The Invisible Hands - Part 1: Gambit (46 page)

expensive, you know. An exquisite luxury.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass. Don’t touch me with that thing. I’ll kill you.

I swear.”

“Ah, we’re back to the killing, are we?”

Rullio took the bar of soap and rubbed it over the sponge. He started to wash the boy’s back. Merw shivered, but there was not much he could do if he wanted to avoid falling into the tub. Rullio dipped the sponge once more into the water and squeezed it out over the boy’s head.

“My hair, you made my hair wet. Why did you make my hair wet?

It’s not healthy.”

Rullio rubbed the sponge over his face. Merw made some moist, suffocating, blubbering noises.

“Not there, not there, it tickles, it tickles. You’ll make me fall in.”

“Your armpits stink,” was all he got by way of reply.

Rullio moved the sponge under the boy to wash his chest and belly.

“No further. No further. Don’t touch my dick. Don’t touch my dick.

Do
not
touch my dick. Do not—”

Rullio grabbed Merw’s dick with the hand holding the sponge and started washing it.

“Stop. Stop,” the boy screamed. “You’re making it do funny things.

Don’t… argh.”

“Ah, look, it’s all glad and happy for being so clean.”

“You’re insane. You’re an old, ugly, insane degenerate.”

His head shot upward in horrified surprise.

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“Don’t touch my ass. Don’t touch my ass. Do
not
touch my ass.

Take your filthy paws off my ass. Is nothing sacred to you?”

“Your ass isn’t sacred. It’s filthy, like the rest of you was. And as your entrance still is.”

“My what? My what? My hole? Don’t even think of touching my hole,” Merw exclaimed in a shrill, hysterical voice. “I’ll kill you,” he added, without believing in the deterrent effect of his murderous threat himself. He pressed his eyes closed while he felt Rullio wipe the sponge between his buttocks. He startled when he felt something altogether different.

“Take your dirty finger out of my hole, you beast. Take your—”

“That’s not just my finger,” Rullio said, amicably, “that’s me pushing the sponge in your entrance.”

“What? What? You’re putting that animal in my hole? Why are you putting an animal in my hole? You’re sick. Sick, I tell you. Very sick.

And dead. Totally dead. I’ll kill you. See if I don’t.”

Rullio pushed the sponge deeper inside until just a little bit kept sticking out. Merw made noises that were meant to sound like a protest, but didn’t.

“This is getting old very fast,” Rullio grumbled. He went over to the far end of the tub and grabbed both of Merw’s ankles and lifted his feet off of the ridge.

“What are you doing? What are you doing? That’s dangerous. Help.

Help. I’m going to fall in. I’m going to drown. I’m going to—”

“Let me guess. Kill me?” Rullio gave a firm tug on Merw’s legs, making him lose his balance.

With a loud splash the boy fell into the water, face first.

“I’d better take off my shirt before it gets all drenched,” Rullio mumbled to himself.

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While he did so, there was a frightful turbulence in the bath as

Merw tried to turn around. When he resurfaced, he rubbed his eyes with both fists and spat out water.

“Bwah. Bwah. I got some of that water in my mouth, and it tastes of soap. You’re a nutcase, a violent thug who preys on the fucking innocent and the weak.” He opened his eyes, all red, and looked at the bare-chested count. “Your nipples… wow, just wow… they’re… wow.”

“My nipples?” Rullio looked down at them himself. “They’re just nipples. Besides, didn’t you say I was an old, ugly man?”

“You are. You are. Ugly. Old. But your nipples are… wow.” Merw looked at Rullio with big, round eyes, his mouth slightly open.

Rullio smiled, leaned over, and stuck his hand in the water between the boy’s legs, feeling around.

“What are you doing? What are you doing? Stop whatever it is you’re doing,” Merw complained.

“I just want my sponge back,” Rullio said, unperturbed. “Ha. Here it is,” he continued, pinching the part that stuck out of the boy’s entrance between two fingers, and slowly, ever so slowly, he started pulling on it.

Merw took hold of the rim of the tub with both hands.

“No, no, you dirty old lecher. Don’t touch that. Don’t… ah, ah, argh…”

Involuntarily, he pulled up his legs, making his knees surface.

“I see your member is all glad and happy again, now that your innards are clean as well.” Rullio smiled.

Merw put both his hands over his erect dick. Rullio offered his hand to help the boy out of the bath. Merw hesitated a few moments and then pulled himself upright on the count’s arm. His cock stood upright as well, his bush dripping water. Rullio unabashedly looked him 39
over, then took one of the still damp towels and started rubbing him dry as far as was possible.

“It’s not fair,” Merw muttered, clambering out of the tub. “I’ve been cruelly assaulted, stripped, molested and drowned. And I’m
still
hungry.” He glared at Rullio. “You promised to fucking feed me,” he added, as he wagged an accusatory finger at him.

“And so I will,” Rullio said. “How old are you, kitten?”

“Twenty-two, and stay away from my dick with your grubby hands,” Merw replied.

“Twenty-two?”

“Twenty-one, and don’t touch my crack either.”

“Twenty-one?”

“All right, all right, enough with the interrogation already.

Twenty.”

“No way you’re twenty. Not even nineteen, if you’d ask me.”

“Eighteen. Eighteen, and not a year less. That’s my final answer,”

Merw bit at the count. “Now, feed me, eh… what was your name again?”

Rullio laughed out loud. He took Merw’s member gently in his hand. “My name is Rullio, and Rullio and his nipples were wondering whether there isn’t another craving that needs satisfying first, my little alley cat.”

Merw groaned softly, whether at Rullio’s words or at his touch was unclear.

“I see,” he said. “It seems I have no choice. Either you’ll drown me or let me die of starvation if I don’t submit to your depraved desires. I am just a helpless plaything in the claws of a cruel brute.” He sighed, 39
resigning to the inevitable. “You’ll have to remove your pants, or I won’t be able to fuck you.”

With that he started fumbling at the count’s belt, the tip of his tongue sticking out of his mouth. With a triumphant grin he pulled Rullio’s trousers and underpants down.

“Nice bush,” he murmured appreciatively. “Nice dick too.”

“For such an old, ugly man, you mean?”

“Of course, of course. Lie down on the bed and spread them.”

Rullio lay down on his back. “Who is going to fuck whom is something we should discuss further,” he said.

Merw jumped on the bed.

“You’re one of those guys who wants everything exactly their way, aren’t you?”

“We don’t have to fuck at all. There’s other things we could do.”

Merw frowned.

“You don’t want to fuck me? Every man, and I mean every fucking man I ever met wanted to… I mean, would have wanted to… tried to…

not that I ever let them.”

“Of course not, kitten.”

Merw stretched his body out on top of Rullio, his face as near as possible to the count’s nipples. He tentatively caressed one. Rullio shivered. Then he licked the other nipple with a raspy tongue. Rullio shuddered again. To his surprise, Merw crawled higher and kissed him on the lips.

“I thought I was an old, ugly man,” Rullio said after their lips parted.

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“You are. You are. You most definitely are. In a young-for-your—

years, nice-looking kind of way.”

Merw sat upright on Rullio’s chest, straddling him, and pushed his groin almost in his face. He lifted his member, dangling his ballsack before Rullio’s eyes.

“My fucking balls. My fucking balls. Look at my fucking balls, Rullio,” he shouted in an enthusiastic voice. “Lick them. Lick them.”

Rullio obliged willingly, making Merw groan with contentment.

“Ooh, ooh, let’s do something else,” the boy said after a while.

Merw turned around, now pushing his butt almost in the count’s face and started sucking Rullio’s dick.

“My hole, my fucking hole. Put your finger in my fucking hole,” he yelled, coming up for air.

Rullio tentatively did so.

“Eh… far enough, kitten?” he asked.

Merw came half upright, his head slightly tilted, but without turning it around. Instead, he used his entrance as a sensory organ.

“Let’s see. Hm. More like this, I think,” he said, pushing his butt backwards and making Rullio’s index finger disappear far beyond the second knuckle. “Now, make sort of a caressing gesture, as if you were beckoning someone… there, yes, right there.” He grunted.

Rullio saw that Merw’s cock was dripping a clear, almost translucent fluid on his chest.

“My dick, my fucking dick. Rullio, grab my fucking dick and pull it.

Pull it hard.”

The count obeyed Merw’s insistent demand, and the boy kept sucking him, all the while making groaning noises. Then he came, moaning loudly and squirting a white-yellowish cream over Rullio’s belly. After 39
just a few moments Merw turned around to recuperate, breathing

heavily, and started lapping up the stuff. More than ever he reminded Rullio of a wild cat.

After having licked up everything, Merw grinned at Rullio.

“I can’t help it, I’m hungry,” he explained.

“In that case,” Rullio replied, pointing at his own member, “there is more. Why don’t you go and get it?”

With his usual energetic agility, Merw turned around once more and started sucking away. Rullio clawed both his hands into the mattress. Scant minutes later he exploded in the boy’s mouth.

Merw climbed up and laid his head beside Rullio’s.

“Milk always tastes best straight from the cow’s teat, don’t you think?” he said.

“I’ll have to take your word for that, kitten,” the count replied.

“Though I don’t know whether I find the comparison flattering,” he added.

“You’re funny.” Merw giggled. “Now, feed me. I think I’ve earned it.”

“You most certainly have. There’s only one problem. You have no clothes. But if you don’t mind going downstairs to the tavern in the nude—”

“How dare you even suggest such a depraved thing to an innocent, shy boy like me?” Merw crossed his arms. “You ruined my perfectly fine clothes. You’d better get me some fucking new ones.”

It was a surprising find, since the stall on the little market, on a square a few streets down from the Leather Bucket, seemed to special— ize in crockery and eating utensils. Next to some heavy pots, Rullio 39
saw a neat stack of boy’s clothes, apparently clean and folded. A dark olive green shirt and pants, made of good strong linen. The man behind the stall didn’t even ask that much for them. He offered to sell the count a light brown, warm mantle, matching boots, and some assorted socks and underwear. He said they were the last items of that kind he carried and he’d rather get rid of them in one go. Rullio agreed and paid the asking price.

With a sad expression on his face, the man watched the young noble leave with his purchase. Then he reminded himself not to be overly sentimental. His son wouldn’t need the clothes anymore, but he had two surviving daughters who most definitely needed to eat.

Merw tried out his new clothes by walking up and down the room at an energetic pace, in turn wiggling his hips and his shoulders.

“They’re a bit large,” was his final, albeit a tad ungrateful, verdict.

“You’ll grow into them, my little alley cat,” Rullio replied, shaking his head. “Let’s go downstairs and start fattening you up. Besides, I haven’t eaten myself yet. I was thinking of breaking my fast in the center of the city when… when we met.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go eat.” Merw made loud smacking noises in anticipation.

Rullio couldn’t help laughing.

“They’re actually nice clothes, Rullio,” Merw said from behind him, as they descended the stairs. “Very good quality and they make me look like a thousand rioghal.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. Thanks. You could have bought cheaper ones.”

“They weren’t very expensive, kitten.”

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Merw emptied his plate of bread, cold cuts and cheese in no time.

Rullio ate at a more leisurely pace. When he paused to take a drink, the boy took the count’s plate.

“If you’re not eating that, do you mind I take it?”

He didn’t wait for an answer and started gulping down everything.

Only when both platters were empty did he nip of his warm wine with herbs.

Rullio looked at him in amused wonder.

“What? What are you looking at? What are you looking at?” Merw asked.

“You and your enormous appetite.”

“I stock up. I never know when I’ll have another meal, so I eat as much as I can when I get the chance.”

“Perfectly logical,” Rullio concurred.

“I am glad these pants are big enough,” Merw added. “So, what are we going to do the rest of the day?”

“We?” Rullio asked. Then he saw how the expression on Merw’s face instantly turned into a disappointed look. A hurt look even. “Oh, well, I was planning to go to the center. Visit markets and taverns, get to know people, talk a bit, and generally get my bearings.”

“You’re so lucky you met me,” Merw stated, wagging his right index finger. “I know the cheapest taverns and the markets with the best deals. I have some time on my hands, and I will guide you around.

This city has no secrets for me. You would be lost without me.”

Rullio decided not to tell him he had grown up at the royal court, nor did he think it was necessary to tell Merw of the escapades into the city he and his friends had made. He debated quickly with himself. He