Tanners and the Brute

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His throat and stomach tingled, his toes clenched. With the image of the half-naked brute fixed on his brain Tanners caressed his smooth chest with one hand and stroked his cock with the other. The demon inside raged and roared through his veins, stealing logic and rational thought to leave frenzied lust in its wake. Tanners and his devil battled until they fell entangled over the edge of a cliff, crying out in a wash of ultimate euphoria. The youth opened his eyes to see the tannery rafters overhead. Tanners lay in the warm evening, feeling his seed cool on his belly with a mixture of shame and relief. Whether the demon's silence was due to victory or defeat was unclear.

****

"And then we went to the cobbler and repaired his boot, and then we walked around until we spotted a tavern with open spaces, not Halbeard's or The Trough this time, though, and then we went to the in where he has stayed this fortnight because the minstrel troupe visited, and we watched the performance in the hall, and they were riotously funny, Melody, and then—"

"I need no more details," the goatherd interrupted as she bent to pull a clod of dirt from her inquisitive son's grasp. "I well understand that you spent the evening with your brute, as you have for the summer's entirety."

Tanners folded his arms. "You needn't be so cross."

The goatherd made a face at him. "I asked you how you've fared, because I haven't seen you here in a moon's time."

"My father is already drunk today, so very well, thank you. The demon has become hard to control, though." Tanners sighed heavily. "I've a solution, but some days I am hard pressed to find time alone. Then I have to clean up the mess..."

Melody's black eyebrows rose. "Does your brute know about this?" she asked, trying not to laugh.

The young man nodded. "I haven't told him the procedure, but he is well aware that the beast tests its chains whenever he comes near."

"Ah. Well, lock the chains tight, for when the goats are shut in the pasture he will pitch his tent here."

Tanners grinned brightly. "Truly? When?"

"After midday, I imagine," the goatherd answered, "though I'll be shearing and will not meet him until tomorrow."

Bouncing with excitement, Tanners assured her he would fill her role. Melody had only time to bid him goodbye before he had run down the hill.

Luckily the brute squad was less occupied with the troublesome nomads; Tanners knew that the half day patrol would have finished its duties by the time he reached the town.

"Have you learned where you stay tonight, sir?" Tanners asked as he trotted up to the group.

"Ah, Keilan, it's your faithful odd-eyed dog," commented the plaits mustache member, earning a laugh from the other men. The brute socked his arm good-naturedly as he stepped past to greet the young man.

Tanners' brows drew together. "I'm no dog."

"You follow him around, eating his scraps and sniffing at his ass—I'd say that's pretty dog-like," the another man added.

The one with plaits turned to his companion. "Isn't it the curs and mongrels that are born with one blue eye?"

"An excellent point, good sir. Dogs sleep in their own urine, do they not?"

"You're thinking of a weasel. Dogs eat their shit."

"So it must be the demon that smells of piss.

Tanners bristled.

"Stop right there, boy," the brute warned, grabbing Tanners by the upper arm. "They'll beat your teeth from your head."

Glaring at the party, Tanners responded through clenched teeth. "I'm not a dog. The one with plaits called me a dog. I'm not."

The brute shook his head. "He knows that, he was teasing you."

"I'm not a dog. Everyone says I'm stupid like a dog, but I'm not."

"Then perhaps you should cease growling," the older man suggested gently.

Had Tanners not so enjoyed the feel of the brute's hand on his arm, he would have shook him off. "They think I'll behave like an animal if they don't cuff me, but I won't. I'll be fine without my ears boxed. I will."

"I know." The brute addressed his comrades. "You lot go ahead. I've enough of your company for one day."

The men laughed. "The widow maker has become the pup's guardian!" "His kennel keeper." "Nay, the bitch hound that suckles him!"

The brute gave them a rude gesture. "Off with you; I'm glad to be rid of your stench for even a few hours."

"So long, bitch hound!" a few of the brute squad called as they headed to the town.

Tanners let himself be pulled to the side. "They mock me. Everyone does, but your comrades are vicious. I don't wish to smell of piss. No one gives me soap, but I can't steal it because that's what animals do. Steal. I'm a man, and men buy or trade for their needs and things. But I've no money because my father keeps it. I only want a real bath and to wash my clothes."

The brute sighed. "If that's all you desire then come with me."

Tanners followed him through the town, keeping his eye on the broad back as the two men wove through the market crowds. More than once he grabbed onto the brute's wrist to prevent being separated. Was it his demon that ran Tanners thumb over the twist of muscle above the brute's leather cuff? The man didn't give any indication that he noticed.

Once they had cleared the center of town Tanners gauged their path. "You know then, that you are to pitch a tent on Melody's hill?"

The brute laughed aloud. "Thank the gods you speak plainly and without underlying meaning."

Pleased to be the source of such mirth, Tanners grinned. "There's a clear stream there, and some shade when the day is hot."

Clapping his young companion on the shoulder, the brute added, "And I have lye soap in my pack."

Despite his disappointment that the brute no longer gripped his arm, Tanners beamed at the prospect of spending an uninterrupted afternoon with his favorite companion. The brute was in high spirits. He raced Tanners up the steep path and roughhoused with him in the clearing. Once the brute ascertained that Tanners could swim he threw the younger man into the stream before diving in fully clothed.

Tanners mimicked his older companion and scrubbed his clothes with the strong lye soap, beating them against the rocks to remove the dirt. The men then turned their attention to the grime on their bodies, lathering their hair and washing the dirt away. Tanners happily sluiced the grayish suds away in the chilly stream and turned his arms to see the tan lines.

"Aren't I a sight?" he asked with a chuckle.

The brute snorted as he climbed up the bank. "It's as though someone took your head and arms and placed them on another man's body."

Tanners watched in fascination as the man shook himself like a dog and patted himself dry with the rag. The cock between his legs was thick and pendulous; it swung like a lazy serpent when the man bent to gather his clothes.

"Why are you brown from head to waist?" Tanners inquired. "I see you in fully dressed in town."

The brute looked down his body as though considering it for the first time. "I do not train in shirtsleeves, and then we spend most of our days in the dark forest," he answered.

Clambering after the man, Tanners complained, "If but I could tan hides in naught but breeches, perhaps I'd look more of a man."

"Could you not? Your clothes would need fewer washings, for sure," the brute joked. His arms flexed as he wrung his garments dry; Tanners was hard pressed to keep his gaze on the landscape.

"After the butcher's daughter began following me when she should have been doing her chores..." Tanners shrugged. "The demon likes virgins, everyone says."

The brute snorted. "Virgins like muscular young men with handsome faces."

"Then why did she not follow the banker's boy, the mean one?" Tanners rejoined with a knowing look.

"There are at least four bankers in this town and I've heard that all have sons," the man replied easily. "I doubt any look like you."

Tanners nodded his agreement. "None have a devil's eye, that's true."

The brute shook his head, a smile curving one side of his mouth upward. "I doubt that was her only motivation."

What other reason could she have had? Tanners wondered. No other woman had approached him in such a manner. He never told another soul that she once kissed him, but the girl had made him promise to keep it a secret.

"Wring your clothes out and lay them out in the grass," the brute instructed, "but make sure you gather them all before sunrise or the goats will chew them through."

"Shall I help you pitch the tent, sir?"

The brute nodded. "Aye, another set of hands will shorten the task. Fetch the spikes from my pack there."

Tanners obeyed, watching the man as surreptitiously as he could manage. The afternoon breeze raised gooseflesh on his wet skin even as the sun baked it. Grass tickled his calves as he and the brute hammered the spikes into the soft ground and strung up the light summer canvas.

"Will you go into town tonight, sir?" Tanners inquired while he tied the last rope into place.

"Thank you for the aid," the brute said and gave Tanners a hand up. "No, I've bread, jerky, and cheese. This day I gladly shall do no more than rest."

That sounded too much akin to a dismissal for Tanners' liking. The sunshine was beginning to burn his chest shoulders. His clothes were wet. The brute was here and home held only work and the stench of hides. "May I share the tent while my clothes dry?"

The brute lifted the flap to peer inside. "I imagine that there is room for another body inside."

Tanners' devil twitched in its slumber. Sleep, he begged it as he crawled into the shelter. Let me tarry a while longer. The brute gave a contented sigh as he stretched out on his back and closed his eyes. Tanners lay down beside the man, careful rest on his stomach in case the beast awoke. He couldn't recall a moment more complete. The air was warm and the canvas softened the sun's glare. The brute's chest rose and fell slowly, drawing Tanners' gaze to the cut of muscle there, how it flowed to the rippling abdomen and the patch of dark curls and thick manhood nestled within. The demon stirred.

"You've so many scars, sir," Tanners commented. "Do you remember how you came by them?"

"Mm. The big ones, yes."

Tanners brushed a raised patch on the man's shoulder. "This one?"

Without opening his eyes, the brute replied, "An arrow with a notched head. My commander dug it out."

Trailing over a large ragged pucker on the brute's chest, Tucker asked, "And this?"

"A boar, when I was about your age and very stupid."

Tanners couldn't imagine the brute being stupid. "How long ago was that?"

"Four years, perhaps five," the man murmured sleepily. "I cannot recall."

An eye on his target, Tanners stroked a fingertip down a thin white mark on the man's stomach, fresher than the others. "When did you get this?"

"Sometime at our last long station," the brute answered with a yawn. "There were a couple of minor lords fighting each other—stop, that tickles—and we were to bring the conflict to a close. It was a rather bloody affair."

"Hm." The demon was awake and hungry. It reached Tanners' hand downward far sooner than he had planned.

"Stop it, boy," said the brute, knocking Tanners' hand away. "It's hot and I haven't had a woman in moons."

"I'm only looking, sir," Tanners insisted.

"You aren't looking. You're touching." Opening one eye, the brute added, "You've your own to tinker with."

See what you have done, Tanners chided his demon. The beast was unabashed. It prowled in search of other ways to repeat the experience with a more favorable outcome. It raised the hair on Tanners' arms and scraped at his belly.Touch him and I'll do the rest, it promised.I can give you what you desire most.

Tanners reached out again to trace a scar on the brute's thigh.

"Behave, tanner's boy," the brute said in a warning tone.

For the first time in his life Tanners allowed the demon use of his speech. "Take your nap, old man," it retorted lightly. "I am but examining these ugly surface wounds."

Seemingly reassured, the brute put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. "Call me old man again and I'll cast you from this tent head first."

The devil in Tanners laughed to distract from how touch became to caress, how it shuffled down the blanket for better access to its prey.Now, it urged its host. Tanners kept an eye on the brute's face. The man's tense expression belied his resting posture.Wait, Tanners thought. He did as he had claimed and kept his fingers to marred skin alone. When the brute's strong brow relaxed Tanners gave the beast some lead.There, on the inside of his knee, it directed him.The mark by his navel. Lower now.

Tanners felt his heart beat faster, the same way it always did when the demon was ready to break its bonds. The brute showed no sign of alarm this time when Tanners retraced the newer scar from stomach to pubis; the devil grinned and placed Tanners' palm high on the man's roped thigh, brushing his thumb over the crease between leg and groin.

They waited together, Tanners and his demon, until they were certain that the gentle touch had lulled the brute to a light slumber. Eat him up, the beast prodded, while you still can. For once Tanners had no argument. It felt as though he would die with anticipation as he slowly, carefully, slid his right hand to cup the hanging sack. Courage firmly fixed, he bent his head and wrapped his lips around the brute's cock.

The brute started in disbelief, and then sat up swiftly to rap the head in his lap. "Shit, boy! That's tasting!"

Tanners jumped back guiltily, but kept hold of the larger man's balls. "It's the devil in me, sir."

"I don't know if devils like cock."

"Maybe not all, but I think some do."

"Your devil likes cock?"

The beast laughed in Tanners' head. "I believe so, sir."

The brute narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "Don't gaze at me with those lust-bright eyes. You've no idea what I could do to you."

Tanners' stomach clenched, though not in fear. "I—" he swallowed nervously, "I'll fetch your supper, sir. Or I can clean your leathers for you; I know the task well."

Surprise shot the man's brows nearly to his hairline, and then he laughed incredulously. Tanners scowled.

"I don't mock your sincerity," the brute assured him, "but you must know that sort of thing is why most men go to whores."

Tanners folded his arms. "I mustn't know anything of the sort," he protested. "My devil can't enter a brothel. It brings bad luck."

Grasping the young man's wrist, the brute gingerly removed the hand from his scrotum. "Devil or no, you're well on your way to making another kind of beast, this with two backs."

Tanners brows furrowed. "I don't comprehend—"

"You're asking to suck my cock," the brute clarified in a stern voice. "In acts of sexual nature that ranks second only to copulation."

The expression on the boy's face made it clear he had not considered as much. "Sir, I only—"

"I have been a monstrous ass to let it come this far. You're barely adult."

"I'm man enough," Tanners argued.

"Go now, Tanners," the brute ordered him. He grabbed Tanners by the arm and hauled the younger man upwards.

Tanners threw his weight backwards, for once grateful to have some demonic assistance. He couldn't leave now, not when he was so close. Please, no. The brute, however, was more than a match for the young man's muscle and even on his knees was able to propel Tanners halfway out of the tent.

"Wait" The sudden depth to Tanners' command surprised them both. "Please. Please. I beseech you, sir, please."

The brute had never appeared so troubled. "I..." He blew out a puff of air and sat back on his heels. "Have you any inkling of what you ask?"

Neither Tanners nor the devil knew that answer, but the rawness of their need was enough to leave the young man's throat dry. He crawled towards the brute and mirrored his posture, so close that their knees touched.

"Sir, tell me what you do not want," he demanded.

The brute looked to the side, clenching his jaw in consternation. "I do not wish to—the brute squad quits this town in half a moon's time."

The devil smiled. How sweet. "Give me until then," it whispered, entwining Tanners' arms about the brute's neck. "I beg you, sir, not to push me away just yet."

The brute clasped his hands on Tanners' forearms and for a moment it seemed that he intended do exactly that. Frown fixed on his brow, his sage green eyes stared into Tanners mismatched set, searching for something the young man hoped he would not find. Without any encouragement from his beast Tanners nudged the brute's nose with his own, and then kissed him.

Ah, Tanners sighed inside. So this was that mystery, why he had been kept from butcher's daughters and virgins. A simple meeting of mouths could spark a flame inside his breast so fierce as to burn him through. Tanners curled his fingers into the brute's thick hair and pulled the man harder into him, eager to feel the muscled body flush against his own. The brute's moment of capitulation was clear—tension left his shoulders, his hands drifted from Tanner's arms to encircle his back, and better still his lips parted to claim the young man's more completely.

"I'll have you know," he said when Tanners' lips drifted down his neck, "that never before have I so much as desired another man. That devil of yours must be a powerful creature."

The demon chuckled. Suddenly Tanners pushed the brute backwards, tumbling with him to the ground. The demon would have its reward.

"I should have known," the brute laughed breathlessly when Tanners grasped his manhood. "'Only looking,' you said. Such falsehoods from such a sweet mouth."

Tanners didn't know whether to preen or blush. Instead his busied himself with nibbling his way down the man's torso, putting lips and tongue where his fingers had been already. The shaft in his hand grew heavier, thicker, just like his own when the devil was hard on his conscience. So like his own, but so different. A bluish vein here, another there, foreskin a darker shade and what looked to be a curve where Tanner's was straight.

Tanners held it in one hand and petted it to hardness with the other. The demon beat at the pit of his belly. In your mouth. Take it in your mouth. Tanners bent his head and the brute let out a soft groan.

The cap was soft and spongy under his tongue. Their bath in the stream had removed scents and tastes, but Tanners found that when he dug his tongue into the slit he could both make the brute shake and suss out a small bit of the tang his devil craved. He trailed his free hand over the crisp curls that covered the man's groin. Remembering what felt good to his own balls Tanners tugged gently has his hand traveled upwards on the brute's thick shaft.

"A moment," the brute said. He pulled Tanners around so that the boy's straining shaft was above his mouth, pulled the foreskin back, and took the head in his mouth.

Tanners shut his eyes when he felt the warm wetness on his cockhead. Surely there could be no greater pleasure than this. Sucking gently, the brute slid his lips up and down Tanners' shaft, eliciting soft gasps when he swirled his tongue over the head. Only the twitching of the cock in his hand pulled him out of his own pleasure to return in kind. He kissed down the sides of the shaft to lap at the man's balls; they were so heavy, so full of virility. That will be mine, the devil swore. It drew Tanners back to the tumescent flesh, slurping and licking and nipping to coax the seed into rising. Tanners struggled to focus with wet lips surrounding his shaft.

"Sir," he gasped, "I think, ah, I think—"