He glanced to where some of the cushions lay scattered on the marble floor and carried her to them. “Wait here.” He set her on her feet then picked up her robe and spread it over the cushions. He lifted her again and lowered himself, laying her upon the pillows, now covered in white silk.
“Now I will feed on the gifts of the tiger woman,” he said, and, spreading the curls between her legs aside with his fingers, plunged his tongue into the depths beneath.
Leandre’s response was instant and almost violent in its strength. Her back arched all the way to her neck, so that she was lifted from the cushions from the base of her spine to the top of her head. Bhavesh chuckled, shifted his position so he was crouched between her legs, and took one of the cheeks of her buttocks in each of his strong hands. He lapped, teased and nibbled at the clit that quaked and spasmed like a thing possessed.
No thoughts could reach Leandre’s mind but this unbelievable, unrelenting pleasure. Bhavesh had control of the very core of her womanhood and showed no signs of relinquishing the tiniest bit of his advantage. As she shuddered and moaned, he began to slide his fingers into her, still keeping up the pressure of his lips and tongue and teeth as her cunt squeezed against the movement, trying to draw him farther inside.
Through the haze of pleasure she felt one of his moisture-slicked fingers find her anus and begin to tease that tight opening. Her eyes flew wide. She had always enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh but had never thought of— “Ooooooh,” she sighed as the tip of a smooth finger slid into the previously unyielding opening. She started to say “stop” but suddenly her body ceased treating this unfamiliar penetration as an invasion and opened itself as he slid the finger all the way inside.
A climax rocked her body as the combination of sensations—her bud between his teeth, his thick thumb in her cunt and his probing finger in her anus—plummeted her over the edge of a precipice. She stifled a scream, biting the pillow through the silk.
The climax went on and on, and she tried to speak. “Must…have…you…in…” she gasped, trying to get the words out between ragged breaths. “Me!” she finished, and the pressure on her clit ceased, although the relentless working of the fingers, both fore and aft, did not.
She opened her eyes to see Bhavesh grinning up at her, moisture glistening on his face. “I am in you, Leandre.”
She moaned, frustrated by his deliberate misunderstanding. “No…you…all of you,” she gasped. “Your cock!” She squinted down at him. “Damn you, Bhavesh, you still have your breeks on! You must remove them at once!”
The pleasuring fingers abruptly withdrew, making her shiver in response to her sudden emptiness. Bhavesh moved to her side on his knees. He drew her hands to his waist.
“Here, help me take them off. Free me, my mistress of the beasts.”
“You are a beast,” she replied, but did as he bade. In moments he was indeed free, and it was again time for Leandre to gasp.
His cock was huge, thick and harder than the jewels in Sukumar’s rings. Mesmerized, she reached to stroke it. It felt like velvet stretched over iron. A drop of moisture gleamed at the tip and she smoothed it into the soft skin. She felt his responding shiver and saw gooseflesh on his arms in the moonlight.
Leandre wrapped a hand around the shaft and squeezed. It is a good thing I have long fingers. She leaned forward and touched the tip with the end of her tongue. He moaned.
“Will you torture me now, Leandre?”
“No, I will pleasure you. But not for long, Bhavesh. My body cries out to be filled and will not wait forever.”
So saying, she opened her mouth wide and plunged it over his cock, seeing how low on the shaft she could place her lips. She felt the head resting against the entrance of her throat and felt him shudder. Leandre pulled at the backs of his knees, indicating he must straddle her.
Once his legs were on either side of her head, she tilted her head back and felt the tip of his cock slide into her throat. At the feel of his shudder, she grasped his buttocks—the muscles were like steel—and dug her fingers in as she drew him deeper into her throat. Leandre swallowed, letting the muscles in her throat squeeze him once, then twice. She had to draw back to get a breath then pulled him in a second time.
“Leandre,” he said hoarsely when she again pulled back to breathe as she sucked and teased. “If you do that a third time you will have to wait a while before I can fill any other part of your body.”
She teasingly worked her way to the tip of his cock, giving the head a parting kiss as she pulled her mouth free. “Then I will stop,” she replied, “for I will wait no longer.”
Bhavesh stood, rapidly freeing his legs of the last of the breeches, and placed his body above hers. The head of his cock teased the lips of her cunt and she convulsed in anticipation. She had barely been able to fit it in her mouth. What would it feel like inside her? She drew her legs up and grasped the backs of her thighs, pulling herself open like a blooming flower.
“Now!” she gasped, but he needed no urging. He plunged into her like a knife into hot butter, and the night exploded into a million glittering stars. His long, long strokes seemed to go on forever and his length slid from where her clit throbbed with bursts and pulses to the very opening of her womb. Again and again he stroked forward and back, and Leandre wrapped her legs around his back to free her hands and pull him against her more urgently.
“Harder,” she cried, unmindful of who might hear or whether the dense foliage muffled her cries. “Oh, please, harder.” Their bodies collided with audible slaps which came faster and faster as Bhavesh increased his pace.
A heat like nothing Leandre had ever felt before began to rise from the lowest part of her belly and spread through all her limbs as the urgent pace continued, impossibly, to quicken. Every bone, every organ, every drop of her blood began to tingle and dance and she felt as if she was lifting from the ground and rising into the air, held aloft only by the spear which impaled her and the body to which she clung.
Faster, harder, deeper. She lost track of time, of the enclosure, of the danger, of even her name.
Then Bhavesh reminded her who she was, where she was, as a strong spasm throbbed through his cock and he exploded into her like a fountain. “Leandre!” he cried. “Aaaaaaah, Prahleandra!” Their bodies stiffened and clenched in mutual ecstasy, and his weight collapsed against her.
As her breath returned, Leandre stroked his hair, his back, the side of his face. “Bhavesh,” she whispered, just to hear his name. “My Bhavesh.”
They readjusted themselves on the cushions so that her head rested against his shoulder. Leandre wished reality would never return to steal this moment. As her awareness of her surroundings increased, she heard the night sounds of insects and frogs and a nearby rustling that might have been one of the tigers. I wonder if they watched us. She blushed at the thought.
“Why are you here?” she asked Bhavesh.
He tensed at the question. “Because I wanted to be with you. Are you not…”
“No, you misunderstand. Why are you in Sukumar’s court? You are not like these others, who seem to fawn over him as if they are trying to get something.”
He was momentarily silent then spoke quietly. “But I am like the others, Leandre. I have been trying to get something from Sukumar as well.”
“And have you succeeded?”
He snorted in response, without much humor, but she felt his muscles relax again.
“No. I thought I could play the game, become his friend—do what I needed to do. It was important to my family.” He shifted on the cushions, pulling one that lay to the side behind his shoulders and lifting both of them slightly. “As this may be our only night of peace, I would tell you why I came to Sukumar’s palace.”
Chapter Nine
Singbaba’s Debt
After Leandre had listened to the tale of Bhavesh’s father’s death, his uncle’s financial ineptitude and his mother’s ambitions, she was quiet for a moment.
; “So you have risked the welfare of your family for me?”
Bhavesh shook his head. “Do not blame yourself. Seeing the way Sukumar treated you may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, but I was already failing at my quest. I was so tired of the palace, the court, the politics…I would have gone home soon in any case.”
“Would you come back to try again?”
“My mother used what little influence her family’s name still carries to secure an invitation, and it was my job to gain first the ear and then the respect of his highness, and to convince him to give me a powerful position. In the weeks since I arrived, I have made little or no progress. Sukumar and I are not to each other’s taste, and if I have not outright offended him, I certainly have not made a favorable impression. Nor is it likely I ever would. No, I will not be invited to come again, I am sure.”
She snuggled against him and he felt a stirring in his cock. Peace, he told it. Bhavesh wanted to make love to Leandre again, and soon. But he felt it was important that they learn something about each other first.
“Tell me about your husband. Do you feel guilty about being with me, so soon after his death?”
The question stilled her but her body did not tense. “No,” she said slowly. “No, he would want me to be happy. To feel passion again.”
It was a pleasing answer but Bhavesh felt a rush of unreasonable jealousy toward this man who had her first, and taught her such lusty ways. Do not be a child, Bhavesh. The man was her husband. He made himself go on.
“You loved him.”
“Yes, I loved him. I love him still.” Her voice was low. “But…” She pulled herself back a little, in order to face him. The moon was low now, but still cast enough light in the clear night sky to see her tender expression. “Bhavesh, I was a girl when I went to Duncan. My marriage was an alliance between kingdoms, and although my father would never have sent me to a man he thought would make me unhappy, it was not a choice that was given to me.”
“An alliance between kingdoms?” Now it was Bhavesh’s turn to pull back. “Your father was a king?”
“Yes,” she said simply. “And my husband a domhan, which for the Irish is much the same thing.”
He was silent for a moment then laughed. “So I have been making love not only to a legendary tiger goddess, but a queen also?”
“I know I am not a goddess, and I am no longer a queen,” she said tartly, but her smile belied her tone. “My husband was killed when barbarians from the south attacked. He had traveled to the southernmost village under his control to aid in its defense.” Her lips quirked with irony. “And I was too pigheaded to remain at home as he wished. So I was there when they killed him.” She shuddered, and Bhavesh pulled her back into his arms.
“They did not rape or kill me because they seemed to have some notion that if I were to marry their leader, he could claim legitimate right to both my husband’s and my father’s holdings. So they were taking me off to his camp as a prize of war. But there was squabbling among factions, and a small group of men took off with me. I am sure they would have gotten around to my ravishment eventually, especially when word came the leader was dead. But they were in a hurry to rejoin their allies, and when they came across Phanishwar, they were happy enough to be rid of me.”
“And you are hardly to Phanishwar’s taste,” Bhavesh added. The slave trader’s proclivities were well known in the palace. “And because he was planning to give you to Sukumar, he did not peddle your wares to any of his customers.”
She nodded. “So, you see, Bhavesh, I have only been with two men—my husband and you. I greatly enjoyed making love with my husband, but I have had nothing to compare him to. Until now.”
“I see.” Bhavesh asked the obvious question, although he was not sure he wanted to hear the answer. “And how do we compare?”
“You do not.”
He was puzzled by this answer. “I do not understand.”
She sighed. “Bhavesh, Duncan was a good man, a great leader, and an imaginative and considerate lover. And fifteen years my senior. When a spoiled young girl dreams of the man who will sweep her into his arms and fill her with forbidden desires, it is not an elder statesman whom she is envisioning.”
“And what did you envision?”
“A tall, dark man with a touch of danger. With steely eyes and hard muscles.” She ran her fingers down the expanse of Bhavesh’s stomach, causing another stirring in his cock. “If I had known to wish he had a tongue that could move like a viper and a cock as big as…well, as big as yours, I would have wanted those things as well. And that he would be brave enough to risk a rajah’s wrath and enter a cage of tigers to be with me…”
She leaned forward and kissed him deeply, and his stirring turned into a more urgent throb. “You are the man of my dreams, Bhavesh,” she whispered into his lips. “And you are real, and here, and we have tonight.” Her hand moved down and grasped his throbbing cock. “We must make the most of it.”
Groaning, Bhavesh lifted her so that she sat astride him. “We will, my Prahleandra, we will.”
Leandre leaned forward onto her knees in order to position her still-wet cunt over the tip of Bhavesh’s cock, then settled her weight back gradually. He was amazed at the tightness of her muscles so soon after their lovemaking. He felt her body’s shudder as she squeezed tightly around his shaft. He gasped, still sensitive but wanting more. He encouraged her to lift her perfect buttocks and slide up and down, rising just high enough to catch the head of his cock with her swollen lips before she plunged down to take in his full length. It was exquisite. He was making love to a queen and a goddess and a real, earthly woman all at the same time.
“Leandre! My Prahleandra!” Bhavesh could barely breathe enough to get the words out.
“Bhavesh. Oh, my love!”
Her words sounded as labored as his. Did she call me her love?
A deafening roar shattered the moment and they froze. A second set of snarls joined the first, followed by human screams. Leandre rolled off Bhavesh and climbed to her feet. Be the time he arose, she was already running toward the steps to the lower level of the pergola. Rounding the stone railing and a thick kadalii tree that had obscured their view, she skidded to a top and screamed. He reached her side and saw what had so horrified her.
A group of guards—Bhavesh didn’t have time to count but it appeared to be more than ten—moved frantically around the lower chamber. Several pairs of men were holding long poles, to which were affixed loops of rope. Some of these loops had already been secured around Hiranmayi’s neck, and she was struggling mightily against six men who clung to the poles.
Another group of guards was having less luck with Akhilesh. One loop hung loosely from his neck, the attached pole dangling unmanned. Two men tried vainly to get hold of the pole, while another clung doggedly to the one rod that had been secured while trying to remain out of the reach of claws that slashed almost too quickly for the human eye to follow.
Bhavesh searched for the source of the screams amid the chaos and found that another guard lay on his side, vainly attempting to hold his rent abdomen closed while the other guards, ignoring his distress, slipped and slid in the pool of blood and viscera that surrounded him.
Another thunderous roar pulled Bhavesh’s attention back to Akhilesh. Somehow, two of the men had managed to gain control of the loose pole, and another had jumped in to aid the third. Although the tiger struggled tremendously, the men were able to use the length of the rods to stay out of reach of his claws.
“The cubs!” Leandre’s voice was shrill and she attempted to dart toward where the two small creatures cowered, just beyond the feet of their mother’s captors. Bhavesh tried to restrain her, but she squirmed out of his grasp and launched herself toward the huddled forms. Before she could reach them, one of the guards stepped into her path, put his arms around her waist and lifted her naked, struggling form from her feet. Bhavesh threw himself at the guard but something tripped him and he fell
, barely managing to get his hands up before his head struck the marble. Winded, he flipped quickly, ready to spring back to his feet and kill his attacker.
Four men Bhavesh had not previously seen stood over him, the blades of their swords inches from his neck. He froze.
A second man joined Leandre’s captor and they soon had her under control as well. Despite the chaos of the roaring and snarling Akhilesh and the struggling Hiranmayi, the guards got a final loop secured around the big tiger’s neck. Now both tigers could neither loose themselves nor reach the guards with tooth or claw.
“Stand up.” The swords moved away just enough to allow Bhavesh to regain his feet, and he did as he was told. One of the guards, a captain, stood back and surveyed the prisoners.
“Where are your clothes?” he asked.
Bhavesh was surprised, expecting him to ask what he was doing here, but he pointed. “Up there.” He had forgotten his own nakedness in the mêlée.
“Get them,” the captain said to one of the guards, and the order was swiftly obeyed. Bhavesh’s robes were thrust into his hands.
“Put them on.”
The guard handed Leandre her robes as well, and she must have calmed down enough to assess the situation, because she donned them without comment while Bhavesh did the same. At the captain’s order the party started to move off the platform, but Leandre spoke.
“Wait, you cannot leave the cubs alone! They are too young.”
Bhavesh winced, expecting the guards to strike her for insolence, but the captain nodded and gestured to two of the guards, each of whom picked up a squirming cub and returned to the group.
“That man is badly injured.” Again, Bhavesh marveled at Leandre’s fearlessness. “Are you going to leave him there?”
“He is already dead, or soon will be. We must go,” was the curt answer.
“What are you doing with us?” Bhavesh asked the captain, not really expecting an answer.
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