"Oh my…" Teora said.
Percy was having a great time watching her turn her head from side to side. They were in the innermost third of the Shadow City, as close to the Sandship's walls as you could get amongst the opulent buildings that belonged to the richest locals. He wondered if he'd looked like that when he first followed this road.
Probably not. This was nice by Westerosi standards, but it had nothing on Manhattan. Besides, he'd been distracted by the huge figure of Areo Hotah leading him to a possibly-irate prince.
Speaking of the guard captain, he was waiting for them in the courtyard amongst a crowd of predominantly servants. This time, it wasn't Percy he meant to lead.
"Little Princess." Areo had his head lowered and a big meaty fist clenched to his chest. "Your father will see you."
Arianne slid from her saddle atop Myrnos. A look from her was all the acknowledgement Areo needed to start walking. Percy watched them go, then turned to the two new arrivals.
In addition to the men Arianne rode with, two women made the trip back from Ghost Hill. Teora Toland had been taken into Arianne's service without trouble, just as Percy told her she would be, and with her came her elder sister.
Valena Toland was keeping her composure far more than her younger sister.
"It's been some time since I was here," she said, looking at the fortress. "Those visits were brief ones. Where will we be staying?"
"The servants will get rooms for you," Percy said. "In the meantime…" He spied a head of blonde hair arriving in the courtyard. "I think I see someone who can help."
Five minutes later, introductions had been shared between the Tolands and Tyene Sand. She said that she had met Valena in the past. The deceptively innocent Sand Snake assured Percy that she could handle this, freeing him to see to his own errand.
"What do you need to do so soon after arriving?" Teora asked.
Percy was tugging on the collar of his harsh riding clothes, separating the material from his neck to let his sweat patches breathe.
"I have a debt to settle," Percy said.
O-O-O
The first thing he did was take a bath. That had nothing to do with his debt. Or, more specifically, it put him in a state to settle it, if things were going the direction he thought they were. A servant brought a large tub to his room and filled it with fiercely hot water. Percy soaked himself for fifteen minutes, scrubbing his body with his fingers, ridding himself of residual sweat and grime. When he climbed out, he dried himself — something the servants offered to do in the past until he insisted he could handle it — and dressed in one of the outfits he usually dined in: underclothes, tight pants, and a loose blue linen shirt.
He wasn't actually going to dinner. It had been close to sundown when they rode through the front gates. Arianne's meeting with her father must've been by candlelight. Percy moved through the castle and found a room he'd visited a handful of times, albeit after a wrong turn or two.
He knocked.
"Who is it?" asked a melodic voice.
"You know who."
"Do I?" He heard laughter. "Come in, then, if you're so familiar."
Percy entered the room of Nymeria Sand, shutting the door behind himself.
Occasionally, only three times or so, their lessons had been held here. Nymeria's room wasn't near that of her father. Halfway up one of the towers, its walls were all curved, giving it the shape of a circle. Tapestries were strung along the sides, similar enough to the ones where they usually did lessons that they had to be the same artist. The room had the largest balcony Percy had seen anywhere in the keep, with two doors, one at either of its ends. If you stepped outside, you could see it ran along half the circumference of the room. Nymeria decorated her balcony with well-watered plants and ornate furniture.
Tonight, Percy wasn't thinking of the balcony. His attention was firmly on what lay inside the room. Candles and some kind of incense were burning on a long table behind Nymeria's bed, giving off a fierce scent of lavender. The room's owner lay lengthwise across her poster bed, which had tied-back purple curtains that matched her dress. When Percy looked closely, the garment was so sheer he could half see through it.
"You're back," Nymeria said.
"You knew that already."
"Oh? What gave me away?"
Percy flapped his hand at the room. The candles, the incense, her dress. They were all preparations. It wasn't like a group as large as the one Percy arrived with would escape Nymeria's notice.
"Guilty," Nymeria admitted. "I heard that you arrived with the daughters of Nymella Toland in your party. Could I assume Arianne favored them?"
"Favored who?" Percy walked forward, unembarrassed by Nymeria's outfit. As beautiful as she was, he'd seen Arianne naked. "What makes you think we picked one house? It didn't take much for the Tolands and the Santagars to start seeing eye to eye again. They actually work well together.."
"Do they?"
"They do. Like bread and peppers."
Nymeria smiled.
Before he left, she went out of her way to feed him at one of their lessons. Bread baked with a citrus flavor, paired with a special breed of pepper that required less water. A Dornish delicacy. He saw the bread again when Arianne dined with Simon Santagar. It had been freshly baked, steam still curling off.
"You said you didn't know what task Doran was going to give," Percy said
"I didn't." Nymeria ran her hands along her silken sheets, placidly. "Only hints, whispers, and bits I already understood. I told you that the Tolands are close to our family, and Uncle in particular. When news reached me of trouble between them and their neighbors, it just struck me as strange. How could I have known what Uncle would ask you to do? For all I knew, this dispute could have been real."
"But you suspected the truth."
"I suspect a lot of things," Nymeria said. "Things about you, for example. You're not as simple as you pretend, Percy. I hardly spelled out what I knew. Yet, you picked up on it. You have a sharp mind."
"Try telling that to my old teachers. I think the word they used was hopeless."
"And what words would Arianne use, when she describes you?" Nymeria pushed herself up, sitting in front of him, the shape of her nipples glimpsed through her dress. "Or Tyene? Or… Obara?"
"Obara spends a lot of time calling me a coward."
"You still haven't given her a child, then," Nymeria said commiseratingly. "I understand. My dear sister does not strike me as an able mother, love her though I do."
For a bit, Percy stared. Nymeria was happy to let him. She had lustrous dark hair that stayed straight, unlike Arianne's. For once it had been let loose from its ponytail. She was wearing nothing beneath her dress. Even full of mirth, she had the eyes of a viper. "Sometimes," Percy said, "it's a little frightening how much you know."
Nymeria laughed melodically. "Don't say that, I'll grow offended! A cup of wine is all it takes for Obara to spill her deepest secrets. She told me of her lust for you while sober. It was the easiest gossip I've ever laid claim to. Much more difficult was discovering how smitten Tyene is with you. That girl can lie without batting a brow. They grow so fast…"
The incense was burning low, making the room's smell grittier. Nymeria had the doors to the balcony both shut. There was a very faint haze at the top of the room, where smoke was collecting. Her bed lay right in the middle of the room, centered on a circular rug, the edge of which Percy was standing on, close enough to touch it. Nymeria shifted, moving into a more comfortable position, and happened to uncross and recross her legs in the process.
"If I am right about you," she said, "and I must admit that I may not be, because you are a tough one to read… But if I am correct, you're here to return my favor."
"I don't like un-settled debts."
"Mmm. In that case, I have a proposal. Though this isn't one of our lessons, grant me a question, one you must answer truthfully."
He could tell she was leading him somewhere. She was good at that. Sometimes, conversations with Nymeria felt like a verbal labyrinth.
"Ask."
Nymeria touched a hand to her shoulder, dragging it horizontally down her body on a slow path, ruffling her dress.
"Do you want to fuck me, Percy?"
He'd given his word to tell the truth.
"Yes," Percy said. "But I want it less when you look at me like that."
Nymeria froze. She had been smiling the way she normally did, with an erotic twist brought on by her fresh makeup. She'd dressed up for him, batted her eyes at him while they spoke, and acted out all manner of seductive poses.
"What do you mean?"
Percy couldn't tell if Nymeria sounded curious, confused, or frustrated.
He walked forward, turning the corner of her bed, going from the foot of it up to the side. Nymeria looked at him as he stood above her. Percy's head was leaning slightly to the side, his gaze locked on hers.
"I could show you."
"Yes," Nymeria said softly, in the same tone. "Do it."
He joined her on the bed.
Nymeria's back landed on the mattress as Percy laid her out there. From above her, he kissed with his tongue, enjoying the taste of her lipstick as it smeared across his mouth. Some kind of wine had been used in the base.
She put her arms around his neck. Nymeria offered a gentle touch that differed from Arianne. Percy's princess could be gentle when she tried, passion just tended to get her carried away.
Percy dropped, laying his body right on top of hers. He could feel her breasts through her dress. He moved his mouth from her lips to her neck. Nymeria felt him bite her.
She moved her fingers up to his head and took a grip on his hair.
"Are you trying to mark me?" Nymeria asked.
Percy lifted his head enough for them to see each other. Her skin looked orange thanks to the candles. "Does the idea get you embarrassed? I didn't know Nymeria Sand knew that feeling."
"I prefer to keep my affairs private."
"Funny. I prefer kissing pretty necks."
"...I suppose I can't say no, then. It wouldn't be fair of me."
Percy grinned as he got permission. He went straight back to biting her, trying different spots that had worked well with the other women he'd taken as lovers. Nymeria was most sensitive just under her ear. When he found that, he left a proper hickey right on the spot.
Nymeria was breathing through her nose. Her exhales carried soft moans on them, leaking through her shut lips. When Percy bit the same spot a second time, she couldn't keep her mouth closed. Nymeria spread her lips and a moan burst out.
By the time her back flattened again, Percy had slipped her dress straps down to her elbows. Her breasts emerged from the loose collar, which now lay at the top of her stomach. Percy put his hands around them and squeezed, popping them up, inching down the bed to suck her nipples.
She was twice as sensitive here as her neck had been. Nymeria was moaning with her mouth open, each noise low and long, like the creak of a ship's hull at sea. Percy's tongue came out of his mouth and brushed back and forth across one of the nubs. Seconds later, he'd taken it between his teeth. A slight tug with his neck muscles earned the loudest moan yet.
Nymeria was the bustiest Sand Snake. Her figure was generally slim, closer to Obara's height than she was to Tyene's. Percy was still taller. Her skin felt supernaturally smooth, from the palms running down his neck to the sides of her arms, which he felt as he slid her dress straps even lower, hooking them over her hands. Her dress came completely loose, in need of just one good tug to be rid of entirely. Before getting there, Percy felt Nymeria tugging on his shirt. He took pity and dealt with it for her.
Rising briefly, he propped himself on his knees, hauling up his shirt. It turned inside out as it came off, landing on the floor a second later. Nymeria sat up, ignoring the way her dress fell all the way down to her waist like a skirt, digging her fingers underneath his belt. Percy helped unwind and draw it loose. Nymeria pulled his pants to his knees. She leaned forward, running her tongue along the bottom of his cock, treating it similarly to Percy's attention toward her nipples.
She started low, with her tongue pressed to his testicles, and drew all the way up to the tip of him. A brief circle drew a ring around the head. Nymeria's tongue retreated into her mouth, where she spread her lips and sunk her head forward.
It didn't go well. Far short of Arianne's mark and without the grit to match Obara's performance, Nymeria backed off when it felt like she had just begun. She stared at Percy's erect member in search of a solution.
When she began again, she used her tongue. Nymeria ran it along either side of him. She interspersed kisses, treating his cock as an object of worship. Quick, deliberate, and erotic, Percy made a rumbling noise as he felt her tongue coat him in spit one stroke at a time. There was a single ring a quarter of the way down his cock from her ill-fated attempt at swallowing him. It was joined by kiss marks as Nymeria pecked him in between the licks. With each red imprint of her lips, Percy grew more aroused.
He put his palm on Nymeria's forehead, pushing her back from his manhood.
Her smile was still there, the one she usually wore that Percy didn't think much of. "Is something wrong?"
"Not wrong." Percy's voice was husky. His balls felt leaden. "Lay back."
"Putting it in already?"
Nymeria's teasing tone was at odds with her obedient actions. She reclined just as he asked. Percy gave her dress a final tug and loosed it. The sheer purple silk joined his shirt on the floor, followed by his pants as he kicked them off. But it wasn't his manhood he fed to Nymeria's lower mouth.
Her bed was decorated with plush goosefeather pillows. Percy half-pushed her against these, Nymeria's head landing in the center of one.
He laid sideways next to her, his shoulder sharing the pillow with her head, while one of his hands went to her crotch. Nymeria felt him touch her slit and couldn't hide the current running through her body.
"What manners, holding yourself back from slamming yourself inside of me. Arianne has trained you well."
Nymeria's answer was a silent look from Percy. He dug two fingers into her without reply. Nymeria's breath hitched.
Percy's fingers were quick, strong, and practiced. Nymeria was right. Arianne had trained him well. They had fucked for months, not mentioning the nights Tyene joined them, or the almost weekly sparring sessions with Obara that always ended the same. Dyanna started his education, but like a good student Percy had committed himself to further learning.
His fingers pleasured Nymeria mercilessly. Each time she thought about teasing him, he would give his fingers a twist, and Nymeria's voice died in her throat.
Her back arched permanently. Her breasts were dragged by gravity, leaning to either side. Her olive skin was starting to show the first gleams of sweat. They had just started.
Since she couldn't speak, and he wouldn't speak, Nymeria took to looking at Percy. His lips were flat and his eyes were focused. She had no doubt noticed the handsomeness of his features on their first meeting. But tonight, in the candlelight, it was a struggle for her to recognize him.
"I-I—" Nymeria said.
Her sentence didn't form. She didn't even reach a second syllable. Her mouth closed with a click, her jaw latching shut, and her nostrils flared. Nymeria's stomach went even higher, arching as far as her spine could bend, before bottoming out without warning. Nymeria went flat-backed against the bed while her knees bent out, her thighs spread for Percy to work her flower.
He yanked his hand away. With barely a second of pause, Nymeria screamed aloud. She squirted, spraying her pleasure into the sheets of her bed. Percy didn't even look at it, let alone watch.
Nymeria's lips were wobbling. She was looking in the general direction of her own crotch with the faraway look of someone in a daydream. Every muscle in her face — and the rest of her body — had relaxed.
Percy touched her chin and turned her face toward him. When their eyes met, she almost looked surprised.
"Finally, an honest expression."
Percy leaned in, close to Nymeria's gorgeous face. Her smudged lipstick, mussed hair, and spots of sweat didn't make her uglier to him. It was the opposite. He whispered to her at a range where she could feel the heat of his breath across her lips.
"Now I really want to fuck you."
Composure had left Nymeria's body with her discharge. "Please," she said.
Percy obliged.
He got on top without moving Nymeria. Her head was still centered on the same pillow. The only differences were Percy's weight on top of her and the swapping of his fingers for the true prize. His cock absolutely ached to take her. If he grew any more swollen, Percy would be scared of bursting a blood vessel.
There was only one way to ease the tension. Thrust after thrust, Percy penetrated Nymeria. She grabbed her pillow with two fists. Her mouth was wide open. Her voice was usually deep and suave— tonight, it had turned high-pitched.
Percy put his forehead right on hers. Her skin felt warm. Their noses were brushing. Percy's muscles, stiff from days in a saddle, reacted when called upon, his core helping him drive his manhood forward.
"It feels good, doesn't it?" he asked.
Nymeria had no witty answer.
"Don't stop!" she begged. "I've never felt this! I-I-I'm going to cum again!"
Percy kissed her right on the lips. The walls of Nymeria's womanhood clenched down on him. Her lips shook and squeezed. He put an arm under her back, hugging her against her chest, and kept fucking.
She was still so soft. Nymeria's legs came up, wrapping around Percy's waist. She locked her ankles behind his lower back. Her bed, a huge thing built inside a sturdy wooden frame, was starting to creak and to sway. Nymeria was still getting tighter. Percy's throbbing cock could only hang on for so long.
When Percy came, Nymeria screamed right into his mouth. It had gone everywhere across her insides. Percy hadn't even been close to pulling out. His nights with Arianne were making that a habit…
He stopped moving. Their lips separated as the two of them looked at each other. They were both panting, catching their breath.
The realization of what just happened settled in for both of them. They cycled through the same thoughts at roughly the same time. Oh well. What's done is done. What now?
Percy was still hard. Nymeria was tired, but conscious.
They came to the same decision. Instead of saying anything, they kissed again. Nymeria lifted her head to meet him as Percy leaned down.
He went back to thrusting, plowing into folds that were now soiled with his seed, slamming his tip deep inside of her again, their tongues locked in the dance that was fast becoming familiar.