Chapter 15
Something was different.
A dream of naked flesh and whimpers of ethereal ecstasy called to her, lulling her back into the darkness. Waking would bring only disappointment, despair, and the reminder that her mate was still absent from her arms. But in the moment between consciousness and sleep, Zafirah registered that something was not as it had been the day before. Beneath the lingering scent of Inaya and Nasheta’s perfume which clung to the blanket covering her naked body, she detected a new smell…lavender, perhaps, but there was something else, too. A scent too subtle, too unique, to characterize. A scent which made her mouth water and her skin sing with anticipation. Her eyelids fluttered as the outside world gained substance, overpowering the dream which promised her at least a glimpse, a mirage, of her stolen wife. In that moment, the memory of yesterday swept over her like a rising tide.
She opened her eyes.
Her Tahirah was no longer lost…she was here beside her, solid and real. Only a dim light filtered through the fabric of the tent walls from the guard fires outside, hinting that dawn had not yet broken. But even blind, Zafirah would have known who shared her bed this morn. Her Consort, warm and lithe and deliciously naked, was snuggled against the right side of her body, arms clasping her tightly, her head resting in the crook of her arm.
No waking had ever tasted so sweet to Zafirah.
She lay still a long while, hardly daring to breath, loathe to make any movement which might shatter the moment. In the darkness she listened to the rhythm of Dae’s breathing, basking in the sensation of her warmth and physical presence, letting her own breathing fall into a matching tempo. Taking great care not to disturb her Consort’s slumber, Zafirah adjusted her position a little so she could look at the indistinct outline of Dae’s form cradled against her. Slowly, gradually, the shape of her surroundings became clearer as the light from outside grew stronger. It felt as though she were approaching a mirage which promised all her heart’s desire, but rather than shimmering and fading away, it only grew sharper and more distinct the closer she drew.
With the tips of her fingers, Zafirah brushed a long strand of pale hair from where it strayed across Dae’s face back behind her ear, then trailed her touch down the line of her jaw to her chin.
Dae stirred, the lower half of her body shifting as she slipped her right thigh a fraction up and over Zafirah’s side. The arms encircling her body tightened possessively, and a low, sensual sigh escaped her parted lips. Glassy emerald’s still foggy with sleep appeared, and Dae blinked as she took in her position. When she finally met Zafirah’s gaze, the soft smile that lifted the corners of her lips made her heart skip a beat.
“Are you a dream?” Her voice was a whisper, hopeful yet uncertain.
“Do I feel like a dream?”
Dae’s left hand caressed from her shoulder down to her chest, where her fingertips traced idle patterns into her cleavage. “Mmm…you feel like every dream I’ve had worth having since the night I was stolen from you.”
Zafirah laid a gentle kiss upon Dae’s temple. “We are whole again, my Tahirah…our hearts as one.”
Dae’s hand came to rest, palm flat, against her left breast, and Zafirah knew she was feeling the drumbeat of her heart. “It’s been too long.”
Zafirah laid her own hand over Dae’s. “Far too long,” she agreed softly as their fingers intwined.
The two lay together in contented silence a long while before Zafirah spoke again. “I never imagined my path would lead me here—to such a distant land, to a bonded relationship that touches me so deeply—but I am reminded of the words you spoke at our joining. Of how you felt something was missing in your understanding of such relationships…that spark of passion you had never known. For me, that spark was all I ever knew…all I cared to know.” Glancing down, she found Dae’s face tilted up, emerald eyes regarding her curiously. “You make my passion feel calmer…not a raging inferno, but something more akin to the embers of smith’s forge.”
Dae cocked an eyebrow wryly. “Is that a compliment?”
“Absolutely! The inferno might make an impressive spectacle, but it will never soften steel as the forge will. Soon enough it will exhaust its fuel and wither…yet the glow of those embers will endure for as long as the bellows breath life upon them.”
Dae flashed her a grin and squeezed her tighter. “And you woke the fire that had been stifled in me all my life. We make a perfect match…don’t we?”
“Perfectly perfect, my aziza. Perhaps…” She hesitated, watching her fingers play against Dae’s and wondering if her thoughts might sound foolish if she voiced them. “Perhaps we really were destined to come together.” She shrugged one shoulder a little when Dae’s arched an eyebrow curiously, before adding, “You must admit, there is a certain divine symmetry in the fact that I brought you out to the Herak so you could meet my mother and bond with the nomads, and fate turned its wheel to see that I would have a chance to journey here, to your homeland, to meet your parents as well.”
“If the Gods really wanted to be helpful, they might have worked some of that divine intervention to enlighten my parents. They didn’t exactly embrace you as a daughter, as your mother did me.”
“People often cleave to their ideals all the more stubbornly in the moment they are challenged. Our union blessed my mother with a second daughter…but to your parents, it robbed them of their only child.” Zafirah had come to respect Lord Everdeen as she witnessed his struggle to accept that Dae must leave with her. He may have been a Heartlander, but he possessed a core sense of integrity and duty much akin to her own. She had hope that he could be won over. “Give them time…a chance to know me—to know us—better. They may surprise you yet.”
“I hope that’s true…but you’ve seen for yourself how stubborn they can be.” Dae disentangled their fingers and snuck her left hand beneath the blanket, fingertips trailing over her skin, pausing here and there to trace affectionately over every scar. “Anyway, I’ve no intention of letting thoughts of my father spoil my first morning waking in your arms again after all this time.” Her explorations moved lower, down Zafirah’s stomach to the flare of her hipbone, then inward to tease the neatly groomed arrow of soft hair above her sex. Zafirah sucked in a sharp breath as Dae’s finger brushed against her wakening clitoris.
“So…I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling very well rested,” Dae said in a throatier tone, swirling her finger in tight circles and watching Zafirah’s expression with a playful grin. “Still a little tender after everything Lyric did to me yesterday…but not enough to dull my appetite any. We have so much to catch up on…but where to begin?”
Zafirah didn’t have to think on the matter long; she knew just where she wanted to start. “Perhaps you might share a tale of one of your recent…seductions?”
Dae’s body trembled softly against her as she chuckled. “You’d like that, huh?”
“Oh, very much so. The thought of you leading another woman to your bed has filled my mind with the most delicious fantasies since Inaya returned from her last visit. Before that, even…when she conveyed to me your ‘message’ and I felt in her touch…in her hunger…how bold your passions had grown.” Zafirah laughed when Dae glanced quickly away, red in the face, though she was still grinning through the sliver of embarrassment that remained. “Ah…so some of your former innocence yet lingers, I see. Do not hide those eyes, aziza. I was thrilled when Inaya’s tongue ventured into areas your own has yet to explore.”
Dae rolled onto her stomach, propping herself up on her elbow and looking down at her with that shy, hungry grin. “Really? Your reply didn’t exactly…address the subject.”
“And deprive myself of the chance to be the first to introduce your senses to such pleasures personally? I think not.” Dae gave a little squeak when Zafirah slid a hand around her hip and ran her fingers from her tailbone into the cleft of her ass. “But that comes later. First, I wish to hear how my beloved Tahirah tempted her fellow ‘deviants’ into indulging their appetites.”
“But which tale should I tell? Hmm…so difficult to choose.” Dae pushed the blanket of furs down until it covered only their legs, exposing both their bare upper bodies to the brisk morning air. Head still resting on her palm, she caressed her free hand admiringly from Zafirah’s shoulder down to her belly, where she drummed her fingers against Zafirah’s stomach, appearing to contemplate the matter. “There have been so many new experiences…so many pleasurable encounters I could relate. But which would stir your passion to feverish levels, I wonder?” Dae lowered her lips to Zafirah’s shoulder and kissed her olive skin, then again a little higher, moving up her collarbone where her voice whispered close to her ear. “Perhaps I could relate my first encounter with Kaylee…how she squirmed in my arms as my fingers explored her, listening as I described my own experiences from when I first began exploring my own wakening passions.” Zafirah felt Dae’s fingers move to compliment her story, descending from her stomach down to once more tease the neatly groomed arrow of pubic hair above her center. They lingered there a moment, exploring, then finally dipped lower. “Or later, when I claimed her with my mouth…lapping at the nectar that flowed from her core and driving my tongue deep inside her. Gods, the look on her face when she felt my tongue swirl around her clit for the first time! I’ll never forget it.”
Zafirah’s blood was coursing swifter through her veins with every word, a surging flood of arousal stirred by her beloved’s words…her sultry tone and the wakening fire in her emerald eyes.
“Or perhaps I could tell you about my experience with Dani…the blacksmith’s daughter who dreamed of becoming a warrior in spite of the laws forbidding women from taking up arms. The people in her village didn’t approve of her ambition to pursue such an inappropriate career, but they thought she’d grow out of it sooner or later. The real trouble for her came when it was discovered that she’d been challenging the older boys to sparing or wrestling matches…and bedding the ones who took her seriously enough not to hold back.” Zafirah would have closed her eyes so her imagination might illustrate Dae’s tale, but the emerald gems watching held her mesmerized. Dae’s fingers slid against her lower lips and teased her entrance, feeling the wetness building there. Zafirah flexed her hips up to encourage her, but Dae only massaged her with slow firm strokes. “She’d never considered turning an eye to the ladies before she met me…but after she invited me into her bed, I quickly convinced her she’d been missing out.” Dae grinned, adding, “She certainly had a warrior’s stamina, I’ll give her that.”
“Gods, Tahirah, you tease me! Please…deeper! I need you inside me!”
“Or maybe…” Dae continued, ignoring her desperate pleas. “…maybe you’d like to hear about my friend Cass. She had no more repentance for her ‘crimes’ than I did, but though she did her best not to be too obvious, I recognized the rebellion in her eyes the moment we met. As eager as she was to join me for a bit of fun, it still took a while for us to find the right opportunity.” Zafirah wanted so much to take hold of Dae’s hand and press it firmer against her, to hasten the languid pace of her caresses and satiate her arousal, but she resisted the urge. Clutching at the edges of the sleeping pallet, breathing harder as Dae continued to stroke her fingers slowly, gently, against her sex and around her throbbing clitoris, Zafirah began rocking her hips to encourage her movements. “We finally got our chance one evening when she decided to try a little intimate grooming, and I offered her a hand. Things were getting heated when we were interrupted—another couple who’d decided to take a late-night bath themselves walked in as we were right on the edge of coming.” Dae paused for dramatic effect and Zafirah struggled to quiet a pleading whimper; Dae’s voice was conjuring images that sharpened her arousal to a razor’s edge. “Fortunately, they proved eager to take advantage of our presence. Perhaps I could tell you all the naughty details of the fun the four of us got up to before Cass and I left them to finish their bathing?”
“Gods, please…any tale will suffice. Your words are fire in my blood!”
But Dae’s fingers suddenly abandoned their ministrations at her center, and Zafirah’s eyes flared wide in protest as she felt them trail back up her body. Dae leaned closer, her hair falling like a curtain around her face and spilling down over Zafirah’s chest. “I could…but no,” her voice, low and ardent, whispered against Zafirah’s neck. “Not now. Later. We still have a long journey back to the desert, my love…plenty of opportunity for you to hear every detail of my experiences. Right now…” With fingers wet with her passion, Dae traced a line back and forth over Zafirah’s parted lips; Zafirah’s tongue darted out, tasting herself, nibbling at her fingertips before taking them into her mouth. “…right now, the tale I most want to share with you is my own. I want you to know how much I missed you. How I lay in my bed each night, surrounded by all the trappings of my childhood, and tried to recall every moment of the time we’d spent together. How the memory of your hands and lips upon me would wake a fire in my skin and made me ache for your touch. Long before I learned you’d entered the watered lands, I could feel you drawing closer. I couldn’t explain it…tried to tell myself it was just wishful thinking…but I knew you’d find me, sooner or later. I just needed to be patient…but Gods, the nights felt so lonely without you sleeping by my side.”
The mingled emotion and passion in Dae’s voice touched Zafirah’s heart. Dae’s long, blonde hair hung loose about her shoulders, framing her face like a glowing halo in the dawning light.
“I was actually grateful when my father sent me to the reformatory. Before, all I could focus on was my frustration and loneliness, and how angry I was at my parents for refusing to listen to me. But in the reformatory, I at least had company…something to distract myself with. Most of my new companions were as innocent regarding carnal matters as I once was, but they’d all heard rumors about me…and about my lack of repentance. They’d been taught to repress their desires, keep them silent, but I did my best to teach them they had nothing to feel ashamed or embarrassed about.”
As she spoke, Dae sat up and repositioned herself so she could explore Zafirah’s lower body more comfortably, all the while keeping her crystalline gaze fixed upon Zafirah’s face. “In the harem I always felt like the naïve outlander, but here…here I felt like the one with all the experience. It made me more confident…more daring. But even as tales of my experiences inspired those around me to reconsider their own feelings, every night my dreams would taunt me with the memory of you…conjuring fantasies of pleasures I’d never explored…all the things I might get to experience once I returned to the desert.” Her fingertips traced a meandering path down Zafirah’s ribcage to her belly. She didn’t appear to be in any hurry, but savored every inch of skin, every caress, reacquainting herself with Zafirah’s body. By the time she finally reached her dripping core, Zafirah was writhing on the pallet in aching anticipation.
Zafirah wanted so much to reach out and pull her mate closer, to have her straddle her face so they might mutually pleasure one another, but she was happy to let Dae lead this dance. As her fingers stroked and caressed between her thighs, Dae’s mouth descended on her breasts. Her tongue and fingers moved to an identical rhythm; the faster she stroked up and down the length of her dripping sex, the faster she would flick the nimble tip of her tongue over her nipple. Then, just as Zafirah’s eyelids began to flutter and squeeze shut with the mounting pleasure, her movements would slow simultaneously…fingers light and languorous, tongue suddenly soft and smooth against her. When two fingers finally slipped an inch into her core and made tiny thrusting motions, Zafirah gasped, feeling teeth gently nipping at her aching nipple. It wasn’t long before Zafirah was biting her arm to muffle her increasingly vocal cries of ecstasy.
“I watched your arrival with the others,” Dae’s voice continued, every word from her lips whispering against her stiffened nipple. “I watched you as you rode up to the estate…knowing what kind of reception you’d get from my parents. Part of me hoped it would all be settled then and there…that somehow you’d make them see reason. But another part knew it was foolish to hope for a swift release. None of it mattered, though; you’d come for me. Though I could only watch you from afar for now, it was enough to know you were here. That we were together…breathing the same air.”
Between her Consort’s words and the movements of her fingers, the warmth of her breath upon her skin and the devotion that radiated from her emerald eyes, Zafirah couldn’t hope to endure much longer. “So close! Gods, faster…just a little more and I…”
“Will you come for me, my aziza? Let me feel it. I’ve waited so long to be inside you…to feel you flood around my fingers. I love you Zafirah…now COME for me!”
Obedient to her command it came, thundering through her like a blow, and Zafirah’s entire body convulsed, hair tossing, thighs tightening around her lover's hand. She cried out as the explosion rippled through her, pushing back against the fingers filling her to quicken the pace of their gentle thrusts and only stilling her movements when the surging waves finally receded. But Dae’s fingers, slick and firm, continued caressing her long after the last twitching spasms of climax had faded. Before she’d finished catching her breath Zafirah was reaching out to pull Dae in for a kiss, but Dae pushed her hand away, shaking her head.
“Uh-uh, my love…I’m not finished with you yet.”
When Dae finally withdrew from her sensitive flesh, Zafirah gave a whimper of protest…but her Consort’s mischievous grin and the ravenous look in her eye were enough to quicken her heartbeat once more. Dae brought her glistening fingers to her lips, making such a show of licking each one clean that Zafirah felt an envious twitch in her clitoris.
“Mmm…so wet for me,” Dae purred as she lapped up the last of her essence. “You have no idea how much I wanted to taste you that night you came to the monastery. How badly I wanted to just smash through the glass so I could feel your arms around me…so I could love you properly.”
“Oh, I have some idea,” Zafirah replied breathlessly. “It would have been worth tearing down the whole building just to hear you cry my name as you climaxed.”
“Well there’s nothing between us now, my love…and one little taste of you just isn’t enough,” Dae said, trailing her moist fingertips back down to push Zafirah’s thighs further apart so she could admire her glistening petals. “I could drink you for hours and hours and still not slake my thirst.”
Zafirah whimpered as Dae repositioned herself, recognizing her intentions and spreading her legs wider to accommodate her lover as she settled between them. She propped herself up on her elbows to better observe Dae’s ministrations, shivering when she felt blunt nails scrape down her stomach to her sex. A fresh wave of arousal was rising quickly in her blood, far faster than Zafirah had expected, watching as Dae kissed a path from her knee down her left thigh. As she moved lower, her tongue darted out to graze the wet, swelling prominence of Zafirah’s clit.
"Oh, my sweet Tahirah…suck me. Please—AHHHHHHHHHH YESSS…"
She felt Dae’s lips envelope her clitoris tightly, sucking hard, tongue fluttering and flitting across it. Down the furrow of her sex it moved, then up, down again, finally sliding into her, parting her lips and thrusting like a small finger. Stiffened to a point, Dae’s tongue drove in and out for several moments before softening and swirling all around her vulva, saliva mixing with Zafirah’s juices.
It wasn’t long before Zafirah’s eyes widened as the heat of a second orgasm exploded through her, like the rush of hot air from a roaring fire. Zafirah’s mind was sundered into white-hot sparks, blinding her momentarily, ecstasy streaking up her thighs and into her chest. She arched her back, thighs locked around Dae’s neck, holding her tight against her sopping pubic mound.
Dae didn't stop, but continued licking and sliding fingers into her, moaning with her own excitement as she did so. The climactic contractions went on for almost a minute until they finally abated, leaving Zafirah limp and trembling.
After the last twitching pulses of ecstasy had finally run their course, Dae crawled up the length of Zafirah’s body and lay atop her with a satisfied sigh. Still breathing a little hard from her exertions, Zafirah wrapped her arms around her wife and hugged her, enjoying the weight of her atop her. When their eyes met, they both grinned.
“That’s just a little taste of what I have planned for you,” Dae promised, planting the softest of kisses on her lips. “I’m still thirsty.”
“And I am drunk,” Zafirah said, chuckling at her partner’s voracious appetite. “At least give me a chance to recover my wits while I reciprocate, my love. You are not the only one with a hunger in need of satiation.”
“Mmm…I’d love that, but to be honest, I’m still a little tender after everything Lyric did to me yesterday.”
“I shall be gentle…as gentle as the sunset’s kiss upon the dunes. In fact…” She looked around the interior of the tent, an idea forming. “…perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity for us to explore something new. Another device of pleasure we have not yet enjoyed together.”
Dae propped herself up with her hands, her expression intrigued. “You brought some of your toys along with you?”
“No…but improvisation is the mark of a quality lover. I believe Nasheta may have collected something which might serve our purposes.” Zafirah gently extricated herself from beneath her wife and rolled off the sleeping pallet. “Let me see…Ah yes…here it is.”
Sure enough, tucked under one of the small tables she found the leather satchel which was filled with all the trinkets Nasheta had collected from the watered lands: seeds and bulbs gifted to her by Lord Everdeen’s soldiers, some sort of insect cocoon that was camouflaged to look like leaves and sticks meshed together, various pretty stones she’d discovered alongside streams, polished smooth by the constant flow of water. Among her treasures were several bird feathers, including a white-and-tan tail feather taken from a pheasant the scouts had shot. “Perfect,” she declared, smiling as she presented Dae with her find. “This should serve nicely.”
Dae looked a little skeptical as she considered the feather. “What are you planning to do with that?”
“Lie back, aziza. Let me show you.”
Dae did as she requested, reclining back on the pallet while Zafirah sat beside her. With the tip of the feather, Zafirah drew a line from the top of Dae’s forehead down to the tip of her nose, then brushed it softly across her upper lip. “Close your eyes, Tahirah. Concentrate only on the feel of the feather against your skin. Let it waken your senses.”
A tad reluctantly, Dae did as bade, sealing her eyes shut and relaxing back onto the pallet. Zafirah took a moment to admire the smooth plains of alabaster skin laid bare for her devotions, then finally brought the feather into play. She ran the soft plumage around Dae’s neckline first, letting her get accustomed to the ticklish caress, before trailing it over to her left shoulder. She moved slowly, watching the fine hairs along Dae’s arms stand at attention and her skin pebble with goosebumps as she charted a meandering path that finally worked its way toward her armpit. “Arms up,” she requested, “above your head.”
Dae complied, albeit with a touch of hesitance. “You know how ticklish I am.”
“Trust me, Tahirah…this will feel amazing. I can tell you from personal experience that many sensations can complement and enhance arousal, including many you might not expect.” Zafirah let the soft barbs of the feather brush against her lover’s sensitive armpits, making Dae tense and stifle a quiet giggle, but suddenly abandoned her path. She knew from experience that half the fun of such foreplay was anticipating where the teasing touches would venture next.
Zafirah had first been introduced to the delights of feather-play by her pleasure-servant, Suhayla, who had a particular fondness for having her senses teased over many hours to build her climax up to something more spectacular. Feathers were among the oldest and simplest of sex toys—particularly effective during foreplay, but capable of bringing a woman to climax in the hands of a patient lover.
Shifting her focus to her partner’s chest, Zafirah whipped the tip of the feather quickly against each of Dae’s nipples, one after the other, then dragged the vane of it slowly across her marital piercing. Dae moaned, biting her lower lip and arching her back, looking a lot more convinced now. Zafirah continued teasing her breasts for several moments, watching her nipples stiffen in excitement, using the feather to stimulate her in various ways to test how she responded. Slowly but steadily, she traced a path back up to Dae’s clavicle, inching closer to her sensitive underarms.
Dae squirmed and giggled when she caressed her skin with the softest part of the feather—the downy barbs near the base of the shaft. Watching her expression closely, Zafirah withdrew the instant she saw a sliver of emerald appear between her eyelids.
“Eyes closed, aziza. Trust me…denying one sense can sharpen the others.” Dae pouted, but complied. “I could blindfold you if you prefer?” Zafirah dragged the feather higher, up Dae’s arms and across her wrists. “Perhaps bind your hands together to keep them from wandering?”
That suggestion made Dae squirm a little, but she shook her head. “No…I can behave.”
Zafirah chuckled. “That has not been my experience.”
Dae gave her a pouty glare, but compliantly closed her eyes and stretched her arms above her head, clasping her wrists together and taking a steadying breath.
As Zafirah’s focus moved lower down her body, Dae’s expression became more serious and she started breathing heavier. Zafirah smiled when she brought her left knee up and bent her leg to better expose her center—a blatant invitation for her to get to the best part quickly. She leaned in and whispered, “Soon,” breathing softly against Dae’s turgid nipple. Turning the feather in her hand, Zafirah lightly ran the blunt tip of the shaft in a curving line that traced the edge of Dae’s lower ribcage before teasing it down to her naval. Dae’s stomach muscles contracted as she giggled lightly at the sensations; inch by inch Zafirah moved lower, finally fluttering the soft tip in circles over her pubic mound.
Visibly struggling to keep her hands locked above her head, Dae rocked her hips up and down in an effort to direct Zafirah’s devotions to where she most wanted them. “Gods, you’re driving me crazy!”
Zafirah withdrew the feather an inch from her lover’s center. “Shall I stop?”
“No! No, please…keep going. I love it! No-one tortures me half as well as you.”
Dae managed to hold her hips still as the feather finally inched closer to her bare sex. Zafirah saw she was biting her bottom lip as the tip of the feather barely brushed against her outer labia, and heard a soft moan of disappointment when it skirted to the side and began tracing a line up her inner thigh. Zafirah took her time using the feather to waken every nerve, leaning down to plant an apologetic kiss above Dae’s pubic mound while applying the feather to the sensitive skin behind her knee.
When Zafirah finally slid two fingers over her sex, a happy little squeak escaped Dae’s throat and she flexed her hips against the firmer contact. Zafirah caressed her lightly for a moment, spreading her labia to expose the glistening, coral pink of her core and her pulsing clit. Dae moaned encouragingly. “Yessss…that’s nice.”
Zafirah grinned as she brought the tip of the feather back into play. With rapid flicks, she fluttered it against the most sensitive parts of Dae’s womanhood and watched her lover writhe in delirious abandon. When she withdrew, the tip of the feather was wet with her essence, and Zafirah painted a line up Dae’s inner thigh to her knee. When Dae gave a mew of disappointment, she dipped her face down and took a hungry lick over the thin trail of moisture left in the feather’s wake…just a little taste to whet her appetite. Dae’s hips surged forward, encouraging her to move her lips down to the center of her need, but Zafirah backed away. “So sensitive,” she cooed, using her fingers to hold the petals of Dae’s sex spread. “Do you prefer it light and fleeting, like this? Or faster and firmer…like this?”
Dae’s hips lifted off the sleeping pallet with a squeak, but she steadied herself and replied, “Soft…just soft for now.” A wicked little smile curved her lips as Zafirah obeyed. “…but I like it faster, too.”
Dae continued to twist and wiggle about on the sleeping pallet while Zafirah tormented her with the teasing, light caress of the feather’s soft barbs, her moans of delight interspersed with giggles and breathless little squeals. Zafirah could have happily spent the entire morning keeping her mate in this state of charged, ever-heightening arousal, listening to the eager sounds of her mounting pleasure grow ever more frustrated as climax eluded her…but the scent of her arousal was making her light-headed. She lashed the firm, jutting nub of Dae’s clit with rapid strokes that brought her hips up off the pallet again, then softly tickled her entrance with the feather’s tip.
“Shall I finish you with the feather…or would you prefer my tongue? Have me to lick that sweet little clit?" she asked, blowing cool air against Dae’s copious moisture. "Suck on it?"
Dae squirmed, bringing her arms down from above her head and cupping her full breasts eagerly. “Yeeeessss…tongue. Give it to me!”
Zafirah felt her own excitement rise until she could resist the allure of Dae’s flesh no longer, finally spreading the pink lips apart, revealing the sopping interior and the swelling prominence of her clitoris. She lowered her face to the glistening pink lips and extended her tongue, lapping up the nectar that dripped from them, imagining herself sucking at the sweetest honey imaginable.
No, she thought, the heady scent of Dae’s arousal making her head swim. Sweeter than honey. Sweeter than the finest wine, and more intoxicating.
Zafirah looked up the length of her partner’s body, seeing her hands still occupied with her breasts as her chest rose and fell with accelerating breathes. She took a long, painstakingly slow lick up the length of Dae’s slit before swirling her tongue around her clit, beginning to stroke a single finger over the entrance to her core.
"That's it," Dae sighed, her eyelids fluttering, momentarily abandoning her breasts to clutch at the edges of their sleeping pallet with white-knuckled fists. "That feels so good…"
"It will feel better, I guarantee it," Zafirah promised, flicking the tip of her tongue against the swollen nub of flesh while sliding her middle finger slowly into Dae, feeling the tightness grip her. Dae seemed to have stopped breathing as she concentrated all her focus on the finger penetrating her. Still holding the feather in her free hand, Zafirah teasingly applied it once more to her lover’s charged skin to distract her; a high-pitched squeal escaped Dae when she felt the feather tickling her calf and between her toes. She giggled and twisted about, only to moan loudly when Zafirah countered the sensations by beginning to thrust into her a fraction deeper.
First one, then two of Zafirah’s fingers filled her young Consort as she devoured her flesh, and for long minutes they lay locked in their embrace, until at last Dae’s voice rose in pitch and volume, and she started rocking more urgently against Zafirah’s tongue, pressing herself harder and harder, then…
"Gods, fuck me faster, my love! Please don’t stop, please don’t stop, please don’t…!" Dae inhaled sharply, eyes open now and staring down at Zafirah’s worship of her sex. Her face contorted in something that might otherwise have been considered pain. She was tugging at her marital piercing with one hand and clutching at Zafirah’s raven tresses with the other. Gazing up into the dazzling emeralds fixed imploringly upon her, Zafirah thrust her fingers rapidly and sucked furiously. Just a few more seconds and then… “I'm coming…”
Zafirah met her lover’s urgent thrusts with her own, savouring the sweetness of her lover’s essence as a sudden spasm gripped her fingers tight. She saw Dae’s eyes rolling back in her head as she shivered and shook, cries of ecstasy filling the tent. Still, Zafirah continued thrusting and licking insistently, and it wasn’t long before she’d driven Dae back to another peak.
“Oh…” Dae pushed Zafirah’s face away and covered her sex with a trembling hand. “Please… Please, stop… enough… I can't stand any more…”
Zafirah reluctantly withdrew her fingers, savoring the last twitches of orgasmic contractions that seemed to try to pull her back in. After laying a wet kiss on each of Dae’s thighs, she lay beside her spent partner, slipping an arm beneath her to pull her close and enjoying the way she immediately snuggled up against her. They lay in quiet satiation for several minutes.
“Well…what did you think?” she asked, softly caressing Dae’s breasts and stomach with the damp tip of the feather. “A simple enough tool, perhaps, but excellently suited to stimulating one’s most sensitive regions.”
“I loved it!” Dae stated, combing her fingers through her long, disheveled hair to settle it. “Gods, it felt like I was right at the edge of climax so many times…like if you did it just a fraction harder or faster it would be enough to tip me over…but it was never quite enough.”
“It can be difficult to reach orgasm solely from such a gentle instrument…though I suppose that is precisely why so many women find such stimulation a perfect precursor to firmer pleasures. A tail feather like this is so soft and yielding, while flight feathers provide a little more resistance…and a slightly more rigid touch.” Zafirah trailed the feather around Dae’s throat teasingly. “Perhaps after we return to the palace, you can experiment a bit further for yourself; I have several varieties of similar toys among my collection, and each one elicits a subtly different sensation.”
“Oh, I plan on experimenting with all your toys eventually,” Dae laughed, wrapping an arm around Zafirah’s neck and pulling her face closer. “There’re still so many facets to the jewel of pleasure I haven’t seen…” As their noses brushed together and their eyes slid shut to savor the coming kiss, Dae’s voice whispered against Zafirah’s lips. “…so many more ways to love you.”
Their lips met in a tender embrace which sent sparkling shivers rushing through Zafirah’s body all the way to her toes. She felt Dae’s fingers cup her face before threading themselves through her dark hair, and when her lips parted to release a soft sigh, Dae tongue darted forward to deepen the kiss. Zafirah’s hands were moving down the curves of her partner’s body as their kisses grew hungrier and more intense, when a familiar voice calling from outside interrupted them. “Scion? If the two of you have reached a natural lull in your activities, may I beg a moment of your time?”
Their kiss paused, and they reluctantly parted. Dae laughed at the annoyed glare Zafirah shot toward the entrance to the tent. “Very well…but it had best be a brief moment, Inaya.”
Inaya ducked inside the tent, balancing a platter of food on the palm of one hand and holding a ceramic jug in the other. She smiled at the sight of them lying together in a naked embrace. “Ah, now there is sight to quicken the coldest heart. I had a suspicion the two of you were unlikely to make it out of bed anytime soon, so I took it upon myself to put together something to break your nightly fast.” She laid the platter and the jug down on the table beside the bed. “We cannot have you expiring from exhaustion, now can we?”
Dae’s eyes lit up at the sight of food, and she quickly claimed a slice of apple and tore off a chunk of flat bread from the platter. “How is Kaylee?” she asked after swallowing the first mouthful. “I trust you and Nasheta didn’t wear her out last night welcoming her to the camp?”
“She is in fine spirits, to be sure…and well rested. Whatever that silver-haired vixen did to her yesterday apparently left her feeling thoroughly sated, so we spent the night in innocent slumber.” Her lips quirked into a mischievous smile before she added, “Well…mostly innocent. Nasheta and I were just about to take her to see the camels; she seems quite enamored with the beasts, though I imagine that will change once she discovers how ill-tempered they can be.” One of Zafirah’s hands had resumed caressing the soft skin of Dae’s exposed back almost without her realizing it, but Inaya noticed. She smirked.
“Anyway, I can see the two of you are eager to get back to your activities, so I shall not linger. Unless there is any other service you require of me?” This last was spoken in a slightly suggestive tone accompanied by a raised eyebrow
“Thank you, Inaya, I believe we have everything we need,” Zafirah told her. “For now.”
“As you wish.” Inaya turned to leave, glancing back at them over her shoulder before she exited the tent. “You might at least try to make an appearance before the sun sets again. There is much to do before we can depart these lands…and I for one am eager to feel dry again after languishing so long in all this mud and damp.”
“That was considerate of her,” Dae said after she’d left them, taking another bite of apple and chewing it slowly. “I think she was hoping we’d be interested in eating something else besides the food.”
“She can wait,” said Zafirah, opening her mouth when Dae held up the other half of the apple slice. She bit into the offering, relishing the sweet fruit and swallowing it before kissing her partner’s fingers when they lingered at her mouth. “Mmm… Right now, I want you all to myself…and I am certain she would not begrudge me a morning to indulge my selfishness. There are too many things I have been looking forward to sharing with you, my lovely Tahirah…and she would only be a distraction.”
“Such as?”
“Let us begin with the most obvious.” Zafirah rolled her smaller partner onto her stomach and gave her backside a light swat which make her yelp and giggle. “Up on your hands and knees,” she ordered playfully. “The bold passions you conveyed to Inaya deserve to be answered in kind!”
Dae assumed the position with a swiftness that betrayed her eagerness. Zafirah took the feather in hand again, dragging the length of it in a serpentine line from the nape of Dae’s neck down her spine, finally drawing it into the cleft of her ass. Her lips followed, planting hungry kisses on the ridges and gullies of each of Dae’s vertebrae until she reached the curve of her buttocks.
Every muscle in Dae’s body seemed to snap taut at the first brush of Zafirah’s tongue over her most intimate flesh. “Oh!” Her back arched as her head came up, color blooming in her cheeks. “Th-that’s…different.”
Zafirah continued to flick the tip of the feather against Dae’s dripping sex as her tongue explored from her tailbone down to her core, spending most of its time dancing across the puckered rosette between. When Dae finally released the breath she was holding and allowed her head to sink back onto the pillow, the tension in her muscles relaxed. “Gods, that feel so…naughty!? I-I think I like that!”
Zafirah grinned, her efforts increasing in fervor as Dae twitched and squirmed and whimpered.
The noonday sun had begun its descent into afternoon by the time exhaustion and hunger managed to extricate them from their torrid lovemaking,