PS. Dinners on Me

[TaeaDawn]

She had gone to a lot of trouble to make this all happen.  She knew that Carnhain would be working late on paperwork tonight so she'd stuck a note on his desk.  When he got done he'd find it and come to find her.  That was the plan.  Simple, straightforward.  Fool proof.  Of course, she was a fool and as the time grew closer and closer she worried that he wouldn't find the note.  Or that he wouldn't come.  Or something would get in the way. 

 

The room she was staying in was lit by candles and she had even managed to get her hands on some good oils.  A few drops in the candles and the room had a slight floral scent.  She also had a musky scented oil that she had a good plan for as well.  Dinner was all finger food, things that would wait well for them in case his welcome was... warm.  Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, showing off her long neck.  Her clothes were... revealing to say the least.  She had found an outfit in her travels and had never had an opportunity to wear it.  It was a long cloak, made of a very fine and intricate lace.  She'd had to work for 2 weeks to pay for it, but she loved it.  The outfit was made to wear over other things, but Jatasha chose to be minimalistic tonight and wore only red panties underneath it.  It was perfect for tonight though.  She hoped.  She had even painted her face lightly, trying to make herself look her best.

 

She hoped Carnhain liked the surprise.  The note had been simple enough as well.  She'd written it and put a tiny dab of floral scent on it as well.  He'd know it was from her and she hoped he'd understand she was trying to do something special for him.  Light, she hoped it all went well.

 

 

And on his desk, waiting was a tiny letter,

 

I be having a surprise for you tonight if you be wanting to join me. 

 

P.S.  Dinners on Me.

 

J.

 

 

Jatasha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Estel]

Thud!

 

“Do you really have to do that?”

 

Thud!

 

“Yup.”

 

Thud!

 

“You could, you know, do you job.”

 

Thud!

 

“I could if I could read.  Much easier if you do it.  Isn’t that your job?”

 

Thud!

 

A screech.  “That nearly hit me.”

 

“My apologies, my aim is bad.”

 

“You’re a professional soldier!”

 

“I use a bow, I don’t usually throw my arrows at the door.  Speaking of which...”

 

“I’m not getting your bloody arrows.”

 

“Isn’t that what I pay you for?”

 

“No, you pay me to read your reports to you.”

 

“Then why aren’t you?”

 

“Because you told me not to.”

 

“Did I?”

 

Carnhain’s grin was sickly sweet as the beautiful sound of grinding teeth wafted its way across the room on the breeze from the window.  He was more or less required to sit and do nothing in his office for the better part of the day and since he was incapable of actually doing his own paperwork, he spent the time driving his clerk up the wall.  This was clerk number five after only a month as Captain General.  Clerk number five had already lasted a week.  Carnhain owed Jaem a night in the Tavern.

 

All of a sudden a laugh erupted from the desk in the corner.  The view was comical really.  There were maybe a dozen sheets of paper sprawled over Carnhain’s desk with his blocky, childish signature while his fat clerk was half hidden behind nearly a dozen stacks of hundreds of reports.  All the young man could see, not the lounging with his boots up on the desk and his chair tilted back on two legs gave much of a view, was the bald spot reflecting sunlight from the open window.

 

“I know I’m hilarious, but I haven’t even said anything yet.”  A folded piece of paper flew through the air, bouncing of his boots in response.  Unfolding it, he caught the scent before he saw the elegant handwriting and already his ears were read.

 

“Aren’t you supposed to be the one doing the buying?”  Carnhain was silent while he struggled with the words.  He was too embarrassed to ask the clerk to read it for him and too proud to try and sound the words out aloud.  Instead, it took him a full minute to decipher the writing.  “Is that a whipcrack I hear?”

 

A particularly heavy paperweight found its way through two stacks of papers before connecting with the clerk’s shoulder.

 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

 

Washed, shaved and squeezed into the best breeches he owed, Carnhain ran his fingers through his hair again... and then for good measure.  Not that the neatly brushed hair was all that likely to last very long but it was the effort that counted.  It took another moment yet to calm the red out of his cheeks before he managed to knock on the door.

 

His cheeks were their regular tanned colour for approximately thirty seconds while he waited for the door to swing open.  Was it really so bad that it didn’t take long at all to notice was she was wearing?  Or...well, perhaps not wearing might be a good way of putting that.

 

Embarrassed that he was staring, he slipped inside the room and attempted to say something.  In which he failed miserably and was stuck turning redder by the minute as his mouth opened and closed without the benefit of sound to convey any of the thousand greetings he had practiced.

 

In the end, a very red, guilty smile was forced to suffice.

[TaeaDawn]

His smile, she realized as she waited for him to say something, was really all that mattered.  The coloring in his face that accompanied so many of their interactions was something she had grown rather fond of, something to tell her when he noticed her and just how.  She bit her lower lip lightly as she watched him a minute before taking his hand.  "It do be nice to see you too." She said with a grin, knowing full well that he did appreciate her.

 

She reached up and kissed him lightly, trying to keep from deepening it anymore than she could.  Light, if she wasn't careful she'd be in bed with him before she could stop herself.  Not that she minded exactly, since it was exactly where she wanted to be in the end, but she had a meal and those oils to try out first.  Of course, it might be fun to see exactly how far she could take things before she lost the battle, but that might be a fight best kept until after food.

 

"Do you be hungry?" She asked, leading him to the table of food.  She sat him down in the chair and leaned against the table watching him in the candle light.  "I do no be sure what you like, so I be getting a bit of everything." She said, taking a few lids off the plates. 

 

jatasha

[Guest Estel]

The kiss was almost teasing in its lightness.  Especially given that kissed from Jatasha were rarely ever light.  Suddenly curious as to what exactly she was planning, it wasn’t until he caught sight of the food of the table that his nose reminded him that Jatasha wasn’t the only thing in the room.  Light, concentration was next to impossible.  Generally, him, her and an empty room only meant one thing.

 

"Do you be hungry?"  Grinning and blushing at the possible implications of that, Carnhain found himself in a chair with her across the table.  Remembering that he was supposed to be eating, instead of drowning in her presence, he grabbed the nearest dish and began piling his plate with an embarrassed, sheepish grin.

[TaeaDawn]

The food was good as she knew it would be.  The Inn she got it from was one she frequented quite often, though not one she tended to work around.  They were... the rowdier variety.  She took a seat and watched him as he began to fill his plate.  That was good because she really did want him to have a good bit of energy.  She took her time, selecting what to eat, making sure there were plenty of things that would...add to the enticement. 

 

She took a bite of a small cake and laughed lightly as she stood up.  She came over to Carnhain and took a seat on his lap.  "This do be too good not to share." She said, holding it up for him to take a bite.  As he did so,  she leaned forward and kissed him again.  "Definitely too good." She said with a wicked grin.                 

[Guest Estel]

He had only managed a few bites of chicken before something ended up in his lap.  Something that was far more pleasant than a forkful of food.  Taking a bite of the proffered cake, Carnhain was still in the process of chewing when the rest of the cake was forgotten in favour of the mouth bearing down on his.  Absently wondering whether supper might not end up being eaten for breakfast, and finding that he didn’t mind at all, the kiss was done before he got too far ahead of himself.

 

“Now would you be referring to the cake, or to me?” Carnhain grinned back.  Reaching up, he tried to renew the kiss.

[TaeaDawn]

"Both." Jatasha said with a wicked grin.  She let him pull her closer for another kiss and she remained that way for quite a while.  When she finally broke the kiss, she bit her lip again.  Part of her wanted to forget the whole plan and just let herself get lost in Carnhain again, but the other part of her still had plans.

 

There were other things to do though and she had a way to continue their current flirtation and still get the meal out of the way.  She leaned over and looked through his plate, picking up different things and feeding them to him with her fingers.  Sometimes she got little nips.  Other times, kisses followed the food until it was forgotten for a while.  She  barely managed to keep her wits and a few times her thoughts had drifted to the soft bed before she managed to remember her plan.

 

As dinner wound down though the kissed became longer and the caresses more daring.  "We do be done with dinner, I be thinking." She said, getting up from his lap and taking him by the hand.  "Now, you be staying still and doing what I be telling you too." 

 

It was easy enough to undress him and she had more than enough practice.  The problem was in getting him to bed without losing her own clothes.  She finally managed it, and made him lay on his stomach on the bed.  "Now, you do be getting a real treat." She said as her fingertips lightly stroked his bare shoulders.  A light blanket rested on the lower half of his body as she reached for the jar of oil.  "I do no be doing this for just anyone." She said softly in his ear.      Putting a little of the oil on her hands she rubbed them together to warm it slightly, then began massaging his shoulders, making sure her touch was more sensual than soothing.

 

Jatasha         

[Guest Estel]

It was perhaps the longest dinner of his life, but as far as Carnhain was concerned, supper could have lasted until morning.  And as dinner not-so-slowly disintegrates into more kissing than eating, Carnhain found himself pulled back to his feet and not unexpectedly led in the direction of her bed.  Yet while his clothes quickly disappeared, his own hands were swatted away.  Confused, it wasn’t until her hands began rubbing his stiff shoulders that he understood what Jatasha was up to.

 

"I do no be doing this for just anyone."

 

Closing his eyes and letting his mind drift, no surprises as to what, he chuckled softly.  “Good thing.  Else I’d have to detach his head from his shoulders”

[TaeaDawn]

The comment made Jatasha smile, but it was almost instantly replaced by the knowledge that she was walking a very dangerous path when it came to the man in her bed.  The only man in her bed, no matter what her profession.  She might be willing to give her body away for coin, but it was only Carnhain who truly captivated her, who soothed her whether he understood her or no.  And he would walk away if he ever found out what she was doing for a living.  She had managed to duck away from a few almost run ins and saved her skin that way.  It was only a matter of time before he caught her though.  Light, she didn't want that to happen, she didn't want to lose him.  She had to figure a way out of this all.

 

She continued rubbing the tension from his shoulders and neck as she bent low.  "You better be watching out." she said in a low voice.  "I may be getting the wrong idea.  I may be getting the idea that you do be liking me sir."

 

Jatasha

[Guest Estel]

Carnhain closed his eyes, losing himself in her hands massaging away the day's stiffness and simply content in his proximity to her.  Here, alone with Jatasha, nothing else mattered and he could forget the rest of the world and its problems.  Twisting around from his prone position, he gently reached up for her face, caressing her cheek.  "Now what would give you that impression?" he grinned back.

[TaeaDawn]

"I think it do be those eyes." She said as her own hand touched his upon her cheek.  She put it back on the table, pushing him back down to work on his shoulders some more.  "Or perhaps it do be the way you be turning red when I be showing up.  There be something about that which be endearing to me." she said, surprised at her own words. 

 

But there was something about Carnhain, something that made her say things that she shouldn't.  He made her feel things that someone like her shouldn't even be thinking about and she had no way to understand it.  Light, the man made her half crazy most of the time and completely crazy the rest of it.

 

"Or maybe it do be how much easier it do be to get your clothes off these days." She teased, remembering how clumsy her own hands had felt the first night she laid with him.

 

Jatasha

[Guest Estel]

The chuckle came a tad belated as it fought through surprise.  She found his blushing endearing?  It perhaps explained the amusement Jatasha took in making him blush.  "Well, at least you have it easy.  Somehow, I'm naked on the bed and you're... more or less fully clothed. I'm not sure that's entirely fair."  With another laugh as warning, he hooked an arm around her waist, pulling her down on the bed beside him.

 

Giving her barely a moment to catch her breath, Carnhain's lips locked with hers.  "Now this is a little better."

[TaeaDawn]

Jatasha found herself on her back quick enough and was laughing even as Carnhain's lips caught hers.  She had wondered how long she'd manage to keep the massage up before things took a different turn and she couldn't regret that it had lasted such a short time.  Of course, she could always finish a little later. Or a lot later.

 

His hand travels up her thigh and as he touched her waist she pulled away from his lips, laughing.  "That do be tickling." she said with a grin as he looked at her questioningly.  He stopped his hand movements and Jatasha wished she hadn't said anything.  Right where his hand had touched was a small scar from her earlier days on the streets.  One of a few, though she had managed to keep most of her wounds from those days scar free.  She hadn't remembering them, but she did.  Every single fight and scar.  She refused to remember names and faces of those people though.  Names and faces were people killed on the streets by her own hand or by another because of her.  She bit her lower lip as he looked at the small almost moon shaped scar.  "You do no be liking me now that I do be scarred?" she teased as she tried to pull him back down to her and avoid his attention on it.

 

Jatasha :P

[Guest Estel]

She certainly didn't have any qualms about him removing her clothes this time.  But as his hands wandered over her body, he found something he had been too... distracted to notice before.  From the number of times he'd seen her naked, one would think he'd have every scar and freckle memorised but...  Distracted was a rather obtuse way of putting it.  The guiltiness Carnhain had though he had conquered returned.  How much of this relationship was no more than physical?

 

Her lips found his and for a moment he forgot.  Distracted... right.

 

Forcing his lips away from Jatasha's, Carnhain tried to look at her seriously.  Light burn him, it was so hard to concentrate.  "A little scar like that?  When I have these?" he said gesturing towards the pair of longer scars across his chest and stomach.  "I'm just wondering where you got it."

[TaeaDawn]

Blood and bloody ashes, she thought she had managed to distract him.  Not that it was a secret or anything, but her past was something she tried not to talk about much.  Her life in general was something she didn't like to talk about.  With someone else, she might have tried to distract them again, or to throw it off but she'd been sleeping with Carnhain for over 2 months now and it seemed like he was entitled to a few answers after all that time. 

 

She sat up on her elbows and looked at the small scar he was suddenly fascinate in.  "Illian." She said in a quiet voice.  Odd that she could sit on the bed with him completely naked, and yet not feel it until now.  "There do be a lot of fighting in the streets.  I do still be young at the time..." She was still only 17 but life had tossed her around enough to know when her youth had really ended.  ".. and not knowing how to be acting.  I be working and someone no be liking me in their place.  We do be getting into a fight and she be having knives I do no know about."  She touched the scar lightly, tracing it with a finger.  "It be the first of too many, but I do be learning and I be no making the same mistakes too often."

 

She looked up at him with a faint smile.  "In time you be knowing all the tricks and you be getting in less fights.  There always be someone to pick a fight or refuse coin you be owed, but even that be somewhat avoidable if you be reading people right."  She shrugged.  "I do no always read it though.  My Da be saying I be seeing too much in people, that I be wanting the world to be better so I be seeing it that way, instead of what it really is."  She looked away then, not sure what to say after that.

 

Jatasha

[Guest Estel]

Knife fights!  It was hard to picture her fighting for her life even though he had tried, and failed miserably, to teach her a thing or two about weapons.  He had spent so long pitying his own lack of a childhood that it hadn't really occurred to him that his might not be the worst there was.  To be a slave was one thing, but to be forced to sell your own body...  It was a wonder Jatasha was still the way she was.

 

Wrapping his arms around her protectively, Carnhain felt at a loss as to what he could possibly do to make any of this better; to somehow comfort her.  He fumbled for words that were unfamiliar coming from his own mouth.  Always having been one to sluff something off with a joke, there was a certain self-consciousness to what he said.  "I don't agree with your Da.  Sometimes you have to see the best in people, or else you'll simply get fed up with trying to help them?  And if you didn't see things the way you did, you..." he stumbled over the words, feeling himself blush "you wouldn't be you."

[TaeaDawn]

Tears filled her eyes at unexpected response from her lover.  She'd never claimed to be the smartest person, not when she always managed to get herself hurt by what she saw in people, but she couldn't help but see things they way she did.  Her mother had taught her to look for the good in people, and even though she had been stolen from her along with everything else she had been taught, she still managed to keep that. 

 

"He did be right, sometime." She said, self conscious of the tears that began to fall quietly down her cheek.  "But it do be my Mother's way and I do no know how to be any other way."  She didn't dare look up at him for him to see the emotions that reflected in her eyes.  She knew how awful his life had been before, how alone he had been and how uncared for.  Even the worst day of her life was probably nothing compared to what he had been through.  "They do be calling me naive and gullible for it in the Perfume Quarter so I know it do no make me special, but it do be me anyway.  I do no be brave or strong like you though.  I do be thinking I would rather be brave." She said quietly.

 

Jatasha

[Guest Estel]

"And I wouldn't want you any other way."  The words were on the tip of his tongue.  But as he hesitated, the moment passed and what little courage he had had to even come near to saying the words faded away and he was left kicking himself for not saying them.  Why?  He was no longer afraid of rejection- they had passed that point some time ago.  Blood and ashes, worry as he might that their relationship might only be physical but when the chance came to make it more than that, he stared the unfamiliar depth of these new emotions in the face and backed away.

 

Carnhain nearly laughed when she called him brave and strong.  'Then why am I too scared to lay aside the teasing and just talk without stumbling overand holding back the words?'  Instead, he held her tighter in response.

 

"It takes a special person to go through what you did and still be able to see thing the way you do." he said finally having gathered up enough courage to speak.

[TaeaDawn]

 

"I do no want to be special." She said quietly.  She was pouting, she realized.  Pouting because her lover saw her as something special and she didn't know how to deal with it.  He'd made her feel wanted and safe and for a little while, she had enjoyed that.  Only now, there was always the fear of discovery, that somehow he would figure out that she had taken up her trade here in the Citadel.  That he would realize how 'special' she was and he'd toss her aside.  Or worse, just throw the coin on the table and walk out. 

 

She liked the Citadel, liked the people and the feel of the place as a whole. She didn't want to leave and she didn't  think she'd be able to stay if he left her bed.  She pushed the thoughts from her head.  Light, she didn't need to do this to him.  He hadn't come for this and she knew her trade better.  But he wasn't a customer and she had no intention of trying to act like he was.

 

"Sorry," she said softly as she looked up at him.  Tears still filled her eyes, but they no longer fell as they had been.  "I did no mean to be like this.  You do just be asking about a silly scar and I be acting the fool."

 

Jatasha     

[Guest Estel]

Carnhain was confused.  Was it something he said?  Light blast him, this was what talking got him!  Biting his lip, Jatasha saved him the trouble of thinking too hard of what to say to get himself out of this mess.  It wasn't until she looked up at him the he realised she had been crying.  Squeezing her closer to him, he gently kissed her forehead. 

 

This was the first time he had ever seen her cry.  Even after saving her from that gangrape over two months back, he had been the one to cry, not Jatasha.  Her words did little to comfort the guilty feeling that he had somehow made her cry.  Blood and bloody ashes, he didn't mean to make her cry!  Carnhain was unsure of how to fix whatever it was he had done; it was awfully hard to fix something when one didn't know what one had done to cause it.  "It's alright." he mumbled, wondering whether he was helping anything at all.

[TaeaDawn]

She didn't believe him.  She couldn't.  Nothing in her make up could let her understand that he could actually care about her for more than the physical.  Her father had been cruel enough to point out how her face was only as good as the coin it fetched them, how her body was only as strong as the men she took.  There was nothing precious about her, he had told her time and time again.  Her worth to him lay in the coin she gained and it was a lesson she had learned harshly enough with her first bedding. 

 

What little faith in herself she had came from the memory of her mother.  She had been a good woman, beautiful and kind, no matter what her father had turned out.  There was a part of her in Jatasha and that was the part that was worth something.  That wasn't what she was showing now though.  This was something of her father.  Something unpleasant and sad.  She didn't want to be that to Carnhain who had suffered too much in his life.  She needed to be a little bit more for him.   

 

She didn't know how to correct this though.  She was no good at talking about herself and she'd proven that tenfold tonight.  He'd certainly never ask again, that was for sure.  Taking a deep breath, she wiped the tears from her eyes.    "It do be alright." She said as she sat up and looked down at him.  She smiled softly, sighing as she did so to release  some of the tension in her body.  She kissed him lightly on the lips then.  "I be hear with you.  That do make it alright."

 

Jatasha           

[Guest Estel]

He must have done something right.  The light pressure on his lips was enough to ease away the self-doubt that had plagued him only moments before.  Fingers lighty traced the scar of their own accord ashe tried to imagine what those men must have done to her.  Protective, he was as close to her as could be, unwilling to let Jatasha get too far away.  The mood in the room wasn't conductive to the blinding rage Carnhain would normally allow to consume him, rather, it brought out a profound sense of sadness for her.  Nevertheless, it was with some effort that he held the rabid animal in his head at bay; its pulse beating against his.  Now was not the time and nor was there anything to let it loose upon.  To give in to anger now would only destroy everything and ruin what was too happy a moment to break.

 

After a little while, letting her proximity calm him and dull any leftover rage, he said "You know parts of my story but I still know so little about you."  The hint of question hung over the sentence but Carnhain was unwilling to ask anything further, unwilling to risk making her cry again.

[TaeaDawn]

"You be knowing me better than anyone." She said.  She realized what she was admitting with that one comment and hoped he didn't read too much into it.  She didn't want to scare him away with that sort of talk.  "There do be little to tell.  I be born and raised in the Perfumed Quarter.  You know my mother do be a Tuathan and she be falling in love with my Da and following him there where I be born.  She died when I be 10 and my Da do no be able to deal with it.  He be taking to the drink and did stay that way till he died a few years back."

 

She didn't want to think about it all really.  She knew now that her father had killed his mother in a drunken rage, but it hadn't been until years later that she had figured it out.  His guilt drove him further into the bottle and he pushed her into the streets when he realized his little girl could keep him in drink if he'd just put her to the right use.  And she was still there, unable to escape from that life.

 

"I be leaving Illian then, to see the world, try to find new things and be making new friends.  I do no be having much luck at it until I do be leaving Baerlon." She said, smiling up at him.  It had been there that she had met Carnhain and things had begun to change for her.

 

Jatasha

[Guest Estel]

Her had heard parts of the story before but hearing it again, in this setting and now knowing her as he did, everything became more real.  This wasn't just him connecting with the damsel in distress in whom he had found so many parallels to his own life.  Two months.  He had known her an entire two months though it barely seemed two weeks.  There had been so many times when nothing seemed to go right and time stood at a standstill to prolong his torture and now when Carnhain wanted everything to last as long as possible, time flew by. 

 

Kedyn and Rowul had been there since the beginning here but this was so much different; it was...  How would he know what love was?  It had taken months to learn the meaning of friendship and years to understand brotherhood.  All he had to compare this against was Kedyn and Lavena's relationship.  This was too different.  Kedyn and Lavena hadn't even slept together before she died and they had known each, been friends, long before that first kiss Carnhain had witnessed in his tent.  Part of him had been jealous of what Kedyn had but would he have even been able to understand a relationship then?  He couldn't understand it now despite wounds healing over.  This had started with sex and continued with sex- so was it just lust?

 

Love or lust, he couldn't help himself with Jatasha smiling up at him.  Lips decending on hers, the kiss started out gentle but when she made no move to break it, passion returned.  His poor attempts at soothing with words seemed only to make things worse, so he tried to comfort her in the way she had taught him.