The Shield Maiden

"Baby, keep doing that. That feels so good." As Damien's big rough hands, massaged their way down Gretchen's back, she giggled and moaned into the pillow. "Mmm! Damn! You can keep doing that all night if you want. I don't know much about magic Damien, but those hands of yours...Mmm! Remind me to thank your parents for them." Damien leaned down and placed a kiss on her shoulder, then went back to rubbing her. "I'll pamper you anyway you wish if it will make you behave yourself. You need to be getting to sleep now. You shouldn't even be out of the infirmary yet, Gretchen."

As her eyes fluttered closed and she bit her lip in ecstasy, Gretchen's hips lifted from the bed and Damien leaned over and kissed her ass cheek. Gretchen smiled as he returned to her then said, "Imara checked me over as soon as we got here, I'm fine. She told me I just need to rest."

Damien slapped her bottom playfully, then laid down beside her and pulled her onto his chest. "I wouldn't call what we've been doing all night resting, my love. You should get some sleep."

"No, baby, I feel good. Better than good. I just want to lay here with you for awhile. I know things have been crazy, but I've missed you." As Damien wrapped Gretchen's soft curl around his finger, she played with the sparse hairs on his chest. "Will you come home with me then? Misting back and forth everyday doesn't sound like something I'll wish to do for long. You belong with me."

Gretchen sighed and turned onto her elbow to face him. "I want my father to come with me, and that's not negotiable."

Damien furrowed his brows as he looked back at her. "Of course, he'll come with you. He's your father, I'd not expect you to be without him." He looked down at her lips and brushed his thumb against them. "Honestly, my fathers been trying to convince most of your family to come there for years. Jason's, as well. It seems all you Earthborns are quite stubborn. Most people wouldn't dare tell my father no."

Gretchen grinned at the thought of all her family being hunkered down in the castle with Daniel. "All my family trapped under one roof with yours, that sounds dangerous. You may need a bigger castle. Maybe if you gave us own wing with a big lock on the door. Huh, I guess that's a cage isn't it. That sounds about right for us."

Damien tickled his lips with her lock of hair then tossed it back into her messy mane. "If that's what I must do to keep you from running off again, then I'll have them start on it straight away when we get back." Damien looked to the balcony doors and they swung shut suddenly as he willed it so to shut out the crisp late Autumn air. "I suppose it's not a very romantic thing, my fathers plans, but you understand why he wants them close by, don't you?"

Gretchen sighed as she put her head back against his chest. "I do, it's just, I guess because the two of you are the only ones who can see it, it just doesn't seem real. I know that's why you wanted me to remember everything, but, honestly, all it did was make me more confused. I mean, my heads pretty messed up with just Gretchen in there, having everyone else show up was just too much for me."

Damien pulled her up to meet his face and looked in her eyes as he brushed the golden brown nest of ringlets off her face. "I didn't mean for that to happen. I just wanted you to undertand the things that were happening to you."

Gretchen pushed her lips together and shook her head. "Baby, I know, it's alright now. I just, I just need to get them all organized, you know? I just don't want to lose me and I definitely don't want to be that scared little kid begging the soldiers for mercy as they beat you. I worked hard the last thousand years becoming someone that could never happen to. I don't want you to look at me and see some weakling that needs rescued constantly, well, even though you just did recently rescue me." She smiled and poked her finger in his chest. "Thank you, by the way."

As a side smile curled up on his lips, he traced the curve of her face and said, "You're welcome. I understand what you're saying, Gretchen. I'm not that boy either. When it comes for us again, I'll be ready this time."

Gretchen took his hand and put it over her chest. "No, baby, we'll be ready. You and me. You can't just leave me out of the equation now. When they come it will be for all of us and I won't just sit back and do nothing. That's not who I am now."

Damien gritted his teeth and sucked in a breath as he grunted, "Ah!" He made a disgusted face and shook his head. "I don't want that for you."

Gretchen kissed him gentlly then rested again on his chest. "Whether you want it or not, it won't matter when they're kicking in our door again. Making me a housewife like the other women in your family isn't in anyone's best interest."

As he brushed his fingers up and down her arm, he grinned at the goosebumps erupting all over her. "You misjudge them. Hazel is hardly a delicate flower and Siggy, well, even I'm frightened of her. I don't think even my father understands the limits of what she's capable of."

Gretchen followed the lines of Damien's chest until they met his abdomen, then she traced his chiseled muscles down to the curly hairs starting just above the sheet that covered his waist. "I'm not trying to insult them, but that doesn't mean I want to sit around and bake cookies with them waiting for you to come home everyday."

As she got closer to the places on his body he ached for her to visit, Damien's stance on her vocation began to soften. He would promise her the moon and stars for her to touch him again. "I realize that Gretchen. Nor would I expect it of you. Not you. You will be a shield maiden of the Darke Kingdom. You will lead the castle's defenses when my father and I are away, with Thorin as your advisor, of course. That...that was Agi's idea. You may wish to thank him for his confidence in you when you return."

Gretchen looked up at him with a new excitement in her eyes. "Are you serious? Your fathers really going to give me the keys to his house when he's away."

Damien smiled a forced grin and nodded gently. "I am very serious. Does that please you?"

Gretchen kissed his chest and laid her head back down. "It does." Her hand slid beneath the sheet and she took his cock in her hand then slowly pumped her hand up and down his shaft as she looked up into his eyes. "Does this please you?"

Damien blinked as his breathing quickened from the warmth of her hand around him. "Very much."

"Well, let me see what else pleases you." Gretchen kissed her way down the trail of his waist then slid between his legs. As she grabbed him firmly in her hands she licked up his shaft and growled as she took all of him in her mouth. Damien groaned out as he looked up to the ceiling and closed his eyes while her warm, soft lips and tongue caressed him.

"Mmm," he grunted as he gritted his teeth. "Is there anything else you desire?" When he looked down over her head bobbing up and down on him, he swallowed hard and said, "Maybe you'd like your own kingdom." As he got closer to the edge, he grabbed her hair in his fists and said, "Dammit, I'll take them all for you, Gretchen." Damien threw his head back into the pillow and shuddered as Gretchen swallowed everything he had to offer.

As Gretchen returned to Damien's mouth, she pressed her swollen, hot lips against his and moaned softly as she released him. "I hope you didn't think we were finished."

Damien pulled her hips close to hers then flipped her onto her back. As he pulled her back into his arms and covered her with the warm down blanket, he said, "For tonight, yes, we're done. My son needs his sleep, my love, and so do you."

While Damien's warm muscular arms held her close, Gretchen looked back over her shoulder. "I love you, Damien. For a thousand years, I've loved you. Even when I couldn't remember, you were always on my mind. A part of me I always knew was missing."

Damien kissed the the apple of her cheek as he slid his hand the Gretchen's abdomen and said, "I love you, too."