Not Magic Enough and Setting Boundaries - By Valerie Douglas Page 0,13
me to use it better then?”
Dorovan smiled, pleased. There were much worse ways to spend a day in the storm.
“Yes.”
It suited him too, that she would know how to defend herself properly.
“After breakfast,” she said, delighted and ran on light bare feet to the door to peek around it and call, “Petra?”
“Yes, lady?” A distant voice answered.
“Breakfast in the great hall, please?” Delae asked. “I would ask to have Dorovan join me.”
She well knew it was best if no one remarked that Dorovan had spent the night in her bed, therefore the subterfuge. Elves didn’t lie with the women of men, or so it was said. Intensely aware of his presence behind her, she couldn’t deny the thrill that went through her to know he was indeed there.
“Yes, Lady,” came the reply.
She was naked and completely unconcerned with it to Dorovan’s delight. Her body was lovely to look upon unclothed. She only drew on her nightdress and robe to breakfast in, her thick bouncy red hair bound back with a tie.
Reaching out, Dorovan pulled the tie free to plunge his hands into the thick mass of it.
“I like it free,” he said.
A little startled, she looked up at him. No one else ever had.
Her throat inexplicably tight, she said, “All right.”
On the issue of shoes though, she wouldn’t bend, refusing to put any on no matter how cold the floors might be.
The day outside was as gloomy and forbidding as Dorovan had feared. The wind rattled at the shutters and guttered the fire.
Within though - with candles and the firelight to chase away the darkness and the worst of the chill and Delae’s bright hair another spark of brilliance - it was almost cozy.
Breakfast was simple but good as well, oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts, with more of the thick rough bread.
“All right,” he said. “To begin, we’ll use the fireplace poker.”
“Why?” she asked. A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth.
Very gently, he said, “Because you would be very unhappy to find my blood all over your floor. There is nothing as dangerous as a beginner. They do unexpected things.”
Just at the idea, her face blanched. “I would be very unhappy. Perhaps it would be good if we barred the other doors, also?”
He nodded.
It was no sacrifice to Delae to bar the door to the west wing of the quadrangle. . Petra and Hallis were likely cozied up in their own little room beside the fire. Her new guests in the east were likely still recovering from the ordeal during the night. She'd never felt so well rested and so well, so alive, in all her memory.
She went to get the poker.
Coming to stand behind her, gently, kindly, Dorovan changed her hold on it.
“You’re learning something as a grown woman that children in the Enclaves learn when they are just old enough to take such instruction,” Dorovan said. “They too start with blunt weapons.”
He taught her very basic moves, stripping off his tunic as it became too warm in the room from their exertions. Delae, still in her nightdress, had already cast off the hampering robe.
To his pleasure she was an apt student and he was more than quick enough when she did make a mistake to check the poker before it did him any harm. He was a good teacher, never making her feel foolish.
“Very good,” he said, although he was having difficulty concentrating now and then for the distraction of the sway of her breasts beneath the thin, well-worn material of her nightdress, for the flash of her leg beneath the skirts and for the swirl of her fiery hair. “Now, pay attention.”
Taking up his shortsword, he walked through the motions of the strike he wanted her to make.
Watching him, Delae had to make an effort to keep her attention on him. It was difficult to concentrate sometimes, for the beauty of his body as he moved distracted her - the sight of his muscles flexing and tightening. Both of them were sweating with exertion and his skin gleamed with it - the scent of him was rich in the air.
Her body heated and tightened.
“I’m sorry, Dorovan,” she said, distracted and fighting it, “please show me again.”
He caught both the gleam and diversion in her eyes, but he also saw her effort to concentrate.
The thought that his body sidetracked her had its pleasures.
She took the position he wanted as he took up both swords and when he nodded she came at him, the ‘sword’ flashing