Steadfast

Mara steadies herself against the mirror. Her breathing slows. She pulls the sweater back down, smooths the fabric over her breasts, and tugs the jeans closed again even though the silver charm still makes every layer feel heavier than it should. Without a word she steps past the place where you stand, still unaware, and leaves the room. Her footsteps move down the hall toward the bathroom. Water runs a moment later.

You ease your hand away from the hard outline of your cock. The ache remains, but the moment has shifted. You take the silver charm from her wrist before the door closes fully behind her and slip it back into your pocket. The Shared Heat continues its low warm pulse in your blood as you descend the stairs and return to the cellar.

The oil lamp has burned lower. The iron-bound cask sits open on the table where you left it. You lean over the remaining contents and shift a folded cloth aside. Beneath it, tucked against the far side of the chest, rests a small clear packet you do not remember cataloguing. Inside are half a dozen soft gummy shapes, each molded into the unmistakable form of a cock, complete with a slight curve and a rounded head. They are a deep translucent red, the color of ripe fruit under candlelight.

A narrow card is pinned to the packet with a single rusted tack. The handwriting is older than your own notes.

Gummy Phalli. One is enough. Chew slowly. The candy dissolves on the tongue and leaves a temporary imprint. For the next hour the eater’s own cock (or the nearest equivalent) becomes hypersensitive and subtly larger, every brush of cloth or air registering as deliberate contact. If given to another, the same change occurs in them. Secondary effect: the gummy carries a mild compulsion to display or seek friction. Effects fade cleanly after sixty minutes. Store cool.

You turn the packet in your hand. The gummies shift against one another with a soft sound. The Shared Heat still circulating in your system makes the simple act of holding them feel charged. Your cock, still half-hard from the scene upstairs, gives a slow twitch as if it already senses the possibility.

Outside, the October wind moves through the bare trees. Upstairs the water shuts off. Mara will return to her room soon, or perhaps come back down to finish the last of her evening tasks. The rest of the cask’s contents wait in their places. The packet of gummy dicks rests in your open palm, cool and faintly sweet-smelling even through the plastic.