Kel grinned at Kas as she caught him glancing in the floor length mirror in her bedroom once more to admire himself. The moment he had received the chest full of clothing that had arrived at his apartment in one of the rare moments he had been there, he had changed into one of the outfits and had packed up several more to bring up to the palace. She had been pleasantly surprised by how good the clothes had looked on him, but she hadn't expected him to be just as impressed.
"You're sure you don't mind me leaving some clothes here? I don't want to impose on you," Kas turned to look back at her his eyes shadowed with his anxiety.
"I don't mind at all," Kel assured him. He had shown her his burden upon walking in the door and had made his excuses then. He was worried that his fellow journeymen would think nothing of rehashing the same joke of cleaning a forge with his finer clothing if he brought any of it to work to make a quick change before coming up to the palace if he didn't have time to return home. It also left him with some options if he needed to run up to the palace with little notice should she ever return injured from a call again.
Now they were back in her bedroom, unpacking the canvas bag he had tucked the clothing into for her to put in her dressing room. As she pulled the different things he had brought out of the bag she was slightly surprised to see some of Kas' normal work clothing tucked in with the tunics, more styled breeches, hose, and silk shirts. She glanced up at Kas to see him blush when he noticed that she had discovered what else had been tucked into the bag.
"I thought it might be a good plan to have some of my normal clothing here as well. In case I spend the night," his cheeks flushed a little more. She felt her own cheeks flush. He had visited twice since she had made her offer for him to spend the night, but hadn't indicated he had thought any on her offer at all. It had been a slight disappointment that he hadn't been thinking about it, but it had soothed some anxieties about what spending the night meant. Now she knew he had been considering it and it was likely closer to happening than she had believed. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. "Is that not alright?" Kas asked after a long moment. "I really don't have to keep things here if you would prefer."
"No, it's not that," Kel realized that something must have shown on her face for him to be trying to soothe her worries. He stopped her from explaining more by plucking the clothing from her fingers and pulling her against him to kiss her sweetly.
"It doesn't have to be tonight," he told her as he pulled back. "Just insurance for a future together."
"It can be tonight, if you want," she felt her cheeks and neck grow hot as she suggested it.
Kas didn't respond with words. Instead he leaned down to kiss her again the way he had when she had first suggested he spend the night over a week before. The fizzing warmth that had filled her that night burned away what fears she had imagined. Then slowly she became aware she was no longer standing. A distant, cool part of her mind realized he had laid her back sideways on the bed, crumpling his clothing beneath her. He was kneeling over her, bracing himself above her with one arm to keep his weight off of her while he continued to kiss her. The way he was positioned over the top of her made her feel unbelievably small and delicate. The realization sent her nerves tingling with anticipation for what was going to follow.
Cool air touched her stomach as she felt her shirt being edged up. His fingers brushed against the sensitive skin of her stomach and inched almost agonizingly slow upwards towards her breastband underneath of her shirt. Her lungs betrayed her as her breathing became stilted when his fingers began to toy with the edge of the breastband.
"Is this okay?" Kas murmured against her lips.
She managed to nod. She wanted his fingers to move higher, to push the fabric of her breastband up, to feel him touch her far more intimately. There was a tension building with his touch low in her abdomen that excited her, but some part of her still worried he would be disappointed by what she had to offer. She had spent years building up muscle that had made her thick in most places men wanted their women to have soft curves. She also lacked the larger breasts that men tended to like.
"Can I take your shirt off?" He asked after another long kiss. His fingers had moved no higher up inside of her breastband despite her nod to it being alright. Why was he stalling? She wanted this.
"Kel? Are you in here?" Neal's loud voice was in the sitting room. Kas' hand came out from under her shirt immediately and he backed off of her without another word. She felt the loss of his heat on her skin acutely. She wanted him to be over the top of her, touching her again.
She fought back a growl of frustration at her best friend. The door to her sitting room had been locked. She always locked it when she was inside out of habit unless she was expecting guests. She knew she had locked it behind Kas coming in to allow them some privacy together.
Kas helped her up off of the bed just before Neal glanced in the bedroom. Kel was sure her blush was hardly concealed behind anything resembling her Yamani mask. Neal's green eyes flashed as he glanced between her, Kas, and the rumpled clothing and covers on the bed where they had been.
"Come, we're going down to the infirmary," his words were clipped.
"There was no plan for me to go down and see your father tonight," Kel crossed her arms over her chest. She had set times she was to go down to the infirmary and never were they this late in the evening. Often her visits were in the morning. The only excuse for a time to change was if new information had come to light, but no new information on spidren blood in wounds had come up since they had found a treatment that had started working.
"There is now. Kas should come too, I insist," he turned to stalk out of her bedroom.
Kel turned to Kas meaning to apologize for being interrupted but he leaned down to give her a soft kiss and straightened her shirt a little more.
"Why do I feel like these sort of surprises happen to you often here," he murmured as he pulled back.
"Because I was mad enough to keep Sir Meathead as a best friend," she leaned into his arms. "We'll come back to this later, right?" She felt her voice become small.
"We'll see," he took her hand and led her towards the door.
Neal said nothing to either of them as he stalked down to the infirmary with them in tow. Kas' fingers stayed twined in hers even as they stepped through the infirmary door and were led to an exam room. Neal closed the door and nodded to the exam table.
"Up," he ordered. Kel sighed and moved to sit on the edge of the exam table. "Lay back." He put a hand on her shoulder to push her back until she was laying down.
"Neal!" Kel gasped out when she felt him tug her waistband.
"Nealan!" Baird's voice made Neal's hands abandon the waistband of her breeches long enough for Kel to pull them back up the inch he had managed to pull them down. "My office now," Baird ordered. "Keladry, please give us a moment."
"Is he always so brisk when he's playing healer?" Kas asked coming to help her sit up again.
"Not this much," Kel glanced up at him. "This is him being protective, I think." Kas only shook his head and smiled down at her. He brought her hand up to his lips and kept a hold of her hand while they waited.
"I must apologize for my son, it seems," Baird entered the exam room. "He seems to believe you may have caused more damage to yourself, somehow," he glanced at Kas to relay his meaning. "Do you mind if I look to ease his fears?"
"I promise I have not ignored the restrictions," Kel tried.
"I know," Baird sighed. "If you would oblige me, though, by pulling your breeches down?"
Kel glanced at Kas knowing he had already seen her wound but it felt awkward to be pulling her breeches down in front of him now. How quickly would he have asked her to remove her breeches for him had they not been interrupted up in her bedroom? She would have much rather have undressed in front of him in that manner than this one.
"Do you want me to go to the waiting area?" Kas asked when she hesitated.
"No, you can stay," she smiled up at him and began to edge her breeches down.
"You must be Kas," Baird offered him a hand. "I've heard good things about you from my nephew and from Keladry."
"Duke Baird is Dom's uncle," Kel explained to Kas when he seemed confused by exactly who Baird was speaking of.
"Ah," Kas gripped Baird's hand. "I appreciate all you do for Kel."
"Keladry is a very good patient," Baird turned to give her his kind smile as she settled her breeches just below the bandaged area. "I'm going to unwrap the bandages to get a thorough look." He undid the bandages, rolling them back up as he unwrapped her leg. The final pad fell away to reveal her stitched shut wound.
The bubbling under the skin was still prevalent and the purple and red marks caused by the acidic spidren blood around the wound were likely permanent much to her dismay. It still looked ugly despite it healing. It would always be one of the more ugly marks on her body. Kas' hand found hers and brought it up to his lips once more.
"You're beautiful," he murmured when she looked up at him. She smiled at him knowing exactly why he was complimenting her now. He wanted to assure her that it wasn't something that would make him run away. She just hoped he still believed it when he took off her shirt to find the scar left by Stenmun's axe.
"I see my son's worries were misplaced," Baird pulled his Gift from the wound. "The healing is progressing as we had anticipated. I have no doubt you're starting to get some of the strength back. But now wouldn't be a bad time for a bit of an extra dose to help you along." He produced a now familiar vial and stone jar. They were the treatment that was combating most of the damage with only a little nudge from his Gift.
The vial was opened and a small amount was poured over the wound making Kel fight back that gasp that always followed as the stronger cleaners mixed in with the herbs in the vial hit the deeper parts of her wound. Then Baird smoothed the lotion in the stone jar over the outside of the wound that soothed the sting and numbed the rest of the pain she felt briefly. He wrapped her up with fresh bandages and helped her to stand to pull her breeches back up.
"I need to be blunt for a moment with both of you," Baird sighed. "It is not for me to say what you do or do not do behind closed doors but as I healer I fear I have to warn you to be careful. The thigh is a hard place to avoid pulling wrong in that sort of activity." His cheeks turned a little pink. "Should you need to see me in the morning for any reason, you can send a note to avoid my son being made aware."
Kel felt her own cheeks flush. What she did with her body was supposed to be her private decision, but Neal had taken that from her with his well-timed break in into her rooms. Not only had he included himself, but he had included his father who she respected greatly. She doubted that would be all. Likely Yuki would know as soon as he arrived back at their rooms. And perhaps there was a good chance he would tell any of their friends that happened to cross him on the way. If he had wanted to shame her for the first time she had ever been close to bedding a man, he had done it very well.
"Of course, Your Grace," Kas gave a bow. Baird made a dignified retreat then and Kas wrapped an arm around her waist. "Shall we go finish finding places for those clothes?" He asked her. She nodded and let him pull her out of the infirmary. Neal was nowhere in sight which was lucky for him.
Back in her rooms, Kel sat on the bed at Kas' insistence while he refolded his clothes and set them on her desk instead. Then he joined her, sitting next to her to pulling her neatly against him.
"Perhaps tonight is not a good night for this," he murmured. "I don't want to hurt you and I don't want to set your healing back any. I still have hope that you'll be a bright spot in the middle of my work days again and I want to take you out to dinner again. Not that the palace doesn't feed you well, but I like taking you places."
"I don't suppose we could try anyway," she blushed at her own boldness once again as Kas chuckled.
"We could, but I'd rather not risk hurting you. I never want to be the man that hurts you," he laid her back sideways on the bed again and followed her down to kiss her. He rested on his elbow next to her to support himself. His other hand rested on her stomach, outside of her shirt. Even this was different than his normal sweet kisses. It was comfortable and she found herself relaxing against the bed. His fingers stopped just resting and began trailing small circles on her stomach and hip in a way that was intimate without pushing towards bedding. For the first time she imagined that could fall asleep to something like this or find herself thrilled to wake up this way.
"Kel!" The main door of her rooms slammed open and she heard Neal call her name from the sitting room once again though she had locked the door.
"I swear to Mithros, Nealan, that you will regret magicking my lock for the rest of your life," she growled out when Kas jerked away from her at the noise.
"I should go," Kas sighed when Neal came to stand in the bedroom doorway, arms crossed with his best disappointed mother look.
"Yes, you should," Neal snapped. "Since you can't seem to keep your hands to yourself despite the warning you were given."
"Kas, wait," Kel begged, pushing herself to sit up. He hadn't been there all of that long and she wanted to spend time with him.
"I'll come back not tomorrow but the day after," he leaned down to kiss her. "I have something I want to give you that I'll bring." He pressed his lips against hers once more before he turned and left without so much as a glance at Neal as he brushed past.
"I can't believe you would set your healing back after all of the work I put into you," Neal threw his hands into the air.
"If you value our friendship at all, you will leave now," Kel pointed at the door. She was so mad at him for ruining whatever that had been. Neal opened his mouth to snap a reply. "Now, Nealan!" She demanded before he could say whatever was on his mind. She pointed at the door once more. His eyes went wide for a moment and then his mouth shut with an audible click before he practically ran for the door.
Kel stood to follow and closed the door behind him to lock it up tight again. She would need to inquire about mage proofing and lock pick proofing her doors. She doubted that Neal would remember her fury the next time he realized she was alone with Kas though she was beginning to question how he had known they had been doing anything intimate at all. He had managed to break in twice during intimate moments, the only truly intimate and possibly improper moments that had really taken place in her rooms since Kas had been visiting.
She went back to her bedroom and looked around. He had to have had some indication of what had been going on. His rooms weren't exactly all of that close for him to have heard and she knew they had been quiet so listening through the main door wouldn't have given them away either. Nothing seemed remotely out of place in her room and she wasn't sure exactly what she was looking for, but searching was helping her calm down enough not to chase after Neal and ignore every restriction by challenging him for satisfaction on the practice courts.
A knock on the door made her stop searching and her anger surface again. She was certain Neal had decided to take leave of his senses and return to continue to berate her. She threw open the door and glared out only to realize it wasn't Neal but Dom standing on the other side. His blue eyes were wide as he stared at her.
"Have I done something to anger you?" He asked finally, his voice soft.
"No, not you," she pinched the bridge of her nose and forced herself to take a deep breath to try and calm down again. "I thought you were Neal coming back again."
"Ah, and what has my cousin done to spark your nonexistent temper?" He asked. "Should I go find some of my men to hold him down for you? Or I heard the best idea for a prank from some of the men the other morning. I stopped them from doing it then because it would have humiliated the victim, but with Neal making himself such an ass I can always make an exception."
Kel smiled despite her anger. Dom didn't even need to hear what Neal had done to start planning retaliation with her. She stepped aside and let him into her sitting room. He walked into the room and pulled the door closed behind him. When the door was closed she quietly explained what Neal had done to earn her anger. Then she turned to questioning if Dom knew of any way Neal could have possibly known anything was going on.
"Can I ask a question? Have you two ever been more intimate on the couch, or well, anywhere besides your bed before?" Dom asked, his face carefully bland.
"We've kissed before on the couch and plenty of other places," Kel admitted. "Nothing like tonight though."
"Roughly how long were you on the bed before he burst in?" He asked.
Kel thought it over. The first time they had barely been down on the bed a few minutes before Neal had come in. The second it had been a little longer. When she said as much to Dom, he glanced at the bedroom.
"Humor me a moment," he took her hand and led her to her bed.
For the third time, Kel found herself being pressed back sideways on the bed. Dom sat down next to her and then laid back and patted the bed indicating she should do the same. She laid down next to him feeling odd as he shifted to put an arm under her head to act as a pillow. Not too long ago she would have given anything for Dom to have been on her bed touching her in anyway, but now all she wanted was for Kas to come back.
"Now we wait," Dom breathed out. "So you must be enjoying Kas enough to allow him to be the first man in your bed."
"Not that I'll ever get him in my bed with Neal about," Kel murmured.
"There are other places you two can be intimate. I can name several good places around the palace that few people ever visit," Dom chuckled and shifted slightly. Kel felt her cheeks go warm at what Dom was suggesting. She was barely sure she was ready to go there with Kas. It seemed like more than a step too far to be bedding in public places, however abandoned the places were.
"What were you coming to see me for?" Kel turned the conversation away from bedding before it became any more uncomfortable.
"I wanted to see if you wanted to come spend some time on the practice courts calling out drills tomorrow morning. It would be nice to have your expert eyes out there as well." Dom shifted again, a little closer to her. "How is your leg? You can be blunt with me, I'm a big boy. I can take it."
"It's starting to feel a little better but it won't ever look pretty, not that it ever did. But, Dom," she turned on her side to face him. "I really wouldn't change what happened if it meant your life."
"I still feel terrible all of the same," he turned on his side to face her as well. Almost immediately he jumped up as a frantic knocking started on the other side of Kel's main door.
"Kel, if you don't let me in, I'm going to let myself in! This is your final warning!" Neal yelled from the other side.
"I thought so," Dom sighed and went to the main door to open it.
Kel sat up on the bed to see what Neal might do when he realized it was Dom in her rooms now, but Dom had gone out into the hall to speak to Neal rather than let him in. After a few minutes Dom came in and helped Kel to stand up. When she was standing he lifted her mattress up and tipped it until the bedframe was visible.
"There," Dom pointed to several small charms tucked around the outside of the bedframe and two in the center. "Some very protective mother somewhere came up with that charm. It alerts whoever has the other half of the charm that there is more than one person on the bed. I'm guessing he put multiple ones down to make sure it's clear that two people are laying in the bed. He wouldn't want to give himself away for say a friend visiting and sitting on the bed. The amount of time on the bed isn't important. You two could lay down for only a second and it would alert him. It's only the amount of time it takes him to run down here," he bent down to try and pick the charms up but they wouldn't budge. Kel tried to give them a nudge and found them stuck in place. "Either he glued them or he magicked them down," Dom sighed. "This is being meatheaded to a whole new level for him."
"I'll flay him," Kel whispered feeling horrified. She couldn't go find a mage to take those off because she couldn't risk the gossip that would ensue from it. She was certain she couldn't talk sense into Neal because he had come running right back to stop her again after she had sent him from her room in her anger. She couldn't go to Baird because she didn't want the shame of admitting that anything had happened after his kind warning. And she couldn't just ignore them because she knew she would think about Neal being alerted whenever they were intimate.
"Well, the couch isn't a bad option for being intimate," Dom admitted practically as he set the mattress back on the frame. "Or you can always make a nice comfortable bed on the floor out of blankets."
"I doubt anything will be happening any time soon after your uncle gave us a not so subtle talk," Kel sighed.
"Oh?" Dom raised an eyebrow at her and she knew he wanted to know more than just a confirmation.
"He explained we will likely set my healing back on my wound due to its location," Kel explained.
"Oh," Dom's eyes drifted down to her thigh. "I can always pay Kas a visit and give him some tips on ways that might avoid aggravating your wound, if you would like. I can always say Neal ranted at me and I took it upon myself to give some advice. Anyone would believe that."
"I will keep that offer in mind, if I can figure out a quiet way to be rid of these," she waved at the bed to indicate the charms. Part of her was glad he was offering to give Kas the advice and not her. She didn't want to hear any sort of details about the ways he had bedded women. Yuki and Shinko had given her enough detail to find random thoughts of Roald and Neal that had made her blush. She didn't want to add any real details about Dom to those thoughts as well.
"Well, I'll see you in the morning on the practice courts. You can always come and join us for breakfast as well," Dom reached over to give her arm one quick squeeze before he left her rooms.
Kel glanced at her bed and fought a glare. She wanted nothing to do with it now that she was aware that Neal was using it against her somehow. When he had managed to put those charms on her bed, she wasn't sure. She sincerely hoped it had only been because of her injury but she wasn't sure she could put it past him to have done it when they had come back from the border.
She knew for certain she wasn't going to find any peace sleeping in the bed that night. So she turned to pulling the comforter and a pillow from the bed to bring out to the couch. When she had made herself a decent place to sleep she went back to the bedroom to start putting Kas' clothing away with her things. She wanted him to know that his things were welcome when he did come back. Then she went to lay down on the couch, trying to recall the content feeling that had filled her when Kas had been lying next to her.
