A Lotus for the Regent (28 page)

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.