Vassal

by Sterling D'Este

  “Medically speaking, your body is a wonderful specimen. I enjoyed working on it.”

  Delyth looked up at the top of their tent, smiling. “That’s a funny way to say you want to touch me.”

  Perhaps that wasn’t the most romantic thing to say. Alphonse shook her head ruefully before trusting her hands to know what to do. Her fingertips hovered above Delyth’s breast for a moment longer, and then, experimentally, Alphonse cupped Delyth. The weight in her hand was warm and surprisingly heavy. Alphonse watched how it filled her palm, overflowed… Her thumb just naturally wanted to stroke against the nipple, paying avid attention as it stood at her touch.

  Moving to get her other hand free, Alphonse repeated the procedure, finding herself smiling with abandon at the symmetry. She wanted to nuzzle against those mounds. So she did, keeping them firmly in hand before running her mouth and nose across one and then the other. Lips quirking, Alphonse moved her thumb again, and when the bud was too perfect to resist, she placed her lips around it.

  Something in her belly squirmed in delectation at the feel of Delyth’s nipple surrounded by her mouth.

  Until a realization hit Alphonse and her hand slid all the way down to cup Delyth’s backside. It was firm and shapely and nearly as perfect as the warrior’s breast.

  Alphonse removed herself from Delyth’s nipple with a small popping sound, craning her neck to see her hand on Delyth’s rump. Easily just as delectable.

  Alphonse actually whimpered.

  Now she didn’t know which to play with!

  ༄

  When Alphonse craned her neck to see, Delyth swiped her tongue from the healer’s collarbone to her jaw playfully. Alphonse jerked in excitement and looked at Delyth with a wry smile. “I feel like I’m in a pastry shop, and I don’t know what to try next.”

  Delyth laughed and ran the hand she’d laid on Alphonse’s hip over her ass and down the back of her thigh. “There are a few options,” she said.

  Lightly she cupped one of Alphonse’s breasts. “You’ve already found this one and—” She slid her hand back down the woman’s body and squeezed her ass. “This one.”

  Delyth pressed her hand to the smooth, flat skin of Alphonse’s belly. “You could kiss me here… Or here.” With one finger, she traced a line from Alphonse’s belly to her hips, then dragged the digit down across the hem of her underwear.

  “There is, of course, always this…” Delyth brushed her hand down the outside of Alphonse’s thigh.

  “And this is really quite nice.” She slid her hand up the inside of Alphonse’s thigh to rest just short of the crook between her legs and turned to smile at the healer. “Whatever do you want to try first?”

  ❀

  “I…” She had never felt her skin so alive. She wouldn’t have been surprised in the least to see sparks dancing across her body in arcs after Delyth’s ministrations.

  But words were useless, pointless things as her mind rocketed to the feel of Delyth’s hands over her belly, across the arc of her hip, down the hem of her undergarments.

  Alphonse lowered her mouth to follow that trail obediently, careful to brush warm lips against cooled skin in a skittering path over Delyth’s body. Down her ribs, across her belly, veering to the hip and back.

  Alphonse’s hands gripped Delyth’s thighs lightly as she knelt to nuzzle against her stomach, breathing her in practically. The healer slipped one knuckle closer to Delyth’s inner thigh, letting it lazily circle, each arc slightly higher.

  She tilted her head, cheek braced against Delyth’s hip, amber eyes bleary with the provocative scent, the sweet taste of the warrior’s skin. Still, her hand crept further north, an inebriated smile on her lips.

  “What else?”

  ༄

  “Gods, Alphonse,” Delyth gasped. She’d sat up partially to watch the path of the healer’s sensuous lips across her belly. Now her eyes were all but sightless; they saw nothing but the lazy circle of Alphonse’s knuckle on her thigh.

  For a long moment, Delyth hesitated. She knew what she wanted, with Alphonse’s hand between her legs and her honeyed head nuzzled against the priestess’s belly.

  Still, she felt a bit of guilt at the idea of letting those fingers continue higher. This was Alphonse’s first time…

  “How about I show you?” Delyth said weakly, her breath fast and her body quivering.

  Tilting her head, Alphonse let her knuckle brush, very gently, over Delyth’s mound before pulling her hand away.

  “Alright…” She smiled and slithered her way up Delyth’s body, making it to the halfbreed’s mouth for a kiss.

  Delyth clutched Alphonse’s shoulders close and rolled them both over, her lips smiling into Alphonse’s kiss. Had the healer been a little disappointed to be stopped? The thought made Delyth dizzy with want.

  Once more propped above Alphonse, Delyth drew a long U from the center of one thigh, over her mound and down to the center of the other. She repeated the motion slowly, changing directions each time. Sliding a little lower at the peak.

  A few of the nerves she’d felt earlier stirred in her belly. It had been a while since she’d touched someone like this. What if she didn’t remember how? But no. Her actions were as much informed by the understanding of her own body as they were by her desire to please Alphonse.

  At the top of her slow, upside-down U, Delyth paused and laid her palm over Alphonse’s mound, swiping downwards in a long, leisurely motion with one thumb, her eyes fixed on the healer’s face for her reaction.

  Alphonse shuddered at the sensation and closed her eyes impulsively, her hands trembling where they rested against the warrior, one on the small of Delyth’s back, the other encircling Delyth’s bracing arm. “Oh,” she mumbled.

  Smiling warmly, Delyth leaned down, letting strands of dark hair caress Alphonse’s cheek before following them with a kiss. The healer’s lashes spilled over her skin. Soft shadows.

  Delyth didn’t move her hand. She brought her thumb deliberately back up. Back down again. Until the thin underthings were damp from Alphonse’s sex. She hooked a finger in the hem and tugged downwards, the fabric trapped beneath the smaller woman.

  “Lift up.” Delyth slid the fabric down over Alphonse’s thighs and tossed it aside.

  Alphonse looked up at Delyth, her face a mixture of eagerness and concern. “Am I… what you hoped?” she asked, voice husky.

  Delyth closed her eyes and swallowed. Her mouth was watering, her mind blank but for the half eager, half self-conscious tilt to Alphonse’s face and the graceful slope of her hip bones. Some things were too good to let yourself hope for.

  “Yes,” the priestess said. “More, even.”

  She kissed Alphonse again and lowered herself to half lay beside her, their bodies brushing. Next to the healer, she felt hard and brutish and resolved again to be gentle.

  Delyth slid her hand back between Alphonse’s thighs and sketched an oval around her sex, drawing it tighter. “Still alright?” she asked, voice cracking.

  ❀

  Unconsciously, the healer had been tracing the same circles on Delyth’s wing, her arm tucked under the warrior’s shoulder. Her eyes had drifted shut again as she settled against Delyth, feeling the warmth from her breath on Alphonse’s neck, the steady pressure along her side where they cuddled. She could hear Delyth’s smooth breaths.

  Alphonse nodded slowly and opened her eyes to smile shyly up at Delyth.

  “I trust you. I know you won’t hurt me,” she murmured, leaning forward to steal a kiss, smiling into it when her mind was immediately drawn to Delyth’s hands. Despite her best intentions, Alphonse couldn’t focus on kissing when such sensations were shivering through her body.

  “Oh,” she repeated, becoming taut before feeling herself arch closer, further into Delyth’s hand. It wasn’t a coherent thought or decision on Alphonse’s part. Her body just reacted. Just demanded that she increase the contact, and she had no choice but to comply—a slave to the delicious impulse.r />
  Each caress against her core made Alphonse arch all the closer, greedy for more. Only after a minute, or maybe it was an hour, how could she tell time like this? She was panting slightly and hopelessly moving her hands over Delyth.

  It felt like little bolts of liquid lightning dancing through her veins, radiating out from her core, and each time Delyth neared it, her heart paused in anticipation.

  The healer tried to remember herself as she captured Delyth’s mouth with her own, occasionally moaning or gasping into the kiss as Delyth’s fingers continued their ministrations. At one point, she found herself avidly kissing Delyth’s jaw, the careful curve of her neck, her throat. Somewhere along the line, Alphonse found herself nibbling on the flesh there and smiling drunkenly as she tore herself away long enough to peer down between them.

  Something about the sight of Delyth’s hand holding her so preciously, their limbs tangled up, and their bodies squirming together, nearly undid Alphonse. She shuddered as Delyth’s thumb pressed against that bundle of nerves again, and a half-choked cry escaped her, muffled as Alphonse buried her face against Delyth’s breast.

  Some part of her mind was rushing down a tunnel, not knowing what was at the end but desperate to reach it. Alphonse’s hips moved of their own accord, greedily urging Delyth onward, closer, harder and faster and softer all at once.

  Alphonse pressed herself against Delyth’s hand and then yanked herself away as a tremendous sensation came crashing through her, utterly wiping away all coherent thoughts or feelings. She was nothing.

  She was everything.

  The next thing Alphonse was aware of was her heavy breath, and her hand clenched into a fist at Delyth’s back. Perspiration glittered on her brow and throat and between her breasts, and then Alphonse was laughing—feebly and weakly and pointlessly, but she was laughing, her cheeks turning pink with joy. She rolled onto her side, nuzzling against Delyth, needing the closeness. Burying her face into the crook of Delyth’s neck, dark hair hiding Alphonse from sight, she murmured rapturously. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” And “You’re perfect.” And a few more thank you’s.

  Because you always should thank someone for giving you a gift.

  ༄

  Alphonse’s reaction surprised Delyth, her lips twisting upwards lightly in bemusement. It was fitting, somehow though, her laughter pure and happy. The priestess could feel her laughing between her legs too as she pulled her hand away.

  She wrapped Alphonse’s snug, sex-limp body as close as skin, tenting them both with a wing. It might have been hot, she supposed. Anywhere but the center of a blizzard.

  Gods, she hoped the sun never rose, that she could hold Alphonse in their little tent forever. Her thighs against Delyth’s thighs against warm bedding below them.

  “You don't have to thank me for that,” Delyth said, smiling. “It's for us both. From us both.”

  She did feel as though the time was a gift, one that would prove hard to come by as they neared the temple. Laughter bubbled up from her belly, half-unintended. “Perhaps we ought to thank Tristan. For the blizzard, I mean.”

  Alphonse laughed gently and finally was able to tear her face away from the shelter of Delyth’s neck to smile up at the warrior. Beamed practically. She was all rosy. “I don’t think I can not thank you. That would be rude, and you were so… meticulous.” The healer grinned and glanced down at Delyth’s hand, now resting on her hip. “Why don’t I just thank you and not Tristan? Or you could thank him and explain why. I’m certain he’d be happy. I’ve noticed men tend to speak of two women together carnally often… I understand why now.” She nearly smirked. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to boast. It's just—you’re so very… alluring.”

  Delyth snorted. “I don’t think I’ll be thanking him either,” she said. “Men might like to think of two women, but I’d rather keep it out of their heads. It's not for them anyway.” She nuzzled against Alphonse’s shoulder playfully, giggling. “Besides, if they knew just how soft you make me feel, it’d ruin my big scary warrior reputation.”

  Her tone was light and joking, but really the outside world couldn’t be far enough away for the warrior’s taste. She wouldn’t let anyone in on this sweet, shared secret for anything. Pulling away, Delyth could just see amber-tinted eyes. She lowered her voice to a whisper too. “I’m glad you find me alluring. I want to lure you to me and keep you close, keep you running back.”

  Alphonse sighed and slipped her hand up and over Delyth’s hip, across her tight waistline, then back down. Soothing, long strokes. “I’ll always run back to you. As soon as I am able.” They both knew sometimes, she wasn’t able.

  Alphonse kissed the corner of Delyth’s mouth. “I thought you were the most incredible female I’d ever seen when we first met. And the more I learned of you, the more you drew me in. I’ve been yours for… for a long time now…” Swallowing, Alphonse let her knuckles trace down Delyth’s collarbone and towards the part in her breasts. Between them… under one.

  “I think I thought you were small when we first met,” Delyth said, pink-flushing cheeks made round by her smile. “But it didn’t take me long to see just how brave you are. How wonderful. How kind even in the worst of times.”

  She closed her eyes at the gentle brush of Alphonse’s knuckles, the pulse in her neck jumping. She’d been content to lie there, curled together, but now her stomach shivered again.

  “I… I don’t feel as though I deserve this.” Delyth was raw beneath Alphonse’s fingers. Vulnerable.

  Alphonse’s hand stilled, her eyes widening. She looked away from Delyth, chewing on her lower lip. “I know I’m not as, well, experienced and I might disappoint you—”

  “What?” Delyth said, startling. “You won’t. You couldn’t possibly… I couldn’t possibly be disappointed with you,” she said and reached out to press her palm against Alphonse’s cheek. “I meant—I meant that… I don’t feel good enough for this.” She pinked and looked away.

  She was dangerous, dark. She had killed men, and she had enjoyed the battle. By comparison, Alphonse seemed so good. So clean.

  Alphonse just smiled. “Maybe I can change that.” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss between Delyth’s breasts. Her hair brushed against the skin there, down her sides. Alphonse kissed an inch lower and smiled, nuzzling her nose against Delyth’s skin before carefully crawling atop the stronger female.

  “Alphonse…” Delyth breathed, the sound something like a whimper. Of all the answers the healer might have given her, that was not one she could have possibly expected. Delyth let herself be pushed back to lean against her hands, wings half-spread in tense anticipation. She watched Alphonse’s progress down her torso with unblinking focus, her breaths hitching with every kiss.

  The weight of her body across Delyth’s thighs, the brush of her hair against skin. It was inebriating.

  Alphonse grinned roguishly up at Delyth as she kissed the apex of her thighs, not afraid. “Tell me what to do, Delyth,” she murmured, nuzzling against the soft skin of the top of the warrior’s legs.

  “Gods…” Delyth’s fists clenched big handfuls of the bedding beneath her, her lips parted and her eyes wide. She looked up at the top of the tent, exposing the pale skin of her neck before looking back down at Alphonse.

  A few different ideas of just what she wanted the healer to do came to mind at once, jumbled, and clamoring for attention.

  Her eyes fixated on the subtle curve of Alphonse’s lips so close…

  “Kiss me,” she panted. “Slowly. My thighs. Then… where I touched you.”

  Alphonse kissed one thigh, then the other, slowly making her way north. When she got to the apex of Delyth’s thighs, Alphonse lowered her lips to the velvet flesh, kissing experimentally.

  The muscles in Delyth’s belly contracted sharply at that first little flick of Alphonse’s tongue, at the press of warm breath. Her own breath was harsh in her ears. Gently, she leaned forward to carefully gather the silken tendrils of Alphonse�
��s hair, collecting them into a gold bundle she held loosely at the top of the healer’s head. Out of the way.

  “Do that again,” she said. “The… with your tongue.”

  Alphonse looked up through her lashes once more and nodded before she licked again, this time a bit slower, dragging the tip of her tongue up the slit and over the little bud. Alphonse pressed her tongue against it a bit firmer this time, pausing long enough to look to Delyth for more direction.

  “Ah.” Delyth twitched, her legs jumping a bit to either side of Alphonse. “Lightly there.”

  Her eyes were on Alphonse’s, wide-pupilled. The healer’s lips were damp, the curve of her pale body slightly luminous behind her.

  Delyth swallowed, dragged her eyes skyward as if in prayer. Brought them down.

  “Lick me again. Long. Slow.”

  Alphonse complied, licking methodically, shifting between the tip of her tongue and the thicker padded portion. And again. And again.

  Delyth shuddered, biting down on her lip to keep from crying out. Instead, she moaned, low, and rumbling. She wasn’t thinking, her mind solely occupied by Alphonse’s mouth, and her arms trembled where she held herself up and the healer's hair away from her face.

  “Just— just the bud, now,” she panted past red lips.

  ❀

  Alphonse absolutely loved the sound of Delyth’s deep throaty moan, and despite her working diligently on that pearl as Delyth requested, Alphonse found herself becoming excited again. Her nipples were hardening, her own breath coming faster.

  Goddess, the smell of Delyth.

  “Del…” She murmured against Delyth’s thigh, moaning before returning to the task.

  “Stop,” the warrior gasped. “For a second. I want to taste you.” Delyth released Alphonse’s hair in a cascade down her back and lowered herself to her elbows, wings folded against the floor, though she kept most of her weight off them. “Come here,” she said. “Turn around and straddle me.”

  Alphonse was startled, and for a moment thought about ignoring Delyth’s request but… She pushed herself to her knees before Delyth with a wry smile.