Page 106 of The Kingdom of Flames

“Do you like it, my lady?” Dara said with a voice as sultry as silk.

“I do,” Celestine reached into her pants and began to touch herself. Nika looked over, staring at her, lost in lust of being fucked and watched, and Celestine undid her belt.

“Ride him, Dara, take him to the brink,” Celestine uttered the illicit words, and they made her shudder as she touched herself, hand stuffed into her pants, wet from Azure’s come still leaking from her.

Dara smiled. Both she and her began to move in a strange partnership without touching. Celestine watched, matching the pace with Dara’s hips, the cock of her lover filling her. She picked up the pace, and Celestine followed, her own arousal increasing. She reached out with her free hand, touching Azure through his pants, feeling his hardening cock in his trousers.

“He’s close,” Dara moaned. “Are you close, my lady?”

“I am.” Celestine stared at them. She exposed her sex to the, fingers twirling in an effort to catch up to Dara.

Nika looked at her, and Celestine stood straighter, spreading her lips for him. When he saw her, and Dara did, Celestine felt so exposed. So seen. That which was kept private now shown to the two of them. For a moment, she felt shame.

Azure reached around, his strong thumb rubbing against her tight ring, slick with the seed that he had rushed into her quim not long ago.

“Oh,” Dara moaned. The young woman’s brown eyes fluttered, dancing upon Celestine’s as she rode her partner. Nika breathed harder and harder, watching Celestine play with herself.

“Yes,” Celestine groaned, fingers bringing her there. She worked faster, the agony coming close.

The valley seemed so wide around them. This girl and she could have been friends in another life. They were the same age. Giggling about boys, gossiping about the realms. Celestine bit her lip. The feeling of watching and being watched was heavy. Like a grand tether linking her to this moment.

She came when Dara did, their eyes locked like swords in a duel, their mouths opening slowly into sly smiles. Nika groaned, his eyes on Celestine’s quim, and it turned her on to see him fill Dara while staring at her.

“Nika,” Dara moaned and fell onto him.

The wind swirled through the four of them, turning the sweat, the slickness on their bodies cold under its touch.

Dara shuddered and rose from her lover. Seed poured from her onto her man, his softening cock laying on him now, ruined and fallen.

“Thank you.” Dara smiled and stepped to Celestine, nude and unashamed, kissing her cheek. “You both should come to the camp feast this evening.”

“We will see,” Azure said with a nod. “Good travels to you both. And good luck in the tourney.”

“Yes.” Celestine straightened her pants, the blush receding from her. “Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Nika said, and the young couple picked up their blanket and turned to the valley to continue their travels.

“My people love to be seen.” Azure held an arm over her shoulder as they turned back to the long walk home. “It isn’t worship, nor just vanity. There is a gift in being observed, a freedom in vanquishing any shame.”

“I saw it,” Celestine said. “When she felt our eyes on her, and him as well. Is that what you want of me?”

Azure held her hand as they walked the plain. “I want what I have. That is you.”

“The… others. Tristien never wanted me to be seen. To be observed or even looked upon. Not that I wanted it. But he forbade it.”

“Slavery,” Azure spat. She saw something close to anger in his eyes for the first time. This tall and regal Lord. “The touch of possessive men is a separation. My people’s strength is in each other. That which grows in darkness grows alone. The grasses of the plain live under the open sky, and that sky lives in the eyes of all my people.”

“I’m ready,” Celestine stated. “For what comes next.”

“Garo healed much of you. The wounded, the abused, their shame is hidden. That is the real betrayal. You have seen women in your land who had their crests stolen instead of given?”

Celestine nodded. “They are shunned, even without decree.”

“A lie.” Azure’s face grew grim. “A terrible lie we tell to the wounded, that their shame is their own when it is ours. To place an unwanted touch on a woman or child is to wound their soul, to ignore them is to finish what the flesh-thief was too cowardly to do. Some realms do not even punish this offense. Others build great fortresses using the condemned, or convict-armies, or make them into slave labor.”

“What happens in your land when a man forces himself on a woman? Is he chained?”

“Never that,” Azure shook his head. “I could never take the freedom away from any person. It is a heinous crime against their very nature.”

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