You Make Me Happy

Writers: Dana, Eimi
Date Posted: 23rd September 2006

Characters: Larken, Ojisan
Description: Larken's plans for the evening are interrupted by a loving husband
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 13, day 25 of Turn 3

Picking up her brush, Larken went over to the mirror one last time to add the finishing touches to her hair, running a critical eye over her outfit as she did so. **Shards, Larken...when did you become so vain?** Her blouse was a pretty thing, a shade very close to her eye color. And it was a little more fitted than her others....and the neckline fell a little lower too. She could just imagine M'tone pressing kisses to all that exposed skin, running a hand down her hair, pulling her closer against his hard body... Shards! Her thoughts were getting as bad as those romance novels she read sometimes.

Blushing, she set the brush aside and headed towards the door to her bedroom. She didn't want to be late, after all!

"Larken!" Ojisan said as she almost ran into him. He reached out hands to steady her. "My, you look beautiful this evening! What's the occasion?"

"Oh! Oh..." She stared at him, at a complete loss for words as her mind registered the fact that he was _home_. He wasn't supposed to be home at this candlemark! Unless she'd gotten her dates mixed up...but no. No, she was right. "You're home early!" She couldn't mask the surprise in her voice.

"Yes," he smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist. "We decided that we all just needed to take an evening off, so I've come home to spend the evening with you."

She dropped her head to his shoulder, hoping he'd see it as a sign of affection rather than the desperate action it was to hide her eyes. He couldn't see her disappointment...he couldn't.... "I'm glad," she made herself whisper in his ear before kissing the side of his neck, hands tightening on his arms. Shards...how was M'tone going to know? What if he thought she'd blown him off on purpose? Or worse--what if he came here _looking_ for her?

Her husband smiled, glad to see she'd missed him too. "Are you hungry?
We could go down and get some dinner. Or better yet, why don't we have something brought up? I'd like to have some time just the two of us."

"I'd like that too," she murmured, raising her head to look up at him.
**Shards, M'tone... I'm sorry.** Trying to keep the anxious flush from her cheeks, Larken took his hand and led him into the main room.

"What did you do today, my love?" Ojisan asked as followed her.

"I went and found a collar for Pisky." Larken's smile was genuine as she gestured to the kitten sleeping on the couch. "He's old enough now to wear one. And it even has a little bell on it..." Releasing her husband's hand, she bent to scoop Pisky up in her arms so she could sit down.

Ojisan smiled as he slipped onto the sofa next to her, stretching his arm over the back. "It is a fine collar. I'm glad you've had Pisky to keep you company." Finding her that feline had been one of his better gift ideas, he thought.

She gently buried her fingers in the purring kitten's fur, trying to push her sudden feelings of guilt away. "Me too. He's such a dear little pet..."

"Do you remember when we first got Pisky, and he used to get so worked up he'd go flying around the rooms like a little furry flit. He'd bounce from the bookcase to the chair to the floor, back up on the sofa, across the back... Even across us in the middle of the night when we were trying to sleep. Do you remember that?"

A grin tugged at her lips. Oh yes. She _could_ remember! Larken tilted her head to look at him. "I do. The oaths that would fly from your lips...shards, Ojisan," she laughed. "And how you'd try and scramble after him and sometimes trip over the furs or your own two feet!"

Ojisan laughed. "I wish you wouldn't remember _that_ part."

"What would you have me remember then?" And a slow blush spread across her cheeks as she glanced up at him, knowing exactly what part. The part when they both sometimes couldn't go back to sleep, and so he'd cuddle her and caress her...make love to her. And she'd make love to him too, because back then she had still been an innocent, only knowing her husband's touch, and no other man's. Guilt seeped into her thoughts. Had that really been six months ago?

He reached over to pet the purring fur ball in her lap. "Well, as your husband, I would hope you would only remember the more positive, manly memories."

"Mmm. And what if I told you that I did?" she asked softly, watching his fingers stroke Pisky's head.

"Then you would make for a very happy husband," he said, his eyes flickering to hers. "But you always make me happy, Larken."

A lump rose--unbidden--in her throat. "Do I?" she whispered, suddenly loathing herself for betraying him the way she had been with M'tone.

What had gotten into her to act so terribly rash with that dragonrider?
Every time she kissed him, and he kissed her....every time he touched her in places only Ojisan should, she had betrayed her husband. And every time she'd touched him and even _thought_ about M'tone...it was an act of the same betrayal.

She wanted M'tone. She felt things for him...things she shouldn't feel for a man she wasn't married to. But was acting on those feelings worth hurting her husband? Was it worth living a lie?

Swallowing thickly, her slid her fingers in-between his.

"Yes, Larken," her husband said, caressing her hand with his thumb. "You make me very happy, and you have since before you were ever mine."

Last updated on the September 26th 2006

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You Make Me Happy