Heirot

Vlad melted into her kiss and slid his clothes free much more smoothly than should have been possible in the water. "Tenele," he murmured, rolling over top of her. He kissed her underwater and rolled again, drawing her up with him so she was straddled across his lap. His body paid attention, which he was grateful for. She felt every bit as incredible as he knew she was, even if he was tiptoeing around the images Lelana had put inside him.

"Atul," he purred, casting his gaze on the king covetously.

Atul slipped up next to them, giving Vlad a firm, long kiss before he slipped away to kneel behind Tenele, straddling Vlad's legs. He ran his hands over her body, cupping her breasts firmly and then releasing them so that he could touch other places.

Tenele's hands slipped across Vlad's chest, while the King explored her for Vlad's own personal show. She bent forward to kiss her husband, her hands framing his face. She moaned softly against his lips as Atul's fingers slipped in from behind and his tongue dragged over her back.

Seeing Atul touch her drove the vampire absolutely wild. Every sound she made brought him stiffer against her stomach. He covered her mouth with his lips, kissing in deep caresses. His hands slid over her sides.

Tenele relished in her husband's lips, and the touch of his hands. "I'm happy he is back with us," Tenele whispered to her lover. Her lips went to his neck, and she nipped harshly at his skin as she rocked her body against him.

Atul's fingers slipped away to press against her tighter opening. "Ahh..." Her hands tightened along Vlad's shoulders, her breath hitching at the feel.

"Its been a while," Atul murmured at the tightness of her body, smoothing his hand soothingly along her spine.

Vlad groaned low in his throat the the image that came with Atul's words. Picturing what he was doing to her, and seeing her reaction, and feeling his own body reeling with the feel of her. He pressed his hardened member tight between their bodies, wet skin sliding against wet skin. "My love," he huffed, arching his neck to suck at her shoulder.

Atul smiled at Vlad's squirming. "I think he's ready for you, my queen," he told the woman that would be his wife. His hands curled over her hips and her moved her, then took Vlad's member in his hands. He stroked the vampire firmly as Tenele positioned herself, helping guide him into his wife's body. Tenele's breath caught at the wonderful feeling, taking all of him in one fell swoop. Atul's fingers returned quickly to the task of preparing her for him.

Vlad gasped. She felt so good. For a second, nothing else existed except the connection they were sharing. He flexed his hips deeper inside her, and that was where things started to go wrong. The groan of pleasure that drew from his lips dried up suddenly.

He was seeing it again. Not his willing wife and partner, but a screaming victim, her blood moistening the place where their bodies violently met. He scrambled backward on the stone, out of her, away from the pain that he somehow knew he wasn't really causing.

"Just remember," Lelana's voice reminded in his memory, "None of it was real."

But he still remembered it. How could he be inside her when he knew what it felt like to break her apart with that pleasure?

He realized he probably needed to say something. "I...maybe we should do this differently," he stammered.

Tenele winced at Vlad's sudden and clumsy retreat. Atul hooked an arm around her waist to keep her from falling face first into the water. The two stared at Vlad, masked in confusion.

"Is something wrong?" Atul asked slowly, wrapping his arms around Tenele as she knelt in front of him.

Vlad froze guiltily as he stared at them. He felt crazy for not wanting that connection. "I don't think I can make love, right now," he said, uneasy regret in his eyes. "It's.....it's something about the snake bite. I'm sure it wears off." The lie sounded so phony even he wouldn't have believed it.

Atul and Tenele didn't reply. He'd seemed fine, he'd felt fine... he was after all physically prepared for the activity. But, the look in his eyes when he'd scurried away was fear. At least, Atul noticed it.

"What's really wrong?" Atul asked, leaving Tenele's side to go to Vlad. "It's not the snake bite, so what's really wrong?"

Vlad stared at him. Again, the words wouldn't come. "I..." He looked down at the water, and tried forcefully to make his body feel the right way. The two people who turned him on more than the rest of the world combined were there, ready and eager, and he just needed to catch up again.

"You may never be able to be intimate with her the same way again," Lelana's voice warned him.

The harder he tried to think his way out of the memory, the more his body threw in the towel. "I...saw something," he explained very cautiously, because he couldn't just sit there fantasizing unsuccessfully all day. "It might take a little time to forget. I don't mind watching! I can touch you both, I just...can't..."

Tenele frowned at him, moving closer. "What did you see?" she asked softly, brushing her fingers across his cheek. She was in no mood to be intimate when she was concerned about him. They could make love again at any point, but right now his happiness came first.

"We can talk about it," Tenele urged him gently. "It might make you feel better."

Vlad's eyes flashed with panic. "It's okay," he barely breathed. Just the thought of telling her about it made him feel guilty. What if she always had to wonder if he had some kind of fantasy about raping her? What if she thought he enjoyed it? How did he calmly explain to the woman he loved that he was imagining raping her?

Tenele's brow knit together with confusion. He didn't look okay. Tenele opened her mouth to press the matter, but Atul's hand curled around her arm, and then around Vlad's. His expression was dark and brooding, but she couldn't figure out what that meant.

A second later the King had teleported them to the fur laden floor of his massive tent at the center of the encampment.

"What did Lelana do to you?" Atul asked, digging through his bag for clothing. He drew on a pair of cotton pants, and handed a silk robe to Tenele. He handed Vlad the second pair of pants. "Tell me."

Vlad held the pants in front of his traitorous crotch and stared at the king. He'd ruined it. Their long-awaited reunion, thwarted because he couldn't just ignore Lelana and keep it up. To make matters worse, he wasn't sure how to explain except to tell his wife she'd been raped when she couldn't remember it.

Keep it neutral. Explain without explaining. "Lelana and I...didn't hit it off, at first," he murmured. "She has the ability to go into someone's mind and rearrange things. She can insert memories and associations that don't exist, or build on existing ones to make them more detailed. She tried to fix what she showed me, but it seems to be burned in."