Chapter 44 opens with Ash shoving clothes underneath Merry to lift her body up. Ash is kissing up Merry’s thigh and teasing her. Meanwhile, Holly is sitting nearby, watching them, and whimpering.

Holly made a small noise. It made me look at him. He was hugging his knees tightly to his chest again, watching us. He looked eager, true, but there was more than that. Again, I got that glimpse of how lonely he and Ash must be. They were fierce goblin warriors, but part of them was not. Part of them craved different meat than the bloody raw stuff they got at their court. And here, in this place between time, between space, where no time would pass, might be their only chance to be sidhe and not goblin. Holly could say he wanted to be goblin rather than sidhe, but the longing was there on his face in the moonlight.

I’d feel sorry for Holly if he weren’t such a dick all the time. Even here, in this weird between-space, he was just a nonstop asshole to Merry, to the Gods, to Ash. He’s just a jerk bully and I hate him.

The way LKH describes oral sex is ridiculous.

Ash pressed his mouth against that most intimate part, and began to suck. It made me press myself against his mouth, eager for more. He responded by giving me more, pressing his mouth around me in a tight seal so that the sucking became more intense. That sweet pressure began to build between my legs. It grew with each movement of his mouth, each caress of his lips, his tongue, and the press of his teeth, not biting, but helping raise the sensation level. He brought me to that trembling edge, as the weight grew and grew between my legs until, with one last kiss, one last suck, one last flick of his tongue, he spilled me over the edge and brought me screaming, hands reaching up toward the moon, as if I would claw my pleasure on the very surface of it.

So instead of Merry clawing the moon or whatever, Holly rushes over and moves her hands onto his chest. She starts running her nails over Holly’s chest, adding scars to his already marred body. And she starts glowing again, like a goddamn Christmas tree.

Ash moved away from me, and I started to protest, to call him back, but then I felt him above me. I looked down from Holly’s body to find Ash hard and ready, as he pushed his way inside me. Just him entering made me cry out again. I was still spasming inside from the orgasm he’d given me so that my body squeezed and writhed around him as he shoved himself in.
Holly pinned my wrists to the clothes and grass beneath us, using one big hand for both of mine. Ash stayed up on his arms so that almost all that was touching me was that part of him that thrust in and out, his skin glowing in the white light.

For some reason it’s hilarious to me that Ash doesn’t want to touch Merry at all.

Merry realizes that both Ash and Holly are glowing on their own. That their glow isn’t just their white bodies reflecting Merry’s christmassy glow. Merry is about to say something to Holly about the glow, but then Holly shoves his cock in her mouth.

They both found their rhythm, and worked as if they’d done this before, or as if something helped them know just where the other would be, and what they would be doing, so that they mirrored each other, one in my mouth, one between my legs.

Also, LKH uses a lot of “so that”, doesn’t she? There was one in this last quote and one in the previous. I think whenever she has a paragraph that’s longer than one sentence, she uses a “so that” to describe something. It was almost as if she’s not a great writer.

_{(She uses ‘it was almost as if’ a lot too, get it? I’m hilarious.)}

I raised my hips for Ash, and moved my mouth eagerly toward Holly, but both of them controlled what I did, Ash with his hands on my hips, holding me still so he could find the spot he wanted, Holly with his free hand in my hair, holding me a little away from him so he could stare down at me as he drove himself in and out of me.

First off, that’s one sentence. That’s one supremely horribly written sentence.

Secondly, yet again another sex scene where Merry basically just lays there while people do sex on her. She is never an actual participant. She’s no better than a blow-up doll.

Is this sexy to people? Do people actually imagine themselves as Merry, imagining that whatever Holly and Ash are doing to her are happening to them? I’d rather read a scene where everyone participates and has a good time. Not a bunch of one sentence paragraphs listing all the “too real” sex stuff that happens to Merry.

Anyway both men orgasm at exactly the same time.

Ash began to lose his rhythm, shoving more deeply at the end of each thrust. I felt him fight his body to keep going inside me until I came first. That wasn’t just being sidhe; goblins prided themselves on their stamina, and how many orgasms they could bring their partners. He fought his body, fought to keep some rhythm as he began to thrust more and more deeply, losing his concentration, but he didn’t need it, not anymore. He’d done his work well, and from one thrust to another, he brought me. He brought me screaming my orgasm around his brother’s body. Holly cried out above me and thrust into my mouth so far and deeply that during anything but full-blown orgasm it would have been too much, but in that moment, at that second, it was exactly right. The sensation of both of them inside me at once brought me screaming again, bucking around both their bodies.

I know I’ve used a lot of gifs in this post already, but again, I must reiterate just how badly I picture Merry doing this whenever she orgasms:

Holly spilled down my throat in a rush of heat, crying out again. Ash thrust one more time, deep inside me, hitting the end of me with the end of himself, like a battering ram, but it felt so good. It brought me again, screaming and writhing around them both.

LIKE A BATTERING RAM.

The men both withdraw themselves from Merry and collapse next to her. The chapter ends with Holly and Ash grabbing onto Merry’s hands and marveling over how their new sidhe glows mix against the world.