many thanks, as always, to beta

Voyeur

She had only left the party for five minutes when he interrupted her peace once again. Seeing his shadow beside her, Temari tightened her gloved hand on the balcony railing, willing him to understand her intention and leave her be.

"That is it then?" Asked the uninvited guest.

Patience strained, Temari resisted the urge to groan.

"You refuse to comply with my request only to wander to the balcony alone? I admit my pride was injured when you refused; but now the rejection increases to the degree of physical anguish when I realize you were not too busy to dance with me. Rather, you were just disinclined to be my partner."

Temari turned around and looked up into the eyes of the Nara heir. "Your words hold little charm over me, my Lord; there is no need to put effort into wooing me. Your efforts are better spent on someone more appreciative."

"My advances do not charm you?" Nara moved to stand beside her and leaned over the railing to look down at the moonlit gardens below. "A surprise, I admit. Perhaps there is some other way to gain your interest that I am not privy to?"

"I'm afraid men like you don't interest me."

"That's very general," Nara said, closing his eyes as though he was too exhausted to continue with them open. "And when you say men like me, what exactly do you mean? Intelligent?"

"Promiscuous."

"Promiscuous?" he repeated. "Hasn't a woman as educated and independent as yourself learned not to trust rumors?"

Temari sighed, leaning her hip against the railing and facing him. "I don't believe in rumors, my Lord, only things I witness with my own eyes." She might dislike him, but she does enjoy the challenge. And he was always looking for the rise. "My bedroom is right across from yours, if you recall."

At this, Nara opened his eyes, quickly and only for a moment before he turned to her and blinked rapidly, caught quite off guard. "Have you been spying on me?"

"Perhaps the drapes are there to be shut in the first place? I have seen you take to bed more than one woman in the three months my brothers and I have been staying here. Not to mention the men you also seem to enjoy." She leaned back, angling her chin up to better look into his eyes. "It is almost as though you want me to see."

Nara shrugged, apparently not the least injured by her comment on his venereal practices. "Have you ever had the touch of another, Temari?"

"What business is it of yours?"

He shrugged again, head inclining to the right as he watched her. "None. Though if you had enjoyed as such, perhaps, you might better understand the practice of engaging in intimacy with others." He sighed, narrowing his eyes. "Though to be honest, you don't quite look the chaste type, so perhaps you are all too well versed in the use of sexual intimacy?"

In the way he said it, Temari found herself unaffected, though she did recognize that the actual words were no more than a poorly worded insult. Had they been said with less cunning and more bite, she might have been.

"Although," he continued when she didn't respond, eyes roaming over her features, "in the few months you have been at my father's estate, I have yet to see you entertain any nighttime guests."

With a soft pop, Temari's lips popped into a round O, before she hurriedly tried to appear unsurprised.

A smirk creased the corner of his mouth and he looked away from her, back over the gardens. "Remember, the windows between us do go both ways."

"Don't you find it rather unseemly and inappropriate for a young lord to so crudely admit to spying on his guests?"

"If you are seeking consolation, take into account that I don't look into the other windows accessible to me. I am not a predator, Temari. I do not look at anyone that does not want to be looked at."

Temari frowned, knowing he could see it even if he wasn't looking directly at her. "Consolation? By knowing I am the only one you so salaciously and vulturously surveil? I assure you, your advances are unwanted."

Nara turned back towards her and Temari could feel her breath catch as he looked at her with something new in his eyes. "As you said," he responded in a much lower voice. So low, that she was forced to move closer to hear him. Her dress was much too tight. Her ribs hurt. She needed space to properly breathe away from him. "There is a reason our drapes are not closed."

"I—"

"You must know I've seen you," he interrupted, speaking slowly, careful, as though ensuring that no words were missed or otherwise misunderstood. "No woman, or person for that matter, would act so coyly had they believed they were entirely alone."

There was a long beat, a long inhale, as she looked at him. His eyes, so dark, were alight with something she knew, something that ached from her chest into the roundness of her heel.

Temari licked her lips, feeling her heart rate quicken. "And if I were confirm your suspicions?" Nara's form turned to face her too quickly to appear unaffected. She could always play as strong a game as he did.

And this was what was happening, was it not? — A Game.

Temari, despite her inability to get enough air, despite the pounding of her heart and the heat of her face, took a step closer. Her dress brushed against his shins. "Would you invite me to your bed, like you have all those others?"

Shikamaru swallowed, but he didn't back down. That was what she liked about him: he put her on her toes and he kept her there.

"Don't flatter yourself." He muttered with a resolute voice, though she knew he was feeling quite the opposite. "I have yet to be so tempted in watching you rest as to force my intentions on you."

"And yet here you stand, requesting me."

Nara wiped his thumb over his lower lip, eyes bright. "You've been staying in Konoha since the spring, and yet, we have spoken little more than a few sentences to one another. I requested you to dance with me, perhaps in an attempt to better acquaint myself with the sister of the Kazekage and my father's guest; not to invite you to share my bed."

She hummed, and watched, as she opened her mouth to speak, how his eyes looked to it. "Are you sure those were your intentions?"

He smirked, the draw of his lips tight. "To be so candid, I have had such implied intentions since the day you arrived, though my request for a dance was only meant amicably. Though if my request were to be complied with, my initial…" he blinked and then leaned forward "…intentions would surely take hold."

"What if I told you that I don't enjoy dancing as a pastime?"

Without missing a beat, Nara smiled and reached out to draw his thumb across the inside of her wrist before pulling back. "Then I might let you know that there are other ways to please a guest."

"I am sure there are."

There was an inevitability to what was to happen next. She was leaning closer, as was he, but she would have pulled back, as would be called for in such circumstance — they were only steps away from a hundred others, after all. Though the match would have been set and they would have gone to his room before the hour was over.

Those were the steps, and what would have happened, if such games were meant to be so easy and expediently played.

"There you are!" The double doors leading to the large balcony opened and a beautiful woman Temari had seen Nara with frequently — though admittedly never in his bed chamber — strode through, the heavy moonlight reflecting off her hair already-light hair. "I've been looking for you everywhere, Shikamaru. You…." She trailed off upon noticing the proximity of Nara and Temari. "Oh, my apologies. I did not intend to interrupt."

Temari took a step back and rubbed her wrist where it burned. "Not at all."

Nara cleared his throat.

The woman looked between the two of them and then took a few more steps to reach out and grab Nara by his sleeve. "Come. You owe me a dance and this is the last song of the night."

With one last look, Nara acquiesced and followed the woman back into the ballroom. Temari watched as he receded, but the moment his head began turning back to take one last look at her, she swiveled on her heel to lean back over the balcony. Best not allow him to draw any waywardly incorrect conclusions in regard to her interest.

She wasn't particularly interested, and, as far as she was concerned, he too should be so aware.

Still, later that night, she found herself pulling open the heavy velvet curtains covering the wide window in line with her bed upon entering her room. An hour or so later, after her handmaid had left and Temari was dressed for bed, she pulled her hair from its plait down her back. She lit a candle to lighten the room. And then, without any internal conflict, Temari pulled her night dress over her head in one swift motion, leaving her completely nude. In the mirror on the wall, Temari watched behind her as the drapes covering the window across the courtyard parted open to reveal the outline of a man with long hair leaning on the sill, his chin in his hand and his face turned toward her window.

a/n: thank you so much for reading!