The Consumption of Magic (Tales From Verania #3)

“Figured as much.”

“Good,” he said. “Kevin all tucked in?”

“Wing handled too and everything. I think I’m more upset than he is that he’ll lose the ability to talk to you guys for a few weeks while I’m gone.”

“You would think as someone whose destiny involved dragons that you’d be able to explain why things like that happened.”

“Eh. Plot holes of my life, I guess.”

“And Gary and Tiggy finally stopped yelling at you and Morgan and Randall?”

“Only because Tiggy dragged Gary away. But not before Gary promised to, and I quote, ‘Bring the pain all up in yo wizard asses if anything happens to my little sweetmeat.’ I’ll be honest. That kind of gave me the warm fuzzies and the creeps all at the same time.”

“Sweetmeat, huh?” Ryan said, spreading his legs a little, the fabric of his sleep pants pulling tight against the muscles in his thighs. “That’s a new one. I can see the fuzzy creeps in it.”

“I think he’s just trying to get it all out there before I leave.”

Ryan frowned at that, his body tensing more because he was uncomfortable and not because he was trying to get me to nail him against the wall. “Have you guys ever been apart this long before?”

I shook my head. “No. The longest time was when Morgan made me go into the Dark Woods to meditate for a couple of weeks. He thought it was important that I find my inner self or some other crap. That sounded super boring, so I spent five days building a fort out of pine cones and an effigy of myself out of leaves, only to have Tiggy and Gary come find me because they said they wanted to make sure I wasn’t dead, but I’m pretty sure they couldn’t survive without me. We spent the rest of the time I was supposed to be out there meditating accidentally getting captured by a rather feisty group of sprites who somehow had mistaken Gary for a divine being that needed to be sacrificed in order to ensure the health of the forest.”

“Let me guess,” he said. “Tiggy smashed them, Gary kicked them in the face, you did some weird type of magic, and then you all ran away. Oh, and one or more of the sprites wanted to have sex with you.”

I stared at him in amazement. “Have I told you that story before?”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s pretty much how all your stories about getting captured go. That and the fact that everything, and I mean everything, wants to have sex with you.”

“Oh,” I said. “Huh. That’s… strangely disappointing. I guess I need to spice things up a little, then. Maybe we could get a little funky.” I waggled my eyebrows at him.

He refused to take the bait. “You think they’re going to be okay?”

“They’ll be fine,” I said, resigning myself that I wouldn’t be having sex in the next thirty seconds. “I think. Remind me to show you that one spot on Gary that he likes to have rubbed when he starts to get upset.”

“If it’s anywhere but on his head or back, I’m not going to do it.”

“It’s the area between his asshole and his back legs.”

“I hate you so much right now.”

“Uh-huh. That why you’re all spread out like a love buffet, ready for me to take what I want?” My seduction skills were remarkable.

He grimaced. “Really, Sam? Love buffet? That’s what you’re going with.”

“You kind of have a boner.”

“You’re making this less sexy.”

“Well it’s good to know talking about your boner makes things less sexy, but Gary’s asshole sure does it for you.”

“Sam,” he sighed.

“Yes, babe?” I asked sweetly.

“Are you going to fuck me, or am I going to have to do it myself?”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “And how, pray tell, would you do it yourself?”

“There’s a dildo or two in the drawer.” He flushed slightly, eyes darting away. For all that Ryan had been involved in sex work when he was younger, he was still strangely shy actually talking about sex. It was so adorable that I wanted to ruin him.

I grinned slowly. “Is that right?”

“Big too.” He shrugged and looked over my shoulder instead of at me. “Bigger than you.”

Ah, Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart. He could get a little mouthy when he wanted to get laid. It was one of the many, many things that I loved about him. “Huh,” I said. “You think it feels better too? Knowing Mama, she probably spared no expense. Bet it’s made from the finest materials. Probably would feel real good. Especially if you hadn’t been worked open too much beforehand. You know what I’m talking about. The stretch you’d feel as it was pushed into you.”

His pupils dilated a little at that. His throat bobbed up and down as he swallowed. “Yeah,” he said. “It’d probably burn. Maybe hurt too.”

“Because you’d like that, wouldn’t you? If it hurt a little bit.”

He nodded jerkily as he licked his lips. The flush had spread down his neck to the top of his chest.

“Tell you what,” I said, pushing myself off the door and taking a deliberate step toward him. His eyes tracked my every move. “We could always find out, if that’s something you think you would want. I could take it out of that drawer. Spread you out a little bit. Rub it against your asshole. Then, just when you think you couldn’t take any more, I could fuck you with it. And maybe, if you’re good, I could fuck you too. Maybe have both in you at the same time.”

“Gods,” he whispered, arching his hips like he couldn’t help himself.

“Yeah, I think you’d like that,” I said as I took another step. “Wouldn’t you? Two cocks up your ass. Probably feel real nice. Could never do it with another person, though. I don’t like to share.”

He snapped his head from side to side. “No. Nobody else. Just you.”

“Just me,” I echoed. “But….”

“But?”

“But if it was just me and that… dildo you already seem so fond of, well. That seems to be a different story altogether. Don’t you think?”

His chest heaved, but he didn’t speak.

“Ryan? I asked you a question.”

“Yeah,” he croaked. “Yeah. That’s… different. Altogether.”

“And you could take it too, couldn’t you?”

He blinked slowly, face slack. “Yeah. I could. I think so. I think I could, Sam.”

“I think so too.” I was halfway to the bed, my steps slow. I wanted to draw this out as much as I could, because I didn’t know when we’d have a chance to do this again. Ryan was right when he said it’d be the longest that Gary, Tiggy, and I had been apart, but it’d also be the longest I’d been away from Ryan since I’d returned to the City of Lockes from Kevin’s keep in the valley to the north.

“Here’s what you’re going to do,” I said, voice low. “You’re going to turn over and get on your hands and knees. You’re going to reach up and grab the bars above the headboard that Mama had so conveniently installed. You will not let go until I tell you to. You will not turn around until I tell you to. Do you understand?”

He nodded, pupils blown out, sleep pants tented at his crotch.

“Do you remember your safeword?”

That pulled him back a little as he grimaced. He mumbled something that I couldn’t quite make out, even though I knew what it was.

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