An ugly thought intruded, and Gareth snapped back to focus on Evin’s face. “That’s why you do stuff with the others.”
“What? No! You think I want everybody to put stuff inside of me?”
“No, it’s because Tyber… If you don’t do that stuff for him, he’ll tell, won’t he?”
Evin rolled off Gareth so that they both lay flat on their backs, side by side. Evin stared up at the cave’s roof, where the lantern’s light played. “You have to understand. Tyber’s father is the mayor, the person who leads our town. That makes Tyber important. A leader to the boys. Way back when I was, like, nine summers, Tyber was my favorite person. We were friends, I guess, but I just loved him. Then I did something stupid, and suddenly everybody made fun of me.”
“What was it?”
“Well, one day, this girl, Ysabeau, comes up and gives Tyber a flower, and he acts like it is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for him. And Ysabeau holds her face up to him, and he kisses her, just like that! And they’re hugging and talking and flirting…you know.”
Gareth didn’t know what flirting was, but he imagined it had to do with making seed.
“So I’m jealous of Ysabeau, and the next day when she’s not there, I find the nicest flower I could get my hands on—stole it from Madame Tabeau’s flower box—and I march myself up and give the flower to Tyber, right in front of our friends.”
“And that was stupid?”
“Of course. He threw it down and stomped it and all the boys laughed at me and I ran home to hide.”
“Because of a flower?”
“No, because giving it meant I liked him. He came by my house later on and apologized, said he liked me and we could kiss if I wanted, but we had to keep it secret.”
“He wasn’t mean…in secret.”
“No, he was good at first. We tried more stuff, and he liked it. We both liked it a lot. Then he asked me to do stuff for a friend of his, and then another. Before I knew it, I was a stupid pet for the whole group. Then one of them managed to do stuff with Ysabeau, and suddenly nobody liked me anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It wasn’t long before they were talking nasty about Ysabeau too. I feel sorry for her. They use her just as they use me. I think they have more fun with me. I can do things they really like, and they kind of hate me because they want it so much.”
Gareth had seen for himself. He didn’t know what to say, but Evin had shown him how people touch when they want to make things better. Because it was all he knew to do, he turned and laid a hand against Evin’s cheek.
“You guessed right about why I go with Tyber,” Evin said. “Mama and Papa have had enough after what happened to my uncle and losing Teffaine. I made my mistake, letting Tyber have me when I was young and stupid. And now he has me. He’s the mayor’s son. If he starts talking about how I let the others… I can’t do it. I won’t hurt my parents. Not more.”
“You’ll protect them.”
“You know… I’m sorry… I’ll have to be with Tyber and the others again.” He turned to look at Gareth. “I’ll have to go on another hunting trip soon. I wish I could take you too. I don’t want to leave you out of the fun. What fun there is…”
“But I have to be a secret.” Gareth wasn’t bitter; that was just the way the world worked.
“In truth, I’m selfish. I like having you as my secret. But I’d share you, you know. I would, if it were safe for you.”
Gareth’s chest did something. A feeling, like something broke off inside. He tried to keep his voice neutral. “No. It’s better. You have to do stuff with them.”
“You’d like Johan; he’s better inside than me. He can take a long time.”
“No! There’s—I don’t know how to say…”
“What is it?” Evin propped up on an elbow and leaned in to look him in the eye.
“It’s—I won’t miss nothing with them. I don’t care. You—” He swallowed. “You protect your parents, however you got to. But you’ll come back to me, won’t you? Sometimes?”
“Yes, yes, of course!” Evin crushed against him and covered his face with kisses, speaking a word or two between each one to say, “Silly! How could you think I’d forget you?”
“Then it’s good, then. It’s just—these feelings…the good ones and doing stuff… It’s always been with you. Even before you knew me, I never felt none of this without you.”
Evin looked stricken. “Oh. You.” Then he kissed Gareth deeply. He lifted away and looked into Gareth’s eyes. “You poor, stupid bastard. You make me want to die to make you happy.”
Despite the ugly words, Evin smiled at him in a soft way that seemed to promise there would be many, many next times. Gareth said, “You make me happy by living.”
Instead of responding with words, Evin moved to kneel, straddling Gareth’s body, showing Gareth his back. He leaned toward Gareth’s cock. Gareth sighed as hot, wet softness enveloped him.
Evin licked forcefully around the edge of his cockhead. And again and again until his legs twitched. Just when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, Evin pulled off and Gareth heard a wet sound. In a lascivious demonstration, Evin’s right hand appeared, fingers glistening, reaching to stroke Evin’s hole.
“Let me. Let me!” Gareth said and licked his own fingers. All Gareth could see of Evin were his thighs and ass, covered with that almost invisible fur, offered for the taking. The green of his hands looked so dark against the soft, white skin.
He cupped Evin’s ass, fingertips in the crease, touching it with shy reverence. Evin’s muscles clenched. His body closed and relaxed, like swallowing, inviting Gareth in. With one thick finger, he circled around the hole, just as he might have stroked Evin’s lips with his tongue, and he pressed a little to watch the skin stretch as he rotated his finger in lazy circles around it. The soft cheeks fit perfectly in Gareth’s palms. Evin moaned an encouragement. Evin’s body was pressed down against his stiff cock, and just that, just the burn of Evin’s body heat against it, was enough for him. He would use fingers to make Evin feel good all night if that was Evin’s wish.
But it seemed Evin had other plans. He urged Gareth to bend his knee. Then Evin grasped Gareth’s foot and pulled it up until his heel nestled in his balls. Evin held the base of Gareth’s cock and gently pointed it down. Gareth hissed in surprised pleasure when the tip of his cock rubbed against the tough whorls of skin on the sole of his foot. Evin began to lick the bottom of his foot, letting a cheek press the tip of Gareth’s tingling cock into the sole’s soft flesh covered by such rough skin.
Gareth brought his hand back to his lips to wet his fingers some more, then lowered them back to Evin’s hole. He put one finger in, just inside—Evin moaned and arched up, then dipped his face back down to Gareth’s foot—and pressed in deeper. He wanted to give Evin the same feelings that had made him feel helpless, boneless, racked with pleasure that time at the river.
Evin was licking between toes now, sliding his tongue frantically in and out. Gareth took that as instruction and began to slip his finger in and out of Evin’s hole. “Oh, you like that, Evin. You like to feel me touch inside.”
“Lords, yes, Gareth, please!”
Two fingers now, together as fat as the base of his cock. He stroked them in and out of the furnace of Evin’s body.
Evin moved slowly forward and back. His mouth closed first around Gareth’s large toe to lick and suck on it, then the tip of his cock. He alternated this way, bringing Gareth’s senses so alive that he thought he could actually feel his cock drooling for Evin to taste. He savored the slow feel of liquid forced gently down the length of him, and that, too, he took as instruction. He slowed his frantic stroking, began to move fingers languidly, turning them to probe, crooking them, trying to find that spot—
“Oh!”
Found it.
He made measured strokes, reaching in each time to touch Evin just right. And Evin wanted it! He pushed back to fuck himself o
n Gareth’s fingers. Evin rubbed his own cock against Gareth’s torso, leaving hot liquid trails, and it seemed his mouth couldn’t lick or suck Gareth enough: toe, cock, foot, ankle, toe.
Gareth’s cock strained to surge up, to push Evin’s body off because the weird foot thing was going to make him shoot—
Evin stopped.
Gareth froze with his fingers buried deep inside. “What are you…?”
“You’re too close to spilling. Not yet. I want to try something.” He reached behind to push Gareth’s hand away, then crawled backward to put his ass in Gareth’s face. Of course Gareth happily began to lick.
Evin gasped, and a little splash of liquid rolled from him onto Gareth’s chest. Then he moved back again, taking his ass away and letting his cock dangle so that Gareth could engulf the head to catch and lick a few drops. “Oh, I won’t last long like this,” Evin said, and to Gareth’s frustration, he pulled his cock out and took that away too.
Evin urged Gareth to lift his legs up until Evin could catch them, then pulled them back until Gareth’s ass was high in the air. “Does this hurt? Tell me when to stop.” Evin pulled him over until his weight rested on his shoulders and he was bent double, knees on the ground at either side of his head, his ass presented to Evin. Evin lifted Gareth’s cock from where it poked his chest and stuck the end of it in Gareth’s mouth.
“Oh, lords, I thought you could do that.” Evin bent down and pressed into his mouth, kissing him and licking his cock tip. Gareth did the same, wiggling his tongue, stroking Evin’s tongue and, all saints, his own self at the same time. He closed his eyes in ecstasy. Evin lifted off, barely an inch away, fiery breath washing across Gareth’s face, and said, “I like you in every way, but this is best. We should keep your cock in your mouth always so you can’t apologize for anything anymore.”
Gareth thrilled to that idea—but did that mean he annoyed Evin? “Mm phorry,” he said.
Evin knelt between his awkwardly splayed legs and dipped his face in to lick Gareth’s sac and balls and slowly, slowly to Gareth’s hole. “You’re so beautiful. No hair, just perfect, smooth green skin.” Another lick. “I want you to try something, will you? While I take care of you here”—his tongue pressed in—“I want you to suck yourself. But when you think you’re almost going to make seed”—another lick—“I want you to stop. Wait. And when you can do it again, suck some more.” Another lick, slow and deep this time. “Do that over and over, for a long time.”
* * *
From the cave mouth he saw them. He had spied and followed and been stealthy, and he found them together. Evin with the monster. He was disgusted with himself for getting hard as he watched them, Evin putting his face into that thing’s backside, the demon moaning and chewing on its own filthy sex.
His breathing became as shallow as theirs, and after a time, he couldn’t help it, he was going to wet in his breeches if he didn’t…
He slinked out into the night, away from the grisly spectacle, as quietly as he could manage, hoping the friction of his own clothing wouldn’t make him spill here, where the demon might hear or smell it.
Out in the woods away from the cave, he took himself in hand. With only a couple of strokes, he was spurting so hard it hurt. His breathing was ragged. That monster!
He left, picking his way carefully through the night forest.
* * *
After what seemed like delirious hours, sucking himself almost too much while Evin tongued him or stuck fingers in to stroke him in that perfect place, he couldn’t stand it any longer. Something was swelling inside him, all that time, always threatening to burst. He had followed Evin’s order to wait, to control it each time. But it was too big now, and the good itch of wanting had radiated through him until his entire body crackled with it. He couldn’t control it anymore. Gareth closed his lips around his cock and started to move his hips as best he could to thrust into his mouth.
Evin, of course, knew instantly and, leaving fingers curled inside him, bent down to Gareth’s face. Gareth was breathing heavily, nostrils flaring, looking up into Evin’s eyes in desperation as he got closer…and his cock swelled and grew harder in his mouth…
“That’s good,” Evin said. “You’re so good. You’re good at everything we try.” Ignoring Gareth’s distress, Evin leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. “When you spill”— all saints, please—“open your mouth so we can share.”
The swelling thing in his body exploded. Gareth’s cock surged and sprayed into his mouth, drowning his choked cry. He arched a little, pulling the tip back out, but held it aimed at his mouth. He opened wide and held his breath, hoping he wouldn’t fill his nose and drown. Evin was there to drink too. Strong spurts shot against Gareth’s palate again and again. He stretched his tongue out, trying to catch it all. Evin hovered in to lick the tip of his spitting cock, then up its length to where Gareth held it, then back down to lick Gareth’s mouth, tongue, teeth. It was hard to swallow bent over like that, and Gareth couldn’t keep up. Seed ran over his cheeks, down his neck, and into his hair. But he wanted it, oh, it was so good, and he closed his mouth back over the tip and tried his best to catch the last of it.
When he was himself again, blinking up at Evin’s wet grin and feeling the finger working inside him, he flexed his back muscles enough to lift his cock out and say, “Go ahead, I want you inside me or in my mouth, whatever you want, Evin, anything.”
But Evin just burst out laughing.
“What?”
“Don’t be stupid. I sprayed all over the dirt watching you!”
Chapter Ten
Bad weather moved in for the next few days, summer storms that kept Evin from meeting Gareth in the woods. Actually, as gloomy as the thought was, Evin imagined that Gareth was out there each night, somewhere in the rain, waiting in case Evin should show up. Wouldn’t that be just like him?
Evin sighed. He lay on his bed in the loft of his parents’ cabin. He didn’t want to get up to go to the shop.
He loved his work with the apothecary and wanted to learn everything Madame Tabeau could teach—which was a great deal. It seemed his tutelage would take forever. Madame Tabeau said people knew more than ever about the effects of plants and minerals on the body, due to sinister reasons. Some of them were useful in the rituals of blood sorcelry. Medicines might make a person’s blood thick as honey, make it flow like water, or make it concentrate in specific body parts to enhance the sorceler’s or victim’s physical or mental stamina.
Madame Tabeau was disgusted by the reasons for which certain medicines were developed, but she knew everything about them and put them all to use to help people. She said no medicine was good or evil, but she expected Evin to learn to respect them and never use them to cause harm.
Yes, he had much to learn, but he still wanted to spend the dark and lonely day in bed. His heart just wasn’t in the work today. Apparently Johan’s mood was the same, because he hadn’t come to ask for work in the shop since the rains began.
Evin looked out his window, toward the dreary morning sky. “Go away,” he said to the clouds. His gaze dropped to the objects he had found wedged in the shutters when he opened the window today. They lay now beside his bed.
He picked them up and idly rotated them in his fingers as his mind turned to thoughts of his plan. The plan. After completing his apprenticeship, he would go to a city and open an apothecary shop of his own. At least one, maybe more. He would become wealthy, return to Laforet to repay a debt his father owed to the mayor, and then move his parents far away. And neither Tyber nor his family would ever trouble them again.
He didn’t hate Tyber, certainly not, but Tyber had used him since before he was old enough to be used that way, and Evin had long ago realized that it would never end. So he planned. He excelled at his work, he was a good student, and Madame Tabeau adored him. One day he would have money. One day his family would escape. Everything made sense.
At least it did a few weeks ago, when everything in li
fe either fit into the plan or was part of the ugliness he would leave behind.
He stopped twirling the figures he held. He stood the straw men on his chest and gazed at the larger of the two, as if it could offer an answer to the problem it represented.
Now Evin had something that wasn’t ugly. He had met someone who needed a friend and an escape just as much as he, if not more. Sure, Gareth might use him and turn on him just like the others, but that hadn’t happened yet and it didn’t seem to be in Gareth’s nature. What if it never happened? Could Evin abandon someone who needed him so?
If not, was there some way to fit Gareth into the plan?
* * *
A marvelous full moon reigned in the sky on the first night after the storms ended.
Evin wanted to walk a little, instead of being carried all the way to the cave. He had to step carefully in the shadows of the woods, so Gareth led slowly, walking to suit Evin’s pace. Every so often, Evin made a show of stumbling and bumping into Gareth, letting Gareth steady him with a firm hand. They both laughed each time.
After doing this for a while, Evin put a hand on Gareth’s shoulder to stop him, then took the hem of Gareth’s chemise and lifted it, urging him to take it off. When that was done, Evin kissed his back and shoulders. Evin worshiped the soft, cold skin tenderly at first, then gripped Gareth’s shoulders and pressed in with fierce kisses as Gareth sighed and leaned back.
When they resumed walking, Evin carried Gareth’s chemise and took off his own as well.
As they moved through the forest, Evin watched light and shadow ripple across Gareth’s torso, playing over the broad planes of his shoulder blades. Shadow emphasized the deep spinal cleft formed by thick muscles that drew down to where the small of his back peeked out above his breeches. Dapples of light raced across his dark skin, caressing it and revealing its beauty in teasing hints, the way Evin remembered from seeing him for the first time.
Evin wanted to push Gareth down, tear his breeches off, and take him right there in the woods.
What he actually did was reach out, grab the top of those breeches, and pull Gareth to a halt. When Gareth turned toward him, grinning, he leaped into Gareth’s arms. Thick hands caught him under his ass as he wrapped his legs around to hold on tight. Powerful arms pulled him in even more tightly, and they kissed.
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