The proud Dragon Maiden was unraveling beneath his touch, her professional composure cracking under the weight of pleasure she had clearly been denying herself for too long.
Jake’s hands left her breasts only to slide down her sides, gripping her waist and pulling her back more firmly against him. He could feel the heat of her body through the thin layers of clothing. His mouth moved to the curve where her neck t her shoulder, sucking gently, leaving a faint mark on her skin. One hand returned to her breast while the other slid lower, fingers tracing the waistband of her military trousers.
He was about to lift her from the chair, to bend her over the polished oak table and take her right there in the eting room - to fuck her with the sa raw, perverted hunger he felt - when the heavy door creaked open.
A young maid stepped inside and she froze mid-step, eyes widening as she took in the scene: Jake standing behind Raani, his hands clearly inside the Dragon Maiden’s open tunic, his mouth still pressed to her neck.
Raani was the first to react.
She jerked upright with a startled gasp, her hands flying to clutch the parted fabric of her tunic closed. Her face flushed a deep, mortified crimson.
The maid looked here and there, panicking. Her cheeks burned scarlet as she imdiately dropped into a deep, flustered bow.
"F-forgive , my lord! My lady!" the maid stamred, her voice trembling with embarrassnt. "I did not an to intrude! There are... there are guests..."
Raani stood abruptly, still holding her tunic closed with one hand, her golden eyes wide and her usually composed expression completely shattered. Her breathing was fast and uneven, her lips still slightly parted from the pleasure that had been building only monts before.
Jake straightened slowly, his hands slipping from beneath her tunic with deliberate calm.
He did not look embarrassed - only mildly irritated at the interruption, his eyes dark with unfulfilled desire.
The maid kept her head bowed low, cheeks burning, unable to et either of their gazes.
He asked the maid, "What is it?"
The maid, who was still bowing, said in a hurry, "My lord, there are two won who have co to et you."
He looked at Raani and she was telling him to go.
Jake just sighed and said, "All right, bring them in."
He recognized Ankerita Solhani’s particular way of entering a room before he saw her face—that clean, purposeful movent that didn’t waste energy on anything unnecessary.
She ca in with Maudlina behind her, and the sisters’ dynamic was imdiately readable even before either of them spoke.
Ankerita carried the focused bearing of soone who had co with specific purpose and intended to get to it efficiently. Maudlina carried the slightly more relaxed energy of soone who intended to get to the purpose but was prepared to take the scenic route.
Maudlina looked at Jake’s face first.
Then at Raani.
Then back at Jake with the particular expression of soone assembling a narrative from limited evidence and finding the assembly process entertaining.
"You look terrible," she said warmly.
"Thank you," Jake said.
"Were you in a fight?"
"Briefly."
"And the won we passed in the corridor being shown to guest quarters?" Maudlina’s eyes were bright with the specific delight of soone whose curiosity operated without filter.
"New arrivals to the villa. A mother and a daughter, unless I’m misreading the pair of them, which I rarely do."
She tilted her head. "Jake. Are you collecting won?"
"Sister," Ankerita said with no emotion.
"I’m asking a genuine question. He arrived in Roakan with his aunt and his grandmother and a forr—" she paused diplomatically, "—a woman nad Elise who appeared from nowhere and is now living in the east wing. And now there are two more."
Maudlina gestured at Jake with the open curiosity of an academic examining a fascinating specin.
"At what point does it stop being circumstance and start being a pattern?"
"The mother and daughter needed protection," Jake said.
"Soone was threatening them."
"And you resolved the threat." Maudlina nodded sagely.
"By fighting them. Hence the face."
She looked at Ankerita.
"He rescued them."
"I can see that," Ankerita said.
"It’s very—"
"Maudlina."
"I was going to say admirable."
"You were going to say sothing else first."
Maudlina pressed her lips together with the expression of soone accepting a minor defeat. She settled onto a nearby chair with the grace of soone who made themselves comfortable in other people’s spaces without appearing to intrude.
"The new woman," she said, pivoting.
"Elise. She carries herself like soone who has given orders for a long ti. Not nobility—sothing different. More horizontal than the noble bearing, if that makes sense. Like she’s accustod to authority that cos from demonstrated capability rather than inherited position."
"She’s a friend," Jake said.
"I didn’t say she wasn’t. I said she’s interesting."
Maudlina looked at him with genuine curiosity rather than challenge.
"She’s also very comfortable for soone supposedly new to Roakan. Familiar with the villa’s layout after less than two weeks. Not intimidated by Dragon Maidens, which most visitors are, at least initially."
Jake said nothing, which Maudlina absorbed as confirmation of so internal theory and filed away with visible satisfaction.
"Maudlina," Ankerita said again, and this ti the na carried enough weight to actually redirect her sister’s attention.
"We ca here for a reason."
"We did," Maudlina agreed pleasantly.
"Let ask you sothing first," Jake said.
"Why weren’t you at the feast of gods? Your covenant wasn’t invited or didn’t attend or sothing political I didn’t fully follow."
"Our goddess doesn’t engage with those gatherings," Ankerita said, the explanation carrying the tone of sothing she’d made peace with rather than sothing she was happy about.
"Her position on covenant politics involves significant amounts of deliberate non-participation."
"Does she have agents other than you?" Jake asked.
"Yes, she does," Ankerita said.
"She works differently from most gods - less interested in accumulating power through the conventional routes."
She moved past the topic with the efficiency of soone who had explained it before and found the explanation insufficient every ti.
"We’re here because we found sothing interesting and its a dungeon."
Jake raised an eyebrow and said, "What’s so special about a dungeon?"
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