Taboo Online

Chapter 22: The Moans Behind Her Door

The penalty drained the little strength remaining in Luke’s arm, and his hand dropped against the stone.

Yvonne lifted her head with a delighted smile.

"Oh, dear."

Luke stared at the notification.

"Not now."

"It seems the dungeon disagrees with you."

Yvonne shifted over him and settled astride his hips, bringing the narrow strip of glossy fabric between her thighs against the growing pressure beneath his pants.

Exhaustion had done nothing to prevent his body from reacting.

She placed both hands on his chest.

"Gorgeous and incredibly hot?" she repeated.

"The truth bonus made the skill stronger."

"That explains why you said it aloud." Yvonne leaned closer. "It doesn’t explain why the dungeon called it an absolute truth."

Luke turned his face away.

Lowering herself until her hair brushed his cheek, Yvonne smiled above him.

"Do you think I’m gorgeous, Luke?"

The dungeon had already proven that silence would not save him.

"Yes."

[You have admitted the truth.]

[The lie penalty has been removed.]

Her expression softened.

"And hot?"

Luke swallowed and tried to look anywhere except at the woman sitting on top of him.

"Do I really have to say it?"

"I would like to hear you say it."

His face grew even hotter.

"Yes," he admitted. "I think you’re incredibly hot."

[A truthful statement has been detected.]

Yvonne made a pleased sound.

"Mhm. Much better."

Luke stared up at her blindfold.

"You nearly got eaten, and this is what you want to talk about?"

"You announced it during our finishing move."

"I thought we were about to die."

"And your final regret was not spending enough time with a gorgeous, hot woman?"

"It sounds bad when you put it that way."

"I think it sounds wonderful."

Yvonne lowered herself against him again. Her bare thighs pressed against his sides, and only their clothes separated the heat between their hips.

"Yvonne."

"Yes, darling?"

"You’re doing this on purpose."

[A truthful statement has been detected.]

She laughed beside his ear.

"You are getting much better at this game."

Heat spread across Luke’s face. He should have moved her or reminded her that they were lying in the middle of a ruined arena.

Instead, he placed his hands against her waist. The glossy material felt almost impossibly thin beneath his fingers.

Yvonne paused. Her teasing smile remained, but a faint flush appeared across her cheeks.

For the first time since they had met, Luke realized she might be almost as nervous as he was. That gave him a little more courage, although not nearly enough to make the next question easy.

"You said you wanted to spend more time with me."

"I did."

Luke hesitated. His thumbs shifted nervously against her waist.

"When you said that... was it only because the dungeon was listening?"

Her smile faded.

"No."

[A truthful statement has been detected.]

The answer came immediately. ƒreewebɳovel.com

Yvonne rested one hand against his cheek.

"I meant every word. I want to see what else you become inside this world."

"Only inside the game?"

The question escaped before Luke could reconsider it.

Yvonne froze. Excitement crossed her face first, followed by guilt, and her fingers tensed against his cheek.

A system window flickered at the edge of Luke’s vision, but no message appeared because she had not answered.

Before he could ask again, white light began rising from the cracks in the arena.

[Dungeon rewards are being calculated.]

[Players will return to their private rooms in thirty seconds.]

Yvonne looked around as though she might somehow stop the transfer.

"Thirty seconds?" she said. "That is hardly enough time."

"Enough time for what?"

Her smile returned.

Luke immediately became nervous.

"Yvonne?"

She sat upright on his waist and slowly ran both hands down his chest.

"You did save my life."

"It was a game."

[A lie has been detected.]

Luke sighed. "Fine. It felt real."

[You have admitted the truth.]

[The lie penalty has been removed.]

"It did," Yvonne said.

She leaned closer.

"And heroes usually receive rewards after defeating monsters."

"There are dungeon rewards."

"I was thinking about something more personal."

Luke’s heart began pounding harder than it had during the boss’s final charge.

Yvonne’s lips moved toward his.

Twenty seconds remained.

Luke stayed still while her warm breath touched his mouth. He did not know whether he was supposed to close his eyes, lean forward, or simply wait, and trying to decide left him too nervous to do any of those things.

At the last moment, she turned her head and pressed a slow kiss against his cheek. The beauty mark near her lips brushed his skin.

Luke forgot how to breathe.

Yvonne kept her mouth close to his ear.

"The rest can wait until you become a little braver."

She pulled away with a satisfied smile.

Luke stared at her. freewёbnoνel.com

"That was cruel."

"Was it?"

"Yes."

[A truthful statement has been detected.]

Yvonne laughed as the white light climbed higher around them.

Ten seconds remained.

Luke tightened his hands around her waist before the game could separate them.

"We’ll play again."

Yvonne’s expression softened.

"That sounded like a question."

"It wasn’t."

[A truthful statement has been detected.]

She placed her hand over his.

"Then I’ll be waiting."

The arena disappeared.

Luke opened his eyes inside the white character chamber. His body felt whole again. The cuts and exhaustion were gone, but the warmth of Yvonne’s kiss remained against his cheek.

A final window appeared.

[Partner Yvonne has left the shared dungeon.]

[Would you like to send a friend request?]

Luke pressed the confirmation button without hesitation.

[Request sent.]

For several seconds, he remained in the chamber and stared at the message. Luke had entered the game worried that an experienced partner would laugh at him. Instead, he had met a beautiful older woman, survived his first dungeon, created a linked skill, and shouted his attraction loudly enough for the system to classify it as an absolute truth.

He covered his face with both hands.

"What the hell did I just do?"

The game offered no answer.

Luke logged out.

The weight of the headset returned as his bedroom formed around him. After removing the device, he stared at the ceiling while his heart continued beating too quickly.

The apartment was quiet. Somewhere else inside it, Lauren was probably still working through her paperwork.

Luke touched the cheek Yvonne had kissed and wondered when she would accept his friend request.

Several doors away, Lauren removed her headset. Her black hair spilled across the pillows, and her cheeks felt hotter than they had at any point inside the dungeon.

A notification waited in the game’s companion app on her phone.

[Friend request received from Luke.]

Lauren pressed the phone against her chest.

"Gorgeous and incredibly hot," she whispered.

Repeating his words sent a shiver through her.

She had only planned to tease him. Becoming Yvonne gave her the freedom to see whether Luke found her attractive without risking the comfortable relationship they had begun building in the real world.

Instead, he had carried her out of danger, trusted her visions, placed his life in her hands, and declared his desire to remain with her strongly enough to change one of his skills.

Lauren accepted the friend request.

Then she remembered his final question.

Only inside the game?

Her excitement weakened beneath a layer of guilt. Luke still had no idea that Yvonne was really Miss Lauren.

She looked toward the bedroom door and imagined him somewhere down the hall.

She should tell him before things went any further. That would be the responsible and sensible choice.

Lauren placed the phone beside her pillow, but the responsible choice became harder to hold on to when she remembered Luke’s hands around Yvonne’s waist and the stunned look on his face after her kiss.

For a few lingering seconds, she still felt like Yvonne rather than Miss Lauren.

Heat gathered low in her body. She pushed the blanket aside and let her knees fall apart, allowing the cool air to brush over the bare skin above her stockings. One hand slipped slowly down her stomach and disappeared beneath the thin fabric between her thighs as her fingertips traced her needy pussy.

"Maybe after one more dungeon," she whispered.

Her eyes closed as Luke’s declaration returned to her.

Gorgeous and incredibly hot.

Her fingers moved again, slower this time, and the first soft moan escaped before she could stop it.

Down the hall, Luke finally gave up on lying in bed. His body was still too restless after the dungeon, and the apartment felt unusually quiet, so he left his room and headed toward the living room in search of water and something to distract himself.

He was passing Lauren’s door when a faint sound made him stop.

Luke glanced toward the closed door.

For a second, he thought he had imagined it. He almost continued walking, but another low, breathy moan slipped through the silence, followed by the soft rustle of sheets.

His entire body stiffened.

Luke immediately looked away from the door, feeling as though he had walked in on something even though it remained firmly closed.

He should have kept moving, but the thought never reached his legs.

Luke remained rooted outside Lauren’s door, staring at the floor while heat spread through his face and down his neck. His hand tightened around the edge of his shirt as though holding on to the fabric might somehow steady him.

A third moan came from behind the door, quieter than the others but unmistakably real.

His breath caught.

He had never heard a woman make a sound like that outside the videos he had occasionally watched and always closed afterward with a mixture of embarrassment and guilt. Hearing it from only a few feet away was completely different.

Worse, it was Miss Lauren.

Luke lowered his eyes, ashamed that he was still standing there. He should have hurried into the living room before she noticed him, or made enough noise to warn her that someone was in the hallway.

Instead, he could not move.

Another faint rustle came from behind the door, followed by a broken breath that made his heart pound even harder. Some part of him wanted to escape before he heard anything else, but another part, stronger and far more humiliating, desperately wanted her to continue.

Luke swallowed.

His feet remained fixed to the floor as another soft moan slipped through the door.