Free Whisper of Waves by Philip Athans

girl blushed but smiled.
    “Well, then,” Lieutenant Thenmun said, grinning as well, “I’ll leave you two alone.”
    The officer gave Willem a secretive leer, his back carefully placed to Halina, and withdrew.
    “You are from Cormyr,” Halina said.
    “I am,” he replied, then chanced: “Your accent is … pleasing. I would guess that you are a stranger here yourself?”
    “I am,” she replied. “I have come from Thay to live with my uncle.”
    “Have you’ve been here long?”
    She shook her head as the minuet came to a close, and they paused to participate in the quiet smattering of applause that followed.
    Before the musicians began to play again, Willem said, “Then I hope you will allow me to introduce you to the city I have come to call home.”
    Her answer was a smile that almost caused Willem Korvan’s heart to break apart in his chest.
    14___
    13 Marpenoth, the Year of Shadows (1358 DR) Second Quarter, Innarlith
    A. copper for your thoughts,” she whispered, snuggling closer to him, if such were possible, her leg sliding up along his and her arm circling tighter so that she wound around him like a snake.
    Her skin was as soft as her smile, as gentle as her manner, and as intoxicating to Willem as the finest wine.
    In the tenday since they’d met, they had seen each other four times and all four times had ended up in Willem’s bed. Though it wasn’t discussed and would
    have been frowned upon in the most polite circles, it wasn’t uncommon. They were young, after all, and life was short.
    “We’re young, after all,” Willem whispered in response, “and life is short.”
    She giggled, and the series of little exhales tickled his neck. He turned his head and kissed her.
    “Is that all?” she asked, her voice so quiet he felt it against his lips more than heard it with his ears.
    He shook his head and she looked so deeply into his eyes all he could do was speak.
    “I’m afraid,” he said.
    She shook her head, closed her eyes, and dug her forehead into his shoulder. He traced a circle on her shoulder, raising gooseflesh for a moment, then eliciting a sigh from her.
    “I am,” he went on, “and why shouldn’t I be?”
    “Because you’re good at what you do,” she whispered into his neck, then the tip of her tongue—not warm but hot—flicked against him, sending a thrill through his body he didn’t try to mask.
    “Am I?” he asked, his mind refusing to follow his body into the pure physical bliss he knew she could bring to him. “I’m not so certain.”
    “The master builder seems to trust you,” she replied.
    “How can he not? All I do is agree with him. That and do all the work he’s been tasked by the ransar to do himself. He’s claimed credit for enough of what I’ve brought to this project and others that should he dismiss me he would have to explain my mistakes as his own. If he could even identify them as mistakes.”
    “You don’t enjoy your work?” she asked, then kissed his neck, her lips as hot as her tongue.
    “I do,” he admitted. “I do very much, but sometimes… often… occasionally, anyway, I don’t feel up to it.”
    “You do your best,” she whispered, her voice growing heavier, sleepy.
    “That’s precisely the problem, and if I was the only one who suffered for it, that would be enough.”
    “No one has suffered for what you’ve done,” she said, her fingertips beginning to play at the hair on the back of his head.
    “There was a man,” Willem said, closing his eyes, concentrating on the feel of her skin against his, “who would tell you differently, a lieutenant with a promising career ahead of him.”
    “Not Thenmun,” she said, then started to nibble on his earlobe.
    “No,” he replied, “No, not Thenmun, but someone very much like him. I had him reassigned … exiled, almost, for arguing with a decision I’d made, for questioning my figures.”
    She had no response, only continued to work at his ear because she knew how much he