Chapter 87: Quiet after Bad Numbers (18)
The night helper repeated Tressa’s instructions without looking at Severin.
"Warm water if his cough thickens. Wake me if his lips pale, if the fever rises, or if he can’t finish a breath. Mara watches the woman by the window. Pell has the old man until 2nd bell."
Tressa held her forearms beneath the stream from the ward basin. Clouded water slid over her fingers, carrying away the last bitter trace of crushed leaf and soap.
"And if the chain wound opens?" she asked.
"Pressure cloth first. Then I call you."
"Good. Don’t wait for it to soak through."
The helper nodded, gathered the folded cloths against her chest, and went back through the west door. Beyond it, the lower ward remained quiet. Someone coughed. A cup touched wood. No one cried out.
Tressa rinsed to her elbows, dried her hands, and pulled the work apron over her head. She hung it on the peg beside the ward door.
Severin had watched the whole handoff from the short corridor. Road grit from the carriage ride out of Greycross still marked his boots. Alicia waited a short step behind his right shoulder, silver ears angled toward the patients.
"You’re off the ward," he said.
Tressa rubbed the towel across her palms. "Until that bell rings."
She was tired. He saw it in the slower drop of her shoulders and in the way her fingers stayed around the towel after they had stopped moving.
The latest relay had brought no movement from the old lime wall. The wagon and team were still there, and nothing had split from them. His watchers knew what would wake him.
Tressa set the towel beside the basin.
"I’m done talking about the wagon tonight." She pressed the towel once between her palms.
"Then don’t talk about it."
Her eyes moved to the door of her private room. "Come inside."
He stepped toward her.
Alicia moved with him before she caught herself. Her tail tightened around her calf. Both ears lowered a little.
Severin stopped at Tressa’s door and looked back. "The attendants’ room. Sleep."
Alicia’s gaze flicked from him to Tressa, then returned at once. "Wake for what, Master?"
"If the ward turns, if the house is attacked, or if the weighhouse moves, wake me. The same for a watcher carrying evidence."
Her tail twitched against her calf. "Yes, Master."
She crossed to the next door, opened it, and paused with her hand on the frame.
"Sleep," Severin repeated.
"Yes, Master."
The door closed behind her.
Tressa watched it for a moment. "She’ll forgive me by breakfast."
"She obeyed me. She doesn’t need to forgive you."
Tressa’s mouth curved. "That sounded more comforting in your head, didn’t it?"
"No."
A short laugh escaped her. She opened her door and went in.
The room was narrow but warm. A wall lamp burned above the headboard. The bed nearly filled the wall to Severin’s left, leaving only a strip of open floor at its foot. A washstand faced it with a basin, water jug, soap, and folded cloths. A sturdy chair stood beside the door. The shuttered window kept the night outside.
Tressa turned the key after Severin entered and left it in the lock.
The click left the ward on the other side of the wood.
Severin removed his coat and laid it over the chair back. He took the dry lower towel from the washstand and spread it across the center of the bed. Tressa slipped off her low shoes. She rolled each wool stocking down her thighs, switching feet as she stepped free, and placed them beside the shoes instead of throwing them.
Even now, she kept clean and dirty things apart.
She reached for the fastening of her dress.
Severin caught her wrist.
Tressa looked up.
"Hands down," he said.
Her breath changed. She lowered them. "Mm... yes."
She rose onto her toes and kissed him first.
He let her have the first touch. Then his hand closed behind her neck, and the kiss became his. Her lips opened. Her chest pressed against him as he backed her away from the door, keeping both bare feet flat on the boards.
"Severin..."
His free hand slid down her waist and filled with the round weight of her ass. He squeezed hard enough to pull her hips against him.
Her fingers tightened in his shirt.
He drew back just enough to see her eyes. "Dress."
Tressa unfastened it. The simple cloth slipped from her shoulders, gathered at her waist, then fell around her ankles. She stepped free and folded it over the chair seat beneath his coat.
Her underclothes followed. She stood before him with her chest rising faster, freckles warm across her cheeks and nose. Tressa never held still when she wanted something. Her right hand touched his belt, retreated, then returned.
Severin caught both wrists in his left hand and lifted them against his chest.
"Wait."
"Mmh... I’m waiting."
"You’re trying badly."
Her brows lifted. "You noticed."
He released her wrists, turned her, held her waist with his left hand, and brought his right palm down across her right cheek. The impact jolted her soft flesh beneath his hand.
"Ah!"
Heat spread under his palm. Tressa’s hips pressed back instead of pulling away.
He lifted his hand again.
SLAP!
The next strike landed across her left cheek. Tressa’s knees flexed. She caught herself against his forearm, breath breaking into a smaller sound.
"Nnh... harder than the first."
"You stayed still."
"I knew where your hand was."
Severin turned her to face him, toed off his boots beside the chair, and pulled his shirt over his head. He stepped out of his trousers and underclothes. His shirt, trousers, and underclothes joined the coat in a dry heap. By the time he straightened, Tressa’s gaze had dropped to his cock.
He was already hard.
Her lips parted.
Severin cupped both breasts and pushed them together, feeling their warm weight fill his hands. Tressa leaned into the pressure. He bent and sucked her left nipple until it hardened against his tongue, then moved to the right.
Her fingers entered his hair.
He drew the right nipple deeper, closed his teeth around it until her breath broke, then let go.
Tressa’s back arched. Her wet pussy glistened between her thighs.
Severin took her chin and kissed her again. Saliva shone on her lower lip when he broke away.
"Kneel on the mattress. At the foot."
She obeyed at once.
The bed dipped beneath both knees. Severin stood on the open floor between them, feet planted shoulder-width apart. Tressa looked up from below, chest moving fast, her right hand already closing around the base of his cock.
"Use your mouth," he said.
She licked the head slowly, then dragged her tongue along the underside before taking him between her lips.
"Mmm."
The seal of her mouth pulled heat through him. Her right hand worked the shaft below her lips, following each withdrawal. Her left palm braced against his right thigh.
Severin threaded his left hand through her chestnut hair and closed near the roots. His right hand found her left breast and squeezed in time with the movement of her mouth.
Tressa took him deeper.
"Nnnh..."
Her throat tightened around the head before she pulled back for air. She didn’t stop. Her hand kept stroking while her lips moved over the crown again.
"Look at me."
Her hazel eyes lifted.
He pushed deeper, slowly enough for her to follow. Her nose approached his lower abdomen. Her fingers pressed harder into his thigh.
"Hnngh..."
"Breathe."
She drew air when he let her back. A thin line of saliva stretched from her mouth to his cock. She wiped it along the shaft with her hand and returned.
Tressa watched his breathing and adjusted before he told her. Her hand followed the tension through his thigh and lower abdomen, then tightened when his pulse jumped beneath her palm.
"Deeper."
She took him until her lips reached the base.
"Mmph!"
Her throat convulsed. Severin held her there until her fingers tightened against his thigh, then let her back. She coughed softly, eyes wet but clear.
"Again," he said.
Tressa swallowed, drew breath, and obeyed.
"Ngh-mm..."
His abdomen tightened. Her right hand worked the last part of the shaft whenever her mouth retreated, then followed her lips down again. Her hand closed where her lips left him, leaving no break in pressure.
Severin’s grip in her hair strengthened.
"Don’t slow."
"Mm-hm."
She couldn’t shape an answer around him. She didn’t try. Her hand quickened. Her cheeks hollowed. Her throat took him again and again, eyes watering without leaving his.
Pleasure gathered hard at the base of his spine.
Her left palm shifted from his thigh to his lower abdomen as the muscles tightened beneath it. She felt the change and drove her mouth deeper.
"Hold."
He pressed her down.
"HNNGH!"
Her throat closed around him. The pressure broke his control.
"Fuck, Tressa."
His cock pulsed in her mouth. Release struck deep against her tongue and throat. She gagged but held her place. Another pulse followed, then another, her right hand still tight around the base.
"Mmm... ngh."
Severin kept her steady until the last surge passed. Tressa swallowed before he let her lift her head.
Saliva and a pale trace shone at the corner of her mouth. She wiped it with the cloth he handed her, then sat back on her heels, breathing through her nose.
He remained hard.
Sensitivity burned along his cock, sharp enough that even the cool room air carried an edge. His thighs had tightened during the release. His breath needed a moment to settle.
Tressa looked at him and gave a tired, pleased little smile.
Severin poured water into the cup and held it to her mouth.
She drank. He kept his right hand at the back of her neck while her breathing evened.
"Hah... my jaw’s going to hate you," she said roughly.
"It’ll recover."
"You’ll use it again later."
Her brows rose. Then she glanced at his cock, still hard against his abdomen.
"Mm... you weren’t exaggerating."
"I didn’t speak."
"That was the useful part."
Severin set the cup on the washstand.
Tressa stood from the mattress. Her knees pressed briefly into his thighs before her feet found the floor. He kissed her, tasting water and the faint salt that remained on her tongue.
His right hand slid over her ass and struck her right cheek while she was held against him. The impact snapped through the room.
"Ah... Severin."
"Wall."
He turned her toward the plastered stone beside the bed. Tressa put her palms against it. Severin caught her waist before she could settle there, lifted her, and turned her back against the stone.
Her arms locked around his shoulders. Her legs wrapped his waist.
His left forearm supported beneath her ass and upper thighs. His right hand controlled her right thigh while he adjusted his stance. His right foot shifted back. The wall supported her upper back.
Tressa was wet enough that his cock slid through the slick heat between her folds before he aligned.
"Ah... please."
He pushed inside.
Her body knew him. Her pussy opened around him in a slow, heavy stretch, all heat, pressure, and wet drag.
"Ahh... yes."
Severin filled her to the base and held still.
Tressa’s fingers dug into his shoulders. Her hazel eyes stayed on his until they dropped to his mouth.
"Look at me," he said.
She did.
He withdrew halfway and drove back in.
"Ngh!"
The wall gave a dull knock behind her shoulders. He adjusted the angle, locked his legs, and thrust again. Tressa’s wetness coated his cock and began to run along her inner thighs.
"Harder... ngh."
He drove into her harder.
He fucked her against the wall, each stroke lifting her on his forearm and pressing her back into stone. Her breasts moved between them. When his left arm and the wall carried her weight, his right hand left her thigh long enough to squeeze her right breast.
"Oh... there."
Severin caught her mouth before the next sound could form and bit her lower lip lightly.
Her pussy tightened around him.
He returned his right hand to her thigh and increased the pace. Wet contact sounded beneath their breathing. The wall knocked in an uneven rhythm whenever her back met it.
"Severin, I... ah, I’m close."
"Say it clearly."
He shortened the strokes without softening them. Each thrust struck the same deep angle. Tressa’s legs locked harder around his waist.
"Don’t stop. Don’t—mmh..."
Her sentence snapped. Her body clenched around him in a hard contraction, then in rapid waves that dragged at his cock.
"Ahhh—Severin!"
Tressa came against the wall with her face buried at his neck. Her thighs shook. More wetness spread over him and ran down her skin.
Severin held her through the strongest contractions and kept thrusting.
She whimpered into his shoulder.
"Too much... nnh, still good."
"Hold on."
Her arms tightened.
The grip of her pussy and the weight of her body drove him toward release again. His abdomen locked. He buried himself deep, pinning her between his chest and the wall.
"Take it."
"Yes... ah, inside."
His body tightened. Semen pulsed into her in repeated surges while her contractions still worked around him. Tressa’s breath broke against his skin. Her legs stayed locked, and Severin kept his forearm firm beneath her until the final pulse passed.
They stayed still while his breathing eased.
He was still hard inside her.
Tressa lifted her head. Damp hair clung to her temple.
"You’re still... hard."
"You’ll take it again."
Severin tightened his hold, withdrew, and carried her the short distance to the bed. Semen began to leak from her pussy and trail along her inner thigh.
Tressa’s back met the mattress near its center. He supported her hip while turning her into position.
SLAP!
His palm landed across her left cheek. The impact left the flesh hot beneath his hand.
"Ah! I was already turning."
"Too slowly."
He almost smiled. "On your back."
Tressa obeyed, head beneath the wall lamp. Severin lifted her left leg over his right shoulder. Her right foot planted on the mattress outside his left knee.
He knelt between her thighs. The towel beneath her hips caught what leaked from her and the wetness coating her skin.
Severin squeezed both breasts again. He bent and sucked her left nipple until her back arched. The right nipple stayed flushed from his earlier teeth.
A rough breath left her when his mouth released.
He entered her while still fully hard.
The mixture of her lubrication and his semen made entry obscenely wet. His cock slid deep with almost no resistance. Tressa’s mouth fell open.
"Ahh... so deep."
Severin’s left hand fixed her right hip. He drove into her along the same deep angle, hard enough to make the bed creak beneath his knees. The headboard answered the force with small knocks against the wall.
Tressa’s breasts shook with each thrust.
"Severin... ah, faster."
He increased the pace when her body opened to the deeper strokes.
The wet sound between them thickened. Her pussy gripped him more tightly whenever he pulled back, then swallowed him again on each return.
"Ngh—yes, yes..."
Severin shifted his right hand between her thighs. His thumb found her clit and pressed in a slow circle while his hips kept the harder rhythm.
Tressa’s right foot slipped. His left hand kept her hip from twisting while his right caught her ankle and set her foot back on the mattress.
"Keep it there."
"Trying."
"Do it."
She planted the foot and held.
He leaned over her without losing the support of either knee. His mouth closed around her left nipple again. The suction pulled another shudder through her.
"Oh... don’t stop that."
Severin released the nipple and straightened. His thumb resumed pressure on her clit.
Her breath came faster now. Tressa’s hands gripped the blanket, let go, then found his forearm. She held on while he drove into her.
"I’m getting close again... Severin, please."
"I know."
He pressed harder with his thumb and shortened his thrusts, keeping the head of his cock against the same deep place inside her.
Her hips tried to rise. His left hand kept the right side pinned while her left leg trembled over his shoulder.
The bed creaked faster.
"There—don’t—ahhh, Severin!"
Her pussy clamped around him.
Her body seized around him in strong, slow contractions. Her back arched. Her right foot dug into the mattress. Wetness spread beneath her ass and along Severin’s thighs.
He kept thrusting through the contractions, his thumb slowing only when her body became too sensitive to take the same pressure.
Tressa’s voice broke into a raw, smaller sound.
"Nnnh... still coming."
"Take me."
He held through the last contraction, then drove harder. The pleasure gathered in his abdomen with each wet impact. Tressa’s pussy remained tight from the climax, dragging at him until his rhythm threatened to break.
"Inside... please."
Severin buried himself deep.
Release tore through him. He held her hip as pulse after pulse filled the wet heat around his cock. His thighs strained against the mattress. The sensation pushed a rough breath from him, but his hands never lost their positions.
Tressa’s body shuddered beneath him.
"Mm... I feel it."
He stayed inside until the last pulse ended.
Only then did his cock begin to soften.
Severin lowered her left leg from his shoulder and helped her right foot straighten. Tressa lay open beneath him, thighs trembling, chest rising in uneven breaths. He withdrew slowly.
Fresh semen leaked from her pussy onto the towel, mixing with the earlier release and the slickness already spread beneath her hips.
Severin brought the cup first.
"Drink."
Tressa obeyed while he supported the back of her head. Water ran from the corner of her mouth. He wiped it with his thumb.
When he took the cup away, she worked her jaw and winced.
"Bad?"
"Sore." Her hoarse voice carried a trace of laughter. "I’ll feel you tomorrow."
He left her beneath the upper blanket and crossed to the washstand. He poured water, dampened a cloth, and returned.
Tressa’s thighs twitched when he cleaned the semen and wetness from her skin.
"Easy," she murmured.
"I’m being easy."
Her eyes opened. "Huh. That’s easy?"
Severin’s hand settled on her knee and kept it open. "Stay still."
She did.
The red shapes of his palms remained warm across her ass. Her right nipple was still flushed from his teeth. He cleaned her inner thighs and pussy, then himself. Tressa helped when her hands stopped shaking, wiping sweat from his lower abdomen and passing him a fresh cloth without being asked.
She folded the lower towel wet-side-in. The used cloths went with it beside the basin, ready for the morning wash.
Tressa washed her mouth, then drank again. Severin pulled the dry upper blanket over her breasts and settled beside her long enough for her breathing to lose its edge.
The room had gone quiet. Beyond the corridor, the ward still held low voices and footsteps. A distant cough carried through the door. His watchers still had the weighhouse. Alicia’s room stayed quiet through the shared wall.
Tressa rested her head against Severin’s shoulder.
"You didn’t argue again," she said.
"You’d already made the case."
Her fingers moved over his chest. "That may be the closest you’ve come to an apology."
"It wasn’t nice."
"I know."
A knock sounded in the corridor.
Tressa’s body tensed, then relaxed when Alicia spoke through the door.
"Runner with a watcher note, Master."
Severin rose at once.
He pulled on his underclothes and trousers, then his shirt. Tressa stayed beneath the blanket while he crossed to the door. He turned the key and opened it no wider than his shoulders.
Alicia stood outside with sleep still softening the corners of her eyes. Her ears were upright now. She held a folded note and a narrow sheet darkened by charcoal.
"The runner woke me, Master. The wagon hasn’t moved. A watcher copied this from the left rear trace buckle."
"Where’s the runner?"
"At the stair, Master. He didn’t enter."
Severin took the note and rubbing. Alicia’s gaze stayed on his face, though her left ear angled toward the ward.
"Wait outside."
"Yes, Master."
He closed and locked the door again.
The watcher had pressed thin paper across a metal mark and rubbed charcoal over it. A Guild freight oval appeared in black, but beneath it sat 2 short cuts turned inward toward each other.
Tressa pushed herself upright, wrapped the blanket beneath her arms, and watched him place the rubbing on the washstand.
Her brows tightened.
"You know it?" Severin asked.
"I’ve seen it." Her voice was hoarse, but the uncertainty had left it. "On trace buckles and yard chains when Guild freight workers came in hurt."
"What does it do?"
"It tells the inner yard they can clear the team through without showing every paper at the outer desk." She leaned closer, careful not to put weight on her trembling thighs. "The oval is ordinary. Those cuts aren’t."
"Do public carriers use them?"
"No." Tressa looked at the rubbing again. "Not on a wagon that never entered the freight page."
Severin opened the door.
Alicia straightened in the corridor. "Master?"
"Double the watcher relay. No message goes through the Guild. No one approaches the wagon." He handed her the note, keeping the rubbing. "If the gear, wagon, or any handler separates, wake me before the next report reaches the house."
"Yes, Master."
Alicia turned toward the stair.
"Send it," Severin said.
She was moving before he finished closing the door.