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“Ask me something,” Allison said.
She held up a length of hair between her fingers. White, except when tilted in the light. Then it was pearly pink, then blue, then the yellow of springtime. Renee smiled.
She was always smiling.
At first, Allison hadn’t liked that about her. Had no one ever taught this woman the power of indifference? Allison wore a raised brow and a no-nonsense expression like armor and shield. It was disconcerting to see someone so willingly naked in their own defense.
Now, that smile pressed against Allison’s skin, just above her breast. She wondered if Renee could feel the flutter of her heartbeat against the heat of her lips.
“What shall I ask?” Renee kissed her way down to a rosy nipple, already stiffening from the attention and a chill breeze lazily drifting through the open window.
It was barely past sunrise. The sky was a shy, blushing pink and the air smelled of dew. All the candles in their holders had long ago guttered out, wax dripping down like spider lace. Sleep was a fickle companion on the best of nights, and the day had been a trial from the start. A broken wagon wheel delayed the Foxes’ departure from their last stop for half the morning. Seth had been in a foul mood, snappish and cruel– more so than usual, at least.
Allison didn’t want to think about him right now. She ran her fingers again through impossibly soft hair, curling her pinky around the shell of Renee’s ear. Renee hummed sweetly and laved her tongue over the stiff, pink bud at last.
“Ask me what I want,” Allison said.
Renee suckled thoughtfully. She popped off with a deliciously wet sound and smiled again. Gods, what Allison wouldn’t do to wipe that smile off her face like a smear of paint. To keep it in a scrap of silk under her pillow, tucked in her skirts.
Leaning back, Renee was gilded by morning light. Her hair was a halo of silver, the soft planes of her face and the swells of her breasts painted in covetous dawn. She was entirely naked, her white dress lost somewhere on the fine carpet. Allison shifted her thighs together impatiently. If Renee didn’t ask soon, she would get her answer without words.
And where was the fun in bedding a Seer, if not in laying yourself bare to the truth?
Renee crawled up the bed until she hovered over Allison, hair falling in a rainbow cascade around their faces. Her fingers were always cold. She pressed them lightly to Allison’s temples and smoothed a thumb down, locking their eyes together.
“What do you want?” she asked.
There it was; the softest touch along the back of Allison’s mind. Caressing, almost insubstantial. Allison knew not all Seers took such care in pulling truths from their subjects. Renee’s discipline was entirely her own. A pulse of heat shot down her legs at the thought.
What did she want?
“You,” Allison said. The truth fell off her tongue so easily.
“Tell me how,” Renee said. She dipped down to bring her lips to Allison’s, even as her power lingered. Between their mouths the truth waited, anxious to spill.
“Your fingers,” Allison said breathlessly, delighted at her own surprise. The answer came without her bidding. Renee captured her mouth again, brushing their tongues together. Could she taste the truth, as she saw it?
“Yes,” Renee whispered. “Sit up.”
Allison did, long hair tickling the small of her back. She had long ago shed her own dress. The silk bedsheets were soft against her skin, but that was nothing compared to the warmth of Renee’s embrace. They shifted, Renee propped up against a mound of frilled pillows with Allison’s back to her chest. Slowly, Renee drew her cold hands up the length of Allison’s thighs, lingering on a smattering of purple bruises. Love bites. Seth liked to use his teeth.
Renee pressed her thumb into one of the marks, not hard enough to hurt, but making Allison gasp all the same.
“Leave one of your own,” she whispered, head leaning back on Renee’s shoulder. “Where he can see it.”
Renee shook her head softly, her smile admonishing. It wasn’t a war between them, because Allison was so much more than a prize. She knew that. But with Renee’s careful hands brushing up the insides of her thighs, she could hardly be expected to remember.
“Touch me,” she begged.
“Shh,” Renee soothed, her lips cradled between Allison’s jaw and throat. She tightened her grip, spreading Allison’s legs wider and hooking her knees over her own.
She was exposed, her ribs cracked open to offer the beating heart within. Desire came like a rush down her body, pooling in the place where Renee stared brazenly, chin hooked over Allison’s shoulder. She drew a finger up, tugging at the plush of Allison’s bottom lip and slipping inside.
Allison moaned as she sucked and licked. She let another in happily, tongue warm against icy fingertips. Renee’s other hand continued her torturously light ministrations, dancing over Allison’s obscenely spread legs.
“Ask me,” Allison gasped when her mouth was freed. Renee hummed as if considering.
She traced newly slicked fingers down Allison’s bare stomach. With her other hand, she tipped Allison’s face to hers, brown eyes dark and sparkling. She looked so godsdamned composed, but Allison knew the reality was anything but.
“Fast or slow?” Renee asked, her thumb dragging along Allison’s jaw. The power nudged at the back of her mind again, teasing.
“Slow,” Allison breathed.
“Mm,” Renee agreed. She kissed her again, as she pushed two fingers through damp curls. Allison tried to buck her hips up, but spread as she was, there was little leverage.
This was the best and worst part. Renee was patience made flesh. Not to mention an absolute vixen, no matter the soft smiles and white robes. The first time Allison took the Seer into her bed, she hadn’t known what to expect. At most, fumbling hands and blushing cheeks, vibrant on pale skin. A crack in the icy smooth exterior she’d grown familiar with.
How to contend that image of Renee with this? Fingers that danced around but never over where she was so badly wanted– not yet, at least. Allison wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to the feeling of it. She flexed her thighs for some sort of control, keeping her hands knotted in the bedsheets. With her other hand, Renee groped Allison’s breast, rolling the sensitive nipple between her fingers.
“Ask me,” Allison said again. She felt half delirious with want. The request poured from her mouth again and again, breathless.
“What shall I ask?” Renee teased. Her fingers slipped at last over the core of her, slow and even, just as she promised.
The words wouldn’t come. Not with the agonizing pace, the parting of her folds to cool morning air, the slickness running down her thighs. Allison knew what she’d say, if she could only gather enough breath.
Ask me if I love you.
Renee wouldn’t. The answer was forbidden, and already known. It wouldn’t take a Seer’s power to pry that truth from Allison’s lips.
“Anything,” Allison said instead.
Renee’s smile was knife-sharp. How naive Allison had once been, to believe this woman was nothing more than her innocent facade. Renee brought her lips to Allison’s ear, both hands occupied. It was no Seer’s compulsion that followed.
“Are you going to come, right here between my legs?”
“Yes, yes.”
It was the truth, freely given.
Allison quivered and broke in Renee’s arms. Like a beacon, the morning light spilled over their entwined limbs. This was what it was to be with Renee. It wasn’t secret trysts in the night, hands under skirts and over mouths to silence. It was truth bared in the sun, fingers between lips, hearts beating in tandem.
“Oh, let me,” Allison whispered against sweat sheened skin. “Let me. Please.”
Renee gently released Allison’s legs, rubbing at the sore muscles in apology. She pressed a kiss to the damp hair at her temple.
“In a moment. Come back to me, first.”
Allison whined. She had never been patient. Too slowly her heart calmed, the pulse between her legs quieting. She mouthed at Renee’s neck, wanting to leave a mark. Something to claim what was hers, no matter the Sight’s damned rules.
“Can I?” she murmured.
“Yes,” Renee said. She adjusted Allison in her lap to grind against her lazily, already wet. The proof of her desire sent a bolt of renewed heat through the haze in Allison’s head.
“Tell me what you want,” Allison said. She leaned back to blow cool air over the rose she’d suckled into pale skin. Renee shivered.
“Can I have your mouth?” she asked. Her eyes were dark with want, her fingers damp with Allison’s release.
“You have it,” Allison said. “And my heart.”
“Mm, that too.” Renee went easily as Allison pushed her back against the pillows.
She wasn’t a patient woman. Renee knew this, knew what she’d asked for. She still managed to sound surprised when Allison ducked down and hooked lily-white legs over her shoulders, tongue and lips intent. She lapped greedily, drunk on the taste and the sound of her lover’s cries.
“Oh, fuck,” Renee gasped. “Sweetheart,”
Allison poured all the words she couldn’t say into the broad stroke of her tongue on pink flesh. The well of her truth spilled over, enveloped in warm slickness. Renee bloomed for her beautifully, the truest version of herself. No longer a Seer, the Sight embodied in white. She was just a woman, in love– no matter what she didn’t say. Allison knew.
“My sweetheart,” Renee crooned, drifting in the haze of her finish. These were the moments where her careful tongue loosened. She ran cold fingers through blonde curls pouring over her lap. “So good, you were so good for me.”
Allison preened. She slipped out from beneath Renee’s legs, pillowing her head on her stomach and trailing fingers through the soft, dark hairs where she’d been buried.
Morning had properly broken somewhere between the space of Renee’s thighs. The room was bathed in golden light. Any minute now, a servant would knock at Allison’s door with a tray for breakfast. Tea, a bowl of sweet oats with raisins and clotted cream to spread on biscuits, still hot from the kitchens. It wouldn’t be the first time they walked in on a scene much like this.
Seth would seek her out, at some point. His rage simmered low after the short bursts he was prone to, carried away like so much steam. He would mutter some apology, red faced and with hands twisting behind his back.
Allison would forgive him. She always did. It was one of the first lessons Renee had taught her, all those years ago. Before they’d fallen into bed together.
“Forgiveness can be a weapon,” she’d said then. “If you wield it properly, you may see its uses.”
Her voice was soft, lilting. Allison had looked at her over the fire. She had already been looking for days, letting her eyes linger in a way that couldn’t be misunderstood. And Renee didn’t seem the type to misunderstand.
Allison pushed herself up on her elbows, long hair flowing over both their bodies. She reached for the abandoned sheets and drew them over naked skin. It was as much courtesy as the servants would get.
“Will you stay?” she asked. Renee stretched, resplendent in golden light and beneath silk sheets. Allison already knew the answer, but it stung all the same.
“I have morning prayer,” Renee said. “Try to get some more rest. Your eyes are tired.”
Allison pouted. “Did I seem tired to you about five minutes ago?”
Renee laughed. “You are insatiable. And beautiful. But you know this, already.”
“As long as you remember.”
Allison watched her slip back into her white robes, watched the way it transformed her back into the perfect Seer. Untouchable, sacred.
Allison had touched, had prayed at her altar.
“Later,” Renee promised. She leaned down to press a kiss to Allison’s still stubbornly pouted lips. “Sleep, eat. Take your deserved rest. Forgive him. It was a long day.”
“I will,” Allison said between kisses. “Sleep here tonight?”
Renee smiled. “I will.”
It was the truth, freely given.