Tempting Fae

By D.B. Francais

Introducing a world of high adventure and dark secrets, where the days are filled with wonder and the nights are consumed by lust.

The reappearance of an unwelcome face from Captain Vine's past leaves her and Lorelei on the run without their ship, forced to flee inland to evade the dangerous Unseelie Prince Thornwood and his mysterious obsession with the elven runaway. Left with few supplies and no plan, the two know that while they can take their usual solace in one another, something will need to be done about this new threat — somehow.

Enter another blast from the recent past that the two never expected to see again, the mercenary Lane, and with them, a new opportunity — to recruit some professional aid and take the fight back to Vine's pursuer for a change. All they need to do first is investigate a mysterious, terrifying presence in the nearby forest and, if possible, defeat whatever unknown monster is scaring away the locals.

Of course, few things are as they seem at first, be they monsters or people — or both. And new discoveries mean new ways for Vine and Lorelei to explore just how deep their passions can go...
D.B. Francais brings you the fifth story in a series of erotic lesbian fantasy adventures, where worlds collide and love blossoms in many unexpected places.

READER ADVISORY:

This story contains graphic sexual reference, mostly in the form of hot girl-on-girl (-on-enby) action, including scenes of exhibitionism, team-building threesomes, seduction, casual hookups, experimentation with exotic appendages, aides d’amour, and many related things of a soft and nubile nature.

If the thought of two or more women getting steamy in various states of undress does not appeal to you, please direct your attentions elsewhere.

You have been warned.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D.B. Francais
• Release date: Mar 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798215073131

D.B. Francais

D.B. Francais loves complex characters, easy banter, and kinky situations, and can be contacted at [e-mail] for those who wish to send fan mail or suggestions for later episodes, discuss possible writing commissions, or just say hi.If you like D.B. Francais, consider supporting them further through Patreon at patreon.com/queensrunner. Please feel free to leave an honest review on Smashwords or Goodreads. You can also visit them at Facebook.com/QueensRunner. And thanks for reading.

Book preview

The Queen’s Runner

A Swashbuckling Lesbian Erotica

Episode 5:

Tempting Fae

by

D.B. Francais

Tempting Fae Copyright © 2024 by D.B. Francais

Episode 5 of The Queen’s Runner

Proserpian Press

Cover art attribution:

iStock.com/Kharchenko_irina7 (front and back cover)

iStock.com/Ralf Menache (front cover)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older, and all sex acts performed are consensual.

This book is for distribution to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Tempting Fae

About the Author

Foreword From the Author

This story was written purely as escapist fun and by no means attempts to sneak a hidden message or cause into the reader’s mind. While it is almost guaranteed that someone can find a moral somewhere to extract from this story, doing so is not advised.

However, should the reader decide to go ahead and find one anyway, it is the sincere wish of the author that he or she at least pick one of the good ones and handle it lightly.

Tempting Fae

The berry is bitter and gritty in my mouth, tougher than I had expected, and does little for my hunger once swallowed. Granted, I have only eaten about four of them since I began foraging maybe an hour ago. Red as they are, I would have thought them sweeter. Perhaps they are when they are fully ripened, but I do not have the time or luxury to choose only the plumpest fruits.

I look down at the pile of scavenged foliage held in the stretched hem of my short sundress. A dozen more small, semi-ripe wild berries, along with a few small fungi and some thick leaves I have been told are edible enough. Only a couple of handfuls of food altogether, but it will hold us both over for another night. It will have to.

I pluck another red-green berry from the tiny patch of leaves beside me before rising to my feet, careful to keep my bounty balanced in the bowl of my dress as I brush the dirt from my knees. The trees around me are still widely spaced and fairly small, the open plains only just beginning to turn to forest further on. Through them, the bright orange of the sky slowly but steadily deepens, darkening into purple on the horizon. I turn away from it and head back toward the vanishing sun and our small camp. If it can truly be called that.

Captain Vine is sitting where I left her, on a flat rock beside the small stream that serves as our source of water for the moment, staring morosely down into the dirt. A short distance away, on a cleared patch of soft grass meant to be our bed for the night, sits her sword, Amarante’s crystal healing rod, a couple of small sacks with stoppers that we bought off of the cart driver who brought us out of the city, and my sack of coins — which, besides the clothes we wear, make up all of our possessions at the moment. Or at least, all of our possessions which we had with us when we made our escape from Seagate. Everything else we may own, if it has not been stolen or destroyed by now, is well beyond our reach.

I’m back, I announce as I kneel in the grass beside her and pour the load of food from my dress. I didn’t get much, but it should be enough for tonight.

I get no reply. It’s fine. I wasn’t expecting one.

While my Captain sits and watches the ground, I walk over and pick up both of the stoppered sacks. One of them sloshes a bit, still half full of water. The other feels empty.

We shouldn’t have run, Captain Vine says, her voice quiet and flat. We should have stayed. We should have fought back, Lei.

I don’t think that would have been a good idea, Captain, I say as I carry the water sacks to the stream’s edge. You have told me before that you are something of an amateur with your sword, and I have no experience with fighting whatsoever. That man seemed highly competent, and he had that strange power he was using on you. I don’t think we would have won against him, had it come to that.

She says nothing while I dip the sacks in the water and refill them. Maybe I could have, though, she replies after a minute. I should have tried, at least. Maybe while he was unconscious there for a second. I should have just… just stabbed the fucker through the throat!

I say nothing, only bring the full water sacks back over to our small pile of food and sit down. On the one hand, it pains me to see her beating herself up again. On the other, at least some of her heat has found its way back. I prefer an angry Captain over a broken and empty one.

We shouldn’t have let him take her necklace, Lei, she fumes as I begin dividing up the food and water between us, setting her portion on the flat rock beside her. We shouldn’t have! Hang everything else, that was the one thing that I… She interrupts herself with a wordless growl of frustration, throwing her head down into her hands and digging her fingers into her hair. Why did I let you talk me into it? she yells into her lap, and I can hear her voice hitch as she does. How could you let me leave it there, Lei? Why did I listen to you? She lashes out with one hand, sending the berries and mushrooms I’d placed beside her flying out into the grass and knocking her water sack over to spill its contents into the dirt. Dammit! she cries. Why did I ever listen to you? And then her hands are covering her face again while her chest and shoulders heave in deep, seething breaths.

I still say nothing. Instead, I slowly stand up and walk around her, careful not to step on any of the scattered food, then kneel down behind her and wrap my arms around her, laying my head against her back. I can feel her heart pounding beneath my hands, hear it beating inside her through her back — hard and rapid, but solid. Reassuring.

We stay like this for a minute, neither of us moving or speaking. I feel her start to sob before I hear it. That, too, is oddly reassuring.

I’m sorry, Lei, she whispers into her hands, then brings them down and places them, trembling, overtop of my own. Her grip is warm and wet from her tears, and she holds on tightly, desperately. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean any of it.

I know, Captain, I murmur into her shoulder, brushing my thumbs across her hands on mine. This is not her first bitter outburst, at me or at the world around us, since we fled Seagate. It is not even her angriest. And I don’t lend her words any more weight than I did the last time it happened, or the time before that.

I’m so sorry, she continues, rocking slightly in my arms. It’s not your fault. This isn’t your problem. You don’t even need to be here, she tells me for the third time this week.

I squeeze her tighter. But I am, I say, also for the third time.

She shakes her head, her crudely chopped hair tickling my face. It has been uneven ever since she took her sword to it. But you shouldn’t be, she says.

I shake my own head against her back. But I want to be.

She sniffs, which turns into a sob, which turns into a deep breath and a ragged sigh. I don’t deserve you, Lei, she says.

Please stop saying that, Captain, I say. I no longer care what you do or do not deserve. It doesn’t matter. I am here for you regardless. You’ll not be getting rid of me so easily anymore.

She chuckles, followed by another sniff. What do you mean, ‘so easily?’ she asks. It was never easy getting rid of you. First time I tried, you started a jailbreak instead of listening to me, remember?

I smile. Of course I remember. And if I need to get myself arrested again to prove my point and stay by your side, Captain, I will do so. Do not test me.

Captain Vine laughs aloud at that and leans her head back against me, her hands tightening on mine. I feel her tears drip down onto our hands and run between them. Gods below, Lei, she says quietly. You’re amazing.

I am a princess, I remind her. I am required to be at least somewhat exceptional, now and then. But you cannot start using that phrase, Captain, because I cannot adopt your mannerisms in turn. I have no idea who your Mab is or why her breasts should be so shocking as to be exclamatory.

You’d understand if you saw them, she says. But fair enough. She turns around in my arms then, wrapping her own around my waist and gazing down at me with wet, red eyes, still smiling. It doesn’t matter who Mab is, she says, then leans forward to rest her forehead against mine. Nobody from back there matters. Just you.

She leans down as I stretch up. Her lips are slightly salty and a bit sticky as I kiss the tears off of them, but I don’t mind.

Until I feel them tremble, and she pulls away again. You’re all I care about anymore, Lei, she says, fresh sadness brimming in her eyes. You’re all I have. If… If I ever…

I say nothing, and I don’t allow her to say anything further either. Instead I tighten my embrace and bring her mouth back to mine, intent on breathing new life back into her.

It works, slowly but surely. For several long moments, she merely sits still in my arms and lets me kiss her, softly, patiently, again and again, until I can no longer taste the sadness on her mouth. My hands slide up from her waist, tracing lean muscles up her back, my fingers splaying against her strong shoulders. It is then that she finally responds, giving up on her melancholy and giving in to my attention. I sigh into her mouth and grip her shoulders tighter as she returns my kiss more passionately, her tongue finding mine as she presses herself into my embrace with the fullness of her body.

She is taller than me, and stronger. When she advances on me, I must yield; and so I find myself on my back in the grass beside the stream, holding tight to my Captain as her mouth makes its way slowly over my chin and down my neck, which arches up to receive her. I sigh again when her lips find my collarbone and linger there, then gasp as they move lower to where the neckline of my dress meets my bust. She kisses the edge of the garment before her fingers find the fabric and slip inside, sliding my dress down just ahead of her mouth until, with a last, light tug, my breasts roll free of the clothing and brush against her face.

I bite my lip against the want as her lips slip down further, over the soft swell of my chest, before capturing one of my nipples and lingering there. One of her hands continues downward, caressing my side from my stomach down to my thigh, which it squeezes before sliding back up me to begin again. Her other hand runs slowly back up my chest to slip beneath my neck, her fingers threading into my hair.

My fingers dig harder into her back as the motion of her hands and fingers and mouth stirs the passion inside me, bringing it up to the surface. Her tongue traces slow, attentive circles around my nipple as she pulls away, her attention turning to the other one without the earlier preamble. Her hand slips down to my thigh again, squeezing again, this time lifting my squirming leg, which I wrap around her waist to hold her tighter to myself.

The position draws one of her hips in between my legs with a delicious pressure that raises new urgency in me. With a soft moan, I dig my fingers into the fabric of her blouse and pull, tugging at her shirt, trying to get it down and off of her without ripping it, but only growing more impatient with each moment that passes without the feel of her skin against my hands.

Thankfully, she notices. Her lips tug at my nipple as she pulls them away and