Chapter Three—Caught in the Act

 

Tanis slid his lips over the head of the warrior’s impressive cock. The young man moaned in ecstasy. Encouraged, Tanis milked Curran’s member with both mouth and hand. His teeth closed over the purpled head, scraping it lightly with his teeth. He was rewarded with another long, blissful moan.

“Your mouth on me is a heavenly gift, Tanis,” the guardsman told him between pants.

Tanis had never before received such a compliment. His cock throbbed with longing for this brave, foolish, caring young man. Would he lose all ground he’d gained with Curran if he asked to sample the guardsman’s muscled arse?

Again, testing the waters seemed more prudent than voicing the question outright. Tanis fondled the guardsman’s balls with a firm touch. His forefinger followed the seam to where it flattened against the man’s body. Curran tensed, but Tanis guessed by the look on the young man’s face that tension was in preparation for pleasure rather than distaste. So he kept going, applying pressure to the tiny strip of skin between the guardsman’s sack and anus.

Tanis popped his mouth off the rigid shaft. “Too far?”

“Not far enough. Not nearly far enough.”

Tanis softly chuckled and returned his attentions to the sweet-tasting member. Perhaps one day he would take this pup into his bed. Dawn hit his bedding through a window over his straw pallet which would give him plenty of light to explore the man’s young, healthy body. Just the thought of being able to see what the water yet concealed wrung a groan from Tanis’ chest.

He prodded the opening to the guard’s anus, testing the fit.

“Ah,” the warrior cried out.

“Pain?”

“Pleasure,” Curran gasped. “I do not wish to die so quickly.”

Tanis had needs of his own to consider, like feeling the young man’s body quiver with release. He sucked the stiff cock harder while he plunged his finger into the opening well past the second knuckle. In and out. Up and down. A duet of motion designed to bring the most pleasure to Curran, and thus to himself.

Curran writhed under the combined assault. “Step back,” he panted. “Now.”

“Not even if you pressed your blade to my throat.”

Tanis clung to the warrior’s body as his muscles turned to stone. Curran’s cock pulsed in triple time, pumping seed into Tanis’ hungry mouth. The guardsman grunted repeatedly as he bucked and jerked as his seed spilled from his body. Tanis sucked every salty drop of fluid the man could spare until the warrior’s hand pushed him away.

“Enough.”

Not as far as Tanis was concerned, but this time he heeded the request and let the man go. He retreated to the other side of the pool where they’d started, planting his feet on the underwater shelf so he could finish himself off before Curran returned to sanity. He didn’t want the warrior to feel obligated to return the favor.

“Have I behaved so poorly that you must run from me?”

Tanis raised the lids that had closed as he focused on retaining the taste of the guard’s hot cock in his mouth. He found himself under scrutiny by the young warrior, and he forced himself to move his hand away from his shaft. “You need time to recover.”

“Not as long as you still ache.” Curran swam over to where Tanis stood. “Do you still ache for me, hunt master?”

Tanis looked down into the young man’s eyes and saw no pity there. What he saw instead scared him so badly he had to avert his gaze. “Aye, though it need not be your concern.”

Gently the guardsman reached out to cup Tanis’ balls. That simple touch made Tanis’ gut tighten with rising need.

“It is a matter of honor to me that I return some small measure of the pleasure you have given me this night if it is at all within my power to do so. Will you permit me to try?”

By the Gods, this young pup was offering him everything he wanted. Why was it so hard for him to accept it?

Gavin’s face swam between them. Noble, selfish, charming Gavin. Curran was like him in many ways. Was that part of his problem? Was he linking the actions of his former lover to this young guardsman? Rejecting the act that would put Curran in charge so he didn’t have to submit to another’s will? Had the empty years restored none of his courage in that respect? If he had something to prove to himself, he had no right to use this warrior to do it.

“If you insist,” Tanis finally said, unsure of his motives for doing so.

“I do.” Curran’s hand glided loosely over Tanis’ eager cock. “What would please you best?”

“An end to this torture.”

“With my hand?” Curran tightened his grip around the fully erect shaft. “Or with my tongue?” he suggested before licking Tanis’ nipple in one long, broad stroke. “Or shall it be with my arse, which we both know is where your true desire lies?”

“I will accept your choice and be glad for it,” Tanis replied through his clenched teeth. This conversation was burning away his limited patience. If Curran didn’t attend to matters soon, one way or another, he’d find himself flipped over on his back, positioned so that Tanis might sheathe himself deeply between his nether cheeks and teach him not to tease a desperate animal.

“You will get nothing from me unless you tell me what it is you need.”

“Damn you to hell.”

“If I am the very devil as you say, I shall return there soon enough.” Curran leaned in and nibbled along Tanis’ throat. “Say it. Command me.”

Tanis growled, a mournful note that was picked up and echoed by his avian friend. His hands gripped the guardsman’s buttocks and hauled the muscular body against his own. From there it was a simple matter to slide his thick finger into the tight aperture at the base of the young man’s spine.

“This is what I want, you young fool. This snug bit of flesh to part before my aching cock.”

“Have at it, then.”

Curran switched positions with a sense of balance Tanis had to admire. The guardsman pressed himself against the rough rock and splayed his long legs, giving Tanis complete access to the very spot he’d requested.

The young man looked over his shoulder. “My name is Curran, not Fool, young or otherwise. Get it right when you cry out, will you?”

Tanis couldn’t imagine getting it wrong. His entire world had been reduced to the size of one man, Curran Aurick.

He placed his hand on the guard’s bottom, parted the flesh a bit further and prepared to insert himself into that pretty, tight hole. He couldn’t remember his cock ever being so large before. Suddenly he had doubts that Curran could take all of him. No matter what he’d said, he wasn’t the type of man to draw pleasure from inflicting pain. “I may hurt you.”

“It will hurt me far more if you stop.”

Something Tanis thought long dead burst into life at that moment. A soft emotion he wouldn’t name lodged in his throat making speech impossible. He responded by advancing in slow stages. A little at a time, he penetrated Curran’s arse.

“Christ Almighty,” the guardsman moaned.

Tanis had to agree with the sentiment. Taking the guardsman was quickly becoming a religious experience. “Can you tolerate more?”

“Press on,” he grated out.

Tanis rocked forward, marveling how the young man’s body adjusted to accommodate him. Soon his cock was buried to the hilt. Nothing he’d ever done before felt as pleasurable as this. “By the Gods, you were made to fit me.”

“Move, man. Hard and fast,” Curran encouraged him. “Take me the way we both know you want to.”

Tanis didn’t think he’d be able to let go to that degree. He’d spent most of his life hiding his strongest desires to avoid bringing disaster to those few willing to take him on. Curran seemed plenty eager, but he had yet to meet the caged beast dwelling inside his heart.

Tanis did, however, pick up the pace. He settled into a rhythm that sent ripples of pleasure through his shaft and into his heart. It had been a long, long time since anyone had made him feel this good, inside and out.

“What do you take me for? An old hag? Surely you have more in you than these weak thrusts.”

“‘Tis the devil in you that says these things. I will not rip your arse to bloody tatters because you are too stupid to know what is good for you.”

“Better to be ripped and torn than barely fucked at all,” Curran replied with contempt.

Anger did what sweet reason could not. Tanis, goaded beyond his ability to resist, raided the guardsman’s arse with deep, forceful thrusts. He knew Curran’s chest must be raking over the rough stone walls of the natural pool with each movement, but the knowledge didn’t slow him down. The warrior had asked to be well and truly fucked, so by the Gods, Tanis would fuck him to within an inch of his life.

He shifted his grip to steady Curran’s hips and pummeled the young man’s arse with his rigid shaft, relishing the gasps that came each time he plowed into the well-muscled flesh.

“Oh, yes, fuck me,” Curran said, his voice elevated to rapturous levels.

Climax started to build at the bottom of his sexual well. Tanis leaned forward to curve his hands around the young man’s shoulders. Reduced to acting the rutting beast, Tanis took a bite of the flesh at the nape of Curran’s neck. Grunting, groaning, straining, Tanis experienced the most spectacular release of his life.

Plunging yet deeper, semen erupted from the end of his cock. He did call out then, but he wasn’t sure that he had formed words, so thorough was the disconnect between body and brain. The only sense that registered was in his overloaded pleasure center.

His vision darkened around the edges as aftershocks continued to ripple through his system. He struggled against the loss of consciousness as he set his lover free.

“Do you still count yourself among the living, Tanis?”

The concern in Curran’s voice more than his words caused Tanis to gather his wits. “Aye, though you did near kill me, I admit.”

He heard the water rushing down the guardsman’s body as Curran levered himself out of the pool. Tanis grimaced as he saw the red marks he’d left upon the young man’s smooth, pale flesh. There would be bruises in several places come morning. However, the worst of it came from a ring of bloody imprints at the base of the man’s neck. Teeth marks, his own.

“I hurt you.”

“It is nothing,” Curran replied, slipping into his homespun tunic.

“I am sorry for it.”

The guardsman stilled his movements and fixed Tanis with a bright gaze that reflected the silvery moonlight. “I am not sorry for any of it.”

Tanis’ breast swelled with relief. The last thing he wanted was to repay Curran’s kindness by leaving a scar that would eat away at his innocence.

Curran finished dressing in a hasty and slipshod manner. When done, he dropped to his knees beside the pool and beckoned Tanis over to him. “This is not the way I would have our time together to end.”

Instantly, Tanis became alert, reacting to the change in tone. Here was no longer the playful puppy, but the guard dog going about his duty. “What do you mean?”

“To run from you like a thief in the night. But I must. It is not as easy to leave the grounds as I claimed. The sun will be up shortly, and I must be found in my own bed when the Captain comes to rouse us.”

With bittersweet acceptance, Tanis replied, “Go then. I will not be the cause of trouble for you.”

“Until next time, then.” Surprise had Tanis’ lips frozen motionless as the guardsman lowered his mouth for a goodbye kiss. Curran backed away as doubt clouded his youthful face. “Unless you would rather not set eyes on me again?”

Embarrassed, although not quite sure why, Tanis said, “Foolish pup. Why waste your time with this leathery old hide? There are far better men than me for the likes of you.”

“It is you that I want, old man.”

Even as his heart yearned to respond in kind, Tanis knew he should not. Such words from him would likely send them both to hell, especially if they continued to play under the Duke’s nose. Far kinder to hold his tongue now than to ruin Curran’s future.

“‘Twas good you were, but not so good that I would pine to have you again.”

Tanis thought he managed to sound convincing, but he failed to look Curran in the eye as he said it. A fatal miscalculation. Once again, he’d underestimated the young man’s power of observation.

“You lie. Tell me with your kiss that you do not want me.”

Tanis knew he’d fail that test. Even if he managed some measure of restraint, the warrior would sense his need.

As he struggled to find a way to evade the trap, Athena’s shrill cry rent the night air. This call he knew all too well.

“Intruders approach,” he hissed at the guardsman. “Take cover.”