Stolen Pleasures: version 2 - 5. Chapter 5

“I could get clothes like you had before, if you wanted.”

Jahke looked over his shoulder at his lover. Sitka was lying on the bed, propped up on his elbows, idly flicking through Jahke’s only book. He grinned to himself at a particularly raunchy passage, then chuckled as Jahke’s belt went clattering to the floor once more.

“The offer still stands.”

“No, I like to dress how you do.” Jahke frowned down at the loin cloth and began to unwind the fabric once more. “I just wish I could work out how to tie the damn thing myself.”

“Jahke….”

“What? I want to look like I belong here.” Jahke gave up on the loin cloth and returned to the bed. Sitka didn’t move, and so he settled himself across the demon’s back, leaning on his broad shoulders. “Which bit are you reading now?”

“The thing I did to you last night.” Sitka’s voice dripped with lust and remembered horniness. “I do so love making you scream.”

“You’re really good at that.” Jahke settled himself more comfortably along his lover’s back, and sighed happily when Sitka used one hoof to kick a blanket high enough so he could reach it and cover them both. “What did you say it was called again?”

“Rimming.” Sitka flicked to the back of the book, and the unrelated etching of a double headed creature with a young man which had captivated Jahke the first time he’d seen it. “I know a guy like that. They’re nice. You want me to introduce you?”

“Ummm….” Jahke was suddenly embarrassed by the swelling of his crotch, which he was very aware Sitka could feel against his lower back. “Maybe some time, just not yet.”

Sitka abandoned the book and rolled over before Jahke could escape, keeping the young man pinned with big hands on his hips.

“What’s wrong, Beautiful?”

Jahke bit his lip and frowned. He’d been in Hell nearly two weeks, or more than a tenday, which was apparently how time was measured in the Inner Circle, and still he felt lost. He couldn’t dress himself properly, and found it almost impossible to form a coherent sentence in front of anyone other than Sitka or Tobias without stuttering. Even Shindae, with whom he had already had excellent sex, had made him yelp in surprise coming down the stairs the previous day, and Jahke had gone scurrying back to his room, trying to stave off another moment of panic and terror. He’d finally met the last member of the house, and what had apparently been the big moss-green scaled snake’s friendliest smile had sent him quivering into Sitka’s arms.

“Nothing,” Jahke lied unhappily. “I just wish I was more experienced.” He traced swirling patterns on Sitka’s dusky skin, then took the book from his fingers and closed it with a snap. “And I wish there was something else to read!”

Sitka stretched beneath him, folded his arms behind his head, and Jahke became very aware of what his naked proximity was doing to the anatomy of his lover. Jahke walked two fingers down the demon’s front and wrapped a bold hand around his burgeoning erection.

“Mmmmm… not so shy now.”

“That’s because it’s you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jahke leant down to kiss the demon whose bed he shared. “Ain’t no other demons as sexy as you.”

Sitka kneaded his arse in an appreciative manner.

“You say that now, but you’re gonna fall head over hooves for the Prince when you met him, just like everyone does.”

“I don’t have hooves- ahh!” Whatever else Jahke was going to say, it was subsumed underneath the experience of being invaded by his lover’s deft fingers.

“There’s my boy… gods you’re beautiful when you blush like that. You wanna do that thing we read on page thirty-four?”

“Again?” Jahke wriggled against his the demon, then used his free hand to take one of Sitka’s horns and pulled his lover up until he was sit in his lap. “No. I want you to bite me again.”

“Really?” Sitka could not have sounded more pleased if he’d tried, and Jahke loved that he’d made the big demon so happy.

“Yeahhhh...” Jahke purred as he was manhandled into position. “I like it when you’re rough. NGHH!” Jahke cried out as he was swiftly reamed.

Sitka stilled.

“Too rough?”

“No! Keep going!” Jahke took Sitka’s face between his hands and kissed him passionately. A small part of him wondered if perhaps he was weird to have grown so used to Sitka’s exotic features already, but as the demon pierced his skin, he decided he didn’t really care.

Afterwards, he lay in Sitka’s arms, his spine pressed against the demon’s side, and held Sitka’s hand over his own heart.

“I want-”

“Already?” Sitka sounded genuinely surprised, and more than a little smug. Jahke rapped his arm with his knuckles.

“I came twice already! Can’t you think of anything else?”

“With you lying in my arms? Heck no.” Sitka kissed his hair and murmured wordlessly for a moment. “Go on then, what is it you want?”

“More books?” Jahke smiled to himself. “You said you collect all sorts of things, but you haven’t been Upstairs since the day after I got here.”

“I wanted to spend time with you.”

Jahke brought Sitka’s hand up and kissed his palm.

“Thank you. When you go next, could you bring me books?”

“Sure. Any special requests?”

“Stories, and books on history, and art. And more cookbooks, and some kids books for Tobias.”

“Come again?”

“Books he can learn to read from by himself. You remember learning to read, right?”

Sitka frowned, apparently thinking hard.

“Maybe? It was a long time ago.”

“Hey, you’re the one who said we should keep him happy, and he cooks way better than the food I’m used to.”

“Well aren’t you the people pleaser.” Sitka grinned into his hair, and Jahke could tell just from his tone the thought was arousing him already. “And you want more delightful pornography?”

“Huh?”

“Like that,” Sitka waved a hand at the much thumbed copy of A Gentleman’s Boy, “I swear some worlds are just bursting at the seams with the stuff.”

“Really? Will there be different… activities?” Jahke couldn’t keep the excitement from his voice.

Sitka laughed happily.

“Beautiful, I promise to show you everything.”

*

Jahke stood with his ear pressed against the bedroom door and listened to the rumble of the panther and the hiss of the naga. Only when he was certain that both Kiorl and Inai had retreated into their respective rooms, and shut the doors, did he makes his was out into the passage which ran the length of the house. Sitka had helped him dress before he’d left, a process they’d needed to repeat twice because Jahke found it near impossible to be touched by the black demon without becoming instantly aroused, and Jahke was looking forward to his lover returning from Upstairs with presents for him. He used the narrow back staircase to descend to the kitchen, where Tobias was sitting by the stove, tracing individual letters on a page with one finger, and stirring something in a cast iron saucepan with the other hand.

“Porridge?” he offered, without looking up.

“I can get it.” Jahke had always been used to doing things for himself, though he had learnt the reason Tobias generally served the food was to stop Sitka from eating everyone else’s portions. “Thank you. Is there any more honey?”

Tobias nodded, his brow creased in concentration, lips moving silently as he read.

Jahke found the honey in the pantry, the one without the enchanted ice blocks, took a bowl and a spoon and ladled himself out a portion of warm breakfast. He passed behind Tobias to return the jar to the shelf where the other sweet preserves resided, because Tobias hated it when people didn’t clear away after themselves, and peered over the young man’s shoulder at the book.

“You’re going to make Hollandaise sauce?”

Tobias nodded.

“Your mate promised to bring me back one these salmon things, and you sounded keen on it the other day.” Tobias glanced up from the page with a soft smile, “and I was hoping it might tempt you to actually join us all for dinner.”

“Sorry, my what?” Jahke had heard others use the term before, but it had never been applied to himself.

“Your mate. Sitka.” Tobias frowned. “You do like him, right?”

“Yes! Of course I do.” Jahke wondered if a month ago he would have ever considered saying such a thing about a demon with horns and hooves.

“You want to stay here with him?”

“Yes?” Jahke frowned, unsure quite where Tobias’s line of questioning was heading.

“Then he’s your mate. Like Zai and I.”

“Does that mean I'm not allowed to have sex with other-” Jahke clapped a hand over his mouth before he finished speaking, hardly believing he’d just blurted out such a private desire. It was one thing to have Sitka tell him in the privacy of their bedroom that he could indulge in sexual fantasies, and quite another to just openly ask the question as though the whole conversation hadn’t been theoretical.

“Well, that’s up to you.” Tobias shrugged. “Jahke, come help me with this? I remember most of the letters in this word but I can’t work out what it says.”

Jahke finished his porridge, placed the bowl and spoon in the sink, and took a seat opposite Tobias along the breakfast bar. He knew he should have also asked Sitka to bring paper, inks, and some feathers for quills, because he honestly couldn’t remember if he’d ever gone so long without writing something down before. He half turned the page and smiled at the word Tobias was pointing to.

“Thoroughly. It looks a bit like ‘through’ I know, all the ‘th’ and ‘ou’ words can get tricky, there’s so many options.” Jahke faced the book back towards Tobias, and pointed to each word as he read. “Whisk in each drop of butter thoroughly before adding the next until the sauce begins to thicken.” He scanned the recipe. “This looks kind of complex, are you sure you want to bother? I’ll eat whatever you want to cook, I don’t mind.”

Tobias laid down the spoon he’d been holding in a very deliberate manner.

“Jahke, I have been cooking the same food since I got here. The same! Apart from accidental experiments with some of the weirder ingredients the guys have brought me from Upstairs, or the Outer Circles. I haven’t learned a single new recipe since I came to Hell. Not one!” For a moment the young man looked like he was about to cry, and he inhaled deeply, fist clenching and unclenching by his side before he continued. “How old do I look to you?”

“Hey, I remember what Sitka said about how long you’d been here, I know you’re not that-”

“Jahke!”

“Fine! I don’t know. You look younger than me.” Jahke frowned. Tobias certainly looked young, hardly young enough to even begin serious studies in the archives of the museum, but he knew the other man was older than himself in years and experience.

“Eighteen.” Tobias snapped bitterly. “I was eighteen when Zai came and ripped me away from everything I’d ever known. I’d only been working in the kitchen at the Inn for two years, I was still in training! There was so much I was going to learn...” Tobias wrapped his arms around his chest and turned away. “And instead I got stuck here where I couldn’t learn anything. The guys think my food is good only because they have such low standards! Whenever they bring friends over everyone always praises my cooking, but if you ask them what they eat in their houses, the answer is invariably shit their scavengers can steal, and whatever dead thing they burnt over their hearth.”

Tobias finished his sentence by glaring up at the ceiling, and Jahke was suddenly reminded that the young man and his mate could communicate when they weren’t in the same room.

“I don’t much feel like being very charitable right now, thanks.” He muttered. “Zai’s right, some of them don’t always burn everything.” Tobias glared at the recipe for Hollandaise Sauce, as though willing it to make sense by force alone. “So yes, I’m going to make your damn sauce, even if it is fiddly, and learn what to do with a salmon-”

“It’s a fish.” Jahke interrupted, wishing he hadn’t.

“Fine, I’ll grill it.” Tobias stared at him levelly across the breakfast bar. “And you and Sitka are going to join the rest of us for dinner.”

“Hey, whoa...” Jahke put up his hands, as though Tobias’s words were a threat like the wooden spoon he was once again brandishing. “I’m not sure-”

Each day he had spent in Hell so far, Jahke and Sitka had eaten together, either in the big kitchen, or in their room, and just as it had been that morning, Jahke had done his best to ensure that no one apart from Tobias was around when they did so. He’d half assumed that Sitka going to fetch their portions and bringing them upstairs was normal behaviour, but then he’d overheard Shindae complaining of his friend’s absence at the table, and knew it was not so. But the idea of being in one room with all the other people who lived in the house scared him so much that he wanted to hide under the blankets of Sitka’s bed and never leave. It was almost enough for him to ask his demonic lover for compulsion, but he also didn’t enjoy the idea of not being in the control the first time he met them all together – or breaking Tobias’s rule of no sex in the kitchen.

“You want to stay here, in Zinkara Rumah, and live with Sitka? And me, and Zai, and everyone? Yes?”

Jahke nodded mutely.

“Family meal. Tonight. No excuses.” He took Jahke’s hand across the bar and held him tightly for a moment. “You’re part of this family now Jahke, even if it is weird and sometimes covered in blood.”

Jahke turned to look at the door to find Zai arriving through it with a soft smile for the man he loved, dressed in a richly embroidered tabard which made Jahke instantly jealous.

“I ain’t covered in blood,” Zai’s eyes looked like he was saying a lot more, but he grinned at Jahke. “Nah, it wouldn’t fit you. You’re too slim. You could ask Sitka to get you clothes of your own, but I gotta say, I like that look on you.”

“Umm... thank you.” Jahke’s pride at his appearance was at war with his residual fear of the imposing grey furred demon. His many sharp fangs only served to enhance his dangerous presence.

“I don’t know why you’re still scared, Jahke. The guys already like you way more than they did me.”

“They love you,” Zai interjected.

“They’re terrified I’ll stop feeding them if they piss me off.” Tobias countered. “Anyway, you’ll fit right in, especially with thoughts along those lines.”

Zai arched an eyebrow at him and smirked, Tobias looked sullen, and suddenly Jahke realised what Sitka had been talking about when he’d been warned about getting trapped in conversation with two empaths at the same time.

“You ought not to think so loud, Jahke.” Zai was still grinning in an unnerving predatory manner.

“Umm… can I ask a question?” Ever since the day he’d seen the four demons standing naked together in the bathroom, Jahke had been unable to wipe the image from his mind, even though Zai, Kiorl, and Shindae all terrified him in turns.

“You may as well.”

“Sitka says you guys have all had sex.” Jahke received all the confirmation he needed with Zai’s broad grin and bright eyes. He turned to Tobias. “Have you ever had sex with Sitka? Or any of them?”

Tobias stopped what he was doing and laid down his utensils with very hard and precise gestures.

“No.” he replied shortly. The young man crossed to the cold pantry, walked in, and shut the door behind him.

“Ohhh….” Jahke bit his lip softly, wondering why his question had caused such offence to the man he was starting to think of as his friend, then shivered in surprise when Zai laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Jahke, it’s OK. My mate… does not talk about sex. Nor does he participate in sharing. You have not offended him, nor will you with that question, it is just a conversation he prefers not to participate in. He is a very private person.”

“Oh,” Jahke said again, feeling stupid and slightly embarrassed. Then he realised the thought Zai had felt in his mind when he’d been looking at the yellow-eyed demon with his broad shoulders and ever twitching tail, and became very embarrassed.

“One day when you are ready to finish that thought, I will be very happy to oblige, dear Jahke.”

There was a long pause, during which Zai’s yellow eyes narrowed, as though thinking hard, and Jahke understood there was another conversation going on without him still. Eventually the door to the cold store opened, and Tobias walked back out into the kitchen with a block of parchment wrapped butter in one hand, and continued as though nothing had happened. Zai touched his wrist briefly, and Tobias smiled in some special, private way which made Jahke a tiny bit jealous of the connection they shared. Tobias scanned the recipe again, then smiled at him.

“Zai can fix your neck, by the way.”

“Sorry?” Jahke glanced between the two of them and placed a hand on his neck, wincing as he touched too heavily at the place where Sitka had bitten him.

“It’s his special skill. They all have one.”

“Like Sitka’s compulsion?”

“Gods, that boy has it lucky. You know how many people would kill for an ability like that?” Zai sighed wistfully. “I swear that’s why Nassau put him here with Kiorl, so no one would touch him.”

Jahke felt his heart pound erratically at Zai’s words.

“Sitka’s in danger?”

“No, no,” Zai’s voice was soft and soothing, just like his warm fur as he touched Jahke’s arm. “Not now, not for a long time. But when he was younger… being immortal does not actually guarantee that you’ll live forever, and most demons aren’t as nice as your Sitka.”

“All demons have one ability, but they can get more.”

“How?” Jahke asked, regretting the question as soon as it was formed.

“You have to kill and consume your opponent.” Shindae answered from the doorway. “Don’t ask Kiorl about his abilities, especially if you’ve already eaten.” The demon rolled his shoulders, and the lava trails which wove over his skin crackled with brightness. “And I brought you this, Tobias.” He placed a thin canvas sack down on the work surface, and they all had to step back as Tobias opened it eagerly.

“Oh, they’re huge!”

“We figured two would be plenty.”

Tobias needed both hands to heft the enormous silvery grey-speckled fish, grinning broadly. Jahke wasn’t sure he’d ever seen one of his favourite foods whole before. As Tobias set about filleting and descaling the salmon, Jahke found Shindae watching him closely.

“Where’s Sitka?” Zai’s conversation had left him worried by his lover’s absence.

“I sent him to go file paperwork at the office. It’s way past being his turn. He gave me something for you too, though.” Shindae jerked his head in the direction of the stairs, and Jahke got up to follow him.

“Don’t be going anywhere Jahke. I’m going to need you to re-read this thing again… probably.”

Tobias didn’t bother to look up when he spoke, but Jahke nodded anyway, and followed Shindae towards the back stairs and the soft clucking of the chickens in their pen, wondering why he was still so nervous of the other demon when the last time they’d been in the same room Jahke had rather enjoyed sucking his cock.

“Don’t worry, he’s practically stolen you a whole damn library, but he gave me this. Said page forty-two might be of special interest.”

Jahke took the book from Shindae’s fingers, and brushed motes of fallen ash from the plain cover. It was thinner, and larger in format than the books he was used too, and the pages were slightly shiny, but he flicked quickly to the page Shindae directed, not really letting his brain focus on the rest of the content. Then he swallowed audibly.

“Sitka thought I might be able to help you guys out,” Shindae whispered in his ear. The warmth of his voice was so close to the first time Jahke had heard it that he had to tear his eyes from the page to prove to himself he wasn’t still in the Reading Room. He looked back, praying his erection wasn’t completely obvious through his clothes, then glanced up at Shindae, who smiled. “How about it pretty one? You going to let me come worship you again?”

Jahke wished Sitka was there. He wished he could just let the demon who shared his bed make the decisions, wished Sitka could just compel him to answer, or not answer. He wished there was a reason other than his own desire and curiosity which made him look the lava patterned demon in the eye and say:

“Yes.”

Because then it wouldn’t have meant he was actually depraved and damned, just captured and coerced. But Sitka wasn’t there, and he wasn’t actually scared of Shindae, and no one and nothing actually forced him to say it, all over again.

“Yes.”

“Oh I am glad Sitka brought you home.”

“Me too.”

“I’ll see you after dinner.” Shindae took his hand, kissed his knuckles in the most intimate version of a formal gesture Jahke could have imagined, and left via the back stairs, whistling to himself in obvious pleasure. Jahke watched him go, the book clutched tight in his hand.

“Jahke, get your mind out of your pants! You still have dinner to get through, which means I still need to know how to cook the damn thing!”

He wandered back over who where Tobias stood with a whisk, a pan, and a bowl of molten butter, in a daze.

“Hmmm?”

“Jahke!”

“Sorry!” Jahke scanned the recipe again. All the words made sense, but he didn’t exactly know what the expected result of each action would be, just that the final result was tasty. “You know I can’t cook, right?”

“He doesn’t need you to cook, he just needs to teach him how to read what to do. Ooh, new porn!” Zai filched the book from his hand with quick claws.

“Hey!”

“Nu-uh. You can have it back when my mate is satisfied.” Every inch of Zai’s posture displayed his self assured attitude, right down to the cocky twitch of his tail. “Food first, everything else is an afterthought.”

“I never thought I'd hear you say that.” Tobias quipped.

“Hey, you want his help or not?” Zai winked conspiratorially. “Cause I'd be real good at page forty-two too you know.”

“ZAI!” Both the young men admonished him in unison, and the demon laughed.

“I’ll leave you boys to it.”

Tobias rolled his eyes as his lover left.

“Demons… overgrown children, the lot of them.” He paused. “Jahke? I’m glad you’re here.” The empath reached out and took his hand, squeezing for a heartbeat. “Now stop imagining my mate naked, and read this instead.”

Laughing, Jahke bent himself to the task he was given, and in between being told to stand and stir things whilst Tobias poured butter or eggs from one vessel to another, he taught the other man to read.