Author's Note:
Thanks so much to the guests who are leaving some wonderfully motivating comments! I read and appreciate every one of them.
A bit nervous about whether this chapter's smut will divide readers! Sorry if it's not your cup of tea (CW: voyeurism, sexual blackmail). But I did promise dark!Akkarin, who decided in Chapter 17 to "raise the stakes" for Lorlen's continued silence. My intentions were to bring a third character's psyche into the story, and make it hot!
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The two men glanced at each other for a moment, then a smile returned to Akkarin's lips, but it was coldly mocking. He stepped away from Sonea, who made to quickly re-wrap her upper robes and tie the sash.
"Do not move," he ordered her in a quiet voice, and she slowly let go of her brown sash. She let her arms fall to either side, her breasts exposed again, her chest rising and falling.
Akkarin sauntered to the door, still holding Lorlen's gaze. Lorlen felt like his mind had abandoned his body.
"We have a guest, Sonea," the High Lord murmured, using magic to swing open the library door fully.
Sonea looked over and her face flushed to see the Administrator. Her wide eyes darted between Akkarin and Lorlen. She was visibly resisting the urge to defy the High Lord's instruction not to cover herself up.
"Come in, Administrator," Akkarin crooned. Lorlen wanted to run away, but his legs seem locked into place. His heart felt like it was pounding its way out of his blue robes. What would he do if I tried to run?
The High Lord's black eyes narrowed dangerously. "I said, come in."
Lorlen slowly put one foot after the other. Akkarin shut the library door behind him but did not lock it.
"Anuren Dark?" He asked Lorlen, as if the Administrator had casually dropped by for dinner. Lorlen simply gaped at him.
Akkarin shrugged and took a seat in one of the leather armchairs in the study. He crossed his legs and took a sip from his glass of wine. His eyes glittered with a dare. Sonea's wide, black eyes watched them both, her breasts bared.
Lorlen's gaze, despite his will, slipped down to those rose-pink nipples. The sight stirred his body once again, and although he knew his billowing blue robes hid all, it still made his face heat.
"Do you like what you see?" Akkarin asked, a hint of threat in his low voice.
Lorlen looked away from Sonea quickly.
"I said, do you like what you see?" The tone of threat in the High Lord's voice grew more discernible.
"Yes," Lorlen whispered, agonised.
"Yes," Akkarin echoed. "She is a pleasing sight, is she not. You should try how she feels. Even better."
Lorlen's shocked gaze went back up to Akkarin's face at the confirmation. So he has taken his novice to bed.
The High Lord lifted one dark eyebrow. "Oh, don't look so dismayed, Lorlen." His cold black eyes flickered down to the ring on his finger pointedly. "I know you are imagining it."
Lorlen said nothing, his breath coming fast now, feeling completely exposed. What new agony was this? Who was this man before him?
But why are you surprised, he bitterly mused. This is not the first time he has blackmailed you with your thoughts, thanks to this grotesque device on your finger.
Akkarin threw a glance over to his novice. "Sonea, the Administrator is speechless. See the effect you've had on him?" He chucked quietly.
"Yes, High Lord," Sonea whispered obediently.
"Would you like to give him some relief?"
"If it please you, High Lord," she replied, sounding genuinely deferential from what Lorlen could tell.
The Administrator fervently wished his body would respond to his mental pleas, but beneath his robes, his hard phallus twitched.
Akkarin looked back at Lorlen, as if considering a proposal. "I think so, yes. He has been under such strain lately. All work and no play makes for a miserable man."
With Lorlen still speechless, the High Lord's lips curled into a cruel smile from his seat. "I think you will have to take the initiative, Sonea. The Administrator is shy."
"Yes, High Lord." Sonea pushed herself away from the desk and walked towards Lorlen slowly, her small breasts heaving gently with every inhale.
Akkarin watched her appraisingly, taking a sip of his wine. "Does he please you, my novice?"
Sonea looked at Lorlen. He was a gentler version of Akkarin in many ways. Slightly shorter than the High Lord, his shoulders were nonetheless wide under the blue robes, his forearms and hands attractively chiseled. His robes were a little tighter in the middle, suggesting a softer stomach. His long, dark brown hair was tied back with a ribbon, in the same style Akkarin favoured. It gave him a certain maturity. His hazel eyes, however, were almost boyish, and certainly warmer than Akkarin's unwavering black ones.
"He does, High Lord," Sonea answered honestly.
"Well, then you best get acquainted," Akkarin instructed, eyes narrowing.
Sonea stepped up to the Administrator, her hands trembling slightly at her own daring. With the sash loosened, her movements made the top half of her silk robes slide off one shoulder. She stepped up close, a head span shorter than Lorlen. Her bare breasts almost brushed his blue-clad chest as she looked up into his face.
Lorlen's hands curled into fists at his side, his breaths coming in shallow as he looked down as the sight in front of him. His eyes hungrily took in those small but shapely white orbs. He could see the goosebumps around her nipples. Then he swallowed to wet his dry throat and slowly closed his eyes. "S-Sonea," he muttered, "Please don't –"
"Are you refusing my favourite, Lorlen? Anyone who insults my novice insults me," Akkarin interrupted, ice dripping from his tone.
Lorlen stifled a moan and stood still as Sonea reached out with both hands for his own. She gently brought his hands up to her breasts, pressing his palms onto them with her small fingers. She continued to look up into his face as she did so, with those jet black, clever eyes.
"You can touch me if you wish, Administrator. The High Lord allowed it," Sonea said quietly, guilelessly.
Lorlen's breath hitched in his throat and his hands twitched. Before he could remember deciding to, his palms were cupping the weight of those spheres, then his whole hand was gently squeezing them.
Sonea's eyes fluttered shut and she leaned into his hands. He kneaded them more firmly, building up to gripping them quite harshly. He rolled those nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, drawing a quiet whimper from Sonea when he pinched them.
Lorlen felt his face flush and his heart began to speed up, warmth spreading from his fingertips where they trailed her skin.
He then felt a slow, quiet anger rise within him. Have I not deserved any personal satisfaction? The sudden thought came to him, surprising him with its bitterness. If anything, it is I who has worked tirelessly for the Guild… I who had to stay here and slog through years in the Healer's Quarters, while Akkarin was off gallivanting around the Allied Lands… I who almost equalled his power, at least, before he returned from his travels…
His brown eyebrows furrowed in emotion and Lorlen suddenly realised his hands had grabbed fistfuls of Sonea's brown robe. He yanked it down the other shoulder and off her roughly. He then grasped the string at the front of her novice's trousers and pulled to snap it, not bothering to untie it. Lorlen yanked that down with a small gesture of his fingers, using magic.
Sonea made a quiet exclamation of surprise as she was stripped down to the ankles. Akkarin leaned forward in his chair and his eyes glittered, his attention piqued.
The Administrator's hazel eyes burned with a combination of self-righteous anger and lust as he took in the shapely, small body in front of him.
Then his hands reached out again and this time they gripped her pale hips, his fingers digging into Sonea's soft skin. He pulled the novice to him, and she closed the distance between them in one step, her cheeks flushed. Her hands remained at her sides as she allowed herself to be led, but her eyes betrayed excitement at the novelty of what was happening.
Lorlen's hand went down to grab a fistful of Sonea's silky dark hair. She moaned slightly at his painful grip, sounding aroused. Grasping her hair tighter, Lorlen pulled Sonea's face up towards his and crushed his lips onto hers.
As her little tongue tentatively touched his own, he growled in the back of his throat. It felt like something Lorlen had always tightly leashed within him was let loose. Stifled at times with the day-to-day responsibilities of running the Guild, he'd had some satisfying experiences with women in the past, but not many. However, that did not mean he wasn't a man in his prime, with the needs of a man.
Lorlen distantly heard a quiet chuckle escape Akkarin's lips. But his surroundings faded inconsequentially to the background as the Administrator continued to explore Sonea's mouth with his own. One hand still buried in her hair, his other hand reached for that pale, inviting neck. His hand could almost grasp its small circumference entirely. As they continued to kiss, he squeezed it slowly, drawing a gasp for air from her.
"Careful now, Administrator," Akkarin drawled. "One must take some care of one's possessions to enjoy them for a long time." Lorlen's grip on Sonea's neck loosened, allowing Sonea to breathe better and she softly, maddeningly, traced her tongue along his upper lip.
Lorlen felt his hard organ jerk behind his robes, brushing against Sonea's stomach. The Administrator gasped at the sensation and let go of Sonea's hair, breaking the kiss and taking one step back from the novice. His hands were trembling at what he had just done, and his heart was pounding like he had been horse-racing.
"Good girl," Akkarin purred. "Come here."
Sonea gave Lorlen a small smile, then turned around and walked, fully naked, towards where Akkarin sat like some sort of predator waiting in the shadows.
The High Lord looked up at her and stroked her cheek gently with one hand. "Complete, utter surrender Sonea, remember," he whispered up at her with a curl in his lip.
Then his hand travelled down from her cheek, tracing the curve of one breast, down to her stomach. Sonea had closed her eyes at the sensation of his guardian's touch. Her chest began to heave up and down from the anticipation.
Lorlen watched, absorbed. After wavering for a moment when he had forced himself to step back from Sonea, he was now hardening again.
"Up you get," Akkarin instructed. The armchairs in Akkarin's library were spacious for one, so Sonea easily straddled him, her slim knees on either side of the High Lord's thighs. She was about to let her own weight down onto his lap, touching her naked womanhood to the sharp dent in Akkarin's black robes, when the High Lord made a sound of disapproval in his throat and reached up to grip her chin in warning.
"Not until I say so," he murmured.
"I'm sorry, High Lord," Sonea whispered, holding herself suspended just above his lap. Her hips tilted slightly back, Lorlen had a partial view of her sex from the back. Her inner lips were perfectly pink and swollen, framed by glossy black hair.
The sight was almost unbearably arousing. An urge arose in him to touch her folds and explore it with his own mouth.
Akkarin threw Lorlen a glance from his seat, his black eyes sparkling in the firelight. Lorlen had the feeling he had read these forbidden thoughts from his mind.
He couldn't tell if that curl of Akkarin's lip was mocking him, or conspiratorially promising that Lorlen's fantasy may soon become reality. Either way, Lorlen's knees felt weak. He took a shaky step back to the couch behind him and let himself sink into it, stunned at what was happening.
Akkarin drained his wine glass languidly, as if he had all the time in the world while his naked novice straddled him, poised and trembling above his lap. He set his glass aside. Then, finally, at a nod from the High Lord, Sonea exhaled quietly in relief as she lowered herself onto Akkarin. She rocked her hips back and forth across his clothed organ, rubbing her nether lips against his robes.
Lorlen gasped under his breath, unable to tear his eyes away. In some distant corner of his mind, a voice was screaming at him to leave the room, but his body seemed to be entirely its own master.
Though Lorlen didn't see it due to the location of his seat, Akkarin must have reached for and positioned his organ at Sonea's tight entrance when his hand disappeared between their bodies. Then he gripped her pale, soft buttocks and pulled her down forcefully onto him with a hiss.
Sonea uttered a moan at the sensation of suddenly being impaled on him.
"Move," ordered Akkarin in a guttural whisper. Lorlen could see the muscles in Sonea's small, shapely buttocks clench as she used her thighs to lift herself up then bear back down onto the the High Lord's lap. She heard him exhale swiftly at the impact and saw his hand creep up and around the back of her neck. He gripped her there tightly.
Sonea closed her eyes and leaned back into his pincer-like grip, continuing to move up and down. Lorlen was mesmerised by the thin film of sweat on her back.
Sonea's cheeks were faintly pink from her exertions, and seeing the hunger in her guardian's eyes clearly emboldened her. On impulse, she leaned her face down and Akkarin tilted his chin up at the same time. Their lips met.
Somehow, Lorlen was startled by how tender the kiss was. It felt to him, for some reason, in shocking contrast to what he thought was happening. This is no blackmail, the thought suddenly sprang to Lorlen's mind.
Then his mind was brought back to the present when Akkarin raised his hand and sharply slapped her. Sonea's head flung to the side.
Without thinking, Lorlen gasped. "S-stop!" he said, shocked that Akkarin had suddenly decided to hurt her.
Akkarin looked back at him and raised a dark eyebrow, that cruel half-smile returning to his face.
"Sonea, do you want me to stop?" He asked in a low voice, looking directly at Lorlen with dark, dangerous eyes.
"No, High Lord," Sonea gasped out, grinding onto him. "Please, don't stop."
Akkarin raised his eyebrow at Lorlen, as if to say, you heard her. Now be quiet.
Her movements grew rougher and deeper. When Akkarin used a hand to sharply pinch Sonea's nipples, she whined, her entire lower body trembling.
Lorlen watched, stunned, as she shuddered and her hips jerked upon the High Lord's lap. There had always been theatrics, screams of pleasure from the women the Administrator had paid for in the pleasure houses – no doubt, he now realised, much of it had been skilled acting to earn a living.
While unlike that, Sonea was clearly climaxing: her knees trembled and couldn't bear her weight. The Administrator unabashedly stared as the muscles of her small, round buttocks clenched. His breath hitched in his throat at this erotic sight, somehow infinitely more arousing in its breathless near-silence.
As she came down from her pleasure, the High Lord's fingers dug into her hips harshly and he, too, finally hissed through clench teeth and finished, keeping himself sheathed in her.
In the next moment, when they caught her breath, Sonea smiled down at her guardian, dark eyes radiant. Lorlen noticed an uncustomary warmth in Akkarin's gaze as he returned Sonea's, the corner of his lip curling up.
He patted Sonea's ivory thigh to permit her to get off his lap. Then Akkarin rearranged his black robes as if nothing had happened.
Sonea stood by his chair, seemingly awaiting instruction. Even though her head was tilted down demurely, she looked intensely at her guardian from under her eyelashes. Akkarin, still wearing that half-smile, gestured at her to pick up her novice's robes. Sonea walked to where the brown silk lay in a heap on the floor.
Where I had stripped her, the thought suddenly leapt to Lorlen's mind, making his face colour.
She put them on, her face serene with satiety, and her black eyes shining with gratification.
As Sonea dressed, the High Lord, not a single black hair nor a fold in his robes out of place, sat back with almost feline poise in his armchair. He threw a glance at Lorlen, chuckling to see the whirlwind of emotions etched on his face.
"Administrator, you have much to learn about women. Sonea, did I satisfy you?"
"Yes, thank you, High Lord," she replied quietly, now standing in front of his desk fully dressed, her cheeks still slightly pink.
"Do you enjoy it when I slap you and choke you?"
"I do, High Lord," she whispered, avoiding the Administrator's eyes.
Akkarin raised an eyebrow again at Lorlen, and stood up in a swish of robes, Anuren Dark in hand. He sauntered up to his novice.
He handed her the glass, and she took a large gulp to quench her thirst. Watching her, Akkarin stroked her cheek with his fingers. "You see, I treat my favourite well. Only I understand what she needs. The powerful, the different, are alone. Feared. Misunderstood. To whom shall we turn for relief, if not each other?"
For a second, an intense look crossed Sonea's black eyes as she listened to the High Lord's words. That look was no girlish infatuation. It was, Lorlen realised, esteem: an esteem both intelligent and measured. Its sincerity punched a hole in Lorlen's theory that Sonea had been tricked, seduced, and recruited.
Akkarin's words, about power and solitude, equally caught Lorlen off-guard. There was a mixture of pride and bitterness in them.
But the Administrator's entire body was still gently humming in arousal, and a thousand thoughts crossed his head. He couldn't fully comprehend what lay beneath the High Lord's loaded words; only he knew they were somehow important to understanding all this.
"But I think that is enough for tonight," the High Lord said abruptly, jolting Lorlen out of his troubled thoughts. "A rare vintage is best sipped slowly," he purred, returning his attention to Sonea. Akkarin held her little chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting his head down to place a soft kiss on Sonea's sore lips.
She closed her eyes and seemed to melt towards Akkarin's firm touch.
"Goodnight, Sonea."
"Goodnight, High Lord. Administrator."
She gave a bow, and the sheer ordinariness of the moment, in contrast with what had just happened, made Lorlen's breath hitch in his throat.
Whenever he and Sonea crossed paths in the Guild, the Eye only knew how he would now be able to control his body's reaction at a simple bow from her. He would only imagine those two small, pert breasts, ivory with a light pink nipple on each, behind the brown novices' robes. He would only imagine, in agony and guilt, how they had felt under his hands, and how her pale buttocks had looked writhing on her guardian's black-robed lap.
Sonea quietly opened the door and padded down the dark foyer. The door magically shut behind her.
The High Lord leisurely sat back down on his armchair with his wine. When he saw Lorlen was still frozen in his seat, he raised an eyebrow sardonically.
"As you can see, Administrator, my novice and I have come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. A vast improvement on holding her hostage, no?"
Lorlen's mouth slackened and he finally drew in a breath. "This… this is unacceptable, Akkarin."
"Oh?" Akkarin's lips curled into a cold smile, his tone turning threatening. "I seem to recall you readily accepting it not a moment ago, Lorlen. I didn't lock the door."
When the Administrator's eyes grew wide with quiet indignation, the High Lord's smile vanished and his dark eyes pierced into Lorlen's. "And if you breathe a word of this to anyone else, well… I would be duty-bound to give a full, complete account of what happened tonight. Including the actions of everyone who was involved."
"Is… is that what this was?" Lorlen choked out. "To continue to ensure my silence? You already have the ring!"
"Ah, but I cannot constantly live in your mind, Lorlen. And I have been considering for a while now that your… incentives for staying silent aren't as reliable as Rothen's. Sonea's safety ensures his obedience, but you… you were getting too hostile." Akkarin explained, his eyes reflecting the red of the dying embers.
"You've – you've become a monster," Lorlen spluttered.
Akkarin gave him a small, derisive smile. "Come now. She's of age. I know for a fact you've paid for younger flesh in the brothels of the Inner Circle, like many magicians." He set down his glass. "But this is not all just a ploy to blackmail you more effectively. I also consider it my little reward for years of thankless service."
"Service!" The Administrator exclaimed. The effects of the evening were emboldening him and Lorlen's voice had a hint of challenge in it. "Is being the leader of the Guild so thankless? It's such a burden to be the most powerful man in all of the Allied Lands, that you think you should be compensated like this?"
The High Lord's eyes flashed dangerously and the smile fled his face. It almost seemed like a dark, haunted anger crossed his features as his eyes bored into the Administrator's. For a split second, he truly feared this stranger.
"You dare speak to me of burdens, Lorlen?" Akkarin murmured unnervingly quietly. "There is much you do not know."
He reached for his glass again and took a long sip, looking at the fire as if his mind was miles away.
"Goodnight," he suddenly said next, his tone shifting back into its customary aloofness, inviting no argument. "I shall see you here tomorrow for our meal with Ambassador Dannyl."
Lorlen's breathing was shallow and rapid. Fearing his knees wouldn't hold him, he forced himself onto his unsteady feet and walked out of the study slowly, as if in a trance.
It wasn't until he had thrown himself out of the Residence and into the cool, clean night air of the Guild grounds did he take a full, deep breath, his head reeling. Guilt, arousal, dread, disappointment, fear. He felt all this and more. Sleep would never come tonight.