Time Raiders: The Protector

by Merline Lovelace

  Cassie squirmed frantically. Was the guy going to pull a double-pronged dildo out of his sleeve? Or hitch her into one of those Chinese hanging basket contraptions? Or…

  Who was she kidding? The man didn’t need any additional instruments. His fingers pressed against her flesh, sending sensations shooting through her entire body. So intense she couldn’t breathe. So wild she had to force herself to gather her muscles for a flip. If she made a quick half turn, she could deliver a swift kick to Big Guy’s jaw.

  She was going to do that. She really was! And she would have, if the door to the steamy bath chamber hadn’t been yanked open at that moment.

  “What the hell!”

  The bellow was half astonishment, half outrage. Cassie twisted around and saw Max standing thunderstruck on the threshold. Two strides later, he’d crossed the room and had Tai by the throat.

  The men were equally matched in size, but Max had the advantage of a couple of gallons of testosterone. With an animal growl, he slung the eunuch around and threw him through the open door.

  Tai staggered into the walled courtyard, hit the lip of the ornamental pond and went in. He sat there in six inches of water, breathing fire as Max stalked toward him.

  “Ma…uh, Lord Bro-dai!” Cassie grabbed the drying sheet and scrambled off the platform. “Wait!”

  Max ignored her. Legs spread, one hand on his sword hilt, he looked ready to skewer the eunuch to a lily pad.

  “I warned Inspector Li. Now I will warn you. Touch this woman again without my permission and you will lose what is left of your manhood.”

  “Spring Leaf is no longer your slave.” The man’s voice rose a full octave, squeaking with the force of his fury. “You gave her to the empress, and Her Heavenly Majesty charged me to make her presentable.”

  Max wrenched back his sleeve. His silver cuff flashed in the late-afternoon sunlight. “Until Her Heavenly Majesty accepts the slave and this cuff to control her, she is mine. You will not touch her again without my leave. Do you understand me?”

  Tai gritted his teeth. “Yes.”

  “Address me with respect, eunuch.”

  Geesh! Brody was really getting into this “lord” business. Cassie might have admired his performance if the look in Tai’s dark eyes hadn’t promised dire retribution for this humiliation.

  “Yes, Lord Bro-dai.”

  “Now leave us.”

  The eunuch dragged himself out of the pond. His silk robe dripped all the way to the red lacquered door.

  “That was smart,” Cassie said caustically, clutching the sheet to her oiled body with both hands. “Nothing like making a powerful enemy less than an hour after we get through the doors of the imperial palace!”

  Max whirled on her. “Almost as smart as teaming up with a partner who can’t keep—”

  He broke off at the sight of the frightened face peeping around the door of the bathhouse.

  “Who are you?”

  The maid’s already pale cheeks drained of all color. “I…I am Peony.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “I…I—”

  “Speak, girl. I won’t bite you.”

  The maid obviously had her doubts. With his bristling beard and wolf pelt, Max didn’t exactly invite confidence.

  “I am from the island of Hokkaido,” she whispered fearfully. “I was given as part of the tribute my people pay each year to their Heavenly Majesties.”

  She edged around the door frame. With her hands tucked inside the sleeves of her kimono, she dipped her slender neck in a graceful bow.

  “It is my duty to service those who occupy these chambers.”

  “Christ!” Max whipped his gaze back to Cassie. “Looks like we’ll both enjoy this little sojourn, Spring Leaf.”

  “Hey, wait a minute! You don’t think Tai was, uh…”

  “Servicing you?” His lip curled. “Sure looked like it from where I stood.”

  The fact that he’d pretty much hit it on the mark didn’t score him any points with Cassie.

  “I won’t dignify that with a response,” she said, chin high. “Nor will I continue this discussion here in the courtyard. It’s cold, and I’m not dressed.”

  “So I see.”

  His gray eyes burned a scorch mark at every point where the damp sheet clung to her skin.

  “We’ll take this inside,” she declared, flipping back her wet hair. “Peony, will you please brew us a pot of tea?”

  The girl looked profoundly relieved to be released from the presence of such fierce outlanders. With another frightened glance at Max, she bobbed her head.

  “Yes, mistress. I have a pot of Blue Lotus steeping in the kitchen. They have brought you clothes,” she added hesitantly. “Silk robes and embroidered slippers and a pair of wooden clogs so you may walk in the garden, if you wish it. Shall I help you to dress before I serve tea?”

  “Good idea.”

  Cassie started after Peony and tossed Max a nasty look over one shoulder. “While I’m getting dressed, you might want to give the sauna a try. Maybe you can steam away some of your stink…and some of the dirt in your mind.”

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  Chapter 6

  The woman with no talent is one who has merit.

  —Confucius

  H is mind? She thought he should wash the dirt from his mind?

  Max stalked into the bath chamber, fuming, and sent the bathhouse door slamming against its uprights. He would need more than a tub of hot water and clouds of hissing steam to wash away the image of his jump partner stretched across that low platform. Buck naked. With Big Hands groping between her thighs.

  He should have wrung the bastard’s throat. He might yet, and Cassie’s, too! What was she thinking, stripping down to the buff in front of Tai? The man might not be able to get it up anymore, but he certainly remembered what lust felt like. That was evident from his heavy-eyed leer when he’d had his hands on Cassie.

  Swearing, Max threw the wolf pelt at the floor and unbuckled his sword belt. The scene he’d stumbled on was seared into his mind. All he could see was Cassie’s long, slender body. The curve of her calves. Those rounded buttocks and her smooth, sloping back, glistening with oil.

  What disgusted him more than anything else, though, was the undeniable fact that he’d been looking forward to rubbing her down himself.

  “Dammit!”

  He kicked off his boots, then yanked his woolen tunic over his head. When his loosely woven undergarments joined the heap on the floor, he had to fold his knees almost to his chin to fit into the oval tub, still filled with sudsy water. Scowling, he used both hands to scoop up the tepid liquid and splash it over his face and shoulders.

  Was this what Cassie had done to Jerry Holland? he wondered savagely. Wormed her way into his head? Made him ache with wanting her, until all he could think about was sliding his hands over those smooth flanks and sinking into her wet, hot flesh?

  If she had, it was no surprise their last mission had turned into disaster. He still wasn’t sure about this bet she’d told him about, or how it had played in Jerry’s death, but Max did know one thing with absolute certainty. He would not let the growing hunger Cassandra Jones roused in him sabotage this mission.

  With that grim vow, he yanked the leather tie from his hair and grabbed a bottle of what looked like liquid soap. He grimaced at the flowery scent, but dumped the stuff on top of his head. He’d just worked up a good lather when the door to the bathhouse opened.

  It closed with a bang and the maid rushed inside, her expression horrified. “Master! Please to let me bathe you!”

  “No, thanks.”

  “It is my duty.”

  “I can manage.”

  She wrung her hands, looking as if she was about to burst into tears. “I…I am so sorry my humble self does not please you.”

  “Your humble self is fine. I just don’t need any help.”

  “I understand,” she sniffed. “I most earnestly beg the master’s
pardon.” Shoulders slumping, she shuffled in small, dejected steps toward the door. “This unworthy slave most richly deserves the whipping she will receive when she goes to Chief Eunuch Tai and begs him to send another to tend you.”

  Well, hell!

  “Wait,” Max called gruffly. “How about you bring some clean water for me to rinse off with?”

  She beamed a relieved smile. “Yes, master!”

  Her duties didn’t end with the rinse water. Before Max knew it, she was stropping a straight razor to shave away his scratchy beard. Then, somehow, he ended up stretched out on the wooden platform while Peony’s nimble fingers worked magic on his naked body.

  “Thanks,” he muttered when she’d finished.

  “I sent for fresh garments for you,” she said shyly. “Please to let me help you dress.”

  The garments consisted of loose drawers, baggy riding trousers that tucked into his boots and a military-style tunic of fine silk. A padded jacket with elaborate frogs and winged epaulets provided warmth. Feeling human again, Max joined Cassie in the sitting room.

  She was seated on a cushion at the low, square table. When he entered, she glanced up and raised a brow. “Nice getup.”

  “You, too.”

  Like him, she was dressed in Chinese attire. While Peony was working on him in the bathhouse, someone had brushed her auburn hair to a lustrous sheen and piled it on top of her head in an intricate series of braids and swirls. The style showed off her slender neck and a soft feathering of curls that brushed the collar of her beautifully embroidered turquoise jacket. But it was the translucent silk gown she wore beneath the jacket that had Max doing a quick double take. The shimmering pink gown was styled low in front. So low Max’s palms started to sweat.

  She’d also been laced into some kind of undergarment—the ancient version of a corset, he guessed. The tight fabric mounded her breasts and offered him a tantalizing view of the valley between.

  “Do you want some tea?”

  He wrenched his gaze upward. “Huh?”

  “Tea. Do you want some?”

  Nodding, he folded his legs and sank onto the cushion opposite hers. With his skin still tingling from his massage, he felt compelled to offer a gruff apology.

  “Look, I may have overreacted about that business with Tai.”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah, well…For a guy who’s been clipped, ole Tai sure seemed to enjoy having his hands on you.”

  She poured a pale stream into a thimble-size porcelain cup and passed it to him. “That little incident kind of weirded me out,” she admitted reluctantly. “But I’ve been mulling it over.”

  Red seeped into her cheeks. Fiddling with her teacup, she mumbled an explanation. “I think palace eunuchs are trained to, you know, pleasure wives and concubines. It’s either that, or the women have to pleasure themselves. There are so many of them, they may get called to their master’s bed only once or twice a year. If then.”

  That was true enough. Max knew Chinese law allowed a man only one wife, but as many concubines as he could afford to maintain. Great for the guy. Not so great for his harem.

  He also knew there was no shame in becoming a concubine. Especially a royal one. Families considered it a great boone if their daughter was accepted into the emperor’s household. If she won his favor, she could send wealth and honors their way.

  “Didn’t our mission prebrief indicate Wu Jao was one of five or six hundred concubines before she worked her way up to wife, then empress?”

  “More like a thousand,” Cassie replied. “She got rid of a bunch of them after she came to power, though. And speaking of Wu Jao…” His partner took a swig of tea and eyed him over the rim of her cup. “You want to tell me what went on between you two after I departed the scene?”

  “Not much. She asked about where we came from and how we had traveled to Chang’an. Then she invited me to join her at a small banquet tonight in her private chambers.”

  “Max!” Cassie jolted straight up in her chair, her eyes wide with alarm. “You have to be careful! Tai told me the empress has strong sexual appetites. He said, too, there are all kinds of rumors circulating about our girl, but no man who ever got between the sheets with her would live long enough to confirm them.”

  “Thanks,” he drawled. “Just what I needed to hear.”

  “It’s a matter of legitimacy,” Cassie insisted. “Although Jao is the real power behind the throne, she can’t appear to be unfaithful to her husband or the warlords will challenge her sons’ right to inherit after her.” Cassie chewed on her lower lip, her eyes worried. “If she tries to move on you, you’ll just have to keep her dangling until we find the medallion.”

  “Right. Any suggestions on how to accomplish that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe…” Frowning, she drummed her fingers on the tabletop. When she glanced up, her gaze snagged on the emergency signal cuff banding his wrist.

  “Maybe you could link your sexual prowess to the ESC. You told the empress that’s how you control me. You could explain that it takes every ounce of your energy to restrain and direct mine.”

  “It might work,” he said slowly. “But only until you’ve demonstrated your skills. Once she accepts the gift I’ve brought her, I’ll have to hand over my cuff at the same time I hand you over.”

  “We’ll worry about that when it happens. Right now our major concern is keeping you in Wu’s sights but out of her bed until we get a fix on the medallion.”

  Max couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing.

  “What?” Cassie demanded.

  “I’m supposed to be your guardian-slash-watchdog,” he reminded her, grinning. “Quite a switch having you scheme to protect me from the evil empress.”

  “You’d better hope this scheme works, Bubba, or you’ll be singing soprano with Tai. At best. At worst, you’ll end up in a vat of boiling oil.”

  “And on that cheerful note…” He shoved back his chair. “I’d better find the servant who’s supposed to escort me to the empress’s private apartments.”

  Cassie rose and accompanied him to the door to the courtyard. Her expression troubled, she laid a hand on his arm.

  “Be careful, okay?”

  Manfully, Max kept his gaze from dropping to her hand, with an intermediate stop in the vicinity of her breasts.

  “I will. In the meantime, you’d better dig into your bag of tricks and conjure up some weather mojo for Her Heavenly Majesty.”

  Just moments after Max departed, Peony appeared at the head of a small army of servants. They trooped in with an array of delicate porcelain bowls filled with everything from hot barley soup to sugared pine nuts.

  “Please to eat,” the maid said softly, setting ivory chopsticks and a porcelain spoon on a woven place mat.

  Cassie was too nervous about Max and the empress to do more than nibble at some wheat noodles and spiced pork. His reminder that she had to conjure up some weather mojo didn’t do much for her appetite, either. Waving away the rest of the dishes, she pulled on an embroidered jacket stuffed with goose down, shoved her feet into wooden clogs and went out into the walled courtyard.

  She’d studied the topography, climatology and weather patterns of ancient Chang’an—modern-day Xi’an—in exhaustive detail during her mission prep. She knew the city enjoyed a full range of seasons. Warm, moist summers with the wind blowing from the south. Mild springs and autumns. Cold, dry winters with northerly winds. Not much snow, even during the coldest months of the year, when the average daily temperature hovered around 40° F.

  Average, of course, being the critical factor.

  An Arctic blast could sweep down from the mountains with little warning. Wind and rain could roar up from the south with monsoon force. If Cassie missed the signs…If she ignored nature’s subtle warnings, as she had on her last mission with Jerry…

  The spicy pork she’d just eaten churned in her stomach. Her life wasn’t the only one hanging on her instincts. Max was in this
with her. The team back at the lab was counting on them both. Failure wasn’t an option.

  Yet she couldn’t keep the crippling doubts at bay. They haunted her as she prowled the courtyard, artfully illuminated now with flickering lanterns, and searched for nature’s clues.

  The high walls gave her only a tiny patch of sky to work with, and blocked any attempt to measure wind direction or velocity. The ornamental pond, unfortunately, was too shallow to adequately assess evaporation level.

  That left the plants dotting the garden. The glossy-leafed rhododendron showed plump white berries and the needles of the weeping yew arching over the stone shrine felt moist to the touch. Cassie didn’t know if that was because it had stored up recent rainfall, though, or because palace gardeners watered the garden regularly. Then she spotted a small white clump high in the yew’s branches.

  Yes! A rain star fungus. It opened into a filmy web to catch moisture, and scrunched into a tight wad in dry weather. This one was closed up, which suggested no imminent change in precipitation levels.

  Cassie would check it again tomorrow. She would also have to get a good look at the clouds and observe the smoke rising from chimneys before making any kind of prediction as to winds or temperature. But at least now she had something to work with.

  “Mistress!” Peony peered at her from the door to the living area. “It is cold. Please to come in and allow me to prepare you for the master.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We must harmonize your five colors before Lord Bro-dai returns.”

  At Cassie’s blank look, the maid clicked her tongue and herded her toward the sleeping chamber.

  “Your hair and lips are a most harmonious red, so I do not need to apply rouge, but we must whiten your throat and paint your nipples.”

  “My nipples? I don’t think so.”

  “The paint contains the fur of deer antler ground to a fine powder,” the maid explained earnestly. “It is a most potent stimulant. When the master suckles your breast, much blood will flow to his jade stalk and he will give you the prescribed seven consistencies.”

  The idea of Max suckling her anything sent heat spearing through Cassie’s belly. It flamed even hotter at the idea of experiencing the seven prescribed yin orgasms before he poured out his yang.