Damon spent a few minutes drying off before putting his clothes back on and heading back to the campsite. It felt like coming home, even though a little over an hour ago he’d had no idea the place even existed. Malon was shaking out the bedroll, having already kindled a small fire. She grinned when she saw his catch, hurrying to take it from him.
“It’s probably simplest to cook it over a spit,” she said. “Cleaning it without a knife would be a challenge.”
“I’ll see about getting some branches to set that up.”
He brought firewood, as well, working through the afternoon into the early evening. The sun was setting as Malon finally set the fish up over the fire. Damon sat down next to her on a log he’d dragged over to serve as a makeshift bench.
“Of all the challenges I expected us to face on this journey, a rogue storm was fairly low on my list,” she said.
He nodded, putting an arm around her. “That’s why it caught us so off guard. I do think we overreacted to it, though.”
“Do you?”
He chuckled and nodded. “Given the craftsmanship and seaworthiness of Avarice’s ship, we likely could have just holed up in the cabin and waited it out.”
Malon leaned forward, prodding the fire to shift the flames to better cook the underside of the fish. “I suppose that’s true, though hindsight always holds that sort of clarity.”
The sunset was beautiful against the horizon, turning the ocean and the clouds and sky beyond into a background from a painter’s imagination. It put Damon in a thoughtful mood, and he brought up a point that had been lingering in the fore of his mind.
“You risked your life to save Ria,” he said. “Despite how she’s treated you over the course of this journey. You didn’t hesitate for an instant.”
“Of course not. And you risked your life to save me, solas. It’s simply the way of things among family.”
“She accused you of betraying us yesterday,” he pointed out. “She almost attacked you, even.”
“She is strong willed, and she’s not without good reason for her suspicions.” Malon brushed a few strands of loose hair back behind one ear and turned the fish on the spit. “My most genuine hope for the end result of this journey is for it to allow me to be your aesta again. And Vel’s. And Ria’s. To be that woman in the way I once was, without fearing that I might be forced to… repeat past mistakes.”
Damon didn’t know what to say to that. He understood what she was saying, agreed with the sentiment, even, but found himself wondering which side of it he was on. His love for her was complicated, but he reminded himself that it didn’t have to be. She was his aesta, and he wanted her free of Lascivious’s crest just the same.
“Let’s take it down a bit,” said Malon.
“What?”
“The fish. It will taste better if we char the skin.”
She took one end of the spit, and he grabbed the other, and they brought it near to the tips of the flames to finish the job. Malon had already set out a clean and smooth rock to serve as a plate. She looked as she always did while serving dinner to her family, proud and happy and content. The fish came apart as she pulled the spit out, chunks of meat hanging loose from the bones, steaming and succulent.
She tapped Damon’s hand reproachfully as he picked a choice morsel off for the first taste. “Wash your hands first.”
“Aren’t there more important rules of survival than preserving such delicate sensibilities.”
She just looked at him without saying anything for a moment, and then they both walked to the edge of the shore and cleaned themselves up for dinner.
Even without seasoning or side dishes, the fish was undeniably delicious. It had a clean, meaty flavor, and there was plenty enough for the two of them. Damon tossed the nearly bare fish spine into the water once they’d finished, returning to sit next to Malon in front of the dying fire.
They’d solved every problem that had come their way, except for this one. Damon felt a flicker of the same conflict he’d discovered when he’d first come back to see her at the tower as a man. Such a beautiful, perfect woman, so close and yet so far.
“Are you ready for bed?” she asked.
He licked his lips. “It’s so early. The sun has only just set.”
“Do you suppose it might take us some time to fall asleep?”
She had this tone in her voice that simply ruined him. He felt his cock hardening with each progressive syllable and wondered if she knew. She must have. She had to.
“I think we’ll have to find something to do,” he said. “Keep busy.”
He shifted, looking at her directly, both of them still sitting on the log and playing pretend. As attracted as he was to her, and as sure as he was in that moment, she was still his aesta.
“Did you have something in mind, solas?” she whispered.
“Aesta…”
He set his hand on her thigh and felt the way she stiffened, back arching, breath catching.
“If I were less convinced of your intentions, I might guess that you spirited me off to this island just to be alone with me,” she said coyly.
“You know that’s not what happened.”
“I do,” she said. “I also know that where we are changes nothing. Whether we’re in the tower, or on the ship, or alone on a deserted island. I’m still your—”
He kissed her, cutting her off, or perhaps giving her sentence the better ending it was due. He’d experienced too much of her to treat her resistance as anything more than foreplay. He pulled her against him roughly, almost making to lay her down along the log before remembering the bedroll.
“You’re right,” he said gruffly. “Nothing’s changed. But we are alone here, and I plan on making good use of that fact.”
“When did I let you get so spoiled, solas?” She let out a sigh and bit her lower lip. “How did we end up here, of all places?”
He carried her to the bedroll, all but falling atop her in his rush to reach what came next. He kissed her again, feeling her suck greedily against his mouth. His aesta might not have known how they’d ended up here, but clearly, they were both there , together.
He undressed her as she undressed him, her fingers working down his trousers and undershorts, tugging insistently at his shirt. He pulled her dress off in one motion, revealing her pale, busty body like a curtain might unveil an actress in a particularly lurid theater show.
She pressed a hand against his chest as he moved to take her, holding him there, holding back that moment. She stroked his face with her fingers and gave him a soft kiss.
He wanted to match that pace, to reciprocate her gentle, loving way. He really did want to. The second he’d lined his cock up, feeling the tip drag along her inner thigh in its inevitable search for its new home for the night, he lost anything resembling control.
Malon gasped and hugged him against her as he plowed forward. The pleasure was a slap to Damon’s senses, as though someone had set the spurs of ecstasy to his hips and loins. He grunted and made a wide range of unflattering, horny noises. He forced himself quiet, and, surprisingly, discovered a new range of his aesta’s pleasured, horny noises.
He didn’t just want that release, to get off and feel that relentless, bursting pleasure he knew awaited him. He wanted to make her understand the side of his love that had him kissing her neck and burying his cock into her on that dingy, beachside bedroll.
He wasn’t playing around anymore.
“Oh, aesta.” He sucked on one of her nipples, gently pinching the other and pulling the plump breast it was attached to upward. “I want to make you come.”
She let out a whimper and a mutter. “You… shouldn’t say that.”
“What’s it going to take, aesta?” He seized her hips and drove into her, pounding her relentlessly as though working up a sweat at a task on the farmstead.
“Oh!” she cried. “Solas!”
He cupped her face, his thumb running over her lips. She sucked on the tip of it and then gasped and threw her head back. He could feel the tightening of her womanhood on his cock, tensing and releasing. He wanted more.
“That was easier than I thought it would be,” he whispered into her ear, voice gruff.
“You surprised me.” She cleared her throat, still trembling with pleasure. “I wouldn’t allow yourself to grow cocky simply because you made a woman feel good.”
“I was cocky long before I ever did that.” He brushed a few sweaty strands of hair back from her face and started moving again, pacing himself for his own sake, as much as hers. “Don’t worry, aesta. I’ll go slow this time.”
“Oh…” A shudder ran through her voice, and she took several heavy breaths.
Damon lavished her with kisses, running his hands all over her body. He’d explored it before, but he’d always been in such a hurry, never really taking the time to notice where she was sensitive, where was most fun. He felt her tense as he ran his fingers along her inner thigh, bringing them up to touch her even as he continued to fuck her.
Malon suddenly gasped, back arching, body contorting. He was pretty sure he’d found that certain, sensitive spot. He sucked on her neck and let his finger continue to gently tweak. She rolled her hips to meet his teasing, flexing against his cock in a manner that tested just how flexible his member was.
“So…las,” she managed.
She let out a single, squeaking high note, and Damon felt her lane clamping down on him again, far tighter this time around, squeezing and releasing. He loved her so much, but there was more to what he was doing than simply making her feel good.
“This is how I always wanted to take you, aesta.” He pressed forward, sinking the entirety of his thick length into her. “Like you were supposed to be mine from the start.”
She blinked, her eyes dispelling that sex-glazed look as she gathered her voice. “I… have always been yours. Just not like this.”
“You love it,” he growled.
“No, solas. I love you .”
She wasn’t contradicting him, merely emphasizing the truth. She pulled his face close to hers and slowly guided him to roll over on the tiny bedroll. She pressed her hands down on his chest and began to ride with gentle, rocking motions. Her plump breasts swayed in front of his eyes, mesmerizing him with their jiggling.
She knew exactly what she was doing, and much in the same way he’d paced himself to lovingly torture her, she returned the favor. She worked her hips on his tool, letting him build until he was groaning from his overpowering need to come.
Then she stopped, leaned forward, and kissed him gently on the lips.
“I love you, solas,” she whispered. “I will always love you.”
He seized her by the hips and bounced her hard once, twice… and was done. Pleasure coursed through him like the hiss of steam from a forge’s cooling pool. Malon stroked his hair, still gently rocking back and forth to milk him for all he was worth.
“I... love you,” he muttered.
“I’m aware,” she said, grinning. “I’ve actually known for some time now.”
He chuckled, and she settled in close against his chest, and they held one another, tired and content.