Zelda laughed under her breath. With Roslyn far away — or, not very far away because she was also in Ottery, but at least far enough away that she was not looking at them — it was much easier to laugh about fighting her. "And once I can figure out how to tease Evander, we'll be set," she said.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred laughed. "It's not difficult to tease Evander," he countered. It certainly wasn't something that required as much finesse as navigating an argument with Roslyn. "Just imply you might do something slightly less than proper some time, and he'll lose his mind," Alfred continued with a grin. "I don't even have to try, anymore. I tease him just by existing."

The following 1 user Likes J. Alfred Darrow's post:1 user Likes J. Alfred Darrow's post
   Rowan Yaxley

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"Well," Zelda said, "You are extraordinarily talented at teasing." She kept the glove box steady in one hand but reached up with the other, cupping Alfred's face so that she could run her thumb along his jaw. It wasn't the same when she was wearing gloves — (she couldn't really feel his face) — but she couldn't resist the opportunity to touch him more.

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The following 1 user Likes Zelda Darrow's post:1 user Likes Zelda Darrow's post
   J. Alfred Darrow

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AMAZING set by MJ

The feeling of her thumb on his face was softly thrilling, and Alfred grinned in response. "Well, who's teasing now?" he asked. He let his hands move from the sides of her face down to her neck, then to the inside edges of her shoulders. He kissed her lips again, then pulled back enough that his eyes could trail down her neck, where he'd kissed her on that night in the garden.

"You're going to get me in trouble," he accused, then leaning in to kiss her very lightly just above her collarbone.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Zelda grinned, too pleased by herself and the feeling of his hands skating down her neck to put up another facade. She felt a little jolt at Alfred's words and his kiss to her collarbone. She slid her hand further along his face, tangling the tips of her fingers in some of his escaped curls. "Oh, I'd never get you in trouble," Zelda joked, as if she did not know both exactly what she was doing and what he meant. (There was a vague note of hypocritical guilt-or-something in her head — when she'd been in his room the previous month, she'd been too caught off guard by talking about doing things to actually follow through on any of it. She wasn't sure why this felt different, except that it was fun and flirty and allusions, rather than the risk of actual discussion.)

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AMAZING set by MJ

"Mmm, no," he mumbled in agreement, nuzzling his face into her neck and breathing in the scent of her perfume. "But your brothers might. Or your sisters." He kissed her again, a little more firmly, against the place where her neck curved down to her shoulders. His hands wandered down further, moving briefly over her sides before coming to rest in the small of her back, hugging her to him.

"You know, I don't think Xena hates me yet," he joked lightly. "But I imagine she would if I bruised your neck again just before her big ceremony." Or got this beautiful dress dirty — he was glad he'd worn his new coat, though he hadn't expected to be all over her when he'd dressed for this little excursion. (Perhaps he ought to have expected it — it seemed to be happening more and more frequently when he saw Zelda).

The following 1 user Likes J. Alfred Darrow's post:1 user Likes J. Alfred Darrow's post
   Zelda Darrow

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Zelda hummed. She moved her hand away from his face and down inside his coat, letting her gloved fingers rest on his chest instead. She hadn't known what to expect when she told him to meet her here — except of course she did, at least a little, because she knew how she looked in this dress and she knew that Alfred was very attracted to her. If she could have gotten away with kissing him for the rest of the day she would have.

(Maybe she should have brought some of Dionisia's salve here, and then they could have gotten away with a lot more.)

"Oh, she'd never forgive me,"Zelda said, lightly enough for all that it was true. "But if I could —" she trailed off, her tone mischievous. Zelda kissed Alfred again, smiling into it.

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AMAZING set by MJ

"Mmm," Alfred agreed, mumbling through the kiss. He knew he ought to stop, because it wasn't as though he could actually do anything. She was all dressed up, and he was probably risking wrinkling her dress already; it would only be worse if he actually tried to touch her. And her hair was done up so prettily, and he'd ruffle it if he kissed her any more intensely than this. And her skin was so perfect, and he was going to get carried away and leave a mark on her somewhere. This space on the dock wasn't really private, though they seemed to be alone for the moment. There were a dozen reasons why he couldn't do anything beyond what they'd already done, in short, and even when none of those reasons had existed she'd said no before. She'd been alone in his bedroom not even a month ago, wearing only her underthings and with no one who would see her for at least hours, maybe days, depending on how the snow held out, and she'd said no, and this was far riskier than that had been.

But she hadn't said no now; she'd said if I could, which was a tantalizing idea. "If you could," he echoed in a teasing tone, leaning in to kiss her again more strongly. He let one hand drift down over the curve of her back to her thigh, pulling her towards him until he could feel her hips on his, while his other arm wrapped more tightly around her back.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

They were pressed very close together, now; Zelda could feel Alfred's hips against hers, and the glove box pressed between them. She reached her free hand up to the back of his neck, pulling her towards him. They couldn't do anything — she had a wedding to go to sooner rather than later — but pretending for a moment was seductive. They were going to get in trouble; this was riskier than the garden because it was daylight, and because people were going to actually come looking for her eventually. But — still.

Zelda bit down on his lip playfully towards the end of the kiss, and admitted as much: "We're going to get in trouble."

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred gasped lightly when she bit his lip, not because it hurt but only because he hadn't expected it. That was such a tease. He would have immediately followed it with an even more intense kiss (his hands were already pressing her more firmly against him) were it not for what she said next.

Alfred groaned and leaned back, loosening his grip on her to put a little space between them. "I said that," he pointed out. He'd said that several kisses ago, before there had been a slight bulge in his pants to contend with.

"You're terrible," he accused lightly, letting go of her long enough to straighten his cap out on his head and push it down a little lower once again — it had risen up where she'd been playing with his hair.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"I might be terrible," Zelda admitted, a little playful still. She let go of him and smoothed out the skirts of her dress; it was white and she could not entirely tell whether or not it was any more rumpled than it had been when she got here, but she was sort of assuming. She might be terrible, and she was certainly teasing him more than she ought to be, and she did not want to go back to this wedding.

"I need to switch gloves," she said, grinning again.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred's eyes flickered down to her gloves. He fleetingly considered helping her remove her gloves with his teeth. If she was going to tease, he could tease right back... but he shouldn't, because as she'd pointed out, they were going to get in trouble if they kept this up. He looked back up at her face, then reached to tuck a strand of hair that had come loose from her hairstyle behind her ear.

"I love you," he said, grinning again. Then, on a whim, he added, "Give me your old gloves. You wouldn't have anywhere else to put them."

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Zelda slid her gloves down her arms and pulled them off; she had an impulse to do so slowly and deliberately, but that really would have been teasing him too much. Also, she was not convinced she could pull it off — rolling the gloves down her arms was already more involved than it would be if they were shorter, and that was without trying to do anything provocative.

"I love you," Zelda said brightly; offering the plain gloves to him; she still had to wrangle getting the new pair on, but there were far too many things in her hands at the moment.

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AMAZING set by MJ

When she handed him the gloves he could not resist catching her hand in his for just a second, so that he could place a kiss on the soft skin on the inside of her wrist. After he released her, he held the gloves she'd just given him up to his cheek. He closed his eyes for just a minute and breathed a short, contented sigh. If he had his eyes closed, he could pretend it was her hand on his cheek, not just her gloves.

Opening his eyes again, Alfred tucked the gloves into the pocket of his coat and smiled at her. "See you soon?" he asked hopefully.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

The kiss to her wrist, and the sight of her glove on his face, made Zelda want to kiss him again, just as hungrily, never mind the wedding. Except she couldn't do that, of course, no matter how much she wanted to. She pulled the new pair of gloves onto her hands instead, and stretched out her fingers, noting the feeling of the interior markings on her skin.

"I think so," she said with another bright smile. She leaned up to press her mouth to his, although it was a less intimate kiss than she wanted.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred returned her kiss and was smiling as he came out of it. "Good," he said, without pressing for any more details. It was better when he didn't, he'd found — playing things by ear was better, with the way their relationship was now, because then he could be pleasantly surprised when an opportunity to see her arose instead of ticking off the days that he didn't get to see her and feeling sorry for himself.

"'Bye, Zelda," he said, leaning in to plant one last kiss on the edge of her cheek just in front of her ear. "You really do look beautiful. It's mad."

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER