"I really don't see why I have to be here."
The High Lord raised a dark eyebrow. "Don't you think it would look strange if the Administrator suddenly stopped visiting the High Lord's residence? What tale will you spin in the Night Room, Lorlen?"
Lorlen looked around at the darkwood panelling in the High Lord's study. Usually, he found this a cosy room, ideal for a drink and a smoke between men. Tonight, the darkwood felt oppressive, and the dense, aromatic smoke rising from the slim cigar between Akkarin's long fingers only added to the feeling of discomfort that sat in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't help but think of the last time he was here…
"It has been too long. A month, in fact. Already there are rumours of a rift between us – the High Lord and Administrator, close friends no more – and these rumours are drawing unnecessary attention. Not to mention that more than one ambitious magician has approached me with not-so-subtle hints that they thought themselves well-qualified for Administratorship."
Lorlen scoffed and took a large gulp of his wine. "So the vultures are circling already? I am the youngest Administrator in a century – do they really think they can instigate a coup?"
Akkarin's lips curled into a smile at the corner. "I disabused them of their hopes swiftly. I can't imagine anyone could do a better job." His smile vanished and he held Lorlen's gaze steady. "I mean that, Lorlen," he murmured, his voice taking on a more open quality than usual. "If there had been another way, I would have avoided trapping you like this."
Lorlen's hazel eyes burned reproachfully, but the wind felt like it had left his sails. He was tired of wracking his brains for a way out of this, then looping back to his own willing participation, then back yet again to a string of what-ifs…
"Do you have anything stronger than this?" Lorlen asked, holding up his empty glass of Anuren Dark.
Akkarin's smile returned and he sat back, taking a leisurely drag on his cigarillo. "Of course."
Not a minute later, Takan entered with a tray bearing an expensive crystal bottle of golden-brown liquid and two glasses.
"A vintage Kyralian spirit. It's called kanyak," Akkarin raised his glass in a toast.
Lorlen did not return the toast, but he did take a liquid warmed his insides and felt clean and flavoursome. He took a larger gulp appreciatively.
They sat for a while in what may have looked to another like companionable silence. But Akkarin was observing Lorlen keenly, and Lorlen was slowly growing emboldened by the new drink.
Finally, feeling calmer and relatively safe in the privacy of the residence, he plucked up the courage to voice what had been on his mind for weeks.
"Does the… impropriety with your novice continue?" He dared ask, raising his glass to his lips.
Akkarin refilled his own glass and sat back, crossing his legs. He regarded Lorlen with a raised eyebrow once more, his posture relaxed and in control.
"Yes, it does," he replied, his tone amused. "Indeed, when I refrained for a week, she was quite troubled. Thought she had lost my attentions forever."
It was Lorlen's turn to raise an eyebrow in disbelief, but he said nothing.
Akkarin drank from his glass, then smiled to himself. "It took… quite some convincing on my part to reassure my favourite."
Lorlen felt his face heat at the suggestiveness of the remark. Or was that the kanyak? "W- what kind of convincing?" He stammered.
"My, you are quite the voyeur, Administrator…"
"I'm trying to understand how far this debauchery has gone," Lorlen hissed back indignantly, but he knew his colour was rising at Akkarin's accusation. He couldn't help it: a part of him was dying to know.
Akkarin's dark eyes bored into his as he leisurely raised his cigar to his lips. He inhaled and blew out a cloud of smoke. "I see. An interrogation, then. Where would you like me to begin? The part where I prepared her with my fingers? The part where she begged to be sodomised? Or the part where she received my seed all over her?"
Lorlen's chest rose up and down. Against his will, his body stirred at the images these words painted.
"You have our silence," he finally managed in a whisper. "Why are you doing this?"
Akkarin sighed impatiently and tapped his cigar against a crystal ashtray. "You still don't understand, do you, Lorlen. She is fine. We are enjoying ourselves immensely. And no one need know."
He leaned back again and let out a small chuckle. "The fascinating thing is, you believe me. But your will fights it. Your surface thoughts are full of curiosity, yet your words are all judgement. Is it your own desires you fear?"
The Administrator closed his mouth, feeling both defeated and surprised. Whatever this drink was, it was eroding his barriers at an alarming rate. He realised with a jolt that… that he envied his friend's set up. That he, at only thirty-three, was lonely. That his friend, in contrast, had such satisfactions of the flesh.
"Come now," muttered Akkarin, a note of reproach in his tone. "Self-pity does not become you."
Damn his mind-reading! Lorlen thought. Must he have the upper hand in all things? What does he have that I don't, that could satisfy a woman?
"Anger is better. Anger can be… channelled," the High Lord continued, his half-smile conspiratorial.
A gentle knock at the door interrupted them. The door opened slowly and Akkarin's black eyes glittered as he looked up. "Ah. Good evening, Sonea."
"Good evening, High Lord. Administrator," Sonea replied obediently, bowing to both men.
Lorlen noticed that she was in a comfortable, dark green dress rather than her brown novice's robes, as it was well past dinnertime. Her hair was tied up messily. His gaze, emboldened by drink, lingered appreciatively at the bare skin of her long neck, usually hidden amidst her shoulder-length, silky waterfall of black hair.
"Come in," Akkarin said, beckoning with a pale finger and a curl of his lip. Sonea walked up to him and stood in front of his chair. Akkarin looked up at her, his eyes burning with intensity. He set aside his glass and gently reached forward and rested his hands on either side of her waist.
"Sit," he murmured, gently turning her around from the waist then helping her sit on his lap. Sonea threw Lorlen a shy glance with those slightly almond-shaped black eyes, then obeyed.
He wound an arm tightly about her waist to keep her in place. Strands of hair straying from her bun fell across Sonea's forehead as she dipped her head down, an appealing, faint colour tinting her pale cheeks.
Lorlen watched unblinkingly as Akkarin possessively stroked the back of her slim neck with his long fingers. Somehow, there was something more intimate in that than what Lorlen had imagined this scandalous set-up to be.
Akkarin kept one hand around Sonea's waist and reached for his half-finished cigar with the other, taking a long drag then setting it back down.
"It pains me to see you so poorly rewarded for all the hard work you do for our little family, Administrator," Akkarin murmured in a tone reminiscent of a dare, his face obscured from sight for a moment by a dense cloud of smoke. "It's only fair you should get to enjoy yourself occasionally, no?"
Lorlen's eyes widened and his heart began to beat faster at these suggestive words.
"What do you think, my novice?" Akkarin asked the small woman on his lap in a deep, silky voice.
Sonea's shy smile returned as her glittering dark eyes made contact with Lorlen's uncertain, hazel gaze. "I think the Administrator is poorly rewarded, High Lord," she echoed.
"Indeed," Akkarin crooned, now stroking Sonea's cheek with the tip of one elegant finger. "Go on," he whispered into her ear.
Sonea slipped off Akkarin's black-robed legs and walked towards Lorlen slowly. Lorlen looked up, transfixed, as she came up close to him, her onyx eyes carrying a deeply endearing curiosity.
Yes, the Administrator could see why this girl had finally caught the infamously cold High Lord's interest. Although her features were quite forgettably Kyralian – unlike some of the more exotic looks of the handful of golden-haired Elyne or toffee-skinned Vindoo women in the Guild – she hadn't lived the sequestered of aristocratic girls, and it showed. There was a certain maturity to her almond-eyed gaze, and a lithe, muscled hardness to her bodily presence, no doubt from the physical demands of growing up in the slums. Sonea's dark, black-brown hair had a deep mahogany shine to it now, and though she had the short height of a girl younger than her years, the compact curves of her body were that of a slim woman's. Her lips had a sharp, pointy cupid's bow, and they seemed wet, as if moistened, and slightly open.
And, by the Eye, the power. Lorlen was a magician with senses second only to Akkarin's in the Guild, and he could feel Sonea's interesting, pulsing signature of power waft around her as she approached. Wild waves crashing onto a rocky shore, underpinned by a steady, quiet depth. Akkarin's power had always been sharp, cold and sophisticated; Lorlen's had always, in contrast, had a grounded, earthy depth to it, like roots grasping the soil. Sonea's magic intrigued the Administrator just as he knew it obviously must have intrigued her guardian. It seemed to have contradictory qualities: dense then playful, warm then forbidding, calm then unpredictable.
Up close, a waft of gan-gan hit Lorlen, making his head spin and jerking him out of his magical senses and into his bodily ones. When Sonea rested two hands on the armrests of his chair and leaned towards his face, Lorlen bent his head back and breathed deeply, the jugular in his neck pulsing. Oh yes, it is gan-gan.
Sonea bent down her lips towards his neck. Lorlen smelled the pleasantly fruity, sweet dinner wine on her breath before her soft lips touched his flesh and all thoughts fled his mind.
She darted the tip of her tongue across his jugular, her breath hot on Lorlen's neck. "Sonea…" he whispered with a shudder. Her name was both a plea and a growl in his throat.
Tell her to stop! She is the High Lord's novice! His mind shouted at him. But wasn't he already condemned? Hadn't he envied the thought of another enjoying this just a moment ago? And now it is happening.
No one but the occasional professional the Administrator paid for knew that he was a man of strong passions. Sonea had sensed that side of him when she had first lavished her attention on him with her tongue a month ago – the way the rational, restrained man had gripped her hair and force his tongue deep down her throat had excited her. She wanted to see that side of him again.
When Sonea leaned away to look at him, Lorlen hazel eyes locked onto those dark, opaque black pools. He raised up a hand and trailed his fingertips down the pale jaw, the soft, long neck, and to the neckline of her green dress. Sonea's long, dark eyelashes fluttered shut and she leaned into his light touches.
Lorlen felt his face flush and his heart began to sped up, warmth spreading from his fingertips where they trailed her skin. He felt a controlled anger rise within him. Have I not deserved this?
His eyebrows furrowed in anger and Lorlen suddenly realised his soft caress had turned into a strong grip on the neckline of Sonea's dress. With a small bout of magic behind it, Lorlen yanked at the dress and ripped it down the front to expose her small, white breasts. Sonea yelped in surprised and Akkarin's eyes narrowed, his attention piqued.
When Lorlen began to caress her, Akkarin's features relaxed and amusement glittered in his eyes. "You have indeed been keeping yourself in check, my friend."
"Perhaps I keep myself in check," Lorlen muttered, "because my tastes, like yours, are not fit for genteel courtship," he said, without taking his eyes off Sonea's breasts. He applied pressure with his thumbs across her small, caramel nipples.
Akkarin leaned forward, his eyes also taking in Sonea's naked torso from the side. His dark gaze took in his friend and the damage he had done to his favourite's dress. "Oh, no one in this room is after genteel courtship," he replied in an amused drawl.
Sonea's dark eyes widened slightly in fearful anticipation at these words, and her lips parted as she shivered under his fingers, pushing her chest into his warm hands.
"Well," Akkarin added, now leaning back in his armchair and crossing his legs as he reached for his glass of kanyak. "As promised, Lorlen, your reward is yours to have, since she wills it. But if I am to trust you with what is mine, I will have to… supervise your use of her."
There was something about the way the two powerful men were speaking of her as though she was an object of their possession that gave Sonea a strange sense of thrill and surrender. Her mind suddenly conjured an image that made her blush. What would they both feel like at the same time? She shivered at how deliciously used she would feel being passed between the two most powerful magicians in the realm… or even better, to be mounted by one as she took the other in her mouth…
Akkarin's deep, sultry chuckle broke her reverie. "Oh, by the Eye, if you could hear what I am hearing, Lorlen. My favourite's imagination has quite run away with her at the thought of being a plaything to us both. Simultaneously."
Lorlen's breath hitched at the thought and he couldn't help but meet Sonea's embarrassed gaze with raised eyebrows. "Is that so?"
"But first, I think you and the Administrator should get properly acquainted, Sonea," Akkarin instructed.
Sonea leaned forward, pushing her aching breasts deeper into Lorlen's cupped palms. Lorlen kneaded those compact, round orbs gently at first, then increased the strength of his grip. Sonea exhaled quickly into his mouth in a bit of pain, but did not move away, keeping her nipples captive to his harsh fingers.
Now emboldened, the Administrator took his other hand around and down to her small, round bum, and gripped one of her round cheeks through the fabric of her dress. The armchairs in Akkarin's library were spacious for one, so Sonea easily straddled him, her slim knees either side of the Administrator's thighs. She moaned again when her own weight rubbed her against Lorlen's hard but clothed manhood, which dented his silken blue robes.
Lorlen was half aware of the chink of glass on glass and saw Akkarin refill his drink out of the corner of his eye, before standing up. Like some dark feline circling its pray to study an angle for the kill, the High Lord walked around the armchair where his favourite was straddling his best friend, melting in and out of the shadows of the walls as he sipped from his glass.
Akkarin's black eyes glinted with the reflection of the fire dancing in the fireplace, and he felt his own cock beginning to stir at the sensuous, yet maddening, scene in front of him. He was torn between jealousy and titillation as he watched from a corner of the room, cloaked in darkness.
Lorlen descended with a hungry mouth to suck on one tightening, caramel nipple, and Sonea lifted her breasts, arching her back, her eyes turned shyly away from the man who watched from the shadows. The greedy mouth fed on her other breast now, drawing hard as the tongue stabbed at the tiny stone of the nipple. She hummed quietly, unconsciously, under her breath.
The Administrator pulled away from Sonea slightly as both caught their breath. "Strip," he said hoarsely.
Sonea moved off his lap and wiggled the torn and now useless dress over her hips, taking her undergarment with it. She stepped out of it lithely and Lorlen beckoned, his eyes roaming her naked, supple body. His hand loosened the blue sash of his magician's robes just enough to reach through and he pulled his stiff manhood above the waistband of his blue silk trousers, stroking it to full size.
Sonea's eyes widened as she saw his cock jut out from amidst curly dark brown hair. He equalled the High Lord in his considerable girth, though not quite in length. She knew her cheeks must be pink at the sight. She ached to feel the Administrator fill her.
Lorlen gestured for Sonea to sit on his lap again, his eyes glazed with desire in the half-darkness of Akkarin's fire lit study. Her nether mouth pulsed and clenched, fluids tickling her as she felt them begin to slowly course down her slit to the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh.
Small jolts of pleasure shook her at the thought of how forbidden what was just happening was. To think she had given over her virgin body to be split by the most powerful man in the Allied Lands, and was about to obey his instruction to be an instrument of his friend's pleasure! A languid, shy grin threatened to pull the corner of Sonea's lips upwards into a secret smile at the realisation that they would all have to go back tomorrow to their respective roles in the Guild.
It made her feel strangely empowered to face the countless days left ahead in classrooms with peers who disliked her. She would now do so knowing she had an incredible secret: she had been desired and claimed by the two magicians that most of them did not even dare make eye contact with.
Sonea placed one knee on either side of the Administrator's robed thighs and rocked her hips back and forth above his phallus, rubbing his tip gently across her wet slit. Lorlen moaned softly when he realised she had lubricated his organ with her own juices. Holding his shaft from the root and positioning himself at Sonea's tight entrance, he gripped her pale, soft buttocks and pulled her down firmly onto him with a soft grunt.
Sonea winced, then uttered a moan at the sensation of suddenly being stretched on his thickness. Her tight passage clenched and ached but her mind was aroused at the Administrator's firm and unyielding grip. She squeezed and relaxed her inner muscles around his warm cock repeatedly. Being impaled tantalised, but could not satisfy.
"Move," ordered Lorlen. "Now, girl," he breathed in a guttural whisper that pushed the last of the discomfort in Sonea's nether region away.
Sonea clenched her buttocks and used her thighs to lift herself up slightly then bear back down onto the Administrator's lap with a whimper. She heard him exhale swiftly at the impact and felt his hand crept up and around the back of her neck, where he had watched Akkarin stroke her so possessively. He gripped her there, almost painfully.
Sonea closed her eyes and leaned back into his pincer-like hold, continuing to move her hips up and down on his robed lap. Through the haze of her own arousal and the unbearable sensation of Lorlen's girth stretching her tight entrance raw, she half-registered that, from somewhere in the room, the High Lord was watching her from the shadows. Watching his novice on the second most powerful man in the realm, held like a sparrow by the neck in his grip.
Lorlen hissed in pleasure as Sonea felt her muscles pulse and clench his manhood, as shudders of delight began to run up her body. His hands moved back to Sonea's hips and he gripped her pale, soft flesh firmly, helping her raise then push herself down on his lap again and again. Their gazes locked, glinting black against warm hazel.
Sonea's cheeks were faint pink from her exertions, and seeing the hunger in Lorlen's eyes emboldened her. He really was a handsome man, she thought, even though the strains of his job hid it under an expression of mild anxiety most of the time. His thighs felt powerful under her naked buttocks and the fire in his gaze matched. The softness of his belly was bumping up against her clit every time Sonea drove down onto his lap, making her tremble and break out in beads of sweat.
She wanted to kiss him. What will the High Lord do? Asked a voice in her head, but she ignored it. Her guardian had gifted her to the Administrator for the night, hadn't he?
Sonea tentatively bent her head down towards the man under her, at the same time that he tilted up his shapely jaw upwards. She brushed her lips against his, still grinding herself down on his lap. When she felt Lorlen's tongue teasingly touch her lower lip, a soft groan escaped her mouth. She returned the pressure of his kiss, opening her mouth and meeting his tongue with her own.
She heard a quiet, guttural exhale from somewhere in the shadows. Was Akkarin displeased with what he saw? Being mounted was one thing – sharing a kiss was another. Was he aroused? Or – even better – was he jealous? The sound sent a shiver up her spine and almost made her pull her lips away. But Lorlen's hand moved from her breast to grab a fistful of Sonea's silky black hair. He pulled down her head down to keep her mouth on his own.
She whimpered into his mouth and, supported by his hands when they headed back to either side her hips, began to ride him harder and faster.
When she felt one of his hands leave her hip to reach around her buttock, Sonea panted in anticipation. Sure enough, she felt one of Lorlen's warm fingers press against her rear entrance.
"Oh, oh," she mumbled incoherently, then whined when she felt the ring of muscle give, and his finger slide inside her. She clenched around it, felt a tension build deep within her belly and threw her head up, breaking the kiss. Her half-closed eyes suddenly met a pair of unblinking black ones in the shadows.
As the Administrator gripped the flesh of her hips and slammed her down onto his thick member with one hand, and pushed a finger of the other hand in and out of her anus, Sonea's mouth opened in a silent scream, the cascade of sensations maddening. What took her breath away even more completely was that she was held hostage by the High Lord's gaze, as he watched his novice get ravished by his friend.
Lorlen let out a quiet, hoarse growl and Sonea felt his finger draw out of her anus. He gripped her hips harshly with both hands now and his upward thrusts grew faster and more violent. She felt weightless, bounced up and down helplessly by the combined force of his grip pulling her down and his shaft ramming up into her.
She was close, so close. She pulsed her vagina around the piston moving in and out of her, the building sensations inside tormenting her, making her squirm and twist her hips. She could feel the heat of her cheeks and a moan of frustration escaped her bitten and swollen lips. Her trembling hands reached out for the Administrator's tense shoulders, grabbing fistfuls of blue robes. She clung to him, pummelled by his working organ.
Her half-closed eyes looked up and when she met Akkarin's gaze again, his black eyebrows were pulled down over intense, flaming eyes and his jaw was set tight. In anger, or lust? The thought flashed across Sonea's mind before she shuddered and finally toppled over the edge.
She came in a riot of soft muffled cries, pumping her hips up and down, all sight and sound and scent of the study dissolving in her frenzy. The thick cock inside her held her up as her own spasms rubbed her clit against Lorlen, not letting the orgasm stop, forcing cry after cry out of her.
A moment later she heard an incoherent growl and felt the man beneath her explode inside her, the feeling of his seed warm and wet. The Administrator gasped, more quietly now, and leaned back. Pearly white liquid dotted his groin from where Sonea had leaked onto him.
"Come here," Lorlen said hoarsely, beckoning. Sonea drew close and leaned forward to accept his kiss. The Administrator's hand inched down to her soaking wet folds and Sonea, knees shaking, managed to lift herself enough to let his soft member slide out of her. He spread his own seed across the length of her slit with one warm, rough finger.
Then Lorlen held one of her upper arms in a steady grip to help Sonea down. Once off the armchair, she straightened, shivering with a minuscule spasm when she pressed her thighs closed over her plump and sensitive nether lips.
Suddenly, a low, slow clap sounded from the shadows of the fire lit room. "Well, well. I would say that was more than merely getting acquainted," Akkarin drawled in a deep voice. The stinging sarcasm in the High Lord's tone was not lost on his novice.
She looked down to see that the Administrator's cheeks were appealingly flushed with colour and the neckline of his blue robes were a darker navy from sweat. She imagined she hardly looked any less frazzled, and for some reason couldn't meet Akkarin's gaze.
"Manners, Sonea," the High Lord added silkily.
"Thank you, Administrator," Sonea whispered, chest heaving, most of her black hair now coming loose from her bun.
"My pleasure," Lorlen breathed, his usually reserved demeanour nowhere in sight. It was rare to see the Administrator so completely changed – or perhaps see the self he had buried beneath responsibilities and tasks all along.
She reached down for her torn dress and stepped into it, pinching the open front together over her breasts with one hand.
When Sonea finally raised her head to look up at Akkarin's tall, dark form in the corner of the room, standing well out of the way of the fire's ember glow, the look in her guardian's eyes sent a jolt of both fear and longing through her.
His black eyes were looking at his novice with a contained ferocity she had not seen in them since their first night together. Akkarin was, of course, the epitome of cool calculation itself. There had never been anything wild or excessive about the leader of the Guild's gestures or words for as long as Sonea had known him.
And yet, after witnessing what he himself had permitted, Akkarin gazed down upon Sonea with a fervour that excited her more than anything that had happened in this room. His entire body was tense, and his eyes burned as if to say: never again.
The High Lord had, it seemed, underestimated how possessive a man he was.