Meeting in the middle

Meeting in the middle
A Hero tired of fighting lets the awkward Big Bad have his way with her.
M/F, vanilla, Dom/consensual
--
   The bell tower of the old library rang again. Orcs was attacking, and the poor scholars were ringing for their lives. This was nothing new, the savages went for whatever they encountered first, even if it included nothing but books that would be useless to them. They had been quite the menace over the past half-decade. The local militia in these small towns could never properly respond to these small raids, especially not when the original founder of the library had decided to build the otherwise beautiful landmark a solid 600 yards from the closest building in the town. Thankfully, the town militia weren’t the only ones around today.
   Alicia, one of the renowned heroes of the country, was already armed up and striding through the meadow, headed for the library. She was alone today, which was unusual, but she had her reasons. She was heavily armed with both a bow and quiver on her back, and a short sword and a dagger strapped to her belt, all tied to what looked like a very custom-tailored gambeson, that covered her arms and torso. Her legs she kept bare, making the gambeson almost look like a thick dress of sorts on her as she sped through the flower fields to hopefully reach the scholars in time. She was armed and ready to fight.
    She was confident she could either beat whatever small raiding party was here, or at least drive them off. She had fought much worse. When she finally reached the two large doors of the library, forced open and hanging loose, she quickly drew her bow, and prepared an arrow – But she was too late. Standing in the middle of the entrance hall was none other than Lord Damian. The hulking beast of a man stood bloodied over 6 large orcs, whom he had just cleaved down with his oversized axe, lodging it straight into the torso of the final orc he had slain. He lifted his gaze up as Alicia had came into view, and their eyes locked for a moment.
   “Wasp.” Damian almost spit the word out when he saw Alicia. She placed an arrow the ready, but didn’t quite start drawing the bow just yet. They weren’t on good terms, to put it mildly. Lord Damian was one of the main antagonists the group of heroes she used to travel with faced, because while they all had the country’s best interest in mind, they had wildly different ways to accomplish that. His presence here wasn’t completely surprising. It was quite the coincidence, but he had built himself quite the network of teleportation circles, and his runed cloak let him travel back to his castle as he required. One of the few reasons he was even still alive, and why he was such a big problem to deal with. Alicia herself had put quite a few arrows in him over the past 2 years, but when he had the ability to vanish on demand, it was difficult to make her hits count. His rugged face stared at Alicia with a demeanor that clearly showed his intent to continue fighting, but his ragged breath betrayed his overexertion. He was strong, and no doubt lived up to his name, but being able to take on 6 orcs all at once was not an easy task, even for him. And closing the distance to Alicia would be much harder than fighting those orcs.
   Alicia was in a different state of mind. She had come to kill the orcs, and they were dead. She had nothing more to do here. She could try to take the fight with Damian, but it was a pointless battle to have for several reasons. Either he would escape as usual, or he would get her. And, well, he had just saved the scholars. Moreover, she had just left her old companions behind, technically speaking, killing Damian would just make that 1 less person trying to defend the country from the many outside threats they also faced. She spotted movement in the back of the entrance hall, as one of the scholars came out. An old, frail looking man, who recoiled at the brutal sight of the brutally murdered orcs, before quickly looking towards Damian with thankful eyes. No, this was not the place or time for a fight. She lowered her bow, and gave a small smile to the scholar, before slowly backing up.
   Damian wasn’t about to let her run. He completely ignored the scholar, and with his axe drawn, made long strides towards Alicia. Anger clear in his face, he knew how these meetings went. Or usually went. He kept quiet until he was out of earshot of the scholars, and sneered at Alicia, who had kept her distance. “Alone today, are we?” He gazed around, used to seeing several other people, one man in particular, the quote “Hero of Legends”, who had foiled too many of his plans.
   “So are you.” Alicia retorted, as she deftly kited backwards, making sure he didn’t get too much ground, as she just headed back towards the village, following the road this time, now that she wasn’t in any particular hurry. She held her bow at a relaxed pose at her side, with an arrow in the other hand. “That’s hardly usual, either. I thought you had bodyguards you could summon out of thin air?”
   “Had. Before you people killed or captured most of them.” Damian did nothing to hide the contempt in his voice, as he finally slowed his pace, and started trying to calm his breathing. He was tired, and the orcs did get a few good punches in, even if their weapons never found their mark. “I thought you never split up.”. It wasn’t quite a question, more of an observation – He had never encountered any of them in a group of less than 4 people, so this was a unique situation for him.
   Alicia smiled a bit, and shrugged, slowing her pace to match Damian’s. She didn’t want to outrun him, talking was a curiously rare occurrence when they met. “We don’t. But I needed some time to unwind and relax a bit, so I went off on a small journey on my own through here. Get away from all the politics going on between you people.” Alicia wasn’t involved enough, nor did she really care, for all the politic bullshit that was going on. The short version is that Richard, the “Hero of Legend”, was helping the new king get a hold on the rule, while Damian had a different version of how the country should look like. Alicia was more concerned about all of the outside issues going on, like the invading orcs. She had no personal issue with Damian, even though he probably had a few issues with her at this point. She just wanted peace, and before, Damian was an obstacle to that. Now that she had abandoned that role of “hero”, she didn’t care anymore.
   Damian stopped abruptly, raising an eyebrow. “Really now? Wouldn’t be a lot to stop me if I tried to kill you then, would there?” He wanted her gone, out of the picture so he didn’t have to deal with her again. He could manage Richard, and had beaten him back multiple times on his own, but the problem was all of his allies generally were much stronger than what Damian could gather. Alicia in particular was quite the thorn in his side, hence the nickname of Wasp. It felt like flailing only ensured you would get stung. There wasn’t a lot of defense other than avoiding her, and taking her out for good was the best way to achieve that.
   “You don’t want to fight me like this. And the townsfolks know I am here, and that scholar saw us. If you kill me here, you lose support for sure.” She smiled a bit, as she nodded towards the road between the library and the town. Damian carefully glanced over, following her gesture, as a handful of men, all dressed in the towns militia tabards, came running down the road towards the library. He looked back at her again with narrowed eyes.
   “Lucky you. But you better pack up and leave before I get a chance to wrap my hands around that tiny neck of yours. I still have those 4 arrows you have hit me with over the past encounters, and I plan to pay you back for those” The towering man was glaring at her a few more seconds, but his features turned slightly softer, though still with a stern and serious demeanor, and finally loosened his grip on his axe, as the militia approached.
   Alicia just smiled, and put her bow and arrow back in their spot, looking over her shoulder at him as she started to walk back to the city, leaving Damian to take his rightful honor for his heroics. “I’m leaving tomorrow. Don’t worry, I wont cause you any problems unless you want me to.” The last comment made Damian quickly look back at her, but all he saw was the back of the young and petite girl’s back, as she simply waved a hand at him. He narrowed his eyes slightly. He was going to teach her a lesson.
--
   Alicia had taken up temporary residence in one of the 4 rooms available in the only inn the town had, and she was currently the only outsider staying. It was quite the festive night on top of the attack that managed to have no casualties, and she was honestly surprised Damian stuck around for it. He was always in such a rush, and always looked so stressed out. Kinda like his “hero” counterpart, now that she thought about it. Both him and Richard sure seemed too busy for any personal enjoyment ever, but she supposed Damian staying here was more of a PR move than anything else. It was hard to reach these smalls towns with your presence, even for the sitting king, and they generally had more support for Alicia and the group she used to belong to.
   She was watching some town folks party it up out in the warm summer night, as she started getting undressed for the night. She did consider his warning, but she wasn’t worried. She knew he couldn’t kill her. That would be devastating to his already negative image. On top of that, she was tired. Not in the physical sense, but in the mental sense. Barely 20, and she already felt like she was 50. Having been out adventuring in a party of “heroes” for 4 years was incredibly strenuous on her mental. Lucrative, though, so retiring was an option. But that was the other problem with being a famous hero. People had expectations for you, and she often felt they weren’t really considered people in the same sense that ordinary folks were. Even coming here as a way to relax, the first thing the people here did, even before mobilizing the militia, was interrupt her during lunch. There was seemingly no rest to be had anywhere.
   She closed the curtains, and looked down at a scar Damian had given her on her arm. Left her unable to shoot a bow for almost a week. She smiled a bit, strange feeling to feel this way with someone who had a deathly feud with. But it was just difficult to be that afraid of him. What would he do? Killing and hurting her made no sense, and would only come back to haunt him. Rape her? The thought stuck in her mind for a bit, as she imagined the large, well-built man, with his striking features, his well shaven face, and thick dark hair, and those determined green eyes, looming over her with lustful intent…
   She was interrupted in her train of thought by the click of her door lock being opened. She felt a sudden rush of adrenaline, but suppressed it, and refrained from grabbing for her weapon, even as she heard the lock clicking back into place, and heavy, swift steps came towards her with a menacing aura. She knew she was safe. Or at least, that he wouldn’t kill her. And for some reason, she was no longer in any worry of being raped. And regardless, she knew she would win a skirmish out in the open, not while barely dressed in a locked and very small inn room. He was vastly stronger than she was, and even a good stab wouldn’t save her life in here.
   “A bit overconfident, aren’t we?” Damian’s voice had a mix of contempt and surprise, as his footsteps betrayed hesitation in his plan. It didn’t help that Alicia was barely dressed in more than a slightly too big shirt, that covered just enough to hide the panties she wore underneath, making him question if she was wearing anything beneath it at all. The thin fabric helped accent her rather modest features, but it was still the first time he had seen her look even slightly feminine. Even her auburn hair, normally tied up and tugged in underneath a cloak, was flowing freely in front of him, and her frame looked so much smaller without her gambeson bulking up her profile. And the view of her back like this, made her look so small and vulnerable, standing in front of a dresser just the right size to just bend her over.
   Alicia gazed back at him, not quite as confident as she was appearing, but she still managed to show off a slight smile. “I’m not the one breaking into someone’s room. People no doubt saw you come up here, and nobody is staying here other than me. You can’t hurt me without everyone knowing you did it.” She slowly turned to face him, before she forcibly stopped by two hands that grabbed her wrists, and forcible shove her in over the dresser she was standing in front of. She groaned a bit, but didn’t struggle much, as he shuffled a bit to only use one hand to hold her arms behind her back, and used his other hand to hold against her neck, forcing her head down against the wooden top of the dresser. The look of her bend over like this, in that little nightshirt of hers, was even better than he had hoped. She felt him lean over her, and whisper in her ear.
   “I can do worse than kill you.” His voice tried to carry an air of intimidation, but it didn’t quite stick to Alicia. If he had in mind what she thought he had, this was far from being worse than death. She glanced behind her, looking up at Damian’s deathly glare. She kept a neutral facial expression, and with a calm voice and gaze, she dared this beast of a man who had her completely at his mercy. “And what would that be?”
   Damian paused, fury visible boiling up in him at her defiance. He hated being left on the back foot like this. He removed his hands from her neck, and hesitated for a few seconds, her demeanor making him second guess what his plan here was, before he decided to roughly grab on to her exposed thigh. It rewarded him with a small surprised yelp from her, as he smiled a bit at her, finally getting an involuntary reaction from her. “I’m going to break you.”
   Alicia turned her face down towards the dresser to hide a small smile. How cheesy. She was a bit surprised, but not in a strictly bad way. She knew Richard never had time to waste on this, and she would guess Damian didn’t either, but for her, it was much worse. This was not really an option with what she was doing. After all, sex could quite easily put her out of commission for a few months, and even after that, she would have had a child that someone needed to take care of. In a way, it would break her ability to do what was expected of a hero. His rough hand squeezed her thigh, and slowly moved upwards, his rough fingers caressed the exposed skin, before encountering her underwear. He let his hand slip slightly under it, squeezing the tight flesh mounds. It felt much better than she expected. Perhaps she could use the sort of risk sex posed to her right now. He started fumbling trying to force her underwear down, before he whispered out a slight curse as he failed coordinating his free hand around his attempt to hold her hands in place on her back. She giggled slightly, not able to take him seriously as his attempts at dominating her felt little more than cute right now. He finally got her underwear to drop to her ankles, before he started to struggle a bit with his belt buckle. After trying to unbuckle it with one hand for a good 10 seconds, it became increasingly obvious that he wasn’t used to doing this. Alicia turned her head ever so slightly, looking back at him with a small smile. It felt strange being exposed with a man, but she was honestly not that against the idea right now. Most people wouldn’t consider her, she had tried. This was one of the first times a man had even attempted to do this sort of thing. The problem of being too young when she started out, and too famous once she finally grew into a properly grown woman.
   “You don’t have to hold my hands.” She had a slightly playful tone, perhaps tempting fate a bit more than she had to. He made a weird, almost hissing sound, as he pulled her back up standing, before giving her an encouraging kick in the back of her legs, making her fall to her knees in front of the dresser. He held her hands above her head, as he fumbled with his free hand to pull her shirt up above her head. He took much longer than he should have, but finally left Alicia’s body completely exposed to his gaze, as he tried to bind her hands with her own shirt behind her back, so he didn’t have to keep reserving a hand to that task. He finished tying her up, before he hesitated a bit, as he stood staring at her now naked body. He hadn’t had a woman in too long, and while he knew Alicia was young still young, much younger than himself, she looked nothing like the girls he was used to back when he still had time for all that, a solid decade ago. Her body had scars all over and was not the same soft and delicate build he was used to. She had strong, lithe features, and her small perky breasts didn’t have a lot of fat to work with like court ladies, and even most village girls had. Her petite frame was perhaps a bit marred by the scars, but it gave her a warrior’s beauty Damian had a hard time averting his gaze from.
   Alicia was slightly surprised at his rough handling suddenly. She swallowed a bit as she was now sitting on her knees and found herself looking *up* at his waist. The sheer height difference was starting to feel very noticeable. As he finally snapped out of it and got his belt unbuckled, he struggled a bit to kick off his pants and underwear, but his awkward disrobing went unnoticed by Alicia, as she was now busy looking at the painfully hard erection, hovering slightly above her head. With her hands tied behind her back, it wasn’t hard to guess what he had in mind. There was an awkward pause, as Damian seemed to consider whether to remove his upper clothing or not, and Alicia awaited what his next actions would be.
   “Suck it.” Damian seemed to finally have settled on something, as he grabbed a lock of her hair, and pulled her up a bit, while pushing his groin towards her. Alicia measured up the large member with her eyes, unsure of its exact size. Seemed to be about the length of her dagger, which would make it just shy of 7 inches. The girth worried her slightly, if only because nothing but her own fingers had been inside her before, and he had quite the bulk to him. She glanced up at him slightly at his command, and turned her head slightly, and planted a kiss near the base of the head of his cock. Damian groaned at the touch of her lips, and thrust forward in frustration, as he almost hissed at her again, his voice thick with frustration. “I said suck it!”.
   Alicia smiled a bit, before obeying his command, wrapping her lips around him member, unsure what exactly he meant when he said “suck it”. She had barely placed her lips on their target, before Damian tightened his grip on her head, and thrust his hips, forcing his erect member deep into her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise, as she certainly wasn’t used to this much of anything being shoved into her throat, before he pulled back out again. He held his hips still for a moment, and seemed to calm himself, as he pushed her head onto his member again, but this time with an uncharacteristically gentle touch. Alicia took the hint, and started moving back and forth, finding a rhythm that seemed to get the biggest reaction from him, while still being relatively comfortable to do. Her hands were working a bit on the messy knot he had tied to keep her hands in place, doing quick progress to unravel it.
   Much sooner than she expected, his knees started to buckle, as he once again tightened the grip on her hair, forcing his cock to be lodged in her mouth, as he let out his first load down her throat, keeping her head slightly tilted back, as she grinded her legs a bit together, the action having a much stronger effect on her than she expected, before she closed her eyes and kept her lips around his member. He stared down at her face between his spasm and groaning. “Fuck… That’s a good face you’re making.” Alicia glanced up at his face, as he slowly pulled out of her mouth, and started to give her a bit of room to breathe, but kept her head tilted back. “Swallow.” His insistence on showing his dominance was a bit strange to Alicia, but she complied, not that she had much of a choice when he held her like this. It wasn’t that bad anyway, the main problem being the sticky and thick texture. She took a deep breath as she finally had an open airway again. Damian stared down at the face of the girl who had successfully forced him to retreat and scarred him 4 times, and now he had her naked, on her knees, panting after sucking him off and swallowing his load. That submissive face of hers was exhilarating to him. This was definitely not all he would do to her tonight.
   As Alicia finally started to get her breathing under control, she sneakily took her hands up, having untied the clumsy knot he had made, and caressed his still erect member, that did not seem to want to go down, with one hand, and carefully and timidly caressing herself between her legs, feeling the familiar need that she always used to be forced to deal with herself. Damian flinched when he saw her free hands, but just kept his tight grip on her hair, as he still had vision of both of her hands. The sight of her sitting there like this, was not a sight he would forget any time soon. He suddenly pulled her up, standing, roughly lifting her by her arms, and forcing her against a nearby empty wall. Alicia’s small frame easily overpowered by the man more than twice her size, squashed between him and the wall.
    As much as Damian wanted this to be an act of “breaking her”, Alicia was enjoying this much more than she thought she would. She had left the group of heroes she used to be a part of, all because she was tired of the death and the fighting. She wanted to get away from that, she wanted something… *different*. This was certainly different, and being held up like this, feet dangling helplessly off the ground, with his hard and spit covered cock twitching against her inner thigh, and a hand groping her naked butt, was making her heart pound. She pulled her legs up slightly around him, looking up to meet his eyes. The nervousness she had tried to suppress, was showing on her face, and she was starting to understand that it just further fueled his lust, and being stuck there, pelvic to pelvic, with her hands helplessly held up in the air again, was making her almost impatient.
   Damian started moving his hips, grinding against Alicia, but not quite finding the mark. Alicia moaned softly, but couldn’t stop herself from smiling a bit, as she bit her lip and kept staring into his lustful eyes, his face betraying his frustration at not finding the entrance. “You still don’t have to keep my hands pinned.” It came out slightly more demeaning than she intended it to, and was rewarded with a rough squeeze of her ass, before he let go of her hands, and moved in to whisper in her ear, his hot breath against her neck making her shiver. “Remember this next time we meet”. With his free hand, he finally managed to guide himself to her entrance, and Alicia sucked in air, holding her breath, as he slammed inside her wet, welcoming embrace. She moaned out loud, clenching her legs around him, as her head fell onto his chest. The feeling completely overpowered her, but not in a bad way. Pain was an old friend as her scars revealed, so any that should have been present was easily ignored, and the pleasure was all that remained. She grabbed onto his chest, frustratingly meeting the fabric of his shirt and jacket covering his torso, and clawing a bit at it, before Damian grabbed her by her chin, force her to face him.
   “Look at me.” Damian groaned at both the tightness of Alicia, as well as how she reacted. He drew much more satisfaction than he should from watching the face of one of his long time enemies, one who always showed a defiant or mocking look, to finally show such a submissive and lustful face. He wanted to watch her face as he took her. He tried to slowly pull out, and slowly push in again, and the first motion went fine, rewarding him with a deep and satisfied moan from Alicia, whose eyes rolled around her head at the unfamiliar but all too welcome feeling washed over her. That look of pleasure on her face, and that wonderful feeling of her tight, wet and warm tunnel, was too much for him to handle, and he lost control. He started to slam into her at an increasingly frantic pace. It has been too long since he had last been with anyone, and he technically didn’t even have time for this. He rationalized it away as a long-term insurance against her foiling his plans again.
   Alicia was very quickly losing her mind, and made no effort to retain it, either. This was incredible, and she did not want to ruin his flow and risk him losing too much confidence in what he was doing, not to mention that she absolutely didn’t have the mind to make some snappy remark right now. His one hand eagerly groped her ass, as he kept ramming into her at an increasingly rapid pace, as the other kept her face locked to his, and she was all too happy just letting herself get lost in his eyes and the pleasure. And unlike his premature load before, he did not seem to be a quick shot this time around. Damian managed to somewhat keep his facial expressions in check, as he held his face no more than an inch from Alicia’s, happily ravaging her and enjoying her moans and shaking and increasingly unfocused stare, her face not hiding a shred of the enjoyment he was giving her.
   And then it hit her, like a surprise jab out of nowhere, as it felt like her body electrified and started convulsing, as his rapid, even thrusts hit all the right spots. Damian didn’t slow down for a split second, and kept ramming into her clenching pussy, savoring the orgasmic face she was making. Alicia was completely lost in the pleasure, twitching against him, and making no effort to suppress this feeling that was nothing like anything she had experienced before. She wanted nothing more than for him to keep going what he was doing, letting her ride this high for as long as possible. Damian wasn’t close enough yet, but her reaction was driving him wild, and that wonderful contorted face of unbridled pleasure was too much to watch.
   Damian couldn’t help himself, his gloating being too core of a trait of his. “Remember this feeling the next time we meet. Remember how my thick manhood makes you f-“ a hand stretched across his cheek as Alicia had slapped him, as his cringey words pulled her out of the bliss she was in. He stopped holding onto her face, and was about to hit back, but something in him stopped him as he watched panting face showing off a small smile. “Don’t ruin it too much, big guy.” Her voice was almost dozy, as if drugged, before she leaned forward and rested her head in against him, and tightened her leglock around her, his member still buried and hard inside of her, and still needing release.
   Damian paused for a moment, unsure of who was in control of who in this situation, before he decided he was not going to let her feel like she was on top of this situation. He grabbed properly onto her, and pulled away from the wall, and dropped her in her bed on her back. She was a bit surprised at being dropped like this. She didn’t mind moving over to the bed and given a show, though. He removed the rest of his clothes, with Alicia staring at him in the increasingly low light, as he was finally standing in his full glory. His strong and powerful chest, his ribbed stomach, those big and strong arms she had felt first-hand how strong really were, and the many scars that gave him such a masculine appeal. His erect member was glistening in the few rays of light still coming through the curtains, a few drops falling off the shaft, no doubt originally belonging to Alicia. The look made her bite her lip in anticipation.
   He finally joined her in the bed, crawling over her and pulling her legs up and apart as far as he was allowed to, before placing his member against her entrance again. Alicia smiled weakly at him, and let her voice flow freely as he slowly penetrated her again, this time at an angle that hit much deeper, and as he finally buried himself to the hilt inside of her, he held still for a few seconds, breathing heavily. She put both hands on his chest, finally getting to get a good feel of his chiseled chest, tracing a finger across the 4 distinct puncture wounds her arrows had made in him. She smiled slightly, as he leaned down towards her ear once more, whispering to her. “Those are reminders of you. I am going to make sure you never forget this”
   He slowly withdrew, and impaled her again, and unlike the first time, he managed to keep an agonizingly slow pace this time around. Alicia moaned a bit, but couldn’t quite help smiling. And when he had to make that kind of comment, she had to fire back. She leaned slightly back up against him, to whisper back into his ear, holding herself up with her arms around the back of his neck. “Then you need to leave something in me.”. A playful tone, albeit shaking and slightly breaking up as his member grind against her sensitive spots, left very little doubt as to what she was talking about. Damian immediately picked back up his former pace, and with the soft bed as a cushion, his thrusts became much harder. With the deeper thrusts as well, Alicia was quickly back on track to her next orgasm, and Damian’s insistent thrusts was clearly in a hurry to get to where he wanted now. He kept one hand on the bed beneath them, giving him the needed leverage to keep his pace, while the other greedily touched and groped at her naked body, caressing her boobs and nipples.
   And it didn’t take long. Alicia was immediately back at a looming orgasm, as Damian pushed himself harder and harder. Alicia could feel it mounting, as her body slowly started shaking and tensing up. She gathered what little self-control she had left, and looked up at him with longing eyes, as she was hovering preciously close to hitting her climax. “Ruin me.” She whispered with a begging tone, her voice almost breaking as she hit the peak. He smashed into her with two more hard thrusts, making her cry out in pleasure, as he got pushed over the limit as well. His balls tightened, as he deposited a much bigger load than the first one deep inside of her, the angle of his thrusts keeping her locked in a mating press, made sure not a single drop would be wasted, as he lost control of his own voice, keeping his twitching cock buried deep inside of his sworn enemy for as long as he could. The idea of breeding her like this was not what he had in mind, but her goading made it impossible for him to consider any other option right in that moment. Her words and body seemingly begged for it, and it drove him wild like nothing he had ever experienced before, and the begging and orgasmic face of hers was for sure something that would come haunt him in his dreams.
   Alicia let the second orgasm roll over her, as she held on to him as hard as she could, as her uneven and her ragged breath made it hard for her to say anything else right now, as she just rode the wave of pleasure that assailed both her senses and her mind. The idea of mothering his child had a certain appeal to it, and that this clash would end in life, not death, was much more than she had hoped for. She couldn’t help herself, looking at the much larger man desperately trying to control his breathing, as his pulsating member was safely lodged deep inside of her. She leaned up, and caught his lips in a kiss, a gesture that seemingly deflated Damian’s attempt at remain in control, as he just collapsed on top of her, pushing her back down into the bed.
   The kiss was quickly broken, as Damian let his face hit the sheets beneath them, as Alicia just kept her arms around him, enjoying the closeness. She could handle his weight, he was big and heavy, but she was no weakling herself, and would happily take the slightly unpleasant pressure to spend the night like this. Damian was exhausted, having had a rough fight earlier that day, a long day of playing diplomacy, and now a long and exhausting session of sex. The warm embrace of a woman wasn’t something he felt he had needed, and certainly not something he had time for, but his body certainly didn’t agree with his mind on this one. And after all of this, he couldn’t get himself to move. There was something in his pride that had taken a hit, and for now, he didn’t want to face that. The bed was far too small for 2, but that didn’t seem to stop them as they slowly drifted off.
--
   Alicia awoke alone, kinda like she had expected. It felt a bit hollow now, but despite that, she was in a much better mood than she had been in a very long time. She was in bad need of a bath now, and then she needed to consider what she was supposed to do from there. She laid there in the bed, naked, for a solid hour, considering the options she had now. She honestly hoped this one time would do the trick. It would be a good excuse to retire for a while, and might help give their favorite Lord a reason to worry a bit more about something other than his grand plans and schemes. One thing was for sure though, she was not going to be fighting him with neither bow nor sword again. That, and she definitely needed that bath.
   Far away, in a different part of the country, a tired and distracted Damian was attempting to get back to his delayed schedule caused by yesterdays sudden opportunity, after he was alerted to the library being under threat. He was willing to make sacrifices, but libraries wasn’t something he was willing to give up. He needed to station someone there. The otherwise massive and imposing man was clearly off his usual pace to everyone he dealt with, and he found himself staring blankly at the papers he had to do. This was why he had kept himself from women, he realized. He shook his head, but try as he might, he could not shake that experience out of his head. Her body, her face, and those expressions… that would definitely stick. He had a bad feeling that he would be far more distracted by this than she would be. He definitely couldn’t let this just be a one-time thing…