22. To Watch
Chapter 22
To Watch
I n the morning, they made love. Azure had slept inside of her, and she woke to him growing hard. The sun rose, the birds chirped, and she rode him again until he came inside her, and she climaxed so hard she gripped the sides of his neck as if she were falling.
Sore but satisfied, they ate breakfast. Celestine sat in his arms while she carved a new spoon for them. Once done, she stood and walked away from camp, removing piece after piece of clothing. She turned, inviting him with her smile.
When Azure came upon her, she was bent over in the grass pleasuring herself. Her back to him, exposed, opened. She didn’t stop her own touch until finally, he filled her. Her hands closed upon soft grass as Azure took her from behind.
As he strode into her, his hips slapping in steady rhythm against hers, the froth of their lovemaking so sweet and thick upon his shaft and her cunt, he held a fistful of her hair. Not in dominance but in guidance and brought her back onto him, fucking him with her movement.
“You are here,” he reassured her. Centering her. “You are mine, and I am yours.”
“Yes,” she breathed. His girth was terrible, magnificent.
“Say it,” he whispered, bringing her back into the moment.
“You are mine, and I…I am yours,” Celestine groaned.
They came under an open sky.
That day they smoked more sweetvine and tobacco and napped under the vast blue sky. When they woke on the blanket upon the grasses, exhausted, her hand touched his circlet.
“Are you different if you take it off?” Celestine asked him.
“See for yourself.” Azure reached up and tossed the circlet aside like a small trinket. Celestine tensed, remembering the change with Tristien, but nothing happened.
“Do you not grow more powerful?” Celestine asked.
“Each Lord denies themself, in a way. But I am happiest when riding my mount at great speeds. I want what I have.” He filled his hand with the plump flesh of her ass. “And I have you.”
She saw it that day. He was true to himself in such a different way. His power didn’t grow nor diminish. But when they fucked, when he laughed, when he rode, she saw his majesty. It was part of him, not something he became. He was as large as any Lord of Season with or without his circlet.
He didn’t need it.
“It will be time for us to ride to my city soon,” Azure told her as they lay among the grasses.
“It will?” she asked.
“A great tourney arises. You have seen the hawk, the hare, the horse. The vastness of the grasses and plains and sky. You must meet my people.”
“If I am to wed you?” Celestine asked slowly. She found great comfort within Azure, and love, if she was capable of that, was of a different sort.
Azure grinned. “You will not wed me, Final Bride. Nothing is owned by another in my realm. That is why Aidric does not worry. Cruelty lies not within me because I don’t deny myself. My people do not wed. They join. Sometimes, they part. Sometimes they do not. We are the wind, and you cannot bind the wind.”
My people do not wed.
It made sense. In truth, she loved her time here with him, and he was a great man, a great Lord of Season.
“What happened to the brides you found in the hunt?” she asked, suddenly curious.
“I brought them here. They are among my people now. Many have had children. Many lay dead and buried.”
“Dead from what?”
Azure smiled. “Old age. I am older than time Celestine. I am Summer’s beauty in its hope, in its freedom. Freedom from frost, from harvest. Freedom has no brides. It owns nothing, bows to nothing. I lead my people as a paragon, not a king. There are no crowns here.”
Celestine felt taken aback, nodding. He would not wed her. That denial, that refusal, she needed answers to questions.
“You may stay forever, Celestine. You can. And you can be my lover, my partner. A horse is safest in the stable…”
“But that’s not what they are for.” Celestine looked out over the plains.
Azure stroked her face. “My people love to be seen. As you are learning. Part of that means they travel, they travel to many realms. They tell their stories when they return.”
“But they always return,” she replied.
“As can you. The Final Bride is meant to be married, and the choice must be yours. I am a safe haven, but I am not medicine.” He gestured to the grasses. “This land is, this life is. And it’s up to you to administer it.” Azure stood nude and reached down to her. “Come, see my people as they travel.”
Celestine stood, and for the first time since the first day, she saw the plain with other people on it—dotted with riders and travelers on foot.
“They travel to Skye for the tournament. My people are many things, and competitive is one of them.”
“What happens there?” she asked.
“A great tourney. A melee. Races. Feats of quickness. We are not the brutal exertion and effort of the Red Banners. We value quickness, speed, like the hawk in its dive. The true winner is not the one who knocks the opponent down, but the one who wins or loses with the greatest grace and precision.”
Celestine pulled her trousers and shirt on, as did he, and they walked barefoot, Azure holding her hand clasped in his. She shut her eyes, thinking of his words.
I know he is right. But I will miss him and this place.
They crested a hill and looked down, where travelers rode in the valley. Some younger people, men and women, were racing.
“They travel to the tourney.” Azure put an arm around her. Then he turned her, and they watched a young couple, Celestine’s age, proceeding together towards them.
“Hail, Azure.”
“Hail,” Azure greeted them.
The young girl was dark-haired and short. The young man was lean, a handsome, boyish face. They both grinned.
“May we lay our blanket here?” the girl asked, looking at Celestine.
“Of course,” Celestine said.
Azure murmured to her, “Only the of-age in my realm may travel to Skye for tourneys. You understand?”
“I do, they are nineteen?”
Azure shook his head. “Twenty. Always twenty.”
The young man and woman smiled, and she threw her blanket down. She walked forward, taking Celestine’s hand.
“Welcome to our land, Final Bride.”
“What’s your name?” Celestine smiled.
“Dara,” the young woman smiled. “This is Nika.”
“My lady.” The young man bowed. On his tunic was the crest of Azure, with a different-colored plume on one edge.
Before Celestine could respond, Dara turned to Nika and drew him into a long deep kiss. The young squire’s hands wrapped around her. Groping her, running down her back, pulling her breeches lower, the curve of her buttocks, plump and brown as her pants fell.
My people love to be seen.
Celestine smiled at Azure, who responded to her with a raised eyebrow. She nodded, turning to watch them. Apparently, asking to lay your blanket down was asking to be watched.
Dara groaned, turning, her lover kissing and biting her neck. His hand reached around her to her mound of dark pubic hair, and she ground her rear up and down him. Her eyes landed on Celestine, grinning, loving being watched.
“Oh my,” Celestine murmured. Aside from the field in Tristien’s lands, she had never really seen two other people couple. It was something she found she couldn’t tear her eyes away from.
Dara took to Nika with a fierce need and a flair of showmanship. She fell to her knees and tore his pants down, the young man’s cock flopping in front of her face. She tugged on it, eyeing him with a smile, and then wrapped her lips around it before throating him deeply.
“Fuck my mouth, my love,” Dara huffed, stroking her lover.
Celestine shuddered, seeing such proud lust and feeling the arousal come upon her. Nika obeyed her, grinning, shyer than her, but he strode into her mouth while she hummed and moaned, sucking and slurping on his cock.
“Lay down,” Dara told him. He bent low, removing his trousers, pulling his shirt off, and tossing it aside. Dara stood over him, removing the last of her clothing. She looked at Celestine, grinning a bit sheepishly.
“It is their first time being watched,” Azure spoke into her ear.
Dara’s eyes locked onto Celestine, and she straddled her lover, knees spread wide, so Celestine could see her quim and the young man’s straining cock. The girl bit her lip, never not looking at Celestine, and that bite broke into a soft “O” as she lowered down and took her lover to the hilt.
“Fuck,” Celestine breathed. Despite the soft breeze, she felt hot. Flushed.
Dara’s face became one of sweet pleasure as she squatted up and down, falling upon Nika.
Dara groaned, “He’s so hard, my lady.”
“He looks it,” Celestine said. She felt suddenly fearful, looking at Azure, but he reassured her with a kiss on her cheek.
“They love to be seen, and the watcher has their own part. Look how she takes him, my love. She sits on his cock so well.” Azure slid his hand lower, touching Celestine over her pants.
“Thank you.” Dara grinned. “He’s hard because you’re watching, Lady Celestine. He likes to show off.”
“Dara,” Nika groaned.
“It’s true,” Dara snapped, then steadied his chin to look at her. “Take me in, my love. Witness me falling upon you. It feels so good to be…” Dara sank to her knees, giving her ankles a rest. She began to ride faster and faster, kissing her lover, sliding back and forth on top of him. “To be seen. For the first time.”
Celestine had barely noticed, entranced by this display of lust, but her own hand had reached down to her quim over her pants. Dara noticed, and smiled, fucking Nika slower, writhing and rolling her hips on top of him.
“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.”
That response disappointed Celestine. For all they were, these Lords of Season, perhaps there was much they didn’t understand. She felt no softness or pity for those who preyed upon others.
“We kill them,” Azure finished.
Celestine smiled.