A/N: Things really are moving along aren't they! The bed's been ordered, it's arrived, they're in it... Blimey, I hardly dare to wonder what might happen next!

Anyway, this might well be the start of something big for them, certainly the next two chapters will have them on a deeper level of relationship, taking possession of each other, and the lemon should follow shortly after those. AND because it's my birthday and I love you lot so much, I've decided to post them all at once :)

Please enjoy this latest installment!

The Bed.

The bed stared at her from the middle of the room, beckoning her forwards. It was a humungous four poster thing with a dark, polished obsidian frame and scarlet sheets. They looked almost like silk, but surely weren't because while her master might have been regal, he wasn't a fop. Silk sheets were definitely a no no. Then what were they? Satin? Could she reach out and find out? The ebony head of curly hair that lay upon the plump, downy pillow told her she couldn't. Technically she shouldn't even have been in his rooms at this hour, but she just couldn't help herself… She'd seen the bed arriving a few days ago and had been unable to sleep in her own bed comfortably, tossing and turning with the knowledge that something better was out there. And worse still, that it was in the mansion with her… In the dungeon with her.

She stood in the doorway, unbreathing and utterly still, allowing only her eyes the pleasure of mobility. He was sprawled out on his front, the sheets barely reaching his waist and revealing his back to her inspection. It was broad, lightly tanned, even in the darkness and his undead state, and was littered with scars of all shapes and sizes. There were rounds ones like gunshot wounds, stab wounds, arrow wounds, but the most prominent were laid out like whip-lines, lashes running the length of his back. They made her realise just how little she really knew about her master. She wasn't even aware he could get scars… She certainly didn't know where he got them from. Did she even want to know?

The rest of him was pretty much as she had expected, well-muscled but sinewy and tough looking. His true form.

"Come closer." His voice was deep, quiet still, but it startled her none the less having not expected it at all. She'd thought he was sleeping. Apparently she was wrong.

When she didn't move, he turned his head to the other side, so he could see her. She didn't know why, but he was strangely attractive like that, lips pressed into the pillow, hair falling haphazardly across his eyes… Eyes that were peeking out at her across the room with that smoky, intense gaze… They were barely open. Had she woken him?

She pushed the question into his mind and saw the corner of his lips quirk against the pillow. 'Yes.'

'Sorry, Master.'

'Come here, Little Bird. ' His arm shifted from under his pillow and nudged some of the bedding aside, to make room for her.

'Why have you got a bed in here? I thought you preferred the coffin.' She asked tersely, trying as she might to keep the conversation on a manageable track. It wasn't that she was afraid to join him on the bed, it was that she didn't want to form an attachment to the space, or make any more obvious just how much better than her bed his bed was.

His lips quirked yet again and his eyes slid shut. 'Come closer and find out.'

'Just answer the question.'

Red appeared between the layers of sooty lashes. 'Change that tone, Police Girl.'

She rolled her eyes. This again? Really, she'd thought she'd gotten over this stage when her Dad had died, she didn't need it from him.

"When you can learn to stop skirting around the question," She said, turning and heading for the door, "Then I'll join you, but before then, nothing."

"I never asked you to join me, only to come closer."

She made a half-turn in anger, only to stop herself when she found him propped up on one elbow, presenting her with a very chiselled chest and a deepening need to leap over there and- and-

"Bite. Me." She snarled before whirling back around and practically running for the door. He cracked a grin at her retreating back; there really was no need to be so rude, or to run for that matter, he wasn't about to go chasing her down dressed as he was – which in all fairness, wasn't at all – and they both knew that he would bite her again sooner or later. The only question that now remained was when? And when would he be honest enough about the bed to actually get her into it? And when he did, what did he plan on doing with her in it?

He sank back down onto the bed and tucked his arms under the pillows as he contemplated all the things he would do to her when the time came… They were pleasant contemplations, very pleasant indeed.

Seras looked mournfully at her single bed with its now-very-lumpy pillow and the light blue sheets which had greyed with age. His bed looked so much better and hers looked oh so unappealing! Grumbling about the unfairness of it all, Seras stomped over to her bed and threw herself down on it, roughly making it up to fall over her in what would ordinarily satisfied her, but was tonight just another example of why his bed was better. For a start, she had to curl herself into a ball just to fit under the duvet here, but there she would be able to stretch out, in any direction, and still be on the bed and under the covers. Then of course there was the pillow fiasco. Hers was lumpy and flat. His looked fluffy, and supportive, and soft…

Cursing, she screwed her eyes shut and tried not to imagine how happy she could be, cuddled up in all that red satin, stretching her limbs out across the glorious expanse…

'If you want it, come and get in.' Came the invitation, seriously tempting, but dripping in darkness. Lord alone knew what would happen to her if she actually conceded to spending the day with him… He'd offered before, but she had declined then as well… There was too much left hanging and she just didn't know if she could resist him, looking the way he did…

The sun was high in the sky before the door to his chambers creaked open again and a familiar presence allowed themselves entry. Bare feet padded softly across his floor and stopped at the bedside, where a metallic clunk! signalled Harkonnen's presence as well – no funny business. He resisted a grin as she began probing the pillows, testing their comfort factor, before clambering gingerly onto the bed – it was rather tall and came to her waist. The mattress dipped only slightly as she settled herself in and he found the covers being dragged further up his back. She apparently wasn't taking any chances today.

Even still, he turned his head to look at her, meeting her eyes in the darkness. They were wide and almost doe-like, staring at him with an I-didn't-think-you-were-awake expression.

The toothy grin he gave her had her clutching the covers tighter to herself, as though she was afraid of what he might do! Heaven's above, was her opinion of him so low? He chuckled mirthlessly, "Sweet dreams, little bird."