All the while, Ephraim felt acutely aware of Drude’s eyes upon them.
No one had ever witnessed open affection between Ephraim and Hull.Or Ephraim and any other man for that matter.Nonetheless he knew his instinctive fear was unfounded; Drude presented none of the danger that any other witness in London would.Still, new fears arose, for Drude had kissed Hull a hundred times over at the very least, and surely he could not help but judge how Ephraim kissed him now.Tentatively, gingerly, shyly, not at all the commanding embrace Drude had given Hull upon their reunion.At best Drude must find his efforts ridiculous.
And yet, when they broke off at last and Ephraim dared a glance at Drude… he found no trace of mockery or derision or disdain in his gaze.Rather a curiosity.An intrigue.Perhaps even eagerness.
Hull caught Ephraim by the wrist and ever-so-gently drew him into the bed.
“Won’t I be in the way?”Ephraim asked even as he followed where’er Hull led.
“Balderdash,” Hull murmured, a smile playing across his dappled lips.“My way is better with you in it, after all.”
And, with another kiss as if to seal his promise, he settled Ephraim into place beside him.
Drude required nowhere near so much coaxing.Ephraim had a moment’s concern for how they might all fit together, for while the bed was snug enough for Hull and himself, Drude was easily twice the size of another man.These concerns were unfounded, for Drude’s evident awareness of his bulk was matched only by his natural grace.As deftly and easily as another man might wave his hand, he alighted upon the bed and wove his limbs around Hull and Ephraim both to support his towering over them.
Sinewy scarlet thighs parted to straddle dappled slate-blue hips.Drude and Hull swiftly arranged themselves with little more than a glance exchanged between them—as if they’d done it before.Which of course they must have, Ephraim realised.Several times, probably.Perhaps dozens.Perhaps hundreds.For five centuries they’d known each other.How oft had they met in wooded glades and toadstool rings and wild crags of mountainsides and done precisely this?Had they snuck away from some fae bonfire into the night’s deepest shadows and known each other so intimately?The thought ought to have inspired jealousy.Instead Ephraim’s imagination ran rampant across the realms of possibility, each more exciting than the last.
And yet, none more exciting than the present moment, to which even now he scarcely believed he was permitted to bear witness.
Drude’s instrument was a splendid thing to behold.Even Ephraim’s total lack of aesthetic instinct could not prevent him from understanding the sheer beauty in the graceful upward curve tapering toward the tip.In the course of a few moments it had risen admirably to the task at hand.Beneath it however there was not the purse of stones one might expect, but rather the nest of dark curls parts to reveal a hidden rose; petals folded within petals teased apart by Drude’s thick fingers amidst dewy nectar.
“Oh!”The astonished syllable escaped Ephraim before his better sense could catch it.
Both Hull and Drude turned to regard him, much to his own shame.
“Forgive me,” Ephraim blurted.“It’s just… I’ve never…” He trailed off, feeling he’d have done better not to speak at all.
Drude cocked his head and held Ephraim’s gaze.A slight smile played about his lips.“You’ve not seen its like before?”
“I have not,” Ephraim admitted.
The slight smile remained as Drude asked in a still gentler tone, “Do you mind it?”
Ephraim blinked.“No, not at all.Pray, continue.”
The smile widened.A cant of Drude’s hips slid Hull’s stamen between those dewy petals.Another sufficed to catch the head of his prick within.And then…
Ephraim was fascinated by the sight of the slate blue shaft vanishing into the crimson crevasse.When he could tear his gaze away, he found himself fascinated likewise by witnessing Hull’s pleasure from an altogether novel vantage point; the breath stuttering in his throat, his lip caught between his teeth, his head falling back against the pillow.A glance to Drude showed the mirror image of Ephraim’s intrigue.To say nothing of how well Drude himself appeared, scarlet muscles rippling from throat to root, as they began to move as one, settling swiftly into a rolling rhythm that had Hull vanishing into Drude over and again with striking rapidity.It was enough to stir Ephraim’s own mast.
Then, to his further surprise, Hull reached for him.Ephraim obeyed the summons.Hull drew him in for a kiss, as pure and passionate as any they had shared in private, which made up for the spoiled view.
When they broke off, Ephraim found Drude gazing down at him in mute enquiry; a glance to his lips and back to his eyes.
Ephraim looked to Hull, who served him an encouraging nod.He echoed it to Drude.
And so, tentatively, delicately, as if he held something far more precious in his palms, Drude descended to bestow a kiss upon Ephraim.
Ephraim had kissed precious few fellows before Hull, and none since.It was different from his Hull—none so familiar—but nonetheless terribly exciting for its strangeness.Drude moaned into his mouth as Hull thrust into him in turn.The thought dizzied Ephraim; not unpleasantly so by any means.
No sooner had Drude withdrawn then Hull gently caught Ephraim’s jaw in his palm and turned him back for another kiss; the long languid kiss of a man who knew one down to one’s very soul.A wanton stifled sound from Hull’s throat heralded the oncoming spend.The kiss grew accordingly more frantic.Ephraim, whose hands had idly traced his lover’s velvet ears, impulsively reached up to caress his horn.With a final gasp Hull’s spend was upon him.His seed poured deep within Drude’s crevasse, whereupon it was met with a guttural groan of satisfaction that trembled through Ephraim’s bones, and pearls of seed erupted from Drude’s root.
And, to Ephraim’s astonishment, his own leapt to half-mast.
The ritual’s intended effect was immediately evident even to Ephraim’s untrained mortal eye.Hull breathed easier than he had in days.The hue of his flesh shone a brighter blue than before—Ephraim hadn’t even noticed how it’d dulled throughout his infirmity and scolded himself for failing to perceive the injury’s effect on his dear Hull.
Drude did not collapse atop Hull, instead bracing himself on trembling arms that bracketed Hull’s shoulders.He descended just far enough to kiss him.
And Hull, with renewed strength, seized him by the horn and devoured his mouth with fury.
