Feather light touches dancing through the dark curls on his chest tickled the edges of his consciousness. Nikos, quite unknowingly, let out a soft moan and nuzzled deeper into the bed. The most pleasant dreams he’d been having were already fading despite his efforts to bring them back into focus. The baron drifted closer to the land of wakefulness. He groaned in protest, until he realized that the hand on his chest was not part of the fading dreams. Moreover, it was a familiar touch. One he’d grown quite fond of.

Arete of Doralis. His current favorite lover. He’d had others since meeting her. But for years now he’d found himself inviting her back. Even made room for her to keep things here in the manor, in his personal rooms. While he primarily lived in and ran this estate and the province, it was still the property of his father. As such, Nikos had not allowed Retta to encroach on the décor of the common areas or the other rooms reserved for his father or other dignified visitors of station and title. But Retta had been becoming more and more of a known fixture here in the Condos home in Doralis, the servants recognized her on sight, and treated her with the respect of an official mistress – even though Nikos had made no such declaration to the public. That sort of commitment was not something Nikos was looking forward to. He didn’t want to do it period, but he knew he would need to marry someone eventually, have a legitimate heir to inherit the Condos name and fortunes. But today was not that day.

Nikos took a deep breath as Retta’s fingers became braver in their exploration. His sky-blue eyes fluttered open, returning her kiss lazily. He heard her soft voice, but didn’t quite make out the words. Her dark hair brushed across his face, and the smell of the perfumes she’d bathed in the day before certainly helped to wake him up. To wake all of him up. Wordlessly, Nikos pushed up on his elbows, rolled to his side, and further still until he was hovering over her lithe body. She’d grown quite healthy and even more beautiful with all the pampering and good food he provided her. He pulled the blankets up to their waist level to fend off the chill morning and nudged himself into a more comfortable position. ”I want you… now,” he whispered thickly.

Nikos had no idea that his father had come to pay a visit. Had never received the letter the elder Condos lord had sent. The letter had arrived the day before. But the insatiable young baron had ordered everyone in his employ to leave him be and to not disturb him and his lover for the entire day except to bring food and wine or to stoke the fire in the hearth. As such, Nikos had no idea that his father was on his way to disturb his play – with a woman that the Head of House Condos had not been informed was practically living with Nikos within the manor.

When her love finally began to rouse himself, Arete was more than pleased to see that he was just as eager as she was to repeat the events of the night prior. As he pulled the sheets up over them just enough to keep them warm in the cool, morning air, Arete happily looped her arms over his neck, keeping him right where she wanted him to be. Already bare as there was no point in dressing last night, Arete had no shame with Nikos. There was not a single part of her body that he had not already claimed with his fingers, his lips, and other things and she had given it to him willingly in exchange for the same knowledge of his own skin. Where other girls, even long after entering their marriage bed, might shy away and try to move blankets or pillows to preserve some sort of modesty during these intimate moments, Arete did no such thing. If anything, she actually shifted the blankets down slightly lower so that he might get a full view of the young woman he would one day make his queen. There was no point obscuring the god-given gifts that she had from his eyes. Plus, it wasn’t as if he had not seen her like this before; both of them bare and him hovering above, ready and aching to claim his prize. The two of them found each other in this position so often that Arete was just as comfortable in nothing as she was in the luxurious peplos and delicate chitons he had gifted her.

Though, had she known that there was someone hovering just outside the door, the Baron’s mistress might have reconsidered her position on how much she was willing to bare in this coupling that was soon to be interrupted. After all, she lacked any sort of shame with Nikos because he knew her inside and out, but most importantly he loved her -- even if Arete had to recognize that it was shown in his own, unique way. Her body was the gift that she had given to only him. (Well, minus the few other handsome merchant boys before she met Nikos -- but they hardly counted now.) She was not some common whore who could be gawked at for a few bronze pieces.

She was unaware though that there was someone who was about to get a peek at something that was not his to view. How could she be? Arete could hear nothing over her own fluttering heartbeat as Nikos positioned himself and made his intentions clear in a low tone that made her blood run hot beneath his skin. Having just been woken up by her touch, there was certain grogginess in his voice, making it sound more primal in her ears as she shifted to meet his eagerness. A quiet whimper of anticipation left her after he emphasized that he was not willing to wait; between his voice and the rapid speed things were progressing was just too much for her to handle. She was ready.

That was made perfectly clear by the hushed whisper she gave in return, granting him permission to get his ass in gear and stop this torture that was called ‘anticipation.’ Leaning up slightly so that her lips would be almost close enough to touch his ear, Arete quietly muttered her assent to his demand, using a phrase that he would know was meant for only him, “Then take it, your highness.” The young woman knew how badly Nikos desired to be King and how he saw it as a birthright that had been robbed from him. Even though the peasant girl who truly understood nothing about politics had her doubts that her lover would ever get the throne (even with the King and his eldest son dying a few months prior), she knew that it would only excite him more than he naturally was already. Even though her two little words could be treason if heard by another, she had no qualms about using them with her lover -- especially when it made things more exciting.

With her lips already hovering so close to Nikos, it took almost no thought for her to turn her head slightly in order to carve a trail of kisses from his ear to his mouth. Her lips locked onto his as she eagerly poured all the excitement and readiness she felt into him, impatiently waiting for that glorious moment where the feeling of longing would fade into action. Her Nikos might not realize it, but good gods he could be such a tease sometimes, making her wait like this. However, this might have been a good thing as just when she was certain that Nikos was ready to sheath himself inside of her, the young woman heard a creak at the door. Breaking off the kiss and turning her head quickly, Arete was shocked to find that the pair of lovebirds were no longer alone. Instead, they had a spectator, hovering in the doorway, looking on at the two of them.

Suddenly very aware of her bare chest and precarious position, Arete reached for the blankets to shield herself as she screamed in her lover’s ear, “Nikos! Nikos!” Her face was already a deep shade of crimson as she tried to push the Baron of Doralis away from her so that she might protect some shred of modesty that she might have left. After all, having another man practically on top of her made it very difficult to pull the blankets up so high. Her face instinctively turned to hide in the pillows, but was the use? This stranger had already seen her, seen what she was about to do with her lover. She could put on a cloth tent that obscured every part of her and it would still do nothing to hide the shame she felt over being seen by someone she did not know -- someone who she had not given permission to view herself in that compromising position.

Even though Arete was currently too ashamed to look in the general direction of the stranger who had taken it upon himself to enter the room despite the clearly intimate state the two of them had been in; she might have realized that he wasn’t as much of a stranger as she previously thought that he was. After all, this man had the same dark hair as the man in bed next to her along with other similar features. Had Arete not been in such an embarrassed state, she would have realized that this was Nikos’s father. Not this would have helped ease the redness in her cheeks at all. In fact, she would have been even more flustered had she known. After all, as far as she was concerned, this man was going to be her future father-in-law. She would never be able to look him in the eyes with the knowledge that he had seen her half-naked with his son.

Having traveled a long distance to make it to the distant province, Nikolias did not see the point in wasting time by exiting to allow the interrupted couple a chance to dress, but instead continued to babble... about his age? Arete shook her head at this as it remained buried in the pillows, not believing that this could be happening. This was absolutely mortifying and she quite frankly had no idea how to react to being interupted during the thing that lovers do to talk about achey-bones. She did not care for this nonsense and that was more than made clear by how she gave a small annoyed groan as she clutched the blankets up and around her as best as she could. She was more than happy to let her lover deal with this interloper as she grew more and more self-conscious beneath her sheets. Right now she didn’t care about age and whatever the in name of Hades this was about. She just cared about the immense shame she was feeling.

“Nikos,” She muttered quietly, calling his attention back to herself as she lifted her gaze to meet his own, “My dress. It’s by you.” Her expression silently pleaded for him to do something to allow her to get back some sort of modesty. After all, his father had just seen her boobs and was now continuing on in conversation as if nothing had happened! She just wanted a chance to get some of her modesty back through the clothes piled on the floor on Nikos’s side of the bed. Then they could deal with whatever this was about.