Of Hearts Bound

A tiny march of days later Neral had made her way to the queen's chambers as she had more times than she could count, both formally and informally, so no one paid much attention when she made her way there again. There were eyes on her of course. There were guards that could be seen, ones that could not, and guards that could be seen to look nothing like guards at all. She knew all of them by sight, having aided in their selection. Her concern for the queen's safety hadn't diminished a bit since the attempt on her life, even with the increased security presence.

She knew why those that let their gazes linger did. She eschewed makeup, only yielding to it when for Court and other official functions where it was expected. There simply wasn't room for it in her line of work even if she had otherwise suffered from that particular form of vanity. But Evaline had asked if she would indulge in it for her benefit because the queen thought it differentiated the soldier from the woman. And she admitted to Neral that when her general took on the lipstick, blush and, eyeliner that gave her brown eyes a sultry appearance, the queen often found herself letting her gaze linger because the contrast was striking.

Neral felt a little strange about the makeup, but that was just about the extent of her unease, which was something a bit strange to her in and of itself. There was the excitement of course at the notion of being with someone new and learning about how they could make one another feel, but it felt comfortable too. They had many years behind one another as the closest of friends and all of the joys and rocky patches that went with that. This seemed a natural extension of that somehow, so the more she thought about it, the more, if not 'destined' it felt, there was a certain bit of 'natural' to it.

One of the people that did something of a double take at the sight of the general was the queen's newest handmaiden. The average in all respects young woman was still easily flustered even after a few months in her position. The queen actually enjoyed flustering her now and again so that had made her one of Evaline's favorites. That she was quiet and kind to a fault had kept her a favorite beyond those moments of amusement that came with shocking her.

The younger woman composed herself quickly though and began to walk next to her on the way to the queen's inner chambers. "Good evening, General."

Good evening, Enlo. I trust you are well this evening?"

"Yes, thank you. Yourself?"

"I can happily say the same."

With three taps of the heavy knocker she waited.

"Come," the queen said, her voice a bit of a playful sing-song. "The general is expected."

The door opened to reveal Evaline standing at the far end of the room, facing the door in a silken robe tied so that there was no hint of what was underneath. The queen wore little makeup. Neral knew she felt naked without it and Neral didn't want to make her any more nervous than she might already be. All Neral had truly asked of her for this night was that she wear her hair long and without fuss made to it. She knew ornate hairdos were simply an expected part of her image, but they put the general a bit on edge to look at them. It was all so much primping and she expected, if called upon to try, that she literally couldn't sit still for it. This way, Evaline looked her most natural and attractive.

The queen smiled coyly. "Good evening, Neral."

She smiled back. "And to you, Evie.

The queen looked past her momentarily, "That will be all, Enlo. Unless the castle is in the process of getting sacked, we are not to be disturbed for any reason tonight."

Enlo didn't ask why as she knew that the two often wiled away an evening with wine and games of Strata. "Of course, Majesty."

She turned to walk out until the queen's voice stopped her. "Oh, and Enlo?"

"Yes, Majesty."

The coy look snuck its way back onto her features. "Will you be here in the morning?"

She was at something of a loss with the question. This was her place and her career. "Of course, Majesty. Is there a particular reason you ask?"

"No, just curious. Have a lovely evening, Enlo."

She bowed respectfully. "Thank you, Majesty. I hope you do so as well."

The door closed as Evaline spoke again, looking to Neral and flirting shamelessly "I expect that I might."

Neral shook her head, laughing softly as she went to the small bar and poured herself a drink, "Can I get you something?"

"No thank you, Bootsie. I've already had two and that's enough for the evening. Taking the edge off is fine, but I'd like to remember the night."

Neral turned to her as she sipped the emerald liquid It was initially bitter on the tongue but turned spicy once it hit the back of her throat. "I thought you might already have had a few more than that, what with you being so mean to that poor girl?"

"Mean? Really, Neral?"

Asking Enlo if she will be here in the morning. You wish to see her reaction to the sight of us in bed."

"You will stay that long, won't you?" She approached, smile returning, "You don't just intend to use me to sate your lusts and then scurry off into the night, do you?"

"Rest assured, Evie, that I will stay until morning, if for no other reason than Deres will want every moment detailed and staying offers more details. I assume you still do not mind if I share."

She nodded, coming closer, "You are free to do so. Being a man he will always fantasize and wonder and pester his poor wife for the smallest of salacious bits. He has proven over the years I have known him that he can keep secrets, so you may add tonight to the list of them he keeps."

"He will be grateful."

"No doubt." She took the glass from Neral and finished it in one quick swallow. She sat the glass down and took Neral's hands in hers, backing up towards the large canopy bed with the lush maroon and gold quilt and maroon lace curtains. She moved gracefully, looking at how the light reflected in Neral's dark eyes. They were intense, yet they had a softness that she had indeed noticed before, but never quite as she saw them this night. "Thank you for wearing the makeup."

Neral shied away for a heartbeat before meeting her gaze once again. "You have bedded many a male slut. The female variety favors makeup, so I may as well."

"No matter the why of it, you are beautiful this way, Bootsie. I see the warrior more often than the Lady Jaye, and looking at her is what I wanted to do tonight."

Neral ran her fingers through Evaline's hair and she leaned into it. "And thank you for not primping quite so much. Court and the people expect it, but you have never once needed it. Your humor, your quick smile, those eyes that dance, they all make you attractive and they always have."

"Even before you started bedding women?"

She scolded her friend just a touch, "I can note a person's physical attractiveness without personally being attracted to them."

"Then how are things different now, if I may ask?"

Neral's eyes followed a path down Evaline's robe and the trail of skin beneath, letting go a bit more formally. "I

really

want to see those tits...play with them. I want to taste your skin...taste you." Neral was surprised at the other's girlish blush. "Why does that shock you? We didn't come together here to play Strata all night."

"We did not," she agreed, then, her voice more tentative than it had been in some time. She was an hour away from wearing the crown for the first time the last time she had so many butterflies inside. "Have a look then?" She stood as Neral deftly untied the robe, opening it to reveal a vision in white that hugged her in just the right way around her hips. Lace covered her breasts entirely and drew down sharply like an arrow tip to her belly button and the more salacious points beyond.

"Is this how it always begins with your female lovers?"

Neral smiled at the implication in her tone, "I don't have that many."

The word choice stirred her. "You have more than one?"

The admission was grudgingly made, "I do. But you act as though I am trolling the kingdom for playmates."

One admission was met with another. "Perhaps I'm projecting. So... do you, I mean other than your husband's apprentice?" When she saw the reaction she continued, "People talk, Neral, especially when you don't announce such a thing. You make it as though a relationship is a secret and then people wonder why. And it can be seen by the people who know you well."

There was always the banter between them. It was easy, occasionally barb-filled, but always respectful and always affectionate. So often it just seemed that they just tried to make each other smile. "I suppose it can. It's not as if it's a secret, it's just not anyone's concern."

Evaline wouldn't allow the dodge. "So, do you?"

"A few."

She grinned, enjoying her victory. "So you're a discerning slut."

Evaline relented, wanting the answer to her question as the butterflies returned, "So...is this how it is?"

Memories wandered in with her answer. "When Bryana and I are together it tends to be more intense. Feral occasionally," she admitted.

"Ooooooooooooo..."

"Stop it."

"I never quite expected that, Neral, though I suppose that it must be so. All that fighter's energy has to go somewhere."

"And right now that energy is focused on you." She leaned in and Evaline tipped her head up and their lips met. Neral felt her tremble and pulled away in worry while still staying close.

"Neral, I have never..."

"I know." She took Evaline's hand and kissed it with reverence. "This was your idea, and I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be, but we don't have to do this."

She shook her head quickly, "No, Neral. It's sex. Sex doesn't scare or intimidate me, you should know that. It's that I have never..." She took a deep, weighted breath. "I have never been with someone that I've cared for, not truly."

Neral couldn't quite believe it. "Never?"

"I learned by seeing if not being told that love made you weak. Your lover could sway you or could act to undercut your position and you would never see. I would never put myself in a position to be used or hurt, so I have been careful, Neral. I have been careful to never allow myself to mix sex and love."

"But you have been my friend almost my entire life, and an honest friend. You have never tried to use our friendship to your own ends. You have always cared for me beyond my title. I care for you and here I stand vulnerable to you. That's a step for me and it terrifies me."

"I understand, Evie. Whether it happens again or not, I adore you. But I know the lines. It will not affect how I treat you in that way. I will never use this to use you, I swear it before the Goddess."

"I believe that, Neral. Truly."

"You can." She tried hard to be reassuring. "But, again, we do not have to do this."

"I know. But I find that the combination of recent events and my budding relationship with Danil I would like to not be a total novice when it comes to baring my feelings with someone who shares my bed and a special place in my heart and just now, that's you. So do me a favor, Bootsie, and just kiss me."

"Yes, Majesty."

The kiss was still a bit tentative and the fingers that caressed her cheek still trembled in excitement and nervous energy but her tongue slid in and explored with more certainty as the moments slipped by. The taste and feel were familiar as they danced together and Evaline let herself be hooked by Neral's arm and pulled closer to her. It was fierce in its own way and it aroused that she never quite expected that from a woman somehow.

No, she realized, as she explored the emotions even as she continued to revel in the sensations. It hit her as she went down, unhooking the ivory buttons of Neral's light brown dress. She felt safe. It wasn't just them venting their needs. It wasn't Evaline trying to control the situation. It wasn't Neral trying to either. She couldn't imagine Neral doing that. The person who spent her entire life as an honest voice in Evaline's life and served as a protector in more ways than even the protector realized would not play her and that was an unusual position for a queen to find herself in. It was peaceful and it allowed her to enjoy the moment.

Evaline peeled the dress away and the slip beneath in one movement and she broke the kiss long enough to look at Neral. Her muscles were defined from bicep to abdomen to calf. Her body was built to fight in the way she fought; equal parts nimble movement and power. Scars here and there from battles fought were kept by warriors as badges of honor and seeing them humbled Evaline. Each one marked a sacrifice of pain and blood she gave willingly to protect her people, Evaline included, "You are exactly as I had envisioned, Neral. You are lovely."

"Thought of me a lot?" Opening Evaline's robe, Neral looked upon a gown of the finest linen and lace. It was something of what she expected to find, as she knew Evaline's taste. The vine pattern of the lace invited the eye to follow the pattern to look upon the teases of bare flesh beneath that lace. The linen hugged tightly, creating an invitation to pull or tear it away.

"Much over the last few days."

"I am glad I please," she said between kisses as two fingers went under the shoulder straps of the queen's gown, choosing not to shred such fine lingerie, even if she were tempted, and slipped it free to reveal her body as well. Neral's brown eyes went to those breasts as they were admittedly his most prominent feature. They were full and lush , probably taking two hands to heft properly with thick, prominent nipples and hot pink areola. For their size they stood surprisingly proud. Her body had the softness of a royal life and that of a woman in proportion to what she had to carry on her chest.

Evaline laughed and it caught Neral's attention who eyed her quizzically and she responded to the look with a wry grin. "You really do like women now. Many men have had that same look."

"What look," she purred, as her hand went down to squeeze the queen's left breast.

"Like you want to see how much of them you can stuff into your mouth."

She sat on the side of the bed and Evaline placed herself above her, knees on either side of her lap. Neral hefted the flesh and kneaded it, seeing what sounds Evaline could make, which was a nice mix of mews and the silence of her breath catching as she rode the waves of feeling, reaching to unleash Neral's tailed hair. She shook it out before Evaline ran her fingers through it with a smile. "My lovely warrior."

"Am I now?"

"I command you to go, you go. I command you to fight and you fight. I sort of like that. It's an awesome power that I respect and fear, but, seeing you on the field against D'ravek was intoxicating as well. Seeing that, I understand now why you warriors are so sought after."

Neral's brown eyes looked up at her, reveling in the trembling she caused when her long tongue spun circles around one areola and then the next, "And here I am. What would you have me do now, dear one?"

She snickered. "I would have you direct things, Neral. I tend to control even here. It might be nice to have my warrior manage things a bit."

Neral took that as a cue to put the right breast in her mouth, her teeth holding the flesh while her tongue batted the nipple mercilessly between gentler bouts of drawing her lips downward until they pursed the nipple and suckled, the air beginning to carry kissing sounds. It didn't take long for Neral to begin to get a sense of what she liked. Evaline's sounds drove her and the queen's hands ran up and down her warrior's back, making note of the muscle and how different it was in its own way from the men that had warmed her bed. And her mouth working was indeed working. "That is... quite lovely, Neral."

Neral liked the heated sound of the words and used her strength to roll her on her back leaving Neral on top and Evaline letting loose a lighthearted sound of shock, "Now that mauling is familiar."

Neral grinned, "To me as well." She held herself up for just a moment before settling atop Evaline's body and surrendering to her embrace.

"Should I ask with whom," she wondered between kisses.

"Would it excite you to know or are you just being a gossip?"

"Can't it be some of each?" Her hips bucked upward at the invasion of Neral's two fingers that explored deftly. "Goddess."

She looked on as her warrior put both fingers in her mouth and tasted their full length. "I'm not sure I have to do anything more to excite you, as you taste like you're pretty excited." She glanced to her left to see the nightstand full of various bottles of fine oils. "You are prepared."

She glanced up and over at them, "A soldier should be able to relate. It's better to have and not need than need and not have."

"True. Preference?"

She shook her head. "I like them all."

Neral found her own preferred oil in a tall glass container with a heavy base and uncorked it before raising it level to her nose to pour and let the clear, thin liquid run in a line beginning just below the neck before she let a line cross horizontally over her breasts and then finished the vertical line down her chest and to her mound. She liked the particular oil as well as it stayed slick from beginning to end.

Lust drew Neral's palms to begin working that oil in, the sides of her hands drawing it to her lover's deep cleavage before letting her hands slide over the slope of her breasts and caressing them in a firm, circular motion. She watched Evaline watch herself be touched until the queen rested her head back to the pillow and looked at her. "Tell me, dirty girl. Tell me about you, the great warrior, getting mauled by your lovers."

"Tell you about Deres simply bending me over that desk in my study where we play Strata. Hands pinning my shoulders while I rub my cunt and he pounds like he's trying to split me in half? It's liberating. No work or responsibility. No lives at stake. I can just feel his need and his love and feel

good.

"Feel love while being split in half or just love being split in half?" Evaline teased.

"When he cares that I feel pleasure? When he says the words even between animal grunts?" Her hands began to serpentine their way down towards that drenched mound. Her entire body began to reflect the light.

Evaline slicked her hand in the oil as she found her own clit, rolling it under her forefinger and let the oil and the touch and the affection for her partner drive her. "The way he looks at you. The way you look at each other. Years have passed and it is still there."

"For Bryana, too," Neral admitted. "She is mine as I am hers and I've grown quite fond of sucking that pussy." Neral let herself drink in the sight of those thighs wide and that finger in control of, in a real sense, her entire body. It was mesmerizing in its own way and even the tactician in her took note of how she moved and the pressure she used. "I must say that I like watching you do that."

Evaline looked at her wantonly enjoying that the show was arousing her partner, "It's an excellent stress reliever."

"I thought that's what the pages were for." Neral leaned forward and let her tongue meander down, tasting the spice of the oil and salt of her skin and listening to her soft whimpers as Neral's tongue made her belly spasm.

"They do help a queen get through the day."

Evaline jumped at the suddenness of it when Neral grabbed her wrist and held it away from her body, replacing it with her tongue, working the tip around her clit in many of the same ways that she watched the oily fingertip work. Evaline made a fist with the held hand as the sudden change in the intensity of sensation. "Ooo..." finally broke through followed by a long exhalation from pursed lips. Evaline looked down and watched the smile in Neral's eyes as she spread her legs wider. "That...oh, that's very pleasant." She even liked that she attempted to break Neral's grip and found herself unable to do so. Her soldier was powerful indeed.