21. Twenty-One - Dinner Conversations
Twenty-One - Dinner Conversations
Viggo
Teeth grit, I make it through dinner, watching them eat as I sip from the goblet Blicks set in front of me at the start.
I have to drink supplemental blood—draining Penny dry is not an option—but it is always dissatisfying. Especially when the two of them sit in front of me, their pulses utterly tempting.
Blicks plays footman tonight, he is here to listen more than he is to serve and I won’t begrudge him that.
Though, I do almost mention that this is his own fault.
Normally, dinner is a household affair, eaten downstairs at the long table just off the kitchen.
They could have asked any and all questions they liked.
He’s the only reason for this formality.
Across a centerpiece dotted with fresh apricots—Yenna found out that the Eventide family believes they’re lucky—Ana’s smile makes my chest ache.
“My closest sister is five years younger. My father fought in the war and was gone for those five years, so…” She shrugs. “Carlotta has a fairly large farm to the south west. She grows all sorts of things because she would get bored, otherwise.”
She chuckles as if remembering something else, but she doesn’t share it.
“Tell us about your sisters?” Penny asks and I wonder if he’s asked it for Blicks as well.
“The next is seven years younger and she also has a farm to the south. It’s smaller than Carlotta’s and her husband is obsessed with beans. They grow every possible variety and he’s constructing a building that he says will allow him to grow them all year round.” She takes a sip of her drink. “Every time I visit he shows me his newest invention and she just smiles indulgently. They have four children.”
“Your youngest sister is still at home, though, is she not?”
She nods. “Did you interrogate someone in town?”
“Nothing of the sort, but you know how easy it is to learn anything if you’re quiet and pay attention.”
“Mina is seventeen and has no idea what she wants to do with herself. I think she’s still holding out hope that a stranger will move to town and sweep her off her feet. She spends half of her time reading romantic novels.”
Ana smiles indulgently at that, and I wonder if she, too, reads romantic novels.
“But Morganna, who is only two years older than Mina, moved out the moment she received acceptance to apprentice with the weavers’ guild.” Her smile is pained when she says, “Unfortunately, my mother tends to drive people away.”
“But she hasn’t driven you away,” Penny says.
Ana looks uncomfortable and takes a sip of her wine.
“I have a sister,” I say.
Ana looks at me with a smile that seems like relief. “Do you?”
I nod and glance toward Blicks who has straightened. He wants to hear more about her, not things he already knows about me.
“She is older than me by nearly seventy years. She’s currently playing companion to the Queen.”
Penny leans toward her. “They are on again off again lovers.”
“He doesn’t know that for sure, it is just a guess.”
“An educated guess.”
Ana laughs and Penny confirms that he has no full siblings. His parents loathe each other and while his father has certainly taken plenty of mistresses, he could not abide having bastards... just like he can’t abide the idea of divorcing the only person in the land that hates him more than I do.
The elf hates a scandal.
Edric’s smile is rueful. “My mother has seven other children with her other husbands and lovers. But they do not like the way my father treated my mother and they’ve let it color their opinion of me.”
And I hate them a little more for it every time I see them, or him.
“I’m sorry,” she says, softly.
“We do not visit often, so it is rarely an issue.”
“And now we have even more of an excuse to stay firmly at home,” I say.
Ana has finished eating and the way she licks her lips…
I stand before Blicks can come inveigle another course upon us and go to her side.
“Shall we?” I ask, leaving the question open-ended.
She takes my hand and Blicks pulls out her chair, casting a displeased glance my way.
When we get past the dining room door and out of Blick’s hearing, Ana whispers. “Take me upstairs?”
“I’ve been dying for you to ask.”
Her smile falters. “I’m a little weary of being on display.”
Her eyes move to the left and when I look, Yenna hurries away.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell the others they need to ease back. We have no intention of letting her disappear, but if they don’t give her some breathing room, she might do it anyway.
Again, the chandelier in the center of the stairs seems to mesmerize her.
Again, she lets us draw her into Penny’s room and close the door.
In the candle-lit room the crossed lines of golden chains sparkle like a cage... a cage I need to free her of.
Standing behind her, slipping one sleeve down her arm, I draw my lips across her shoulder. “Is this dress another one of your favorites?”
She shakes her head. “You are welcome to tear it to shreds.”
“Are you sure?”
“This chain was made to be broken.” She looks over her shoulder. “I had it relaced this afternoon, for this very purpose.”
“Devious.” I whisper the word against the top of her spine and she shivers.
“I like to be prepared.”
I turn her around, pulling her to me and kiss her. It’s like drinking in sunshine. She is warm and sweet and she burns through me in ways I can’t articulate... In ways I’d gladly endure for a lifetime.
She’s wearing too many clothes.
I can fix that.
Fabric rips and metal snaps and Ana gasps against me. She looks up at me, wide eyes clear and caramel in the candle light.
“You can’t change your mind now.”
“I rarely change my mind.” Her fingers slip between the buttons of my shirt and she yanks her hands apart, tearing it half-way open.
Penny laughs behind her and then reaches around her to tear it open the rest of the way.
“Loric is going to be livid,” he says, kissing her jaw. “Unless your presence absolves us of all sins.”
“The tailor owes me a favor. I can get anything we do tonight fixed.”
Penny hushes her. My long-time lover doesn’t need favors... but she doesn’t need to know that yet... assuming she hasn’t guessed.
With Penny keeping her distracted, I kiss the tops of her breasts, working my way toward the chain that disappears between them.
That was not meant to be broken.
And it’s not my goal.
I use my teeth to slice open the front of her gown. And then, I take hold of the bodice and tear it completely in two.
“Oh!” Gasping, and looking down the gaping opening that reaches to her navel, Ana blinks at herself for a moment, and then she laughs.
I take that as tacit approval and slide my hands around her waist, pulling me to her so that I can toy with one nipple as I look at Penny.
“I don’t want to see you again until you’re naked.”
He laughs and goes to remove his clothes... no tearing for him. Not my prim and proper Elf.
Ana presents herself to me, and I suck her breast into my mouth for a moment before I pull back and lift her against me, dragging the dress off of her and letting the shreds fall where they may.
This time, I roll her stockings down her legs and send them into the pile before sending her tumbling into the center of the bed.
Laughing all the way, she licks her lips as she props herself up on her elbows and watches me get my already opened coat, waistcoat and shirt off.
The cravat is a struggle, but she laughs at that too.
Ana seems perpetually happy. And even though I know that can’t be true, I want to make it so. I want that smile to live on her lips always.
I don’t get my pants off before I crawl to her.
Open, yes. Off, no.
She doesn’t seem to mind and when I lift her legs over my shoulder and feast on her pussy, I don’t think she’d notice if I was wearing a feathered tiara.
I lick and lap at her, savoring the taste like it might be the last time I have the pleasure.
My cock presses against my underclothes and I start to regret my own impatience.
I want to crawl up her body and sink my cock into her without wasting the time I’ve just made myself.
It’s been less than a full day, and I am starving for her.
Growling into her, I suck on her clit and revel in the way she bucks and moans.
Her fingers dig into my skull, pulling me harder against her as she keens and cries. I want her to drag me inside of her. I want her to consume me.
But I hear Penny return from taking his clothes off tidily.
There will be time for everything I want to do to her on my own... later.
Tonight is for sharing again.
Even still, I lavish her until she comes apart on a sweet and panting cry.
She whimpers when I pull away from her.
I lick her from my lips and look at where Penny strokes himself, a soft smile on his face
He keeps his distance as I kick my trousers away.
My cock throbs as I crawl up to her again and turn her over me.
She makes a startled little sound as she comes to a stop, straddled over me, her hands on my chest.
“What are you up to?” she asks, eyes narrowed, but still smiling.
“Just putting you where Penny wants you.”
She arches a brow and then turns back to look at Penny over her shoulder. “Come here.”
“That is a wish I can grant.”
“Is there something I ask for that you’ll say no to?” She arches a brow at him.
“Yes.”
“Really?” Her surprise is almost a mirror to my own.
I wouldn’t have thought there was anything he’d deny her. I am immeasurably curious and, at the same time, I don’t think I want to know.
“You,” he says as he reaches us, “make a gorgeous picture.”
“We’ll make a prettier one when you join us,” she says.
“Want to know a secret?” I ask, lips on her temple.
She nods, her curls tickling my skin.
“Penny likes to make sure we get ours before he gets his.”
“It’s why he takes so much joy in biting me.” Penny says from behind her as he takes hold of me. “I like watching you come. No one can fault me for that.”
He strokes my cock once, twice, and then guides it into her. She sighs against my lips.
If heaven exists, it’s here, with the two of them.
“More please.” Her lips still pressed against mine move them as though I’m speaking with her.
“That chain may have been made to be broken, but you weren’t.” I sweep her hair over her shoulder. “We’ll play until you’re ready. Is that okay?”
She pouts and I nip at her lip.
“As long as you make it worth my while.”
Penny laughs. “Always, Ana. Always.”