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Yona sighed heavily, clothes in hand as she descended the dirt pathway to the gorge by their campsite. It was one of the most beautiful bathing areas she’d seen in her travels, and was set on using it as much as possible before she and Hak packed up and moved on to the next campsite.
The two were traveling alone as part of a reconnaissance mission while the Dragons and Yoon tended a nearby village, riddled with the injured and sick. It had been years since they’d traveled this way — Yona’s sudden responsibilities after Soo-Won’s death, Hak’s inevitable deployment as a general in the military —it had caused time to spiral away from them, leaving their young confessions and kisses muddled with the past.
Yona was not ignorant to the weight of the atmosphere between them. She simply did not know what to say.
It was hard to look at Hak without her breath catching. It was hard to talk to him without feeling like he was seeing right through her. She did not realize how exposed love could make a person feel, above everything else. Even if that love stretched from her teenage years to adulthood.
Rich, untamed grass tickled her bare feet as she padded to the shoreline, framing the dark water with explosive greens. The sky was cloudless, the sun tainting everything with gold. Her hair felt light on her neck —she preferred keeping it short, as it had been when she first cut it off with the sword of an enemy.
Despite the many horrors she had witnessed in her travels, she would never regret any of the scenery that had expanded her sense of the world and its beauty.
Letting her robe fall to the ground, Yona entered the cool water and sighed at its touch. Wading until it lapped at her chest, she reveled in the clean water, the rare chance to take such a calming bath.
This thought was quickly annihilated when she realized someone was swimming out of the mouth of the gorge; when the man stood, blood rushed to her face at the sight of his familiar locks, raven black from the water, and his chest, bare and gleaming in soft sunlight.
“Hak!” Yona yelped, the end of his name muffled by the bubbles that streamed from her mouth because she had ducked herself quickly into the water. “Warrgh bluh yuhr broughing harh?!”
Hak turned to the noise and raised his eyebrows at the crop of red hair floating a few meters ahead of him, purple eyes eyeing him warily.
“Princess, you have impeccable timing, as always,” he muttered, pink in his cheeks as he eyed her clothes on the shore, realizing their position. “As talented as I am, I cannot understand someone who is talking underwater.”
Yona barely raised her lips above the surface. “What are you doing here?” She thought saying it a second time would allow the words to become more composed, but the sight of Hak’s skin had the opposite effect on her. They came out strangled.
The collarbone that she eyed so often was now exposed entirely, prominent at his neck and blending with the breadth of his shoulders. The lapis she’d given him when she was sixteen hung at his chest, the leather cord new, but the talisman winking as it always had. The idea that he never removed it, all these years later, made her hopeful.
She’d seen him shirtless before, but time had in no way softened his body (like it had her own). He was still agonizingly muscular, with a smooth chest and stomach she ached to touch. Despite this, his arms, as cut as they were, looked lithe and capable of the quick movements she’d seen him perform in fights. He had many scars, some pink and fresh, others white and faded. She was the reason for many of them. She thought about kissing every one.
Her blush deepened. It was good to have her feelings confirmed once again, though she hadn’t really doubted them.
“You’ll be surprised to hear this, but I do enjoy bathing on occasion.” Hak tried to joke, but his voice seemed more hoarse than usual. The gorge was secluded with trees growing in close proximity, and the overwhelming fact of their isolation kept the atmosphere taut. Two people stood in front of one another, wanting to touch, an old flame sputtering to life between them.
“I didn’t think you didn’t bathe. I just didn’t realize you’d be bathing right now.”
Despite her pounding heart and profuse shyness, Yona didn’t dislike seeing Hak this way.
The gorge might as well have been boiling with want. The two looked at each other with measured stares.
“I was just leaving,” Hak mumbled finally, beginning to wade through the water to the shore. Ripples moved from his skin towards Yona, and an irrational fear told her to avoid them, as if he could capture her with the sheer way the water stirred around him. “Don’t peek,” he growled.
It was a silly demand. Yona had been obstinate and stubborn most of her life, made stronger by her experiences in the castle during Hak’s absence. Covering her eyes and turning sideways, she made her body say she wasn’t looking, but peered through the cracks of her fingers anyway.
She definitely, definitely, should not have done that.
Because Hak was a beautiful man, but she hadn’t realized how beautiful until she saw him bare.
Through her fingers, the sight of his calves, his thighs, usually covered in baggy clothes, took her breath away. His skin looked impossibly smooth, yet his movements were powered by strong muscle and strange curves she didn’t think Hak could have. Warmth pooled in her stomach and she tingled at the sight, unable to tear her gaze away. Hak didn’t look fragile, but he suddenly looked more human to her, more vulnerable without clothes. Sun sparkled off his skin and the droplets in his hair, pushed away from his forehead and tangled at his neck. As he leaned over to pick up his own clothes (how had she not seen his clothes?) she glimpsed a trail of soft black that began at his navel and disappeared between his thighs. The muscles at his abdomen cut into his hips, along the bone that seemed to strain against skin.
Yona felt swept up in a pleasure that she wanted to push against and simultaneously embrace.
He’s beautiful, she thought in a whimper, her body reacting to the sight of him with warmth and aches and yearning. From his elbows to his toes, she wanted him back in the water with her so she could touch every part of him she didn’t know. The sight brought her back to all the kisses they’d shared, and she wondered what it would be like to kiss him now, without restraint.
Yona took in a huge gasp of air and submerged herself.
The cool water helped, but Hak had been seared into her mind. She’d seen naked men before, many times when helping sick and injured soldiers, but the way she saw Hak could hardly be compared to their bodies.
She was on fire, tingling and moving jerkily, as if her body wasn’t hers to control anymore.
Swimming to the bottom of the gorge, she grasped at the largest rock she could find so she wouldn’t float to the surface. Maybe she could stay under the water until he was gone—she would give anything to be able to breathe down there, where all her senses were muddled, blurry light filtering through and nothing else, complete silence in her ears.
An enormous splash ruptured her peace. She let go of the rock, startled. A hand found her waist. She screamed bubbles, all of the air she’d been holding escaping her. Yona fought the person who was dragging her to the surface, to no avail.
The two bodies exploded to the surface, and her scream was cut off by her need to breathe.
“Princess!” a familiar voice was yelling, shaking her, one hand around her waist, the other under her thighs.
“Hak,” she coughed. It took her two seconds to realize he was still naked, to realize that he thought she’d been drowning.
“I’m fine!” Yona protested, heat creeping everywhere, the image she’d seen earlier coming back, no matter how hard she willed it away. “I wasn’t drowning.”
“You scared me half to death. You were gone, under the water for more than a minute. What was I supposed to think?”
“You should have let me drown,” Yona said, and saved me from this mortification. She looked up at Hak and saw that he was staring at her, becoming more aware of his hands on her bare skin, of his flushed face, the scowl in his brow.
His eyes trailed to her breasts and he swallowed, looking away. The column of his neck became prominent in the sun. Of course he’d save me, she thought wryly. Without even thinking of this outcome.
It became too much, not just what she had seen earlier, but everything he’d ever done for her, all of the tender emotions he’d shown her on the surface with them. It had been far too long since they’d touched each other and as always, the state of their country had taken precedent over a discussion about their feelings.
Well, it was time to find out if he still felt the same way about her.
Just as he began to loosen his grip, Yona grabbed his face awkwardly and kissed him.
She needn't worry. Hak was a very weak man.
He succumbed to her touch immediately. Loose fingers became tight again and he leaned back into the water, submerging his chest and allowing Yona to turn towards him completely, her arms winding around his neck and her body pressing against him completely.
Hak sighed into her, the kisses slow and deep, kisses of lovers who had loved each other for a long time. It was like they’d never been apart. She wound her fingers in his hair automatically, marveling at how long it was. His lips tasted sweet from the water and he slid his hands up and down her sides, then finding her back, marveling at the soft curve that it made. Yona felt a split-second of self-consciousness —she had the body of a woman now, and her hips and thighs were thicker than they’d been five years ago. But there was no teasing from Hak; he squeezed her skin and sighed, making Yona feel more beautiful than she could have ever imagined. Despite his greed, Hak’s hands were slow and shy. He gently pushed Yona away by the shoulders and she disentangled her hands from his hair. Their foreheads touched and Yona let her arms fall to his chest.
“If I had realized it was this easy to touch, you, I would have pretended to drown as soon as you got back,” she whispered. She was breathless.
“Princess,” Hak said hoarsely. “We should talk. This—”
“I want to,” she said stubbornly. Her voice softened. “I’ve wanted to for a long time. Even when we were apart I—”
I never looked at another man the same way.
Hak looked at her eyes and his worry dissipated. He leaned in to meet her lips again.
He had also wanted, wanted, wanted this for a long time. When her hands roamed his chest and brushed his nipples, it elicited a quiet groan that caused her to pull back from him.
“Did I do that?” she asked.
Even at a moment like this, she was dense as ever.
“No, I think it was a fish passing between my legs,” Hak replied dryly.
They’d drifted to the mouth of the gorge, just out of sight of the shore, still chest-deep in water. Yona had to keep her hands on Hak’s shoulders if she wanted their faces to touch without treading water.
“Ha ha,” she said, kissing the column of his neck with difficulty.
She realized what Hak would have to do to hold her upright in this position. She drew his hands slowly from her sides to the underside of her thighs, her knees squeezing his hips.
“Princess,” he grinned, and the smile made her heart stutter. She crushed their lips together again, cupping Hak’s face, their kisses deepening. He was quite pliant to her wants. Hak’s tongue traced her bottom lip and Yona shuddered, prompting him to smile into her mouth and part her lips with his tongue. She wasn’t sure what to do with this boneless feeling, and Hak must have been feeling it too, because he sat on a rock that was underneath him. Straddling him, Yona felt his cock brush against her, and curiosity got the better of her. In the midst of their kissing, she wrapped her hand around it.
Hak moaned into her mouth, almost growling, his hands roaming now that he didn’t need to support her—raking her sides, her back, a thumb brushing her nipple tenderly, fingers caressing her breasts in such a way that caused her to bite Hak’s lip by accident.
This made him sigh, breath leaving him all at once. Unperturbed, he kissed her hard, cupping her breasts and pinching her nipples. She whimpered at the feeling of them stiffening under his deft fingers, the sensation making her forget that she was holding something she wanted to explore. She began moving her hand up and down Hak’s shaft, and his response was immediate; he tried to bite back his moan, but it came louder than Yona expected—it spread heat throughout her body. The groans grew louder as she rubbed her thumb across his head, learning what Hak felt like—all of Hak—as he came undone under her fingers.
At this point, she was feeling neglected, pulsing with heat, but unsure of what to do with it. Hak’s eyes traced her as if she were the most precious thing in the world. The sight of him, completely vulnerable and overtaken by her touch, made Yona want him to explore her. She brought his fingers from her breasts to the water underneath, to the place between her legs.
“Princess,” he said, barely a whisper. He wasn’t sure—after all this time, still considering her.
“Please,” Yona begged. “I’ve been waiting for this for years.” She brought her lips to his again. This time, it was her tongue opening his mouth under hers.
With one hand at her hip, the other began rubbing a sensitive spot with his thumb. “Higher,” she murmured, and Hak adjusted. The shiver that went through Yona made her arch her back in surprise. Hak circled her clit slowly and Yona’s moans, which she’d intended to keep quiet, rose higher and higher in her throat. Without meaning to, she thrust into his hand.
Hak’s eyes widened at the surprising response. He found that he was curious, too. He slipped an index finger inside her.
She gripped his cock at the feeling, and he groaned. She stroked him as he slid his finger in and out of her.
This is… I’m supposed to fit in here? He thought briefly, absurdly, as he curled a finger, then two, around Yona as she arched with pleasure, barely able to keep a steady rhythm on his cock. She was tight and impossibly warm, slick with something that wasn’t water. He brought his thumb back to her clit and his mouth to her right breast. She dug her nails into his scalp and tried to keep from moaning, with little success. The feeling of his tongue on her nipple was something she didn’t think could make her so crazy. She touched her own nipples all the time. On purpose. By accident. But they didn’t ache or make her shudder like this. Hak moved his mouth to the left one, and this time he gently used his teeth. Yona gasped.
This was a Yona that Hak didn’t know existed, and as she bit back the noises in her throat, Hak wished she would let them free. He was aching with pleasure, so hard that it was uncomfortable.
“I… want you,” she murmured into his ear, “…inside.”
A wave of electricity flowed through him. His heart stopped. Under any other circumstance, Yona would have felt embarrassed saying those words. All that mattered now was her taut body, feeling strangely empty.
“Princess…” Hak said warily, leaving her chest to look at her. They were both unraveling, and the look of desire on her face did not help him strengthen what little resolve he might have had left. At all.
She brought her hand to his shoulder and began pulling herself towards him. His tip brushed warm skin and he realized what she was doing. Their breathing was labored. Her breasts, glistening with water and sun, made Hak ache. Yona was beautiful, and she wanted him. Right now. As if they had never been separated by the turmoil of life, or love for their country.
“I want to…” Yona whispered in his ear, biting his earlobe. “I really want to.”
“Okay,” Hak rasped.
Yona steadied herself and positioned his cock, slowly sliding over him.
Breath left the both of them. Hak made a sound that was overshadowed by Yona’s moan—she tried to cover her mouth with her hand.
Hak growled at that. He wanted to hear her, every noise she made. He put her hands on his shoulders and placed his own at her hips, his thumbs tracing circles in her sides as she adjusted.
“Are you — ?” he croaked, but Yona was becoming annoyed with his concern. She lowered herself even more, which shut Hak up immediately, his moans vibrating through his chest.
She was so warm and tight that Hak’s mind was going blank with white. If she moved and inch, he thought he might die of a heart attack like an old man.
She brought her lips to his and began moving up and down with the help of the rock that Hak was sitting on. Hak tried to use his hands to help guide her, but they were trembling. All of him was trembling. Yona’s moans were not quiet or shy anymore; as she rode him, she poured all of her pleasure into his mouth. Hak wasn’t any different, kissing her wildly, his lips sore, the groans that he was making paling in comparison to Yona’s heat, the things she was making him feel. Their tongues danced with little composure, a jarring sensation building in the both of them that made it impossible to concentrate.
“Yona,” he whispered into her ear, jagged and rough. Her hands knotted in his hair at the sound, pulling as she let herself sink over him completely.
They were lost. Hak was trying not to hurt her, but his body was telling him to do so many unbearable things—bite, claw, scream. Yona’s pull on his scalp made him warmer, and when they moved faster, she bit his neck, a feeling that was strangely welcome.
To try and keep his own teeth away from her, Hak leaned his head against the wall of the gorge, thrusting, overwhelmed by heat, by the person who was making him feel that way. Yona put her hands on his shoulders, cried his name, saying overwhelming things like “deeper” and “faster,” words that were barely audible among their moans.
“I’m—” Hak strained, buckling and gasping under her heat. He couldn’t help himself; he reached for her back so he could dig his shaking hands into something.
“Yes,” she moaned, relishing his nails on her shoulder blades, her gasps coming louder and faster, his own muffled by her shoulder, skin in his mouth, teeth scraping. As they climaxed, the water rippled from their bodies gently, and after they orgasmed, the quiet of the gorge enveloped them.
Hak leaned back against rock, chest heaving. Yona was so boneless that she couldn’t do anything but rest her head against him, breathing heavily. He was still inside her, but he was so warm that she didn’t want to re-adjust.
“I scratched you,” Hak said mindlessly, tracing the red lines on her back.
“I bit you,” she retorted.
“I also bit you,” Hak reminded her.
“Barely.”
“Is it really a contest?”
All the tension in the air from before was completely gone. Yona brushed her knuckles along the hair at Hak’s abdomen and he swallowed.
“Did you… ever do this with other women?” Yona asked shyly, still stroking the coarse hair at his navel. “While you were traveling in the army?”
Yona knew Hak was a beautiful man. The thought of all the girls who fawned over him in every town they passed through crossed her mind.
“What?” Hak spluttered, sitting up suddenly. He grabbed her shoulders and looked into her face. “Never. I’ve only ever loved you.”
Even after what they’d just done, even though they’d said those words before long ago, it was still difficult to say. Sex and love were different.
Blood rushed to Yona’s face. Hak’s eyes looked so vulnerable, as if he could doubt what she would say next.
She leaned into his chest. “I love you,” she whispered into his skin, feeling warm and very pleased.
“What about you?” Hak ventured. “Any strapping Lords or stewards I need to know about?” His eyebrows were raised with mirth, but there was worry in the set of his mouth.
“Please,” Yona laughed. “There’s no way.”
Hak let out a sigh. “We’re always doing everything backwards. We should have talked about this first.” Yona looked at him and smiled at his pink cheeks and averted gaze. He looked happy. She began tracing her fingers over the scars on his chest, wishing that she had more hands to explore every part of Hak. She suddenly wished they were out of the water, so she could see all of him more clearly. She wanted his hands in her hair, his lips on her stomach—
“Princess,” Hak strained, and she realized she had been squeezing unintentionally. Yona lifted from him and the warmth left her, cold water taking its place. They both shuddered.
“Are we lovers now?” she asked, fingering the lapis around his neck, the black leather cord contrasting from his skin.
“We did just make love,” Hak grinned, and if he’d still been inside her, he would have felt her abdomen tighten again. She’d always liked the way his crooked incisor gleamed when he smiled.
With a wicked grin on his face, he cupped her ass and squeezed, making her squeal.
“Hak,” she protested, splashing him. The water surprised him and she dove under the surface to make her escape, the cold water surrounding her, but not erasing his touch. She sensed him following her, wrapping a hand around her ankle playfully. She succumbed and let him pull her to his arms again, resurfacing only to find his lips and kiss them, pushing his hair back from his forehead. I’m never going to be able to stop touching you, she thought, fingering his ears and tracing his neck. He moved to kiss her jaw, her neck, to nip her collarbone.
The sun cast sparkles on the water, impossibly bright.