Returning to the lodgings shared by her, Demi and Mars, Phobos let herself in with her key. She found Demi and Husband’s footwear already there at the entrance.

So, they had already finished with their matches for the day.

Heading into the living room of the suite, she laid down her pack and walked towards the attached washroom to bathe away her exhaustion. Only to find the door locked and suggestive sounds emanating from behind it.

Oh. So that’s where they were.

Her lips curled upwards in a wry smile and she shook her head before turning around and heading to the kitchen.

Washing her hands at the basin, she set about filling a saucepan with water and setting it to boil while she brought out two whole lemons from the refrigerator, sliced them in half with a kitchen knife and deseeded them.

The sound of the water coming to boil attracted her attention and she turned off the flame.

Grating the lemons, rind included, into the boiling water, she added a few spoonsful of sugar and a pinch of salt.

When the water turned lukewarm, she strained it into three glasses and covered two of them and took a sip from the one left over.

Her sip coincided with a particularly loud moan that penetrated the barrier of the washroom door.

Her mouth puckered.

It was sour.

She was lounging on the sofa in the living room, taking sips of her beverage when the two of them came traipsing into the room in bath-towels, looking extremely satisfied.

Demi, in particular, was glowing with happiness and Husband’s dispirited look from his injured mindscape was gone.

Phobos shot them a sidelong glance before ignoring them in favour of her beverage.

Bastards. Couldn’t they wait a bit for her to come back? Hmph!

Demi’s eyes lit up when she saw her and she rushed up to her from behind the sofa and threw her arms around her neck, almost making her spill the drink in her hand.

“Phi-Phi! You’re finally back!” she exclaimed delightedly. “Must have been a hard fight, ya? Otherwise, it wouldn’t take so long. I got an easy opponent. A girl with wind mana who nearly wet herself when I pounced on her in my Feral form. None of her spells worked on me because of my better control of the wind.

“Even Master had it easy with a fire mage who thought himself safe behind his Ember until Master clocked him right on his chin. I think all the playing around with candles has made him immune to heat or something…”

Phobos found it very difficult to stay cross at the sweet girl under the barrage of her good-natured chatter.

It surely couldn’t be her fault that they started without her. It must have been Husband, that horny bastard.

Husband plucked her half-finished beverage out of her hand before downing it in a few gulps.

“Haah.” Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand he met her reproachful gaze with a grin. “Sorry, beloved, Deimos got a bit frisky while she was waiting for you to come back.” He winked at her. “Wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Oh. Who was she kidding? Demi was the most lustful of them all, almost frightening in her enthusiasm and curiosity when the right buttons were pressed.

The excitement of the fight had probably aroused her. That, and the fact that regular intercourse was a part of preventing a relapse into a mindless Feral state and it was also helpful for healing the last of the fissures in Husband’s mindscape that magic couldn’t reach.

She sighed. She was exhausted and wanted a warm bath to unwind. She wanted to feel the soothing feel of Husband’s rough fingers on her scalp and Demi’s dainty hands on her body as they bathed together.

It looked like that wouldn’t happen today. She held Demi’s hands that were thrown around her neck and pouted at Husband. “You know, I prepared two glasses for you two on the kitchen counter. You didn’t need to snatch mine.”

A mischievous light flashed in Husband’s eyes as he shared a glance with Demi and suddenly, Phobos felt weightless as she was held in his arms and her eyes were covered by Demi’s palms. Flailing about at the suddenness of the movement, she threw her arms around his neck for support.

“Hey!” he smiled. “How can a normal beverage taste as good as one that has passed your lips?”

“Put me down. Where are you taking me?” she asked while blushing from his comment. He really had a silver tongue, the devil.

The sound of a door being kicked open reached her ears before the scent of roses tickled her nose.

Then, she felt weightless again. Before she could orient herself, with a loud splash she was underwater.

Coming up sputtering, she was extremely indignant at the prank and was about to give the two of them a tongue-lashing before the sight of her surroundings stopped her words.

The leftover scented candles from their maiden foray into wax-play had been arranged in the washroom, while rose petals covered the surface of the bath water in the tub.

It was then that she noticed that despite being in their bath-robes, the two of them had dry hair, meaning that they had waited for her after all.

She shivered as Demi’s rough tongue licked her neck. “Someone in the audience threw me a huge bouquet of roses when I won, ya. Master was pouting when he saw it… so, we put it to good use.”

The water level in the bath rose as Husband disrobed and entered behind her. His large hands travelled over her body as he set about divesting her of her bedraggled garments.

Demi’s tongue left a trail if saliva as it passed from her neck to chin to her lips, pushing them apart and invading her mouth, twining their tongues together.

When she drew back, arousal was clear in her eyes as they held her gaze. “Hey, Phi-Phi, we waited.”

As she felt Husband’s fingers enter her depths, she could only whisper in her husky voice, “Yes.”