Ch.33
Day five. Evening.
The hot springs were everything the mountain had promised and the training had earned. I sank into the water on the men's side and the heat went straight through my muscles and into the bones underneath and every bruise from the past five days lit up and then faded. The water was mineral-heavy, slightly cloudy, smelling of sulfur and stone. Steam hung above the surface in a low haze that blurred the tree line and the sky was going purple with the last of the sunset.
Kiba had been here earlier and left. He'd said something about stretching before bed and walked back to the villa with his towel over his shoulder and I was alone. The bamboo partition ran down the middle of the springs, tall and tight, the gaps between the slats too narrow to see through but not too narrow to hear through.
On the other side: voices.
Akeno's laugh, low and teasing. Asia's voice, high and flustered. "Akeno-san, please don't say things like that!" Akeno again, softer, a murmur I couldn't make out. A splash. Koneko's monotone: "Loud." Then a longer splash and a sigh that could have been anyone.
Rias was quiet.
I leaned my head back against the stone edge of the pool. The stars were coming out. My body was a wreck of bruises and overstretched muscles and the hot water was doing what five days of Asia's healing hadn't quite finished. I closed my eyes.
Footsteps on wet stone.
I opened my eyes.
Rias came around the edge of the bamboo partition. She was walking on the stones, bare feet, steam curling off her skin and rising from her hair. Her crimson hair was dark from the water, hanging heavy past her shoulders, clinging to her collarbones and her breasts. She was naked. No towel. No pretense.
She stepped into the water on my side without saying a word. The pool was shallow here, waist-deep when she was standing, and the water rose around her hips and her stomach as she waded toward me. Her breasts were above the water line, wet, her nipples tight from the air. She sat down beside me. Her shoulder touched mine.
We sat there. The steam drifted around us and the voices on the other side of the partition continued, muffled. Akeno was telling a story. Asia was making shocked sounds at intervals. Twenty feet away. Twenty feet and a bamboo wall.
Rias stared at the water.
"I'm going to lose," she said.
Her voice was quiet. Small.
I didn't lie to her.
"Maybe."
She looked at me. Her blue-green eyes were sharp and startled and her mouth opened slightly.
"But you're not going to marry him."
"How can you know that?"
"Because I won't let it happen."
She searched my face. The water lapped between us and the steam was thick and on the other side of the bamboo Akeno said something that made Asia squeak.
Rias kissed me.
Her mouth was warm and wet from the springs and her hand came up to my jaw and she kissed me hard, open-mouthed, her tongue against mine, her body pressing against my side in the water. Her breasts pushed against my arm and her wet hair clung to my shoulder and her hand on my jaw was gripping.
I turned in the water. My hands found her waist under the surface. Her skin was hot and slick and my fingers spread across her ribs and she exhaled against my mouth and shifted and then she was straddling me. Her thighs on either side of mine, her knees on the submerged stone bench, her hips settling against mine.
My cock was hard. Had been since she walked around the partition. She felt it against her, pressed between her thighs, and her hips pressed down.
"Nn-" Against my mouth. Quiet. The sound pushed through her teeth.
Her hands were on my shoulders. Her hips moved. A slow roll, grinding against me through the water, the head of my cock sliding along her slit. The water was warm but she was warmer. The friction was different in the water, slicker, smoothed by heat, and each roll of her hips dragged the underside of my cock across her clit and she twitched with each pass.
I was hard enough that the ache had settled into my jaw. She ground down again and my cock slid between her lips and the tip pressed against her pussy and she rocked there, not taking me in, just holding the pressure. Her breathing was through her nose, controlled, and her hips were making small circles and my hands on her waist tightened because I wanted to push her down and I didn't and the not-doing-it was worse than any ache.
"Ise." Her mouth was by my ear. Her hips were still circling. My cock was catching against her pussy on every pass, the tip pressing in a fraction and then sliding away, and the hot water and the heat of her were two different things.
On the other side of the partition, Akeno's voice drifted through the steam. Still talking. Still there.
"We have to be quiet," Rias said.
"Then be quiet."
She bit me. Her teeth closed on the muscle between my neck and shoulder and the bite was sharp and hot and her hips shifted and she pushed down and I was inside her.
The first inch was tight. The water changed the sensation, heat layered over heat, her body opening around me differently than in the bedroom. She sank down slowly, her thighs spreading wider, and the water lapped around us. "Nn- ah-" The sound was buried in my shoulder, pressed into my skin through her teeth. Her body clenched around me as the last inch seated and she went still, full, shaking.
I held her waist. My fingers pressed into the soft skin above her hips. Her pussy was tight around me and the heat inside her was different from the water, alive, gripping in slow pulses. My cock ached with the depth, pressed deep inside her, the water's buoyancy lifting her body while she pushed down against it.
She started moving. Small rolls of her hips, shallow, barely lifting off before sinking back down. The sounds were quiet, muffled by the water's surface. Wet soft sounds from where our bodies met under the waterline. Her face was in my neck and her breathing was fast and controlled through her nose and her hands on my shoulders were digging in with each push.
I gripped her hips and pulled her down harder on the next stroke. She gasped into my neck and her whole body clenched and the water sloshed around us and she bit me again to stop the sound.
"Careful," I said against her ear. "Akeno's right there."
"I know." Her voice was in pieces. "I know, just- don't stop-"
I didn't stop. My hands guided her hips, setting the pace, slower than she wanted. She tried to speed up and I held her, controlling the depth, making her take each stroke fully before letting her rise. Each push down she took me to the base and she clenched at the bottom and her breathing broke from her nose to her mouth, small huffs against my neck, and her pussy was getting wetter. The slide was getting easier, the resistance from the first entry dissolving into slick heat that made each push smoother. The wet sound of her sinking onto me was audible. Quiet, but audible in the silence between Akeno's words on the other side.
Her ears went red.
I lifted her.
She made a sound when I pulled out. A protest, involuntary, her body clenching on nothing and her hips pushing forward to follow what wasn't there anymore. The emptiness hit her face first, her mouth opening, her eyes blinking. Then I was standing in the water and my hands were under her thighs and I lifted her and set her on the stone edge of the pool.
Cold air hit her wet skin. She gasped, loud, and the sound bounced off the stone and the water and Akeno's voice paused for a beat on the other side of the bamboo. Rias pressed her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide. The cold air was on her breasts, her stomach, her thighs, the water streaming off her body and pooling on the stone, and her nipples had gone rock-hard and her skin was covered in goosebumps and the contrast between the hot water and the mountain air had her shivering.
She was sitting on the edge with her legs dangling in the water and her pussy was exposed and glistening, wet from the springs and from her, and the steam curled around her body.
I knelt in the water between her thighs. My cock was aching under the surface, hard and untouched, and the hot water around it was doing nothing for the throb. Her eyes went wide.
"Ise, you don't have to-"
My mouth was on her before she finished.
Her taste was different from the mineral water. Sharp, warm, her. My tongue pressed flat against her clit and she jolted and her hand shot to my hair and gripped. Her thighs clamped against my ears. The cold air and the hot water and my mouth were three different temperatures on her body and she couldn't stay still.
"Ah- oh-" Her hand left my hair and clamped over her own mouth. Her hips rocked against my face and her free hand braced behind her on the stone and water was dripping off her body, off her breasts, running in lines down her stomach to where my mouth was. My tongue circled her clit and pressed and the wet sound of my mouth on her was louder than I'd intended.
I pushed two fingers inside her. She was swollen from being fucked in the water, sensitive, and the entry made her back arch off the stone. Her hand pressed harder against her mouth and the sound that came through was muffled and high. "Nn- nnh-" My fingers curled inside her and my tongue stayed on her clit and her hips lifted off the stone and her thighs were shaking against my head.
Her pulse was in the walls around my fingers. Fast. Getting faster. My tongue moved in slow circles on her clit and my fingers pressed against the spot inside her that made her stomach flex and she was making sounds through her hand, continuous now, a steady stream of muffled "ah- ah- nn-" that she couldn't stop.
Her fingers in my hair tightened. That grip-release pattern, faster. Her stomach muscles were flexing under the water dripping down her skin and her breathing was shallow rapid gasps muffled by her palm and her eyes were squeezed shut and her jaw was tight under her hand.
She came with her hand clamped over her mouth and a sound that leaked through her fingers anyway. A high broken "mmph-" that echoed off the water. Her body seized, her pussy clenching around my fingers in hard rhythmic waves, her thighs pressing my head, her back arched and her wet hair hanging behind her and water dripping off her nipples. She held for three seconds, four, rigid, and then she collapsed back against the stone.
The steam drifted. On the other side of the partition, Akeno's voice had gone quiet. A beat. Then Akeno said something and Asia laughed and the conversation resumed.
Rias was breathing in long ragged pulls with her legs still open and her hand slowly unclenching from my hair. Her chest was heaving and her face was flushed and water was pooling in the hollow of her collarbone and her blue-green eyes were half-open and glazed.
I climbed out of the water. My cock was so hard it hurt, aching from the time in the hot water with no contact, and the cold mountain air hit it and the shock made my teeth clench. She was lying on the warm stone, wet, flushed, her crimson hair fanned across the rock. Her eyes opened and found mine and they were wet and unfocused.
I lowered myself over her. The stone was warm under my knees. Her body was wet and hot beneath me. I pushed her thighs apart and she let them fall open and I pressed into her.
She was swollen and slick and oversensitive and the first push made her gasp and her hands came up to my chest, pressing, fingers spread. Her pussy was softer, wetter, the grip different from the water, looser but warmer. Her aftershocks were still rippling inside her, small clenches around me as I pushed deeper, and by the time I was fully inside her she was gripping my shoulders and her legs were coming up around my hips.
"Ise-" Her voice was wrecked. Her legs wrapped around me. Water pooled between our bodies, trapped in the hollow of her stomach, warm against my skin.
I moved. Slow. Deep. Each stroke slid through wet heat and the sound was different on the stone, louder, the slick impact of our hips meeting audible in the open air. Her body was open and sensitized beneath me and each thrust made her twitch, her pussy clenching involuntarily on each push, her stomach flexing.
Her breathing was ragged. Mouth open. Each exhale a sound she wasn't bothering to suppress anymore. "Ah-" On each thrust, quiet, rhythmic, her voice matching my pace.
She was looking at me. Face to face. Her blue-green eyes on mine, wet, bright, her mouth parted, her crimson hair dark and spread on the stone. Her face was flushed and open and she was letting me see all of it.
"Promise me," she whispered.
Her legs tightened around my hips. Her lips were trembling.
"Promise-"
I thrust deeper. Held. Her breath hitched and her eyes went wider and her mouth opened and closed on a sound she swallowed. I ground into her, slow circles, deep, and her back arched under me and her hands on my shoulders clenched.
"Look at me," I said.
She was already looking. Her chin was trembling and her pussy was gripping me in that quickening rhythm and her legs were pulling me deeper.
I moved again. Faster. The wet sound of our bodies was loud on the stone and the steam was thick around us and her breasts rocked with each thrust and the water between our stomachs splashed with each impact. Her face was close to mine and her mouth was open and her eyes were wet and she was making sounds on every thrust now, small broken "ah- ah- ah-" that matched my rhythm.
"Nn- Ise- I'm- ah- don't- don't stop-"
Her hands on my shoulders were digging in that grip-release-grip-release pattern, faster, tighter. Her breathing was gone, just gasps, her whole body tightening under me. Her heels dug into my lower back and her hips rose to meet each thrust and the angle deepened and she choked on a sound.
"Ah- I- nn-"
She came. Her eyes stayed on mine. Open, wet. Her mouth parted on a broken exhale and her pussy clenched hard around me and her legs locked and her back arched off the stone and her hands pulled me down against her. I buried deep and her body pulsed around me in slow deep waves, her stomach pressing against mine, her arms around my neck.
The Boosted Gear's gem pulsed on my arm. Warm. Devil energy flowing through her skin into mine, settling into my reserves. Maintenance transfer. The Destruction hummed under her skin and held.
I was close. Had been close since the oral, since kneeling in the water with my mouth on her and my cock untouched and aching. Her aftershocks were pulling at me, rhythmic clenches, and her body was hot and wet and tight and her face was close and her eyes were on mine.
I came inside her. The orgasm hit from deep, from the base of my spine, and my hips pressed flush against hers and I pulsed inside her and the warmth spread and her body clenched around each pulse and she made a sound, quiet, a soft "ah." Her legs held me there. Her hands found mine on the stone beside her head and her fingers laced through mine and she squeezed.
I rested my weight on her. The stone was warm. The air was cold on my back. Her body was hot everywhere it pressed against mine and water was pooled between us and cooling.
Her heartbeat was fast against my chest. Slowing.
"You didn't say promise," she said. Quiet. Against my ear.
"I said it in the ORC. When Riser left. I meant it then. I mean it now."
She hit my shoulder. Light. "Don't be an ass."
"I'll be at the wedding, Rias. You know that."
Her arms tightened around my neck. Her face pressed into my shoulder. She didn't say anything else for a long time.
On the other side of the partition, the voices had stopped. The springs were quiet. The stars were out.