Page 9 of Arrows

Lorre took him there on the bed, sliding into him; Van remembered that the magician had asked for touch, and tried to do as requested, reaching up, holding on. Lorre said nothing, only moved, and it was good, so very good, so shimmering and wild—

Lorre looked at him, but did not, precisely, see him. Van, on his back, and later on hands and knees, realized that.

Lorre was considerate about mutual pleasure, and took care with him, and paid attention to his reactions, assiduously so, until Van couldn’t tell which way was up or how many hours it’d been or how many times he’d spilled himself; that was all true and ecstatic.

But a remoteness lingered. Lorre did not talk much, and did not kiss him, not really; some exploration of lips, mouths, tongue, but Van thought that was about sensation, not intimacy. About Lorre wanting to feel, to drink the feelings in. Skin to skin. Touching.

The labyrinthine blue of those eyes did not light up, not fully. Desire, yes—Lorre certainly found release, breathless, hips moving, climax flooding Van’s body with heat. He knew Lorre was enjoying the night.

But he thought, again, about gemstones. Sapphires. Walls. A hardness. Never fracturing, letting nothing escape.

And then Lorre wrapped coils of golden firelight around his cock and his wrists, and traced fingertips like feathers along his inner thigh, and Van forgot to think, shuddering with exquisite sensitivity.

After some uncountable time, perhaps noticing that Van was wrung out and trembling with too much pleasure, Lorre kissed his shoulder and stopped teasing his cock and slid out of him, gently.

Van moaned helplessly. Everything ached in glorious ways. His hair stuck to his face, damp with sweat. Lorre liked some uses of magic in bed, and had been playing with multiple conjured-up fingers along with his prick in Van’s body, plus some heat, cold, invisible ropes tugging Van’s legs into the air.

Lorre sighed. “Are you quite all right?”

Van couldn’t form words. He might’ve whimpered. Lorre’s cock was magical too, thick and heavy; Lorre’s release was dripping out of him, as he lay there sprawled atop the bed.

Lorre sighed again. “One moment.” A little gesture, a sensation like hot water, a cloth—

He was clean. Entirely. He moved a hand, touched his own stomach.

“I’m useful on occasion,” Lorre said, getting up from the bed. He’d also cleaned himself up, and—despite unselfconscious nakedness—resembled precisely the sorcerer he was, powerful and unassailable and remote.

His hair was curling from exertion, though, no longer straight and unruffled. And that’d been a hint of wryness in his tone. No: more than a hint. Proper self-deprecation.

Van managed to sit up. His muscles protested. Lorre had handled the messy bits, but it’d been a while, and he’d never felt anything like this. “Was that…I mean, if you…want more…”

“You look exhausted, so no.”

“Was it…good?”

“Yes. Thank you. I do want more tea; would you like some?”

“Tea…I mean. Yes?”

Lorre poured, and brought two cups, and handed Van the ruby one. Van clutched it, and tried not to leave fingerprint-smudges on priceless stone.

Lorre went back to being quiet, sitting cross-legged on the end of the bed, staring into tea as if searching for an answer, a revelation, a secret he hadn’t found. The tent held the scents of sex, honey, vanilla, washed in firelight.

Lorre got up, after a while, and went to stare at the map instead. He put the tea down mid-air without looking. Van almost scrambled off the bed to try to catch it, but the air supported porcelain calmly. Van stared at it. Transferred the stare to the Sorcerer, who was naked and lovely and drumming fingers over the map, across the winding blue line of the Argent.

He ventured, “Sorcerer?”

Lorre swung around. “You’re still here?” His eyebrows held genuine astonishment.

“Ah…yes?”

“Oh.”

“Do you want me to go?”

Big blue eyes got more perplexed. “Would you prefer to stay?”

Van got up. He wasn’t sure why, only that it felt the thing to do. He had no clothes, so he wrapped the topmost blanket, a thick blue velvet expanse, around himself. “Do you want me to stay?”

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