The connection had lasted too briefly, and they’d both been wrenched back into reality. Price had serviced her, and she was grateful, but nothing had changed.
Nothing.
A rap tapped at the door.
“Enter.” She smiled as Naya slipped inside, appearing refreshed. Her skin was no longer a deathly pale, her cheeks flushed with health, and her skin had plumped. A welcome contrast to the sunken cheekbones she’d sported last night.
Amazing what a dose of the Queen’s energy could do.
If only such a cure existed for me.
Daji forced a smile. “Naya. I’m so happy to see you looking well.”
She strode forward, hands on her hips. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I’m the Queen.” She stiffened. First Price, and now Naya. I’ve ruled for centuries. She huffed. “I’ll do what’s best for my people. You are their future.”
Naya’s shoulders dropped. “You’re their present. They need you strong, Daji.” Stepping beside her, she pressed a hand to Daji’s arm, tilting her head. “Though you don’t look as weak as I’d imagined you wou—”
“I’m not.” Daji forced her smile wider. She hadn’t told Naya about the curse, or anyone else. Those who were aware of her weakened state credited it to her age and the decline of their race. She’d rather protect them from the awful truth.
“Yeah, I guess.” The girl lowered her hand and peered out the window. “I messed up and I’m so sorry.”
“Naya.” She placed her hand atop her heir’s and squeezed. “Feeding from males is not the easiest thing. I know.” She swallowed hard and brushed aside images of Price releasing his decadent jīng, his stare locked onto hers with such erotic frenzy. “If you wish me to send Price’s brother away, I will.”
“No, no, no. That’s not necessary. I can handle him.” Naya cleared her throat.
“Good.” Daji cast a curious glance at her. “What of the Kun Peng’s nest? Why were you there?”
“Kun Peng? Wait, how did you—” She coughed into her fist, cheeks flushing. “Ah, long story. I stumbled into the wrong portal and…yeah. Enough about me. So, you got mated. Wow.” Angling her face toward Daji, she arched one brow.
She waved off the female’s curiosity with a flick of her hand. “Yes, I mated Mr. Wentworth, as a means of providing our race with a measure of stability. It’s not a permanent situation, though. A Queen doesn’t require any male to rule at her side.” Ending their conversation, she strolled to the tea cabinet. Her maid had deposited a large, steaming pot earlier this evening. “Tea?”
“No, thank you. I just wanted to drop in and see how you were.” Naya straightened her spine. “I’m sorry about screwing up. I promise it won’t happen again.” Her lips pressed into a thin smile, she marched from the chamber.
Oh, Naya. Daji spread her hands across the teapot, the warmth soaking into her bones. Piecing together everything she’d witnessed, Ryden meant more to Naya than a male to feed from should. She prayed the man would not distract her heir from her duties, or from the fate awaiting her.
Queens ruled alone.
Even if they didn’t wish to.
Price rammed his fists into the punching bag. Things between him and Daji had gotten too complicated too fast. Whenever a woman targeted him with round, sparkling eyes as though he might be her Knight in Shining Armor, he cut down those expectations, crushed those dreams.
He wasn’t a Knight. He was the steed. Never rescued maidens or claimed the credit. He avoided dragons (especially ones named Delun), let others do the dirty work, then partied in the barn afterwards, surrounded by a dozen fillies. Oh yeah. No woman ever held his reins.
Hunching, his hair fell across his eyes while he gasped in heavy wheezes. Only one woman had ever come close to making him fill in the picture-perfect scene.
Natalie Quan. His Lotus League partner. Lucky for him, he’d had his head adjusted before things had gotten too far. The Matchmaker had set him straight. The last mission he and Nat had gone on together, he’d received special orders. Crazily enough, she’d been falling for him too, but the Fates didn’t have a happy ending planned for their futures.
Nat was meant for someone else. Her soul mate.
Who sure as fuck wasn’t Price.
He’d followed his orders. After they’d stormed into a warehouse hideout of yāoguài, demons, and eradicated those motherfuckers, Price had turned his gun on Nat.
And shot her.
Yep, the betrayal in her eyes had done the trick. Though his aim hadn’t been intended to kill her, she hadn’t counted the difference.
Recently, she’d kind of forgiven him. Sort of. After she’d hooked up with her soul mate, Kassian Weld. The two of them seemed happy enough.
Price was glad. Settling down wasn’t in his nature. He’d dodged that bullet. Ha.
“That bad, huh.” Ryden sauntered beside him. “Why don’t you hit something that punches back?”
Grinning, he spun and aimed his fist at his brother’s nose. Ryden ducked, jabbing Price’s abdomen.
They were about the same size, and same skill level, so every punch Price dished out, Ryden countered, and vice versa.
After a few minutes of sparring, Price spun to Ryden’s back and grabbed him in a choke hold, forcing him to his knees while he scruffed his hair. “Dude, get your head on straight.”
“That’s fine advice, coming from you.” Ryden wheezed, slipping out of Price’s grip and rolling onto his back. “The Queen’s got you whipped.”
“Hardly.” Price scoffed.
“Oh yeah? Like I haven’t noticed your separate bedrooms? She’s totally got your balls in her claws.”
“Ha! She wishes.” He snorted. “Trust me, I know better than to get involved with someone like her.”
“Like her?” Ryden arched a brow.
Price stepped to the punching bag and jabbed his right fist into it. “Uptight.” He stabbed his left. “Ice Queen.” A double punch. “Damsel in distress.”
“Distress?”
“Yeah, long story. Trust me, I’m the last person capable of rescuing her.” He scoffed. “My mating her is nothing more than a Lotus League mission. I’ll be gone as soon as I get my orders.” The sooner he got “sticking around” out of his head, the better. Before things became even more complicated.
Before emotions got involved. He’d rather not break any more hearts, or shoot any more lovers.
“What’s up between you and what’s her name?”
“Oh, Megan. I mean, Naya.” Ryden scratched his jaw.
Price steadied the swinging punching bag. “Fake name? Yeah, been there.”
“Wait, you too?”
He bobbed his head. Naya was the fake name Daji had given him. Well, sort of. How many of the fox spirits he’d met had used aliases on him? Not that it mattered. Those encounters were about the using, the taking. From both sides.
“Naya said something about Daji weakening? Is it true?”
“Yeah…” He let his answer hang in the air. If her people didn’t die, she wouldn’t either, right? That whole root and leaf metaphor… If they restored the missing fox spirits, maybe Daji would get better.
Giggling chimed from outside. Both he and Ryden jerked their heads toward the laughter. Outside the gym, behind the glass partition, a handful of fox spirits were admiring them. He flashed them a grin and resumed his punching.
They were ogling Ryden more than him anyway. Ever since he’d mated their Queen, most of the females, except Mila, viewed him as off-limits for anything other than mild flirting.
But Ryden? Fair game.
After pounding the treadmills for an hour, they headed into the locker room. Price finished showering and dressing first, and he faced the mirror, slicking his hair into a ponytail.
“You certain nothing’s going on between you and the Queen?” Ryden called from the shower stall.
“Yep.”
“Uh-huh, sure. That’s why you haven’t been standing
in front of the mirror for the last fifteen minutes, primping.”
He flipped his middle finger at his smartass brother and stomped from the locker room, running into three females hovering outside the door. Snickering, he strolled back inside, snatched his brother’s towel and clothes, and tossed them at the women, winking. “You’re welcome.”
A few seconds later, the water switched off. “Fuck you, Price!”
He snickered as his brother’s cursing followed him out of the gym.
***
The next day, Daji sighed deeply, reclining in the bathing chambers. This avoidance between herself and Price was most welcome.
Her maidens surrounded her, one offering a goblet, another pouring warm oil along Daji’s spine.
She hummed and closed her eyes, allowing her maiden’s massage to soothe the weight from her shoulders, even if for a moment.
Dozens of other fox spirits reclined within the bathing chambers, nude too. Thickly spiced incense permeated the humid, misting air, cleansing their pores.
Bathing was an important ritual for her species. The combinations of beauty creams they applied worked in harmony with their natural essences, making them even more appealing to the male members of the human race.
The first occasion she’d fed from a male was after her marriage to Dì Xīn, during her initiation, to step into her birthright. The next time had been when she’d explored mating, to determine if she was missing out on something spectacular. That instance hadn’t proven anything.
The third time sure as hell had.
Price’s sinful taste lingered on her tongue. The wild, fierce possessiveness in his eyes burned into her memory. All reasons why it was better to avoid him and stamp down this unnerving—and dangerous—attraction.
A low whistle echoed off the marble walls. “Sweet set-up you have here.”
Ice chilled into Daji’s muscles, stiffening them. Oh no, he was not invading her most private of sanctuaries. She peeled open one eye, praying it was a different masculine voice interrupting her peace.
But no, striding into the bathing chamber, as unapologetically nude as everyone else inside, was Price.
Around them, her maidens gasped and squeaked. Males didn’t step foot inside this place, then again, they rarely ever visited her palace.
“Chenda said I might complete the next step of the ritual here. With you.” He planted his hands on his hips, his long, thick—but unaroused—sex not in the least bit repentant.
Price flashed his grin around the chamber, at last landing it on her. Instead of scanning his heated admiration across her bare flesh, his stare locked onto hers.
She narrowed her eyes and slid to sit, not bothering to cover herself either. Two could play this game.
Despite the temptation of her exposed breasts, he trained his attention on her face. Interesting.
Daji snapped her fingers, and the room cleared, females scattering amidst giggles and hushed whispers.
As soon as they were alone, she arched her brow at him, straightening her spine and swinging her legs over the side of the chaise longue. “What are you doing?”
“I told you. The next step. Your nanny sent me.” He sauntered to the chaise longue beside hers, leisurely sinking onto it.
“Chenda isn’t my nanny.” She bit the corner of her cheek to stop from smiling at the analogy. It was almost accurate.
“Okay, so your warden or whatever you call that hard-ass bitch.” He shrugged, but his tone was playful.
If what he claimed was true, what was Chenda up to? The cleansing ritual ruse was meant to keep Price out of her way, not sprawl him across her path.
Decadently naked at that.
She stopped her gaze from flicking downward, and forced it to remain glued to his. If he wouldn’t sneak a glimpse, neither would she. “Did she, by any chance, confide in you as to your purpose in invading my bath?”
“Nope, but I figured you might talk me through it. Since it is, after all, an ancient and auspicious ceremony.” His eyes flashed, the blue dimming in challenge.
Aha, so he wished for her to step him through this ritual, and to stumble while doing so. To catch her lie in the act.
“It is.” She folded her arms around her breasts, and his appreciation flicked to them before he whipped it to hers, his throat bobbing thickly.
She rose and stepped to his side. “First, you must recline, on your stomach.”
His shoulders bunched as he complied, stretching his large frame across the smooth, polished stone. “And next?”
She bent to his ear and purred, “Close your eyes and relax.”
***
Relax? Yeah, right. Price snorted and folded his arms above his head, resting his forehead on them.
He’d strutted into her sanctuary, ready to participate in Daji’s ploys and call her out on this bullshit, but now that he was naked beside her, the logic of his actions retreated like an army of ants whose nest had been set ablaze.
Instincts screaming, Get the hell out of here.
Daji wasn’t the kind of woman he could charm the pants off, even when she was wearing pants.
At least he was facing down, so although she would detect his level of arousal, he didn’t have to stare his defeat in the face, winking at him in total, blissful oblivion.
So much for intimidating her. Absolute backfire.
Thanks a ton, Chenda. When he’d confronted the head councilwoman about her end of their deal, she’d dismissed him, flicking off his questions as though they were flies buzzing around her. Instead of answering him, she’d sent him Daji’s way, insisting the Queen would be better able to assist him—once he completed her cleansing ceremony.
Was Daji withholding information about his mum from him? Or did Chenda just enjoy jiggling him around like the court puppet?
“First, we pour the salve and rub it into our skin, releasing the oils and purifying our pores.” Warm, slick liquid flushing across his spine accompanied her murmured words.
Rub it in? As in… Holy fuck. His eyes shot open at Daji’s gentle prodding, her slender fingers working magic across his muscles.
He tightened his jaw, throat closing in, as he fought against his body pretty much stampeding into full revolt.
Help me out here, Horse?
Despite his pleas, the spirit animal had abandoned him to his fate.
I’m so screwed.
“Hmm. You’re supposed to relax. Or don’t you find my touch soothing?” she purred into his ear, her sweet breath fanning across his damp skin.
He gritted his teeth, refusing to allow his hunger to break forward.
She straightened and leaned across his back, the tips of her pebbled nipples grazing his skin like tiny points of electrified contact. “Why don’t you tell me about your brother? You care an awful lot for him, don’t you?”
He could almost hear the “despite his questionable character.” Ryden hadn’t been a model houseguest, and he’d been threatened with eviction more than once.
He didn’t sense that as being the purpose of Daji’s questioning. If she chose to kick Ryden’s ass to the curb, she could have done so. Yet she permitted him to stay and she was poking, trying to learn why.
His shoulders tensed. Daji was digging into his past.
“The picture in your apartment of your mother. You have her eyes, but Ryden has her smile. You both must miss her an awful lot.”
Digging? Forget that. Jackhammering was more like it.
Hmm. Daji didn’t have answers for him; she was searching for her own.
Was Price the man to save her race, her world, and…herself?
Oh, hell no. Time to set her straight. If she was excavating for a savior, she was in the wrong damn place. He twisted onto his side, propping on his elbow. “What do you care about my brother?”
Her eyes flashed, swirling in intensity. “Actually, that is the question I have for you.”
He shot to his feet, his lunge backing her to the wall. His hand rammed again
st the tiles beside her head, caging her in while he fisted the other at his side.
Had he made the wrong move by dragging his brother to her palace? Had he revealed the wrong card to the wrong person?
Yeah, this whole situation with Daji wasn’t working for him. Only way to fix it was to change the deck. If he couldn’t force his body to march out of this mess, he’d make his mouth do it instead.
“What are you hoping I’ll say, Daji? I’m the model big brother and I’d kick anyone’s ass who tried to hurt Ryden? Because I care about him, I must care about other people too?” He snorted. “Well, too bad, because none of that is true. The truth is, I’m the screw-up and Ryden’s been covering my ass our whole lives. He’s the decent one, and he sure as hell doesn’t need me looking out for him. I’m only vested in my own interests, and trust me, it’s better like this.”
The catch in her breathing was the reaction he’d been seeking. He leaned in close and drilled his point home. “You keep looking for a quality to redeem me, sweetheart. You aren’t going to find one.” Grimacing, he backed away from the wall, spun, and strode out of the bathing chamber, feeling more soiled and unclean than he ever had in his entire life.
Enough. The next evening, Daji stormed from her chambers, no longer caring to avoid Price. If he didn’t wish to see her, he should depart her palace. She was the Queen; she had matters to attend to.
Redeem him. Ha! For the briefest of weak moments, she’d contemplated Price being more than what he exhibited to the world. Now, she knew better.
She must set her targets on the real threats. Her enemies dared to pluck off her people, one by one, separating their fox spirits from their bodies. They spread wicked rumors, claiming to be able to grant the húli jīng mortality.
A mortality that came at a great cost—their souls. Price was but an innocent pawn in their schemes as well. The vulnerable of her race clung to these rumors and sought out males like him to complete the ritual with them.
With Naya safe, she would divert her energy to the lost souls. Naya would claim her throne soon, but not before Daji ensured its strength first. She’d not bequeath her heir a queendom in ruin.
Reining Him In (Chinese Zodiac Romance Series Book 5) Page 10