<a href= https://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?326106-War%92s-End-The-King-of-Traitors-Part-1-(F-M)&>Part 1</a>
“I’m sorry, what?” David fought against the belts holding him to the canopy bed. “Princess, untie me.” Princess Elana released one of his arms, and David rolled over and freed his other. He got to a seat, only half registering that his dress slacks were around his knees and his ankles were still bound to the bottom bedposts. “What do you mean, Sam’s missing?” He tried to stuff himself back in his pants. “He’s supposed to be in charge of the castle guard. What, has no one seen him?”
“Not since daybreak, sir.” Aldien, the princess’ personal guard, hesitated. “I’m sorry, but do you need a moment, Highness?”
“I’m fine. This is important.” David glanced down at the white streak of cum spilling down his scarred bare chest, underneath the halves of his rumpled button-up. He grumbled a curse, snatched a rag off the bedside table, and wiped himself off before rubbing the sweat out of his ragged blond hair. He paused and looked at the rag. “I should have done it the other way around, huh?”
Beside him, Elana giggled behind her hands, her dark waves bouncing. “Yeah, rebel.”
“Too late now.” David spiked the rag into the mattress and battled the silk still holding him down. He almost stood, but his left foot caught. The silver chain wrapped around his ankle was different from the other belts that Elana had used to tie him down, and he fumbled. At last, the chain unfurled and he stood, trying to pull his shirt back together and make himself decent as he approached Aldien. Still, the chain’s links rattled against the hardwood as he dragged it along, clipped to the fur-lined shackle around his ankle. The odd accessory was a souvenir from David’s first days in the princess’ bedroom. “Is the general waiting for me?”
“She said she would appreciate it if you met with her in the war room,” Aldien agreed, “but in your own time, sir.”
“Then I’m going right now.” David cursed as he missed a shirt button. “Dammit! Gods…”
“Ah, the great David of Cerces has been slain by his mortal enemy: buttons.” Elana slipped around him and with practiced fingers straightened his clothes. “There we go. Oh…”
David prodded the wrinkles in his shirt. “At least Cilen already knows.”
“That’s true. But a king can’t make a habit of wandering around the castle like this.” She kissed the nape of his neck.
David chuckled and leaned down to unhook the chain from his anklet. “At least, not without the princess.”
“You’re a riot.” Elana laughed.
“I’m a rebel,” he corrected, donning his worn boots. “Now, I owe the general a visit. Are you coming?”
“I am.” She straightened her flowing shirt and pants. “Cilen’s my general, too.”
“Of course.” David started out the door.
“Best of luck, Highnesses.” Aldien saluted with a clatter of armor as David passed, nodding when Elana followed.
The pair hardly got three steps from their quarters when the general barreled down a nearby hall and skidded to a stop in front of them. Cilen looked a mess. Her arm, wounded in the uprising against Elana’s stepmother Taria, bore a gauze wrap speckled with blood. “Ah, David, thank gods! I need—” She hesitated. “Princess. I didn’t see you.”
Elana arched an eyebrow. “Did things just change because I’m here?”
“No, of course not, it’s just—”
“Just what?”
Cilen cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Highness, it’s just that nowadays it seems that Dave and Sam have more control of the army than we do.”
“Excuse me, General, but are you saying that the Astaleze army is choosing to follow a pair of traitors instead of its princess and general?” She glanced back. “No offense, rebel.”
David shrugged.
Elana set her attention back on the general. “They’re not the Cerces militia. They’re our army. I’ve shared control with David, but in the end, they listen to <i>us.</i> Is that clear?”
“Of course, Your Highness, and it’s perfectly rational.” Cilen wrung her hands. “But unfortunately, things don’t work that way. People think I’m a traitor. In fact—” David’s eyes bugged and he started gesturing frantically, but the general continued, her voice dropping. “In fact, last week David had to cut me out of a gallows.”
“He <i>what?” </i>Elana rounded on him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“B-because I took care of it.” The amount of insecurity in his voice was obscene.
She scowled. “This is the kind of thing you need to tell me about. We’re partners.”
“You want me to tell you how our troops tried to execute our general?”
“I do.” Her ice-blue eyes narrowed. “She’s my friend too, David. I don’t care who did it. I just want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“It won’t,” he asserted. “She’s under my protection. I made that clear.”
Cilen cleared her throat. “If I may intrude, Princess, I assure you the boy didn’t mince words.”
“Very well, General.” Elana set her jaw. “I just want to tell you that you’re under my protection, too.”
“I never doubted that for a moment, Highness.” Cilen smiled and offered a half-hearted salute. “We can discuss this further if you’d like. Could we step into the war room?”
“Of course.” Elana tried to straighten her clothes as she followed Cilen into the dim room. David glanced down at himself and how rumpled his dress clothes were, unnerved. He was a king. And he was wandering around like this?
Elana poked her head out. “Rebel, are you coming or not?”
“I’m coming.” David uselessly tried to flatten his shirt collar as he entered the war room.
“—and then David came out running and literally cut me free. Kid’s good with a sword. I thought I was going to lose a hand, but all I got was this,” Cilen was saying, holding out her arms. Her left forearm was already wrapped in thick gauze, but her wrists were pink, half-healed from being rubbed raw. “He can be scary when he wants to be.”
Elana frowned. “I can be scary too.”
David chuckled. “I know.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You should.”
David swallowed heavily and sat down at the conference table. The room was lit only by a tabletop lantern at its center, and as his elbows hit the table, shadows flickered across the room. Elana sat a ways from him, instead focused on the chalkboard on the far side of the room. Cilen stepped to the board and snatched up the well-worn wooden pointer propped against it, twisting it between her fingers.
Elana leaned in. “General, are you okay?”
“No.” Her voice cracked. “I hate to say it, Highnesses, but I think the only reason the army listens to me at all is how Sam always backs my tactics. Without him, we may have another coup on our hands.”
“That’s not true,” David said. “And are we sure Sam’s missing?”
Cilen turned to the board, which held a map of both Cerces and Astal. “No one’s seen him since daybreak this morning.”
“This morning?” Elana frowned. “That’s nothing. Are we sure he isn’t doing something in the castle?”
“Because it doesn’t make sense,” David said. “He’s never gone anywhere without telling me first. He knows I rely on him. He always makes sure someone’s doing his job while he’s gone.”
Cilen raised her eyebrows. “I mean—”
“I don’t mean it like that, General, but if you really are having issues keeping the army under control, he would have at least warned you, warned me, or set someone up to help you.”
She pondered it. “That does sound like Sam.”
“I don’t know. I don’t like any of this.” David stood and made his way to the chalkboard. “Has there been issues with the annexation processes?”
“Nothing that wasn’t expected.” Cilen pointed at a labeled dot on the map behind her. “In particular, I don’t like the way things are going on the eastern border.” She hesitated. “I had this same conversation with Sam the last time I saw him.”
“Then it must have something to do with why he left.” David glanced over the map and the notes Cilen had made in chickenscratch handwriting. “What are you talking about?”
“This city, Katas. We have reason to suspect there’s a major resistance force mounting there.”
“Resistance? But I was just at Katas a few days ago. There wasn’t anything wrong.”
“I wouldn’t expect it to be out in the open, sir.” She rapped the board with her pointer again. “Please remember that Luim, the castle’s captain of the guard, escaped. A good portion of the army chose to follow him over me.”
“What’s a deposed captain of the guard going to do to us?” He frowned. “Cerces took down the entire Astaleze army.”
“Speaking candidly, what’s a rebellion led by a kid gladiator going to do to Astal?” She ignored David as he bristled. “There was a major gladiator circuit in Katas—”
He glowered. “I know.”
Cilen reddened. “Yessir. I forgot— no matter. The issue remains that we’ve completely banned a massive part of the city’s economy.”
“We freed over a thousand slaves,” David snapped back.
“Of course, sir. I’m sure you know this, but most of the money made from the gladiator fights goes to the circuits’ owners. You didn’t exactly make friends with the Astaleze elite by doing this.”
“I know where the money goes, General.” David rested his hand on his hip, tracing a sensitive scar left over from one of the many gladiatorial matches he’d fought growing up. “And making friends doesn’t change things. I’m not here to appease those sick bastards.”
“And I applaud you for it, sir. But you have to realize the war has only just ended, and a lot of feelings were hurt—”
“I’m not going to deal with their <i>feelings</i>. They should have figured out their <i>feelings</i> while they watched kids kill each other in the arenas.”
“You have to understand that this isn’t over. You may have won the war, but there are still battles to be fought, and unfortunately they can’t be won with swords. It may be years before people fully accept you as the new royal line.”
Elana stood up from the conference table. “I was telling him that this morning. David, do you want to step outside?”
“I’m fine,” he growled. “We need to help sort this out.”
“I trust Cilen’s judgment.” She grabbed his shoulder. “Samuel’s missing, and he’s likely in Katas. Right, General?”
“Yes, Highness.”
“Then send a search party immediately.”
“Wait,” David blurted. Elana turned. “Wait a moment, Princess. I want to search Sam’s quarters first, in case something was missed. Sam did move his quarters into the castle, right?”
Cilen nodded. “Yessir.”
“We’re headed over there.” David opened the door. “Princess?” As Elana stepped past him into the hall, he glowered at Cilen. “And General, I’m not a kid.”
She saluted. “Of course, sir.”
David let the war room’s door swing closed, only to find Elana standing a foot from him with her arms folded. “Princess?”
“Are you okay, rebel? I haven’t seen you like this since… since we first met.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You mean when I tried to kill you with my bare hands?”
She snorted. “You were in no shape to kill anything.”
“Yeah, yeah. I would’ve if the guards hadn’t left me half-dead.” He stalked past her.
Elana jogged after him. “Rebel, what’s wrong?”
He rubbed his face. “I dunno, I… have I ever told you how Sam and I met?”
She cocked her head. “No.”
“He’s like three or four years older than me, and—”
“Five.”
He glanced back. “Five’s pushing it.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Fine, whatever. Five years older than me. It’s not like I know.”
“How do—”
“He was in the circuit with me. I think I was fifteen, and I got put in the same cage as him.”
“Samuel was a gladiator?”
“Yeah. One of the best.” He scowled at his boots. Samuel had always come out of the arena scraped, cut-up, and smiling. “The two of us were fresh meat. Like, it was a warm-up fight for this huge guy with a crazy win record. Things didn’t look good, because teammates usually let you get killed because… less competition, right?” He let out a breath. “You’ve seen Sam. I thought I was dead. But Sam didn’t bail. The guy was right on top of me, and Sam came in out of nowhere and smacked him in the face with a wooden sword.” The blow had knocked out half the man’s teeth. “We won, and after we got put together in the same cage. Just sat and talked a bit. We both looked like hell, but we were alive.” He shook his head. “He… he had sold himself into the circuit too, because his family’s farm burned down and he was the only one who made it out. He’s smart and amazing with a sword. By the time I escaped a few months ago, he was as famous as the first guy we’d taken down together.”
“So Samuel made a name for himself in the circuit?”
“Yeah. He was pretty much unstoppable. Though I know that if we ever ended up in a death match against each other he’d throw in a heartbeat.”
“So how’d you get out?”
“He helped, actually. Picked a fight with some girl, and while the guards were busy dealing with that, I broke the lock.”
“That’s insane.”
“Well, I helped him get out, too.” He couldn’t help but smile. “Burned down half the arena.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Why am I not surprised?”
He hesitated. “Because… you know me?”
“Rhetorical question, dimwit.” She laughed. “I was wondering about that, too. You and Sam deserve each other, but you’re not exactly approachable. Gods know you don’t love easy, either.”
He bristled. “What?”
Elana slowed as they reached a side passage. “Relax, rebel. I’m just saying I had to spend days fighting you before we had a normal conversation.” She pecked him on the lips. “And you still call me a royal bitch.”
“Not all the time,” he argued, and followed her down the hallway.
Samuel’s quarters were just as messy as David had expected them to be, with deep red walls that almost seemed black in the dim lamplight. David could hardly tell, because his lieutenant had hung up so many maps and plans it could have passed as wallpaper. Elana had to tiptoe over charts scattered on the floor in order to examine the bed. Only a piece of it was clear enough to sleep on. The rest was covered in books and scrolls held open with more books.
She whistled. “Sam sure likes his job.”
“It’s one of the things I love about him.” David kicked through the mess to reach Elana’s side. “Thing is, though, I don’t see any notes.”
“Rebel, the entire room is full of notes.”
“Not planning notes, I mean, like, notes.” David gestured. “Instructions for someone to take over everything he does.”
“Cilen’s in charge right now.”
“But he didn’t tell her to do that. He disappeared and she just picked up the slack.” He threw up his hands. “He did the same when I was, uh, brought to Astal—”
Elana smiled. “You were kidnapped, rebel. Don’t get caught up with semantics.”
“Right.” He reddened. “Anyway, I disappeared and he pretty much won the war without me. He’s invaluable.”
“I understand. I don’t know what I would do without you. But David, you said he was a famous gladiator. He’ll be fine for a while. You’re getting yourself all worked up over this.”
“He’s good with a sword. He’s not invincible. I can’t tell you how many times I had to bandage him up after a bad night in the arena.”
“But you’re not in the gladiator circuits anymore, King David of Cerces.” Elana set a hand on his chest and nudged him back until his shoulders hit the post of Samuel’s canopy bed.
“Elana, no. This is Sam’s room. We can’t— <i>oh!”</i> He batted her hands away as she prodded his stomach. “Don’t!”
“Samuel’s not here.”
“I know, that’s the <i>prohohohoblem!”</i> He grabbed her wrist as she set her hand on the sensitive scar covering his left side. “Princess, get off me. I mean it.”
She smirked. “Or what?”
“Or I remind you that this dimwit was a gladiator.” David took a few steps forward. Elana stumbled, shocked. She had to have realized the fight she had just picked. Maybe he wasn’t the most kind or honest person on Earth, but he tried his best around her. Now, though… now she’d just pissed him off, and he wasn’t in the best of moods to begin with. Elana whimpered as he lifted her a good foot off the floor by her underarms.
He scowled. “I’m tired of— <i>NAAAAAHAHA!”</i>
Elana leaned forward, scratching the sensitive scar stretching across the back of David’s shoulders. Laughing, David stumbled backward, but even with his eyes squeezed shut, he twisted before he hit the bed. Parchment flew. Elana, moon-eyed, lay beneath him, and with one move David caught her wrists and pinned them over her head.
He grinned. “Now I’ve got you.”
“Right.” Elana lunged and blew a raspberry into his ribs.
David yelped, cursing as he looked down at his dress shirt. “This silk felt nice when I put it on.” He cursed. “I have you pinned. How are you tickling me?”
“Because I know how to.” Elana smiled at him, then nibbled on his ribs. “So did my brave gladiator ever have to win a tickle fight?”
“Noho,” David managed as he got over the giggles.
“And that’s how we got here.” Elana poked his stomach once more before looking around. “And you’re right, this room feels weird. We’ll head back to our quarters. Maybe then you’ll remember your place.” She pointed at the boot that hid the furry shackle on his ankle, and he fought a blush.
“Yes, Princess.” He glanced around once more before leaving Samuel’s quarters.
Where had Samuel gone?
***
David still stared at his boots as they passed Aldien into their quarters, but the moment the door closed, he found himself sprawled on the plush carpet between Elana’s closet and bed with her straddling his hips.
“Princess!”
She arched an eyebrow. “Are you still in a sour mood?”
“What if I am? My best friend’s missing—<i> no!”</i>
She poked his stomach again. “I know how to put a smile on your pretty face.”
“My face isn’t pretty— <i>Princess!”</i>
“Of course you are. A long time ago, someone broke your nose just the right way.” She tweaked it, then feathered her nails down his throat.
He snickered and batted her away. “Would you stop?”
“Nope.” She kissed him, and despite himself David deepened it, sitting up and pulling her into his lap. Elana may push him around, but David stood a good few inches taller than her, and unlike him, she’d grown up as royalty with nothing but good food and cushy living. He got his feet under him and, hugging Elana to his frame, staggered forward until his knees hit the mattress. They collapsed, but David twisted so Elana hit the sheets first, only then breaking the kiss.
Elana glanced up as David collected her wrists and pinned them against the bed above her. “What are you planning, rebel?”
“You know, Princess? You’re right. I’m a gods-damned king. Maybe it’s time I— <i>FUCK!”</i> David squealed and collapsed on top of her as she blew a raspberry into his ribs. She squirmed free, and though David scrambled to get a hold of her, she found a grip on the wide scar stretching up David’s left side. He fought, but doubled over trying to protect his belly.
Elana collected the silver chain trailing from her bedpost and clipped it onto David’s anklet. “What am I going to do with you, rebel?”
He lowered his head. “Whatever you want.”
“What was that?”
“You can do whatever you want to me, Princess,” he repeated, clenching his fists. “I’m just a captured traitor.”
She grabbed his chin and lifted his head so she could meet his eyes. “Maybe that’s true, David, but you’re also a gods-damned king. Don’t you ever lose your nerve. Promise me that.”
“Of course, Princess.”
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
“There’s the David of Cerces I know.” She kissed him. “Now, traitor, you just attacked the Princess of Astal.”
“Oh? I plead not guilty.”
“You’ve been found guilty.” She nudged him back onto the bed, and once again he skidded on the satin sheets thanks to his sleek dress wear. “The crown sentences you to one hour of torture.”
“Only an hour?” He shrugged off his shirt. “How merciful of you.”
“You did say you were tired.” Elana pointed at his pants while she fished the blindfold out of her toy box. “Those too.”
“Okay, Princess.” David wiggled out of his pants, adjusted the shackle, and lay back. He was already getting hard.
“Not quite.” Elana dropped a massive pillow onto the bed next to David.
“Are you serious? Elana, that really hurt my bad shoulder—”
“I always fix your shoulder.” She kissed his cheek. “Now get your ass on that pillow.”
He mumbled something, but adjusted himself on the pillow so that his hips were thrust up off the bed. Elana gently tied on his blindfold, then pulled his arms and legs to the bedposts. David grimaced and wiggled his right arm. Elana rubbed his collarbone and he relaxed. “Thanks, Princess.”
“You’re not going to be thanking me for long, rebel. Your sentence has just begun.”
Five fingers pressed against the center of his belly and rubbed in circles.
<i>“NAH!” </i>David tried to lurch and got nowhere. Meanwhile, her hand roved around, reaching his right side and moving down to his hip.
“One hour, rebel. Can you handle it?”
“I… can… I CAN!” He yelped as she poked his navel.
“You escaped the Dalle dungeon, didn’t you? That’s where some of these scars come from? And you can’t handle a little tickling?”
“I can!” Her fingers had jumped to the hollow of his armpit, and suddenly her other hand joined in, torturing his other side. David screamed, his eyes flying wide. She ran her nails along his shoulder and under his chin. He cringed away, and Elana took advantage, reaching over his shoulder to trace the sensitive scrape scar that stretched over his upper back. He let out an unmanly squeal and winced. “Dammit, Princess, not there!”
“I thought I could do whatever I want to you.”
He mumbled another curse, swallowing a fit of giggles. “Yeah.”
“I thought so.” Her hands kept moving, squeezing his hips, his ribs, his sides, all the while carefully avoiding the scar that covered the left half of his stomach. Even without her toying with that sensitive spot, tears leaked out of David’s eyes and seeped into his blindfold, mixing with the sweat covering his face.
He felt Elana scoot down, planting herself between his legs and his awkwardly presented erection. “It seems you enjoy your punishments, rebel.”
“Since when…” he gasped, “… is that new?”
“Fair,” she admitted, and grabbed him. David jerked, even knowing his struggling’s futility. A breath of warm air covered the head of his cock, then Elana took as much of it into her mouth as she could. David froze, then frantically tried to thrust in tandem with her, but every time they fell in step she pulled away.
“Princess, please—”
“It hasn’t even been close to an hour, David.”
“No…” Elana played her share of games, but she was honest in that much. “How much—”
“Plenty of time.” She rubbed the sides of his groin, and he howled. Her fingers grazed the underside of his balls, then pressed the spot where his legs met his hips. As David gasped, she chuckled and got to her feet, her boots almost soundless as she moved back around to the head of the bed. David jumped when she spoke again, right beside him. “David of Cerces, do you submit your reign to the kingdom of Astal?”
David’s brow furrowed. “What? I— oh.” She was quoting her stepmother, back from that long day he spent under her version of torture. He took a breath and scowled as best he could. Many long nights he’d spent wary of knives and mutiny, but somehow he’d lost his near-superhuman ability to keep a straight face. “Fuck no.”
“Then we begin,” she announced, and dropped something heavy on the bed. Her crate of toys. He sucked in a breath as she popped open a bottle of massage oil. “Aw, don’t look like that, rebel. I’ve hardly touched you.”
“I know,” he mumbled, and winced as the cold oil met the blonde fuzz inside his armpits. “Gently, okay?”
She slathered more oil across his chest, careful to tweak his nipples in the process, then David gasped as she spread it over the sensitive scar on his side. “If I was gentle, then it wouldn’t be torture, would it?”
“Yeah,” he admitted, but shook his head as she dropped a boot brush square in the center of his chest. “Elana, you wouldn’t.”
“Torture,” she chimed, then dropped another mass of soft bristles beside the first.
“No. How many of those do you have?”
“I asked Aldien for a few things. That’s just the beginning, rebel.”
“No,” he whined, then screamed as she ran the brush down his arm, into his armpit, and down his ribs.
“This’ll be fun.” Elana rubbed the brush into his armpit again, mimicking the move in the other. David thrashed against the pillows and grasped for the knots holding him down, but got nowhere. Elana just continued, following the lines of his ribs, tracing his collarbones, and his laughter peaked when she grazed his nipples.
She pecked his sweaty, flushed cheek. “Don’t worry, rebel. I’ve got a special surprise for those.”
David did not like the sound of that, but she’d gone right back to playing with the fuzz in his armpits again and his coherency was lost to panic.
At last she sat back and brought his chin up with one finger. “We’re about halfway through.”
“Halfway?” he blurted. It had been far longer than thirty minutes. It had to be.
“Halfway,” Elana agreed. “Now I’ve got another new toy, or I can use these brushes,” she rubbed his ribs again, “on your scar. What’ll it be?”
He choked back giggles, his voice hoarse. “New toy.”
“Really? Even if you don’t know what it is?”
“Please… please don’t tickle my scar with those.”
“Okay.” He felt her shrug. “You asked for it.”
A tiny patch of smooth, even softer bristles met his right nipple, and he screamed in a pitch he’d only reached a handful of times while cuffed to that very bed. Elana pulled back immediately.
“T-thank you.” He gasped for air. “What… what is that?”
“A calligraphy brush. What do you think?”
“You’re asking me what I think?” he snapped.
“If you’re going to act like that, then I’m going to get the two of you acquainted.” She tugged on his nipple again, holding it stiff as she scrubbed around it. David’s laughter had gone silent, but after a few minutes she moved to his other nipple. When David’s breath started to fail him in earnest, she sat back. “I think that’s enough for now.”
“Oh… oh, t-thank you, Princess—”
“I still have five minutes though.” She rested a hand on his scarred side. “I didn’t use the brushes on this, did I?”
“What? No, NO! You <i>PROHOHOMIHIHISED!” </i>His laughter went silent again as she scrubbed the left side of his belly.
“I didn’t promise anything,” she corrected, and continued her assault. “Maybe you’ll like this better in your belly button.”
David’s silent struggles broke for a moment as he screeched. The calligraphy brush met the outer edge of his navel and swirled around before entering his innie, which was also swallowed up by his scar.
“Wow,” Elana said, “I knew it was ticklish, but not this ticklish.” She drew back. “I think this is my new favorite. I can’t wait until I have my rebel in the stocks and I can try it out on those toe stems of his.”
David mumbled a protest, but his voice wasn’t working anymore.
“Yeah. But now his torture is over, and I owe him something.” The weight on the mattress shifted, and Elana’s breath met the head of his cock once more. “Still there, David?”
He nodded, but lurched as the brush touched the underside of his dick.
“Sorry, rebel, just checking.” With that, she swallowed his dick whole, sucking and toying with it with her tongue. In the span that they’ve known each other, Elana had proved a master at giving head, and David lost himself in the mix of exhaustion, exhilaration, and pleasure. He grunted, and still attempted to buck off the pillow as he orgasmed. Elana said something, but he let himself fall back into the darkness that had been threatening him for the past hour.
Elana wiped the last of the white cum from her lips and looked up. David was still red in the face and half-hard, but his chest was moving as slow as it did after he fell asleep. She put away the brushes and set the crate on the floor, instead leaning up to undo his sweaty blindfold. She smiled at him, his face slack and calm in sleep, then reached up to undo the ties holding down his arms. She’d screwed up and had tickled him for two and a half hours instead of just one, but what he didn’t know would never hurt him.
She removed the pillow from under his ass, then flopped down next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He mumbled something in his sleep, then brought down his arm from the spread eagle position he’d been tied in and draped it over her waist. She smiled and closed her eyes, the scent of rose massage oil and David’s rhythmic heartbeat lulling her to sleep.
“I’m sorry, what?” David fought against the belts holding him to the canopy bed. “Princess, untie me.” Princess Elana released one of his arms, and David rolled over and freed his other. He got to a seat, only half registering that his dress slacks were around his knees and his ankles were still bound to the bottom bedposts. “What do you mean, Sam’s missing?” He tried to stuff himself back in his pants. “He’s supposed to be in charge of the castle guard. What, has no one seen him?”
“Not since daybreak, sir.” Aldien, the princess’ personal guard, hesitated. “I’m sorry, but do you need a moment, Highness?”
“I’m fine. This is important.” David glanced down at the white streak of cum spilling down his scarred bare chest, underneath the halves of his rumpled button-up. He grumbled a curse, snatched a rag off the bedside table, and wiped himself off before rubbing the sweat out of his ragged blond hair. He paused and looked at the rag. “I should have done it the other way around, huh?”
Beside him, Elana giggled behind her hands, her dark waves bouncing. “Yeah, rebel.”
“Too late now.” David spiked the rag into the mattress and battled the silk still holding him down. He almost stood, but his left foot caught. The silver chain wrapped around his ankle was different from the other belts that Elana had used to tie him down, and he fumbled. At last, the chain unfurled and he stood, trying to pull his shirt back together and make himself decent as he approached Aldien. Still, the chain’s links rattled against the hardwood as he dragged it along, clipped to the fur-lined shackle around his ankle. The odd accessory was a souvenir from David’s first days in the princess’ bedroom. “Is the general waiting for me?”
“She said she would appreciate it if you met with her in the war room,” Aldien agreed, “but in your own time, sir.”
“Then I’m going right now.” David cursed as he missed a shirt button. “Dammit! Gods…”
“Ah, the great David of Cerces has been slain by his mortal enemy: buttons.” Elana slipped around him and with practiced fingers straightened his clothes. “There we go. Oh…”
David prodded the wrinkles in his shirt. “At least Cilen already knows.”
“That’s true. But a king can’t make a habit of wandering around the castle like this.” She kissed the nape of his neck.
David chuckled and leaned down to unhook the chain from his anklet. “At least, not without the princess.”
“You’re a riot.” Elana laughed.
“I’m a rebel,” he corrected, donning his worn boots. “Now, I owe the general a visit. Are you coming?”
“I am.” She straightened her flowing shirt and pants. “Cilen’s my general, too.”
“Of course.” David started out the door.
“Best of luck, Highnesses.” Aldien saluted with a clatter of armor as David passed, nodding when Elana followed.
The pair hardly got three steps from their quarters when the general barreled down a nearby hall and skidded to a stop in front of them. Cilen looked a mess. Her arm, wounded in the uprising against Elana’s stepmother Taria, bore a gauze wrap speckled with blood. “Ah, David, thank gods! I need—” She hesitated. “Princess. I didn’t see you.”
Elana arched an eyebrow. “Did things just change because I’m here?”
“No, of course not, it’s just—”
“Just what?”
Cilen cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Highness, it’s just that nowadays it seems that Dave and Sam have more control of the army than we do.”
“Excuse me, General, but are you saying that the Astaleze army is choosing to follow a pair of traitors instead of its princess and general?” She glanced back. “No offense, rebel.”
David shrugged.
Elana set her attention back on the general. “They’re not the Cerces militia. They’re our army. I’ve shared control with David, but in the end, they listen to <i>us.</i> Is that clear?”
“Of course, Your Highness, and it’s perfectly rational.” Cilen wrung her hands. “But unfortunately, things don’t work that way. People think I’m a traitor. In fact—” David’s eyes bugged and he started gesturing frantically, but the general continued, her voice dropping. “In fact, last week David had to cut me out of a gallows.”
“He <i>what?” </i>Elana rounded on him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“B-because I took care of it.” The amount of insecurity in his voice was obscene.
She scowled. “This is the kind of thing you need to tell me about. We’re partners.”
“You want me to tell you how our troops tried to execute our general?”
“I do.” Her ice-blue eyes narrowed. “She’s my friend too, David. I don’t care who did it. I just want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“It won’t,” he asserted. “She’s under my protection. I made that clear.”
Cilen cleared her throat. “If I may intrude, Princess, I assure you the boy didn’t mince words.”
“Very well, General.” Elana set her jaw. “I just want to tell you that you’re under my protection, too.”
“I never doubted that for a moment, Highness.” Cilen smiled and offered a half-hearted salute. “We can discuss this further if you’d like. Could we step into the war room?”
“Of course.” Elana tried to straighten her clothes as she followed Cilen into the dim room. David glanced down at himself and how rumpled his dress clothes were, unnerved. He was a king. And he was wandering around like this?
Elana poked her head out. “Rebel, are you coming or not?”
“I’m coming.” David uselessly tried to flatten his shirt collar as he entered the war room.
“—and then David came out running and literally cut me free. Kid’s good with a sword. I thought I was going to lose a hand, but all I got was this,” Cilen was saying, holding out her arms. Her left forearm was already wrapped in thick gauze, but her wrists were pink, half-healed from being rubbed raw. “He can be scary when he wants to be.”
Elana frowned. “I can be scary too.”
David chuckled. “I know.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You should.”
David swallowed heavily and sat down at the conference table. The room was lit only by a tabletop lantern at its center, and as his elbows hit the table, shadows flickered across the room. Elana sat a ways from him, instead focused on the chalkboard on the far side of the room. Cilen stepped to the board and snatched up the well-worn wooden pointer propped against it, twisting it between her fingers.
Elana leaned in. “General, are you okay?”
“No.” Her voice cracked. “I hate to say it, Highnesses, but I think the only reason the army listens to me at all is how Sam always backs my tactics. Without him, we may have another coup on our hands.”
“That’s not true,” David said. “And are we sure Sam’s missing?”
Cilen turned to the board, which held a map of both Cerces and Astal. “No one’s seen him since daybreak this morning.”
“This morning?” Elana frowned. “That’s nothing. Are we sure he isn’t doing something in the castle?”
“Because it doesn’t make sense,” David said. “He’s never gone anywhere without telling me first. He knows I rely on him. He always makes sure someone’s doing his job while he’s gone.”
Cilen raised her eyebrows. “I mean—”
“I don’t mean it like that, General, but if you really are having issues keeping the army under control, he would have at least warned you, warned me, or set someone up to help you.”
She pondered it. “That does sound like Sam.”
“I don’t know. I don’t like any of this.” David stood and made his way to the chalkboard. “Has there been issues with the annexation processes?”
“Nothing that wasn’t expected.” Cilen pointed at a labeled dot on the map behind her. “In particular, I don’t like the way things are going on the eastern border.” She hesitated. “I had this same conversation with Sam the last time I saw him.”
“Then it must have something to do with why he left.” David glanced over the map and the notes Cilen had made in chickenscratch handwriting. “What are you talking about?”
“This city, Katas. We have reason to suspect there’s a major resistance force mounting there.”
“Resistance? But I was just at Katas a few days ago. There wasn’t anything wrong.”
“I wouldn’t expect it to be out in the open, sir.” She rapped the board with her pointer again. “Please remember that Luim, the castle’s captain of the guard, escaped. A good portion of the army chose to follow him over me.”
“What’s a deposed captain of the guard going to do to us?” He frowned. “Cerces took down the entire Astaleze army.”
“Speaking candidly, what’s a rebellion led by a kid gladiator going to do to Astal?” She ignored David as he bristled. “There was a major gladiator circuit in Katas—”
He glowered. “I know.”
Cilen reddened. “Yessir. I forgot— no matter. The issue remains that we’ve completely banned a massive part of the city’s economy.”
“We freed over a thousand slaves,” David snapped back.
“Of course, sir. I’m sure you know this, but most of the money made from the gladiator fights goes to the circuits’ owners. You didn’t exactly make friends with the Astaleze elite by doing this.”
“I know where the money goes, General.” David rested his hand on his hip, tracing a sensitive scar left over from one of the many gladiatorial matches he’d fought growing up. “And making friends doesn’t change things. I’m not here to appease those sick bastards.”
“And I applaud you for it, sir. But you have to realize the war has only just ended, and a lot of feelings were hurt—”
“I’m not going to deal with their <i>feelings</i>. They should have figured out their <i>feelings</i> while they watched kids kill each other in the arenas.”
“You have to understand that this isn’t over. You may have won the war, but there are still battles to be fought, and unfortunately they can’t be won with swords. It may be years before people fully accept you as the new royal line.”
Elana stood up from the conference table. “I was telling him that this morning. David, do you want to step outside?”
“I’m fine,” he growled. “We need to help sort this out.”
“I trust Cilen’s judgment.” She grabbed his shoulder. “Samuel’s missing, and he’s likely in Katas. Right, General?”
“Yes, Highness.”
“Then send a search party immediately.”
“Wait,” David blurted. Elana turned. “Wait a moment, Princess. I want to search Sam’s quarters first, in case something was missed. Sam did move his quarters into the castle, right?”
Cilen nodded. “Yessir.”
“We’re headed over there.” David opened the door. “Princess?” As Elana stepped past him into the hall, he glowered at Cilen. “And General, I’m not a kid.”
She saluted. “Of course, sir.”
David let the war room’s door swing closed, only to find Elana standing a foot from him with her arms folded. “Princess?”
“Are you okay, rebel? I haven’t seen you like this since… since we first met.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You mean when I tried to kill you with my bare hands?”
She snorted. “You were in no shape to kill anything.”
“Yeah, yeah. I would’ve if the guards hadn’t left me half-dead.” He stalked past her.
Elana jogged after him. “Rebel, what’s wrong?”
He rubbed his face. “I dunno, I… have I ever told you how Sam and I met?”
She cocked her head. “No.”
“He’s like three or four years older than me, and—”
“Five.”
He glanced back. “Five’s pushing it.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Fine, whatever. Five years older than me. It’s not like I know.”
“How do—”
“He was in the circuit with me. I think I was fifteen, and I got put in the same cage as him.”
“Samuel was a gladiator?”
“Yeah. One of the best.” He scowled at his boots. Samuel had always come out of the arena scraped, cut-up, and smiling. “The two of us were fresh meat. Like, it was a warm-up fight for this huge guy with a crazy win record. Things didn’t look good, because teammates usually let you get killed because… less competition, right?” He let out a breath. “You’ve seen Sam. I thought I was dead. But Sam didn’t bail. The guy was right on top of me, and Sam came in out of nowhere and smacked him in the face with a wooden sword.” The blow had knocked out half the man’s teeth. “We won, and after we got put together in the same cage. Just sat and talked a bit. We both looked like hell, but we were alive.” He shook his head. “He… he had sold himself into the circuit too, because his family’s farm burned down and he was the only one who made it out. He’s smart and amazing with a sword. By the time I escaped a few months ago, he was as famous as the first guy we’d taken down together.”
“So Samuel made a name for himself in the circuit?”
“Yeah. He was pretty much unstoppable. Though I know that if we ever ended up in a death match against each other he’d throw in a heartbeat.”
“So how’d you get out?”
“He helped, actually. Picked a fight with some girl, and while the guards were busy dealing with that, I broke the lock.”
“That’s insane.”
“Well, I helped him get out, too.” He couldn’t help but smile. “Burned down half the arena.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Why am I not surprised?”
He hesitated. “Because… you know me?”
“Rhetorical question, dimwit.” She laughed. “I was wondering about that, too. You and Sam deserve each other, but you’re not exactly approachable. Gods know you don’t love easy, either.”
He bristled. “What?”
Elana slowed as they reached a side passage. “Relax, rebel. I’m just saying I had to spend days fighting you before we had a normal conversation.” She pecked him on the lips. “And you still call me a royal bitch.”
“Not all the time,” he argued, and followed her down the hallway.
Samuel’s quarters were just as messy as David had expected them to be, with deep red walls that almost seemed black in the dim lamplight. David could hardly tell, because his lieutenant had hung up so many maps and plans it could have passed as wallpaper. Elana had to tiptoe over charts scattered on the floor in order to examine the bed. Only a piece of it was clear enough to sleep on. The rest was covered in books and scrolls held open with more books.
She whistled. “Sam sure likes his job.”
“It’s one of the things I love about him.” David kicked through the mess to reach Elana’s side. “Thing is, though, I don’t see any notes.”
“Rebel, the entire room is full of notes.”
“Not planning notes, I mean, like, notes.” David gestured. “Instructions for someone to take over everything he does.”
“Cilen’s in charge right now.”
“But he didn’t tell her to do that. He disappeared and she just picked up the slack.” He threw up his hands. “He did the same when I was, uh, brought to Astal—”
Elana smiled. “You were kidnapped, rebel. Don’t get caught up with semantics.”
“Right.” He reddened. “Anyway, I disappeared and he pretty much won the war without me. He’s invaluable.”
“I understand. I don’t know what I would do without you. But David, you said he was a famous gladiator. He’ll be fine for a while. You’re getting yourself all worked up over this.”
“He’s good with a sword. He’s not invincible. I can’t tell you how many times I had to bandage him up after a bad night in the arena.”
“But you’re not in the gladiator circuits anymore, King David of Cerces.” Elana set a hand on his chest and nudged him back until his shoulders hit the post of Samuel’s canopy bed.
“Elana, no. This is Sam’s room. We can’t— <i>oh!”</i> He batted her hands away as she prodded his stomach. “Don’t!”
“Samuel’s not here.”
“I know, that’s the <i>prohohohoblem!”</i> He grabbed her wrist as she set her hand on the sensitive scar covering his left side. “Princess, get off me. I mean it.”
She smirked. “Or what?”
“Or I remind you that this dimwit was a gladiator.” David took a few steps forward. Elana stumbled, shocked. She had to have realized the fight she had just picked. Maybe he wasn’t the most kind or honest person on Earth, but he tried his best around her. Now, though… now she’d just pissed him off, and he wasn’t in the best of moods to begin with. Elana whimpered as he lifted her a good foot off the floor by her underarms.
He scowled. “I’m tired of— <i>NAAAAAHAHA!”</i>
Elana leaned forward, scratching the sensitive scar stretching across the back of David’s shoulders. Laughing, David stumbled backward, but even with his eyes squeezed shut, he twisted before he hit the bed. Parchment flew. Elana, moon-eyed, lay beneath him, and with one move David caught her wrists and pinned them over her head.
He grinned. “Now I’ve got you.”
“Right.” Elana lunged and blew a raspberry into his ribs.
David yelped, cursing as he looked down at his dress shirt. “This silk felt nice when I put it on.” He cursed. “I have you pinned. How are you tickling me?”
“Because I know how to.” Elana smiled at him, then nibbled on his ribs. “So did my brave gladiator ever have to win a tickle fight?”
“Noho,” David managed as he got over the giggles.
“And that’s how we got here.” Elana poked his stomach once more before looking around. “And you’re right, this room feels weird. We’ll head back to our quarters. Maybe then you’ll remember your place.” She pointed at the boot that hid the furry shackle on his ankle, and he fought a blush.
“Yes, Princess.” He glanced around once more before leaving Samuel’s quarters.
Where had Samuel gone?
***
David still stared at his boots as they passed Aldien into their quarters, but the moment the door closed, he found himself sprawled on the plush carpet between Elana’s closet and bed with her straddling his hips.
“Princess!”
She arched an eyebrow. “Are you still in a sour mood?”
“What if I am? My best friend’s missing—<i> no!”</i>
She poked his stomach again. “I know how to put a smile on your pretty face.”
“My face isn’t pretty— <i>Princess!”</i>
“Of course you are. A long time ago, someone broke your nose just the right way.” She tweaked it, then feathered her nails down his throat.
He snickered and batted her away. “Would you stop?”
“Nope.” She kissed him, and despite himself David deepened it, sitting up and pulling her into his lap. Elana may push him around, but David stood a good few inches taller than her, and unlike him, she’d grown up as royalty with nothing but good food and cushy living. He got his feet under him and, hugging Elana to his frame, staggered forward until his knees hit the mattress. They collapsed, but David twisted so Elana hit the sheets first, only then breaking the kiss.
Elana glanced up as David collected her wrists and pinned them against the bed above her. “What are you planning, rebel?”
“You know, Princess? You’re right. I’m a gods-damned king. Maybe it’s time I— <i>FUCK!”</i> David squealed and collapsed on top of her as she blew a raspberry into his ribs. She squirmed free, and though David scrambled to get a hold of her, she found a grip on the wide scar stretching up David’s left side. He fought, but doubled over trying to protect his belly.
Elana collected the silver chain trailing from her bedpost and clipped it onto David’s anklet. “What am I going to do with you, rebel?”
He lowered his head. “Whatever you want.”
“What was that?”
“You can do whatever you want to me, Princess,” he repeated, clenching his fists. “I’m just a captured traitor.”
She grabbed his chin and lifted his head so she could meet his eyes. “Maybe that’s true, David, but you’re also a gods-damned king. Don’t you ever lose your nerve. Promise me that.”
“Of course, Princess.”
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
“There’s the David of Cerces I know.” She kissed him. “Now, traitor, you just attacked the Princess of Astal.”
“Oh? I plead not guilty.”
“You’ve been found guilty.” She nudged him back onto the bed, and once again he skidded on the satin sheets thanks to his sleek dress wear. “The crown sentences you to one hour of torture.”
“Only an hour?” He shrugged off his shirt. “How merciful of you.”
“You did say you were tired.” Elana pointed at his pants while she fished the blindfold out of her toy box. “Those too.”
“Okay, Princess.” David wiggled out of his pants, adjusted the shackle, and lay back. He was already getting hard.
“Not quite.” Elana dropped a massive pillow onto the bed next to David.
“Are you serious? Elana, that really hurt my bad shoulder—”
“I always fix your shoulder.” She kissed his cheek. “Now get your ass on that pillow.”
He mumbled something, but adjusted himself on the pillow so that his hips were thrust up off the bed. Elana gently tied on his blindfold, then pulled his arms and legs to the bedposts. David grimaced and wiggled his right arm. Elana rubbed his collarbone and he relaxed. “Thanks, Princess.”
“You’re not going to be thanking me for long, rebel. Your sentence has just begun.”
Five fingers pressed against the center of his belly and rubbed in circles.
<i>“NAH!” </i>David tried to lurch and got nowhere. Meanwhile, her hand roved around, reaching his right side and moving down to his hip.
“One hour, rebel. Can you handle it?”
“I… can… I CAN!” He yelped as she poked his navel.
“You escaped the Dalle dungeon, didn’t you? That’s where some of these scars come from? And you can’t handle a little tickling?”
“I can!” Her fingers had jumped to the hollow of his armpit, and suddenly her other hand joined in, torturing his other side. David screamed, his eyes flying wide. She ran her nails along his shoulder and under his chin. He cringed away, and Elana took advantage, reaching over his shoulder to trace the sensitive scrape scar that stretched over his upper back. He let out an unmanly squeal and winced. “Dammit, Princess, not there!”
“I thought I could do whatever I want to you.”
He mumbled another curse, swallowing a fit of giggles. “Yeah.”
“I thought so.” Her hands kept moving, squeezing his hips, his ribs, his sides, all the while carefully avoiding the scar that covered the left half of his stomach. Even without her toying with that sensitive spot, tears leaked out of David’s eyes and seeped into his blindfold, mixing with the sweat covering his face.
He felt Elana scoot down, planting herself between his legs and his awkwardly presented erection. “It seems you enjoy your punishments, rebel.”
“Since when…” he gasped, “… is that new?”
“Fair,” she admitted, and grabbed him. David jerked, even knowing his struggling’s futility. A breath of warm air covered the head of his cock, then Elana took as much of it into her mouth as she could. David froze, then frantically tried to thrust in tandem with her, but every time they fell in step she pulled away.
“Princess, please—”
“It hasn’t even been close to an hour, David.”
“No…” Elana played her share of games, but she was honest in that much. “How much—”
“Plenty of time.” She rubbed the sides of his groin, and he howled. Her fingers grazed the underside of his balls, then pressed the spot where his legs met his hips. As David gasped, she chuckled and got to her feet, her boots almost soundless as she moved back around to the head of the bed. David jumped when she spoke again, right beside him. “David of Cerces, do you submit your reign to the kingdom of Astal?”
David’s brow furrowed. “What? I— oh.” She was quoting her stepmother, back from that long day he spent under her version of torture. He took a breath and scowled as best he could. Many long nights he’d spent wary of knives and mutiny, but somehow he’d lost his near-superhuman ability to keep a straight face. “Fuck no.”
“Then we begin,” she announced, and dropped something heavy on the bed. Her crate of toys. He sucked in a breath as she popped open a bottle of massage oil. “Aw, don’t look like that, rebel. I’ve hardly touched you.”
“I know,” he mumbled, and winced as the cold oil met the blonde fuzz inside his armpits. “Gently, okay?”
She slathered more oil across his chest, careful to tweak his nipples in the process, then David gasped as she spread it over the sensitive scar on his side. “If I was gentle, then it wouldn’t be torture, would it?”
“Yeah,” he admitted, but shook his head as she dropped a boot brush square in the center of his chest. “Elana, you wouldn’t.”
“Torture,” she chimed, then dropped another mass of soft bristles beside the first.
“No. How many of those do you have?”
“I asked Aldien for a few things. That’s just the beginning, rebel.”
“No,” he whined, then screamed as she ran the brush down his arm, into his armpit, and down his ribs.
“This’ll be fun.” Elana rubbed the brush into his armpit again, mimicking the move in the other. David thrashed against the pillows and grasped for the knots holding him down, but got nowhere. Elana just continued, following the lines of his ribs, tracing his collarbones, and his laughter peaked when she grazed his nipples.
She pecked his sweaty, flushed cheek. “Don’t worry, rebel. I’ve got a special surprise for those.”
David did not like the sound of that, but she’d gone right back to playing with the fuzz in his armpits again and his coherency was lost to panic.
At last she sat back and brought his chin up with one finger. “We’re about halfway through.”
“Halfway?” he blurted. It had been far longer than thirty minutes. It had to be.
“Halfway,” Elana agreed. “Now I’ve got another new toy, or I can use these brushes,” she rubbed his ribs again, “on your scar. What’ll it be?”
He choked back giggles, his voice hoarse. “New toy.”
“Really? Even if you don’t know what it is?”
“Please… please don’t tickle my scar with those.”
“Okay.” He felt her shrug. “You asked for it.”
A tiny patch of smooth, even softer bristles met his right nipple, and he screamed in a pitch he’d only reached a handful of times while cuffed to that very bed. Elana pulled back immediately.
“T-thank you.” He gasped for air. “What… what is that?”
“A calligraphy brush. What do you think?”
“You’re asking me what I think?” he snapped.
“If you’re going to act like that, then I’m going to get the two of you acquainted.” She tugged on his nipple again, holding it stiff as she scrubbed around it. David’s laughter had gone silent, but after a few minutes she moved to his other nipple. When David’s breath started to fail him in earnest, she sat back. “I think that’s enough for now.”
“Oh… oh, t-thank you, Princess—”
“I still have five minutes though.” She rested a hand on his scarred side. “I didn’t use the brushes on this, did I?”
“What? No, NO! You <i>PROHOHOMIHIHISED!” </i>His laughter went silent again as she scrubbed the left side of his belly.
“I didn’t promise anything,” she corrected, and continued her assault. “Maybe you’ll like this better in your belly button.”
David’s silent struggles broke for a moment as he screeched. The calligraphy brush met the outer edge of his navel and swirled around before entering his innie, which was also swallowed up by his scar.
“Wow,” Elana said, “I knew it was ticklish, but not this ticklish.” She drew back. “I think this is my new favorite. I can’t wait until I have my rebel in the stocks and I can try it out on those toe stems of his.”
David mumbled a protest, but his voice wasn’t working anymore.
“Yeah. But now his torture is over, and I owe him something.” The weight on the mattress shifted, and Elana’s breath met the head of his cock once more. “Still there, David?”
He nodded, but lurched as the brush touched the underside of his dick.
“Sorry, rebel, just checking.” With that, she swallowed his dick whole, sucking and toying with it with her tongue. In the span that they’ve known each other, Elana had proved a master at giving head, and David lost himself in the mix of exhaustion, exhilaration, and pleasure. He grunted, and still attempted to buck off the pillow as he orgasmed. Elana said something, but he let himself fall back into the darkness that had been threatening him for the past hour.
Elana wiped the last of the white cum from her lips and looked up. David was still red in the face and half-hard, but his chest was moving as slow as it did after he fell asleep. She put away the brushes and set the crate on the floor, instead leaning up to undo his sweaty blindfold. She smiled at him, his face slack and calm in sleep, then reached up to undo the ties holding down his arms. She’d screwed up and had tickled him for two and a half hours instead of just one, but what he didn’t know would never hurt him.
She removed the pillow from under his ass, then flopped down next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He mumbled something in his sleep, then brought down his arm from the spread eagle position he’d been tied in and draped it over her waist. She smiled and closed her eyes, the scent of rose massage oil and David’s rhythmic heartbeat lulling her to sleep.
