Ember pushes open the outer door of the dorm common room and steps inside, her body flushed, sweat standing out on her skin. Every stride feels like a tease at her sex, and her breath's shivery and unsteady —

  Maeve stands up from the pillow pit and tosses her hair back with a smile so toothy it could kill a shark. Her blouse is short three buttons, and for some reason she just seems prettier today. "Hello, Ember," she sing-songs, "Come on over, won't you? It's a perfectly wonderful day, isn't it?"

  Ember forces down a curse. Maeve's picked her moment perfectly — the dose in her is impossible to ignore. She forces away the image of Maeve's lips on her pussy, and reluctantly walks over to the pillow pit and sits.

  "Five minutes," she says. "That's all you get."

  "Ten," Maeve shoots back, rexing back into the pit next to Ember. "Come on, won't you stay a little? It's hardly polite to not be willing to talk to a fellow student..." She smiles slightly and pys with a strand of her blonde hair that's escaped her braid. "You've got to give me time to tempt you properly. Remember, I made you food and everything. Didn't tell you to get lost. You owe me at least that much courtesy."

  Ember opens her mouth, then closes it. She hasn't got a coherent argument, not with the aphrodisiac clouding her thoughts with images of Maeve kissing every part of her body. Especially her sex. "... I guess so..." Her gaze slips to Maeve's breasts. She wonders how Maeve tastes...

  Maeve folds her fingers together in her p. "What I'd give to know what thoughts are going through that head of yours right now. I bet they'd be fun to consider at length in bed..."

  Ember takes a slow breath and pushes the images away. "Maybe I'll consider them ter. But right now, you're not going to get through to me."

  "Alright," Maeve says. "Care to make me something to eat, then? If you can do everything I did for you, that first time, I'll let you go."

  Ember crosses her arms over her chest. The irritation clears her head a little. "I don't see why I should listen to your terms," she says. "Sure, I want to py fair, but that's not reason to give you all the time in the world."

  "Don't you want to prove to yourself that you can do what I did?" Maeve cocks her head to the side. "Make a meal? Talk coherently? Even kiss someone else? You're the one who says courtesans need to be able to function in all conditions. You didn't set this up to be a test for me, you just decided that you should tease me a little while I was in the same state you are right now. That level of casual teasing is definitely going to exist in the real world." Maeve touches her fingers to her lips. "If you don't want to do the food, then I'm at least going to demand a kiss."

  Ember takes a slow breath. Kissing Maeve's an awful idea, but there's no way she'll let her escape right now. And the heat in her wants it. The heat in her wants it very, very much. "No, I'll get you your food. What do you want?"

  "Same as I made for you. A simple plowman's lunch. I'll even help you make it." She gestures to the kitchen counters.

  Ember gets up from the pillow pit, turning away from Maeve, and walks over to the kitchen, her skirt swishing with the movement. Her thighs rub against each other with each step, and she can feel herself getting even wetter. Stupid body, why is it responding to being bossed around by Maeve like this —

  She gets a knife and a cutting board out, and tries to focus. Cheese. Grapes. Bread. She's got this. She's got this...

  Maeve steps up next to her at the counter. "I'll help," she says. "Like you did for me."

  Ember looks over, and gets an eyeful of cleavage from her new position. The image sears itself into her head, and she looks away reflexively, visions of Maeve’s body dancing behind her eyelids.

  "So," Maeve says, as if she hasn't noticed. "Feeling good? Not hot under the colr at all? Managing your condition?" Ember can hear the eyebrow-waggle in her tone.

  "Yeah," Ember says. She really has got to focus on this cheese or she's going to cut herself.

  She slices, careful and slow. Maeve was faster than this... But she's still doing it. She's managing.

  Maeve deals with the grapes, snapping off a bunch of them, and accepts the cheese slices and bread slices from Ember. "Good girl," she says softly. "Serving well. Don't you think Ishaza would be proud?"

  The mention of Ishaza calls back the memory of her breasts, with that pendant nestled cheekily between as if to taunt her —

  Ember presses her fist to her forehead and forces the image away. "Yes," she says quietly. "She would be."

  "Oh, does someone have a weakness for her teacher?" Maeve gives Ember a crooked smile. "Oh, don't worry. Everyone here agrees they'd totally do her if they could. She's just... the total package, no? Those hips, that ass..."

  Ember carefully doesn’t take the bait of imagining Ishaza’s curves. Instead she shoves the finished pte of food into Maeve's hands. "Yes, yes, Ishaza is hot," she says. "It's not news. Doesn't mean she'd ever sleep with a student. Courtesans have ethics, yes?"

  Maeve ughs. "Fair enough. Join me back in the pillow pit?"

  Ember shakes her head. "You've had enough time," she says. "You've been tossing lures at me this whole time, and I'm not going to fall for it."

  "Fine, then," Maeve finally says. "Kiss me. Kiss me and I'll let you go. Don't you want to be my equal? Or do I get to hold over you forever that I can kiss you, but you can't kiss me?"

  A stab of irritation goes through Ember, followed by a surge of lust. She just wants to shut this girl up. With her tongue. Thoroughly.

  "Fine," she says. "I'll kiss you. Put the pte down."

  Maeve's eyebrows jump. "Brave," she says softly. "Well, go ahead..." She sets the pte down and spreads her arms.

  Ember steps in, and wraps Maeve up in a tight embrace, one hand on her ass, another on her upper back. This close, she can smell her perfume, a heady bckberry scent along with the slight scent of her skin…

  Ember presses her in close and kisses her, hard and firm, her tongue tangling with Maeve's as she forces it into her mouth. The heat in her surges, redoubling on itself, and the kiss stretches, stretches, stretches...

  Ember finally tears herself away, panting and blown, and gives Maeve a venomous look. "So there," she says, the words almost a gasp.

  Maeve touches her fingers to her lips. She's blushing hard too. A wicked smile comes to her lips. "You could have more than that if you wanted," she says. "God, you're such a good kisser."

  The lust in Ember surges. More? Visions of Maeve on her knees before her py through her mind. God it's hard not to say yes. To touch and to hold and to wrap her up in her arms and taste her...

  But the bet.

  "Back," Ember croaks. "Back, foul temptress." She takes a shuddery breath and shakes her head. "Good try. Very good try. But I'm leaving now."

  She steps away.

  Maeve watches her go, grudging respect in her eyes.

  ~*~

  Ember closes the door to her dorm room firmly and locks it, her breath coming heavy. That was a close call. Maeve's had her shot at her today, and she's won — and Maeve was definitely trying. Only two days more till she's home free.

  She crosses the room to her desk and sits in the hard-backed chair. What to review. She's got an essay on sexuality due that she's been putting off... From Laenan. With the intriguing woodcuts.

  God damn it, why didn't she do that one earlier. It's due tomorrow, and it's going to be hell to get through right now.

  She's strong, though, isn't she? She won against Maeve today. She's making progress. She edged deliberately yesterday. Twice!

  She can manage a stupid book that doesn't even have the ability to tease her deliberately.

  Ember opens Laenan, and it falls open to a wide illustration of two women giving each other cunnilingus, their bodies intertwined. A stab of heat goes through her at the lewd illustration. Right, she was doing the section on oral...

  She takes a slow breath, gets out her blotting pad and reed pen, and starts to write and go through pages. Illustration after illustration of women giving head blurs past under her fingers, and she focuses single-mindedly on extracting every insight she can on how to suck cock and eat pussy. Her body's hot, needy, eager...

  Absently, she notes that her hand is pressing in against her crotch, rubbing at her clit through her skirt. The soft strokes bring her little flutters of pleasure, smooth and regur and exactly what she needs right now. It’s okay. It's not like she's trying to come. It's just a little light teasing...

  She turns the page again, and comes to an illustration of a bat-winged woman on her knees before a blonde woman in a chair, tongue pressed in firmly to her cunt as she ps eagerly.

  Maeve...

  She strokes herself a little more, and lets the fantasy take her. Taking off Maeve's silver gsses and forcing her down onto the bed beneath her and sitting on her face, grinding in her sex and squeezing her head with her thighs as her tongue spears in deep, deep, deep, pping, suckling...

  Her fingers speed, rubbing faster, harder, firmer, and her pleasure builds and builds in wave after wave. It feels so good, intense enough to resonate in the depths of her pussy, shock after shock of lingering pleasure that builds and builds and builds…

  She gasps out softly as it all builds to a toe-curling, mind-melting peak and finally crashes down, and then betedly realizes that she's rubbed herself to orgasm in the middle of her assignment. And her fingers are still rubbing...

  Ember drags her left hand away from her crotch and lets out a heavy breath. "Damn it." She presses her hand to her forehead in a fist.

  She just washed this skirt, and now there's an obvious spreading stain on the cloth when she looks. She's out of control.

  Going to the bathroom right now would be foolish, she might run into Maeve — but she's prepared for this. She's got a towel just in case — she can clean herself up and change and leave the wet clothes for ter.

  Not a good sign, slipping like this... But at least it didn't cim her entirely.

  Maybe she can leave the assignment on sexuality until after her aphrodisiac training is over.