Danica Prelude

Author's Notes:
This story is erotic fantasy, set in a world of magic. I reserve the right to be listed as the author of this work, wherever it is posted. If found posted anywhere except Literotica.com with this note attached, this story is posted without my permission.

© Darkniciad

This is the beginning of Danica's tale, leading in to the story "Danica", which is Book I of a three book series.

I make use of modern weights and measures quite often in my work, because those are the weights and measures of my fantasy world. I know many fantasy readers prefer more archaic terms, and I hope those readers can overlook my use of miles, feet, and other such measures.

This is an edited version of this tale, making use of what I've learned since starting to post at Literotica, and the services of my tireless editor, Roust Writer.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Danica hurried to close her mageware shop, shutting all the display cases and enabling their magical wards. She locked the coin box and enabled its mystical protection as well, placing it in her magically sealed vault.

Reaching into the neckline of her robe, Danica pulled out a rune stone that hung around her neck. Placing it in the blank spot at the center of the vault's sigil covered door, the runes sealed the vault against intrusion and detection. Her money – and the items she stored there for herself and others – would be safe from all but the most powerful magic now. Sometimes it paid to have older sisters who were strong in the Art.

Danica looked around, scowling at the dust and other assorted debris that had blown into the shop that day. It had been hot in the morning, but the breeze from the open door and windows had made the shop comfortable. That gentle breeze had unfortunately transformed into strong gusts later in the day, blowing half the outdoors into her shop, before she could get the doors and windows shut.

She waved a hand in a dismissive gesture and sighed, deciding that the sweeping could wait until tomorrow.

Seeing someone walking toward the shop she recognized, Danica quickly locked the door and turned the sign to read closed. She let out a sigh of relief as old man Sorrel turned, and walked back the way he had come upon seeing the sign. He always took forever to make his purchases, which were always things of minimal profit to Danica. Normally, she would have stayed open for him anyway, but tonight she was meeting someone, and needed time to get ready.

A quick spoken word activated the wards and alarms on the door, and Danica turned to head for her private chambers at the back of the shop. She sighed again as she passed her lab, knowing there was a lot of work in there that needed to be completed as well. Odds are she would be opening up quite late tomorrow, considering all the work she had to do before she could start the business day.

With a little luck, she hoped that maybe she would have a good reason to sleep in after tonight as well. Danica had been seeing Robert for a few weeks now, although they had only had the opportunity to step out together two or three times during those weeks. She liked him, and it had been a bit too long since she had been with a man, for her tastes. She was starting to get itchy and touching herself, which always bothered her.

She had wanted him from the moment she had met him, and the need was getting more than a little difficult to ignore. It had been six months or more since she'd had sex, when she met Robert. Somewhere between too little time and the wrong men, it had just happened. Danica was just afraid of jumping into bed with him and finding out he was an ass afterward – it had happened before.

After going out a few times, and spending quite a bit of time talking in the shop during the weeks they had known each other, Danica didn't think that was the case with Robert. He was charming, considerate, handsome, strong, and shared her interests. He worked as a healer, and that is how they had met. Danica was about the only source of many healing herbs in the area, and she either gathered or grew them herself to ensure they were fresh.

Danica had also had ample opportunities to notice the bulge in his trousers while they talked. She smiled and licked her lips thinking about it, as she opened the door to her private room in the back of the shop.

She could see him in her mind's eye, as she daydreamed for a few moments in the doorway. His wavy brown hair always seemed to be just a bit mussed, and a smile always decorated his clean-shaven face. His face had an almost boyish quality, but his deep, brown eyes shined with an intelligence and compassion that changed his whole look when she was caught up in them. He was lean and well muscled, which was obvious even in the modest clothing he commonly wore. That modest clothing could also do little to hide that bulge between his legs. Every time her eyes wandered there, the sight made Danica long to see – among other things – what was beneath that thin layer of cloth.

Danica felt a tingle between her legs as she thought about Robert, and shook her head to clear it. If she kept thinking like that, she knew she would end up having to play with herself or go crazy. Her sexual needs were not her only concern in seeing Robert. Lately, she had felt the grip of depression tightening around her. Her life was a continuous cycle of mediocrity, and she knew she needed a change, if she didn’t want to become one of those bitter old spinsters. She needed a shock to turn her life around, and she hoped Robert might be the person to provide that spark. More than anything, Danica wanted to be excited about life again.

She had put the kettles on to boil a while before closing up, and all four were whistling now from the next room. Danica stepped into the small room, a combination of kitchen and bathhouse that had once been her Master's room in the shop. Only one wall of his room connected to the rest of the building, and so the heat from the stove made the place less oppressive in the summer. It had also allowed Danica to run a drainpipe, giving her the opportunity to have more than a simple washtub. She was able to have daily baths in relative comfort, thanks to her permanent bathtub with its drain. It had cost Danica a ridiculous amount of money, but to her it was worth it.

Stepping out the back door, Danica made several trips to the water barrel out back with buckets, filling her tub with water. Once it was full, she poured in three kettles of water, bringing it to what she knew from experience was the perfect temperature.

Untying her robe, Danica let it fall without a thought to the floor. There would be time to deal with that later as well. Pulling off her undershirt, Danica winced at the smell. She had been sweating lightly ever since she opened, and washing with a cloth, even often, could only do so much.

She cupped her large breasts in her hands, lifting them and letting air circulate under them for a few moments. Her thoughts about Robert had caused her nipples to harden and stick out to their full length, about as long as the tip of her pinky and just as big around. Turning toward the mirror, she looked under them to make sure the heat and sweating hadn't caused any red lines. There was nothing to see, which was a good thing, because any imperfection would have kept her from considering taking her clothes off in front of Robert.

Reaching up, she removed the pins and ties from her hair and shook out her auburn tresses. They fell perfectly straight down to her shoulders, just resting upon them. It was longer than she usually chose to wear it, but when Robert had mentioned he liked it, she had put off trimming it back to her more accustomed style.

Danica's face broke into a crooked smile, and she posed in front of the mirror. She pushed her hips out to the side slightly, raising her arms up over her head and crossing her hands. She blew a kiss to the mirror, then laughed and dropped the pose. She knew she could not compare to her sister Devan's lithe dancer's figure, and perfect, firm boobs, but she had her own assets.

Danica's breasts were much larger than her sister's, and she had just the right amount of curve in her waist and hips to balance them. Her fair skin and freckles set her apart from her sister, and she had been told more than once that her face had the ability to mesmerize a person with its expressiveness.

Slipping off her panties, as she chased away her musing, Danica frowned at the long stubble on her legs, mound, and labia. There was an imperfection that had to be dealt with, if there was any chance of anything happening with Robert tonight. Shaving her legs and pussy was something she had done daily for years, but she had just been very busy in the shop lately. She had been staying open well after dark many days, and had simply been too tired to care.

Danica sank into the tub with a contented sigh. She grabbed her razor from next to the tub, and lifted one leg to where she could reach it. She wanted to get her shaving out of the way so she could relax for a few minutes in the warm water, letting it soak away some of the ache from being on her feet all day.

She shaved her legs with all the speed and skill of someone who has done it daily for so long it has become automatic, requiring little thought. Rising up to her knees in the water, she turned her razor upon the stubble on her mound. Within a minute or two, she was shaven completely bare with only a thin strip on her mound. Danica had always thought of it as an arrow pointing at her clit, showing a denser man where he was supposed to be licking her. A few quick snips with a pair of dainty scissors trimmed her arrow of hair down to a length she liked.

Pulling her knees up, Danica dunked her head under the water. She grabbed a cake of lavender scented soap, which she made herself, and started to wash.

Once she had washed, Danica relaxed back into the tub for a time. She got up at one point and walked, dripping, over to the stove for the last kettle of hot water. It allowed her a few more minutes of soaking before the water started to get a bit too chilly to be comforting.

Danica stood up, feeling her nipples become painfully stiff, and goose bumps popping up all over her skin. The air seemed chilly in the room despite the season, and the stove still burning. She had the oddest sensation she was being watched. Crossing her arms over her breasts, she looked around. There was naturally nothing to see, so Danica shook her head, pulled the plug, and stepped from the tub.

Danica patted her body dry with a towel and went back to her bedroom. She pulled on a clean pair of panties, frilly things that had been made with a fine weave of cotton. The thin strip of hair she left on her mound, and the outline of her labia, were plainly visible through the cloth. She smiled a little wondering what Robert might think of them, and then opened a cedar chest at the foot of her bed.

Danica pulled out a black dress and carefully smoothed it out. Fortunately, the material didn't let wrinkles set very easily and a few quick rubs of her hands had the material hanging properly.

Pulling on the dress, Danica looked down at her body with a smile. Anybody who knew her would know something special was happening tonight. This was her best dress, and it only came out of the cedar chest on special occasions. The dress hugged her curves, and the cut of the material lifted her breasts slightly. The plunge of the neckline showed a hint of cleavage, just enough to draw the eyes without being overly wanton.

Danica walked over to her dressing table and started brushing her hair, knowing she only had a little while left before she was supposed to meet Robert and that she was going to need every moment.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

The Inn where Robert took her to dine was the finest in the entire town. It was a new place, opened as the trade route began to take notice of the town, and more wealthy patrons became available to support it. The food was wonderful, and the wine was some of the best Danica had ever tasted.

Danica had plenty of room to judge the wine, because she drank a lot of it. She was still a little nervous, despite how badly she wanted this night to turn out with her sharing Robert's bed. She was more than a little tipsy when they moved to a table in a shadowed corner of the Inn, to sip wine after eating.

After a few kisses, Danica felt desire and arousal start to boil up within her. Robert was a perfect gentleman, and despite his wanting her to, he had been polite enough not to even hint at it, without seeing signals from her that she was thinking about it too. Danica was sending those signals now, and they were getting stronger by the minute.

Kisses turned into heavy petting, and Danica heard the rude comments from a couple of men sitting a short distance away at the same time Robert did. Danica blushed a deep red in embarrassment, but the color in Robert's cheeks was something else entirely. He stared hard at the table from which the rude comments had erupted for a moment and then said, "Shall we go take a walk?"

Danica smiled and nodded her agreement – her eyes going wide when she stood and felt her head swim. "I think I may need to walk a bit to clear some of this wine out of my head," she said with a laugh.

"I'm feeling it too. I was a little nervous about tonight, and I think I drank a little too much."

"At least we're having fun," Danica responded, and kissed him.

"Let's go walk down by the temple gardens. It's beautiful in the moonlight, and cooler there. It's not far from my house if we want to stop and rest for a while."

Danica let a crooked, knowing grin creep over her face when he said the last. It seemed he just might be thinking the same thing she was after all. He was just too much of a gentleman to hint at it any more than that.

They walked to the temple district, and the air was indeed cooler there. It was generally assumed that the concentration of the magic from the closely spaced temples kept the area cool or warm – as the weather dictated.

Though the local temples were small, they had magnificent gardens. It seemed each temple tried to outdo the one next to it by importing greater numbers of exotic flowers, or building pools and stocking them with colorful fish. The gardens had actually attracted attention from many nearby areas, and those visitors had begun the flow of traffic that now slowly swelled the town.

As they walked hand in hand, Danica noticed they were approaching the temple of Erotine. Danica felt a little tingle in her nipples and between her legs, thinking about the one time she had been there – and about Robert walking beside her.

Those who entered an Erotine temple were required to be nude. She had been drinking – a great deal more than she had this night – with a lover when the suggestion they go there had come up. Drunk and aroused, she had agreed. She had sobered slightly when she had to disrobe at the temple entrance, and her head cleared even more once they entered, to find four couples having sex in plain sight. The priestesses stared at her shamelessly, obvious desire evident in their eyes. Those looks were more disconcerting to Danica than everything else. Her lover had distracted her from her worries shortly thereafter, however.

It had been one of the few times Danica had let a man come inside her. She was barren according to the healers and clerics, so that was not the problem. The problem was that she doubted she would ever find any sort of lasting relationship if she revealed her inability to have children. Those who would not have minded her barrenness probably had no intentions of staying with her, so Danica always had her partner pull from her before he reached his peak.

Danica loved the feeling of a man flooding her depths with his hot cream, however, and she wanted it every time. It was not as if she could get pregnant, so the temptation was always there – long-term happiness be damned. No woman had ever become pregnant in an Erotine temple, and the fact was well known. Thus, Danica had felt nothing prevented her from feeling her lover explode inside her within those walls. She was half-tempted to try to steer Robert into the temple, as the memories brought intense arousal with them.

"Are you alright Danica?"

Danica snapped back to reality, and immediately blushed in embarrassment. She could feel the wetness between her legs, and knew the look she had on her face must have betrayed what she was thinking. "I'm okay. I must just be tired, or hot, or something."

"We could sit down on one of the benches for a while," Robert suggested, gesturing toward one nearby.

"Why don't we just go to your house," Danica countered, a hint of desire creeping into her voice – even though she had really intended to hide it.

Danica saw the faint shudder that Robert did his best to control. "Of course," he replied with a smile.

They reached the house a few minutes later. It was modest, but was at least as big as Danica's shop, and only a tiny part of that comprised her living quarters. They went inside to have another cup of wine, and soon they were kissing again.

Things progressed quickly, Robert beginning to put more passion into his touches and kisses with each passing moment. Danica matched him, becoming more intensely aroused, and in need of release every second. At last, she could resist no longer, and lay her hand over the bulge in his trousers. She moaned quietly into their kiss, as she felt his hard manhood throb beneath her hand.

They broke the kiss and stared at each other breathlessly for a moment. Robert then stood up and held out his hand to Danica. She took it, and he led her to the bedroom.

When they entered, Danica smiled and started to unbutton her dress. Robert pulled off his shirt at the same time, his eyes going wide when he saw Danica's full breasts revealed to him.

Danica finished unbuttoning the dress and let it pool to the floor at her feet. She stepped forward and kissed him, letting her breasts press up against his naked chest. She felt him quiver, and a tingle ran up and down her spine at the same time.

Reaching down, Danica pulled his trousers down as far as she could reach, and wrapped her hand around his cock. Her moan this time was much louder – and much more intense – as she felt his hard, naked flesh throbbing in her hand. Her fingertips just touched around the girth of his member, and she knew she could have wrapped both hands around it, and the tip still would have poked out the top.

He traced kisses down her neck, on down her shoulder, then kissed across her chest, moving toward her breast. Danica breathed heavily from the combination of her anticipation and arousal, as he slowly neared her breasts.

The fist kiss on the swell of her breast brought a moan of pleasure from her; the second caused her to suck in a sharp breath of air. When his lips closed over her nipple, Danica threw her head back and gasped. Her hands found the back of his head of their own violation, and she caressed his head as he suckled her breasts.

Robert was far from ready to end his loving attention when Danica gently pushed him away. She was getting wetter by the moment, and knew she would be soaking the panties she still wore, if she didn't get out of them. She pulled them down and stepped out of them hastily, sitting down on the foot of the bed, and sliding backward toward the head.

When she reached the head of the bed, Danica lay back and parted her legs. Robert stared with aroused fascination at her glistening pussy, and Danica slightly inclined her head indicating she wanted him in the bed with her – now.