Thick as Thieves (9 page)

It didn’t take Madd long to find the door. He placed the key in the lock and turned it. The door swung open just as the sky parted in sheets of rain. Not caring to get soaked, they both pushed inside together, stumbling into a murky gloom. The four walls were barely more than a room, but there was a bed and a table and a single chair near the door. After closing the door, Madd placed the key on the latter, then put his parcel down by the bed.

“Undress,” Madd said.

Vorgell looked at Madd in surprise. They’d just come in from the rain. An oiled cloth covered the single high slit window, providing sickly light punctuated by the storm that rumbled outside. He watched Madd strike a flint to a stub of a candle. A yellow glow soon warmed the angles of the young man’s face, his hooded, secret eyes. Though he had been thinking of food and ale, Vorgell and his cock both stood straighter at Madd’s single word. The little guy leaned against the table with a slight smile that went straight to Vorgell’s marrow.

Belts, jerkin, and tunic dropped to the floor in a flurry. Vorgell unbelted his trousers also and tugged those over his hips and down his thighs before sitting on the bed to pull off his boots. He kept his gaze fiercely locked on Madd’s, watching the heat build. His cock pushed at his loincloth so fiercely he thought it would poke through the fabric.

“Hands behind your back,” Madd said.

Having freed himself from his boots and stockings, Vorgell had already hooked his thumbs on his loin wrap. He knew enough to halt. It was always Madd’s way… or not at all. But this request went beyond what he expected.

“You want to restrain me? Why?”

“Think about it, you big ox. Even if I grab you by your hairy balls, you’re strong enough to turn the tables on me, and I don’t like having my tables turned.”

What was Madd up to? He hadn’t really decided he wanted sex… or had he? Vorgell trailed his eyes down to the protruding front of Madd’s trousers, and his heart hammered directly into his cock. Madd was up to something, and he was dying to find out what.

Slowly, he reached his hands behind his back.

M
ADD
placed his hand on Vorgell’s shoulder, his pulse quickening as he felt the heat from the man. He couldn’t tell if it was the baron’s collar or Vorgell himself who put the fire in his loins, and at the moment he didn’t give a damn what the reason was. He just wanted to feel this again and feel it for himself, not for anyone else. If it was the collar, what the hell? It wasn’t the baron sitting on the bed in front of him and looking up at him like he was a fucking gift from the heavens.

Vorgell only looked like granite. Touching him more closely resembled caressing an erect cock, discovering hard muscle and hot blood beneath a sheath of silken skin. The man was pure sex, big and virile and ready for action. Madd’s breath quickened just from looking at him—because of what looked back, hands behind its back, trusting him to make the next move.

If he mishandled this….

He unhooked his belt then picked up the leather straps Vorgell had tossed to the floor. He tied the softest around Vorgell’s wrists then used the others to bind his arms. When he was done, Vorgell sat on the bed with his shoulders back, broad chest displaying tan nipples already hard with excitement, and thighs spread to present an impressive tent in his loincloth. To Madd’s surprise, the bound man cocked a grin his way.

“You are not the first man to bind my hands. The other meant to sell me.”

“Don’t tempt me. You’re worth a fucking fortune.”

Sliding his hand along Vorgell’s hard abdomen, he grabbed the edge of the loincloth and yanked it open. Vorgell’s cock sprang free, rosy and eager. Madd ignored it. Instead, he ran fingers through Vorgell’s mane of golden hair. Fine and silken, and so thick he could lose his fingers in it. The texture beguiled him, not at all what he expected for so massive and intimidating a man. Even Vorgell’s beard felt soft, yielding, and the big man’s lips parted for Madd’s thumb, face tilted up hopefully as he traced its shape.

“Too bad I don’t kiss, big guy. Not unless I mean to bite.” Madd pulled his hand away.

He felt a twinge at Vorgell’s look of disappointment. Now was not the time to explain why kisses terrified him or how much of his ability to desire other men Flemgu and his wizards had poisoned. It surprised him to realize he actually wanted Vorgell, and the thought that it might only be because of the collar and its spell gutted him. Just a few days ago, he would have said he was beyond wanting anything to do with a man sexually, unless he did it for survival.

It’s just an act, he told himself, opening his trouser laces and freeing his cock. It rose with a randy demand he had not experienced in months. What he wanted wasn’t complicated, really, just release and the novelty of something besides a cock up his ass.

“Suck,” he said. That was simple enough. He slumped back against the table, hips forward, giving Vorgell access. From his seat on the edge of the bed, the big man leaned toward him with a look so hungry, so worshipful, it made him feel like a lord.

Madd had known a few men before Flemgu, rich men he’d sucked in the shadows after dark, earning coin enough to purchase bread and a blanket among other street youths like himself. He’d earned a reputation as well, for being good at it. For nearly two years after the death of his mother, he’d survived in Gurgh’s filthy alleys, hiding from the witch hunts conducted by the Wizards’ Guild, getting by. Until one day a man had wanted more than a suck and wouldn’t be dissuaded, and Madd had cracked open his skull upon a doorstep and taken his purse. With the city’s authorities on his heels, he had sought out the witchkin and accepted Ibeena’s help. She had enlisted Tagard and sent Madd from the city, to his grandmother’s care. And then, bare months later, Flemgu had snagged him.

What Vorgell was doing to him now, he’d once done to others. What Vorgell was doing, he had last done to a fork-bearded wizard named Usdan….

Madd forced his eyes open, held to the present. He wouldn’t remember the men who’d used him. He only wished to see Vorgell’s powerful body, hands bound behind him, every bulging muscle focused on keeping his mouth to its task. Vorgell’s tongue laved Madd’s rigid shaft, wrapped around his girth, pulling him between greedy lips into the hot, moist cavern of the barbarian’s mouth. At least the oaf knew enough to sheath his teeth, rubbing hard ridges up and down the barrel while that wild tongue lashed at the head with little skill but great enthusiasm.

“Gods!” Madd groaned. He gasped, struggling for control, but it had been too long. His orgasm sprang toward release like a prisoner uncaged.

His balls rejoiced and lifted, tickled by beard as Vorgell plunged down upon him with all the ardor of an unschooled youth. The attention was far from expert, but it was hot, sucking bliss. That mouth had room enough to swallow Madd to the root. It took little more than that, just the sensation of his cockhead sliding into the tight grip of the barbarian’s throat, for Madd to spend himself. Fingers tightening on that bobbing head, pelvis jerking involuntarily, he came in thick spurts that Vorgell sucked and lapped at as though he had just discovered the nectar of the gods.

“Almighty Sun, stop.” Madd sagged against the table, blinking down at Vorgell’s beatific face as the man continued to gently suck him while he softened. He allowed it until even that touch was too much. “Enough, all right? That’s all I got.”

Vorgell rocked back, looking up at him with a lusty leer in his eyes and a few pearls of come in his beard. Damn, Madd thought. The man actually looked sexy.

“Lie down,” he said, pushing at Vorgell’s chest.

“But Madd, I—”

“Just do what I say, you big ox.”

He kept his hand on Vorgell’s shoulder as the big guy rolled to one side and slid down full-length on the bed, adjusting for his bound arms. He covered nearly the whole of the bed, but there was room enough, just barely, for Madd to sit beside him. It was pure pleasure of quite a different kind to knead and rub that strong chest, to feel those boulder-sized pectorals lift and strain against his hand.

“You could crush me with these muscles, you know.”

“Not you, Madd. Never. I—”

“I told you, just do what I say,” he said. He spoke calmly, layering control. He’d done this before, dominating men who wanted to be controlled by a pretty boy. Until he’d been dominated and controlled, held down, and forced…. Again he drove the thought back and focused on Vorgell. This time it would be what he wanted.

Madd skimmed his hand over a landscape of warm skin and dense muscle so beautifully wrought he could have been stroking the body of one of the Guardians, those six perfect youths chosen every winter by the priests to be reared in the temple of the Ever God, trained in the arena, and bestowed with armor of hammered gold so shining it blinded any who looked upon them. Vorgell’s body was so perfect he could have been such a paragon, powerful even when stripped of his glory. His cock alone elevated him above ordinary men.

“That thing is fucking beautiful,” Madd murmured.

“Please take it… use it.” Vorgell rocked his hips, thrusting the monster toward him. “For the love of whatever god you honor, you know what I need!”

Madd shot him a smile. It amused him to have such a large man at his mercy. He leaned over Vorgell and pressed his mouth to the hot skin of one sculpted shoulder. His nose caught the sharp scent of an aroused male as he licked at the edge of Vorgell’s armpit before planting a kiss on his collarbone.

“It’s time for you to answer some questions.”

“Madd, I—you want me to do
what
?”

“Answer questions. I’m curious. And I have you tied up, so you might as well answer.”

Vorgell groaned and thrashed, but the bonds were well-tied.

“Have you ever fucked a man?” Madd angled over Vorgell’s expansive chest, lips parted, tongue poised to flick a nipple. He smiled to himself as he detected Vorgell raising his head to look.

“Damn it, Madd, I… oh, gods.” Vorgell strained, trying to push his chest toward Madd’s mouth. “Yes, once. I liked it. But the other man didn’t and wouldn’t do it again—”

“Who was he?”

“A villager… we took his town. He was… pretty and said he’d done it before, and even showed me his pretty ass all ready and waiting. It felt so good when I fucked him. But then hells, Madd, afterward he told me he didn’t want it again and he wept—like a baby!”

“That’s because it hurts when something the size of that log of yours gets jammed up a man’s ass.” Because Vorgell had answered honestly, Madd licked the flat rim of one jutting nipple, tracing the sensitive perimeter, then lightly nipped the raised nub. A strangled groan rewarded his kindness. “What did you do with him?”

“What do you think? I exchanged him… for a woman who said no cock was too large for her pleasure.”

Considerate of him. Madd licked again, awakening another plea to the gods.

“Stop… Madd, I can’t think when you do that.”

“You mean this?” He wedged the nib between his teeth and teased it with rapid flicks of his tongue. The nipple was slippery and long now, begging for more.

Vorgell arched his back again and bellowed with frustration. To judge by the copious leaking of his straining, thoroughly frustrated cock, he was feeling more pleasure than pain.

“How about getting a cock up your own ass, Vorgell?” Madd prodded, because this was important. He moved over bunched chest muscles to the other nipple and gave that a tug also. “Maybe you let one of your big Scurrian pals enjoy a ride?”

“No. I… for the love of wolves, Madd! You don’t know—”

“Tell me.” Another nip.

“I’m too big! No one ever thinks about fucking me!”

Of course not. When faced with a man as big and strong as Vorgell, a veritable mountain of bone and brawn, most other men feared for their lives… or the integrity of their asses. Few envisioned him into their beds, happily giving himself over to their cocks. Or, for that matter, fucking himself with a unicorn’s horn.

“That’s because they’re chickenshits,” Madd said.

Madd stood and stripped off his own clothing. He then swung onto the bed, a leg to either side of Vorgell’s ribs, his head poised over that big cock. The thing quivered in front of him, rearing from the barbarian’s groin like a serpent poised to strike, its fat red head pushing from the foreskin and glistening with precome. The fluid welled in steady drops from an excited slit. Madd leaned forward, knowing full well he was giving Vorgell a glorious view of his ass, cock, and balls. His own cock—miraculously still semihard—rubbed the bucking man’s frantic, arching belly.

The barbarian released another inarticulate stream of groans.

“Spread your legs,” Madd ordered before going to work. Vorgell opened his thighs, providing the access he needed.

Madd swept two fingers over the tip of the giant’s cock, collecting a generous amount of slick fluid. He took Vorgell’s shaft firmly in his other hand. With ever-increasing enthusiasm, he began to lick and nibble that gorgeous length while at the same time easing one wetted finger against the tight pucker beneath Vorgell’s rosy balls. A few more groans and some prayers greeted his touch as Vorgell jerked in surprise.

“Relax, big guy, it’s just a finger.” Madd licked more precome and spat it onto his finger, then resumed toying with Vorgell’s hole. The man smelled like cock, musty and rank and delicious all at once as Madd slid his cheek along that trunklike shaft, wetting it, mouthing it. While his left hand stroked, he rolled his right against Vorgell’s balls and massaged the virgin orifice until it fluttered and opened.

Taking his cues from Vorgell’s grunts and whimpers, and the unflagging rigidity of the cock he mouthed, Madd increased his attention, adding more precome-laced spittle. After another minute, he felt Vorgell relax, his thighs open a bit more, and made his move. Sucking Vorgell’s swollen cockhead into his mouth, Madd pushed his finger into the center of Vorgell’s pucker.

“Madd! Oh, hells! Father of Wolves! Untie me!”

Those powerful thighs lifted, and Madd released Vorgell’s cock from between his lips before the thing could cause him damage. Wet and slick, it bobbed from his mouth. But he kept his fingertip in place, marveling at how smooth and tight Vorgell was inside. And hot. So very hot.