Chapter 229: The House Always Wins

Arthur stepped out of the tactical theory lecture hall into the cool Monday evening air, rolling his stiff shoulders as the bell tower finished chiming six. Between hauling a rigger off a collapsing scaffold at noon and spending two hours listening to an old captain drone on about supply lines, he was ready for dinner and a bed.

"Wait up, Vance."

Emily jogged down the stone steps behind him, a small canvas sack swinging from her left hand. She had changed out of her training leathers into a loose dark tunic and breeches, the sleeve pushed up to her elbow where a dull purple bruise marked her right forearm from catching the lantern post at lunch.

"Thought you had armory duty until six-thirty," Arthur said, waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Finished early," Emily said, hooking her free arm through his and steering him away from the dining hall path toward the upper residential quad. "Come on. Chloe’s expecting us."

Arthur glanced at the clinking canvas sack in her hand. "Is that wine?"

"Two bottles of red from the tavern down by the canal, and a bag of salted almonds," Emily said cheerfully. "Oh, and Chloe said to make sure you brought your coin pouch."

Arthur stopped walking. "Why do I need my coin pouch to visit my own girlfriend’s dorm room?"

"You’ll see when we get there."

"That’s not an answer, Thorne."

"Are you scared of losing a few coppers?" Emily grinned, tugging him up the walkway toward the healers’ dormitory. "You always act like you’re invincible until someone challenges you to a game."

"I am invincible," Arthur said, following her through the side entrance and up the stairs to the third floor. "I just occasionally miscalculate."

When Emily knocked on the oak door at the end of the hall, Chloe opened it immediately.

She had traded her white infirmary robes for an oversized cream-colored linen shirt that hung off one shoulder and a pair of soft gray shorts that barely reached mid-thigh. Her hair was pinned up loosely with a wooden comb, and she looked far too pleased with herself as she stepped back to let them in.

Arthur looked past her. Chloe’s small study desk had been pulled out into the center of the room and cleared of her anatomy textbooks. In their place sat a worn deck of painted playing cards, three clay cups, a plate of sliced cheese and apples, and a small wooden bowl for coins.

"Did I walk into the wrong room," Arthur asked, kicking the door shut behind him, "or are you running a gambling den out of the healers’ wing now?"

"I finished my ward exams earlier today," Chloe said brightly, taking the wine bottles from Emily and reaching up to kiss Arthur’s cheek. "So I invited you two over to relax. If you happen to lose your pocket money in the process, that’s really your own fault."

"Look at her," Arthur told Emily, tossing his satchel onto the foot of the bed. "She’s already planning how to spend my silver."

"Coppers only," Chloe said, pulling the cork on the first bottle and pouring three generous cups. "Five-card draw, ten coppers each to start. One copper to stay in, two to raise. Whoever finishes with the most coins gets breakfast in bed tomorrow morning, and the two losers have to walk down to the bakery before class and fetch it."

"Deal," Emily said instantly, dropping into the wooden chair on the left and counting ten copper pieces out of her pouch onto the desk. "When I win, I want the cinnamon rolls with the icing."

Arthur pulled up the stool across from Chloe, counted ten coppers out of his belt pouch, and stacked them beside his cup. "You two do realize you’re playing against a man with over a hundred Perception, right?"

"Perception doesn’t help when the cards are face down, Arthur," Chloe said sweetly, shuffling the deck with surprising speed. "And your right hand is bandaged, which means you can’t even palm a card on the deal."

Arthur glanced down at the strip of salve and linen Chloe had wrapped across his rope-burned knuckles earlier that afternoon. "You bandaged my hand specifically to ruin my card handling."

"I bandaged your hand so you wouldn’t get rope splinters in my sheets later," Chloe replied, dealing five cards to each of them. "Ante up."

For the first two hands, Arthur assumed it would be easy money.

Emily played cards the exact same way she fought in the training yard: with zero patience and complete disregard for the odds. On the very first hand, she raised two coppers before the draw, threw away four cards, and tried to bluff Arthur out of the pot with a pair of fours. Arthur called her easily and raked the coins in.

"This is going to be a short night," Arthur said, taking a sip of his wine.

"Shut up and deal," Emily grumbled.

Then Chloe started winning.

She sipped her wine, chatted about a second-year alchemist who had singed his eyebrows off that afternoon, and casually tossed an extra copper into the bowl whenever Arthur thought he had a decent pair. Every time Arthur folded, Chloe flashed a terrible hand and smiled at him. Every time he called her, she laid down three of a kind or a straight and scooped his coins across the wood.

Twenty minutes and half a bottle of wine later, Arthur’s stack of ten coppers was down to three, and Emily was down to four.

"Wait a second," Arthur said, narrowing his eyes at the pile of bronze sitting in front of Chloe’s cup. "How did you draw a third queen on a one-card trade?"

"Clean living," Chloe said, picking up an apple slice.

"You’re marking the deck."

"It’s your deck, Arthur. You left it here two weeks ago." Chloe leaned across the small desk to refill his clay cup. As she reached over, the loose collar of her linen shirt gaped open, giving him an unobstructed view down the front—no bra, just the pale swell of her tits and her pink nipples brushing the inside of the fabric.

Arthur completely lost track of what cards he was holding.

"Your turn to bet, Vance," Emily snickered, propping her chin on her fist as she watched his eyes drop straight down Chloe’s shirt. "Unless you’re folding to her cleavage again."

"I’m calculating the probabilities," Arthur said without looking up.

"You’re staring at my tits," Chloe corrected, resting her elbows on the edge of the table so her breasts pressed together under the thin linen while she looked up at him through her lashes. "Two coppers to stay in."

Arthur tossed two coppers into the bowl. "Call."

Chloe laid down a full house—tens over sixes—and swept the pot into her pile, leaving Arthur with a single copper coin and Emily with two.

"Hey!" Emily protested, throwing her cards down on the wood. "That’s illegal. You can’t flash him halfway through the betting round. I had two pair in that pot!"

"He was going to lose anyway," Chloe laughed. She gathered the cards, shuffled them quickly, and dealt one last hand around the table before leaning sideways out of her chair to press a slow, wine-sweet kiss against Arthur’s mouth.

Arthur caught the back of her neck with his bandaged right hand, tilting her head to deepen the kiss until Chloe let out a soft "Mm..." against his lips. When she pulled back, her cheeks were flushed from the wine, her breath warm against his chin.

"Unfair," Emily complained, her dark eyes bright with heat as she kicked her boots off under the desk. "If you’re bribing the marksman, you have to bribe the vanguard too."

"Come here, then," Chloe teased, turning her head as Emily leaned across the corner of the table.

Chloe caught Emily by the front of her tunic and pulled her into a kiss. Emily murmured low in her throat, her left hand sliding up Chloe’s bare thigh under the edge of the table while their tongues slid together.

While they were distracted, Arthur reached across the wood with his right hand toward Chloe’s newly dealt cards, intending to peek at what she was holding.

Before his fingers touched the paper, Chloe broke the kiss with Emily, caught Arthur’s wrist, and climbed straight out of her chair onto his lap—straddling his thighs on the wooden stool and blocking the desk completely.

"Cheater," Chloe whispered against his mouth, her knees gripping his hips. "You still owe one copper to see my hand."

"I think I’d rather see the rest of that shirt come off," Arthur grinned, sliding his good hand under the loose hem of her linen top and running his palm up her warm ribs.

"Look at him trying to weasel out of buying breakfast," Emily laughed. She hopped up to sit on the cleared corner of the desk right beside them, knocking Arthur’s last copper off the edge and sending the rest of the deck sliding across the wood.

Chloe hooked her thumbs under the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head, tossing it onto the desk behind her. Her full, soft tits bounced free right in front of Arthur’s face, the pink nipples already stiff in the cool room.

Arthur leaned in and closed his mouth over her right nipple, sucking hard while his hand slid down to cup her bare ass under the loose hem of her gray shorts.

"Ahn—! Haa... Arthur..." Chloe arched her back on his lap, her fingers tangling in his hair as she ground her hips straight down against the hard bulge in his trousers.

On the edge of the desk, Emily pulled her dark tunic over her head with her left hand and unknotted her cloth chest-band, letting her firm, perky breasts spill out. She leaned sideways off the desk, pressing her bare chest against Chloe’s shoulder while her fingers pinched and rolled Chloe’s other nipple right beside Arthur’s mouth.

"Don’t hog him all to yourself, healer," Emily murmured, kissing the side of Chloe’s neck before nudging Arthur’s chin up with her knuckles so she could claim his mouth in a deep, hungry kiss.

While Emily kissed him, Chloe reached down between their bodies, unbuckled Arthur’s belt, and yanked the laces of his trousers open. His cock sprang free against her thigh, thick and throbbing.

"Wait—this stool is gonna break if you two keep climbing on me," Arthur muttered against Emily’s lips as the wooden legs creaked loudly beneath them.

Chloe laughed breathlessly, hopping off his lap just long enough to shove her shorts and damp panties down her legs. "Bed. Now. Before the floor warden comes up to see what we’re breaking."

Arthur stood up, shoving his trousers and boots off while Emily stripped out of her breeches and tumbled onto the narrow single bed with Chloe.

Emily landed on her back in the center of the mattress, propping herself up on her left elbow with her thighs spread wide and her wet pussy glistening in the candlelight. "My turn first, Vance. She already took all our money."

"Greedy," Chloe teased, lying down right beside Emily on the narrow mattress and draping a bare leg over Emily’s hip. Chloe leaned in to kiss Emily’s neck, her hand sliding down Emily’s stomach to stroke two fingers through Emily’s soaking slit.

"Ah—fuck, Chloe!" Emily gasped, her hips bucking up into Chloe’s touch as Arthur climbed onto the bed between Emily’s knees.

Arthur hooked his right hand under Emily’s thigh, pushing her leg back toward her chest while keeping his splinted left wrist resting lightly against her hip. He lined the swollen head of his cock up with her wet entrance, waited until Chloe slipped her fingers up to rub Emily’s clit, and drove his shaft straight inside her to the hilt.

Schlick.

"Aaaah—!" Emily threw her head back against the pillow, a loud moan tearing from her throat as Arthur’s thick cock stretched her tight walls wide around him.

"Look how tight she is," Chloe whispered against Emily’s cheek, keeping her thumb circling Emily’s swollen clit right where Arthur’s shaft was disappearing inside her. "Does that make up for losing your coppers, Em?"

"Shut—ahn—shut up and keep rubbing!" Emily panted, grabbing the back of Chloe’s neck with her left hand to pull her into a messy, open-mouthed kiss.

Arthur started driving his hips forward in deep, heavy strokes. The wet slap of skin on skin and the rhythmic creak of the wooden bedframe filled the quiet room. Because the single bed was so narrow, Chloe was pressed flush against Emily’s side; every time Arthur slammed his hips home, Emily’s breasts bounced against Chloe’s chest, and Chloe’s hand brushed directly against the base of Arthur’s thrusting cock.

Arthur leaned down over both of them, catching one of Chloe’s soft tits in his right hand and kneading it rough while he fucked into Emily’s soaking pussy.

"Mmh—haa—Arthur!" Chloe broke the kiss with Emily, gasping as Arthur lowered his mouth to suck hard on Emily’s nipple while pinching Chloe’s at the same time. "You’re shaking the whole bed..."

"Then help me hold her down," Arthur growled against Emily’s skin, hooking Emily’s knee higher over his shoulder to hit a steeper angle inside her.

"Oh, fuck—right there!" Emily’s voice cracked, her heels digging into Arthur’s back as her inner walls fluttered and squeezed around his dick. With Arthur hammering her deep spot and Chloe’s fingers rubbing fast circles over her clit, Emily couldn’t hold back for long. "Chloe—Arthur, don’t stop, I’m gonna—aaah!"

Emily’s back bowed hard off the mattress, her pussy clamping down like a hot vise around Arthur’s cock as she came, soaking his shaft and Chloe’s fingers.

Arthur rode her through the tremors with a few slow, deep grinds before pulling his slick, throbbing cock out of her twitching entrance. Emily collapsed back into the pillows with a ragged groan, her chest heaving.

"Winner’s privilege now," Chloe said breathlessly, her cheeks flushed bright red as she looked down at Arthur’s shining cock. "On your back, Arthur. You’re not straining that wrist."

Arthur grinned and rolled onto his back in the middle of the bed, tucking his braced left arm safely behind the pillow.

Chloe climbed straight over him, straddling his waist and grabbing the base of his dick to guide the head between her soaking pussy lips. She sank all the way down in one greedy drop until her bare ass hit his thighs.

"Ahhn... fuuuck!" Chloe’s eyes rolled back, both hands bracing against Arthur’s chest as his thick shaft filled her to the hilt. She started moving her hips right away, rising and dropping back down onto his cock with sharp, eager rolls of her waist.

Slap... slap... slap!

Emily rolled onto her side next to Arthur, resting her bruised right arm carefully across his stomach while she pressed her mouth to Chloe’s bouncing breasts, sucking on her nipple and sliding her left hand down to smack Chloe’s bare ass cheek.

SMACK!

"Ah—! Em!" Chloe’s pussy clenched hard around Arthur’s dick at the sting, a shaky laugh breaking into a low moan as she bounced faster. "Calling me bossy when you’re—nngh—hitting me..."

"You like it," Arthur said, grabbing Chloe’s plush hip with his right hand and driving his hips upward from below to meet her halfway.

The steeper upward thrusts hit deep inside her, knocking the breath right out of Chloe’s lungs. Her hair came loose from its wooden comb, spilling over her shoulders as she braced her hands on Arthur’s shoulders and rode him furiously.

"Haah... uhh... ahn, Arthur, right there!" Chloe gasped, her thighs trembling against his ribs as Emily’s fingers slipped between them to rub her clit in time with Arthur’s heavy upward strokes. "I’m—ahh—I’m cumming! Cum inside me, Arthur!"

Chloe’s whole body tensed above him, a sharp cry catching in her throat as her tight walls spasmed violently around his shaft.

Arthur gripped her hip tight, planted his heels, and drove his cock as deep as it would go with one final, hard thrust as he came. Thick, hot ropes of cum pulsed deep inside Chloe’s clenching pussy, filling her up while she whimpered and ground her hips down against his pelvis until he was completely spent.

Chloe slumped forward onto his chest, slick with sweat and breathing hard against his collarbone.

After a minute, she tried shifting her weight to roll onto his left side—and immediately ran out of mattress, her hip slipping over the edge of the narrow single bed before Arthur caught her waist with his right hand and hauled her back.

"Whoa," Arthur laughed, his chest still heaving.

"Your bed is way too small for three people, Chloe," Emily complained, wedged firmly between Arthur’s right side and the plaster wall with one leg thrown over both of their thighs.

"You’re the one taking up half the pillows," Chloe mumbled against Arthur’s neck. As she lifted her hips to settle between them, a thick trickle of white cum leaked from her swollen pussy onto Arthur’s thigh. She reached blindly over the side of the bed, snagged her discarded shirt off the floor, and wiped between her legs before tossing the cloth aside and pulling the blanket up over the three of them.

For a few minutes, nobody moved except to catch their breath. Across the room, the candle on the desk flickered over the scattered cards, the half-empty wine bottle, and the knocked-over clay cup lying on its side near the edge of the wood.

Emily poked Arthur’s ribs with her finger. "I still can’t believe you lost nine coppers in twenty minutes. You didn’t win a single hand after the first two."

"That’s because she was dealing," Arthur said, staring up at the ceiling with his right arm draped around Chloe’s bare shoulders and his left wrist resting safely on Emily’s hip. "Nobody draws three queens and a full house like that."

Chloe lifted her head from his chest, looking thoroughly smug despite her tangled hair. "You’re just a sore loser, Arthur."

Arthur glanced over at the desk, where the deck of cards lay scattered near the bowl. He couldn’t prove she cheated, but looking at how smug she was, he didn’t need to.

Arthur let his head fall back onto the pillow and groaned. "You invited me over here specifically to rob me."

"I invited you over for wine and company," Chloe said cheerfully, kissing his jaw. "The seventeen coppers I won and tomorrow’s breakfast in bed are just a bonus."

"Speaking of breakfast," Emily said, stretching her legs out against the footboard with a contented sigh. "Get me two of those iced cinnamon rolls while you’re down there, Vance. And a cup of dark tea from the south gate stall."

Chloe looked past Arthur at Emily. "Why are you giving him your order?"

Emily blinked. "Because he only had one copper left."

"And you had two," Chloe pointed out sweetly. "I said the two losers fetch breakfast for the winner. Which means you’re walking down to the bakery with him."

Emily froze, staring across Arthur’s chest at the copper bowl on the desk before looking back at Chloe in betrayal. "I helped you distract him!"

"The house always wins," Chloe said, nestling down against Arthur’s shoulder and closing her eyes. "Wake me up when the cinnamon rolls get here."

Arthur barked out a laugh as Emily glared at him across the pillow.

"You’re carrying the tea," Emily muttered, smacking his chest lightly with her good hand.

"You’re paying for the sausage rolls," Arthur shot back, pulling the blanket higher over the three of them.