Trust Me

For the Boys

1.

"So, what's the problem, then, Neeshka? You're going to have to speak up. I'm a busy man." I said it with crossed arms, looking away from her. I was pretty sure I looked firm and unrelenting, especially with my new hat. It had a feather in it that I wouldn't normally have gone for, but it did the trick when I wanted to look debonair.

"The problem, Jacen, is that you don't trust me."

"Me? Not trust you? Now, don't you think that's a stretch? How long have we been traveling together, Neeshka? And don't I even let you walk behind me from time to time now?"

"If you trust me," Neeshka said, "then prove it."

"How would I do that?" Without thinking, I reached for my two belt pouches. Yep. Still there. I hoped she hadn't noticed the gesture, but I knew better.

It was with these words and this callous gesture that I had brought myself to my current situation. Here I was, Knight-Captain Jacen Tors, cleric and expert mace-swinger, man and hero, on my knees in Neverwinter Wood wearing a blindfold. Not even Lord Nasher himself would have gotten me in this position- well, not unless I was at rapier-point, I suppose, but here I knelt unarmed and at the complete whim of a TIEFLING. And not merely a tiefling- oh, no. The owner of the quickest fingers in this part of the realms. I'd given in to my own weakness and curiosity, and now it was too late to do anything other than keep to my word. I could have hopped up and ripped off the sash covering my eyes, but what fun would that have been? I wasn't Casavir, after all. And it was Neeshka we were talking about, not Moire. What was the worst she would do?

"Alright, Neeshka, I think I've humored you long enough. If this is what you wanted, then I think I've been more than accommodating..."

I felt her breath a mere inch from my lips. She was close. And you know what? She smelled ripe and sweet like the inside of a peach, and I had the impression that this was how her lips would taste. But she didn't encourage me. I would have reached out my hands, but... well, she had bound them. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then I felt the panels of my tunic being parted by the smooth palms of her hands, warm and surprisingly soft, with nails just barely sharpened. Her hands caressed the light, dark hair there. Before I could think to react or even to speak, Neeshka ripped that tunic down the center with all of the sexual tension of every gaze I'd ever exchanged with her over a fire or across a dungeon by torchlight.

Yeah, I'd watched her walk. She crossed her legs like a cat when she moved ahead of us, one in front of the other, her hips swaying in her leathers with an audible swish that put my heart in my throat. And now, her long, wet tongue moved from my collarbone all the way down to my naked navel in one sinuous stroke. I won't lie. I was reacting. And I would have stood up and taken charge, but this was getting just... too.. good.

Swish.

Her tail slipped down into the lip of my breeches. I thought I'd choke feeling the tip of that tail tickling the tender skin there, where my hips bent sharply inward and the hair thickened. Her tail flickered down into the rising heat only to thwack me soundly on the lower belly. Perhaps she'd read my thoughts? Somehow I didn't feel chastened.

"Neeshka," I said breathily. "If you're going to stop, now's the time." But if you do, I'm going to be really, really unhappy, I thought.

2.

Why exactly did I follow her alone into the woods in the first place? I know, I know. Not the brightest idea I've ever had. But she said she had something to tell me, and when she asked me to come with her, she did that thing with her lower lip where she goes into a half pout. She had one hand on her hip, with her weight shifted slightly in my direction- the kind of gesture that told the rest of the group that I'd give in. You know the look if you know Neeshka. We were just about ready to pack up our bedrolls to get moving for the day. As soon as the invitation was offered up, Casavir, Elanee and Shandra stopped their packing. Was I that transparent? Elanee harrumphed; Casavir merely sighed wearily.

Neeshka clearly took great pleasure in Elanee's discomfort. A better man might have tried to please everyone. But this man had begun to think of the elf as some kind of nagging schoolmarm who whacked me with a stick when I forgot to cross one of my letters, and the simple fact was that I hadn't been able to tear my eyes from Neeshka from the minute I laid eyes on her. It went on and on like this wherever we traveled. Elanee stared at me, I stared at Neeshka. Neeshka preened. Elanee pouted.

I wasn't thinking of Elanee at all at the moment.

Behind my makeshift blindfold I was sincerely hoping Neeshka's lesson of trust wasn't over yet. I had a point or two to make myself. I kept my composure quite well for a man who is secretly joyfully screaming, "YES, YES, YES!" inside. I'd reached my teasing threshold long ago. For over a week now I'd been pondering simply pushing her into the nearest stone wall or tree and laying my hands on her. My breeches were becoming more and more restricting the more that tail wound around me. She leaned in to offer me just the tip of her tongue, easing across my lower lip with that sweet scent that raised the hairs on my neck. I'd heard that some tieflings smelled of brimstone- not Neeshka. Her scent stirred things that had lain too long dormant. Then I felt the sudden, lush caress of her breasts loosened against my face, and the image of what I was not seeing was more than I could take.

I may have been smiling. I wouldn't have known. There had been nothing and now there was this tender, indescribably soft flesh pressed to my face. I leaned forward into the embrace of her body to tease one nipple with my teeth. I imagined that her nipple would be small and the color of her hair. Her body tensed at the contact, bringing me an even greater need to draw her into my mouth. I made small circles with my tongue around that most tender of places that elicited a gentle whimper from her. She eased herself onto my lap with her firm, toned legs gripping me hard enough to hold me in place. I wanted more, so much more of her, wanted to be taken into this most exotic of creatures and enveloped by her wild femininity. But still she wasn't ready, despite the rising pressure in my loins urging me to take over. I lifted my hips as much as the lock of her thighs would allow. She gasped at the feeling of closeness as I ground myself against her, relishing the source of heat that I could feel between her legs.

"Neeshka, I trust you. I trust you," I told her. I softly clasped her other breast with my lips, driving myself harder against the clothing that separated us, hating it. For what seemed entirely too long there was that overly long and tight seal of her legs and her arms around me, only allowing the slightest movement. I positively ached with the need for the fullness of skin on skin.

"Take off my clothes." I'd like to say I wasn't begging, but that would have been far from the truth. My shirt was in scraps. Neeshka eased it up over my head with a girlish giggle. To have her here, right in front of me wearing so little or nothing at all and not to be able to see- it was the greatest of jests that life had offered me. My muscles were as tensed as it was possible for them to be. I was long lost to that heady giddiness that takes over the mind with the introduction of pure lust.

"I've always wanted to hear you say that." Her words had the ring of amusement, and I was happy to give her the simple pleasure of having won this time. If only she'd move lower... yes, lower, that's it...

Her hands gripped my backside appreciatively as they worked the fabric down and over me. It was intensely pleasurable merely to feel the breeze on my skin at this moment, though moreso to enjoy those hot fingers pressing into my flesh. With a bit of maneuvering I was at last naked as I was going to get- yes, naked and blindfolded, and I think I laughed. It was glorious.

3.

I got the sense from the way she unwound herself from my body and had left me kneeling with my better parts catching a good breeze that Neeshka had stepped back to admire what she saw. I should have been embarrassed- at the very least, nervous, but I was fit from battle and the road, and I didn't have anything to hide. She knew what she'd find when she took off the last of my clothing. I suspected that a streetwise girl like her had learned life's more interesting truths by a healthy bit of experience. The thought crossed my mind that anyone could have walked into our little area of the woods and would have gotten a good show. But instead of being worried, I felt a slow smile inching up the corner of my lips. Well, so what. This was the body that the gods had given me, and I for one thought it was good enough for one tiefling lass's viewing pleasure. Neeshka didn't seem to mind my playful attitude. We were all having fun here, right? And she wasn't the sort to snicker at the position she'd gotten me into and then sprint off back to camp. Was she?

"Well, well, well," she chirped in the tone of voice that was unique to her. "Who'd have thought? And you've been saving all of this for me?"

I shrugged, my smile growing. I liked where this was going. I let her talk. If I was fortunate, and I was beginning to believe that I was fortunate indeed, she would have gotten to work on the last of her own garments and by now was naked as the day she'd come into this world.

"Since you've been so nice to me, I've decided to be nice to you, Jacen. Now all you have to do is make a very easy choice." She kissed the tip of my nose while I waited. "I'm sure it'll be easy for you to decide. After all, you're so good at making decisions that affect the fate of the realms and all, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem for you. So... what's it going to be? Do I take off the blindfold, or untie your hands?"

To touch, or to see? This wasn't much of a fair choice to have to make for a man on his knees who had just spent the last twenty minutes being straddled. As much as I wanted to see her and had fantasized many times about what she'd look like unwrapped in my bed, my hands had a mind of their own. How could I not take the option that would allow me to ease my fingertips down the curve of her spine or learn the shape of her hips with my palms? If she had allowed it, I'd have already explored her in every way that it was possible to do so. Although my eager body ordered me to rush headlong into instant union, I wanted more than that. I wanted the knowledge of her flesh so that I could look at her later from across a room and meet her eyes with the expression between man and woman that says, "I know you". I wanted to know how she tasted, how she moved when she met her pleasure's height, how she sighed when there was no longer any question of holding back. And even more than this, I wanted her to remember this. I didn't know why it mattered to me, but I didn't deny that it did.

I wiggled my fingers in answer to her question. There was a pause while her dagger went to work on her own tricky set of knots. "Good choice. Very good choice."

I felt myself be slowly lowered to the grass below us by a firm, small hand on my midsection. Relief flooded my knees. Although a current of sexual energy had taken away most of my discomfort, lying on my back gave me the freedom my body had ached for when held in a kneeling position for too long. I tried to imagine how I'd look lying there from the point of view of a woman who wanted me. My muscles weren't defined, but they were solid enough. My hair and my light goatee and beard were as black as ink. My skin had the tone of one who has spent much time working in little clothing under the sun. I'd done a fair amount of manual labor back in West Harbor. I was strong. And clearly, I was interested. I couldn't remember a time when I'd had such touch-starved skin or had been more uncontrollably aroused.

The tiefling woman had completely taken charge of this body. It wasn't mine anymore. It was hers, wanted only her. I was achingly, blissfully hard. But now I wanted to be touched. I wanted to be touched so badly that I would have pleaded with her. And then, interrupting the darkness that was all that I could see, there was intense, fluttering pleasure. She was using her hand... and her tongue... and oh, definitely her lips in a way that I'd never experienced before. A technique that no woman I had ever encountered had known or could possibly have conceived of. I was lost in a world that rested only in the quaking of my own thighs, the clenching of my body with every whirl of her talented tongue. My mouth wouldn't form words. I tried to touch her, but it was all that I could do to keep myself from losing control in an instant. And that I most certainly did not want to do. I wanted selfishly for this to go on and on, whatever it was. Then I thanked myself silently for the amulet of will that I wore, reminding me that this gift she was giving me, while wonderful, would not allow me everything I had wanted. I groaned as her mouth worked its magic around me, sighing at the loss of it, and reached down to grasp her shoulders.

"Stop, Neeshka! Stop. Please."

She worked her way up my body in a dexterous movement. She whispered softly into my ear.

"First you. Then me."

With those words, I allowed myself a broad grin. I was young. Why not? We'd do things her way.

4.

It was the kind of sticky, muggy morning where lazing around in my bed for longer than I should had a definite appeal. It felt like as good a time as any to pick through my more pleasant memories of the day I started looking at Neeshka as a romantic possibility. It didn't make sense that she wasn't in my bed or that I wasn't in hers, despite what she'd done that day. What she'd done.

I allowed myself the weakness of going over things I could have done differently from time to time. Looking back at my recollections of those moments in Neverwinter Wood when it started to rain, I could have felt anger or even disgust at how the situation had turned out. But it wasn't anger that was creeping in, lazing in a sensual phantom over the surface of my skin, trailing my own hands down the line of my chest to my belly and to stir the hair below. My eyes were closed, blind like I had been under Neeshka's touch. I could feel again the breeze she'd blown in a soft whisper across my abdomen- and I arched my back up to meet that ghostly sensation. I thought of how she had risen above me with each curve molded to my own hard lines, how my hands enjoyed the small of her back up to her shoulder blades, ripe with such delicate skin. That same insistent throbbing started to stir me to thickness below the cover of my blanket now. I looked over at the door and wished I weren't alone.

Why was the tiefling woman haunting me, when she'd bested me so? Was that the reason, clearly stated?

She'd owned me for that time when I lay beneath the whim of her mouth. Anyone who had heard my cries would have thought she was slaughtering me mercilessly with her blade instead of rocking my body to such exotic, untold pleasures. I'd screamed as no man has or should. And all the while that I writhed there on the ground, I imagined I could already taste the musk and know the dance of the female flesh that I hoped would soon await me.

But she didn't give me this.

Had I trusted her earlier in our journey together, would I have earned such an act of willfullness? Would she have toyed so with my passions? Or was I destined to play the fool in such a manner?

Why is she teasing me? I had thought. There had been a long expanse of silence and the lack of contact. She's going through her things, I'd told myself. Nothing to worry about.

But she hadn't come back. And then I sat up, and tugged at the blindfold. Alone. I was alone in the middle of gods knew where, without the guide who'd brought me here. Why hadn't I paid attention? I had no reason to do so. I was hopelessly lost out here.

I only wish it hadn't been Elanee who had found me. I can't imagine that she didn't enjoy it in some way.

"Did she take everything?" I was grateful to her, despite my embarrassment.

"Yes," I said simply. "Everything but my mace, and my clothing... book of devotions." The last words struck me with their ridiculousness.

"Everything of value, you mean." She sat across from me on a fallen tree, watching me dress.

"Yes, Elanee. She took it all."

"We can easily catch her if we leave now."

"No," I answered. "No. I should have expected this. Maybe I should do more listening to Bishop from now on. Maybe everyone really is in it for themselves, in the end."

"Maybe you should have kept your armor on." Her words were bitter. "My guess is that she earned what she took."

I laughed out loud. "There's that. Let's head back. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this to the others. I can only imagine how this kind of tale would make its rounds around the Keep."

"I will be as quiet as the wind. But I wonder if you'll be so quick to listen to the horned one's ideas again in the near future."

"If she comes back," I reminded her. "Where would she go?"

--

Thunk.

I opened my eyes in that startled way that gave away every nuance of what I'd possibly been about to do. There were two medium sized sacks being dropped at the foot of my bed.

"How did you get in here!?" I shouted, half indignantly, half embarrassed to my teeth. Neeshka knelt beside what had previously been my packs. I knew for a fact that the guards had been told to look out for her. We hadn't seen her for a fortnight. And as of yet, Elanee hadn't broken her word. My reputation was intact, though I couldn't say the same thing for my pride.

"I'm good at getting in and out of places." She sighed, stretching luxuriantly. "It really was a lot of fun, Jacen. But I looked around Neverwinter for a long time, and didn't find anything to spend the money on. Well, except for this dagger. But, anyway." Neeshka cleared her throat, looking away. "Did you, uh, miss me much?"

I sat up, kicking my legs over the side of the bed. "Is that an apology?"

"I'd say, more like an invitation. I'm not sorry about taking the money. But, I was sorry about not finishing. What I started, I mean. And..." She blushed deeply, prettily. "It looks like I have good timing."

I lifted her onto my lap and began to kiss her throat.