“I’ll find blankets,” Hattori’s partner said.
“Find some for Joy,” Kat reminded through chattering teeth.
Hattori’s arms tightened around her. Rather than release her, he sat in a big leather chair with her in his lap. The heat in the guesthouse had been shut off, the exposed wood framing of the slanted ceiling only visually cozy.
“I’ll activate the power grid,” Jade volunteered.
“I’ll find the first-aid kit,” Jules said.
“You should be seeing a physician,” Hattori muttered under his breath. “You might have a concussion.”
They were alone in the dim stone-lined room. Hattori didn’t move, just closed his eyes and hugged her to him - as if grateful she was alive. Kat doubted she’d ever been held like this even as a child. The upper classes didn’t believe in displaying affection. Hattori’s arms were big, his muscular thighs like iron under her. Throwing appropriateness to the wind, she pulled her shivering legs to her sodden chest. To her amazement, his lap was hotter than the rest of him. She shifted in surprise, and the skin of his eyelids tensed.
“Are you all right?” she asked softly.
His lashes lifted, his pupils huge. His gaze was glassy enough to be drugged.
“Sorry,” he said, even more quietly than she had. “Everything about you does it for me.”
She blinked at him, her body proving it did have heat in it. As she stared, lips parted for her quickened breathing, the guard’s erection lurched under her bottom.
The wet silk she wore was thin, and there was no mistaking his hardening. In truth, she wasn’t certain he’d been completely soft in the cold water.
She tried to speak but didn’t know what to say. She had one hand flattened on his chest, and his heart thudded strongly against her palm. The tip of Hattori’s tongue came out to wet his upper lip, exposing the dark forked marking that had inspired Humans to label their race demons. Yama considered showing one’s lamril a sexual display. Probably Hattori was just nervous, but Katsu’s cheeks heated with a flush anyway.
That was a signal he couldn’t miss.
“Princess,” he whispered in soft longing.
“We are in so much trouble,” Jade moaned mournfully from the door.
Kat started guiltily, though she doubted her cousin had noticed what was transpiring between her and the guard.
With a slump that would have done a sullen young Human proud, Jade switched on the smokeless gel burning fireplace. As the blue flames rose, Ciran reappeared with an armload of green blankets. Unlike his partner, he was perfectly dry.
“I can take her,” he said to Hattori. Hattori shook his head tightly.
Close as she was, Kat saw the meaningful look that passed between the men.
Did Ciran guess what Kat’s presence in his partner’s lap was hiding, and if so, did he disapprove? If he did, he wasn’t going to press the issue. With a face as uninformative as a royal’s, he bundled blankets around them both. The heavy wool felt delicious, and Kat’s shivers relaxed at last. Her head fell to Hattori’s muscular shoulder, causing him to let out a silent sigh. She was almost too comfortable to notice when Joy padded into the room in her own blanket. With her wet hair draggling around her, she looked closer to five than fifteen.
“You’re bleeding again,” she announced, coming to a halt in front of the chair.
“I could stitch her up,” Ciran offered. A hint of unsureness colored his professional tone. “Or possibly a doctor would be better.”
“
No
,” the Fengs said in a hasty chorus. As if to emphasize their preference, Jules handed Ciran the first aid kit.
“If Father heard what happened, he’d dismiss you first and ask questions later,” Joy explained. “You need to hole up here until Kat is healed. Jules can say she decided Kat should have you as guards instead. She can tell Mother she got tired of looking at Ciran’s funny eyes and Hattori’s funny face. Mother’s certain to believe her. We don’t mind how you look, but she’s snooty about those things.”
“Your father might be justified in firing us,” Hattori said slowly.
“Pshaw,” Jade scoffed. “Joy would have taken that boat with or without you, and Kat would have gone with her. Joy is her favorite. What if they’d fallen in when you weren’t there?”
“I
am
stupid enough to have gone rowing by myself,” Joy confirmed cheerfully.
“Kat ought to have a guard,” Jules added with older sibling finality. “Just because her stepmother is a viper doesn’t mean our family should pinch credits.
I’ll get new ones, and Kat can borrow you.”
All the Feng sisters seemed to think the question settled - the prerogative of princesses, Kat supposed. Less sure, and perhaps unused to being defended by teenage girls, Hattori and Ciran exchanged another look. Under her now warm bottom, Hattori’s cock continued to throb. Under the blankets, his right hand patted her side.
It was a strangely gentle gesture, as if he were an old friend of hers.
“It would be better if we didn’t risk separation,” Ciran agreed carefully,
“which might happen if we’re dismissed.”
Kat thought this an interesting warning, though no one else noticed it.
“It’s decided then,” Jules said. “We’ll tell Mother and Father that Kat’s feeling sulky on account of being sent away from the prince. We’ll convince them she doesn’t want to inflict her low mood on us.” This excuse was closer to the truth than Kat wanted to dwell on. If her stepmother had her way, she’d die unmated.
She wasn’t the only one who fought a grimace. Jade cursed as her tiny pocket communicator buzzed to signal a call. She dug the walnut size crystal out of her inside sash pocket.
“Balls,” she said, checking the readout that was now projected into the air.
“It’s Mother.”
The three girls hustled out of the guest house, where they could ill afford to be seen by the miniature holocamera. Kat heard them arguing about how far Joy needed to stand to be out of view.
Their girls’ departure shifted the mood. They were three adults now, if not precisely three equals. Ciran looked at Kat. His eyes weren’t funny, they were beautiful. One was silver-blue while the other was touched by gold. Kat felt dizzy staring into them. The guard was calm, but she sensed him measuring her.
It was an unusual look for a social inferior. Though Yamish age could be hard to judge, the way he studied her gave the impression that he was older ... or at least more worldly.
“I wouldn’t do anything to harm either of you,” she promised. “You probably saved my life today.”
A smile broke shockingly across Ciran’s face. Kat gasped, because full-grown Yama - low or high - simply didn’t expose their feelings this way.
“You won’t harm
us
,” he repeated humorously.
“Yes, yes,” she said, recognizing that she’d been mocked. “I’m sure you two are dangerous characters.”
Ciran’s smile faded to a wry glimmer. “You’ve no idea how dangerous we are
... and we’ll try to keep it that way.”
* * *
“I won’t faint,” she swore as she pushed him out. “I’m only staying under the water long enough to warm up.”
His eyes glowed with the intensity of his interest, which he seemed less able to conceal now that the girls were gone. “You make one noise and I’ll be by your side, princess.”
His words sounded more like a warning than a promise of rescue. Kat shivered in response, but not unpleasantly.
The sound he made on seeing her reaction was very close to a growl.
She shouldn’t have been surprised that the steaming spray took little time to thaw her. What was surprising was the nervousness she felt when she emerged -
warm and dry once more in a silk bathrobe. She’d been with men before. The premium royals placed on emotional restraint didn’t extend to sex. In that arena, they were inclined to indulge themselves, males especially being driven by their hormones. The lower classes were reputed to like sex too, but Kat had never indulged with them. She’d heard rohn males could ejaculate any time they wanted, instead of only at the height of their cycles. Unlike royals, they didn’t need a biologically suited mate to achieve a wet release.
She admitted she’d entertained a fantasy or two around that topic. It seemed so abandoned for a man to spill when he pleased, though perhaps it robbed their climaxes of suspense.
She shook her head at herself as she wandered into the now empty living room. She had no business contemplating the different classes’ sexual habits. She wasn’t planning to seduce Hattori, no matter how willing he was to succumb. She pressed her lips together, searching the room for signs of where her supposedly assiduous bodyguards had gone.
So much for Hattori leaping to her rescue if she uttered a sound.
Her irritation at their absence pointed up her arousal. The flesh between her legs felt swollen, both tender and hungry. Evidently, her body had its own ideas about what she ought to do.
She heard the faintest murmur behind her, where a hall led to two bedrooms.
She followed it, assuming the men were there. One door was ajar. Overcome by curiosity and built for stealth like most Yama, she crept silently to it.
She wasn’t sorry she’d been quiet. The tableau she found was unexpected -
and too personal to walk in on. Ciran and Hattori were standing very close together in front of a small window. Wisteria shrouded the thick security panes behind them, the alarm wires forming little diamonds inside the layers of glass.
Despite the foliage, the sun penetrated brightly enough to light their profiles.
Ciran looked troubled, while Hattori seemed a shade angry. One of Hattori’s hands rubbed up and down his own chest. This wasn’t just an unYamish gesture, it was unguardlike too. If her people had a deity, it was self-control.
“You can’t give in to this,” Ciran was saying. “You have to fight your attraction.”
“I can’t help the way I’m reacting. It’s as if my body recognizes her.”
“You’ll give yourself away. You’ll endanger both of us.”
“I know that,” Hattori said with clearly fraying patience. “I’m telling you I can’t help it.”
The hand that had been rubbing his chest slid down to between his legs. He was still hard, the bulge his fingers closed on larger than Kat had imagined a rohn could get. Perhaps he’d meant to prove his point to Ciran by underscoring how stiff he’d grown. If so, the grip did more than he’d intended. He squeezed the shape that pushed out his gray trousers, gasping for air as pleasure made his spine roll.
“Don’t.” Ciran clamped Hattori’s wrist and tried to pull it away. “You’re going to make it worse.”
Abruptly Kat realized how raggedly the second bodyguard was breathing, how his fighting trousers had arched up from his groin. Tingles of surprised excitement swept down her spine. Unable to wrest Hattori’s grip away from his cock, or to stop the knuckle-whitening massage it was engaged in, Ciran shoved his hand under Hattori’s between his thighs. As shocked as Kat was by this change in tactic, Hattori gasped at the cupping pressure around his balls.
This was a favorite caress of royals, because their seed stored up between cycles. Giving their sacs a good, deep rubbing helped relieve tenderness. Kat had never been with a prince in rut, but her experiences with them at other times had familiarized her with their general preferences. What she hadn’t known was that rohn would also enjoy this, but perhaps some pleasures transcended class. Ciran certainly was proficient at the trick - not to mention extremely bold. As Hattori spread his legs wider, Ciran edged his chest to his.
They stood as close as lovers about to kiss.
“Let me try to bring you off,” Ciran said. “Maybe you’re not too far gone.” Hattori’s head fell back as Ciran’s fingers kneaded him. His ready acceptance of the help suggested they’d done this before. The pressure Ciran used was strong enough to have the tendons in his wrist cording.
“I’m ... pretty sure ... it’s too late.” Hattori’s voice was strained by his obvious urge to groan. His own hand still tugged his shaft, though he was careful not to interfere with the aid his friend was supplying.
“Still,” Ciran said throatily, “if there’s any chance you could spill ...” Something snapped in Hattori. Without shifting his right hand from its apparently crucial task, he started tearing at the tie to his outer robe. Before he could even fumble, Ciran used his free hand to help.
Evidently, Ciran wasn’t that much more sensible than his friend.
“Yes,” Hattori said, his chest heaving up and down beneath his undertunic, his fight for oxygen frantic now. Waves of heat flooded Kat’s body. As one, the guards reached for his trousers. They were too impatient to undo the drawstring.
As they yanked, the waist caught the head of Hattori’s erection. He hissed through his teeth. Ciran pulled harder, and the monster won its freedom.
At the sight of it, Kat bit her lower lip. Hattori’s vein-girded cock was as thick as a woman’s wrist and as dark as if it were sunburned. Blood pumped through its tissues in heavy surges, the marvel so stretched the head was strafing Hattori’s ridged abdomen.
His phallus was as regal as any emperor’s.
She didn’t blame Ciran in the least for falling to his knees like a worshiper.
Somewhat to her disappointment, he didn’t pull Hattori’s trousers down all the way.
She supposed this didn’t matter to Hattori. He could see what he wanted to.
His hands fisted in Ciran’s hair, his fingers getting a firm grip on the blue-black locks. Ciran’s hair only reached his shoulders, but it was long enough to steer with.
“Lick it,” Hattori whispered. “Squeeze me and lick the top.” Ciran licked him with the flat of his tongue, wetting him with saliva as he surrounded Hattori’s scrotum with both his hands. Ciran didn’t seem to mind when Hattori thrust the slickened knob in between his lips. He let it in and sucked him harder, pulling deeply enough to hollow his cheeks. Coupled with the firm kneading of his sac, this was more than his fellow guard’s control could withstand. Hattori shuddered and urged him closer, biting his lip until it whitened.