Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Short ad sweet.

Author's Note: So I know that Tristan is very out of character, but I promise that he will get into character soon. Or as in character as I can get him. Now this chapter isn't very long, about maybe 4 1/2 pages. I want to thank all of my readers, followers, and reviewers. Now onto the story.

Chapter 4

It had been two weeks since Tristan was posted as her all-time guard. And it had been a wonderful two weeks in Serina's opinion. She and Tristan had been to the market, he accompanied her into the forest when she went to pick herbs, and even stayed inside with her when she just wanted to be alone with him, even though he practically itched to get outside on those days. She enjoyed the days, but she knew that they both more than enjoyed the nights.

When Tristan told her that he would make it as real as possible for her, he had told her the complete truth.
At night after they blew out the candles, Tristan loved her as if it was their last night together. Serina lay in her bed curled into Tristan's naked chest thinking about how last night had played out.

~Flashback~

Serina walked into her room, to the trunk at the foot of her bed, pulled out a clean nightdress, and began the process of undressing and redressing for the night. Tristan was in the main living area putting a few more logs on the fire to keep it going. In her room, on a small table beside her bed, a single candle burned. it didn't provide much light from a distance but enough for her to see what she was doing in the dim room.

Serina pulled on her nightdress, pulled her hair out the the back of the dress, and smoothed out the skirt. When she straightened from smoothing the skirt, Serina felt familiar, calloused hand pulling her hair away from the right side of her neck. Tristan trailed his other hand up her elbow to her shoulder, where he kept it. Tristan placed a kiss, a kiss so soft she almost thought she imagined it, on the curve of her shoulder and placed another barely there kiss on her neck. Serina tiled her head to give him better access to her neck.

There were very few nights when Tristan turned into a soft, slow, compassionate lover, but when he did, Serina made sure to burn every moment into her brain. And tonight happened to be one of those night. Tristan reached his hand into the silky mass of her raven hair, fisted a handful just hard enough for her to feel the pressure of the pull, and gently pulled her head back and to the side, where it landed on the hard wall of his chest.

On the nights that Tristan decided to love Serina gently and slowly, he made sure to pay everything the attention it deserved. And for the last few hours he had had his eye on the pale, slim colum of her throat. Tristan knew the few parts of Serina's body that got not only a physical but vocal response as well and he planned on paying slow attention to every one tonight. Tristan eyed the cord of muscle on the side of her neck a few short seconds before he slowly and gently bit into it with his teeth.

He didn't need to look at her face to know what it looked like when he did that. Being an elite scout, he could hear it. The second his teeth bit into her neck Serina's body grew limp, knew her beautiful blue eyes were now hidden by pale eyelids framed with long black eyelashes, could hear her pale lips part, and heard and felt the breathy moan she let out. That breathy moan was the sound he loved most when he became a gentle lover. He slowly nibbled his way up her neck to her ear. She had remarkably sensitive ears and he loved it.

Tristan traced the outter shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue and then gently blew on it and smiled at the reaction it caused. Every inch of skin he could see, and couldn't see, broke out into a massive case of goose bumps. He caught the fleshy bit of her earlobe with his sharp teeth and gently sucked it into his mouth, and smiled when his reward was a moan that never fully escaped her throat.

Serina felt Tristan slide his hand from her shoulder to the strings on the front of her nightdress. He loosened the strings with one hand while his other was still holding her head as a willing hostage. Once the strings were loosened enough, Serina felt her nightdress slide down her body, and pool at her feet. Serina was then moved towards her bed but instead of putting her on the bed, Tristan made her stand in the light of the single burning candle.

Tristan looked down at the beautiful sight of his lover and forgot how to breathe until his lungs burned from the lack of air. Tristan had seen her many different ways over the years, inside the bedchamber and out, but he had never seen her as she was now. Beautiful was too tame a word to describe her at the moment. He wasn't even sure he knew of a word that could express the way she looked. She stood naked in the dim candlelight, eyes slightly glazed over with lust, passion, and love.

Her raven hair loose and elegantly wild and tumbled down her back. Her pale, pink lips were parted and glossy and slightly puffy from her tongue and teeth. Candlelight danced over her wonderfully pale skin and gave the impression that she had been dusted with dull gold dust. Before tonight Tristan would have said that he had seen many beautiful and exotic things, including the many ways he had seen his already beautiful lover. But nothing compared to the way she looked at that moment.

Serina watched shock and wonder make their way onto Tristan's face before he looked into her eyes and began to strip out of his clothes to reveal his hard, muscular, and scared body. Serina had helped treat most of those scars and it made her feel a small sense of pride to see that her medical skills were put to very good use on the man she loved.
Tristan then walked up to Serina, placed one hand on her lower jaw and neck, and then placed the softest yet most passionate kiss on her lips as he fell with her onto her bed.

~End Flashback~

Serina still don't know what had gotten into Tristan last night, but whatever it was, she had loved every second of it. She looked up into Tristan's peaceful, sleeping face and gave a small smile. Serina rarely woke before Tristan so she never got to watch him while he slept. Tristan had once admitted that he sometimes watched her sleep before he had to sneak back to his own room. Serina had been watching him for several minutes and wondered how much longer he was going to sleep.

He was usually such a early riser. "How much longer do you intend to silently look at me, woman?" Tristan asked in a sleep roughened voice that caused her skin to break out with a minor case of goose bumps. "I suppose I will stop looking when you wake up." Serina said laughing.

"I woke up just before you did." Tristan said cracking open one eye to look at her."And yet you let me look at you for so long without saying anything." Serina said as he opened his other eye to look at her.

"I received word last night that Arthur wished to meet with us this morning." Tristan said as he brushed a wild curl back from her face. Serina's face gradually went from happy to serious. "I suppose he will release you from guard duty." Serina said focusing very intently on his chest instead of his face.

"That is my guess." Tristan said. He placed a finger under her chin and made her look him in the face. "You act as if I will no longer be coming around. I still intend to steal any moment I can with you during the day. And I also still plan on sneaking into your home just to prove that I can." Tristan said with a smirk on his face. Serina sighed.

"I suppose we should get up and go and see what he wants." Serina said as she began to climb out of bed and Tristan's arms. Serina climbed out of the bed and walked towards the trunk at the end of her bed. She opened the big lid and began to dig around for a dress to wear for the day. Serina pulled out a dark green wool dress even though there was only a slight chilliness to the air and began to put it on.

Tristan still lay in the bed, tangled in her somewhat thin blanket, and just starred at her. Serina had just finished pulling the dress over her head when she looked back at the bed to see Tristan missing. 'That man is so sneaky.' Serina thought with a smile as she felt her mass of dark curls being lifted out of the back of her dress.

Tristan placed her hair over her left shoulder and placed a few soft kisses on her shoulder and neck. Serina smiled as she tilted her head back to look at him.

"That's no way to get ready to leave for a meeting with your commander, my love." Serina said laughing. Serina gave him a quick kiss and left her room. Tristan watched her go and then began to pull on his clothes and also left Serina's room. Serina had slipped on a pair of boots that Tristan had gotten for her, where she didn't know and knowing Tristan, she didn't want to know.

Tristan reached the door and pulled it open to let Serina out and then closed the door behind him. Serina and Tristan walked to the fort in silence, although it wasn't a comfortable silence, but they both had known the day would come when Tristan would be released from officially guarding her.

It was as they had suspected. Arthur had released him from officially guarding Serina. Although what they hadn't realized was that whether known to her or not, he was always guarding her.

Just not so closely that she knew it. It had been a week since Arthur had sent him out to scout the area and Arthur had told him he wanted Tristan to stay out and scout the surrounding area for the next week.

Tristan wasn't exactly happy about it, but it was his duty and no matter how much he wished otherwise, his duty to Arthur came before Serina. Tristan had lost track of her after she had left the meeting room when Arthur told her she was free to work at the tavern again, under the condition that she stayed at the bar from now on.

She had been pouting when she had left but he knew that she was happy to be able to work at the tavern again. Tristan had spent last night informing and saying goodbye to Serina and he had even managed to pull out a promise to behave while he was gone before he left.

So as he was laying by a small fire that night he missed being in bed with Serina, and prayed to whatever gods that were listening that she kept her promise to be safe and behave herself.

A.N.: So like I said, not a long chapter and pretty unsatisfying, I'm sure, but it is an update. The next chapter will have a little bit more action, I promise. I just had to get past this point to be where I really wanted to be in this story. I'm not sure when I will have the next chapter up since I'm writing my Supernatural, LOTR, and this all at the same time. So please, My Freaky Darlings, just hang in there for me.