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"Isn't it nice to be alone for once?" Kahlan said, sprawling back beside the fire with a contented smile. "Don't get me wrong, I do miss Richard and Zed, but it's nice to have a break from the boys every once in a while."
Cara raised an eyebrow in response and continued poking at the fire with a stick, ignoring the flying embers as it sparked back at her.
"Don't you think it's nice, Cara?" Kahlan pressed earnestly, all smiles and sideways glances when Cara looked over.
"I suppose," she said with a shrug.
"Just suppose? What, no cracks about Richard snoring or Zed muttering spells in his sleep?"
"I think what we do with our free time is more important than just having it." Cara tossed the stick into the heart of the fire and leant back, rolling her shoulders into a stretch.
"That's just my point," Kahlan started, her voice getting deeper. "There's so many things we can do without them."
"We just passed a lake earlier, perhaps you'd like to go for midnight swim while we have the privacy?" Cara said with a flick of her hair as she stood. She waited a moment for a reply, and then began to walk past Kahlan to fetch some more firewood, but Kahlan grabbed her ankle at the last moment.
"What I'd really like to do is talk," she said softly, looking up at Cara with wide eyes. "Will you sit with me?"
She tugged a little at Cara's pant leg, as much as she could tug with tight leather, and Cara reluctantly let herself be pulled down into a stiff sitting position by Kahlan's head. She sighed when Kahlan didn't start talking, but simply continued looking at her, and rolled her eyes skyward in exasperation.
"Okay, fine, I'll start," Kahlan said, finally breaking the silence with a chuckle. "I wanted to talk about the tomb again-"
She broke off as Cara tried to get up, sitting up to follow her and tug her back down as firmly as she could.
"No, Cara, wait. I wanted to tell you that it meant a lot to me-"
"You already said that," Cara snapped, tense and ready to leap up as soon as Kahlan gave her the opportunity.
"If you'll let me finish! I said that the next day, but you didn't give me a chance to tell you why!"
Cara hesitated, brow furrowed, and didn't stand immediately when Kahlan tentatively loosened her grip. She watched, puzzled, as Kahlan seemed to struggle with her words.
"I just-" Kahlan started, then stopped with an aggravated sound, and ran a hand roughly through her hair. "You mean a lot to me too, Cara. More than you know, so you don't have to be embarrassed because I feel the same way!"
Her voice rose quickly, almost to a yell, as Cara began to pull away, until Kahlan's words sank in.
"You feel... the same way?" Cara repeated slowly, her eyes moving from Kahlan's face, along her arm to where her hand rested loosely around Cara's waist, and back again.
Kahlan watched where her gaze went, and swallowed hard when Cara was staring back at her again before nodding shakily.
Huh. Cara crouched there for a minute, struggling to process Kahlan's words; taking in the way Kahlan's hand shook slightly, and she pressed her fingers together to try and still them but didn't pull away.
"You feel..." Cara said slowly, taking Kahlan's hand in hers and raising it to her lips. She trailed her lips across Kahlan's knuckles, and turned her hand over until she could press an open kiss against her palm, "... like this?"
"Yes," Kahlan whispered, and when Cara leant forward, she tilted her head up to receive a kiss.
She hadn't really meant it to, but things got heated after that. Cara's exploratory kiss went on, and on, and they stumbled to their feet as Cara started tugging at Kahlan's clothes. But before she could make any headway in the battle against Kahlan's confessor dress, Kahlan placed a hand firmly against Cara's shoulders and pushed - hard - until she could break free.
Cara was frozen, paused mid-kiss and deeply confused.
"I don't," she started, then stopped, waved her hand around a bit and tried again. "Did you really just do that?"
"We can't," Kahlan said brokenly, her fingers pressed against her lips and tears in her eyes.
"Oh no, you don't get to do... that, and then do this!"
"I'm sorry, Cara, I'm so sorry," she moaned, covering her face with one hand and stumbling back a few paces, holding out her other hand as if to ward something off.
"If this is about Richard, so help me-"
"No!" Kahlan interrupted, her hands immediately reaching out to Cara, only flinching back at the last possible second. "It has nothing to do with Richard, it's just me. My... Confessor's power."
They stood there, as if stunned, for a moment - Cara's face caught up in a glare, and Kahlan's hands fluttering uselessly by her side.
"You're kidding me, right?"
Kahlan's hands fluttered up into something approaching a shrug while she looked wordlessly, plaintively, back at Cara, her eyes begging her to understand.
"Oh, no, no, no," Cara said, putting a hand on her hip and surveying Kahlan from head to foot. "I don't think that's going to work for me." Then she crossed the space between them in two strides and jumped at her, bringing them both down to the ground in a tangle.
"What are you-?" Kahlan shrieked as they fell. She lay under Cara, stunned, for a moment, anger and laughter lurking in her eyes, and then she shoved Cara. Hard.
Cara let the force sway her, but not move her, and grinned wildly back at Kahlan.
"I don't give in that easily," she said quietly, like she was whispering a secret, when Kahlan started to smile back.
Kahlan came up at Cara again, but this time it was with lips and hands. Cara cradled her head with her hands, sliding her fingers through the long waves of her hair and humming enthusiastically into the kiss. She pulled away just as suddenly, her eyes wide and all of her attention focused on Cara. It reminded Cara of her expression while they were fighting in the tomb, and she felt heat flare between her legs.
But the longer they sat there, the dimmer Kahlan's eyes grew.
"I don't know what you think you know, but it's dangerous for you to be with me. Like this.," she finally said sadly.
"I know plenty. I was trained as Mord-Sith. Understanding the powers of a Confessor was one of my jobs," Cara said smugly, and shoved Kahlan back in the dirt by her arms, following her eagerly and pressing against her.
Kahlan groaned in protest and pulled weakly against Cara's hold on her wrists, causing her to still for a moment to keep her balance stretched above the length of Kahlan's body with her knees firmly planted on either side of Kahlan's hips. Cara closed her eyes for a moment and grinned, letting the roll of Kahlan's body and the vibration from her protest shudder through her.
Then she surged forward, bending over Kahlan's head until she could bite at the underside of one of Kahlan's wrists, using the distraction to slip a hand into the nearest pack and fumble around until her fingers found the rough feel of a length of rope.
Kahlan cried out at the touch of Cara's teeth, but she didn't flinch from it, even as Cara swiftly tied ropes around her wrists. Cara chuckled, and lightly stroked the light indentations she'd left behind in Kahlan's skin.
"You just can't trust yourself," Cara said and rocked back on her heels until she could dip her head to lap at Kahlan's throat, "can you?"
Kahlan threw her head violently to the side with another moan, half a shake of her head and half baring herself to Cara's mouth while she looked up at her hands, and tugged against the knots.
"Of course you can't. But you'll see, Kahlan, I can help you control yourself."
"I don't need your help," Kahlan choked out, but she stopped struggling and dropped her hands back against the earth placidly without saying a word about them. Then she sighed as Cara dipped her head further still to press a line of chaste kisses along the swell of Kahlan's left breast as she raised a hand to lightly cup it, and raise it to her mouth.
"I've always thought this was such a pretty dress," she drawled, and pulled back just far enough to tug gently at the strings drawn tightly across Kahlan's heaving breasts. "But it never seemed very practical. All this white, and look at you, you can barely breathe."
"Cara-" Kahlan started, but Cara had a finger pressed against her lips in an instant, shushing her.
"No talking, I'm in charge."
With that, Cara swung one leg off Kahlan - mostly - and stretched along her side, barely touching except for one knee bent up and laid across one of Kahlan's thighs possessively.
"There now, this isn't so bad, is it?"
Kahlan was watching her closely when Cara looked up, her teeth worrying at her bottom lip. She released it when their eyes met, flicking her tongue slowly across the wound left behind and meeting Cara's gaze defiantly. Cara swayed forward deliberately, making Kahlan strain to reach her lips, and then settled back and averted her eyes.
"Cara. Please," Kahlan said, then huffed, arched her hips, and shoved her leg against Cara's impatiently when Cara's smirk only deepened.
"Anyone would think you wanted something from me." Cara pressed lightly against Kahlan's hip with a hand until she stilled and rolled her body in to rest more heavily against Kahlan's leg, her head still propped up blithely against the other.
When she relented, Cara slid her hand further down, slowly outlining the Confessor's inner thigh through her dress until Kahlan let her head drop back against the ground and relaxed under her touch.
"Is there something you want from me, Confessor?" Cara asked, tightning her grip almost imperceptibly around Kahlan's flesh, only her thumb still moving as it stroked below her hip.
Kahlan's breath burst out of her in frustration, her eyes fixed on the night sky. "You know what I want!"
"Look me in the eye," Cara demanded, her thumb stilling and her grip tightening further, the leather of her glove creaking slightly, barely audible over of the sound of their harsh breathing. "You have to look me in the eye and tell me what you want."
"You know, but we can't," she muttered, her jaw set and her line of sight never wavering.
Cara sat up abruptly, rolling her eyes.
"Maybe I'm wasting my time then," she snapped, but she rocked back up onto her knees anyway, planting one hand between Kahlan's arm and her face as she slid one foot down Kahlan's calf until she could catch the hem of her dress with her boot. Slowly she drew the toe of her boot back up along Kahlan's leg, enjoying her shiver, until she could easily reach the hem with her hand. Then she followed the path her foot had started with her hand, letting the material bunch under fingers as she pressed it against Kahlan's skin, enjoying the way it glided along so silkily.
"Tell me."
"We can't," Kahlan breathed, her eyes flickering shut. Cara growled and slid her other hand into Kahlan's hair, tightening her fingers angrily until her eyes opened again.
"Can't doesn't mean no," she whispered back, her gaze sharp and her breath brushing across Kahlan's left cheek.
"It's too dangerous," Kahlan said, trying again but this time her voice broke dangerously and then spiralled away into a high pitched gasp as Cara tugged her dress up to her waist and caressed the curve of her belly.
"It doesn't mean you don't want to. I'm not Richard," Cara said as she leant in to Kahlan's other cheek and let her voice caress there too. "I know more about how to play with dangerous things than he does."
"We shouldn't risk-"
"Hush," Cara said, and then stopped Kahlan's words with the press of her own lips. "You can trust me to protect myself."
She pressed down pointedly with her fingers and rolled them so that Kahlan could feet the seams of her glove.
"Tell me that you don't want me," she breathed, and pushed her arm lightly against Kahlan's legs. They fell apart willingly under her, and she settled more comfortably between them. "Tell me that you wouldn't, even if there wasn't any danger."
"I can't," Kahlan hissed against her lips, "but I should."
Cara smiled and opened her mouth to reply in kind, but faltered. Kahlan stretched up and kissed her deeply before she could try and force the words out. She didn't shut her eyes this time as they kissed, her gaze warm and understanding.
Cara pressed her hand against Kahlan, her fingers stroking confidently. Kahlan cried out against her but she swallowed it all down, following her as she arched and bucked against her hand. She didn't stop moving as she ended the kiss, pulling back until there was a safe distance between their exposed skin.
"What do you want, Kahlan?" she asked softly, still stroking, and Kahlan whimpered Cara's name back.
Cara smiled and drank in the sight of her as she writhed, careful not to pull too hard against her restraints.
"Just leave everything to me," she said gently, her voice almost going unheeded under Kahlan's pleas. "Let it all go. I'll take care of you, there's no need to worry."