Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
Leonin
By Halea and her heavenly courtesans!
I watched Tisera walk away, all passionate power, her training clothes stuck to her strong, lithe form. Then she disappeared around the corner of the house on her way to have a bath.
Gods, how I wished I could join her. I wanted to run my hands — slick with soap — over her naked form, while she did the same for me. We’d cleanse each other then merge our passions while floating amidst the waters, and…
…I had to stop that fantasy now, before my cock tore free of my trousers. A moment before, when she’d been on top of me… she must have felt how aroused I was. Perhaps that’s why she’d hurried off?
Had I shamed myself?
No… I… I think she’d liked it? The way she’d said I look forward to it , after I’d made that horribly inappropriate comment about getting her on her back , had been so very suggestive, like she wanted me on top of her for… other reasons. Alternately… I might have been a bit delirious with pain from my twisted arm and imagined all of that.
But I hadn’t imagined my own arousal. I was still hard and ready. I couldn’t get the image of her on top of me out of my mind. She’d been all hot intensity, her shirt clinging to her form, showing her high, tight breasts, and narrow waist. She was beautiful and strong and… unlike any woman I’d ever known.
“Amazing,” I breathed, then sighed heavily.
I shouldn’t have been fantasizing about her. She was my instructor, a teacher. Yet, we were both adults. There should be a reasonable way to enjoy a social relationship outside of our contractual one. I just had no idea how that worked. It was not something which had come up in any of my studies. And Tisera specifically was vastly different from any woman I’d ever known. I had no clue how to even approach her.
Almost all of my interactions with women — before now — had been carefully arranged by my mother. They had been restrained and courtly, two words which did not describe Tisera.
Luckily, I had been married for two years and had learned a lot about women in that time. It had been our duty to have an heir. Yet it had not been easy for Theodora to conceive, which meant… we had tried a lot . Still, as much as I’d learned to help her enjoy the act, our coupling had often been a bit perfunctory and mandated, which cast a shadow over it. Something told me sex with Tisera would be anything but perfunctory.
I stood there, staring at where she had been for a long time before shaking myself out of my reverie and making my way back to the yard on the other side of the house. I’d brought a change of clothes, expecting to get sweaty and dirty in the heat of the summer’s day. But first, I’d need a bit of a bath myself. When I found the well, I saw another man sitting nearby, on a bench in the shade of several trees.
“Are you Daz?” I asked. “Tisera’s brother?” She’d mentioned her brother in passing a few times.
The man nodded. “ Adopted brother, yes. And you’re her new student?”
“Yes, Leo. A pleasure to meet you.”
“And you.” He gave a breath of a laugh. “It looks like she ran you ragged. Need some water?”
“That would be amazing, yes, thank you.”
“The well’s right there, you can draw it yourself,” the man said with a wink.
I laughed. I was a little too used to people doing things for me. None of that happened here, and it was quite refreshing.
I pulled up a bucket of water and dumped it over my head, dousing myself. After a second one of those, I turned back to the man. “Where might I change?”
“Up in the cottage is probably best. A man like you wouldn’t use a barn, would you?”
“I would prefer not to.”
“Yeah, the cottage should be fine.”
I nodded to him and made my way back up the path beside the garden toward the small house. Oddly, the man rose and followed me.
“Not that you made a bad choice, but what made you choose Dizzy as your instructor?” he asked.
“Dizzy?” I asked back.
“Oh, right, Tisera, sorry. Most of those who know her call her Tisi. I modified that a bit. She is dizzying when she fights, isn’t she?”
“She is indeed. It is a very apt name for her. As for why I chose her…” I hesitated to tell the truth — that no one else would teach me — and instead went for something more tactful yet still true, even if I hadn’t known it at the time.
“The male instructors I’ve known tend to think everyone is the same. They were taught one way and so they teach others the same way. And if you’re not built like them… you don’t do well. Miss Tisera, however, is very insightful and teaches me in a way which is best for me. She can see my strengths in addition to my many weaknesses and helps me build on the former while working on the latter. She’s quite brilliant, and very skilled at her trade.”
“That is all true,” Daz said, just a bit wistfully.
He waited outside the cottage, leaning against the outer wall, while I changed. When I came out, before I left, I turned back to him.
“Thank you for your hospitality.” Then my curiosity got the better of me. “You’re Dazar Stormhold, the Phorasti who ended the Siege of Vestrea, aren’t you?”
I’d known he was a Phorasti when I’d first seen him, since he’d been in full robes. Yet his hood had covered his face so I hadn’t seen his darker, soft-brown complexion, which was clearly Dathi. A few Pearlians had learned the ways of the Phorasti, and when Tisera had said he was her brother, I’d assumed “Daz” was one such mystic. It hadn’t been until I’d seen his features and heard he was adopted that it had sunk in for me.
And as much as there were a few other Phorasti in Pearlia, Dazar was the only one of any real power. A true hero of legend!
Dazar grimaced. “That’s not what I want to be known for, but yes.”
I shood my head. “I can’t believe you’re Tisera’s brother. What a family!”
Dazar gave a wry smile. “ Adopted brother,” he said, emphasizing that word once again. “Dizzy’s father took me in after the war… The Dath-Riven War that is.”
I nodded. “A kind man, was he?”
Daz cocked his head. “He was a warrior, through and through, but with a heart too large for one made for war.”
A fascinating description of a man. I nodded again.
Suddenly Dazar’s eyes went wide and he straightened from where he’d been leaning against the house. His entire demeanor changed in an instant from relaxed power to attentive submission. I was curious what could have brought about this change.
“Hey boys. Talking about me?” Tisera said from behind me.
I turned and immediately turned back, averting my gaze. Tisera strode from that odd doorway among the trees wrapped only in a towel! It covered her torso but left far too much of her legs uncovered. And by-the-gods her legs were amazing, rounded and strong.
I was instantly hard once again, trying not to picture what was under that towel.
She walked right past us and into the house without another word, though I did hear a faint chuckle from her.
And with my gaze averted as it was, I got a very good look at Daz’s reaction to her. I instantly knew: he loved her, not like a brother loves a sister, but in the way any man can love any woman.
In the next instant, I realized something else… given everything I’d seen: Tisera had no clue how Daz felt.
I straightened once the door had closed. “She is beautiful,” I said softly, low.
“She is,” he said with wonder, before catching himself. “… my sister, she is my sister and…”
“And you love her, don’t you?” I said, keeping my voice hushed.
He blinked. “How…?”
“It’s plain as day… to everyone but her, apparently.”
Daz sighed and the spirit went out of him. Deflated, he leaned against the wall again.
“She’s seen me as a brother for so long she can’t see me any other way. But I’ve always been fascinated with her, even when we were kids. I just didn’t know what I was feeling until I was older and by then… she’d found other men.”
“She’s not with anyone now, is she?”
“No, but…”
Ah.
He’d been her brother for so long he didn’t know how to change that relationship. It seemed he and I were in a vaguely similar boat. We were both fascinated with the same woman, and both hoped she’d see us as something more than our current roles: brother and student.
It was a good thing I was an honest and upstanding man. Otherwise, I would have competed with this man for Tisera’s affections, but he’d known her for far longer. He’d been with her all her life. I couldn’t compete with that. So, I would concede…
For now…
“I know this advice may be unsolicited, but you need to tell her how you feel. Tell her before it’s too late. That is all I can say. I lost my wife far too soon. And Tisera is in a dangerous line of work. If she were to die without you having told her, I think you’d be quite devastated, wouldn’t you?” I laid a hand on his shoulder, man to man, reassuring. “Don’t let her slip away.”
I turned and left, heartsick, but having done the honorable thing.
I just hoped Daz would do what he needed to do. Because my chivalry had its limits, and if he didn’t tell her how he felt soon… then I’d tell her how I felt.