Duty calls

"I wish I could spend all day with you here like this." It is still hard to believe how fast this has happened. A day ago, while recognizing that Alexia was very beautiful (in a deadly way) you never thought about taking her as a lover, but now you can think of little else. "But I have that meeting with Lord Marshal Raxius, and I believe it might be useful if my Spymaster also was in attendance as she is almost certainly both more perceptive and wiser than I." The slender red-head stretches like a cat after a nap, her naked body still glistening with sweat and a smear of blood on her pale thigh proof that you are indeed her first - just as she is yours.

"I see that you've grown wiser my King, just in the past hour." With a chuckle you climb from her bed and reach for your undertunic. Alexia starts strapping on her arsenal and you watch in admiration able to see for the first time where all her knives are tucked.

The two of you dress quickly in an awkward silence, you back in your simple but effective armor and her in a sheer tunic that drapes over her girlish curves making her look for all the world like a young companion to a king and not his trusted advisor. You realize with a start that this is exactly what she has become, and your mouth tightens as you realize that you are going to have to be careful with how this new twist is going to complicate your relationship.

"What's wrong, Bruce?" Clearly Alexia is as perceptive as always even though she looked completely engrossed in putting on a light layer of makeup. Is this a trick her father taught her, or something she picked up on her own?

"We'll have to take Spook, or we'll be late." You make your tone as firm as possible. Alexia, you knew, much preferred riding horseback but today it is not an option, and you look forward to having this young woman riding with you on your great drake. In hindsight you wonder if all those times she turned down you offer for a lift was because she knew how it would feel to ride together.

"Yes, your Majesty." Alexia drops into a deep curtsy, "I am your humble servant to serve at your pleasure." It is good to see a little of Alexia's sass return - maybe this won't be so bad after all.

"I'll remember that." You must have a stupid grin on your face because Alexia turns on you with the fierceness of a feral Kalion rockcat.

"Don't think for a second that you're going to put me in a **** saddle, Bruce." You don't even own a **** saddle, but the thought of her limber body gyrating with her legs pulled open before you makes you resolve to procure one the first chance you get. The two of you exit her tent together and none of your assorted people seem to think it odd, but you try to remember how loud the two of you had been. Did everyone now know you and Alexia were now lovers?

Hades! What is Galeon going to say when he finds out you ruined the girl he took under his wing after her father died?