Page 50 of The Concubine King
“What about Linwood Village?Have you been there?”
The sudden, stark silence was palpable.Every god had stopped to stare at him.The back of his neck pricked and he fought the urge to hide.
Ithna cupped his face, drawing his attention back to her.“Let’s not talk about that,” she said gently, and kissed him.Her lips were soft and moved against his with perfect ease as she caressed her thumbs over his cheeks.She let go and Varuut pulled Ethyr into her lap and kissed him too, which was interrupted by Catocus dragging him to his lap and kissing him, forcefully deep.When he leaned away Ethyr was too disoriented and breathless to remember what he had been talking about.
“What’s this?”Ethyr felt Catocus’s hand at his ear.
“Earrings,” he said sheepishly.“Do you like them?”
“No.”
Ethyr closed his mouth.
“So impractical.Someone could rip them right out and rip your ear with it.”
He covered his ears reflexively.
“Oh, stop it,” Langath admonished.“This isn’t a battlefield.It’s no less practical than all the other ways humans decorate themselves.”She smiled at Ethyr.“I like them.Mortals never stop finding new ways to make themselves works of art.Which you most certainly are.”
His flushed face warmed further.Catocus’s fingers slipping between the side-ribbons on his tunic weren’t helping.He kissed Ethyr again, without pause, and Ethyr slowly lowered his hands from his ears to curl his fingers into the front of Catocus’s tunic.
The grip incited the god to dip Ethyr back, rubbing a hand down his side, over his ass, under his thigh, adjusting Ethyr’s position as he did so to be seated more fully in his lap.Ethyr gladly accepted Catocus’s tongue in his mouth, surprised by how much he wanted it.Wanted this.With guards stationed all around his room, especially below his balcony, he didn’t dare do anything remotely scandalous while alone.His body ached for pleasure, for intimacy.He had missed the touch of hands on him too, warm and sculpting.
Then Catocus lowered him to the floor, dragging his hands up Ethyr’s thighs to grip the back of his knees as he wedged between them.The memory of a similar touch leapt his heart to his throat, strangling his breath.He yelped and pushed instinctively away.Catocus lifted his torso, looking down at Ethyr.
“Did I hurt you?”
Ethyr pressed his hands over his mouth, staring wide-eyed up at him and not knowing how to respond.
“Dammit, Catocus, I just promised we wouldn’t be rough with him!”Gnaeus said.
“I wasn’t being rough!”Catocus snapped back.
“Straddle him.”
Everyone, Ethyr included, stared in disbelief at Kiaro.It was hard to tell if he noticed, his attention on the cards in his hand.After a second he looked up.
“Well?”
Catocus’s face tensed, debating whether to take orders from him.
Gallus was beside them, shoving at Catocus.“Move, I’ll do it.”He forced the other god aside and took his place, though on top of Ethyr instead of between his legs.Kiaro gave his next instruction with quiet indifference, his attention returned to the cards he was shuffling.
“Kiss the inside of his wrist.”
Gallus leaned back, settling his weight more firmly onto Ethyr’s hips, and lifted one of his arms.The fun-loving Gallus was gone, replaced with startling speed by a sultry flirt.He didn’t kiss Ethyr’s wrist so much as linger his lips delicately against it, the moist heat of his breath brushing the fragile skin, his gaze meeting Ethyr’s with heavy-lidded eyes.Ethyr's heart beat faster.
“Follow his arm to his neck.”
Gallus’s open mouth drifted down the inside of Ethyr’s arm, never pressing harder than an occasional dip of closed lips.As he traveled, his torso slanted closer to Ethyr’s, slowly closing the space between them until Gallus’s body covered him and each heavy rise of Ethyr’s chest bumped into his.The god’s breath tickled the base of his neck, trailing up to his ear.Ethyr lifted his chin instinctively, granting access.His eyes landed on Kiaro seated across from them, straight and composed, though he watched with a shaded expression.It gave no hint as to what lay behind his eyes, but it didn’t hide that there wassomething, coiled and tense.
“Stop.”
Gallus halted obediently, lips against the soft skin beneath Ethyr’s ear.He was certain Gallus could feel his heart pounding.
Kiaro returned his gaze to the cards he was handling.He raised one between two fingers and it vanished, appearing in his other hand.A simple flick of his wrist laid it face-down with the rest of the deck in his palm.
“Press your tongue there.”
