AO 7 Ch 31

After ribbing Eva repeatedly about her suites in the palace, I promptly put Emlyn and the others in places they could sleep. Since Eva was the one hosting us, I felt some obligation to keep her company tonight above the rest. Of course in the main bedroom, because I was going to enjoy the luxury if I had it.

That's why I was currently backing her into a corner, savoring each delicious touch of our lips.

She was wearing a thin silk nightgown that brushed against my hips every time she tilted, trying to get more of my lips.

This was going to be a good night and I got two fistfulls of her supple butt ready to take this to the bed.

However, Eva put a hand on my chest to stop me, her eyes drifting over to the corner. "Is Maribelle just going to stand there the whole time?" 

I glanced over my shoulder.

Maribelle was currently lurking off to the side, her blue eyes piercing the darkness. Her massive curls of golden hair didn't lend particularly well to stealth nor did the blue and white dress. It was a strange dichotomy of being bright and obvious, while lurking in the corner. 

"Yeah, well, I always have to have an anchor with me, and Maribelle's just doing Maribelle things. She likes corners and shadows." I shrugged.

Eva looked at me as if I was supposed to do something else.

"Is that okay?"  I probed.

"Yeah, just, I don't know, ruining the mood a little. Last time they were outside." Eva shifted uncomfortably.

"I'll make sure to remind you of the importance of mood when assassins come for you at night," Maribelle said from the shadows. "After all, you've had two of your family members murdered recently. But you’re right. This is the time to throw caution to the wind and let you two get distracted with no one watching your backs." 

Eva squinted. "Okay, but do you have to just stare so intensely?"

I knew that Maribelle only really had one setting, well two if you considered the other her hiding the default. So, I kissed Eva again shifting so she couldn’t see Maribelle and trying to reignite some passion, only for Eva to pull away.

She looked over at Maribelle. "Okay, I understand, but do you have to stare quite so intensely? It's like I can feel you running knife edges gently over my skin." 

Maribelle blinked, and I had to hold back a laugh. Maribelle’s face was of pure innocence. "I'm not sure what you're talking about. I am simply keeping watch for any would be assailants." 

"Just try to ignore her," I pleaded to Eva, grabbing her rear through her translucent nightgown, squeezing and massaging her ass, and kissing at her neck.

Kicking Emlyn out of here had already lost me a few favors, there was no way I was getting Maribelle out.

Eva's breath came hot and heavy, filled with sexual tension. She moaned the second I released her lips. “More.”

I felt proud that I had successfully reignited the moment. My hands ran up her nightgown to feel her soft, supple body expecting another needy moan.

Only for there to be a metallic ring as Maribelle began sharpening her knives in the corner. The grating metallic grind followed by a ring repeated and it was clear she wasn’t going to stop. It was the kind of sound that you could feel in your jaw.

I sputtered, this time it was my fault for losing the flow, and turned to Maribelle. "Really?”

“How am I supposed to kill assassins if my knives aren't sharp?" Maribelle ran them against each other, honing the edges.

"If you would like, I am happy to magically sharpen those, and get it over with quickly." I held a hand out.

"No need." Maribelle wouldn't look me in the eyes, and instead kept staring at Eva. "It's also a way for me to keep myself sharp when I have to stay up through the night. Watching, waiting." 

I looked at Eva, then back at Maribelle, and then back at Eva, this time more pleadingly. Finally, Eva held her hands up. 

"Fuck, you have so many women. I knew there were going to be problems eventually." Eva huffed and marched away, though she didn't get far before I grabbed her by the hips and pulled her back. 

"Please, just a few minutes," I asked, with what I thought were fantastic puppy dog eyes.

"Yes, well, even in my dreams, if we do get past this, I'm going to imagine Maribelle sharpening her knives," Eva huffed. “That’s going to give me night terrors.”

I turned to glare at Maribelle, only to see the maid looking incredibly pleased with herself. "Bad maid," I chided, wagging a finger at her.

“My knives did need sharpening.” Maribelle insisted, but dropped her gaze to the floor. 

"Uh-huh, and I'm trying not to get mad at you, because there's a good chance you just want me to get mad at you and bend you over to make you pay." My words caused Maribelle to bob her head excitedly, and Eva groaned. 

"Really? I know he's fun, but is he that fun?" Eva asked.

Maribelle looked at me with a pair of uncomfortably dreamy eyes. 

"He's my whole world," Maribelle intoned like a woman possessed.

Eva turned to me as if her enchantment was somehow my fault. 

"What?” I shrugged. It certainly wasn’t my fault a bevvy of beautiful women were competing for my nighttime hours. That was just a result of my prowess.

“Can you do what you've done to her to me?" Eva asked after a moment. 

There was a flash of the idea, but then it rapidly fell apart as I tried to imagine being that rough with Eva. "I could try, but I think Maribelle is just a little special," I replied, causing the knife-sharpening maid to glare at me with narrowed eyes.

“In a good way.” I added. When she didn't immediately show me how sharp her knives were, I breathed a sigh of relief. 

Eva cleared her throat, wanting my attention. "Even if she's special, that doesn't mean I can't be special, too."

I now had quite the dilemma on my hands. Because regardless of what I said, I found myself stuck in a trap. I wondered if it wouldn't be better to call Emlyn or someone else into the room just to make the situation a touch easier.

And as if answering my prayer, Bad Kitty appeared, and in that same instant, a crossbow bolt appeared in her hand. Followed by a quiet crack of glass and a few shards tinkling to the ground.

"Uh, what are you going to do with that?" I asked, my mind a little scattered and slow to pick up on the fact that the window just broke. 

"Apparently save you from getting shot without thanks," Bad Kitty retorted. Her tail appeared and lashed behind her before once again disappearing.

I frowned in confusion, looking around at my currently safe room as my window shattered inward. 

And just like that, all my fun nighttime activities were most assuredly cancelled as three cloaked men busted into the room. Each of them had a small crossbow strapped to their forearms and a dagger in the other hand.

Ditzy appeared from Soulgard, grabbed me by the back of the head and shoved me to the ground.

In the same moment, Maribelle's golden curls swirled above me before warm blood splattered on my cheek. Maribelle worked herself up into a wild frenzy as she tackled one to the floor, without regard for her own safety.

The assassin’s dagger clanged off the bluesteel collar around Maribelle’s neck. That only made her more angry.

I raised a finger a spark of lightning gathering at the end, but the whole room was a flurry of motion and in the dim light, I couldn’t be sure who I was about to strike.

Aurelia’s fiery hair caught my eyes as she snagged an assassin’s wrist, crossbow included, and crushed it in her grip. Wooden splinters mixed with protruding bone and a gush of blood as she swung a haymaker to silence his scream.

It was an odd dichotomy, her in a powder blue nightgown looking beautiful, while also crushing a man’s arm with her fist.

My body was confused, whether to be scared or aroused.

Maribelle’s assailant cried out, begging for his life. “Please! Stop. I surrender.”

Her daggers were a rapid, glinting blue flash as she filled the man with enough holes that even the city reservoir would leak dry. In his case, his particular crimson reservoir was depleted quite quickly. Maribelle stood up, looking very satisfied.

"As you can see, sir, it's lucky that my knives were freshly sharpened." She ran them against each other as if to prove a point.

"Yes, yes. Thank you, Maribelle." I smiled at the murderous maid. Somehow, watching someone murder someone else just really increased the intrinsic need to be more polite towards said killer. It was clearly some sort of simple human survival instinct.

The third had gone down somewhere in the mess. At least, I could only assume that with his head cleanly separated from his body and rolling past me.

Eva cleared her throat. "If you wouldn't mind, I think I might sleep more at ease if we had the goddesses watching over us, too." 

I threw my hands up in the air. "Now you want someone watching?!"

“Well, the goddesses are a little more quiet when they watch and… wait. Ard I’m talking about sleeping. You can’t seriously be in the mood after that?”

“Well…” I scratched the back of my neck. “My blood is certainly pumping.”

Several ladies glanced lower on my body and the large shadow it was casting. “Impressive.” Bad Kitty said.

“You’ve seen it before.” Ditzy’s face was flush.

“Tell yourself that. It is different in person.” Bad Kitty had a gleam in her eyes like a cat ready to play with a toy. The way she flexed her hands made me feel like she was going to use her nails.

That made me slip on a pair of underwear in a heartbeat. "If we're going to be at all effective tomorrow, we need sleep," I abruptly changed my tune.

Eva raised an eyebrow. “Where did that come from?”

"Sleep is a vital function and there’s going to be more murder mystery tomorrow. I have to be sharp," I said, turning to look Maribelle dead in the eyes. "Are your knives sharp enough that we can get some sleep? Or are you going to keep sharpening those if I close my eyes?" 

"Of course if you need sleep, sir. That is incredibly important, and your pet would never dream of interrupting it by simply working on my utensils." Maribelle answered.

My expression must have been suitably flat, by the way Maribelle made her smile grow even a touch wider the longer it was quiet. 

"Fine," I groused. "Do me a favor and watch over us sleeping." 

"I live for it," Maribelle's eyes shone with delight.

I could have asked questions, could have wondered about the state of Maribelle's mind, but in the end, it was frankly more work than I was willing to sign up for in that moment. It had been a long day and now that sleep was my main option, it was calling to me. 

I went to lay down on the bed, only to quickly be surrounded.

Eva snuggled up first, but the bed was large enough that Ditzy, Bad Kitty, and even Maribelle comfortably were able to join.

I paused, staring at all of them as they piled in. “Are we all just going to sleep together in this bed?”

"Yep," Ditzy said with glee, snuggling up next to me.

Bad Kitty shrugged when I turned to her. "I was hoping to stay in Soulgard and inspect your mural of a broken crown. But it seems I stepped in on something else and you now require my protection."

I grunted, given that they had all been clearly paying attention to what was happening before the assassin attack. "Yeah. Watch me mess that one up, did you?"

"I don't think there were any mistakes made, Ard," Bad Kitty replied. "Instead, I think a wonderful opportunity for both of you has been born from this."

I squinted at Bad Kitty, still not understanding her cryptic words. "I don't know how long you've been there, but I already had this conversation with Ditzy. I'm really not good at translating drop-dead-gorgeous-goddess-cryptic. It's a difficult language for me."

Bad Kitty laughed, her chest bouncing. "Oh, Arden, you are so delightful to be around."

"Well, while I am happy to be a delight, I do think that the two of us are overdue for a little one-on-one time," I replied. "And if you wish to see my horrible excuse for a piece of art, then I guess that gives us something to talk about. What do you see in the chaotic swirls of my soul?"

Bad Kitty smiled broadly. “Lets wait until we are before the work of art to judge it, yes? I’ll join you in your soul once you sleep.”

As if she’d given the cue, Eva and Maribelle smothered me with their bodies, one of them running a soft hand over my cheek, down my shoulder and side to calm me.