AO 7 Ch 14

"You took the first dance," I said, grabbing Ditzy's hand as the band began to prepare themselves.

"I took the first and the last," Ditzy corrected, batting her lashes at me. "By the way, you haven't complimented me yet." She stepped back far enough that I could get a good look at her ensemble.

Her blonde hair cascaded down around her face and off her shoulders in loose golden ringlets. She blinked, her sapphire blue eyes sparkling with a dusting of light pink eyeshadow. The color made her lips and dress stand out even more. Her dress was tight at the bust before it cupped her hips and fell like a glittering pink waterfall to the floor, hiding her feet. She was a smidge taller than normal, and I guessed there were heels underneath that skirt. Regardless, she moved easily. I would certainly be falling all over myself if I wore a dress that draped onto the floor.

"You are absolutely stunning, Ditzy. And for the record, I did compliment you before." I told her.

She put a hand on my chest and leaned in to look up at me. "You didn't compliment me nearly enough."

I cleared my throat. "I see I've been corrected.”

“Good boy," she said, patting my chest and then leaning away, yet pulling me with her.

"Did you really take the first and last dance?" I asked, surprised at the boldness.

"Of course I did," Ditzy said. "If you didn't know already, I need a little more attention than most. And Emlyn gave me permission."

I raised an eyebrow, surprised Emlyn would give Ditzy so much. I looked around to find said permission giver.

"You can ask her during her dance. Missy and Bad Kitty got two as well. Something about fewer balls and Emlyn wasn't sure if we'd even get all the way through the dances tonight." Ditzy told me.

"That would be an utter shame not to get all of my dances," I said as we arrived on the dance floor.

I adjusted Ditzy's hand in mine before cupping my arm around her waist, pulling our chests together. As we pressed together, her chest moulded comfortably into mine. 

The band kicked off with a raucous beat, which was far more lively than I expected from a dance at the royal palace. But the music got people smiling and stepping, so it must have served its purpose to kick off the dance floor tonight.

I took the lead in the dance, which was remarkably easy with Ditzy, given that she practically floated around me. It was effortless to move through the dance floor with her, and somehow she managed to keep her warm body pressed softly against me with every step that we took.

"How am I for a partner?" she asked, staring into my eyes.

"Fantastic at dancing, and the conversation isn't trying to strike any deals," I smirked, adding that last part given all the other royal dances I had attended were essentially rotating business meetings.

"In order to make a deal with me, Ard, you have to have something I want." She pulled away from me and I spun her before returning her to my grasp.

"Hmmm, something you want," I clicked my tongue. "I don't know what a poor ex-innkeeper like me could offer to a goddess like you."

"Honeyed words are a start," she said, blowing me a kiss.

I chuckled and shook my head at her shameless flirting. Not that it didn’t feel fantastic to have a goddess and one of beauty flirting with me. Honestly, it felt great. "Well, if we're talking honeyed words, they simply struggle to do you justice, Ditzy. From the top of your head to the tip of your toes, you are nothing but perfection."

"And what do you like best?" she asked. "What is my best asset?" she asked.

"Your eyes, but only because they illuminate the intelligence behind them."

She gasped, as she playfully slapped my chest. "Arden, all this is far too smooth. Perhaps Emlyn is right and the tongue is your best asset. You just don't often wield it for good." Ditzy teased.

"Oh no, I wield it for spectacularly good purposes," I said, bobbing my eyebrows suggestively.

"I'd say I'd have to see it," she paused. "But truthfully, the best way to evaluate would be feeling it, am I right?"

I cleared my throat and pulled at my collar. It suddenly felt sweltering in the ballroom. Ditzy laughed, and the two of us spun round and round over the dance floor, nimbly avoiding the other dancers. She had a particular way of sashaying to the side gracefully with both of us just in the nick of time.

"Well, since we've thoroughly honeyed you up, why don't you try and season me?" I offered.

"Oh, do I get to roast you soon?" she asked, looking far too excited. "You might not know this, but there is a tradition in some cultures of roasting the guest of honor with jokes."

I paused, nearly stopping mid-dance. "That sounds fantastic. Where is that?"

"It can be anywhere for you tonight," she purred.

I couldn't help but smirk back at her. Her smile was infectious. "Tonight you're really pulling out all the stops, aren't you?"

"I absolutely am," she said, staring into my eyes. "Trying to see if I can't lure you away. After all, I've only experienced half of what you can do with your tongue. Why not get the full experience?" She gave me a half-lidded look, looking through her lashes.

My collar was apparently far too tight, as the suit was getting hot with all of the movement and dancing. I cleared my throat. "Well, we'll just have to put a pin in that."

She took a genuinely shocked breath. "Are you turning me down for the night?"

"Uh-huh. I have a prior arrangement with Maribelle."

We spun around, and she puffed out her cheeks in an adorable pout. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you, Ard." She told me.

"Well, then, I'll have to not only pass because of the prior commitment, but for my own personal feelings. I'm afraid, Ditzy, that one night of me is never enough for anyone. I would hate to crush your spirit by giving you a taste of my tongue, and then denying it to you for the rest of your life." I shook my head, letting the sorrow of such a concept show in my face.

She burst out laughing as the song began to slow down, and she wiped away a small tear that had squeezed out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh, Ard, please don't change." She said that with more seriousness than I expected. As the song came to an end, she grabbed me by the back of my head and bent me down to place a warm kiss on my cheek. "Now go have fun, and don't let Missy or Bad Kitty lead you astray, you’re mine tonight."

I raised an eyebrow at her words but the song ended and partners changed. Ditzy slid out of my hands with a wistful stare as she drifted off.

The raven-haired goddess Missy tapped me on the shoulder. "I believe the next one is mine." She held out a hand in a demure gesture.

I took her hand in mine, bringing the back of her hand to my lips with the greetings of a nobleman. "If you insist, who am I to refuse?"

Missy’s eyes sparkled like the twilight of a night sky at my words and I knew she was just as excited for this as I was. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and the band's slow tempo from the last song continued into a new dance number. 

"I didn't peg you for the slow dance," I said, putting my arms around her hips as the two of us swayed, moving in a small personal circle while staring into each other's eyes. 

Missy leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips, her fingers running through my hair for a moment before she pulled away, not stopping us long enough to cause us to fall out of the rhythm. "I hear Maribelle has your time tonight. At least I can make you miss me.” She pouted.

"Well, you're always right by me, given that you've literally set up shop in my soul. There’s not a chance I’d forget you, Missy." I twirled around with her, her dark purple dress flaring at the sudden movement as the corner of her eyes crinkled with joy. 

"Oh, there's no doubt you won't forget me. I simply won't allow it, and that will be that." She punctuated her words with a single finger tapping on my chin. 

"You're right. Not only are our souls bound, but I even share all of my magic with you." I snatched the hand that had tapped my chin only to reveal the purple Ardenium ring.

I had taken all of Missy's power and stored it in the Ardenium Palace in Soulgard with all of the godly magic I was draining from Thor's spear. Technically, I should have access to Missy's magic as well. However, it was more accurate to say I had access to Missy’s potency. The actual practice or aspect of her magic was still outside my grasp. 

"Look at you thinking about magic," she said, staring into my eyes, "when you have such a beautiful lady in front of you." 

I sighed and shook my head. "You have me simply enchanted, bespelled, head over heels bound and cursed to you. You make me feel like magic." 

Missy smiled and two dimples pulled at the corner of her lips. "If you'd like to be cursed, I could certainly arrange that. There'd be a few fun curses we could use." She bit her red painted lips and the action brought a myriad of our nightly activities vividly to mind. 

I cleared my throat, feeling my cheeks blush. These goddesses really knew how to turn the heat up.

Missy gave a full-throated laugh as she leaned against me. "I do so love that you're still Ard despite everything that's come your way." 

I kissed her quickly. "I've definitely changed, but I'm not…" I squinted and looked into the distance for a moment, "I'm not consumed by a hunger for more. Instead, I am content with what I have at this moment. I'm simply interested in using it the way I see fit. No grand plans for more, no looking at what I have and feeling like it isn't enough." 

"That's important to you, is it?" Missy asked sincerely. 

"Yeah," I let out a sigh. "Ever since I left the village, whether it be nobles or royals or kings, none of them have seemed satisfied with being quite literally on top of the kingdom or the world. And they still seek to squeeze more out of any and everyone around them. And I'm just determined to never become that."

Missy kissed me again, this time far longer, enough that we bumped into another pair of dancers.

I had no idea who we had bumped, because our kiss continued on and I was lost in Missy’s lips. It was only the end of the song that made Missy finally pull back. 

"You never will, Arden. It's about principles, and I'm happy you have yours," she said. She slid off of me, her hands trailing down my chest, only to glance over at my next dancer. 

Bad Kitty strutted up, dressed in blue and gold. Her dress faded from white at the top to royal blue at the bottom. Gold was braced around her bust like the others. The slight purple shade to her hair was more evident when it touched up against the gold. 

"Do take care of him," Missy said, handing me off. 

"It will be my absolute pleasure," Bad Kitty's smirk reached her khol-lined eyes that held my gaze with an intensity that struck me every time. She slid into my arms, and unlike Ditzy and Missy who had fully pressed themselves against me, Bad Kitty just barely brushed my skin with her soft chest wrapped in an even softer dress. 

"I'm not sure who's more of a tease, you or Ditzy," I said, my eyes crinkling as I took her hands and pulled her deeper into the dance floor as the band found their next rhythm. 

Bad Kitty paused, listening to the music for a moment. The cat ears atop her head were nowhere to be seen. But she caught me looking, and a small smirk crossed her lips before a tail flickered at the edge of my vision. 

"I am going to rename you Naughty Kitty," I said as she pulled me back a step and found the rhythm of the band almost a beat before it did. "Do you have an ear for music?" I asked, falling into the slow, wandering pace as the dance floor became quiet, busier with the waltz. 

"It's only right that I get to have a little fun. You may not know this, but we've been trapped in this world for far too long. Between you and Missy's activities, I can at least stave off the boredom." 

Nearly everyone on the dance floor decided it was time to twirl their partner, and colorful dresses spun and glittered before I pulled her back to me.

Bad Kitty pressed her rear to my front, and I felt something caress me through my pants. Before she was off again, my eyes flicked to her rear, where there wasn't a hint of a tail, not to mention it was a solid sheet of cloth crimped down the center, pulling her dress scandalously tight against her fantastic ass.

We reset our positions and resumed the dance. 

"Yeah, henceforth you are Naughty Kitty.” I tried to glare at her, but there was no heat to it. Well, there was, but the wrong kind.

“Arden," she purred. "You only get to call me that when we're having a certain kind of fun." Her eyes glimmered as she gave me a breathless look and searched my face for any reaction. 

"Then what do we call you after I've tamed you?" I asked, keeping a straight face. 

Her face lit up into a massive grin. "If you can tame me, then I'm simply Your Kitty," she said, her eyes boring into me as if they'd look beyond the flesh and straight into my soul. She tapped her neck, and an illusion of an Ardenium collar snapped tight around it.

A small tag hanging off of it read, Arden's very naughty kitty.

I laughed and shook my head. "You're impossible," I said, rolling my eyes.

As I did, the illusion misted away. I'd known the entire time. It wasn't my metal, some instinct in me could tell what was real and what wasn't connected to me. I struggled with the concept, but whatever it was, it was a new sensation and a powerful one at that. 

"From everything I understand in my short time with you," she said as I rolled her back into my chest, "making myself impossible only makes me your kind of woman." She gave me another one of those half-lidded looks that seemed popular tonight as the goddesses did their best to tempt me. 

"Perhaps you're right," I whispered in her ear as we came together. "The idea of taming you sounds downright delightful. But not tonight," I said, suddenly stepping away from her.

The goddess made a face that looked like a cat hissing, but she didn't utter a peep.

"Oh, don't give me that. We both know this is only fun if we don't make it easy.”

“It's also why you don't explain the rules of the game," she admonished me. "Sometimes it's more fun to make them up as you go." 

I raised an eyebrow at that. Rules were fun, because then I could break them.

But the next thing I knew, Bad Kitty had slipped in and kissed me briefly, only to nip me on the lip as she pulled away. I was stunned enough that she had to throw herself into the next spin, and I barely managed to keep hold of her. 

"Bad Kitty," I said, bopping her on the nose as I pulled her back to me. 

"Of course and always, for you," she said, and wiggled her rear until she captured my erect member and squeezed it between her ass before she practically slid herself off of me and back into the dance. Bad Kitty chuckled after one look at my face. 

"I just want you to know that one of these days, I will get revenge for that." I smirked.

"Promises, promises," Bad Kitty said, her fingers trailing down my arm as the song ended and she stepped back, only for Aurelia to take my hand with a giant smile on her face. 

"Can you believe it? I'm going to put even more entries into the bestiary." She was still excited for the prestige of her family. 

"Well, how exactly do you think we should phrase it all?" I fell into the conversation with her, just happy to see my Mantikitten brimming with excitement.