Page 17 of Measure of the Stars

“I’m going to a library of my own, actually,” Wes said, “so I might leave you by the first bend.”The streets in Hekate’s Eye were known as bends, with small wooden markers to denote their place.

Vee raised her brows.“You little slut.I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“He’ll have plenty in him by the end of the day,” another sailor said.

Wes flashed him a foul gesture.“Jealous, Jim?”

“Not at all,” Jim said.“I have a lovely redhead waiting for me down the bend.She’s got the biggest tits in Diabolos, I swear.”

“No,Ihave the biggest tits in Diabolos,” a sailor named Dani said, waving toward her chest.

“I know,” Jim said, looking pained, “but you’re my mate, Didi.That’s a crime, lookin’ at your mate’s tits.”

“I look at them all the time,” Vee said, speaking into Wes’ ear.Wes smiled.

“It explains why you’re always staring at the sky when we talk.”Dani said to Jim.

“It ain’t proper!”

Wes peeled away from the group near the edge of the docks, letting them chatter good-naturedly to each other as they wandered around the bend.It was good to know that even with so much of his time taken worrying after Delauney, he was still welcome with some of the crew.There hadn’t been much bonding on Lennox’s ship, not when he viewed whispering as ‘conspiring to form a mutiny.’

The sailor’s library was a few paces from the docks, through a small alley with creeping yellow roses growing up the bricks.The roses glowed faintly as he passed, a clever bit of witchcraft to detect disease, and an older woman in a librarian’s vest looked up from a chair.Beyond her, a series of holes, slats, and alcoves were carved into the wall at neat, tidy intervals.She looked Wes up and down, her eyes glinting behind her glasses.

“Here to check something out or here to lend?”she asked.

“Lending would be nice,” Wes said.A little further down the alley, a man walked up to a hole in the wall and started unlacing his trousers.Wes eyed him as he took out his cock, already flushed with arousal.

“Toilets or the wall?”the librarian asked.Wes gestured to the wall.“All right.You can earn coin, a spell, or a book.”

“A book, preferably.Something about history?”Wes asked.The librarian nodded.

“Come along, then.”She waved a hand, and the bricks next to her rolled away, revealing a narrow entrance.“You’re early,” she said, leading Wes through it.The bricks rolled back up as they passed.“You’ll get the full service—is that all right with you?”

Wes smiled, already peeling off his shirt.“Oh, yes.”

The librarian actually smiled back, and her severe face took on a warm flash of loveliness before settling into her grim mask again.

Behind the wall, the alley looked considerably different.There were stalls lining up with the holes and slots in the brick, some with padded benches, others with cushions, some with a hard stone floor and little else.The librarian led Wes to a stall with a slat of wood at waist height, the small platform lining up perfectly with a hole wide enough for Wes to slip through.He took off his boots and trousers and neatly folded his clothes.There was a bottle of oil to prepare himself with and a padded cloth to wrap around his waist, but he didn’t take too long getting ready.He was too eager, trembling with need.

“Ring the bell here,” the librarian said, tapping a bell in easy reach, “if anyone tries something you don’t like.I’ll come by to check on you now and then, and we’ll have drinks in the back when you’re done.Go on if you’re ready, darling.”

Wes climbed onto the wooden platform, maneuvering himself so that his legs fell through the hole and into the open air on the other side of the wall.He twisted around, getting comfortable, and settled with his chest against the wooden slat and his feet just touching the ground.From the other side, it looked like he was facing the wall with his waist bent through the hole in the bricks.

“Comfortable?”the librarian asked.“Good.Have fun, sweetheart.”

She moved her hand in a circle, and the bricks around Wes shifted, tightening the hole around his waist until he only had an inch or two of movement on either side.The padding around his waist prevented the bricks from scraping his skin, but he was effectively trapped there, out in the open for anyone to use.Wes’ cock twitched at the thought.

It was probably his family’s fault.They’d wanted Wes to be discriminating.They’d wanted him to cater to the rich, to ingratiate himself in their customs and social circles, to make himself a polished jewel that any noble would want to wear as another brooch among hundreds.Instead, Wes preferred to be admired on his terms, by the sort of people his parents would have shuddered to pass in the street.To the nobles of Staria, he was an object.Here, he was just a touch, a feeling, the heady rush of pleasure.

Someone ran their hands up his thighs.Wes shuddered as they lightly touched his cock, then drew away.Then, without preamble, they lined up a thin, hard cock and entered him in one rough thrust.

“Fuck,” Wes said, gripping the sides of the stall.The person fucking him laughed softly, setting a brutal pace.Wes lifted himself on his toes and tried to rock back to meet them, but the hole in the wall was too narrow to move far.He had to rely on the hands clutching the meat of his thighs, the press of a stranger’s cock, the growing pressure already threatening to tip him over the edge.

The first stranger pulled out to come over Wes’ ass with a groan, leaving his cock untouched.There was a shuffling of footsteps, and a man’s voice, low and a little breathless.

“He’s all yours.”

Another pair of hands adjusted Wes’ legs, and Wes grinned behind the wall, preparing himself for a magnificent evening.