[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 584 & 585. (Patreon)

Chapter 584: Looks in the pool.

Living with magic being a permanent part of my life is very strange. You’d think it’d be impossible to forget about it, but there are plenty of times when I’m suddenly reminded that a lot of the things around me aren’t normal. The example I’m thinking of right now is from when I was at the hot pool with the girls.

Frey casted a magic spell on me some months ago. Using the consent of my girlfriends as a condition to make the spell work, perception around me having multiple partners changed. It became… normalized. Kind of. See, that’s the thing. Reactions aren’t exactly universal.

Maybe there are too many variables for the spell to work as intended every time on everyone. Back in school nobody thought too hard about it, but you have to remember that there were rumors about me seeing Mila, Grace and Sarah at the same time way before we put the spell in place. The school was kind of ready for it, so the spell worked pretty well. The girls’ families took it well, too, and I think it’s because they all sat down and explained things properly. There was no room for confusion, so the spell did its job and made our polyamorous relationship seem like just any other relationship.

So yeah, a lot of the time people don’t react. Could also be because we probably look like any other group of friends in public, but when it’s a little more obvious that there’s something romantic going on, people do react.

We were all in the biggest pool in the hot springs area, one so big that even with 30 people in it we still had enough room to swim comfortably. The water there was lukewarm, the ‘coldest’ of the pools around. It was the first one we tried as a way to, um… test the waters.

Sorry.

Anyway, what I’m getting at is that we all went in as a group. Mila, Grace, Sarah, Alice, Noelle, Diana and I. Six outrageously sexy women in bikinis hanging out with a single guy. Eyes were on us the moment we went into the fenced pool area.

Sure, some guys were ogling the girls… Some girls were ogling me… Some guys were also ogling me… but there were also plenty of looks of bewilderment that didn’t only make me uncomfortable. 

“Okay, be real with me, does this swimsuit make me look weird?” Mila asked, fixing her bikini top. It was a very classic bikini that tied in the front.

“Trying to fix it will only earn you more looks. You’re moving your boobs too much,” Sarah told her. “Besides, you look fine.”

“Then why are people staring so much?” Mila asked, shifting uncomfortably. “It’s not normally like this. Shouldn’t the spell prevent this?”

“Yeah,” Noelle said with only her head outside the water. What was funny was that she looked more offended than embarrassed. “It’s not like we’re doing anything weird! They should mind their own business!”

True. If we were bothering anyone, I’d understand, but we were literally just standing on a corner of the pool. I sighed and leaned back against the edge made of stones. We were at a spot where we all touched the floor. The water reached just below my shoulders.

“I think it might just be a bug,” I told them.

“Bug?” Diana asked, innocently looking around us to see if she spotted whatever insect was drawing the eyes of the people.

“Ah, you mean like a computer bug, right?” Alice asked with a proud smile. “Like what happened with the other spells before.”

I nodded. “These people don’t know what we’re dating. Hell, they don’t know anything about us. I think their confusion is causing interference with the spell. Like, they’re unsure how to see this, so they’re… defaulting to the more natural reaction.”

“At least, the ones that care about other people’s business are,” Grace said. ”It’s not like everyone is looking at us.” She turned to look at some of those people. Some married couples, some 20-year-old friend groups… Grace smirked. “Should we test if clearing things up fixes the bug?”

I blinked. “You want to go over to them and tell them we’re dating?”

“You know what they say about a picture and 1000 words, right?” Grace got closer to me. She very deliberately pressed her chest against mine and wrapped her arms around my neck. “If they want to stare, then let’s give them a show worth watching…”

“Grace…”

“They started it, love,” Grace said, brushing her lips against mine.

“You know, she has a point,” Sarah agreed, positioning herself behind me. She put her hands on my back and began to kiss my shoulder.

I swallowed hard. We weren’t using any Normality runes. People would notice us getting… affectionate. But that was the point, wasn’t it? And really, Frey probably needed this kind of test to fix issues with the spell, so…

I held Grace by the waist and pulled her even closer, pushing my hips against hers and sliding my tongue inside her mouth.

“Oh my. How bold.” Alice giggled.

Noelle snickered. “Oh, NOW they’re looking away.”

“Most,” Diana said. “I see some young couples still watching.”

Grace had gone deaf to it all. She pressed her body against mine, raising her leg and getting it around me as well. She sucked on my tongue like nobody was watching and drank the mix of our drool. One of her hands began to caress my chest, and I even started to feel her nipples hardening through her bikini top.

She wasn’t the only one, either. Sarah was hugging me from behind, hands on my crotch but obscured by the water and Grace’s body. She kissed the back of my neck and subtly rubbed her boob on my back from side to side.

“...Is it just me or are they getting excited?” Mila asked, now with bewilderment of her own.

“Newlyweds on their honeymoons, maybe?” Alice said.

I broke the kiss with Grace without pulling away. I still had her in my arms, still had her body against mine, and I didn’t push Sarah away, either. “Let’s… leave it here for now. Any more and we’ll get kicked out for sex in the pools.”

“But you’re not having sex,” Noelle said.

“Tell that to Sarah. She’s moments away from pulling it out of my swimsuit.”

“Sarah!” Alice gasped, laughing.

“Oof, got a little too into it.” Sarah didn’t deny it. “But you’re right. The last thing I want is to tell my parents we got kicked out for indecency. Next time we’ll take proper precautions.”

“Right.” Grace licked her lips, tasting my lingering presence on them. “Proper precautions.”

…

What DID they buy that other day? I was getting even more curious, but they wouldn’t tell me.

Well, at least the experiment got the results we expected, apparently. The people looking at us in confusion had totally lost interest. Now all that was left were disapproving looks from elderly people for our PDA and smirks and thumbs up from the younger couples.

“Let’s change pools,” I begged. This was way too embarrassing.

“I see a small one emptying up,” Mila said. “Come on, before someone else takes it! That one must be hotter.”

We soaked in the hot water for a while longer before we returned to the cabin. 

************

Chapter 585: Intermission - The two scary ones.

Who in their right mind would willingly get out of bed at 7:30 am while out on vacation? No one, which is exactly why Fernanda did just that while setting aside the implication that this meant she wasn’t right in the head.

Her own parents weren’t even up yet, but Fernanda got dressed, putting on a light jacket because it was a bit chilly in the mountains this early morning, and walked out of the hotel room. There were people up, but all of them were hotel workers. People setting up the dining hall for breakfast, receptionist already sorting through reservations, staff cleaning the hallways… Everyone was working hard.

Fernanda went out with sketchbook in hand. All these gorgeous landscapes had her itching to draw, and while she’d been taking pictures for reference, she couldn’t miss the chance to draw some of them in person. There was something in particular she wanted to do, so she headed out of the hotel and followed a long path that went down a light slope and led to the river bank.

Fernanda smiled and took a deep breath of the fresh, cool air as she marveled at the sight before her. Here, the river was quiet and had a very slow current. It was wide, too, with at least 20 meters from one side to the other. The river bank was green with neatly trimmed grass and some few thick trees along it.

It was at the base of one of these trees that Fernanda sat down. She leaned back, raised her knees and set her sketchbook against them, opening it to a blank page. She grabbed her charcoal pencil and got to work.

The mountain in the distance, the trees, the river, the reflection in the slow-moving water, the bushes… The birds were harder to draw because they moved a lot, so Fernanda grabbed her phone, took a picture of one that was fairly close and used that as reference to draw a low-detail sketch of a few in the background. Always putting in more work than she should. Always. But hey, that picture would be useful later.

She didn’t even notice how long it had been since she got there, but at one point she heard voices. Voices vaguely recognizable some good 10 meters to her left. Two girls, one a busty brunette, the other an athletic-looking blonde. Two of Oliver’s girlfriends. That was already enough to make Fernanda tense up, but to make things worse, it had to be the two that scared her the most.

Those two reminded Fernanda of classmates she had, not in looks but in personality. The kind of outgoing go-getters who don’t really care about what others think. Fernanda had butted heads with girls like that in school, and from what little she’d heard them speak at the coffee shop, these two gave off very similar vibes.

“So this is the spot?” the brunette asked, glancing at the ground around her.

“Yeah. Later in the day a lifeguard comes and this place is open to swimming,” the blonde said. “My mom told me there’s a gate further down the river, which is why the current is a lot slower here. There’s also a net just over there, see?”

Fernanda followed the blonde’s finger and saw pillars at both ends of the river. The top of a net with holes big enough to let practically anything but a person through could be seen.

“The current looks safe enough, but I suppose they’re obligated to take precautions like that,” the brunette said.

“Noelle and I looked around yesterday. We asked and got confirmation that people come here in the afternoon. They set towels on the grass, sunbathe, swim… It’s like a beach, except it’s a river.”

The brunette nodded. “So you’re saying we can set it up here, let Oliver work his magic and…”

“Yep. So? What do you say? You’re cordially invited to join me.”

“Alright, I’m in. We’ll need to get here early to make sure no one steals this spot.”

“I mean, it doesn’t have to be THIS precise spot. There are plenty of other good places…” As the blonde looked around, her eyes met Fernanda’s, leaving the Brazilian girl paralyzed like a deer before headlight.

Fernanda turned away, focusing back on her sketch. After all, just because their eyes met didn’t mean they had to talk, right? So then why did she see them walking up to her when she turned to look again!?

Was it because they caught her overhearing their conversation? Fernanda didn’t even know what they meant by all that!

“Hey, are you drawing something? Can I see?” the brunette asked, kneeling very close to her.

“I… Um…! Y-Yes…” She was caught off guard, and not knowing how to react, Fernanda simply offered her sketchbook to the busty brunette.

“Oh, holy crap.” She raised her eyes and compared the view before them to the half-finished sketch on the page. “You’re drawing the scenery here? This is amazing.”

“T-Thank you.

“You’re Fernanda, right? You’re working with Oliver,” The blonde said.

“Ah. Y-Yes. I’ve been working with him.”

“He’s not being rude, I hope?” The blonde walked over to her right and sat down next to her, with just enough distance between them to not invade in personal space.

Fernanda shook her head. “Not at all. He’s helped me a lot.”

“I’m Grace, by the way,” The brunette to her left said. “That’s Sarah. We’re Oliver’s girlfriends.”

Grace and Sarah. Grace and Sarah. Grace and Sarah. Might as well commit the names to memory.

Fernanda felt tense, her heart beating painfully quickly. One scary girl on both sides. They were younger than her, for God’s sake! Why was she scared!?

“Say… Um…” The blonde girl, Sarah, suddenly groaned and rubbed the back of her neck. She clicked her tongue and rubbed her eyes with one hand. “No, it’s nothing. Sorry.”

“Um… O-Okay?”

“Hey, do you only draw landscapes?” The brunette, Grace, asked as she flipped through the pages of her sketchbook. “Not that these aren’t spectacular, but do you draw other things?”

Fernanda nodded stiffly. “I have another sketchbook where I draw people, but… I’m better at landscapes.”

“Do you draw comics and stuff?”

Fernanda winced, her chest tightening. “I… I don’t. I’m not good enough.”

“What do you mean? I think this is pretty good.”

“That’s not what I… Uh… I meant I’m not good with stories.”

“Ah. I see.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

A sudden, very awkward silence filled only with the flipping of pages and the faint flow of the river.

“Sorry to bother you,” Sarah said, standing and dusting herself up. “I wanted to tell you something, but it’s not really my place. Really, I’m sorry we came up to you all of a sudden. Come on, Grace.”

Grace left the sketchbook open on the page Fernanda was working and gently handed it back. “Thank you for letting me see. It’s beautiful.”

“...” Fernanda took her sketchbook back, but quickly turned to the blonde again. “What… What did you want to tell me?”

“...” Sarah stopped, rubbed her forearm and let out a sigh.