“Your Grace?” Tivanel Seranimesti's fury was naked on his face, but he kept his voice even, despite speaking through gritted teeth. “How comes it that you lay claim to the colors of Ellon Tamar?”
“Are you declaring yourself King?” Kimereth's control was weaker than his rival's.
Kamen smiled as Ajalira interpreted. “I am the lord and master of the only Tamar scion still living. These colors are mine to wear.”
When she had given his answer, the two Ausir blanched.
“And you, Lady Zomalin, you brook such effrontery?” Tivanel tried to grab her hand, tried to force her to look into his face, but Ajalira jerked back.
“Effrontery? That my lord should wear the colors of my house?” Ajalira's contempt dripped like blood.
“You cannot mean to take the Ausir throne.” Tivanel shook his head, but Kimereth began to back away.
“And if I should so determine, it would be no less than is my right.” Kamen looked directly into Tivanel's green eyes as Ajalira continued her simultaneous interpretation. “Remember this tonight when I declare the King.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” Tivanel bowed. “I will trust that you will prove yourself worthy of the trust the Ausir have placed in you, worthy of the green and sable you wear.”
Ajalira could not explain the slight narrowing of Kamen's eyes as he watched Tivanel Seranimesti go to back to his place among his kin, but she did not concern herself overly much. She trusted that the Seranimesti would be pleased enough by the outcome, and as for the Kimereth, she did not care.
“Your Grace, I must beg your forgiveness for the zeal of my misguided kinsmen.” Kimereth paused in his departure, and though his eyes lost none of their anger, his voice was honey-smooth. “They were justly slain for attempting to lay hands upon Lady Zomalin. Please believe that I had nothing to do with any of it.”
Ajalira stared. “But you—”
Kamen pressed her fingers, and she caught the slightest shake of his head.
“I understand you, Lord Kimereth.” Kamen gave no further attention to the Kimereth lord, who went back to his place then, leaving Ajalira staring after him.
“We have no witnesses to their words, aside from you, Lira.”
“But why would he even admit to knowing them then?”
“Because doubtless some of the Seranimesti would recognize the corpses for Kimereth's kin.”
Ajalira nodded, understanding. “Where is Saerileth?” she asked as she and Kamen took their seats in the place of honor.
“I sent her back to her master.” Kamen lifted Ajalira's hand to his lips.
“He needs her?”
“She asked to go.” Kamen laughed. “Why so shocked?”
“I did not think she was capable of … wanting anyone or anything.”
“She isn't like you, my love. She hides her heart from everyone, excepting only her master.”
“Would you prefer that I did the same?” Ajalira wanted to behave as suited a Sunjaa lady and knew that Saerileth was one of the most admired women in Arinport.
“Abrexa's chain!” Kamen's laughter dropped into a low murmur, and he leaned over, brushing his lips against her ear. “Yes, perhaps you should keep your feelings for me to yourself. If you don't, well, then I will be very, very angry. You will be in enormous trouble.”
His breath against the sensitive flesh of her ear sent shivers of desire up Ajalira's spine. “I will try, my love.”
“Such a wretched beginning.” Kamen slipped his hand under the table and up her thigh. “Have I not already told you that 'trying' is insufficient? You deserve discipline just for that.”
Ajalira pressed against his hand and leaned her head on his shoulder. He knew that she still felt guilty for even entertaining the thought of leaving him, and this was, she had no doubt, his way of reassuring her that all was as it should be between them. If he could return to their games, then he held no lingering displeasure with her.
“The Chase begins!” Banar clapped his hands as the music altered.
“The Chase?” Kamen turned to Ajalira for an explanation.
“It is more properly called The Chase of Riane,” said Ajalira. “It is a traditional Ausir dance, representing the seeking of Riane by the first Ausir.”
“And who was Riane?”
“She was the fairest Ausir maid.” Ajalira smiled. “And she disappeared from the first forest home of the Ausir, only to return some while later, carrying the child of a man she would not name but to whom she remained ever true.”
“How does this dance go?” asked Kamen. “For it seems rather poetical for Ausir.”
“It's simply a round dance with bells.” Ajalira gestured to where the Ausir were all sliding circlets of bells over their wrists. “The women dance in a circle, stretching out first one arm, then the other, to ring the bells. The men go around the women in a larger circle, with their arms over their heads, shaking their hands to ring their bells. When the music shifts, they stop, and then they cross arms with the woman in front of them.”
“Again with the bells?” Kamen did not have to speak his thought for Ajalira to know it.
“Yes, yes, I know. But it is more enjoyable than it sounds, though not quite like the Sunjaa Hunter's Dance.” The memory of when she had last danced with Kamen brought the blood to Ajalira's cheeks.
“Then we will have to dance this Chase, my lady.” Kamen rose and extended his hand to her. “That we might afterward show these Ausir how to really dance.”
Ajalira put her hand in Kamen's, and she followed him out onto the dance floor. She saw the amazement of the Seranimesti and the shock of the Kimereth as Kamen took his place in the circle of male dancers and slid bells on over his wrists. Ajalira did the same, and she fixed her eyes on him as the men began to move. Even as she raised and lowered her arms, left and right, step and slide, she kept her gaze on Kamen. He moved with an effortless grace that, to her mind, put to shame all the Ausir who danced beside him. His soft, human features, so different from the angular bones of an Ausir, were to Ajalira the only image of beauty. When the tempo of the music shifted, Ajalira thrust out her arm, pressing her wrist to Kamen's.
“A most chaste dance,” said Kamen in Sunjaa.
“One that a woman might dance with anyone.” Ajalira caught the gleam in his eye. “But for a woman to dance the Hunt with a man, might that not be thought a declaration of affection?”
“Most certainly.” They switched directions and touched their other wrists together. “But it would be direct disobedience, one of the naughtiest things a concubine could do.”
Ajalira felt his words melt her insides, and the tops of her thighs grew damp. “Perhaps, then, my love, I should change my dress?”
“Yes.” Kamen smiled as they bowed at the end of the dance. “As will I.”
When the music faded Kamen waved Banar forward. “I will have your musicians play the Hunt. If they do not know the music, then my men can instruct them.”
“We will have it played directly, Your Grace.” Banar bowed and smirked, and Ajalira did not doubt that he had already had his musicians practice Sunjaa music in preparation for this feast.
“Very good. Now, Lira.” Kamen loosed his tunic, letting it fall over the tops of his breeches. Then, with a swiftness that sent dampness to Ajalira's pussy and drew gasps from the gathered guests, he dropped his breeches altogether. He pulled off his tunic then, letting his Sunjaa skirt, previously bunched up in the looseness of his tunic, fall to his knees. “Your turn.” Kamen nodded to Ajalira, who pulled her dagger from its place in the front of her bodice. She presented it to Kamen, handle first, and he took it, slicing through her laces and the silk of her Ausir gown. It pooled around her feet, and she stood clad only in the translucent linen of a Sunjaa lady.
The disdain of the Ausir was nothing to Ajalira, for Kamen's eyes were on her. His phallus was thick and heavy beneath his loincloth, and the promise of his “discipline” roused her to a fevered pitch. She longed to touch the
broad expanse of his chest, to trace the wide scars on his skin, to tug lightly on the silver hoops that hung from his dark nipples.
The music struck up, and the plaintive airs of woodwinds filled the hall as Ajalira strapped her dagger to her thigh. The same steps as she had danced in Arinport, Ajalira now danced again before her own kind. The sensuous feel of Kamen's hands on her skin was almost more than she could bear. She ached to hold him, and as he stepped away from her in the movements of the dance, she swallowed the moan that began low in her throat.
She caught him and held to him, and his stiff phallus brushing across her mound drew forth another moan, this time one she could not hide.
The glittering black of Kamen's eyes showed her how pleased he was with her response, and when the dance finished with her back pressed to his chest, she whirled around and claimed his lips there in the hall.
When at last she released him, Kamen leaned down and whispered, “The naughtiest concubine I've ever seen. You'll not sleep at all tonight, Lira.”
“Your Grace?” Seranimesti approached them, and Ajalira saw a new look in his face, one she could not explain or understand.
“Now,” said Kamen, still keeping Ajalira pressed close to him. “As I am Sunjaa Regent, as I am the chosen arbiter of this your Ausir dispute, as the lord and master of the Ausir heiress,” here one hand strayed to the bones in his hair, “so I do hereby declare that Tivanel Seranimesti, lord of the Seranimesti House, shall, in ten days' time, be crowned King of all the Ausir by His Grace King Jahen of the Sunjaa.”
The Kimereth's disappointed groans were softer than Ajalira had expected, but Tivanel Seranimesti bowed before Kamen.
“I will accept this office for my people's sake, and I do fully acknowledge, Your Grace, all the authority by which you do make the proclamation.”
“Tomorrow Lady Ajalira and I sail with the dawn tide.”
Kamen waited no longer, but swept Ajalira up into his arms and carried her bodily from the hall. She smiled as she leaned against his chest.
“Do you not fear the Kimereth's retaliation, my love?”
“No.” Kamen smiled. “We actually are not taking the dawn tide. Our ship is. The Aramina will sail then. You and I, Lira, are taking a small fishing boat out to meet Mirsa's Crown.” He kissed her lips. “But I did not jest when I said that you would not sleep tonight. You were the most disobedient concubine in Godswatch, and I will be hard pressed to find sufficient discipline for you.”
Ajalira responded by dropping her head lower on his breast and licking his nipple. She poked her tongue through the silver hoop that pierced his flesh, and Kamen growled.
“What, still with the blatant displays of love?” They had by this time reached their apartments, and he threw her onto the bed. He stood over her, and the sight of his hard shaft tenting his skirt drew a breathy sigh from her.
“Now, let me show you what I can do with my mouth.” He pulled off her gown, and lay down on the bed before her, pushing her knees apart. Then, just as he had on the night he had made her his own, he lapped at her pussy.
Ajalira was already drenched from the dance, and Kamen pulled back long enough to catch her eye.
“Naughty concubine, to get so wet before I even touched you.” He went back to his feast, and Ajalira thought she would go mad. Over and over he licked, alternating between long, slow swipes just inside her, and short, quick flicks against the pink nub of her clitoris. He brought her up to the brink again and again, always stopping short just before the climax could sweep her away.
After the fifth time he pulled away, Ajalira moaned her frustration, bucking her hips, trying to keep his lips in contact with her.
“No, no.” Kamen laughed and moved up her body. “You're not to come except on my cock, remember?”
Ajalira shook her head, unable to find words through the haze of desire that filled her.
Kamen kissed her breasts, first one nipple, then the other, and then, taking her breasts in his hands, he kissed up her throat.
The calluses on his palms surprised Ajalira, and she whimpered as his rough hands kneaded her breasts. The sensation caused her climax to begin to build again.
“So rough.” She managed to speak.
“What?” Kamen pulled off her neck. “Oh yes. Six years of politics softened my hands, but a week at sea brought it all back.”
She pulled one hand up just long enough to kiss his palm and then returned it firmly to her breast, which already ached with need.
Kamen chuckled and went back to her neck, kissing along her throat once more. His lips on her tender skin sent ripples throughout her body. By the time his mouth reached her earlobe, she was writhing in her desire. His lips moved up her ear, kissing and nibbling, up and up, until he reached the oversensitive tip. As his teeth nipped the pointed tip of her ear, Ajalira cried out. Her orgasm swept over her, leaving her breathless.
“I didn't know that about Ausir.” Kamen, now half-sitting, traced the edge of her ear with his finger. “I'll have to remember that.” He kissed her ear once more. “But, Lira, I told you not to come until you came on my cock. Now you've done it.”
Ajalira squirmed beneath him, and she rejoiced in her disobedience, looking forward to the discipline she had earned with it.
Chapter Eighteen
“How shall I punish you?” Kamen asked, looking at his balled fist as his fingers popped up one by one. “Let me count the ways.”
Ajalira shook her head and scrambled away to the head of the bed. Though she smiled, she took a pillow and shoved it between her legs.
“What? Bar me my way in my own bed?” Kamen pounced on her, and his cock found her pussy. He did not slide inside her yet, though, instead teasing her with gyrations that pressed the head of his phallus against her clit. He arched his back in order to keep his cock positioned against her pussy lips as he nibbled at the tip of her ear again. Ajalira moaned and grabbed his ass, kneading and caressing his cheeks. Her pelvis twisted and thrust, but Kamen would not give her satisfaction. His playful biting trailed down her ear and then her neck, where he sucked on her flesh, only to bite a bit harder where her neck met her shoulder. It was a particularly sensitive spot for her. He gave her the same treatment on the other side of her neck, sending shivers through her.
Ajalira kept one hand on his ass and used her other hand to play with Kamen's nipple ring. She gently tugged at it, tweaking his flesh and sending a rush of blood to his cock. It stiffened even more, and Kamen kissed her mouth. His tongue danced with hers and moved in the same rhythm as their humping.
Kamen's cock was thoroughly soaked now, for he had been sliding its under-side up and down through her slit. He pulled away and wrapped one strong hand around her throat, squeezing just enough to excite Ajalira but not enough to hurt her. He would give her just the kind of punishment she wanted.
“You've prepared the way for your master?” Kamen asked.
Ajalira nodded. “Fuck me, master.”
Keeping a steady pressure on her throat, Kamen aimed his cock at her pussy. With one long, slow thrust, he buried his phallus inside her. She was not exaggerating; her pussy was wet as the sea. Ajalira laid both her hands flat against Kamen's chest and pushed, exciting him further with her coy game. Kamen slammed his cock down and moved his hips in small circles so that his pelvis rubbed against her clit as the head swirled deep within her.
Ajalira wrapped her arms around Kamen's shoulders and pulled him closer. Though he did not release her throat, he kissed her. He moved in and out at a slow pace, savoring every inch of her vagina, and even going so far as to pull all the way out, just so he could feel his cock pop past her tight pussy muscles again. She had obviously been trained well at the guildhouse, for her vagina closed around his cock like a fist.
Kamen shifted up onto his knees to get a better position for ramming. He braced himself by grabbing Ajalira's neck with both hands, keeping his body weight on his knuckles that rested against the bed under her neck, but still squeezing
enough to elicit deep moans from her. He fucked her pussy until she came, and when her orgasm shattered her and sent her hips into a frenzy, Kamen had to slip out of her to avoid spraying before he was ready. The entire length of his cock burned with unreleased semen, but that moment was all he needed. He slammed himself back into her and kept going. Without removing his cock from inside her, he threw one of her legs around him and turned her over on her side. Then he moved her into his favorite position: one leg straight and the other in an “L” shape, giving him a clear view of his shaft resting between her pussy lips. He licked his fingers and pressed the middle and third fingers against her clit, using his other hand to grasp the curve of her buttocks. Once braced, Kamen drove as deeply as he could. He felt the head of his cock hit the end of her vagina, and Ajalira looked back, her eyes wet with passionate tears. Kamen paused, but she nodded. He massaged her clit in time with his thrusts, keeping his fingers circling around her button as he fucked her from his kneeling position. This allowed him to hit her pleasure spot deep inside while attending to her clit. It did not take long for Ajalira's climax to cause her to raise her ass and turn her pussy to just the right angle that it seemed to be begging for his cum. If he released now, it would fill her up in her deepest place. But he was not ready to. Ajalira's punishment was not yet complete.
Kamen sat back and pulled her back with him. He then swiveled around to swing his feet off the bed. Ajalira was still on top and facing away from him. In one strong, swift movement, he slipped his hands under her thighs and stood. She was still skewered on his cock, and he gave her a jolt to remind her. She slipped one arm around his shoulders, hooking her elbow at his neck. They had never fucked like this before. Holding her thighs steady, Kamen slid in and out of her pussy, the unusual angle making it much tighter than normal. This also meant his rock-hard cock slipped past her pleasure spot repeatedly, causing her ass to wiggle against him. He turned his head and caught her nipple in his mouth, licking around it and lightly biting its erect end.
A Lotus for the Regent Page 19
