Leo sat up and reached for Sera. His arm slid around her waist, palm ft against the small of her back, and he eased her down onto the mattress. The wound was closed, the stitches out, but the memory of her gasping in pain was still haunting his memory. He guided her onto her back with careful gentleness.

  The softening around Sera’s eyes told him she'd noticed the restraint he was showing for her sake. She didn't say anything. She just pulled him down to her.

  He kissed her deep and tasted himself on her tongue - salt and musk. Leo thought that he would at least feel weird about it, but he didn’t. In the haze of lust and intimacy, the act felt oddly natural.

  His hands found the hem of her shift and drew it upward. She lifted her arms and he pulled the linen over her head. He paused there, hands hovering over the curve of her hips, letting his eyes trace the swell of her breasts - full and heavy, rising and falling with each breath she drew in the dim light. The candle flickered, catching the freckles across the warm skin of her chest.

  His gaze followed the shadows that shifted across her skin, how the firelight painted her stomach in honey-gold tones. Leo's gaze drifted down, across the soft dip of her stomach, past the shallow curve of her hips to the nest of dark curls between her thighs. A glimmer of wetness caught the ember light. The breath caught in his throat.

  "God, you're beautiful," he whispered, the words rough and unbidden.

  "Stop staring. It's not like you haven't seen me naked before," Sera shifted, bringing her knees together in a fsh. Heat rose from her chest to her face, and her gre was so cute, without any heat behind it, making him smile.

  "Can't help it."

  Only when his gaze had consumed every detail did Leo strip his own trousers and kick the bnket free to fall away from the bed.

  He settled back over her, and the world shrank to skin against skin. The full weight and length of him pressed against her. And the contact - chest to chest, hip to hip, the heat of her radiating through every point where they touched - drew a shuddering exhale from both of them at once.

  Leo kissed her jaw, then the soft skin beneath her ear, where her pulse raced against his lips. Her throat, and the vibration of the sound she made hummed through his mouth before he even heard it. He traced her colrbone with his tongue, tasting the faint salt of her skin.

  Then Sera's breasts.

  He cupped one. In his hand, they were soft, and heavy. His thumb traced the underside, following the curve where the weight settled against his palm, and Sera moaned.

  "Oh..."

  Leo's mouth found her nipple. Already stiff and tight from the cool air and anticipation. He closed his lips around it and sucked, and Sera's back arched clean off the bed.

  "Ah...Leo!"

  Her jaw cmped shut, trapping the sound behind her teeth, but it leaked through anyway - a high, strained hum in her throat that vibrated against his forehead. He sucked harder. Tongue circling the peak in a slow sweep.

  "Mmnh... nnh! That's..."

  Leo switched to the other. His tongue barely brushed the nipple, and her whole body twitched. A louder moan escaped this time before Sera could catch it.

  He used his fingers on the first, rolling the wet peak between thumb and forefinger, tugging gently while his mouth worked the second. The combination made Sera's hips grind up against him, needy and desperate.

  "Aahn! Don't stop! Keep doing that..."

  Leo scraped his teeth lightly across the peaked nipple.

  "AAAH...!"

  Sera's hand flew to the back of his head, fingers gripping hard enough to sting. He dragged his lips along the soft underside of her breast - sensitive skin he hadn't known about, from the way she jolted - and her whole body shivered.

  Leo moved lower to her stomach, kissing each ridge of muscle that tensed under his lips. Then skipped past her center, intentionally pressing his mouth to the inside of her thigh instead.

  Sera made a sound - halfway between a groan and a growl.

  "You're doing that on purpose."

  "Doing what?"

  "Leo. Get back up here."

  "Where exactly?"

  "You know where. Stop being... ugh!"

  He grinned against her thigh and kissed his way back up. Agonizingly slow, because the frustrated sounds she made were absolutely worth the swat he'd earn ter.

  He settled between her thighs. Parted her swollen and soaked pussy with his fingers. The smell of her hit him - the concentrated musk of arousal mixed with the warm salt of her skin - and an urge rose in his chest. He pressed his mouth against her in a slow stroke.

  Sera's hips came off the bed.

  "Fffuh! Oh... oh god..."

  He worked her with his tongue - slow passes that made her thighs cmp around his ears, then tight circles on the spot that turned her voice into gibberish. Her hands fisted in the bnket on both sides of her hips, the fabric twisted between her fingers.

  "Ah...ah! Right there."

  Leo added two fingers. He pressed inside her and searched until he found the ridge along the front wall that made her spine arch. Her inner walls clenched tight around his fingers, wet heat pulsing.

  "LEO!!" Her hand twisted in his hair. "Aaahn... hah. That's enough teasing...!"

  "Tell me."

  "You know what I... don't make me!"

  "Say it, Sera."

  "I...I need you inside me. Now!"

  Leo traced his tongue one st time through her slick folds, savoring the gasp it tore from her throat before rising to his knees. Sera's breath was ragged as she watched him position himself, the swollen head of his cock pressing against her entrance, the dim light glinting off the moisture gathering there.

  She tried to rise up to meet him, but Leo held her hips down with firm hands, watching her face - lips parted, eyes hazy with need - as he began to push.

  The initial resistance gave way slowly, inch by burning inch, her heat enveloping him as he sank deeper, her inner walls fluttering around his length, until he was seated fully within her, their bodies flush against one another.

  He rested his forehead against hers. The sensation was almost too much, way more intense than his body remembered. The week of abstinence had reset everything. He could feel his arms trembling on either side of her head.

  "Okay?" he breathed.

  "If you stop now," Sera grunted, "I will kill you."

  Leo started moving, and they soon found their rhythm. Her legs locked around his waist, heels pressing into his back, pulling him deeper with each stroke. The bed frame groaned beneath them, but they didn't care. There was no one else around to hear anyway.

  The wet, rhythmic sound of their bodies meeting filled the cottage - schlk, schlk, schlk - and Sera's moans broke free of whatever restraint she'd been holding onto.

  "Ah... ah!" Each thrust punched a sound from her. "Harder. Leo."

  He gave her harder. His hips drove forward, the angle shifting, and Sera's head tipped back against the pillow. A long moan spilled out that climbed in pitch until it cracked.

  Then he slowed, before pulling out.

  Sera's eyes snapped open. She was confused at first, before her expression shifted into concern. Then - as she searched his face and found no pain there - a hint of worry flickered before she armored over it with irritation.

  "What..." She pushed up on her elbows. "Why did you stop? Was it...not good?"

  "Nothing of the sort. You're wonderful, Sera," Leo said. His voice came out rough, the effort of speaking while his entire body was screaming at him to get back inside her. "I just...want to try something else. Turn over for me."

  "...Turn over?"

  "On your hands and knees."

  Sera's eyes narrowed.. She didn't move for a second. Then slowly - still watching him over her shoulder - she turned onto her stomach and pushed herself up. Knees apart. Hands pnted on the mattress.

  "This is..." She shifted her weight from one hand to the other. "I feel ridiculous. I can't even see your face."

  "You don't need to see my face."

  "That's not reassuring, Leo. You...You're seeing everything."

  He was indeed seeing everything. The warm light traced the line of her spine, the valley between her shoulder bdes, the narrowing of her waist, and then the fre of her hips into her ass. Full and round, the kind of curve that armor and practical clothing conspired to hide.

  Leo'd seen her naked before, but this position made her so much more vulnerable. There was a spot of moisture running down her thigh, the result of his previous effort, that glistened in the light.

  He put both hands on her. Palms spreading over warm, smooth skin, fingers sinking into the firm flesh underneath. He squeezed and kneaded the muscle beneath, thumbs tracing the crease where ass met thigh, pulling her cheeks apart slightly and letting them press back together.

  "What are you...? Don't do that!" Sera sucked in a breath. "It's...embarrassing."

  Leo ignored her squeezed again, slower this time. Ran his thumbs along the dimples at the small of her back, then down over the fullest curve, savoring the way her flesh yielded under his grip. His cock twitched hard against his stomach.

  "Have you had enough?" Sera said over her shoulder. Her ears were scarlet.

  "No."

  "Stop staring and do whatever you're going to...Ah!?"

  He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the base of her spine and kissed lower, over one cheek, warm skin under his mouth, nipping gently at the fullest part. The scent of her was stronger here - musk and sweat and the sweetness of arousal. Sera's hands fisted in the bnket.

  "Leo! Not again!"

  He straightened and gripped her hips. His cock pressed against her from behind. The head sliding through slick heat, nudging against her entrance without pushing in.

  He felt the exact moment she understood.

  Her shoulders went rigid. Her head whipped around, eyes wide with recognition. A blush erupted from her ears down her neck and across her shoulders - fast enough that Leo could feel the temperature change under his palms.

  "Leo... no. That's..." Her voice came out strangled. "That's how the dogs do it..."

  "Sera..."

  "Leo, we can't just... mmph!"

  He gripped her hips and pushed in.

  "Oh...!"

  The protest died on the first stroke. The angle - one that reached pces that missionary couldn't - buckled her arms. Her face dropped to the pillow, her back arching into a steep curve that pressed her ass back against his hips, taking him deeper.

  "Oh god. That's... nngh!"

  "Still thinking about dogs?" Leo managed between breaths.

  "Shut up! Aah! Don't say anything..."

  Sera's body had won the argument.

  Leo set the pace: deep, steady strokes that made the bed frame creak in rhythm beneath them. His hands gripped her hips, thumbs pressing into the dimples of her lower back where sweat was gathering. The view - her spine curved, her ass pressing back to meet each thrust, the slick shine of her arousal on his cock - made his jaw clench hard enough that his mors ached.

  Sera gave up on the pillow. The sounds she made built from muffled whimpers into loud, sensual moans, interspersed with his name and breathless fragments that had stopped being words.

  "I love hearing you like this, Sera."

  "I'm not... aaah... being loud on... nnh... purpose!"

  Her hips rocked back against him, matching his rhythm, and the embarrassment still visible in the flush across her shoulders was losing badly to the sounds pouring out of her.

  He felt the build - the tightening at the base of his spine. The edge was approaching faster than he wanted. He reached around her hip, found the swollen bud between her thighs, and circled it with his fingers.

  The effect was immediate. Sera clenched around him, her whole body locking rigid.

  "AH! Leo... I'm...I'm going to..."

  "Come for me."

  Sera shattered. Her whole body seized. A high, broken cry ripping from her throat. "Leo! Aaah...hnngh!"

  Her inner walls pulsed around his cock in squeezing waves that dragged him past the edge with her.

  The release crashed through him. Starting at the base of Leo's spine and flooding outward until his vision went white at the edges. He buried himself deep and spilled inside her. Her name ground through his clenched teeth while his forehead pressed between her shoulder bdes, feeling her body shudder and clench beneath him in the aftershocks.

  They colpsed together. A graceless, boneless tangle of sweat-slicked limbs. The bed frame settled with a final, exhausted creak - the sound of furniture that had endured something it hadn't agreed to.

  Leo was on his back. Sera half-draped across his chest, her cheek against his ribs, one leg thrown over his thighs. They were both breathing hard.

  The ember-light was nearly gone. The room was shadow and faint orange tracing the hearthstone. The air smelled like sex, yered over the ghost of woodsmoke and the clean wool of the bnket beneath them.

  Sera pressed a zy kiss to his throat. Then another to his jaw. Her lips were still swollen and warm.

  "Did you enjoy that st part?" He asked with a grin. And Sera's fist connected with his ribs, though there wasn't any force behind it.

  A ugh escaped him as she settled against his chest with a huff that vibrated through his colrbone, and for a while there was nothing but breath and heartbeat and the slow cooling of skin.

  Then Sera's voice came, quiet and careful.

  "Do you want children?"

  "Yes," he said. No hesitation. "I do."

  "We didn't use protection," Sera's thumb traced a slow line along his colrbone. "Either time."

  "I know. If it happens, we'll just make it work," he pressed his lips against her hair - warm, still carrying the faint smell of soap. "I want that. With you."

  The tension in Sera's fingers released. She pressed closer, her leg tightening across his thighs, pulling herself against him.

  "I...want to build us a new house," Leo said.

  Sera lifted her head. In the near-dark, he could just make out the shape of her face.

  "A house," she repeated.

  "Bigger than this. Brick house, with separate kitchen and bedroom. A hearth that doesn't smoke when the wind comes from the east." He paused. The shapes assembled themselves in his mind as he spoke. "Especially if we're going to have children. They'll need space."

  She was quiet for a moment. Her fingers stilled on his chest.

  "That's a lot of coins," she said. But the way she said it wasn't dismissal.

  "We have the dungeon and the skill. It's not tomorrow. But it's not impossible."

  Sera id her head back on his chest. Her hand fttened over his heart.

  "A room for the children," she said quietly. "And a proper kitchen. I'd love that."

  "And a bed that doesn't creak."

  Her ugh was low and warm as she swatted him. Leo pulled the bnket up over them both. Sera's breathing deepened against his chest, her body sck and heavy from both exhaustion and satisfaction.

  He could feel Sera's heartbeat slowed against his ribs. His matched it as they both closed their eyes and drifted into sleep.