Fool's War

"Sorry," I said into her hair.

"Are we going to have to stop coming to this event?" she asked against my chest.

"No. It's alright. You know me, lovely. I just get a little down when I'm here." I took a deep breath to chase off the old ghosts that swirled around me. "Like you said, time to make some good memories."

Beth looked up at me then slowly smiled. "That's why I sent sexy-hips over to you. I know you like her, and she wants to hump you something fierce, sailor. Can't say I mind too much the idea of watching her do that either."

"She told me her mundane name is Ellie."

Beth nodded. "She told me that once a few events back. When we exchanged numbers and addresses. Hey, look."

Following her finger, I saw the blazing swirl of living fire that was Alejandro spinning poi. He was about fifty feet away with a ring of onlookers, clapping, as he danced with the flames.

"Damn, that man is a piece of eye-candy," she pouted. "And bats for the other team."

"And, from what he said, has a boyfriend," I added. "You may have to just make do with your normal evening of Klingon sex with me."

"Not that that doesn't sound like fun, but...I'm in the mood for more than simply ten to fifteen orgasms in a row, with me shredding pillows with my teeth to keep from howling like a banshee in heat."

~"doum doum teketek doum tekatek * doum doum teketek doum tekatek"~

Laughing, I begin sway to the music with my wife.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked, my hands resting on her twitching hips.

"I think I already have him hooked and snared." She grinned. "He's got a taste for Irish sailor, and this morning's fun gave him the idea that I can make a man squirm. I don't care how much he thinks he doesn't like women."

"Ah, so I'm bait."

"You're not going to stand there and lie to me and tell me the idea of getting in those leather pants of his hasn't crossed your perverted mind, just as much as it has mine." She moved her hand down to behind my sporran pouch and cupped my half-hard cock through the kilt. "See? I know my husband."

"Thought about it sure. But like I said, he has a partner."

"They play. I got to talk to Alejandro while you were fighting earlier. He and Gary are more in the nature of friends with benefits than lovey-dove. They're not exclusive," she said smiling.

"So, you're wanting me to hook him for you and reel him in." I watched the spinning ribbons of fire and the bare chested man in the middle of them. "Then you're wanting to share him, I take it?"

"Of course. I love to share my toys with my husband," she purred. "You know that."

~"doum doum teketek doum tekatek * doum doum teketek doum tekatek"~

I grinned at the memories of the many years' worth of sex-filled-nights with this voluptuous creature in my arms. She stepped closer rubbing her soft body against mine, her hand still on my cock that rapidly hardened in her fingers. Leaning in for what I had intended to be a soft kiss only, I was delighted to find fire and passion that pulled me into an engulfing war of lips and tongues.

"Hey you two, get a room already."

Beth swatted at Jim to make him leave us alone. Mandy giggled and pulled him out of reach of her hand. Several minutes later, minutes that felt like endless hours where we were simply alone and not surrounded by people, we slowly parted. Our eyes lingered on each other's faces, pulling in all the familiar recognition points. Mates seeking reassurances that the awesome person, in whose arms they were, was real.

"Go take our future-bed-partner a cold drink, lover," she said, her hand lingering on my chest. Her eyes seemed fascinated at the patterns she was making in my chest hair. She glanced toward Alejandro. "He looks like his spinning is starting to slow down over there. He's probably thirsty."

Nodding, I gave her another kiss then went over to the little wagon where the household cooler and Jim's many growlers of mead were sitting icy cold. Phyllis looked up at me and smiled. I grinned at her and picked up her hand to give the back of her fingers a kiss. She playfully gave me a pop.

~"doum doum teketek doum tekatek * doum doum teketek doum tekatek"~

Getting a beer from the cooler, I headed over to where Alejandro had stopped spinning and, fires extinguished, was talking to a few of his audience. I could hear him explaining things to them as I walked up. He saw what was in my hand as I held it up towards him, and his eyes went wide.

"Excuse me if you please." He took the steps to me as I popped the top on the bottle with the hook on my belt. "Oh, god's laughter, thank you, my friend. I'm parched."

"Saw part of your show before Beth and I got lost in a kissing marathon. Looked like you almost clipped yourself there once, but then my eyes are a little blurred."

"Oh, no. You saw it right. I did." He held up his arm, showing me a place where the skin was covered in a layer of black soot. He placed the cold bottle on top of it and, looking up at the stars, sighed in pleasure. "I need to go wash this off and take a look at it. See how bad I burned it."

"Well come on, I'll walk with you." I followed him through the dispersing crowd of people and we headed down the gravel road way towards the bathhouse. We quickly left behind the noise of the multiple parties going on around the merchant and fighting area. By the time we were at the cinder block building, with its old spider web covered light fixtures, we were alone. "It's not a bad burn, is it?"

"Oh, no. Probably nothing more than a graze. I just did feel the steel touch me, so it shouldn't be bad."

I followed him into the bathhouse and over to the sinks. "Have you ever been burned bad?"

He nodded his head as he ran his arm under the cold water. Reaching up, he moved his braid to the side, and just under his right ear, half hidden behind the braided-silver torc necklace he wore, was a large scar. Shaped rather oddly, it ran down to near his collar, growing steadily fainter.

"Was spinning while really drunk off my ass one night, and tangled up my chains. With them above my head. Both poi came down on my shoulder and the oil I use to make them burn sloshed off the wicks. I was on fire for about fifteen seconds before I even knew it. I had automatically done a wrist-flip, to untangle the chains, and was already going back into spinning when a guy comes running up and starts trying to slap out the flames. Then a lady was there pouring a bottle of water over me. That ride to the ER, with a Ziploc icepack full of crushed ice running cold water down my spine, sobered me up. About a number of things I had been doing."

"Like what?" I asked after a moment of silence. "Unless I'm being nosy."

"Oh, no. It's fine. I wouldn't have brought it up if it still bothered me." He shrugged. "I was just getting out of hand. Wild as hell, off the leash kinda wild. Not thinking my way through things just doing them and hoping things worked out for the best. Drinking too much when they didn't."

I nodded understanding exactly that feeling, even if I had never quite gotten to that point. Oh, so very close, but just not all the way there.

"That burn, the pain of it was an awakening, it was also a blessing in disguise, really. I met Gary at the ER. He was just what I needed then. A friend more than a lover...even though we did eventually end up in bed together." He looked over his arm in the light. "Yeah, this is okay. Maybe a little aloe from my med kit. Eh, I've had worse sunburns." Turning, he grinned at me and placed the bottle back on the burn. "The beer helps."

"It was Beth's idea."

"She is a..." He paused as if to organize his words.

"Yeah. She is that."

He stood silent for a second then looked around. Chuckled. "We seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time in this bathroom chatting. Let me go take a quick piss and we'll head back up to the party."

"Let's take care of your arm first. I mean after you piss."

"Yeah, it would complicate things if we tried to do it...while I was trying to do that. Distractions and all."

Laughing, he headed into the area with the toilets, while I looked in the mirror and ran my hand through my hair and waited. I moved out of his way so he could wash his hands then we made the short walk back to camp. The only light in camp was my long-life battery LED lantern; I flipped the switch giving it full power so we could see what we were doing. Alejandro darted into his tent for a little black bag and brought it over by the lantern.

Seeing what he had, I went into my tent and grabbed the full medical kit we keep. Sitting it down next to him, I opened the big Plano Tackle box. "Get anything you need out of there. After the Battle of the Brooms, I've made sure to always, always pack for any medical possibility."

"Gary tells me to do the same. I like to travel lighter though, so I generally just toss this bag in the car." He pulled a can of antiseptic burn spray from my box, gave it a quick look then sprayed his arm where it was red. I smiled at his hiss of relief. "I keep some aloe cream for burns, Aleve for my migraines, Ace bandages and a dozen other little things in here. But a kit like this is better. Just bulkier than I'd like to try and pack into my car."

"Hence the U-Haul. Want another beer? Or would you like to try some of the good Brew Master's best? I have a bottle of his finest."

"Better than what we had last night?"

"Much," I said with a smile. "Let me grab it." Pulling out my phone from my pouch, I sent Beth a quick text.

~Opening the bottle of KB-09. Sharing with U know Who~

I was digging out the bottle, from its carefully wrapped corner of my clothes trunk, when my phone began to buzz.

~On my way. Save. Me. Some.~

Walking back outside, I saw that the med kit was closed, and he was sitting, looking out at the lake. Alejandro's face in profile had a regal, almost nobleness of character. But then, hearing me, he turned back and that smile flashed in hi dark beard. I watched him curl the edges of his mustache out by habit as I took my seat.

"There is a story behind this bottle of magic liquid." Moving my hand to my belt, I sorted by feel through the items till I found the black-leather tassel with the corkscrew. I set to work as I explained. "On the way out to the 2008 Estrella War, Jim pulled into this little backside-of-no-where gas station to fuel up. When he walked in the owner had pint mason jars of honey on a shelf behind his register. Plain paper labels, clearly nothing fancy, but being a meadmaker Jim asked about them."

"Of course." Alejandro nodded. "I've known more than a few. They always are on the lookout for unusual types of honey. "

"Exactly. Ah, here we go." The cork pulled free with a deep pop sound. I slowly poured some into his mug, but held out my hand to stop him as he went to take a sip. "Mandy is out in the car waiting, and waiting. Finally she got out went inside and found her husband in a deep conversation about bees. Seems that all that honey in those jars was from the killer bee type bees. This guy's hives had been overrun by killer bee queens years back, and he was now harvesting from them."

"This is killer bee mead?" he asked as he looked down at the golden liquid. I could already catch the smell of it in my nose.

"Yes. Now here is the funny part. He bought a gallon of it from the guy. Went to the war. Came back, and got it to fermenting. But then he was in a car wreck. A pretty bad one, really. By the time he got out of the hospital and had enough mental clarity to remember things like mead, it was months later. I dropped by, to see how he was doing and he asked me to go to his basement and chuck it out. That it must have ruined. So, I go down there and what do I find? This glass carboy full of the most golden liquid I've ever seen, and it was on the densest cake of yeast at the bottom, I'd ever seen."

I gestured for him to try it.

Watching him take first a long smell, then a slow sip was fun, but when the look of ecstasy appeared on his face as the mead dissolved on his tongue, that was purely erotic.

"Oh, my gods."

"After taking a sniff, I racked the mead into an empty carboy. Had to damn near take a pressure washer to get that yeast out the bottom of the first one. Cleaned up, told him what I had done, but Jim just dismissed what I had saved. Said it would have all kinds of off flavors no matter how it good it smelled. And I left. About two months later I got a call in the middle of the night, Mandy. Frantic! Told Beth that Jim was down in the basement, about to have some kind of a fit. Yelling his head off. Whooping, hollering...the works. For me to get my ass over there."

I watched the grin appear on Alejandro's face. He took another sip, savoring it. "He tried it, I take it?"

"Yep. Pure curiosity got the better of him before he poured it out." I tipped back my mug and let a little sip cover my tongue. "Oh, damn that's good! So anyway, Beth and I get there. Mandy is upset. He's downstairs, sounds like Jim is tearing the place apart. I go down there expecting to find a battle from the noise."

"What was he doing?"

"Well, he was trying to find all his champagne bottling equipment. He also had his bottling-pump going running all this mead through a filtered racking from one carboy to another smaller one. He was...also cleaning out a one-gallon oak barrel to try aging some of it that way. All at once. He saw me and gave me the biggest hug I've ever received. I think my ribs are still bruised."

Looking up, I saw Beth walking past the bath house. Moving my chair so she could sit closer to Alejandro, I go get her favorite mug from the tent. The one she loves to drink from, but won't take around for fear of breaking it. By the time she walked up, I had it wiped out and waiting on her.

"Here, lovely. Join us in a sip," I said handing it to her.

"There better be more than a sip, or I'm going to beat the both of you." She warned, taking her chair. The pleasure moan from her, as she took a slow drink, almost lifted the front of my kilt. "God this is the best. He seriously better be finding out how to make more!"

I chuckled at the puzzled look on Alejandro's face. "He hasn't been able to copy it. He's tried dozens of batches, all exactly the same way the first was done and they have never come out just right. Oh, some have been good."

"Umm, but not this good," said Beth purring. She wiggled her butt in her chair then pleasure shivered. "This stuff is orgasm in a bottle.

"You say he made a champagne version of this?" asked Alejandro.

"A gallon's worth," I said, taking a small sip.

"Oh lord, that stuff was heaven on earth, and those bottles didn't last two months." Beth took another sip. "When you drank that, it was like it never touched the back of your mouth, just melted on your tongue."

Taking the bottle, I poured a little more into each cup.

"Tell me," Beth leaned forward toward Alejandro a little. Her merry eyes roving over his face."Have you ever heard what mead's nickname is?"

"Panty loosener?" he asked with a wicked grin.

Beth squirmed again, her eyes flirty. "Yep."

Alejandro grinned at her. "And is it working?" he asked.

"Might be if I was wearing any," she said, the tip of her tongue going between her teeth. "Come to think of it, you're the only one sitting here with underwear on. You tell us. Is it working on your...panties?"

"How do you know if I have on underwear? I might not be wearing anything under these pants." He looked over at me and winked. I smiled back.

Beth leaned back in her chair, slowly smiling, her face taking on that sultry expression I know so well. "Generally only kilts get checked, but well, in your case we could make an exception. The only question being who would you prefer to take a look in those pants, me or Evan?" Before he could answer, she leaned forwards, her hand running up his thigh. "Or maybe both? At the same time."

Alejandro swallowed, looked over at me to judge my reaction only to find me smiling.

"Ah...well, um...I guess, uh, maybe...both." He looked down at her hand on this thigh. "Ah, Beth...it has been quite a while since a woman...well, saw me. No offense but I haven't been a fan of your gender really when it comes to being intimate...I, well I had a few problems."

My wife smiled and slid out her chair till she was on her knees in front of him. She looked up at him, her face that expression of caring love she so often wore, as she ran her hands higher up his legs.

"You, are an incredibly sexy man. Gorgeously handsome, smart, funny and charming." She looked down at his bare stomach. "And so very bite-able. You have no idea how badly I want to just pick a point on you and nibble. Now, I'm not so arrogant to believe that simply my touch can make...any...man respond, but..." She licked her lips. "I do know what men enjoy being done to them. And if you have any problems, well that's what my sailor is for. Right?"

Beth glanced back at me and I nodded. Getting up, I moved over and held my hand out to Alejandro. "It's a bit public out here for us to be checking in your pants, don't you think?"

He looked at my fingers for a moment, then down at Beth looking up at him. I could see the indecision warring within him. When he looked back up at me, I smiled and leaned in enough to take his hand. Alejandro stood up, with a little help from me, but I didn't move back so he found himself almost in my face. His eyes widened when I leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his lips. He was hesitant for a second then began to kiss me back, just as softly.

I was enjoying the feel of his mustache playing by my lips, when I felt a feminine hand disappear under my kilt. It ran a merry path around my thigh to where it found and took a solid grip my cock. I moaned into the mouth of this delightfully masculine man as Beth's pinky stroked the head. Petting my cock like she would have a cat's back. Then, even as her grip tightened to an almost painful hold, I had to smile feeling him moan back.

Pulling back just enough to look down, I saw that her hand was behind that brocade loincloth, resting on top of his leather pants. Cupping his cock through the thin, dark hide. He looked down too and after a moment smiled.

"We either need to go into our tent or turn off that damn lantern," she said, not moving her hands an inch. "Because I'm just barely holding it together here with you two sexy men. It won't be much longer before I have got to have one or both of you in my mouth." Her eyes dropped to where her hands were. "Please..."

I could feel that lust shiver through her hand. Looking at Alejandro, I could tell he was feeling the same thing. I saw his chest rise a bit quicker and then his eyes returned to me.

"We shouldn't keep a lady waiting. That's not very chivalrous," I said simply.

He nodded, unable, I think, to speak. Holding out my hand, I helped Beth to her feet, only to have her lips attack mine. It was a brief kiss then her lips were by my ear.

"I can taste him on your lips." she purred. "It's his turn, though."

Beth turned from me and moved into his arms. Her head leaned in by his neck, I didn't catch what she whispered into his ear, but I watched her place her fingers to his mouth. His lips parted and her fingers disappeared between them to the second knuckle. His eyes closed in pleasure, and I realized what she had just done. That was the hand that been around my cock and my lovely wife had just fed my pre-cum to another man.

Aroused to the point I was trembling, I took back Alejandro's hand. Beth took his other and we led him to the flap of our tent. Passing inside, I moved over to one of our candle lamps, the cylinder of perforated-tin cast a thousand little stars across the inside of the tent when I got the pillar candle going. I watched Beth light one of her sandalwood incense coils. Standing by our bed, holding onto his left elbow, Alejandro looked so bereft and uncomfortable, I moved over to him. I let a single finger of mine follow the line of his jaw, down his throat and to his collarbone. I hooked the edge of his vest.