She lies in the water, eyes closed, her breathing slowing, as I slide my fingers from her and let her float, kissing her softly before sending her off to bob free.When she finally stands, her own long hair a cloak around her, she’s smiling, a small and secret smile.
Brem faces me, hands cupped over her own small, round breasts.“Thank you, Remi,” she says.“The order I fought for, was given to as a child… we were raised celibate, to honor the Sun God with our bodies, free of worldly passions.”How tragic.“I’ve held that belief, though I was gifted from my sisters as agladattemany years ago and my vows are long forgotten.”She sighs deeply, running her hands through her hair.“I knew you were the one to show me what I was missing.”
Does she know she broke my heart with that simple explanation?How could a trusted order of warriors sacrifice her to this life?Outrage wants to creep in, too, but she’s so soft, so open, that I can’t bring myself to spoil it.Instead, I choose to finish the task she’s entrusted to me, this friend I’ve made and already adore, despite myself.“Are we done?”I lean back against the wall of the pool.“I still haven’t sucked you yet.”
All I can do is laugh when her eyes fly wide, cheeks hot all over again as she claps her hands to them in shock.How is she an innocent in this world so devoid of such, surrounded by death and forced into slavery for the delight of others after a life of servitude to an order that threw her away?It’s astounding to me, as much as she is.But I will do what I can to bring her joy, I swear it.
For as long as I can.Maybe doing so will bring me my own measure of peace.
“Come here,” I growl at her.“I haven’t had another woman’s clit in my mouth for far too long.”
She’s trembling again when I take her in my arms.But she’s laughing, too.
Before she’s moaning again.Turns out she’s a fast learner, an eager one.Because when she knows what to do?
I’m moaning, too.
***
Chapter Sixteen
Life is now training and eating and sucking and fucking, enduring the heat of the day while I suffer through Prenese’s endless armor alterations as the sunrises and sunsets add up to far longer than I would like.
I now know that my freedom won’t be won here, in provincial matches against other stables, where none are killed and the stakes are low.Brem tells me as much in whispers in the darkness when she curls against me, my shoulder her pillow, half asleep as she shares her secrets and the expectations of this existence.
“We’re the lucky ones,” she says, lips grazing my skin though we’re both spent, her attachment only deepening with every act of lovemaking.I struggle between guilt over using her to assuage my own loneliness, knowing I’m going to leave her eventually, and a need for connection that has me luring her as often as she seduces me into sex play.It helps that she’s an eager student, happy to give me what I need and as delighted with what I’m willing to give.Whatever held her back, she’s no longer restrained and seems to expand into herself over the days.“We live as we choose, by the sword and by our strength.Not all are as fortunate.”
“But we’re still whores,” I say, knowing it’s true.Didn’t Romouth say as much to me the day she bought me?“We’re just selling our bodies for another reason.It’s all the same, though.”
She snorts at me.“Perhaps,” she says.“But I’d rather cut off a man’s jutting thing than have it inside me.”While she’s discovered she enjoys my fingers in her pussy, she’s rejected every substitute for a dick I’ve come up with, including a thick, carved stone dildo offered up with a wink by Hloraine.
While I’ve taught Brem to use it because my cunt loves it.The harder and deeper the better.
“Fair,” I say.“But freedom?How do I fight for that?”
She goes quiet for a long time, then exhales against me, goosebumps rising from the stimulation of her breath.“I knew you’d be pursuing it,” she says, soft and sad.“It’s no surprise.And nor do you have long to wait, my love.”It’s the first time she’s called me that, and I blink tears in the dark, grieving the men I’ve left behind, though she knows it not.I haven’t told her everything, or much at all, if I’m being fair.“Our training is in preparation for the Sun God’s birthing day, when he rose from the ashes and was reborn to us.”An odd belief these Sunnish folk have, that their king is really the reincarnation of their god, the Sun Himself, brought to life in the body of a man.
But who am I to question what they think when I’m talking to a dragon in my head?Though, tot as often as I used to, and I’m worried she’s fading from me and will soon be gone like Atlas and Zenthris seem to be.
“We’ll be fighting for our freedom then, I take it?”I stroke her hair absently, already considering the future, when the present should be enough to hold me.I’d thought her weary enough to sleep, but her fingers creep between my thighs and she’s already stroking me to passion again.
I understand her tactic.She doesn’t want me to go.But she does answer me as she lifts herself up on her elbow and looks down into my eyes in the dimness of the unlit room, lips parting while she watches my reaction to her touch.
“I have you for ten days more,” she says.“And I will take advantage of every second I’m allowed.”
When she kisses me, she’s the one who moans, and though I should be focusing on her, I’m eager, excited, and rush my orgasm, pushing her hand hard inside me.
Ten more days.
I will be ready.
But there is another thing to consider, and when I note that Morinthi and Hloraine watch Brem with me, catch their gazes lingering, I invite them to join us in bed, beckoning them from where they lounge on cushions before we retreat to my chamber.I leave a lantern on because I want my lover to see what is in store for her.Brem’s nervousness returns, her uncertainty expected.I sit her gently on a pillow to one side to watch, then take command of the tall, thin warrior and her tattooed partner.
I’m finger fucking Hloraine who eats Morinthi’s dripping cunt, when I feel a hand on my back that slides down to the curve of my ass.Brem’s willingness to sit aside doesn’t last any longer than I expected it to, and I turn to smile at her, catching her lips for a moment before I firmly bring Hloraine to orgasm.
But I’m far from done.Brem is in my arms, now laid out beside Morinthi, the lean fighter’s lips on her neck, her ear, then suckling her while Hloraine shifts her attention, agile tongue making Brem squirm and squeal.
I hold Brem’s gaze as the two women make her the absolute center of their passion, watching her, keeping space with her, until her pupils widen to devour the dark brown and her head arches backward, panting cries loud enough that someone outside the room shouts for us to shut the fuck up and finish already.
