Dungeon Mistress II [Chapter 1]

Author's Note: Hello!

Apologies for what's about to be a long preamble. This is the start of a sequel series to Dungeon Mistress and so I wanted to take the opportunity to set some expectations.

This first chapter is from Mike's perspective, but they won't all be; we'll be back inside Chris's head soon enough, and I still view him as the central protagonist, although I might use multiple POVs to tell this story; I think that might make it more interesting.

Also, I debated long and hard on what to title this series. I may still decide to change it, when all's said and done. I'm going with Dungeon Mistress II for now, so that the sequencing is clear. Alternate title options include Sunkissed and Children of the Sun, just in case you check back one day and see that the name's changed :)

I encourage everyone to read the original Dungeon Mistress series if you haven't before embarking on this story. I really do think it's some of my best work to date. But in case you tried the original series and didn't find it to be your cup of tea, if you maybe need a refresher, or if you just want to jump in on this series without reading that one, I figured I'd better include a quick summary.

Otherwise, you can just skip down to Chapter 1.

DUNGEON MISTRESS RECAP -- THE STORY SO FAR

Warning: the paragraphs below contains complete plot spoilers for my five part series Dungeon Mistress! It's summarizing 70k words of writing so it's extremely light on details. I've skipped a lot of the D&D action and character development because the players are starting a new campaign anyway. But I wanted something that would let people jump right in with some understanding of the relationship dynamics between the players.

Chris was the Dungeon Master for his childhood friend group's game of Dungeons and Dragons for decades, but has to take some time away when he gets busy with work. His friends, Mike, Liz, and Erin, find a new DM: Monica. Chris runs into Monica at a housewarming party for Mike, who invites him to join the game she's running as a player. Monica is attractive, and Chris likes D&D -- he agrees readily.

It turns out she runs a different kind of game; everyone shows up in costume, there's a lot of physical roleplaying, and Monica immediately begins to blurs the boundaries between players and characters, drawing Chris into increasingly erotic and charged scenarios that push his boundaries. In spite of his best efforts to resist, Monica's machinations rapidly causes Chris's character to submit to her villains and other characters, drawing his loyalty to his friends into question.

As the campaign progresses, Chris discovers he isn’t the only one being toyed with: Monica's playing with all of them in different ways, with private scenes and challenges designed to exploit their desires, fetishes, and vulnerabilities. Liz and Erin, meanwhile, have surruptitiously been taking a page out of Monica's playbook, collaborating to tease and manipulate Chris as his "secret admirer", orchestrating in-game and real-world provocations that push him to his limits. Monica adds one of her attractive friends, Fiona, to the campaign, to help play NPCs, further complicating things...especially with Mike, who's quite taken with her. The group’s dynamics become tangled, with jealousy, confusion, and sexual tension running high.

In advance of the campaign finale, Chris wins over Fiona, getting the character she's playing to side with the party against Monica. He finally sits down with Liz and Erin, discovering that they've been pretending to be his secret admirer together -- and they reconcile, deciding to stop Monica.

In the finale, the party takes on the Night Queen in a high-stakes battle that reflects their own real-life frustrations with Monica. Mike's character sides with the Night Queen in her attempt to ascend to ultimate power, but eventually, Monica is thwarted when Liz, with help from Fiona, Chris, and Erin, turns the tables and orchestrates Monica’s very public sexual defeat.

The victory is bittersweet, though. The finale frays Chris and Erin's relationship; the way Monica and Fiona both easily manipulate Mike leaves his other friends mistrustful of him. The group’s friendships have been badly bruised by the game, leaving lingering questions and awkward, unresolved desires.

In the aftermath, Liz proposes running the next campaign. Whether this is an opportunity for the group to weave a different story about their relationships with each other -- or just another chance to play some more with boundaries, dominance, resistance and power -- remains to be seen.

----

CHAPTER 1: THE NIGHT THE MOON DIED

The Moon is a fixture of the cold, cloudless nights that all desert-dwellers must endure. With no tree cover, no foliage to block it, everyone can see it all the time. It shines down on bone-white sands of the vast emptiness that is the Pale Sea.

As a result, if you ask anyone in the Pale Sea what they were doing on the night the Moon died, they'll be able to tell you. Because everyone noticed when it abruptly vanished.

At the time, it was almost universally regarded as an ill omen.

It did come back the next night, of course. As if nothing had gone wrong.

And some people relaxed.

But those who watch the heavens -- those who don't just look, but truly see -- remained wary. Everything does not go just go back to normal after a celestial event like this.

It portends more.

And, in the months and years that followed, it became clear that something more was indeed happening. Over the last two decades, the Lunar cycle has lost slowly but inexorably lost its symmetry, distorted itself in alarming ways. The Moon was gone from the sky longer and longer; the New Moon lingered, took longer to wax full, waned back to a crescent ever more quickly.

Now, twenty years on, the full Moon lasts for mere minutes instead of several nights. Even with the naked eye, without the use of magic or specialized instruments, you can watch the luminous disk diminishing in the sky nearly the moment it fills.

The natural balance is badly disrupted. The Moon is one of the great Doctrines of the land, and as its power wanes, the shape of things is changing.

Astronomers wonder what will happen once the Full Moon no longer occurs. Once the dance of the heavens isn't just distorted, but irrevocably changed.

Of course, not all regard it as an ill omen.

For with the influence of the Moon waning, the Sun reigns supreme.

And there were four children born that night, twenty years ago, while the Moon was absent from the sky.

Born in the Pale Sea -- unquestionably, the land of the Sun.

Each child marked by the Sun, in their own way. Each destined to play an important role, once they came of age.

Liz paused, looked up from the notebook she'd been reading aloud out of, and took a sip of her drink. She smiled at us across the coffee table, at the two of us who were sitting on her couch. "It's good to see you guys. Welcome to the new campaign. I'm calling it The Children of the Sun."

Fiona applauded, politely. "Wonderful! You should do voiceover work for movie trailers. So we killed the Moon last campaign when we stopped Monica? That is so cool. I've decided that I am a Dungeons and Dragons girlie now."

Liz gave Fiona an appreciative nod. "Thanks. The Moon does appear to be dying, yes. Whether these are its death throes or there's an opportunity to save it -- and whether its demise is cause for celebration, or portends ill -- remains to be seen. As to whether to blame yourselves, or the Night Queen..." Liz shrugged, and gave us a little grin. "We'll play and find out the answers."

Fiona nodded, eagerly. "So we make characters now?"

"Yep," Liz agreed. Then glanced at me. "Mike, any questions before we get started?"

"Uh, nothing yet," I said, absentmindedly.

I had done my best to listen to Liz. I was, admittedly, having trouble focusing enough to contribute to the conversation.

I was too busy watching Fiona.

I hadn't talked to her since that campaign finale with Monica. That had been months ago.

So her presence next to me on Liz's couch was absolutely intoxicating.

She was just so alluring. Her slight British accent made her sound posh, kind of upscale. Her pretty face, expressive lips, big eyes, sharp cheekbones. And I was helplessly stealing glances at the lines of her body, the way her dark hair in that short bob just barely kissed her shoulders, the smooth lines of her neck, her collarbones. The dark skin in her tank top.

Whatever bra she was wearing must be a thin one. I thought I could see just the hint of one of her nipples, a little ridge tenting the fabric.

Before you ask, yeah, I recognized that I had a crush that was dangerously close to bordering on obsessive behavior.

I didn't care.

Well, that's not quite right. It wasn't that I didn't care. It was more that based on the way she'd played with me in the last campaign, I didn't think she cared.

If anything, I think she liked it.

The last few months had been tough. I didn't have Fiona's phone number, or her email. I didn't want to ask Monica for it, obviously. I knew she'd just tease me endlessly, without ever giving it to me.

The other options who might be able to put me in touch with Fiona -- presumably Liz, maybe Chris, as far as I knew -- would require me to have a conversation I didn't want to have about what had happened in the last campaign.

I'd tried to find Fiona online myself, and failed. She'd said she'd done social media stuff or content creation or something, but it must not be under her real name.

So I'd decided to bide my time. I'd been looking forward to this character creation session for months. A chance to finally talk to Fiona. Find out if she'd had as much fun last campaign as I had.

And then we'd had so much trouble scheduling that Liz had elected to do two different character creation sessions.

The fact that this one had turned out just to be me and Fiona was perfect, from my perspective.

For one thing, neither Liz or I knew Fiona well, so it meant the small talk was pretty minimal. If it had just been me and Liz, we would've had to finally hash out how the last campaign had gone. I mean, I could tell Liz wanted to chew me out -- I recognized the way the little muscle in her jaw clenched when she looked my way.

But I could also tell that she didn't want to do it in front of Fiona. Maybe because Fiona was Monica's friend. Maybe because Liz didn't know her that well. Hell, maybe because Liz could tell I had a crush on Fiona, and didn't want to embarrass me.

Whatever the reason, I was grateful this is how things had turned out.

Fiona saw me looking her way, and gave me a secret little smile. "I've never made a character before, Mike, so you'll have to help me. The only character sheets I've even seen are Arcanatrix Ravenna's...and that dryad's, I guess."

"Sure, happy to help," I said. I tried not to gush. Play it cool. I directed my attention back to Liz. "We start at level one, Liz?"

She nodded. "You start at level one. You'll both be playing Children of the Sun, who were born on the night the moon died. So your characters are twenty years old at this point. Otherwise, it's up to you."

I had some thoughts about a character I might make, but wanted to hear what Fiona was doing, first. "Any ideas about what kind of character you want to play?"

She shrugged, ran a hand through her hair. "I don't really know what the options are. Spellcasting was complicated. So maybe not a spellcaster," she said slowly, and then brightened. "I want a character where I'd get to wear some pants, like you were wearing last game, Liz. Pants are fun."

I glanced at Fiona's legs. She was wearing jeans.

Extremely flattering jeans.

"Fun," I echoed, in agreement. My eyes drifted along the length of her thighs, the way her pants hugged them. How they clung to the swell of her tight little butt.

I remembered what it had felt like, her thighs against mine, when she'd been riding me in the campaign finale.

"Well, then you've got a ton of options, Fiona. Actually, let me go grab the books, I should've gotten them earlier..." Liz wandered into another room.

"So how have you been, Mike? Long time no see." Fiona's voice was full of quiet, soft amusement.

I was a moment slow in realizing that she was watching me instead of Liz; I pulled my gaze off her body up to meet Fiona's dark eyes. "I'm, uh, good, Fiona. How're you?"

"Good. Glad to be playing again. What kind of character do you think you'll make? Meldrin was so fun, I thought. Deliciously flawed." Her lips curved into a smile. "You've set the bar high for your next one."

My breath practically stopped on the way she'd said deliciously and fun. It was the first time she'd said anything to me directly since we'd both arrived. Certainly the first time she'd ever complimented me.

That was a compliment, right?

"Uh, thanks," I stammered, suddenly tongue-tied as she held my gaze. "I-I'm not sure yet, I thought maybe I'd see what you were gonna make, i-if you wanted to-"

"Found them," Liz said cheerfully, coming back into the room holding a set of rulebooks, which she thumped down on the coffee table. "Take a look through the Classes section, Fiona. Let me know if you have questions." She handed her one of the books.

Fiona started thumbing through the book.

"What about you, Mike?" Liz looked at me, directly.

I'd actually spent almost as much time thinking about this as I had about Fiona. "Oh, I was thinking maybe an illusionist wizard this time." I tried to say it casually.

"Were you indeed," murmured Fiona, not looking up. "That sounds kind of similar to Meldrin, though."

"I mean, i-it'd be a completely different character," I said, defensively. If this was anything like the last campaign, I wanted a character that could bend the rules with magic. I could think of all kinds of interesting things I might be able to do with illusions.

Things that could create some interesting role-playing scenes with Fiona.

Liz rolled her eyes. "Fiona's right. C'mon, dude. I know you like to play spellcasters, but you should switch it up. Play something else, and give Chris or Monica a chance to play one if they want."

I flushed. I could hear in her tone a kind of odd suspicion -- like Liz could hazard a guess as to why I might want illusion magic.

And I wasn't sure how to justify the choice. She had a point.

"Okay, okay," I acquiesced. "Meldrin was fun, but I should switch it up. I'll play a different character. Any races off-limits?"

Liz shook her head. "You all will be starting in a big desert, the Pale Sea, far south of where the Night Queen's realm and the action of our last campaign. The desert-dweller nomads welcome all kinds; it's a bit of a melting pot."

"Maybe I'll play someone with a sword," Fiona said, decisively. "I'm not that good at the rules for combat; you'll watch my back, Mike, right?" She gave me a winsome, hopeful look.

I didn't think she intended it, but I couldn't help a quick glance at her back as she sat next to me. The tank top she was wearing was thin; I could see the little ridges of muscle on her lean back, the straps and band of her bra.

"Right," I responded, belatedly.

"Which classes are...melee ones, Liz?" Fiona asked.

"Well, let's see...Fighters, Barbarians...Rogues and Bards can be, I guess, Rangers too...Paladins, and Monks..."

"Can you tell me about them?"

I only half-listened to Liz answering Fiona's questions. If I was going to play a melee character alongside Fiona, what to play?

I tried to think about a melee class with mechanics that might...

Might what? I had a moment of cringe-inducing self-awareness. What was I doing?

But it wasn't cringe-inducing enough to stop my train of thought. I knew what I was doing.

I was looking for mechanics that would let me create sexual situations with Fiona.

And that was what I wanted. Maybe Liz was going to try to run a different game than Monica had; I didn't know. But if she didn't...

"I'll be a paladin, I think," Fiona said, idly flipping through the book. "That's what Chris played, right? They're pretty?"

Liz laughed. "Yeah, I mean, they don't have to be pretty, but they're charismatic. And they're melee fighters. Yours won't be like Chris, though; he was a paladin devoted to the Tower."

Fiona's lips parted in mock dismay. "Oh, but I love a good tower-worshipping." She ran her tongue along her lip, suggestively.

It was the first openly-sexual comment that any of us had made. There was a silence. I felt my pulse quicken. For a second I thought Liz might have it out with us, then and there -- tell us that she wasn't running that kind of game. Tell Fiona that what Monica had done was fucked up, that what she'd done to me had been fucked up. Tell me how disappointed she was.

But then Liz barked out a laugh, and the tension faded. "Sorry to disappoint. Everyone in the Pale Sea is devoted to the Sun, first and foremost. But paladins of the Sun do get a few special choices in terms of the oaths they swear."

"Oaths?" I was curious -- paladins typically picked an oath, but the rulebooks defined the options.

Liz nodded. "I was hoping one of you guys would want to play a paladin or cleric; I made up some homebrew options for characters with divine magic given how prominently the Sun will be featured in the campaign. The Flamekeepers are the religious order in the Pale Sea that worships the Sun, and they've got some specific traditions."

I blinked. It sounded like Liz had done a lot of work in adding to Monica's campaign world; Monica had never mentioned the Flamekeepers before. "Wow. Okay."

She continued. "The Sun obviously embodies many virtues. Paladins of the Sun pick one to dedicate themselves to. They each represent a different aspect of the Sun's power. You can choose between, um, let's see..." Liz shuffled through some of her papers to another page. "Destruction..."

"Okay, that sounds fun," Fiona leaned forward on the couch, interested.

"...Passion..." Liz continued.

"Ooo," Fiona giggled.

Passion. I swallowed, hard. I was looking at the way Fiona's tank top rode up her hips as she leaned, exposing the smooth brown skin at the small of her back.

"...or Purity." Liz finished.

"How clever and interesting of you, Liz," Fiona said thoughtfully. Then she glanced at me, a sparkle in her eye. "What do you think I should pick, Mike?"

"Um..." My face was red. I thought she should pick passion. Obviously.

Fiona didn't wait for me to reply; instead, she gave me a smile that was almost cruel. "Tell me more about the Oath of Purity, Liz."

What?

Liz slid a piece of paper across to us. "You'd have three tenets to uphold if your paladin takes the Oath of Purity."

I glanced down at the paper alongside Fiona, reading it silently.

Integrity. Speak only truth, that your words may be as pure as your person.

Innocence. Never suffer degradation of your body or soul.

Virtue. Bring the Sun's rays to cleanse every corner of darkness.

I was aghast. "So, wait, not only can her character not lie, this makes it sound like she's almost sworn a vow of ch-"

But Fiona didn't let me finish the thought. "Perfect," she said, with satisfaction. "This'll be so fun."

Liz gave Fiona a considered but approving nod. "Huh. Not what I expected you to pick, but I agree. Well, great. Let's figure out your stats and stuff. Did you want to be a human paladin, or..."

I sat in stunned silence, participating a little robotically as Fiona worked on her characters stats with Liz, who helpfully told here where to allocate points.

I had assumed Fiona would want to play...well. Someone dominant. Teasing. Not a character whose core value was purity.

Liz was peppering Fiona with questions. "Think you want your character to use a sword and shield? Or like, a big two-handed weapon?"

Fiona put on a pious expression. "A shield, I think. That she might better protect her own sanctity and the sanctity of others."

I sighed. This felt like it was heading in an increasingly disappointing direction.

---

Liz and Fiona finished up her character over the next few minutes. "Okay, Fiona, all you have to do is give your character a name. One down, one to go! I'm going to run to the restroom quick. Mike, you should start working on your character."

Liz headed for the bathroom.

Fiona gave me an unreadable look. "So what do you think of my character? It's the first one I've ever made!"

"I, uh...it seems like it'll be interesting," I said.

"Aw," Fiona pouted. "Did I do a bad job?"

"No, it's just..." I trailed off. What was I going to say? That I hoped she'd make someone who was more slutty?

"C'mon," she said, all earnest innocence. "I can tell you don't like it...Why? You were hoping I'd pick passion, weren't you? But I’m not playing Ravenna again, or a charmed dryad trying to seduce you."

I made a noncommittal sound. I hated how transparent my desire was -- but I could hardly help it.

Fiona could clearly see what I was thinking. "I think this'll be fun, too. I've got a few ideas. What do you think you'll make? You'll still watch my back, right? I don't really understand how melee combat works..."

"Sure, yeah...I just, um, didn't figure you for wanting to play this kind of paladin." And then a thought occurred. I couldn't pick what she played, but I could pick what I played. "...I think I'll probably make a half-orc barbarian."

Fiona blinked. "Barbarian? Sounds brutish. What's a half-orc?"

I grabbed one of the books, flipped through to a drawing: a tusked, green-skinned, musclebound, savage-looking hulk holding a huge maul.

"Ooh, so big and strong," Fiona commented, coquettishly.

I could feel my cock stir at the way she said the words.

Encouraged, I continued. "Yeah, kind of a berserker type of character," I said. "Big two-handed weapon. Especially if you're using a sword and shield, it would be a good melee complement."

"Well, if you really want to play a muscly, brutish barbarian, I guess that's fine..." Fiona was giving me an unreadable look. "I just...figured you might want to play something, y'know, more your size."

I felt an almost disorienting rush of blood to my cock that left me lightheaded. "W-what-"

I felt her hand slide onto my thigh, start traveling up it. "It would be kind of funny," she said. "Big, strong, lusty barbarian in a fight...but then in bed..."

"Th-that's not, uh...ah---" I let out a groan as her hand finally reached my cock, palming it through my jeans.

"I mean, you can't exactly deliver what that kind of character has to offer, can you?"

I couldn't even respond. I had been thinking about the way she'd teased me, the way she'd touched me, for months. This was what I had wanted. I was so hard.

"You don't feel like a half-orc to me, Mike. So maybe a smaller character, for you. A gnome, or something. Gnomes are small, aren't they?"

Fiona giggled. Her smirk was the one I'd remembered, that I'd been dreaming about for months: pretty, perfect, and cruel. My cock lurched under her hand, twitching. I couldn't think of anything to say, just stared at her as she palmed my cock, entranced.

The spell was broken a second later when we heard the toilet flush, the sound of Liz washing her hands.

Fiona pulled her hand off me, adjusted her tank top, a little primly.

"C-can...can I get your number?" The desperation in my voice was humiliating. I didn't care. I needed this.

"Is that what you want?" Her voice was amused. And then she shrugged, studying her nails. "Hmm. Let's see what kind of character you make, and I'll think about it."

I opened my mouth to...well. I don't know what I was going to do. Beg? Argue?

But then the bathroom door opened and Liz came back into the room. "So, got a name for your character, Fiona?"

"Fleur," Fiona said, after a moment.

Liz nodded. "Fleur it is. I like it." Then she looked my way, expectant. "Mike, what're you gonna play?"

I could've hemmed and hawed. Pretended at indecision for Fiona's benefit. Even maybe gone against her, stuck with half-orc barbarian to try to prove a point.

But I knew what I was going to do. There was never a question, really, after what Fiona had said.

"I'm, uh...thinking about a rogue," I said lamely, glancing at Fiona. "A halfling rogue."

"What're halflings?" Fiona asked the question idly, as if the answer wasn't especially important.

"Kind of like hobbits from Lord of the Rings," Liz said. "Without the copyright issues."

"Oh, so they're...small?" Fiona directed the question at Liz, but her eyes, mirthful, were on me. I felt another surge in my cock.

"Yeah, like...a couple feet shorter than humans?" Liz appeared not to notice the subtext happening, was flipping through one of the books to pull out a picture of a halfling for Fiona's benefit. "They're usually depicted as lucky, quick-witted -- they do make good rogues, which is presumably why Mike is picking one."

"I'm sure that's why." Fiona nodded, seriously. I blushed, watching as she inspected the drawing of the halfling in the rulebook.

"Oh, they are small. That's probably why they're called halflings huh -- cause they're half the size of normal people?"

Liz nodded.

I was blushing, though -- Fiona's eyes were locked on my groin.

"Okay, so Mike, for your stats, what're you thinking?" Liz stood up and grabbed herself a second beer from her fridge.

"Uh, high dexterity, obviously..."

"Have to make up for the lack of size somehow, I suppose," Fiona observed, quietly enough that Liz couldn't hear her.

"Great." Liz sat back down, looking across at us. "A paladin and a rogue! You'll cover a lot of bases."

I finished creating my character new halfling character without any further comments from Fiona. High dexterity, a pair of daggers, some lockpicks, a shortbow.

"Now, there's just one last thing you'll need to choose," Liz said. "Two different thieves' guilds claim the Pale Sea as their territory, and there's a bit of a turf war going. First, there's the Golden Road. They're a loosely organized association of smugglers and bandits. If this was an actual sea, they'd be pirates, but they don't have boats -- just horses, a network of informants, a strong procurement operation, and an extremely aggressive protection racket. In some parts of the Sea, they're the only law there is."

"So basically the desert mafia," Fiona said.

Liz nodded. "The other is a more...specialized network, the Blades of Dawn. They're assassins, blades for hire renowned the world over. They've toppled kings and ended empires."

I considered for a moment. "I think I'm making more of an assassin than a pirate," I said, finally.

"Sounds good. Got a name in mind?"

I thought for a second. "How about Milo?"

Liz made a note. "Okay. Fleur and Milo it is!"

Fiona raised an eyebrow. "So...we're done now? Since we both made characters, I mean."

I felt a little disappointed.

But Liz shook her head. "Actually, if you all have a few more minutes, I was thinking we'd get started a little bit with how your characters know each other."

"Sure," I said. Maybe a little too quickly; they both glanced at me, curiously.

"Like...whether went to elementary school together or lived on the same street growing up or something?" Fiona asked the question curiously.

Liz and I both laughed. Fiona glanced at me, eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly.

I regretted having laughed almost immediately.

"Sort of," Liz clarified. "As it happens, though, you all have been watched closely since your births. By virtue of coming into the world on the night the Moon began to die, it was clear from your very beginning that each of you has an important destiny. As a result, the four of you were practically raised together by the Flamekeepers."

"I see," Fiona said. "Like we're brothers and sisters." A sardonic smile flitted across her lips as she glanced my way.

I opened my mouth to clarify that it wasn't the kind of relationship I was imagining for our characters.

Fortunately, Liz beat me to it. "Eh, more like childhood friends or school classmates or something. Anyway, the Flamekeepers -- and in particular, the High Priestess -- have put you to any number of tests, especially in the last few years as you've gotten older. The desert is a harsh, unforgiving place, and they do not take weakness lightly. I want to hear about a challenge the two of you have faced together, and how you overcame it."

"...So we can just make up anything?" Fiona said, confused.

Liz nodded. "Yeah. I mean, within reason, obviously. I'll tell you if it's too outlandish."

"He stole a cursed magic lamp from an ancient tomb deep in the desert and summoned an evil genie. It was about to kill him, until I rescued him at the last moment," Fiona said, promptly.

Liz snorted. "Hah. That does sound like Mike."

"Hey!" I protested.

"...But it should be a reason for your character to trust his, and vice versa, not a reason your character would think he's an idiot. The point is that it's helping the game start with your characters being friends, at least a little bit."

"Oh. Well, that's harder," Fiona said. "Any ideas, Mike?"

"The High Priestess, or whoever, sent us to kill a giant desert scorpion that's been harrying important trade caravans," I said slowly. "Only when we got there, it turned out there was a whole nest of them, a mother scorpion and her entire brood. We killed them all, but only barely; both of us nearly died."

"Ooh. Okay, I like that," Fiona agreed, nodding at me in approval. How good her approval made me feel was embarrassing.

Liz jotted down another note. "Mmm, okay. Now I want each of you to tell me about something heroic the other person's character did. Something that changed how your character sees them."

I hesitated for a moment, trying to decide if there was some way to take things in a sexual direction.

But I was drawing a blank, so I settled for something easy. "Milo got stung a bunch of times, during the fight. By the time we'd finished them all off, he was practically paralyzed with scorpion poison. Fleur used some of her cleansing paladin magics to help him; he owes her his life."

Liz made another note about what I'd said. "Got it. Fiona?"

Fiona pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I think...they were badly injured enough that it was a slow trip back to the Flamekeepers. Milo and Fleur are forced to make camp for the night -- and it's a cold, windswept, moonless desert night. They huddle together in a tent for warmth."

Liz looked nonplussed. "But how does that help Fleur trust Milo?"

"Well," Fiona continued, "She has her tenet of innocence to uphold, after all. She was worried all night that he'd make a move or try something that would threaten her vow of purity. But he didn't; Milo was a perfect gentleman and didn't do anything untoward the entire night. She trusts him much more after that."

Liz glanced at me, expression neutral. "That okay with you?"

"Uh, sure." I tried to conceal my frustration and disappointment. If anything, this was now the opposite of what I'd been hoping for. Not only were our characters decidedly not interacting sexually, but I was playing a halfling rogue. No sex appeal, no magic to play with.

And Fiona was playing a character that had actually taken a vow of celibacy.

Ugh.

"Well, great then." Liz made a final note, then closed her book. "Okay, one last question for each of you, then we can wr-"

She was interrupted midsentence by her cell phone ringing, and glanced down at it in irritation. "Ah, shit. That's my work. Sorry, guys. I've gotta take this; they're running an event today at the library. It should be fine, but you know how it goes..."

She picked up the phone and headed across the living room. We heard her say, "What's up? Everything's okay, right?...What do you mean, the mascots never arrived for story hour? That's literally the whole event, why didn't you call me sooner?" before she shut the door to her little office, muting the sound of her irritated tones to a dull murmur.

"You seem annoyed," Fiona observed, into the silence.

I shrugged; trying to act casual. "No, no..."

"You were hoping that I'd play some slut," Fiona said, wryly.

I blushed. When she put it like that it certainly made me feel like an asshole.

And then Fiona glanced at the door Liz had just pulled shut behind her. Then back at me. I saw something calculating flicker behind her eyes. "You still want my phone number?"

I just nodded, mutely.

"Okay. If you roleplay with me what it might've been like while they were sharing a tent...I'll give you my number."

I blinked. "So we're just going to roleplay...sleeping?"

Her lips curved into a smile. "Well. That's what pure little Fleur is doing, yes..."

She shifted, moving closer to me, slowly shifting herself into my lap. She was light, and I could feel the smooth length of one thigh, then the other, slide against my body. She shifted her voice, making it higher and lighter, giving it an expressive lilt. "I mean, it doesn't matter if we touch. Touching is fine, we can give each other warmth...that's perfectly innocent..."

Fiona certainly said the words innocently enough, but it wouldn't have mattered how she said them. With her dark eyes and sly smile both fixed on me, I'd have agreed with anything she said, anything at all. I nodded, vigorously. "Uh," I cleared my throat, and managed, "R-right."

"Good, because I am so cold..." Fiona nestled into my chest.

I became acutely aware that my erection from earlier had returned in full force, was probably jabbing Fiona.

She didn't comment on it, just sighed and burrowed into my chest. The movement caused her to push her ass into my groin. She was warm up against my cock, and reflexively, I put my arms around her body. God. She smelled clean, and warm, and exciting. I made a sound in the back of my throat -- not quite a moan, not a whimper.

"What's wrong? Cold?" she asked. She was still using Fleur's voice.

I would've responded, but instead, I did moan, now. Because as she spoke, I felt her lips brush against my skin, gently. She nuzzled me, her mouth against my neck with just the barest hint of pressure. Warm, soft, and moist.

My cock was immediately throbbing.

"F-fuck, Fiona," I hissed. She'd never used her mouth on me; it had mostly been her hands, last campaign. But I could imagine it so easily. This is what I'd been wanting, what I'd been hoping would happen, what I'd been fantasizing about.

She shifted, pushing her pert butt into my lap rhythmically. "Or perhaps your injuries are uncomfortable, still causing pain?" Fiona asked, in Fleur's innocent tones. But in her eyes, I could see a devilish amusement that was all-too-reminiscent of our last campaign.

I didn't respond; I was trying to keep ahold of myself. I'd fantasized about this for months. Now that it was happening -- Fiona's face, inches from mine, her lips on my neck, grinding her ass into my cock, her body in my arms -- I found that I was on the verge of, well, coming undone rather quickly.

It was like she could tell what I was thinking. "Mike, remember, Milo was a good boy." She said the words in her normal voice -- if with a little more mockery than usual.

"What?" I responded blankly, having lost track of what she was talking about.

She kept up the rocking motions, pushing her soft ass into my cock. I realized that I was now running my hands over her body reflexively, feeling the smooth skin at her waist, following the swell of her hips out to her perky ass.

"I mean that Milo kept control of himself even though he was lying next to Fleur all night long," Fiona clarified. She said the words into my neck, soft lips kissing me as she spoke.

I moaned. The feeling of her mouth on my neck was so...unexpectedly hot. Her lips felt incredible. It was all too easy to imagine her kissing her way down my body, how they'd feel on my cock.

"So if you're roleplaying Milo, you've got to be a good boy, too, Mike," Fiona whispered. I could hear the glee behind the words, now.

"S-sure," I agreed. Through the physical sensations, I didn't understand exactly what she was implying, but I would've agreed to anything she said at that point. She wanted me to be a good boy? I was a good boy.

"I mean, if you cum," she punctuated the word with an especially slow, rolling movement of her butt against my throbbing cock, "then I guess you're not really roleplaying, are you? So...you wouldn't get my number."

I froze, finally understanding the game she was playing.

She didn't freeze. She kept pushing against me. "I'm so glad you're here, Milo," she murmured. She nuzzled into my neck, again.

Torn, I battled with myself.

This was going to make me cum if she kept going, I knew. If I wanted her number, I needed to stop her.

I was on the verge of doing just that. I wasn't a complete loser. I wanted her number; this was an opportunity to demonstrate that I could still control myself enough to get what I wanted.

So I pulled away a little, looked down at Fiona, about to suggest we stop.

And then her dark eyes met mine. "Can't handle it?" she asked, delighted. "I suggested a smaller character so it'd be easier for you to play, but I guess you can't even roleplay that..."

"J-just...just...adjusting," I muttered, suddenly redfaced and completely off-balance. I leaned back into her.

I told myself I'd just hold out. I could last until Liz finished her call. Liz couldn't possibly be that much longer without being impolite; she'd at least duck out to tell us we should head out.

Then Fiona would be the one who'd have to stop. She would leap out of my lap like she'd been caught red-handed.

That's what I told myself, at least.

But I was already pretty close. And Fiona was grinding into me more purposefully, now. I could feel the orgasm starting to build.

"Would Milo's little cock really be this hard with Fleur snuggling with him?" she remarked, sardonically.

I let out a whimper, trying to fight the sensations.

And then Fiona leaned in, put her lips firmly on my neck, and started aggressively kissing, tonguing, and sucking me, working her way from my collarbone up to my earlobe.

Her mouth might as well have been on my cock. The sensation was too much, and sent me straight over the edge. "A-ah," I moaned.

And I started cumming.

"Aw," she murmured, sympathetically, against my skin.

I didn't respond, just gasped as I thrust up helplessly against her ass, spraying a load inside my boxers.

Fiona giggled, riding me through it, and then pulling away as the orgasm finished and I slumped. She wiped her mouth, primly, with one hand. "Sorry, Mike. I thought we could do some roleplaying, but I guess not. Maybe I'll give you my number another time."

She didn't sound sorry.

I didn't know what to say; I sat, speechless, for five or ten seconds, coming down from the haze of the orgasm.

And just as I was getting my wits about me, and was starting to think about my reply, Liz returned. "Ugh, sorry about that, guys. What've you been doing while I was gone?"

"Working on character voices! What do you think of this, for Fleur?" Fiona's answer was immediate, and then she shifted to the lilting, lighter voice she'd used for Fleur. "The desert is just so cold, Milo, and I'm so grateful we could share our warmth together as friends."

To my ear, friends had an odd sarcasm to it.

Liz looked back and forth between us, suspicion in her eyes. "Ha, that's pretty good, Fiona. Well, we can call it here anyway I guess. I'll send an email about our first session once I do character creation with the rest of the gang. Thanks for coming, guys."

"Uh, yeah. Good characters. Excited to start playing, Liz," I muttered, not making eyecontact.

"Oh, this was kind of playing, though, wasn't it?" Fiona's voice was delighted. "Thanks so much, Liz. I'm not a character creation virgin anymore."

"Sure, Fiona. Glad you liked it." Liz paused, and glanced at me. "Hey, Mike, can you stick around for a minute? Wanted to ask you something."

"Uh, sorry, but I've really gotta get going," I mumbled. I left as quickly as I could, doing my best to simultaneously angle both the side of my neck Fiona had been sucking, and the wet spot in my pants, out of Liz's direct line of sight.

---

In my car, safely away from Liz's watchful eyes, I took a shaky breath.

I glanced down at the spreading stain on my pants, reviewed the red mark on my neck.

Fiona had given me a hickey. It was absolutely going to bruise, like I was some kind of highschooler who'd been necking in the back of a movie theater.

It should've been humiliating, I knew. She'd made me cum in my pants. Hadn't even undressed, hadn't undressed me; hadn't even really given me a handjob. It had been, at best, an over-the-clothes lapdance.

And she'd known it would happen. Had orchestrated it. I hadn't even gotten her number. She'd probably never even really planned to give it to me.

I should've felt ashamed.

Instead, I shivered at the memory of it. I could still feel her lips on my neck. Hear her whispering in my ear, alternating between playful Fiona and innocent little Fleur.

Maybe this would be a good campaign after all.