BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY TWO
Jun. 30th, 2013 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratHey guys, sorry for the delay! In addition to cleaning the rat cages this weekend along with throwing myself back in job-searching, I've also resumed my gym and pilates routines, which I previously was on a break from for a few weeks because of shin splints. Not mention volunteering at the animal shelter! On Friday, I saw seven dogs get taken to their new forever homes, three more get put on hold for a pending adoption, and one get reclaimed by the owner who lost him! We’ve also got a guinea pig there right now and she is sooooo cute! It’s going to be hard for me not to take her home, honestly.
As for the rodents I already do have...
Justin and Jenner are both so old now that they are balding and are having problems with their back legs. I took their food and water out of the penthouse part of the their cage and put it on the ground floor so they wouldn't HAVE to climb, though they still do. Justin has a lump that I'm a little worried about, but Dad thinks it's a subcutaneous cyst, not a tumor.
I got a rat ball (no idea what happened to the old one) and Sam loves it! While the others are happy enough to be lazy lap rats, Sam is super high energy and wants to go everywhere. This way, she can, and I don't have to worry about it!
Jenner and Ratsputin, being alpha males extraordinaire, both freak out if I hold one outside the cage bars of the other. They're fine if one of the girls is out there, though, just interested. Today I tried the reverse, holding Ratsputin outside the bars of the girls cage. To my surprise, Blatz was...not aggressive, but pretty defensive. Every time he tried to put his nose or paws through, she'd get in his way and even try to nip. She's fine with them all outside the cage, very friendly and tolerant, so I guess this could just be a territory issue, but I think she was defending Sam, because she only started that once Sam went over to check Ratsputin out, and she kept blocking Sam and pushing her back every time she tried to get near Ratsputin. She treats Sam like her baby, and I think she was worried that this big intruding male might be coming to hurt her.
Also, someone got an advance copy of Affliction and is flogging/summarizing it on the Amazon forums, if you're interested!
http://www.amazon.com/Affliction-Book-Flog/forum/FxIH9VYIM8DKMA/Tx3UR91JCP7PJUI/1/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=0425255700
Or you can enjoy this post, in which there is a summary of fifteen pages yet they don't get to the sex. It's not sexy buildup either. It's just a really, really boring load of nothing.
BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY TWO
"We started out doing something similar to what Jean-Claude and Richard had done, but we used the bed" because "I was shorter than Asher by a lot." So you'd think sex is happening right off the bat, right? Wrong!
Anita talks about being "cradled against Asher's body" and how his leather pants feel and how he's still dressed and Anita wants him undressed and how Meph's body type is a lot like Richard's ("tall, athletic, and physically imposing") which is what Asher especially likes "but the new guy was very interested in me. He didn't seem to mind the other men, and liked Micah, but he wasn't looking at the other men the way that Asher would have" I'm sure this has nothing to do with how Micah warped Meph's mind and desires so he'd be exactly your type of guy---tolerates other dudes in bed but ultimately only has eyes for you (and, of course, likes Micah so Micah can bone him too and won't have to worry about him as competition like with Haven.) She talks about how Asher "liked his women [sexually] knowledgeable, and his men knowledgeable with women, and he got off on being a man's first man" so Meph might be good at that too...no, Anita, I doubt that. He was trained to satisfy the vampires of Belle Morte's line sexually, remember? She doesn't only have female members, as you should well know. So anyway, Anita figures based on all this that Asher is going to hide his scars until he knows what his chances are with Meph.
I should add now that I had completely fucking forgotten that Asher was even in this scene. Look at the last spork, he didn't even talk or get mentioned in that chapter!
She wonders if it bothered Asher to see JC with Envy "showing such a strong preference for body parts he didn't have". Again, I doubt it. Asher has clearly always known JC leaned towards women as he leaned towards men, has had centuries to get adjusted to that, has enjoyed women with him, and even sought out a woman for him that they shared.
She and Micah get naked from the waist up, hug, and kiss with "gentle teeth"...this is the second time I can remember teeth being involved in kissing in these books. Kissing with teeth sounds unpleasant enough, but what does doing it gently mean? Rubbing your teeth together but not really hard? Meph asks where she wants him, and Anita admits that maybe for a moment they'd forgotten he was there. She says she doesn't know his comfort level, he asks about what, Anita looks at Asher whose expression is "absolutely arrogantly handsome." She used 'arrogant handsome" to describe the expressions of the tiger guys too; she knows that 'handsome' isn't something you can emote, right? She figures Asher is hiding what he's feeling because "he didn't want to spook the new guy." She then looks at Nathaniel, who is in a chair near the bed so he can watch, and he smiles. Then she looks at Micah, who tells Meph he can join in any time he wants. Meph smiles, climbs on the bed, and crawls towards them with "a sinuous roll" that is "graceful and lascivious, and promised sex like the air could promise rain" and Anita knows from this that he'll be really good in bed. I really have no experience with whether or not someone being graceful and sexy-moving makes them actually good at sex or not, so I can't say if this is bull or not, but I think it is.
He sniff her and rubs her and kisses her tits and stuff and "then he looked down at me and there was that heat that all men seem to have in their eyes somewhere" Do asexual men have this heat? And then he kisses her "all lips and tongue and teeth." Okay I guess I could see wereanimals getting teeth involved but it just seems AWKWARD AND MESSY not rough-sexy. He starts kneading her skin like a cat. I wish he'd also piss all over the place like a cat when he settles in and considers it his home, but un-sexy animal behaviors are never allowed. Since he kneaded her back he can feel there's a scar there and asks to see. She shows it to him and says she got it from a broken wooden stake. HE ASKS IF SHE FELL ON IT. THAT IS HILARIOUS. She says no, that a mind-controlled human tried to stake her. I LIKE HIS IDEA BETTER, IT'S REALLY FUNNY AND NONE OF THE CHARACTERS SEEM TO REALIZE IT. He says that "I've got one, and mine's bigger." Is this going to be a dick thing? He shows her the scar on his back "and it was longer, though mine was wider. Men, they're always more impressed with length than width." Yup, it's a dick thing.
She asks how he got it, he says his cousin Thorn did it in a practice match. They used real silver blades even for practice, he says, because "if you don't use silver, then you don't know how you'll react to being hurt." What? Since when do wereanimals not feel pain if the weapon isn't silver? They may be able to heal from everything non-silver and non-fire, yes, but that doesn't mean the wound doesn't still hurt when it's made. And it's been made clear it does in the past. Anita tries to read something in his expression as he tells her this, and Micah says that Thorn is one of the weretigers that didn't make his cut for who to introduce her to. Anita asks why, Micah says "He has a temper, and he tried treating me like I was short" YOU ARE SHORT ANITA NEVER SHUTS UP ABOUT IT I BET SHE PATS YOUR HEAD AND BABYTALKS ABOUT HOW TEENY TINY YOU ARE TO YOU and Anita says "Oh, so not winning points with me" and Micah says he told Jake that Thorn only gets to say if he doesn't cause problems, otherwise he gets thrown out. Since that's the rule with everyone I would think, I can only assume Micah told Jake this about Thorn especially because of the height thing. TREAT ME SHORT (whatever that means) AND YOU GET KICKED OUT TO BE PREY FOR THE MOAD AND HER HARLEQUINS. Nice.
The rest of the page and some of the next is spent with Anita showing Meph each and every one of her scars and telling him how she got them, just like she did with the SWAT guys in Skin Trade and the lion men in Flirt. LKH really has a thing for this. She finishes her show by saying how everyone that hurt her is dead now. Meph then asks to see Asher's scars. Asher goes still for a moment, then moves his hair, and Meph touches the scars on his face. Meph says his cousin Martino is going to be jealous, Anita asks about what, Meph says that "Martino thinks he's the most beautiful man ever, but he isn't even close to Asher. Or to Jean-Claude, for that matter, but you are the most beautiful man I've ever seen." Asher says that's not true and pulls away, Meph says the scars "barely cover any of your face, just this little part." and touches under Asher's lips.
1) Martino? Pride, Envy, Mephistopheles...and Martino?
2) Anita has the most prettiest men-toys in the world, everyone be jealous! If you're a woman, want them! If you're a man like Martino, want to be them! If you're joining like Meph, marvel at them and talk about how jealous everyone must be!
3) So, is getting a guy who thinks Asher is hot supposed to be a resolution to the stuff at the beginning? Because I don't see it. Meph may think Asher is lovely, but so does JC, and like JC, he's into Anita, and more than that, he's been mindfucked by Micah to be the way Anita will like, which means he's probably only into men for Anita's pleasure and would have no interest in Asher for his own sake.
4) Only a little part of his face? I thought it was half-and-half? Did that change, or is Meph just being charitable/that's how Meph sees it?
Asher tells him he's not beautiful and unbuttons his shirt to show the chest scars. Meph tries to touch him, Asher starts to move away but Nathaniel tells Asher that Asher wants him to touch him. Yes, Nate, maybe, but that doesn't mean he's ready for it, so you stay out of this. Understandably "Asher shot him a not entirely friendly look" but still lets Meph touch his chest. He asks how far down the scars go, Asher asks if he's trying to get him out of his clothes, Meph reminds him that's the point of all this. Nathaniel says yes "and he was looking at Asher. The look said clearly, Don't blow this for yourself just because you are a pain in the ass." HOW DARE ASHER HAVE COMFORT LEVELS, ESPECIALLY WITH NEW PEOPLE! Meph asks if he can see, Asher looks at Anita and she says she doesn't know why so Micah answers him "Don't you want to?" and Asher looks at Anita again and "I understood the pleading now."
Micah is a coercive pressuring dick to everyone, great. Anita also totally misinterprets, in my opinion, just what Asher is pleading for because she crawls over and asks if he wants some help. Asher admittedly nods (I guess he knows he's not getting out of this, poor dude) and Anita has the astounding revelation that he's NERVOUS OMG because a man he likes seems attracted to him and he thinks it's too good to be true. WOW, ANITA, FUCKING BRILLIANT! HOW DO YOU DO IT? Anita tells him to lie back, he does so, his hair "spilled" of course, and Anita thinks about how hot he is. There have to be three sentences of dialogue exchanged between the characters about who is taking his boots off and it's another paragraph before it is actually done. Meph comments he likes the leather, Anita says he'll be seeing a lot of it here. THIS WAS NOT WORTH THE DEATH OF THE DOUBTLESS MILLIONS OF COWS IT TOOK. They get his boots off and his pants open and Meph puts his hand down there and says that the scars stop. Anita says "Not exactly, but we'll have to get him out of the pants to show you what I mean." They then spend a paragraph pulling his pants off.
Meph touches his chest and stomach and then his groin and notes that the scars on the former are a lot deeper than the ones on the latter, "It's like they couldn't bear to ruin your face or your junk." I find this line and idea tremendously funny and I don't know why. Asher then explains that his foreskin was actually all fucked up for over a century and there's three more short paragraphs about Meph touching him, with Anita emphasizing that "He was all about the texture and didn't seem to differentiate between what he was touching, focused only how it felt" which she's also been noting the whole time. Basically, he's not touching Asher sexually, more like a doctor's exam. Yeah, poor Asher can't catch a break; even when a dude fondles him and calls him pretty, he's treating him more like an interesting specimen than a lover.
We then get two fucking paragraphs about the scar on Asher's balls. My favorite like is that "the scar on Asher's balls was harder to touch, because the skin moved." Male mice can retract their balls up into themselves. Sometimes they have a full sac hanging down, other times they can pass for female at a glance. That's what this makes me think of. I guess any body part would retreat at the advance of Anita's touch! There is then a big long (no pun intended) paragraph on Meph touching the balls while Anita strokes his cock and how Meph isn't really playing with 'em like Asher likes, just touching the scar, and how she "still couldn't tell if Mephistopheles was okay with touching another man, or if he was just after the texture in an almost nonsexual." Almost. Normally I'd make fun of that and the idea a person could never be touching someone non-sexually in a sexual spot during what is supposed to be an orgy, but I guess admittedly at this point I am thinking he has a scar/texture kink. Also yes Anita he is clearly okay with touching another man as evident by the fact he's doing it of his own volition. I believe want you mean is 'touching with sexual intent' or something similar.
Asher gets a hard-on, Meph then starts exploring "the texture of the skin and the delicate bits inside". So like...is he smushing the balls so he can feel the actual gonadals inside the testicle sac, I guess? It sounds from the description like he's poking his fingers INSIDE the balls to poke at those, but given there's no gore and screaming I guess not. Anita thinks that "I wasn't sure how to move past this, or if I should" because Asher is getting so much attention and she doesn't want to spoil it for him (LOL YEAH RIGHT, ANITA BEING OKAY WITH SOMEONE ELSE GETTING ATTENTION) so "I looked at Micah for a clue, or an assist" but it's Nathaniel who pipes up that "There are enough of us to do oral on two of us at the same time." I had to read this twice to make sense of that. Meph asks who does who, and they spend a page and a third discussing that in the most non-sexy and bland way possible, of course. The only parts worth noting about this back and forth is that when Meph says that girls scream when he gives them head is that Anita scoffs "Screaming, so girl." MAN, HOW LAME AND GIRLY TO SCREAM WHEN YOU ORGASM, ANITA NEVER DOES THAT...except all those times she's "screaming her passion to the ceiling" and the like, and Asher warning Meph that when a vampire goes down to you, fangs get involved, so don't ask for it from him unless you like pain. So no vampire ever figured out a way around that? Especially Asher, who likes cock and has been around quite awhile? I guess depending how big they are and if they're angled in any way...you know what, not gonna think about it.
I don't know quite what to think about this chapter. The first time I went through it I just hated it because of how long it took without anything actually happening, but now that I've gone through a second time to spork it, I do appreciate that all this time and attention was given to Asher, which realistically he'd need. I guess my verdict is that it would be okay (though still with some trimming and a little more eroticism) if the rest of the book wasn't such a similar drag.
As for the rodents I already do have...
Justin and Jenner are both so old now that they are balding and are having problems with their back legs. I took their food and water out of the penthouse part of the their cage and put it on the ground floor so they wouldn't HAVE to climb, though they still do. Justin has a lump that I'm a little worried about, but Dad thinks it's a subcutaneous cyst, not a tumor.
I got a rat ball (no idea what happened to the old one) and Sam loves it! While the others are happy enough to be lazy lap rats, Sam is super high energy and wants to go everywhere. This way, she can, and I don't have to worry about it!
Jenner and Ratsputin, being alpha males extraordinaire, both freak out if I hold one outside the cage bars of the other. They're fine if one of the girls is out there, though, just interested. Today I tried the reverse, holding Ratsputin outside the bars of the girls cage. To my surprise, Blatz was...not aggressive, but pretty defensive. Every time he tried to put his nose or paws through, she'd get in his way and even try to nip. She's fine with them all outside the cage, very friendly and tolerant, so I guess this could just be a territory issue, but I think she was defending Sam, because she only started that once Sam went over to check Ratsputin out, and she kept blocking Sam and pushing her back every time she tried to get near Ratsputin. She treats Sam like her baby, and I think she was worried that this big intruding male might be coming to hurt her.
Also, someone got an advance copy of Affliction and is flogging/summarizing it on the Amazon forums, if you're interested!
http://www.amazon.com/Affliction-Book-Flog/forum/FxIH9VYIM8DKMA/Tx3UR91JCP7PJUI/1/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=0425255700
Or you can enjoy this post, in which there is a summary of fifteen pages yet they don't get to the sex. It's not sexy buildup either. It's just a really, really boring load of nothing.
BULLET, CHAPTER FORTY TWO
"We started out doing something similar to what Jean-Claude and Richard had done, but we used the bed" because "I was shorter than Asher by a lot." So you'd think sex is happening right off the bat, right? Wrong!
Anita talks about being "cradled against Asher's body" and how his leather pants feel and how he's still dressed and Anita wants him undressed and how Meph's body type is a lot like Richard's ("tall, athletic, and physically imposing") which is what Asher especially likes "but the new guy was very interested in me. He didn't seem to mind the other men, and liked Micah, but he wasn't looking at the other men the way that Asher would have" I'm sure this has nothing to do with how Micah warped Meph's mind and desires so he'd be exactly your type of guy---tolerates other dudes in bed but ultimately only has eyes for you (and, of course, likes Micah so Micah can bone him too and won't have to worry about him as competition like with Haven.) She talks about how Asher "liked his women [sexually] knowledgeable, and his men knowledgeable with women, and he got off on being a man's first man" so Meph might be good at that too...no, Anita, I doubt that. He was trained to satisfy the vampires of Belle Morte's line sexually, remember? She doesn't only have female members, as you should well know. So anyway, Anita figures based on all this that Asher is going to hide his scars until he knows what his chances are with Meph.
I should add now that I had completely fucking forgotten that Asher was even in this scene. Look at the last spork, he didn't even talk or get mentioned in that chapter!
She wonders if it bothered Asher to see JC with Envy "showing such a strong preference for body parts he didn't have". Again, I doubt it. Asher has clearly always known JC leaned towards women as he leaned towards men, has had centuries to get adjusted to that, has enjoyed women with him, and even sought out a woman for him that they shared.
She and Micah get naked from the waist up, hug, and kiss with "gentle teeth"...this is the second time I can remember teeth being involved in kissing in these books. Kissing with teeth sounds unpleasant enough, but what does doing it gently mean? Rubbing your teeth together but not really hard? Meph asks where she wants him, and Anita admits that maybe for a moment they'd forgotten he was there. She says she doesn't know his comfort level, he asks about what, Anita looks at Asher whose expression is "absolutely arrogantly handsome." She used 'arrogant handsome" to describe the expressions of the tiger guys too; she knows that 'handsome' isn't something you can emote, right? She figures Asher is hiding what he's feeling because "he didn't want to spook the new guy." She then looks at Nathaniel, who is in a chair near the bed so he can watch, and he smiles. Then she looks at Micah, who tells Meph he can join in any time he wants. Meph smiles, climbs on the bed, and crawls towards them with "a sinuous roll" that is "graceful and lascivious, and promised sex like the air could promise rain" and Anita knows from this that he'll be really good in bed. I really have no experience with whether or not someone being graceful and sexy-moving makes them actually good at sex or not, so I can't say if this is bull or not, but I think it is.
He sniff her and rubs her and kisses her tits and stuff and "then he looked down at me and there was that heat that all men seem to have in their eyes somewhere" Do asexual men have this heat? And then he kisses her "all lips and tongue and teeth." Okay I guess I could see wereanimals getting teeth involved but it just seems AWKWARD AND MESSY not rough-sexy. He starts kneading her skin like a cat. I wish he'd also piss all over the place like a cat when he settles in and considers it his home, but un-sexy animal behaviors are never allowed. Since he kneaded her back he can feel there's a scar there and asks to see. She shows it to him and says she got it from a broken wooden stake. HE ASKS IF SHE FELL ON IT. THAT IS HILARIOUS. She says no, that a mind-controlled human tried to stake her. I LIKE HIS IDEA BETTER, IT'S REALLY FUNNY AND NONE OF THE CHARACTERS SEEM TO REALIZE IT. He says that "I've got one, and mine's bigger." Is this going to be a dick thing? He shows her the scar on his back "and it was longer, though mine was wider. Men, they're always more impressed with length than width." Yup, it's a dick thing.
She asks how he got it, he says his cousin Thorn did it in a practice match. They used real silver blades even for practice, he says, because "if you don't use silver, then you don't know how you'll react to being hurt." What? Since when do wereanimals not feel pain if the weapon isn't silver? They may be able to heal from everything non-silver and non-fire, yes, but that doesn't mean the wound doesn't still hurt when it's made. And it's been made clear it does in the past. Anita tries to read something in his expression as he tells her this, and Micah says that Thorn is one of the weretigers that didn't make his cut for who to introduce her to. Anita asks why, Micah says "He has a temper, and he tried treating me like I was short" YOU ARE SHORT ANITA NEVER SHUTS UP ABOUT IT I BET SHE PATS YOUR HEAD AND BABYTALKS ABOUT HOW TEENY TINY YOU ARE TO YOU and Anita says "Oh, so not winning points with me" and Micah says he told Jake that Thorn only gets to say if he doesn't cause problems, otherwise he gets thrown out. Since that's the rule with everyone I would think, I can only assume Micah told Jake this about Thorn especially because of the height thing. TREAT ME SHORT (whatever that means) AND YOU GET KICKED OUT TO BE PREY FOR THE MOAD AND HER HARLEQUINS. Nice.
The rest of the page and some of the next is spent with Anita showing Meph each and every one of her scars and telling him how she got them, just like she did with the SWAT guys in Skin Trade and the lion men in Flirt. LKH really has a thing for this. She finishes her show by saying how everyone that hurt her is dead now. Meph then asks to see Asher's scars. Asher goes still for a moment, then moves his hair, and Meph touches the scars on his face. Meph says his cousin Martino is going to be jealous, Anita asks about what, Meph says that "Martino thinks he's the most beautiful man ever, but he isn't even close to Asher. Or to Jean-Claude, for that matter, but you are the most beautiful man I've ever seen." Asher says that's not true and pulls away, Meph says the scars "barely cover any of your face, just this little part." and touches under Asher's lips.
1) Martino? Pride, Envy, Mephistopheles...and Martino?
2) Anita has the most prettiest men-toys in the world, everyone be jealous! If you're a woman, want them! If you're a man like Martino, want to be them! If you're joining like Meph, marvel at them and talk about how jealous everyone must be!
3) So, is getting a guy who thinks Asher is hot supposed to be a resolution to the stuff at the beginning? Because I don't see it. Meph may think Asher is lovely, but so does JC, and like JC, he's into Anita, and more than that, he's been mindfucked by Micah to be the way Anita will like, which means he's probably only into men for Anita's pleasure and would have no interest in Asher for his own sake.
4) Only a little part of his face? I thought it was half-and-half? Did that change, or is Meph just being charitable/that's how Meph sees it?
Asher tells him he's not beautiful and unbuttons his shirt to show the chest scars. Meph tries to touch him, Asher starts to move away but Nathaniel tells Asher that Asher wants him to touch him. Yes, Nate, maybe, but that doesn't mean he's ready for it, so you stay out of this. Understandably "Asher shot him a not entirely friendly look" but still lets Meph touch his chest. He asks how far down the scars go, Asher asks if he's trying to get him out of his clothes, Meph reminds him that's the point of all this. Nathaniel says yes "and he was looking at Asher. The look said clearly, Don't blow this for yourself just because you are a pain in the ass." HOW DARE ASHER HAVE COMFORT LEVELS, ESPECIALLY WITH NEW PEOPLE! Meph asks if he can see, Asher looks at Anita and she says she doesn't know why so Micah answers him "Don't you want to?" and Asher looks at Anita again and "I understood the pleading now."
Micah is a coercive pressuring dick to everyone, great. Anita also totally misinterprets, in my opinion, just what Asher is pleading for because she crawls over and asks if he wants some help. Asher admittedly nods (I guess he knows he's not getting out of this, poor dude) and Anita has the astounding revelation that he's NERVOUS OMG because a man he likes seems attracted to him and he thinks it's too good to be true. WOW, ANITA, FUCKING BRILLIANT! HOW DO YOU DO IT? Anita tells him to lie back, he does so, his hair "spilled" of course, and Anita thinks about how hot he is. There have to be three sentences of dialogue exchanged between the characters about who is taking his boots off and it's another paragraph before it is actually done. Meph comments he likes the leather, Anita says he'll be seeing a lot of it here. THIS WAS NOT WORTH THE DEATH OF THE DOUBTLESS MILLIONS OF COWS IT TOOK. They get his boots off and his pants open and Meph puts his hand down there and says that the scars stop. Anita says "Not exactly, but we'll have to get him out of the pants to show you what I mean." They then spend a paragraph pulling his pants off.
Meph touches his chest and stomach and then his groin and notes that the scars on the former are a lot deeper than the ones on the latter, "It's like they couldn't bear to ruin your face or your junk." I find this line and idea tremendously funny and I don't know why. Asher then explains that his foreskin was actually all fucked up for over a century and there's three more short paragraphs about Meph touching him, with Anita emphasizing that "He was all about the texture and didn't seem to differentiate between what he was touching, focused only how it felt" which she's also been noting the whole time. Basically, he's not touching Asher sexually, more like a doctor's exam. Yeah, poor Asher can't catch a break; even when a dude fondles him and calls him pretty, he's treating him more like an interesting specimen than a lover.
We then get two fucking paragraphs about the scar on Asher's balls. My favorite like is that "the scar on Asher's balls was harder to touch, because the skin moved." Male mice can retract their balls up into themselves. Sometimes they have a full sac hanging down, other times they can pass for female at a glance. That's what this makes me think of. I guess any body part would retreat at the advance of Anita's touch! There is then a big long (no pun intended) paragraph on Meph touching the balls while Anita strokes his cock and how Meph isn't really playing with 'em like Asher likes, just touching the scar, and how she "still couldn't tell if Mephistopheles was okay with touching another man, or if he was just after the texture in an almost nonsexual." Almost. Normally I'd make fun of that and the idea a person could never be touching someone non-sexually in a sexual spot during what is supposed to be an orgy, but I guess admittedly at this point I am thinking he has a scar/texture kink. Also yes Anita he is clearly okay with touching another man as evident by the fact he's doing it of his own volition. I believe want you mean is 'touching with sexual intent' or something similar.
Asher gets a hard-on, Meph then starts exploring "the texture of the skin and the delicate bits inside". So like...is he smushing the balls so he can feel the actual gonadals inside the testicle sac, I guess? It sounds from the description like he's poking his fingers INSIDE the balls to poke at those, but given there's no gore and screaming I guess not. Anita thinks that "I wasn't sure how to move past this, or if I should" because Asher is getting so much attention and she doesn't want to spoil it for him (LOL YEAH RIGHT, ANITA BEING OKAY WITH SOMEONE ELSE GETTING ATTENTION) so "I looked at Micah for a clue, or an assist" but it's Nathaniel who pipes up that "There are enough of us to do oral on two of us at the same time." I had to read this twice to make sense of that. Meph asks who does who, and they spend a page and a third discussing that in the most non-sexy and bland way possible, of course. The only parts worth noting about this back and forth is that when Meph says that girls scream when he gives them head is that Anita scoffs "Screaming, so girl." MAN, HOW LAME AND GIRLY TO SCREAM WHEN YOU ORGASM, ANITA NEVER DOES THAT...except all those times she's "screaming her passion to the ceiling" and the like, and Asher warning Meph that when a vampire goes down to you, fangs get involved, so don't ask for it from him unless you like pain. So no vampire ever figured out a way around that? Especially Asher, who likes cock and has been around quite awhile? I guess depending how big they are and if they're angled in any way...you know what, not gonna think about it.
I don't know quite what to think about this chapter. The first time I went through it I just hated it because of how long it took without anything actually happening, but now that I've gone through a second time to spork it, I do appreciate that all this time and attention was given to Asher, which realistically he'd need. I guess my verdict is that it would be okay (though still with some trimming and a little more eroticism) if the rest of the book wasn't such a similar drag.
