( Nymeria POV )
Nymeria took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh salty breeze coming from offshore, looking at Cape Tear disappearing behind the frigate, while the sun rose on the horizon.
The boat gently coasted on the waves, barely rocking, while starting to pick up speed and heading south, along the Dornish coast towards Planky Town.
If they were lucky, they could reach the port city before nightfall. If the winds were against them, they would arrive sometime during the night, or in the early morning.
With such a strong escort, pirates were not to be expected, they attacked lone ships, not convoys and especially not convoys as armed as these.
Soon, she would be home. Finally free to meet her warm bed again, to breathe the perfumed air of her rooms, to find the courtyard of Sunspear, the pools of the Water Gardens, and her Dornish pearl, little Aliandra, who she – they – had left for far too long.
A presence soon became felt next to her. She didn't even have to turn her head to notice who it was, managing to discern the smell of lavender.
"Hey, love," she said, loud enough so that her voice wasn't masked by the sound of the waves.
Quentyn didn't say anything, breathing in the fresh morning air as well, then turning around and smiling brightly, kissing her on the cheek.
"Hello, Nym," he spoke tenderly, "How was your night?"
"Not as exciting as yours, I assume," she giggled, smirking at him.
"Funny," he chuckled back, not even flushing for a second. She therefore tried to poke him a little more.
"I'm serious! My night was quite dull, but yours has been full of action, the Toland girl likely was heard as far as Yronwood." She grinned.
"Yes, she was very loud," Quentyn said with a frown, "Not subtle, even for a second."
"You're becoming better at identifying teasing." She looked at him with a proud air. "Did everything go as expected?"
"It did," he acknowledged.
"I told you so." She let out a large sigh. "That girl is poisonous."
"You told me as much," Quentyn replied, drawing another deep breath, "I thought I knew her to be more…conciliatory, if you will."
She shrugged in response. "I've grown up with most of these girls, Quent, I know how they are. Valena Toland is one of the most ambitious. I told you Myria was a much better option."
"Is that because she would not frown on sharing?" he asked with a smile.
Nymeria stopped dead in her tracks before laughing heartily.
"You bastard, you're teasing me!" she slapped him on the back of the head, earning a grunt and a chuckle from her lover.
"I've taken lessons from the best," he smiled back, clutching his neck with his left hand.
"Seriously, though, what happened?" she asked, straightening up.
"She did the usual stuff, you know." He shrugged. "She thought she was seducing me, luring me into her bed, or something along those lines."
"I knew that, what else?" she asked, unsurprised.
"Well, it seems she thought that the best way of making my head spin and magically making me fall in love with her was giving herself to me and trying to make me go crazy for her." Quentyn sighed. "I was a bit of an idiot thinking one night together would make her change her mind, but you know her now, she saw an opportunity and seized it, and you know me, I think I can make people change..."
"Of course," she scoffed back. "Did it work?"
"Wha-" Quentyn started before brutally interrupting himself, "You're teasing me again!"
Nymeria smiled widely and rubbed her hands on his cheeks.
"You were this close!" she laughed. "It was easy for you to understand, then?"
"I think I've lived long enough in Dorne to understand how these women work. Arianne did the same to the men she seduced, Tyene tried to do it to me, and Valena is neither the first nor the last to use her body as venom." Quentyn shook his head. "Of course, I didn't fall for it. It seems that every woman in Eastern Dorne has the same trick and does not know what to do in case it fails."
"That didn't happen, did it?" she smirked.
"You know the rest." Quentyn's cheeks reddened slightly. "She wouldn't let go, only stopping once she was completely exhausted and almost unable to move."
"Yes, she did try her hardest, did she?" Nymeria smirked.
"Indeed," Quentyn nodded. "A little too hard, perhaps. Did you know she called my…manhood, her little prince, and her big prince? I thought people had died from embarrassment for less, but I apparently stand corrected!"
Nymeria had to cover her mouth to avoid bursting into a fit of laughter.
"What does she wish?" Nymeria asked, probing further, trying not to lose control and start wriggling on the floor like a little girl.
"Take a guess."
"Sure." She thought for only a moment. "Me gone and you all to herself?"
"That's how I understood it, anyhow," Quentyn replied honestly. "She does not wish to share, and everything she did led me to believe she was trying to pull me to her and away from you. I even thought she wanted me more than Sunspear."
"Don't get too cocky, you're pretty but not that pretty," she teased in return. "Did you get her to talk?"
"Not much, unfortunately," he sighed. "But she told me enough to know the main point of her intentions, which were if not getting rid of you, relegating you to a bedwarmer at best, and having more power and decisions in Sunspear."
"The little bitch thinks she's going to come into our lives and just expect to take you away from me? Is she daft?" Nymeria scoffed, crossing her arms.
"She thought her looks would be enough," Quentyn said.
"I don't blame her!" she countered with a sly smile. "That bright red hair of hers, those breasts and those full lips…I'd have killed to bed her, what a waste…"
"Jealousy, now?" Quentyn grinned.
"I confess!" she smirked back. "What happens now?"
"Valena is really the best option we have. My choices are thinning out rapidly, and having Ghost Hill is a non-negligible asset for me," Quentyn pointed out. "I'd love to marry Myria, and no doubt you do too, but two Jordayne marriages in three generations of Martells would cause some amount of discontent amongst the bannermen. It would be an option satisfying to no one but ourselves."
Nymeria did like Myria but she had to concede that Quentyn was right.
He continued, "I'm not cruel enough to separate Jynessa Blackmont and that Manwoody boy, and it is out of the question for me to even think about the Uller girls.
This leaves us with Valena here, or Sylva Santagar, who is currently in Highgarden, or even perhaps Allyria Dayne, Ned's aunt, but I'm not very keen on giving the Daynes a lot more than they already have."
"Spotted Sylva would do," Nymeria said after giving it a quick thought. "I hadn't seen you explore that option."
"Because it is one of last resort," he added, "I'm not keen on marrying her, but if there is no one left…"
"And the Toland girl?" she changed the subject back to the issue at hand.
"I'll give her a chance," Quentyn finally exhaled, making Nymeria frown. "She's coming to 'visit' her uncle Lucian in Sunspear, and I expect her to try and continue to seduce me. I'll refuse to come into her bed like I did in Ghost Hill, and I'll make it explicitly clear that you and I come as one. She cannot expect to break us apart."
"And if she doesn't accept this?"
"Remind it to her…" Quentyn suddenly stopped while seeing her grinning from ear to ear. "…without doing her harm."
"You're no fun," she scoffed with a sly smile. "Although I doubt she will accept this."
Quentyn raised his hands in acknowledgement. "If she doesn't, we will have to look elsewhere., I will continue to make it clear that a marriage with me, although it is not one with her, will not work if she ignores the ties that bind you and I."
Quentyn fiddled with the lone ring on his finger, while Nymeria instinctively went for the intricate ring she wore on hers.
"You sound optimistic," she confessed, "I doubt that one will accept such a thing lying down."
"She doesn't have much of a choice," Quentyn said firmly "I'm willing to offer concessions that are quite reasonable. I am not, however, willing to budge on us, Aliandra or anything that could come in our way."
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