The hunter bit back a small moan when Ghost wriggled, and Ghost felt the hardness of Gerry’s cock as he leaned back. He turned his head, Gerry’s lips brushing against his.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Ghost murmured, a tremor in his voice. “Please?” He was not even sure what he was asking for, filled with need as he turned to kneel, facing Gerry, his hands cupping Gerry’s face. The dead ranger did not matter, nor did Conn, sleeping peacefully as he healed.
Gerry brushed the hair back from Ghost’s face, the peridot spiral warm as it flared to life. “It’s life,” Gerry murmured. “You had a brush with death, and it’s like Mother says: Walking on two legs doesn’t take the animal out of the man. Life’s primal, and we celebrate not being dead by being alive.”
The apprentice looked at Gerry. “You’re talking too much.” He smiled and kissed Gerry as Gerry’s hand slid into Ghost’s hair.
Ghost felt Gerry’s trembling as laces were undone, clothing tugged away, until there was nothing between them, Gerry’s cock sliding against Ghost’s own cock. He shivered with anticipation, feeling warmth throughout his body that demanded release. Gerry was hard and muscled, the man’s skin cool against Ghost’s fevered flesh. The hunter’s strong, calloused hands explored Ghost, teasing his nipples until they were hard. Ghost felt the touch raise the heat in his belly and groin. Gerry’s hands slid down Ghost’s ribs and around his back, moving lower until Gerry was cupping Ghost’s buttocks.
The hunter moaned into the kisses. Gerry’s cock was leaving smears of precome on Ghost’s skin as Ghost pressed into him. Ghost could smell the sharp scent of desire mingled with the unfamiliar scent of Gerry’s arousal.
Gerry kneaded Ghost’s buttocks as Ghost gasped in pleased surprise. He let one finger slide between Ghost’s cheeks, and Ghost gasped again.
That was when Gerry seemed to freeze. “Wait,” he managed to whisper. “We can’t.”
Ghost looked up at Gerry, shivering with need. “What? Why not?” He thought he had never seen anyone more desirable in his life than Gerry. “I want to,” he insisted.
“I don’t have any oil,” Gerry muttered, his cheeks darkening. “It’ll hurt if I don’t prepare you.”
Ghost needed a moment for Gerry’s meaning to penetrate the fog of desire that was wrapped around his brain, before he brightened. “The supplies. Maybe he had some?”
At first, Gerry looked confused, until he grasped Ghost’s meaning. “Cooking oil, that can work,” he said. He kissed Ghost one more time before he went to rummage through the ranger’s sack to find a small bottle of oil. He brought it back to Ghost and uncorked it.
Ghost sniffed, smelling almonds, and he grinned. “Even better,” he murmured, watching Gerry slick calloused fingers with the emollient.
“Where were we?” Gerry said with a grin. Ghost wrapped his arms around Gerry’s neck, pressing himself against Gerry as he tilted his face up to beg a kiss. Gerry’s hands slid back down to where they had been, one oil-coated finger finding the opening between Ghost’s cheeks once again. Ghost shivered a little and Gerry froze for a moment, his eyes wide.
“What?” Gerry asked, looking down at Ghost.
“Don’t stop,” Ghost begged. “It just felt strange for a moment. But I want this, please.” Ghost leaned into Gerry, taking a deep breath. “I’m ready, I really am.”
Gerry kissed Ghost, tongue tracing Ghost’s lower lip. Ghost shivered a little, feeling his muscles clench as Gerry stroked with oiled fingers.
“You’re tensing a bit, and that’ll make it hurt. Lie back for me, all right?” Gerry helped Ghost to lie back. He knelt between Ghost’s legs, one hand closing around Ghost’s cock. He lowered his head, the tip of his tongue darting out to taste the drops of precome that oozed from the tip, and Ghost gasped a little as Gerry’s mouth covered the head. At the same time, Gerry’s well oiled finger returned to teasing the muscle between Ghost’s cheeks. This time Ghost did not tense when Gerry pressed his finger in slowly.
Ghost gasped again, but he spread his legs farther apart to afford Gerry better access, the feeling of being penetrated new and strange, yet somehow what he wanted, what he burned for. He tried to focus on relaxing until Gerry’s mouth dropped lower, Gerry’s tongue pressing along the underside of his cock. Ghost forgot all about the finger probing him, lost in the intense pleasure of Gerry’s mouth.
A moan escaped Ghost as Gerry used his lips and tongue to pleasure Ghost. As Ghost relaxed, Gerry added a second finger. He pushed in deep, his fingers pressing inside Ghost, as if Gerry was seeking some special place. When he found it, Ghost’s hips rose off the ground and he gasped in surprise.
“What did you do?” Ghost demanded. His hands dropped down to fist in Gerry’s hair, and it took a conscious effort to lower his hips to the ground.
Gerry did not answer, but he did do whatever it was he had done again. This time Gerry took Ghost’s cock into his throat at the same time, swallowing hard.
The sensation was so intense that Ghost cried out, white light exploding behind his eyes as they closed. He was distantly aware of his hips leaving the ground again right before his balls tightened and emptied. It felt like every single nerve in his body had woken all at once, waves of pleasure rising and coursing through Ghost until he was not even sure he had a body left.
Gerry pulled back until only the head of Ghost’s cock remained in his mouth as Ghost spilled. At the same time Gerry drove his fingers into Ghost, pressing hard. Ghost rewarded him with another cry of pleasure, writhing beneath him.
As Ghost shivered with his orgasm, Gerry released Ghost’s cock from his mouth. He withdrew his fingers, rising up to press the head of his cock against the loosened ring of muscle. He breached Ghost, and Ghost gasped at the new sensation, a slight burn as he was opened wider than ever.
“Breathe,” Gerry crooned as he pressed harder, his cock sliding into Ghost’s passage while Ghost reached up to grasp his shoulders. Gerry’s cock slid over that sweet spot, and Ghost cried out yet again, legs wrapping around Gerry’s hips to pull him in. The peridot spiral was reflected in Gerry’s eyes as he paused, Ghost taking the opportunity to adjust to this new fullness.
Ghost managed to let go of one shoulder, his hand stroking Gerry’s face, tracing the line of his jaw. He felt the burn starting to ease, the pressure of being filled giving way to pleasure as Ghost adjusted to the intrusion. Gerry moved, and the world exploded into glorious sensation all over again. Ghost felt his body clench around Gerry, as if to hold him there within Ghost. This time it was Gerry who cried out.
“Oh, Ghost, Moon shine on me, you feel so good,” Gerry murmured, his voice thick with pleasure. “I can’t last, it’s too good.”
Ghost arched beneath Gerry, his legs wrapped tight around Gerry’s hips. He had to think for a moment about Gerry’s words. “Please,” he whispered, not even sure what he was asking for. Then Gerry moved as pleasure rolled across Ghost again, followed by heat, spreading inside him, flooding him as Gerry cried out and shuddered hard.
Gerry filled Ghost with liquid heat, the younger man’s legs tight around his hips. Gerry’s fingers dug into the ground while Ghost’s fingers dug into his shoulder.
After a few moments, Gerry lowered himself, his cock still buried in Ghost. He stole a kiss, Ghost returning the kiss with enthusiasm.
“That was perfect,” Gerry whispered, his voice thick with emotion. “You’re perfect. My Ghost, my sweet Ghost.” He looked at Ghost as Ghost’s heart did that complicated thing again, while one hand crept up to tangle in Gerry’s hair.
Ghost smiled. “And you’re the one I saw. The Moon shone, and the Sea sent his dreams, and all of them were you.”
Epilogue
The witches argued, scrying mirrors flashing to life as they conferred, but the Witch stood firm. So it was that the first male was admitted to the sisterhood, marked in the records as the
apprentice of the Witch, and now a witch in his own right.
Ghost took to wearing his hair back, so that all could see the peridot spiral that shone against his skin. Over time, the people of the village came to rely on him as much as they did the Witch. When the Witch packed her worn leather pouch and headed North, no one remarked on her absence beyond an idle question. If Ghost saw what became of her, he did not say.
Gerry traded what he claimed from the former ranger for a house by a small lake on the very edge of the village. There was a low wall around the yard that reminded Ghost of the Witch’s house. It had a drying shed for Ghost’s plants as well, Gerry made sure of that, and witchglass on the roof.
Conn offered to build a small coop so that Gerry and Ghost could enjoy fresh eggs, two hens his gift to them. Mother’s gift was a wide bed with a thick mattress filled with down, which earned the hunter a sweet shy smile from Ghost.
The final touch was Gerry’s, though. Somewhere he found just the right dye to stain the wooden door an olivine green, the exact shade of Ghost’s spiral, the color that would always mean love for them both.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Epilogue
Ghost's Sight Page 8
