RED QUEEN | DAEMON TARGARYEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"I assure you, I am no creature of the sea," Valyria scoffed. "If you wanted that, a Velaryon would be a better fit."

"Not a siren then," Qoren twirled a lock of her silver hair around his finger. "I would suggest the Maiden herself - only there is one maidenlike attribute that you lack and it is in the name."

"You are so funny in the morning," Valyria rolled her eyes in a warm-hearted manner.

"I did not complain," Qoren reminded her, leaning down to kiss her bare shoulder. "Not at all actually."

Valyria sighed in pleasure, tilting her head backwards to sink into her pillow, allowing her husband to do as he wished. This wasn't the worst way to start her morning. When a knock on the door echoed through the room, Valyria whined in protest as her husband pulled away. "What is it?"

"We are here with breakfast for you and Princess Valyria, Your Highness."

"Come in," Qoren said, remaining on top of her. One thing she most certainly had not gotten used to was how open the dornish were about sexuality and love. Before she left court, many had warned her about how the Dornish people were sexually licentious. Due to her – relationship with Daemon she was no stranger to crude remarks yet it had not prepared her for this.

The clothes worn in Dorne – as she quickly noticed the first time she arrived - were much more revealing both because of the warmer climate and due to how different the Dornish people's view on bodies were. In King's Landing, only young married women could show a respectable amount of cleavage, but here no one looked twice at the deep necklines – or rather, those who looked twice didn't do it in horror.

Now the servants who entered didn't even look twice at how Qoren laid on top of her, both of them clearly naked and not covered by any sheet. Knowing she wasn't as comfortable as he was, Qoren shielded her from anyone else's gaze by using himself as a form of blanket.

"In King's Landing the maids would have fainted," Valyria muttered, still not used to the openness. "And a scandal would be ensured."

"Husbands do not fuck their wives were you come from?" Qoren taunted.

"Not in front of the servants," Valyria scoffed just as she heard the door close and they were alone again. "And for that crudeness, you can satisfy your own needs this morning." She pushed him off her, forcing him to roll back to his side of the bed. Standing up, Valyria was hit by a sudden wave of nausea that she tried to push down. Without sparing her husband a glance, Valyria crossed the room to where her silk robe hung over a chair.

"You are being cruel," Qoren complained, groaning in protest when she covered herself up. "Perhaps this is why so many men take paramours. They treat them with much more kindness."

To her knowledge Qoren did not have a paramour; he had assured her of that and according to Serra – who always would tell Valyria the truth no matter if it was good or bad – her husband had a few in the past but none since they married. Noblemen having one or several mistresses was not uncommon.

In Dorne it was more than common for both lords and ladies to have paramours that were chosen out of love and lust rather than a way to create a political alliance. Unlike in the rest of the Seven Kingdoms where lovers were a private matter, Dorne gave a degree of social status to paramours. No one cared about the unchaste nature of the relationship and the bastards born out of the union weren't treated like dirt.

"A paramour's sole purpose is to bring a man pleasure when his wife can't," Valyria said disinterestedly, running a hand through her hair. "I, on the other hand, am allowed to bring you misery at times."