A Time of Grace

TITLE: A Time of Grace

AUTHOR: Midknight

CHAPTER: 1 of 1

FANDOM: Legend of the Seeker

SHIP: Kahlan / Richard

RATING: NC-17

CATEGORY: Smut,

SPOILERS: Season One

UNIVERSE: WARNING: HERE BE SPOILERS – SEASON 1. After using her powers, Kahlan has a radical idea about the core dilemma between herself and Richard.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Legend of the Seeker. None of these characters belong to me. They belong to the creators, writers and producers of the show. I pay homage to them and I make no profit from this story in any fashion, way or means.

AUTHORS NOTE: I apologize before hand and hope you will forgive any errors or blatant discrepancies.

FEEDBACK: Yes Please. It helps. It really, really helps. – midknight_tales@yahoo.com

The world dimmed as Kahlan drew upon her Confessor’s power and let it pour out of her and into the D’Haran soldier. His body stiffened and then relaxed and the look of fear and horror in his eyes turned to pure, unadulterated adoration. “How may I serve you, My Mistress?” he almost begged. They had been surprised by the patrol while on their way to meet Zed, the captain recognizing Richard. They were heavily outnumbered and she didn’t have any choice. She instructed the soldier to defend Richard. He went at it with a loud battle cry, surprising his comrades while she tried to catch her breath and stop her knees from buckling as she muster her strength to get back into the fray.

The fight was vivacious and bloody and the soldier succumbed as she knew he would, but he had evened the odds enough for them to handle the last of the patrol. The last D’Haran fell under Richard’s sword and Kahlan sagged, bending over to rest the hilts of her bloodied short swords on her knees to stop herself from falling to them. She didn’t realize that she had closed her eyes, but they popped open as his arms slid around her. “I’m okay.” She answered his unspoken question, straightening up. She did, however, lean back against him just for a moment, enjoying the solid, warmth of his body more than any need for support.

Kahlan took a deep breath, steadying herself as he continued to hold her despite her assurance. She inhaled his masculine scent, strangely mingled with the coppery smell of blood. She could feel the hollow emptiness inside her where her power should be and found his nearness comforting. He stepped back and she missed him immediately even though his hand remained on her shoulder. “We need to go.” He stated and she looked around at the carnage that littered the road and nodded her head. They cleaned and put away their weapons before they gathered up their things and headed off into the woods.

“We need to get cleaned up.” He noted after they had put a mile or so of forest between them and the dead D’Harans. She frowned, but then really looked at Richard and saw the blood that spattered his clothes, hands and face. She held up her hands, they were in no better condition; instead, as she looked down at herself, she looked even worse. Her white dress showed the blood even more clearly than his dark, woodsman’s clothes. “There should be a creek a few more miles to the West.” He suggested after stopping to check their position and she smiled and nodded her agreement.

Richard took her hand with an answering smile and then led the way. She was very aware of the warm contact, just as she was of the emptiness where her power should be. Despite the strength of her power, it would be hours before she could feel it again, much less using it. Richard smiled at her over his shoulder and she smiled back. It had been months since they’d confessed their feeling for each other as well as acknowledged the hopelessness of their situation. The kiss they had shared had been dangerous and more than risk enough. She had felt her hold on her power grow more and more tenuous with each moment that kiss had lasted and her desire had grown. ”What if there weren’t any power for her to control? Where was the risk then?” she wondered suddenly.

She deliberately, carefully looked inside herself, reaching for her power and found nothing. Her teeth pressed into her lower lip as she had a very interesting idea. The trees thinned and then opened onto the bank of a wide, slow flowing creek. She watched as Richard quickly set up camp and started to dig a fire pit while she gathered wood to get a fire started and keep it going. Kahlan spread her blankets close to his and then, placing her blades on top of her pack before she slipped out of her boots. She looked at Richard for a moment and worried at her lower lip again. She was going to look awfully foolish if he didn’t accept what she was about to propose. It wouldn’t really change their situation in the long run, hell it might even worsen it, but to be able to share such intimacy, even just once would be…

A thrilling shiver ran through her at the thought. The idea was sound in theory, but it was untested and still dangerous. Would she be able to stop if her desire and their union somehow rekindled her power? She wondered, starting to doubt herself. But, what if it worked? If it worked they would at least have had this one chance to be together. However, would Richard see it that way? He had some interesting ideas on morality and what she would be suggesting could be considered less then moral, but she wanted it. She wanted to know his kiss, his touch, the physical sensation of his love without restraint, without fear or reserve.

Kahlan straightened her shoulders. She would have to cross that bridge when she got there, if she got there. Richard might even be the responsible one and tell her how foolish she was, that the risk was too great, but she needed to try. The idea of that made her swallow hard. He was still building the fire and he didn’t look up as she walked past him to the water. She reached behind her and unfastened her dress, letting it fall to the ground, the material whispering along her skin. She looked over her shoulder and Richard was still intent on the fire. She slipped off her small clothes and the mixture of the sun and the gentle breeze felt wonderful on her naked body.

The water was cool on her feet as she walked into the creek, but colder as she moved further in. The gentle current caressed more of her legs as the water rose higher. She stifled a gasp and groaned as the water touched her sex and hot and cold mixed. She turned, facing the bank where Richard was busy with the camp before she took a deep breath and then ducked down into the water. She held herself under, feeling the current caress every inch of her, the coldness of the liquid not quite penetrating the heat of desire radiating off her as she thought about what she was about to do and where it could possibly lead. She felt her lungs start to burn and then finally rose up out of the water. She threw back her long, wet hair as she did, sending droplets flying. The dark, wet tresses were heavy on her shoulders and back as she blinked water out of her eyes.

She found Richard staring, wide eyed and slack-jawed as the water sheeted off her and settled to reveal her nudity. She could see admiration in his eyes and noted that he had stripped down to his breeches, his shirt and jerkin lying on the ground next to her clothes. Kahlan saw him blink slowly and then start to turn away. “Richard!” She called and he stopped, but his eyes were now firmly fixed on the ground. She waded closer and his eyes flicked up for a moment and then away. “Kahlan?” he queried. She licked her lips nervously. “Richard, I want you to look at me.” She instructed softly, once she was close enough for him to hear her. “Kahlan, you’re naked.” He responded, his tone strained, without complying.

“I know. Do you find my naked body offensive? Does it not please you?” she enquired although she already knew the answer. She could see his reaction to her naked body bulging the front of his pants. His head snapped up and the intensity in his eyes made her insides flip and sex flex with shared need. “No… No, of course not, Kahlan. No… I mean it pleases me… You’re beautiful. Your body, it’s… You’re amazing, but… Kahlan… Dammit, with you there, like this, I… You know how I feel about you… I… I just don’t know if I can… The temptation and you know we can’t… But, right now, looking at you, I almost… Almost don’t care.” he stammered in anguish and then scrubbed his hand through his hair. The breeze picked up and cooled her wet skin, making her nipples tighten even further.

His eyes dropped and he turned his head away when he realized he was staring at her again. “But, Richard, if we could, just this once, would you? Could we have this…? This time of grace and have what we want and then go on?” She asked and his head whipped back and she was surprised to see anger blazing in his eyes where there had moments before been desire. “Why are you doing this to me, Kahlan?” he asked in a strained, pained voice that almost made her flinch with how raw it was. She saw his hands clench into white-knuckled fists at his sides, his chest heaving.

“Richard…” she tried to explain, but he flinched away from her as she stepped closer and tried to touch him. She continued on with determination. She didn’t mean to hurt him, but she could suddenly see how this might look to him. He had so much more to lose than she did. She grasped his shoulders and turned him to face her, capturing his eyes with hers. “Richard, I believe that we can, that we have a window, a small window, but a window none the less. I… I never would have done this if I thought it would hurt you, but… But, I want us to have this… I want you. My power is what keeps us apart, the risk of me confessing you being just too great, but right now, for maybe another hour or so that power is gone.” She explained and verified her words by reaching inside herself to touch it. She couldn’t grasp it, but it was there and she could feel it starting to grow once more.

“Kahlan…” whispered her name and she felt his body relax. That relaxation lasted for only a moment and then his hands were cupping her cheeks and he was drawing her lips to his. Memories of their previous kiss flashed into her mind and then paled as she melted into it and she simply let herself go. She ground against him, feeling the hard, throbbing bulge of his aroused manhood pressing against her belly through the material of his breeches as they explored each other mouths with sucking lips and probing, twining tongues. She groaned and he groaned back as he slid his fingers into her hair to cup her head while the other left a tingling trail down the skin of her back.

Despite the water still beading her skin she felt hot and his body against hers added to the blaze. She felt like she was floating, breathless and out of control and she loved it. She couldn’t remember when or how, but they must have moved, because he was gently laying her down on their blankets. She let her hands explore the hard muscles of his chest and back, her fingers tracing the surprisingly large amount of scars she found. Her back arched as her muscles tensed when his lips left hers and ran down along her skin to find the curve of her breast and then the turgid peak atop it. She licked suddenly dry lips as she cupped the back of his head and pressed the flesh of her breast into his hungrily sucking lips and swirling tongue.

Waves of pleasurable jolts arched into her chest as he caressed one breast and suckled at the other. His thigh was between her legs and her hips undulated against it in an attempt to relieve the growing tension inside her flexing, pulsing and flooding loins. He reciprocated, his body moving with hers, his obvious desire rubbing against her thigh. She could feel something building inside her and for once it wasn’t her power and she knew what she wanted, what she needed. She reached blindly for and started working at his belt and then the fastenings of his pants. His lips vibrated against her skin as he groaned when she managed to reach into his pants and wrapped her fingers around his hard, throbbing manhood.

She caressed and measured his length, her groans matching his as his lips switched from one breast to the other. She explored his member, her first, feeling it pulse hotly against her palm. She traced his shape, from his pointed, helmet shaped head down and around its girth and slightly curved length. His phallus was hard, but somehow soft and smooth at the same time. It felt alive and twitched in reaction to her touch. His sucking lips seemed to ignite a power line between it and her sex, making it clench and flood with desire.

Kahlan couldn’t stop herself from whining in disappointment when his lips relinquished their pleasuring, sucking grip on her nipple. And, frowned as they moved lower, sliding along her skin and he moved lower, his manhood slipping out of her reach and his lips leaving her breast. Her eyes snapped wide when his lips continued to move lower. He stared up her body with such predatory hunger that she froze, suddenly knowing what a deer felt like just before a mountain lion struck. His breath heated her even more for a moment and then she gasped as he lowered his mouth. The small of her back tightened as well as the muscles in belly to make her quiver as his sucking lips and probing tongue explored her tingling, swollen sex.

His tongue created new and wonderful sensations inside her, each lash of his tongue made her breath catch and her hands clutch at the blankets beneath her. She didn’t think anything could feel more intense until his lips found the pearl of her clit. She cried out and her hips jerked at the electric spark that shot into her as his tongue swirled around her sensitive nub before he suckled at it. She whined and thrashed her head from side to side at the intensity of his oral stimulation. It felt so good that it almost hurt as he alternated between lapping at her dewy petals and suckling at her clit. His hands massaged her thighs and the valley of her waist. She didn’t have any frame of reference, but she believed she had found another of Richard’s hidden skills. It was only by dint of her being able to clutch his forearm that she was able to pull herself up enough to prop herself up on an elbow and reach for his head.

Kahlan didn’t know if she wanted to push him away or pull him closer and moaned his name instead as her fingers wound into his hair. He solved her dilemma by raising his head, his lips and chin glistening with her juices. He planted one more kiss on her clit, making her hips jerk before she dropped back onto their blankets and he crawled up between her legs. She slid her hands down his back and pushed his pants down off his hips. She grasped his ass, testing the hard, curves with her fingernails as she felt the tip of his dick brush through her nether folds.

Richard hovered over her, balance on his forearm, his hand burrowed into her dark curls to cradle the back of her neck. His breath was warm on her lips as he reached down between them and guided him through her folds until he found her entrance. “Are you sure about this, Kahlan?” he asked. “No.” she answered breathlessly, honestly although every part of her wanted to scream yes in case her answer stopped him. She flexed her fingers on his ass and bucked her hips at the same time to make sure he didn’t and her breath hitched and then exploded from her lips as he continued the motion she had started with a thrust of his hips to continue driving into her.

Her eyes widened before she was blinking rapidly at the myriad of new sensations that assaulted her as he filled and stretched her virgin flesh. Her flesh clenched and constricted around him, trying to fend off his invasion even as she pulled at him to invite it. His thick, long shaft continued its journey unhindered, drawing a fiery trail of friction with it until he came to the barrier of her virtue. “Kahlan.” He called her name softly and she focused on his face. “I love you.” He continued and she could feel that love in his voice. Richard pulled back slightly and then drove forward again. She felt the pressure building on her hymen and squeaked in hurt surprise when that pressure became a sharp spike of pain as tore it and drove all the way into her.

A shudder ran through her as she tensed, her channel a tight fist squeezing the adamantine invader that caused her this amazing mixture of pleasure and pain. She found herself panting, finding it hard to catch her breath as she tried to process the wide range of sensation and emotions that rampaged through her. His fingers gently pulled hair, which had fallen across her face out of the way to lightly caress her cheek as the pain quickly subsided. She floated in that moment, savoring and cataloguing every part of it and coming to terms with the importance of it. She didn’t think it would mean quite so much, but Richard had now also given her a gift that was almost as precious as his love. He had made her a complete woman, something she had never really thought she would be. She would never tell him, but she was sure she would die before their quest to destroy Darken Rahl done and she would be forced to take a husband to carry on the Confessor’s line.

“Kahlan? Kahlan?” he repeatedly called her name in consternation when she didn’t respond. His voice seemed a long way away and it took her a moment to realize it was her name, yet, at the same time she was very aware of his body on and in hers. She opened eyes she didn’t remember closing and said his name with dreamy awe. “Are you okay?” he asked with concern as she winced when she unconsciously undulated her hips and he shifted inside her.

“Yes. I’m… I’m… I feel wonderful.” She told him despite the slight twinge of pain as he slid through her traumatized flesh. She blinked and smiled as a quick inventory found that her power, although building, was still completely inaccessible to her. “Make love to me, Richard.” She urged him softly, but urgently, letting both her desire and the worry that it might not last combine. She curled her arms around his neck and pulled him into another heated kiss that started him rocking his hips moving inside her with shallow, gentle strokes. Her first few moans and groans were with pain as her body became accustomed to its new status and she was glad Richard couldn’t see her face as she winced or grimaced as he licked, kissed and sucked the side of her neck.

As, his strokes got longer, she instinctively started to move with him. The erratic and jarring spikes of pain diminished to dull aches that were overshadowed by the waves of pleasure he stirred in her. Those aches then disappeared all-together as her channel flooded with a fresh lubricating flood of cream. She could feel a sweet, strange, yet familiar tension building inside her as they rocked, bucked and writhed together, finding a steady pace and rhythm. She rolled her shoulder to press her breast into his mouth when he found her nipple and sucked and nipped at it sending charges of delight radiating into her chest. His hard muscles flexed under her hands as she clutched at his shoulders while his hand slid over the curve of her buttocks onto her thigh to draw her leg up, which she then curled around him, to spread herself wider for him.

Kahlan bit her lip as the small of her back twitched and her spine arched as he thrust harder and deeper into her. Waves of pleasure lapped across her sense like hungry flames, igniting her nerves. Their lips met for short, intense kisses, but they were both breathing hard and settled for tasting whatever parts of each other’s skin they could reach. She tasted the sweat that glistened on both their skins, which also lubricated and smoothed the motion of their bodies sliding together. Encouragements, endearments, praises, threats and dire admonishments were peppered in amongst moans, groans, gasps and cries of growing volume as their hips met again and again and again. The wonderful ripples of pleasure started to overlap, merging to feeding each other so that she was in a constant state of stimulation.

Her heart beat a trip hammer tattoo against her ribs and her blood sang in her ears and all the time the tension in her loins ratcheted tighter. Richard grunted and lifted his head from her breast to grit his teeth in strain as his hips jerked and his thrusts became more of a slow grind, his thick, pulsing erection stirring the already boiling cauldron of her molten core. It still felt incredible, but it lacked the intensity that had been steadily driving her to something she sensed was going to be even more spectacular than she was already experiencing. “Don’t… Don’t hold back.” She panted as she watched him fight for control, his eyes squeezed tightly closed.

He let out a slow steady breath and opened his eyes. “I… want… No, need you to experience it all, Kahlan.” He countered and kissed her fiercely before his hips started thrusting and circling again and the heavy, powerful jolts of pleasure returned in full force. She tried to match him as best as she could, but that strange sensation was growing faster, making her belly quiver continuously and her muscles start to misfire as it snaked up her spine and skittered across her nervous system. Despite the pleasure, the energy started to feel frighteningly familiar and she started to panic. He misinterpreted her struggles to stop him and free herself as encouragement to thrust harder and faster and she couldn’t find the breath to tell him to stop.

The roiling mass of energy sent out crackling tendrils to test her ability to contain it and she whined and tried harder to stop him, but it was already too late. Those tendrils started to pulse, spark and whip out with powerful, unstoppable intent. Kahlan tried to bring her will to bear, to gain control of the raw, raging energy building inside her, the way she’d been taught. She tried to contain it, to master it, but he continued to move and her body moved with his driven by instincts far more primal than even her Confessor’s powers. Her panic was suddenly replaced with something else as he drove into her one last time, his pelvis slamming into hers to grind and mash her clit as he bucked against her. Her eyes went wide, and her world blurry as a power, unlike anything she had ever felt before ripped through her and her will shattered as she surrendered to it. Her panic turned to shocked, wondrous awe as instead of pouring from her, the power turned inward, inundated her with wave after wave of hot, thrilling bliss.

She cried out, a sound of pure release and enjoyment, tinged with just a hint of pain as her muscles first rapidly tensed and relaxed in quick succession before they locked tight. Her spine formed a taut quivering bow that had her vibrating up against Richard’s solid, muscular frame. The fluctuating ache just served to highlight and accentuate the glorious ecstasy that was rapidly overloading her senses. Her sex clenched and twisted around his hard shaft, squeezing it, testing it and finding it delightfully unyielding. She felt him pulse against her snug, tense walls of her channel and they rippled in response as she also flooded with a torrent of liquid head. Richard made a grunting growl, deep in his throat, his arms wrapping tight around her to hold her to him as his hips bucked wildly.

His short, fierce thrusts sent renewed jolts of sensation cascading through her and then he too went rigid. His cry was strangled as he shuddered against her and added to the liquid heat already seething inside her. She didn’t know how long they remained locked like that. Time had little meaning in the world of pure blissful sensation, but eventually the force of her orgasm waned and by degrees her muscles relaxed and the world returned. She sucked in a deep breath and then another and another, the cool air filling her lungs had never felt so wonderful. Richard collapsed with her and couldn’t quite catch himself, his chest flattening her breasts. He groaned as he tried to lift himself off her, but she barely managed to find the co-ordination to wrap her arms and legs around him to keep him in place.

Richard’s weight was a wonderful anchor that let her know what she had just experienced was real. She could still feel him inside her, feel her slowly shrinking. Her sex clenched involuntarily to halt his retreat, sending an echo of her climactic wildfire lashing across her nerves. But, nature would not be denied and she couldn’t hold back the whine that escaped her lips as she experienced a brand new sense of emptiness. He rolled off her and she let him, but he pulled her with him, so that their positions were reversed and she was draped across his chest. She titled her head and found him smiling down at her. She offered him her lips and he kissed her slow and thoroughly.

She felt amazing and told him so when he broke their kiss and asked her how she was. Kahlan was surprised to see how low the sun was in the sky. Sweat dried on her skin and a breeze brought a chill with it and she shivered despite the warmth of his embrace. She sighed and snuggled closer to him in contentment when he pulled and tucked their blankets around them. She knew that there was more to be said and that they probably needed to talk, but she was loath to break the calm, peaceful silence that surrounded them along with the lingering perfume of sex. “We’ll talk in the morning.” He told her softly as if reading her mind and she pressed her lips to the skin of his shoulder, tasting salt.

The fight and then the further exertion of their vigorous lovemaking finally took its toll. She felt energized and alive, but at the same time lethargic and completely relaxed. She found herself content, comfortable and happy, yet another situation she couldn’t quite remember being in before. The slow, steady beat of his heart under her ear was an added lullaby as well as his fingers as they drew idle patterns as he lightly caressed her back. Her eyelids grew steadily heavier as the rise and fall of his chest also slowed. She murmured his name and she felt his arm tighten around her before she drifted off to sleep.

Epilogue…

Kahlan woke with a start, but settled back down quickly as Richard stirred beneath her. He snorted, but didn’t wake up. She smiled as she remembered that she had been reliving their tryst in her dreams. Those memories, relived in vivid detail had aroused her again, but that was not what had woken her. Her smile faded as she realized what had. She slowly moved away from Richard, carefully freeing one of the blankets to wrap herself in. She’d woken because she had started to reach for her power in her sleep in response to the stimulation and intensity of her dreams. She made her way to the other side of the fire that had died down to a glowing bed of coals and huddled in the blanket. She shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if her years of rigorous Confessor’s training had not left her on guard, even in her sleep.

She could feel the dried evidence of their coupling on the inside of her thigh and a quick inspection also turned up some blood. She looked across the coals at Richard’s slumbering form, glad to see a soft smile on his lips and she wondered if he was dreaming of their union as she had. Kahlan could still feel the echo of him inside her. She felt different, not sore or uncomfortable, just irreversibly altered. Richard was destined to change the world as The Seeker, but he had now changed her life and the most personal level possible, simply being the man he was. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, held it for a moment and then let it out slowly as she reconciled herself to the realities of their situation.

She had taken a risk and it had paid off, paid off beyond her wildest dreams, but she knew she couldn’t ever take the chance again. They’d had their moment of grace, and now it was over she resolutely decided and then rummaged through her pack for something to wear.

THE END