She didn't like boys. She liked men.

It had always been like that, even when she had been only a girl and not a woman. She had let a stable boy take her virginity, true, but only because she was too young for any real men to notice her. While the boy fumbled and pushed himself into her awkwardly, she imagined a handsome knight or maybe one of her father's guards, all toned muscles and intense eyes, looming over her, covering her body with theirs.

A few years later, Ashe Trevelyan learned two things: The power a woman could hold over a man and how dangerous it could be to play games. There were always consequences. Once, a Templar had come the Trevelyan estate to oversee her training. He was supposed to watch if she would make a suitable Templar. She'd always had skills with a blade and her parents thought it would tame her if she were to focus on becoming one. In fact, they thought it would be perfect seeing as she had always seemed fascinated and intrigued by Templars, and that was true. They just didn't know it was because Ashe wanted to fuck them all. Well, maybe not all of them. Just the pretty ones.

That Templar had been the first one that Ashe had broken. He had taken vows, he could be trusted and so his training sessions with her were unsupervised. They'd be alone for hours, sweating, panting, touching. She didn't even have to do that much before the first cracks in his resolve to be a good, little Templar appeared. In less than a week after he'd first arrived, he fucked her against the wall in the training hall and it was everything Ashe had thought it would be. He was handsome and she loved the way his muscles flexed underneath the tips of her fingers when she slid them down his torso while he drove himself into her, again and again, biting his lip to keep the groans from leaving his throat. To be fucked by a man was nothing like being fumbled with by a boy.

But he overstayed his welcome. He was supposed to be there only for a week to assess her potential but he persuaded Lord Trevelyan that he needed another after that. And then another. After almost three weeks had passed, he started to change. At first, Ashe didn't understand it. He started to ask her to stay with him for a while after the sex was done, said that he wanted to hold her close and just talk. He told her how beautiful she was, how her deep, red hair was like the color of the burning sunset, how her lips were made for his. She had groaned inwardly when she understood that he was actually in love with her. Maker, what an idiot. Why would he fall in love with someone he could never have? He was a Templar who'd taken vows of chastity and she was the daughter of Bann Trevelyan. Besides, the man had to be at least thirty years old. Wasn't she the one who was supposed to have stupid crushes?

When she decided that he needed to leave before it got any worse, she went to her father to suggest that he should come by to one of the training sessions to see her progress. She never told the Templar about that, though. So when Lord Trevelyan walked through the door to the training hall with two of Ashe's older brothers in tow, and saw his sixteen-year-old daughter being held down to the floor and fucked by someone who was supposed to be the safest company in the world, all kinds of shit broke loose. Screams erupted and they ripped him off her and the Templar didn't even have time to beg for mercy before the Bann and his sons had beaten him to death.

Ashe sat cowering on the floor as she watched the life go out of the man who'd just been inside her. When her father approached her, she raised her hands in front of her face, thinking in a panic that they would do the same to her. Lord Trevelyan mistook her fear for him for trauma and assumed that she had been raped. She didn't contradict him. Maybe she would have if the man had still been alive, but he was dead and there was no point in incriminating herself. This was not what she thought was going to happen. She had assumed that the Templar would be sent away and that she would be yelled at.

But she learned a lot that day about what a woman could do to a man, not just to a lover but to fathers and brothers as well, how strong their emotions could be when it came to their women. In those weeks, she learned her first lessons of control, manipulation and violence. She would have great use for them all once she became the Inquisitor.

She could feel him staring at her again. He hadn't always looked at her like that. When she had first come to the Inquisition, he'd barely given her a second glance. She'd had no time to think much about him then, either. But as time went on and she spent more time in Haven and subsequently Skyhold, she had a hard time keeping her eyes off him. He was her type exactly, so spot on that it was ridiculous. Extremely handsome, tall, well built. Confident, strong, commanding.

Guess a Commander needs to be commanding.

At first, she knew he thought of her as a child. She was nineteen years old when she became the Inquisitor. She doubted he would have even accepted her in that role were it not for the fact that she was strong, a warrior as she was, and the way she held the sword they'd given her high and confident in the air above the cheering crowd in Skyhold when they announced her new title.

His lack of interest in her only intrigued her. She loved a challenge. By the time she'd defeated Corypheus, she'd shown enough ruthlessness, power, authority and guts to make bold decisions that he'd started to regard her as an adult and not a child. She could tell by the way he spoke to her and Maker, how he looked at her with that gaze of his – so intense it made her knees weak, although she would never show it.

She could see the familiar spark of lust in his eyes and she delighted in it. She touched herself whenever she had a quiet night to herself, thinking of those eyes piercing into her while he was on top of her in bed, thrusting himself into her wetness with long, powerful strokes. She wanted to feel his hands grip her hips so hard it would leave her bruised, she wanted to feel his teeth nip at her skin, his sweat dripping down on her. She wanted to hear that deep, rumbling voice tell her all the dirty things he wanted to do to her.

But she would not give herself to him so easily. While she may have liked the challenge of changing his feelings for her, it still pissed her off that she'd had to work so hard for it. She was used to getting what she wanted much quicker.

So now that he was standing there on the other side of the war table, undressing her with his eyes while slowly licking his lips so carefully that only she noticed, she knew she would enjoy making him squirm. She would tease him until he became desperate. She didn't know what excited her more – to see how long he could resist or the thought of him breaking immediately and just claim her one day when she didn't expect it. Maybe pull her into a dark corridor when she was walking through Skyhold at night, kiss her until she wouldn't be able to breathe before he ripped her clothes off...

Both choices were heavenly.

"Inquisitor?"

Ashe cleared her throat. "Yes, Cassandra, you were saying?"

The Seeker looked at her and shook her head. "Just because Corypheus is dead doesn't mean you should stop paying attention. Anyway, as I was saying... King Alistair is arriving any minute now, we should get out to the throne room to greet him. The rest of the meeting can wait."

Right, King Alistair. She was actually quite excited, she'd never met royalty before. And she'd heard that he was a handsome ex-templar too. And a damned hero. Couldn't get any better than that.

"Yes, of course, lead the way."

Cassandra exited the room first. Josephine followed her, and on her way out she stopped by Ashe's side and smiled wickedly at her. "You know, Inquisitor, I hear King Alistair is quite curious about you. He's been asking around about you, not anything to do with the Inquisition, but personal matters. Like what types of food you like, your favorite flowers and such things. He's unmarried, still, after all this time. Inquisitor and King, now that's a powerful union if you ask me."

The Antivan continued to smile at her and followed Cassandra out of the room.

Ashe felt a little stunned by what Josie had said, but quite intrigued. It would be fair game for her to flirt with the King? Her thoughts were interrupted when Cullen came into her view as he made to leave as well. She was surprised when he walked up to her and stopped only inches away.

"Forget what Josie said." His tone was hard.

Ashe arched her eyebrow at him. "Oh? And why should I do that, Commander?"

His eyes were so intense, she could barely meet his gaze. Maker, he was so close.

He smells so fucking good...

"He has a whole harem of girls in Denerim. He's not worthy of your attention. He'll only want to use you, trust me."

Ashe felt flattered by his obvious jealousy, but also annoyed. She didn't like being told what to do. She stuck her chin out and stared back at him, fixing his eyes with the same intensity he carried.

"Maybe I like being used," she said, her voice low. She expected to see an irritated scowl on his face at her words, but if anything he just looked more hungry, his eyes darkening further.

Before he had time to respond, Josephine stuck her head back in through the door and cleared her throat.

"I can hear the doors opening out there, His Majesty must be here now. Hurry along, Inquisitor."

Ashe tore her gaze away from Cullen and followed Josephine. She could hear Cullen let out a dissatisfied grunt before he followed as well, and she smiled to herself.

When they entered the throne room, Ashe hurried to stand in front of the Andrastian throne. A gaudy, over-sized thing, but a statement she felt necessary to remind people that visited who was in charge.

A ridiculous amount of guards wearing Ferelden's royal crest entered the hall and positioned themselves along the walls and the exits. After them, a tall, blonde man walked in and Ashe almost sighed quietly in delight. He wasn't just handsome, he was fucking gorgeous. Before he'd even reached her, she already imagined what he looked like out of his armor.

When he did arrive in front of her, he gave her the most attractive smile she'd ever seen. The way his lips quirked up a bit more on one side, Maker... She wanted to trace every inch of those lips with her tongue.

He bowed his head slightly and grabbed her hand, and she almost whimpered when he put his lips to her skin in a soft kiss. When the kiss was finished, he didn't release her hand. She could see Cullen shift his stance in the corner of her vision.

Good, let him know what he's been missing all this time.

"My Lady, it's such a pleasure to finally meet you."

She bowed her head in return, skin burning where his hand still touched hers. "And for me as well, Your Majesty. It's an honor to have you here as our most welcome guest."

"You flatter me, my Lady." The King didn't even glance around at the others standing around her. He only looked at her.

"Please, Your Majesty, call me Ashe."

He smiled even wider.

"I can't deny the request of someone as beautiful as you, my Lady. And from what I've heard about your ruthless dealings with your enemies, I would hate to become one, to even risk it by denying you..." he kissed her hand again, "any wish you might have. So Ashe it is, then."

She laughed softly and he still didn't release her hand. She swept her eyes across her companions and Cassandra looked mildly intrigued, Josephine positively excited and Cullen...

Cullen looked like he wanted to punch the grin off the King's face, teeth bared and all.

Oh, this will be so much fun.

But do not have too much fun, she reminded herself. There are always consequences.