Cat's Eye and the Jovial Man (2)
As she squeezed him tight in her arms, her soft, yielding breasts pressed down heavily against his chest. Not that he minded in the least.
"I'm just so worn out... let's catch our breath like this for a moment before moving on..."
"S-sounds like a plan."
When she loosened the arms wound around Cloud's neck, her springy breasts swayed pleasingly from side to side like pudding, and at their peaks a pair of dusky nipples stood shyly erect, assailing Cloud's eyes. Too embarrassed to keep staring and at a loss for where to rest his gaze, he forced a calm voice and struck up a conversation.
"Y-you must have been terrified back there. But you're safe now that I'm here, so you can relax."
"Thank you. You saved my life."
Cradled in his arms, she gazed up at him for a long moment with dewy, glistening eyes—then took Cloud's hand and laid it gently atop her bare breast.
"Huh."
The unexpected move set Cloud's heart thrashing wildly.
"Your hand is so warm. Those bandits put me through something I can't even begin to describe, and my poor heart is too startled to keep beating properly. Please, just hold it there a moment... until I can calm down..."
"I-if that's what you need."
"It is."
She answered with a faint smile. Even her face was lovely—and that only deepened his turmoil. Dreading that instinct might soon trample his reason, Cloud's palm began to sweat. Oblivious to all of it, she made a most unexpected proposal.
"Are you nervous? If you'd like to knead them, go right ahead. I think if you fondled my breasts for me, Hero, my startled heart would settle much faster."
The words were as beautiful as blossoms and as sweet as a dream. What a genuinely kind woman she was.
But Cloud, a man brimming to the brim with justice, whipped his head from side to side.
"Absolutely not! How could I ever dare bring such shame upon you, my lady? I thank you for the offer, but I could never. As one who has walked the upright path all his life, I cannot possibly molest a woman in dire straits! It would be no different from the filthy deeds of those bandits!"
"Even if I'm begging you for it?"
"B-begging...?"
Cloud lowered his trembling gaze and met her eyes. Nestled in his arms, she was looking up at him with a sorrowful, pleading expression.
"The truth is... this is terribly embarrassing to admit, but... my body caught fire while those bandits had their way with me, and it hasn't cooled since... I've started to wonder if I was a loose woman all along... In any case, Hero, won't you please calm me down? I'm burning up as though I've swallowed an aphrodisiac, and I can't bear it. Over and over, even knowing I shouldn't, my body and my heart keep craving a man's... thing."
"An aphrodisiac?"
Cloud's eyes flew wide open.
"Did those bandit bastards feed you an aphrodisiac?"
"Perhaps they did... My body is certainly behaving strangely, unlike itself."
"Heh heh, then this is grave indeed. I've heard that with certain aphrodisiacs, if the poison isn't neutralized quickly, the one who took it may well die."
"Oh no, then what am I to do? Am I to die like this? There's still so much I want to do with my life!"
As she pulled a tearful face, Cloud stiffened his throat and declared in a voice of iron righteousness.
"Aaah! I could never stand by and let you die! It seems I have no choice but to administer a drastic remedy at once!"
"A drastic remedy? Do you carry an antidote?"
"Of course. It's a remarkably effective medicine, so worry no further."
Cloud carefully laid her down upon the ground, sprang up in haste, and undid his belt.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
"This is the drastic remedy!"
As he bellowed and dragged down his trousers, his member—veins bulging across its length—sprang free with a thwack. Perhaps it had grown stifled lying quiet in his pants all this time, for the instant it emerged into the world it bobbed up and down as if offering a cheerful greeting.
"Oh my goodness!"
At the imposing size of his manhood, she let out an involuntary gasp, eyes wide with astonishment.
"Now then, pardon my intrusion!"
"W-wait just a moment! Th-that thing is enormous!"
"Bear this in mind! You are a patient poisoned by aphrodisiac! And I am the physician come to cure you!"
Cloud pounced on her then and there.
"Mmph...! Mmm, mm...!"
As Cloud seized her breasts in both hands and rained kisses upon her lips, she—nothing like the flustered maiden of moments before—wrapped her fingers around his member as though she had been waiting for precisely this and began stroking it up and down. Her aggressive courtship sent a crackling jolt through Cloud, as if his blood were rushing backward.
Biting, sucking, tangling across the ground in a heap of limbs, the two at last became one. The instant Cloud's member slid into her body, she bared her teeth in delight and loosed a blissful scream.
"Kyahn!"
Cloud hooked both her legs over his shoulders and began swinging his hips back and forth, sating his lust with abandon. Pinned beneath him, she too rolled her waist with practiced coquetry, chasing her own pleasure.
"Your, your cock is, is so thick, and big, nngh, hah, and hard, hoo, ah...!"
Her plentiful breasts sloshed and juddered right before his eyes.
"Who told you to go strutting around outside with a pair of filthy tits like these?"
"Hahhn, ah, hahhn, w-well, they were, they were for you to see, weren't they. Ahh, there, right there, hahhn, feels, so good."
"Be honest with me. That story about the bandits was a lie, and you set out to lure me on purpose. Didn't you?"
"You, you figured it out? Hah, hah..."
"You think it's normal for a woman to pull this kind of stunt out of nowhere? What's your game?"
"Nnghhhh! Hah, hah, ahh!"
She was already so far gone that reason had abandoned her entirely.
"Going to talk, or what?"
Just as he readied himself to ram into her with all his might and wring out her true identity, a voice dropped over the scene like a bucket of cold water.
"Oi! You crazy bitch and bastard! Are you going to stop that right now or not?"
At that spectacularly mood-killing shout, Cloud—mid-thrust and thoroughly enjoying himself—slowly ground his hips to a halt and turned his gaze sideways.
There stood two women with broad-bladed machetes, regarding them with eyes cold as frost.
"Huh? Who the hell are you two?"
Ignoring him entirely, they prodded the woman sprawled dazed on the ground with the toes of their boots and addressed her.
"What do you think you're doing, you crazy bitch? We told you to disarm him and give him a ride or two, not to lie there lost in it."
"Hah, hah, b-but this bastard is, he's seriously good at sex. Hah, hah...!"
A keen blade came to rest against Cloud's throat.
One of the women curled her lips in a sneer.
"Got any money on you?"
"None."
"Figured as much. From that shabby getup when you first turned up, I had you pegged for a beggar. Eh, doesn't matter. We'll just sell you off as a slave tomorrow morning."
"Oh. So I'm being sold now."
"Think of it as the bell tolling on a life spent in filthy debauchery, and you'll feel less cheated. This is exactly why people ought to live honestly. What business does a man have ravishing a woman in distress in broad daylight, anyway?"
The women tittered.
Cloud was struck speechless.
"You're the ones who lured me!"
"And you're the one who took the bait. You fell into the trap we laid—that's all it comes down to. In a word, you were hunted. It's the law of the jungle, no? Fools are always and forever devoured by the clever and the strong."
Hearing those words, Cloud had the distinct feeling he'd said something very much the same to Sylvia a few days prior, and he began to chuckle like a man who had lost his mind.
"I have no defense whatsoever."
"Shall we be off, then?"
And so Cloud was hauled off to parts unknown, his hands and feet lashed tight to a long wooden pole.
It was a cave scarcely twenty meters deep.
Cloud was flung to the floor, arms and legs bound behind his back.
Then, with a clang, an iron-barred gate swung shut.
"Who are you people, anyway? Bandits?"
"Bandits? Don't demean us with so petty a name. We are the Cat's Eye, renowned far and wide in these parts for our infamy."
"The Cat's Eye...?"
The Cat's Eye was a professional outfit of honeytrap bandits—seducing men, squeezing them of their valuables, and selling them off as slaves.
"A slave merchant comes tomorrow morning, so you'd best sit still until then. Try anything clever and we'll open up your belly with our blades. Consider yourself warned."
Leaving those charming parting words behind, the three women filed out of the cave.
"Nngh..."
With great effort he raised his head and looked around. In a dark corner lay a man, arms and legs bound behind him just as his were. The single difference was that this man wore iron shackles rather than rope.
His face hidden in shadow, the man spoke with unmistakable relish.
"Well, well. Looks like yet another poor wretch blinded by lust has wandered into the snare."
The man's voice was deep and full of vigor.
"So then—which one were you bedding when they took you? The pretty one, the plain one, or the ugly one? Out of those three."
Cloud answered as though he knew all three of their faces.
"The pretty one."
The man erupted in hearty laughter.
"Well, I never! So you had a go at that wench, did you! What are the odds! Why, we've gone and become Hole Brothers, you and I! What a twist of fate this life is!"
"Hole Brothers?"
"We've both been in and out of the same hole, haven't we? Two men bound together by a single hole—what else would you call us but Hole Brothers?"
"Shouldn't that be 'Hole In-Laws'?"
"Aren't they one and the same! I merely said Hole Brothers because it suits our circumstances!"
"Then which of us is the elder, and which the younger?"
"Mine went in first, so I'm the elder brother, and yours went in after, so you're the younger! Isn't that how it works? Wahahaha!"