Free Dangerous Gifts by Gaie Sebold

same to me.”
    Hargur mumbled something. I slid in next to him, and he wrapped around me.
    “Don’t let m’oversleep,” he muttered. “M’on duty tomorr’.”
    Next minute, he was asleep. Well, he was nice to snuggle even when he was unconscious. And I most certainly was not letting him oversleep. We had unfinished business from before supper.
     
     
    I N FACT, H ARGUR was the one who woke me, sliding a hand around my breast and another between my legs, while I was still struggling my way out of a dream.
    “You’re feeling better,” I said, reaching around behind me. “I have evidence.”
    He laughed and gave a little gasp of pleasure as I grasped the evidence.
    I slid around to face him, took hold of his cock again and ran the other hand over his chest. It wasn’t close enough to full moon for him to be completely furry, and when it got that close, we wouldn’t be bedding. But he was pleasantly hairy. I liked him whatever state he was in; I was rather afraid I loved him. A little scary, after all this time. I nibbled his shoulder and pinched one of his nipples lightly; his cock, warm and solid in my hand, jumped.
    He started to stroke my neck, his gentle, nearly reverent touches somehow making it feel longer, more graceful; he touched my breasts and nipples as though they were something precious he’d just discovered. The best gift of a pleasing lover is to make one feel desirable. My first teacher in the sensual arts had said that, long ago. All the way down, he stroked, sliding his fingers over me, into me.
    I loved his body, broad-shouldered and lean and long in the limb; I loved the way we seemed to interlock so neatly; I loved the way he felt so warm.
    We paused, briefly, while he reached for a preventive. I drew a breath; should I tell him it wasn’t needed? But it wasn’t the time. Somehow, it never seemed to be. I rolled it on, bit by tiny bit, until he laughed with impatience and pushed me down.
    I lay back and guided him inside me, loving the feel and fit of him, his hair brushing my shoulders, his hand on my breast, the deep delicious rub of him, the way he watched my face, serious, until pleasure started to take him and he threw his head back and growled deep in his throat. The way he wouldn’t let me up until he’d stroked me to a liquid quiver, warm lapping pleasure spreading out from his fingers.
    The only things I didn’t love were that he was on duty, I had a job to do, and we couldn’t lie there all morning.
    “Hargur?”
    “Mmm, what time is it?”
    “You’ve got time” – I poked him gently in the side – “ if you don’t go back to sleep.”
    “By the way, when are you going to Incandress?”
    “Oh. I’m not.”
    He propped himself on one elbow, looking at me. “You decided against it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Why? What, you wanted me to go?” It came out sounding more hurt than I intended.
    “Of course not, woman, don’t be idiotic,” he said, tugging on a lock of my hair gently. “It’s just that you said you were. What changed your mind?”
    I shrugged. “Combination of things, I suppose. It wasn’t just bodyguarding; Enthemmerlee’s guard need training up, too. I couldn’t see how to do both. Not in time. And... well. Things here... I just wasn’t happy about leaving.”
    “You worried about the Builders?”
    “Some.”
    “We’re watching them. Is that all?”
    “No. But nothing I could put my finger on. It feels hinky, that’s all.”
    He frowned at the lock of hair, twisting it around his finger.
    “Sometimes you have to trust your gut,” I said, not liking the note of pleading I could hear in my voice, but not able to stop it. “Don’t you?”
    “Of course,” he said.
    “But?”
    “But nothing. It’s your decision, Babylon.”
    “Yes,” I said.
    He thought I was wrong. He thought I was breaking a promise. The fact that I agreed with him, and so did that hollow place in the back of my thighs, didn’t make me feel any