FREE USE in a Fantasy World

The pale glow of the single lantern in the back room of Miss Stroud’s establishment painted everything in sickly amber.

The air was thick with the cloying sweetness of incense, perfume.

Ava’s boots scuffed against the worn floorboards as Miss Stroud used her hip to direct the young elf back toward the narrow cot.

Syd remained perched on the far end, eyes wide and unblinking, fixed on the tall woman as though she might vanish if he looked away.

Miss Stroud ignored him completely. She gave Ava a firm little push that sent the elf dropping onto the thin mattress. The springs complained.

Then the pale seductress slid her firm bottom into Ava’s lap with deliberate weight, settling there like she belonged, like the elf’s thighs had been shaped for exactly this purpose.

An arm coiled around Ava’s shoulders—cool, elegant, inescapable—drawing her in until their bodies pressed flush from hip to breast.

She smiled, black lips curving with lazy satisfaction, and brushed those painted lips against Ava’s cheek. Then her ear.

Then the sensitive column of her neck, where the skin was thin and the blood ran close to the surface.

"Oh, I think I can answer any questions you might have," Miss Stroud purred, voice low and velvet-soft, vibrating against Ava’s skin.

Ava stiffened. Every fine hair along the back of her neck stood on end. Heat bloomed under her collar.

The scent of the other woman—jasmine, smoke, and something like warm spice—wrapped around her, seeping into her lungs with every shallow breath.

"If... if you can’t remember... I mean..." Ava cleared her throat, trying to steady the sudden tremor in her voice.

She became painfully aware of the frantic beating of her heart in the vein of her neck, and of the way Miss Stroud’s fingertip stroked that same vein while the woman’s other hand brushed through the elf’s pale hair, slow and proprietary.

"Tell me about yourself, Ava," whispered Miss Stroud, curling a hand beneath the elf’s chin and tilting her face upward. Her thumb stroked the far side of Ava’s cheek in lazy arcs. "Do you ever visit dancing clubs?"

"I’ve um... been to a few," admitted Ava. The words felt thick on her tongue. "For my work."

"What about for pleasure?" Miss Stroud asked, drawing the last word out until it hung in the air like a promise.

She shifted her weight, squirming that firm bottom deliberately against Ava’s lap, grinding just enough to send a hot, helpless throb through the elf’s core. "Do you not lust after women?"

"S-sometimes," Ava said. The admission slipped out before she could catch it. Her cheeks burned.

The throb between her legs pulsed again, heavier this time, answering the slow rock of Miss Stroud’s hips.

Miss Stroud chuckled. She brushed her lips against Ava’s pointed ear, breathing hot against the delicate shell, and continued that slow, sinuous movement of her body.

Soft breasts pressed and yielded against Ava’s chest with every subtle shift.

"What about the girls in my club? Do they... turn you on?" Miss Stroud whispered, the question sliding straight into Ava’s blood.

"I um..."

"Be honest now."

"I... W-well... Y-yes," Ava admitted, blushing so hard her ears felt scalded.

She wondered, dimly, how the conversation had slid so far from the questions she had come here to ask.

The thought tried to surface and failed; Miss Stroud’s scent and heat and the slow grind of her body kept pushing it under.

She was starting to feel quite hot. Her head felt stuffed and light, as though the air itself had grown denser.

The seductress in her lap moved against her with practiced, languid grace, every motion calculated to stoke the fire already coiling low in Ava’s belly.

"What about... me?" Miss Stroud nibbled at Ava’s earlobe—gentle, testing—and ran her fingers up the pointed peak of the elf’s ear.

Ava shuddered. Her sensitive ears tingled violently under that touch, an erogenous zone that made her lips part on a soft, involuntary moan.

Heat flooded her face and lower, flooding the place where Miss Stroud’s weight pressed so intimately.

"Yessss," she gasped, feeling that throb again—harder, sweeter. Was this what Julian Sigmarten had felt the night he was attacked? This slow, delicious unravelling?

"Really? Why do you think that is?" Miss Stroud purred as she pressed closer still.

Her body was so warm the young elf couldn’t help but squirm, soft breasts molding against her own, the friction of silk and skin sending fresh sparks racing down her spine.

"U-um..."

"Don’t be shy. You can tell me how lovely I am. You’d hate for me to think you didn’t find me lovely. Wouldn’t you?"

"I um... I guess so. I just... um..."

"You’re lovely too, you know," Miss Stroud murmured, her tongue gently licking a wet stripe up Ava’s neck. The elf moaned outright, pulse thumping wildly under the wet heat of that tongue. Her blood felt hot and heavy, racing like a rabbit’s in the coils of a snake. Desire coiled tighter in her belly, pleasant and relentless. "Very lovely," Miss Stroud mused, tasting the salt of Ava’s skin. "Hmm. Maybe I could hire you. But not as a dancer. You lack a certain... something for that..."

"I-I do?" Ava panted. Her head was whirling. Miss Stroud’s scent snaked around her, stuffing itself up her nose and into her thoughts, pushing everything else aside—the investigation, Syd’s staring eyes, the reason she had come at all.

"Oh yes. Our dancers are very... hmmm... special..."

Miss Stroud’s hand slid lower, gently cupping Ava’s breast through the fabric of her blouse, squeezing the plump orb with teasing pressure.

The touch sent another sharp pulse of heat straight between Ava’s thighs. She arched helplessly into the palm.

"Elves are very rare," Miss Stroud continued, lips brushing Ava’s cheek in soft, open-mouthed kisses. "Very... desired. Just the sight of you... must awaken such... mmm... temptations..."

"Um, I guess?" Ava managed, voice thin and shaky.

"I know it," Miss Stroud said, kissing her again, slower this time. "I think we could do wonderful things together. Us two. Did you come here with anyone?"

"N-no," Ava gasped. Her hips gave a tiny, involuntary roll against the weight in her lap.

"Then, I suppose no one knows you’re here..." Miss Stroud murmured, tongue returning to Ava’s neck, lapping at the rapid thump of her pulse.

The seductress’s breasts rose and fell against her in a slow, hypnotic rhythm. Ava could feel the other woman’s breathing deepen, grow hungrier.

"Oh!" Ava giggled, tickled by the wet stroke of that tongue even as her body burned. "Actually, ah... B-boss Green does!"

Miss Stroud’s tongue snapped back into her mouth at once. "Ah," she said, the single syllable cool and assessing. "Is that so?"

"Yeah! He ah... introduced me for the job, in fact."

Miss Stroud slowly pulled back just enough to look down at the blushing, dazed elf. Her black eyes were shrewd, calculating. "I see," she said. "How... interesting. You know him well, then?"

"Kinda," Ava answered, swaying a little in her seat, still wriggling in helpless delight as Miss Stroud’s hand continued its slow fondling of her breast, thumb circling the stiffened peak through cloth. "He fucked me in his carriage a couple times. Oh! And took me to a play."

"A play. I see."

Miss Stroud drummed a single elegant finger against her own hip, eying the flushed, panting elf in her lap.

Was Ava Rorg’s lover? Was she important to the orc? Miss Stroud nibbled thoughtfully on her lower lip, black paint gleaming.

She didn’t want to cross Rorg yet. Orcs were stupid, but ruthless, and having such a brute as an enemy might not be ideal at this stage of her plans.

On the other hand... perhaps there was a way around all this.

Miss Stroud’s smile widened, slow and sharp. "Come, Ava," she purred, rising in one fluid motion and pulling the elf to her feet.

Ava stumbled against her, legs unsteady, body still thrumming with unfinished heat.

Miss Stroud steadied her with an arm around her waist, guiding her toward the deeper darkness of the hall. Her eyes shone in the gloom like twin points of cold light.

"Let me show you my... other project..."

"Project?" Ava asked, voice soft and dreamy, leaning into the taller woman’s side. "Is it fun?"

"Oh yes," Miss Stroud said, drawing the young elf deeper into the shadows. The lantern light fell away behind them. The air grew cooler, denser, heavy with the promise of secrets. "I think it will be lots of fun indeed..."

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