I trailed after him, pulse jumping in my throat. “Greid…”

“Shit.” He stopped so suddenly I bumped into his back. “Look,” he hissed as I shuffled around to stand beside him. “There’s one right there. The little old lady found it.”

I followed his gaze to see an elderly demiurgus lady in a thick puffer coat peering at a big fruit bowl hand-painted with nightberries. Beside it on the shelf was another sporefruit sculpture—a single white mushroom, its cap domed and dripping with delicate black droplets.

“She’s not even looking at it,” I whispered, trying to push past the chaotic thoughts swirling in my brain. Just enjoy the day. Forget it happened. Forget that the best person you’ve ever met might have been about to tell you he loves you.

“It’s only a matter of time before she spots it.” Greid handed me the basket. “I’m going in.”

“Wait,” I hissed. Once he’d turned back to look at me, I tried to keep a straight face. “Are you going to fight her or seduce her for it, little-old-lady-lover?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Haven’t decided yet.”

I snorted and gestured for him to go ahead, trying not to laugh as he crept forward as if he planned on robbing the unsuspecting lady, who still wasn’t even looking at the sporefruit sculpture. My heart had slowed, but it still felt heavy. Full.

I’d gotten through a lot of shit in my life, but as I watched my demiurgus slyly reach around the lady’s head to snatch the sporefruit sculpture off the shelf, then shoot me a thumbs up behind her back, I knew I wouldn’t get through losing him.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Forty-Four

Beryl

The following Monday was grey and overcast, but I forced myself to make the journey to Upper Birch after my shift at work.

I hadn’t lied to Greid about where I was going. I’d just… omitted some information. I’d told him I wanted to visit a store in another part of town that Corva had mentioned, so I’d be home later than expected. When he’d asked what store, I’d mumbled indistinctly and grabbed his head to give him a filthy, distracting goodbye kiss. It had worked excellently.

Buying my ticket at the subway station’s machine had been a little daunting, but I’d done it and felt stupidly proud of myself. And I’d only gotten a little freaked out riding in the packed train alone, trying not to bump into the tall demiurgus businessmen around me, reeking of expensive cologne.

The guy working at the sex shop had been super friendly and helpful, enthusiastically showing me a big range of products, some of which I knew I wasn’t interested in at all, like the whips and paddles, while others had piqued my interest and sent a stab of lust into my belly when I imagined using them on Greid.

I’d left the store with a plain black carrier bag, having spent a small fortune. Sex toys were expensive—good quality ones anyway, the store worker had told me. But it wasn’t like I was spending much of my money. Greid had insisted on paying for all the sporefruit sculptures at the market, shyly saying they were a gift.

So this was my gift back to him. I was going to give him something he’d always craved and had never been able to experience.

And okay, yeah, it wasn’t just a gift to him. I could not fucking wait to show him what I’d bought. And use it on him. And hopefully make him come harder than he ever had before.

Greid had been up in his workshop when I got home, so I’d managed to get into my bedroom without him seeing me and asking what I’d bought. I’d locked my bedroom door for the first time to go through my purchases, laying them all out on the bed.

And now, as I stood in front of my mirror, my brain was trying to catch up with what it was seeing as I stared down at the bright pink dick jutting out from between my hips.

It had taken me a little while to figure out the harness, and another minute to get used to the feel of the straps digging into my hips and the tops of my thighs once I’d tightened them. But it was definitely a novel experience to look down and see a dick attached to me. Granted, it didn’t look anything like a human dick—it was enormous, for one, and had little nodules designed to mimic demiurgus barbs. The guy at the shop had assured me they felt like the real thing.

Tentatively, I reached down and gave it a stroke, my fingers bumping over the fake barbs. Tiny tendrils of lust zinged through my belly. Why was that so hot when I couldn’t even feel anything? And why was I getting the urge to shake my hips just to see it waggle about?

I indulged myself, grinning at my reflection as the dick swung from side to side. It was kind of fun, actually. Then I turned to peer over my shoulder at my ass, impressed with how good it looked framed by the black straps.

Just the idea of using this was getting me excited. Surprisingly, there weren’t any of the nerves I’d expected to feel, but I was sure they’d come later when we were actually going to put it into action, so to speak. I was a little worried I wouldn’t have the stamina or the rhythm—did people with dicks just have innate thrusting rhythm like, built into their hips?—and anxious that I wouldn’t be good at it. That I would disappoint Greid.

I forced the thoughts away as I loosened the strap around my waist so I could slip the harness off, remembering what Violet had told me when I’d called her after scoring my trial shift at Abyss. Fake it ’til you make it. I doubted she’d ever thought I’d be putting those words into practice to fuck my demiurgus boyfriend in the ass, but it was still sound advice. I’d just act like I’d walked around my whole life with a dick dangling between my legs. It was all in the energy, right?

Setting the strap-on down on the bed, I surveyed the rest of my purchases. A pair of pink fluffy handcuffs, because I knew Greid liked things to match. A smaller purple dildo that I could swap out in case the big pink one was too intimidating for Greid at first, though I doubted it would be. And the thing that had been a revelation when the guy showed it to me—a clear silicone glove that was thick enough to stop barbs penetrating it.

He’d explained that they weren’t sold very often, but were made by a company that designed inclusive sex toys for any potential interspecies relationships out there. It had made me weirdly happy thinking that there might be other couples out there like Greid and me.

I could faintly hear his chill-out music from the workshop above my head. As I carried the dildos and glove into the bathroom to wash them, I wondered how much longer he’d be working for. I was impatient, damn it. I wanted to fuck him now, even though we’d had a lot of sex after getting home the day before.

As soon as we’d gotten back from the market, I’d pushed him into his bedroom and onto his bed, then used his cock sleeve to jerk him off while he was still wearing his nice three-piece suit, unbuttoning the pants and pulling them down just enough to get his dick out. I’d slowed down every time he was about to come, burrowing my hand past his open fly to cup his balls. Grinning up at him as I tongued the head of his dick and squeezed the stationary sleeve around his base. Telling him how good he was for me as he clutched the sheets and fought back his orgasm.

Once I’d finally let him come, he’d scrambled off the bed to kneel while I sat on the edge and hurriedly tore off my pants and underwear. Then he’d buried his face between my legs, moaning hoarsely as he licked and sucked on my clit, his big hands sliding under my shirt and bra to play with my nipples.

His cock had been hard again by the time I came, but I’d told him he had to wait while smoothing my thumb over the leaking tip to make him shudder with pleasure. Then I’d sneakily taken the cock sleeve with me while he got changed into comfier clothes, and a while later, once we were curled up on the couch watching Gloom Falls, I’d started nuzzling his ear and pressing wet, sucking kisses down his neck until he was breathing hard and shifting restlessly. After rucking up the front of his onesie and pulling down his sweats, I’d slipped the sleeve over his straining cock and told him to keep watching the TV, to not make any sounds, to pretend it wasn’t happening—just like I’d thought about doing all that time ago.