October 15, 1172
"I'm kind of surprised you let me in."At her side, Xeta's fingers twitched. Why should he be surprised? It wasn't as if she'd been avoiding him; hell, in the past few months, they'd seen each other dozens of times. Never alone, though--maybe that was what he meant. Maybe she was stupid for not having thought of that before. Maybe they were both stupid, and for a lot of reasons. "Well, I did."
"I guess so." He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet as he stared at her for an awkward couple of minutes. She took to counting his freckles as she returned the look: twenty-six, twenty seven, twenty-eight... "Xeta?" Her gaze jolted from his nose to his eyes; damned if she'd ever seen such sorrow in that blue. "I'm sorry. You know that, right?"Xeta nodded. "I know."
"I wasn't thinking, you know?" He scuffed his boot against the floor and sighed. "I just blurted it out. It was stupid, and it won't happen again."
"It won't." The silk ribbon at the front of her dress was as stifling and uncomfortable as any corset; Xeta took to wrapping one of its tails around her fingers, her eyes falling downward to watch. At least her hands could not look her in the eye. "I wasn't thinking either.""You didn't do anything wrong." His words were automatic, maybe even sympathetic--but he needn't have bothered trying to reassure her. They both knew he was lying.
"I did." Her silk-wrapped fingers ceased as they reached the center of the bow; she pulled them loose and began afresh. "I was stupid enough to think you meant the other thing you said."
"Wait... what?"
Startled, she glanced up to see a confused, mildly mortified look sprawled across his features; if she hadn't known better, she might have thought she'd offended him. "You think I didn't mean it when I said I loved you?"Wait... "You did?"
"Yes!" He reached forward and took her by the hands, causing her to stumble as he pulled her toward him. "Look, I know I can be kind of an ass sometimes, but I wouldn't go telling a girl I care about that I love her just to get her to lift her skirts." His left hand tightened, but his right rose to her face and began to comb through her hair; she felt herself growing red as the back of his hand brushed against her cheek. "I loved you Xeta--hell, I still love you. Do you still love me?"
For what felt like the first time in months, she smiled. "You know I do.""Mmmm." He leaned forward and caught her in a brief, yet poignant kiss, his lips lingering firm on hers for a minute or so before parting. "I missed you."
"Let's just... go back to the way we were, shall we?" She hoped that wasn't too much of a stretch. It was possible... wasn't it?
"Agreed." He rested his hand upon her shoulder, his thumb landing just along the neckline; a pleasant coolness oozed forth from the colliding flesh. "And you know, the sex thing... well, I guess I just figured that it could really be something beautiful if we were in love. Not some disgusting thing we should have been ashamed of like the church is always railing about, but something special. Err... your mother didn't say anything about it being shameful, did she?"Xeta shook her head. Her mother didn't make a point of talking about sex very often, but nothing that she had said had sounded at all as bad as some might have had a girl believe. "She said I'd enjoy it if I let myself--if with the right man, of course."
Jadin smirked. "Like a husband?"
"I guess so." Grinning, she stepped back and allowed herself to look him over; he seemed to have grown an inch or two since she'd last seen him up close. "Or maybe he wouldn't even have to be my husband just then. I suppose if a girl's betrothed to marry a man anyway, then why not?""What sort of betrothal, though?" He cocked his head to the side as she resumed fidgeting with the ribbon; perhaps she'd said a little too much. "An official betrothal? Or just a promise of sorts?"
"Uh... either or?" She supposed there couldn't be much harm in it--could there? The silk lace around her finger tightened; she pulled it free and let the ribbon fall back to her skirt. "If he intended to keep his promise, of course."
"With you, he would--no doubt about it." The smile on his lips was only outshone by the one in his eyes. He did love her--one could not look at another with such eyes if he didn't love her. They were the sort of eyes from which poems were made. "Whoever marries you will be a lucky man, Xeta. I just hope that maybe, he might be me."
Though his voice vanished, that loving look in his eyes remained. It was better than a poem, she decided. It was better than a song, a story. It was as good as a promise.She grabbed hold of her ribbon once again--only this time, she pulled it downward.
NEXT CHAPTER:
11 comments:
Soooo... what's up with all the Naronis and nothing else? If you guessed "Van's having outline issues again", you're right.
But I'm hoping to have the next Ashelia out some time tomorrow, and after that, updates should fall back into their usual order... although, they might be a little slower than normal for the next little while. Real life is kicking my ass right now, and I can't see it stopping any time before mid-April :S
Is it just me or does Jadin look like he has a lazy eye in the second pic? I spent like a minute staring at it like "ummm...yeah he looks drunk. Just alittle." lol
Oh yeah, I don't trust Jadin, dont know why I just don't. Could be all the little Jadin look-a-likes running around Naroni. lol
Heheh... Sims do that eye thing sometimes. I think I mentioned it for Falidor at some point, something about a childhood lazy eye that seemed to be reemerging. I have no idea what's going on with Jadin up there :P
Awww, Jadin's not such a bad guy. He's like his grandpa; his heart's in the right place, but he just can't keep it in his pants. Either Xeta doesn't know just how much he gets around, or she does know, but figures their relationship is something different from his liaisons with random maids and whatnot. Knowing Xeta, I'm inclined to assume that latter.
Something tells me that nine months from now, Celina's going to have another grandbaby! ;)
These two are cute, though. And even if Jadin can't stay faithful to save his life, the one really nice thing you can say about Kemorin men is that they don't mistreat women. Er ... other than all the "bag on head" comments ... and the long-suffering wives ...
But still!! They're not as bad as Ietrin, who looks like he's about to become a father in the next post. *grumblegrumblegrumble*
If only Geneva could see him now. She never treated Roderick like he was worthless -- and unlike sweet Jeda, Roderick actually IS worthless! ;)
It's possible. I can't imagine either Jadin or Xeta is an expert in Medieval birth control :P
That's true. They may be thoughtless, horny scoundrels with dirty mouths, but at least they don't go around neglecting, beating, raping, and otherwise mistreating.
I'm curious as to how Severin's sons are going to behave when they're all married. For now, I can foresee a future where Jadin sleeps around but is otherwise a pretty good husband for the times, Searle remains mostly faithful (unless maybe he's still seeing Sparron on the side at that point), and Lonriad falls into the happy medium of maybe going to the brothel if he feels his wife is being frigid. But they do have time to surprise me--and of course, it's way too early to tell with Roddie and Falidor.
I can't imagine Geneva would be thrilled about the state of Ietrin's marriage, both because A) she was hoping her boy would turn out better than that and B) Jeda is Medea's only daughter. And you're right--the whole cheating thing aside, she treated Roderick fairly well.
Xeta is so opening a can of worms here! Pervy puns not intended, lol.
It's cute that he does seem a little flustered around her. If he really gets as much tail as it seems, he must be pretty smooth when he wants to be, but not around her. It's sweet is a Kemorin kind of way.
XD XD XD
I'm sure Jadin doesn't get quite as much tail as he'd have everyone believe :P But he does still get quite a bit, and he definitely knows how to turn on the charm. Xeta just has a different sort of affect on him :)
Thanks :)
oh Xeta, don't. With the right MAN, not a teenage boy who is already parsing his words. What kind of betrothal indeed. How about a real one? Poor girl.
Fortunately for Xeta, her family outranks Jadin's. If he goes far enough, Lorn would be within his rights to actually force a marriage (and we've had a few hints of him talking over a betrothal there anyway, so...)
But yeah, not exactly the best way to land a man...
Uh oh... I think that was a little less than a betrothal. Jadin you cad... don't let her do this.
Poor Xeta... let's just hope Jadin doesn't lose interested after this. And let's hope there isn't another little Jadin-faced child running around in nine months.
The Jadin spawn seem to be taking over the kingdom :S
Stay tuned... ;)
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