But within a breath, Eft had swung Kesst back against the corridor’s cool stone wall, leaned in close, and… kissed him. His mouth heated and hungry on Kesst’s, his big body boxing him in, his groin grinding hard against Kesst’s still-bare hips.
“Need him to touch me,” Eft whispered, as he briefly pulled away, his tongue brushing his parted lips. “More likely to happen in a small space. And if this is it for me, well —”
He shrugged, and then pressed his mouth back against Kesst’s, shoving him even tighter to the wall. And even as Kesst eagerly arched into his kiss, groaning into Eft’s mouth, he somehow felt himself twitching back again, long enough to drag in a shaky lungful of air.
“And when you touch him, you’ll do what,” he breathed, holding Eft’s flaring eyes. “Tear his arteries?”
Kesst couldn’t have said why he wanted to know, why it mattered so much — but he suddenly, desperately needed to hear Eft say it. Needed Eft to keep telling him the truth, making him part of this, even as Skald’s scent marched closer, closer…
“Whatever I can,” Eft whispered back, speaking very quickly and quietly now, his gaze angling uneasily down the corridor. “Heart’s easiest to hide, but takes longer. If not that, then probably this.”
He’d brushed his thumb against the pulse in Kesst’s neck, meeting his eyes with a grimace. Almost as if he expected Kesst to cower, or shy away — but instead, Kesst found himself fervently, gratefully nodding, and dragging Eft close again. Crushing their mouths back together with reckless purpose, and moaning into the sweet, answering eagerness of Eft’s lips and tongue and teeth. Into how the brash sloppiness of the kiss was already changing, shifting into something more certain, Eft reading Kesst’s body as easily as if it had been his own.
Gods, it was good, and even better when Eft’s strong hands swiftly dropped, grasping Kesst’s bare arse, and hitching it up. So Kesst could wrap his long legs around Eft’s waist, his arms tightening around his neck, his fingers sinking into his hair. While their mouths kept tasting, biting, drinking as though they were drowning. And almost forgetting, almost, if only for a moment…
“Ach, there he is,” growled a booming, horrible voice, scraping like claws down Kesst’s spine. “And what isthis?!”
This, surely, was them, the way Eft was blatantly grinding Kesst into the wall, the way they both reeked of seed and desire, the way Kesst was still entirely unclothed, with his own swollen prick brazenly bared between them. And the way — gods help him — Kesst had reluctantly drawn away from Eft’s kiss, his heart hammering, his eyes blinking with genuine haziness toward Skald’s furious, rapidly approaching face.
This was it. He wasn’t hiding this time. Wasn’t cowering. He wasn’t.
“Oh, hello, Skald,” he made his voice say, as he flagrantly rocked his hips, grinding himself against the length of Eft’s magnificent prick. “Can we catch up later? Just abitbusy at the moment.”
There were a few shocked gasps from Skald’s entourage, and even Skald himself had reeled back a little, his mouth dropping open, his eyes flaring with rage. His hand already clutching the hilt of the scimitar at his side, ohhell— but wait, here were more orcs’ scents, charging up the corridor. Grimarr, and Abjorn, and Silfast and Olarr, and Drafli, and Grimarr’s other shadow Baldr, too. Witnesses from each clan, Kesst’s distant brain couldn’t help noting, as he gave another slow, succulent roll of his hips against Eft’s, pressing their cocks together, and driving a satisfyingly genuine growl from Eft’s mouth.
“You fickle little wench,” Skald barked, yanking out his scimitar in a flash of steel, and striding closer with deadly, purposeful steps. “How dare you scorn me thus! After all you have already done?!”
Kesst attempted his best wide-eyed look, even as Eft — the menace — bent his head into Kesst’s neck, andnippedhim. Not hard, but justperfect, with one of those glorious little splashes of magic from his tongue, and Kesst’s answering moan wasn’t even slightly feigned, his body arching closer against Eft’s, his head tipping back against the wall, willing Eft to do that again. And devious bastard that he was, Eft did, as Kesst wrenched and writhed against him.
“Notscorning,” Kesst replied, between heavy breaths. “Just — having a bit of fun, like you always do. Never thought we were ever —exclusive, were we?”
He was studying Skald’s furious face from beneath his fluttering lashes, and realizing, with a twitch of surprise, that Skald was surely still under the spell of his tale. That yes, yes, he had to be, the way he was slightly hesitating, his eyes darting toward Eft. But his scimitar hadn’t lifted, not yet, and Eft had to touch, he’d said, and Kesst had to help.Anything…
“But I will admit,” Kesst blithely continued, tossing his hair over his shoulder, “that you were right after all, Skald dearest, and this stuffy grump healer has actually provenfarmore tempting than I originally anticipated. Saved my life, you know, when you were too busy to bother. And have youseenhis prick?”
And was he really doing this, he was dropping a hand down between them, and stroking up that hard, beautiful length in Eft’s trousers. All while keeping his cool eyes on Skald’s rapidly reddening face, and what else would set him raging, what else might push him over the edge…
“And you know, Skald dearest, I wouldn’t even mind swearing vows to this one,” he said, ignoring the odd twitch from Eft against him. “Making myself his forlife, because with a prick and skills like this, who needs anything else? And surely you’d give me your blessing, Skald, wouldn’t you? I know you have plenty of other adoring orcs to —”
But it was that, finally, that sent Skald charging forward, and crashing into them. Knocking Eft out of the way with his shoulder, sending him staggering backwards, away — and now it was only Skald here, Skald pinning Kesst to the wall, his body huge and horrifying, his sweet breath hot and sickening in Kesst’s face.
“I tire of your games, you babbling little wench,” he hissed, as his powerful hand came up, and curled around Kesst’s neck. “Now beg me for my mercy, and my strong ploughing!”
His minions had crowded in behind him, several of them roughly yanking Eft further away, no, no, no — because Skald was still standing here, still perfectly healthy and whole, still ready to squeeze the life out of Kesst at any moment. And Kesst couldn’t dare attempt a tale now, the world was already going hazy before his eyes…
No. They’d failed. They’d taken such a stupid, reckless risk and they’d failed…
And Kesst couldn’t even seem to find any words, suddenly, between the tightness on his throat, the clamping deep inside it. He’d tried so hard, and he’d failed, he should have known it would never have worked, he would never be able to actually help, he was…
“Now!” Skald roared into Kesst’s face, as something slightly shifted, shuddered, in his eyes. “Now, you lying little cheat, before I —”
His eyes had shifted again, changing in a way that Kesst knew so, so well, and the panic had truly started screaming now, tearing against his thoughts. Skald’s awareness was coming back, he was about to remember everything, he would make this slow and agonizing and then he would do it to Eft and —
And Eft. Eft, still struggling against the orcs holding him, his eyes blazing on Kesst’s. With fear, and with urgency, and with… purpose. With vivid, desperate purpose, as his hand lurched up to his own neck, and… squeezed. Hard, purposeful, there. Just against his pulse, just where he’d touched Kesst only moments before…
Kesst’s vision was wildly spinning now, his thoughts faltering, but he dragged in one last, frantic breath, and somehow, somehow nodded. Nodded, and found his tingling hands, and even attempted a wavering smile toward Skald’s reeking, enraged face.
“Very well,” he croaked, against Skald’s ever-tightening grip on his throat, as he settled his numb-feeling hands on Skald’s face. A gesture of intimacy, of ingratiation, of a wheedling and simpering orc who knew very well when he was defeated…
