The Company of Fiends (Tempting Monsters, #2)

by Kathryn Moon

The real trick to The Company of Fiends' aerial act wasn't strength or knowing how to wrap the long stream of silk correctly around your body. As far as I knew, Mr. Reddy had seen a proper aerial act at a carnival once, and decided to throw it into the theater's rotation. After all, how hard could the work be when you had actors who could fly? No, the most important part of our version of silks was trusting Ronan Fuchs.

Still, I held onto his horns like my life depended on it as he held me upside-down, the silk and his hands wrapped around my waist as his long black tongue licked me from ass to clit. I gasped and writhed, eyes wide in the blinding glare of the spotlight as he thrust that tongue inside of me, growling against my sex.

We were spinning slowly with the gentle force of one of Ronan's wings flapping. I tried to remember all the notes for the scene—keep your body extended, point your toes, make a pretty picture with your legs around his back—but Ronan knew my responses too well to let me focus on the work. My toes were pointed because they were starting to curl, and my back was arched because of the sparkling blade of an orgasm now racing through me.

I gasped and whimpered as Ronan rumbled, pleased with me or with himself. I didn’t care. He lapped at me as I shivered, my legs starting to slip from their coil around him. He pulled away, sliding me against his chest until we we...

"You don't taste like orc cum," he said through a bared-teeth smile—our usual way of communicating with one another on stage. I gasped at the words, afraid I might suddenly burst into laughter on stage, and before Ronan could thrust into me, I reached down and loosened the spiral of the silk around my waist. I spun in the air, and after a bark of surprise and a gre...

"Legs," Ronan said. My legs stretched around him and I reached up, grabbing onto either side of the silk cradle. Ronan winked at me, a playful warning, and then flapped his wings as he drew me close, turning us in a sudden somersault through the air while thrusting his hips and sinking his cock inside of me.

I let out a broken cry that turned to laughter as we swung forward toward the audience, flipping and swaying. Beth was tiny and graceful and used to the act, so she and Ronan made something dramatic and pretty out of it. Ronan and I, on the other hand, couldn't help but play when we were together, too good of friends to resist a laugh in the middle of a scene.

It didn't matter. The audience cheered as we swayed in the air, Ronan's rocking pace slow and wonderfully deep, using his wings to steer us so we spun in one direction and unraveled twice as fast in the other. I relaxed, let my shoulders and head hang, leaving the control in Ronan's capable hands as he fucked me and flew, swinging us back and forth, spinning and turning. At the corner of the stag...

Ronan apparently didn't have anything to say to that, and I tested out my strength, rocking to meet him, the tempo of Nireas's music increasing slightly. Ronan hunched over me, pressed his chest to mine, and ground himself against my clit until my breath started to catch.

"No, nut. He's watching you. He doesn't give a fuck about anyone's timing. Doesn't watch Beth," Ronan hissed my ear, nuzzling against my jaw to hide his speech from the audience. Nireas was watching, his dark gaze holding mine as he played. "He watches you in every scene, watches you in rehearsal, backstage."

"I bet he's big. That's your type," Ronan rumbled in my ear, and his hips slapped against me, drawing out a high cry from my lips and an echoing note from the organ. "Should I fly you down there right now? Thrust your pretty wet cunt in his face and—"

He shouted, arching and taking those dangerous whispers away from my ear. I squeezed at the roots of his wings, and his thrusts grew urgent. He released my back, letting me dangle from the silks around my ass, his cock sinking deeper. The audience cheered as we both groaned, as what was meant to be elegant and slow became rough and clumsy and determined, almost animal.

And damnit, but Ronan was right—Nireas’s stare was palpable, a fold of concentration or worry on his brow as he watched Ronan bucking into me. Worse, I'd known. I'd always known Nireas watched. Watched but never touched, although his stare was almost enough. It caressed over my breasts, skimmed over my lips, and tugged on the roots of my hair, written out in melody as he played and studied me.

"He wants you, and he won't touch you," Ronan hissed down at me. I started to shake, my hands...

I laughed and let my hands stroke up Hunter's arms, admiring the muscle I found hidden under all that fabric. He stiffened under my touch and as I stepped forward to lean into him, his hands hovered at our sides. "You mistake me, sir. I was hoping you'd join me at my door again," I said. Hunter's smile was genuine but nervous, and I released him from my teasing.

"I suppose…an audience will clap at the end of a show no matter what," I said, straightening the waist of the dress around me as I thought. "Even if they only enjoyed themselves a little bit. I prefer the reactions that come during a scene—the gasps or the cheers, even the laughs. Those are honest, rather than queued, and…they're for me."

I turned in front of Hunter, offering him my unbuttoned dress. The chaise creaked, and Hunter's body was warm at my back. My breath hitched at the first gentle scratch of his claws on my lower spine. "We could even leave them undone if you like," I said, reaching to pull my hair over my shoulder. The waist of my dress grew snug as he fastened the buttons into place. "I think you try to tease me, Miss Nix."

The carriage turned, and I realized how quickly we were driving now as I tipped forward into Hunter's chest. But he was warm and he smelled like the earth of a garden, vividly alive in summer, and I dropped the pocket watch in favor of gathering his jacket and vest in my fists. His arms wrapped around my back as I sank into his frame.

I shoved open Hunter's white dress shirt and gaped at the sudden reveal of a number of scars, deep and light, fresh and old. Battle wounds? He was so full of strange contrasts. Large hands and gentle black claws lifted my face up to his. How old was Hunter? There was something ageless in that deep yellow stare of his, but he looked almost as though he might be even younger than me.

"Do you regret our kiss?" I asked. "I could never," he said, the words warm and rough. His skin was warm and soft, and he didn't seem self-conscious as I ran my fingertips over an old scar, although he stiffened when I grazed them down over berry-dark nipples where I found twin bolts of gold pierced through, two beads shining on either side. My wandering hands traveled to densely carved muscles and then to the buttons of his waistband.

I'd just managed to control my wild expression as he stood straight again, and my eyes snagged on the glitter of gold that suddenly appeared in front of me. There were two more beads at the base of Hunter's cock, larger than the ones on either side of his nipples, and brightly polished. Another four winked at me from the head of his cock, almost like the points of a compass.

"They're beautiful," I blurted out. "Are there more?" I stepped forward and he flinched, backing up almost into my bedside drawers. "I know they can be shocking." I knew one thing in all my time at the theater—never laugh at a cock. And it wasn't the cock I wanted to laugh at, it was beautiful and perfectly long and thick, but the enormous and skittish orc who was suddenly shy at revealing his elaborately decorated member.

There was more gold below—a twin line of beads bolted through the underside of his length, which I'd seen before on other men—and then a few surprise additions around his shockingly heavy sac. "They're beautiful," I said again, trailing my fingers over the ladder of beads to the four points at the head. Fluid gathered at his tip, weeping into my palm as I rolled one of the piercings.

He didn't reach to guide my hand into a grip like any other man would, simply stood frozen as I examined him. I reached out to the large beads at his base. They were close together, and I suspected they would rub at my clit with a good seat on the orc's cock. He would be fun to lick. To fuck.

I turned to blow out the candle as Hunter pulled back the covers of the bed, its frame groaning slightly with his weight. I would've groaned too, although not as a complaint. I found him rigid and awkward on the mattress as I climbed in, but he adjusted himself for me as I worked my way to lying almost on top of him. His cock was half-hard against my hip, and my own sex pulsed slightly with the urge to grind into his hip as I settled, but he was the right height to nestle my cheek into his shoulder.

He drew the blankets up over us with his knee, and his arms circled my back, his hands resting just above my ass. "All will be well, little one," Hunter murmured, brushing his beard against the top of my head. "I will guard your safety tonight."

I took in a heavy breath, my lips parted against Hunter's skin, the taste of green roots and fresh rain teasing my tongue. I shifted, trying to find a position where his hot skin wouldn't press so firmly against me, and my breasts scraped against his chest as I shifted. His cock twitched and Hunter bucked, and now he was there against the inside of my thigh, those gold beads on his cockhead warming the crease of my hip.

I wanted to fuck and pretend nothing was wrong, to push away the shock and the questions and the fear. My tongue flicked out to wet my lips and found his skin first. Salty and surprisingly sweet, richer and muskier than his fresh scent, his flavor created a sudden craving on my tongue. Hunter's breath hitched, and those black claws scratched lower into the soft flesh of my ass.

And then his claws dragged back up, gathering a fistful of my ass and nightgown as his hips arched and rubbed against me. Rather than releasing the moan in my throat, I opened my mouth and latched onto the skin of his neck, my hands sliding up to grasp his shoulders. I sucked on his flesh, and it was like drinking down a summer I'd never known, the heart of a bursting garden on my tongue.

Hunter gasped and his hips stilled, but his hands flew up to my head, claws digging into my hair and scratching at my roots. I replaced the motion he'd abandoned, rolling and twisting myself on top of him, scratching the skin under my fingernails, digging my teeth into his skin. "Ferocious little one," he gasped, bucking again.

Quit resisting, I wanted to say, but I refused to give up this taste of him. I shifted, finding a new spot on his collarbone and sliding myself to sit astride him properly. He was darker here, more like bitter pine needles, and I lapped and sucked gree...

We both gasped as our flesh kissed, the ladder of piercings on the underside of his cock now pressed to my sex. His hands returned to my ass as I started to ride the spot unabashedly, and I sighed and returned to my feast of skin as he pressed me closer at last. Those little gold beads felt like heaven o...

I might've waited, but then he used that absurd formal name. I glared down at him in defiance and sank onto his cock. I gasped at the curious little press of the beads at my opening, and Hunter's eyes fell shut on a moan. Then his hands were gripping tight again, and suddenly, we were crashing together.

I bit down on the cry in my throat as Hunter filled me, yanking me down as he thrusted up, and he let out one loud groan before I reached out to slap my hand over his mouth, his tusks an interesting bite against my palm.

"Neighbors," I whispered, rising up and shivering at the drag of him inside of me. Hunter nodded, licking my palm and humming more softly, some of that raw excitement from a moment ago fading. I wanted it back. The shy and chivalrous orc was sweet and charming, but I wanted the warrior who h...

It was harder to do it without his help, but I relaxed my thighs and dropped myself heavily down onto his lap, nearly breaking my own silence as the beads at his base stroked either side of my clit roughly. I whimpered, rubbing and grinding myself in place, sti...

He sat up and lifted me to his tip before immediately pulling me down again. We both dove forward, lips colliding, and while we managed to muffle our voices in a stroking, licking, fucking kiss, there was no quieting the bed, the thump of uneven legs on the floor, and the groan of old boards. I didn't care. I didn't even really care about the neighbors. I just didn't wan...

He grunted as our hips slapped together, and his claws scratched at the back of my neck as he used his grip there to haul us together, stealing my breath with every full pump of him inside of me. I wanted to cry every time he drew free, wanted to pin him down to use those beads for my own pl...

His kiss was still full of the flavor of summer, tongue sharp and long, tickling the back of my throat until I grunted and then retreating. I knew orcs had long tongues, had enjoyed a fair few, and I chased it in the kiss, found it before it vanished and sucked on the tip. Hunter's cla...

He was staying buried now, rocking with short but heavy thrusts, keeping my clit near those teasing beads, and I forgot to stay quiet. The cool surface of the wall kissed my back and my thighs stretched open as Hunter pinned me there, fucking me with quick hard snaps of his hips, holding me still by my neck and ass. I clung to ...

He snarled into the kiss and pulled away as I whined. "Come," he ordered, the word almost cruel as his hand circled to the front of my throat. He leaned back and looked down at where we were joined, pressing hard to the spot and rolling his hips so perfectly that I let out a strangely animal sound. His cock was...

"Come for me now, little one," he growled as I started to clench and flutter on his length. I shuddered and obeyed, although it wasn't a choice but a simple matter of fact. I couldn't breathe with the grip on my throat, and it was just one less thing to think about. Vivid lights flashed in my eyes, illuminating Hunter's snarling expression and electric gaze on mine. There wa...

Hunter was on top of me, growling and rutting, my knees pushed to my chest and spread wide. My head tapped against the wall three times, and then his hand was there, either protecting me or holding me still so he could strike harder, deeper. We were sideways, I realized, Hunter's feet braced...

This is him, I realized. This was the orc Hunter hid behind fine clothes and human manners. He was exquisite. I stretched my knees farther aside, and he licked a stripe up my throat and right into my ear. His tempo was growing uneven, breaths ...

"Yes, orc," I whispered in his ear, kissing the lobe and nibbling up to the sensitive tip. "Yes." He gasped and stiffened, and then thrust almost cruelly against me, filling me with hot cum at every punishing strike. It seeped out between us, thick and warm and smelling of summer, and I came agai...

"Forgive me," he rasped, stealing my breath with his weight, nudging his hips more gently to mine, still spurting in small bursts. "Forgive me, little one." I opened my mouth to tell him the truth. I owed him as much forgiveness and this was everything I'd wanted from him, but his lips found mine first with a deep and pleading kiss that seemed to show no sign of ending. Long after my breath was stolen and my h...

I passed a hand over my hip next and found a few raised scratches from Hunter's claws, evidence of what had passed in the middle of the night. There was more evidence between my thighs, and I winced as I shifted and the mess grew obvious. The air was warmer than I'd expected as I pushed the covers back, the soft crackle and pop from the kitchen revealing that Hunter had lit a fire in the stove.

My nightgown was wadded up around my waist, and I shifted slowly. I wasn't sore, but there was a pleasant sense of use in my body. I stood on wobbling legs. Last night had been the first time in weeks that I'd had sex just because I'd wanted to. But that only reminded me of why I'd wanted to.

The theater took up all my time now. At first, it had been a relief to have the freedom to leave the flat and wander the city, to not only care night and day for my father. Lately though, home was just the place I took a few hours each night to rest. The privacy was wonderful compared to backstage, but there was a downside I was reluctantly discovering. Loneliness.

Hunter had left me at my door with a kiss. He'd offered to escort Beth home last night, seemed concerned by her absence. But the memory of his hand on my throat, stealing my breath as he fucked me with a selfish intensity, floated into my thoughts. I'd craved the violence that had exploded between us the night before, but it twisted strangely in my thoughts now.