A Poisoned Gift

"Apliss curse you, Bromm. Your run of luck will come to an end someday, and I hope I'm there to see it. Girl, you belong to him now."

He turned away and gathered up his things as Bromm began to rake in his winnings. Armen stood up and walked away from the table without another word. Bromm reached out and ran a hand down his new concubine's bare leg. She blushed deep scarlet and covered her breasts with her arms. Bromm was amused at her shyness, but reached for her discarded dress on the floor. Zyrdun snatched it away. Bromm felt the heat rising in his cheeks.

"That's mine," he snapped, "I won her."

"You won her," the visling agreed sourly. "But not her clothes or her jewels. These I bought and they're mine to keep."

Before Bromm could argue, Zyrdun swept past him and marched to the inn's rear door. "Men," he barked. "We're leaving." Without waiting, he threw open the door and stormed out into the street.

Borres gave Bromm a barely restrained smirk. "Between that one and Armen, I'm not sure who is more bitter about their losses tonight."

Bromm grunted in disinterest. Instead, his eyes lingered on the girl he had won. "Come here, girl," he said as he stood up from his chair and extended a hand to help her off the table. Blushing, and with one arm over her slim bust, she shyly took his hand and stepped to the floor. Sweeping his winnings into a plain brown sack, Bromm laid an arm around her shoulder and led her across the room to where his sailors were dicing.

His eyes admired her slender body as they walked. She was fair-skinned, smooth and clear, with dark golden hair that fell down her back. Zyrdun had made up her face with powder and rouge, as well as painting her lips and nails red. Her green eyes were outlined in dark paint, which only made them stand out against her white face even more. Between her legs she was shaven, and Bromm licked his lips as his eyes alit on the smooth folds of her sex. He felt his cock hardening. They stopped at a heavy cabinet by the base of the staircase, where sailors had piled up bottles of drink, most empty. Bromm picked them up one after another, looking for any with something left inside. The girl stood silently under his arm, blushing a deep red as all the sailors looked up from their dicing to admire her naked body up close.

Bromm sighed in disappointment. They were all empty. Instead, he turned his attention to another kind of entertainment. He leaned close to the girl and kissed her neck. She tensed up, but he detected the hint of a smile on her thin lips.

"What's your name, girl?" he asked softly. Her eyes twitched to the side, she bit her lip, and meekly replied "Ilune, sir. Recently of the Rouel family of Slaveport."

"Aye, it was a cruel thing your father did, Ilune," Bromm soothed, brushing her golden hair back from her shoulders. "But I am your master now, and I will be kind to you. You may call me Bromm, and I am captain of the Bad Neighbor. Do not fret, it's just a name, and not one that I chose."

"Yes, Master Bromm," she replied, her eyes downcast again. Bromm sighed at her loveliness. He wanted to fuck her straight away, to throw her on the table amid all his coins and jewels and take her before the gathered sailors like a common whore. His cock was hard for her already, and the wine and rum was clouding his mind, but he stayed his hand. The girl was anxious, he would have to calm her first.

The door to the common room swung open again and at last Eanmasor returned, leading the innkeeper's pretty daughter with a tray of bottles. She smiled at Bromm as she entered, entertaining good memories of their time together the previous night. And in the morning. And earlier in the afternoon. But Bromm's arm was now draped around the slender frame of his new concubine, and he no longer had eyes for the olive-skinned girl in the plain dress.

"Did I miss the end?" Eanmasor asked, plucking a bottle of whiskey from the tray. Bromm nodded and lifted his sack."

"You did. I won everything," Bromm replied and for emphasis, he pinched Ilune's nipple between his fingers. Eanmasor chuckled with glee, and he offered Borres a bottle which the dwarf happily took.

"Isn't that a lucky night for you. Apliss smiles on you."

"Indeed, she does," the dwarf agreed. "What will you do with your new plaything?"

Bromm considered the girl, trembling under his arm. "Nothing horrid, I assure you. I am known around the sea as a lover of women."

"That's what she's afraid of," Eanmasor laughed. He reached forward to tweak the girl's breast as Bromm had, but Bromm slapped his hand away.

"She's mine," he declared. Eanmasor threw up his hands in surrender.

"Have it your way. But Bromm," he said after a swig on his whiskey. "Our game ended before you could tell your tale. How did you come into your fortune here?"

"Well," he began with a smile. "I won it from you lot." They both broke out laughing. Ilune managed a weak smile, and Bromm pulled her close to him, fondling her little breasts as he did. "But I'll tell you, though best that you keep it to yourself. I have a few contacts with White Wind smugglers, and so I know their comings and goings. As it were, I learned of a ship coming in. A fast brigantine sailing from the August Cities with a great load of spice. It's one of several links in the chain that stretches all the way east. Well, the White Wind tend to put in at an islet to the east of here where they transship to smaller vessels to bring it into port unnoticed. We set ourselves up on the approaches to the isle, captured the brigantine, and put her to the torch. The crew put up a bitter fight, but we put them to the sword to keep the secret. For you see, I know of their secret base because I have run with them before. Some of the men recognized me, I am sure of it, and I cannot let word get back to the other smugglers whom I do business with."

"Ruthless and cunning," Eanmasor nodded sagely. The older pirate downed a full cup of whiskey and poured himself another. "Remind me to treat you with the respect you are due."

"I would not turn on you so," Bromm assured him. "These men had crossed me before, which I why I dealt with them so harshly. But you have been only a friend to me."

"I am glad to hear it. A toast to our friendship!" he raised a glass of whiskey and Bromm tapped his own glass against it. "Perhaps we could put our heads, and our ships, together for a task," he suggested.

"Aye, perhaps these smugglers who have wronged me will suffer another unfortunate mishap," Bromm mused. "As long as you can keep my secret."

"Aye, I'll carry it to the grave."

"See that you do. But that is for another time, let's enjoy ourselves tonight. Elyssa, more wine! More rum! More of everything!"

The wench obliged, and the men left in the Nymph's backroom drank deeply of the inn's stock. Bromm offered a bottle to his new concubine, and the girl took it shyly. She looked to him as she raised the bottle to her red lips and he bid her to drink.

She drank timidly at first, but as Bromm watched, and tipped the bottle higher, she drank more greedily until she choked and sputtered, spilling wine down her bare chest to the floor. Bromm took the bottle away and set it down before wiping up the spilt wine.

"I am sorry for wasting your wine, master," she murmured sorrowfully, and Bromm merely smiled.

"There is plenty more where that came from. How do you find it?"

The girl licked her lips and bit her tongue. "It is good, master."

"Good, she says!" Eanmasor laughed. "That's the finest stuff that money can buy, and she says 'good!'"

"The wench needs to develop her palate," Borres grumbled. "Perhaps then she'll have more to say."

"Give her something else to taste," Eanmasor suggested with a cruel glint in his eye. Bromm paused halfway through a draw on another bottle of wine.

"What do you mean?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Borres leaned in closer, his eyes wandering where his hands could not.

"Come, Bromm, let us see what this girl is like. When a captain takes the helm of a new ship, he must put her to the test, see how she handles. How does this little girl handle?"

"Make her suck your cock!" Borres roared, and the men dicing turned around in interest. The girl squeaked with fright and pressed herself up close against Bromm, who instinctively closed a protective arm around her.

"Here?" he asked suspiciously.

"Aye, here. She's a whore, is she not? Do with her what men do with whores."

"What do you say, girl?" Bromm asked. She trembled under his arm and then nodded.

"Yes, master," she said as knelt before him. Bromm unlaced his breeches and drew out his cock. He was already hard, and the girl took his cock in her hands without thinking.

"Look at her," Borres mused, his hands on his belt. "She knows just what to do with one of those."

"Apliss has smiled on you," Eanmasor laughed, slapping Bromm on the back hard enough that his whole body jerked forward and his cock hit the back of the girl's throat, making her gag. "And now you receive Nystra's Kiss."

Abandoning their dice game, the sailors crowded into the back of the room now crowded forward around Bromm and his concubine. Murmurs of admiration and envy went through them, and Bromm moved a hand to his sword hilt. But they did not come closer, and Bromm allowed himself to sink into the familiar pleasure of having his cock sucked by a pretty girl.

She ran her tongue along his shaft and around his head, stroking him gently but firmly with her soft, white hands. Bromm caressed her blonde head, her pale, flushed cheeks, and her white shoulders. Her skin was so soft.

Her green eyes flicked up into his and Bromm was struck with their beauty in the room's lamplight. He laid an adoring hand on her jaw as she pursed her lips around the head of his cock.

"What's your name again, girl?" Bromm asked from deep in the throes of pleasure.

"I am called Ilune, master," she answered meekly with only a momentary break from sucking his cock.

"Ilune," Bromm echoed. "That's a pretty name for a pretty girl."

"You are too kind, master," she replied, blushed a deeper red.

"Bromm," Borres said. The dwarf leaned in close, his hands at his side itching to grope the naked girl in front of him. "Are you sure you won't share your new slut with us? I am sure that Zyrdun has seen to it that she's no maid."

"Give me at least one night by myself. Perhaps she'll come around to it."

"As you wish," Borres sighed. He took another bottle from Elyssa's tray. "But I need a whore. I'll be seeing you."

Bromm ignored him as he left, instead taking a bottle of wine from Elyssa's tray himself to replace the one he had just emptied. The other sailors had gathered around to watch Ilune, none with more interest than Eanmasor, who was surreptitiously rubbing the front of his trousers as he watched. Ilune's cheeks and chest were reddening, whether from the wine, the attention, or both. Bromm cared little, but cast a proud look over his men to revel in their envy.

And envious they were. Some looked on with more admiration or interest, but he could tell every man present wanted it to be his own cock in the girl's mouth. Bromm uncorked the wine bottle with his teeth and spat the cork onto the floor. It bounced away and he took a long draw on the bottle.

"A fine night of cards," he muttered to himself and when the others nodded he was surprised to realize he had spoken aloud.

"And wine!" Eanmasor declared. He took a bottle for himself and drank half of it in one swallow. "That's the good stuff," he slurred, his cheeks reddening. "But that," he pointed to Ilune, "is the very best stuff. Look at her little titties, look at that ass!"

Ilune giggled, muffled by Bromm's cock in her mouth, and her cheeks turned a bright red.

Bromm felt his head begin to swim, the drinks were taking their toll. "Food," he muttered, watching the girl's head rise and fall on his cock. "I need something to eat and soak up this wine. Elyssa, meat!"

"More to drink, sir?" the girl asked, approaching him with interest and distaste for the slave girl's pleasuring. Bromm shook his head.

"Not mead, meat! That ram on the spit when I came in, is there any left?"

"Yes, captain," she replied, her eyes still on Ilune. "I'll bring some now."

She scurried away to the kitchen and Bromm leaned back against the cabinet piled high with drinks. From out in the common room came the sound of a brawl breaking out. He smiled to himself. Never a dull moment in this city.

Elyssa returned with a haunch of mutton which she set down before Eanmasor and Sahat, who promptly began hacking it apart with their knives. Sahat speared a piece of meat and presented it to Bromm, who ate it right off the knifepoint. As he chewed, he looked down to the girl nervously sucking his cock and sighed. This is the life of a pirate that I have always wanted to live.

He looked up as Eanmasor approached, a slice of mutton in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other. The older pirate seemed to read his mind.

"This is what we dream of, isn't it?"

"Indeed it is. This is how the great pirate lords live all the time, isn't it?"

Eanmasor shrugged. "Some of the time. There is a lot of intrigue, backstabbing, and some occasional administration of their empires, too." The pirate took a big swig of his bottle and blinked away the rum in his throat. He exhaled, then let out a reverberating belch. "Ah... good stuff."

Bromm laughed and shook his head. Ilune continued sucking his cock, undisturbed by the belching or the men crowding around to watch her work. Bromm ran an affectionate hand through her golden hair and took another sip of his wine.

"You told me once," he began to Eanmasor, "that you met the greatest of all pirate lords."

"I suppose I did," Eanmasor mused. He stepped closer to Bromm, looking down into Ilune's eyes as she sucked. "Pretty little thing you are," he murmured to himself. Bromm raised an eyebrow at him.

"You promised to tell me the story someday," Bromm reminded him. Eanmasor blinked, took a draw on his bottle, and then lit up.

"Ah, I did!" he remembered suddenly. "And tell it I shall!" Eanmasor proclaimed, thrusting a hand toward the sky. He swayed on his feet. "Oh, perhaps I need to sit first..."

"Sahat, bring a chair. Eanmasor has a story to tell."

Sahat obliged, snatching a chair recently vacated by one of the gamblers and sliding it across the floor toward the old sailor. Eanmasor eyed it curiously, then took another draw from his bottle.

"Haven't you had enough?" Bromm asked. Eansmasor snorted.

"I'm fine. I can hold my drink, boy. I've been drinking shince you were... in your..."

Eanmasor stepped forward, swayed on his feet again, and fell to the floor.

"Damn it all," he slurred. "Drink's gotten to me... Just need a moment to... rest..."

Bromm raised an expectant eyebrow, but Eanmasor closed his eyes and began to snore.

"Sahat," Bromm said, pulling his cock out of Ilune's mouth, "Help Eanmasor up the stairs to bed. Put him in my room."

"Aye, captain. Will you be sharing the drunk's bed?" he asked.

"No. Elyssa," Bromm barked. "Is the master suite available?"

The wench considered him for a moment, jealously looking at Ilune, still naked on her knees in front of him. "It is," she answered after a long pause.

"Wonderful," Bromm reached into his sack and threw her a gem. "I expect this will cover it. Take Eanmasor up to my other room. You," he turned to Ilune, "are coming with me."

He lifted her up onto his shoulders, and she squealed in surprise. With her draped over his broad shoulders and Eanmasor being carried by two crewmen, Bromm began to climb the stairs to his suite on the top floor. His hard cock flopped ridiculously about before him and he smiled to himself. Such was the life of a pirate ashore.

Passing two men smoking hemp at the landing window, Sahat and another man separated to take Eanmasor to bed. Bromm paid them little mind, looking ahead to being alone in the suite with his beautiful new concubine. Summitting the stair on the fourth floor, he reached the door of the master suite and threw it open.

The room was the finest that the Naked Nymph had to offer. The bed was covered in silk sheets, an overly-cushioned couch sat against one wall and looked over a pair of double doors to a balcony over the main market. Through the glass windows, Bromm could see the sea of lantern and torchlights on Palace Hill, just beyond the market. Even at this late hour, the streets below his window were crowded. Through the open windows drifted all the sounds of the city on the night breeze; laughter, chatter, music, and someone nearby getting fucked.

Bromm wrapped Ilune up in his arms for a kiss and pulled her inside the room. The door slammed behind him, and he threw his sack to the floor, where it spilled its contents across the polished wooden planks. Gold and jewels glittered in the light of the room's sole burning candle, but he had a more appealing treasure already in his arms.

He kissed her mouth and held her close to him. Her muffled moan of delight incited his desire, and he began kissing down her neck to her shoulder, planning to get on to her breasts before he turned her around and fucked her. But when he kissed her neck at the base of her jaw, she gasped and quivered with passionate fervor.

"Oh ho," he laughed in her ear, "You like that spot, don't you?"

In the dim light of the candle, he could see her blushing.

"Kiss me there again," she begged in a whisper, and Bromm complied. Her moan of pleasure was a thing of beauty and he saw her toes curling against the wooden floor. "Yes, master! Just like that!"

Bromm kissed her again and cupped her cute little breasts with his hands. His cock was throbbing, her ecstatic moans only making it ache for her touch even more. Bromm pulled away and took his concubine by the hand, leading her to the edge of the bed. He sat down and sank into the luxuriously stuffed mattress. Ilune stood before him, shyly biting one finger as she regarded him. Bromm yanked off his breeches and kicked off his boots. His hard cock stood erect in front of him.

"Come on, girl," he urged, holding his cock in one hand and beckoning with the other. "It's just you and me for now."

Ilune crept slowly forward, one delicate hand extended hesitantly toward his cock. Bromm smiled as he took her outstretched hand and placed it against his member. "Go on," he whispered, pulling her close. "You know what to do."

Ilune knelt before the bed as he spread his knees. His cock beckoned to her and she slowly lowered her red lips to meet it. Bromm wound a hair through her hair and gave her a gentle push toward his cock. Her lips touched the head and she gave it a soft kiss. She retreated, her arms crossed over her breasts and her eyes lowered to the floor.

"What's the matter?" Bromm urged, stroking his cock in invitation. "You were not half this shy downstairs, before an audience."

"I was not," she agreed softly. Her cheeks were red, and she plucked nervously at a lock of hair that had fallen over her breast. "But, now that you and I are alone..."

"You fear I will hurt you?" Bromm asked. Ilune said nothing, but he could tell that he had guessed truly. "Do not fear me, girl. I may be a pirate, but I would never harm a beautiful girl like yourself."

"You told a story," she began hesitantly, "of the smugglers..."

"Aye, I did. I put them to the sword. But you are no smuggler, Ilune."

"I'm just a slave girl," was her trembling reply.

"Indeed you are, and I want nothing more from you than your lovely company."

"Truly?" she asked, raising her head up just enough to peek out from under her golden eyebrows.

"Truly," Bromm replied. "You and I will live together as master and slave girl, making every day a glory to Nystra. Until my money runs out, we will eat, drink, fuck, and make merry from sunrise to deep into the night when we collapse from exhaustion. You have my promise, before the gods themselves, that no harm shall come to you by my power."