my princess only lets me take my gloves off for her. at all other times I must wear them, saving my flesh for her eyes and touch alone. I feel near to naked even with only my leather when my gauntlets are off, lest I am sequestered with her, and even (or especially) then, to feel revealed in that way is maddening.
"these," she tells me, trailing a delicate fingertip along the ridged hinge of my gauntlet's knuckle, "are the hands of the kingdom, the deliverers of god's will."
then she slowly unbinds and releases me from them, a task so unbecoming of her own silk-soft hands, the duty of a squire carried out by her highness—and with such grace, such unhurried dally, as if she is savouring me.
"and these," she tells me, holding up my hands laid bare in her own warm palms, the only touch that skin knows and that which I have known no comparable hunger for, she says, "are mine."