The Gamer Chapter 1510 – Italian Beach Episode 3 – Red Wine and Sand (Patreon)

“And then I told her to stuff it where she wants John to be,” Rave finished off.

The Gamer laughed; the gathered half of the harem laughed louder. Stories that had to do with envious women that approached his haremettes with the intent of ‘convincing’ them that they should be introduced to him just weren’t as entertaining to him. When similar things happened to him, they just played out differently. If it was a woman that wanted to negotiate herself into the harem, John was typically tempted, then had to politely decline.

A man that wanted to tell him he deserved one of his haremettes more than he did… that surprisingly did not happen. John wouldn’t have dared to suggest men were more reasonable than women, so that wasn’t the cause. It was more likely just that their polygyny only cut one way. Women could at least hope to find a space among the haremettes. To make one of his girls cheat on John was a much greater effort. Especially when the number one reason for such affairs was typically a lack of physical satisfaction.

Something the harem was very public about not suffering.

“Kinda made the rest of the work on that project hella awkward, though.” Rave scratched the back of her head. She stopped mid-motion. “Wait a sec, I did not used to do that!”

“Aha!” John pointed at his fiancée. “About time you take over some of my habits.”

“The heck ya mean ‘about time’? I’m already a serious nympho thanks to ya.”

“That’s not my influence, you had above average Libido before I came along.”

“What, ya think anyone could’ve turned me into this hairtrigger mess?”

“Well, no, it’s clearly to my credit that you became extremely horny, but…”

“But?” Rave egged him on to finish that thought.

“...” John stayed silent and his fiancée roared in triumph. “Alright, congratulations, you are my nymphomaniac spouse.”

“Damn right I am.” Rave pulled at the string of her micro swimsuit. The fabric stretched, but not enough to keep the bottom from digging into her camel toe, while the crowns of her medium sized breasts were exposed. She released the strands and they snapped back into place – not quite settling back properly. Hints of areolas peeked past the blue fabric.

John’s swimming trunks tented within seconds. It was near impossible to look at his first love and not get an erection. Which was intensely bothersome. He had put the swimwear back on because it had been easier to sit on the beach than try to conquer a place on the towels and blankets. Even if he thought the harem’s aversion to sand was somewhat overplayed, he did not want the grains all over his butt and testicles.

John glanced back up at the house, where most of the other half of the harem was sitting in loungers and the bathtub. The only two girls that weren’t here nor there were Hailey and Momo. The former was out in the water, swimming steadily in circles, the other had called it early and retreated to the inside of the house to get some reading time. Adorable, asocial thing that she was.

He expected Lee and Delicia to follow before long, then Lorelei, and then there would be a long gap before they all hit the hay. This was how these things usually went, with some differences based on any given day. Some people liked silence more than others, and even surrounded by people one loved, alone time was sometimes sweeter than anything.

“Don’t ya dare, ya just got back down here,” Rave called out.

“Stop making me horny, if you want me to stay,” John demanded. “Or be fine with at least giving a blowjob on the beach.”

“Never!” Rave’s gaze suddenly dashed over to Beatrice. “Don’t ya dare betray the union, Bae!”

“Statement: I never joined a union.”

“Ya join the union automatically when ya take the cock in for the first time.”

“According to that logic, aren’t Cindy and Worlina part of the union?” Salamander threw in.

“Uhhhhhh.” Rave had no good answer to that. “I plead the 5th?” She froze again, then turned to the ocean. “HAILEY, STOP FEEDIN’ MY BRAIN PHRASES! IS LIVIN’ IN MY GREY MATTER THAT CHEAP?!”

“I PLEAD THE 5th!” Hailey screamed back, then dove back into the still water. With no more haremettes to keep it in motion, their cut of the ocean had gone back to being a big saltwater pool.

“Anyway, ya shouldn’t. Gotta teach the tiger he can’t ride everywhere.”

John wanted to protest out of principle, but there was such a thing as an arbitrary but healthy limit. Having at least some places that were de-facto lewdness free was good for his brain. “Maybe don’t wear things that make me want to ravish you, if that’s the goal?”

“Psh, like I could wear anything that would let ya not get an erection.”

“Touche,” John surrendered that point as well.

“I still cannot believe we are just idling our time away here,” Lydia said. “There is so much debate to be had…”

“And yet there ya lay,” Rave commented drily. “Sprawled out, head in Sylph’s lap, sipping red wine.”

An apt summary of the state the queen was in. Her open hair had turned a bit frizzy thanks to the saltwater and her body language just radiated relaxation. “Yes, how positively terrifying that I am this happy with that much work to do,” she responded, sounding just the slightest bit tipsy. She gulped down the rest of the red wine and extended her arm leisurely to the right. “Just give me the bottle.”

Beatrice stopped halfway in the pouring motion, considered, then decided to follow the request. A tall glass was exchanged for a tall bottle. Lydia took a huge swig. “Alcoholic,” Nightingale joked.

“Just a tad,” Lydia returned with a carefree smile. It took a lot to get the queen drunk, even before her level had climbed rapidly thanks to John’s various efforts. She was a Polish-German crossbreed, so a sturdy liver was somewhat expected.

John, for his part, was enjoying alcohol carefully. He had an imperial tomboy to meet tomorrow morning. While he did not think recovering from a hangover would make him less interesting in her eyes, she seemed the type to enjoy someone who knew how to party; he wanted to generally be collected. More importantly, there were many manly duties he had to fulfil tonight. The short-lived dressing room orgy and occasional engagements were certainly not enough to satisfy the gathered harem.

That was for later, though. Right now John was happy to banter. Especially when he forgot that he was surrounded by almost entirely naked women for long enough for his erection to go back down. “How did the scripture study go?” John asked Lorelei.

The seer, and living proof that even the most conservative swimsuit was enough to excite, considered the question for a few moments. “It was a mixed affair,” she responded, in her typical even and feminine tone. “The sacred Warden and I were eager to introduce Hailey to our sacred texts. She initially devoured them in earnest, but proved a little less… focused on matters of Faith than the two of us.”

“Lemme guess: it got too monotone for her?” Rave suggested.

“Studying the Lady’s holy words and interpretations thereof is not monotone…” Lorelei pushed back in the softest of tones. It was as powerful a rebuke as the highly agreeable woman could staple together.

“Really, and I mean really, really don’t want to make this sound like an insult, because it is not, it’s really not an insult, no sarcasm, even if my many words may make it… okay, one moment, this calls for serious Sylph, actually.” The blabbering arcvolt elemental stopped herself and cleared her throat. Then, with a deeper and slower voice, she picked up again, “You find studying scripture really interesting because most of your world consists of worshipping and serving the Lady. Most of us aren’t like that.”

“I know that you are right,” Lorelei gave in with a little sigh. “I merely hope one day all will find the depth of meaning that I do within the words of the Lady.”

“I don’t know.” Sylph tilted her head, bunny ears dangling. “I feel like that would get really boring really qui-“

“YOU STOP THAT!” Metra screamed down from the house. “YOU FUCKING STOP THAT RIGHT NOW! I FUCKING HATE IT WHEN YOU DO THAT, BIMBO BUNNY!”

“Hihihihi,” Sylph snapped right back to her usual voice. There was really no notable difference beyond that and her more cascading choice of words. “It is so, so easy to rile Metra up with that, I kind of really love it.”

“I just find it fascinating that she hates it so much when you do that voice,” John observed. “Has anyone tried what happens when they do a different voice? Will that rile her up just as much.”

Gnome chose that moment to turn away from the second group that sat on the towels and chimed into the conversation, “Uhm, it’s probably because, y-you know… Sylph does both sound really different and she talks… smarter?”

“So it has to be both a difference in pitch and character?” John rubbed his chin. “Gnome, can you try to sound all proper and arrogant?”

“Do a Lydia impression!” Sylph chimed in.

The season elemental shrunk a little bit, then pulled her shoulders back. Clutching her own ankles, she breathed in deeply. “I must say that I find this demand to rile up Metra detestable. Why do we even have the need to… Umu… Why do we even have the need to annoy our fellow women? Are we not all united in loving this… i-idiot?”

John shimmied over to kiss her on the cheek for a job well done. At the same time, they listened for Metra’s reaction. There was none. Either the First of Wrath did not care, she had not heard, or she was trying to suppress her reaction to not give them more ammo to tease her with. “Experiment inconclusive, we will try again another time,” he said.

“That was a terrible impression,” Lydia declared and put the bottle to her lips again.

“The only terrible impression around here is your flat ass in the sand,” Gnome responded, holding the previous tone.

Stunned silence, interrupted only by the hacking of a very surprised queen who had choked on a mouthful of wine. Gnome turned red; Lydia spat red all over her cleavage. Swiftly, she sat up and tried to get the frog out of her throat by downing more of the only liquid in reach: more wine. “W-what…?” she asked, more amused than outraged.

“I-I mean… uhm…”

“Oh my Gaia, Gnome, I love ya!” Rave shouted and threw herself at the cuddle rock. The silence was dispelled, the people on the beach bursting out into laughter.

The conversation basically died at that point. Lydia did her best to regain control over her lungs, chatting with Sylph between sips and coughs, while the feline Lightbearer made out with a fully blushing and stammering Gnome. Standing up, John decided to stretch his legs a bit.

The sand had become much cooler since the sunset. With the faded heat from the land, the gusts had gone. What tiny bits of air motion still existed barely registered on his skin, even if his additional senses let him take stock of it without question. The individual grains of sand were pleasant between his toes. Pleasant and dry, then pleasant and wet when he walked up to the stretch where the waves had flattened the beach into a shallow slope.

John almost felt bad for walking around that display of nature’s skill at shaping things. Unlike regular beaches, there were no waves to gradually return the slope to its ‘smooth’ state. His foot imprints were permanent until either they made another ruckus or a particularly intense rainstorm shifted the shoreline for a while.

‘Or I could ask Undine to put the waves into motion for a while,’ he considered. It was far from a ludicrous idea, which in itself was ludicrous. ‘How many tons of water is this?’ he wondered, trying to estimate where the barriers of the Protected Space lay and what the average depth of the water would be. He ran through a series of calculations, based on different assumptions. When his eyes drifted to Hailey, he stopped.

The dirty blonde had her hair tied back, to not bother her while she was swimming. Her form had visibly improved since they had gotten here. John doubted she had gotten many opportunities to swim in the ocean before. The area he had found her in had enough natural bodies of water that were sizable, so she probably had taken a dive in those from time to time.

John elected not to call out to her. She would get out in her own time. Instead, he returned to the group and looked for someone not presently engaged in some conversation. In his absence, Sylph had flown away, leaving Lydia, Rave, Beatrice, and Gnome in a semi-heated conversation about whether lemon or lime was better. Next to them, Eliana, Claire, Undine and Siena were in their typical formation. The local set of crazies (John liked to call that quartet the Chaos Brigade) were as tight-knit as ever.

That only left Lee off to the side, lying on a towel. Her eyes drifted lazily about, her expression empty except for a mild aloofness. An easily recognized look. The Gamer plopped down next to her. “You’re going inside soon?” he asked.

“Yeaaaaaah,” Lee responded, shifting around a bit. “Too much nature and too little electronics makes Lee a bored girl.” She summoned as much of her social energy as she could to give John a half lethargic smile. “My asocial levels are above yours, once again proving that I am the superior gamer.”

John mockingly blew air out of his nose, but did not argue. Reaching out, he intertwined his fingers with hers. She reciprocated readily and he smiled. “I’m sorry for decreasing your gamer cred, by the way.”

“Huh? When did you do that?”

“When I convinced you to work out and take more showers. You smell way less like cheap pizza cheese.” His eyes roamed her form. His youngest haremette remained a picture for the gods and only became more so as she aged the few years that remained before her effective immortality properly kicked in. Her face got a little more defined, her figure a little more feminine. Not that she could get a lot more feminine, with those wide hips and thunder thighs.

“Hmmm,” Lee just let out a displeased hum, as if something about what he had said displeased her. Probably, she could not gather the necessary energy to formulate her disagreement even if she thought of it. “It was worth it, though.”

“Definitely,” John told her and turned her way.

Lee neither leaned into nor away from the kiss. She just let him press it on her lips. When he put his arms under her and lifted her up in the princess carry, she did have the presence to tense up in all the places necessary to walk with her that way. “Today was exhausting, huh?”

“Sooooo many people,” Lee groaned, while he carried her up to the house. “I just wanted to stand in the corner and then people started coming to me being all ‘Oh, you must be Magoi’s daughter!’ ‘The famed heir of Fusion’s High Fateweaver!’ ‘Your parents must be…-‘ Urgh, can’t keep up the normie energy…”

John snorted with amusement at the use of the term. ‘You didn’t have to come,’ he considered saying, but that wasn’t the right set of words. She was too smart and too aware not to know that her presence had been optional. “I appreciate that you forced yourself to come,” he said instead.

“It wasn’t that much of a… ‘forced’ thing,” she yawned. In passing, she poked Delicia’s cheek with her big toe. The alchemist turned her head and playfully snapped at the foot. Weakly, Lee giggled. “Plus, I got to help my brother a bit… he probably hates me for stealing the spotlight, though….”

“Magnus doesn’t hate you,” John assured.

“I would hate me.” Maybe it was how tired she was, maybe it was the alcohol she had had, or maybe it was just something that had needed to get out for years. Whatever the reason was, she chose now to voice it. Not for the first and certainly not for the last time. “He’s doing everything right, he’s working hard, and then I just came along and… am better at the thing he cares most about… and I didn’t even take it seriously for the longest time…” She pressed her lips together and blinked away guilty tears. “That’s not fair, is it?”

“No, it’s not.” John carried her up the stairs, with nothing else he could really say. “You know life isn’t fair. It’s why we’re in a private mansion now and someone out there is sleeping in a cardboard box, probably not that far away. Think you can take a quick bath before you go to bed?”

The question came so out of nowhere, Lee couldn’t react at first. It was just that John himself had only suddenly realized he did not want Lee to be all sea-watery in bed. After five full seconds, she gave him a weak nod. “If you wash my hair,” she pleaded in a cute vocal fry.

They made their way back down and to the Roman bath. Lee sat down at the rim of the bath. John splashed her with the fresh water a few times, then grabbed a bottle of shampoo one of the maids had wisely left there. “You’re sure Magnus could never hate me?” she asked.

“Before we got together, your brother gave me a talking to. A heart to heart, about how much he loved watching you grow from a bumbling idiot into a sharp-witted young woman.” Lee put her lower lip forwards in an adorable pout. John just cackled. “His words, not mine.”

“All babies are idiots,” Lee grumbled.

“We’ll see about that,” John hummed and poured more water over her head to wash the soap out. “I don’t know if he’s never envious of what you have, Lee. It would surprise me if he wasn’t. He does love you, though. If you doubt that, maybe you should spend more time with him.”

“Hmmmrrmmmm, he’s such a stick in the mud, thooooo,” Lee whined.

“Then work with him sometime,” John suggested, half-jokingly. “Lord knows you can use some of his discipline. Now, get out of the water.”

John towelled Lee down top to bottom and even combed her hair. He had enough experience with each of his girls and their individual cosmetic needs. If he hadn’t washed the salt out, come tomorrow morning Lee would have had clumpy hair. Her straight strands glued to each other really easily, and from there, matting would soon follow. It was in everyone’s interest they avoided that.

The entire time he dried and combed her, Lee just swayed like wheat in the wind. She had officially graduated from low energy to drowsy. By the time he had carried her back to the bedroom and placed her in the room filling bed Romulus had provided, she was already out cold. Strategically, he placed her near the wall, where she would not be meaningfully disturbed by whatever else happened in that bed tonight.

With one more kiss to the corner of her lips, he left her to her dreams.