Here is nice, warm, comfortable. The stroke of her fingers, her murmuring voice. His shoulders are beginning to burn a little from keeping her here but that, too, is pleasant, something real after a night of strange and ephemeral nipping injuries. Marcus bows his head, a nudge of contact against her shoulder that is barely a kiss.
Considers, too, self-consciousness. Of having kept himself so composed around her, after that one murderous slip, and now this. It doesn't take, that possible sense of shame, but it does make it difficult to reconcile the moment they step apart.
But here, finally, he bends his knees before letting her legs slip down, so her slippered feet can find the floor. His hand, moving between them to adjust himself, conscious a little of the mess they've made of each other, both the looseness of her hair and otherwise.
"I want to stay here," he says, still half clutched to her. If he's apologetic, it's only because he might be making her be the sensible one.
Returned to the floor, Derrica feels real gratitude for Marcus' continued proximity. Keeping hold of him, she can reacclimate, let the unsteady sensation pass while caught between him and the wall behind.
The folds of her dress fall into place, freed of obstacle. She is aware of a deep ache left behind, the lingering imprints of his fingers where he had gripped her thighs. Derrica can shake out the fabric. (She will need to excuse herself, seek a washroom.) The flush hasn't left her skin.
Her hands slide down his chest, over his heart. Turns over the statement, consider the note of apology in it. She is smiling just a little as she reaches back to set her hand back against his cheek.
"I know. So do I."
If only because every part of this becomes complicated once they step outside, to say nothing about the night stretching on ahead of them.
I wanted you, he'd said.
"We should have set a fire," is a little teasing, softening the inevitable.
There are griffons nearby, to help transport them all back the following day. They could steal one. A minor crime.
The kind of thing they could get away with, but would leave some marks on reputations. His own is nothing he cares for, but hers, well. She touches his face, and he lets out a small rumbled noise at her words, teasing or not. Reaches up to cup her face, then, a gentle but matter-of-fact handling that enables him to look at her just like that, at what her expression reveals to him, but also more surface things, like her skin flushed and mouth kissed.
Does that last one again, a tamer kiss than the ones prior to it. Out of place, maybe, if all she had counted on was this one thing, this one release of stress and tension, but he doesn't think so. Doesn't wish for that, himself.
"I'll go out first," he suggests.
i sense we are approaching bow territory we must generate new content
It’s a good kiss. Soft, intimate and conversational. She tiptoes up into it, prolonging it just a moment or two before he straightens out of reach.
“Help me with this first,” she asks, though bending to retrieve her necklace requires her to well and truly break from the bracket of his arms and chest. “I had help doing up the clasps before we left.”
A maid, resentful and silent at waiting on a mage or a member of Riftwatch, or both. She does not tell him of this.
“Could you?” she asks, softer as she holds out the heavy necklace, it’s draping chains, the rustling chime of bells as it sways from her hand.
Marcus takes the piece carefully, as if it might shatter immediately on contact, but becomes more sure of it as he turns it over in his hands, finding the clasps. "Hold your hair up," he says, before lifting the necklace. Gently wrapping metal around her throat, his knuckles brushing against the back of her neck as he sees to the clasp.
Less dexterous than the maid, but gentler, and careful. Once it's secure, he sets about brushing the chains and dangling bells to sit properly, running a finger beneath one. Deliberate enough in this manner of prolonging the moment that Derrica could surely sense it. He would certainly like to stay. There are some probably more sensible pieces of furniture they could have done this on.
He imagines, briefly, how it would be to have her bent over the edge of that desk, silk pulled up high, or on her back, against the plush couch further near the windows. Something to torture himself with as he undoes the last tangle. Yes, he'd like to say.
Instead, he picks up her shawl. Runs it through over a hand to shake it back into its shape, offering it out to her.
Marcus has a way of focusing his attention on a thing, applying such care and thoroughness to actions he devotes himself to in the wake of it. If Derrica's flush had abated at all, the reattachment and arrangement of her necklace brings all that warmth back to her. It rises to the surface instantly under the application of his finger over her chest, searing through light fabric.
Yes, she understands. He would like to stay. If she is being honest, she would like to stay here too.
But returned more or less to her previous state, loosened locks of hair aside, Derrica reaches out to take her shawl. Returns it to an elegant drape down her shoulders, though they both have to be aware of how simple it had been to shrug off. How simple it was to unfasten the necklace. How easy it would be to return to more pleasant tasks.
"I'll see you in the ballroom," she tells him, as if his is any ordinary day and she cannot feel the ache of bruises forming on the backs of her thighs.
This is only sensible, she knows. It is still a wrench to hear the door close behind him, and worse to be left with her own thoughts afterwards.
And they still have hours of party left. It's that consideration that spurs her to set the whole thing, all her questions and uncertainties and the lingering flushed giddiness of adrenaline aside, so she might do her duty while they're here.
If she takes care not to be alone in his company again for the rest of the night, it only a safeguard against: the knowledge that the little room they had exited indeed had a lock on the door.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Considers, too, self-consciousness. Of having kept himself so composed around her, after that one murderous slip, and now this. It doesn't take, that possible sense of shame, but it does make it difficult to reconcile the moment they step apart.
But here, finally, he bends his knees before letting her legs slip down, so her slippered feet can find the floor. His hand, moving between them to adjust himself, conscious a little of the mess they've made of each other, both the looseness of her hair and otherwise.
"I want to stay here," he says, still half clutched to her. If he's apologetic, it's only because he might be making her be the sensible one.
no subject
The folds of her dress fall into place, freed of obstacle. She is aware of a deep ache left behind, the lingering imprints of his fingers where he had gripped her thighs. Derrica can shake out the fabric. (She will need to excuse herself, seek a washroom.) The flush hasn't left her skin.
Her hands slide down his chest, over his heart. Turns over the statement, consider the note of apology in it. She is smiling just a little as she reaches back to set her hand back against his cheek.
"I know. So do I."
If only because every part of this becomes complicated once they step outside, to say nothing about the night stretching on ahead of them.
I wanted you, he'd said.
"We should have set a fire," is a little teasing, softening the inevitable.
no subject
The kind of thing they could get away with, but would leave some marks on reputations. His own is nothing he cares for, but hers, well. She touches his face, and he lets out a small rumbled noise at her words, teasing or not. Reaches up to cup her face, then, a gentle but matter-of-fact handling that enables him to look at her just like that, at what her expression reveals to him, but also more surface things, like her skin flushed and mouth kissed.
Does that last one again, a tamer kiss than the ones prior to it. Out of place, maybe, if all she had counted on was this one thing, this one release of stress and tension, but he doesn't think so. Doesn't wish for that, himself.
"I'll go out first," he suggests.
i sense we are approaching bow territory we must generate new content
“Help me with this first,” she asks, though bending to retrieve her necklace requires her to well and truly break from the bracket of his arms and chest. “I had help doing up the clasps before we left.”
A maid, resentful and silent at waiting on a mage or a member of Riftwatch, or both. She does not tell him of this.
“Could you?” she asks, softer as she holds out the heavy necklace, it’s draping chains, the rustling chime of bells as it sways from her hand.
it's all on you
Marcus takes the piece carefully, as if it might shatter immediately on contact, but becomes more sure of it as he turns it over in his hands, finding the clasps. "Hold your hair up," he says, before lifting the necklace. Gently wrapping metal around her throat, his knuckles brushing against the back of her neck as he sees to the clasp.
Less dexterous than the maid, but gentler, and careful. Once it's secure, he sets about brushing the chains and dangling bells to sit properly, running a finger beneath one. Deliberate enough in this manner of prolonging the moment that Derrica could surely sense it. He would certainly like to stay. There are some probably more sensible pieces of furniture they could have done this on.
He imagines, briefly, how it would be to have her bent over the edge of that desk, silk pulled up high, or on her back, against the plush couch further near the windows. Something to torture himself with as he undoes the last tangle. Yes, he'd like to say.
Instead, he picks up her shawl. Runs it through over a hand to shake it back into its shape, offering it out to her.
challenge accepted
Yes, she understands. He would like to stay. If she is being honest, she would like to stay here too.
But returned more or less to her previous state, loosened locks of hair aside, Derrica reaches out to take her shawl. Returns it to an elegant drape down her shoulders, though they both have to be aware of how simple it had been to shrug off. How simple it was to unfasten the necklace. How easy it would be to return to more pleasant tasks.
"I'll see you in the ballroom," she tells him, as if his is any ordinary day and she cannot feel the ache of bruises forming on the backs of her thighs.
This is only sensible, she knows. It is still a wrench to hear the door close behind him, and worse to be left with her own thoughts afterwards.
And they still have hours of party left. It's that consideration that spurs her to set the whole thing, all her questions and uncertainties and the lingering flushed giddiness of adrenaline aside, so she might do her duty while they're here.
If she takes care not to be alone in his company again for the rest of the night, it only a safeguard against: the knowledge that the little room they had exited indeed had a lock on the door.