Chapter 24 | The Tale of Two Kingdoms

Measurements

Temmin wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but he found himself standing stock still in the overheated room, unable to see. Issak had taken his red silk cravat from Allis's fingers and tied it gently but firmly over Temmin's eyes. When he had tried to reach out, what must have been Issak's hands had taken his and firmly moved them to his sides, with a clear if unspoken direction to leave them there. No one spoke no matter what he said or asked, and finally a finger--he couldn't tell whose--was laid against his lips.

After his cravat, Temmin's suit coat was removed, then his waistcoat. His braces were slid from his shoulders. One by one, his shirt buttons were undone and his shirt slipped off. There was no hurry in any of the movements; he thought about what the High Beloved had said about patience and slow revelation, but he trembled with the effort to keep himself both still and calm. His heart beat so hard he was sure it could be seen through his vest, and his breathing was increasingly irregular. Both Obbys had to be in the room still, and he wasn't sure whether that excited him, alarmed him, or both.

Small hands closed around his waist, guiding him gently back until his calves hit the low couch; the hands moved to his shoulders and pushed down. Temmin obediently sat on the couch, his knees higher than his waist, storklike and awkward. There was a stifled giggle, he thought from Allis, and at a nonverbal prompt he scooted back and stretched out his long legs. His shoes were removed, then his stockings, and he fell back against the pillows with a soft moan as fingers kneaded and pressed along his soles. For a few seconds, he didn't care if anything else happened; those hands could keep rubbing his feet forever as far as he was concerned, and he'd be perfectly happy. But in a very short time, he began to remember the rest of his body, especially the masculine portion of his body. It was straining against its confinement very insistently, and Temmin longed to touch himself, or for someone to touch him, but the hands remained on his feet, and his own hands remained at his sides.

Just before the temptation to do something, anything, became overwhelming, another set of fingers urged Temmin's arms over his head and slipped his vest up and off of his body, tracing back down over his ribs with a touch that almost tickled. He started to lower his arms, but the hands put them back over his head with a little pat he took to mean "stay put." The hands at his feet slid up his legs to his trouser buttons and then his pants buttons, deftly undoing them while touching his body as little as possible. His last remaining clothing was slipped down his legs. Hands picked up his feet and swiveled his legs onto the couch. He was exposed and vulnerable, spread out and blindfolded, gasping slightly and very, very aroused.

Something cool and slippery poured onto him, and a small hand closed around his shaft; he groaned as if he were dying. The hand's mate gripped him at the base, pulling the skin tight. "Oh, Gods. Oh--Allis--" he gasped, hips flexing uncontrollably. The hand stayed only on the shaft, stroking up, down, slowly and inexorably, never touching the head. Temmin began to babble, nearly crying, as his hips tried to set a faster rhythm, but the hand would not oblige. In seconds he was panting and frantic. The hand moved to his cock head and began to stroke him in earnest, from the tip to the root and back again, polishing the head on the downthrust. Temmin pushed into the slickness, open-mouthed, and the hand let him set the rhythm.

"Oh--Gods--Allis--I have to--I can't--Aaah! Please! Please don't--aaaah!" He felt his seed burst from him. All his bones turned to apricot jam, and he swooned, nearly but not quite unconscious, against the soft pillows.

"Now," said Allis from very far away it seemed, "this is what we have to work with: A very young man, inexperienced, willing to please but very much in the habit of being pleased." Who was she talking to? "He's had a few kisses from girls, and a few caresses from boys, but on the whole he knows nothing. I doubt he's even seen a completely naked woman before outside of the statues in the castle's garden. Where shall we start?"

"We have one good baseline measurement of his initial response time now, ma'am, I should think the next would be recovery time," murmured a young woman's voice.

"How very pretty he is, and how very pretty that was, ma'am," sighed another young woman.

"Hang on," said Temmin, coming to in alarm. "Who's here?!" He began to sit up, but felt a pair of distinctly masculine hands--he hoped they were Issak's--push him back against the pillows. "Really, I think you must tell me what's happening," he said, trying not to sound panicked.

"It's all right," soothed Issak--yes, it was definitely Issak's voice. Temmin felt a shifting on the couch, and his head was pulled into a fabric-covered lap. Issak's hands petted his hair. If the back of his head was any judge, it was Issak's lap as well. "It's all right," he repeated. "We aren't the only ones you'll be working with. The other two Supplicants are here. It's all right. You're safe." Issak leaned down and kissed Temmin's forehead, then removed the cravat that had served as a blindfold. Temmin blinked in the low light. Sitting on a cushion on the floor next to him was Allis, wiping her hands on a towel; she handed it over, and he wiped himself clean. When she saw he was planning on covering himself with it, she held out her hand for it. He gave it back reluctantly. Kneeling behind her were two unremarkable-looking girls close to his age or a little older. One was brown-haired and brown-eyed, serious and a little too plump in a plain slate blue muslin. The other was strawberry blond and blue-eyed, so slight she looked as if she might blow away in a stiff breeze; her dress and hair ribbon were pale yellow. The brown-haired one gave a small, grave smile, and the light-haired one merely looked on wide-eyed.

"I think you're right, Anda," Allis said cheerfully to the plump one, "response and recovery times are very good starting points, though I wouldn't put it quite so clinically in earshot of a lover. Now, come greet Temmin properly, girls." Issak helped him to sit up and kept his arm around Temmin as the girls rose from the floor and came toward him. They were much more graceful than he'd supposed, especially the fat one, Anda.

"This is Bessa," said Issak, introducing the strawberry blond. She kneeled between Temmin's legs, put her arms round his neck and kissed him sweetly, letting go of his bottom lip reluctantly. Her pale blue eyes searched his face; she sat back on her heels, apparently satisfied with what she saw there, and then rose to let the other girl take her place. "This is Anda," said Issak. Anda cupped his face with soft hands and drew him into a kiss that thrilled him to his toes. Before he knew it, Temmin had pressed her close to him; he could feel the tops of her big, soft breasts in her corset flattened against his bare chest even through the muslin. When the kiss ended, he gasped and stared dazedly into her slightly smug, round face.

"And there is your second measurement--recovery time, ma'am," said Anda demurely, rising to her feet.

"Anda is nearly ready to leave us," said Issak dryly. Anda inclined her head and bobbed a little curtsy.

"All this talk of measurements," Temmin said, looking beseechingly first at Issak and then at Allis. "I don't understand." Bessa tittered until Issak shot her a stern look, and Temmin resisted the urge to cover himself with his hands.

"It's very useful," answered Allis, "for us to have an idea how quickly you can be brought to your first crisis, and how quickly you're ready again after that. A man your age, the first one is usually over quite speedily, but recovery is quick and then one can take one's time. And women need time, Temmin," she said, stretching herself luxuriantly before folding her feet beneath her once again. "At least for their first. Rather the opposite of men, really. The first climax takes the longest, and after that she can just keep coming over and over, with less and less time between each one, if her partner is skilled. The older a man gets, the longer it takes him to recover after his first, but the more control he has over all of it. With older men, attention goes to the woman first. With younger men, attention goes to the man first. It's all a matter of timing. Now," she said, addressing the two girls, "off you go. We need to be alone for a while with our new Supplicant." Anda once more inclined her head, bobbed a deeper curtsy and gracefully left the room; Bessa followed, but looked deeply disappointed.

"Really, Allis, that was hardly fair, having those two in the room without my knowing it," complained Temmin a bit breathlessly as she slipped onto the couch next to him.

"Would you have enjoyed it so much if you'd known they were there?" she asked.

"I don't think I could have enjoyed myself much at all."

"Well, then," said Issak with a little shrug, "it's a very good thing I blindfolded you. We're teachers, Temmin, we have a responsibility to all three of you, and this was a perfect opportunity to show Anda and Bessa one way of evaluating a new lover." Issak was running a hand lazily up and down Temmin's back as he spoke, and he leaned his head against the taller man's shoulder. Temmin brought his arm around Issak without thinking, and stroked the soft, thick, black hair.

"You're very pretty together, and I'm feeling left out," said Allis with a little pout. Issak patted Temmin's thigh, making him jump slightly; Allis settled herself in Temmin's lap, twined an arm around his neck, and kissed him deeply, pressing against his renewed hardness.

"Why," he said as Allis trailed kisses along his jaw and neck, "am I the only one without clothes?"

"Because we like you that way," murmured Issak, turning Temmin's head toward him with his free hand. Issak kissed him, opening his mouth and biting at his lips, and Temmin pulled him closer. It was harder and harder to stay sitting up, and he found himself once more lying on the wide, low couch. "Enjoy this now," said Issak between kisses. "There will be few times here when all the attention is focused on you, and this is one of them." When Temmin turned his head to the right, there was Allis, waiting for a kiss; when he turned to the left, there was Issak. He moaned aloud, a series of soft, near-whimpers, as they ran their fingers over his chest and belly, grazing his nipples. Issak sat up and reached for a bottle on the table, then poured that cool, slick liquid onto Temmin again. "You will show us now," he said, "what you like."

"I'm sorry?" said Temmin, muzzy and blinking from all the kisses.

"Bring yourself," whispered Allis.

"You're not going to...?" he trailed off hopefully.

"We need to watch. We need to know what you like," said Issak, nibbling his earlobe.

"But I thought we were going to...?"

"Going to what?" breathed Issak into his ear.

"Speak plainly, Temmin," warned Allis, pinching his nipple.

"I thought I'd lose my virginity today," he finally choked out, taking himself in hand.

"Oh, no," said Allis. "Not today. Are you not enjoying yourself?"

"Oh--yes--" he grated as he began to move. "Just--not quite--what I expected."

"Where's the fun in the expected?" laughed Allis gently, licking at the nipple. Temmin took in a sharp breath.

"That's right," murmured Issak. "Show us. You're so very beautiful like this, Temmin."

The twins sat up and watched as he stroked himself, quick strokes and slow strokes, the quick ones soon overtaking the slow ones until he was pumping himself hard, his breath ragged and audible, his eyes squeezed shut. Neither of them touched him.

"Open your eyes and look at me," Allis said. "Open them!" He opened his eyes and helplessly stared into hers, panting and frantic. "Keep them there. Don't look away."

"Oh--oh--" His free hand fisted in the cushions until Issak took it in his own. It was so hard to keep his eyes open!

"Eyes on mine. Let it happen." At her words, he came, arching up with a long cry, then falling back. She seemed to suck his orgasm straight out of him through his eyes. Strange how you can keep your eyes open and not see a thing, he thought dimly as the last pulses of sperm jerked from him. He felt a towel wiping him clean; Allis kissed him langorously and then Issak did the same.

"That was lovely, Temmin," whispered Allis. He felt completely spent, unable to move a finger. His eyes closed, and he drifted off to sleep.

When Temmin awoke, it was to the almost inaudible sound of the handsome attendant moving around the room, still in only a scarf and a smile. Someone had covered Temmin with a blanket as he'd slept, and he clutched it to his lap as he put his feet on the floor, ruffling his blond hair with his free hand and yawning. "Where's Allis?" he asked the man, who was trimming candles and poking at the little fires.

The attendant smiled. "It's quite late in the afternoon, Temmin Supplicant. I'm sure you're very hungry." And he was--starving, in fact. The attendant gestured to the low table, where either a light lunch or a substantial tea waited for him. Temmin nodded and gratefully poured himself a cup of tea, gulping most of it down in one, heedless of how hot it was.

"Thank you," he said between bites of cheese and bread, "but where is Allis? Where's Issak?"

"They had other obligations. You are done for today," the man answered gently. He, or someone, had gathered up Temmin's clothes and cared for them almost as well as Jenks would have; they hung neatly on a little rack near the couch.

Temmin chewed thoughtfully. "They're really going to draw this out, aren't they."

The attendant smiled. "Your carriage is waiting for you whenever you're ready." He turned to go.

"Hold on, let me ask you something. Please," said Temmin. The attendant raised a brow and waited. "Were you a Supplicant?"

"Me?! Neya, no," smiled the attendant. "My family had neither the rank nor the money for such a thing. I began here when I was a child as a servant, and I'm still a servant, though now I'm a servant in training to become a priest of the Lover."

"What's your name?"

"My name?" said the attendant, surprised. "I'm called Senik."

"Thank you, Senik."

Senik gave him a slow smile. "You're welcome, Temmin Supplicant." He bowed and backed out of the room, closing the door.

Temmin felt more awake once he'd stowed away most of a loaf of bread, a couple of apples, some really quite excellent sharp cheese, and a few thin, salty slices of ham, the whole washed down with a very creditable pot of tea. He'd have a proper meal at dinner in a couple of hours--he hoped. He had no idea what time it was. He pulled on his clothes. He wasn't as tidy and perfect as he had been when he arrived, but he thought he wouldn't upset Jenks too much. He patted his pockets for his comb and found it missing. Glancing around the room, he saw a little sink in the corner, and by it, a vanity. He walked over, found a comb atop it, and began straightening up his messy thatch of hair, realizing only after he'd finished that he was looking straight into a large mirror with a good view of the room.

Teacher'd better not have, thought Temmin, momentarily horrified, or he'd...

Well. What could he do to someone like Teacher? He didn't know, but he'd think of something.