passion that seemed almost feverish in his wish to please her. He gave her a number of sucking kisses on the mouth then moved down, his stubble rough against her skin but the lips soft and wet. He teased her, stroked her body with hungry movements and planted kisses along her arms, down her stomach, all over her collarbones and neck, sucked and nibbled on her breasts and all the way down to the waistband. There was something in his way to go about this that was so endearing, an almost desperate longing and he kissed and touched her like he couldn't get enough. Everywhere he went her skin caught fire, became so sensitive it nearly ached, tingled and screamed for him to come back. He had his healthy arm stroking the inside on her thigh, over her pants, and she almost screamed out loud when he moved it up and then under until her thigh lay pressed flat against his shoulder. The arm that lay around her leg was grabbing the waistband of her trousers and he remained like that for a while, resting his head between her breasts as he breathed heavily. She gave him a warm reassuring smile, ruffling his bangs with her fingers, and savoured the feeling of his body so tightly against hers. She could feel his heart beating wildly against her stomach and the trembling forced breaths went through him like waves. His face looked a bit flushed and dazed, the eyes black with lust and his hair a chaotic mess on his head.
After a while he moved, let her leg fall back down and wiggled his way up to eyelevel. He held her eyes firmly locked to his while giving her a long lingering kiss on the lips and fumbled with her belt and the lace in her trousers. She had already arched her body to his hand in anticipation when the calloused but tender fingers made their way under the cloth and the touch made her give out a sharp gasp. She tensed, pulled up her knees and put a hand his, felt it move as it teased and caressed her far beyond any sense of self-control. Robin had an expression of wonder, as if her reaction put a spell over him, and his eyes were dazed and a bit dim under heavy eyelids. The cheeky grin grew smug and a little bit to pleased with himself so she pulled him down for a kiss, deep and savage with a handful of his curls gripped in her fist. It became a game to gain the upper hand, the muscles in his arm tensed as he eased it further down and she gave out an involuntary yelp when she felt his fingers inside her, playing and pushing. She gave his shoulder a little bite, hard enough to drive trough the pleasure but not so hard it hurt him and he moaned and buried his head in her neck. She let her hands trail down over his body, felt every muscle under the slightly damp skin that was glazed with sweat from the growing heat and desire.
Her hands were on his belt buckle. He could feel them tug and pull and jerk it open, the small hands determined and he froze as he felt her grip around him soft but resolute. It was too much, he was far too aroused to take that touch without coming undone before her, so he gave her body a trail of kisses and pulled back.
"Robin?"
"Hush." Her skin tasted salt and her breathing got faster and a bit ragged when he pulled down her breeches and kneeled between her legs. She lay naked before him and he sat a while simply studying every curve, the flushed face surrounded by a halo of brown curls, the body that heaved with sharp fast breaths. He still had his fingers inside her, grazed her absently with his thumb while he studied her. His body was trembling with anticipation, ached to be one with her, but he restrained the urge, lifted her knee with his free hand and gave her a row of wet sucking kisses all the way down her inner thigh. She was practically screaming already, begging him though she may not know for what.
Rough stubble against soft, sensitive skin, then the wet lips and tongue and the silky bangs stroking against her leg. She stifled another scream, grabbed his hair with one hand and bit down on the other. He mind was floating, disappearing into waves of dizzy pleasure that grew steadily towards their culmination, and then her back arched up and every trace control over her body disappeared in the peaks. She knew she screamed and pulled Robin back up, had a vague comprehension of him grinning at her then kissing her in fast wet pecks over her face and throat and breast. When it faded and a pulsating sense of self slowly reappeared she threw him down on his back, pulled down what was left of his clothes and rested her forehead to his only for a moment to catch her breath. She gave him a curious look, studied the strong body and gave his slightly puzzled face a deep kiss before she eased herself up and straddled him. Her determination seemed to surprise him a bit, he gripped around her hips as they sunk down over him and she gasped a little by the intense feeling of intimacy as he filled her.
He moved to meet her as she rocked - a soft but savage dance to the beat of their hearts and the breaths that came in gasping thrusts. They upped the pace until he grabbed her around her waist and pulled her down under him, his body heavy against her as he kissed her and breathed her name again and again with every push. It drove her up against her peak again, he must have realised it because he gave her time, stopped to caress her. She felt her flesh get animated under his fingers, then when he moved every thrust was a little bit closer until they clung to each other. Wave after wave ripped and tore trough her body, blinded her into a dazzled mist where there was nothing but him and her. Their bodies froze, his face buried in her neck, her nails dug into his curved back and for some time they lay like that without breathing or daring to move for the moment to pass.
Finally they returned, their breaths came back and his body became limp over hers. He lay down to rest by her side and they remained like that, limbs still entangled, bodies still merged, side by side in this refuge in the forest. The fire was glowing in the hearth and outside big snowflakes still danced against the deep blue sky. Robin smiled, Marian could feel his eyelashes tickle against her skin and the lips pulled into a wide grin. He tugged out the blanked from under them and made a little cocoon around their entangled bodies.
"We could rest like this to the summer," he mumbled when his voice came back, still hoarse and a bit ragged. "Hibernate like the bears and hedgehogs--"
"But who would feed the poor? Who would fight the sheriff?"
Robin sighed and opened his eyes to hers. "Sometimes I wish it didn't have to be me," he murmured against her lips and she gave him a sad smile, moving a hand to rest comforting on his neck.
"Remember Christmas in Locksley," he continued after a while and he could feel Marian's smile rather than he saw it. She hummed at him, for a moment lost in their shared memories. "I kissed you first time during Christmastide," he continued.
"I am pretty sure it was I that kissed you," Marian corrected him. "It was the Christmas after our fathers had decided to promise us to each other, and you had started to fill your head with al those grand romantic ideas… You treated me like a lady from the ballads. It was driving me crazy!"
"You liked that did you?" Robin smirked.
"Robin you were horrible!" Marian laughed and Robin could feel himself blush with embarrassment. He had been horrible, but he had rather hoped she hadn't noticed, or at least blissfully forgotten all those fancy, haughty words. Then she pushed herself closer and gave him a kiss, her lips cold but her breath warm against his jaw. "It doesn't matter. I loved you anyway. Still do, the fool I am."
He breathed out a short soft laughter and she smiled at him tenderly. Then they rested like that in the drowsy aftermath, Robin almost asleep under Marian's absentminded caresses.
"Marian," he finally said, his voice slurred as if he was falling asleep. Marian she gave him a quizzical look. "You do know that I love you too?"
"Yes," she smiled.
"It's just that I wanted to make sure you know."
"I do know," she reassured him before she drifted off into a deep, exhausted slumber. She slept when he stirred, heaved himself up and steadied himself on his healthy arm to watch her. She slept past the warm slightly sad smile on his lover's lips as he studied the chest that moved with serene breaths and soft snores. She slept when he softly mumbled all the reasons to why he loved her into her ear, and she only stirred for a second when he moved to put more wood on the fire. When she finally woke the bluish light of the morning had transformed the lodge around them, and by then Robin was deep in sleep, rewinding and reliving every second of the night time and time again.
Fin