Fate War: Alliance

by E. M. Havens

  “Sam…” He wiped his hands down his face. He could try and explain or lie. He decided on option three – shock – and threw the blankets back. It looked like a sword grip had been very uncomfortably misplaced in his undershorts.

  She squealed and covered her head with the blankets. Cole was too frustrated to find it amusing, and started to stand.

  “Stay.” Her muffled voice filtered through the layers of sheets.

  “Sam…” he grumbled. This was getting more awkward by the moment. Self-pleasure may be taboo, but he could guarantee that if it had a piston, it pumped it. He, for one, was not ashamed. It was Sam’s fragile psyche he was worried about. She peeked out from under the covers trying not to look at his obvious arousal, but her eyes keep flitting back.

  “Can I…” her face flushed crimson. “…see?” She sat up, and tucked loose strands of hair behind her ears, which were also an interesting shade of Arboreal red. Everything in his mind screamed, This is a bad idea. His groin screamed, Slag yes!

  “Are you sure?” he asked warily. Sam nodded emphatically, the blush on her cheeks redoubling. “Okay.” He couldn’t believe he was about to do this.

  He scooted on the bed, back to the headboard, and with one more confirming look to Sam, pulled off his shorts. Her giggles were instantaneous, and she pulled the collar of her shirt over her face, hiding her eyes.

  “Hey! No laughing.” Cole chastised in mock anger. Her head popped back out of the shirt, her face serious.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, bowing her head.

  “No. I was just kidding. Sort of.” He mollified, caressing her cheek with his thumb. “It’s just, laughing at me when I’m naked isn’t the best way to…keep me that way.” She nodded her head, but didn’t look up. “Come on. Have your look.” Her eyes crept across the bed, and found their way to the target.

  “Can I…touch it?” she whispered.

  “Yes.” Cole said, biting back, that’s a stupid question. She reached toward him as if attempting to pet a cobra. The second her fingers came in contact with his flesh, reflex took over, and it twitched towards her touch. She squealed again, and dove under the covers. Cole belly laughed and tried to dig her out.

  “Come here.” He chuckled and pulled her to his side. “I want you close.” He began stroking himself, and Sam, a little more bravely, touched him too. His breath caught, and tingles shot up his spine as she traced a vein down his length.

  “It’s soft. Like silk,” she said, sounding surprised.

  “Yes.” He rasped, half answer, half agreement as her fingers tentatively explored him, and he picked up his pace.

  “I imagined it different. More like sandpaper.” Her comment almost ruined his fast approaching relief, reminding him of the pain he caused her, but her hand was suddenly on his, matching him stroke for stroke.

  A sideways glance had him reeling. She was in tinker trance, learning how to please him. The implications of that sent him over the edge, and he reached his long overdue release with a satisfied moan.

  Weeks of tension spilled from his body and he pulled Sam closer. He had experienced and seen many pleasures this world had to offer, but that was a first. An awkward, sexy first.

  He was startled from his blissful lounging, when Sam’s finger glided across his stomach. She sat up and studied the substance she gathered, chewing on her bottom lip.

  “Can we look at this under the microscope?” she asked, with unveiled excitement.

  “God, Sam!” He laughed. “I’ll make you a slide later. Come here.” He tucked her back into him and stroked her hair, untangling small knots his fingers discovered.

  “That looked pleasurable.” She sighed, exploring the curves of his chest with her finger.

  “It was.”

  “I wish I could know how it feels for you.”

  “That would be interesting, but from what I understand, yours is better.”

  “My what?”

  “Orgasms.”

  She pulled away and sat up, studying him quizzically. They stared at each other for a moment then realization trickled in. Cole had never read a scientific account of female pleasure. He was fairly certain a text did not exist. It certainly wasn’t discussed in proper company. So why would Sam know about it?

  “Sam, women have orgasms too.” He barely restrained the fragment of anger loosed by the new injustice done to his wife.

  “For what purpose?” She crossed her arms and quirked and eyebrow. She looked every bit of, you-can’t-fool-me, but that was a very good question. One neither he nor any scientist knew the answer to, so he just spoke from experience.

  “Pleasure,” he said with conviction. She still didn’t look convinced. “All right, let’s set up an experiment.”

  “What kind of experiment?” She uncrossed her arms and her eyes lit up.

  “Well, you’ll be the control…” Cole pulled her back into him, nose to nose. “…and I’m going to kiss you.” He traced her jaw with his finger. “My hypothesis is that with the proper stimulus you’ll feel pleasure.”

  “The control for the experiment has to be separate, isolated from the variables which…” He stopped her with a kiss. The experiment began.

  Sam tried to analyze the legitimacy of this experiment, but the ability to grasp a rational thought was quickly diminishing. His lips were on hers, begging response. She obliged, but this wasn’t the tender kiss they shared on the meadow. Urgency built in her for more and she pulled him closer, crushing his mouth to hers. The pressure was magnificent and they opened to each other, tasting, testing contours and boundaries with their tongues.

  Sam couldn’t breathe, and she breathed too much; both created a giddy lightheadedness that slowly seeped to her extremities, drenching every cell of her body. Cole broke away from the kiss. She was disappointed for only an instant until his kisses found her ear, her neck, then a delicious spot near her shoulder. He moaned into the hollow of her throat, vibrating her to the core and she realized her hands were gripped so tightly in his hair it must be causing him pain.

  Releasing his hair, she tried to relax but his hand slipped under her shirt, creating quivering tension throughout her body. The anticipation was unbearable, though what she was anticipating was unclear. She didn’t care. His mouth found a tantalizing spot at the base of her neck and his hand, her breast. An unbidden whimper escaped her mouth when his thumb lightly brushed the hardened nub sending an exquisite shock to her core.

  Of its own volition, her body rocked into his. Sam was too distracted by the intense ache building below her navel to be embarrassed. More. She needed more. More of his hands, his mouth, his skin on hers. Too soon he pulled away, and rested his forehead on hers.

  “So, did I prove my theory?” Cole said between unsteady gasps.

  “Orgasms are amazing.” Sam replied, fighting for breath as well.

  Cole laughed and traced patterns on her collar bone with his finger, creating shivers and goose bumps in its wake. “The experiment was to give you pleasure not release. That was just a taste, not an orgasm.”

  Sam gasped. She couldn’t imagine feeling any more intense than she just had.

  “Perhaps we should run the experiment again.” She suggested. “Just to confirm our findings.”

  Cole laughed and placed an affectionate kiss on her forehead. “As stimulating as that might be, I don’t think I can take much more of this. Besides, I have a surprise for you.”

  ****

  “Keep them closed,” Cole said, taking Sam to the back of the property. The ground was uneven, but he did his best to lead her around the worst parts. His eyes were locked on her face, not wanting to miss a minutia of her reactions. “Okay, open.”

  She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, then grew wide with recognition. Absolute zeal infused her smile when she approached the hulking pile of metal that was once a mechman.

  “Captain Jensen did not underestimate when he said it was in worse shape,” Sam said, picking through smaller
pieces on the periphery of the mound.

  “No, he didn’t,” Cole agreed. “As best they can tell, it stumbled and fell down a ravine.” He climbed to a more substantial piece, and offered Sam a hand up so she could explore further.

  “This will be quite a project.” Concern laced her voice, and she picked at her nails. Cole sensed she was fighting some demon not restrained to the past. He waited patiently for the battle to end, hopeful in a victory. “I’m going to need tools to work with.”

  “I thought you might say that,” he said, and helped her down. A request, a want. Such simple things to cause her so much hesitation. But still, she won this time, and much more quickly than before. “That wasn’t your surprise. You knew the mechman was coming. This is your surprise.” He gestured towards a building a few paces away from the heap of Fate mech.

  “A shed?” Sam eyed him warily.

  “Open the door, silly.” He placed his hand on the small of her back, and ushered her into the room. The lamp light sparkled off of her wonder filled eyes.

  “How…When…” She rushed into the room, investigating in earnest. Tinker tools and supplies filled the shelves lining the walls. A work bench occupied the far end of the shed, outfitted with a large set of magnifiers.

  “The Tinker in Sagewood, he wanted to retire so I bought him out and had the shop moved here. It’s yours. Of course you’re still welcome to visit me in my laboratory anytime you wish.” He gave her a courtly bow, and by the time he rose, she was on him.

  Caught off guard by her advances he fell back into the workbench, toppling boxes of screws and cogs. He didn’t care because her lips found his. She bit his lip teasingly and he returned the favor. He fleetingly thought he had helped awaken more than her sense of self when her hands began tugging at his shirt.

  Cole swept his hand across the work bench clearing it of various tools and boxes, sending a magnifier crashing to the ground. He spun Sam around and lifted her to the table. He stepped into her and she cradled him in her thighs. His hands found the hem of her shirt as well and he barely restrained the urge to rip it off instead of unbuttoning it. Her hands worked feverishly at his, stopping occasionally to pull his lips back to hers.

  “Damn,” he cursed, getting stuck on a particularly rebellious button, and realized Sam had stopped her attentions to him. She stared at nothing with her head cocked, listening. He was about to ask her what was the matter when he heard it too, the rhythmic thrumming of an air ship.

  Without a word, they quickly made themselves presentable and hurried outside. The airship was just visible, approaching over the treetops, a trail of smoke in its wake. Cole grabbed Sam’s hand and pulled her toward the lawn where they would have a better look as it flew over, on its way to the clearing.

  “No.” Sam hissed. The ship’s airbladder was Perspician blue, and the ship itself was ornate enough to belong to only one passenger. “Mother.”

  “Sam, wait!” Cole called after her. She was already across the lawn and brushing past Nana on the veranda before he could react.

  “Sam!” he called again, watching her disappear into the manor.

  “Oh my, Lord Cole, what ever is the matter?” Nana asked, as he reached the porch. Before he could respond, dust and leaves pelted them on a stiff breeze, the air ship slowly descending to the lawn. Cole took a mesmerized Nana by the shoulders.

  “Can you stall?” he asked.

  “Stall who?”

  “The Queen of Perspicia?”

  Nana’s eyes went wider than they already had at the sight of an air ship landing at the manor.

  “Does this have anything to do with last night and Lady Samantha?” she asked, and held her ever present handkerchief to her mouth.

  “It has everything to do with last night,” he snarled.

  Nana glared at the descending airship. She had given him similar looks as a child. It would stop him in his tracks and make him want to confess every naughty thing he had ever attempted. He was thankful the look of contempt Nana donned now was never turned on him. For an instant, he felt sorry for the queen, having pit his nurse maid against her.

  “I’ll do my best, Sir,” she replied, chin and confidence high.

  “Thanks, Nana.” He kissed her cheek and ran after Sam, calling her name.

  Cole found her in their bedroom. Every one of Sam’s forgotten trunks was open and emptied. Clothes, shoes and other various items were scattered about the room.

  “Help me?” Sam pleaded, and threw her corset at him, as she unbuttoned her blouse with fumbling hands.

  “Sam, what are you doing?” He knew what she was thinking, and it took a force of will to stay calm.

  “She can’t see me like this. Help me!” The final button free, she removed her shirt, and turned to search for some finery to don. She caught her reflection in the mirror and stopped. “Oh God, what have I done?” Her hands slid over her newly forming curves like trying to wipe off unseen swill. She touched the cropped ends of her hair in horror. “She can’t see me like this or…”

  “Or what?” Cole crossed the room, and forcibly turned her from the mirror. “Or what?” He couldn’t stand the fear in her eyes. He wrapped her in his arms so he didn’t have to see it. “Or she’ll yell at you? Send you to your room?”

  “She’ll send me away again.” Sam wailed into his chest, finally overcome with dread.

  “No.” He held her tighter and buried his face in her hair. He wanted to say that she wasn’t going anywhere. She was his and no one would ever take her away from him. He wanted to send her mother away and never think about the woman again, but that would only further strip Sam of any power she’d gained.

  “I like you like this,” he said and trailed his fingertips along her naked side. He was rewarded by an outbreak of goose bumps and Sam’s arms encircling his waist. “But you have to wear something. Wear what you want. I won’t let anyone take you against your will. I promise.”

  Cole let her go and left the room without looking back. He would lose his resolve to let her make the decision if he did. Once out of their room, the sharp sounds of conflict reached him. Nana was obviously doing her best to hold off the queen. As he exited the staircase, the sight of Nana and Queen Adella nose to nose would have been entertainment any other time. Two Perspician royal guards flanked the Queen and teetered on the edge of interfering.

  “I don’t care if he is indisposed,” the Queen seethed. “I am a Queen, and I wish to see the Prince immediately.”

  “And I’ll tell you again, wish in one hand and clinker in the other, and see which one gets full first. The Prince will be here when he gets here and you can wait in the sitting room until that time. You b – “

  “Nana!” Cole interrupted. “Thank you for greeting our guest. That will be all.”

  Nana turned from the Queen with a smug smile and a wink that only Cole could see.

  “Prince Cole, you should have that woman flogged for her insolence. What you consider proper servants here. I say.”

  “Queen Adella. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

  “Don’t be obtuse.” Queen Adella eyed him like something that exited the tail end of a horse. “I arrived at the castle for a visit with Samantha only to find that you disregarded The Binding, and dragged my daughter to this ramshackle backwater to be attacked, not only endangering her life but the treaty between our countries, and yet you have the audacity to act the ignorant fool.”

  The taste of iron filled his mouth as Cole bit his tongue. No one had spoken to him in this manner ever, even his father, but returning insults would not serve Sam.

  “Queen Adella, would you like to have a seat so we can discuss this civilly?” Cole gestured to the couches in the sitting room, struggling to keep his voice and hand steady.

  “My dear boy, I do not wish to discuss anything,” she said in a saccharine tone, batting her eyes. “I wish for you to tell me why you have jeopardized the trust and rapport our countries have worked so hard to build.”


  The Queen glowered at him for a moment, then her gaze slipped over his head to the staircase. She blanched and her jaw went slack. Cole couldn’t hide a satisfied smirk as he guessed what was behind him. A quick look verified Sam’s entrance, as herself. She wore her riding pants and blouse, but averted her eyes, and held her arms across her stomach, trying to hide.

  “Oh…Oh my…” Queen Adella tottered, and her guards were quick to help her to the plush sofa. “Prince Cole, I understand now. Forgive me. I’m so sorry.” The Queen fanned herself, and her eyes rolled about like she was on the verge of fainting.

  “What exactly are you sorry for?” Cole baited.

  “We tried, Prince Cole. We tried to make her suitable,” the Queen lamented.

  “Oh, I think you misunderstand. Sam is more than su –” Cole snapped back.

  “The pains,” Queen Adella interrupted. “The pains we have gone through to tame that wild –”

  “The pains? Don’t you speak of pains after what –” Neither royal would give ground and they continued in a verbal duel.

  “ – such an embarrassment, for you and your –”

  “She is NOT an embarrassment! She is the most –

  “ – assure you that this can be fixed, and your honor –”

  “ – don’t want her fixed –”

  “ – the shame upon your family –”

  “Shut up!” Cole had enough. The Queen’s guards took steps toward the boiling Prince, but Queen Adella waved them off and rose. Her eyes narrowed to small slits in her sallow face. Voluminous skirts held up with bowed elbows and crouched shoulders, gave the impression of a lioness about to pounce.

  “How dare you?” She thrust.

  “How dare you!” Cole parried and repost. “That is not only your daughter you are speaking of, but my wife, and more importantly a person. If you dare insult her again I will have you forcibly removed from my property.”

  “You haven’t the authority.” Queen Adella stepped close enough that their toes touched.

  “I have more guards.” Cole leaned into her space just close enough to keep focus on her glowering eyes. As if to prove a point, the sound of hoof beats drew their attention to the window as Captain Jensen and the Sagewood garrison arrived, most likely investigating the arrival of the air ship. The guards’ arrival diffused the moment slightly and the Queen and Prince created a bit of space between them.