Allen, Kayelle - T4 Alitus (2007)

by Allen, Kayelle

  He flinched at the touch of her hand. “Alitus.”

  He could not force himself to look at her. He breathed as heavily as if he’d run up a flight of stairs. He made fists, fighting to hold onto the anger that threatened the last vestige of his control.

  “I found a way to help.”

  Alitus pressed fingers against his brow, struggling to absorb her words and force them to make sense. “Help.” He met her eyes. “Help how?”

  Destoiya ran her hands down his arms, turning him to face her. “Alitus. Darling.” She touched his cheek. “My love, I treasure you as I’ve treasured no other. You bring peace into my soul when I haven’t had it in cent…” She paused. “—in so long, I can’t remember.” Her tremulous smile made his heart ache. “I’ve thought of a way to give you more freedom.”

  He sagged his shoulders, head down. “How, Majesty? If you won’t veto the law, then how?”

  She smiled, her eyes as silver as a moon’s glow. “Wait here.” She returned to the door and opened it, motioning to whoever waited outside.

  Chapter Six

  Conqueror’s Palace, Alitus Vivaldi’s Quarters

  Sumertsag 41

  Alitus pressed the fingers of both hands against his brow, struggling to fathom what he was seeing. Destoiya had summoned what could only be a male Better, draped with a black veil that completely hid him from the shoulders up. Wearing unrelieved black, not one inch of the man’s skin showed.

  Oh, God. Is this my future? Blankness? Reduced to nothing more than a black shape to be cast off and ignored?His stomach felt as if he’d eaten a nest of live spiders.

  The empress led the man forward by the hand. “Well, Alitus?” She gestured to the other Better and smiled as if showing off a prize. “What do you think?”

  He chewed his lip to refrain from cursing. With barely restrained loathing, he folded his arms. “Am I that easily replaced?”

  “Repla—? No! I would never add another Better to the Stable. One of you is quite enough, believe me.”

  He drew back.

  “I—I didn’t mean itthat way.” Destoiya clasped her hands together. “I only wanted you to see what he looked like so you could…”

  “Am I supposed to beimpressed by this fashion show?”

  Destoiya’s brows lifted, eyes wide. She remained silent a long moment before turning to the other Better. She sighed and made a curt gesture. “Show him.”

  The Better pulled off the veil. “Hey, man.” He reached up and tousled his hair into place, sweeping the dark locks back from his face with a stupid grin. “How you doing?”

  Alitus held his breath, too stunned to speak. Rudolf Brakovsky? Rudy was anormal . One of her fucking boy toy slaves. A Jade.

  “How dare you come into my home and mock me!” Alitus hauled back and punched him right in the nose.

  *

  “Alitus!” Destoiya shoved him back, away from Rudolf. “What are you doing?” She leveraged herself between them. “He’s trying to help you!”

  “Help me? How?” Alitus curled his right hand into a fist. “By coming here in that get up and mocking me?”

  “No. No…” Destoiya planted both feet on the ground and leaned against him, but Alitus slid her aside like a child and went after Rudolf again.

  “Hey! Be cool, Alitus.” He flinched back, one hand held up, the other pressed against his bleeding nose. “I thought you were ok with this.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are, coming here like that? I ought to break your neck, you son-of-a-bitch!”

  “Alitus!” Destoiya grabbed his arms and pulled him back. “Stop it!”

  Rudolf backed farther away. He glanced at his blood-stained fingers. “I’m supposed to be your stand-in.”

  “For what?” Alitus shook off Destoiya’s restraining hands and stalked after the Jade.

  Rudolf retreated to the door and opened it.

  “Rudy, don’t leave!” Destoiya put herself between the two men again, both hands out to hold Alitus back. She’d never seen him like this. Her haven of peace had morphed into a tyrant of outrage. “Alitus! Listen to me.”

  “How could you do this to me?” The deep blue of his eyes neared black, his mouth a hard line. “How could you bring one of your Jades here dressed like that and mock me! How could you!”

  He turned his back on her. She gasped and covered her mouth. One did not turn one’s back on the Empress of the Tarthian Empire.

  Rudolf had pulled a handkerchief from a pocket and pressed it against his nose. “Majesty, forgive me, but I think it’s better if I go.” He motioned out the door.

  Destoiya nodded. When the door closed, she hesitated a moment before walking around Alitus and facing him. His head was down, jaw clamped tight as a vise. She could feel anger coming off him in waves, and she was not the least bit psychic.

  “Until now…” She folded her arms. “—you have been a paragon of propriety and that’s the only reason I’m going to withhold punishment for this behavior.” Since he still did not meet her eyes, she began to pace, gloved hands behind her. “You have always put me first and treated me with the utmost respect.” She stopped directly in front of him and was relieved when he raised his head and met her gaze. “I value that quality in you. Perhaps too much.” She shook her head. “Perhaps I’ve asked far too much.”

  Alitus turned away again.

  “When I speak to you…” She used her military command voice. “—look at me.”

  He stiffened his shoulders and lifted his head.

  She thunked a hand into the middle of his chest and gazed up into his dark eyes. The whites were shot with blood. He’d withheld his pheromones even while furious and hurt—he could have inundated the room, used them to dominate, to force his will. He hadn’t. The result faced her now. She bit her lower lip.Oh, dear God, what have I done?

  Destoiya tore off her gloves and threw them to the floor. “Alitus, I never meant to hurt you. You mean everything to me. If I could spare you this inconvenience, don’t you think I would?”

  “Inconvenience?” He tilted back his head, blew out a harsh breath and laughed. The wretchedness of that sound tore out her heart. “Is that what you think this is to me?” He glared at her. “Some damned inconvenience like having to wait for you to finish screwing everyone else before you get to me?”

  She made a fist to keep from striking him. “If any other man in this empire had dared say that to me, he would be dead right now.” Opening her hands with deliberately slow movements, she put them at her sides. For this gentle, loving man to be so angry, she had indeed hurt him. Perhaps too deeply to recover. She prayed it was not too much, even while she feared the worst.

  With infinite patience, she lifted one hand and stroked it down his smooth cheek. Gentling him the way she would a wild horse, she smoothed her hand across his shoulders, down his chest. “Alitus. Alitus, help me, love. I’m trying to understand. Talk to me.”

  He closed his eyes, shaking his head.

  “You must talk to me, love.” She took his arm. “Please. Please, come sit down.” She led him back to the couch and moved the book aside. Patting the space beside her as she sat, she waited while he seated himself.

  Alitus leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees, head down. A tear dropped onto the floor at his feet.

  “What is it, love? What are you feeling?”

  He turned his face toward hers, agony in his eyes. “How can you shame me like this?”

  “Shame you?” Laying a hand against her bosom, Destoiya caught her breath. “How can you think I want to shame you?”

  “You’re making me hide everything I am, Majesty. You used to take pride in having me beside you. You used to show me off to people.” He mimicked her higher voice, “‘Alitus is my only Better.’ You forget how acute all my senses are, Majesty. I could hear you discussing me with others. Comparing me to other men. To your Jades.”

  She nodded, showing she listened. “Go on, love.”

  “I was reare
d to have pride in what I am. I’m a Better!” He touched his chest. “The very name says what I am. Anything one of them can do…” He threw out his arm toward the door her Jade had exited. “—I can do longer, harder and stronger. I have never let you down. I’ve always put you first. Always! I’ve never taken anything for myself. Never asked for one single thing.”

  “That is true, my love. I respect you for it.”

  “And now, I have to hide as if there’s something wrong with me. As if I were diseased!” He stood, paced in front of the couch. “I’m a Better! A Better! There is nothing wrong with me, damn it!” He confronted her, his face mottled with rage. “And I resent like hell being forced to act like there is!”

  She got to her feet. Nothing she could say could take away the sting this caused his pride. Nothing she could do would assuage it.

  “Alitus.” How could she explain how this law nudged the empire forward in her master plan without revealing the plan to him in its entirety? Yet to do that meant revealing her true self. She was a Sempervian. She could reveal her true nature only to one of theChosen .

  As part of a secret society, theChosen had access to every aspect of a Sempervian’s life. If she accepted him as herChosen , he would learn her history, her plans, her strengths and weaknesses. Destoiya had not accepted aChosen in over four hundred years for those very reasons.

  A Chosen would die before revealing secrets. Destoiya would die before asking it of anyone. Never. Never. She would never let anyone die for her again.

  Alitus studied her as if reading every thought that raced through her mind.

  If she told him, it would bind him and his house to hers forever. Taking his hands in hers, she lifted her face to his.

  Chapter Seven

  Conqueror’s Palace, Alitus Vivaldi’s Quarters

  Sumertsag 41

  “I owe you an apology, Alitus. I’ve asked far too m-much of you. You have every right to be f-furious with m-me.” She averted her face and turned away.I am the empress, for God’s sake! I have to control myself. Yet, facing his anger, she stammered like an awkward girl ending a bad first date. She clenched both fists.Get hold of yourself!

  Behind her, she heard every ragged breath her lover took. Her own heart hammered.Get it over with, Rheyn. Be the Conqueror. She whirled to face him.

  “You’ve never withheld anything from me except your anger and I’ve taken every advantage I could. It’s been all too easy for me to take you for granted. It was terrible of me to abuse you in such a way, Alitus. I only meant for Rudolf to fill in for you at my side when you had other things to do. He was to be a decoy. Nothing more. I—shouldn’t have surprised you like that.”

  She’d allowed him to rage at her as if she were no more than his doxy, and all she could think to do was stoop and pick up her gloves. He, above all people, didn’t deserve her anger. She drew the gloves across the palm of her hand.

  “Alitus.” She could not bring herself to make eye contact with him. “I—I’m sorry.” She hurried toward the door.

  “Rheyn!”

  Brought up short by his use of her first name—an intimacy he rarely allowed himself—she turned back. By some trick of the light, his blond hair glowed, its paleness diffused further by her tears. Stripped of his usual jacket, his plain dress shirt shone like white fire.

  She waited for him to say something further.

  Arms out at his sides, Alitus stood there, his submissive stance echoing her own futility. He sank to his knees, one hand over his eyes.

  Destoiya hastened back to his side and knelt, gathered him in her arms. “Oh, Alitus. My love. My love…” She pushed her fingers through his silken hair, cradling his head against her.

  “Oh, God, Rheyn.” He lifted his tear-stained face to hers, shaking his head, the bloody whites making his eyes a brilliant blue. Wetness turned his blond lashes into dark, spiky points. “I’m so sorry. Please, please, don’t leave me.”

  “I couldn’t leave you, Alitus. I could never leave you.” She drew him close and pressed his head against her shoulder.

  Day in and out she relied so heavily on this man it slipped her mind how much she truly loved him. He was all man, grown from that sweet, virgin youth she’d fallen in love with. Where did the years go? Gone like a quick snap of her fingers.

  Alitus sucked in a deep breath, shuddering. “I had no right to be angry with you.”

  “Shh.” She kissed his wet cheek, dried his tears with her fingers. “Of course, you did, love. I pushed you far too hard.”

  Too late, she felt the result of the pheromones in his tears. Comforting him brought her under the chemical spell of his pheromones as easily as if he’d released them into the room. Heat bloomed within her as if they’d spent hours in foreplay. Droplets of sweat formed on her brow and between her breasts. Her mouth went dry.

  She clenched a fist across her stomach. “Alitus…”

  He pulled back, confusion on his face. Guilt transformed it. “Oh, no. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean t…”

  “It’s all right,” she whispered.

  Every Sempervian bore a blessing and a curse—her curse doomed her to a torment of sexual desire few human men could ever extinguish alone. A nightmare of unquenchable lust that wracked her days and turned her nights into bouts of perversion and twisted sexual escapades. Anything to escape the fire burning within her. A keening fire that allowed her no dignity. No shame. No rest. And Alitus—one of the few who could soothe her maddening heat—could also spike it unbearably with a single touch.

  She stood on shaky legs and staggered, caught in her long hem.

  Alitus rose and swept her into his arms. “Let me love you, Rheyn. Let me give you peace.”

  She tilted back her head, accepting his kiss, arms wrapped around his neck. Hot blood thundered through her veins, scorching her inside. Used to commanding her lovers, submission did not come easy. In her heart she knew he needed to dominate her tonight, take her, prove to himself she was his. Knew he needed to take her inhis bed. Not hers.

  He entreated her with kisses and swept his tongue inside her mouth. She moaned into his, sucking at his tongue, opening wide to coax him inside. Destoiya mated with his mouth, his honeyed taste bringing to mind a sweet brandy. Intoxicating. Lush. Like him.

  He nipped at her chin and throat.

  A sob rose within her. Destoiya nestled against him as Alitus carried her from the room. His firm arms drew her in, held her fast against his muscled chest. His scent, a mix of apricot and peach when he was aroused, drifted to her. She inhaled, taking his pheromones deeper, deeper, right into her soul.

  “I need you, Alitus. I want you inside me. Take me. Love me…”

  “Yes, Rheyn. Yes. I love you.” He kissed her, a wild coupling of mouth and tongue that left her breathless.

  The simplicity of his bedroom—a big bed, a chair, bedside tables—underscored his elegance. The physical beauty of Alitus the Better fit here. The brocades and tapestries suited his golden hair, ocean-blue eyes and perfectly sculpted face. The heart of Alitus the Man wooed her, won her, whether they shared a palace or a hovel.

  “Rheyn,” he whispered her name as he set her on her feet beside the bed. “I love you. I will take care of you. Trust me.”

  He pulled down the golden brocade covers, baring the sheets. He knelt and wrapped one hand around her ankle.

  “Put your hand on my shoulder.” He steadied her as he helped her step from her shoes. Rising, he made short work of her dress’s fasteners and let it fall to the floor.

  She stood before him naked except for panties and necklace, the heat between her legs making her writhe. “I want you, Alitus. I need you so. Please, hurry…”

  “I am, love.” Using both hands, he peeled her panties down her legs, squatting to take them off her. “I’ll take care of you. Satisfy you. I promise.” The warmth of his breath against her mound made her shiver with anticipation.

  He scooped her up and laid her gently on the bed. Its cool sheets aga
inst her heated skin soothed. Lying beside her fully dressed, he propped himself up to gaze down at her. Alitus took her chin in one hand and tilted her face to his as he bent for a lingering kiss that made her arch against him.

  The rapture in his tender touch inflamed her. Alitus was desire embodied in a male form that had been designed for beauty and created for exquisite pleasure. Destoiya intended to plunder his passion until she had her fill of him. She spread her legs wide, inviting him without a word.

  “You are so beautiful, Rheyn.” His golden lashes lowered as he took in her body. He slid his fingers between her labia and stroked her, making her arch and cry out. The stark blue of his eyes against their reddened whites spoke of his control, his insistence on caring for her first.