Chapter 23: Where is Keres? (R18+)
During the Wedding Celebration
The reception hall was a sea of white and gold, with crystal chandeliers casting soft light across the gathered guests.
Laughter and chatter filled the air, glasses clinked in toast after toast, and the string quartet played a melody that was both joyful and melancholy.
But at the center of it all, Asteria sat alone.
The long head table had been designed for two—for the bride and the bride. Two chairs, two place settings, two glasses of champagne.
But only one chair was occupied, only one glass had been touched and one bride had shown up.
Faye and Alfonso sat in the corner, watching their daughter-in-law from across the room. They saw how she smiled at the guests who approached her, how she nodded politely at their congratulations, how she laughed softly at jokes she probably didn’t hear. On the surface, she seemed fine. Happy, even.
But Faye knew better. She could see the tightness around Asteria’s eyes, the way her fingers clenched around her champagne glass a little too tightly, the way her gaze kept drifting to the empty chair beside her.
For Asteria, this was better than tensing next to someone she was afraid of. Her past three husbands had left that fear ingrained deep in her bones—the constant vigilance, the waiting for the next blow, the dread of sitting beside someone whose mood could shift in an instant.
Without Keres beside her, she felt relief. She didn’t have to worry about a cold gaze cutting into her or didn’t have to brace herself for a whispered threat. She didn’t have to pretend that she wasn’t terrified of the person sitting next to her.
This was better, easier and safer.
So Asteria smiled as she ate her cake. She complimented the florist on the centerpieces. She thanked the guests for coming. She played the role of the happy bride, even though her wife was nowhere to be found.
Some people murmured amongst themselves, their whispers sharp as needles. "Did you hear? Keres didn’t even show up."
"I heard she left the bride for another woman already."
"How pathetic, clinging to someone who clearly doesn’t want her."
The words stung, but Asteria had been stung before. She had survived worse.
Faye and Alfonso finally rose from their corner and made their way toward her. They sat down on either side of her, flanking her like guards, like parents, like the only family she had ever truly known.
Faye reached over and took Asteria’s hand, her brow furrowed with concern. "My dear, I’m very sorry. Keres didn’t arrive today. I don’t know what got into that girl’s head, but this is not how a wedding should be. You deserve to have your wife beside you on a day like this."
Asteria squeezed her hand back, her smile soft and reassuring. "Mama, Papa. It’s okay. The ceremony still went on, didn’t it? And I know how busy Keres is. Running a company, managing the family business—it’s a lot. I totally understand." She let out a small, airy laugh.
"Besides, I’ve been married three times before. I know that weddings don’t always go according to plan."
Faye and Alfonso exchanged a glance, their frowns deepening.
"This was supposed to be your special day," Alfonso muttered, shaking his head. "Not some business meeting that she could skip whenever she felt like it."
Asteria tilted her head, considering his words. "No, Papa. This is no different from my other weddings." She paused, thinking. "Well, maybe just one difference. This is my first time marrying a woman."
Faye’s eyes lit up with curiosity. She leaned closer, a teasing smile playing on her lips. "Oh? Why does that sound so serious? You make it sound like you’ve never fallen for a woman before."
Asteria met her gaze and nodded simply. "I haven’t, Mama. I never liked a woman before. Not like that." She paused, then added softly, "Keres is the first woman I’ve married."
Faye blinked, taken aback. "No, I mean..." She searched for the right words. "Like... love? Genuine feelings? Have you ever fallen for a woman before? Even just a little bit?"
Asteria shook her head, her smile unchanged. "I am straight, Mama."
The words landed like stones in still water.
Alfonso and Faye stared at her, shock rippling across their faces. They had assumed—perhaps foolishly—that because Asteria had agreed to marry their daughter, there must have been some attraction there. Some spark. Some possibility of something growing between them.
"Then why agree to marry our Keres?" Alfonso asked, his voice gentle but confused. "If you don’t like women, why put yourself through this?"
Asteria looked down at her hands for a moment. The answer sat heavy on her tongue—the memory of Keres’s cold smile and darker promises. But she couldn’t tell them that.
They had been so kind to her. They had taken her in, cared for her, treated her like a daughter. How could she repay that kindness by telling them that their own daughter had threatened to destroy her?
She thought of something else. Her gratitude. The promise from fifteen years ago. The way Faye and Alfonso had given her everything without asking for anything in return.
"Haha," she let out a soft laugh, the sound hollow even to her own ears. "I’m... I’m curious, I suppose. What it would feel like to marry someone of the same gender." The lie tasted bitter on her tongue, sharp and wrong.
She had never lied to Faye and Alfonso before. They had never given her a reason to. But she couldn’t tell them the truth. Not today. Not like this.
She forced her smile wider. "Mama and Papa, don’t worry too much, okay? I’m sure me and Keres will learn to respect each other. Even though she is busy most of the time, I will make sure to be a good wife to her. I’ll take care of the home. I’ll stay out of her way. I won’t be a burden."
Faye’s expression softened, but her eyes remained troubled. "And if she yells at you? If she hurts you? You tell me immediately, Asteria. I don’t care that she’s an adult. I don’t care that she’s my daughter. I will not stand by and watch history repeat itself."
Asteria nodded, her smile trembling slightly. "I will, Mama. Thank you."
But deep inside, where no one could see, the familiar feeling of abandonment wrapped around her heart like ivy. The feeling of being unwanted. The feeling of being despised.
The feeling that no matter where she went or who she married, she would always be too much and not enough at the same time.
She sat at the head table, surrounded by guests and flowers and champagne, and smiled for the cameras. But inside, she was still that small little girl, crying under the bed, comforting herself that the monsters won’t find her there.
~~~•••~~~
Meanwhile Keres stood before the mirror in her office bathroom, the harsh fluorescent lights catching on the pristine white of her wedding attire.
The trousers were tailored to perfection, hugging her hips and tapering down to her heels, while the long-sleeved polo beneath the vest showed nothing of the heat building beneath her skin.
Only the expensive brooch pinned to her left side—an intricate piece of silver and sapphire that had cost more than most people’s monthly salaries—caught the light with each shaky breath she took.
She looked every bit the composed executive that employees whispered about in the hallways, the woman who could freeze a boardroom with a single glance.
But the mirror didn’t show what was happening below her waist, and it certainly didn’t capture the sounds threatening to spill from her lips.
The bathroom was small, utilitarian, meant for quick touch-ups between meetings, but Keres had locked the door twenty minutes ago and she wasn’t leaving until she was finished.
The vibrator buzzed relentlessly inside her, buried deep where she needed it most, the highest intensity level sending violent shudders through her core that made her knees knock together.
She gripped the edge of the sink with one hand, her knuckles white against the porcelain, while the other hand worked between her legs with frantic, desperate movements.
"Oh, fuck," she gasped, the sound echoing off the tile walls. Her head fell back, the elegant hair she’d styled that morning coming disheveled of dark hair stuck to her sweat-dampened neck. "Yes... yes, right there..."
The image wouldn’t leave her mind.
Asteria.
Always Asteria. The way she’d looked the last time—the way her skin flushed pink, how her eyes went wide and glassy when Keres pushed her just a little too far, how her body arched off the bed like a bowstring pulled taut.
Keres could almost feel her fingers digging into soft flesh, could almost hear the whimpers and pleas that had spilled from those pretty lips.
"Haah... Asteria..." The name fell from her mouth like a prayer and a curse wrapped together, breathless and broken. "Hnnng... Asteria... it feels so good..."
She didn’t understand this obsession. She was Keres Eisenthurn, for god’s sake. She didn’t lose control.
She didn’t hide in bathroom stalls like some desperate teenager, didn’t shove expensive sex toys inside herself while fantasizing about women who should have been beneath her notice.
But every time she closed her eyes, she saw Asteria’s face contorted in pleasure and pain, saw those hips writhing beneath her palms, felt the heat of her skin and the way she’d trembled when Keres had shown her exactly who was in charge.
The vibrator kicked against her inner walls, relentless and mechanical, but it was the memory that was really destroying her.
The memory of Asteria’s thighs spreading wider, of the way she’d begged—actually begged—when Keres had denied her release, keeping her on that knife’s edge until tears streamed down her face.
That power, that absolute control over another person’s pleasure, was more intoxicating than any drug Keres had ever encountered.
"Fuck," Keres moaned, her hips bucking forward involuntarily, seeking more friction against the pulsating toy. "I need more of you, Asteria! Haah! Agh! Ugh!"
Her fingers found her clit, swollen and sensitive, peeking out from between her slick folds. She rubbed it in tight, desperate circles, the dual sensation making her vision blur at the edges.
The white trousers were ruined—she could feel the damp patch spreading, could smell her own arousal thick in the small room, mixing with the floral soap by the sink and creating something obscene and primal.
She should have been preparing for the merger presentation. She should have been reviewing contracts or terrorizing her assistant or doing any of the thousand things that demanded her attention.
But instead she was here, chasing this high, this release that felt like it might finally quiet the screaming need that had been building inside her for days.
Ever since she’d last touched Asteria, ever since she’d had to pull back and pretend to be civilized, the hunger had been growing like a living thing.
The fantasy shifted, evolved. In her mind, it wasn’t the vibrator inside her anymore—it was her fingers inside Asteria, feeling that wet heat clamp down on her, feeling those muscles flutter and contract.
She imagined pinning Asteria’s wrists above her head with one hand while the other worked her mercilessly, imagined the sounds she’d make, the way she’d say Keres’s name when she finally let her come.
"Please," Keres whispered to the empty room, not sure if she was begging the fantasy Asteria or herself or the universe. "Please, I need... I need..."
Her thighs were shaking now, the muscles burning from holding herself upright. She spread her legs wider, bracing her feet against the tile floor, and pushed the vibrator deeper, angling it to hit that spot that made stars explode behind her eyelids.
The sound of it—wet and obscene against her flesh—filled the bathroom along with her ragged breathing.
She thought about Asteria’s neck, the column of her throat, how it looked when she threw her head back in submission. She thought about the sounds Asteria made when she was trying to be quiet, those high, keening whimpers that vibrated through her chest.
She thought about the way Asteria’s eyes had looked at her that last time—not with fear, not with simple lust, but with something that looked dangerously like worship.
That was what did it. That look. The idea that Asteria wanted this, wanted her, wanted to be used and played with and broken down until there was nothing left but sensation.
Keres’s mouth fell open, her jaw slack as the pleasure crested like a wave she couldn’t outrun. Her eyes rolled back, the ceiling lights blurring into white streaks, and her throat worked as she tried to suppress the scream that was tearing its way up from her chest.
She bit down on her own lip, hard enough to taste copper, and her body went rigid as the orgasm crashed through her.
"Fuck! Haah! It feels good! Asteria!"
The name tore out of her as her hips jerked in spasms, as her inner walls clamped down on the vibrator so hard it almost hurt. She rode it out, grinding against her hand, milking every last second of the peak until she was gasping, until her lungs burned and her heart hammered against her ribs like it wanted to escape.
The bathroom seemed too loud then, the silence after the storm ringing in her ears. Keres slumped forward, her forehead resting against the cool mirror, her breath fogging the glass in ragged bursts.
She was still twitching, little aftershocks making her jolt every few seconds, and her hand was cramping from how hard she’d been gripping herself.
"Asteria," she breathed again, softer now, almost reverent. Her chest heaved, the vest rising and falling with each desperate gulp of air. She didn’t move to clean herself up yet. She couldn’t.
Her legs felt like jelly, and there was a pleasant numbness spreading through her limbs that made her want to sink to the floor and stay there.
But the clarity was coming back, sharp and cold as it always did after she finished. The heat receded, leaving behind the determination that had built the Eisenthurn empire from nothing.
Keres straightened slowly, her hand trembling as she withdrew the vibrator and dropped it into the floor with a wet sound. She looked at herself in the mirror—at the wild hair, the flushed cheeks, the lips bitten red and swollen.
She looked like a woman who had just been thoroughly fucked, and the satisfaction of that image made her smile, slow and dangerous.
"Fuck," she muttered, adjusting her vest with fingers that still weren’t steady. The brooch caught the light again, and she straightened it with deliberate care. "I will make sure to use you, Asteria. Just you wait and see."
She ran a hand through her hair, smoothing it back into something approaching professionalism, though the wildness in her eyes couldn’t be so easily tamed.
That was fine. Let them see. Let them wonder why the great Keres Eisenthurn looked like she was plotting something deliciously wicked.
Because she was.
This wasn’t over. This was barely the beginning. Keres didn’t chase things she couldn’t catch, didn’t want things she couldn’t have. And she wanted Asteria—not just for another night, not just for another taste, but completely.
She wanted to own every sigh, every shiver, every moment of pleasure that woman would ever feel. She wanted to ruin her for anyone else, wanted to teach her body to respond only to Keres’s touch, wanted to make her so desperate that she’d crawl if that was what it took.
The vibrator had been a temporary fix, a bandage on a wound that was festering into something magnificent.
Keres wiped her hands on a paper towel with methodical precision, straightened her trousers, and checked her reflection one last time.
The executive was back, the mask firmly in place. But beneath the white vest and the expensive brooch, her heart was still pounding with the rhythm of a predator that had scented its prey.
The typical Keres Eisenthurn never stopped. Not until she got what she wanted. And what she wanted now had a name, a face, and a body that would soon belong to her in every way that mattered.
She unlocked the bathroom door a few moments after she changed her trousers and stepped back into her office, the scent of sex hidden beneath her perfume, her stride steady and sure.
The board meeting could wait five more minutes. She had plans to make, and a certain someone to mentally undress all over again.
Just wait and see.
