Page 15 of Burying Venus

Fingers traced Dermot’s shirt, teasing at buttons until his skin lay bare and cool.

‘He, at least, has missed me, hasn’t he?’ Maldred said, sinking to his knees and nuzzling his head like a dog to Dermot’s trousers, curling his fingers just below that treacherous instrument. ‘I’d forgotten how big you are. You men are not socivilised, truly. You wish to take me now, no matter what I do or say. Don’t think I’m unaware of that.’

Dermot shook his head but he could get nowhere with Maldred between his legs, caging him. ‘The servants, the maids, we’re all in a terror,’ Dermot managed, stuttering like a boy besotted.

‘Oh? Scared, are you?’ Maldred asked, staring up at him with big, doll-like eyes. ‘And I’d thought you were so brave.’

‘I’m not scared,’ Dermot said immediately, keening as Maldred pulled his trousers down, cringing as his cock sprung out. ‘My own friend is suffering. Tell me what you did to them. What was in the drink, did I poison them?’

Maldred put his lips firmly around Dermot’s cock and gave a suck before pulling back. ‘I can’t speak and play with your cock at the same time,’ he said.

It was an ordinary man’s torment to be afflicted with women, shrewd as they were, but to be seduced by peers brought ruin. Dermot, forever keen on Will and every pretty young man he came across, assented to Maldred’s ministrations with a mere groan.

‘You’re so beautiful,’ Dermot groaned, stroking the creature’s hair, marvelling at the flowing strands like beams of sunlight. ‘Maldred, I…’

Maldred paused, inclining his head. He was all porcelain and glass; using him for pleasure was natural. ‘Yes?’

Dermot stared down at white skin unmarred, pink lips sharp as Cupid’s bow. Even Maldred’s body, lithe and small, heated him. ‘I love you,’ he said.

Maldred was both a tease and a stoic, seeming perplexed and little else. Those precious lips fell into a pout, and he would not go back to his work.

‘Don’t stop. Please, keep going,’ Dermot said, leaning his head against stone and gasping as Maldred’s hands swept his length.

‘But…’ Maldred said, fixed on speaking rather than sucking. ‘Do you truly love me?’

Pressed against the wall as he was, a beautiful young man at his feet who’d been obliging enough, Dermot groaned out, ‘Yes, yes, I love you. Please, I’m at your mercy.’

Maldred’s tongue ran across his length, those same lips gracing him with a smile. ‘Alright,’ he said. His cheeks hollowed as to further please, jerking his head in tandem with his hands, leaving not an inch untouched; little more than a sheathe.

‘I love you, Maldred,’ Dermot said again, groaning with the ferocity of Maldred’s response.

The faerie’s hands shook a little, lips tightening imperceptibly. Those eyes remained fixed on him in their usual, unblinking way.

Seed shot from him like the cannons lining the ramparts, never fired during Dermot’s tenure but always simmering with want of use. Maldred looked up at once and, instead of spitting it out or cursing him, swallowed. Dermot traced the lump with his eyes, incredulous anyone would willingly do such a thing.

Maldred got to his feet, a triumphant smile on his lips. ‘I’ll remember that, Dermot.’

In their last encounter Dermot had effectively done away with his employer on account of a good sucking. Nearly a dozen possibilities passed through his mind, each request more depraved than the last.

‘You love me,’ Maldred said, fingers toying with the buttons of Dermot’s shirt. ‘That’s very sweet, to say such a thing to me.’

‘Well,’ Dermot said haltingly, ‘you’re beautiful.’

Maldred’s lips quirked, eyes darting up to meet Dermot’s. ‘I have an idea that love between humans is quite permanent throughout your lives. Is it true you love one another forever?’

Such pretty words bore little resemblance to their carnal knowledge of one another. He’d imagined a threat, notmisguided prattle. Maldred had seemed unknowable in their last encounter. That made the change all the more jarring. Dermot could only nod.

‘You think of me likewise?’ Maldred said.

‘Yes,’ Dermot croaked. As inhuman eyes fixed on him, he marvelled at the pallor of Maldred’s skin. Even women were not so naïve when it came to men. Now he stood enslaved to this creature while his friend imagined him a mere puppet of Robert Stanley.

Maldred locked them in an embrace. ‘It pleases me to hear you say so. It is not so in my world, you see. We are not expected to have a great love.’ His hands traced Dermot’s shoulders. ‘What I desire now, Dermot, is for you to do nothing.’

Tired as he was, the shock must have been plain on his face, for Maldred responded at once.

‘I have performed a service for you and, what’s more, have been led to believe we should follow one another’s example. Since you love me, your desire should compel you?’ Maldred said.

‘Do nothing?’ Dermot asked belatedly.