“Of course. Thank you for helping me.”
After the knights had departed, they got down to the hard work of bathing the dog. It wasn’t easy with all of his dead weight but probably for the best since they didn’t have to worry about him shaking water everywhere. Although she wasn’t sure he’d be capable of such movements just yet.
There was dried blood inside his ears, and Tiggi watched with great curiosity while Elaina used a cotton swab with some petroleum jelly from her backpack to gently clean them and determine if there was a problem within. Nothing but dirt as far as she could tell. Still, she wondered what had happened to cause bleeding from both ears. It must’ve been the blunt trauma to his poor noggin.
He rested easier once they’d bathed him. Tiggi returned to her duties in the kitchen after extracting a promise from Elaina that she would call on her if she needed any help. Tiggi had developed an affinity for the poor dog after it’d exterminated a particularly troublesome rat population in her kitchen.
She dug around in her backpack and then set to brushing him. They’d cleaned him thoroughly, and her brush could always be boiled later, so she used it to brush out his thick black fur as the heat from the fireplace dried it.
By the time she was done, he was a rather handsome and presentable dog, and not an unkempt stray.
“The knights won’t know what to think when they see you, Odie. You don’t stink anymore, but I still like that name for you. Tiggi put lavender and rosemary oil in the water we used to bath you so you smell pretty now. Very…pretty…hmmm,” she said softly with a giggle. He probably wouldn’t care if she prettied him up a bit more.
“Heck, dogs have a limited range of colors they can see. I bet he’d never even notice.”
Odie stretched and gave a light groan, but didn’t wake up, as she brushed under his arm and his chest while fiddling around in the small pocket of her backpack and found what she was looking for.
“Lord Violet did say I could do whatever I liked to occupy my time, and well, Odie, you’re still out cold, and you won’t care anyway, so…I make your nail pretty. We find you girlfriend. What color number your hair?”
Odie snored on while Elaina continued her silly one-sided salon-girl talk while giving him his first and only doggy mani-pedi.
* * * *
“What have you done to that poor animal? Is it dead?” Basile asked as he looked over Elaina’s shoulder at the beast laid out before the fire. The canine let out a long snore, answering at least one of his questions.
Elaina preened a little as she showed off one of its paws. The nails on all four feet were painted a lurid shade of glowing orange unlike anything he’d ever seen before. “OPI-Atomic-Orange-thank-you-very-much-because-we’re-ready-for-the-beach-baby!”
Rainger froze, and Basile peered at him and then looked at her. “Did you just cast a spell?”
Elaina cackled and burst into laughter so loud the dog snorted and suddenly sat up, looking rather confused. It blinked with an unfocused stare at the fire, looked at its front legs, sniffed at its hind end, and uttered a sound of canine confusion before slumping back into unconsciousness once more.
“No, I didn’t cast a spell, although if I could do that I would cast a spell on whoever hurt him.”
“What?” Basile asked as he and Rainger squatted down in front of the dog and took a closer look. The dog had indeed been in a tussle.
Rainger palpated the top of his head and his eye, frowning when the dog flinched even though it was unconscious. “This wasn’t a fight with another animal, Basile. Someone beat him.” Rainger met his gaze, and Basile could see his concern.
“He couldn’t have traveled very far like this, could he?” Elaina said as she stroked the big dog’s muzzle. He smelled cleaner. Much cleaner in fact, and it was obvious Elaina had taken a lot of time with him, to the extent that she was now covered in his dog hair, dirt, and canine funk.
“I’ve heard of devoted dogs traveling from one end of Tangere to the other to get back to their masters,” Rainger said, after examining his ears, which she’d taken the time to clean, as well. “But this one was a stray.”
The dog sighed and laid his head in Elaina’s lap and began snoring.
Rainger chuckled. “Well, he’s certainly devoted to you now, Mistress.”
“Could you call me something else, please?” she asked and then bit her lip. “‘Mistress’ seems very formal, and we’re…well, I don’t think we’re all that formal anymore, are we?”
Just like that the temperature in the room changed. “You’re right. It’s simply a show of respect.”
“Which I like, but it’s not necessary. I’m just Elaina with my friends, unless you come up with a nickname.”
“A what?”
“A nickname. A fun name. Like I call Bleu Grumpy Cat. And we have no idea what this dog’s name is, but I call him Odie.”
“Shortened from Odiferous?” Basile asked and then raised his eyebrows when the dog sighed heavily, as if offended.
“Not anymore he’s not,” she replied, stroking the dog’s shiny fur. “And I nicknamed Flappy because I had no idea what his real name was. I’m still not sure I can wrap my tongue around Zayrgrud the Terrifying.”
Before his mind could make the leap to all the other things he wanted to imagine her wrapping her tongue around, he rose to his feet and held out a hand to her.
“Sorceress, we’ve come to escort you to the hot springs.”
“But it’s still early. Flappy and Lord Violet won’t be back for hours yet.”
Rainger met his gaze and then reached for her other hand. “You’ve been kneeling on the hard floor, cleaning and tending to the dog. He looks like he needs more rest by the fire, and I think—we think—you would enjoy a nice hot soak.”
“You mean I stink and I need a bath?” Her eyes sparkled when she said it, and Basile was relieved she wasn’t offended. She didn’t stink, but he imagined that her knees were sore and her tailbone and hips probably would ache later from sitting on the cold floor.
She slung the backpack onto her shoulder, but he took it from her. “Allow me to carry that for you. And no, you do not stink. We wish to do something to make you feel welcome. I’ll wager the hot springs will become one of your favorite places in the abbey.”
“It’s a good thing I have my suit in my backpack.”
“Your suit?”
“Swimsuit. Tankini. It’s meant for swimming and playing in the water.”
“I see.” He didn’t. He couldn’t imagine putting on other clothing to get in the water. They were used to stripping down naked…and he should’ve thought this suggestion through a little more. They left the dog to his nap by the fire and journeyed to the back of the abbey, the portion built into the hill that led to passageways beneath.
“We do not have such suits,” he replied.
“It’s a cave so it’s dark, right?”
“We will bring lanterns, but yes.”
“Then you can skinny dip.”
“Skinny dip?” Rainger asked.
“Play in the water nude. I promise I won’t look…unless you want me to,” she added, a delightful blush coming into her cheeks.
“Do you want to look?”
“I might,” she replied softly, her hand curling into his as she looked from him to Rainger. Basile’s cock stiffened as he imagined her watching him disrobe.
Elaina had a joy in life that excited him. She wasn’t blatantly sexual, not overt by any means, but she lacked any embarrassment about that part of her nature. It was refreshing, and exciting.
His cock evidently thought so, too, as it tingled to life. He cleared his throat, trying to think celibate thoughts so he didn’t look like a randy teenager striding down the corridor with a raging erection he couldn’t control.
“We would let you look, Elaina. Both of us,” Rainger replied with uncharacteristic but welcome boldness.
Basile had no sexual interest in Rainger or any other man. His focus w
as solely on Elaina. But if Elaina wanted them both, she could have them.
Fuck! So much for celibate thoughts!
The humidity increased as they followed the darkening passage. They stopped to light lanterns from the ledge built into the wall and took them with them as they ventured lower.
“We have some uninterrupted time to ourselves? You’re sure?” she asked in a voice that trembled ever so slightly. He turned to her, stopping in the passageway. Looking into her eyes, he could see that her voice shook from arousal and not from trepidation.
“Hours, if we want them. Our duties were light today.”
Rainger drew a little closer to her. “The truth is that we hurried to complete our tasks so we could return to spend time with you.”
Her smile was her answer, and they continued along the passageway that connected with the cave where the hot springs bathing chamber was located. The sound of rushing water and the scent of wet stone greeted them. The humidity and warmth created a climate of closeness and intimacy.
None of the knights cared about modesty, so there was no privacy barrier in the chamber, except for a natural stone wall that partially blocked the view of the smooth slope leading into the pools.
She stopped and turned, looking around her at the depressions formed by time into numerous pools of varying sizes and depths.
The smaller deeper ones were hotter, and the more shallow ones tended to be cooler, and Rainger explained as much to her while Basile returned a short way up the passage and hung his cloak on a stony outcropping as a message to the others to not come closer, to allow her some privacy. They were his friends and his brothers in the war, but he didn’t want any of them to see her in the nude. She was theirs, and they were all hers—if she wanted them.
When he returned, it was to find Rainger standing at the edge of one of the pools, staring at Elaina as she removed the patterned long-sleeve tunic, dropped it on a wooden bench nearby, and opened the metallic closure on the formfitting breeches she wore.
Holding Basile’s gaze, she said, “I was telling Rainger if it was just us, and there was no danger of us being seen down here, then I saw no need to put on the swimsuit.” She pushed the breeches down to her ankles, revealing strong legs with full curves, lush hips, and a tiny pair of pantalets that barely covered her sex.
Her hands slowed their movements as she maintained eye contact with them, and she bit her lip before lifting the hem of the sleeveless shift she’d worn under the tunic. Doing so revealed a lace garment that cupped a pair of luscious full breasts. He licked his lips at the sight.
Reaching behind her, she did something that made the garment come loose, and then the vixen teased them, holding it to her as she slipped her arms from it.
“Should I go on?” she whispered, barely audible over the rush of water bubbling in the pools.
“Yes,” Rainger replied. He unbuckled the belt that held his sheathed sword and dagger and set them on the bench and then dropped his cloak over the weapons. He lifted a foot to yank at the leather bindings on his boot.
She dropped the flimsy garment on her growing pile of clothes, revealing perfect breasts, tipped the same rosy red as her lips. They were two lovely overflowing handfuls of silken divinity that swayed enticingly with her movements.
She hooked the band at her hips with her fingers and oh-so-slowly eased it down over her rounded ass as she turned her back on them. The sight of her was enough to send a painful shard of lust straight to his aching balls, and his hands clenched as he imagined gripping those sweet hips and pulling her onto his cock.
She kicked the tiny garment into the piles with one foot. Reaching into her backpack, which he’d placed by her clothing, she removed a small loop from a tiny side pocket and then walked away from them into the nearest pool. “Coming?” she called as the water enveloped her up to her hips and she let out a sigh of rapture. She lifted her arms as she turned to them and twined her hair up into a knot on top of her head, using the loop to secure it. Her form was all soft, shadowed curves disappearing as she backed into the deeper water.
“Fuck me,” Rainger whispered. “She is casting a spell, no matter what she may say.”
“I say we do her will.”
Chapter Eight
Part of Elaina was shocked. She’d never been naked in the presence of two men at the same time before, much less wanted both of them the way she did Basile and Rainger.
She was actually shaking with need. And the natural springs couldn’t be blamed for how hot, wet, and swollen she was. That was all on them and the way they looked at her, talked to her, and made her feel.
Rainger’s kilt fell away when he removed the belt that held it in place, stealing her breath from her when she got a glimpse of his legs and lean hips. Then he yanked the linen shirt he wore with it over his head, revealing the copper-hued tattooed bands that entwined his arms, over his shoulders, and encircled the base of his throat.
“Lord have mercy, I wish I had my camera handy,” she whispered to herself. Now that she knew he was bare-assed naked beneath the kilt, she planned to take advantage of that fact the next time the opportunity presented itself.
Basile sat down on the bench, his eyes riveted on her. After loosening the drawstrings at the neck of his tunic, he pulled it over his head, revealing a broad, muscular chest and thick shoulders that were tanned by time in the sun. His gaze remained locked on her as he pulled at the bindings on his boots and removed them.
Standing, he tugged at the closure on his breeches while Rainger turned and placed his garments on top of his cloak and weapons, revealing a gorgeous, muscular ass and powerful thighs and calves. She could imagine all that muscularity in action, and her pussy fluttered with want and grew even hotter.
Rainger turned back, revealing her first glimpse of his cock, just as Basile stood and removed the breeches. One of them was breathtaking. Two of them, standing there, cocks hard and ready, were enough to give her a mini orgasm, just from staring at them.
Rainger moved first, stepping into the water, his hand straying down to his shaft to stroke it, desire evident in his eyes and his angular features, despite the shadows in the cavern.
He hesitated and looked back at Basile, who stood at the very edge of the water, and then back at her. “Elaina, are you sure this is what you want? We are what you want, both of us?”
She moved a step closer to him. With every ounce of her being, she wanted them. “Yes,” she replied, shifting her gaze to Basile, who stood there naked, his cock twitching with his excitement. Their cocks were bigger than any she’d ever seen before. She met Rainger’s gaze and came a step closer. “I’m not a virgin, but I don’t sleep around where I came from. I’m clean, and I’m on the pill…at least for the time being. And you?”
“I didn’t understand some of what you said, sorceress,” Rainger murmured as he reached out to take her hand. “But neither of us is in the habit of bedding just any willing woman, and we have no diseases.”
“What is ‘the pill’ you mentioned?” Basile asked as he entered the water. “Is it some sort of sorceress’ potion?”
She giggled and shook her head. “It’s a medicine I take each day to keep my cycles regular, but it’s intended to prevent pregnancy. I have enough for…” She quickly calculated. “The next three months, but by then…”
Basile paused in his forward movement and nodded. “By then you will have returned to your home?”
“Yes, if I can talk Selena into helping me. I’m pretty sure my friends are worried sick about me by now.”
“We understand,” Basile murmured. “Will you let us take care of you…for now?”
Could she do that? She hadn’t really thought this through. Wanting them had drained all the oxygen, blood, and sense from her head. Could she become intimate with them and then so casually leave? That wasn’t like her. “I probably won’t want to leave by the time that possibility arises, but I do know that I want you now.”
Basile moved a step cl
oser. “Both of us?”
She nodded, a wave of heat sweeping through her as she imagined making love with them, taking their cocks inside her, kissing them, reveling in all that brawny strength. “Both of you, only…go slowly? I’ve never done anything like this before.”
Basile nodded and moved around to stand behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, and she was reminded of just the day before, when, as a total stranger, he’d trapped her in that embrace and leaned down to whisper in her ear.
“We’re so hard for you, sorceress.”
“I’m not a sorceress. Not really,” she replied with a shudder as he kissed her throat.
“Yes, you are,” Rainger said as he came closer and leaned down to kiss her lips. “You must be, for we are most assuredly under your spell.”
The heat from the water and the desire coursing in her veins loosened her body, and she allowed them to hold her in place as they kissed her. They took turns with her lips and her throat until Rainger grew bolder and he pressed kisses along her collarbone. Another shudder rippled through her as he cupped her breasts in his hands, squeezing gently and giving a little growl as he stroked her peaked nipples. “So lovely.”
Basile’s fingertips were straying down her midsection just as Rainger closed his lips around one areola and sucked slowly while tonguing her nipple.
“Oh, fudge!” she cried out as Rainger’s mouth sent flickers of sensation straight to her—
Basile’s fingers slid over her mound and found her clit and her slick inner labia.
“Oh, fuck!”
“That’s much better, sorceress,” Basile said with a chuckle as his fingers slid through her swollen pussy lips, igniting a blaze inside her that, if he kept it up, was likely to make her climax embarrassingly quickly. Her pussy tightened around his invading fingers, and she moaned her approval of his technique.
“I love that sound,” Basile murmured while rubbing his tremendous erection against her backside in time with the thrusting of his fingers.
Dance of the Dragon Sorceress [Tangere Tales 3] Page 9