By Popular Demand

[shayna611]

Maple Walnut #22. Moth to a Flame with Chopped Nuts


Story : knights
Rating : NC-17
Timeframe : 1267
Word Count : 3755

Sly and Falootin have been harassing me for this for awhile now. However plausible it may be, it is strictly Chopped Nuts.



The first thump on the door had Kairn upright in his bed, squinting and blinking into the darkness. The series that followed found him shuffling across the floor, the string of curses that flowed beneath his breath mingling with the frantic pounding of his heart.

He passed a rumpled shirt, thrown over the back of a chair, opting to snatch a butcher knife from the counter instead, as he headed for the door.

“Kairn?” came Lyssa‘s voice over another round of pounding, and he wound to a halt. The hand not occupied with the knife struck his head, and a groan escaped him. With another bout of oaths, this time laced with her name and various references to her profound lack of sense, he stalked back to the table.

“Kairn?” she called again, no longer accompanied by the knocking. The knife clattered against the wood, discarded in favor of the shirt.

“Coming,” he said and shrugged into the sleeves as he crossed the room again.

Bolts and chains rattled and slid free along the doorframe and he gave the knob a twist. The cloaked figure on the stoop all but tumbled through as the door swung in. She righted herself with a forced and hasty smile and set to brushing the dust from her long, red cloak.

“Lyssa,” he said. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Can I come in?” said Lyssa, one leg already over the threshold.

“Of course,” said Kairn. “But-” He stood back against the door as she pushed past.

“I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

“Tonight?” he said, the series of locks sliding back into place without thought. “It’s almost morning.“

She tossed her cloak over the back of the same chair that had held his shirt. “It was a bit of a ride,” she said, eyes sweeping the empty counter. “Got anything to eat?”

Kairn rushed to her side as she began a noisy search of the cabinets. “You‘ll wake Shamino,” he said, hand settling on hers to wrest the door from her grip. She froze, eyes falling to their overlapping hands, before she slipped away to reach, much more quietly, for another.

“There’s some bread,” Kairn offered, pulling a loaf from the drawer, “and I suppose I could put on some tea.” A quick lunge beneath the sink brought up the kettle, and he righted himself only to find Lyssa with her head in another of the cupboards. “What has gotten into you?”

“Everything.” She pulled out, nudged the door gently shut. “Nothing.” Her eyes settled for a moment on the open front of his shirt and Kairn thought to tug it shut but found, with a blush, that his hands were full. “Can we not talk about it?”

Bread on the table and kettle safely deposited in the sink, he fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. “You rode half the night to see me and you don’t want to talk about it?”

“No,” said Lyssa, taking a seat at the table. She cast a frown over her shoulder as he set to filling the kettle. “Don’t you have anything stronger than tea?”

Kairn paused to return her dark look. “You know I don’t.”

She gave the bread a jab with the knife. “Never did get that about you.”

“Guess we’re even,” said Kairn. He set the pot on the stove and went rummaging through a drawer for a match. “There’s plenty I don’t get about you either.”

“Oh really?” she said, a dangerous grin on her lips as she laid the edge of the knife to the bread again. “Like what?”

The match caught with a snap and he bent to light the coals. “Like the fact that you can go charging off into battle without a second thought.” The match slipped from his grasp to sputter and die as he scrambled to retrieve it. “But anytime things get emotional you go grabbing for a crutch.” He picked up the scorched remains with a frown.

“I do not.”

The coals sparked and came flickering to life on their own as he fumbled for another match. Kairn shook his head and smiled at Lyssa, who sat glowering at the stove with her arms sharply folded. “You’re here, aren’t you?” he said.

Her eyes flicked to him and back to the stove, where the flames gave a leap. “Maybe I want to be here.”

“Huh?”

“I said I want to be here,” she said, her voice falling as her eyes settled on the floor. “With you.”

“And I‘m a crutch if ever you had one,” Kairn muttered as he turned back to the drawer to stuff the matches inside. Aloud, he said, “What has gotten into you tonight?”

The chair scraped across the floorboards and the thud of her boots accompanied her words. “I told you,” she said, warmth creeping over him as she drew near. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why-” Kairn shut the drawer and turned round to find her right behind him.

“Because,” she planted a hand on the counter to either side of him, eyes wide as she leaned in, “you might not let me do this.” He shrank back against the counter as her lips descended on his, stiffening as they took him.

The kiss was brief and forceful until Kairn wrenched away, his mouth suddenly dry and bitter. She was pressed to him, pinning him to the counter, with that maddening heat that eminated always from her flowing through him. He locked eyes with her, straining to even his breath, forcing the thought of the breasts now heaving against him from his mind. “So.” He swallowed hard, the counter biting his back as he squirmed. “Whose bed were you crawling out of when you got the idea you wanted to hop into mine? Or do you even remember?”

The lips poised above his pursed. Her eyes flared as her brows knit, and a sharp pop came from the stove. Then, with a sigh, she pulled away, and Kairn shuddered as the heat receded with her. “I suppose I deserve that,” she said. He drew a deep, shaky breath and let loose of the counter. “But it’s not like that, I swear.” She picked up a hunk of the bread and tore off a corner. “It’s just that, well, I’ve been thinking.”

“And?” said Kairn, settling back against the cabinets with a sigh as she chewed idly at the bread.

Lyssa tossed the piece back to the table with a frown. “This stuff is stale.”

“Quit changing the subject.”

She stared at the table, prodding the bread, dragging a finger through the crumbs it left behind. “I think I love you.”

“Think?” said Kairn.

She turned to him with an awkward smile, a hand raking through her hair. “Well, I am here,” she said, and she gave her copper curls a tug, while her eyes flitted to and away from him. “I mean, of all the places I could have gone when-” She sighed. “It just had to be here, had to be you, so-”

“You think?”

Too stunned to think much of anything, he couldn’t decide if the pout that settled on her lips was real or done in play. “Don’t make me change my mind,” she said.

He crossed his arms and did his best to scowl at her. “And what if I’ve changed mine?”

In a moment she had him cornered again, the lip of the counter in his back as she pressed herself to his front. The air was thin, a heat all around him as if he’d found himself plunged into a fire. He shook his head and tried to dismiss the thought, even as sweat beaded on his flesh.

She kissed him again, light and playful, and this time it was she who pulled away while he leaned in for more. “Right,” she said, laughing as he wet his lips. “You’ve been waiting for this for how long now? You won’t refuse me.”

“I get the feeling I should,” he said. No room left to back away, he shifted and squirmed as her hands busied themselves with his shirt. “What are you doing?”

One button and then another slid open in her grasp. “You’ve got them crooked.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Hmm?” Lyssa paused, half the shirt now open. “No, I suppose they weren’t,” she said. “No matter. It’s better this way.” Her hand dove beneath the fabric, and his breath hitched as fingers like tendrils of flame slid across his chest.

“Have you been drinking?”

The grin she flashed him then looked drunken enough. “You tell me.” Her lips found his with a force that drew a moan from his throat, while the hand beneath his shirt groped and kneaded at his flesh. There was, to be sure, no trace of alcohol on her breath, nor on the tongue that seemed intent on inhabiting his mouth.

Kairn tore himself away. Her lips hung in the air as he glared at her, her hand still working its way over him. “What is the matter with you?”

The intoxicated grin returned as her hand drifted lower. She skimmed over the closed portion of his shirt, freeing another button with ease as she went, settling on the ties that held his pants. “Nothing you can’t fix.”

His grip on the counter tightened as she took the laces between her fingers. “Lyssa…”

She gave the strings a twirl. Her eyes focused just beneath them with a hunger that sent a chill through him, despite the presence of her unnatural heat, and he flushed, well aware that any denial that she had anything to look at would be in vain. “Do you know how long it’s been?” she said.

“Wha-?” His eyes darted between her face and her hand as she picked apart the laces.

“Since I’ve made love to a man. Don’t look at me like that. I know what you’re thinking, and that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Lyss-” He swallowed as she gave the fabric a tug.

She pressed closer, her breath hot on his lips, flesh exposed by her neckline against his bare chest. “I’ve had more than enough of letting some stranger paw me to take off the edge.”

“Lyssa… “ He sucked in a sharp breath as her hand slid up under his shirt.

She worked her way over his hip, into his pants, her nose brushing his cheek as she edged closer still “I want something more.”

“I don’t know.” With apprehension, he eyed the hand that dipped slowly lower as Lyssa nuzzled against his neck.

Her lips plucked at his throat with a series of light, hot brushes that left him shaking, before they set themselves alongside his ear. “I want you,” she said, and her hand dove into place.

His whole body went rigid, breath ceasing in a strangled cry. Her fingers coiled around him while his clawed at the counter. Her lips twitched against his ear, a laugh that was all but a purr passing from them.

Blinking, Kairn gaped at the hand set between them. “Dear gods, woman,” he said when, at last, he could breathe again. Her head fell to his shoulder and she laughed, her hand never missing a beat, though her body shook against him. “You know…there are better places for this.”

Lyssa drew back, dark eyes wide, soft lips parted. The thought to put a hand to her face and kiss her with all his might came to mind, but it seemed his hands were quite securely fastened to the edge of the counter. She relinquished her hold, her hand sliding slowly away, the tip of each finger teasing its way over him as it slipped past. He flinched as the last left him and cloth fell in its place. “Your room, then?” she said, dragging the hand back up his front.

“I- uh- sure.” She let loose another button before she turned away. “As if I have much choice,” he muttered, eyes on swaying hips as Lyssa sauntered towards his open door.

Her boots fell first, before she‘d even left the kitchen. Kairn pried his hands at last from the counter, angry pink lines etched across his palms where the edges had pressed. He fumbled for the waist of his pants hoisting them up in his fist, not bothering to tie them shut.

Kairn cut a wide path through the house, sweeping out around the dining table and past the battered excuse for a couch as Lyssa cut straight towards his room. He paused outside Shamino’s door, to see that it was shut tight, before he followed.

A flurry of red cloth came at him and he threw up the hand not occupied in maintaining his pants to catch it as it sailed into his face. “Lyssa, what do you think you’re-” He plucked the fabric from his eyes and the words slipped away as his jaw fell.

Lyssa stood in the doorway, arm casually braced on the frame, not a stitch on her from the waist up. She was pale, even in the thick shadows of early dawn that held the room. His eyes slid over flesh laced with scars, across the ample swell of her breasts, down to the wide slope of her hips that dove into the top of her pants, and back up to her ribs. He settled on the broad streak of purple that wound its way up the left and frowned.

The hold on his pants momentarily forgotten, he lifted the hand to trace up her ribs alongside the scar. “Lyssa… how did you…?”

She scowled in return. “You don’t have to be so careful,” she said, leaning into his touch. “It’s not like it’s fresh. You know, these are nice too.” A hand slid over his own, guiding it to her breast. With a shuddering breath, he pressed his palm more firmly to her

“You have no shame, do you?” he said, nearly laughing at the utter lack of force his voice carried.

“As if you don’t know that by now.” She lifted her shirt from his grasp and dropped it on floor. “Now,” she said as the second hand found her hip, seemingly of its own accord, “where were we?”

“Trying to decide,” said Kairn, eyes still swimming over the soft flesh between his slow moving fingers, “just how bad of an idea this is.”

“No, no, no,” she said. “I’m sure that wasn’t it.” Her eyes flicked down to his waist and her hand soon followed. “Oh, I see where I got lost. You put these back on.”

Kairn tried his best to look indignant, quite certain he’d failed, what with the fistfull of her he was still clutching. “There is a child asleep in the next room. I’m not running about with half my clothes off.”

She reached around him and the door swung shut. “We’re alone now,” she said.

He staggered back, both her hands now at his hips as she closed in. “I still just don’t know if I-” His back met the door as his pants hit the floor, and with a last, feral grin, she ducked down before him.

“Lyssa?” He swung his head into the wood at the first stroke of her tongue, and then her lips closed over him.

“Oh Gods, Lyssa.” He clutched at her hair, thick, red clumps of it knotting about his hands, as her teeth raked over him and his voice dissolved into a breathless moan.

She let loose of him, dark eyes glinting up as her lips worried at his hip instead. “Still such a bad idea?” she asked with a grin.

Kairn unwound his fists from her hair, fumbling for the form beneath. He caught her arm with a shaking hand and hauled her to her feet. He pressed his lips to hers, stumbling into her as his hands wound a frantic course over her body. “Very much so,” he said, his feet blindly working to extricate themselves from the rumpled mess of pants that trailed about his ankles. “As if that’s ever stopped you before.”

Her hands intent on the last buttons of his shirt, Lyssa kissed him again and her tongue slipped past his open lips. “You’re one to talk,” she said, their hips colliding and retreating in their tangled procession towards the bed.

“I never know what’s good for me either,” he said, fighting with the ties that held her pants while she peeled his sleeves away. “I can always be sorry tomorrow.”

“Sorry or not,” she said, squirming out of her pants as she sank onto the bed, “you won’t forget it.”

“No.” The bed gave a soft groan as he crept between her legs and their hands slid over one another. “I don’t suppose- Not so rough!”

Lyssa quickly withdrew the offending hand, wrapping it, instead, around his neck and pulling him near. She angled her legs up around his waist, his hips falling into place, and he found her, warm and wet, bucking slowly but forcefully against him. “Kairn,” she murmured as he returned the motion.

“Mmm?”

Her arms wound round his shoulders, her lips brushed over his. “Make love to me.”

“I thought,” he paused to kiss her, “that was where we were headed?”

“Now?” she pleaded.

“I-” Her lips set on his and whatever it was he’d thught to say fled his mind. He reared his hips and dove to meet her. Lyssa tensed beneath him, their lips still locked together. Her hands raced over his back, grasping and groping, as they moved as one.

If he’d thought he’d felt her warmth before, he assured himself he’d been mistaken. Intense as it was to be close to her, making love to her was like the center of an inferno, though with none of the pain he might have expected from such a burn. Heat swelled through him, flowed from her with every push he gave, until he was drowning in it. Flames roared in his ears and red flooded his vision and then, just as swiftly, it subsided, and there was Lyssa beneath him, her pale shape framed by the copper cloud splayed over the pillows.

He blinked at the foot that bobbed against his shoulder, wondering for a moment when it had gotten there. He shook his head and brought his lips to nuzzle her neck

“Mmmm,” she said, a hand drifting down, curling over his behind. “Harder.” She gave him a shove.

With a nervous swallow, Kairn obliged with a hearty thrust of his hips and Lyssa let out a groan. The hand on his backside spasmed, fingers sinking into his flesh. She threw her head back into the pillows and he dove for her throat with his lips.

“Harder,” she said again. “Like you were before.“ Kairn eyed the writhing form beneath him with apprehension. Then, he forced a breath and braced himself and jerked inside her. Eyes closed, he pressed his head to her shoulder with a moan, pressure building throughout him as she clenched around him. Her breath spilled, hot against his cheek, the flow of air punctuated by soft, throaty cries. She clawed at his back as he bucked his hips into her and her own rose in return.

The bed creaked, their voices ebbed and flowed, the soft slap of flesh against flesh resounding through it all. The whole scene blurred around him, a hazy mix of sound and shadow, the scent of her, sweat, blood and leather, that filled his lungs, the blazing heat of her that enveloped him. His arms shook beneath him, fists clenched in the sheets.

“Harder,” she pleaded. He pressed his fists into the mattress and brought all his weight to his hips. A jolt, like fire in his veins, raced through him as her muscles spasmed, and she threw her head back with a wail.

Kairn froze, eyes wide as she whimpered and clutched at him. “D-did I hurt you?”

Lyssa blinked. “Hurt me?” She cupped a hand over his cheek with a laugh, though her smile quickly faded as he pulled away. “Kairn, what are you-”

“I don’t want to hurt you.” He settled beside her, a hand skimming over her front.

Lyssa rolled quickly to her side, an arm crooked around his hip. “Trust me,” she said, “you won’t.”

He frowned. “I thought you wanted me.”

“I do.” She cocked her head to chase his gaze, and when she caught it, she offered him a smile.

“Well,” he said, cheeks burning, “that isn’t me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she brought her forehead to rest against his. “I won’t push you, I promise.” Their noses brushed, lips teasing one another. Her hand crept up his side, slid round his neck, and she pulled herself closer. “I still want you.”

Kairn nipped at her lips, his hand settling gently over her breast. “No demands?” She shook her head and he deepened the kiss.

He slid an arm around her, dragging their hips together. He found her and slowly slipped inside. Echoes of the heat that from before returned, gently coiling their way through him. There was a tightness to her that he did not recall, and Lyssa whimpered as he strained against her, her arms stiffening around his neck as he eased himself into her. He pulled at her lips, shuddering as she rocked back against him.

“Oh, Lyssa,” he murmured, hands wrapped round her hips as he all but withdrew only to return, a slow burn washing over him as she quivered around him. Her hand closed over his cheek, her tongue tracing his lips, as he struggled to repeat the motion again.

He clutched at her waist, grasping at her hips, the sounds that escaped him high and rasping, as he spilled into her. Lyssa held him fast, one leg hooked behind him, her lips pressed to his, while he trembled and moaned.

With a gasp of air, Kairn settled his head against her collarbone. He ran a shaky hand over Lyssa’s hip, down along her thigh, their bodies still entwined, and smiled. For long moments, they lay in silence.

“You know,” he said at last, voice low and strained, “I think I love you too.”

“Think?” said Lyssa.

He lifted his head to offer her a sleepy grin. “Yeah,” he said, “I haven’t decided yet just how bad an idea this is.”

Lyssa grinned back and swept a hand through his hair. “Fine by me.”