Ways in the Guardian: A Menage Romance Book Collection

by Barbara Downey

  “It would be my humble honor,” the woman said. “How might we assist?”

  “I must return to my realm,” Anna said. “My Lord, Jonathan of the Depths, will be in anguish over my disappearance and I know that he will reward you both most handsomely upon my safe return.”

  “Then to your realm we will return,” the Knight said rising. “From where does my Lady hale?”

  “The glittering and glamorous Woods of Holly,” she said with a smile. “Where dreams are made from magic.”

  Chapter 4

  “But where are my manners,” Anna said. “There have been no proper introductions. I am Anna.”

  The others looked at her expectantly.

  “Oh,” she said her brain working. “Lady Anna of Astolat.”

  The woman’s eyes widened.

  “I,” the knight said, bowing low, “am Sir Eevan del-Castillo. I travel here from Iberia, where the Moors have our people by the throat. I seek the court of Arturius in Camelot.”

  “Camelot,” Anna said nodding, holding her smile. “I hear such lofty tales of that place. And you goodwife?”

  “I am no wife,” the woman said. “I am the simple herbalist Allona – Allona Merrymount.”

  “I just bet you are,” Anna said with a grin.

  “Beg pardon m’Lady?”

  “N-nothing.”

  “The Woods of Holly,” the Knight mused. “I have not heard of such a place, but then I am from another land.”

  “I know not of it either,” Allona said.

  “My father would always say,” Anna proffered, “that to know where you’re going you must know where you are. Where are we?”

  “We are the shores of Newhall Lake,” Allona said. “In county Cornwall.”

  “County Cornwall? Where’s that?”

  “Anglelond.”

  It took a moment before it dawned on Anna. There was no way that she was in England, but she played along.

  “Very strange,” she said. “My home is far.”

  “How came you here, m’Lady?” Eevan asked.

  “I – I don’t know,” she answered looking for clues in their words. “It must have been by some powerful magic.”

  “Witchcraft!” Eevan cried drawing his sword and threatening the air.

  “N-not necessarily,” Allona put in quickly. “I know of such things – I mean, I need to know how to counter spells and the like. I think that there may be something deeper here.”

  “What mean you?”

  Allona paced the room, weaving her fingers and thinking that the strange woman might truly be from another world. Besides her manner of dress, the golden necklace and earrings she wore looked to have been finely wrought, as if the smith could work the metal like thread. Then there were the words she had used when she was in her frenzy – so very strange, and yet Allona knew some of them as so very foul. Quite un-Lady like. And then she had referred to Astolat.

  “There must be a tale, m’Lady,” she said finally, “of how you found yourself so far away from home.”

  “I’ll say,” Anna said. “So it was like this, I was – making merry. It was a sort of celebration, and my, um, my handmaid Rebecca snuck me away to show me a, um, a wondrous treasure she had discovered- a mirror.”

  “A mirror, you say? Pray describe the mirror.”

  Anna did and Allona drank in her words. She was particularly interested that the mirror was broken. When the woman had finished her story, Allona paced again, thinking long and hard.

  “And in this realm of the Woods of Holly,” she asked, “there is a land of Astolat, from which you hale.”

  “Yep – I mean, yes.”

  “Not far from here,” Allona said, “a short ways from Camelot is a castle called Shallot. The peasants know it as Astolat. Curious.”

  “Um, yeah.”

  “More curious is that the Lady who dwelled in that castle had a grand mirror also, much as you have described. And would you know—”

  “It’s broken,” Anna said.

  “Yep.”

  “You think there is a connection?”

  “I think,” Allona said, “that it is too late at night to think. We will be safe here in this cave, and I for one need some sleep. It has been an exciting day.”

  “I hear you.”

  “Then,” Eevan said, “I will leave you ladies to your private slumber and keep watch outside.”

  “Um, Sir Knight,” Anna said a little coyly. “Wouldn’t you be, um, like more comfortable here? I mean, we’re all friends. Right?”

  “Perish the thought,” he nearly cried. “Look now to your prayers, good women, and rest assured that I am protecting your chaste selves.”

  With that he turned and literally marched out of the cave. Anna glanced at Allona, and the two shared a smirk.

  “Well he’s sure into the part,” Anna chuckled.

  “Part of what?” Allona asked.

  Anna remembered the cameras. She figured that this was an audition for those two also, so she kept up the act.

  “I mean his place,” she said. “As knight-protector.”

  “I will wager,” Allona said, “that he has had some kind of escapade with the Moors that frightened him holy. I’ve seen it before. Give him a few years.”

  “I hope that this quest won’t take that long.”

  “I almost hope it would,” Allona said eyeing Anna.

  Allona went to her things piled by the entrance. She took up a bedroll and began to spread it on the cold ground.

  “It’s a small comfort,” she said to Anna, “but it is all that I have and I will gladly share with you. The night will be cold.”

  “We might share warmth.”

  “Yes, we might.”

  Allona lay back on the blanket, gathering and fluffing one end as a makeshift pillow. Anna laid beside her, resting her head on her hand and gazing at the woman. Lying as she was, Allona’s ugly dress draped and hugged her breasts and body. Anna saw that she had more than her clothing let on.

  “You know” Anna said tracing the braided crown, “in my land we have a custom. If one shows you a kindness, a kindness should be returned.”

  “That is a good custom.”

  “I like it. Especially because you have shown me many kindnesses. Would you allow me to fulfill my custom?”

  “If you do,” Allona said, “then our mutual debts of kindness will grow.”

  “Then let them grow.”

  So saying Anna leaned in and kissed her tenderly on the lips.

  Chapter 5

  Allona moved to gather the blanket about them, but Anna stopped her.

  “I like to keep the lights on,” she said.

  “Another custom?”

  “A personal preference. I like to see.”

  “Do you like what you see?”

  “I dunno, let’s see.”

  Anna sat up, drawing Allona with her.

  “M’Lady? What . . .”

  But even as Allona spoke Anna had taken off the girdle and was working the dress up and away. Allona giggled like a little girl. Anna raised the dress and Allona raised her arms. Anna held the garment there, keeping the woman in the dark. She gazed.

  The woman was toned and strong. Her costume included rough, cotton bloomers that tied at her slender waist and then just above the knees. ‘Details’, Anna thought. Allona’s breasts were full, round and so lusciously inviting. Her skin was like cream blushed with a hint of strawberry and she was dotted with freckles. Anna sighed.

  “So cute,” she said. “I love freckles.”

  Allona pulled away her dress and hugged to cover her breasts.

  “They have been my life’s bane,” she said.

  “How?”

  “People say that they are the signs of blots on my eternal soul.”

  “I say that they are cute,” Anna said.

  She gently persuaded Allona’s arms away. Allona shut her eyes, then she gasped as she felt the pointed tip of Anna’s tongue begin tracing slo
wly from blot to blot along one tit. She shivered at the touch. Anna’s fingertips cupped her other breast. In a moment both tongue and fingers were swirling around her nipples. Allona sighed and wove her fingers into Anna’s flaxen hair, holding the woman and moaning softly.

  Anna delighted in the tender flesh. Allona tasted slightly sweaty and slightly musky. The woman was so sensitive. Her nipples swelled, and as they did Anna nibbled, just a little, and twirled, just a little. The woman sighed deep.

  Allona took her cue from the strange woman. She reached down and gathered the hem of her garment. Anna wiggled away as if happy to let the thing loose, and when Allona opened her eyes she could not believe what she saw.

  Anna’s tanned complexion was flawless. She was like living sculpture, so smooth and so fine. There was nary a hair on the woman; not beneath her arms or on her legs. But the things that caught Allona were the delicate golden rings piercing Anna’s nipples.

  “My Lady,” she gasped in a hush, “you have been – enslaved.”

  Anna’s laugh was like water.

  “Only to my own desires,” she said.

  And so saying she smiled a gladsome smile, sat up straight, jutted her breasts forward and nestled them above Allona’s. Allona smiled back and shut her eyes, lolling her head and feeling Anna’s tender flesh against her own. She held the woman and her fingers nestled into the spaces between her ribs. She felt the little metal rings glide across her breasts – and then they settled above her nipples.

  Anna loved doing that. She loved the gasp and wonder as she settled and hooked her lover’s nipples with her rings. Allona’s were thick and tough, like pencil erasers, and Anna caught them easily. Allona seemed to freeze as she clutched her. Anna played flesh against flesh, using the golden wonders to surprise and delight. She watched the girl’s face twitch and tighten, relax and melt. She slid a hand along the woman’s inner thigh. Allona groaned as Anna undid, then slid away her bloomers. Anna cupped her pussy, and then Allona hissed as Anna pressed her clit.

  Allona was near writhing with desire as Anna kissed her full, their breasts pressed and the little rings encasing her with an alien aura. Her loins were near awash with her nectar so that she could smell her own scent, and that scent only drove her deeper into her intoxication of lust. She wanted the woman who was so deviously toying with her, and she wanted her so much. She felt as if she were clay in a potter’s hands as Anna slowly, but surely teased her desires to a place where she had never gone before.

  In all her life, her illicit love with women was a hidden thing. So hidden it was desperate. She and her lovers would dive headlong in an almost furious pace to share and love a secret climax.

  But here was a woman who was holding her, caressing her and toying and teasing her to a point where Allona wanted to slam her down on the bedroll and dive. But the strange woman with the delightful slave-rings had her enthralled, and Allona knew that she was lost to Anna’s desires.

  Anna held Allona and soon had the woman on her back. Her rings had slipped off, but that was no matter. Allona’s tits were so soft pressed against her own, and yet the woman was so strong. Her arms and legs clutched like an animal. She wrapped her legs around Anna’s thighs and pressed her pussy, grinding and sliding and tensing with each move.

  Anna was awash herself. Her fires were raging in her loins. She pulled away from the kiss and stared Allona straight in the eyes. Allona’s look was almost savage.

  “Show me,” Anna said near snarling. “Show me how you got your name.”

  “Have at thee.”

  In a moment the two were sliding and writhing and spreading until they had their most tender lips pressing against their most tender lips in a wet and wallowing kiss that only a woman could give another woman, their fingers probing and their joy welling.

  They pressed and mashed, lips on lips, clit on clit. Allona’s full fur ground against Anna’s tender trim driving her wild with sensations she had never known. The woman’s hair rasped so savagely, and her fingers were so strong. The woman loved as if she were desperate, and Anna drove herself against that desperation softer and softer until Allona hissed, “I will have you, sweet Lady.”

  Allona whirled and turned, and Anna found herself staring up at the woman’s treasure even as Allona dove into her own. Allona became like a savage beast. Her tongue was a muscle the likes of which Anna had never felt. Her lips were strong and as they pressed they could have been from a wild thing gorging, and yet as that wild tongue mashed she did things that were animalistic, and so wildly aggressive that Anna was caught up as if she were being willingly ravished. She squealed and wiggled, trying to draw away and so make that gorging last.

  The vibrations of Anna’s cry worked through Allona’s loins. The Lady ate like a lady, and yet her devouring was a sensation that was at once so delicate and yet so dominate. The Lady knew. And the lady’s new style of love was a thing to be cherished.

  Allona felt her lover draw away. She almost cried out, but then as Anna’s tongue flicked, she understood. The strange woman was also cherishing. She also wanted to treasure the brink. Anna’s lips wrapped her button, and then her tongue became like a butterfly. Allona lay and lapped, relishing the lady’s loving.

  And so together the two women from different worlds found a place where they could have new kinds of rapture.

  Chapter 6

  Anna was awake when dawn peeked into the cave. She watched the light creep slowly over Allona. She was a lovely thing, but for an actress her body was different. Her face and hands were sort of tanned, but it was the tan that one would expect from someone so fair-skinned. Below her neck and above her wrists it was as though the sun had never shone.

  And the girl had hairy armpits and legs. Anna wondered how many months the girl had prepped for the audition. Still, Allona had a wonderfully wild and bucolic beauty about her. Anna thought about the film, and she hoped that Big D wouldn’t be asking her to go unshaven too.

  Then she wondered about the cameras.

  She had done her share of sex scenes, but those were all acting. She had never had any feelings toward her partner. This had been – different. This had been real. And if it weren’t for the fact that it was a contrived scene she thought that maybe, just maybe, she may have had . . . feelings.

  She wrapped the blanket over their nakedness. Allona was in a deep sleep. Anna blew softly in her ear. Allona waved her hand as if to swat a bug. Anna blew a little harder. Allona’s eyes shot open.

  “It’s okay,” Anna whispered. “It’s just me.”

  Allona turned to her. Then she smiled. Then she snuggled under the blanket.

  “You,” she said softly.

  “Yeah,” Anna said equally softly.

  They kissed.

  “So listen,” Anna began.

  Allona smiled a sad smile.

  “Do not worry,” she said. “I will not ever tell. Our holy knight is ignorant. No one will ever know.”

  “Yeah but,” Anna whispering smaller. “Big D.”

  “Who?”

  Anna rolled her eyes.

  “Jonathan of the Depths,” she said.

  “Your liege-lord?”

  “Yes.”

  “What of him?”

  “The cameras,” Anna said.

  “I do not know the cameras?”

  “Shit girl.”

  Anna wrapped herself around the woman twisting to whisper into her ear. But Allona giggled and clutched her and before she knew it the two were entwined and lathered and moaning again.

  For a moment, for one brief moment Anna thought that she might be committing professional suicide. But in what should have been their afterglow, Allona ravaged her like a hungry whore, and Anna relished the woman’s savage morning love.

  “Avert your eyes.”

  “What?” Eevan said.

  “Avert your eyes,” Allona called again. “Lady Anna must bathe.”

  “Oh.”

  Wrapped in their blanket the two women snuck
through the foliage and into the lake. Allona laughed as Anna gasped and then shrieked in the cold water. The strange woman’s nipples stood full and stout and her delicate golden rings almost lifted. Allona relished the lady’s shock and wonder at such a simple thing as a dip in the lake.

  She understood that a woman of such quality would be used to having her water warmed for her bath. She caressed her lover, holding her as a child and gently baptized the woman into her world as she washed away the evidence of the night. Her heart leapt as the lady held her back and kissed her with such tender passion.

  As the sun warmed them Allona dried her lady love with her meager blanket, and then the two slid back into the cave to dress. Allona marveled at the silken nothingness of Anna’s underwear. The delicate fabric matched her dress and barely covered what little fur the woman had between her legs.

  “The sun must shine warm in the Woods of Holly,” she said.

  “Oh it does,” Anna replied. “When it gets through the smog.”

  “Smog?”

  “What’s that smell?”

  “Eevan is cooking,” Allona answered. “Come. Let us break our fast.”

  The three sat about a campfire eating strips of meat sizzling on spits.

  “It will be a fine fair day,” Eevan said. “Did my ladies sleep well?”

  “Oh yeah,” Anna said.

  “We slept well,” Allona said, “secure knowing that you were protecting us.”

  “As it should be,” Eevan said. “So then, what will we make of this day?”

  “Good question,” Anna said pulling another spit of meat.

  “I have given thought,” Allona said. “I think that the power that transported the Lady Anna to here must lay in the castle of Shallot. I believe that the mirror there is somehow the key, and so we should make haste to that place. There we shall see what we shall see.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Anna said.

  “I am at your service,” Eevan said, bowing his head.

  “Really?” Anna quipped.

  Allona stifled her giggle.

  “My Lady?” Eevan said sitting straight. “Would you question my loyalty?”