LOG: Birds Of A Feather
Date: Day 27, Month 12, Turn 18
Location: Southern Beach
Synopsis:Millie and K'del take a little downtime for her twentieth turnday and Cadejoth's first. Much flirty banter, a precious turnday gift and of course, rumpling of blankets.
Log stolen from milaninc
Bawdy but sweet.
It's mid-morning when K'del swings by to pick Milani up, and it's a cold, miserable kind of day - all the more perfect for heading south. It doesn't take too long to get packed up and ready, and then it's out to the bowl where Cadejoth awaits, and from then, not much longer before they're appearing out of Between to a beautiful, warm Southern day, the beach spreading out as far as the eye can see, far below. Cadejoth can't seem to help himself: he soars and dives, spending several minutes in the air before, finally, he begins to circle to a landing upon the beach, sending the sand flying. K'del, with his arms around Milani, squeezes tight, and murmurs, "Welcome to paradise, population: us."
The headwoman has a bright smile of greeting for K'del in spite of the weather. She's only moderately bundled up: enough for the ride Between, her father's old riding jacket still big and loose on her frame. "Hey you," she greets the pair as they land to pick her up. Cadejoth gets a little pat, Kas a kiss on the cheek and then it's sitting demurely in place for the flight upward and the jump Between. On the far side of deathly cold, Milani pops her jacket loose and leans back into K'del as his bronze cavorts in the skies. "Mmm, I like the sound of that," is Milani's answer as they land and she she gives the bronzerider a wide, mischievous smile. "You know. It is /way/ too hot here for all these /layers/. I vote we hop down and lose a few."
K'del's eyes positively gleam at this suggestion, as he withdraws his arms, and begins to de-strap himself. "Was hoping you'd say that," he tells her, voice heavy with mirth. "I recall being promised a bikini, and I have a great interest in such things." After crawling down, he offers his hand to assist her, while busily kicking off his shoes into the sand.
"Mmmhm," is what Milani answers, grinning from ear to ear as he peels away. She doesn't hop off right away, instead her jacket is shucked off and falls to the ground, a shoe each in turn kicked off. She turns on Cadejoth's back, shimmies out of her pants and sends those after K'del. A hint of something red flashes, but long legs cross, hiding the view just a little longer until Millie pulls her shirt off up over her head, tosses it too and sits there, looking smirky, one leg crossed over the other at the knee in something that looks like a cross between swimwear and lingerie, in a deep shade of red that doesn't conflict with her hair. "Ta daaaa," she announces, right before reaching down for his hand to finally slide off.
Although K'del is in no real danger from flying shoes and other clothing, he does duck slightly out of the way of them - just in case. Being brained might, after all, ruin his reaction which, by the end of it, involves an awful lot of jaw-dropping. "/Shells/," he breathes, appreciatively, his hand wobbling for a moment before he manages to grab it more securely, And help her down. "/Millie/. You look... I mean..." His expression is probably indication enough, but he manages, finally, to get out something of a response: "/Wow/."
"Thank you," Milani answers with deliberate coyness, peeking up at the bronzerider from beneath lowered lashes. Her hand gives his a little squeeze, then she steps in close, slips her arm up around his neck. "Only thing more fun than wearing this for you, will be letting you take it off," she murmurs into his ear seductively.
K'del's arms, automatically, curve about behind her, his hands resting upon the small of her back. He can't seem to take his eyes off her - they dart back towards her face every so often, but, now that they're so close, it's hard for him to hide that he's just staring down at her body. So he doesn't bother. "I may not be able to contain my excitement. Right now, feels more like /my/ turnday."
Milani slides her fingers down the front of his shirt, grinning more sincerely now. "Well. It /is/ sort of. It's Cadejoth's," she points out mildly. "And so it's an anniversary for you too. This is the day you became a rider and after today, you could get tapped just about any time, couldn't you?" she tells him smile shading warm. "I'm glad you like it though. It's naughty for swimwear, but I only ever meant to wear it swimming with special company like yours."
K'del's fingers trace over bare skin, and since there's a lot of it, they don't really stop. He returns the grin, managing, now, to at least meet her gaze. "Suppose so. Lucky me, two turndays a turn, sort of. Mind you, if not being tapped means I have time for more days like this..." He trails off, but he's clearly at least mostly teasing. "'meant'? So you mean no one else has seen you in it yet?"
Milani's fingers trace along his neck, the edge of his ear, hip cocking to one side ever so slightly. More skin to touch right here. "Very lucky. More chances for me to spoil you," she continues blithely, leans up to kiss the end of his chin. "First sight, all yours," Millie murmurs, voice shading husky again.
On cue, K'del's fingers traipse lower, exploring the lines of her hips, and then, what little fabric is involved. "I think I approve of this," he laughs, after a soft sigh marks her kiss to his chin. "And that, even moreso," he adds, sounding distinctly pleased with himself - and probably Milani, too. "Not that I shan't take every opportunity to do likewise, of course," he adds, before dropping his head to steal a proper kiss from the Headwoman.
Milani's head tips back a little, teeth catching at her lip, denting her smile for a moment or two, while one leg slides slowly up the outside of his. "I'll just have to keep that weaver I deal with occupied ... and you on your toes wondering what might come next," Millie promises with a very serious expression until he makes that assertion and he leans in to claim that kiss. Milani's arms go around his neck then, returning it with every ounce of fervor she can muster.
There's that sharp little intake of breath again, and K'del's hand drops to run down the length of her leg. The kiss is intense enough - and /long/ enough - that he's breathless by the time he draws back. "I'm going to have enough happy fantasies in my head to last me forever," he tells her, honestly, as he attempts to recover his breath. "Not that I need them right now, of course," he adds, before diving in for another extended kiss.
That leg lifts just a little higher, encouraging his hand and hooking around his waist. "That's the idea," Millie claims breathlessly, eyes on his and she gives him brief, wild smile, before giving him a kiss to drown in. Eventually she's the one to break that one though, laughing a little. "Mm. Which appetite do you want to feed first? This one, or /this/ one." Her hand slides down to pat at his tummy fondly, smile going all lopsided and cheeky.
K'del trails his fingernails up and down that leg, supporting it, loosely, as it hooks there. "Wicked, wicked woman," he teases, but not without obvious appreciation. As that second kiss ends, he lets out a contented sigh, but his response to her question is a definite mock-grumble. "You're making that a hard choice, you know that? But," and it's reluctantly said, if with a grin, "We should probably keep our stamina up. Plus... that gives me longer to admire the outfit, before I discard it, right? And there's your gift, too."
Naughty fingers slip beneath the hem of K'del's shirt, flirt around with skin and get to work on buttons to render him topless. "Don't need this, either way," she tells him with a mock-innocent look, giving proof to 'wicked'. "Actual food it is, then," she says laughingly as she smooths her palms over his chest and slides his shirt off. "And we can admire each other. I like looking at you, too." Her smile widens, turns charmed. "Oh yes there is at that. I'm curious!"
Once his shirt is on the ground - he even helps wiggle his way out of it - K'del strikes a pose, laughingly. "Good," he tells her, grinning, as he pulls off his socks to go with his boots, and shucks off his trousers to reveal swimming shorts beneath. The clothes are left littered upon the beach, as he turns to attend to the packs still hooked up to Cadejoth - how patient the bronze is being! "/After/ we eat. That way, you can ravish me as thanks." Cheeky.
That makes for quite a messy beach, between her stuff and his, so Milani goes about at least piling it all up in one place, while K'del gets the packs down. "Hmmm. All right, I'll be patient until then. THough you have to know that I'm also aching to tug those cute little shorts of yours off and get the full view." She sneaks a look over at him, grinning. "You know. Since it's population, us. We could just lounge around naked all day."
As soon as the packs are down, Cadejoth launches himself into the air again, creating another spray of sand, as he heads for the water. K'del's laughing, wiping the sand away - at least his head was turned - as he lugs them towards a nice spot, and digs out a blanket for them to sit on. He returns her grin, amused and pleased. "You have to be patient. You're all grown up, now. No more teenage Millie! As for the shorts..." he breaks off, to laugh again. "Don't see why we couldn't. No tan lines that way." Top-most priority, clearly.
With the clothes dealth with, Milani pads over to help K'del, reaches for a corner of the blanket to help spread it out. "All grown up. It's kind of funny, five turns ago that's all I wanted. To be grown up, taken seriously. Now it just doesn't seem that important and taking a day to just be silly and a little childlike ... well it's a good thing," Millie says with a laugh and eyes those shorts meaningfully as she settles her end of the blanket down. "Mmm. Anda lot of lovely scenery for me. /This/," she gesturesto her getup, is going to leave very /interesting/ tan lines."
K'del pauses, turning from his end of the blanket to watch Milani - it is, after all, a very nice view. As he resumes his efforts, he nods, "I'm glad. Guess age becomes less important, the more you have of it." He winks at her, for that meaningful glance at his shorts, laughing for the rest. "Mmm. /Very/ interesting tan lines. Might as well tan 'I'm a very wicked woman' on your body and be done with it."
Milani smooths out the blanket corner and crawls onto it once it's all taken care of, slowly, deliberately sensually, lounges down and arranges herself in such a way as to present a very pleasant view. "And you like me that way," she says plainly, grinning up at him with sultry mirth. "Better get the food out though. Before we get hopelessly distracted."
There go K'del's eyes again: bugging out. He settles down with distinctly less grace and sensuality, but the view isn't bad, all the same. "Of course I do," he tells her. "Wouldn't want you any other way." He pauses. "Well. I probably would. But - you know what I mean." Grinning, he turns back to the pack to gather out the food, which he spreads out between them. Next to it, he sets a small, rectangular shaped something wrapped in a bundle of fabric. "True, true. I blame you: you're a terrible influence, I'll have you know."
"I know what you mean," Milani answers with a sincere smile and reaches over to pat at his knee fondly. She waits while he sets out the food, hand propping up her head, fingers tracing idle designs on the blanket's surface. When the packages makes its appearance she eyes for a second, makes a 'dying of curiosity' face and walks her fingers over towards the fabric. "Maybe I'd better open this now then. We might wind up playing with our food after all." A sunny smile is given, a little smug maybe. "Birds of a feather?"
K'del spares a hand, as he sets out the food - all fingerfood, easy to eat - to rest atop of hers on his knee, if only for a moment. He's not so distracted with the food that he doesn't note that wandering hand, nor her expression; he fastens her with an eyebrow-raised glance. "No patience! Fine, fine - go for your life. I'll try and stuff my face while you deal with it." He reaches for a sandwich, and sticks out his tongue before taking his first bite. "Shhh. I was completely innocent before I met you, swear."
Beaming, Milani takes up the fabric-wrapped something and starts to unwind it. "It's my birthday. I'm allowed to be impatient for my presents. Though I'm planning to unwrap you a little more slowly than this," she says candidly. The fabric falls away to reveal the book and Millie lets out a little squeak of delight. "Oh! That book!" She looks up at him, all smiles and then bursts out laughing again. "Kas, my very, very dear, Kas, if you were, thenso was I." She winks across at him, and opens the book carefully, reads the inscription in the front, finger tracing the words. For a moment, she's silent, then Millie carefully sets the book aside and crawls across to the bronzerider, reaches up to cup his face with her hands. "Thank you, K'del. I don't know how you do it, but somehow you just strike all the right notes with me. I'll enjoy that read and treasure those words of yours too."
"And because it is, I'm going to forgive you that impatience, so long as you keep your word on unwrapping /me/," grins K'del, watching her expression as she unwraps the book intently, in between finishing off his sandwich. Her reaction seems to please him a great deal, because, aside from the cheeky grin he returns to her, after her wink, he just sits there, smugly smiling, until she joins him, His hands reach up to cover hers, as he tells her, "I'm glad. Kinda agonised over them; it's /hard/, writing something like that. Don't know how Ander manages it." There's a momentary pause, and then: "Going to - ah, /unwrap/ me now?"
Milani leans in to kiss the bronzerider gently and slides forward all the more to occupy his lap. "You agonized. I think I'm even more touched. And even fonder of you for it," Millie says in a soft voice, expression ... full. "And yeah, it's not easy to write good stuff. I'm not much good at it. I can talk a blue streak, but I write just like I talk." Her arm settles around his shoulders and she leans towards the food to snag a meatroll to nibble on, makes quick work of it then wiggles in his lap. "I am indeed, going to unwrap you." She ends words then by molding her mouth to his, the first move towards unwrapping and a very pleasant half hour or so during which both her outfit and his wind up in a pretty little tangle on the sand. This bodes well for 'spending the day naked', though they'll probably really need to re-charge and actually eat their lunch after.
The book is bound in rich, red-brown leather, and tooled on the outside in the pattern of leaves and flowers, and what are probably firelizards rather than dragons, given their size. The title, the letters engraved and then painted with black paint reads:
Faligan's Fortune
A Novel by Harper Journeyman Ander
Inside, beneath the title on the title page, the book has been signed by, presumably, the author. Beneath that, dated Day 26, Month 12, Turn 18, a message has been written:
Dear Milani,
Happy twentieth Turnday! It's a little hard to believe that I've only known you for a bit over a turn, now. I hope your twenty-first turn is better than your twentieth - and I hope I'm still a part of your life at the end of it. And beyond. And not just because you have great legs. And the rest. (Thought: am I going to regret having written that? Please don't embarrass me with this in the future). I should probably finish before I REALLY make a fool of myself.
With affection,
K'del
The book itself? An adventure story about a Harper who discovers a long-lost settlement in the south, written by K'del's older brother, Ander. There's excitement! Adventure! Romance! And no boring descriptions of rocks, trees OR the breasts of a beautiful woman.
Location: Southern Beach
Synopsis:Millie and K'del take a little downtime for her twentieth turnday and Cadejoth's first. Much flirty banter, a precious turnday gift and of course, rumpling of blankets.
Log stolen from milaninc
Bawdy but sweet.
It's mid-morning when K'del swings by to pick Milani up, and it's a cold, miserable kind of day - all the more perfect for heading south. It doesn't take too long to get packed up and ready, and then it's out to the bowl where Cadejoth awaits, and from then, not much longer before they're appearing out of Between to a beautiful, warm Southern day, the beach spreading out as far as the eye can see, far below. Cadejoth can't seem to help himself: he soars and dives, spending several minutes in the air before, finally, he begins to circle to a landing upon the beach, sending the sand flying. K'del, with his arms around Milani, squeezes tight, and murmurs, "Welcome to paradise, population: us."
The headwoman has a bright smile of greeting for K'del in spite of the weather. She's only moderately bundled up: enough for the ride Between, her father's old riding jacket still big and loose on her frame. "Hey you," she greets the pair as they land to pick her up. Cadejoth gets a little pat, Kas a kiss on the cheek and then it's sitting demurely in place for the flight upward and the jump Between. On the far side of deathly cold, Milani pops her jacket loose and leans back into K'del as his bronze cavorts in the skies. "Mmm, I like the sound of that," is Milani's answer as they land and she she gives the bronzerider a wide, mischievous smile. "You know. It is /way/ too hot here for all these /layers/. I vote we hop down and lose a few."
K'del's eyes positively gleam at this suggestion, as he withdraws his arms, and begins to de-strap himself. "Was hoping you'd say that," he tells her, voice heavy with mirth. "I recall being promised a bikini, and I have a great interest in such things." After crawling down, he offers his hand to assist her, while busily kicking off his shoes into the sand.
"Mmmhm," is what Milani answers, grinning from ear to ear as he peels away. She doesn't hop off right away, instead her jacket is shucked off and falls to the ground, a shoe each in turn kicked off. She turns on Cadejoth's back, shimmies out of her pants and sends those after K'del. A hint of something red flashes, but long legs cross, hiding the view just a little longer until Millie pulls her shirt off up over her head, tosses it too and sits there, looking smirky, one leg crossed over the other at the knee in something that looks like a cross between swimwear and lingerie, in a deep shade of red that doesn't conflict with her hair. "Ta daaaa," she announces, right before reaching down for his hand to finally slide off.
Although K'del is in no real danger from flying shoes and other clothing, he does duck slightly out of the way of them - just in case. Being brained might, after all, ruin his reaction which, by the end of it, involves an awful lot of jaw-dropping. "/Shells/," he breathes, appreciatively, his hand wobbling for a moment before he manages to grab it more securely, And help her down. "/Millie/. You look... I mean..." His expression is probably indication enough, but he manages, finally, to get out something of a response: "/Wow/."
"Thank you," Milani answers with deliberate coyness, peeking up at the bronzerider from beneath lowered lashes. Her hand gives his a little squeeze, then she steps in close, slips her arm up around his neck. "Only thing more fun than wearing this for you, will be letting you take it off," she murmurs into his ear seductively.
K'del's arms, automatically, curve about behind her, his hands resting upon the small of her back. He can't seem to take his eyes off her - they dart back towards her face every so often, but, now that they're so close, it's hard for him to hide that he's just staring down at her body. So he doesn't bother. "I may not be able to contain my excitement. Right now, feels more like /my/ turnday."
Milani slides her fingers down the front of his shirt, grinning more sincerely now. "Well. It /is/ sort of. It's Cadejoth's," she points out mildly. "And so it's an anniversary for you too. This is the day you became a rider and after today, you could get tapped just about any time, couldn't you?" she tells him smile shading warm. "I'm glad you like it though. It's naughty for swimwear, but I only ever meant to wear it swimming with special company like yours."
K'del's fingers trace over bare skin, and since there's a lot of it, they don't really stop. He returns the grin, managing, now, to at least meet her gaze. "Suppose so. Lucky me, two turndays a turn, sort of. Mind you, if not being tapped means I have time for more days like this..." He trails off, but he's clearly at least mostly teasing. "'meant'? So you mean no one else has seen you in it yet?"
Milani's fingers trace along his neck, the edge of his ear, hip cocking to one side ever so slightly. More skin to touch right here. "Very lucky. More chances for me to spoil you," she continues blithely, leans up to kiss the end of his chin. "First sight, all yours," Millie murmurs, voice shading husky again.
On cue, K'del's fingers traipse lower, exploring the lines of her hips, and then, what little fabric is involved. "I think I approve of this," he laughs, after a soft sigh marks her kiss to his chin. "And that, even moreso," he adds, sounding distinctly pleased with himself - and probably Milani, too. "Not that I shan't take every opportunity to do likewise, of course," he adds, before dropping his head to steal a proper kiss from the Headwoman.
Milani's head tips back a little, teeth catching at her lip, denting her smile for a moment or two, while one leg slides slowly up the outside of his. "I'll just have to keep that weaver I deal with occupied ... and you on your toes wondering what might come next," Millie promises with a very serious expression until he makes that assertion and he leans in to claim that kiss. Milani's arms go around his neck then, returning it with every ounce of fervor she can muster.
There's that sharp little intake of breath again, and K'del's hand drops to run down the length of her leg. The kiss is intense enough - and /long/ enough - that he's breathless by the time he draws back. "I'm going to have enough happy fantasies in my head to last me forever," he tells her, honestly, as he attempts to recover his breath. "Not that I need them right now, of course," he adds, before diving in for another extended kiss.
That leg lifts just a little higher, encouraging his hand and hooking around his waist. "That's the idea," Millie claims breathlessly, eyes on his and she gives him brief, wild smile, before giving him a kiss to drown in. Eventually she's the one to break that one though, laughing a little. "Mm. Which appetite do you want to feed first? This one, or /this/ one." Her hand slides down to pat at his tummy fondly, smile going all lopsided and cheeky.
K'del trails his fingernails up and down that leg, supporting it, loosely, as it hooks there. "Wicked, wicked woman," he teases, but not without obvious appreciation. As that second kiss ends, he lets out a contented sigh, but his response to her question is a definite mock-grumble. "You're making that a hard choice, you know that? But," and it's reluctantly said, if with a grin, "We should probably keep our stamina up. Plus... that gives me longer to admire the outfit, before I discard it, right? And there's your gift, too."
Naughty fingers slip beneath the hem of K'del's shirt, flirt around with skin and get to work on buttons to render him topless. "Don't need this, either way," she tells him with a mock-innocent look, giving proof to 'wicked'. "Actual food it is, then," she says laughingly as she smooths her palms over his chest and slides his shirt off. "And we can admire each other. I like looking at you, too." Her smile widens, turns charmed. "Oh yes there is at that. I'm curious!"
Once his shirt is on the ground - he even helps wiggle his way out of it - K'del strikes a pose, laughingly. "Good," he tells her, grinning, as he pulls off his socks to go with his boots, and shucks off his trousers to reveal swimming shorts beneath. The clothes are left littered upon the beach, as he turns to attend to the packs still hooked up to Cadejoth - how patient the bronze is being! "/After/ we eat. That way, you can ravish me as thanks." Cheeky.
That makes for quite a messy beach, between her stuff and his, so Milani goes about at least piling it all up in one place, while K'del gets the packs down. "Hmmm. All right, I'll be patient until then. THough you have to know that I'm also aching to tug those cute little shorts of yours off and get the full view." She sneaks a look over at him, grinning. "You know. Since it's population, us. We could just lounge around naked all day."
As soon as the packs are down, Cadejoth launches himself into the air again, creating another spray of sand, as he heads for the water. K'del's laughing, wiping the sand away - at least his head was turned - as he lugs them towards a nice spot, and digs out a blanket for them to sit on. He returns her grin, amused and pleased. "You have to be patient. You're all grown up, now. No more teenage Millie! As for the shorts..." he breaks off, to laugh again. "Don't see why we couldn't. No tan lines that way." Top-most priority, clearly.
With the clothes dealth with, Milani pads over to help K'del, reaches for a corner of the blanket to help spread it out. "All grown up. It's kind of funny, five turns ago that's all I wanted. To be grown up, taken seriously. Now it just doesn't seem that important and taking a day to just be silly and a little childlike ... well it's a good thing," Millie says with a laugh and eyes those shorts meaningfully as she settles her end of the blanket down. "Mmm. Anda lot of lovely scenery for me. /This/," she gesturesto her getup, is going to leave very /interesting/ tan lines."
K'del pauses, turning from his end of the blanket to watch Milani - it is, after all, a very nice view. As he resumes his efforts, he nods, "I'm glad. Guess age becomes less important, the more you have of it." He winks at her, for that meaningful glance at his shorts, laughing for the rest. "Mmm. /Very/ interesting tan lines. Might as well tan 'I'm a very wicked woman' on your body and be done with it."
Milani smooths out the blanket corner and crawls onto it once it's all taken care of, slowly, deliberately sensually, lounges down and arranges herself in such a way as to present a very pleasant view. "And you like me that way," she says plainly, grinning up at him with sultry mirth. "Better get the food out though. Before we get hopelessly distracted."
There go K'del's eyes again: bugging out. He settles down with distinctly less grace and sensuality, but the view isn't bad, all the same. "Of course I do," he tells her. "Wouldn't want you any other way." He pauses. "Well. I probably would. But - you know what I mean." Grinning, he turns back to the pack to gather out the food, which he spreads out between them. Next to it, he sets a small, rectangular shaped something wrapped in a bundle of fabric. "True, true. I blame you: you're a terrible influence, I'll have you know."
"I know what you mean," Milani answers with a sincere smile and reaches over to pat at his knee fondly. She waits while he sets out the food, hand propping up her head, fingers tracing idle designs on the blanket's surface. When the packages makes its appearance she eyes for a second, makes a 'dying of curiosity' face and walks her fingers over towards the fabric. "Maybe I'd better open this now then. We might wind up playing with our food after all." A sunny smile is given, a little smug maybe. "Birds of a feather?"
K'del spares a hand, as he sets out the food - all fingerfood, easy to eat - to rest atop of hers on his knee, if only for a moment. He's not so distracted with the food that he doesn't note that wandering hand, nor her expression; he fastens her with an eyebrow-raised glance. "No patience! Fine, fine - go for your life. I'll try and stuff my face while you deal with it." He reaches for a sandwich, and sticks out his tongue before taking his first bite. "Shhh. I was completely innocent before I met you, swear."
Beaming, Milani takes up the fabric-wrapped something and starts to unwind it. "It's my birthday. I'm allowed to be impatient for my presents. Though I'm planning to unwrap you a little more slowly than this," she says candidly. The fabric falls away to reveal the book and Millie lets out a little squeak of delight. "Oh! That book!" She looks up at him, all smiles and then bursts out laughing again. "Kas, my very, very dear, Kas, if you were, thenso was I." She winks across at him, and opens the book carefully, reads the inscription in the front, finger tracing the words. For a moment, she's silent, then Millie carefully sets the book aside and crawls across to the bronzerider, reaches up to cup his face with her hands. "Thank you, K'del. I don't know how you do it, but somehow you just strike all the right notes with me. I'll enjoy that read and treasure those words of yours too."
"And because it is, I'm going to forgive you that impatience, so long as you keep your word on unwrapping /me/," grins K'del, watching her expression as she unwraps the book intently, in between finishing off his sandwich. Her reaction seems to please him a great deal, because, aside from the cheeky grin he returns to her, after her wink, he just sits there, smugly smiling, until she joins him, His hands reach up to cover hers, as he tells her, "I'm glad. Kinda agonised over them; it's /hard/, writing something like that. Don't know how Ander manages it." There's a momentary pause, and then: "Going to - ah, /unwrap/ me now?"
Milani leans in to kiss the bronzerider gently and slides forward all the more to occupy his lap. "You agonized. I think I'm even more touched. And even fonder of you for it," Millie says in a soft voice, expression ... full. "And yeah, it's not easy to write good stuff. I'm not much good at it. I can talk a blue streak, but I write just like I talk." Her arm settles around his shoulders and she leans towards the food to snag a meatroll to nibble on, makes quick work of it then wiggles in his lap. "I am indeed, going to unwrap you." She ends words then by molding her mouth to his, the first move towards unwrapping and a very pleasant half hour or so during which both her outfit and his wind up in a pretty little tangle on the sand. This bodes well for 'spending the day naked', though they'll probably really need to re-charge and actually eat their lunch after.
The book is bound in rich, red-brown leather, and tooled on the outside in the pattern of leaves and flowers, and what are probably firelizards rather than dragons, given their size. The title, the letters engraved and then painted with black paint reads:
Faligan's Fortune
A Novel by Harper Journeyman Ander
Inside, beneath the title on the title page, the book has been signed by, presumably, the author. Beneath that, dated Day 26, Month 12, Turn 18, a message has been written:
Dear Milani,
Happy twentieth Turnday! It's a little hard to believe that I've only known you for a bit over a turn, now. I hope your twenty-first turn is better than your twentieth - and I hope I'm still a part of your life at the end of it. And beyond. And not just because you have great legs. And the rest. (Thought: am I going to regret having written that? Please don't embarrass me with this in the future). I should probably finish before I REALLY make a fool of myself.
With affection,
K'del
The book itself? An adventure story about a Harper who discovers a long-lost settlement in the south, written by K'del's older brother, Ander. There's excitement! Adventure! Romance! And no boring descriptions of rocks, trees OR the breasts of a beautiful woman.