There were few details in the course of a day for Alexios that were not meticulously planned and pre-meditated. He considered each dawn too vital to squander, making the most of every opportunity waking hours afforded and that was never more true than in his return trips home to Vasiliadon. Those trips were too precious, too rare a respite from the demands of the occupation force he led and administrated in Judea and the need to make the most of them too great to waste a second on anything but the visits, appointments, audiences, and reunions that mattered.
His first call on setting foot in the capital was, inevitably, the Leventi Manor. Alexios owed much of his success and indeed his present command to Fotios. One might say he wouldn't have anything were it not for the noble family, given his upbringing in Argothia and the brutal childhood he'd escaped only by the circumstances afforded by life under their largesse. But there were other compelling reasons for a visit, and that, or rather who was why he approached the grand estate at the outer perimeter of the city walls with a wrapped package under arm and a knowing smile canting his mouth at a crooked angle. The lady of the house demanded attention ... always. In Eirini he knew a kindred spirit even if the rumors of her low birth were mere slander. Ambition recognized its like, impossible to hide the heat of avid, wanton compulsion. It shone like a beacon and drew him more surely to the home of his patrons than all the political and monetary power the structure radiated. And the quality only enhanced her exquisite beauty. His pulse quickened just for passing beneath the threshold, a frisson of anticipation running either direction along the soldier's spine.
He had polished his breastplate to a brilliant shine, its gold embellishments glowing against the rich crimson setting of his tunic and a cloak of the same carmine hue following in his wake. The commander trod purposefully, exuding the confidence that had led to countless conquests on the battlefield (and bedroom), swarthy skin and blue eyes and sly, vigorous grin drawing the attention of attendants and earning a quick, unchallenged escort to the lady's location.
As double doors were opened for him, Alexios took the liberty of kicking them shut behind before anyone else could enter, an expectant twinkle of sapphire smugness in his eyes. "It's been too long ..." the rich bass timbre of his voice rang through the room whose particulars he had yet to truly notice. "Ooof," he made a play at jostling the package carried under one arm corded thick around as a man. "I'd be tempted to say I've accumulated too many treasures to lay at your feet but I don't think that's possible, my lady."
It had been a rather mundane morning, one of those rare days where Eirini struggled to find entertainment or amusements and so she she found herself lounging within the confines of her luxurious dressing room. Sprawled out upon one of the luxurious kline's, she was dressed simply and yet the word itself was not what it use to mean to her, nowadays 'simple' involved expensive silks and less jewellery than usual. Gold bands in the shape of serpents coiled around her freshly-oiled upper arms, their emerald eyes glittering as they caught the sun and raven hair as dark as the night sky hung like freshly-spun silk around her, perfumed and oiled to maintain its radiance – all of which were a silent testament to how far her ambitions had carried her.
Had she have known of the commanders imminent arrival, then Eirini would have spent the morning readying herself opposed to lounging – usually, she would not have received company in such simplistic attire and undressed hair. Yet leave it to the handsome warrior to arrive unannounced, it hadn't been the first time he had caught her unaware...at least this time she was not bathing.
Thus, Alexios' arrival was both unexpected and yet failed to take Eirini completely by surprise. She sat up quickly, eyes widened in momentary shock at the sound of his voice and yet she couldn't deny it was pleasant surprise to see him – a smile quickly curled at her reddened lips.
"Yet I see your manners have not improved..." She teased, rising to her feet and moving towards him with a graceful glide. "Don't you know that it's quite rude to burst in on a woman unannounced – gods know what you could have walked in on me doing." A glimmer of innuendo flickered in her honeyed hues, lightened by the playfulness that often embraced their reunions. "Though I do suppose it would be rather unpatriotic of me to hold that against you, especially since you come bearing gifts."
Biting down upon her bottom lip, Eirini's eyes shone with anticipation, her hands curling around his broad arm – her pride and vanity never failing to bask in the attention offered by Alexios. "What have you bought for me this time?"
Any who might have doubted the magnetism and attraction that Eirini could bring to bear and the power of those gifts needed only see the open appreciation and, yes, desire that immediately flared in the sapphire windows onto Alexios' unrepentantly avid soul. Even unexpected and shorn of preparation she earned a low, unintelligible rumble in the back of his throat and a roguish shift in his smile. A queen should lie like that. An empress. The seductress of all mankind, Aphrodite for gods' sake. In every valley, every rise, every feature of the unique terrain of the lady's body welled the kind of beauty that bade anyone stop, and if permitted to drink deep.
He made it a custom to never let her know of his arrival ahead of time to secure moments like this one. Alexios reveled in taking Eirini by surprise, imagining few did and never, ever disappointed by the state he discovered her in. "My manners are for you to judge, but I can attest other qualities have been honed further in the heat of Judea. I'd hoped I would find you in the bath again ... I'd have joined you and offered to take care of those hard-to-reach places, but I'll take you however I can get you, my lady," Alexios teased, joining in the dance of barely respectable comments and lewd suggestions that kept him balanced on an exquisite razor's edge round Eirini.
"I rather hope there's a lot you'll hold against me ... preferably wrapped around my waist or slung over my shoulders for hours on end," he added at her approach, starting to grasp the parcel he'd brought tighter (or to present those rock-hard, tensed muscles for the scrutiny of her cool, lithe fingers to roam).
Canting his head down to meet her forehead with his, he ghosted his mouth within a hair's breadth of Eirini's pouty lips, breathing every murmured word against their ledge but leaving a kiss just short of joined. It was a game to see who could best put the other in their thrall. A contest not unlike a battlefield with forces arrayed in their finest, "There are certain things that make me think of you when I'm across the ocean, my beguiling Lady Leventi. They quicken the pulse, remind me of pleasurable reunions like this one and make me anticipate the next. Do you want to see? Then let me have a taste of your mouth like one who's been years in the desert without an oasis to quench his thirst," he insisted, too bold by far but goaded to it by all that Eirini's barest touch and the endless depths of her amber eyes could achieve.
Eirini revelled beneath the hunger of his gaze, it curled the corners of her red lips and darkened honeyed hues with a mischievous glint. Flattery was her Achilles heel, so to speak, and none flattered more intensely than Alexios of Argothia. Yet, it wasn't just his words that evoked girlish excitement to well beneath her breast, nor was it just his handsomeness (and god's above was he handsome) that stoked the fire, but it was his reactions to her also.
It was one of her greatest delights in life to arouse an unquenchable thirst within men, one that would steadily drive them to the brink of madness in desire of her – it was all a game she played and perhaps it was cruel, but there was none she rather play it with than Alexios.
Nevertheless, it was a game played with equal skill on his part and something that had come to frame their interactions. That, coupled with her genuine fondness for the commander had caused Eirini to look at man somewhat differently than others – something akin to an equal oppose to an inferior, almost anyhow.
Lips parted and eyes widened at his sordid words, but there was no offence to behold upon her countenance, merely delight and amusement and tilting back her head, a melodic chortle fell from her tongue. "You are incorrigible, Alexios!" Came her light chastise, but her words were not without pleasure at the expression of his desire for her – she adored knowing such things.
Eirini's gaze did not falter as Alexios leant in, his lips mere hairsbreadth from her own, yet she remained steadfast, the only movement her lips made was to curl into a smirk of pure self-satisfaction. "I cannot say my husband would be to pleased should he discover I've been bestowing kisses to handsome soldiers in my private rooms now, would he?" Her sultry tone dipped to a whisper and then she moved her head slightly to press her lips to his cheek before whispering, "come, show me what you have and tell me all about Judea."
Pulling back, Eirini slipped her arm through his and lead him over to the kline where she had previously been lounging. "Nefeli, bring us refreshments." She called to her maid stood in the corner.
Alexios stared long and deep; all but drowned in the depths of Eirini's gaze trying to plumb her thoughts. Her beauty was undeniable and unmatched but it was the mind that powered the mechanism of this body desired by so many that truly held him in sway. He had to be set apart, unique, distinguished among her catalogue of lovers and worth desiring as this woman had made him desire her. He trusted that in the delight his appearance earned that he was and the curiosity is part of what kept him returning to the home of his patrons every time he could steal away a few days in Vasiliadon.
"If I'm incorrigible it's because you make me so," he fired right back, punctuated with a rakish wink. He aspired to the kiss he requested, but would have been a little disappointed if it'd been that easy. "Fortunately it's your pleasure I'm focused on at the moment. And my lord Fotios can hardly fault me for paying proper obeisance to the lady of the house. On my knees, if that's what it takes to taste your sweetness more delicious than the wines of Galilee," he whispered against her ear as a brush of Eirini's mouth against his cheek was the gift received, worth all that he held under his arm and more.
He let himself be drawn back towards Eirini's reclining couch, setting his package down upon it, pulling the silken thread that held it shut slack so the beguiling mistress of the manor could satisfy her curiosity. "There are precious silks from the fast East to caress you, a bottle of fine perfume to anoint every hollow and divot that call for a lover's touch, and something very special a trader assured me had been claimed from the site of fabled Troy and once graced Helen's own skin." He'd give no more hint of that, leaving her to discover the delicate golden weave and lustrous diamonds that seemed to him made to worship her body. It was enough to draw Eirini back onto the cushions of her kline and revel in her reaction.