“You would never get to touch me with it.” Saerileth curled up on Ajalira's bed with a catlike movement that sent jealousy stabbing through Ajalira's middle. “The Regent used to wear that when he sailed with my master. It is Sunjaa belief that aquamarines ward off seasickness.”
“Why are you here?” asked Ajalira. She knew that Saerileth was probably right; that blade would never connect with the Lotus's flesh.
“I am here to tell you that you are either the cruelest or the most cowardly woman in Arinport.” Saerileth's face was as impassive as ever. “Why would you treat the Regent this way?”
“What way?” Ajalira laid the still-bloody dagger on the table at the head of the bed. “And what is it to you?”
“You fear concubinage,” said Saerileth. “But you know nothing of it. You think it is slavery, just as you consider a Lotus a slave. But it is not. I am concubine to the Lord Admiral, and he loves me. I am beloved, and our sons are acknowledged by Sunjaa law.”
Ajalira opened her mouth to deny Saerileth's words, but closed it at once. She had wondered about concubinage, and the realization that she had thought so much of the Regent brought the blood back to her cheeks. If she did not stop blushing, she feared that she would faint.
“Some peoples acknowledge multiple wives; others acknowledge divorce. Your people, Ajalira, acknowledge neither. I suspect it has to do with the Ausir lack of children, but that is irrelevant at this point. The Regent is Sunjaa, and they are a mighty people, a nation greater than yours or mine. Here is where you dwell. Here is where the Regent dwells. Do you mistrust the Regent? Do you think that he would mistreat you?”
“No.” Ajalira whispered the word. “He is above that.”
“Do you think he would take a wife to place above you?” Saerileth here broached a fear that Ajalira had never wanted to admit.
“He would deserve a wife to place above me.” Ajalira shook her head.
“Should that not be for the Regent to decide?” Saerileth did not smile, but the lines of her face relaxed slightly. “You ought not to let pride, false or otherwise, keep you from accepting your lover.” Saerileth leaned forward on her knees and pulled Ajalira to a sitting position on the bed. “Nor should you allow fear to do it.”
“Fear?” Ajalira half raised her hand to strike Saerileth for the very idea. “I am Tamari. I fear nothing.”
“Liar.” Saerileth was off the bed and on her feet. “You fear the Regent.” The Lotus's laughter was cold and, Ajalira had no doubt, entirely forced. “Of all men in the world, you fear the only one deserving to be named in the same breath with my master.”
Ajalira stood, too. She wanted to throttle Saerileth. “If you love him so much, why didn't you become his concubine?”
Saerileth looked up at Ajalira. “The Regent loved once before. He loved one who could not return his love, and thus he dwells alone. He is my friend, and I could, for his sake, gut you here. If you have not the courage to tell him of your love, then you do not deserve him.”
“I know that I do not, but I am not afraid!” Ajalira did start to slap Saerileth, but the Lotus deftly parried the blow.
“The Regent will not ever speak of love to you, Ajalira, not unless you speak to him first. He has not only been broken-hearted, but he is acutely aware of his own place. He knows that he is the Regent. If he commanded, you would have to obey. He would never wish to place even the slightest pressure on you, for if you once became his he would demand all.”
A shiver of anticipation ran through Ajalira at those words.
“Yes, Ajalira. The Regent is a most demanding lover, and he would have all of you—if you came to him. But precisely because he wants you so much, he will not take, not until you have freely given to him.”
Ajalira's eyes grew wide with horror. Saerileth spoke with confidence, with intimate knowledge, of the Regent and his predilections. “It was you!”
Saerileth laughed again. “And if I were the one the Regent had loved? Would you leave him still to long for me, for one he cannot have? The Regent is a good man, a noble man, and if you leave him to suffer for love of you—I will be your enemy.”
“You're a monster!” Ajalira reached for her blade again and slashed out at Saerileth. Ajalira knew that her blow was good, strong, and true. But somehow Saerileth was not there. The wily Lotus had tumbled away faster than any warrior Ajalira had ever seen.
“No, Ajalira. I am merely a woman who learned not to fear love.” Saerileth's eyes of placid blue fixed Ajalira and pierced her. “I will forgive these insults, for I acknowledge I have goaded you. But look at yourself. Can you deny what I have said? You clutch your shame to you as though you loved it. But your ways are not the only ways. Though you need not change them for yourself, you can at least look beyond them. It is not only yourself whom you injure, you know. It is the Regent, too.”
Saerileth then bowed, Zenji-fashion, and let herself out.
Ajalira looked at the blade again. It had been Kamen's gift to her, and it was a beautiful dagger.
“Kamen.” She pressed the blade to her lips and kissed it, caring nothing for the blood that stained her mouth. It was only then that she remembered the pain in her forearm from the cuts she had made. She closed her eyes, and Kamen's face appeared in her thoughts. She understood something more of the sorrow that was the only softness in the Regent. Everything else about him was hard, sturdy, unyielding. But he was alone, as alone as she herself.
How long she sat there, staring at nothing and thinking of Kamen, she did not know, but then a strong rap came at the door.
“My lady?”
It was the Regent's voice, and Ajalira dropped the dagger, darted to the door, and jerked it open.
“Are you all right?” asked Kamen, and the tenderness in his voice touched Ajalira to her core. His was the gentleness of a lion, one whose claws were not the less powerful for being velveted.
Ajalira nodded.
“I saw how you were affected by the dance, and I wanted to make sure that you did not take offense. Truly, I—”
Ajalira knew that if she let him go on, she would never say what she needed to say. But she had no words, either. She loved Kamen Itenu, and if he wanted her, sullied though she might be, she would gladly give herself to him. So she threw her arms around his neck and cut off his speech by pressing her lips to his.
Chapter Eight
Kamen's eyes widened in shock, and though he did not at once return Ajalira's kiss, he dared not break it. This was just what he had wanted, and he wondered at the sudden change in her. Kamen slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him, feeling her soft breasts press against his hard sternum. His quickly growing cock rose against her belly. Kamen tilted his head and kissed more deeply, slipping his tongue between Ajalira's ready lips. She moaned into his mouth, and Kamen breathed through his nostrils the most contented breath he had ever exhaled. Ajalira's hands caressed his dreadlocks, and Kamen's hands explored her hips and ass. She wore no underwear, so the smooth lines of her body were unbroken to his touch. His cock swelled further, and he pressed against her harder. She opened her mouth wider, and their tongues danced in a kiss that had been a long time coming.
At last Kamen broke away, but he did not retreat. He sucked at her bottom lip, nibbling it, before moving on to her chin, jawline, and neck. Ajalira tilted her head back, and Kamen kissed every bit of flesh exposed there, right down to her collarbone. She moved her hips against him, and he responded by thrusting forward and up. He needed to be inside her, and by the way she was moving, he guessed she wanted him to penetrate her, to slam himself into her with as much force as his hard soldier's body could muster. Kamen reached up and pulled back on her hair so that he might pull her flesh tight and nibble at it more, thus giving her more pleasure. But it was the yanking of her hair that caused her to yelp in pleasure. Kamen looked up into her shining eyes and knew at once what kind of lover she would be. He had seen the kind before, the women who liked to be bound and fucked, who liked to be spank
ed and dealt with roughly, only to have Kamen bathe and caress and kiss them afterward.
But Ajalira had been trained as a Lotus, and so she accounted herself a whore. Kamen broke off his kisses and backed away, and Ajalira clasped at the air as if trying to hold on to dissipating smoke. Her pained eyes asked Kamen why he had left her arms.
“I want you, Ajalira,” Kamen said, wiping his mouth, “more than anything. But I'll not use you in a way that you find dishonorable.”
Ajalira looked down at Kamen's cock and smiled. It was sticking up through his white, linen skirt. Even through the raised loincloth, the dark flesh of his penis was visible. “Will you have me as your concubine?”
That Ajalira was blunt Kamen already knew, but this surprised him. Had she just proposed to him?
“Would this satisfy you? As you know, Sunjaa law forbids me to take any foreigner to wife. Would you think of yourself as my property? I don't want you to think of yourself like that.”
“Would you treat me as property?”
Kamen shook his head. “Of course not.”
Ajalira took a step forward, her translucent dress clinging to her naked body. “I already knew your answer. That is why I asked. So?”
Concubinage? In this moment of passion, Ajalira seemed sincere, but would she chafe under the reality come morning? Would she regret it once her status was signed into law?
“I love you, Ajalira,” Kamen said, and Ajalira beamed. “From the moment you risked yourself at the guildhouse for my sake.” Kamen grabbed Ajalira and pulled her to him. “I promise that I will take no wife to supplant you, first in my heart.”
Ajalira kissed his mouth. “I love you, Kamen. I will be your concubine and not think myself less than your very own.”
“You alone.” Kamen returned her kiss. “Wait right here.” He slipped out of the room and spoke to a nearby slave.
“Darien?” Ajalira asked when Kamen returned.
“You heard that?”
Ajalira touched the tips of her pointed ears. “Ausir ears are keen, but even beyond that, remember that I was trained as a Lotus.”
Kamen's gaze shifted to her forearm. “You truly hated your life there, and I'm sorry for it.” He took her by the hand and led her to the side of the bed where he made her sit. Then he collected some bandages, fetched some warm water, and sponged away the blood.
Before he could begin to bandage her arm, however, Ajalira stopped him.
“Wait.”
Kamen paused, puzzled. “Why?”
Ajalira, with a swiftness that showed Kamen how skillful a warrior she could no doubt be, drew from the floor the blade he had given her. Her eyes fixed on his, she sliced into the outside of her left forearm. “I hereby swear myself to you.” She reached up and wiped the blood on her right cheek. “Alaxton Battlebringer bear witness to my oath.”
Kamen watched the blood drip from her jawline and marveled at her savage beauty and strength in seeming fragility. “Abrexa's chain! Now there's a woman.” He wanted her now more than he ever had before.
He cleaned this cut, too, and wrapped her forearm, tying off the dressing with the expert touch of a soldier. “Not too tight?”
Tears fell from Ajalira's eyes. She shook her head as her chin bunched up and trembled. “You are so good to me.”
Kamen knelt before her and looked up into her face. “No. See, I've never known a woman as good as you. Your proper pride and your honor match your beauty, and though this does not bloom—” He touched her bandage, indicating the slashed Lotus tattoo underneath. “—You will forever flower here.” He pressed her hand against his chest, just over his heart. “I will treasure you from this day until my last day.” He pushed away the thought of her outliving him by centuries. He would not let any dark cloud mar his perfect sky of happiness. “I will make you the envy of queens.”
Ajalira leaned forward and kissed his brow just as the door opened. Darien entered the room, his massive frame filling the palatial doorway. He said nothing, and Kamen knew he understood. Darien turned and whispered something to the slave. Kamen guessed it was a command for quill, ink, and parchment.
“So, Lord Itenu has set his heart on the fair Ausir,” Darien said, smiling as he took long strides across the room towards them.
Kamen flashed Ajalira a grin and rose, embracing Darien by the forearm. “Ajalira, and she is to be my sole concubine.”
Darien's eyebrows shot up. “Indeed?”
The slave hurried into the room.
“Let it be written,” Kamen said.
Darien snapped his fingers, and the slave laid out everything on a nearby table. “Let it be done.” Darien drafted the document.
Kamen returned to Ajalira's side. “What is your family name?”
“Zomalin.”
Kamen did not know that name. “I'm going to sign the parchment, and then you will be mine. No law of gods or men can sunder us then.”
Ajalira reached up and touched Kamen's arm, running her fingers down over his bicep and across his abdomen. She sat up perfectly straight and leaned forward. Her every move was a confession of her desire for him.
Kamen looked over the document, and it read just as he wanted it to: that Ajalira would become his concubine, that she alone would hold that title, and that Kamen would take no wife to supplant her. Kamen filled in Ajalira's full name and then signed it with his own. Darien stood and hugged Kamen, picking him up off the floor in a bear hug. Ajalira laughed.
“Congratulations, old friend,” Darien said, setting Kamen down with a jolt.
Kamen took a deep breath. “Thanks.” He walked back over to Ajalira, took her by the hands, and raised her to her feet. “I must take you now in the presence of the Lord Admiral. He must bear witness to the coupling, and then he will sign and leave.”
Ajalira nodded. Apparently she already knew this, but when she glanced at Darien, Kamen detected some measure of embarrassment in her expression. He resolved then to make it a token penetration. He would not fuck her in front of Darien the way Darien had fucked Saerileth in front of him. When he finished, he wanted to be alone with Ajalira.
Kamen laid Ajalira down on the bed and pushed her skirts up to her waist, exposing her bare pussy. His cock twitched as blood rushed through it, making it as hard as any spear. He pulled her knees up, took off his own skirt, and knelt between her legs. Ajalira looked down at Kamen's cock as he ran his hand down its length. She was already wet, so this would be quick.
“I cannot give you my virginal blood,” Ajalira whispered, her face a mask of shame.
“Don't think that way, my love.” Kamen leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I know you were a Lotus, but that's all behind you now. As for my part, I hold your honor intact.”
Ajalira nodded, once again tears coming to her eyes.
Kamen shifted forward and laid the head of his long cock against her pussy lips. He flicked his penis up and down twice to wet it, and then he slipped the head inside her. Ajalira licked her tightly drawn lips and moaned. Kamen held his cock there, and though every instinct told him to drive himself all the way in, he resisted the temptation. That was for her alone. Besides, he had other plans first, plans of bringing out the sex kitten he knew was inside her.
Kamen turned back to look at Darien, and the Lord Admiral nodded. He signed the document, rolled it up, and took it away. Once he was gone from the room, Kamen removed himself from Ajalira and stood up.
“What's wrong?” Ajalira asked.
Kamen reached down and scooped her into his arms. “Nothing. Now we can get started.” He stood her in the middle of the room, right in front of the four-poster bed, and paced before her.
“Is everything all right?” Ajalira tucked her blonde hair behind her ears.
Kamen stopped, turned, and grabbed the collar of her dress. He ripped it down the front, tearing the entire garment in half. Ajalira gasped but did not retreat. She laid her forearms across her naked breasts, which heaved in excitement, and rubbed her thighs
together. Kamen yanked away the torn dress and ripped it again in half down the middle, dividing it into two halves. Ajalira craned her neck to watch him, but he only let a sly smile hint at his plans for her. He took her arm and raised it, holding it against one post of the bed.
“What are you doing?” Ajalira asked.
Kamen wrapped one piece of the dress around her wrist, tying it to the bedpost. He then did the same thing with the other wrist, and when he looked at Ajalira again, he saw wonder dancing in her eyes. She knew what was coming, and she loved it.
But she did not know—not quite. Kamen doubted any Lotus trainer was as good as he. Besides, they were all Zenji. Their cocks were not as big as Sunjaa's.
Kamen's erect, black penis bounced before him as he walked in front of Ajalira. “You shall forget every lover you've had before me. You shall come for this cock alone.” Kamen stopped in front of her and stroked his penis, and as Ajalira watched him, she squirmed and whined. “Oh, you want this?”
Ajalira nodded vigorously.
“Not yet.”
Ajalira whimpered again.
“Yours is the last pussy I'll ever have.” Kamen knelt before her and tapped on the insides of her knees, spreading her legs apart. “I have to make sure it's ready for me.” In one fluid move, he hoisted her legs up over his shoulders so that her cunt was within tongue's distance of his mouth. Ajalira yelped. Kamen supported her weight mostly on his shoulders, but he did not want undue stress on her wrists, so he partially held her up with his hands cupping her buttocks. This gave him the excellent opportunity to explore her vagina with his thumbs. As he licked her clit with the tip of his tongue, he thrust his right thumb into her pussy, using his trimmed thumbnail to lightly scrape against the rough spot of her vagina. Ajalira moaned and opened her legs wider, slamming her pussy into Kamen's face. Kamen shifted his ministrations, using the flat of his tongue over a wider area of her clit and pussy lips. He licked and sucked in the rhythm of his fingering, and he quickly worked Ajalira into a frenzy.
Suddenly he stopped and looked up. “Don't come yet. The first time you come is on my cock. Understand?”
A Lotus for the Regent Page 10
