A chill nipped at my toes chasing away the lull of a light sleep. I moaned, tugging my naked feet back under the slipped blanket. It was the weekend, I wasn't needed anywhere, and there was no reason for me to welcome the perky sun prodding through the window. I stretched to yank the pillow over my face when my hand landed on the spot beside me.
A different chill startled me out of my warm nest and up to my knees. The other half of the bed was empty. Not even a hint that anyone shared it with me through the night, just a blank space where a naked body had been.
What were you expecting? I tugged my fraying blanket around my shoulders like a cape and hunkered tighter to my chest. Furiously, I rubbed at the cheap mascara gluing my eyelids together.
You picked him up at a bar. Or a club. One of those.
His charm lit up the dark room damn near blinding me. Fuck knew I couldn't turn down that smooth accent, or the smile. The fact he was also carved like sin itself given form doomed me from the start.
Stupid of me to even expect someone like that to stick around for the morning after. I reached for my phone which had tumbled to the floor in the throes of the after-party. Maybe I got his number. Because a harried text at 9 in the morning from the woman he just left sleeping in bed would in no way come across as crazy. Still...
As my fingers swept over the floorboard, hoping to excavate the phone without my body having to leave the warm bed, from the edge of my smokey-smeared eye I caught the bedroom door creeping inward. A scream rolled in my throat, my fingers fishing for a blanket to cover up or a bat to nail the assailant with, when a man in a hunter green tight t-shirt, tan leather jacket, and the skinniest jeans you ever saw strolled in.
His kissable lips pouted as those deep brown eyes caught me about to drop a foot to the floor. "Ah, curses. I'd hoped to wake you with a kiss and the intoxicating aroma of..." With a cheeky grin, Zevran extended a pair of white coffee cups. I instantly recognized the black and tan bull symbol of the cafe down the street from my place. It was my go-to caffeine fix.
"You..." My poor, raw-rubbed eyes blinked furiously in both confusion and to drum up enough tears to unstick the mascara. "You got coffee?"
He padded across the floor as if floating, his offering extended towards me, but I was locked in confusion. Venom still pumped through my veins at the assumption he ran off the second he woke, but it was to bring me coffee?
"I am afraid that I've become incapable of sleeping in past dawn. Hazards of the job," Zevran explained. "So I thought what better use of my time than waiting in line behind all the dead-eyed parents shuffling off to Toddler Fight Club, or whatever they do with their offspring on autumn mornings."
A chuckle rolled through my chest at the thought, which yanked those shining brown eyes from my face down to my naked breasts. Burning started at my stomach and creeped higher as I realized I was fully nude while he was fully clothed. But the shame at such a faux pas evaporated as Zevran's eyes didn't leer but smile. Approval radiated from him while he plopped down upon the edge of my bed and thrust the gift into my fingers.
The heavenly aroma of a full roast bean, rich spice, and mornings wafted into my nose. I took another deep whiff before diving in. As the coffee dripped down my throat, my languid brain caught on to what, out of the myriad of options, he ordered. My lips twisted into a wry smile as I turned to the man who bought it specifically for me. "Pumpkin spice?"
Zevran paused from his turn at drinking no doubt an americano or plain black to raise an eyebrow. Slowly, he pivoted his head out the window that was framed with red leaves about to tumble from their branches. "It seemed a wise bet," was his guarded answer.
"Damn," I said, taking another swig, "I feel called out." The hot liquid chased away the reminder that a near stranger was sitting in my bedroom sharing coffee. Wiping away the plop of foam that fell into the dimple beside my mouth, I admitted, "Though, I do own a couple pairs of yoga pants."
"So I noticed," he purred. One hand holding his cup steady, Zevran crawled across the bed on his knees until we met eye to eye. His free fingers rubbed at my leg hidden beneath the blanket as his eyes burned with the same desire that drew me to him the night before.
Butterflies stampeded in my stomach, and on an impulse I brought my cup to my lips between us, as if hoping to dim the intensity of his hunger. But those brown eyes held me in their sway even as I took a long drink of the cinnamon-nutmeg blend. I stared back, my eyes watering to keep him in focus.
As the cup slipped down to my lap, Zevran lunged forward, lips ravenously consuming mine. Bitter, black coffee coated his tongue, which I greedily lapped up. No doubt my all-sugar concoction would sweeten him in the exchange. His free hand lifted from the safe blanket zone of my thigh up to the partially unobscured hip.
Pulling away from the deep kiss, Zevran whispered, "There are few in the world as delectable as you." The palm dipped into my waist, skirting higher towards my exposed breasts, but the curious fingers paused at the top of my ribs.
My body begged for his hands to roam higher, to circle over every inch of me as they had the night before. But my brain was scampering in fear from that impossible compliment. "No, that's..." I gulped. "You're kidding."
"Why would I joke of such a thing?" For the first time, it seemed as if the laughter evaporated from his voice, his soft eyes sharpening to steel. "I believe you are beautiful. Intriguing. Worthy of my undying curiosity. A divine temptation." He worried his palm up over my arm, working the slack muscle while his line of sight dipped over my body. "And I," Zevran breathed in my ear, "have never been able to say no to temptation."
Wrapping my hand around his jacket, I tugged him to me. The force must have surprised him as we both went tumbling down, Zevran's reflexes keeping him from smashing my chest or crushing the cup. My palm found its way inside the jacket, wandering down to the ass hidden inside the denim.
A slow chuckle rumbled in my ear, Zevran moaning as I ransacked what of his body I could reach. His famished eyes took in my face while he used his little finger to draw swirls over my décolletage. "What of the coffee? It will grow cold." Even with that thought, he bent down, lips pressing coffee-scented kisses to the tops of my breasts.
"That," I groaned, placing my pumpkin spice latte on the ground. Both my hands quickly filled with the man losing his clothing in record time. "...is what microwaves are for."
YOU ARE READING
Dragon Age One Shots
FanficI've been adding lots of short stories to Tumblr recently and wanted a chance to share them here for anyone who doesn't have tumblr, or hates reading there. Here come all the Dragon Age one shots!
