In the Flesh

by Sylvia Day

  The doors to his seraglio slid open when he approached. He entered to a chorus of eager greetings and sighs at his half-dressed state. As his concubines rushed toward him, he kept them at bay by holding up the hand not currently caressing Katie’s buttocks.

  “Your Royal Highness.”

  He turned to the elderly woman prostrated just to the right of him.

  “Sabine.” He greeted his chamberlain with a smile. Once, she had been his father’s concubine. Now retired, she served Wulf by maintaining order in his harem. “You may rise.”

  “Who is that you have there?” she asked, rising gracefully to her feet.

  As he started toward the large rectangular pool that dominated the center of the room, she fell into step beside him. Three fountains broke up the tranquil surface of the water, the splashing sounds mingling with the melodious voices of his concubines and the sounds of birds chirping in the various cages that decorated the perimeter. The humid air was redolent with lush hothouse flowers, various perfumes, and luxurious bath oils. Jewel-encrusted doors lined the walls, each portal leading to the private quarters of a concubine. Drenched in the sunlight pouring from the massive skylight above, the expensive and precious gems winked and flashed to glorious effect.

  He slid Katie from his shoulder, careful to keep his hold on her while maintaining her confinement within his robes. “Sabine, this is Katie.”

  “Sapphire,” Katie corrected testily.

  Grinning, he told Sabine, “She needs a bath and suitable garments. I want her body jewelry changed from sapphires to talgorite. I prefer her hair down. When she’s ready, bring her to my rooms.”

  Sabine was eying the disheveled Katie appraisingly when the import of his words registered. Her gaze darted to meet his. “Y-your rooms, Your Highness?”

  “That’s what I said.” With a flourish, he yanked the voluminous fabric of his robe from Katie, causing her to twirl outward from the enveloping folds.

  She recovered her footing several feet away and glared at him. “Afraid to do it yourself, Wulf? We both know I can take you.”

  His concubines gasped at her insubordination and her use of his given name, but he laughed.

  “Yes. I’m quite taken.” His tone was a husky murmur, his gaze riveted by the sight of her bare body.

  Enamored of her beauty, Wulfric watched her gaze roam. Her dark eyes paused briefly on each of the women surrounding the pool, all of whom eyed her back with curiosity and/or suspicion. Her expression grew taut, her hands fisting at her sides. It was only then that he registered his error in bringing her here. To the seraglio. Distracted by lust, he’d considered only the fastest way to get her ready for the long hours of sex he intended for them to enjoy.

  He opened his mouth to reassure her, but before he could speak, Katie spun on her heel and fled.

  Chapter 8

  “Guards!” Sabine sounded the alarm before Wulf could react.

  The doors slid open and four guardsmen charged into the room.

  “Lock the door,” he roared as Katie leaped through the air to attack the nearest soldier. Naked as she was, the man was stunned and vulnerable to her assault. She kicked him dead center in the chest, knocking him flat on his back, then turned to engage the others.

  Wulf raced after her.

  “Don’t touch her!” Fear roughened his voice. Images of her injuries from the holo-room knotted his stomach. “Hurt her at your peril.”

  Katie’s head turned at the proximity of his voice. Her grim expression betrayed her determination to find another way out.

  Almost there…

  He was a hair’s breadth away from catching her when she darted out of his reach and deserted the locked exit. He cursed. She backtracked into the room, heading toward the opposite side of the pool. Squeals and screams rent the air as startled concubines scattered out of her way. The birds in their cages cried out their alarm, their wings flapping frantically and littering the air with feathers.

  She rounded the corner of the pool. Wulf vaulted diagonally across the small gap, his body stretched out as he flew over the water. He caught her, twisting in midair to absorb the impact when they crashed onto the marble floor and slid several feet.

  “Let me go.” She struggled against him. He rolled, pinning her beneath him.

  Their chests heaved together; his heart raced with the excitement of the chase. The scent of Draxian lilies filled his nostrils and relief at holding her after her frantic attempt at flight heated his blood. As Katie’s naked breasts pressed to his skin, his focus altered. Desire for her acted like a potent drug in his veins, making his entire body hot and hard.

  Wulf lifted his head. “Everyone, out!”

  His mind distantly registered the sounds of footsteps fading and doors slamming shut, but his focus was on the woman in his arms.

  Taking her mouth, Wulf groaned his pleasure when she returned his kiss with equal fervor. He loved Katie’s body, so strong and lithe. She could fight and injure him—she had the knowledge and stamina—but she touched him with tenderness. She was toned by years of combat training, yet still soft, with generous curves and valleys that fit perfectly against him.

  Katie began to struggle again, even as her tongue swirled greedily in his mouth. She didn’t want to want him, but couldn’t resist. That affinity stoked his lust to a fever pitch.

  Wulf broke the kiss and buried his face in her throat. “Don’t fight me,” he murmured against her flushed, scented skin. “I’ll make it good for you.”

  Gasping, she arched into him. “Release me.”

  “I can’t.” He grabbed her wrists, and pinned her arms above her head. He drew a taut nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue before suckling her with hard, deep pulls.

  “Oh!” Katie twisted in an effort to deter him. “No…”

  Wulf moved to her other breast, nipping the hard peak with his teeth before soothing the sting with gentle licks. “Stop wriggling,” he rumbled, then he curled his tongue around the straining point of her breast.

  Katie tried to buck him off but the movement only forced her legs to spread. His hips dipped between her thighs, settling perfectly into place because she was made for him.

  “Wulf. No.”

  “Remember last night?” he crooned. “How good it was?” His hips swiveled against hers, rubbing his rock-hard cock against her clitoris. “We were meant for this…you and I.”

  As he rocked into her, massaging her pussy with the hard length of his dick, she moaned, “Give me the top.”

  Wulf growled, remembering the way he’d felt last night when she plied her trade. “Why? So you can work?”

  Holding her wrists with one hand, he reached between them to loosen his drawstring. His wrist rubbed against her and she hissed in pleasure.

  “Isn’t that why you stole me?” she challenged. “Isn’t that why I’m here in your seraglio with all your other women? To work?”

  Rough and impatient, he shoved his waistband down and his cock sprang free. With a deft twist, he pulled her over him, his legs kicking until he was freed from his pants. “It was a mistake,” he said gruffly. “I wasn’t thinking.”

  “You’re not thinking now.” She gasped as he positioned his dick between her petal-soft folds and pushed into the tight, plush clasp of her pussy.

  She held herself aloft with her hands on his chest, the slick walls of her sex sucking on the head of his cock.

  He forced himself to wait. “Your choice, Katie. You said you could take me. Do it.”

  Katie’s lithe thighs were defined by the effort required to keep herself above him. The sight of her bared, toned body was so erotic it made Wulf perspire. It was such a provocative and tantalizing view. He couldn’t imagine ever growing tired of it.

  “Will this satisfy you, Your Highness?” With a practiced swivel of her hips, she took him to the root, the denuded lips of her pussy kissing the base of his shaft. “Is this what you wanted?”

  Wulf’s breath hissed out between
clenched teeth. His fingers dug into the slick marble beneath him but found no purchase.

  Her hands lifted to slide into her hair, thrusting her breasts forward wantonly. With narrowed eyes, Katie licked her lips and rose, stroking his cock in a heated, intimate embrace.

  “Katie,” he groaned, lost in her. “You are so beautiful.”

  She began to dance then, her seductress’s body undulating over and around him, her hips rolling and lowering, her arms manipulating her hair into a graceful curtain of dark silk.

  “Is this what you had in mind?” she purred, riding him with breathtaking skill and schooled elegance. “To steal your enemy’s lover and fuck her in your seraglio? To take his prized courtesan and add her to your stable as just one of many?”

  “What?” he choked, as she rippled her inner muscles along the length of his throbbing dick, stealing his wits.

  “Are you thinking of him now?” Katie goaded, her throaty voice roughened by passion. “Wishing he could see you? Wishing he was watching me give to you what I wouldn’t give to him?”

  With a growl of fury, Wulf tugged her flat against him and twisted, taking her under him again. “The king has nothing to do with this. Nothing!”

  “You lie.” Her eyes glistened, and the sight made his chest tight. “Why else would you bring me here? To be with all of them!”

  “Because I’m an idiot.” He pressed the words into her throat with fierce kisses. “I lost the ability to think clearly the moment I saw you.”

  “Wulf…” Her voice broke.

  The wealth of emotion between them made him dizzy, but he welcomed it. He was alive. His heart beat strongly in his chest. His lungs breathed in air. And in his arms lay a beautiful, desirable woman he admired. A woman who felt as he did—reckless and out of control.

  He laced his fingers with hers and pulled their arms over her head. “Let me make it good for you.”

  “It’s too good,” she whispered, her hands squeezing his.

  His chest flexed against hers as he returned her grip. “It is. And it’s between us. No one else.”

  She hugged him deep inside her, caressing him with those maddening little muscles. He dropped his head next to hers. “I don’t want to hold back, Katie. I want to ride you hard and deep.”

  Her tongue delved into his ear, making him tremble. “Do it. Burn this out.”

  With a grunt of pure lust, he wrapped himself around her and began to thrust. Wild, he drove into her with a singular madness, his buttocks clenching and releasing in rapid rhythm as he propelled himself as far into the heart of her as he could go.

  It wasn’t enough. He wondered if it would ever be enough, if he would get deep enough…

  Katie sobbed and cried out his name, rising to meet every downstroke. Scratching and clawing at his sweat-slick back. Trying to crawl into him, even as he was trying to pound into her.

  The pleasure built, rising like a swelling tide until it spilled from his lips.

  “Katie…yes, like that…you’re so tight…so hot…so fucking good…”

  Snarls and savage groans rose in volume around them. Distantly, Wulf realized it was he who was making those abandoned sounds of pleasure but he couldn’t stop, didn’t want to stop.

  His climax was wrapping around his spine and fisting his balls. He wanted to slow down, make it last, but there was no way. Not with her begging him as she was, pleading with him to fuck her harder and deeper. His knees were bruised from the stone floor, but the pain anchored him to the present, to this moment, to this woman. The woman who’d wanted him when he’d wanted to die.

  Gritting his teeth, Wulf tried to will away the unbelievable pleasure. But Katie screamed his name, climaxing with a torrent of sound, her body clenching around him in exquisite inner convulsions. She dragged him with her into orgasm, yanking him under. He succumbed with an exultant shout of masculine triumph. He came violently, his tormented cock jerking with every thick spurt, his jaw clenched tightly as he emptied his lust into the quivering depths of her.

  Shuddering with the devastating force of his release, Wulf fought to pull air into his lungs. Katie’s greedy body continued to grip him in aftershocks that stole his sanity. He pressed tender, grateful kisses along the side of her face and neck. Releasing her hands, he hugged her, then curled them both on their sides.

  How had this obsession consumed him so quickly? Why did it have to be focused on this woman, a woman never meant for him? His mind was too fogged to think. His embrace tightened.

  Katie was tucked into the crook of his shoulder, and Wulf knew by the extremity of her relaxation that she was asleep. He left her only for the length of time necessary to stand and draw up his pants. Then he lifted her into his arms.

  “Guardian, send for Sabine.” He carried Katie toward the exit. Within a moment, he heard a door open behind him.

  “Yes, Your Highness?” Sabine asked.

  Wulf paused and faced his chamberlain. As she straightened from a low bow, he noted the high flush on her cheeks and wondered at it. Then he remembered the abandon with which he’d taken Katie and his own face heated with unfamiliar embarrassment. Everyone would have heard them. Sabine eyed the sleeping Katie with new respect.

  “I will call for you when she wakes,” he said. “You will attend to her in my chambers.”

  He started to walk away.

  “Y-you’re taking her with you?” Sabine was incredulous. “It will only take a moment to prepare a room for her.”

  He shook his head. Like Katie, he was exhausted, and all he wanted was his own bed and Katie curled up beside him. “That will be all, Sabine.”

  “I apologize for being unprepared, Your Highness.” The chamberlain hurried after him. “Her room will be ready shortly.”

  “No need to apologize. And you misunderstand. She will share my rooms.”

  Wulf didn’t have to turn around to know Sabine was dumbfounded. He felt the same. He likened the feeling to blunt force trauma to the head, which was dangerous, considering how he’d need sound reasoning to explain his actions to his father.

  Stealing the King of Sari’s prized concubine for ransom was one thing. It meant returning her was intended and a war unlikely.

  Intending to keep her, despite all the risks, was another circumstance altogether.

  Warmth and comfort were the first two things to register in Sapphire’s mind when she returned to consciousness. Keeping her eyes closed, she relished those sensations before she was bombarded with others—the feel of a man’s hard leg between her thighs, a thickly muscled pectoral beneath her cheek, warm lips pressed to her crown, and Wulf’s scent clinging to her skin.

  She opened her eyes and saw totally unfamiliar surroundings. A large red velvet canopy loomed overhead with matching drapes tied to each of four bedposts. An inlaid seating area scattered with multicolored pillows was several feet away. Beyond that was a massive bank of windows that were nearly the size of transport bay doors.

  Curious, Sapphire disentangled from Wulf’s embrace despite his sleepy protests, and walked to the windows to take in the view. Set high atop a mountain, the D’Ashier royal palace overlooked the thriving cities below. The sun was setting, bathing the vista spread out before her in a reddish golden glow.

  She jumped when Wulf’s warm arms surrounded her from behind. His chin came to rest atop her head with a silent exhale.

  “It’s breathtaking,” she whispered in awe.

  His embrace tightened. “I was thinking the same thing about you.”

  Sapphire leaned into him, then winced at the bruising she felt in her right buttock. She remembered their encounter on the tiled floor by the pool, and reached for the spot. Wulf brushed her fingers aside.

  “Let me,” he murmured, knowing exactly where to rub to soothe the ache.

  “You can’t keep me a prisoner here.”

  He groaned, as if he were dealing with a difficult child. “It doesn’t have to be like that.”

  “What else can it be like
? My father is the General of the Sarian Army. I have been a concubine to the King of Sari—your enemy—for the last five years, and he’s reluctant to forget me. When they discover that I’ve been taken against my will…”

  Wulf turned her to face him. “Why does it have to be against your will? Stay with me by your own choice, and your father would become your advocate. Without the general’s full support, the king would have difficulty acting.”

  His emerald eyes glittered in the shadows created by the setting sun. “I can make you happy. I can give you things you never knew you wanted.”

  Sapphire’s heart stopped, then raced. “What are you offering?”

  “A place in my life, in my bed. I will spoil you, shower you with gifts, take you places you’ve always wanted to see.”

  “For how long?”

  “For as long as it pleases both of us.” He cradled her cheek in the palm of his hand. His thumb brushed across her skin.

  “It would never work.”

  “I saw the way your father is with you,” Wulf went on. “He won’t risk you.”

  “The king doesn’t need my father’s approval.”

  She slipped free of his embrace and moved back toward the bed. It wasn’t what he said, but what he didn’t say. “You have many beautiful women who you can enjoy with far less risk. Instead you imperil an entire nation for temporary pleasure.”

  He was silent behind her.

  She waited, but as the moment drew out, Katie looked over her shoulder. She kept her facial expression carefully neutral.

  Wulfric stared at her, then ran a hand through his dark hair. “What do you want me to say?” He looked away. “That my cock is overruling my reason? I told you it’s more than that. This isn’t easy for me.”

  “I know.”

  Just as she knew that she couldn’t stay. She would have to leave—soon—before the direness of the situation escalated. Wulf had given her a week of his time in Sari. She might be able to manage a week in D’Ashier. Then she would go, before her desire for Wulf turned into something deeper and more painful to lose.