I was haunted for weeks by the memory of Kalum's lust-filled kiss and the way he grunted into my mouth as he came. When I pleasured myself, alone or with Kalum, I could think of nothing but his stubbled face pressed to mine while he came so hard the ropes erupting from his thick member hit me in the stomach.

Kalum seemed to have forgotten the kiss almost immediately, but it had ignited a new, all-consuming desire within me. I needed more than the freedom to pleasure myself around him whenever I liked. I needed more than the pleasure we shared when we took a woman together. I wanted him to myself. I wanted to explore his body with my hands and my mouth, to taste him and take him into me. 

As we approached Oon Ahwa, the first major city on our route home from the western forest provinces where we had slain the shadow fiend, a plan to realize my desires began to form in my mind. I suspected Kalum might be receptive to my new need, but I reasoned I might have a better chance of seducing him if our other options were limited. 

So when the alabaster towers of Oon Ahwa appeared on the horizon and Kalum suggested we spend a few days finding women, I agreed it would be pleasant to stop for a few days. 

Four glasses of wine were beginning to catch up with me when Kalum led me into a third tavern on the second night of our stay Oon Ahwa and I struggled to suppress a guilty smirk as his shoulders slumped in disappointment once again.

Kalum's gaze slid across the room, table to table, never pausing longer than a moment.

"Slim pickings," he said.

He wasn't wrong.

On the far side of the dimly lit room a group of six surly-looking laborers hunched over cards of some kind. A solitary old man sat at a table by the door, staring sightlessly down into his yellow beer, and two old women watched us distrustfully from a table in a corner as they whispered urgently at each other.

"Slim pickings, indeed," I said. I put a hand on the thick, rounded muscles of his back and nodded toward the bartender who stood watching us impassively. "Let's have a drink. Things might pick up."

I could feel Kalum's noncommittal grunt against the palm of my hand before he strode purposefully toward the bar. I watched him for a moment, admiring the sight. He didn't much care for the finery I pushed on him when we went out on our little urban hunts, but he'd stopped complaining when it became clear how easily he could draw every eye in a room when his clothing fit properly. Broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, and nearly a head taller than me, he'd only needed a half-decent tailor to help him show off the physique that had been sculpted by nearly a decade of swinging a hammer. I congratulated myself once more as I watched the globes of his ass shift as he made his way to the bar.

"One drink," he said, as I settled onto a stool next to him. "Then we move on."

"Of course," I said.

We were on our second round when a chorus of delighted shrieks pulled our attention to the door.

A group of six women, probably in their fourth decade, were swarming through the door and descending on an empty table. They wore matching white robes cinched at the waist with golden belts. They howled with laughter as they settled, jangling extravagant golden jewelry and raking their nails through identical blond manes.

I looked inquiringly at the bartender as he sighed and walked around the bar to greet them.

"Daughters of the Endless Dawn," he said. "Priestesses. Here for a festival, no doubt."

Then he was gone, smiling warmly as he went to greet the little coven.

I hesitated, then nudged Kalum, who had already turned back to his beer.

"What about one of the blond howlers?" I said.

Kalum snorted.

"Pack animals. We'd never get one to say yes while the others were watching."

"True," I said. I tried to sound as frustrated as he did.

"We should have been looking yesterday," Kalum said. He threw back the rest of his beer and I watched his throat work as he swallowed. "What kind of shit city shuts down for every holy day?"

"This city," I said.

"I blame you," Kalum said.

I shrugged and pushed our glasses to the edge of the bar where the bartender could fill them.

"Fair enough," I said.

And it was. Oon Ahwa, the White City, was the spiritual center of the western Outer Provinces and was known for its frequent and raucous religious festivals. It was for exactly this reason that Kalum had suggested we visit on our way back to the interior. What he hadn't known, however, and what I had, was that most of the city's residents were strict in their observance of the seventh day of the week as a day of rest. Many businesses and entertainments saw little patronage and some, like the brothels, were closed by law.

On our first night in town, I'd insisted we spend the night drinking our way through one of the street festivals instead of looking for women. Kalum had rolled his eyes, but agreed. It was the kind of thing we sometimes did at the end of a hunt. We celebrated the kill with a bit of fun outside the bedroom. So the suggestion hadn't seemed out of place and Kalum hadn't suspected the city would be quiet and largely sober afterward. I hoped that as the night wore on and his frustration mounted, maybe he'd open up to new opportunities.

Or at least that was the plan. The wine I'd drunk in my nervous agitation got things moving a little more quickly than I'd anticipated. As it often does.

"Oh, here we go," I said. I nudged Kalum again.

I hid my smile behind my glass as Kalum swiveled on his stool to look at the door. I laughed when his shoulders wilted once more.

"Be serious," he said, turning back to look at me. 

I looked over his shoulder at the tall, dark, broad-shouldered man making his way over to the bar. 

"I am serious," I said, trying my best to look discerning. "Desperate times." 

"I should have left you are the inn," he muttered.

The rejection, which hadn't actually been directed at me, sent a wave of doubt through me. I took another sip of my wine and set my elbows on the bar.

"Just a thought," I said. 

As the silence stretched, I felt that wave of doubt begin to crest. What was I thinking? Trying to seduce Kalum, to convince him to take me instead of a woman--it was a stupid plan and I was stupid for thinking of it. As I became certain of my miscalculation, I decided I had to try to salvage the night. We could visit another tavern. Maybe a couple. We still had time. Somewhere in this city, there was a woman willing to take us on. We just had to find her. 

But I couldn't ignore the disappointment in the pit of my stomach. Foolish desire or no, sharing Kalum with a woman wasn't what I wanted. And the wine unbridled my tongue.

"I just thought," I said, still looking down at my glass, "that maybe you were a little more worldly." 

I could feel Kalum turn to look at me.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," I said. 

"Bullshit," Kalum said. "What's with this attitude?" 

I said nothing. 

"Jol..."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Kalum crane his neck to spot the tall, dark-haired man at the other end of the bar. He looked back at me.

"You were serious," he said. "You want us to fuck him?" 

I shrugged and swallowed the last of my wine. 

"It was just an idea. After our last time...I thought maybe you'd be open to trying something new." 

"What do you mean 'after our last time'? " 

"When you tongue fucked my mouth while we took that innkeeper's daughter." 

And there it was. All my subtlety and planning and careful seduction burning away to nothing like a falling star.  

Kalum considered me in silence for a moment, his face inscrutable, before turning to scan the bar and see whether anyone else had been listening. 

The bartender stood polishing wine glasses about ten feet away. A little smirk lifted the corner of his lips, but he didn't look at us. 

"Jol," Kalum said. "Her mouth was already full. It was instinct." 

"I understand," I said. 

And I did. But the disappointment was crushing. 

"Well," I said, "let's try another tavern before it gets too late. We still have time." 

I pushed my stool back and scattered some silver on the bar.

"Sit," Kalum said, putting a hand on the coins I'd dropped. He nodded at the bartender. "Two more." 

The bartender quirked an eyebrow at me. When I shrugged, he poured. 

"What?" I said, sitting down. "You giving up?" 

Kalum just shook his head slowly, studying the bottles on the wall in front of us.

I picked up my glass. 

Silence wasn't good. Silence meant Kalum was reliving and reassessing every time we'd shared a bed with a woman between us. He was wondering how often I'd been focused on him, not her. How often my casual glances and grazed fingers had meant more than he'd suspected. When we'd been alone together and I'd been hard, how many times had I been saluting him, not some feminine figment. As the silence stretched on, I shrank in on myself. I'd never felt so naked. 

I opened my mouth. Anything was better than silence.

"Listen," I said, but Kalum just shook his head and brought his glass to his lips.

"It was just a silly idea--" 

Kalum lifted a hand.

"Kalum--" 

"Just be quiet for a minute," he said. 

I hunkered down over my drink and let him be. That seemed safest. I'd give him time, let him calm down, then tell him I was heading back to the inn. He could find a woman if he still wanted to. Follow her back to whatever room she rented. 

But Kalum put his glass down on the bar with a thud before I'd taken my second sip.

"Okay," he said. "Talk." 

I shrugged, still not looking at him. "What do you want me to say?" 

"You want to take a man to bed and you thought I'd want to join you." 

It wasn't a question. 

"Yes," I said. But that wasn't completely true. I wanted to take Kalum to bed. Suggesting we share a man instead of a woman had been my clumsy attempt to test the waters. A terrible idea. 

"Why would you think that?" Kalum said.

"Because," I said, keeping my voice low, "you stuck your tongue down my throat. You did that. Not me."

Staring straight ahead, Kalum took another sip of his beer.

"So, what? Now you want to fuck me?" 

"That's not what I said." 

"But you do." 

Another statement.

I turned to look him in the eye. The moment had arrived and I decided not to dodge it. I had nothing else to lose. 

"Yes," I said. "And why not? You're a profoundly attractive, statuesque pile of muscle and I thought you might enjoy doing what we always do, just... without the intermediary. I was wrong. I apologize. Now let's go find a woman like we always do." 

After a long silence, Kalum dragged both hands up and down his face. "'Without the intermediary...'" he muttered. "How did I miss this?"

I grunted. I had no answer, so I sat watching the bartender polish glasses until Kalum stood abruptly.

"Okay. Finish that," he said, adding another few coins to the bar. "Let's go." 

"Where?" 

"Back to the inn," Kalum said. He glanced at me. "Maybe we can try a few things 'without the intermediary.'" 

I looked up at him, searching his face for irony, disgust, or both. I saw neither. He just looked at me. 

I tried to swallow my grin as I gulped the rest of my wine, but when the bartender caught my eye and winked, I couldn't keep the giddy smile from my face. 

Kalum watched me, the trace of a smile on his lips. "Hurry up before I changed my mind." 

We didn't talk on the way back to the inn. He walked as he always did, striding with purpose but without haste. I tried to match his pace, his nonchalance, but I failed.

"Your boyish enthusiasm," Kalum said when we reached the inn, "is very flattering." 

I grinned, licked my lips in another attempt to swallow my smile, and failed again. 

Kalum shook his head in wonder. 

"You've kept this from me for so long," he said, "and now you can't keep yourself together. I can't tell whether you'd be an excellent card player or hopeless shit." 

I raised a hand to push him toward the door, but let it fall to my side. 

"Can we go up to the room now?" 

Cupping the back of my neck with one warm, powerful hand, Kalum thrust me through the front door of the inn.

Up in our room, Kalum stood by his bed and lifted both hands, palms up, in invitation.

"Well," he said. "Here I am." 

I closed the distance between us. I wanted to strip him and run my hands all over his body, to crush him to me and kiss him like he had kissed me, but somehow that seemed too intimate. Kalum didn't make love to his women. He fucked them. 

Not knowing what else to do, and not wanting to waste a moment of this opportunity, I got on my knees. I ran my palm over the front of his breeches and grinned foolishly as I felt him harden under my caress. Kalum shifted his weight slightly and I looked up at him. 

He stared back steadily, then nodded at me encouragingly.

"Go on, then," he said.

I pulled at the buttons of his breeches and folded down the front to reveal his long, thick member straining at his small clothes. I hesitated, then reached out to run my fingers along the underside. When it pulsed, I pressed my palm to its length.

"Jol." 

I looked up to see Kalum watching me with both eyebrows raised. 

"Are you going to put it in your mouth or are you just gong to play with it?" 

Laughing, I stood and tugged his shirt free. As he lifted it up over his head I placed both hands on his thick, hairy blond chest and shoved. He gave a shout as he tipped back onto the bed. 

"Ah," he said, his head and arms still entangled, "so we're playing then." 

While he struggled, I muttered a short blade casting and reached for his small clothes. They fell away in tatters and his thick member sprang free.

I took just a moment to admire the sight before me. His lean, muscled frame writhing and his proud member dancing in his lap. Then I heard the air rush out of his lungs as I leaned down to capture the round head of his member in my mouth. 

He lay still for a moment as I swirled my tongue, then moaned as I worked my lips down over his shaft.

"Keep going," he said. 

I obeyed, bobbing slightly to work spit onto his shaft, then took him deeper into my mouth, inch by inch, until the head lodged in the back of my mouth.

"Keep going," Kalum said again, his voice a husky command.

I wrapped one hand around the base of his shaft and put the other on his hip to steady myself. I worked up and down his length, taking more and more of him into my throat each time I slid him back over my tongue. I had nearly reached his base when I could take no more. I released him with a gasp.

Kalum looked down his chest at me. Sitting between his knees I stroked him with one fist while I wiped my mouth with the other. His shirt was still wrapped around one heavy arm. 

"You need a bit of training," he said, smiling, "but you've got talent." 

He dig his fingers into my hair as I lowered my mouth back onto his shaft and practiced working his hard, thick length down my throat. As the minutes slid by I grew more proficient and Kalum moaned a beautiful gravelly noise, but eventually, I had to release him. 

I massaged my jaw.

"I've wanted to do that for so long," I said.

"Wish I'd known," Kalum said, stroking himself a few times before dragging the head of his member over my lips. "What else have you wanted to do?" 

I stood and kicked off my boots, then stripped. When I was naked I climbed onto the bed to straddle Kalum's hips. 

His eyes widened.

"Really?" 

"Really," I said. I put both hands on his chest and leaned forward. "I've thought of nothing else for weeks." 

My member throbbed as he took my hips with both hands. 

"Go on, then," he said. "See what you can take. I'll let you do the work." 

I spit on my fingers and spread it on my hole, then backed up onto the towering length of him.

I grunted as my hole began to burn. 

"Here," Kalum said, wetting two fingers.

I caught his wrist as he reached down between my legs.

"No," I said, "I can do it." 

I took my time and Kalum didn't rush me. As I eased myself down onto him he wandered his hands up and down my legs, and I was determined to reward his patience. 

After long minutes and a series of false starts that left my hole burning, I bore down one final time and felt Kalum's member slip inside. My mouth fell open and I steadied myself by gripping his forearms. 

"Well done," Kalum said, his hands on my hips. "Now what?" 

"Fuck me," I said. "Show me what it's like." 

He raised his hips up to drive himself slowly, steadily into me. 

"I'm going to take my time," he said, "make sure you're ready, and then I'll show you what it's like." 

Kalum fucked me slowly, sometimes guiding me down onto him, sometimes thrusting his hips up to meet me. Each time I felt more and more of him slip inside. Finally, he drew me down firmly by the hips until my full weight rested on his lap and I was impaled on him. I felt his coarse hair against my hole as he stretched me wide and the breath I'd been holding rose out of me in a moan. No priest in the city could have denied it was the sound of worship.

He fucked me like that, thrusting up into me with his breeches still bunched around his thighs, for what felt like ages. I rode him mindlessly, lost in the impossibly full feeling that came every time he sheathed his thick length deep inside me. When I began to increase our pace, meeting him in the middle of every thrust, Kalum reached up to grip the back of my neck. Holding me still, he looked me in the eye and thrust himself up into my hole with such force that my cry only barely drowned out the slapping sound of his hips against my ass.

"Now," he said, grinding himself against my hole, "I'll show you what it's like." 

He rolled me into my back and stood just long enough to strip. Standing next to the bed, he spit generously on his member. Then he was on me. He hooked his arms behind my knees and leaned forward, raising my ass into the air as he pressed his face close to mine.

"You want to know what it's like?" 

I nodded, my mouth hanging open as I felt his member pressing against my wet hole. Then he slid into me with one powerful thrust. I threw my head back with a shout of wordless pleasure. Then all thought abandoned me as Kalum stood, pulled out, then slammed home again and again while he held my legs to my chest.

After an age of driving into me with enough force to shake the bed, Kalum slammed into me and leaned down to look me in the eye again. Sweat stood on his forehead. 

"Is that what you wanted?" 

I moaned and nodded breathlessly, my climax just a few aching moments say. 

"What else do you want?" 

Feverish with need, I wrapped an arm around his neck and crushed his mouth to mine. He grunted in surprise but didn't pull away. 

I tried to reach down to bring myself to release, but Kalum's hand found me first. The knuckles of his fist ran up and down my stomach as he stroked me and I moaned into his mouth as pleasure built in my ass. Just before I erupted, Kalum began bucking desperately. He grunted each time he shot inside me and the sensation of the thick base of his member stretching me wide with each accompanying thrust, pushed me over the edge. I erupted, covering his chest and mine.

Afterward, we lay panting for a time. I enjoyed the sweat-covered weight of him bearing down on me almost as much as the feeling of him still shifting inside me.

"So," Kalum said after he'd caught his breath. He lifted his head from my shoulder and looked down at me. "Is that what you wanted?" 

I spread my arms on the bed and closed my eyes with a smile.

"It's a start," I said.

I felt Kalum's amused grunt against my chest. 

"We'll have to send word to the guild, then," Kalum said, grinding himself against my hole. "We may be delayed by a day or three."