"Nothing wrong at all in a wife that wishes to please her husband," Noran replied. "Neerita was always accommodating in that way."
Meliu sniggered again.
"What?" asked Noran, catching her infectious laugh. "What are you thinking?"
"Neerita and I used to talk about, well, you and Ullsaard," Meliu admitted. "You know, your prowess…"
"Compared notes, eh?" Noran had always suspected as much. The two of them had talked about other people's sex lives so much it was unthinkable that they did not do the same about their husbands. "I hope the reports were good."
"Oh yes!" Meliu became more demure and looked away. "She said you were always very considerate."
She fell silent and Noran put a hand on her cheek and turned her face towards him. Her eyes were moist.
"What is it?" he asked. She shook her head. "Tell me."
Meliu's words came like a spring flood down a river.
"I know that Ullsaard doesn't love me, not the way he loves Allenya, and Luia's right, he does treat me like a whore sometimes, and I am grateful that he chooses to bed me, but sometimes I wonder what it must be like, to share something more with someone, and I know it's ridiculous because I know he wouldn't look twice at me if Allenya wasn't my sister, so I should be thankful that he does, but it would be nice if…"
Her voice trailed away as Noran leaned across her, planting a gentle kiss on her lips.
"Stop talking so much," he said.
His hand moved from her cheek to her breasts, massaging them through the cloth of her dress. They kissed again, a long, sensuous meeting of lips and tongues. Meliu pulled back with a gasp.
"What?" Noran asked. "Did I misunderstand something? I'm sorry if I-"
It was Meliu's turn to silence the chatter, reaching a hand into Noran's trousers to caress his stiffening member. They lay down next to each other, kissing and touching, their hands exploring each other's bodies through and inside their clothes. With an impish smile, Meliu broke off from a long kiss and, pulling Noran's woollen trousers to his knees, lowered her mouth onto his shaft. He gave a grunt of pleasure at the touch of her lips and tongue and stroked the thick curls of her hair as she worked back and forth.
It was almost too much, but Meliu pulled away with a parting lick before Noran's pleasure burst forth. She giggled as he rolled to his back and lifted her onto him, pushing her dress up above her waist. Cupping Meliu's buttocks, Noran steered her into position and she lowered herself towards him, but stopped short, brushing the tip of his member but no further.
Meliu grabbed his wrists and pushed his hands behind his head as she wormed her way up his body.
"Your turn," she said, placing a warm thigh on either side of his head, lowering herself onto his face. Intoxicated by the scent of her, he thrust his tongue out, pulling his hands free so he could grip her backside again, dragging Meliu further onto him as she ground her groin back and forth across his mouth.
Meliu's breath came in short pants and squeals. Noran felt her fingers clamping onto the top of his head and for a moment he was worried that her nails would draw blood, so tight were their grip.
This time Noran pushed her away, sitting up so that she fell to one side, her face and chest flushed with red, one breast protruding from the top of her dress. For a moment in the dim light, he swore she looked like Neerita, so happy with him, so eager for more. The sensation passed with a twinge of guilt, but that was easily swamped by Noran's desire to finish the act.
With Meliu still on her side, he lifted her upmost leg and pushed himself slowly inside her. There was a real hunger in Meliu's eyes as she looked over her shoulder at him, almost pleading with him. He could resist no longer and started with quick thrusts, each made deeper by her movement back against him.
His climax built swiftly and strongly, and Meliu's wild eyes betrayed her own approaching moment of fulfilment. Every muscle tightened in Noran's body as he reached the highest point, all of his lust and grief and anger and loss condensing into a feral shout as it burst out of him into her. The whole world stopped for a few spasming heartbeats, his ears hissing with blood, barely hearing Meliu's shriek of pleasure.
As he sank back into the bed covers and pillows, Noran enjoyed the calm that washed over him. But the bliss would not last, something nagged at him: Meliu's tight grip on his arm, digging into flesh, pinching the hairs on his skin.
"What is it?" he asked, opening his eyes and turning his head slightly to look at Meliu. Her stare was fixed on the door. Noran lazily rolled over to see what she was looking at.
Luia stood in the open doorway, hand on the frame, one eyebrow raised in amusement.
"You were at the jewel market!" Meliu snapped in accusation.
"I am back," Luia replied quietly. She slowly shifted her eyes from Meliu to Noran. "My sister is a brainless slut, so I can understand her part in this. You? I thought you would be wiser. You have a wife for this sort of thing."
"Have sex with Anriit?" Noran laughed. "My cock and balls would freeze off before I was finished."
"You seem to find this situation amusing," Luia said.
She walked stiffly across the room and sat on the end of the bed. Meliu straightened her dress and pulled the covers over Noran's bare legs in an attempt at decency.
"You've fucked more men than the female population of this city, who are you to judge your sister?" Noran said.
"That is true," said Luia, smoothing a hand across the blankets. "I would not think twice about this squalid little tumble between you. In fact, if I had known you were looking for some bedroom action, I would have helped you myself."
"So why are you looking so smug?"
"My husband expects the least from me," Luia said, leaning back with all the contentment of a cat with a rat. "I am not sure he would be so forgiving of my sister. And I never sleep with any of his friends or subordinates."
Meliu's expression was of growing realisation of what they had done and her voice broke into sobs when she spoke.
"Ullsaard will kill us," she said.
Noran dismissed her worries with a shake of the head.
"No, not for this." He turned back to Luia. "And besides, he is not going to find out, is he?"
"If you are worried about him finding out, then you are worried about how he will react," said Luia. "You are close friends, but Ullsaard is a territorial man, used to being in command. He does not like it when his wishes are disobeyed, and more importantly he gets very angry when his expectations are not met. You know this. And he is a violent man by nature."
Noran leapt out of the bed and lunged for Luia, but she skipped away and he tripped on his falling trousers, landing flat on his face. Luia's laugh filled the room.
"What are you going to do to silence me? Kill me? That is not going to work, is it? Threaten me? You cannot, there is nothing you know that is as damaging as what I know."
"For the sake of your sister?" suggested Noran, awkwardly hauling himself back onto the bed. "She will be blamed as much as me."
"Meliu is safe because she is also Allenya's sister. Ullsaard will beat her, severely I would say, but he knows she is dim-witted but harmless, and he will suspect you of seducing her. If he hears the story from the wrong person…"
"What is it that you want from me?" asked Noran as he secured his trousers and tightened his belt. "Money?"
"I do not know… Yet." Luia approached Noran and he flinched as she reached a hand out towards his groin. "Perhaps it is you I want."
"No, no, no!" Noran backed away. "To sleep with one wife might be forgiven, but I am not repeating the mistake."
"This was a mistake, was it?" There was a brittle timbre to Meliu's question and Noran had to choose his words carefully.