“What do you mean?” I asked, gripping his shoulders as we twirled around.
He cocked his head toward where Rob and Ash stood still chatting with Malik and Peter.
“I saw your face,” Dan admitted. “Watched all the joy and blood drain from your features. This is supposed to be a happy day—the last one we might have for a while—so I wanted to make sure you stayed content.”
I smiled, my entire body filling with warmth as I hugged him tighter. “I love you, Dan. You know that?”
He hummed as if deep in thought. “I don’t know. I haven’t gotten a blow job under the table in a while… Your affection must be lacking.”
I gasped softly and turned to look at Cal and Ben who were still sitting with Criss and a handful of well-mannered peasants. I totally still owed them a public blowie.
Wouldn’t this just be the perfect place?
I could practically feel the devilish horns curling out of my head.
“You said that on purpose, didn’t you?” I asked Dan with a grin.
He shrugged, feigning innocence. “I may or may not get a rise out of the idea of you overtly torturing them.”
I smirked. “Just because I tortured you first?”
“Mostly because you tortured me first.” His devious grin made his sea green eyes sparkle. “Don’t forget, you also owe Ash and Criss, too.”
I shook my head in amusement. “You’re a naughty instigator.”
“You already knew that, Sexy Lexi.” He leaned in and sucked my earlobe causing my eyes to flutter shut.
Yes. Yes, I did. And I loved that about him.
We continued gliding around the barn-turned-hall until the musicians finished yet another song, their stringed instruments all ending on the same loud note right before the crowd erupted into cheers.
“Slow song!” a citizen shouted, and all the zombies muttered their agreement. The poor things must’ve been having trouble keeping up with the others.
The lead musician bowed his head, turned to his bandmates, and began a gentle tune.
Dan kissed my hand and released me just as Crissen approached.
“May I have this dance?” the Soothing Prince asked with a shy smile.
I placed my hand in his and stepped closer. “Of course. Will you help me create a diversion at the end?”
He grinned, mirroring my words. “Of course.”
He didn’t even know what the hell the diversion entailed, or what it was for, but still he’d agreed. It proved how much he trusted me already, and I realized with sudden clarity how much I never wanted to break that trust—not with any of my Storms.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he settled his palms at my hips, our bodies gently swaying as the music curled around us.
“I owe Cal and Ben a bit of under-the-table-time,” I told Criss, knowingly.
“Ah.” His smile widened. “And what sort of a diversion were you thinking of?”
I shrugged minutely. “Spilling a mug of beer on the table or something? People will rush to clean it up, and I’ll silently slip beneath the cloth.”
He pursed his lips, trying not to grin. “You’re sneaky.”
“Well, you’re in on it. So, you’re sneaky too.”
He chuckled, and step by small step, we made our way closer to the drinks table. By the time the song ended, we quickly grabbed two glasses and retreated to the table where Cal and Ben were seated.
The peasants had moved on, but the nobles—Malik and Peter—were now standing there making small talk. Cal and Ben suddenly burst out laughing, making me smile just by looking at them. Whatever they were discussing, it must’ve been hilarious.
“You ready?” Crissen whispered, tipping the mug to his lips. He drank almost half of it before checking to make sure that I’d replied.
I nodded and watched as he set the glass down, intentionally catching the handle with his last finger. The glass tipped, crashed, and suddenly there was a wave of golden ale spreading across the table, dripping down into Cal and Ben’s laps.
I couldn’t have planned it better myself.
As everyone nearby rushed to help soak up the mess with kerchiefs and rags, I dipped low and crawled beneath the tablecloth.
Chapter 7
It was dark under there, the cramped space shielded by a thick purple tablecloth, but I had just enough light to see what I was doing.
“Really, Criss?” Cal complained from somewhere above me, dabbing a napkin at his crotch.
“Party foul,” Ben informed him sternly. “Now, you have to get another one and chug the entire thing.”
Criss chuckled, and I had a feeling there was a knowing twinkle in his hazel eyes. “Sorry, guys. I’ll be right back.”
I waited for the sounds of the small crowd of helpers to disperse, their footsteps and mutterings tapering off as they wandered away. Once things had settled, I raked my nails up Cal’s thighs. He jerked his knees, smashing my hands between his legs and the underside of the tabletop with a loud thud. I hissed at the slight pain, but still soundlessly laughed at his utter surprise.
“What the hell was that?” a voice asked. Not Ben. It wasn’t deep and rich enough to be Ben’s sultry voice. Malik and Peter must’ve still been standing there, because I was pretty sure it was the prior. His vampiric timbre was a touch sultrier than his brother’s.
“Cal, it’s me,” I whispered before he had any other knee-jerk reactions. Like standing up and flipping the entire table over to expose the sneaky bastard who’d dared to secretly seduce a married prince.
As soon as the words left my mouth, Cal relaxed. “Nothing, gentlemen, I just tried to adjust my footing and my knee hit the table. Damn things aren’t nearly high enough.”
I raised a brow as I unbuttoned his sopping wet pants and freed his shaft from his beer-drenched boxers. I mean, he was tall, but I was sitting down there with plenty of headroom, so I didn’t think the tables were that short.
“Got that Swamp-Ass fever, eh, Prince Calvin?” Peter teased.
I fisted Cal’s wide length and stroked slowly, gently fanning the flames of his desire. My tongue itched to tease him, and my lips parted slightly, taking the head of his cock slowly into my mouth.
He grunted. It might’ve been a laugh. Or maybe a moan. “Something like that.”
“Actually,” Ben began, and I had a feeling he was about to go into full lecture mode. “If he had Swamp-ass Fever, he wouldn’t be sitting here so calmly. I doubt he’d be sitting at all. His ass would be too sore and blistered from all the disgusting scratching he’d be doing.”
I heard Ben shiver and his legs started to bounce.
Malik chuckled. “We know, Your Highness. It was just a joke.”
“Nothing funny about puking out your ass and shitting out your face,” Ben replied so matter-of-factly that I had to hold back a giggle.
“You are so right, Highness,” Peter added with humor in his tone. “I’d much rather have swampy beer ass, instead.”
I grinned around Cal’s cock, bobbing my head up and down as he stiffened even harder in my mouth.
“You know how simple it is to contract, right?” Ben asked, too committed to his lecture to turn back now. “All you need is accidental contact with feces—an easy feat when you work around animals or have a pet, or if you don’t wipe your ass properly—and if you don’t wash your hands, and then you put something you’ve handled into your mouth…” He trailed off and shivered again.
“Right,” Malik agreed, as if he were uncertain how to reply at all.
“Lucky for us,” Peter teased, “most noblemen are trained to wipe our asses good and proper.”
Finally, Ben chuckled, and his legs stopped bouncing. “Well, thank the gods for that.”
Yes, thank the gods. I have to admit, talking about shit, vomit, and disease was not what I had in mind for some blow-job background noise.
That was about the time Criss returned with Dan in tow. I could hear them talking, their voices growing st
eadily louder as they approached.
“Hey, Cal,” Dan drawled. “How’s it going, bro?”
“What, am I not here?” Ben asked, clearly a bit put off that the Sea Prince had addressed Cal and not him too.
“No, you’re there,” Dan replied slyly. “You’re just not there, not at the place Cal is.”
“You realize you’re making absolutely no sense, right?” Ben’s deep voice practically rattled the table above my head, making me shiver. “We’re literally a foot away from one another.”
“And yet, you’re not the closest.” Dan’s voice was full of mischief and mockery. “Anyway, I hear Crissen committed a party foul?”
“Damn it,” Criss grumbled. “I was kind of hoping they’d forget, and I could just sip my beer in peace.”
“Not a chance,” Dan and Ben replied as one.
“Chug, chug, chug!” they chanted—Dan, Ben, Malik, and Peter.
Cal seemed to be having a hard time saying much of anything. I wondered what his face looked like. Were his eyes unfocused? His brows furrowed? His lips drawn tight? Was his jaw clenched? I swirled my tongue along his hard length and sucked just a little bit deeper, imagining my own version of Cal’s “O” face in my mind.
There was a loud thud on the table above my head followed by a cheer from the crowd. Apparently, Criss’s little show had gained some attention. But, it seemed mine had too.
“Are you alright, Calvin?” Malik asked. He sounded downright concerned.
It made me want to giggle. Either that or try to get Cal off as quickly as possible. Of course, I went with the latter, fucking the hell out of him with my mouth.
Cal groaned in response. “I’m good.”
“Are you sure?” Peter pressed. “You don’t look very well.”
Oh, I’d bet he looked tense, flushed, fevered even. Coupled with the groaning, they probably thought he was about to puke. Ha! More like puke his seamen all through my mouth.
Right on cue, he threaded his fingers through my hair and held me still as he came.
I smiled as he filled my mouth. One down, one to go.
When he was finished and had released me, I spit my mouthful onto the barn floor. No one would ever notice it amongst the dirt and hay, right?
Then it was Ben’s turn.
“I actually feel much better now,” Cal said with a sigh. “Thank you for the concern, gentlemen.”
“What was wrong?” Peter asked. “Just a wave of nausea? A temporary headache?”
Dan snorted.
Cal chuckled. “A headache, yes. But it’s gone now.”
“Better be careful,” Dan teased. “I hear headaches can be contagious.”
“That’s false,” Ben replied smoothly. “Headaches are non-transmit—ahhh!”
The “A” caught in his throat and his voice raised a few octaves as I rubbed my hands up his thighs and over his groin.
Dan totally freaking cackled.
“What was that?” Criss asked in a teasing tone, making Dan laugh even harder.
Ben sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a slow woosh as I deliberately loosened his buttons and pulled out his dick.
He cleared his throat and tried again. “Headaches are normally non-transmittable. But there are exceptions to every rule, it seems. I have a feeling I’m about to come down with a massive headache, myself.”
I stroked him slowly, gliding my hand around his hard, heated length.
Cal chuckled and crossed an ankle over his knee. “I’ll just bet you are.”
“How can you tell?” Peter asked. He sounded genuinely fascinated.
“It’s just, uh…” Ben paused as if he couldn’t keep track of his own thoughts. “It’s a pressure that builds at the base of my… neck.”
“Right,” Peter agreed quickly, “but how do you know Calvin was the one to pass it to you?”
“Well, you see, this particular type of headache…”—I slipped my lips over the head of his cock.—“It’s, uh, strictly passed between us Storms and affects no one else.”
“Are you certain it isn’t contagious?” Peter asked.
“Yeah, it’s been tested.” Ben paused and groaned quietly. “It’s… science.”
“Science,” Malik repeated in a flat air.
Quietness ensued. No one at our table spoke and, for a moment, I was afraid someone might hear a random sucking noise and start to wonder what the fuck was actually going on. Thankfully, there was still the commotion of music and the laughing of dancers in the background to drown out the telltale sounds of my deviant behavior.
And, of course, there was also Dan, who’d erupted into another fit of evil laughter.
“All right,” Malik said, as if the jig was up. “You’re fucking with us, aren’t you?”
Cal and Criss joined Dan in side-splitting laugher and soon Malik and Peter were chuckling, too.
That’s when a chain reaction went into effect. They laughed, which made me laugh, which sent vibrations tingling into Ben’s dick, which made him moan louder, which made them laugh harder… and Ben came hard into my awaiting mouth.
It was a pretty great chain to be at the end of, honestly.
When he was finished, I spit his fluids onto the floor near Cal’s and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. It wasn’t a very regal thing to do, but then again, neither was blowing your princes beneath the table at a ball. So, whatever.
I pulled my diamond ring off and clutched it in my palm as I crawled out from underneath the table. “I finally found it!”
The noblemen’s eyes grew wide.
“Were you…” Malik started to ask.
“…Under the table that whole time?” Peter finished.
I smiled wide and nodded profusely. “Oh, yes! The entire time! I lost my wedding ring and just had to find it. See?”
I held out the massive diamond Cal had given me on our wedding day.
Malik and Peter’s eyes popped open even further. They looked like two overgrown goldfish.
“That rock is enormous,” Malik sputtered.
Dan coughed and mumbled to Criss, “That’s what she says about my dick.”
Criss elbowed him in the ribs and they both snickered.
“How in the world did you manage to lose it for so long?” Peter asked. “Surely something that big would be easy to find?”
I grinned and glanced at Cal and Ben. “There were bigger things down there that kept distracting me.”
“All right,” Rob yelled, cutting into our group from out of nowhere. He grabbed my hand and pulled me flush against his chest, turning me on in an instant. “I’m the only one you haven’t danced with yet. I’m about to start taking it personally.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved him, even though I wanted nothing more than to jump into his arms and wrap my legs around his hips. “I didn’t dance with Cal or Ben, either.”
Rob leaned in and his warm breath tickled my ear. “Yeah, but your tongue danced with their dicks. So, it counts.”
A grin tugged at his lips when he pulled away, and I was left even hotter than before. All that heat pooled in my core and swirled like a vortex straight to my lady bits.
“Touché.” My voice came out way breathier than I’d intended, and his grin turn absolutely smoldering.
“Then let’s dance.”
The way he said the word dance had me imagining a sultry, horizontal tango. Maybe I’d even stuff a rose between his teeth for good measure.
Smirking at my wicked thoughts, I allowed him to twirl me across the dancefloor.
And that’s how my princes and I spent the rest of the holiday: laughing, dancing, teasing, and simply living. It was a beautiful thing, made even more precious by the fact that it couldn’t last. The sun would soon set on our day of joy, and reality would descend, smothering us in suffocating darkness.
But no matter what would happen tomorrow, or the next day, or any other day in the future… no matter what the Storm King had planned, or the gods, or our enemies�
� we were a team, and come hell or high water, just as our marriage vows had stated, we were in this thing for as long as we all should live.
I just hoped that we’d live much longer than I feared.
THE END of book 3.5 …
Finish the perilous and captivating adventure with Alexis and her Storm Princes in the series finale, Perfect Storms!
Afterword
I hope you enjoyed Snow Storms: A Storms of Blackwood Holiday Novella! It was so much fun to write this humorous little tale, and I love how seamlessly it fit into the series. Now that you've been introduced to Sohsol, I can't wait for you to return the kingdom of the undead and find out how the entire series concludes... in Perfect Storms!
If you liked this novella, I hope you leave a review! It only takes a minute, and it helps authors so much!
To stay updated on new releases and everything bookish, feel free to join: Elle Middaugh — Reader Group!
Acknowledgments
Thank you Mia for including me in the Snow Men RH Anthology, which was what inspired me to write this short story in the first place! :)
Also by Elle Middaugh
Storms of Blackwood Series
Taken by Storm
Stormy Nights
Storm Chaser
Snow Storms holiday novella
Perfect Storms
The Mage Shifter War Duet
Fae Captive
Fae Unchained
Cruel Fae Court
Heartless Liar (coming soon)
Callous Prince (coming soon)
Depraved King (coming soon)
Fierce Queen (coming soon)
Enchanted Royals Series
A Crown of Blood and Ashes
Trials of Enchantment
Queen Witch
The Essential Elements
Elemental Secrets
Snow Storms Page 5
