Katie would, of course, be on the lookout for him. Which meant that Jack would be forced to take the extremely unethical step of using Shadow Form to sneak around the hot springs to a spot where he could safely watch from.
It was her fault, he reminded himself. If she hadn’t made such a fuss about all of them bathing together, he wouldn’t have been forced to take such extreme measures.
He cracked the door open a sliver and cast Shadow Form, slipping out into the night. It was easy to stay hidden with his body composed of the flowing, inky darkness, and he gave the hot springs a wide berth for a little extra assurance.
The orchard provided a fair amount of natural cover while being close enough to the hot springs for him to hear—and hopefully see—everything that was going on. Jack rematerialized behind a tree trunk thick enough for him to hide behind and stretched on his stomach, like a commando on a secret mission.
The girls were already in the water. Steam rose all around them in a curtaining veil, and he frowned as he realized that he could only make out faint details. Mira was swimming from the deeper section into the shallows, and for a glorious instant, she stood up and out of range of the steam, giving him a perfect view of her pale, naked, bodacious breasts.
“Come on,” said Katie. “You must think about it a little more than that.”
Mira shrugged, the movement causing her bosom to jiggle ever so slightly.
“Perhaps I do, and perhaps I don’t,” said Mira. “It honestly doesn’t matter that much to me.”
She walked over to where Ryoko and Katie were, and to Jack’s disappointment, she joined them in sitting in the shallows. It left only their heads visible to him, but he was willing to be patient.
“What about you, Ryoko?” asked Katie. “What makes this okay? We’re all basically just… sharing him. Don’t you ever worry about how this could go wrong?”
Ryoko leaned back, cupping a handful of hot water and pouring it over her neck. For an instant, one of her small, perky nipples was perfectly visibly through the swirling fog.
“Of course I worry,” she said. “But less about Jack and more about other things. It’s not that I enjoy sharing him. I guess… I just don’t really mind that he shares the company of other people, too. Especially when it’s you and Mira.”
Katie made a slightly frustrated noise that Jack knew all too well.
“I’m inclined to agree with that sentiment,” said Mira. “My connection to Jack is deeper than petty possessive emotions. Even if I began to feel something akin to jealousy, I know that I could always just kill his other lovers if I truly wanted him to myself.”
Katie and Ryoko both stared at her, totally stunned.
“That was a joke,” said Mira. “Relax.”
“It was so funny I forgot to laugh,” said Katie. “Anyway, maybe I’m just being a little ridiculous. I’m not used to this. Whatever this is.”
Mira set an affectionate hand on Katie’s shoulder.
“It is understandable,” said Mira. “Perhaps there is something we can do, to help…”
As much as Jack wanted to keep watching, he knew that their bathing time was starting to wind down. He wasn’t interested in exploring the potential consequences of being caught, so he cast Shadow Form a second time and slowly made his way back to the guest house.
The girls began trickling back in no more than five minutes later, all of them dressed in towels and looking refreshed.
“Is the water nice and warm?” he asked, smiling.
“It’s divine,” said Mira. “You’ll love it.”
He found a towel for himself and headed out to the hot springs. They were fairly expansive, and he got the sense that Xepher might have done some tinkering with his magic to create them originally.
He stripped off his clothing and let out a reflexive sigh as he stepped into the water. It was like a bath or a Jacuzzi, but times ten. Times a hundred. He lowered himself into the shallows, which rose to the perfect depth for him to sit comfortably against the rocks along his side with the water up to his neck.
The warmth soothed a few injuries he hadn’t realized that he’d had. He began the slow, luxurious process of scrubbing himself clean. The entire affair felt a little decadent, and he had to smile when he pictured Xepher enjoying what was essentially a hidden island resort all to himself.
“Sir,” came Ryoko’s soft, gentle voice. “I thought you might need some help cleaning yourself off.”
She appeared through the steam, approaching the edge of the hot spring, still clad only in her towel. Jack felt a surge of excitement at her presence, but he was also a little concerned, especially after the conversation he’d overheard earlier.
“Ryoko,” he said. “I… appreciate the thought. But the other girls might feel a little left out if it’s just you and me here, on our own.”
“I told them I was going to take a closer look at the orchard.” She flashed a devious smile at him. “We should have a few minutes, at least.”
A few minutes might be enough time. Jack watched as Ryoko opened her towel, baring her petite and extremely cute naked body to him. A few minutes would easily be enough time.
“Well then,” he said. “Who am I to refuse such a generous offer from my loyal maid?”
He thought she might correct him and point out that she hadn’t been his maid in months, but she seemed as eager to fall back into the role as he was to have her in it. She stepped into the warm water and walked over to him with slow, elegant steps.
She started to play her part, acting like a simple maid, washing her master’s hair. Jack kept his breathing level, already excited out of his mind. She moved to stand behind him, washing his neck and shoulders, letting her perky nipples graze across his skin. It was almost like a game to see how long he could hold out before snapping and taking her. A game which he knew he’d already lost.
Jack stood up, letting his arousal rise above the surface of the water. Ryoko glanced down at it and blushed. He set his hands on her hips and pulled her against him, kissing her deeply. The heat of the hot spring added another layer of depth to the encounter, priming them both for the passion that was about to ensue.
Ryoko took hold of his shaft with her hand and stroked him off, biting her lower lip and staring into his eyes. Jack kissed her neck and let his fingers explore similar places on her body, pushing one gently inside of her and caressing in a come hither motion. Ryoko gasped.
He wanted nothing more, at that moment, than to bend her over the rocks and show her exactly what he was made of. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
“Jack?” called Katie. “Have you seen Ryoko?”
Jack swore under his breath. The steam hid what was going on, but Katie would be able to see through it as she drew nearer. He slid back down into a seated position in the water. Ryoko dove under to hide herself completely.
“What?” he called. “No, of course not.”
“She said she was going to look around the orchard, but she wasn’t there,” said Katie.
“Uh, maybe she…” Jack trailed off as he felt something tight and hot close over the tip of his shaft. He did everything he could not to reflexively glance down at his crotch, where Ryoko’s mouth had begun doing an awesome, dirty thing. Katie wouldn’t be able to see her underwater through the steam. And Ryoko, as a hybrid water nymph, wouldn’t need to come up for air.
Which meant that he was the only person who could give away what was going on.
“Jack?” asked Katie. “Everything okay?”
“Fine!” he said, quickly. “Everything’s fine.”
Ryoko’s tongue was fine. Ryoko’s lips were fine. The hot, sucking seal she’d made with her mouth was fine. And Jack was the king of understatements.
“It feels good, doesn’t it,” said Katie.
“It feels… unbelievable,” said Jack.
Katie smiled at him and crossed her arms.
“I did feel a little bad about putting my foot down about you bathing on you
r own,” she said. “I just thought it would end up being a huge mess.”
“You were probably right,” said Jack. “It would have been messy.”
Ryoko was sucking faster now. Jack moved his hands through the water, hoping his own splashes might hide the bobbing of her head.
“This almost feels like a reward,” said Katie. “After everything we’ve been through. A chance for us to blow off some steam.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Blowing off steam is good.”
He could barely keep up with the conversation, but those words stuck in his head, echoing in a far more erotic tone than she’d originally spoken them in. Blow off some steam. Ryoko, helping him blow off some steam, with her soft lips and mouth and tongue, and—
“Oh…” groaned Jack. He tried to mask his pleasured moan as a yawn as he felt himself explode. Ryoko didn’t stop sucking, dutifully handling each and every drop.
“Don’t stay out here for too long,” said Katie. “You wouldn’t want to overheat.”
“Definitely not,” muttered Jack.
Katie left. Jack tapped Ryoko on the top of her head, and she popped back up, smiling broadly.
“How was that?” she asked.
He kissed her on the lips and gave her a tight hug.
“Perfect,” he whispered.
CHAPTER 35
The only downside to the guest house was that it was impossible to have any real privacy in its single, communal sleeping room. Jack leaned his head back against his pillow as he rested on his futon. He and Ryoko had staggered their exits from the hot springs to avoid drawing suspicion, and by the time he’d arrived back, the girls were already retiring to bed.
He eventually fell asleep, and to his slight disappointment, he woke up the next morning alone on his futon. Mira and Katie were nowhere to be seen. Ryoko was sorting through some of the group’s dirty clothing, as though she’d decided to extend her long-held cleaning habits into their traveling.
“Good morning, sir,” she said to him.
“Morning,” said Jack. “Where are Katie and Mira?”
“They decided to go exploring some of the nearby area,” said Ryoko. “Xepher said it was fine when he came to bring us breakfast.”
She gestured to the tray sitting on the corner table. It was laden with pastries and had a large pitcher of orange juice on it.
“I guess that’s alright,” said Jack. “Xepher did say that it would take him a day or two to prepare what he needed for the spell that’s supposed to help me. I guess we can just take today off.”
Having a day off felt almost like a foreign concept to him. Ryoko smiled when she saw his face. She was dressed in a blue t-shirt and capri leggings that extended down just below the knee.
“If you’d like, you could come walk through the orchards with me,” she said. “I offered to help Xepher prune some of the trees.”
“That was nice of you,” said Jack. “Sure. It’s not exactly like I have anything else to do.”
She went ahead of him, and Jack munched on the food Xepher had left for them for a while. The pastries had a flaky crust and a sweet, apple cinnamon filling.
He changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top, and then headed out to find Ryoko. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Birds chirped and flew overhead in impressive numbers, which made sense, given that it was probably safe to assume that the island held few of their natural predators.
He didn’t see Katie or Mira anywhere, but Ryoko was waiting for him in the orchards, working a pair of borrowed gardening shears as she carefully snipped at the trees.
“Do you do this for the cherry trees, back at the mansion?” asked Jack. “I mean, did you used to?”
“Of course,” said Ryoko. “I tried to teach Mira how to do it, when she was staying with us, but she doesn’t have all that much of a green thumb.”
“More of a red one, I guess,” said Jack. “Can you show me how it’s done?”
“Sure!” Ryoko beamed at him. “To start, you look for the smaller, shooting branches. Fresh growth that’s only happened over the past year or so.”
“Okay,” said Jack. “Like this branch here.”
He pointed to a thin branch jutting from one of the apple trees. Ryoko shook her head.
“More like this one,” she said. “Here, take the shears and I’ll show you.”
She passed him the tool and helped position him from behind. It wasn’t strictly necessary, and Jack could tell that Ryoko knew it, but it gave them an excuse to be close to each other. He could feel her breasts grazing his shoulder as she shifted his arms into position. He could inhale her smell, which had changed so much over the time he’d known her. It was fainter now and totally clean, but still very much representative of Ryoko.
“There you go,” she said. “Now just pinch it off.”
Jack grinned. He let go of the shears with one hand and quickly pinched her nose. Ryoko let out a tiny squeal and slapped him on the shoulder.
“You are just too much sometimes,” she said, smiling at him.
“So I’ve been told,” he said.
They spent the next few hours doing a very careful and very thorough job of tending to Xepher’s orchard. Jack made a game of it, letting Ryoko take the lead with the pruning, while he tried his best to distract her with kisses and caresses.
“We’ll have to do at least this much work on our own cherry trees when we get back,” said Ryoko.
Jack nodded. He didn’t let the flutter of anticipation her words sent through him show on his face.
“So you are planning on coming back then?” he asked. “To the mansion. With me.”
Ryoko hesitated for a second that was almost physically painful to him. Despite how close they’d grown, part of him still expected her to shake her head and explain why she couldn’t.
“Of course, sir,” she said. “I had to leave, back when I first became a nymph. There was so much confusion and conflict in the way that I felt. But… I think I’ve sorted through that. I just wasn’t sure if that was what you wanted, too.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to keep you close?” Jack wrapped his arms around her in a hug from behind and kissed her on the top of the head.
“I—I’m not normal anymore,” said Ryoko. “I won’t ever be able to have kids or raise a family.”
“Thank god,” said Jack. “I’m not sure if you were aware of this or not, but I’m kind of a vampire, Ryoko. Kids and vampires don’t mix. Trust me.”
Ryoko turned around in his arms. The smile on her face was as wide as any he’d ever seen.
“It makes me happy to hear you say that,” she whispered. “Does that make me selfish?”
“No,” said Jack. “That makes you Ryoko.”
He kissed her, and hugged her, and held her.
***
Jack made his way back to the guest house at Ryoko’s behest, leaving her to handle the last of the pruning on her own. Mira was waiting for him there with an impatient scowl on her face. She was wearing a knotted yellow crop top and cutoff jeans, and it was an extremely flattering look for her generous body type.
“Finally,” she said. “I was beginning to worry that Ryoko would usurp some of my time. Let’s get moving, my sweet Jack.”
“Your time?” he asked, shaking his head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“When we realized that we were going to have the day off, we decided that what made the most sense was for each of us to schedule a date with you,” said Mira.
“This is news to me,” said Jack. “Don’t you have to, you know, ask the person a date is supposed to be with first?”
Mira let out a gentle, mocking laugh.
“You are such a boy sometimes,” she said. “Come on. I want to show you what I’ve discovered.”
She took him by the hand and led him forward at a skipping pace. Jack was happy to follow her, and he couldn’t keep a grin off his face as he began to hop with her at a childish, lilting pace.
They heade
d out of the volcanic valley’s central area, toward the side of the caldera’s bowl. Erosion had worn down the inside of it, creating a layer of dirt thick enough for grass, weeds, and the occasional hearty tree to grow forth. The slope was still rather steep, and Jack spotted what Mira was leading him to with that in mind.
“That’s a rope line,” he said. “Is this Xepher’s way of climbing up to the top of the caldera?”
“Exactly,” said Mira. “Though I’m sure if he wanted to, he could come up with a more elegant solution with his magic.”
Jack shrugged. “He seems like a practical fellow. Maybe he just likes the exercise?”
Mira took hold of the rope line and slowly began pulling herself along, step by step. Jack followed behind her, and his eyes almost popped out of his skull at the sight of Mira’s awesome butt in cutoffs, at perfect viewing level, and swaying from side to side with each of her movements.
It took them a while to make it all the way up the side of the caldera. The upper lip reminded Jack a little of the edges of a clay vase made by unpracticed hands. It was thin and meandering in some spots but extended outward into a small plateau in others.
They found one of those spots and sat down on the sun-warmed black rock. The view from the top was amazing. The ocean was behind them, a seemingly infinite expanse of blue, and Xepher’s hidden island valley was directly below. It looked both smaller and more serene from above, and he found himself feeling grateful they’d gotten a chance to visit it.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” asked Mira.
“Yeah,” said Jack. “And it’s all so contained. Makes it seem vulnerable, though with Xepher as its guardian and the walls of volcanic rock surrounding it, it’s probably anything but.”
“Not everything that’s beautiful has a weak point.” Mira flashed a knowing smile at him and leaned back on the rock. Jack slid in closer to her, letting his eyes linger on hers.
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