Her sweet, confused friend. For a moment Eulalie imagined he did not want to stay. But that seemed so wildly unlikely. He had never once asked to be released from her presence. But. Eulalie chewed the inside of her cheeks. Would he? Even if he wanted or needed a moments peace from her or his work, would he ask? Probably not. It worried her. Reminded of Isidore again, and his accusation that she gave Vrai no room, no chance, to be master of his own life.
Maybe her cousin was right. At the promise not to touch him brought him close. Sitting with laugh very unsuited to him. Watching him twist his body away from hers, Eulalie felt all playfulness and arousal die. She was cruel, to play such games with him, to tease him about things he had no interest in. It was just mechanics. Nature over nurture. What cock would not rise as such blatant exposure to that which it had been designed to spear.
Putting her feelings aside, Eulalie listened. His faced turned into his hands, she could not read his expression past the curve of his ear. Would he lie or evade? He kept things from her, and nothing had ever gone well when he did. Lips pursed, she held the book tight. Felt the tension seep from her body and a smile try and tug her lips upward. ”Vrai.” She said softly. No brothers growing up, no long term lovers. Eulalie had no direct frustrations with the male sex beyond Isidore’s constant need to harass her.
But she understood the frustrations of denied desires very well. ”It is just that.” Fingertips near his thigh. She did not look at it again. Not sure either of them had likes it when she had looked directly at it before. ”Sexual frustration, I would guess. Body longing for release. I am sorry.” Responsible both directly and indirectly for his state. It would have been easy to slide her hand across his thigh and ease it for him, but Eulalie had promised not to touch.
It seemed such a foolish thing to have said now. Vrai’s hot cheeks turned on her as he scolded. How dare she doubt him! Eulie smiled. She never did. Not Vrai’s devotion. Just his happiness. ”But what about pleasing yourself, my friend?” She could give him something. Eulalie would give him anything. Her love for him was unconditional. She just simply wanted him, all of him, for herself. Eulie turned toward him, hand leaving the nearness of his thigh to sweep his hair from his face.
Automatically, she breathed with him. Deeply, into the quiet center that was not so quiet just then. ”Okay.” Looking at her lap, Eulalie opened the book. Heat creeping into her own cheeks. It felt so impersonal this way, not what she had pictures moments before when they’d left the mirror room. Of twining together on the loveseat to giggle over a long dead priestesses sexual conquests. Perhaps this was better. Safer. She glanced at him with looking, and found her place in the book.
”Summertide; the queen who tends the temple grounds has been impregnated. There will be a purge of all healers in the days to come, and long months of waiting to see who the father of this cursed child is. All the males have been summoned for questioning. The air thick with so many warlord princes, even the eunuchs prickle...” Hours spent as children sharing books, and a lifetime of learning how to calm, charm, or rile crowds, gave Eulalie a good cadence for reading aloud.
With Vrai it was easiest. Relaxing at his side without relaxing into it. She worked through the mundane details of the gathering, to her the conclusion was forgone. She knew this priestess now. What it must have done to have so many raiders in one place. Nearly an islands worth of men. Bickering and fight amongst each other until a select few were given another way to ease their tempers.
Captains who could be trusted. Eunuchs who would never share secrets. The lady’s apprentice, too. Eulalie remembered how she had been chosen, and paused to tell Vrai the story. Two. Two young women most suiting to the apprenticeship. A competition of sorts to see who could take a spear the deepest in their throats. ”A bizarre but fitting way for this woman.” What good was a priestess’ ability to suck a cock when faced with an insurrection. Or a queen pregnancy? ”I think she must have been a little mad.” Even Isidore was not so sex crazed.