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One day, over the remains of breakfast, Astra makes a proclamation.
“I think you should try being meaner, Eve,” Astra comments as she idly twirls her fork with one hand.
Evelyn, mid-standing up to clear the table, blinks at her.
It’s an odd request, not that Astra was unfamiliar with making odd requests at this point in their tenure. Both of them have settled into their day-to-day routine with the ease of a feline: not landing effortlessly on both legs, but of a cat learning to bask in a sunbeam. Whatever they have is comfortable and warm.
Astra, painfully sincere to begin with at the best of times, no longer has any qualms about speaking her mind. Evelyn admires this as much as she hates it. After all, for someone like herself—
Evelyn straightens her back and clears her throat as she takes Astra’s plate. “I am not sure what you mean, Miss Yao.”
Astra just laughs, and her laughter rings harmoniously, each note and facet of her voice like wind chimes in the morning air.
“I’m saying you should try to be meaner, Evelyn,” Astra repeats, and even with her back to Astra as she cleans, Evelyn can feel her coy smile, her eyes burning through her skin.
“I see no merit to that,” Evelyn says, not looking at her as she wipes over the porcelain face of a plate with a washcloth. “The only people who deserve my cruelty are those who try to harm you. Until then, I would rather remain cordial.”
Evelyn places the clean dish on the rack and turns around just in time to catch Astra’s pout. It’s cute as it is dangerous. By now, Astra is accustomed to getting what she desires, and Evelyn usually enjoys giving it to her whenever possible. Anything as long as she keeps flashing that brilliant smile in her direction.
Astra silently rises from her seat at the kitchen table and takes a single step closer to Evelyn. When Astra confidently loops her arms around Evelyn’s strong shoulders, Evelyn knows it’s futile to try and mask the magnetic pull the singer has on her, the ever-so-slight way her body leans into Astra’s orbit.
“…Why do you want this?” Evelyn whispers, her arms rigid and refusing to make contact.
“Because I’m used to getting what I want,” Astra says as she moves in closer, her eyes dark and breath hot. “And I know you’ll give it to me.”
Something lightning hot and bold flashes in Evelyn. She sets her jaw and meets Astra’s eyes. “What you want is for me to be mean to you , then? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Mhm!” Astra hums melodically, her eyes glinting mischievously.
“After all, I’ve been so entitled, haven’t I?” Astra says sweetly, a touch more lethal, and she draws a finger slowly across Evelyn’s locked jaw in a way that makes her shiver. “Someone should put me in my place.”
Evelyn wills her body to move, abandoning her guise of decency to let the digits of her fingers reanimate from their frozen state back into carefully honed motion.
Boldly, she places her hands on Astra's hips and draws her in closer with one abrupt movement. Astra yields unconditionally, giggling in that way that makes Evelyn’s heart flutter as the expanse of their bodies makes contact.
Evelyn is a precise person. She is accustomed to manipulating the fine points of knives to achieve her goals; she can use her spiderweb of wire to entangle whoever she desires in her cat’s cradle. These days, she would rather not, even though she fears she will never fully adjust to the life of a manager, to the daily tasks of a normal person.
But Astra makes her want to try being human, to try having a name of her own. It’s honest work, and Evelyn studies the intricacies of civilian life like a textbook, dog-earring the pages.
With her hands on Astra’s hip, Evelyn knows this; Astra, more radiant than anyone she has ever known, like a shooting star, wants to fall into her radius. Inexplicably, Astra wants to be ensnared in her web.
After all, for some time now, they have been toeing the line of professionalism, ever since particular circumstances resulted in Evelyn in Astra’s bed, her head lavished between her thighs. One mistake was all it took before that dam broke beyond repair, and Evelyn had grown accustomed to Astra’s calls for intimacy, to Astra’s hands on the hem of her shirt backstage before a show, prying her way in.
They are tiptoeing on a dangerous wire, but Evelyn has never flinched from danger. Especially when it comes to Astra.
As a manager, as a protector , it’s Evelyn’s job to show restraint and prudence where Astra does not, but like they always have, Evelyn’s flaws gnaw like termites at her conscience. Despite herself, she loves the honey taste of Astra’s kiss, she adores the way that Astra calls for her alone in the night, in slivers of stolen light and the depths of shadow.
To be so selfish is another piece of kindling added to her pyre of sins, but Evelyn always knew she would burn regardless. If she can please Astra along the way, then—
Evelyn snaps back to reality. Astra is there, delicate in her arms, leaning into her space and utterly keening for her touch. Their eyes meet, and Astra smiles widely without teeth, batting her eyelashes.
“How crude, Miss Yao,” Evelyn says, letting her hands trail down to grip her rear. “To ask to be disciplined so shamelessly.”
Astra yelps as Evelyn emphasizes her words by digging her fingers into the plush flesh.
“Hehe, but you will, won’t you, Eve?” Astra says innocently, leaning further into her touch. Her eyes gleam impishly. “Because you’d do anything for me, isn’t that right?”
Before Evelyn can respond, Astra is tugging impatiently at Evelyn’s white button-up. “Take this off. You’re wearing too much.”
That impetuous, bold feeling runs red hot through Evelyn again, and she grabs Astra firmly by the wrist, ceasing her attempt to expose her.
“I don’t think so,” Evelyn chides, and Astra squirms under her grip, humming in what can only be a pleasant surprise at her steely tone. “I think you’ll be the one disrobing for me. ”
“Is that so?” Astra responds. “And what if I say no?”
“Well, I’ll simply have to give my boss what she asked for, won’t I?”
Draped over her lap, lounging indulgently like a well-fed house cat, Astra leans her head back to smile brightly at Evelyn.
How telling of Astra to still be jovial even when fully in the nude except for her panties and utterly at Evelyn’s mercy.
But Astra Yao, New Eridu’s beloved songstress, is truly a vision like this: beautiful swathes of pale skin and kneeling over Evelyn’s lap so that her lower back dimples prettily. Evelyn marvels at the knowledge that this moment of intimacy is for her alone, and grits her teeth to push away the feelings of guilt that arise in her.
“Are you ready to apologize?” Evelyn says coldly, allowing herself to embody the role Astra had requested of her. She draws a single finger up Astra’s panties, across where she knows her slit to be, and the other woman gasps fondly.
“I don’t know what you could possibly mean,” Astra giggles, and wiggles her ass ever-so-slightly.
At that, Evelyn brings her hand down firmly across Astra’s behind with a clap. Astra yelps and writhes in Evelyn’s snare.
“You will count,” Evelyn says, “and you will thank me when I finish.”
Astra dips her head wordlessly, and Evelyn allows herself to tangle her fingers through Astra’s silky hair, grasping at her roots to pull her head up to attention.
Something in Evelyn delights in the way Astra finally moans at the contact, and simultaneously she startles at her own visceral, heady pleasure at the novelty of controlling Astra. Her sin is this: Evelyn wants nothing more but to make Astra pliant and sweet and unable to think of anything or anyone else.
“Did you hear me, Miss Yao?” Evelyn hisses as she continues to wrench the singer’s head upward. “You will do this for me, otherwise I’m afraid you won’t be getting what you so badly desire.”
“Fuck—I mean, yes, Evelyn. I’ll do as you say.”
Carefully so that Astra doesn’t experience whiplash, Evelyn releases her grip on her hair, and Astra sighs.
“That’s a good girl,” Evelyn says and brings her hand down sharply over the fleshy part of her ass again.
“O-one,” Astra stutters, and Evelyn doesn’t miss the way she arches her back into the touch. She huffs. “Are you really going to make me count?”
“Yes,” Evelyn says matter-of-factly, “unless you’d rather I gag you.”
Astra laughs airily. “Threatening to gag a vocalist? Aw, so mean,” she begins, before Evelyn lands another crisp impact onto her behind, cutting her off.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“ Two, ” Astra groans, and Evelyn can’t help the smug smile that plays across her lips.
“That’s it,” Evelyn praises and spanks her one more time.
“Three—!” Astra cries.
With clarity, Evelyn wishes she could see her face, that she could admire the way her cheeks surely have flushed, and her eyes have become glassy. But this is a good view too—Astra utterly presenting herself for her, her ass canted into the air and bucking for her touch. For her discipline.
Something eats away at her for daring to think such a thing, but Evelyn has always been one to complete each task given to her to perfection: first, in assassinations, and later in what it means to cook and manage a career and protect. This is no different.
Evelyn slips back into her role with the easy nature of someone accustomed to acting. She traces Astra’s clothed rear, taking note of the slight way her employer winces. Evelyn intends to fulfill her promise to discipline her, but being too rough is unthinkable. Finding the balance between minimal and excessive pain is key.
“I’ll be taking these off now,” Evelyn states, and slips a hand to raise Astra’s hips so that she can slide her underwear off her.
When Astra’s cunt meets the air the songstress gasps, grinding her hips down against nothing. This isn’t the first time they’ve had sex, but it’s still intoxicating for Evelyn to smell and see the evidence of Astra’s desire for her. And just like she always is, Astra is wonderfully slick and ready, eager under Evelyn’s careful ministrations.
“You’re wet,” Evelyn murmurs. She spares a moment to lean into the humiliation aspect she knows Astra secretly craves. “Just from me spanking you? How dirty of you.”
Astra stifles out something between a giggle and a moan and gyrates her hips. Such a temptress. Against her better judgment, Evelyn itches to punish her further.
“What can I say?” Astra says cheerfully, “I do love the attention.”
Evelyn chuckles. “Greedy girl,” she says, and brings her hand across Astra’s ass again, this time slightly rougher.
“F-four,” Astra stammers. “ Eve, come on—“
“No,” Evelyn interrupts before she can finish. “You asked for this. You’re going to earn it for me. Understand?”
“God, okay, yes. I’ll earn it,” Astra says in a rush, and Evelyn smiles. She swipes a finger haphazardly over Astra’s folds and delights in the easy wetness, the lovely way Astra keens for her touch.
In their time together, Evelyn has noticed Astra’s propensity for hoarding treasures. Jewels, finery, even love; Astra circles and circles it like a dragon while still maintaining an appearance of effortless benevolence. Like a virtuoso does, Astra approaches each moment of her brilliant life with abundant sincerity and a willingness to learn. It’s why she’s so loved, and part of the many reasons why Evelyn can’t help but admire her. She is through and through what she claims to be.
Yet here, in Evelyn’s lap, Astra is unraveling, and Evelyn knows she will break her only to carefully build her back up again, just as Astra desires. She would hang the moon and stars for Astra any day. This is a simple task.
“Ready for another?” Evelyn says, tracing her fingers over the skin of Astra’s rapidly swelling rear. She feels Astra nod her head readily against her leg.
“Very well,” Evelyn says in response, and spanks her again, slightly rougher. She knows Astra can take it, just as she knows that Astra, who could be easily given anything she wants, sometimes craves nothing more than to be denied and controlled.
“Five ,” Astra whimpers, raising her hips, and Evelyn spanks her once more for good measure. “Six— Evelyn.”
Evelyn pauses to examine the redness of her flesh, to make sure the skin hasn’t broken. Tempering Astra is her goal and deeply satisfying, but Evelyn would tear her heart out before hurting her beyond what is necessary.
Evelyn draws an agile hand over Astra’s body, down to where her cunt has begun to leak onto Evelyn’s leather pants. Her neediness is beautiful, addictive.
“You’re being so good for me,” Evelyn says. She leans her torso down so that she is closer to Astra’s shaking body, and with her other hand, runs her fingers fondly through the singer’s dark hair. “Can you take more?”
“ Yes —please, want to be your good girl so bad,” Astra cries. She is tangled enough in the abyss of obedience that she is beginning to border on incoherence. Evelyn will take her apart piece by piece until Astra has drunk deeply and thoroughly from that well of submission, and when the time comes, Evelyn will make sure to bring her back down to earth again.
Evelyn brings her hand firmly down on Astra’s reddened ass twice more, and Astra sobs. They are getting to where they need to be: Astra has begun leaning into the impact, and it makes Evelyn’s heart skip a beat.
“Seven—eight, fuck,” Astra groans. Evelyn pauses as she continues running her other hand through her hair, from the roots down to the ends, shushing her softly.
“You’re doing so well right now, you’re doing such a good job,” Evelyn praises, and Astra whines, grinding her hips down into the leather of Evelyn’s pants. “Give me one more.”
“Anything,” Astra says between gasps, “anything for you.”
And Evelyn lowers her hand sharply one final time across Astra’s behind, and Astra bucks so pretty, moans, and writhes in the way that Evelyn knows she is sufficiently broken.
“Nine, fuck—thank you, thank you, Eve,” Astra babbles as Evelyn raises her and wraps her in her arms. She rubs her thumb over the delicate slope of Astra’s quivering shoulders, over the nape of her neck. Sighing, Astra falls weightlessly deeper into her arms.
“You did so well, so perfect. Do you need to rest?” Evelyn says, cradling Astra’s nude body. Wordlessly, Astra has begun arching further into Evelyn’s arms, seeking any point of contact. Evelyn is happy to be her destination, the home point where her compass settles.
“No, no, just please, Eve,” she murmurs, pressing her hips down against Evelyn’s thigh. “Please…”
Evelyn, struck by her capacity for tenderness for this beautiful woman, takes a moment to caress her flushed cheek. With more fierce gentleness than she ever could’ve imagined in her prior life, Evelyn tucks a stray hair behind Astra’s ear and holds her lean body closer.
“Use your words, dear,” she says patiently, quietly. “Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you. Anything.”
Astra looks up at her with a face that can only be described as pleading . Her makeup has smudged from tears or from being pressed into the couch and her eyes have become dark, unfocused from desire. Evelyn sees this, sees her, and makes a note to cherish the trust Astra has put in her. That Astra trusts Evelyn enough to let her reduce her to something small and needy is proof that she sees something in Evelyn that she can’t quite see in herself. It’s real and tender, and inching close to something neither of them should say.
Evelyn knows this at least, for as long as she lives, she will never break that trust again.
“Please fuck me,” Astra whines, and pulls at the collar of Evelyn’s shirt. “I’ve been good, just please fuck me, Eve.”
Astra grasps Evelyn’s hand and draws it down to where she has straddled her, and once again Evelyn makes contact with her cunt. Astra tends toward exuberance about every aspect of her life, and sex is no different—she is unbearably wet, somehow even wetter than before.
“Look what you’ve done to me,” Astra whispers hoarsely, pulling Evelyn’s hand in close, closer until it is buried at a slightly awkward angle in her slick folds. Her eyes don’t leave Evelyn’s.
“I need you, Eve. Need you inside.”
Evelyn feels herself flush. The evidence of Astra’s arousal is clear, and it incenses her beyond repair.
“Very well,” she says, forcing her voice to be cooler than she feels. “Do you want my fingers?”
Astra barely takes a moment to think before speaking. “…Can I have the toy?”
A chuckle can’t help but escape Evelyn’s lips. “Whatever you wish, darling.”
The location of the strap-on is second nature to Evelyn by now. It doesn’t take her long to produce it from the back of a cabinet: a black harness with an elegant arrangement of straps and buckles and the corresponding dildo. The dildo is a fine piece of dark red silicone, not overly lengthy but with a good thickness that Evelyn knows Astra goes crazy for.
She had left Astra to rest and recover on the couch, but as Evelyn undressed to attach the harness to her body, Astra perked up, staring unabashedly in appreciation at her newly exposed body. To be looked at in such a way makes Evelyn burn, but she keeps it under wraps. Right now, it’s about Astra.
The dildo slots naturally through the harness’s O-ring, and Astra seems to liven up even more. Her eyes sparkle with something inquisitive, and Astra leans forward to grasp the strap-on with one nimble hand. Evelyn pauses, and Astra grins up at her.
“Let me help you with that,” Astra purrs, and as if it were the most natural thing in the world, lowers her head to lick up the silicone cock from its base to the head.
Blood immediately rushes hot through Evelyn. Although she is unable to feel any real stimulation from Astra’s ministrations, the sight still does something for her. The feeling that rips through Evelyn is base, nearly primal. One of the most desired women in New Eridu is putting on a display just for her. It’s a demonstration most people could only dream about, and Astra indeed has always been good at putting on a show.
Astra draws the cock up into her parted lips, and Evelyn permits herself to get further into the role. She juts her hips slightly to push the toy deeper into Astra’s mouth, and Astra lets out a muffled groan as she accepts the length. How hard not to lose a bit of herself and just surrender to the thrill of taking when Astra gets like this. The singer’s ready compliance makes Evelyn uncharacteristically greedy and nearly dizzy.
She knows Astra likes getting into roles in the bedroom, so Evelyn gives in to her more selfish desires and threads her fingers through Astra’s mussed locks. Evelyn presses her fingernails into her scalp as she grabs her hair, and Astra flutters her eyes shut. She’s enjoying this as much as Evelyn is.
“I’m going to move, now,” Evelyn says, and thrusts gently into Astra’s mouth. Astra makes a choked noise through the silicone, letting Evelyn maneuver her carefully by her hair.
“That’s it, good girl,” Evelyn sighs, and grips Astra’s hair tighter. “Not talking back anymore, are you?”
It’s a bluff through and through; Evelyn would listen to Astra’s melodic voice talk about anything. But it makes Astra stifle out a broken moan, and that’s enough.
Evelyn notices as Astra snakes a hand down between her legs. Her eyes darken as she makes contact with her own center as she continues to work the fake cock. She must have hit a particularly good angle on her clit because she whimpers, and her jaw slackens so that Evelyn can push even deeper into her throat. Something throbs hot in Evelyn’s stomach at the image; Astra Yao, fucking herself on her hand as she sucks her off.
Visible tears have begun to threaten to spill from Astra’s pretty eyes, but Evelyn, despite her better judgment, keeps up the measured motions of her hips. In and out, in and out. Astra grinds against the fingers she is using on herself, and she whines with each motion.
Astra’s cheeks have hollowed, and all of her has been painted with a powdery flush. She bucks hungrily against her palm as she sinks her mouth even further onto the toy, deeper and deeper into the back of her throat until she must be reaching something close to self-made oblivion.
“—Enough,” Evelyn forces herself to say, at last listening to her better angels. She loosens her grip on her hair. “You did so well, Miss Yao.”
Astra refocuses, her rosy eyes slipping back into some semblance of half-dazed awareness. She pulls her mouth away from the strap-on, leaving naught but a single strand of saliva as evidence of her worship.
Evelyn pets her hair as Astra recovers, filled with a fierce longing. She brushes a thumb over Astra’s cheek and wipes away a stray tear. From her spot on the couch, Astra looks like she’s dangling between lust and adoration for Evelyn, and Evelyn is sure she looks much the same.
“Astra, ” Evelyn whispers, and it’s a revelation, her name soft and beckoning between Evelyn’s lips. She presses it between her tongue and teeth, testing the notes and taste of it like a ripe and forbidden fruit.
Astra looks up at her as Evelyn cradles her face. She’s in a way that most people couldn’t imagine; her makeup is smudged, and mascara has run beyond repair. Her hair is messy, partially tangled, her forehead glistening with a slight sheen of sweat. But Evelyn loves her like this—impossibly, she somehow loves her even more for being like this: completely revealed and honest. The room itself seems to thrum with Astra’s brilliance and the energy that radiates off her. It’s the finality and lightness of true freedom, the kind Evelyn never thought possible for her until meeting Astra.
Suddenly, Astra is sticking out her lower lip in a characteristic pout. Evelyn lets go of her face in surprise.
“ Wowww , Eve. I did all that for you, and you’re just going to stand here and not even get me off?” Astra complains, flopping back and languishing on the couch theatrically.
Evelyn stops to flick her on the forehead gently.
“Ouch! What was that for?!” Astra yelps, rubbing her head. “Such a bully….”
“Be patient,” Evelyn says calmly, “I wouldn’t dare leave you wanting.”
Astra leans forward again. She rests her chin in her palms and glances at something off to the side with an exaggerated melancholy.
“You’re so unfair,” she mutters, twirling a strand of her dark hair as she listlessly examines a corner of the room Evelyn can’t see. “So unfair to be standing there just looking like that effortlessly, to be doing all of this to me effortlessly.”
Evelyn falters. “What do you mean?”
With the deadly precision of a lightning strike, Astra flicks her sanguine eyes back to Evelyn and pins her with an unusually serious look.
“It’s like you don’t even know how beautiful you are, Evelyn,” says Astra quietly.
A thick and vulnerable feeling that feels hard to place catches in Evelyn’s throat, raw and unspoken. She’s on the precipice of something, something big, and everything in Evelyn can’t decide between shrinking away from the edge or jumping.
“I-I’m not beautiful. Just doing my job,” she at last manages.
Astra pauses, and amidst the silence, a brief, heavy tension settles between them. But then it’s gone as soon as it came, and Evelyn watches her tense her neck and shoulders and glance once again into the distance.
“Right,” Astra says slowly, like she’s weighing the words in her mouth. “You’re a professional, after all.”
She looks back, and her body catches the light as she leans back onto the support of the couch. As Astra does so, she raises her hips toward her, valleys and curves of pale skin like fine porcelain for Evelyn’s marking. Behind her, Astra’s ebony hair fans out like wind-tossed reeds.
Unbearably casually, Astra opens her legs, her cunt exposed and wet. Evelyn tries to concentrate.
“Well then,” Astra begins with rare authority, her eyes narrowed. She reaches down and spreads her folds with two deft fingers, revealing the dripping maw of her entrance. The only way Evelyn can think to describe the action is crude, utterly self-assured, and it makes her forget the previous tension in the sublime terror when faced with how much she wants .
“Do your job and come fuck me.”
Something is off, something is wrong, but Evelyn is already tipsy off Astra’s presence alone; her voice, her smell. She has drunk rapturously from Astra’s body until intoxicated, and with a rare lack of caution when it comes to her employer, Evelyn wants more just for herself.
Besides, Evelyn has her dues to pay. She’d do anything.
“Of course, Miss Yao,” Evelyn says. All she can do is push her worries to the back of her mind and take a step closer, aligning the dildo attached to her with Astra’s exposed center.
Placing her hands beneath Astra’s hips she lifts her until the toy is rubbing against her swollen clit. Astra is messy-wet, aroused, and slick to the point where Evelyn worries that she will slip out of her. But the thought of not fulfilling her promise to please Astra is unthinkable, tantamount to dishonor.
“God, you’re so big,” Astra moans, previous tension forgotten, and gyrates her hips mindlessly against the toy. “You’re so ready for me.”
“All for you,” Evelyn breathes. She adjusts her hips so that the strap-on probes cautiously at the folds of her entrance.
“I’m going to enter you,” Evelyn says, and finally, a breath shy from dominance; “I’m going to fuck you now, and if it’s too much you will tell me to stop.”
Astra nods enthusiastically. Already she’s lifting her hips to try and get more of Evelyn’s cock, bolder and more vulnerable than when she was bent over Evelyn’s knee. And Astra is radiant with her ego on the line, safe and caught between Evelyn’s jaws. Evelyn knows how the feigned threat of her teeth tempers Astra, and she wouldn’t dare break their well-earned trust by biting down.
“Alright,” Evelyn murmurs, and lets her hips slide forward. Inch by inch, the strap-on moves into Astra, with practiced leisure so that Astra doesn’t become too overwhelmed, until finally Evelyn feels a satisfying resistance. She has bottomed out.
“Fuck,” Astra swears once the toy has lodged inside her, and Evelyn chuckles.
“Too much, Astra? I can always stop here.”
“So mean to me,” Astra pouts, her voice breathy and oozing with need.
Astra is splayed out beneath her, cheeks dusted a pretty rose color. Evelyn wants to paint all of her blazing crimson, and after their liaisons, to cool her back into a contented sleepiness. This is her duty as a manager, as a bodyguard, as someone who has reforged her blade to protect rather than to harm.
When Evelyn speaks, the words blossom tenderly from her mouth. “Are you ready, Astra? There’s no rush.”
And Astra smiles, her painted lips enunciating those four words like a brand on Evelyn’s psyche.
“Fuck me already, Eve.”
Evelyn roots her hands under Astra’s thighs, careful not to tear that string of pearls that makes her mouth water. She lifts the bottom half of the idol ever so slightly, knowing the toy is probing even deeper.
“As you wish,” Evelyn says as she grabs Astra’s creamy thighs hard enough to bruise. She draws her hips back, and pushes through wetness to fuck inside Astra.
“Yes!” Astra exclaims, throwing her head back and digging her nails into the fabric of the couch. Doubtlessly, she is looking for something to anchor her as she rides the beating waves of pleasure, the onslaught of a tempest that Evelyn would practically die before leaving Astra to navigate alone.
But in the meantime, there is the relentless movement of her hips, and in a typical Evelyn fashion, it is calculated, each rhythmic thrust measured and thought out.
Evelyn lowers one of Astra’s legs to rub loosely at the idol’s clit as she fucks her, and finds reward in the melodic whine that escapes Astra’s throat at the touch.
Like a moth, she is drawn incessantly toward Astra’s radiance, but the tug of her light here is different from the bonds of her years working for The Organization. Here, in Astra’s luminance, Evelyn once more familiarizes herself with what it means to be free. She tests the taste of liberty on her tongue, and it’s sugary-sweet and something to be cherished.
Wanting to safeguard that sweetness remakes Evelyn into something kinder, someone with softer edges. Astra’s company has smoothed her over like a river rock, but that fire that burns in her to protect still blazes strongly. Astra may be the sunlight, but there’s a steady candor of candlelight in Evelyn’s soul, too.
She will nourish that flame and keep it alight.
“Good, that’s it,” Evelyn says, emphasizing her words with the tight wind-up and release of her hips into Astra’s cunt. “Seems my pretty girl needed this.”
“ Yes— needed you so bad,” Astra pants. Her hips oscillate with each thrust from Evelyn, seemingly undecided between leaning into the touch or shying away from it.
Evelyn knows Astra’s body because she knows Astra, has studied her every movement first with calculation and later, with more ardency than she ever thought herself able to muster.
She equally knows with each slide of her cock Astra is in the throes of something close to an epiphany, and Evelyn will guide her through it, as she always has and always will.
“Evelyn, I—“ Astra begins, her ruby eyes shining with unshed tears. Evelyn sighs and brings herself in closer so that their foreheads touch.
“Say it,” Evelyn says with awe, surprised at her firmness, surprised at the ferocity of that same epiphany that grabs at her and doesn’t let go .
“Evelyn, I love you,” Astra cries, each word a revelation, her breath on Evelyn’s cheek and lips like kisses of flame, and comes undone.
Astra unravels, hips bucking and bodies sticking together as pleasure overtakes her. Astra unravels like the apex of a concerto, glorious and well-won, but Evelyn finds that she would be content to play out this duet longer, forever, if Astra wanted that.
Evelyn, who had for most of her life resigned herself to solitude, who now is no longer alone and will never be alone again, can do little but kiss and kiss and kiss Astra as she cums.
She won’t let go.
Being Astra’s bodyguard and manager comes with its laundry list of tasks: wake Astra up, cook her breakfast, remind her of her schedule, tether her, and draw her back into the daily monotony that she rebels against so passionately.
But after sex, Astra is quiet, having earlier drunk a full glass of water and washed her face to some semblance of cleanliness. Evelyn will have to wash up later, too.
Astra reclines listlessly on the couch, undoubtedly exhausted.
Evelyn takes a seat next to her, eyes trained straight forward. Soon, she feels the weight of a head resting on her shoulder.
“Eve,” Astra says, her voice rough, pensive.
“Yes?” Evelyn responds.
“I… I shouldn’t have said that. I mean,” Evelyn can practically hear her swallow nervously, “it just felt right in the moment.”
“Miss Yao,” Evelyn begins, only to be cut off by Astra’s sputtering.
“It’s okay if you don’t , you know? You’re not obligated to,” Astra’s voice comes out thick and hoarse. “You’re just my manager after all, and—“
“ Astra, ” Evelyn whispers, desperate, and leans over and kisses her.
Astra falls silent and accepts the kiss, mouth parting softly.
When Evelyn draws back, she cradles Astra’s face, holds her with tenderness she once never knew she was capable of. In a rare moment, Astra is at a loss for words, her jaw hanging open and eyes shining wildly.
“Astra, I love you too,” she says, knowing it’s the truth, truer than anything she’s known prior.
“I love you,” Evelyn repeats, near frantic. “I love you, and I’m yours if you’ll have me.”
Astra’s face twists into a cheeky smirk. “Meaning I didn’t have you already? That’s a shame.”
“I mean it,” Evelyn says, and Astra looks at her, really looks at Evelyn. Under that inquisitive gaze, Evelyn feels reborn. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Then be mine,” Astra says as she leans in, embracing Evelyn tightly, rooting her fingers in her hair.
“Stay by my side forever and ever and be mine, Eve. Don’t ever leave me.”
“Yes,” Evelyn sighs, holding Astra tighter. She wants to memorize each curve of her delicate body in her arms, the intricacies of the moment, the afternoon light lazing over their living room, the selfless way Astra has given herself over in full.
Evelyn will give herself over, too.
“I promise. It’s an oath.”