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Waiting in the wings, Brienne pushed up the sleeve of her oversized cardigan, hissing out a curse as she caught sight of the time on her watch. Ten more minutes and they would be dangerously close to breaking the noise law she'd promised to keep. A reunion tour of the Kingsguard was always going to sell well but the fire marshall had already spoken to her twice about the sheer number of people in the venue tonight and Jaime, centre stage and basking in all the attention it brought him, hadn't seemed to notice anything more than the crowd screaming his name.
Sapphire Island Music had been owned by her family for the best part of three decades, though dwindling sales across the board had forced a merger with the newest name on the block, Wolf Productions, just as she was finishing high school. Officially Brienne's job was in A&R, her business cards practically screamed the role to anyone who wanted to know why a young woman could work and thrive in such a male dominated environment, though The Kingsguard was the only band they managed that preferred a more personal touch when it came to the running of their tour.
Well, at least Jaime did. Blushing as she caught him openly staring at her while he changed guitars, she realised Arthur was counting the crowd in from behind his keyboard, the first few notes echoing around the cavernous space turning her from pink to crimson. The song sounded different than the first time she'd been introduced to it nearly five years earlier, a whisper of a promise after rumours of infidelity had pulled her from a comfortable high rise office to a tour bus that had lived better days.
...wheels go round and round, you're on my mind...
The crowd swayed along to the music, their lighters hoisted high into the air, hundreds of flickering orange flames granting the space a warm, almost homely, glow. The fans knew every word just as well as she did. They, however, wouldn't know why the lyrics had been built as such, despite cryptic dedications Jaime had hidden in liner notes.
...two strangers meant to fall in love again...
Lewyn took up the familiar, regular beat of the song as Gerold powered through another guitar solo, Brienne thinking back to another time. Her well meaning sources had turned out to be wrong, long ago. They had at first disagreed more often than not, on that original tour, the Honor and Glory road trip a welcome respite from the cramped east coast studios where she had started with them. Every little detail had turned into a war of wills that neither wanted to back down from, while the rest of the band attempted mediation to drown out the clashes that started to extend between cities.
But an unusual kind of peace had been reached after Jaime had drunk too much one night in Phoenix, spilling secrets about the pitfalls of spending fifteen years in the music industry. He had called upon her kind nature to escort him back to their hotel, both shocking Brienne and gaining her trust in one painfully raw swoop. Terrified that he was going to choke on his own vomit, and with her defences at an all time low after what he'd just shared, she barely baulked when Jaime asked her to stay in his hotel suite rather than go back to her own room, Brienne spending a sleepless night pacing and writing and watching over him like an ugly, almost wanted guardian angel.
It seemed to come as little surprise to the rest of the band that they were now, somewhat reluctant friends, though only the most outspoken member of their roadie team was brave enough to admit that they all thought the newly found friendship was because they'd already fucked the animosity away.
...I'm still yours...
They hadn't, despite what it may have looked like to those on the outside. She'd only shared one goodbye kiss with Jaime at the end of the last tour, the final time she was supposed to see him, a simple touch leading to an understanding that there could have been something more, had there been a real future for people like them. But she now lived in upstate New York when she wasn't travelling to meet and sign new artists, and Jaime was in Los Angeles, golden sands and blue skies all year round versus the overhanging grey gloom brought on by changing seasons. Beyond that physical distance, though and her tendency towards sensible, while Jaime was born with a reckless streak a mile wide, they both loved and lived for the music.
And that's why, when Arthur and Gerold and Lewyn and Jon each called her separately, coming close to begging for her input, Brienne returned to the road to see out The Kingsguard's triumphant last stand.
...faithfully.
The roar of the crowd momentarily deafened Brienne and she checked her watch again, knowing Jaime was beaming out into the growing dark as the lighters were extinguished one by one to the echo of Gerold's last, lingering chord. She heaved a sigh of relief as the cheers faded naturally back to quiet impatience. If they could get the doors open in the next few minutes, she wouldn't be looking at a healthy fine for disturbing the peace in a newly residential area.
"Thanks for coming out tonight," Jaime yelled as he bounced back up to his highly decorated, golden microphone, Brienne failing to suppress the urge to roll her eyes while his smile stretched a little wider. "Does anyone want one more?"
"It'll be coming out of your pay packets, if you do," Brienne grumbled, the gathering roadies laughing amongst themselves as she crossed her arms and glowered at the stage. On another day, a day where she hadn't been sitting on an airport runway for six hours, a day where she'd missed the pre-show briefing and hadn't been able to warn them about the intricacies of time management, a day where Jaime didn't look like he'd been carved out of marble and spun gold and put on earth just to entice and irritate her, Brienne would have probably been singing along to what was arguably The Kingsguard's biggest hit. She had sung the song with him, for him, once before. On a whim, she had picked it out from a juke box selection in a Tulsa dive bar about a week or so after the Phoenix incident and the empty shot glasses decorating the surface in front of them made it feel like the right thing to do. But now, sober and sensible, she was merely waiting until it was over, counting through the number of phone calls she'd have to make in the morning.
Dad first, then the lawyers. Maybe local government, get them to visit a hospital or put on a charity event. Oh god, Catelyn will need to know, too. And...
"Brienne!" Lewyn Martell called out, interrupting her attempts at fixing a problem that hadn't yet materialised, the dark haired drummer just about reaching Brienne's shoulder as he opened his arms and pulled her into an friendly hug. "We've missed having you around," he grinned. "Well, some of us have anyway."
"It's nice to see you, too, Lewyn," she replied kindly. "How's everyone back home?"
"Multiplying rapidly. I'm now a great-uncle to ten and Oberyn and Ellaria have another one on the way. It's going to be a lot of gifts to remember."
"Stuffed toys are always appreciated in my experience," she smiled back as the rest of the band slowly trickled in from their curtain calls, offering her more hugs and general cheer until Brienne felt like she'd been spun around twice. Reaching out for a solid surface, she smacked into the firm musculature of Jaime's chest.
With little more than a raised eyebrow the rest of The Kingsguard scattered, leaving Jaime to drink her in like a dying man in a desert. "You certainly took your time getting here."
"There was snow in New York. It is winter in certain parts of this country right now, you know."
Jaime smiled smugly and it was almost like she'd never been away, two years melting to seconds as he considered her response. "That can't be why you're wearing a shirt with my face strewn across your left tit, though?"
Brienne blushed. "There was a merchandise stand, I-I thought I should fit in with the rest of the crew. All your tour dates are on the back."
"You're never going to fit in, sweetheart."
"Don't call me sweetheart. My name is Brienne."
"Like I don't already know that." He paused to take a swig from the bottle of water one of the roadies had thrown at him. "It's been so boring travelling without you, Brienne. Remember Christmas Eve in Philadelphia? Or was it Baltimore?" Jaime's smile sweetened, the closest he ever came to an actual apology, making her mouth water as she remembered how a long night of sharing music and memories ended with syrup being poured over two stacks of pancakes."Sometimes things blur together a bit."
"Baltimore. We were out there nine, ten months that year, 150 shows, no wonder the details are a little fuzzy. And you never did return my scarf."
"You gave it to me." He made the most of holding her gaze as he pushed out his lower lip in a perfect pout. She wanted to curse him to the depths of hell. She wanted to kiss him until she forgot her own name. "It was Christmas and you gave me a present."
"It was thirty degrees," Brienne huffed, her reasonable explanations not feeling like excuses just yet. "You don't own a coat and went from looking like that to cuddling into me like I was a hot water bottle."
"Like what?" Jaime prodded, laughing when she turned a deeper shade of pink and muttered that 'it no longer really mattered'. "I've never been good in the cold. Hollywood Hills, Santa Monica beach house, even my father had a-"
"Okay, don't rub it in." Brienne shook her head slowly, fondly. "I remember thinking you must never have seen winter before the way you were going on. We were both a bit too old for snowball fights, even back then."
"Maybe," he shrugged. "But who else can say they built a snowman under the lights of the biggest and best city in the world at three am? And if you want to talk about me being awestruck by nature, what about you and the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls? For someone who's been everywhere you don't ever stop to take a good look around."
"Find me the next Def Leopard or Bon Jovi and I'll stare at all the wonders of the world you can find," she retorted.
"Done." Jaime held out his hand and she shook it tentatively, unsure to what his next move was going to be. "I'm going to have a lot of time to kill once this tour is done, finding a new superstar seems like a small price to pay to show you The Great Barrier Reef. When was the last time you took a vacation, anyway?"
She blinked rapidly, torn between taking a step back, running from their undeniable connection and asking him to tell her another, impossible, tale. "Jaime, I-"
"Or, if fish don't hold your attention, you could always stare at me for as long as you want," he offered plainly. "It's not like it would be the first time. I remember watching you go back to the crew bus night after night and hoping that maybe, when you looked over your shoulder, it meant you were thinking what I was thinking."
"And what was that?" she whispered, her eyes flickering around the emptying space before finding safety in caressing the floor.
"That we shouldn't have left it until the last night to kiss goodnight."
"We shouldn't have...?" she repeated, her tongue seeming too big in her mouth all of a sudden, leaving the question open as if giving Jaime one final exit route, though he was creeping closer and closer with each exhale. "I didn't think you...you would still want...when you've got all these women throwing themselves at you."
Jaime huffed out a sound of disbelief, tracing teasing fingertips down her forearm until her head snapped up, his gently flirtatious expression making her stomach clench and churn. "And which one of those girls would have no problem calling me out on my bullshit like you do or never letting me win at Lazer Tag unless it had been a fair fight?"
"I'm not the only one who does that."
"Yes," he purred, having comfortably manoeuvred an arm around her waist, Brienne swallowing her sigh to mirror the action, Jaime's body warm and firm where it pressed against hers. "You are. And you must know by now that I'm not interested in groupies, unless you were going to make a habit of wearing Kingsguard shirts, then I might be able to make an exception."
"Shut up," Brienne tried to grumble, biting her lip to stop a sudden surge of giddiness from bubbling over. Though there was a small part of her that still believed she hadn't woken from her cross country nap, the darkening of Jaime's eyes, unreadable emerald glinting through to wanting forests of pine, and goofy grin as his much too long hair escaped from its hairspray hold to wave in the slight behind the scenes breeze just about kept Brienne from chalking his continued interest up to an over active imagination.
"Why don't you make me?"
Brienne swallowed a lump of doubt. "Jaime..." I don't think I know how to do this properly.
"You've never been this speechless before with me," he mused, though there was a more than hint of genuine surprise behind the sentiment. "I like it. No, wait, I love it."
As her mind raced to find much needed clarity, Jaime didn't stop touching, holding her with one hand while the other carded through her failed attempts at fluffing thin layers of white blonde hair, brushing aside the bangs that lay flat against her freckled forehead. Jaime had never cared about the speckles decorating her skin, calling her out on the imperfections more than once over the years, but now the longer they stood entwined the more determined he seemed to caress and study each mark, the tender touches making her breath catch before words could be formed. All she had to do was dip her chin and put her heart into the promised kisses Jaime was eagerly offering with each and every twitch of his smirking lips. Brienne fought against the overwhelming wave of confused emotions as he continued to flirt up at her, realising she'd been wanting him, this, almost every day since they had parted.
"What?" he asked, the inadvertent crinkle of his nose helping to tease the return of her all too rare smile. "I didn't think it was possible but your eyes get bluer whenever you do that."
"They really don't, Jaime," she murmured, finally feeling bold enough to reach out and cup his perfectly sculpted jaw, her heart pounding like a drum as he leaned further into her palm, watching his fluttering eyelashes while she slowly, tentatively, replaced the thumb resting at the corner of his mouth with her lips. He groaned at the half kiss, long and low like his patience had been stretched far enough and was now trickling through her fingers the way warm Sicilian sand had done once upon a time, when Brienne was still small.
The decades old memory hardly had time to settle, though, before Jaime's grip tightened, angling her head so that a second, third, fourth fervently blistering kiss followed in such rapid succession, she could barely keep up with the awakening desire throbbing through her veins.
As she broke away to gasp for breath, Jaime took the opportunity to kiss her chin, along her cheek, down the curve of her jaw, exploring again and again, tasting his lips as they roamed over the chapped surface of her own. Surprising herself by wanting more, especially as he started to mumble her name like a benediction between the sustained twining touches of their tongues, Brienne's instinctive moan of delight turned pained as her clumsiness and inexperience met and collided, her forehead bouncing off Jaime's a few moments later.
"Oh god, I'm so sorry," she tripped over her tongue to apologise while Jaime pinched the bridge of his nose, swearing just colourfully enough that her earlier nerves came rushing back in. "I didn't mean to...my n-nanny used to say that every time I screwed up, it made another freckle and you can see how many-"
"You're not screwing this up, Brienne. You just need practice if I'm not going to get a concussion while we make out." Jaime wasted little time before kissing her again, something gentle, something special. "Was our last kiss your first?"
"No," she breathed, chasing his still wanting lips between each word. "Of course...not. I have, god, been kissed...before. Once."
"Who was-?"
"Somebody to be forgotten."
"Okay then. Practice," he replied, stroking the nape of her neck as the next meeting of their mouths turned deep and lingering, Jaime's sharp, shallow inhales seeming to indicate that he was just as reluctant as Brienne to be parted any longer than necessary. "Do you trust me?"
"How can you ask...?" Brienne closed her eyes for a beat, swallowed and nodded. "Yes, I do."
Jaime smiled, a flash of genuine emotion amongst all his amorous tricks and teasing, encouraging her to shuffle back with hands and lips and the swing of his hips until she could comfortably rest her weight against the wall. Brienne bit into the meat of her cheek at the feel of Jaime throbbing hot and hard between her thighs, primal instinct taking over as she wrapped her leg around his denim clad hip to bring him closer, the quickening cadence of their brushing lips suddenly at odds with the slow grind Jaime was seeking relief in.
The rational part of her brain had been initially trying to keep count of each touch, each kiss, each noise that she'd never made before, but as things started to blur together, stroking her tongue along Jaime's with new prowess, her confidence growing as his hands kept moving over and under her shirt, she sunk further under the swelling waves of drowning desire. There was little insecurity left in Brienne as she relaxed into the feel of his mouth suckling down her neck, sure to be leaving marks for tomorrow, holding Jaime tighter as their 'practice' became less and less appropriate for the semi-public setting.
Though there couldn't have been anyone left in the auditorium now, the sound of hushed tones was still trickling through from the outside, and when blast of cooler air hit her in the face it startled Brienne enough to reluctantly open her eyes, staring back at Lewyn twirling an abandoned drumstick between his fingers.
"Finally," he whispered, winking as Jaime pretended to remain oblivious to his presence, traversing the contours of her collarbone while Lewyn disappeared back into the shadows without another word.
"Do you want...?" Brienne started when they were alone together again, knowing what she was about to do but still needing to take a breath before vocalising it. "I saw a motel on my way here, we could...get a room?"
"Or we could go back to the bus."
She blinked out of the moment, considering the practicality of a smaller space and probable eavesdroppers. "Won't the rest of the band mind?"
"We're in a city with plenty of bars and plenty of girls, Brienne, they won't mind at all. I doubt they'll even notice until after closing time," he grinned, unwinding her arm from around his back, checking her wrist. "Which gives us a good three hours to...practice."
"Are you sure I'm going to fit?"
The pressure of his next bruising kiss was strangely comforting, warming Brienne through. "I'll make room for you and those amazing legs," he promised. "Do you know how many times I've dreamt of having you in my bed?"
She flushed. "...you have?"
"Almost every night since you didn't write or call."
He hadn't been in contact either but she decided not to emphasise the point, surprised that they had both doubted the other's feelings. "Can you promise me no one is going to walk in on us again?"
"Those guys owe me about twenty times over." Her brow furrowed and Jaime laughed. "You're not that naive surely. You must know what happens out on the road. And I might not be interested in all of that, but things have been awfully hard thinking about you during our long night drives."
"Okay."
It sounded more like a question even to her ears and she was grateful that Jaime knew her well enough to hear the quiver of uncertainty wrapping around the stretched out syllables. The touch of his lips to her cheek was sweeter than any candy Brienne could think of, his kisses like a weird addiction she hadn't thought would affect her so strongly. "Do you...do you have keys?"
"How you can be practical at a time like this, I'll never know." A curiously searching hand crept, inch by inch, under her shirt as Jaime pressed his accompanying grin into her shoulder. "They should be in my back pocket if you want to grab them."
His ass was certainly as well toned as the rest of him and Jaime voiced no complaints over the slight struggle she had to remove the undersized tour bus key. But Brienne knew the longer they stayed put, the higher the chance of being caught by security or the fire marshall, who she still had to smooth things over with. And seeing her wrapped enthusiastically around an aroused rockstar might irreparably damage whatever professional relationship existed in the first place. "Umm, Jaime?" she tried to politely break his fiercely fixated focus. "I think we should go and find the bus."
"It can't chase after the next passing airhead, Brienne," he replied smoothly. "I know exactly where we left it."
"It's just-"
"What?" he finally raised his head, green eyes blazing as concern momentarily overwhelmed desire. Recognising that it was her turn to provide a second of comfort, she ran a calming hand over his hair, listening to him let go of a deep breath before leaning forward to rest her forehead against his. Brienne was one of the few to have been told every detail from his past, Jaime's romantic history a double edged sword, full of secrets she didn't plan on ever repeating even to herself.
"I'm not planning on hiding you away, if that's what you're thinking," Jaime continued. "They all know, hell, I think they all knew before I did. How many calls did you get this last month anyway?"
"F-five."
"Goddamn it," he hissed out the curse though any real anger was fleeting. "We would have got there eventually on our own."
"Maybe," Brienne agreed, biting into lip as she lied.
"You should never play poker, sweetheart. You'd lose every cent in your pockets and probably the clothes off your back, too." He exaggerated a leer and she shoved him away, both of them laughing awkwardly. "Seriously, though, you're so damn good I kind of want to write a song about you."
"Please don't," she blushed furiously all over again. "I just meant...that we should move if you want...because I want....and I'm...all in? Is that right?"
"Yes. Me too. All the way in," he replied, sealing his breathy affirmation with a kiss that she felt all the way down to her toes. "I've never had a one night fling," he admitted, though it was something Brienne had already assumed, after spending days and weeks and months in his company. "And I sure as hell aren't starting now. With you."
"Jaime," she murmured as they barely broke apart, feeling him reach for her hand to interlock their fingers as if the emotion she'd poured into his name had been overwhelming.
"You can't just go back to New York and pretend to forget what there is between us, like we both tried to do last time. It won't work again. I'm going to call you from the bus, whenever I can, if you don't stay."
Brienne knew it would be tough to separate their work friendship and burgeoning relationship if she was going to be watching over him every day for the next year, but Sapphire Wolf had a signed contract promising that Jaime and the Kingsguard wouldn't be on tour forever. They had lives and loves to get back to, after all, families that were growing up in their absence. Jaime had none of that, not anymore, but he could have something with her. Splitting her time up between New York summers and Californian winters didn't seem like a terrible prospect to Brienne. Plus, Jaime's recording studio, The Rock, would be a nice base on the west coast to woo new artists from, if and when the time came for them to be truly together.
"A week," she decided when her mind stopped whirring through future possibilities. "Or two. There's a group of girls in Kentucky I promised a meeting to next month. If they are anything like their demo, they're going to be superstars."
Jaime's eyes glinted with the beginnings of an idea. "You could invite them to one of our concerts. Show them what it's really like to hit the big time."
"I'd love to, Jaime, but their drummer is still in high school. I doubt her parents would want her hanging out with the infamous Kingsguard just yet."
"True," he nodded. "It would give you so much extra work to do, babysitting a bunch of teenagers." His eyelashes fluttered and she watched as golden glints turned soft and suggestive. "And we need to be making the most of all the travelling and downtime there is over the next two weeks."
"I...I s-still have to work," she blushed, looking anywhere but directly at him. "I wouldn't be able to lie around all day and just-"
"Do me?" Jaime interjected crudely, her crimson cheeks flushing harder as he laughed. "God, I love that it's so easy to get you to do that. Maybe 'Blush' should be the title of your song. You wouldn't have a problem with something like that, would you?"
"I'll think about it," she replied, his smile reappearing as he pulled her off the wall and towards the exit.
Her feet seemed to move without conscious control, hurrying across the empty parking lot so quickly that Brienne hardly had a chance to catch her breath before Jaime was stealing back the key, turning it in the lock and throwing open the side door to invite her into the band's travelling sanctuary. And, apart from two arcade games bolted to the floor in the living/kitchen area and several dozen shelves filled with bottles of various liquors there was little difference between that and the bus being currently used by the tech team. The twin sized bunk beds looked a little longer, though, if not wide enough to comfortably hold two tall, broad, muscular adults, and her calves ached in appreciation at the fact that she may be able to stretch her legs while sleeping for the first time ever on a tour bus.
"It's not what any of us are used to, but we cope," Jaime shrugged, looking her up and down like he'd never allowed himself to really look before. "So...do you want to help me out of my jeans?"
Her mouth went dry at how straightforward he sounded, and she swallowed hard. Brienne knew they weren't moving all that quickly, not with their past and the promises left behind in that last kiss, but there was always time to overthink the ways in which things could go wrong. "You can't do it yourself?" she asked, shrugging out of her cardigan, the heat in the bus suddenly stifling.
"It's a very long and hard process," he grinned, leaning back against the reinforced bed frame, using his whole body to beckon her closer. "But it'll be more fun with you involved. Don't tell me you've never thought about what it would be like to undress me."
"Y-yes, I-"
"Get over here, Brienne."
And so, with a nervously familiar tremble running down her fingers, she did just that, grateful that the strength in his opening arms allowed her to relax fully, no longer surprised at how easy it was to meet and fall under the spell of his hungry kisses. Jaime felt like heaven itself under her palms, under his clothes, remaining eager to learn where exactly she liked to be touched, smiling into her skin with each increasingly uninhibited moan as he tested tender marks he'd already left with the tip of his tongue.
Looking up at her like all his Christmases had come at once, Jaime helped her remove the buttoned shirt he'd been swathed in for the show, her hand being encouraged from lying on his shoulder to skim through the golden fur that had been uncovered, perusing musculature and curling around his nipples. His breath caught before purring Brienne's name like a prayer, like a curse, grabbing hold of her hips to rediscover what had become their natural rhythm.
"Can I assist you with anything, sweetheart?" he asked, arching an eyebrow as she raised her arms, Brienne aiming for a dictionary definition of coy but releasing an unladylike squeak at the feel of Jaime squeezing her bottom instead.
"Don't make me say it, Jaime," she gasped, turning her head away from what she still so desperately wanted, his efforts focusing on tugging and nibbling and licking what he could through her shirt, while they did what they did best and disagreed.
"I'm always going to make you say it."
She sighed. "Take it off me."
"Yes, boss," he laughed, pulling her top over her head and throwing it across the room in one smooth movement. His hands trailed up and down her sides, over her back, teasing and swirling, tracing curved lines of freckles like they were placed in patterns she'd never been able to see before.
"I didn't think you'd have these everywhere," he admitted, his fingers stroking a constellation of spots that neatly outlined the top of one small breast.
Brienne nodded, squirming a little when his fingers dipped under the waistband of her jeans, causing her stomach to ache and throb as if she hadn't eaten in days. "More so when it's sunny."
"I'll get you a bikini for Australia," Jaime promised, nuzzling into her neck and repeating the action as he moved lower with every breath, stopping the freckle taste test to mouth at her sensibly covered breasts. "Can I see?"
Filling her lungs, more to steady her racing heart than providing her with a chance for doubt, Brienne reached around to unhook her bra, the combination of cold air and Jaime's warm breath puckering her nipples, the sensation new though not entirely unpleasant. Smiling up at her, he closed his lips to suckle and she grabbed at his hair to help ground herself, Brienne's other hand moving further and further down his back, trying to find something else to hold onto, his skin so warm.
"I want...I want..."
The green had all but disappeared from his eyes by the time he switched his attentions to her other breast, Brienne finding comfort in the feel of his rolling shoulders, the planes of his warm chest, the twitch of his stomach, fumbling with his belt one handed while he suckled harder in response. Jaime pushed against her palm even before she had a chance to fix her fumbling fingers around his zipper, hard and wanting, her body feeling like it was weeping for him to do more. Jaime groaned with each instinctive push of her hips, echoing the creaking frame they were leaning against. But he had no problem giving her most, if not all, of the control. "I want to go to bed."
He released her nipple with an audible pop that made the churning in her gut liquefy and drip lower, giving Brienne a chance to take in how his hair had been almost artfully ruffled from her grasping hands. His dilated pupils and flushed cheeks did nothing to diminish his beauty, although Jaime looked just as wrecked as she was beginning to feel, panting like he'd been practicing sprint starts, rather than feeling her up. Fighting against the urge to cover herself now that he was not using his wonderful mouth to do it for her, Jaime seemed to sense her rising hesitation and smoothly guided her wavering hands back down to where he was throbbing for attention. Two pairs made light work of button and zip, Jaime distracting her from any lingering self-consciousness by peppering her skin with messy, open mouthed touches as they eased tight denim over his narrow hips.
"God, me, too," he hissed gratefully, bringing her hand to his lips to gallantly kiss her knuckles like she'd just freed him from a terrible ordeal. It was an odd gesture considering their surroundings, Brienne naked from the waist up and Jaime only clad in his paisley print boxers, but she found herself caught up in the infectiousness of his ear to ear grin. "Lead on, my lady."
Brienne had to remember to duck her head as she lowered herself onto the mattress of the bottom bunk bed, having slightly underestimated the amount of space available, more than enough for Jaime to comfortably lie on top of her, though it would be cramped should they want to rest side by side later. But she wasn't allowed to wonder about their sleeping arrangements for long, not when Jaime chose to sinuously drop to his knees in front of her, filling the thickening air with filthy murmurs as he dragged her jeans down her long legs, boldly speaking of how they seemed to go on for days, wanting to have her thighs wrapped tight around him when they both came. After a kiss pressed to her twitching abdominal muscles, Jaime climbed onto the bed to gently push her back into the pile of pillows and, as her chest heaved in anticipation of his next move, he rubbed his thumb over the embarrassingly obvious damp patch on her underwear. Brienne shuddered as he tested her unreserved reactions for a second time, the touches quickly turning to circling caresses and soothing strokes, Jaime crooning to her whimpering whispers before slipping beneath the crisp white cotton. Teasing through her curls and over the folds that were hiding below, he began to build towards a regular rhythm, one that felt like they were tapping into something primal she hadn't quite been able to replicate on her own yet.
She could just about feel the calluses on his fingertips as Jaime wasted no time in learning how to play her effortlessly, listening for changes in her breathing like he was moving through a previously undiscovered octave, the now constant pattern and pressure of his explorations over her soft, wet flesh causing her knees to tremble. Leaving his rubbing thumb in place, Jaime held her heavy lidded eyes as he slowly slid a single finger inside her walls, twisting and thrusting it forward in time with the steady swipes across her hardening clit.
Brienne gasped, feeling a precipice open up in front of her as he added a second, pushing them deep enough inside that she was seeing stars with each repetition. She'd been here before, dangling on the edge of release, but everything was different with Jaime hovering on one elbow above her, drinking in every taut muscle and bead of sweat between the tenderly bruising battles waged by their lips and tongues.
"Jaime," she moaned as her back arched and she fell into the cresting tidal wave of pleasure, riding out ripples of white water, as he continued to rub until the last of the aftershocks had carried her safely to the shore where he was waiting to catch her. Wiping flyaway strands of hair off her forehead, Jaime sighed as she cuddled closer into his chest, boneless and sated. "That was..."
"Yeah," he rasped in agreement, pulling his fingers out of her and bringing them to his mouth, Brienne's eyes widening as he licked away the remnants of her release. "All those dreams and I never thought you'd look so stunning when you come."
"I'm not-"
"Do you need me to prove it to you?" he growled, loosening his grip just enough for Brienne to roll onto her back, her broad shoulders and wide hips claiming the majority of the space, leaving Jaime to take in the view from above as he draped himself across her nakedness. "I will," he promised, suckling at her pulse point before picking out a new path to kiss down her neck and chest. "I could spend hours talking about the way your eyes spark when you're getting close or how tight you feel around my fingers. I think you're an entire album, Brienne, not just one song."
"Jaime," she soothed as her fingers tangled in thick layers of hair, bringing his full attention back to exploring her mouth. There was love in his words, or perhaps adoration for the heat of the moment, but she wasn't sure if they should be ready to fully vocalise such a thing. But, because of the gauntlet of emotion that he'd always made her run, and the reciprocation she felt for everything that was still unspoken, Brienne was more than ready, wanting, and willing for Jaime to experience the same rapture he'd shown her.
It took little effort on her part to start to slide the last of Jaime's clothing off, hooking her fingers under the irregularly patterned waistband and somewhat awkwardly stroking along the groove that seemed to guide her directly to the velvety soft skin encasing his erection. And, yet, it was one of the boldest things Brienne had ever done.
When he realised exactly what she was trying to do, Jaime rocked his weight onto his palms and toes, giving Brienne better access while he held himself steady, their kisses becoming more and more ardent as her inexperienced fondling resulted in the first of several long, slow strokes.
"You can...faster," he groaned, the sound feeling like a roll of thunder as it vibrated onto her tongue, Jaime thrusting into her grip twice before his forearms trembled and he lowered himself into the cradle of her limbs. "Good god," he moaned, matching her gasp for gasp as Brienne forgot about her lack of obvious femininity and enjoyed just holding him, nuzzling along his cheek and nibbling at his ear lobe while he took a moment to calm himself before fervently ripping away her underwear. "Have you always been such a quick study?"
"I'm...I'm g-good with my hands?"
"I'll say." Jaime lowered his head, laughing warmly into a concentrated circle of freckles on her shoulder, Brienne finally feeling forward enough to lift and rest her calf along the back of his thigh, bringing the tip of his hard cock in contact with the softest part of her body. As she exhaled deeply at the pleasure in the pressure, Jaime rolled his hips, still teasing though he must have been able to feel how she was slick. "I think if Song One is 'Blush'," he told her almost conversationally. "Then Song Two should be 'Into the Blue'."
"Are you really trying to figure this out while we-"
"Make love?" he purred seductively. "Sweetheart, I'm so turned on, I'm not trying to do anything other than wait for you. But every part of you is like a new type of inspiration."
"I don't want to wait any longer, Jaime. I want you," she breathed, meeting his lips for another long, investigatory kiss, though her heightened arousal turned to disappointment as he rolled off the bed and padded naked across the room. Feeling truly exposed for the first time since they'd undressed, Brienne grabbed and hugged a pillow to her chest. "What are you-?"
"The guys always used to keep some around here for any 'surprise' guests," Jaime replied vaguely, rummaging through drawers in the kitchen until he presented Brienne's furrowed brow with a handful of colourful squares. "There we go. Like I've been singing every night, 'the road ain't no place to start a family'."
Relieved, Brienne rolled her eyes at his bright smile, her blush reigniting as he started to fumble with opening one in the low light. "Can I do that?"
"Of course," Jaime replied, licking his lips as he took a final cursory glance around the kitchen and headed back to her, all leonine grace and sex appeal. "You only ever have to ask."
Tentatively, Brienne smiled up at him from where she had moved to sit on the edge of the bed, her height adding to the awkwardness of the angle but Jaime didn't seem to notice or care, overemphasising the act of pressing a chaste kiss to both of her palms before he passed over the prophylactics. She couldn't see his face while it took her three tries and an endless minute to finish what Jaime had started, overflowing with gentle apologies and firm strokes in between each mistake, getting a little carried away as her increasingly confident touches pushed him to a place of near speechlessness.
"Brienne," he groaned, a tap to the shoulder stopping the rolling momentum she'd found. "Tomorrow, I promise, you can take me apart with your hands. And...and I want to spend hours tasting you but tonight I want-"
She didn't know who moved first, only that her pillow was abandoned before Jaime could even finish his sentence, landing on the bunk bed opposite as the springs beneath her squealed in protest at the sudden bouncing arrival of two amorously entangled blondes. Breaking away from his lips for air, Brienne locked her arms around his neck as Jaime switched to balancing his weight on one elbow, checking that she was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, ready before taking his cock in hand and slowly easing in, letting her become comfortably accustomed to the stretch until he was buried fully inside.
Brienne's eyes rolled back as Jaime began to pull out and inadvertently brushed against a place that made her see stars, crying out wordlessly as she tried to anchor herself by digging her fingernails into his back, only for him to stop moving entirely. Not understanding why he'd stilled so soon, she opened her eyes to see Jaime searching for reassurance that she wasn't in pain. She nodded emphatically for him to continue, feeling too full to do much more.
He pushed back in with a grunt that left her fingers and toes tingling, staying appreciatively vocal even as he picked up speed, the rhythmic slide of him against her yielding walls lighting the fuse that Brienne knew would soon start a climatic chain reaction. Her throat felt raw as she called out his name again, Jaime, looking like a fallen angel she couldn't imagine not being in her life, flicking damp hair out of his eyes before dipping his head and whispering darkly in her ear.
"Touch yourself. Please," Jaime begged, pausing mid moan so that she could rearrange her limbs to help him help her share the pleasure. "Come with me."
"O-okay," she stuttered, too hot now to blush much deeper, carefully circling her clit like she'd done many times before while thinking of him and how he might make her scream.
And despite all her half realised fantasies, this wasn't anywhere close to what she'd been told about sex by one less than well meaning nanny after another. She wasn't supposed to want or enjoy the way Jaime kept thrusting in to her, equal parts grind and drive, or become an active participant, all hands and hips, unable to lie back and imagine herself elsewhere while he was moving them further up the narrow bed with such unabashed passion.
Deepening their next kiss, Brienne tried to do three things at once, touching and holding and kissing while she wondered if booking a hotel room in the next city would be a good idea, one with better sheets and more space, a final rubbing rotation all she needed to shudder and clench into another gratifying hit of white hot sensation. Jaime suckled at her neck as his movements stuttered and he swelled further, pushing her to an extended point that was just as good as her first taste, maybe even better because as Brienne came down she was given a chance to watch him begin to lose control in kind, having held out for as long as possible.
Brienne hadn't been given many opportunities to offer comforting words or touches before Jaime had first kissed her, but she did her best now, pressing her lips along his temple, staying soft and encouraging until his erratic thrusting came to a standstill and he found himself inside her, breathing heavy, glistening with sweat and completely spent. He was so beautiful to her blissfully tired eyes, Jaime's panting exhales slowing as they smacked against her skin from where he lay, half dozing on top of her.
Smiling as he cuddled into her further, not letting go now that his feelings had been reciprocated, Brienne reached for the abandoned duvet that had pooled at their feet sometime ago. Jaime might have felt like a furnace but he would cool quickly enough from inactivity. And if there had been any doubt left in her mind as she languidly stretched her legs, knowing how easy it would be to drift off into dreams like she'd just finished a good, hard run, Jaime knew just when to open a single fiercely green eye, watching her settle under the cover of navy blue while he yawned, all warm breath and unadulterated delight. "I'm yours, Brienne. However far apart we're going to be over the next year, I'm yours. You don't have to worry.
"I wasn't, I-I was thinking."
"There's no need to do that either," he insisted, trying to wink without opening both eyes, her laughter fond and throaty. "Give me half an hour and we can go another couple of rounds, if you want."
She hoped that she'd moved past blushing after what they had done, but there was probably always going to a part of her that would react to his easy flirtations. "There's no rush, Jaime, I'm not going anywhere."
"I'm going to hold you to that," he joked in reply, though the rare spike of vulnerability wrapping around his words made Brienne turn her head and gently kiss away whatever fear may have lingered around intentions, determined not to let Jaime's romantic history repeat when she'd fallen so hard. She would stay with him night after night, as long as she could with the tour, listening to him hum with contentment, their future as long and exciting as the waiting, open road.
"So," she started as he cuddled impossibly close and she wrapped a leg around him to keep them from both falling onto the floor. "What do you want to do tomorrow, again?"