The Boarding-House

A few quick notes about this one. This is a pre-existing chapter from my novel-in-progress, tentatively titled "Eternal." I'm curious as to whether fantasy stories do well here, and I have more erotic scenes of these two and others to share, if people like them.

Since this was an interior chapter, the characters would be well-known to the reader by this time, but in excerpt form like this, not so much -- so let's fix that here.

Anhelia is 43 years old, and is undead. She was and is a soldier, an officer; she died in battle, and was chosen to be revived as an "Eternal", her society's name for those so chosen, the "best of the best". She's not exactly sure how she fits in that definition.

En route to a posting, Anhelia's ship was sunk and the hibernation chamber "coffin" she was being transported in -- so her psychic vampirism wouldn't harm the crew -- washed up on the shores of a small island, where she lay for eight long years.

She was found by the crafted-person Soot, a humanoid creature built from metal and glass and stranger things by a long-dead sorcerer. Soot prevented her from harming the crew by feeding the starving undead woman from her own energies, and the two have developed something of a relationship in the weeks that have passed. Finally, they've reached shore, and the chance for greater privacy ...

*

Soot was good to her word; for a dockside boarding-house room, this was luxury indeed, if a little tasteless in decor. It probably was the case that captains entertained their women here, either regular friends or professional encounters, and the room did have kind of a harem, pleasure-palace feel to it. Lots of gilt. Rich jewel-tone colors, ruby reds and emerald greens and golds and purples. Tassels edging the bedspreads and pillows, that kind of thing. It threatened to give her a fit of the giggles, and her laughter-stifling expression set Soot off too.

"I don't think ... I've ever ... seen anything ... like this!" Anhelia said around her hand and around held-in gusts of laughter. "Look at it! I'm not sure exactly what they intend this to be ..."

"I just asked for their nicest room, I swear!" responded Soot. "Not ... someone's idea of a Tefenin whorehouse, or whatever this is!" If she had eyes to see, they would have been dancing with laughter, Anhelia was sure.

Pretending to be shocked, Anhelia asked, "Is that what you take me for, woman? Just some dockside whore you can take to a room like this? Hah!"

Soot playfully touched her index finger to Anhelia's pale lips. "I certainly do!" she exclaimed, putting on a pompous, entitled tone of voice. "And if you don't put out and do what I want, I'm going to put you back in your box and return you to the store I bought you at!"

Anhelia pushed out her tongue and licked the fingertip on her lips. "Well, then, I better do what I'm told! So what do you want, great Captain?"

The finger on her lips stroked them, and then traced the line of her jaw round to her ear, a softly brushing touch. Anhelia's breath caught a second before continuing, rather heavier, as her senses sang. Soot's finger was so warm that it felt like a line of fire drawn back across her face, circling her ear, and moving back along the hairline to the back of her neck, further traces of fiery fingertips joining it as she tilted her head back to the taller woman, and then the whole hot hand clasping the back of her neck, fingers dragging in her fine white hair, gently pulling her closer as Soot's lips descended on hers.

She smelled of night-blooming jasmine and cakes straight from the oven, of butter and honey, of fruit-pie and burning candles, a feast for Anhelia's starved senses. Her lips felt as rich and smooth as sun-warmed chocolate, and Anhelia felt herself drawn in closer, lips pressing and pulsing against each other, as if their pale coldness and dark heat were blending, mingling into some fabulous dessert. She clasped Soot's lips between her own and nipped them, and shivered as her own were likewise caught and teased. Soot's tongue teased her, tasted her, liked what it found and searched for more, impossibly, inhumanly deep. Anhelia's eyes closed with the sensation and opened herself to it, relaxing in Soot's strong arms, suckling on that wonderful tongue, lips pressing, body trembling in joyous release.

Pulling languorously away, Soot whispered to her. "You taste of rich spices of the tropics, of sweet vinegar and crushed pepper, of toasted almonds and salt. I want to feast on you, Annie. Consume you."

Anhelia reached up on tiptoe to whisper, right in Anhelia's ear, "I'll be your willing feast, if you'll be my lush dessert," and then spoiled the whole thing by giggling again.

"I think we read too many bad romances, didn't we?" Soot said, her own stomach heaving in laughter against Anhelia as they hugged each other close.

"Don't tell anyone," responded Anhelia. "I have a reputation, you know. Tough-as-nails Hel, not a romantic bone in her body, just driven. No sense of humor, neither."

"Umm-hmm. None!"

"Tell you what; I have an idea. I want you to turn the light off, and I'll close the curtains tight-closed. I know you can see me in the dark. I want you to watch me. Hear me. Stay by the door ..."

As she turned to the curtains, she heard Soot step to the door, finding the chromed switch on the wall and throwing it with a metallic clack. The lanterns dimmed and died, and the curtains, heavy and multiple layers, designed to let exhausted guests sleep as long as they wished, cut out pretty much any light that remained from the setting sun outside. When they were properly closed, Anhelia turned to see near complete darkness. Only a little glow coming under the door remained, not enough to see anything by but the occlusion of the light by Soot's ankles as she stood there.

She took a deep breath and let it sighing out, feeling like she was come full-circle in her strange life to a place she hadn't been in since she was very young; nervous, playful, passionate, and enjoying the company of someone so much older and taller than she. It put her in a place she'd avoided since then, that of the slightly more passive partner, enjoying being drawn along by the other.

And it felt strange. Relaxing in some ways, a little touch well-suppressed of terrifying in others.

She tossed her peaked officer's cap aside and ran her hands through her hair, suddenly self-conscious of being visible, being watched. Aware of the sounds her fingers made through those fine strands, things she'd never noticed before. Fingertips down her face, tracing the outline of herself for Soot's vision. Over her ears, down her neck, over her collarbones, so close to the surface these days through her thin, soft skin. Her hands became her lover's eyes, she thought, and moved them down over the low swell of her chest and down, feeling the ribs even through jacket and shirt. Those long years asleep had left her even more wasted-away than she had been before.

Back up the closure of the jacket, flicking buttons open one by deliberate one, deliberately sharp movements, each almost a pop in the still darkness. All open, she pushed the sides slowly apart, letting rough twill jacket and silken lining slide against the cotton shirt. She shrugged the jacket off her shoulders, and let it slip smoothly down her arms on to the floor. She sat on the creaking bed and reached down to slip the buckles and untie the laces of her high cavalry boots, releasing the scent of leather from the linings as she pushed each in turn from her feet. Her fingers followed them down, over the lines of her calves, all sinew and wiry muscle, and over her slender feet, sliding the wool socks off them as she went.

"... Beautiful ..." breathed Soot, hardly moving, captivated, fascinated.

She stood again and unhooked the sword from the rings on the belt from which it hung, crouched to lie it carefully on the ground near the wall. Her fingers followed the shape of the sturdy leather belt around her waist, the black pouches with the half-moon ammunition clips, the holstered revolver. All the way back to the front again, tensing the belt to free the buckle as the metal clicked, clacked and rang like a bell.

Next, the buttons of the tight breeches, one, two, three, four and five, and fingers dragging nails over her lower belly, the slight swell of hips, and down her thighs. Back up, whispering fingertips, and then pushing the breeches down, practically peeling them from her body. One leg free, then the other, and fingers slipping back up over her cool bare skin, over the cotton knickers, to the rougher cotton shirt above. Again, buttons, more of them, stiff and loud, and her fingers caressing her bare skin as they went up, slipping between her slight breasts, always too insubstantial to require anything but a shirt over them.

Pushing the shirt apart slowly like opening twin doors, inviting her lover in. Off the shoulders and down the arms and tossed, a touch of flamboyance, of building confidence, into the corner. She hugged her own skinny elbows and ran palms up over her own shoulders and down, just the lightest hiss of skin on skin. Over her nipples, down her belly, catching the band of the cotton knickers and dragging them teasingly down her thighs, fingers sliding down her mound in front, cupping herself as she pushed the thin fabric off, then back over her thighs and her buttocks and down, whispering all the way to the floor. Fingertips stroking slowly from ankles to knees to the points of her hips, and she felt aflame for Soot, unwrapped and presented, ready and greedy for her touch.

"Come here," she whispered then, "Come here and find me."

And Soot did. Her fingers found Anhelia's body, explored every part of it as she stood there, feet apart, arms spread wide, opened to her. Warm exploring fingers, inquisitive, touching everything as if to place every shape and curve and crease in her memory. The hands found Anhelia's small, gently hanging breasts and cupped them and squeezed their cool flesh, and Soot's fiery breath washed over them before her burning lips caught the icy nipples and captured them, sending waves of heat through Anhelia's body. She felt like a ice sculpture, melting in her lover's dark flame.

Her hands caught and twisted in Soot's stiff, silvery hair, feeling its prehensile strands curling around her fingers, rippling under her touch. Soot's long tongue curled around her breasts, one then the other, tasting her, arousing her to shivers of delight. She gasped and tightened fingers on Soot's head. A warm hand worked its way in between her thighs, cupping, pressing, rubbing, pushing inward, laying its claim on her, taking her in hand and possessing her.

Those burning kisses now descended her belly, the tongue swirling suggestively over and into her navel before dipping further, more kisses down the slight swell of her lower belly and over her pubic mound, which Soot nuzzled deeply, rubbing her face against, licking along the crease of her thighs on each side. Anhelia had to hold herself upright with her grasp on Soot's head and shoulders, for her knees were shaking, her head thrown back, eyes starting blankly upward.

Soot's hair was tickling her sensitive thighs, rippling like the frills of ocean coral. Her lips mouthed at Anhelia's flesh, tugging gently, stroking. Slowly further down, inexorable pleasurable fate. Kisses, soft kisses, and she felt herself pushing forward with her hips, urging her lover onward and further. She required little prompting, and the kisses descending her outer lips became warmer, hungrier, wider, wetter. If she were still humanly alive, she would have been smearing Soot's smooth face with the liquid of her arousal, which was a flickering high note slowly building above the heavy bass of their slow movements against each other. Soot's long tongue parted her wetly and cleaved her apart, and she found herself voicing her delight in a sigh that became an uncontrollable moan as that wonderful tongue found the exact perfect spot, its tip lifting her clitoral hood to flutter and stroke its shaft and head.

Strange sensations further down puzzled her pleasure-muddled mind until she realized Soot was wetting her own fingers in dribbled saliva before pushing them slowly between Anhelia's labia and into her, two long, supple fingers sliding inside and hooking around, possessing her, pulling her hips into Soot's adoring mouth and pressing and rubbing places on the inside that joined the sensation of her clit and sent her into pulsing, thigh-shuddering climaxes, hardly even aware of her screams of delight.

Her eyes stared wide but her mind was filled with images quite different, with an unearthly glow of joy filling them, as if she watched the delight not only of herself but so, so many others, joined in this circle of pleasure. So captivating were they that she hardly noticed the weakening of her knees and her body sagging, was only dimly aware of Soot's strong hands clasping her and holding her and carrying her, of the soft bedding that she collapsed into.

When Soot got in next to her, her long body naked now against Anhelia's, her warm glow filling Anhelia's senses, her senses had returned enough to murmur, "Now you got me ... into your whore's bed ... just where you wanted me. Damn your ... tricksy tongue, woman ..."

Soot's response was a soft kiss on the forehead as she wrapped the smaller, colder woman in those long arms. Anhelia snuggled into her, pressing her face into Soot's firm, warm breasts, closing her eyes with a sigh of delight. She nuzzled them, finding a nipple and slowly wrapping her lips around it as she drifted into a slow, dream-filled sleep, full of echoes of pleasure.