Ceridor (Danubian #4)

21. Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

Three days later

Johann

The lunch hour had just finished and everyone that was leaving had checked out of their rooms. I was stacking dishes to take back to the kitchen when Ceridor came in and swept by me, tossing a look over his shoulder that stopped me in my tracks.

He tilted his head back and wiggled his brows at me, a soft little sashay to his hips absolutely confirming the suggestive gleam I'd caught in his eyes, as if I could have missed that.

He closed the door to our bedroom, but I stood frozen to the spot, willing myself to move and at least finish helping Effie close the front room down before I took a break to pop in there.

" Oida ."

I about jumped out of my skin, not realizing someone was right next to me. Effie had the corner of her apron in hand and was fanning her flushed cheeks with it. My own cheeks burned realizing she'd caught that look from Ceridor. My sister teased me about my partner being so handsome, understandably whenever her Magnus was well out of earshot.

Effie waved at the door. "Go. See to his every need."

I smirked and saluted, then made my way there.

My lover bombarded me just inside the door, pulling me in and shutting it, then pushing me against it.

"I need to top you," he whispered in my ear, twining his arms around me.

"Have at it," I replied.

I wasn't much of a bottom, but I was willing to do it for him. He didn't crave it very often, so whenever he asked, it always caught me by surprise.

He prepped me quickly and slid inside, filling me up. I preferred to stand when I bottomed so he took me right then and there. Compared to our normal roughhousing, Ceridor topping was always so sweet. He knew I didn't like it as much and was just indulging him. Something about feeling so damn full didn't equate to pleasure in my brain, but it was enough that I was riding on a bit of a lusty sizzle by the time he finished and pulled out, panting and resting against my shoulder. " Danke ."

" Bitte-bitte ," I cooed. "My turn?"

He hooked his chin over my shoulder. "Want to visit the bath house?"

When that sank in, I chuckled and kissed him. So he'd been fantasizing about one of the private rooms at the bath house, and that had gotten him so riled up he had to top me first just to let off enough steam to be able to get over there.

"Sure," I said, smooching him again. "Let's go."

We grabbed our bags loaded with towels, our soap and a change of clothes and walked hand in hand through town. I would likely always be a little bit skittish about it, but every time no one reacted to our open affection, I got a little calmer.

At the bath house Ceridor and I rinsed off in the antechamber, scrubbing down and keeping our hands to ourselves since this was the larger bath area for the men. As I finished washing my hair, Ceridor checked the doors off to the side that had smaller private baths. People could use these for any number of reasons, such as a parent with rowdy kids or a father with a daughter too young to go into the ladies' bath by herself (though surely the women in the ladies' bath would help a little girl in such a situation).

There was also an unspoken assumption that you could opt into a private bath for other private reasons, though according to the rules you'd better leave it just as clean as you found it, or the staff would close such rooms and tell us to deal with it.

The last door opened. Ceridor cocked his head and disappeared inside. I followed and found the room to be like the others we'd tried prior. It was small, just a few paces wide and across, with a bath sunk into the floor in the center, enough to hold maybe two adults and some small kids. It was practical: we'd already bathed and cleaned ourselves up, so now we could soak in the hot water and relax. There was a spigot in the wall off to the side if we needed to clean up again.

"Wood nymph?" I asked.

The delight in my beloved's eyes told me everything.

We'd experimented with roleplaying while using these private baths over the years. Since this Helvetican bath was originally built by the Romans who conquered ancient Helvetica almost 2500 years ago, we'd pondered trying something Roman. But the sex slaves that Roman soldiers and the privileged had kept were often brutalized and that took the fun out of it. We sometimes dallied with role playing as two Roman soldiers, but Ceridor liked to explore his softer side in these role plays, so we didn't go there every time.

Our current favorite was one that had come from the magical realm.

I sat on the edge of the bath as Ceridor slipped into the water and into his role. Spreading my legs, I leaned back on my hands and appraised him. I was a local petty king. I had been coming to a natural hot spring in the mountains, not uncommon in the Alps.

For months, a magical wood nymph observed me bathing there, and fell for me. He appeared to me one day, but since he was not of the physical world, he could only maintain his physical form for a short time. Otherwise, the beautiful man bathing in front of me, the hot water undulating in rivulets down his chest, inhabited a body in etheric form, the ether of the fae and other magical spirits.

I could see him, and feel him, but that was only because I was a mage king.

We were trying to find a way for him to live in the physical world with me, but that was a level of magic we did not know, and as a king I could not forsake my people and leave to be with him.

The king part of this still made my stomach clench, an ache spreading through me in a yearning for the path I'd been born into and wanted again. Now I ran an inn with my sister, but I knew with hard work I could fight for Ulbrecht and possibly claim my position once again. Effie had been more than happy to give up her prior wealth and status as a princess, because she gained so much freedom in not being married off in a political alliance. But I wanted my future back.

"My king."

I snapped out of my reverie to find Ceridor standing between my legs and looking up at me with a soft smile. Sitting on the side of the pool with my feet propped on a step in the water, I spread my legs wider so my beautiful nymph could lean closer to me, his hands soothingly running up and down my thighs.

"We don't have to do anything," he cooed, his soft blue eyes already a bit blissed out with pleasure. "We can just bathe."

" Nein ," I countered, combing my fingertips through his hair and delighting in it when my magical wood nymph let his eyes fall shut. He was so beautiful, he entranced me, whether in a fantasy role play or not. "I was just lost in my head. I'm back now."

"Welcome back," he quipped with a mischievous smile.

I kissed him. Ceridor's lips were petal soft and tasted like the flowery tea we'd been drinking back home. I kissed him harder and he opened to me, so pliant and submissive, eager to yield and yet so gorgeous in that yielding.

He let out a little whimper and I drove my tongue into his mouth, ravishing him as he gripped my thighs, holding on and letting me anchor him. I cupped the base of his head and the back of his neck, then scooped my other arm around his shoulder blades, not asking but demanding he come closer by hauling him all the way into my lap.

Ceridor arched his back and allowed himself to be manhandled, his eyes wild with lust from my forcefulness. We parted just long enough to catch our breath, my beloved's lips plump from our kissing.

"Let me suck you, my lord," he whispered.

"All right."

I sat back on my palms again and splayed wide to give my wood nymph plenty of room. Ceridor sank back into the water and breathed me in as he drew my foreskin down, luxuriating in my cock and filling me with confidence and power. He sucked me and slurped, lathering my shaft with saliva and caressing every part with his tongue. I shook as pleasure rolled through me, then carded my fingers into his hair, lightly guiding him up and down to swallow my cock and get me ready to top him.

Ceridor cupped my balls and gently massaged as I sang his praises in hollowed-out whispers. " Yes , baby. You're so good.

He pulled off only when I'd begun the shaking that led up to orgasm. As I came back to my senses, I dimly registered him stepping out of the pool and grabbing two towels and our lubricating oil. Ceridor folded and placed the towels on the tiled floor beside the pool, so we could fuck on our knees. Then after setting the lubricating oil by his feet, he got into position on his hands and knees and sent me a seductive look over his shoulder. "Prep me?"

I smirked and saddled up behind him, smacking his butt as if he had misbehaved, though Ceridor would never. Still, the startled yip he gave made it worth it.

I made quick work of prepping him since we'd been fucking so much recently. Whenever he came back from his travels, we had to make up for lost time.

"Ready, sweet nymph?" I asked, smoothing my hands over his reddened cheeks.

Ceridor panted, his right arm not holding any of his weight, instead his forehead pressed to his left forearm. " Ja , go ahead."

I lubed us both up and pressed inside, sliding home in one thrust and preening at how tightly he squeezed me. Part of our fantasy was that if I fucked him often and gave him my seed, my precious wood nymph could stay in the physical world with me for longer. That wasn't how magic worked, according to my mage-trained boyfriend, but this was fantasy land.

Ceridor grunted, but something in it alerted me. Looking him over, I saw him favoring his right arm some more.

I withdrew and pulled him up and against me so that he gave me his weight. "This better?"

Ceridor yelped as I hauled him up, but then he relaxed back against my chest.

He eased against me and I sighed, wrapping my arms around him. I loved holding him like this.

"I love you," I said. "I'm so proud of you for fighting those men off and coming back to me."

Ceridor's eyes were clear when he opened them and locked gazes with me. I knew from his expression that this was what he wanted: not my fear, worry, or doubt, but my utter faith and confidence in his strength and ability. Even with injuries that had taken months at the monastery to heal, ultimately he had fought off four men who'd been thinking they could kill a man for fun and leave him on the side of the road.

"Thank you for believing in me," he answered, and I knew I'd read him right.

Ceridor reached up with his left hand and cupped my cheek, twisting around so I could kiss him.

"I will always come back to you," he promised when we parted.

That had to be part of our fantasy, because in our brutal world, I knew that wasn't a guarantee, for either of us.

"You will always be my wood nymph," I answered, leaping into our fantasy to protect my heart from worry.

Ceridor leaned in and smooched my cheek. "Fuck me, baby. Take what you need."

"I need you," I said and, gripping my shaft, I positioned myself at his rim and once again pressed inside.

Ceridor angled his pelvis and pressed back, sheathing himself on me with a pleasured moan. Unable to hold back any longer, I grabbed his hips and rammed myself in the rest of the way. Ceridor cried out and then clamped a hand over his mouth, but I still heard him begging me to keep going, to own him.

I reached around for his cock, but he swatted me away. Instead I hugged one arm around his waist, steadied his hip with my other hand, and thrust up into him with quick snaps of my hips.

He gasped and melted against me, the ragged pace of his breathing urging me onward and fueling my desire. In this position I couldn't withdraw very far, but his ass squeezed my cock like a vice and I flexed my muscles to rut into him.

"Please, please," my lover begged as I pulled him back onto my cock and forced him to take me until he made me come.

"Come inside me," he urged, even though I always did, but this was part of our imaginings for these characters. "Make me yours, so I can stay with you longer."

"You're mine," I growled and wished I'd put him up against the wall so I had a better chance of hitting his prostate.

I loosened my grip a little, needing that better angle. "Can you handle all fours for just a bit? I'm almost done."

It took a moment for him to process what I'd said, but then Ceridor nodded and leaned forward, holding his weight on his left forearm and jerking himself off with his right hand.

Now that we had more room, I confirmed we were still lubricated enough and then owned his ass. Spurred on by his lusty whimpers and moans, I found his prostate and gave it a hearty pounding, our balls slapping together with such force I marveled that he wasn't calling for me to ease up a bit. I was forceful with him, sometimes to the point of being brutal, but Ceridor begged for it so I kept going.

"I'm going to come," I warned.

"Give it to me," he urged. "Own me, make me yours."

"You're mine."

He threw himself over the edge with a stifled cry. His tight ass clenched and milked me for all I was worth. With a few more frantic thrusts, I squeezed his hips in a bruising grip and emptied into him, pumping till I was absolutely empty and had filled his ass with my cum.

We panted for a long moment, the edge coming off, the humidity of the bath swirling back in around us. I pulled out gently, hoping he wasn't sore. Ceridor came around and I pulled him into my arms.

"Lots of aftercare this time," I said, leaving no room for argument. "I get to spoil you."

Ceridor hummed happily and settled into my arms. "I like the sound of that."