But here now he was entertaining another idea. What if the Tarian was going to be sleeping
in
her bed? It was a major breach in court etiquette if he was locked away with her behind closed doors. It allowed for the speculation that they were lovers. Some wild savage like the Tarian male was proving to be was, however, far from an acceptable choice as a bedmate for the Empress of Allay. The nobles would not stand for it, and neither would the Tari-hating commoners. Indeed, it surprised him that she would make so unwise a move in her opening salvo to win the favor of the court and the country.
“Why stand you all here?” Balkin demanded of them loudly and gruffly, watching the servants jump in their own skin at the surprise of his strident voice. “Why do you not attend your mistress?”
The only one who had not jumped at his voice turned to meet him eye to eye, a notable action because commoners had never been allowed to meet the eyes of royals under the rule of his brother. But he knew this woman. She had been in exile with the princess. She would not be used to the sound of his voice or the fear it ought to instill in her.
“You. Are you not companion to the empress?”
“I am, great lord.” She gave him what he would consider a begrudging bow. But still she did not look away from his eyes. It ought to have enraged him under any other circumstances, but for some reason her backbone
stimulated him. That she had a pretty face and a fine set of tits didn’t hurt either.
He let his appreciation show as he stepped up to her, broke into the safety of her personal space. At last she wavered and her gaze flew from his. She wanted to step back but was torn, he could tell. She was confident in the strength of her mistress, but not as yet confident in her own place amongst the court. She was a pretty fish out of water. He could use her against Ambrea if he played her right.
“Your mistress should never be left alone with anyone whom others might perceive as below her regard,” he reminded her. “It is your job as her most trusted servant to protect your mistress from unseemly behaviors. What is your name?”
“Suna,” she answered, clearly trying to find her footing against him. She bravely raised her chin and met his eyes. “I have been companion to my mistress for many years, great lord,” she said, clearing her throat a minute before becoming a bit more strident. “Her protection has always been my ultimate goal. I can assure you, she is very well protected with her Tarian by her side. And if she wishes to confer with him in private about matters, it is innocently meant and essential to her safety and protection.” She squared her shoulders then, and Balkin got an instant erection at the sight of her proud stance. “And anyone who thinks otherwise is a lascivious prig. My mistress is innocent of men, as she has always been. She is also pious and sweet and would not ride just any stallion that trotted across her path.”
“I never said she would. I only mentioned that perception is everything, and here we have a corridor full of servants with opinions of their own who do not know your mistress as well as you do.”
“Opinions are rather like assholes,” she countered
crudely. “Everyone has one and they are all usually full of shit.”
Balkin chuckled, giving her what he deemed his most charming smile. “Truer words were never spoken, Lady Suna. But where would we be without the rules of etiquette and genteel behaviors? Such chaos creates fear among those little assholes. And before you know it, they are crapping all over your sweet mistress.”
He turned to the milling peons in the hall. “Be gone, all the rest of you! The only ones who ought to be here are the empress’s personal guard and the Lady Suna. She will fetch any of you who are needed when you are needed.”
They began to hastily clear out under his order, and turning back to Suna he smiled again. Though she remained strongly raised against him, he saw her flush darkly over the rise of her cheekbones. He reached out to brush back a loose curl where it rested on her collarbone, the length respectfully and obviously shorter than that of her royal mistress. He suspected she was a very loyal girl and she would report all of his actions to her mistress, so he remained well behaved and did nothing untoward, although that didn’t mean he wouldn’t remember her in the future. But it would be fun to toy with the little fish.
For the moment he would use her to report good things about him to her mistress. She would tell Ambrea that he was kind, concerned, and fair. That perhaps he was a good source of information, a good place to turn when she needed guidance. In a very lowered voice he spoke to her.
“Whether your mistress’s behavior is pure and innocent or more tawdry, that is her private business. It is your responsibility, Lady Suna, to keep opinionated witnesses to the ultimate minimum. You are loyal to the empress, and that is good. You must protect her and her
image at all costs. It is one thing for there to be rumors, quite another for someone to say, ‘It’s true. I was there standing outside her private rooms when they were locked away together.’ You understand?”
Suna nodded, her expression turning contrite and a bit lost. Clearly she was angry with herself for not acting more definitively.
“I will do better, great lord,” she said, that stubborn chin rising up again.
“I know you will,” he assured her, touching a gentle fingertip under her chin. “And if you have any questions or need any help, I could guide you to someone of the court who can help train you in its etiquettes. She can help empower you with the servants. After all, you must remember you are now the right hand to the most powerful woman of all Allay, and, as her right hand, you must act just as powerfully.”
“I can do just fine on my own,” she said stubbornly. “I merely forgot …” She paused for a few beats and he waited patiently. His patience of late had been surprising even to himself. “But perhaps … if you point someone out …”
He took her by her elbow and guided her back down the passages and to the entrance of the court hall, where nobles still milled about in heavy numbers.
“Let’s see,” he mused as he made a big show of thinking about things. “There is Paxor Brigitte. She is a bit rigid at times as far as protocol and proper behavior are concerned, but you will find no better walking rule book.” He continued to scan about. “And then there’s Mistress Holbiert. She is wed to one of our paxors and has been a friend to many of the greater ladies of the court, although she has been known to be quite crushing to anyone she feels has crossed her. A great friend to have, but beware if you make an enemy of her.”
“Perhaps it is best she remain on the periphery altogether,” Suna said dismissively.
“Perhaps you are right. Well, my only other choice would be the Lady Eirie. She is young and wise. The wealthy widow of a man long respected in court circles. She has been at court since a very young age and knows all of its ins and outs quite well. She understands all the finest points of etiquette and has an impeccable reputation for it; however, I think you would find her to be more flexible and understanding of your mistress’s inexperience and youthful needs.”
Balkin had given her a choice, and she could easily choose in a less favorable direction, but he didn’t think she would. Still it was important that she feel in charge of the decision. It would help her to form a quicker bond of trust with her selection if she felt she had had full power when making it.
“I think perhaps the Lady Eirie is the best choice,” she said.
Balkin didn’t even feel relief. He had been that confident.
“Are you certain? There is something to be said for older wisdom.”
“My lady is not known for her rigidity and cold adherence to the rules. I think someone of youth who knows the rules but is more easily able to flex is the better choice.”
“Perhaps you are correct,” he said with a noncommittal shrug. “Come with me and I will introduce you to her. Then you ought to hurry back to your mistress in case she comes out of her conference and needs you.”
It was as though all the last chains holding Rush had finally slipped away. Earlier he had been hasty and still unsure of the wisdom of his actions, but after trying so hard to create even the smallest amount of heat and being
so thoroughly thwarted by the water he stood in, he was utterly convinced that he would not hurt her. Knowing that was like swallowing a strange and powerful aphrodisiac, like empowering himself on a visceral level.
Ambrea moaned softly against his lips as he kissed her until they were both breathless and their mouths tender from his constant devouring hunger for her. He couldn’t explain why she was so damn enticing, so incredibly delightful to him. But then again, why wouldn’t she be? He had never met anyone like her. She was such a compilation of bravery and strength, yet full of gentility and fairness. He was very aware of the power she was now wielding, of what it could do to her, of what he had seen power do to others in many other countries of the Three Worlds. But he didn’t question her. He felt a faith in her that he had not felt in anyone else in his life. Not even Bronse, a leader he trusted with his life and followed faithfully. Even after all his years under Bronse’s guidance and all the scrapes they had been through together, he still couldn’t bring himself to trust the commander with the secret he held on to so vehemently.
But Rush trusted Ambrea, now more than ever, he realized as he pulled her body tightly to his, gripping her slender thighs and dragging them up around his waist. She eagerly clung to him, her mouth just as impassioned against his as his was against hers.
Rush let his eyes close as his entire spirit breathed an emotional sigh of relief. It seemed as though he had craved her from the moment of his birth. Even his mother had not wanted to accept him in his entirety. From the moment he had first accidentally burned her, she had not been comfortable touching him. She had tried to cover it up, had made every effort to make up for it in other ways, but he had easily sensed his mother’s fear of him.
Rush had known in that moment that not just anyone
would have done for him. Ambrea was not a convenient body, close at hand when he realized it was safe for him to touch a woman. He didn’t want anyone else. No one else would feel so precious and good, no one else could make him so hard with lust and need because no one else would have earned the trust necessary for him to feel free to indulge in those feelings.
He pulled away from her mouth and dragged his lips down her throat, his tongue tasting her creamy skin, his hands exploring the stretching length of her back. What he wouldn’t give right then to have her sprawled out before him in a bed, those long, pale limbs reaching for him, spreading to welcome him.
“Ah, it’s never enough, is it?” he breathed against the crest of her collarbone. “We’re never content to have what we have. We’re always seeking more.”
“What more are you looking for?” she asked him, her voice light with the speed of her breathing. “Tell me what I can give to you, Rush.”
“You’ve given me more than enough already,” he told her hotly, his hands gripping her hard where he held her. “I only want you. More of you. Everything about you. All I crave now are the things about you that stand out of my momentary reach. But I will have them all, Blue Eyes. I will find a way to have them all.”
“And you are welcome to them,” she promised him as she pressed her lips against the corner of his eye. “What we don’t have now we will find a way to have later. Your limitations are only what your own mind holds up in your way. I firmly believe that.”
“And you are making a believing scholar out of me, Ambrea.” He drew back to meet her eyes with his, unaware of the emotion that his amber gaze betrayed along with the fiery heat of need. “You’ve done nothing but teach me new things and reteach me what I thought I
knew. Ah, how fitting it is,” he exhaled, “that we both learn this together.”
She nodded. “I always thought I would be afraid of this. I always thought I would be awkward and inept because”—she swallowed but did not look away from his intense regard—“I’m so old and so ridiculously inexperienced.”
He laughed at that, pushing back the wet fall of her cinnamon dark hair.
“And what does that make me, eh?”
That made her giggle, and he was happy that his own lack of experience could put her at ease. For himself, he wasn’t going to let it stand in his way. This wasn’t going to be about an expertise he could not magically acquire in the next few minutes. It was just about her and the incredible gift she was giving him, the incredible craving for her he could not deny.
Rush ran his hands down her back, curving them around the fullness of her backside and gripping her there for a moment before pulling her up higher against himself. Her weight was nothing to his strength, yet it felt so good as she rewrapped her legs around his ribs. Her hands dove into his hair, clasping him around his head as he nosed against her breast. As wet as she was, he could smell the sweetness of her, the aroma that was so unique to her and so arousing to his senses. He opened his mouth against her and drew her distended nipple between his lips. It seemed so strange that this place on her body would be any more or less arousing than any of the others, but it was very much the case. Her nipple was a fair and pretty pink, the tip of it thrusting hard against his laving tongue. And when he sucked on her strongly, she let out a cry that made him ache with wildly increasing need. She clutched him to her and even forced him to relinquish one breast in order to attend to the other, which he gladly did. By the time he
was sated enough with this particular discovery, he could feel her tempting pussy rubbing hot and wet against his chest. She was squirming against him, stimulating herself. The way she was moaning and panting was driving him insane. He dropped an arm down, prying it under her leg and forcing her to relinquish the vise grip of her thighs around his ribs. She was all long limbs as he lowered her back onto the tub ledge and the floor that ran up to its edge. Her hands grasped for his shoulders until he drew fully out of her reach and she was forced to settle for locking her fingers around his hair or dragging them up and down the length of his arms. She reacted to the cold tile floor at her back, her body arching and creating a beautiful plateau of curves and feminine flesh, unlike anything he had ever seen before.