Hidden Depths (15 page)

Ty hadn’t missed the hopeful glances Anso had been turning between them. If only the Whore of Oceana could snare Olivia’s husband in his net, all knots would unravel! Olivia and the king could paddle along together in mated bliss, and the scandal of her previous marriage would magically dissolve. All would be well ... as long as Ty didn’t forget what he was good for.

If Anso wasn’t already considering making James his third, Ty would eat clam shells.

He frowned at the dead end of the corridor he’d strode down in his anger. He was in a section of the palace that housed service personnel. The halls were dark and narrow, the plain stone tiling worn down by many feet. A concrete bench outfitted the alcove at the hall’s termination, allowing for gazing out a murky but large porthole. No garden enlivened the view outside, just the uncultivated sea.

Ty accepted the bench’s mute invitation to sit down.

He’d been here once before when he was a boy, dragged along by his mother.

She’d come to rant at a low level mage. The fellow’s failure to correctly animate an ice sculpture for a party had ruined - so she’d claimed - her latest attempt at becoming palace society’s doyenne.

Ty traced his finger across the glass as the memory of her shrill screams returned to him. His father had drunk his way through that party, providing rather a greater embarrassment than an ice swan that failed to dance. Ty’s mother hadn’t yelled at him. Far easier to abuse someone who depended on you for his livelihood. And wasn’t it funny the things one remembered years afterwards?

The mage had bowed to Sabra Otari even as she shrieked her insults, his slender body bobbing over and over. Work visas could be strict for the magical rank and file. Ty guessed he hadn’t wanted to be sent back to Faerie.

But Ty was avoiding what really bothered him with this detour down memory lane. He thought he’d resigned himself to not being the third in any triad Anso formed. If Anso had married Ellice, Ty would have been shoved aside in every possible way, as soon as she figured out how to do it without looking malicious.

Ty understood his promiscuity might create political awkwardness. He simply wanted Anso to acknowledge, just once, that Ty
had
committed himself to him.

Ty’s erotic nature was what it was, but he’d saved the foremost place in his heart and bed for his closest friend.

He snorted softly, amused by his self-deception. Anso admitting “just once” that Ty could be counted on would never satisfy him. When it came to Anso,
just
once
was never enough.

Swinging sideways, he drew his comfortably booted feet up onto the bench, his shoulders and toes now braced by both walls of the alcove. It was time to get real, before he returned to Anso and his involuntary guests. Ty admitted he liked James Forster. The man was hotter than a volcanic vent: tall, dark and ruggedly handsome. He seemed smart and not lacking in passion. For a man of Ty’s jaded tastes, his humanity added to his appeal. Introducing him to more man-on-man adventures would hardly be a hardship. No neophyte had ever popped Ty’s cork like Anso, but James came close. Indoctrinating virgins was a favorite game of his. James being older made him feel less guilty for being into it.

A quiet sigh gusted from him, impossible to hold in. Ty knew he liked sex with men more than he was supposed to. The thought of fucking women also drove him crazy, but who knew if the reality would live up to his imaginings? For that matter, who knew if any noble female would consent to marry an Otari? For now, he enjoyed the pleasures he had access to. He liked that James had a similar edge to Anso, as if he might take charge if given an opening. Ty never knew for sure what would happen in Anso’s arms, and that made taking the lead exciting.

He shifted on the bench as his cock stirred restlessly in its sheath. He wasn’t hard, just close to going there. He’d been childish to storm out of Anso’s rooms.

He could have been fucking James right then. Or teaching James how to fuck him back.

His regrets were cut short when two ruby-red glowing eyes drew his focus to the porthole. A mini sea dragon was outside, its tiny clawed front paws and nose pressed curiously to the glass. Its hide was jet black with gold markings, its wings half open as it hung there. Its long black tail curled like a baby fern.

“Hey, little guy,” Ty crooned, instantly forgetting his troubles. From nose to tail the dragon was no longer than his forearm. Unlike full size dragons, this species didn’t speak. They were intelligent, though, possibly as intelligent as dolphins. Apart from their famous roosting colony at St. Mark’s Basilica, they weren’t a common sight. The priests at the basilica fed them the shrimp they liked, and they interacted - if they cared to - with Oceana’s other residents there.

Their shyness and the way their mouths looked like they were smiling made Oceanans adore them more.

“I wish I had a treat for you,” Ty murmured, though he couldn’t have pushed it through the porthole.

He flattened his palm against it, slowing his breathing and telling his mood to calm. As he succeeded, his life energy swelled brighter. That part of him could radiate through the barrier. Feeling it, the sea dragon chirped and rubbed its shoulder against the glass, like a dog rolling in a smell it wanted to take home.

Ty laughed, and it wriggled around some more. Apparently, some beings couldn’t get enough of him.

After a few more wiggles, the sea dragon stiffened, staring intently over Ty’s shoulder with its bright ruby eyes. A second later, it darted away so quickly the motion was just a small black streak.

Ty twisted around to see what had startled it.

His stomach couldn’t have sunk harder. A nearby door was opening in the corridor, and Ellice stepped out of it. She wasn’t any happier to see him.

“What are
you
doing here?” she demanded.

He might have asked her the same, but the fancy perfume vial in her hand told its own story. He’d always suspected she had her fragrances spelled. They smelled too good and lasted too well to be natural. Luckily, love philters were against the law. Using them on a king was a jailable offense.

He answered her question with a shrug. Sometimes Ellice went away if he didn’t spar with her.

This wasn’t going to be one of those occasions. She came closer, her gaze sliding over him where he sat, her mouth curving up smugly. She stopped a few feet away. “Kicked you out already, I see. I guess your charms don’t hold up next to a real woman’s.”

“Maybe not, but that doesn’t explain why
your
nipples always harden when my charms get close to you.”

“Hah,” she said, though they were hardening even then. A blush she probably hated spread across her precarious decollete. She looked ready to pop out of her corset-style red silk bodice. The trousers she’d paired with it were tight black leather - not her usual style. Ellice favored queenly gowns, her subtle way of telling Anso she was up for the role. Privately, Ty admitted she looked hot.

“Oh my God,” he said, realization hitting him. Her flush was due to more than him. “You just fucked someone. You screwed the mage who spelled your cheater’s perfume. I’ll bet he gave you a discount. Anso’s pure-as-snow cousin is a cheapskate
and
an interspecies lay.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ellice sniffed. “Just because you spread your legs for anything with a penis doesn’t mean the rest of us do.” Enjoying this, Ty pushed to his feet and prowled around her. “I can smell it on you. Your real smell, not the one he tricked up. Used a rubber, I gather, or I’d scent more semen. I bet you love it that a faerie can’t knock you up as easily as a seal. Faeries are hung, aren’t they, Ellice? And they’ve got plenty o’ carnal energy.”

Ellice shoved him when he dropped his nose closer. “You would drag everyone down to your level.”

If she hadn’t denied it, he’d have liked her better for having needs like a real person. Because she did deny it, he drew back and smiled coolly. Ellice was tall, but not as tall as him. She seemed to resent having to glare up at him.

“I don’t know who you remind me of more,” she huffed. “Your drunken self-indulgent daddy or your pathetic social-climbing mum. All you Otaris belong in the gutter. Fortunately, I’ve no doubt you at least will topple in there soon.” There were plenty of ripostes he could have made, home truths about social climbing Ellice was conveniently ignoring. Right that moment, he didn’t have the energy. Ellice was careful to keep this side of herself hidden from Anso, but Ty knew from experience she wouldn’t stop jabbing at him until she’d drawn blood.

Since her last words tonight were arguably on target, Ty decided to let them stand.

Sure enough, she nodded in satisfaction and stalked off down the corridor.

* * *

Anso’s body was loose and warm from its recent climax - not sated; that would take more effort, but relaxed enough to give him an unusual sense of well being.

Sometimes Anso was nervous with new partners. The people who’d propositioned him expected things of a future king, and they weren’t always confident themselves. As a result, Anso’s sexual history wasn’t substantial. Ty mostly, and five or six or others. How comfortable he felt with James and Olivia surprised him. Though they had their own relationship, he didn’t feel excluded.

Against all logic, what he felt with them was safe.

That was surely an illusion, unless you were talking physically. Neither seemed likely to hurt him that way, despite their obvious wish that he hadn’t abducted them. Anso realized he was looking forward to introducing James to his most highly praised bed skill.

If he wasn’t volunteering to release them, the least he could do was sweeten their captivity.

“Why don’t you hold him for me?” he suggested to Olivia.

She’d been sprawled on the covers, not so surreptitiously eyeing him. At this, she scrambled up and grinned endearingly. “Oh yes. James likes it when I restrain him.”

James snorted, but didn’t seem annoyed.

“Ty’s fond of spanking,” Anso confided, his heart secretly aching at her entrusting him with her spouse’s preferences.

“
No
,” Olivia responded, the light in her eyes intrigued. “Your friend seems so dominant.”

She blushed a moment later, and didn’t
that
startle him a bit? Was Olivia attracted to Ty as well? His downstairs friend didn’t mind. It hadn’t relaxed enough to retract after blasting off in her. At her words, it twitched and began to restiffen. Ty had never had a woman. Would he want Olivia? Would Anso enjoy watching him take her as much as James seemed to? His balls joined the affirmative chorus by growing fuller and pulsing.

O-kay
, he thought. This was getting complicated. Strictly speaking, his desires should have been targeting Olivia alone. That’s what mating hormones were for.

He needed to remember fantasies weren’t necessarily meant to be lived out.

Unaware of his thoughts, Olivia waved for James to lie back. She scooted around to sit behind his shoulders.

“Hands,” she said, and he gave them to her.

Her smile for Anso turned his blood molten.

“Wait,” James said. His voice was hoarse enough to draw both their attention.

He looked at Anso, his hazel eyes beautiful. They were also worried, like he wanted to ask a favor he wasn’t sure was okay. “I’d like to touch you. Before. If you wouldn’t mind.”

Anso could have laughed at how polite he was. Sensing this wouldn’t be strategic, he restrained himself. “Spread you legs wider apart,” he said.

His tone of command elicited compliance and the erotic shiver he’d hoped for.

James spread his strong hair-fuzzed legs like someone who enjoyed submission.

Anso moved on his knees into the new space. Though the blue Vitul robe still covered James’s groin, his erection made an impressive tent in the silk. The wet spot over the bouncing crest had grown. Anso’s mouth watered at the idea of tasting him.

“Release his hands,” he said to Olivia.

She released them. James’s hold came without hesitation to Anso’s cock and balls, like he’d been longing to touch them. One hand surrounded each, the hand on his shaft gripping and pulling, the one on his testicles supplying a finger rippling massage. Anso’s breath rushed out of him with pleasure - and a bit of surprise.

“I’ve done this before,” James confessed. “When I was in high school. A friend and I used to trade hand jobs.”

“You -” A grunt of enjoyment cut off his words. “You got good at it.”

“Isn’t his skin silky?” Olivia asked her husband. “You’d think wereseals moisturized their penises or something.”

“Mm,” James agreed. “It makes me wish my hands were smoother.” The two of them talking around him was weird - especially since Anso knew why his sexual skin was smooth. The conversation was also strangely arousing.

He’d never had two people so focused on him in bed.

Deciding feeling was easier than thinking, he let his hips roll forward, encouraging James to continue. His touch was gentler than he was used to but very deft. Anso’s balls were soon whimpering at James’s well targeted squeezes.

His hands were big, his fingers long enough to reach back and tease his perineum.

Anso’s neck rolled when he did that. God, his hands were golden. Coupled with the care he took, the slight roughness of his palms was perfect. The only thing that could have made the sensations better was if Olivia’s mouth had been on his tip, her pink tongue lapping over the little hole. Anso wouldn’t have minded kissing Ty at the same time. He loved sucking his friend’s tongue.

Anso groaned with longing, and his eyes flew open. What was the matter with him? Could he be that greedy?

He was glad the others couldn’t read his mind. James’s caresses combed through his pubic fur, bringing him back into the moment.

“You’re as soft as a cat,” James marveled. His fingertips skimmed around Anso’s base, almost discovering the seam where his seal sheath clung to his root.