The Castle of Water and Woe

by Steffanie Holmes

  I knew Maeve had slept with Corbin and Rowan. Unlike Arthur, it didn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, it kind of made me feel relieved.

  The truth was, I wanted Maeve to be with all the other guys, mostly because it made her happy, but also because I liked her a whole fecking lot and I knew I couldn’t give her what she need on my own. Oh, I was a blood great lover – all Irish men were – but when she looked at me, Maeve’s eyes burrowed into my soul, begging me for something more than sex, for some connection that tugged much deeper. And I couldn’t do that, no fecking way.

  The other guys could give that to her. Maeve could gaze into Corbin’s eyes while I was eating her out and come on my face while she drank in all his emotion. He had plenty to space. But if it was just her and me…

  I was not ready to lay everything bare. Not even for her, not even when my cock throbbed against my leg like it did now. Some wounds were just too deep.

  As predicted, the movie had us all laughing in minutes, especially when Maeve had to keep asking us what was going on. I loved how Monty Python confuses Americans.

  I draped my arm over the back of the couch, and Maeve rested her head against my shoulder while Corbin made Arthur pause the DVD so he could explain in excruciating detail why the Latin declension joke was so funny.

  By the time the closing credits rolled, most of the food and piss was gone. I was doing funny voices and Maeve’s body shuddered against me as she fought to control her laughter. My dick throbbed against my jeans, primed by all that contact with her body, and how fucking gorgeous she looked in that red dress while she laughed so hard tears rolled down her cheeks.

  The Flynnmeister’s plan was a complete success.

  We all decided to watch another movie. Arthur declared it was his turn to choose, and he picked Lord of the Rings. Big surprise there. He slumped in a beanbag, glass of mead in hand, and recited the elvish along with the characters, for which I mocked him relentlessly. Jane left after thirty minutes when Connor started bawling, and I could hear her singing softly to him as she climbed the stairs up to her bedroom.

  I thought about going after her. I had an excellent singing voice, after all, but no way in hell was I going to give up my spot under Maeve. Not with her head on my shoulder and her hand resting casually on my knee, sending surges of electricity straight into my dick. Not with Corbin right there, ready to be the receptacle for all her pain. She twisted her body around so she was lying across me, placing her legs on Corbin’s lap. The look she shot me – eyelashes tangled, lips pursed – just before she turned back to the screen made my dick jerk so hard she must have felt it.

  I barely heard a word of the movie. Every tiny movement, every shift of weight or raise of her glass to her lips sent my whole body into overdrive. At this rate, I was going to need about ten cold showers before the Hobbits even got to Dell.

  Rowan yawned. “These movies are really long,” he said, darting a look back to the couch. Understanding flashed across his face.

  “Tell me about it,” Corbin growled. I glanced over at him and noticed the strain on his face as he draped his hands over Maeve’s bare legs. All he’d have to dro was slide his hands up and … fuck. He must be even more rigid than I was.

  Rowan stood up, draining his teacup as he cast his eyes around the room in his nightly ritual of counting the window panes. “I’m going to bed. See you guys in the morning.”

  “Me too,” Blake stood. “I’m not sure I share Arthur’s obsession with the short, hairy, hungry people, and let me tell you from close personal experience, those wood elves are wrong.”

  That left three of us. Rowan turned the main lights off when he left, so the only light in the Great Hall was the glow of the TV screen. Maeve shifted her hand further up my thigh, her finger just brushing the edge of my fly. Light enough to be accidental, but I was bloody sure it wasn’t.

  My stomach clenched, and my dick rammed against my leg, hard as a rock.

  Tentatively, not daring to look at her, not sure I was reading the signals right, I placed my own hand on her leg, about halfway between her knee and her pussy. Maeve shuddered. I withdrew my hand, horrified to think I’d offended her.

  “No,” she whispered under her breath. “Don’t stop.”

  Mary Mother of Christ. I placed my hand on Maeve’s warm thigh, feeling heat leap from her skin into mine. With the lightest touch, I ran my fingers up her leg, inching closer to her.

  She walked her fingers up the inside of my leg, brushing the edge of my dick through my trousers. I gritted my teeth.

  A loud sound startled us. On his beanbag in front of the TV, Arthur let out a shuddering snore, his legs slumped over the side. Maeve leaned right back, resting her head on my opposite shoulder. We looked at each other, and she smiled a secretive smile that made my chest constrict.

  Corbin must’ve seen what was going on and decided I didn’t get to have all the fun. Which was just as well, because I needed to get out of chest-constricting territory. He wrapped his arms over Maeve’s legs, and soon he was stroking her thighs, his fingers occasionally brushing against mine.

  Corbin’’s eyes locked on mine, both of us staring the other down. It was clear – we both wanted Maeve tonight, but neither of us was willing to leave and let the other one win.

  I wanted him to stay, but I always wanted to see him squirm. I remembered what had happened the last two times I ended up alone with Maeve and another guy. Let’s see which one of us cracks first.

  I bent Maeve’s head back and planted a kiss on her lips. From this angle, our kiss was almost upside down, the taste buds of our tongues sliding together. She tasted rich and salty nd chocolatey from all the junk food, and underneath, that special fiery Maeve taste that was hers and hers alone.

  Her kiss heated up my whole body, turning me into a pile of Flynn mush. My hand snaked further up her thigh, and I brushed the fabric of her knickers, just as Corbin’s finger raked over it as well.

  I opened one eye to see what Corbin was doing. He had Maeve’s hand in his, raising her wrist to his lips and kissing the sensitive skin on the underside, before dragging his teeth along toward her elbow. That sly bastard.

  I stroked Maeve through her panties, already feeling her wetness soaking through the fabric. She shuddered.

  “Maeve,” Corbin whispered. “Do you want us to stop?”

  She shook her head, her lips still locked on mine.

  “Do you want one of us to leave?”

  I held my breath – half of me wanting her to tell Corbin to go, the other half dreading her saying that – but Maeve shook her head again. Corbin’s face leapt into a smile. He leaned right over, so that his hair grazed my arm. He dragged his tongue along Maeve’s exposed neck, across her collarbone. He nibbled on her skin. The way she moaned against me suggested she liked that very much. I’d have to remember that.

  I adjusted myself, turning on the couch so that I faced Corbin, and Maeve leaned back against me, her back against my chest. My left hand explored her chest through her t-shirt, while my right continued to stroke across her pussy with the lightest touch, relishing the wetness that soaked through onto my fingers.

  On the screen, the movie continued playing, but none of us cared any more. Arthur snored away, totally oblivious.

  Corbin’s fingers reached behind Maeve’s dress, pulling down the zipper. He tugged it up a little, exposing her stomach. He laid a trail of kisses across her torso as he pulled her dress a little higher, a little higher. I trailed my own kisses along Maeve’s neck, over her earlobe, whispering “filthy girl” in her ear just to feel her shudders of delight.

  “You’re bloody beautiful, you know that, Maeve Moore?”

  “I …” she started, but Corbin was tugging her dress up. I leaned her forward and grabbed the side closest to me, helping him free her of the useless material. Maeve raised her hands and we tugged it over her head. Underneath she wore a black bra that pushed her gorgeous tits together. Corbin planted a kiss between her br
easts. I was a little jealous I couldn’t do that from where I sat, but I did have a glorious view, so it wasn’t such a big deal. My fingers danced over the strap of her bra, and I popped it open.

  “Begone with you, foul thing.” I murmured into her ear as I flung her bra across the room. It looped around the toe of Arthur’s boot. He didn’t even stir.

  Maeve giggled, but her laughter turned into moans as Corbin’s lips closed around her breast. I bent her head back, claiming her mouth with mine, one hand snaking around and rolling her other nipple between my fingers.

  Corbin’s fingers slipped into the waist of her knickers. Maeve raised her legs so he could slide them down. He pushed them away, revealing the glorious mound of her pussy.

  I kept my mouth on hers, my tongue exploring, my hands playing with her hard nipples, while Corbin bent down and tasted her wetness. Maeve’s moans vibrated against my tongue, her body trembling as Corbin ate her out.

  Bloody hell. There was something so intense about kissing this girl knowing my friend was sucking on her clit. I’d originally gone in for this two-for idea because being alone with Maeve terrified me. There was no way I could convince myself this was more than a sex thing if she was shagging two of us at once. But hearing Maeve’s moans of pleasure as Corbin tongued her made my stomach clench the same way it did when she smiled. Right then, I wanted nothing more than to taste Maeve’s sweetness for myself.

  She arched her back, her body going rigid, her moans turning in one keening wail as her first orgasm claimed her. She clamped her legs around Corbin’s ears, gasping against my lips as she tried to stifle her cries. Her body wriggled against my dick, which was doing a little wailing of his own that he hadn’t so far had much action.

  As Maeve’s trembling subsided, I wriggled out from beneath her, sliding her body down onto the couch. I crouched on the flagstone floor, admiring the flush of her skin fresh from her pleasure. Her lips moved, searching for mine.

  “Flynn?” Maeve murmured, her eyes sleepy with pleasure. “Are you leaving? Are you not okay with this?”

  “It’s not that at all, love,” I said, punching Corbin in the arm until he got the idea and scooted around to take the position I’d just occupied. I bent between her legs, breathing in the sweet scent of her. “It’s just that it’s my turn.”

  THIRTY-TWO: MAEVE

  Corbin slid in behind me, where Flynn had been, and his mouth found mine. Flynn pressed his tongue between my legs, darting across my sensitive bud. The feeling was part pleasure, part pain. My leg jerked involuntarily, but that only made Flynn lick and suck with more vigor.

  I turned around so I faced Corbin, who had shimmied out of his jeans. His huge cock stood rigid and inviting, the veins at the head raised and purple. I wanted to give him something, because he’d been the instigator of everything good that had happened to me since I’d come to England, because I knew now that he’d lost someone he loved too, and seeing that he’d found a way through the pain of it gave me hope for myself.

  I rolled over, presenting my ass to Flynn, who slid between my legs, his hands gripping my thighs as he attacked my clit with his mouth. Now that I was facing Corbin, I leaned down and took him into my mouth, savouring the hot, slightly salty taste of him.

  I’d tried to suck off Andrew once before, but it was a bumbling effort and we both knew it. He was too nervous to tell me what he liked, and I didn’t know my way around my own body, let alone a guy’s appendages. But here, I felt in my veins what worked, the power inside me rising up and transforming me into their high priestess, into the goddess of all they desired.

  I circled the head of his cock with my tongue, then took as much into my mouth as I could. He felt so good sliding between my teeth, touching the walls of my mouth as Flynn’s tongue darted inside me. Corbin’s hands played in my hair, pushing down on my head a little, guiding me to the rhythm he liked.

  Flynn’s hand snaked across my thigh, and he leaned over me and whispered in my ear, “are you ready, luv?”

  I couldn’t speak, but I moaned my assent. Corbin shivvered as my moans vibrated his shaft, his eyes boring into mine. I heard the tear of a condom package, and then Flynn was back, his body hot against mine, his cock pressing at my entrance.

  Yes. Oh, god yes.

  Flynn entered me, and I moaned again as he sheathed himself inside in a single long stroke. As he pushed deeper, I rocked forward, taking Corbin back into my throat.

  “Maeve, oh god…” Corbin moaned, tightening his grip on the back of my head.

  After a few strokes, I got into a rhythm, drawing Corbin in as Flynn pushed deeper, then falling back to grind my ass against Flynn. Between Flynn’s grunts and my groans =, I couldn’t believe Arthur stayed asleep, but his snores continued.

  Flynn leaned over me, fingers digging into my thigh, his other hand reaching down to roll my hard nipple through his fingers. “This is wild.”

  “Tell me about iiiiiiit …” Corbin’s voice shuddered away as I took him deeper.

  Two guys filling me. One in my mouth – his moans of ecstasy like music to my ears. Knowing I had that effect on someone, and that Corbin trusted me enough to do what he refused to do in front of anyone else – think of himself and his own needs.

  The other buried in my pussy, his hands reaching around to play with my nipples, his teeth scraping along my collarbone. Flynn, the trickster, the comedian, the one who's easy smile hid wounds I hadn’t even touched.

  Too much, too much. Justperfect.

  An orgasm rippled through me, my body jolting as the two guys speared me. I grabbed Corbin’s shoulders for support, staring into his eyes as Flynn pounded me from behind. The look Corbin gave back was blazing, full of power and need – a hundred things he dared not say.

  Flynn’s strokes grew harder, faster, more urgent. He pinched my nipple hard, and I cried out, and that cry sent him over the edge. His fingers dug into my skin as his cock quivered inside me.

  Feeling Flynn’s hot breath against my back, and his body clenching around me spurned another orgasm. The heat inside me burst out, searing down my arms and exploding through my torso. I bucked against Flynn, my mouth clamping tight against Corbin’s cock as my orgasm claimed me.

  My mouth vibrating around his cock set Corbin off, and I felt him stiffen inside me. A moment later I tasted his release on my tongue. His body sagged, his muscles spasming before going still. He withdrew from my mouth and fell back against the sofa, struggling to catch his breath, his eyes meeting mine with such adoration it made my chest constrict.

  “Fuck,” Flynn kept saying, “Fuck.” He collapsed, folding himself over my back, pressing his lips to my cheek. My head rested against Corbin’s chest. His heart thudded in my ears, and the moment felt more intimate than everything we’d just done together.

  The three of us panting, catching our breaths, wallowing in the warmth of the connection we created. The magic hummed in my veins, content for once to remain inside me, to suffuse in the beauty of our release.

  We poised on the brink of something none of us understood, something that was not going to be content with closed doors and secrets.

  After a few moments, Flynn rocked back, gripping the end of the condom as he pulled out of me. “Shite,” he whispered, his body stiffening.

  I whipped my head around. When a guy says shite and there’s a condom involved, your ears perk up. But it wasn’t the condom Flynn was referring to.

  There, in the doorway of the Great Hall, his eyes glowing under the dim light of the television, was Rowan.

  THIRTY-THREE: ROWAN

  “Rowan?” Maeve straightened up, her naked body unfolding from Corbin, unashamed and unrepentant.

  “I was just coming to proof my sourdough,” I said, my eyes immediately darting away to the window as the familiar tightness crept into my chest. I started in the top right of the far window, counting the mullioned panes.

  One … two … three ...

  Maeve and Flynn and Corbin.

 
; Four … five … six.

  Worshipping her body, together. Without me.

  I gulped, fighting against the rising anxiety inside me. My hands balled into fists. But the compulsion wasn’t having its usual effect. The counting couldn’t rid my mind of Corbin’s eyes rolling back in his head when Maeve wrapped her mouth around his cock. Nor the hitch in his breath as he came. Nor the way he kept holding Maeve even after he was done, caring for her, making it all about her.

  And Maeve, her pixie hair sticking up in all directions, her eyes wild with the power she’d consumed. I dug my nails into my palm, but the pain could not drive out her vision. Our high priestess.

  She rose from the couch, stepping around the snoring Arthur. I tried not to look at her, naked and radiating power. I turned my head high and continued my counting. Nine … ten … eleven ...