Page 31 of A Taste for the Peculiar

Both Pye and Avirin startle, foolishly forgetting they are not alone.

Cascade shoots Pye a look, but she moves toward Avirin and runs her fingers along her shoulders. “My beautiful bride.” She takes Avirin’s chin in hand, and Avirin’s eyes go glassy with desire, but Cascade doesn’t kiss her. She hovers an inch away to breathe her instructions against Avirin’s lips. “I’ll have you in my bed.” Her nose brushes Avirin’s. “I want you spread out on my sheets before I take you. Before I indulge.” She thumbs Avirin’s lower lip. “Can you do that for your husband?”

The scent of Avirin’s desire fills the room. Her head bobs dazedly. When Cascade releases her, Avirin stumbles back a step and sinks into the mattress.

Cascade looks at Pye and tilts her head after Avirin. “Ensure my wife is comfortable.”

Pye’s chest tightens. In another life, it could be real, a dark bedroom with Avirin stripped down to nothing and waiting for him. It’s torture, because it’s exactly what he wants.

When he approaches, her black eyes follow him. He rests a knee against the bed, and Avirin moves back, both of them crawling until she lies flat beneath him. His antennae twitch at her spread out among the pillows. It’s dizzying being this close to her, to everything he wants, but Pye forces themself to move behind her. They sit her upright, pressing her back to their chest as they recline against the headboard. On either side of her hips, their legs cradle her curves, tattooed skin exposed when their dress hikes toward their waist.

Across the room, Cascade strips out of her clothing. Her fingers move easily over the buttons, discarding the fabric in a pile before she moves toward the bed. The leaves of her hair spread like a fiery crown, her body spotted with knots and whorls. She is a feast for the eyes in her own right, and fresh arousal surges from Avirin when Cascade kneels between her open legs.

Cascade trails her fingers in a winding path up Avirin’s thigh, and with her other hand, she situates something against her pelvis. Its flattened base slots into the grooves of her bark. “It’s carved from my wood.” Her fist twists around the phallic appendage in a motion that makes Pye’s head swim. “It means I can feel everything we do.”

Pye recognizes that wooden cock. He remembers the feeling of it sinking inside him and stretching him open while Cascade whispered filthy torment in his ear. Now, it will do the same to Avirin.

Gods, he aches to know Avirin like this. He aches to know her at all. To be her confidante. To protect her every secret. To share whispers and confessions in the dark. He wants to hold her in a thousand different ways — her hand in the gardens, her books in the streets, her face in the carriage rides home. He wants every rainy afternoon. Every chilly night. Every brilliant morning. He wants every single moment, thrilling and mundane, from the briefest glances to the longest years.

But he can’t have any of that. It is why he could not be the one to take her tonight. Why he cannot kiss her. Why he cannot tell her that he loves her. This ending is playing out before him, and even if Pye will be hers for the rest of their days, she will never be his.

Pye’s heart aches. He’s sick with it, this love that can never be requited. He buries his face in Avirin’s hair to memorize every detail of this final moment. This line he cannot cross. This heaven he cannot return to.

SIXTEEN

Avirin

Cascade settles between Avirin’s legs. “We’ll take it slow. Open you up.”

The head of Cascade’s cock teases her entrance, but Avirin can hardly feel it before it’s gone again.

Cascade keeps their eyes locked together. “It should start slow the first time. Your husband should savor you”

Cascade lowers her face so they can be closer, all three of them sharing the same breath. She rocks her hips and eases past Avirin’s folds, but as soon as Avirin starts to make a sound, Cascade pulls back again.

“Every change on your face,” Cascade murmurs. When she breaches Avirin again, Avirin tenses, and Cascade withdraws. “Every sound you make.”

Cascade’s fingers move against Avirin’s clit in time with the motion of her hips. The sensations are so strange and new that Avirin doesn’t know what to make of them, but every time the pressure between her legs starts to feel like too much, Cascade pulls away.

It makes Avirin want more. Some part of her is screaming that this is deplorable behavior, but that part is very far away indeed. With every glorious thrust, Avirin makes excuses for herself. Yes, Cascade is a woman, but — gods — she knows how to use a cock. Cascade calls Avirin her wife, and is that not almost the same as being married? Lord Riften is only here as a chaperone, ensuring nothing untoward happens.

This union is righteous. This union is very, very good.

It’s so easy to convince herself. Avirin’s knees fall open when she wriggles her hips to get closer. Cascade meets her efforts and rolls deeper, and Avirin lets out a puzzled cry, clutching at Lord Riften’s knees when Cascade pumps slowly in and out of her.

The wooden cock grows darker with Avirin’s desire. It’s such an odd feeling, a stretch unlike anything Avirin has known. Her vision blurs, but the sight of where they meet is hypnotic, her swollen cunt clinging to Cascade’s member.

Lord Riften must think so too, because his hips rut, rocking Avirin further onto Cascade.

Avirin whines. Lord Riften hisses an apology, but Avirin’s shaking head falls back against his shoulder. She can’t speak. She can’t tell them how good it feels. Her mind is a needy mess, but Lord Riften looks into her eyes and understands. They cradle the back of her neck. “Do you want me to help you take more?”

Avirin nods. Lord Riften tightens their arms around her waist, bracing their feet on the mattress and rocking their hips forward. It makes Avirin squirm, gooseflesh spreading across her skin when Lord Riften works her over the wooden cock. It’s so sinfully erotic, being pressed between two beautiful people clutching her like a favorite toy.

When Avirin pants, Cascade slows her movements, inching forward until she’s seated to the hilt. “There you are,” she purrs. She watches where they meet and rubs soothing circles into Avirin’s thighs, patiently waiting for her to adjust.

Sweat clings to the back of Avirin’s neck. This feels so different than she imagined. There is no piercing pain, no disconnect from her body, just an odd sort of discomfort that blooms steadily into pleasure. A tendril of her hair falls loose from its pins, but that doesn’t stop her from trying gracelessly to fuck herself over Cascade. It’s helpless and embarrassing, but she can’t stop herself. She needs it.

Cascade coos in amusement. “What happened to my sweet little virgin? I thought you didn’t know what you were doing.”