Can you show me, my lord? “What?”

“Show me. What vulnerability is like.” She shakes her head at whatever I was about to say, though honestly I wasn’t about to say anything. I’m pinned by her smile, by the mixture of doubt and hunger in her eyes. “Take me in your hands and your will and let me feel what it would have felt like. So that I can know no-one ever has, if for no other reason. So I can… know the difference between possibility and fact.”

“Amber…” My fingers clench on her back despite everything. “Why did you do it, if you’re feeling like this about it? Why not stop, if you weren’t okay with it?”

“Would you have, my lord?”

No, I don’t bother saying. Obviously I-as-her wouldn’t have stopped, in her shoes; I had gotten a tremendous amount of insight from the way the connections formed, the three of them needed to know each other better to fight better together, and everyone there was either trustworthy or a failure condition if they couldn’t be trusted anyway while the demonstration of trust itself was valuable for team cohesion, potentially. “Roll onto your stomach,” I say instead.

“I—”

“‘—am rolling onto my stomach’, said the Paladin who had just asked to be made to feel vulnerable,” I finish for her, letting an edge creep into my voice. There’s a startlement in her eyes, but also an unexpectedly fierce flare of interest, and she does it, propping herself up a little on her elbows.

“And now? My lord.”

There’s a lack of edge to the title that’s wildly unlike Amber’s usual tone, and I have to strangle a laugh in its infancy, which is probably not the effect she was trying for. In lieu of saying anything, I set to it; my hands work their way up her back on each side of her spine, applying pressure and a bit of a twist. She grunts and her elbows slide out from under her, leaving her face buried into the bed as I work my way back down.

Up and down, around and across the major muscle groups. Palm, thumb, knuckles, thumb; I massage the knots out of her back, at first gently and then more thoroughly, to a chorus of her groans. I don’t have any oil, which rules out some of the techniques I’ve picked up over the years, but there’s nothing wrong with kneading, other than how rough it is on the joints, and I can switch it up with pressure or percussive strikes with the side of the hand. When the tedium gets too high—I have infinite patience for receiving a massage, but it’s honestly pretty boring to give one—and there isn’t any part of my hands that isn’t complaining, I work my way down one last time, this time going all the way down to the muscles of her ass and then her thighs.

That gets more of a moan than a groan, and yet more of one when I part her thighs firmly-but-gently, sliding my hands up the slickness to work my thumbs from just outside her clit up to circle around the innermost curves of her ass, where her skin crinkles and darkens. That gets me an uncomfortable squirm, and I smile, resting my hardening cock against her perineum.

“Still want to know what it feels like?” My voice is low, hungry, without any pretense about the reality of my interest. “I really won’t object if you say no. There are so very many things we can do that don’t involve—”

“Please.” Amber’s voice is even, steady. Surprisingly so, given how languorously puddled her body language is. Quiet, though, and with a deep note of contentment, which is reassuring given my efforts.

My Visor flickers open. There’s a wild skelter of connections, and I haven’t had the opportunity to really study them. Still, I have a full mana pool, and [Interface] is right there, and it burns in me as I wrap my will around those connections, as I move her hands.

I move her hands. It’s strange but easy so long as I’m doing it slowly, though it feels like I’m pushing through molasses to do it if I try to move faster. They drift, gently, from supporting her head to stretched out towards the headboard of the bed, and I run my thumbs back up the insides of her thighs, watching readouts for once instead of her body.

Breath. Nerves. Muscles. Blood. I’m familiar with the basics of anatomy, and the rest is a matter of computational resources and magical interfaces.

Everything clarifies, as the model takes form and her resistance diminishes until it’s entirely gone. She moves exactly how I want her to, fingers stretching out in front of her hands, head curved down and back in a reverse arch as her knees slide outwards. Every muscle that’s not taut relaxes, and her body flares with a heat that mirrors the highest intensity I’ve ever felt as my fingers work their way inwards to brush the skin along the innermost curves of her ass once more and then slide slickly towards the heat of her clit, just barely brushing its sides.

“One more time.” I make myself say the words loud enough for her to hear clearly and with enough gravity to make her genuinely consider her answer, despite how much I want to just take her. “You’re absolutely sure this is something you want? I’m not sure I’ll be able to tell if you want me to stop. You definitely won’t be able to say it.”

“Yes, my lord.” Her voice is breathy and soft. “I want this. Please.”

“Why?”

“I need…” Her voice trails off, and I wait, trying to convey a patience I don’t actually feel, body pressed against hers and my hands resting loosely at her waist. Present, but hopefully not demanding. “I know you can feel how much I want this. Adam… does there need to be anything else? What do you need from me?”

Snickering, I run a forefinger down the outside of her leg and stroke it back up her thigh. “I’m not doubting that you’re turned on, Amber. What do you want out of this? Other than the physical. You don’t need me to use magic to fuck you, and we could as easily use ropes if you want to be tied up.”

“I want to feel what you feel.” The words slip out of her, and I can quite literally see the surprise reaction propagate and watch the understanding redouble her desire.

“Unsteady and vulnerable?” It’s a bare whisper of my will to take away her ability to speak, but I leave her able to nod, and she does, shuddering. “That feeling like you’ve run off the cliff, and if you look down, you’ll fall?” I lean down to whisper in her ear. “You’re already there.”

Her body doesn’t shudder, because it can’t; the connection between us is full of me, flooding through every tiny thread that built up when she handed me the keys to her soul and unchallenged by any shred of her will. Instead, her knees splay just a little more, and both sets of her lips part in unison.

“I’ve never met anyone as beautiful as you, Amber Ashborn.” I keep my voice to a low murmur, my lips trailing kisses along her jawline and the curve of her ear. “And I’ve never met anyone like you in so many other ways. It’ll be my pleasure to show you what it feels like to be helpless, with someone who’s so very hungry for you.”

I start with two fingers inside her, and then make it three. My fingers crook, running along the roughness of the nerve centers on her inside walls, and my other hand reaches for her breast, running my thumb over the nipple as I feed the joy of reveling in touching her into her. I’m less sitting behind her parted legs and more straddling one of them, my body at her side, and I watch her body in fascination as I pick and choose the ways in which it reacts, working to heighten her pleasure and amplify her sensation. I could stimulate the nerves directly, I know, but that feels like it would be cheating; I awkwardly twist my hand instead to get my thumb on her clit while my fingers work inside her, and find myself grinning despite the torsion in my wrist.

Her muscles start rippling with tension, muscles which I’d forced to relax earlier. I let them, for a moment, before I shift my attention momentarily into the Visor again to set them relaxing in something of a command loop. I let her breath quicken, though; along with the increased oxygen flow, the panting is incredibly hot.

“I’m going to make you cum for me. Squirt, more like, probably.” I deliberately use the most vulgar term that comes to mind, and she flushes in embarrassment and for other reasons, as well. “It’s going to make a mess, but don’t you mind that. You can’t stop yourself, because you can’t stop me.

“You’re too filled up with a hunger; it fills your belly and your mind, and you float on it. You’re too unmoored, too adrift, because you don’t have a body to call your own; you only have this body that’s mine, right now.”

It’s definitely cheating, but I mimic the motions of my thumb with magic—talk about a great fucking Visor—which frees my hand to add a fourth finger, tucked into the other three as they crook into the erogenous zone inside her vagina. I fuck her steadily, but mostly I drag the pads of my fingers along there and massage, while my other hand keeps tracing patterns around her breasts and twirling her nipple between my fingers.

“That’s it.” I’m grinning, a grin that would probably ruin her mood if she saw it. Her breathing is irregular, now, and she’s trying to clamp onto my hand and clench her muscles. “That’s it. Feel it rise, feel it coming. You’re just as helpless to stop it as you are to move in any way I don’t want you to,” I whisper, feeling the soaring, empty feeling in my stomach that I can tell she’s feeling too. “You’re such a good toy, Amber. And now, whether you want to or not, it’s time for you to cum for me.”

The only outwards sign of her orgasm is her breath. I know I’ve forgotten something, but I don’t care; she’s so beautiful, her pleasure is so enthralling, that I can’t care. I give her a couple of moments, not leaving off the stimulation, and then I maneuver myself behind her and thrust inside.

I start loosening up the magic, letting her have some control over her calves and feet, letting the muscles from her knees to her core tighten or relax in reaction to her own desires. Her ass, her firm, amazingly muscled ass slaps against my stomach with every thrust, and her tits sway and dance. Her body shifts just a little, hips coming up and tilting, ankles crossing over my ankles, and she loses herself in pleasure and passion, shuddering and shivering as I let my presence and the memory of that total degree of control fill her awareness as I fuck her. My hands at her waist, my eyes close and I barely have enough presence of mind to realize I’ve lost myself in the scene that I built for her, lost myself in something almost like a kind of submission via service.

When my own orgasm comes, in a grunt and a gasp, it takes me by surprise. I pull out of her, dismissing all of the spells and running my hands up her body as she collapses sideways. I curl up around her, arms holding her as tight as I can, feeling the shudders work her way out of her body like minute after minute of aftershocks.

We have things to talk about, I’m pretty sure, but she’s asleep before she says a word.