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“GODS, it just feels so GOOD!” Karlach’s voice echoed with hearty satisfaction into the emptiness of the night air. If there were any birds left in the Shadowfell, the boom of her voice surely would have shaken them from their roost in the trees.
“I’m certainly glad you think so,” Dammon replied, his lips spread into a wide smile. He was proud. Proud to see that his infernal invention, which he’d labored over every single night since their first meeting at the druid grove, had actually worked. Proud to see Karlach overwhelmed with joy at the realization that she could finally touch people again after ten long touch-starved years – and proud that he had been the one to give her that gift.
“I could kiss you, you know!” She grinned wildly at him, the usual hellfire pouring off her skin had quieted and in its absence, the wicked gleam of her happiness was able to shine clearly for him and all others to see. “I won’t—of course,” she added sheepishly, “but… maybe a hug?”
No sooner had Dammon tipped his head in a soft nod of agreement than he had the breath knocked out of him as Karlach’s body collided with his, her strong arms conditioned by a decade of wielding the weight of her infernal battle axe now repurposed to hold him against her tightly. Maybe a little too tightly?
“Karlach…!” He wheezed, tapping her on the back with one of his hands. He would have preferred to be more graceful about it so as not to embarrass himself in front of her, but Gods was she actively squeezing the air out of his lungs.
“Yeah? Oh—sorry!” Her grip on him eased up though she didn’t let go. Not yet, anyway. It was the first time she’d been able to touch another person in more than a miserable decade, and she wasn’t done savoring the delicacy of someone else’s touch. Not after she’d ached for it all this time.
And it wasn’t just sex that she missed—although she’d be a liar to say she wasn’t constantly thinking of it— but it was the little touches too: being able to lean her head on a friendly shoulder, to snuggle her face into her favorite baby owlbear’s mess of feathers, or even just the brush of a kind hand to remind her she was a person, godsdamnit, not just someone else’s war machine.
The absence of it all had become something of a personal torment to her in Avernus, where even the fiercest of fiends and gregarious of gelugons had been unwilling to offer their touch to her out of fear that the immense hellfire heat rolling off her infernal engine would incinerate them where they stood. And those fuckers were usually pretty good with fire.
She stood there for what felt like ages, her arms wrapped around Dammon and his around her. His embrace was comforting to a degree that it brought tears to her eyes, and she marveled at how warm he felt. It wasn’t the kind of warm that she had known in the crazed heat of Avernus. No, Dammon’s was a gentle and permeating kind of warmth, the type that she imagined could trickle down through her vents and pores to wash over her heart with the same pleasant heat as the sun on your face after the blackest of nights. If I had a heart instead of this blasted engine, she thought, the tears beginning to well over. She wasn’t even sure if they were tears of sadness, of gratitude, or of just plain relief. They were probably something of all three, if she was to be honest.
Karlach gave him one final squeeze and released Dammon from the hug. She took a step back and smiled at him, raising a hand to wipe away the tears that had welled in her eyes.
“I know it doesn’t make up for a decade of lost embraces, but I hope it’s a start,” he said, his voice soft and eyes kind as he watched her blink away the tears and straighten herself back up.
“It is,” she laughed a little, “A really fucking good start.”
Through the tears, there was a sparkle in her eyes that Dammon found undeniably enchanting. He would have been content to get lost in them all night long, and he realized that he was suddenly overwhelmed by the desire to indulge in her charm and listen to her laughter for as long as she would let him.
“Do you want to head inside and have a drink, by chance?” He tipped his head in the direction of the inn, the warm light of its bar hearth spilling past the threshold of the door. Karlach’s face lit up at his request, and he added, “My treat, of course.”
“Gods yes!” She clapped her hands together and watched as he closed down his forge for the day; the first time she had seen him shut it down ever. “Although I should be the one buying, it’s the least I can do to say ‘thank you.’”
“Please, I insist on buying you at least one drink – they probably have frosty mugs of ale inside,” he replied, wiping the steel dust from his hands with a rag, “Isn’t that what you said you missed most, when we were back in the Druid’s grove?”
“Yeah, that’s right – I’m surprised you remembered!” Karlach gave him a playful shove as they made their way toward the inn. Oops, don’t know my own strength, she thought as the push she sent him stumbling to the right a bit.
Dammon let out a good-natured laugh and returned to her side as he replied, “I couldn’t forget it even if I tried.”
The general mood of the bar at the inn was a somber one, and both Karlach and Dammon were aware that their shared levity was wholly out of place in the glum atmosphere of a bar set within a cursed land that was ready to consume you the moment you stepped foot out into it.
In an attempt to be respectful, they elected to take up two seats at a quiet table tucked away in the corner, just out of earshot from the other patrons. Dammon set down an icy-looking tin flagon of ale in front of Karlach, a delicious drip of condensation rolling down its side to pool at its base.
“I asked the barkeep for the coldest, frostiest mug they had,” he looked back at the bar, which was being manned by two small tiefling children and Rolan, who was passed out, drunk and drooling on the bar top. “Barkeeps are looking a little young these days, but their customer service is unmatched.”
Karlach barked out a laugh and then took a swig from the cup. Her face screwed up in delight as she drank, and she let out a refreshed sigh as she put the cup back down on the table in front of her.
“Oooh! Gods! That is good!” She exclaimed, a little loudly. Two or three of the bar’s glum-looking patrons cast a glance in their direction, and she looked at Dammon with an embarrassed grin, lowering her voice to say “Oops, I should be quieter, yeah?”
He smiled, silently thinking to himself about how he delighted in her exuberance. Leave it to Karlach to bring brightness to what was probably the darkest place in all of Faerûn.
“Rough crowd tonight,” She murmured, taking another sip from her beer.
“Indeed,” he agreed, taking a sip from his own mug. “They’ve been through a lot these past few weeks. Although I’m sure you and your fellow adventurers have too. I was really glad to hear that you’d made it through the Shadowfell, although not surprised. If anyone could do it, it was bound to be you.”
“Oh, that’s sweet of you to say,” she said, grinning at the compliment. “I’m glad you made it too. Truth be told, I’ve been thinking about it a lot these past few weeks.”
“Were you really?” He raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Uh, yeah! Of course!” She beamed, and Dammon felt himself blush a little at the idea that Karlach had been thinking about him all this time. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments, taking sips of their ale and looking around the bar until Dammon conjured up a question to break through the quiet.
“So now that you have your engine upgrade, what’s next for you?” He asked, already half knowing what her answer would be.
“Well, I’m looking forward to finally hugging my companions. We’ve been through so much together...” She trailed off and then looked around to make sure no one was listening. She leaned forward a few inches and in a low voice said, “But gods, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t really looking forward to finding someone in this dusty bar who would take me upstairs so I can get good and proper laid.”
“I can’t say I blame you,” he shook his head playfully, taking another swig of his drink in an attempt to remain somewhat casual in the face of the turn their conversation had just taken.
“Do you know what ten years without sex does to a person?! Ten years! It’s torture!” Karlach threw her hands up and whispered at him excitedly. She looked around the bar again, and said glumly, “But horny as I am, this lot is not it. They’re too bloody sad to be thinking about sex anyway.”
Dammon looked around and realized she was right. Apart from her adventuring companions, who seemed to be in better spirits than the rest, the general demeanor of the clientele at Last Light Inn was best described by words like “crestfallen” and “despondent.” Parents of missing children... Children of missing parents... Most of the people here were currently battling in the trenches of loss, and Dammon felt a touch guilty for how elated he got to feel in Karlach’s presence.
“Do you want to play a game?” She asked him, bringing his attention back to their table. He nodded and scooted his chair over beside hers when she beckoned him closer. In his ear, she whispered, “Alright, here are the rules: we pick a patron and guess what they’re like in bed.”
“Okay – you’re on,” He said to her, trying not to feel distracted by the feel of her breath against his ear and her shoulder against his own. Dammon looked around the bar and pointed at one of Karlach’s companions – a robed wizard with dark hair and a tidy beard. “How about him?”
“Hmm, Gale?” Karlach mused, putting a finger to her lips as she thought for a second, “You do know what they say about wizards, don’t you?”
Dammon considered her question for a moment but couldn’t come up with a clear answer. “That depends... what do they say?”
He took another sip from his mug as she answered him with the gravest voice he’d ever heard from her lips: “Absolutely ginormous sacks.”
Dammon snorted and nearly spat out his drink.
“Nah, I’m just kidding. Talking about their bags of holding, ya pervert!” She gave him a playful nudge with her shoulder. “Although Gale does have these mage hands that he summons to help him out with things…”
“Okay, what about the guy next to him?” Dammon asked, so deeply enamored with Karlach’s witticisms that he didn’t even care about taking his own turn.
“Alright, don’t tell anyone I told you this but that one — the white haired elf? Vampire.”
Dammon raised an inquisitive eyebrow, and she leaned in toward his ear again, lowering her voice to a whisper, “So you know what that means, of course. During ‘that time of the month,’ he’s probably ravenous.”
Astarion looked over at their little corner table as though he heard her.
“Oh fuck,” Karlach darted her eyes away from him and back toward Dammon, both of them attempting to suppress giggles. “I think he heard me!”
“Alright then, what about Rolan?” He asked, pointing to the tiefling passed out face-first into the sticky bartop.
“Hmmm...” Karlach mulled it over for a second. “Gruff, a little difficult to break open... but underneath it all? Surprisingly tender.”
Dammon laughed at her shockingly accurate assessment of the tiefling wizard. He began to open his mouth to ask her about the next person, but she beat him to the punch.
“Wait! You haven’t gone yet!” She exclaimed, as though she couldn’t believe she’d been capitalizing on their game all this time, “Okay, okay, how about Jahiera?”
“Mm,” he shook his head and swallowed his mouthful of drink, “Too easy. Wild shape. Bossy in bed. Next.”
“Look at you!” She said, impressed. “I think you’re right about that one... Okay, here’s one that I definitely know the answer to. I’m curious what you have to say about him though.”
Karlach nudged him and nodded in the direction of a finely-dressed middle-aged man seated in front of a partially-played game of lanceboard. Dammon looked him over, noting the way the man struck him as prim and a bit picky, his face fixed in a sour expression as he looked over the board.
“Him? Let’s see...” Dammon furrowed his brows, “...a bit dominant in the bedroom. Bossier than Jahiera. Perhaps even to the point of being mean?”
He turned to look at Karlach, wondering if he had gotten it right. She was trying her hardest to keep a laugh in, biting her lips and crinkling her eyes with the effort. Oh, he was wrong, wasn’t he?
“Okay so that’s Raphael, a cambion with a house in Avernus. Word among demons is that he has a succubus at home who is constantly complaining about how lazy he is in the bedroom,” she giggled, enjoying Dammon’s incredulous reaction to that juicy bit of gossip. “Oh man, he’d be so mad if he found out that everyone knew...”
Dammon looked around the bar again, noticing that the crowd had thinned out quite a bit. Karlach looked around too, realizing that they’d run out of patrons to theorize on. She wasn’t feeling ready to let his company go for the evening, however. Not quite yet, anyway.
She gave him another nudge with her shoulder and looked at him with the hint of a smirk and said, “What about… Me?”
Dammon raised an eyebrow. “You?”
“Yeah, me. Tell me what you think I get up to in the sheets. All the gory details and such.” She put both elbows on the table, resting her chin on the heels of her palms.
“Hmm,” he put a finger to his lips and pretended to think about it, as though this wasn’t a matter he’d already mused on plenty. “You’re dominant in bed.”
She nodded a little, as if to say he was on the right track. He continued, tracing a finger around the rim of his half-empty beer mug. “And you like giving pleasure as much as you like receiving it.”
She nodded again, her eyes glimmering mischievously in the flicker of the hearth. This had all been very tame, he realized. He’d been verging on the side of generic descriptions because he was a little trepidatious to let her know what he really thought. Perhaps it was her most recent engine upgrade, the drinks that had been flowing, or simply the way her eyes were lit up before him — almost eager in the hearth light… Perhaps one or all of these things had emboldened him on this night. He looked down at his drink and smiled lightly as he continued, slowly.
“And I think you—Karlach…”
“Yes?” She leaned toward him in her seat, clinging to his every word.
“I think you’re the type to be particularly skilled at…” Should he say it? He was just going to say it, “…pegging.”
“Oh my gods, is it that obvious?!” Her face burst into a nervous but amused smile and she suddenly clapped both hands over her eyes. Her cheeks beamed brightly even in the dim light, and he figured they were probably blushing redder than a hobgoblin’s— well, you know.
“Was I right?!” He asked, unable to keep from cracking a smile.
“I mean, yes, but—” Karlach dropped her hands from her face and nervously wrapped them around the frosty mug in front of her.
“—But what?”
“I was going to say ‘yes, but... I haven’t done it in a long time.’” She crinkled her nose and continued, “Like a long long time. I do miss it though.”
Dammon’s breath stilled. Pegging was something he’d always been interested in and it would be a lie to say he hadn’t spent more than one recent night looking out into the night sky wondering if Karlach was the type, and if she was, then would he ever work up the nerve to ask her?
As he looked at her in the flickering hearth light, her smile wide and glittering, their banter that evening flirtatious and heady... he recognized that it was going to be now or it was going to be never.
Before he had the time to give it a second thought, Dammon found himself blurting out: “Would you want to? With me? Tonight?”
“Oh my gods!” She exclaimed at the utter boldness of his question. A touch incredulous, sure, but he also noticed the way her face lit up at the suggestion. “Are you drunk?!”
“No!” He smiled back at her, though he averted his gaze back to the cup in his hand. The half a flagon of ale had certainly imbued him with some courage, but in the sum of it all, the ale had sparingly little to do with his question — he didn’t find it even half as intoxicating as Karlach.
“But I am serious,” he continued, feeling his face flush a little as he lifted his eyes to meet her gaze again. She looked at him for a minute and chewed on the inside of her lip as if she were sizing him up, deeming him worthy. It was all a bit of show, but he didn’t need to know that just yet.
“You said you had a room upstairs, yeah?” Karlach leaned forward and said the words in a low voice, looking around like they were about to embark on a clandestine caper. He decided to play along and leaned in toward her, their noses inches from touching, and he gave her a pretend-serious nod.
“Alright then, you lead the way, soldier.” She smiled at him one last time, giving him a playful salute with two of her fingers before they stood and made their way over to the stairs.
They were two steps from the top when Karlach stopped and slapped a palm to her forehead, “Wait for me—I’ll be right back, I promise!”
She turned around and rushed back down the stairs, leaving Dammon to smile and shake his head. He was a patient man — had been waiting weeks to see her again. He would gladly wait all night too. To him, Karlach was worth it.
When she returned, Karlach found Dammon leaning against the wall beside what she could only assume was the door to his room. He had one foot crossed in front of the other, and she grinned a little at how effortlessly handsome he could be. His eyes lit up when he heard her footsteps approach, and he made an attempt to straighten himself up to greet her — he would have, of course, if Karlach hadn’t immediately pressed him back against the wall and planted a greedy kiss upon his lips. Beneath the surprise and the heady realization that she was here at last, and furthermore that she wanted him, Dammon felt himself melt into her. He reached his arms around to pull her even closer but instead of finding a place to rest them on the strong ripples of her back that he’d relished in during their hug earlier, his hands were greeted by rough canvas.
Karlach pulled back from their kiss and said, a little breathlessly, “Had to get my pack. There’s something important in there.” She winked and then looked toward the door beside them. “This is your room, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he said, feeling around for the key in the pockets of his tightened trousers. There it was. He produced the heavy brass key and shoved it into the lock on the door, trying to keep his hand steady amid the thrill of their looming encounter.
With a quiet click the door unlocked and swung open to reveal the small room Dammon had rented from the Harpers. The accommodations were meager and a bit threadbare, but certainly better than the alternative of unfurling his bedroll in the barn to sleep between the forge and the sniffling oxen that hauled their belongings along the Risen Road.
“It’s not much, but hopefully it’s good enough?” He said, closing the door behind them.
“Oh fuck yes it is!” Karlach said cheerily, dropping her pack by the door and bounding over to the spartan bed along the far wall. “It’s been ages since I’ve slept on something that wasn’t the hard ground.”
She threw herself back onto it, sighing at the soft squish of feathers beneath her. Beds had proven to be a rare luxury on the road, and though this one was a touch lumpy and had probably seen better days, to her it felt like a true slice of the heavens delivered down to Toril.
“I’m glad,” Dammon chuckled, turning to lock the door. When he turned back around, Karlach was getting up from the bed and walking over toward him — perhaps to pin him up against the wall with another unchaste kiss? A guy could hope.
“There’s something I want to show you,” she said with a smile, picking up her bag and rifling through it. It didn’t take her long to find what she was searching for. From beneath the flap of the bag, Karlach pulled out what looked like a mess of leather straps and silver buckles. She didn’t even finish untangling them before Dammon recognized what it was: a harness.
“Do you know how hard it was to find a strap-on in Avernus? Bloody well harder than you’d think,” she said, proudly displaying the harness for him.
“Oh, wait, the best part…” she reached back into the bag and produced from its depths a hellfire-red dildo, which she slotted into place on the front of the harness. She held the entire contraption up for him to see and chewed at her lip nervously. “So? What do you think?”
“Have you been carrying that around with you all this time?” He asked, more impressed than anything when she nodded.
“Of course I have! I paid a pretty penny to get it enchanted with fire resistance too,” Karlach walked back over to the bed and slung it over one corner of the headboard as she continued, “Never knew when I would get my engine fixed, but it’s just like my best friend growing up used to say: ‘always be prepared.’ He was in the Scouts as a kid.”
“Well, good on your friend,” Dammon said with a chuckle, taking the liberty of lighting a few candles around the room. “You’ll have to look him up and tell him thanks when you get to Baldur’s Gate.”
“Just me? You might be thanking him too,” she jested, and he felt his cheeks grow hot at the implication.
“Come here,” he said, eager to hold her again. She walked toward him and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck as he wrapped his around her waist, pulling her into another kiss.
Dammon tilted his head back, allowing Karlach’s tongue to hungrily part his lips and explore his mouth. One of her hands reached to graze softly against his cheek as if to express her gratitude for his touch, though he hoped she knew that no thanks on her part was ever necessary — if anything, he felt like he should be the one expressing his gratitude simply for the opportunity to be near her.
He ran one of his hands up her back, running his fingers through the back of her dark hair and he felt her sigh into the kiss, seemingly content until she pulled away slightly, her hands snaking their way back from behind his neck to his front, where she began to fumble with the top button of his shirt.
“These fucking buttons,” she laughed against his lips, unable to see what she was doing without fully pulling back. Now that they’d tasted one another at long last, neither of them seemed interested in the prospect of parting.
“Here, I’ve got it,” he murmured into the kiss, pulling his arms through the sleeves and then lifting the entire garment from his body. He broke their kiss for a half second to swiftly pull it over his head before chucking it to the floor somewhere behind him.
“That’s more like it,” Karlach mumbled, their lips locked and her arms around him once more. He felt the pressure of her body against his, directing him to move with her toward the bed.
Karlach pushed him backwards one step, then another, and then another, until the backs of his knees were flush with the edge of the inn’s feather mattress. It was only then that she removed her lips from his, a wicked grin spreading them wide as her eyes twinkled with excitement. Oh, she was going to enjoy this, alright.
She gave him what was meant to be a gentle shove backwards, but it played out little firmer and more demanding in practice. Her push sent Dammon falling back onto the bed with so much force that the action drew a surprised gasp from his mouth, which quickly curled into an eager smile.
“Oh, you that, do you? Me, throwing you around a bit?” She teased, knowing his answer would be a resounding yes. He nodded anyway, propping himself up on his elbows to get a good look at the way she stood over him at the foot of the bed, her strong frame imposing in the best of ways.
“Take off your boots,” she commanded, and Dammon complied as she kicked her own shoes off and tossed them to the side.
“Anything for you,” he said to her softly, placing his boots neatly on the ground beside the bed.
“Gods, let me look at you…” Karlach sighed, backing up a few steps while her eyes raked over him, taking in every last detail of his bared skin. He leaned back into his earlier repose, resting on his elbows with his legs bent over the side of the bed, his feet flush with the ground.
Karlach’s gaze traced over his strong shoulders and arms, muscled to the hells and back by years of swinging his heavy forge hammer and hauling hunks of raw ore day in and day out. And his fingers… calloused by his trade but also made incredibly dexterous by the same. She had seen the intricate mails and notches he had crafted on glorious armor with those fingers, tasks that required equal parts strength and sensitivity. She wasn’t sure where to start — she wanted to touch it all, feel it all.
Her eyes drifted back up his arms, past his shoulders, and landed on the toned planes of his chest before they dropped lower again — this time past the ridged skin along his ribs, dragging over the defined contours of his abs and finally, at long last, coming to rest where the two identical furrows of his muscled waist dipped below the waistband of his pants. They were slung just barely above his hipbones, the tightness of the fabric against his erection a worthy measure of his excitement. And gods was it immense.
“I’d love to see you too—“ he said, his expression a touch bashful, “—if that’s okay with you?”
“Fuck yeah, it is,” she responded, already hastily pulling her top over her head to reveal her breasts — between them the orange glow of her newly-repaired engine beating quickly with her own excitement. She shimmied down her pants and then her underwear, which she kicked off to the side with a mutter of: “Won’t need these now, will I?”
She let him look at her for a moment, a generous handful of seconds given the egregious wait she’d already endured.
“Argh! I can’t take it anymore! Enough waiting, yeah?” She groaned, and Dammon let out a soft chuckle as she closed the gap between them, planting an impassioned kiss on him as she fumbled to undo the fastening on his trousers.
“Ah, fuck it,” she mumbled into his mouth, abandoning the fastenings altogether, hooking her fingers into the waistband of his pants, and giving them an impatient yank down. His erection sprung free with the motion, the full weight of it rebounding back toward his taut stomach to rap against it with a soft yet satisfied thud. Karlach pulled back to look at him again, another wide grin splitting her face as she said, “I fucking love it when that happens.”
Dammon threw his head back in a laugh at her enthusiasm as he lifted his hips to help her tug his pants and underwear off completely.
“So, where do you want to st— oh gods…” he tried to speak but found his capacity for language quickly overwhelmed by the feel of Karlach’s hands wrapped around the shaft of his hardened cock.
She let out an amused giggle at his response and gave him a few more vigorous pumps before she relinquished her grip, the heft of his erection falling back against his stomach once more.
“Changed your mind yet?” She asked him, one brow wriggling upwards teasingly. She was kneeling on the floor at the foot of the bed, watching him with delightful anticipation from between his parted legs as she stroked at his calves lightly.
“I’ve never been more sure,” he groaned as her hands trailed upwards, running them up and down the inside of his thighs, her fingernails raking at the sensitive skin.
“And what about me pegging you? Still sure on that, soldier?” She said, her voice low and playful as both of her hands came to rest at the usual bend where upper thigh meets hip, her thumbs rubbing teasingly at the space in between, deliciously close to his taint and his entrance just below. His cock twitched and he groaned again, opening his legs wider to welcome her touch.
“Gods, yes,” he replied, looking down at her with heavy-lidded eyes, completely intoxicated by her touch and the promise of more. Dammon felt completely and utterly ready to surrender himself to the full whims of the tiefling goddess sat between his legs, one of her thumbs massaging his perineum with firm, appetizing strokes.
“Mmm…” she hummed with a smile, clearly enjoying the responsiveness of his body as she played with him.
“I—wait,” she stopped rubbing and looked him straight in the eye, speaking to him with the same unique mix of levity and directness that came forth when a serious thought interrupted her jesting. This time, the serious thought, uttered with that musical intonation of hers he had so grown to love, was: “Do you have lube?”
“What? Oh, yeah—“ Dammon reached over the side of the bed, fingers fumbling for the strap on his rucksack. He found it and pulled it open, fishing out a small corked bottle from one of the side pockets. He held the bottle up to the light and watched with delight as Karlach’s eyes lit up at the sight of it. “Lucky for us, I happen to have exactly one bottle that didn’t sell.”
“Not a particularly horny bunch down there, are they?” Karlach laughed, referring to the tieflings at the bar. “I mean, I thought that’s what our people were known for!”
She pointed at the one curling horn that sprouted from the crest of her forehead and Dammon couldn’t help but smile widely at her joke.
It was true, after all, that the tieflings had been much too preoccupied with their mounting losses — and they had been great — to be at all interested in sex or hookups. He couldn’t blame them, he felt much the same when he thought of Elturel being dragged into Avernus, but Karlach’s unfettered joy seemed to shine so brightly that it cut through all of the darkness and heaviness of the world — to him she shone so brightly he felt like her smile alone could shatter the grip of the Shadowfell entirely.
No, the tieflings had not asked about it or any similar types of wares. What he didn’t tell her was that he actually had received an inquiry about that last bottle. The inquirer was one of the Harpers, a gruff type who had seemed a touch antsy to steal off to the basement of the inn with his lover. Earlier that afternoon the man had discreetly approached Dammon at his forge while his lover — an imposing and broad man with a great black beard— lingered in the doorway of the barn while they talked.
“Quickly — I’ll pay double!” The man had whispered roughly, “We’re trying to get one last romp in before those adventurers get here. Only so many private spots in this place, and we’re not looking to share…”
The comment had raised Dammon’s eyebrow and prompted him to lie — not something he made a habit of, but for this he would make an exception.
“Shit, I’m sorry…” he had fibbed, making a light show of pawing through his wares and patting down his empty pockets. “Looks like I’m out of it after all. Must have forgotten to mark it off my inventory. I’m sorry, saers.”
“Gods dammit…” the Harper had grumbled, his disappointment evident while Dammon tried to keep ahold of his poker face. “Ah, well thanks anyway. We’ll make do, I suppose…”
The Harper had walked off to leave Dammon alone at his forge. He turned back toward the flames and allowed the excitement he felt inside to finally show on his face.
As he looked over at Karlach, who uncorked the bottle with her teeth and spat the cork off to the side with a sly grin, that excitement had seemingly doubled. Dammon scrambled backwards up the bed to make space for her, and she crawled her way up from the foot of the bed to where he was reclined, his head resting against the headboard and his legs open for her to nestle between. Karlach looked over toward the harness hanging on the corner of the headboard, and Dammon’s eyes lingered on the length of the toy that protruded from it.
“Alright, here’s how this is going to work,” she murmured amusedly, sidling up between his legs as she held up a lube-slicked finger for him to see, “I’m going to give you a little taste to start—to get you ready, yeah?”
He nodded.
Karlach continued as she touched her finger to his perineum, tracing a light circle, “After that, I’m going to get on top of you and you’re going to fuck me but you’re not going to come, got it?”
He nodded again.
Her lubed finger found his entrance and softly grazed over it a few times. “And then, I’m going to flip you over—“ she leaned in close toward his ear and spoke in a near whisper “—and me and our little friend over there—“ her eyes darted to the strap hanging from the headboard “—are going to ride you… until I see stars.”
Dammon nodded a third time, his head feeling slightly woozy from lack of blood as Karlach’s words seemingly diverted all of it to his aching arousal.
“Alright then, you tell me if it’s too much…” she pulled her face back from where she’d been murmuring in his ear and looked him directly in the eye with a devilish grin, “…or if it’s not enough.”
Dammon gasped at her words and at the feeling of her slickened finger pushing inside of him. A breathy “Karlach…” escaped from his lips and she paused.
“Yeah?” She looked his face over carefully and asked, “Good? Too much?”
“Good…” he answered with a slight smile. “Keep going.”
Dammon heard her whisper a quiet “fuck yeah,” to herself as she slowly pressed the full length of her finger inside of him, knuckle by knuckle, pausing to give him time to adjust around it. She waited until a glimmer of want in his eyes told her he was ready for more. Karlach slid her finger out and then back into him slowly, watching his face carefully and taking deep satisfaction with every sign of pleasure that crossed his handsome features.
She pulled her finger out completely once he had begun to relax around her, and he let out a light groan at the emptiness she had left behind.
“Ready for two?” she asked, drizzling on more lube.
“Please…” he breathed, tilting his hips needily. Dammon always suspected he would enjoy something like this, but gods did it still take him by complete and utter surprise that despite barely beginning he should already be this desperate for more.
“Alright, alright,” Karlach chuckled, finding her place between his legs once more, “you ask, I deliver.”
She gently probed at his entrance with both fingers, and he let out a heavy breath at the sensation. She slid her index finger back in — familiar and welcome — and gave him a few slow thrusts before the tip of her middle finger was also pressing against him for ingress. Karlach mirrored her technique with the first finger, inserting the pair slowly and going knuckle by knuckle as he slowly relaxed around them.
By the time she had both fingers buried in him to the hilt, planning to wait for him to adjust, Dammon surprised her by bucking his hips lightly, his body begging for movement. She obliged with a grin and he answered with a moan as her fingers began a languid pace in and out of him, their slick drag against his outer ring prompting his hands to tighten around handfuls of the sheets below.
“Fuck me…” she groaned approvingly at the sight of him before her, his knuckles white with pleasure and his mouth slightly agape in awe of her feel, “You look so fucking good on my fingers.”
“Mmmm,” he moaned with a smile, his eyes closing as he leaned his head back against the headboard. “I’m glad you think so.”
“Have you ever done this before?” She asked, her fingers keeping their slow and steady pace, stretching him carefully. “Been fingered, I mean?”
“No, never,” he admitted with a sigh, relishing in the delightful drag of her fingers.
“Oh?” She said, and though his eyes were closed he knew she uttered the word with a smile and a cheeky upward twitch of her brow. “Then you’ve never had someone do this before—“
He gasped as she curled her fingers inside of him “—have you?”
“Fuck!” He said, his eyes shooting open and his back arching slightly as she pressed her strong fingertips against a tight bundle of nerves he didn’t know he had. She chuckled at his reaction, and was thoroughly enjoying his pleasured surprise when he looked down at her and with wide but serious eyes asked, “Can you do that again?”
She looked up at him and scrunched her nose playfully, biting her bottom lip before she responded innocently, “Do what again? Oh, do you mean this?”
His back arched as her fingers curled again, an involuntary moan rushing past his lips. She kneaded the spot with firm presses, watching him lose himself in the rapture of the unexpected ecstasy. She wrapped her free hand around his cock and watched as he bucked his hips upwards into her touch, then back down again onto her fingers — his body suddenly unsure of which pleasure it wished to chase most.
He could feel the tension rising within him, and surely Karlach could feel it too with the way his breathing had quickened and his hips had grown a little frantic. Needy.
Without warning, her fingers retreated from him and she gave his aching cock one last stroke before releasing her grip on it. He looked at her with pleading eyes, desperate at the loss of her touch and the immense pleasure it had wrought.
“Didn’t I tell you you’re not to come yet?” She said, amused as she wiped the lube from her fingers and guided his legs closed.
“I promised I wouldn’t,” he said, his breath heavy as she slung one of her legs over his hips to straddle him, “But you’re doing quite a lot to nearly make me break that promise, Karlach.”
“Oh but that’s part of the fun, isn’t it?” She teased, guiding his hands to her hips as she hovered over him, placing her own hands on the headboard behind him. He gripped her firmly at first, his eyes drinking her in for a moment before he let his hands roam at long last. Her eyes fluttered shut as she soaked in every sensation of his hands as he ran them up over her muscled stomach, around to caress the small of her back, and finally back to her front where they grazed over her breasts, Karlach moaning softly beneath the feel of his blacksmith’s callouses against her stiffened nipples.
He could touch her forever, he thought. If she’d let him, he would spend an entire night — nay, an entire tenday — just running his hands over the heated ridges and planes of her body. If she would let him, he thought, he alone would take up the mantle of giving her all ten years’ worth of missed touches — and maybe another ten just for good measure.
Dammon left one hand cupping her breast, his thumb swiping back and forth against her nipple as his other hand trailed down to rest on her upper thigh, that thumb finding its way to play with her slickened clit. Karlach threw her head back and moaned as he worked it in small, firm circles, enjoying his turn to feel her hips grind into his touch as her touch-starved body begged for more.
He was keenly aware of the way she was hovering just inches above his achingly erect cock, and as he listened to the sounds pouring out from her mouth as he quickened his pace on her clit, he couldn’t help but think about what it would feel like to enter her. What it would feel like to—
“Oh fuck!” Karlach cried out, interrupting his thought as her body tensed and quaked, the rush of an orgasm tearing through her body. She ground down needily against his thumb, and he could feel the way she pulsed and twitched as the waves of pleasure crashed against her. He was utterly mesmerized by her rapture, and as she looked down at him, her own eyes laden with desire and flooded with intoxication, he knew he was absolutely and undeniably hungry for more of it.
Dammon allowed his thumb to round her clit a few more times, delighting in the sounds she made at each swipe across her clit, hypersensitive and engorged in the immediate wake of her orgasm. He wanted so badly to fuck her, the hand on her breast dropping to grip her hip, but he waited for her to say the word, relishing in the anticipation of her command.
It came silently, in the form of her hand at the base of his cock as she guided his hardened length to stand upright so she could lower herself onto it. A deep and guttural moan tore out from his throat as she did so, the warm and wet feel of her around his cock was simultaneously everything he had imagined it would be and yet so much more.
“Gods, Karlach…” was the best he could muster to explain to her how incredible it felt to be inside of her, but as she laid a passionate and grateful kiss on his lips, he knew his point had gotten across.
Dammon grabbed at her hips roughly, his fingertips digging into the soft flesh of her ass as she lifted herself up and then plunged back down onto his cock, the two of them swapping needy moans into each other’s mouths. He let her set the speed, his hips thrusting upward to meet her every downward stroke as she rode him, relentlessly and greedily taking the pleasure he was all too welcome to give.
She let out a wild cry as she began to come around him, her walls contracting tightly as she continued to slide up and down his length. At the sound of her cry, Dammon let his own moans flow freely, and together their voices mingled in a symphony of pleasure as she plunged herself against him again, and again, his own thrusts growing needier and needier as he bucked up to meet her.
As he watched her throwing her head back in wild pleasure, her back arched as his cock slid in and out of her contracting cunt, he felt the sudden rise of an orgasm threatening to spill over.
“HEY!” The sound of someone pounding against the other side of the wall interrupted them and Karlach stilled on his cock, mercifully just moments before he passed the point of no return. “Keep it down! People are trying to sleep here!”
For a long moment Karlach and Dammon looked at each other, frozen in their rhythm, and then together they burst out in laughter, Karlach throwing herself forward to embrace him and burying her smiling face in the crook of his neck. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, luxuriating in the feel of how her body shook with the joy of her laughter.
“ALRIGHT!” She pulled herself back upright and yelled at the wall, “WE’LL TRY!”
She turned her face back toward Dammon again, and said quietly with a mischievous grin, “Well, you’ll have to try, I mean.”
With that, she slid up and off of him, reaching for the strap on the headboard as she hopped off the bed. Dammon watched her with wide, excited eyes as she stepped her legs through the harness and tightened the buckles. Karlach gave the erect toy at the front a firm tug and, sufficiently satisfied that it was secure, she looked back up at Dammon, who was still laying on the bed with his back against the headboard.
“Turn over,” she commanded, directing him with the swirl of a pointed finger. “On your hands and knees.”
“Yes, saer,” he murmured excitedly, scrambling to fulfill her command. He looked ahead at the headboard, hearing Karlach take a few slow steps around to the foot of the bed. Behind him, he felt the mattress depress beneath her weight as she climbed back onto it, positioning herself between his legs. There was something exhilarating about not entirely knowing what came next, Dammon thought as he looked at the headboard ahead.
The feel of her hand on his shoulder blade took him by pleasant surprise, as did the way she trailed it over to the center of his upper back before she lightly raked her nails down the length of his spine. Her touch was slow and sensual — and shockingly gentle compared to the way she had just been riding him moments earlier. He felt a shiver run down his back as her fingernails reached the bottom of his spine and her fingers wrapped around the base of his tail, gripping it as she had gripped his cock just before she plunged down on it. He twitched at the thought and heard Karlach let out a low “Mmmm…”
“Are you ready?” She asked quietly, notching the lubed head of the toy against him.
Dammon nodded. He’d never been more sure of anything in his life.
“Alright —“ she said, slowly sliding the toy inside of him. He gripped at the sheets and let out a low, throaty moan at the way it filled him up. She took her time sliding it in, pausing to add a generous drizzle or two of lube before it was fully sheathed inside of him. They sat like that for a long moment, their bodies stilled as she waited for him to adjust to the girth of the toy. She gently stroked the base of his tail with one hand while running the palm of the other up and down his back in slow, measured passes.
“I’m ready,” he breathed, and he felt the hand at the base of his tail tighten slightly as she prepared to slide out of him. When she finally did, he felt another low moan escape from his mouth at the lubricated friction of the toy moving against his entrance. It was nothing compared to her slow thrust back in, and Dammon groaned as he felt her fill him back up, the pressure inside of him foreign yet delicious.
Karlach pulled her hips back slowly again, the hand around his tail holding him steady, as she spoke, “Remember — you tell me if it’s too much.”
She thrust in again, and he responded between slow groans of pleasure, “And what if it’s not enough?”
He heard her chuckle behind him and felt a touch of satisfaction at her amusement. “Are you asking me to fuck you harder?”
Dammon swallowed his nervousness and let his desire take over. He nodded. “Please.”
She didn’t say anything as she pulled out slowly again, her pace still teasingly unhurried. For a moment he wondered if she had heard him, and he contemplated asking again. Did she want him to beg? He would if she wanted him to, he thought, but it quickly became apparent that it wouldn’t be necessary.
On her next stroke in, Karlach moved a little quicker, a little rougher. The unexpected snap of her hips wrested a moan of surprise from Dammon, who found his hands gripping tightly at the sheets again. Her hips pulled back and snapped forward a second time, and he felt the hand on his back move to grip at his hip for leverage as Karlach thrust into him again, harder still, as though she were waiting for him to tell her where to top out. But he didn’t.
Instead, Dammon let her fuck him, hard and slow at first, and then harder and faster, her speed increasing as she watched how his body responded to the increasingly punishing rhythm of her thrusts. As the pleasure overtook him, Dammon felt himself arching back into her, eventually giving up on trying to support himself with his quivering arms and allowing himself to fall to his elbows before her.
The sight of him coming so undone beneath her ministrations gave Karlach a deep sense of satisfaction, and she continued the quick pace of her hips as she listened to him moaning into the mattress below.
“Shhh, not too loud now,” she said with a smile, doling out a particularly hard thrust as she spoke the words, “Or else the neighbors will hear.”
She didn’t give a flying fuck about the neighbors. It was just fun to watch him try to stay quiet while she made him melt into ecstasy beneath her — an impossible task she had given him just for the simple joy she knew she would glean from eventually shattering his efforts. Still though, he tried his hardest to stay quiet, his breathing labored and his endless song of pleasured moans and groans stifled by the fabric below. She loved it all, she thought, especially as she tilted her next thrust down and plunged the head of the toy directly into his prostate, remembering how he had gasped and arched when she’d first pressed her fingers to it.
He let out a loud yelp at the sensation, and she paused immediately, wondering if she had accidentally hurt him. Beneath her, sweat was pouring down the arc of his back, running toward his tensed shoulders and the back of his neck. He turned to look at her over one of his sweat-slicked shoulders and she was relieved to see that she hadn’t hurt him at all, even more so relieved when he looked back at her and uttered three desperate little words that made her blood rush: “Do that again.”
And so she did.
Karlach watched Dammon bury his face in the mattress again as she pulled her hips back, thrusting them forward and down to hit the same spot inside of him. He let out another unstifled noise of approval, and so she did it again and again, listening to his moans of satisfaction as her hips slapped against the backs of his thighs without relent.
She watched as the muscles of his back tensed and wondered if he was coming, continuing with her pace until she watched them tense again, him groaning beneath the drag of each pump. She watched him tense a third time, confident from his sounds that her thrusts were indeed beckoning him to come, and as his moans turned to sharp gasps for air in the overwhelming wake of his orgasm, she finally slowed and stopped, running a gentle hand up and then down the sweaty planes of his back.
He let out one last groan as she pulled out of him, staying obedient in his promise to be on his hands and knees until she gave him permission to roll over flat onto his back. She looked at him, spent and exhausted on the bed, as she undid the buckles of her harness and let it fall to the ground. Beside him on the bed was a puddle of his spend, evidence of the immense pleasure she had given him gladly.
Dammon looked over at Karlach as she stood beside the bed, strapless and bare before him. She stepped forward and asked him, “Had enough yet?”
He shook his head and smiled, “Of you? Never.”
“Good,” she replied, smirking playfully as she climbed over him, putting her knees on either side of his head and threading one hand through the front of his hair. He raised his head to lay a soft kiss between her legs, opening his mouth as she lowered herself onto his face. “Because I really did mean it when I said I want to ride you until I see stars.”