Page 57 of Badmouths & Bards

That was enough to egg him on as Ameriden planted his knees and finally began to move properly. The motion sent Casimine forward with a groan, Tala’s echoing cry music to Ameriden’s ears. Each thrust was bringing Ameriden closer and closer to the end. The heat of Casimine’s ass enveloping Ameriden’s dick like some kind of furnace. Sweat broke across his skin and through half-lidded eyes, he could see Casimine’s back was drenched in it.

“I—” Casimine swallowed. “I—ah, fuck.”

“I’m close,” Tala whimpered. “Fuck, just a little more. Please, just a little more.”

“I—fuck, I can’t,” Casimine bit his lip.

“Yes, you can,” Ameriden assured.

He grabbed Casimine by the hips and guided the pace Casimine had fallen into. Ameriden could hear the loud squelching of the pleasure between Casimine and Tala. The mess that lay between them—fuck, it only made him want to eat it—

“Oh,” Casimine gasped. “Oh, oh, fuck—”

Casimine shuddered and Ameriden knew he was coming. The desire to chase his pleasure flooded his mind and Ameriden frantically pounded into him. The movement pushed Casimine’s hips forward and Tala shouted. She was coming, too, hips bucking into Casimine’s desperately as she clung to his back.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Ameriden cried as every last drop spilled from his dick.

Chapter 25

Taldesa

Tala shouldn’t have been surprised that she forgot to message Avie.

It wasn’t intentional—despite Tala having every damn right not to message her. Tala wasn’t the one who ditched her best friend to bone some guy in GloomsDale instead of just telling her the truth. In fact, it was kind of ironic the more Tala stared at the opal on her bedside table. She was pissed at Avie for fucking a guy and forgetting about her… and here Tala was, having done the same thing, but with two guys.

Two guys I’m responsible for.

There were a ton of bullshit reasons Tala could have used. She had been recovering from poison, she had been distracted with thinking herself into an impasse over that mystery ring. Hell, even patrolling would have been reason enough not to. The magic in those matching opals weren’t discreet in the slightest. If Tala continued to carry it on her hip, surely Avie would blow her cover at some point.

No, the truth was Tala had been preoccupied with making up for her nonexistent sex life with two bards that were way too good at said sex. When she wasn’t making the rounds around the Golden Manor or keeping watch as Seira gave the pair feedback on their songs, Tala was being fucked within an inch of her life. Ameriden and Casimine were insatiable and Tala’s training had ensured she had enough stamina to meet them thrust for thrust.

When they weren’t wrecking havoc on her body, the pair were overly affectionate. Casimine would nuzzle against her side in the middle of the day, lost in much needed slumber afterward. He still wasn’t sleeping well, even on those rare occasions Tala stayed the night. Ameriden would hold her like a damn stuffed toy while Casimine would read his smut novel to them.

It was all terribly domestic—as if they had known each other for years—and Tala was more certain than ever that she was thoroughly screwed if the Valiant Circle ever found out. She crossed a line—one that stuffy Cercel would have kittens over if he ever found out. Her task was to protect Cashmere Fantasy, not become their third. The violation of ethics alone would have gotten anyone kicked out of the Archive.

Tala frowned, her hand outstretched toward the opal. If she could just reach out to Avie…

But why?

If Avie didn’t care enough to tell Tala the reason she was leaving Eshorion, then they weren’t as close as Tala had previously thought. Everything Tala had worked so hard to keep—even with her surly disposition—that had all been for one reason alone. To stay in Eshorion and to stay close to Avie. But if that had all been a lie, if Tala had looked too deeply into their relationship—well, did it even matter if Tala stayed in the city?

She wasn’t attached to it, despite the years spent within the ivory walls. Yes, the Valiant Circle provided food, shelter, and the clothes on her back, but Tala wasn’t without some skills. Fuck, she could easily become a fighter for hire. She had laid out her unknown assailant after all, granted Tala failed to mention it to Ameriden and Casimine and they hadn’t asked.

Besides, neither of those babies need to know about how I killed that guy.

Death in Ordia was comically normalized. Tala had thought as much as a child, but when you lived in a world that was literally made of monsters and all-knowing gods, life became more about survival. He wasn’t the first guy she had killed—for all of the Valiant Circles preaching about fairness, they weren’t above taking lives when it was theirs on the line. That was about the only difference between them and the Moon Maidens, as the former was very willing to get their hands dirty.

Tala sent her stalker over the wall with a hard kick to his sternum, and as he fell, something shiny came loose onto the edge of the wall. Tala had snatched it, tucking it away as the effects of the poison started working its way through her body. The boys had somehow missed it when they stripped her naked and dropped her ass in the bathtub. A metal piece with the engraving of an open-mouthed snake and deadly fangs that sat beside the opal.

The point was, Tala knew she could take care of herself. It was more a question of what she would do when the job blew up in her face. Either Cercel or some undercover monk would make her or she’d find some way to fuck up the job that wasn’t just hurt feelings.

“Fuck.”

She had a friend who ran away, a mystery ring to solve, and a dead guy who tried to kill her—and Tala couldn’t stop thinking about Amer and Casi. That just like Avie, Tala was thinking way too highly of them and their affection. They didn’t even have a name for whatever was happening with them—mostly because Tala kept shrugging away from it whenever the pair would use the word lover. The word was still somehow more intimate than the sexual acts themselves. She might have been theirs, but Tala was damn sure they weren’t hers.

I’m going to fuck this up, just like everything else.

Without meaning to, Tala balled up her fist and cracked it against the wall behind the bedside table. She didn’t have enough strength to cause structural damage, but throwing a punch always made her feel better.