[E] Ch 35 – Quick! The Ruby empire is under attack! We must defend the castle with our lives!

“So we’ve got a few minutes before they’ll be back,” Evara commented, eyeing me as we stood within her plush, fanciful lair.

My eyes narrowed. “I imagine so, yes.”

Her hips swayed as she approached. “Why don’t we make good use of that time?”

“Like what?”

“Well, I’ve been hoping for a chance to get to know you better, Ruby.” The girl paused in front of me, one of her hands reaching up to brush a few strands of black hair from her face. She curled a few other strands around her fingers. “What would you say to a fun little game?”

Her suggestive smile told me all I needed to know. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest—a collection of nerves and rising lust.

“I, umm—my hand is rather injured at the moment.”

She nodded, tapping a finger against her cheek as though contemplating it. Though I suspected she already had an answer.

“I believe we can work around that little issue.” Then she leaned forward, and I had to fight off the urge to step back as her fierce gaze bore into my own. “What do you say, little succubus?”

My lips parted, but I struggled to find an answer. On the one hand, this was obviously a terrible idea. Lilis and the werewolf woman would be back before long, and there was no telling when specifically. Even Galia could leave the adjacent room she was resting in at any time, despite her injuries. It was also a bad idea to do anything that might risk making the injuries in my hand worse. While the woman in front of me hinted it wouldn’t be a problem, I was unsure of how much I trusted that. Surely this simply wasn’t the time for this sort of thing.

But…

I couldn’t help but feel tempted. The adrenaline from the fight had yet to fully wear off, and moreover…I was feeling increasingly turned on, much to my shame.

It couldn’t hurt to at least hear the idea out, could it?

“What did you have in mind?” I asked, my voice still full of apparent suspicion.

Evara hummed. “There’s a little game I like to play that I call ‘Stripping the Truth.’ The rules for it are simple. One of us asks a question, and the other has to either answer honestly or take off a piece of clothing. Of course, we have to both agree to only speak the truth, else it spoils the fun. So I will be questioning you if I feel like you might not be telling the whole truth, and I encourage you to do the same.

“The game is nothing particularly complex, but certainly fun.” She emphasized the last word with a smirking grin.

I nearly groaned aloud. We would assuredly be caught in the middle of playing by the others if I went through with this. Which meant at least one of us would likely be close to naked when they returned. After toying with me at the tea party, I was wanting some revenge. Everyone had skeletons in their closets, among other things they were embarrassed to talk about. While I knew little about Evara, the same was true for her. I just had to find her secrets before she found my own, and luckily, I had the advantage of not being embarrassed about most of my past.

The tricky part would be questions about things that had occurred more recently. But how many things could she possibly ask about me and my new form that I was embarrassed to admit to?

“Alright. I accept your challenge,” I declared, my confidence clear.

Evara snorted and we both found a spot across from each other along the soft, carpeted floor.

It would be a fair contest at least, considering that both of us wore our school uniforms.

In the spirit of the game, I supposed that I could do my best to be honest. We decided to forgo capes and footwear, given our presumed limited time. Chances were that the others would be back before we finished regardless.

Why did I feel almost disappointed by that?

I supposed one or both of us being rendered entirely nude held some appeal…

“I’ll let you start.” She motioned toward me.

I eyed her carefully, trying to decide on a question she might find difficult. “How many women have you slept with here?”

She looked off to the side, pondering it. “Five to seven, I suppose. Depending.”

I frowned. She answered that much too easily.

“Depending on what?”

Evara met my eyes with a smirk. “Depending on how literal you want to be and whether you consider things like me fingering a girl beneath a table to count.” My cheeks reddened as I realized she was referring to what we did during the odd tea party. “My turn!” she chimed cheerfully and leaned forward. “Are you in love with Lilis?”

Was I— “What?” I blinked. “No, I mean of course not—not that she’s bad looking or anything. We’re just—” What were we exactly? I wasn’t entirely sure. “We’re somewhat intimate friends, I suppose,” I mumbled.

“Well, the question wasn’t whether you are friends or not, but whether you love her.”

My lips parted to immediately and fully deny it, but I paused to consider the question. If I was going to stick to my plan to be honest, this game might turn out to be more challenging than I’d expected.

“I’m…not entirely sure…how I feel about her,” I admitted, struggling to get the words out.

The grin she gave me made me want to squirm. From there, our questions went back and forth—her asking questions that I found difficult to answer, but not so much that I wanted to take something off, and me asking questions that seemed to not phase the girl at all to my increasing annoyance. Still, I knew she had to have some kind of weakness. It was simply a matter of figuring out what.

Unfortunately, I was the one to take something off first.

“What’s the most fun thing you and Lilis have done together?” Evara asked, the vulgar grin not leaving her face.

“I—I am not answering that!” I spluttered.

“Oh? Well, you know what that means, don’t you?” She raised a brow.

My already rosy cheeks became aflame. Had I really agreed to this? I should have known that this would be a bad idea. Perhaps if I backed out now, she’d allow it.

Despite my thoughts, my hands traveled to my blouse to unbutton it, only to remember that my fingers were broken.

Oh. Right.

“Allow me,” she practically sang out, meeting my gaze with obvious hunger.

Leaning forward across the carpeted floor, Evara began to deftly undo each button, starting from the bottom. As each came undone, the warmth in my body rose with her hands. Fully open, she slipped the garment from my shoulders, revealing my brassiere. I couldn’t meet her eyes as the silence lingered.

“I believe the next one’s yours,” she teased.

The back and forth questions continued, and Evara didn’t let up. Meanwhile, I still struggled to get her to take anything off.

“Since you have some experience with both sides now, do you like being a man or woman more?” she asked, appearing curious.

I scoffed. Easy. “A man, of course.” I pushed my chest out, tilting my chin up in a display of pride.

She gave me a meaningful look. “Really? You seem to have… adapted rather well to your new form.”

My eyes narrowed. “What exactly are you implying?”

“Well, I’d seen you around a few times before your little mishap. Always trudging around with a chip on your shoulder and a scowl, as though you hated the world and everyone in it. I must admit, you seem a lot more… pleasant as you are now.” She shrugged, as though she hadn’t just said something incredibly offensive.

“Really? That’s your logic? Are you trying to play a game or start a fight?”

Her hands rose in a placating gesture. “No offense intended. I merely thought that you didn’t seem very happy as you were. Whereas, I believe you’ve smiled at least three times in the past hour. Tell me, when was the last joyous smile you had as a boy?”

I growled. “I smiled plenty, thank you.”

She hummed. “Alright. So long as you’re sure that you aren’t simply too embarrassed to admit it. Or rather, too embarrassed to take something else off?”

I huffed and stood up to my feet. “Fine. If this is what it takes to prove my point.” My uninjured hand pulled down my skirt, and I tossed it to the side. “There.”

Standing in front of her in just my underwear had my face heating once again in mere moments. Rather than staring at my body, though, her eyes were focused on my face. Her mind was clearly caught up in one thought or another, only broken once I sat back down.

“Your turn again,” she said finally.

And the game continued.

“What’s the one thing in life you regret the most?” I asked a couple of questions later, now down to my final piece of clothing.

She considered it for a moment before wordlessly reached beneath her skirt for her panties. I watched as they slid down her legs, and my eyes widened as I realized that I’d finally hit on a subject she wasn’t willing to discuss. Though I had little else to go on beyond the one simple question.

And why did she take off the panties first?

As she tossed the underwear to the side, her eyes looked me over critically. I had to shift my arm to fully cover my bare chest.

“How much do you really enjoy being such a horny little slut at the whims of someone else?” she near-whispered.

I spluttered, eyes widening. “W-what?”

Evara grinning, seeming to know that she had me—that there was no way I would dare answer that.

“I—f-fine, you win,” I mumbled.

“Aren’t you going to take them off?” she asked, eyes trailing down to my underwear.

Was I?

It seemed almost silly. The game was over, wasn’t it? Did she—I gulped—did she expect me to keep them off?

Why, oh why did a large part of me enjoy that idea so much?

Against my better judgment, I stood back up to my feet and pulled down my last bit of clothing, my remaining dignity going with it. Evara smirked as she reached out a hand, and squirming, I handed them over to her.

“We can still continue the game, you know,” she whispered, as though telling me a daring secret. “Adjust the rules so that rather than stripping, one of us has to do something for the other.”

“D-do something?” What a terrible, terrible idea. Phaori and Lilis would be back soon. They could come back any moment, in fact. My tail swayed side to side as though excited and enthralled at the idea of it. Fuck, I was going to do this wasn’t I? “Like what?” I managed.

The girl’s hungry grin told me all I needed to know. “You’ll have to find out. Though if we’re continuing on, it’s your turn.” She gestured.

I sunk back down to the carpet on my knees. As Evara’s gaze moved down between my legs, I realized that I’d left them wide open. To my shame, I didn’t want to close them.

Instead, I took a deep breath. “What’s your relationship like with your family?” A question that was often a rather sensitive subject.

Evara hummed. “In a word, atrocious. I’ve never lived up to their ideals for me, partly because I’ve never had the heart for it. And more recently, my father has been trying to set me up with one man or another. It’s been a pain making sure my potential suitors know that they’d regret trying to take me as their wife. My father plans to disown me once I’m through my schooling here—at least so long as I still am not engaged to someone.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling bad for having asked.

The woman shrugged, playing it off as though it were not a big deal. Though I could tell that it bothered her inside.

“Such is life.” Then she narrowed her focus back onto me. “Now, what to  ask?” Her lips curled back into a smile as an idea struck her. “I want your most embarrassing secret.”

“That’s—that’s way too vague!” I protested. “You can’t just—”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I can’t? And why not? There were no rules saying the questions couldn’t be vague. And it’s not like all of your questions were terribly specific.”

“I—but—” I spluttered, unsure of how to counter her.

Could I even answer this question? I wasn’t entirely sure what I would consider to be my most “embarrassing secret.” It was a question that would require some amount of introspection. Regardless, I knew that whatever I did decide on, I wouldn’t by any means want to admit it out loud.

And the devilish woman was probably counting on it.

“Fine, what do you want me to do?” I grumbled with a huff.

“Why, I’m glad you asked.” She flashed her teeth in a wide grin. “I want you to eat me out.”

“Y-you mean…”

“That cute mouth of yours pressed up between my legs as you shove your tongue inside me, yes,” she said bluntly, leaning forward. “Nothing too complicated. Of course, if you’d rather not, we could quit now.” Even those words held a teasing challenge, daring me to keep going.

“But what about—” I gestured vaguely toward the door.

“What about them? You’re already naked, aren’t you? Would this really make that much more of a difference?”

I bit my lip, unsure of how to respond.

“How about this—I’ll go sit at the vanity. There’s a small area beneath it that you can crawl into. Then, if they walk in, no one will be able to see a thing.”

Her smile was mischievous, but I couldn’t help but feel tempted all the same. It was a ludicrous idea that was bound to fail.

And yet, I was going to do it anyway…