Vassal by Sterling D'Este (ebook reader computer TXT) 📕

into the smaller woman’s hair. “Would you like to make love with me?”

❀

Alphonse felt herself blushing as well. Perhaps she should have realized what Delyth was suggesting, but no one had ever asked her that before. Hadn’t been interested. Or if they had, Alphonse had been oblivious to their advances.

“Oh,” she mumbled, preoccupied with the feeling of Delyth’s fingers in her hair. That was very soothing. Alphonse liked that…

Slowly, she trailed her own fingertips up Delyth’s sides and finally came to the large wolf furs she wore over her shoulders and about her neck.

She could feel the ties there, laced together, and knotted to keep the mantle in place while Delyth flew. Alphonse smirked despite her nervous heart and slowly tugged on one tie. It loosened, and she tugged again. That knot undone, her hand drifted to the next set.

“I don’t feel like sleeping, at all,” she murmured, surprised at how steady her voice was, how smooth her movements were as she pulled evenly on the tie. The second one came undone even faster than the first as if Delyth’sfurs had a mind of their own and agreed with Alphonse’s desire to see her without the heavy cape.

With her hands at the last set of ties, Alphonse peered up through her lashes at Delyth, nearly coy. “Is that answer enough?” Her thumb found the loop of the knot, and she slowly drew out the tie until the mantle was free.

Delyth laughed, the sound rumbling up from her belly. “It's answer enough for me,” she said, her voice still colored with warmth.

Delyth shrugged her shoulders so that the heavy fur slithered off them and to the floor behind her. She let the fingers of one hand trail down Alphonse’s throat to trace the modest neckline of her dress. “Tell me if you don’t like something, or if I go too fast.”

“I will,” Alphonse promised as she looped her arms about Delyth’s neck, kissing the warrior once more before peering down with interest at what Delyth had been hiding under her furs all these weeks.

Delyth snorted, her breath ruffling the top of Alphonse’s downturned head. She’d begun to undo the first few buttons of the smaller woman’s dress, but she was fumbling, unable to see. “Do you want me to take the rest of it off?” she laughed. “That way, you can look, and I can get this ridiculously impractical thing off you.”

Alphonse slipped her hands down Delyth’s front, having never dared to touch her like that. Even with the clothes on. She felt the curves and then the dip of the warrior’s waist. Smiling, Alphonse scooted back enough to look into Delyth’s face.

“You don’t like my clothes?” Alphonse asked, trying to look hurt or insulted but mostly appearing rueful. At the moment, her sentiment was the same. Delyth would surely look all the better if she weren’t so encumbered with her jerkin and other layers of protection against the cold.

“I think you must definitely undress, after all, fair is fair. You’ve seen me…” Alphonse trailed off, her cheeks turning a very becoming shade of rose pink. Delyth had seen all of her. Repeatedly. Her amber eyes flickered over Delyth’s chest and hips. “I’ve only had my imagination…” she murmured.

“Your imagination?” Delyth repeated, a smile making hills before her eyes. “So you’ve dreamed of me, little bird?”She stepped back enough to turn around without clipping Alphonse with a wing and then spread the dark sails enough to reveal the lacing down the back of her leather jerkin. “Would you give me a hand?”

The healer paused to push aside Delyth’s hair over one shoulder and leaned in to kiss her neck. She couldn’t help herself; Alphonse just had to press her lips against the sensitive skin there. To know what Delyth tasted like. Even as she worked at those laces.

She couldn’t wait.

Delyth raised her arms to finish with the laces. Almost brusquely, she shoved off the sleeveless shirt and turned around to press her mouth to Alphonse’s, stifling the healer’s sharp intake of breath. Delyth’s fingers again at the buttons down the front of Alphonse’s dress. Alphonse clung to the priestess tightly as they embraced, pulling away long enough to giggle excitedly. Back again, kissing, hands fumbling around Delyth’s own at her dress front to help, to touch Delyth, to do something!

Hastily, Alphonse pulled away long enough to finish the last two buttons, but got distracted by Delyth’s chest. Of course, she had seen other females naked before. Communal baths, medical settings, the odds and ins of life.

But these were for her, and too perfect to ignore.

Forgetting her own dress Alphonse reached out to brush a knuckle along the slope of Delyth’s breast, just nearly missing the peaked nipple, down beneath the heavy underside, then up between the two of them.

༄

Delyth sighed. Gods, those hands were soft and delicate.

The priestess captured Alphonse’s roving hand and kissed her palm, her wrist, the tips of her fingers. Alphonse’s eyes never left Delyth’s mouth.

Her eyes slid from Alphonse’s hand to her face, mouth parted below a lovely flush. Slowly, the priestess let her gaze trace a path from those beautifully formed lips to amber eyes. She smiled a little wickedly and drew her teeth over the first knuckle of Alphonse’s forefinger.

Alphonse swallowed and tugged her hand back long enough to finish the buttons of her dress. It fell away, and she practically yanked her undress off as well, finally in just her breast band and underthings.

Delyth stilled, Alphonse finally all but freed from the layers of fabric. Gods, she had wanted to touch her, driven half-mad by the teasing, forbidden glimpses afforded her by Enyo’s love of being bare.

Now, this was for her and from Alphonse, and she could take her time.

The priestess pressed her hands to Alphonse’s hips and ran them slowly up her sides until the tips of Delyth’s thumbs just brushed the underside of Alphonse’s  breasts beneath their confining band.

Only, the healer seemed suddenly reserved, her brows drawn together, and Delyth paused, concern