Chapter 1737 – Hornylotl
“We had the, uhm, talks,” the season elemental assured. “Trial membership h-has been granted.”
“We started talking about it the day after ya picked her up,” Rave told him. “While you were sleeping off the exhaustion. Same limitations as the other trial member: no alone lewds and this decision was unanimous.”
“Even Lydia agreed?” John asked.
“Ya can ask her yourself later.”
“Do not make me wai-“
“Shut up,” John interrupted the demigoddess, whose eyes widened in surprise at his harsh tone. Her mouth closed with an audible clack, then she moaned at the pleasure obedience brought her – both magically and mentally.
John knew when he was looking at a submissive.
“I’m deciding if I’ll touch you, be a good girl and sit there as I make my decision,” he told her in the dark, erotically threatening tone reserved for the bedroom. Nahua squirmed under the sound of it, her breathing growing even more laboured. Whether she had been swinging this way from the start or had her erotic expectations tinged by the last few weeks of exposure to his sexual exploits hardly mattered. She clearly loved being made to be quiet. She even stopped touching herself. “Lydia aside, what does the ‘carefulness committee’ say?”
“Ehem,” Momo cleared her throat. “As the local representative of reason… we decided you were being pretty good about all of this recently and so you deserved to be cut some slack on this.” The fairy maid gave him an encouraging, sweet smile. “And I mean it.”
The Gamer couldn’t say he actively saw what she meant. ‘Looking back at the last couple of weeks, I suppose I have been acting properly for someone that doesn’t want to needlessly expand their harem,’ he gave himself that credit. ‘It’s been 3 months since Lulu. That’s a pretty good gap for me.’
Thoughts on the matter ended there. Between the handjob Gnome was giving him and Nahua’s frills and pointy ears doing an eager, needy up-and-down, he was too entranced by the situation. There was only one thing he could do now.
Getting off the throne, he crossed the single step divide between him and Nahua. The haremettes in the way parted hastily, to give him room to squat in front of the demigoddess. A sliver of John’s past sensibilities reminded him of what she was and what he had been. There he was, the Gamer, towering over a venerated woman of an ancient civilization who was smaller, weaker, and less influential than him.
Smirking, he put his finger on her lower abdomen, right where the Lover’s Will mark would be. Eye contact steady, he traced the middle line of her flat stomach upwards to her solar plexus, then further up her sternum, the gap of her collarbones, her neck, and finally stopped under her chin. Like the tip of a blade, he held his finger there. “Don’t think I don’t get what you’re playing at, Nahua-xoco-atl-xolotl. You’re not the first woman that wants to graft onto my strength.” His left hand wandered to her pointy ear and the frilly gills behind them. She cooed when he gave her gentle scratches. “Answer.”
“Awww, whatever do you mean? I’m just a silly little-“
John grabbed her by the frills and forced her head back. If it hurt, she loved that, clenching her teeth while a near-orgasmic shiver went through her. “Tell the truth,” he demanded.
The malevolent shadow of Nahua’s nature mingled with her arousal. Half-mad, a grin was plastered across her features, showing her pearly white teeth. All the gold that covered her clattered when she inhaled deeply. “You gave me the desires of the flesh. You are the only man that could impregnate me in this new body. You are strong, too strong to pass up on as an ally. Above all I find your presence deeply and comfortably intoxicating.” Her nostrils flared as she took in another whiff of his scent. “You are a lord worthy of many women.”
“I only take women that I do or could love.”
John let the words hang in the air, fully ready to press his lips on hers to seal the deal. All of the room was ready for him to do the same. All of them except one. A silver eye hung behind the Gamer, watching his every move. Nothing was said, but the presence of the elemental that had taken it upon himself to be his conscience was enough.
Clenching his jaw until his teeth hurt, the Gamer let go of Nahua. Anticipation was in her eyes first, about his next movement. The fog of arousal was not thick enough for her to miss his change in behaviour when he suddenly backed away. Cross-legged, he sat down on the floor.
“I can’t do it,” he said, to everyone’s surprise.
“What do you… what?” Nahua’s stammering was accompanied by glances all around. “You reject me?!”
“…Yes.” John lowered Particle Skin just in time to give her the satisfaction of the slap. “I deserve that one,” he said stoically. It did not matter. Nahua had already jumped to her feet and was storming out of the room.
“Witless invader,” she hissed over her shoulder, before leaving the chamber entirely.
“Explain THAT to me, Johnny!” Rave exclaimed. “Because she did not deserve that!”
The Gamer rubbed his cheek. Physically, the impact was barely notable. It didn’t even sting anymore – not on the skin anyway. “No, I should have stopped well before there… I shouldn’t have given her any Libido to begin with,” he mumbled. “Jane, you know as well as I do that sex isn’t just sex.”
“Yeah? That’s the point? We like her, you like her, she likes you, she likes us, so screw her brains out and give her another reason to stay?!” The aggression left his first fiancée with that last comment. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Gimme a sec, trying to think like brainiac here…”
John went from rubbing his cheek to his forehead. He suddenly felt very tired. That his passionate Rave was trying to get into his headspace gave him reason to smile though. “I think we all have been a bit too horny for a bit too long,” he said.
“…Guilty as charged…” Momo mumbled and rubbed her temples. “This wasn’t even an elaborate ploy to test your resolve.”
“I’d be disappointed if you played games like this with me,” John told her outright. Of the many things that kept his harem stable, his women talking about their issues rather than engaging in intricate social games with him and each other was up there. “You get it yet, Jane?”
“Nope, still too horny, still want her – explain, Johnny.”
“I still don’t know how the dice are going to fall here.” He chose his words carefully, not to give away more than healthy suspicions to a potential onlooker. “If push comes to shove and Nahua has to decide between us and her people, I don’t want her to suffer more than she has to. If I am in the right, then I want her to choose my side because I’m in the right. I don’t want her suffering because I pulled her heart into my camp before her mind could follow.”
“Still though…” Rave mumbled. “If that was your goal, you could have done that better.”
“Yes… no… maybe…” John let out a long sigh. “I don’t know if there was a way to let her down gently there. Maybe it’s good that I didn’t. A shake up could be good for everyone involved… I’m just rationalizing, though. Truth is that my blood was elsewhere.” He gestured towards his now flaccid member. “Plus, telling women ‘no’ is not my strong suit.”
“For what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing,” Momo supported him. “Really… this is on me…” She shook her head. “Let’s not get bogged down on that. Undine, Siena, could you come with me? I want to go after her.”
“Why us?” Undine asked.
“Call it intuition, but I think experience in handling Eliana might be useful here.” Momo looked wistfully into the distance. “If Claire was here, I’d ask her… she’s pretty good at talking.”
John opened his mouth to suggest he also tag along. He thought better of it. At best he would explain his reasons to Nahua, at worst he would cave to his own desires after all. Some distance would be for the best. “Just try to make her understand that I like her.”
“I’ll do my best so she doesn’t hate you,” Momo promised. The trio set out as soon as their clothes had formed, following the mental signal Nahua emitted even now.
John leaned back until his neck hit the edge of the throne. He looked up, to find Aclysia and Gnome looking back at him. They were obviously conflicted about what had transpired. They had just as little worked out yet whether they were proud of him or disappointed in him or disappointed by themselves.
A long string of amorous successes had brought them all there. The last time John had suffered anything close to a setback had been when he had thought, as short as it had been, that Nightingale had opted to leave. Delicia, Claire, Hailey, Lu Zhi, Ehtra, those five had all joined him with varying degrees of smoothness and inevitability. Claire had been a bit difficult, but that had not been her choice.
John was used to winning. His harem was used to expanding. They trusted him, they trusted him enough that a good chunk of his harem agreed to a new member without meeting her. Guarantees by Rave, Aclysia and Momo must have done the rest.
Could he have had her there? Yes. Could things work out after? Yes. Was it right to take her there? No. John could not take advantage of a woman that hoped for the best when he feared for the worst. What would it look like to Nahua if he did that? His lies were bad enough without him breaking her heart.
“I hate not getting what I want,” Rave hissed, shaking her future spouse. “Hate it, hate it a lot!”
“Still mad at me?” John asked, worry in his tone. Getting in a fight with Nahua was one thing, losing the backing of his girl another.
“No! Yes!” Rave grabbed his arm and playfully bit his shoulder. The gesture made John giggle.
“Let it all out then,” he encouraged and she kept nibbling. “If all goes well, we can get back with her without the immorality hanging over our heads.” ‘Although she may not be in a romantic mood when all of this is over. If I am right, justified or not, I will be the one to upend her society for good.’
The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that stopping there was the right move.