His laughter made me laugh, too, and I shook my head as I used the handkerchief to clean myself up. "Honestly, I probably should also have thought about carrying handkerchiefs with me everywhere, and I'm delighted you're prepared." I folded up the piece of cloth around the wet, then looked at it for a moment.

Dain plucked it out my hand and tucked it into his belt-pouch again, without any further commentary.

"You gonna sniff that later?" I said, waggling my eyebrows before starting to put my clothing to rights.

He turned absolutely crimson, and went about fixing his own pants. "I hadn't intended to, but now I'm thinking about it," he muttered, sounding as flustered as he looked. "Though I don't think you'd turn me down if I wanted to taste you with my seed still fresh inside you."

That made me turn crimson, with no conception of how to even begin to reply to that.

He started laughing, still sounding embarrassed, then chucked me under the chin. "I expect we'll get the chance to explore our many carnal desires in the coming years, truelove," Dain said, smirking at me. "We could make a list of everything we would like to try, and work our way through it."

"Ropes and worship?" I asked, lifting a brow.

"If you'd like," he said, his ears turning and his smirk turning more into a soft smile. "The great desire behind that is already satisfied, I think, but if you wish to have me at your mercy I am amenable to pretending for a time that ropes can hold me."

"Might be fun," I said, finishing re-buttoning my pants. "Though if I was gonna put something at the top of the list, I think it would be making love to you publicly at a revel."

"Really," Dain said, sounding intrigued. "Do you mean having me give you my throne as I once imagined for you, or something else?"

I walked up to him and kissed him on the mouth, an affectionate touch rather than a demanding one. "I mean straight-up making love in front of all our people, while they dance and love life," I said, smiling up into his face. "The garrison would do, if you preferred. But I want the world to know that I love you and that you love me, and the Antlered Palace is our home and the heart of our nation."

Dain brushed the loose tendrils of my hair back, then cupped my face. "Then I suppose my self-consciousness is another lesson I must unlearn for you," he said, smiling down into my face with his heart in his eyes. "I think one day I would very much like to be claimed in such a way, but it may be some years before I can do such a thing without my mind being very much on what others might think of my naked body, rather than being on you."