by Kathryn Moon
Auguste started the bath and then turned to undress me, gentle and affectionate but not sexual in his touches. I realized I felt uncommonly sated. If he'd introduced the idea of sex, I was fairly sure I would've taken the opportunity, but for once, I wasn't the one demanding it.
"Go on, start your questions," Auguste teased, tugging my slip up over my head and then offering out a hand to steady me as I stepped into the steaming water.
"Well…okay, why are you a member of Rooksgrave and not Fleur Noir?" I asked, sinking into the wonderful heat of the water, tinkering with small bottles of oil and adding in something sweet and heady, swishing it in with my hands.
Auguste's fingers paused at the tie on his throat, eyes blinking. "I wasn't expecting you to start there. I…considered Fleur Noir. It's an improvement on Birsha's houses to be sure, and I partook a few times, oh…over a century ago at least," he said, brow furrowing adorably as he tried to remember.
"Forgetting things in your old age?" I teased, and he growled at me, grinning back.
"Le Fleur Noir has always been run by incubi," Auguste said.
"One of the girls here has an incubus gentleman. He's her only one because he's—"
"Insatiable, yes, that's their reputation. But they can…they can make arousal rise within their partner too. It becomes addictive to a human if used too often. And at Le Fleur Noir, they make sure their young men and ladies are always willing. They hire those interested in the work, of course, and they are aware, but…"
"But it's the incubi magic," I said, thinking through it all.
"I couldn't shake the feeling it wasn't genuine," Auguste said with a shrug before pulling his shirt off over the back of his head. "But there are those who appreciate the…reliability of interest from that house's employees. I don't know how Siobhan runs her house, she's some kind of fae."
"Fae? Like a fairy?" I asked, laughing. "I thought those were meant to be little and charming and wearing like, petal dresses and the like. Huh, I guess she was rather frilly."
Auguste laughed, kicking off his pants and nearly stepping into the tub at the opposite end. There was a knock on the bathroom door, and I grinned as Auguste turned to open it, ushering Booker inside with us before joining me in the water, as if it never would've occurred to him to deny the golem entrance.
Auguste raised his eyebrows to Booker as he sunk to his knees behind me. "What do you think? Does Magdalena like her guests?"
Booker reached into the water, his hands settling on my shoulders and ever so gently beginning to dig and knead at my muscles. "She wants allies."
"Mmm, thank you, Booker," I said, sighing, and glancing up at a smiling Auguste. "Will they be allies to her?"
"I expect so. Magdalena is a unique asset to Rooksgrave with her ability to match her clients and ladies, but she doesn't have a network like Julian or Siobhan likely do. Incubi and fae won't want other creatures hearing that one of their own is being bullied by an old king. And if Magdalena can bargain her skills to other houses, she might secure more physical protections as well as her magic."
"It sounds like politics," I said with a wrinkle of my nose.
Auguste laughed. "Oh, if you only knew, ma petite. Such hierarchies among our kind."
"Really? What is the hierarchy within…well within my men?" I asked, head tilting.
Auguste's expression was playfully sour. "I regret saying anything."
I gaped at him and flicked water in his direction. "Why?"
"Because I am not at the top, obviously," Auguste said, grinning.
I ran through them in my head. If Auguste wasn’t, then that meant… "Ah. Amon."
Auguste hummed and nodded. "If I were a millennia or two older, perhaps I could compete," he said, shrugging and laughing at my gasp. "There were never many of his kind, and I'm sure he's considered some sort of royalty—"
"What?!" And here I'd been thinking all that queen talk from Amon was a bit of an exaggeration. "What on earth is he doing—"
Auguste growled and lunged across the water, eyes black and face suddenly hovering before my own. "If Amon says he was waiting for you, believe him, mon coeur."
"But I—I don't really do anything," I said, snorting out a giggle. "I mean, you know, accomplishments and the like."
"You accept," Auguste purred, snatching a kiss from my lips, and then another as he added, "You desire. You are very cute too, have I mentioned? And you taste nice."
"Hm, I think that might be a vampire bias, but thank you. I'll let Amon answer for himself next time. So you're after him?" I asked, pushing the uncomfortable weight of my value out of the conversation. "And then…Jonathon?"
"Mm, Mr. Tanner, I suppose. He's unique, very strong, and his tendency towards sniffing our kind out interests everyone. In a way, our group is a thin pool to study this topic. We are missing a great many options for you."
"I noticed," I teased and laughed as Booker reached down to pinch the side of my breast. "Oh, not you teasing me too!"
I twisted and found him smiling faintly. "Are you fourth then? After Mr. Tanner."
"No. I am made," Booker said, simply.
"Ezra is cursed, which isn't very impressive in the grand scheme of things, especially given the nature of the curse, but technically, it is more than…" Auguste trailed off, studying Booker over my shoulder with a growing frown. "Come to think of it, I'm not a fan of our social chain. And, Booker, I'm very glad to have you with us."
That was sweet, I thought, and I leaned in to kiss Auguste's cheek as Booker grunted out a thanks. "And Birsha?"
"Hmm, he's not very high amongst us all, not in terms of what he is," Auguste said, turning and moving back to his spot on the other end of the tub, taking one of my feet into his hands and massaging the muscles. "He was human, but he's immortal now, by some means. He's not cursed, and he's learned some magic for himself. Probably close to Mr. Tanner. It's what he's built in all these centuries that makes him powerful. Those who owe him favors, those he's destroyed, those who've chosen to ally with him. Rooksgrave could take him on if he were alone, but he never is, and his web far exceeds ours."
"But if we join our web with Le Fleur Noir's and…?" I waved my fingers through the air, deciding I'd better not try and garble out the name of Siobhan's house.
Auguste frowned down at my foot that he was working on, fingers going still and gaze distant. "I don't know what a real battle against Birsha would look like, mon coeur. I hope it doesn't come to that."
I bit my lip, the same worry in Auguste's soft voice finding its way into my heart. Booker squeezed my shoulders and bent his head to rest against the back of mine.
"He won't touch you."
Auguste swallowed, smiling again at last and nodding in agreement, but he didn't offer further assurances. I wasn't sure if it was because he didn't think they were needed, or because he didn't believe them.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Thief and the Sphinx
“And what do we have here, hm? A wicked little thing all alone? How very tempting."
I shivered as a touch scratched around the shape of my breasts in a figure eight, trailing down to make my stomach jump.
"Does she want touch? Does it even matter? Not when we want to taste her."
I moaned as a flat tongue swept up the inside of one thigh, skipping over my hips to trace the round of my stomach. I was held in place on a flat surface, and my eyes were sticky with sleep, barely parting. The figure between my spread thighs was hazy and shifting, never quite settling on one face over another, but the tongue drifting over my skin was long and pointed and black.
I whimpered, and a whisper hushed against my exposed sex.
"What a little present for me to find here, hm?"
The wet tongue ran up my sex and then down again, dipping inside of me, and I gasped—
—Crying out and flailing on the bed. Between my thighs wasn't the eerie unsettled figure of my dreams, but an enormous man. I opened my mouth to scream, and his brown e
yes widened, his body launching up and landing heavily on top of me, hand clapping over my mouth and cock settling itself against my hips.
"Puisín! Esther, it's me, love!"
I stiffened beneath the man, his big dopily handsome face smiling nervously down at me. Big nose, massive full lips for sucking, blondish-red hair tossed messily around his head, the sides shaved. Freckles over his nose and cheeks and down into his red beard. And those hips between mine, the incredible width of them.
"Ezra!" I mumbled from behind his hand.
I was soaking wet, teased through my dream, and I laughed, sagging finally back into the bed, my eyes falling shut. We'd joked about him waking me up this way, but I'd never expected to—
His hand pulled away, head bowing, and I jerked again, accidentally knocking our noses together.
"Urgh!" he groaned, falling backward onto the bed.
"I can see you!" I squealed, climbing on top of him. "Ohhh, Ezra!"
I walked my fingers up the grooves of muscle on his chest and rose to my knees on either side of his hips to take a peek at the cock I'd missed seeing stretch me wide before. Ezra laughed as my eyes hooded with interest.
"I have to concentrate to stay visible, but I thought you'd like the surprise," Ezra said, grinning, every bit the lazy pup in my sheets I'd imagined him as. He was younger than my other men, closer to my own age. Two beautifully large hands rose to prop his head up, and dark coppery eyebrows waggled at me. "Well, what are you going to do with me now that you have me at your mercy, eh?"
I snorted at that and reached down between us to line him up at my entrance. Ezra's teasing nonchalance crumbled with the first inch of him fitting inside of me. He groaned, head leaning back into the cradle of his hands, throat flexing as I worked my way down. I hadn't seated myself fully when he began to flicker, his hips rising to meet me, and I giggled at the vanishing act.
He reappeared, grinning, hands reaching down to circle my thighs. "Which do you prefer?"
"Mm, well since you didn't successfully fuck me sleeping—"
"I did my best!"
"I think you should try and stay visible as long as you can. Give me something pretty to look at," I said, beaming back at him.
He barked out a rowdy laugh at that, and I turned it into a moan with a roll of my hips, the picture of his parted mouth fading briefly, before his brow furrowed and he solidified in full color, those bright friendly eyes shining up at me.
"'S been a long time since I've been looked at," he said, voice slightly hoarse.
"I'm happy to volunteer for the job," I replied, picking up my pace on his lap with the assistance of his hands, one sliding up so he could thumb over my clit.
"Speaking of jobs, I have some snooping to do," Ezra said, gaze falling from mine to stare between us, a feral smile growing at the picture of his length pumping into me.
"Mm. Quick then," I gasped, my thighs starting to burn as I bounced faster, harder.
"You going to play with those pretty tits or shall I?" he asked, both of us grinning at the reminder of our first time together.
"It's your turn. Oh!"
Ezra sat up suddenly, hands on my ass, and flipped us roughly on the bed, his back arching high so his head could duck down to my chest. Wet, thick lips wrapped around one nipple, calloused fingers pinching at the other.
"Ride me, puisín," Ezra growled.
I slid my fingers into his hair, pleased with its length giving me something to tug roughly at, and thrust myself up onto his cock. Ezra growled, the muscles of his back rippling, and then vanishing as I began to squeeze on his length.
"Harder," I whispered, keeping my eyes open to savor every second of getting to see him, the way he moved on top of me.
He twisted the nipple pinched in his fingers and bit at the other, and the pressure that had been building finally snapped, my body going taut as pleasure rippled through. Ezra sat up straight as I went limp, the pair of us panting and wearing lazy smiles. He nodded at the clock behind him.
"What time's it say?"
"Half-past ten," I answered, frowning a little. I'd barely got any proper sleep. "You woke me up too early."
"Early enough to make you come again. Grab the pillow, puisín," Ezra said.
I giggled and dug my fingers into the pillow above my head, the laugh turning into a shout as Ezra took my hips in a solid grip and began to pound into me, head tossed back and long groan echoing up to the canopy of the bed.
"Bet I can make it three times if you touch yourself," Ezra rasped.
I slapped a hand down to my clit and helped my man get me off. Waking up too early was worth it for this.
"Rested?" Magdalena greeted me, a knowing glint in her eyes.
"Well enough," I answered, smiling back.
Ezra had left me a limp and sweaty heap in my bed, kissing every inch of me as I came down from my high until I fell right back to sleep. By the time I woke up again, Booker had a just barely warm breakfast waiting for me, and a message to see Magdalena.
"I'm sorry about the awkwardness of the meeting last—well, this morning," she said, with a wave of her hand.
"I don't mind, although to be honest, I'm still learning all the…etiquette in this world," I said, taking a seat at the tea table as Magdalena poured me a cup. Her dark hair was damp and braided over her shoulder, and she was dressed in one of her exotic robes, face clean but with those signs of exhaustion I'd seen last night.
"Mm, Auguste was territorial, primarily because of Julian, although Siobhan has been known to poach girls from other houses," Magdalena explained, lifting her head and offering a faint wry smile. "Not that he had anything to worry about with you."
"Of course not!" I said. "I wouldn't betray you like that."
Magdalena smiled and shook her head. "No, you wouldn't. More importantly, I don't think you'd trade your men for anything."
I sighed and nestled into the armchair a little more, cheeks warming. "That's true," I said softly, staring down into my tea.
"Amon is on his way over, just to check on you, I think," Magdalena said, watching me.
I brightened despite the tension that seemed to fill my relationship with Amon, and her smile grew. I still had concerns, but I was looking forward to seeing him, to savoring that heady mix of his intensity and affection. Even his possessiveness. It caused friction where the others were concerned, but it made my heart pound.
"I'm glad your gentlemen are finding their way in the arrangements," Magdalena said with a sly bat of her lashes. "And I am very grateful now to have Ezra. He's been quite helpful, although if you can discover where he's been stashing some of my silver, I'd be very grateful."
I choked, tea sliding down the wrong pipe as my eyes widened. Ezra was stealing from Magdalena? I would ream his beautifully rounded ass for it. And we'd probably both enjoy ourselves.
"Of course. And…Magdalena, is there anything I can do?" I asked, frowning.
"Do?" she asked, blinking.
I winced and shrugged. "I know that I'm not…like you or the others. But if there was a way I could help fight against—"
"Oh, darling," she said, a soft laugh rising that made me even more determined to want to help.
"I could help set a trap or—"
"Esther!" Magdalena cried, stiffening. "Don't you dare let Auguste or Amon hear you say something like that. They'd have my head on a platter."
I pressed my lips together briefly because she was probably right, even if I didn't think it was any business of theirs. "I just feel a bit useless."
Magdalena released a long sigh and nodded slowly. "I wouldn't want to be told to do nothing in this situation either."
I stared aimlessly around the room, lips twisting in a frown, and Magdalena waited in quiet for me to gather my thoughts, sipping from her teacup.
"I guess it isn't just this trouble. Before Rooksgrave, I had a job—no, I know this is kind of employment too, but it certainly doesn't feel like it," I rushed to add, and Magdalena bri
ghtened. "But some of the girls here are finished, they were ladies before this and they have accomplishments, and I… Auguste is very talented and very wealthy, Jonathon is some sort of mad genius, and Amon is a kind of royalty apparently, and I—"
"And you are sweet and honest, and perhaps your skills and interests aren't the sort of thing one talks about in polite company, but they bring relief and pleasure and contentment to your gentlemen," Magdalena said with an arch of her eyebrow.
"So sex is my talent," I said, drinking from my teacup and wondering if the bitter flavor in my mouth had anything to do with tea leaves.
"Esther," Magdalena said softly, leaning forward and reaching a hand across the table to me, waiting for me to put my cup down and accept the offering. "Esther, you are still so young, and you've had so little access to the world. Let Auguste teach you to make pastries, let Underwood teach you his experiments, ask Amon to take you traveling around the world, tell Ezra to stop stealing my silver, and—"
I broke out into laughter, and Magdalena grinned back at me.
"You don't have to wake up and be the same person every day, my darling girl. You have curiosity, so follow it and find out where it takes you. You can find passions outside of physical passion too. Very few of my girls choose to stay at Rooksgrave forever. Some fall in love and leave, some find the means to pursue a new adventure. You'll find your path too." Her fingers squeezed around mine, and she arched an eyebrow. "Otherwise, you're happy?"
"Very happy," I said quickly. "Oh! And thank you for helping Ezra. That was a lovely surprise this morning."
"He's under my orders not to sneak around any of the girls, but he seemed offended by the suggestion, so I think he'll do just fine," Magdalena said with a firm nod before winking at me. "You have very good taste for not having had a good look at him before."
"Mm, but I could feel the potential," I answered, and we both snorted.
