The Queen's Consorts (13 page)

Sari dug into the bowl for another piece of fruit, searching for a replacement for Taryen now that Kayla had made the connection in her mind. Sari was sure her face showed every bit the ecstasy Laysa’s had when she took that first demonstrative bite. Sari even went so far as to suck her fingers, losing herself in the fantasy, forgetting the others at the table.

“We’re ready for the performance to begin.” Laysa’s unwelcome voice cut through Sari’s private moment with her fruit and memories.

When the lights dimmed, Sari looked to Kayla in confusion, feeling almost unnaturally warm and sensing that her thoughts were somehow fuzzy.
“Performance?”

“The consorts perform for the assembly.” Kayla’s gaze was still on Haven and Macro across the table as she sucked on one finger, making it obvious she was answering Sari on instinct. Then she jumped, as if only then remembering something. “Oh gods, the consorts are performing.”

Then Kayla stood
,
only to be grabbed by her mother when she made a move to leave. “Don’t you dare stand at the back of the room with the rest of those dreadful
royalists!
”

“But I am a royalist.” Kayla spoke slowly to her mother. “Everyone knows that.”

“This is a special occasion. You’ve been entrusted to guide the new one. You leave and embarrass your fathers and me, and you won’t eat for two suns.”

“That’s fine.” Kayla seemed unconcerned with lack of food as she made a move to pull her hand out of her mother’s grasp. “My convictions are more important than a little discomfort.”

“Do this
now,
and that pretty galled hen you’ve been nursing back to health will go to slaughter where it belongs,” her mother said with a low growl, making it obvious her threat was genuine.

Kayla sucked in a sharp breath, looking as if her mother struck her. “You’d have my pet murdered?”

“Sit,” her mother said without apology, tugging on Kayla’s arm.

Obviously miserable, Kayla looked to Haven and Macro, who were also standing. Then she sighed, sitting heavily in her chair. She angled her body away from the stage and pulled her bowl of fruit closer, clearly searching for comfort in it.

Haven and Macro also sat, looking as miserable as Kayla, and like her, they turned their chairs, angling their bodies so their backs were partially to the stage, making it apparent they were staying for Kayla when they’d rather leave. Sari saw others get up across the room, perhaps a third of all those in attendance. Most were males, but there were a few females who also stood. All those bold enough to stand made their way to the back of the room, and Sari craned her head, seeing them all line up against the wall in the rear of the room. They turned, giving the stage their backs and facing the wall.

“Royalists.
This is their way of making a statement. They refuse to accept that their queen is dead, killing the last hope of the old ways with no princess to inherit her pulse of power,” Laysa whispered into Sari’s ear as if this scene was an every-night occurrence. “Kayla is a nice girl, but don’t let her skewed beliefs sway you. Everyone but her dense parents knows she’s sleeping with that useless pair of lifemates across from us. She’s a weak-minded female to let males’ opinions sway her.
Pitiful.”

Sari found herself digging into her own bowl of fruit because she had the sudden urge to turn around and punch Laysa. She was so caught up with Kayla’s drama, she forgot about the performance until the thump of several drums forced Sari to turn and look at the stage. Perhaps she should make a statement and get up like the other Rayians loyal to the queen, but she was curious. The unnatural warmth was burning her cheeks once more, and Sari remembered Taryen and Calder’s promise to perform just for her.

The artificial lights faded from dim to blackness. It forced everyone’s attention to the front of the room where the only light now came from the small stone bowls lining the front of the stage and the candelabras along the curved walls at the back. The small flames all moved as if they had a life of their own, making shadows on the walls. Dark and light
danced,
something reminiscent of Calder and Taryen when they came together.

The thrum of a drum started out low, blending with Sari’s pulse, which started to race with excitement. It vibrated with life, reminding her of the throb of sex as Taryen and Calder came onto the stage, entering from opposite sides. Hoods down, heads bowed, no one would be able to tell them from any other male, except she knew it was them.
Taryen on the left, a few inches taller.
Calder on the right, with his powerful biceps stretching the sleeves of his robes.
It was in their wide shoulders, in Calder’s proud stride, in Taryen’s easy grace. Sari could spot them anywhere.

Her entire body hummed, and it seemed she wasn’t the only one. It was as if an electric current went through the entire audience. Everyone, female and male, was suddenly charged and enthralled. When Calder and Taryen met each other center stage, Sari could feel their pulse of excitement as easily as she felt her own.

Two robed men stood facing each other, faceless, anonymous, before one reached out, pushing the hood off the other, exposing light hair streaked black at the temples. Strong, handsome features turned away, hiding from the audience, his body tense under his robe, his stature defiant now that he’d been exposed.

One so powerful, so obviously dangerous, wasn’t used to being a victim.

Sari was familiar with these games when it came to sexual shows—a reluctant entertainer was a sexy one. Audiences liked to believe they were watching the sexual excitement overcome the performer until they became so absorbed in their own performance they lost themselves. Sari knew it was all
fake
, but the truth was, Calder was so good at angry defiance, she believed it was real, and she held her breath, wanting to see him lose himself.

The faceless man next to him grabbed Calder’s hair, his hold vicious as he moved behind him. Instead of fighting, his eyes squeezed tightly shut as he stood there exposed, his back against the faceless man’s chest, the long line of his throat was bare, and Sari saw him swallow hard as if extremely nervous.

The pulse of drums picked up slightly, making Sari feel as if they were somehow matching her throbbing heartbeat. The faceless man tugged Calder’s head back farther, hiding his features from the audience as he reached around with his other hand and worked at unbuttoning his plain, brown robes.

Sari leaned forward, sucking on her fingers as she ate another piece of wine-soaked fruit, eager for Calder’s beautiful body to be bared. A slow line of tanned flesh started to appear as button after button was slid open. When Calder’s robes were unbuttoned down to his stomach, the faceless man released the tight hold on his hair long enough to push the robes over broad, powerful shoulders.

When the thick material slipped off Calder’s body and slid to the floor, Sari actually gasped out loud, “Gods.”

“He’s magnificent, isn’t he?” Laysa whispered next to her, sounding as enthralled as Sari felt. “I requested he be the victim this evening. I love seeing him vulnerable.”

Sari hated to admit that she understood. He was beautiful vulnerable because he opposed it so completely. Calder made a very sexy victim standing there nearly naked, wearing only a primitive loincloth. His tan skin glowed under the candlelight, looking smooth and luminescent. Sari knew he used oil to achieve the affect against the fire lighting, making him seem almost ethereal with his hard, muscled body glowing, light and shadows dancing across his powerful chest and defined abs the same as it moved over the walls.

The faceless man tugged Calder’s hair once more, exposing his throat. His hold on the light strands was unforgiving and vicious as his other hand moved down Calder’s chest like he owned it, exploring the contours of sinewy muscle. When he tweaked one small male nipple, Sari could see Calder’s sharp intake of breath and knew it likely wasn’t an act.

A large male hand touched Calder’s stomach, his hard chest, running over tanned skin and tweaking sensitive nipples. The cruelness of it was that the faceless man kept his hold on Calder’s hair, forcing his face toward the ceiling, allowing him only to feel the touch of a master, refusing him any sort of real relief and certainly not allowing him to touch himself. Sari could see Calder’s cock straining against the loincloth, hard and desperate for a release.

The seduction was tortuously slow, not just for Calder but for Sari as well. She found herself actually shifting in her seat as the faceless man slowly explored Calder’s body, touching him possessively everywhere except where he needed it. Sari ate her fruit to distract herself from the throb between her legs, which grew more pronounced as Calder’s chest started heaving, his skin becoming even more luminescent when oil and water mixed as he grew sweaty with desire.

The tension left Calder’s shoulders, the defiance slipping out of his body slowly as he became languid in the faceless man’s arms, willingly accepting the sweet torture of denied release and extrasensory overload. It was such a gradual journey from defiant victim to willing
slave,
Sari nearly forgot he fought ownership to begin with.

The faceless man leaned closer, using his hold on Calder’s hair to turn Calder’s face to his. If Sari hadn’t been sitting so close to the stage, his words would have escaped her. But thanks to her seat next to Laysa she heard the faceless man’s low growl of, “Tell me what you want. Let me hear you say it. Admit to me what you’re desperate for.”

Calder swallowed hard, his eyes now trained on his tormenter, his handsome face showing a wild desperation that matched the loincloth and firelight. “Own me,” Calder said in a voice gravelly with sex. “Make me yours.”

The faceless man’s groan was audible enough for all to hear. “You want me to use you?”

“Gods, yes,” Calder rasped, his desperation obvious both in his heaving chest and the low rasp of hunger in his voice. “Use me. I’m begging you.”

Sari sucked in a sharp breath. Her entire body hummed when she realized the two of them really were going to take this performance all the way, and she was shamefully excited about it. She had watched and participated in performances like this more times than she could count, and she’d never once fallen prey to the sexual spell—until now.

Everyone in the audience ceased to exist. All Sari saw was the two men onstage, and everything about it stopped being wrong. It felt organic and natural and
very
real. The faceless man used his grip on Calder’s hair to pull him closer and conquer Calder’s mouth. Sari took another deep breath, her body pulsing to the beat of the drums in the background when their lips met. Calder was submissive, letting his mouth be taken, not fighting the hold the other man had on him. It wasn’t until his captor forced him to turn around, bringing them face-to-face, their lips still meeting with a hot desperation that couldn’t be faked that Calder finally touched back. He reached up to cup the back of the other man’s neck, suddenly becoming the aggressor, his kiss going from submissive to dominating from one heartbeat to the next.

The hood dropped, exposing the faceless man while the two of them continued to devour each other, and the entire room gasped once more, Sari along with them. Calder had been so riveting; it had been easy to forget how captivating Taryen’s dark beauty was. It almost felt overwhelming, too much beauty,
too
much raw sexuality on one stage. Separately each was entrancing enough to enthrall; combined, Sari felt as if her senses were in overload.

The gasp of the crowd must have anchored at least Taryen back into the performance, because he suddenly fisted Calder’s hair again, jerking him back to break the kiss, and Calder bowed into him, taking on the role easily. When Taryen used his hold to force Calder’s lips to the curve of his neck, Calder was obedient once more. He licked the line of Taryen’s throat in worship, his hands clutching Taryen’s robes as if the answer to every sexual pain he suffered lay beneath it.

“Beg to undress me,” Taryen demanded a bit too loud to be natural, but compelling enough to overlook the obvious stage voice. “Beg to worship my body.”

“Let me worship you,” Calder
pleaded,
his voice much lower than Taryen’s. “It’s what I live for.”

His worship didn’t translate like an act. It was all shockingly real as he licked Taryen’s throat, pressing his lips softly behind Taryen’s ear, saying something none could hear. Taryen’s hold on Calder’s hair seemed to loosen as the ecstasy of desire etched its way over his exotically dark features. Sari could see his breathlessness, the click of losing himself to the game. It washed over Taryen noticeably, taking away some of his power, but not much because surprisingly Calder didn’t seem to mind his lifemate having it.

“Do it,” Taryen gasped, his head lolling to the side as Calder continued to lick and kiss his neck. “Undress me.
Now.”

Calder did as he was told, pulling at buttons, opening Taryen’s robes, his lips following the line of revealed flesh until he was falling to his knees on the stage. He tugged at the robes, a little desperately, but it didn’t matter at this point; the seduction of both the crowd and Taryen had long since been accomplished.

When the robes fell to the ground, Sari was shocked to see Taryen bare-chested and barefoot, wearing only black leather pants that hung low on his hips. The laced-up pants were tight enough to show his cock straining against its confines. Long and thick, it looked doubly impressive encased in leather. His fingers in Calder’s hair were gentle, stroking the light strands away from a sweaty forehead as Calder continued his unquestioning worship. He licked Taryen’s taut abdominal muscles, his hands running up powerful, leather-encased thighs, before his head bowed and he actually licked at the line of Taryen’s hard cock through the leather.

“Gods,” Sari whispered, finding Calder’s unabashed public worship of his lifemate strangely arousing.