Lady in the Iron Mask

II: Chapter 3

"Eve?"

"Hmm?" She turned from the window to face Eden.

"What's really going on between you and Kieran?" She whispered in a gossipy tone across the table.

Eve sighed, running a hand through her hair. She could feel the gaze of the other women.

"Not much, really," she admitted.

"I've seen them kiss: don't lie, girl!" Evie shot back.

"Yes, and that was on his terms not mine. It's his payment for helping me to rescue my sister."

Evelynn laughed sarcastically.

"Looks like you're halfway to being a prostitute yourself, Eve," she said.

"Of course not!" Eve insisted.

"So you like him?" Eden asked.

Eve could feel her face going red underneath her mask, but was glad this was disguised. She thought about it properly; Kieran had told her he loved her, and it had made her feel a certain happiness which she'd never felt before. But was this feeling just one of an inflated ego? She wasn't sure.

"...I don't know," she said truthfully. "I don't really think about it too much."

"But everyone has heard that you spent a night in his chambers. You'd better be careful, you know: a real gentleman would court the lady first, before bedding her," Eden announced.

The naked flame coming from a thick candle on the table inbetween them stuttered.

"He didn't bed me: of that I can assure you," Eve shrugged, well aware that this was a tactic to garner information out of her, "In fact, he stood at the bedside the entire night as I slept! Do you really expect me to lie with a man after learning about the death of a friend in the same night? That would be despicable!"

She was aware that she was becoming more and more heated, and took steadying breaths to calm herself.

"That night was unpleasant, for all of us," she finished, swallowing a lump in her throat.

Just as another girl was about to jump in with a scathing comment about how Eve was leading Kieran on, the man himself came out of the side room, huffing and puffing in exasperation. He was followed swiftly by the navigator. They appeared to be arguing over something.

Determined to prove that there wasn't anything for the other girls to be jealous of, Eve stayed put and waited to see his next actions. She noticed the lump in his throat as it pressed tautly against his neck, and his powerful physique from afar. She had never had the opportunity to really observe him like this. Standing against the navigator, she could see why he held such dominance over the group. He was a good 6ft, maybe even a little taller, and swamped the other men. His muscles bunched underneath his peasants' tunic as he gestured, revealing rippling muscle and the promise that if you messed with him, you'd die swiftly. His dirty emerald eyes held the promise of passionate love-making and made every woman swoon in the kingdom, and his rough mannerisms made them fall at his feet.

Eve knew she was red again, under her mask. Unwittingly, her eyes had travelled downwards from his torso, and landed on his forbidden area. She had been educated on sex organs, but a simple sketch didn't hold any clues as to what really lay behind his trousers. Was it a snake? She wasn't sure really.

She continued examining it as Kieran moved about the room, trying to determine if it was really just a bump, or what it represented, as it loomed closer and closer. Suddenly, it was right in her face and she jumped as Kieran peered down at her guilty features, wondering what was wrong with her.

"Eve?" His voice rumbled a little.

The other women watched as she carefully extracted herself from the pew - but not carefully enough. She tripped as her left leg caught and went hurtling downwards into Kieran. Her hands waved as she grabbed onto anything she could at a 90 degree angle, closing her eyes as she managed to fasten onto something which became solid, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis averted, she thought happily, and steadied her left leg before opening her eyes and looking at what had kept her so firmly in place.

"Ah!" Kieran moaned, and Eve stared down the length of her arm, only to notice she'd grabbed the thing which had puzzled her to this point: Kieran's sensitive area.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Eve apologised awkwardly, yanking her hand away, but not before she'd noted how warm the bulge had felt.

Strange.

Kieran righted himself. He was breathing pretty hard, and knew he was aroused. He grabbed Eve by the arm and patrolled her outside of the tavern into the freezing air, not allowing her to grab her cloak. Then, he released her and she stumbled into the back wall of the tavern. There were no windows here, and nobody was around to see them.

Then, he held out a palm. Eve looked down upon it inquisitively.

"Your mask," he told her huskily, "give it to me."

She didn't want to remove it: he would know how embarrassed and heated he had made her. So instead, she crossed her arms defiantly. Kieran didn't want to take no for an answer, and quickly picked Eve up, pressing into her with his thighs and leaning her back against the tavern. While one arm held her up, the other removed her mask to reveal a rosy and pale Eve, who averted her gaze immediately.

"You know what you owe me." He muttered, brushing a little strand of hair away from her face and adjusting her so she wrapped her legs around his torso, and they were closer than they'd been phyically for a while; faces on the same height and inches away from one another.

"What if I say no?" Eve felt hot all over her body, but was also cold from the winter wind.

He didn't wait for her protests, however, and brought his lips across to claim hers. She gasped as his fiery hot warmth spread through her, and suddenly the cold didn't exist. Nothing else existed apart from them, and the darkness behind her closed, soft eyelids. Her pink hair fell against his shoulder as she tilted her head to meet his, and the heat of his mouth kept her going. She imagined what it would be like if she, as a common peasant - and not a petty thief - had met Kieran under the same circumstances. She imagined them meeting at places like this to kiss and make promises of being together, and then eventually having their own house together to live in. But right now, he was a handsome prince, and she was only his princess for a moment, lost in the bliss of the moment, and his hot mouth.