Damon didn’t push the conversation further than it needed to go, sensing it might be best for Vel and Lilian to form their own opinion on Malon. In truth, he wasn’t entirely sure himself of how he felt, not just toward his aesta, but Lascivious. It was so easy to see how his own judgment might be compromised, how he could be drawing conclusions based on what his heart wanted, distorted through the silkscreen of loyalty and love.
He found a bag of dried cherries that Malon had dropped off along with the other foodstuffs and held them up like a purse of gold coins as he came back into the common room. Vel made a face he hadn’t seen in at least five years, all pouty lips and begging eyes.
“Damon,” she said, in almost a whimper. “Have I ever told you how much I love those?”
He almost admitted that Malon might have brought them for that very reason, but they were past talking about their aesta, for now.
“Here,” he said. “I don’t mind sharing.”
He pinched a big one between two fingers. Vel stuck out her hand, but he shook his head.
“Open your mouth,” he said. “I have good aim.”
She grinned, and in a shocking display of trust, opened her mouth wide and stuck out her tongue. Damon flicked the cherry at the rather inviting target. It bounced off one of her eyelids and she almost fell out of her chair in her rush to catch it, much to everyone’s amusement.
“My turn,” said Lilian.
She assumed the same posture, though her tongue was long and exotic in a manner that made her open mouth look far more sexual than cute. Damon took careful aim, rolling the cherry between his fingertips to gauge the weight, and took his throw.
The dried fruit soared across the common room in a valiant arc, falling just short of Lilian’s face and instead landing neatly in her cleavage. Damon burst out in laughter and waved a hand at her as she went to pick it out.
“Allow me.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and prepared to recover it by burying his face into her wonderful mounds.
Vel was suddenly pushing him in the arm, ostensibly to steal the bag of candied fruit, but she was also wise to his ways.
At some point in the fray, she ended up on his lap in one of the common room chairs, having successfully captured her prize, but now at the mercy of his pinches and tickles. She stuffed a handful of the cherries into her mouth, cheeks bulging out childishly like a chipmunk.
“Those are more sugar than they are fruit,” said Damon. “You’re going to end up as chubby as Kastet if you eat so many.”
“I, mmm, haven’t eaten that, mmm…”
Damon flittered his fingers under her arm pits, and Vel squealed out her nose, only keeping her mouth shut by force of will. She wriggled in his crotch and leaned her head back, flooding Damon’s experience with her scent. Still sweaty and musky from traveling, but in that awesome, feminine way.
“Well then,” said Lilian. “I suppose I’ll leave the two of you to your… affections. Safe to assume that the lake is suitable for bathing, Damon?”
He saw Lilian’s smile and realized he had the entirety of one of Vel’s breasts cupped in his hand. The mental image of Lilian stripping naked and lowering herself into the water made it hard to remember what he’d been about.
“Yeah,” he said. “I can show you, uh, the path down there, if you’d like.”
Lilian had been on the road for just as long as Vel had, and with different needs. No doubt she was tired, in need of a bath, in need of, perhaps, some blood. Damon felt himself getting hard as he remembered the pleasure of her bite, a fact which was encouraged by the continued presence of Vel’s soft butt in his lap.
“I’ll go down with her,” said Vel. “I need to clean up just as much as she does. You can wait for us here, Damon.”
He swallowed his disappointment, trying and failing to think of a reasonable objection that might get him into the lake with one or both of them. Vel was already grabbing towel cloths and lighting a lantern, and within a minute, Damon was watching them walk side by side, hips swaying in that subtle, wonderful way.
“Someone should guard the lake and, um, watch for revenants,” he said, long after they were already out of earshot. It was a stretch. The revenants, for whatever reason, seemed allergic to the clearing around the farmstead. The monsters hadn’t veered past the trees in all Damon’s time back at the tower.
He waited under the press of a surge of aimless energy. He cleared the table and cleaned Vel and Lilian’s bowls. He changed into a more comfortable pair of slacks and a soft night shirt. He poured more wine for himself, sitting and trying not to get too excited as he considered what else the night would hold.
It brought back memories, and not just of his time at the tower. During his days as a gladiator, he’d once kissed a young woman before a performance and had her waiting for him to bring her to his room at a nearby inn immediately after. He’d been so turned on by the simple anticipation of the moment that he’d almost shamed himself with the visibility of his arousal on stage.
He took a long sip of the wine, sitting with his legs wide open and angled toward the door, cocky twice over. Vel and Lilian were both wearing no more than their towel cloths when they finally came back, loudly and drunkenly teasing one another as they came into the common room.
“You didn’t dry off enough, Lil!” said Vel. “You’re dripping water on the floor.”
“Hmm,” said Lilian. “You might be right.”
She undid the fold of her towel and slowly pulled it open, facing away from Damon, but watching over her shoulder in an obvious, teasing manner. The curve of her butt was full and taut, leading into thick, muscular thighs. Damon leaned back in his chair, feeling his cock straining against the confines of his pants.
“Lilian,” he said. “I think the two of us should talk in my room.”
She spun around, making a half-hearted attempt at covering her breasts with the towel. One dark nipple poked out obviously, the full breast it was attached to stubbornly refusing to stay within the cloth.
“Oh?” said Lilian, with a smile. “I was feeling a tad peckish. Do you mind, Damon?”
The question wasn’t really for him, even though it was directed his way. Damon looked at Vel, who was already pouting like the odd one out.
“I think Velanor should join the discussion,” he said.
He saw her blush and immediately bring a hand to her neck. Lilian had doubtless been feeding off her throughout their journey across the Crimson Wastes. If nothing else, the two of them had become close friends, the type of friends who perhaps shared freely amongst each other.
“I don’t know…” said Vel. “I mean, I’m not sure if I’d be… comfortable.”
“Vel.” Lilian took her hand, lacing their fingers together. “Think about it, at least. It might be fun to see Damon do his very best to handle us both.”
“I think it would be more than just fun,” said Damon.
He felt an incredible sense of triumph as a smile crept across Vel’s face and she gave a slow nod.
“I suppose it would be rude of me to leave the two of you to, um, have your discussion alone,” she said. “Let’s see where things lead.”
Damon stood up, snatching the half full bottle of wine and waving to them both to follow. Still holding hands, Vel and Lilian walked behind him into his room. He shut the door, aware of the outside possibility of Malon showing up unexpectedly. The thought only fed into his excitement, and he took a sip of the wine to steady his pounding heart.