Chapter Text
This woman is an absolute menace.
How am I supposed to work in these conditions? Am I really meant to effectively study the cadences of the Fade, act as this team’s de facto physician, and attend to Manfred’s studies when anytime I attempt to focus Annika comes sauntering in to drive it all away?
Tonight, I returned to my laboratory to find her making herself comfortable, wearing nothing but that utterly salacious pink satin nightgown that I dream about so often, her feet up on my desk, the hem creeping up the endless expanse of her thighs. She greeted me with her usual smile, and told me she’d put a kettle of tea on the fire to share, if I didn’t mind. I minded a great deal as my self-control continues to fray, but, alas, I could never say no to her.
As I struggled to keep my gaze off that low lace neckline whenever she stretched or leaned forward, that chocolate smudge on the page of my journal came to mind. Perhaps she had read it after all, and the flirting and attire she’s taken to is her way of punishing me for my lewd thoughts.
But then she blushed so beautifully when I praised her prowess in a fight against the undead during a recent trip into the Crossroads, and so easily offered earnest compliments of her own about my grave gold, and it reminds me that Annika has not a single cruel bone in her body.
That, along with yet another searing kiss she left on my cheek as she left my laboratory to go to bed, forces me to conclude that perhaps there might be something my wildest dream: Annika de Riva, despite all rational thought, may return my affections.
And I, the biggest fool to grace Thedas, have no idea what to do about it.
Perhaps a bath is in order, to get my thoughts in order and try to relax for the night. Spirits know Annika left me riled up enough that any sleep I do get would likely be filled with dreams of me sliding that satin gown off her bo
Well, that was enough journaling for one evening. Emmrich cast the simple locking enchantment over the leatherbound volume and set it down on his desk before rising to gather his bathing supplies.
If Emmrich wasn’t already convinced the Fade was an absolute marvel of magic, the Lighthouse’s baths would have done it for him. Bless Bellara for accidentally fade-stepping a bit too far off the edge of her office and finding herself on a previously-undiscovered island within their base of operations. The large white and green marble building had a row of sunken pits along a far wall, each separated by a marble barricade that rose to his chest, and one larger one the size of a small pond meant for group recreational use in the center of the spacious room.
There was nothing like sinking into the hot water after a long day of traipsing across northern Thedas and letting the heat seep into his bones. Necromancy may be his calling in life, but it was practice that left him often feeling quite chilled.
Although, as he sank into one of the green marble pools at the end of the long row of similar tubs, he belatedly wondered if a cold plunge might be in better order.
Despite the potions he’d been taking to induce a dreamless sleep, dreams of Annika continued to come in full force. Sometimes she’d be beneath him, completely at his mercy as he pinned her wrists to his silken sheets as he kissed her senseless. Other times she was on top, sitting on his face and letting him taste the sweet wetness gathered between her thighs until she was pleading for release.
He rarely dared write about them in his journal, despite being fairly convinced Annika had not been the one to leave the chocolate smudge. She was likely to never speak to him again if she did.
No, it was highly improbable that she’d read his journal, he reminded himself as he scrubbed at his hair with herbal soap. She sought out his company often and complimented him most earnestly in every circumstance, even inappropriate ones. Maker, she’d cussed Johanna out on his behalf in Blackthorn Manor with language he’d never dreamed she was capable of. Those were not the behaviours of a person disgusted by him.
The door to the bath house opened, followed by almost imperceptible footsteps. Certainly not Taash or Davrin. Perhaps Bellara?
Regardless, he merely sank deeper into the tub, to his neck, and closed his eyes, content to let the newcomer have the peace and quiet they undoubtedly came for.
That is, until the voice of Lucanis cut across the echoing silence, words that brought his heart to a standstill: “Ah, my blushing bride. Come to finally seduce me into an advantageous marriage?
Annika snorted, the rustling sound of her disrobing bringing forth absolutely sinful images into Emmrich’s mind. “Call me that in front of Illario, will you? He’s been getting more aggressive lately.”
Lucanis laughed. “It’d almost be worth marrying you just to see the look on my cousin’s face.”
“Well, that’s a bit hurtful,” Annika said, not sounding very hurt at all. “I would aim to not make your life completely miserable.”
From what Emmrich could guess, she was slipping into the stone pool two down from him. Lucanis must have been soaking silently in another when he’d come in earlier. Emmrich thought about greeting her, but Lucanis spoke up before he could. “You’re up late. Trouble sleeping?”
“Just got caught up talking to Emmrich, that’s all.”
“Will he be joining us for our chat with Governor Ivenci tomorrow?”
A moment of silence. When Annika spoke, she sounded somewhat sheepish. “I…forgot to ask him. I’ll check in with him at breakfast.”
Lucanis huffed a laugh. “You’re awfully distracted these days, Rook. That’s dangerous in our line of work.”
“I’m aware.”
Echoes of that strange, lovely evening where she’d confessed her desire to leave the Crows came to mind as Emmrich practically held his breath.
There was only contemplative silence, punctuated by small splashes from Annika’s pool. When she next spoke, her voice was soft. “Lucanis, have you ever heard of a successful relationship between a Crow and a…non-crow, I guess?”
“I’ve rarely heard of a successful relationship between a Crow and a Crow, if I’m being honest. The lifestyle is not exactly conducive to serious commitments.”
“Right.”
Emmrich struggled to keep his breathing under control as he contemplated her words. An interest in someone who was not a Crow?
Only a week ago, he would have automatically assumed one of the others in their little ragtag team. Now, though, he allowed the slightest ringing of hope to spread through his chest, as warm as the water he soaked in.
Lucanis sighed. “Rook, don’t take this the wrong way, but you are not a very good Crow.”
A small, empty laugh. “Alrighty then. My contract rates would suggest otherwise, you know.”
“Do not be mistaken, you are very good at what you do. Almost passable with a blade, and a decent enough seductress, if Teia is to be believed.”
“I’m really doing my best here not to take all this the ‘wrong way’...”
“My point is, if you wished to pursue…something outside of the Crows, I think you could. You should.”
There was another long silence before Rook spoke again. “Will Viago even let me go at that point?”
Lucanis sighed. “I don’t intend to share my body with a demon for the rest of my life. And I am the heir to the First Talon. Once things are settled between me and Spite, I plan to claim my birthright, and make a few changes to the…let’s call it ‘retirement package’ within the Crows.”
“Lucanis,” Annika whispered, and Emmrich swore he could hear a quiver in her voice. She seemed to struggle to pull her words together before choking out a laugh. “I…”
“Do not say anything yet, lest we jinx ourselves and our already terrible luck,” Lucanis cut her off awkwardly. A splash told Emmrich the assassin was climbing out of his tub, and a few minutes later the door to the bath house opened. “Try not to stay up too late. You drop your off-hand when you’re sleep-deprived.”
It was true, Emmrich had noticed that as well. But he remained silent, even as Annika bade him goodnight.
The next few minutes were filled with the sounds of Annika washing herself, Emmrich trying desperately not to picture what she might look like in that very moment. That had been a highly personal conversation he’d eavesdropped on. She didn’t deserve to have him picture her naked, dripping wet, her golden hair floating in a halo around her as she ran a soaped up washcloth over her-
Then he heard it: a soft, needy moan. The most gorgeous sound that had ever blessed (or cursed) his ears.
Spirits of the void, he needed to get out of there, while she was seemingly distracted.
But Emmrich found himself rooted to the spot as her breathy moans, the soft lapping of the waves of Annika’s tub, kept his imagination running wild. “Fuck,” she whispered, the word going straight to his groin.
His cock hardened at the sounds of her pleasure, begging for him to wrap his hand around it in response. He clenched his fist beneath the surface, the rational part of his mind ordering him to make himself known before she got any further. The gentleman’s thing to do.
The other, more primal part of his mind demanded he take himself in hand, or better yet, march over to the tub Annika occupied and slip in with her, muffle the startled gasp she’d likely give with his mouth, push her hand away in favor of his own…
The warring thoughts paralyzed him.
The whispered moans grew louder as she seemingly chased her pleasure, her breaths coming in shallow pants. “Harder, please!!” she whimpered.
Emmrich closed his eyes, and the image of himself and the object of his desires in the larger communal pool came almost instantly to mind. He could see himself bending her over the edge, letting her enjoy the cool green and white marble against her breasts as he took her from behind, perhaps covering her mouth with a hand to smother her cries of ecstasy. A choked sound slipped from his lips, and he hastily clamped his hand over his mouth.
She had to be getting close, her moans now unrestrained as the lapping of the water grew more intense. Guilt gripping his heart, Emmrich allowed himself to run a finger along his cock, the slight tease doing nothing to alleviate the throbbing.
A strangled gasp, and then the heavy, panting breaths began to die away, the water no longer lapping at the sides of her pool.
Lost in his reverie of swirling images of her naked and dripping wet, he didn’t hear her get out of her tub until her wet footsteps echoed throughout the chamber.
Emmrich sat up straighter and leaned out of his tub, peering around the marble divider just in time to see Rook finish tugging her nightgown over her bare form. The glimpse of her perfect backside devoid of any smallclothes brought both a heat to his cheeks and shame to his gut.
The second she was gone, Emmrich finally allowed himself to grip his cock and pursue a bit of relief, the image of that perfect ass imprinted behind his eyes.
***
Emmrich was doing his best to settle into bed with a book, still mulling over the conversation overheard in the bathhouse, when he heard Annika’s voice outside his hidden chambers. “Put that away, Manfred! I just need to talk to Emmrich. Is he still up?”
“ Hisssss!” His ward was being insistent about something, based on his tone. Emmrich set the book aside and rose, reaching for his robe on the hook beside his bed.
“No, Manfred, I’m not looking for that today. Please go put it back.”
Another hiss, this one frustrated, and then the skeleton clambered away. Emmrich didn’t bother tying the front of the robe as he pulled the lever on his side, the bookcase hiding his bedroom sliding aside to reveal Annika turning to leave the laboratory. “Is everything alright, my dear?” he called out.
Annika let out a small yelp, whirling to face him. “Emmrich! Where’d you come from?”
He stepped out of the secret door, amusement tugging at his lips. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to startle you. My bedroom is tucked behind this bookcase.”
Her aquamarine eyes slid from the opened bookcase to rake over his bare torso. Emmrich felt himself reddening and resisted the urge to pull the robe tighter around himself.
“Oh. Well, that’s good to know,” she finally said. The blush that spread from the tips of her ears to her cheeks, down her neck and to the tantalizing swell of her breasts just visible above the neckline of that dreaded nightgown, was utterly intoxicating. Emmrich noted the way her pupils dilated as she stared at him, her lips slightly parted.
She likes you like this, the intrusive voice in his head roared.
Rather than tamp down the voice, as he always did, Emmrich allowed the temptation to run free. “Indeed. That statuette on the fourth shelf from the floor, the one of the three-headed skeleton, is the key. Simply tilt it forward to open the door, should you ever…need me in the night.” He held his breath, waiting for her reaction.
“Oh,” was all she managed to squeak. At her side, her elegant fingers fisted the hem of her nightgown, knuckles white.
The rush of adrenaline that hit Emmrich’s racing heart was as addicting as any drug. It was electrifying, this sudden wave of power he felt in flustering this indomitable, beautiful woman, who had so long held that same power over him simply by existing.
He leaned against the bookcase, noting the way she marked his every move, and smiled. “Did you need something, Annika?” A shiver at the use of her given name.
“I…er…” Oh, there was no returning from this, he thought as she struggled to speak. At last, Annika reddened even further and took a step backward toward the door. “I seem to have forgotten. Sorry.”
“Was it something about the agenda for tomorrow?” He’d throw her a lifeline. Maker knows how badly he has needed one these last few weeks.
Annika’s brows rose. “Oh! That’s it.” She moved toward him, seeming to force herself into professionalism. “I forgot to ask you earlier, would you come with Lucanis and I to Treviso tomorrow afternoon for a meeting with the governor? The bastard tends to bring out a somewhat…ugly side of us Crows, so we could use a calm voice.”
Another opportunity for boldness. Emmrich leaned just a little closer to her, and delighted in the way she seemed to force her gaze off his bare chest and to his eyes. “I’d be delighted. Though I will say, I can’t say I’ve ever seen an ugly side to the Crow standing before me.”
Annika blinked, lips parting once more as she seemed to fumble for words. “I…that’s…er…that’s very…you cut a dashing figure yourself.” The last words were rushed, as though she’d lose her nerve otherwise.
Emmrich needed her to leave, leave before he broke and pounced at her. He wanted to throw her against the shelves, let his mouth explore every inch of skin bared by that wretched nightgown before tearing it from her body and devouring the rest of her, make her scream his name…
But he held himself back. “I’m fortunate you think so. Now, my dear, I think you better get off to bed. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.”
She nodded dazedly. “Right. Goodnight, Emmrich.”
Before she could turn to leave, Emmrich swiftly brought his face to hers, ghosting his lips over her too-warm cheek. She gave a shuddering gasp, and he smiled against her skin before murmuring
“Sweet dreams, Annika.”
When he pulled away, she all but fled from his laboratory, every inch of her flushed into her favorite color.
A color that was rapidly becoming a favorite of his as well.
***
Something had changed in Emmrich.
Rook was going insane. She tossed and turned all night clinging to the memory of his lips brushing over her cheek, the low, sensual voice bringing a blush all over her body and a tingle between her thighs. And then at breakfast, when she thought she might be too exhausted to care one bit about what Emmrich was up to, he’d met her eye and had given her a wink that zinged her senses awake in an instant.
She supposed it’s about what she deserved, given the level of flirting she’d subjected the poor man to. It was only a matter of time before he turned it on her. Granted, she thought she’d have a bit more time to sort out her rapidly-developing feelings for the necromancer. And a bit more warning, if she kept sneaking peeks at his journal.
Perhaps when they returned from Treviso, Rook would try to slip into the laboratory and check that journal, see if there were any entries about what brought along this sudden change in Emmrich. Then, perhaps, she could figure out her next move with a bit more rational thought.
Rational thought. That was a trait she was currently quite devoid of as she wrestled with her newfound infatuation with the necromancer, and what kept her paralyzed with indecision on what to do with those feelings.
“Ready?” Lucanis asked as they approached the eluvian.
“I’ve gone two weeks without being called an idiot by Viago,” Rook said with a grin. “I suppose I can’t complain about that.”
Emmrich scoffed. “You shouldn’t let him speak to you like that, you know.”
“Condescension and insults are just his love language. You should see how he blushes when Teia calls him a jackass.”
Lucanis merely chuckled at that before stepping through the mirror into the Cantori Diamond. Rook was about to follow, but a touch at her elbow made her pause. She turned to find Emmrich standing so very, very near, a teasing smile on his face. “Something funny?”
“Just that yours is the opposite.”
Now she was confused. “I don’t follow.”
Then he leaned closer, forcing her head to tilt upward to maintain eye contact. When he spoke, his warm breath ghosted over her face, sending chills down her spine. “Your love language. It is the opposite of Viago’s.”
“O-o-oppsite of insults?” The proximity of their faces was doing absolutely shameful things to her.
A gold-laden hand came to rest on the frame of the eluvian, just above her head. “Praise, my dear. That is what makes you blush.” Her cheeks heated instantly, and the corners of his lips twitched upward. “Like that.”
Her heart thudded as she struggled to come up with coherent words, but was falling short. All her flirting the last few days that had so delightfully thrown the necromancer off-balance, all for nothing as she found herself utterly flustered.
“Emmrich,” she began unsteadily.
Whatever she intended to say fizzled out as the hand above her head traced along her hair, behind her head. The long, elegant fingers caught the end of the pink satin ribbon she tied half her hair back with. “Pretty,” he murmured, eyes firmly on her own in a way that told her he wasn’t solely talking about the ribbon.
When he stepped away, Rook released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, her heart pounding wildly. He gave her a dazzling smile. “Shall we? We shouldn’t keep your Talon waiting.”
It took a moment for her to remember how to move, think, breathe, but at last she managed to turn and step through the eluvian, Emmrich’s hand at the small of her back as though to keep her steady.
It most certainly didn’t have that effect.
***
The meeting was precisely as irritating and long as Rook thought it would be, made all the more difficult to focus as she kept catching Emmrich’s near-smoldering gaze on her, his eyes seeming to devour her whole. Viago glared daggers are her when she had to ask him to repeat himself, twice.
At last, when the Governor finally left with their usual snippy barb and sneer, Rook wasn’t surprised when Viago whirled on her and gave her a tongue-lashing for the ages. She could see Emmrich over his shoulder, scowling deeply at the Talon, and was grateful that he kept his obvious displeasure to himself.
When Viago at last stormed away, Teia shooting Rook a sympathic smile as she followed, she took a deep breath and made her way toward Fletcher’s stand to pick up some mineral oil for her spellblade. That had gone about as well as she’d hoped.
She felt a hand grab her elbow, tugging her back. She turned on her heel, grinning. “Well, that didn’t go as well as-”
The smile faded when she beheld Illario Dellamorte, not Emmrich, nearly nose to nose as he held her by the hip with a familiarity that made her stomach churn. “I’d be careful riling Viago up, Anni. I’m told his pet is growing hungry.”
She pushed his hand off her and stepped back, removing him from her personal bubble. “Good thing Emil likes severed wandering fingers, then.”
Illario held up his hands in mock surrender. “Put the claws away,
gatita.
I merely wanted to talk.”
“About?”
He gave her a cool grin. “Your future within the Crows.”
“And what makes you think I want one?”
An artfully sculpted brow rose at that. “So Viago no longer wishes his protege to work her way into the Dellamorte’s? That seems out of character.”
Rook scowled. “Perhaps I don’t intend to be a Crow my whole life.”
“No one leaves the Crows, Anni. Not without consequences. You know that.” Illario made to reach for her, but Rook took a step back. “Though if you really wish, there are ways to lessen your involvement.”
She shook her head, stomach twisting in disgust. In her teens, she’d found Illario handsome, charming even. The more likely of the Dellamorte boys for her to try to get in with, Lucanis being somewhat older and aloof. (Though the last few months of getting to know the elder cousin made her realize that he was simply more shy.) Something had changed in Illario, however. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the sight of him gave her a sense of unease. “That will be up to the First Talon, now won’t it?”
The way Illario smirked only made that dread worse. “So it will.”
Rook turned on her heel to walk away, but a tugging sensation in her hair forced her to stop. She scowled when the blonde strands slipped free and spun back to find Illario holding her pink hair ribbon aloft. “I’d like that back now.”
“Come and get it,” Illario smirked, waving it tantalizingly.
Rook merely folded her arms and waited.
When she didn’t rise to the bait, he sighed dramatically and stuffed the ribbon in his pocket. “You are no fun.”
“I’m perfectly okay with that,” she said coolly before turning to continue her course to Fletcher’s stand. She’d swipe the ribbon from his pocket later.
A stifled yelp preceded the crackle of magical energy behind her. She whirled to find Illario’s arm pinned to the rotunda railing by spectral green hands, unyielding despite their translucense. Illario snarled in shock, struggling to free himself to no avail.
Emmrich approached, the temperature around him seeming to drop by at least ten degrees. “My dear young Illario, there are much better ways of getting a woman’s attention than pulling her hair like a schoolboy.” Illario’s eyes practically bulged from his head as the necromancer loomed over him, plucking the ribbon from his pocket before waving an elegant hand almost dismissively.
The spectral hands pinning Illario’s arm down dissipated, sending him stumbling forward. Rook gaped at Emmrich, who merely smiled. “Allow me, my dear.”
She could only nod as he moved behind her and pulled the hair from her eyes, one of his rings catching on slightly on the golden strands as he tied the ribbon back in place. “Thank you,” she managed, despite her heart beating out of her chest.
“My pleasure.” And Maker damn her, she nearly buckled at the low purr in his voice. “May I accompany you to Fletcher’s stand? I had my eye on some talismans they had the last time we visited.”
Rook nodded weakly. With an oh-so-polite nod at Illario, who was glaring daggers at the pair of them, Emmrich offered his arm to her and set off once more. “Thanks for that,” she said softly.
“As I said, it was my pleasure. Are you alright?”
The warmth of his arm beneath her hand was comforting, even with the dread that filled her chest. “I’ll be fine. Illario…well…”
“Will suffer the consequences if he lays a hand on you again,” Emmrich finished with a scowl over his shoulder.
The blush that elicited refused to go away for the hours it took to finish up their business in Treviso and make their way back to the Lighthouse.
***
The minute-no, the second- Emmrich left his laboratory for dinner, Rook practically flew inside and shut the door behind her. Manfred greeted her with a hissed greeting she returned almost breathlessly.
When he tottered over with the familiar leather-bound journal, she made no attempt to pretend that wasn’t what she came for and let him stuff it into her hands, along with a wrapped Rialto cordial.
The most recent entry, dated just that morning, made the chocolate nearly fall from her mouth.
I am walking just a little too close to the edge of insanity, and I do not believe I can back away from the drop now.
After accidentally overhearing a conversation between Lucanis and Annika about the success of relationships outside of the Crows, I intend to find out if my wild speculations that perhaps Annika truly does find some attraction in me are true.
Oh Maker…if he overheard that conversation with Lucanis, did that also mean he heard…
Rook groaned, cheeks flaming as she forced herself to continue reading.
She came to my chambers as I was climbing into bed to invite me to Treviso the next day, and as she went to bid me farewell, I pressed a kiss to her cheek the same way she’s tormented me with the last few nights.
Spirits of the void take me, I became addicted in that one instant to the way her skin feels beneath my lips, the scent of rose and cherry that lingers in her hair, the softest little gasp she gave a symphony in my ears.
I hesitate to admit this, but after so long of feeling utterly powerless against her beauty and grace, being able to have this effect on Annika is positively heady.
The reservations still linger, as the notion that she bears any sort of fondness beyond platonic toward me is still almost ludicrous, so I intend to experiment the next few days. I shall endeavor to take any opportunity to fluster her, to make-
So engrossed in her reading, Rook didn’t hear the laboratory door open until it was too late.
“Annika?”
Her heart lept into her throat as she sprang to her feet, dropping the journal with a damning
thud
on the stone floor. Emmrich stood only a few feet away, brows raised in surprise. “Emmrich!” she fumbled, face heating. “I-i thought you were at dinner.”
“I forgot a book I meant to loan Bellara,” he replied carefully. “What are you…” and then his gaze slid to the floor, to the journal. “Is that…my-” When his eyes returned to hers, they were wide, panicked. “Were you reading- what did you read?”
There was anger, hurt, embarrassment in his voice, and it raked across her like iron claws.
“I…” She fought back the tears stinging her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Em, I wasn’t thinki-I should never have read…please don’t be ups-no, you have every right to be upset, it was a horri-”
She needed to stop talking. She needed to run. “I’m sorry,” she choked, and raced past Emmrich before he could so much as blink.
The sound of her name, broken and panicked, only quickened her pace. She was vaguely aware of Manfred's angry-sounding hissing as she vaulted the stone rail of the library stairs.
He'd never speak to her again now, not any more than necessary for their mission. She had probably humiliated him, made him feel violated.
Rook wished she had gone for her quarters to grab her gear so she could escape through the eluvian. Instead, she went to the music room. The Caretaker had shown her the portal from the high balcony overlooking the astrolabe to a lookout point high above the Lighthouse recently, and she'd chosen to keep it to herself.
A selfish indulgence, but it was one of the few places she could hide when the burdens of leadership became too heavy.
It was only once she was alone on the balcony that she let the tears fall, crumbling to the floor to rest her head against the balusters as she sobbed.
She didn't know how long she stayed like that, the constant daylight of their pocket of the Fade making it difficult to discern the passage of time, but the sudden whir of the portal behind her made her spring to her feet, hastily wiping her eyes before turning to face the newcomer.
Emmrich stood before her, his hair loose and wavy from its usual immaculate state as though he’d been running his fingers through it. He looked somewhat lost, lips slightly parted as he gazed at her.
It took a moment for her to find words as well. “How did you find me?” Her voice was hollow, raspy.
“A wisp led me here,” he said softly. “I’ll go if you wish, but I wanted to make sure you were alright. I’m sorry I got upset.”
She barked an incredulous laugh, keeping her arms tucked tightly around herself. “I was violating your privacy, Emmrich. I’d be worried if you didn’t.”
Emmrich’s throat bobbed. “I…I also wanted to apologize for the…content in my journal. The things you must think of m-”
“Please, please don’t apologize for that,” she said hastily, tears welling. “Please. Those were your private thou-”
“I never wanted you to see me as some uncontrollable, lecherous old man.” Those were tears shining in his eyes, the shame he so often wrote of making his resolve crumble, just like hers. “Particularly when we seemed to be growing, well, close. You don’t deserve to have someone like me lusting after you in the way that I have, and I am truly sorry.”
The hurt in his eyes was so devastating, Rook took a tentative step toward him. “The first time I read your journal, Manfred had brought it to me because he recognized my name in it,” she confessed. “I shouldn’t have continued reading, but I…I like the way you wrote about me. Being talked about like I was some precious treasure, worthy of admiration from someone so kind and intelligent, it made me feel…I don’t know.” She couldn’t stand the way he stared at her, so she looked away, out to the Fade.
“Annika…”
“So please don’t apologize, Emmrich. I was the one that continuously invaded your privacy, ruined your trust in me. Please.” The tears were slipping down her cheeks again, and she turned away to wipe them.
She felt a warmth at her back, not quite touching her. “I…I’d hoped to confess my feelings to you in a much more…romantic way than having you read about my lascivious thoughts and dreams.”
“Well, they did inspire a few thoughts and dreams of my own,” she confessed with a weak laugh. “I think they were always there, though, deep down.”
They were silent for a moment. Then Emmrich touched the hand at her side with the gentlest brush of his fingers. “Will you look at me, Annika?”
She obeyed after a moment of dabbing her eyes. When she looked up at him, he still kept her hand in his, tears lining his eyes as well. “Will you allow me to tell you the depth of my feelings, in person? In the way you deserve?”
Maintaining his gaze, she lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it. The warmth of his skin contrasted with the cool metal of his rings, smelling of sage and lavender. “I’ve gotten enough of your words to have an idea,” she said softly. “I think I’d rather kiss you now.”
Before he could reply, she rose on her toes and pressed her lips to his.
The shuddering gasp he gave nearly undid her as his hands settled on her, one encircling her waist to draw her body close to his lean frame, the other entangling at the back of her head in her hair.
She had every intention of keeping the kisses chaste, but then he chased her tongue with his, deepening the kiss with a wicked groan from his chest, she found herself wanting more, more, more. She didn’t realize she was yielding step after step to him until her back hit the railing, she broke the kiss long enough to glance backward over her shoulder at the steep drop into the great void. “Perhaps we can take this somewhere else?” she gasped as Emmrich’s lips moved to her neck instead, the kisses feather-light and teasing.
“Where did you have in mind?” he asked, mouth returning to hers to swallow her response.
Rook struggled to focus, her mind a hazy cloud of pleasure. “Perhaps…” he nipped at her bottom lip, sending her bucking into his body. “Your bedroom?”
The accompanying low groan from Emmrich was the perfect reward for her boldness. “As you wish, my dearest.”
When Rook attempted to pull away to begin the trek back to his bedroom, he dragged her back to him for another kiss, his hands spanning the whole of her waist as he walked her backward through the fade portal. It was as though he couldn’t bear to be apart from her, even for an instant.
They scarcely made it to his laboratory between the growing franticness of their kisses, the hands beginning to wander. Rook had never felt like this before, this hunger, this need to consume and be consumed by someone.
Manfred gave a joyous hiss at the sight of Rook when they stumbled into the laboratory. Her lips were swollen, hair likely askew. Emmrich never took his hands off her, even as he told Manfred to go visit the wisps around Neve’s office. The skeleton clattered off cheerily, and Emmrich practically yanked the three-headed skeleton statuette off its track to open the secret door behind the bookcase into his private chambers.
Rook had scarcely made it through the door before he pounced on her, caging her against the wall beside the doorframe and kissing her even more senseless. She scrambled to grab at the buttons of his vest, only to be thwarted when he seized her wrists and pinned them on either side of her head. Rook was shocked at the rush of arousal that flooded her veins at the desperate, near-primal act. “Emm!”
He slowed, moving to mouth kisses against her neck. “Let me touch you, Annika. Please, let me…”
“I…I need to tell you,” she nearly went boneless as he sucked a particularly sensative spot just below her ear. “I’ve never done this. I’ve never…”
Emmrich slowed, releasing her wrists to pull back enough to look her in the eye, surprise and worry creeping over the needy expression. “Never?”
She blushed, now quite embarrassed. “I’m no innocent prude,” she said defensively. “I had to learn…a lot for the Crows. But I always wanted to wait for the right person. I didn't want my first time to be with some fumbling, awkward fledgeling that also didn’t know what they were doing.”
“I am no fledgeling,” Emmrich said with a raised brow.
“Oh, I'm aware.” She gave him a shy smile.
He kissed her once more, lips insistent against hers. “Then allow me to show you what a little experience can do.” The small gasp she gave made him smile against her mouth. “Does something about that intrigue you, darling?”
Rook moaned as he gripped her hair, tilting her head to the side to allow better access to her neck. “I…after the first time I read your journal, I had a dream-mmm-about you.”
“Oh?” he hummed against the shell of her ear before nipping at the sensitive skin.
“You said something-mmnf-just like that in my dream.” There were goosebumps all along her skin now, and she could feel the dampness in her smalls growing with each nip and suck to her neck. The trim hair of his mustache tickled so perfectly along her flesh, exactly as she’d imagined.
The hand not gripping her hair was now caressing her through her dress, entirely too chaste against her waist before creeping down the side of her thigh. “What a dream that was,” he murmured. “Tell me more.”
She could barely remember to breathe, much less recall the details of that tantalizing first dream about him. Still, she tried, despite his hand now lifting the hem of her dress so very, very slowly, a long finger tracing up the bare skin as it went. “You…you had me against a wall, and you knelt in front of me to…to…”
The finger along her leg now traced around to the inner side, so very, very close to where she needed it most. “Don’t stop, dearest. Tell me.”
“I can’t,” she whispered, stomach twisting despite the arousal building just below.
“Was it to taste you, little love?” When she whimpered, he began to kiss langoriously down her throat once more, sucking at her collarbone before pressing lower. “Did I use my mouth on your needy cunt?”
The coarseness of his language shocked her, but in a way that tore a strangled moan from her throat. Emmrich released her hair to tug at the bodice of her dress, just low enough that the top swells of her breasts peaked over the neckline. His hands rose to encircle her waist, lifting her to the tips of her toes so he could run his tongue over them. “Forgotten already? Perhaps I shall have to try everything-” he spun her away from the wall and backed her to the plush four poster bed- “to jog your memory.”
“Emmrich, please,” she choked before he lowered her onto the bed with the utmost care. “I need to see you.” She reached for the buttons of his vest again as he crawled over her, and this time he let her, shrugging the vest off before kneeling upright between her open thighs to carefully remove his skull pin to set on the nightstand.
The rings on his fingers came off in rapid succession next, deposited in a dish, and then his many bangles. The single glove and the large arm cuff came off last. He didn’t bother with the buttons on his crisp white shirt, shucking it over his head and tossing it on the floor beside the bed. She drank in the lean planes of his chest, his arms, the silver dusting of chest hair that travelled in a line down to the waist of his trousers. He caught her eye, cheeks reddening as though in uncertainty. Rook sat upright to cup his cheek, bringing her mouth to his. “You are so perfect, Em,” she whispered.
He moaned into her touch and lowered her back against the bed. “I…this doesn’t seem real,” he breathed as he stroked a hand along her bare thigh. “I must be dreaming.”
“Then it must be a shared dream,” Rook laughed weakly as she kissed along his neck, the stubble scraping at her lips and chin.
Emmrich lowered his head back to her breasts and loosened the ties along the front of her dress. The linen fabric slid lower down her body, slipping from her shoulders until the dress bunched around her waist, her breasts bare to his attention.
Rook unconsciously moved her arms to cover herself, but he gently took her by the wrists once more and carefully pinned them above her head. “You are more beautiful than I could ever put into words, Annika,” he said, eyes drinking in her form like it was the only water in a desert. “Please, allow me to show you how deep my adoration runs.”
Another line, nearly word for word from her dream. “Please,” she pleaded, now trembling.
Emmrich released her wrists and let his hands curl around the breasts, thumbs brushing over her tightened nipples. She bucked at the sensation, seizing his hands to keep them on her breasts. He smiled. “These have haunted my waking and sleeping hours, beautiful girl.” He lowered his mouth to one peaked nipple, and sucked. Her back bowed off the bed involuntariy, chasing the sweet heat of his mouth once more, and he released the nipple with an obscene pop. That clever tongue laved over the tingling nub, punctuated by little suckles and careful scrapes of teeth that made her near-sob in pleasure.
He turned his attention to her other breast, his eyes dark on her face as he seemed to drink in her every whimper and tremor. Could she reach her climax, just from this?
“Emm,” she groaned, “I think…I might-”
The hand pinning her hip down slid between her thighs and brushed over her smallclothes, undoubtedly feeling the wet slickness that accumulated there. “So wet for me already,” he groaned around a mouthful of her breast. “That's my perfect girl…”
Her hands came down to grip his shoulders frantically at that, and he gave her a positively feral grin. “Mm, it seems I was right about your affinity for praise, darling.” She whimpered, clamping her thighs around his hand before it could withdraw.
Instead, he slipped a finger past her underwear to caress her folds. The low, coiling pleasure in her lower stomach grew tighter, more insistent, like a spring about to pop. “Please, Emmrich,” she pleaded. “I…I need…”
“Let go, Annika,” he commanded, so gentle and firm. “Find your release.”
His lips found her nipple again, tongue flicking over the sensitive peak as he sucked. The other hand found her clit and teased it with small, gentle circles.
It was too much, and yet not enough. Her back bowed off the bed as that tension in her snapped, sending shockwaves of pure pleasure cascading through her body. Emmrich slowed his movement against her clit and kissed her deeply, drinking in her shuddering gasps. “Good girl,” he whispered, and she closed her eyes in bliss. “Do you like that, my sweet? Being told what a good girl you are?”
“Yes,” she whimpered, turning her head away to hide her heated cheeks.
The hand in her underwear left to grip her chin and turned her back to meet his gaze. “My perfect little love. I am going to take the rest of this-” his thumb brushed over her hip and onto the dress bunched there- “off, and then these.” The fingers slipped to the waistband of her underwear. “Sit up, if you will.”
Rook obeyed in an instant, still trembling from her climax, and let Emmrich pull the dress over her head and toss it to the floor. He pushed her back down to get her underwear, lifting her hips to pull free. Her jaw dropped when he pressed the lacy cotton to his nose, inhaling the scent with closed eyes, before slipping it into his pocket. “I may need those back,” she tried to tease, though breathless.
“I shall buy you more.” Emmrich pressed hot, hard kisses along her sternum, tracing each rib until she squirmed. “Perhaps a blush color, with lace.” The kisses migrated south, taking their time attending to the bones of her hips, around her navel, at the divots where her hips junctured at her center.
“That…that tickles,” Rook mumbled dazedly.
“Noted.”
And then his mouth ghosted over the neatly trimmed patch of blond curls that covered her sex, lower, lower. Discomfort flared as the hot breath washed over her soaked folds, and she sat up on her elbows to tilt his chin up at her. “You…you don’t have to do that,” she said with a dark blush.
He raised a brow and turned his head to trace tingling kisses along the inside of her thighs, eyes never leaving hers. “Do you not want me to, darling?”
Maker, why was she trembling? “I don't want you to feel like you h-”
Then he flattened his tongue against her soaked center with a moan so wanton, she lost all ability to speak.
He flattened a hand on her lower stomach to keep her still as he devoured her, toying with her swollen bud with his tongue. The sound of his mouth working against her was utterly obscene, punctuated by his groans. “You taste absolutely divine, my love,” he all but growled into her. “I could spend all my days here, my face buried in your cunt, and die a happy man.”
“Emmrich, please!” she pleaded almost incoherently. She wasn't sure what she was begging for at this point, so lost in the sensation of his lips and teeth and tongue.
“That's it, my darling Annika.” He sucked kisses to her clit, letting it pop from his mouth in a way that made her see stars.
A finger circled her entrance, gentle and probing, before slipping into her wet heat. “Emm,” she whimpered as her sex fluttered around the intrusion. “Please don’t stop!”
He chuckled, the vibrations sending shocks through her clit. “Not even the gods themselves could pull me away from you now.” He gently stroked his finger inside her, in time to the movements of his wicked tongue. “Can you take another, dearest? I want to make sure you’re ready for me.”
It was all she could do to nod, fisting the lilac sheets in desperation.
The stretch of the two fingers inside her ached deliciously. Rook’s back arched off the bed as he fucked her with his fingers, mouth moving in perfect tandem. He pressed her back down gently, eyes never leaving her as she writhed. “I can’t take it,” she whined. “Please, Emmrich, I need…I need..”
“Come for me, sweet girl,” he moaned, doubling down on her cunt.
It was like an elastic snapping as she clamped her hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, her climax shattering more powerful than before. Every inch of her body tingled with wave after wave of purest pleasure.
Emmrich never slowed, continuing his onslaught until she was squirming away from him in eye-watering overstimulation. He wiped her excess slick from his face with his hand before crawling up the bed to kiss her once more. The taste of herself on his lips was heady, driving her mad as shestruggled to catch her breath. “Wow,” was all she could get out.
He nipped at her ear. “I believe I shall take that as a compliment.”
Rook gave a weak little giggle. “Cocky, are we?”
“Mm, how could I be anything but when I have the most beautiful woman in the world in my bed?”
She blushed at that, letting her fingers trail down the planes of his lean torso. When she reached the sash he wore around his hips, she tugged at it until it came undone and tossed it aside before running her palm lower to graze the bulge beneath his trousers. He closed his eyes and hummed at the sensation, leaning back agains the pillows while she explored.
The laces of his trousers were undone with quick, trembling fingers. Rook rose to her knees to help tug them and his smallclothes down his muscular legs, also dashed with a smattering of silver hair, until they joined her clothes in a heap upon the floor.
It was then that she allowed her gaze to trace back up his long legs until they reached his cock. Her eyes grew round as saucers before shooting back up to look at Emmrich’s face. He smirked, the expression so outrageously attractive Rook clenched her thighs together. “I did say I wanted to make sure you were ready for me.”
Rook gave him a coy smile. “Perhaps I’m wondering how you taste.”
“You do not need to reciprocate, if that’s what you’re saying,” Emmrich said quickly, though the way his fist clenched the same sheets she’d crumpled spoke of his true thoughts on the matter. “I wished only to ma-”
He didn’t get any further before Rook nestled between his thighs and stroked her tongue along his length, swiping the bead of liquid from the tip. Salty, and distinctively Emmrich. She licked around the swollen red head, relishing the way her necromancer’s body began to tremble under her ministrations. “You’re so wonderful,” she murmured, letting her hand wrap around the base of his shaft.
His hips spasmed at her touch, but otherwise he held perfectly still, eyes wide as he watched her explore the head with her lips. It was as though he feared blinking and missing a single moment.
“Annika,” he gave a positively broken moan. “That feels so-mmf-”
Sucking the head of his cock made him throw his head back, the strangled whimper from his throat the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard. Spurred on by his reactions, she greedily took more into her mouth, gagging slightly as she went too far.
It was likely that her technique was poor, amateurish compared to the lovers he’d had previously, but the sounds he made, the tightening of his fist on the sheets, the hand tangling in her hair to guide her pace, made her feel like the best her love had ever had.
“You look so pretty like this,” he said with a low moan, fists clenched tightly in her hair. “You will be the death of me, my perfect girl.”
Rook could only moan in response, choked by the thick length in her mouth. He took her hand and guided it to the base, showing her to pump with each bob of her head. “Just like that, darling. There's my good girl.”
She gave a ragged moan and moved faster, saliva and pre-cum leaking from the corners of her mouth, tears starting to form. Emmrich was thrusting his hips up into her mouth, demanding and forceful and utterly undone.
Just when she thought he'd come down her throat, he abruptly dragged her by the hair off of his cock and kissed her with a brutality she'd never dreamed of from him. Their teeth clacked together inelegantly as wet moans were lost to each other. Emmrich's hands roamed every inch of her frantically before squeezing at the flesh of her ass. “Annika,” he moaned. “Please, darling, I need…”
His words cut off with a ragged cry as his cock made contact with her soaked cunt, the friction so delicious she nearly shattered for a third time. “Please, take me, Emm,” she pleaded in his ear. “I need to feel you inside me.”
Abruptly, she found herself on her back, Emmrich kneeling between her thighs. His hair was wild and eyes dark with need, and Rook drank in every detail. The head of his cock brushed against her center once more. “Are you ready for me, my sweet?”
Rook nodded frantically. Words failed her as he fell to prop on one hand beside her head, caressing her face with the other like she was a precious treasure. “You are the most lovely creature,” he murmured. She surged up to kiss him, and he met her with gentle lips. “This may hurt for a moment, dearest love. Please do not hesitate to tell me to stop if it’s too much.”
The press of his cock against her entrance made her gasp, then whimper as he entered her. He groaned against her mouth and found her clenched hand against the sheets, squeezing it gently. “You take me so perfectly,” he said raggedly against her lips. “Relax yourself, that’s it. There’s my good girl.”
The aching burn as he pressed into her was almost too much. Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes as she gripped his hand tightly. The warmth of Emmrich’s tongue on her cheek, licking the tears away brought a gasp to her lips once more. “Please,” was all she could muster. “Don’t stop.”
“Never,” he whispered. He stilled as he bottomed out inside her, letting her adjust to him. “I’ve got you, darling.”
He waited until she was ready, until her hips stuttered against his in search of more. Then he moved.
It was as though she was full to the brim of him, and she still wanted more. The sounds she produced were little more than whimpered moans and cries as she wondered if anything had ever felt this incredible in her life, ever. Emmrich straightened up to continue his perfect tempo into her tight heat, hips rolling in a way that brought her hands scrabbling along his back. “Fuck,” she groaned, and he snapped a little harder against her at the courseness of her language.
Emmrich picked up the speed, hands trembling as they ran over her sides and breasts, worshipful in their gentleness and in his gaze. “I still fear I am in a dream,” he said hoarsely. “The most beautiful, sensual dream I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying.”
Rook couldn’t make herself respond, not when she was already barreling for another climax. Emmrich’s clever fingers found her clit, and her cunt tightened involuntarily around him as she began to dissolve. “Harder, please!” she pleaded with him, jerking her hips to meet him. “I need more, I’m so close!”
“Annika, I-”
“Please, Emmrich!”
Her begging seemed to undo him. With a snarl, Emmrich broke, thrusting into her hard enough to make her scream. What was once a gentle lovemaking turned to something darker, more primal, and she couldn’t get enough of it. “Emm, I’m going to co-”
His teeth grazed her neck, the only warning she had before he clamped down with a suckling bite. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she went over the edge, her cunt spasming around his cock.
Emmrich licked the bruise before moving to her ear. “That’s my perfect, dearest love,” he moaned. Rook felt his length pulse within her, heat flaring as he reached his own peak with a shuddering gasp.
For a while, he remained perfectly still over her, panting slightly. Rook felt as though she’d been liquified, a heavy warmth settling within her chest.
After his breathing calmed, Emmrich pressed a kiss to her neck as he withdrew from her. She felt so achingly empty without him inside. “That was….” she hadn’t the words to describe it. Instead, she stared into Emmrich’s eyes in desperate hope of conveying all the adoration she felt.
“I feel the same,” he said with a weary but blissful smile and a kiss. When he pulled back, he rose from the bed. “Don’t move. I’m going to get some things to clean you up.”
She missed his delicious heat the second he was gone. Missed everything about him, in fact.
Fortunately, his return was swift. She turned to prop up on an elbow when he approached, a bowl of steaming water and wash cloths in one hand, and a familiar, gold-foil wrapped bundle in the other.
He set the bowl down on the nightstand to sit on the edge of the bed and unwrapped the Rialto cordial. “I thought you might care for some chocolate,” he said, eyes twinkling in adoration. She opened her mouth for him to feed it to her. It was a bygone conclusion that she’d catch his finger in her mouth to suck for just a moment, earning a startled hum and a laugh from Emmrich. “Ravenous little minx,” he said, swiping some of the sticky sweet cherry filling from her chin.
“Well, you have fed both my appetite for you and for chocolate, so I suppose that’s your fault.”
Emmrich blushed, and Rook traced the path of the redness down his neck and to his chest. It was heaven to be able to admire him so openly. “Lie back, darling. I’m going to clean you up.”
She did as he bade, letting him clean his seed from between her thighs. The washcloth was soft against her slightly sore labia and clit, eliciting a soft groan from her. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone as kind as you,” she sighed, admiring the angle of his jaw, the small freckles recently acquired from time spent above ground.
“I’d like to think cleaning one’s lover is more common decency than kindness,” he said with a squeeze to her thigh. “Particularly when it allows me to enjoy the sight of you bare and blushing.”
“I didn’t just mean that,” she insisted, sitting up to kiss his cheek. “I think…I think it’s why I liked that you had a thing for me so much. Why I kept coming back to your journal. Or at least one reason.”
Patted dry with a clean towel, Emmrich let her pull him back into bed, curling around her before drawing the comforter over the pair of them. “I hope you always feel like that,” he murmured into her hair as their legs and arms entangled with one another. “What a perfect day of unexpected splendor.”
Sleep claimed her soon after, in the warmth of his arms.
***
Emmrich slid the golden waves of Annika’s hair out of her face, admiring the elegant slope of her nose, the dark freckle at the bow of her upper lip, before pressing a kiss to her forehead. She opened her eyes, the stunning blue making his breath catch. “What time is it?” she croaked.
He slid a glass of water into her hand, and she sat up slightly to gulp it down. “Dawn. I always get up at this time.”
“Of course you do,” she teased. “Keeping me up half the night, and then waking me up at dawn? Simply cruel, Professor.”
He let his hand wander to the curve of her backside and pinched. “As I recall, you were the one that woke me up in the dead of night, my insatiable darling.”
Rook set the glass on the nightstand before flopping back into his pillow. The golden of her hair fanned around her like a halo. “Is that a complaint I’m hearing?”
“Never.” He kissed her deeply. “Stay as long as you like. I’m going to take my exercises.”
“Perhaps you can take your exercises here,” she said with an arched brow.
The thrill of arousal that pulsed through him nearly crumpled his resolve. But the bags beneath Annika’s eyes stilled him. “You are exhausted, sweet girl. Go back to sleep. There shall be plenty of time for that later.”
It didn’t seem like Annika needed much convincing as she tugged the comforter up to her chin. Still, as he made his way out to his laboratory, he could have sworn he heard her mumble “good luck ever getting me out of your bed.”
How had he ever gotten so lucky?
Manfred greeted him with a hiss and tottered up with Emmrich’s journal in hand. Emmrich raised a brow. “Good morning to you too. I’ll write a little later.”
The skeleton shook his head, and to Emmrich’s great surprise, he opened the book. Emmrich gaped at him. “How did that…did you undo my enchantment?”
“ Hisss.”
Emmrich stared long and hard at the skeleton, who merely stared back. Then he rubbed at his nose tiredly. He could have sworn he re-locked his journal before setting out to find Annika after she had fled his laboratory. Perhaps he was mistaken.
He was about to close the book again when he noticed the page Manfred had turned to bore a loose paper, written in untidy, cramped scrawl. Annika’s writing.
Emmrich,
I suppose after invading your privacy and reading your private thoughts, it would be only fair for you to know mine. My words will certainly not be as fancy or elegant as yours, but I hope they mean at least half as much to you as yours do to me.
Before I even knew I was as madly in love with you as I am, your excitement for your work and your kindness to everyone on the team was enchanting to me. You make me wish to be a better person, to
find peace and fulfillment in learning and service.
You make my heart quicken whenever you are near, and I crave your every word and touch as though it is the air I breathe. Reading your journal awakened the idea in me that I could be worthy of adoration and love from someone as wonderful as you, saving me from a lifetime of burying such notions deep.
I hope to be yours, Emmrich. As you are mine, if you’ll have me.
Love,
Annika
Tears welled up in his eyes as he read and reread the letter, memorizing every syllable. He wiped at them with a handkerchief from his pocket before waving his hand over his journal, binding the loose paper within so that he could always have it.
“Manfred?”
“ Hissss!”
“Have the day off. I think I’ll return to bed for a bit.”
The skeleton gave a joyous clatter and scurried off as Emmrich turned back on his heel to pull the three-headed statuette on the bookcase and rejoin the love of his life.