Ch. 113 – Honey…?

"I didn’t ask for all of this," Rhys said through gritted teeth, every muscle in his torso straining against the edge of the bar top. "It just... ended up happening."

From the subtle, predatory curl of Rhea’s lips as she stood over him, it was painfully clear she didn’t believe a single word.

Rhys desperately wanted to contest that knowing smile, to force out some logical excuse that would salvage what little dignity he had left, but any remaining coherent thoughts were shattered as Ariadne did something utterly wicked from beneath the counter. Reaching up with her spatial magic, she began twisting the hovering crimson ring around her mouth, causing the spatial rift attached to his groin to portal through at wild, unpredictable angles. The sudden, shifting trajectory forced him deeper into her throat with every twitch of her fingers. To make matters worse, her free hand slid rapidly down to her own slick wetness, her hips moving in a frantic, desperate rhythm.

Beside her, Dione felt the sudden spike of spatial energy and the intense flare of Rhys's power. Excited beyond measure by the overwhelming sensation, the sea goddess kept bucking her pearlescent hips upward with reckless abandon, riding his length until her divine body finally hit its breaking point. Dione finished hard, violent ripples of euphoria cascading through her core as her skin shimmered with a brilliant, pearlescent light. She buried her face firmly into her palm, smothering her quiet, breathless groans so they wouldn't carry over the counter.

I’m really losing this battle... Rhys thought, drowning in pure, unadulterated ecstasy as his knuckles turned white against the polished oak.

"Oh, by the stones! Your heart really is in a terrible condition, isn’t it, Rhys?" Durin asked, his thick brow furrowing with deep, genuine concern.

From the dwarf’s perspective, Rhys looked like a man in absolute agony, doubled over the service counter and shivering from sheer physical pain. It only reinforced the bizarre, drunken fable that Ging had been spouting all evening—that Rhys was secretly suffering from severe, debilitating side-effects caused by his ruined power and failing heart. In reality, Rhys’s internal energy was soaring to astronomical heights, surging through his chest in ways it never had during his days as a active hero.

"Yeah, man! That’s what I’ve been sayin'!" Ging piped up, taking a heavy, unsteadily sloshing gulp from his glass. "He’s a real trooper, man... still puttin' on this grand party for all of us despite everything!"

The short tiefling was giving Rhys immense credit where it was absolutely not due, entirely unaware of the carnival of lust taking place two feet below his nose.

Rhea, meanwhile, took full advantage of the cover story. She stepped closer, her golden hands settling firmly onto Rhys’s trembling shoulders. Looking down behind the counter at the two women working him over, she played it off to her husband and Ging as if she were simply massaging Rhys’s tense back to help ease him through a sudden onset of "heart pains." Her fingers dug expertly into his shoulder blades, her warm breath fanning against the back of his neck.

Then, for the first time all night, a sudden spark of sober curiosity lit up inside Ging’s liquor-soaked brain.

"You know..." Ging began, squinting as he tapped his chin in deep thought, "I could have sworn that there was another stunning woman that slipped back there into the kitchen to help you earlier, right Rhys? Is she doing alright back there? I haven’t seen her come back out."

Listen here, Sherlock... I don’t need you pointing out clues right now, stating facts and shit! Rhys screamed at the tiefling in his mind, his eyes dilating from the sheer pressure below.

"I... I asked her if she could go start the prep steps in the very back of the kitchen!" Rhys managed to force out between his teeth, his voice tight and raspy. "That’s... why you probably haven’t seen her!"

Beneath the bar, Ariadne tightened her throat in deep satisfaction, her red eyes gleaming with absolute triumph as she swallowed around the spatial ring. She loved every single second of this chaos. Her warm tongue stretched out through the portal, holding him firmly locked inside Dione as the sea goddess continued to buck her hips upward.

Rhys's mind went completely static, overloaded by the dual sensory assault. Yet, amidst the blinding wave of pleasure, a sharp, cold spike of emotional pain pierced straight through his chest.

He had just lied. He had actively covered for her. He lied to protect Ariadne, the retired villainess kneeling beneath his bar.

And in the silence of his fracturing soul, a single name echoed with agonizing clarity: Lira.

Durin watched Rhys closely, observing the deep sweat breaking out across the host's pale face and misinterpreting it as the physical toll of a hero's declining body.

"I really wanted to say... thank you again for seeing Rhea when she was so sick back then, Rhys," Durin said softly, his voice full of solemn gratitude. "I had no idea that you were struggling so quietly with your own severe condition all this time as well."

"You... you really don’t have to thank me again!" Rhys sped out, desperately throwing a hand up to wave off the gratitude.

Durin looked momentarily shocked by the sudden, intense rejection. Above the counter, Rhea simply continued to rub Rhys's shoulders, leaning down until her lips were practically brushing his earlobe. How the dwarf husband failed to notice the predatory, carnal glint shining in his golden wife's eyes remained an absolute mystery of the universe.

"Oh, Rhys... stop the modest act," Rhea cooed, her low, silky whisper cutting straight through the bass of the ballroom. "You brought me back from the absolute brink. Now... I’m fully restored and practically glowing... all because of what you did to me."

Those quiet, lingering words whispered into his ear acted like a match thrown into a powder keg. As Rhea’s hands worked his shoulders over the bar top, Rhys finally hit his absolute limit.

He finished hard.

Rhys slammed his fists onto the wooden counter, his body locking up as a massive wave of energy detonated through his core. Below the bar, the sight was one of absolute, unhinged madness. As Rhys poured everything into Dione, the sudden burst of divine power triggered the goddess, causing her to finish in complete unison with him. Her body spasmed wildly, her divine wetness spilling freely across the floorboards beneath the bar. Her womb drank in half of his long finish as she kept bucking her hips in a dazed, euphoric rhythm.

At the exact same time, Ariadne used her spatial ring portal to take in the remaining half directly into her mouth. The warm liquid lapped over her tongue as she guzzled it down through the portal, taking every drop Dione didn't catch. Driven over the edge by the sheer excitement and her hand frantically working her own slick center, Ariadne finished hard as well, her fiery red eyes rolling back into her head as her throat swallowed continuously around the portal.

How nobody in the crowded ballroom heard this absolute catastrophe of wet, gasping frenzy was a miracle of timing. At that exact microsecond, the DJ set and light show reached their grand climax. The floating, suspended water droplets hanging across the entire ballroom suddenly erupted simultaneously, bursting into a dazzling, silent display of liquid fireworks that rained shimmering, invigorating light down over the cheering crowd.

"WHOOOOAAA!" Ging yelled, throwing his arms up to gawk at the blinding celestial spectacle above.

"By the ancestors... I’ve never seen anything as spectacular as this before!" Durin breathed out, utterly entranced by the sparkling display.

As the last glowing sparks of the liquid fireworks began to fade from the ceiling, Rhys, Dione, and Ariadne slowly began to come down from their joint climax.

Voices slowly drifted back into Rhys's buzzing ears through the heavy haze of post-orgasmic static.

"-ey! Hey! Rhys! Are you still good, man?" Ging asked, blinking his slurring eyes as he leaned over the counter. "You got a real mean sweat sheen going on your forehead right now!"

"It must have been a lot with all of that sudden noise just now," Durin added sympathetically, nodding his head. "Luckily, the show is dying down now."

Oh, I would really hope so... Rhys thought glibly, staring blankly at the wood. But I’ve never been that lucky.

"I don’t mean to play the devil’s advocate here..." Ging began, leaning in and whispering not-so-secretly to Rhys, "but are you actually gonna be able to get the next meal out to the guests? I’m not too confident in the recent backup crew you hired, to be completely honest."

Rhea gave Rhys's shoulders a final, lingering squeeze, her hands sliding down his chest as she stepped around the edge of the bar partition. "I actually do want to help Rhys out back here. I was just making sure he could stay standing up during that... intense 'show.'" She looked down at him, her golden eyes wide and expectantly bright. "Where do you need me most, honey?"

Durin froze, a faint, puzzled frown crossing his face. "Honey...?" the dwarf muttered softly to himself in quiet disbelief.

Rhys didn't even process the slip of her tongue; his brain was still completely fried, operating on severe "ring-brain." I must not have heard her right... I'm still coming to my senses, he rationalized sarcastically to himself. Wait... she actually wants to help... like, REAL help in the kitchen?!

For the first time since the party started, a rare, genuine smile lit up Rhys's exhausted face.

"If... if you could help by getting the soup started, that would be absolute perfection," Rhys requested, pointing toward the main prep station. "That’s what’s supposed to be served next."

Rhea smiled down at him with an insufferably sweet, motherly warmth. "I’ll get right on that for you, honey. Just point the way."

Rhys gestured toward the cooking line, pointing the way as Rhea sauntered confidently past him into the kitchen space. Behind the bar counter, Durin stood frozen in place, hit with a second, crushing wave of the word "honey" echoing loudly in his ears.