by Moira Sutton
“I thought that was you,” Jeric said, leaning back.
“No,” Zoa said. “It was me last night, but the moment you became an Avatar, you became immune to my lust.”
“I deeply disagree,” Jeric said, giving her a smoldering smile.
Zoa returned the look before slipping back into her formal role as a Chosen. “I’m safe from your magical influence, but others aren’t. You have to learn to control it or you’ll start trouble wherever you go.”
“Very well,” Jeric said, his face growing serious. “Teach me.”
And so Zoa taught him as she had been taught, coaching him through the process of opening himself to the goddess and feeling her magic. He caught on quickly, and by evening Jeric had his aura well in check.
“Excellent,” Zoa said, moving her table around as the girl brought in dinner. “We’ll work on using lust later, but you should be safe enough for the moment.”
“What about when I’m aroused?” Jeric said, not even coloring at the mention after hours of talking frankly about sex magic. “Will I hurt the captain again?”
“Not if you keep a hold on your power,” Zoa said. “It will be second nature soon enough, and once you learn to use it safely, the fun really starts.”
“I’m always up for fun,” said a deep voice from the door.
Zoa and Jeric looked up as Izar came in. He looked tired, Zoa thought. His posture was commanding, but his eyes were pinched with fatigue. Jeric noticed it too and he immediately snapped into soldier mode.
“Sir,” he said. “What do you need?”
Izar smiled briefly, but then his face grew serious. “Jeric,” he said. “I know you’re not technically under my command anymore, but if you don’t mind, I’d like your assistance. I’m moving our camp outside of town to keep the men out of the brothels. I only paid for one night, but they can’t seem to get that through their heads. I need your help keeping order so Rosa doesn’t end up with their entire bonus.”
“Certainly, sir,” Jeric said, standing up. He walked to the door to join his captain. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Zoa,” he said, drawing her name out with a longing look.
“I will certainly see you,” Izar said, the promise in his eyes far more frank. “We leave early, but don’t worry about it. We’ll be happy to wake you up again.”
Even as he said it, Zoa felt a clench of lust between her legs. Jeric must have felt it too, because his body grew tense, but the captain only grinned and walked out the door, Jeric following on his heels.
Zoa watched them go. When their footsteps faded, she fell back into her suddenly lonely bed. She was exhausted and she knew she should be enjoying her last night in a real bed for a while, but she couldn’t sleep. No matter how toasty the room was, she just felt cold without the two warm, hard bodies beside her. Finally, after hours of turning, she slipped at last into an exhausted sleep filled with maddening, lustful dreams.
* * * * *
Sadly, it was the racket of a marshaling squad that woke her and not the wonderful kisses of yesterday. Zoa rose and dressed in a simple winter traveling outfit of heavy wool trousers and a soft linen shirt under her long, heavy coat. When she was properly bundled, she called the boy for her trunk and started down the stairs. Izar’s squad was already in the square when she emerged, mounted and ready to go. There were two supply wagons in the train, but they were small and well packed, ready for the long journey. Izar himself was at the head of the column, mounted on a white horse, with Jeric beside him holding two more, a mean looking black stallion and a smaller, but still impressively tall brown gelding. Both men were in their legion armor and freshly washed, and Zoa couldn’t help admiring how well they turned out as she came down the stairs.
“Chosen,” Izar said, his eyes glinting as she approached. “We took the liberty of choosing a mount for you.”
“How kind, Captain,” Zoa said, taking the horse from Jeric as the boy loaded her trunk into the supply wagon under the driver’s watchful eye. “How long will we be riding?”
“A few weeks,” Izar said. “Maybe more, if the weather turns. Once we hit the river, things will be more reliable. We’ll hire a barge to take us the rest of the way and, gods willing, be in the Imperial Capital no later than a fortnight before midwinter.”
Zoa nodded. It was slower than she and Jeric could have gone on their own, but much safer and, she eyed the captain, very likely far more pleasurable. “Well then,” she said. “Shall we be off?”
Jeric helped her on to her horse, and though Zoa was sure he didn’t need to rub up against her like that to hoist her up, she didn’t complain. Indeed, the contact left a longing deep in her stomach. She nearly moaned when they parted, and Izar winked at her from his mount. She shook her head, flustered. Jeric she could understand, but Izar was human. She was the Avatar here. He was supposed to be the one panting, not her. But she couldn’t bring herself to be angry at the handsome captain, especially not when he pulled the squad into formation with one quick gesture and rode out, his soldiers following dutifully.
They made good time the first day. The roads from Ull were steep, but dry, and the Legion wagons were well made. The ride didn’t seem to bother the soldiers, but Zoa was unused to sitting so long in the saddle. Even the godtouched get sore, and by the time Izar called a halt for the night, Zoa was more than ready to stop.
The soldiers set up camp with the efficiency the Legion was famous for. The captain’s tent was large, as expected, but the one Izar had brought for Zoa was only slightly smaller. Though the camp plan had her in the safest position, right next to the captain, Zoa instructed the men to set her tent up a bit away from the others. She was planning to work with Jeric on his magic and she wanted some distance between him and the others. The last thing they needed was for Jeric to drive the poor soldiers into a mad lust by accident.
Sore as she was, Zoa grabbed Jeric as soon as the tents were up and drew him after her. Night was falling rapidly. So was the temperature, and the tiny brazier in her tent was barely enough to keep the chill away. She debated casting a warming spell, deciding against it at the last minute. Avatars wouldn’t die from a little cold and the magic she’d be teaching Jeric was complicated enough without other spells interfering in the background.
“Sit,” she said, motioning to the wide stretch of carpet by her bedroll.
Trained soldier that he was, Jeric sat instantly, his eyes on her. He’d kept good control of his aura all day, but Zoa could feel the lust rolling off him now that they were alone. Her own body tightened in answer, but they had limited time to work, so she forced herself to stay on subject.
“We’re going to start with Dezira’s most basic power, projecting lust,” she said, sitting across from him. “All of the Moon’s Own can control the lust of others. If you’re ruthless about it, you can make people your slaves, though I don’t care much for that. It’s far simpler, not to mention more fun, to stroke the natural lust of another until they come to you of their own volition.”
“I have some experience with that,” Jeric said, giving her a burning look.
“Ah, ah,” Zoa said, putting up her hands. “I actually didn’t touch you. It’s dangerous to use magic on unawakened Chosen. You came to me yourself.”
“Several times,” Jeric said with a grin.
“Focus,” Zoa said, grinning despite herself. “Now,” she looked around, “I was going to have you try to inspire lust, but you can’t do it on me since we’re both Chosen.” She frowned. “It would be easier if we had someone to practice on.”
Jeric’s grin grew by miles and he shot to his feet. “Wait right there,” he said when she tried to follow.
He didn’t tell her who he was going to get, but he didn’t have to. His expression told her everything she needed to know and Zoa’s lust hitched in a way that had nothing to do with the magic of the Chosen. She’d have to keep a careful hold on herself lest her lesson become something far less instructive and far more pleasurable.
&nbs
p; With that thought, she reached down and did up the buttons on her coat, despite the flush of heat that had covered her body. Focus, she told herself. Focus.
* * * * *
Izar was in his tent, alone and grumpy about it, when he heard someone enter. The lack of greeting told him who it was better than if Jeric had shouted, and he looked up. “Done so soon?”
He did a good job at keeping the resentment out of his voice. He’d hated seeing Zoa take Jeric into her tent. Of course, he had no reason to feel that way. They were both Avatars and he had no claim on either. But while Izar was typically a logical being to his bones, there was nothing logical about the deep, possessive feelings his second and the beautiful Chosen inspired in him.
That might have had something to do with the spectacular magical orgasm they’d given him yesterday morning, but honestly, the hooks had been sinking in since Zoa had first suggested they spend the night together. Izar wasn’t normally a man who liked being hooked, but he enjoyed these barbs all too much, which was why he’d been so irrationally angry when Zoa and Jeric had left him alone and was now equally irrationally happy that Jeric was back.
“Not hardly,” Jeric said, answering his question. “Zoa says we need someone to practice on.”
Izar’s irrational happiness jumped to full-blown, body-hardening excitement. “Well,” he said, buttoning his jacket again. “Never let it be said that I left a friend in need.”
Jeric’s eyes were hot as his own as he led them out of the tent and across the trampled snow where the soldiers had set up the cook fires to Zoa’s tent. Zoa grinned when they came in, the expression lighting up her lovely face until Izar’s heart ached and his cock grew uncomfortably hard.
Gods, he thought as he sat down on the layered rugs, he had it bad. The problem was, he couldn’t say who he had it worse for, Zoa or Jeric. If such a thing could even be termed a problem.
Once he was seated, Jeric sat down beside him, forming a triangle with the lovely Zoa at the pinnacle Even in the large tent, it was close quarters, but Izar didn’t mind in the least. He only wished they weren’t wearing all these clothes.
“Going to be teaching Jeric how to project,” Zoa was saying, her dark eyes twinkling at him. “All you have to do is sit there and tell us when you feel something.”
“Easy enough,” Izar said, leaning back. “Fire away.”
Zoa and Jeric exchanged a look, and then Jeric leaned forward, staring at the captain like he was studying him. Izar knew nothing about magic, god given or otherwise, so he just tried to sit still, no easy feat with Jeric and Zoa so close. Just seeing them brought up delicious memories of their time together, Zoa below him, sucking his cock with that gorgeous mouth while Jeric pounded into her from behind, his well-defined muscles taut and straining. He remembered holding Zoa in front of him as he and Jeric both took her, the amazing feeling of closeness, fullness as he felt his second’s hard cock through the wall of the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen.
The memories were flashes, barely a second each, but he hadn’t even gotten to their fun in the morning before his cock was straining against his trousers. His fingers clutched in the carpet as the power of his arousal seized him, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from groaning.
“Good.” Zoa’s voice was distant, a foggy, insubstantial sound. “A little strong, but good. Just like that.”
As her words finished, a flash of lust hit Izar so hard he could barely breathe. His cock was painfully hard now, almost as hard as it had been that glorious morning.
“Too strong!” Zoa cried.
Izar disagreed. This was amazing. The heady rush of it, the amazing, overpowering lust. It wasn’t too strong, it was too perfect. But as Zoa spoke, the lust eased off as quickly as it had come, leaving him panting.
“No,” he breathed.
Zoa and Jeric both looked up. “Are you all right?” Jeric said. When Izar didn’t answer, Jeric looked at Zoa. “Maybe I should stop?”
Stopping was the last thing Izar wanted. He was starting to realize through the haze that the lust was most likely magical, just as it had been that morning, but even as he figured out the truth, Izar threw it away. They might have fanned him up faster than he could have gotten here himself, but the lust Izar felt now had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with the two perfect, beautiful, amazingly sexy people in front of him. His cock, rock hard and straining, jerked madly at the thought, and suddenly, they were all wearing too many clothes.
With the practiced skill of a career fighter, Izar sprang forward, grabbing Zoa with one arm and pulling Jeric with the other. His attack took them both by surprise, and they all fell in a tangle with Izar on top, which was exactly what he wanted.
“Izar!” Zoa cried as he began to undo her buttons. “We’re supposed to be practicing.”
“Why?” he breathed, lowering his head to graze his blunt teeth against the column of her throat. “Looks like you’re experts to me.”
He ground his rock-hard cock against her as he spoke and Zoa gave a little gasp. Izar just smiled and kept working on her buttons. “Jeric,” he growled as he pulled her coat open. “Undress. That’s an order.”
“Didn’t you say he’s not yours to command anymore?” Zoa laughed beneath him, her eyes dark.
Izar grinned madly at the naked lust on her face. “Jeric doesn’t need a chain of command to know what’s best for him,” he said, moving down to nuzzle the soft material of her shirt where it lay across her breasts. “Do you?”
“No, sir,” Jeric said from behind him, and then Izar felt the warm wall of his lieutenant’s hard chest as Jeric pulled the captain’s own winter cover off his shoulders.
Izar broke away only to shove Zoa’s shirt up, sliding it over her head to reveal the breasts he’d been thinking about all day. They were white gold in the lamplight, the pert nipples pale pink as apple blossoms. He tossed her shirt away with a growl and then he bent down to run his hands and mouth over Zoa’s skin, pinning her lovely, curvy, supple body to the floor with his weight.
His shirt went next, then Jeric’s, and then the two men worked together to remove Zoa’s trousers, Jeric using his hands to undo the ties at her ankles while Izar used his teeth on the ties at her hips. By the time they were done, Zoa was panting beneath him, rubbing herself against Izar’s rock-hard cock in blatant invitation. The motion made his whole body stiffen, but lovely as Zoa was, she wasn’t the only one he wanted.
Jeric was behind him, shirtless and beautiful, his dusky skin as hot to the touch as Izar’s own. And touch Izar did. Hands shaking with desire, Izar ran them across Jeric’s beautiful, dark skin, over his wide shoulders and down his muscled arms. Jeric breathed deeply at the contact, his skin twitching under his captain’s fingers.
Izar had touched him only briefly in their other encounters, at first because Jeric had come in late and they’d both been focused on Zoa, but later he’d deliberately kept himself from it. He’d heard rumors Jeric had been with men before, but the lieutenant had never shown interest in Izar that way, not even on the front where there were no women at all. But he’d seen the hunger in Jeric’s eyes when his second had watched him the morning they woke Zoa, a hunger that matched his own, and now that Izar knew for sure, he wasn’t going to leave his second wanting.
“Jeric,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Less clothes.”
“Aye, Captain,” Jeric answered, his voice just as husky.
The two of them sat up and removed the last of their clothes. Zoa rose to help a second later, rubbing her beautiful body across Izar’s as she helped Jeric undo his trousers and pull off his boots with such painful slowness Izar thought he would go mad. Finally, when they were all naked at last, Izar directed Jeric to sit on the camp stool. When he was in place, the captain lifted Zoa up and set her in his second’s lap, and then he leaned back on his heels to admire the view.
The light of the flickering lamp painted their contrast in beautiful colors, Jeric dark and strong, his arms wrapp
ed around Zoa’s thighs as he spread them apart. Sitting on top of him, Zoa looked white as a dove, her beautiful skin glowing in the soft light. The whiteness of her drew Izar’s eyes to the dark patch between her legs and the beautiful cleft at its center, glistening pink in invitation. Just the sight of it was enough to make his brain shut down, but then, against all odds, it got even better as Jeric reached down to spread Zoa’s inner lips, his long fingers sliding effortlessly against her slickness to open her wider still for his captain. Zoa moaned beautifully at the intrusion and threw her head back, hips jutting out toward Izar. Jeric growled at the sound and pressed his lips against the white column of Zoa’s throat, sucking her pale skin while his dark eyes watched Izar with shining hunger, urging him on.
Izar needed no more urging. He fell to his knees in front of them both and reached out, his steady, battle-hardened hands shaking visibly. The lust was pounding through him so hard he could barely think. All he knew, all he wanted, was that this would never end. Whatever had happened between them that night at Rosa’s had left a mark on him that could never be removed. He’d told them that he was ruined forever, that nothing would ever measure up to the night they’d shared, but what Zoa and Jeric didn’t know was how deeply Izar had meant those words. Even the one night he’d spent apart from them had been unbearable. Now, seeing them both together like this, Izar felt something changing deep inside him, filling a hole he’d never known he had.
When his shaking hand touched Zoa’s thigh, Izar nearly moaned. He’d never denied himself pleasure, but nothing had ever felt so right as this. He could feel Zoa’s heartbeat through her skin, feel Jeric’s eyes on him as he slid his fingers toward her core, and with every inch of skin he touched, every beautiful sight of them he drank in, the possessive feeling that had been lurking in him since he’d woken up that wondrous morning grew until he was nearly overwhelmed.