there's a fire starting in my heart
reaching a fever pitch
The midwife could only mean one person. The Launceleyn snorted. ”It’s not hard to be more fun than Phoebe.” She read medical textbooks at home at night, which granted was her job, but didn’t exactly make for pleasure reading. Still, he grinned at the compliment, slight as it was. He wasn’t above a little bit of flattery.Well. This had not gone at all the way Loren had expected. Actually, maybe it kind of had. The distraction had worked perfectly: Sunjata and Lusea had mostly forgotten about their fight about the kiss with the goddess and instead were focused almost entirely on the summoner. Intensely so. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks as he flushed. It matched the one uncoiling in his gut and his veins. And maybe elsewhere too.
He knew he was right about the kissing the other man thing so the Launceleyn didn’t respond to that. Lusea, however, got a tentative smile. ”I did.” What he'd said about his encounter with Frey was close enough to the truth to make no difference. His smile turned into another grin at her next statement. ”Fair warning, most of them are bad.” Every time, he told people that, and they never believed him. Oh well. Not his problem. He took another drink from his nice little bottle to celebrate that fact.
Before Loren got a chance to respond to any further quips or comments, though, Sunjata and Lusea seemed to have a conversation that the Launceleyn only caught the undertones of. It was filled with challenges, give and take, almost daring each other on. To what, the summoner couldn’t say. Or at least, he couldn’t until the other man ended up standing behind Loren and Lusea ended up his lap, pulled there by Sunjata. The Launceleyn barely had time to get his bottle on the table, given how surprised he was by this development. He couldn't say it wasn't a pleasant surprise, though.
As her legs straddled either side of him, his cheeks reddened further, but one hand slipped around her back to steady her—though it was probably unnecessary, given the arm she draped around his shoulder—while the other came to rest on her knee. And maybe crept forwards just a little bit. Her words captivated him, and he gazed into her eyes, their faces almost touching. But not quite. Not yet.
First time for everything. And tonight, at least, he was full of surprises. Time to see what else he had in him.
His voice came out in a quiet but heated whisper. ”I think…” He licked his lips, before trying again. ”I think we should.” She was oh-so close. And it was oh-so easy to lean forward, slightly, his lips hovering just above hers, breath hot. However, this was between Sunjata and Lusea, and while Loren was perfectly willing to follow the lead of the other two, as he had earlier, this whole time really, he wasn’t quite sure if it was okay to do this.
Actually. He was perfectly okay doing this. Screw uncertainty. They’d invited him in. If they hadn't wanted this, it would've been simple to stop it. So now it was time to see how far they’d let him go. He leaned forward that last little inch and pressed his lips against Lusea’s.
and it's bringing me out the dark
LOREN
