the pause between breathing

"Knives?" Isla tilts her head, though she's not surprised. "Let's see if I can remember how many you put on the nightstand last time. Or are there more now?" Raising a brow, she shifts a fraction and begins to pat him down, slowly and carefully, making sure to linger on all the places where there isn't padding, places that might feel good. And any blades she does find end up tossed to the ground with his shirt - five in total, so far, before she's unbuckling and unbuttoning and pulling at fastenings to try and free him. "I don't think I have ever worked so hard to get someone naked before," Isla mumbles, playfully annoyed as she shifts to try and tug off his pants come hell or high water. Whether or not she succeeds doesn't matter - when she gets bored she'll shimmy out of her skirt, kick off her shoes and move to drape herself over him for another kiss. Isla the flesh is weak

honey, i rose up from the dead. i do it all the time

“Should be the same.” He hums, flashing a half smirk up at her as she works quite diligently to remove them. Her hands moving along his legs and hips to each section of fabric are a beautiful distraction, though, and he barely has time to focus on her words as she’s tugging the pants off. Luckily for her, there’s only one strap that inhibits the process that she finds quickly and the rest of his clothes fall to the floor with a clatter of buckles and straps.

He of course helps her with the skirt, though, adding it to the pile of things on the floor, tugging her against him as she drapes herself, his metal hand rising to run his fingers through her hair, guiding her up so that he can press soft kisses along her jaw, to the underside of her chin along the column of her throat. “You’re so much softer than I imagined.” He hums with a rumbling huff of laughter, trailing up to scan her face. “And so, so beautiful when you’re flushed.” His grin grows crooked before he dives in to catch her in a kiss again, hands roaming along her skin once more.

VARUS

"Mm, I could say the same thing about you," Isla remarks, smiling against his lips and letting her hand drift along his chest and down his side. "Though maybe not so much about the soft thing." He had been plenty hard when it counted, put it that way. She draws back, a quiet laugh escaping her lips as his kisses continue along her jaw and down her throat. "You're just as I imagined you would be though, right now." Before had been a different matter - one that she'd not been expecting but had definitely enjoyed, and more on that later. For now Varus is leaning in to kiss her again and Isla melts against him with a hum of anticipation, draped very comfortably indeed across his body. "Let me, this time," she mumbles, a hand sneaking down between them so she might wrap her fingers around him, idly stroking along his length. Isla the flesh is weak

honey, i rose up from the dead. i do it all the time

“Yeah?” He hums, another soft laugh leaving him as he focuses on the path her hand takes. The comment of how his softness is met with another hum of a laugh, one that rakes air along her throat as he lines her skin with his kisses. There’s a hum of curiosity as she says he’s exactly as she’d imagined him right now, though, and it bolsters something a touch gentle in his gaze, even as it smolders. “I’m glad it isn’t a surprise.” He mumbles into the kiss.

She melts against him for his and his hand rises to her hair again, thumb brushing against the side of her neck as he tangles his fingers into her golden hair. “Okay.” He agrees, more than willing to let her do whatever she wanted to him, a hint surprised and jolting with an internal hum of electricity as her hand finds his cock. His breath hitches with a growl and he pulls away from the kiss with a playful nip at her lower lip, his hips pressing up against her against his own control. He decides he wants both hands now, so he leans back a bit more fully, flush against the overwhelmingly soft blankets, both hands finding her sides while the right one reaches up for the swell of her breast again, thumb brushing across in tender, soft strokes.

VARUS

Okay, he says, and Isla smiles against his neck where she's pressing kiss after kiss to his throat, able to feel him growl deep in his chest as her hand moves in lazy strokes against his erection. She sighs out a soft note of pleasure to feel his touch against her breast, her fingers squeezing him, teasing at what's to come. "Touch me," she whispers, shifting to sit up a little so she might position herself against him, guiding him inside her inch by inch with a breathy moan of satisfaction. Isla goes slow, at first, gazing down at Varus through hooded eyes, golden curls a tumbling mess about her face and shoulders. Her hips roll against him, one hand splayed against his chest as she finds a rhythm that's almost infuriating in how gentle it is. "Gods, Cal," she all but purrs, as if challenging him to change things up. Isla the flesh is weak

honey, i rose up from the dead. i do it all the time

He’s lucky it isn’t as overwhelming this time, being able to enjoy the feel of her against him, the strokes her hand takes, the kisses pressed to his throat. She tells him to touch her and readjusts, and he’s more than happy to oblige, even if he stutters for a fraction with the feel of her sinking down inch by inch onto his cock. There’s a muscle that trembles in his neck, the breathy groan that leaves him, one hand remaining at her breast and flicking along her nipple while the other drifts lower and lower, taking its time to reach her, running along her dips and curves in her skin, until he finds her clit again.

Her hips roll slowly and it’s almost painfully slow as he shivers beneath her, sucking down an unnecessary breath before his hips roll into hers, breaking up the rhythm she’s picked for something a bit more fast paced. “Isla—” He cuts himself off to take another breath, chin tilting up a fraction as he watches her, trying to figure out his words again. “You’re incredible.” His voice is hoarse, but his blue gaze smolders and his skin is flushed with silver opalescence, rocking his hips into hers again.

VARUS

Isla's lips part to moan her encouragement into the room; Varus's hands leave trails of fire along her skin, and as skilled fingers reach all of her sweet spots, she doesn't resist the pace he sets. Each thrust has her gasping for needless breath, her hips matching his rhythm, driving him deeper and sparking a growing heat at her core. You're incredible too is what she wants to say, along with a vast array of other compliments; I love the feel of you or I want you to have me all night, but the only things that escape her lips are curses and groans for him to go faster, harder. She leans back after a few moments, exposing her clit further to his dexterous fingers, her hips grinding hard against him. "--fuck," she moans. "Don't stop, you're gonna make me--" But he'll probably already be well aware of that; silver blazes a trail across her cheeks and her collarbones, Isla throwing back her head to call her pleasure out in the form of his name. Isla the flesh is weak

honey, i rose up from the dead. i do it all the time

They readjust and he keeps up his quickening pace, hips meeting hers faster and faster, deeper and deeper, with groans of her name mixed with other words, some intelligible and some not so much. When she leans back he has more room to pleasure her, his hand diving in more with each rock of his hips, applying a bit more pressure and pace to better match the building within her that builds with himself.

Her words are stuttered moans and gasps and his grin is fanged and almost a hint feral as he peers up at her when she throws her hair back. “Cum for me, Isla.” It’s a hoarse and breathy demand, but one that spurs him on with the deeper, quicker pace of his hips against hers, a driven need as the thread tightens within him too for the second time.

VARUS

Gods, but he doesn't have to tell her twice. Isla practically serenades him as she cums, her thighs squeezing about him, and the hand splayed against his chest is suddenly tipped with blades that threaten to prick into his skin. Luckily it doesn't go quite that far, but the relentless pace Varus has set has her shivering with ecstasy, her hips arching back against him to meet him with every thrust. She rides out the wave of her orgasm with parted lips and eyes that seem near catlike in the shadows of the room, Isla gazing down at him with a lopsided smile forming on her face that bares fangs. "You're amazing," she pants, though it's difficult to have any sort of a conversation when they're still on their way to the finish line. Isla the flesh is weak

honey, i rose up from the dead. i do it all the time

He’s at least managed to last longer this time. He’s at least managed to get her off before that tether within him tightens too. It’s a slow burn for Varus despite the thrust of his hips, but it grows into a fire when she breaks around him. He can hear her, feel her, the thighs tightening around his own have him trembling with anticipation, and the blade tips to her fingers that he can feel their sharpness against his skin. They don’t break his skin but the threat is clear, and he trembles as his hands roam to clutch her wherever he can.

Once he’s latched on, one hand finding her leg as his hand squeezes her thigh hard, he trembles as he cums too, voice alight and airing the room with her name, thrusting deep and he begins to ride his own out with her, back arching as the electricity thrums through him. Once he can wrap his mind around his words again, he surges up toward her, hand tangling in her golden hair, pulling her down to meet him halfway in a greedy kiss.

VARUS

"Oh, gods--" Isla melts forward as he surges up to meet her, their lips crashing together in a kiss that's almost as needy and desperate as their first go round had been. Her arms slip around Varus, the pads of her fingers as soft as ever once more as she lets her hands roam across any part of him she can touch, drifting down his back and pressing to his chest over where his heart should be. She's similarly greedy for his touch, too, relishing the hot and cold of his hands, the taste of him, the prickle of the scruff on his cheeks and the softness of his lips. Slowly, Isla sags further against him, as if to tempt him to lay back again in bed, though she doesn't part from their kiss until she absolutely has to. "I could get used to that," she whispers, her lips drifting along his neck and onto his chest now. Isla the flesh is weak

honey, i rose up from the dead. i do it all the time

Her arms slip around him and his do the same for her, roaming and touching and relishing in the dips of the hollows of her hips, the softness of the small of her back. She sags against him and he could keep them aloft if he wanted to, but he chooses to sink back down, tugging her along with him to drape upon him quite contently as he pants his way back to some semblance of mind.

It fails, of course, because she’s everything to him right now, and his hand rises to slip into her golden halo of hair, to run his metal fingers through it before he cups the back of her head and peppers her cheek before she’s pressing her own along his neck and onto his chest. “Gods, me too.” He murmurs with a crooked, fanged grin, and a hum of a soft laugh. “It’s uh,” he pauses, because she absolutely knows, but he feels the need to say it anyway. “Been a long time.” He finally decides, letting his head tilt back to look at the ceiling, before his hands are roaming in soft, massaging circles along her shoulders and spine. “Should’ve brought something to drink. Made it a whole party.” It’s idle chatter, before he’s pulling his gaze back to her, wondering if he’ll meet her beautiful pebble blues. “Guess there’s always next time?” The grin turns a bit playful, edged in a catlike smirk.

VARUS

"Well I wouldn't have known it if you hadn't told me," Isla murmurs against his chest, smiling and peeping up at him. She can't get enough of the touches to her hair, her back, the curves of her hips and breasts; every brush of Varus's fingers is electric, and it's with a great deal of reluctance that she finally shifts to lay with him. Half tucked against his side, her hand dances across his torso in lazy strokes, legs all tangled up with his own. "Mm, there's always next time," she mumbles, kissing along the curve of his jawline. Her fingers drift up now to whisper across his cheek, her thumb grazing across the kohl that smudges his eyes. "What happened?" she whispers, obviously meaning the state she'd found him in. And more than that - what if it happened again? Isla the flesh is weak

honey, i rose up from the dead. i do it all the time

He figures that’s a lie, given how fast he’d fallen apart once the room had overwhelmed him. She doesn’t hold it against him, at least, and Varus hum a soft laugh, hands running along her back in gentle, idle, massaging strokes, before she’s shifting to lay with him. He tucks her in by her shoulders, head shifting to tilt toward her and watch her, a smaller smile crossing his face as she kisses along his jawline, as her fingers smudge the kohl that’s already smudged around his eyes.

Next time is something that he hopes he’s at least slightly more prepared for. The question of what happened, though? He works his jaw, before he relaxes it, flashes her a small apologetic smile. “Thought I had a lead on what happened with the Infirmary. It wasn’t. Got upset.” And he pauses, because he knows that he can be honest with her, more honest than he is with everyone else. “Had a bit of a panic of what happened before, when I went offline, so.” It’s aired quieter, Varus shifting to wrap his other arm around her and tug her close against his chest, to press soft kisses into the golden tangle of her hair, to breathe her in while he can smell her and relish in a semblance of calm. “I’m fine now, though.”

VARUS