Of Lions, Wolves, and Dragons (Jon Snow)

24. The Wedding

Since getting better after short illness, Joellyn was back to her regular routine.  This time, her regular routine featured a new person every morning.  As much as she had dreaded training with Bronn, she now looked forward to training with Oberyn.  She still had a world of improvement to do, but he was actually teaching her and making her feel like she could become a good fighter.

This morning in particular, Oberyn had started her off by having her practice bow and arrow, "We do not want you becoming sloppy at this because your focus has gone elsewhere.  We need to make you a well-rounded fighter."  Joellyn wasn't excited about practicing bow and arrow since she felt like she was doing well enough at that and still wanted to get better at hand-to-hand combat, but she quickly learned that it would be nice to practice the bow with Oberyn.  He observed her technique for a while then came up close behind her and moved his arms around hers to adjust her hold and position.  At first it made her more tense to have him so close and touching her, but it began to be a comforting feeling.  Like she was being protected.  And an added bonus, she hit te center much more consistently after making adjustments for her.

When she finished, she turned around, smiling, "Thank you, Oberyn!"

He smiled in return, his eyes crinkling in the corners, which she loved to see, "You want learn.  You need to learn to be good.  Now, let's move on to hand-to-hand fighting, my princess."

Every time he referred to her as "my princess", it still made her stomach flutter, but she shoved those thoughts to the side for right now as she said, "As long as you take it easy on me.  I'm getting married tomorrow and don't want to have any bruises that need covered up."

Oberyn raised his eyebrows, feigning ignorance, "Are you now?  Well, he's a lucky man to be marrying such a beauty.  Fear not, I will not keep you from looking your most beautiful for your husband tomorrow."

Joellyn laughed, then they began their training.  He still beat her every single time.  He was so fast and so graceful, she did not know how to anticipate what he was going to do.  She was able to get some hits in to keep him from completely overtaking her right away, but it wasn't long before she lost.  Oberyn surprised her by doing a move that he had never shown her before.  Since they were so close anyway, he wrapped a leg behind hers and then pulled his leg back toward him so that she lost her balance and began to fall.

Oberyn was too fast to let her fall, though.  His arms were already behind her, slowing her fall, so that she landed on the ground gently with him hovering over her.  Out of reflex, Joellyn had grabbed hold of the front of his tunic when her brain realized that she was falling.  Now that she was on the ground and he was above her, her grip on his tunic had just pulled them closer together so that their faces were nearly touching.  Joellyn felt her heart beat increase and her breathing quickend, but she noted that Oberyn seemed to have the same reaction.

In spite of his reputation of having sex with every woman that he met, he had been incredibly gentle and did not push the boundaries with her, but now that they were this close together, Joellyn saw that he was fighting an internal battle.  This battle lasted only a short while, though, as he muttered to himself, "You're so beautiful," then pressed his lips softly, but passionately into hers.

Joellyn's only other real kiss had been with Jon, but this was nowhere remotely close to the front of her mind at this point.  What she was concerned with was Oberyn's lips moving against hers and his hands moving from behind her back to behind her head to pull her head closer to his.  She responded in kind by pulling him even closer by his tunic.  She groaned in frustration, only for a moment, as his lips left hers, but she was satisfied again as she felt him turn her head to the side and begin kissing right underneath her ear.  He trailed gentle kisses down her jawbone, then worked his way back slowly to her lips, which had parted slightly as her breathing increased.