Skye stood up, and posed tall and proud before Princess Turkhan. Her chin was high, her silken hair flowing about her like a dark cape. Her beautiful eyes, however, were lowered lest she offend her hostess.
Turkhan let her glance slide critically over the woman who stood before her. That she was extravagantly beautiful was irritatingly obvious. Her well-shaped limbs were quite visible through the gossamer of her pantaloons, and Turkhan could see that she was finely made. “Where did your uncle obtain such a prize?” she demanded of Kedar.
“She was a captive in Algiers, Highness,” he answered. “It was by chance he saw her, and knew that she would please me, which she well does.”
“You have trained her that quickly?”
“She is of noble birth in her own land, and really quite intelligent,” Kedar replied. They spoke about Skye as if she were not even in the room, or worse, were an inanimate object; and as they blithely continued to discuss her fine points, Skye let her eyes stray to Niall once more.
Her heart struggled within her as he stared directly back at her, his silvery eyes bright with his longing. She felt tears pricking behind her eyes, and she fought furiously to keep them from showing. Niall! She cried his name silently.
Dear God, he thought, how can she be so very beautiful despite everything? Oh, sweetheart, I want you so much! If only they might make good their escape this very minute. Instead, he would be forced to watch while another man made love to his wife. If that didn’t drive him mad then nothing ever would. I love you, Skye, he said in his heart.
Kedar was holding forth. “Each one of my women has a weakness, Highness. It is always useful to discover what form of pain terrifies. I would never whip Muna, even with a carefully plied lash, for just look at her skin. Turn, my jewel, and let the princess see.” Skye moved obediently, dragging her eyes reluctantly away from Niall. “You see, Highness, the skin is flawless. It would be a crime against Allah himself to destroy such beauty wantonly, and yet still a deterrent is needed. In Muna’s case it is the bastinado. She does not like the bastinado—do you, my jewel?”
“No, my lord,” Skye whispered.
“You have used it on her?” Turkhan was interested.
“Have you ever known a willing captive?” Kedar remarked. “In Muna’s case I must admit that she was a trifle reluctant, but of course that is no longer so—is it, my jewel?”
“Thou sayest, my lord,” Skye replied.
“I prefer the use of opiates and hashish myself,” Turkhan said. “To use physical force upon a slave is an admission of having lost control.” She looked at Skye casually. “You may return to your master, girl. Now my beautiful Ashur was not easy at all—were you, my handsome one? Until recently he fought me at every turn, but then he finally accepted his fate. He has been my joy ever since.”
“A man that powerful could be dangerous, Highness,” Kedar said. “Better he were in the mines, or sat upon an oarsman’s bench in a galley. I wonder that you keep such a creature about.”
“Ashur illustrates my point perfectly, Kedar. I have never physically mistreated him. I have not had to, for my sherbet and special comfits keep him totally under control. If you do not believe me then ask your brother.”
“Why even bother to argue the point further,” Hamal said. “You both have your methods, and they work for you. You are content with Muna, my brother, and you with Ashur, my Princess.” He smiled his sweet smile at both of them. “Kedar,” he continued, “will you speak a little to my Princess of the trading routes that you use when going to the coast?”
The servants began to clear away the remnants of the meal from the low tables, and to replace the main course with bowls of fresh fruits. There were bunches of fat, green grapes, perfect little pink-gold apricots, big dark figs, and sticky-sweet dates. There were plates of ram’s horn pastries, and bowls of pistachio nuts and sugared almonds. A wizened old man squatted in a corner making coffee, which was soon served in tiny porcelain cups. The coffee was incredibly hot, and very bitter.
“You must drink at least two cups,” Talitha said as she heavily sugared both their cups. “Kedar will expect a full performance from us tonight. It would not do to disappoint him, Muna.”
Skye drank the coffee with the air of one condemned. She had practiced making love with Talitha for two days now, but she could still not reconcile herself to the act of intimacy with another woman. She knew that there were women in this world who much preferred women lovers, but Skye O’Malley was simply not one of them. She dreaded what was to come, and had thought hard as to how she might escape the onerous task without offending Kedar. She had not, however, been able to find an excuse that he would consider acceptable.
The princess had not arranged for entertainment, and so after they had finished the meal they sat but a brief time talking before Turkhan arose, putting an end to the evening. “Tomorrow, Kedar ibn Omar, we will speak more fully. Your brother will bring you to me. Good night.” She left the room trailed by her two favorites.
Kedar might have been irritated at having been dismissed so perfunctorily; but the good meal and his two women had mellowed him. He was feeling very relaxed, and was now ready to begin a round of sensual adventures. Followed by Talitha and Muna, he hurried from the dining room and back to his own chambers. As they entered the room Zada and Dagan rushed forward to serve their master and his concubines.
“Bathe quickly,” Kedar commanded them. “You also, Zada.”
When they were safely in the women’s bath Talitha remarked, “He is in rare form tonight if he wants all three of us. We shall be lucky to satisfy him by dawn. Most men grow less passionate with the advance of the years, but Kedar grows more so. Imagine what he will be like at sixty, although I don’t expect we shall be here to see it!” Then she and Zada laughed, but Skye didn’t think it very funny.
“Be silent,” she said to them. “The lord Kedar is with Dagan just on the other side of this wall, being bathed himself. What if he should hear you, and be offended?”
“You are correct,” Talitha said, and the three grew silent as they washed themselves. When they had finished they cleaned their teeth with ground pumice, chewed several mint leaves to sweeten their breaths, and brushed their hair free with brushes moistened in musk and attar of roses. Then, not bothering to dress, they returned to the bedchamber where Kedar, similarly refreshed by Dagan, awaited them comfortably seated upon his couch smoking hashish through a water pipe. The gray-blue smoke perfumed the room and curled gracefully up about his head. He, too, was unclothed.
Kedar’s pulse was racing, and as his glance flicked over the three women he felt his excitement rising fast. His original intention was to have Talitha and Muna make love while he amused himself with the Berber girl, Zada; but as he took in the nude beauty of the three women it suddenly dawned on him how much the tall, slender Talitha with her short-cropped black curls resembled a young boy, and how ultrafeminine the full-bosomed and full-hipped Zada was. Let them make love, he thought, while he amused himself with his delicious Muna.
“I have changed my mind, Talitha. You will couple with Zada. Muna, my jewel, sit by my side, and let us watch.” He patted the cushions next to him, and feeling the relief wash over her, Skye sat down gratefully. Kedar slipped an arm about Skye’s waist, and nibbled a moment upon her ear. “I am too jealous to allow anyone else, even my faithful Talitha, to touch you,” he whispered to her, and then looking at the other two, he snapped, “Begin! Talitha will play the boy, and Zada the maiden.”
“As my lord commands,” Talitha murmured, smiling, and then she embraced Zada, kissing her soundly upon the mouth. Zada responded quite avidly, wrapping her arms about Talitha’s neck and pressing her lush form against her partner’s elegant one. As the two women began to fondle each other Kedar began to stroke Skye’s breasts, and she was able to look away from her two companions in order to concentrate upon Kedar. He, however, kept his eyes glued to the two women and did not notice Skye’s distaste.
&nb
sp; In the few days since Kedar had taken Zada, the maidservant had become quite impossible. Kedar’s attentions had convinced her that she was in his favor as much as Talitha or Muna. She would, Skye knew, do anything to retain his attentions, and although Skye was repelled by the two women now writhing upon the rug before them she could not blame Zada for her actions. This was Zada’s world, and the only chance she had in it was to please her master; perhaps even to bear him a son. If in order to enthrall Kedar she must do certain things, Skye knew that Zada would do them willingly.
“Look! Look!” Kedar noticed that she was not watching the two women, and forcibly turned her head.
They had, Skye thought, done just about everything possible for two women to do. They had kissed, and caressed, and licked and tickled, and sucked and rubbed each other for several long minutes; but to Skye’s surprise, Talitha was now rising, and Dagan hurried forward to strap about her hips a red leather harness from which protruded an ivory dildo identical to the one Kedar occasionally made her use. The device fastened securely, Talitha knelt down over the panting Zada, spreading her short, shapely legs wide. Playing her role of the boy to the fullest, she thrust forward, pushing the dildo into her victim. Zada shrieked, a sound of both pain and delight, as Talitha moved back and forth upon her, and Kedar’s excited breathing rasped sharply as he leaned forward to get a closer view. Glancing down, Skye saw that his own masculine weapon was poised firmly forward.
“My lord, you are hurting me,” she whispered as his hands cruelly crushed her soft breasts.
His grip loosened, but he did not for several moments turn his head from the two women performing before him upon the thick rugs. When finally Talitha collapsed upon Zada, Kedar let out a long sigh of obvious satisfaction, and once more turned his attention to his companion. He tsked to himself over the red welts his rough fingers had imprinted upon Skye’s tender, creamy flesh. Pushing her back amid the cushions on the couch, he fastened his mouth over her nipple, and sucked forcefully while his hand vigorously teased her other one. Automatically her hand entwined in his dark hair, and smoothed down to caress the back of his neck, which she knew he liked. She could feel him against her leg, hard and demanding, but she knew that he would not take her quickly. The two other women had built his excitement high, but it had not yet peaked, and Kedar enjoyed the foreplay almost as much as the act itself.
His head lifted and moved to her other breast, which he bit at softly but sharply. She gave a small cry of protest, and in answer he rolled them off the couch onto the carpeted floor. Skye lay flat on her back as Kedar slowly rubbed his swollen maleness over her face, pausing suggestively at her mouth. She kissed the throbbing length of him with what he believed to be great fervor, and Kedar growled to the other two women. “Open her legs, and hold them wide.” Skye felt her legs being grasped, and pulled up and apart, while Kedar continued to rub himself against her breasts, torso, and belly as he knelt by her side. Her arms were stretched above her head, and for the moment she felt absolutely nothing. Half her brain was with Niall, although the other half kept track of what was happening to her, and she occasionally moaned with convincing passion.
Kedar now moved himself around and between her legs. Resting on his elbows he spread her nether lips with his fingers and then his hot mouth found her and began to feast upon her sensitive woman’s flesh.
“Allah!” Turkhan whispered as she peered at the tableau before her. “Your brother is most inventive, my little Hamal.”
“Wait, my Princess,” Hamal said, “Kedar is but warming to his beautiful subject.”
“You think she is beautiful?” Turkhan queried him sharply.
“Yes, I do,” Hamal answered. “She is nothing like you, my magnificent mistress, but she is fair in her own foreign way. To compare you would be like making a comparison between a rose and an exotic lily. Impossible!”
Turkhan was well pleased by Hamal’s little speech, and reaching out, she caressed his cheek, although her eyes never left the scene being played in the guest apartment. The slave girl was writhing and moaning in earnest now, her shapely hips pushing upward to meet her master’s eager mouth. Kedar sucked aggressively upon Skye’s little jewel, and his tongue then licked at her with sure strokes until she opened for him and he was able to push his tongue into her with a lingering, agonizing slowness. For several long minutes he moved his tongue back and forth within her—an exquisite torture. Finally he was no longer able to hold back his own lust, and pulling himself up, he drove into her well-prepared body.
“Allah!” Turkhan exclaimed again. “He is a bull!”
“Perhaps,” Hamal teased, “Kedar should have sold himself to you and left me in charge of our father’s business.”
Turkhan laughed softly at his jest, but her eyes remained glued to the tiny peephole. “You are very silent, Ashur,” she noted. “Are you not impressed by the lord Kedar’s incredible performance with his slave girls?”
“He is too obvious, and far too heavy-handed a lover for my taste, my Princess,” was Niall’s tight reply, but he, too, could not take his eyes from his peephole. His anger was so great that his entire body felt icy. Strange, he thought, I should at this minute be strangling that devil who so possessively rides my wife, yet I am numb. I can barely even feel my heart, and I am so cold. So damned cold! He focused again upon Skye. Her head with its marvelous wealth of dark hair was thrown back; she was moaning audibly as she approached her peak; he could even see the distended delicate blue veins in her slender white neck. Did she enjoy Kedar’s lusty attentions? Were women like men in that the fulfillment came even if the love was not there?
“This becomes tedious now,” Turkhan said. “Let us go and play our own little games, my darlings. I have heard that men when they have no women to amuse themselves often put their own lances into each other. Tonight you and Hamal will amuse me thusly before I allow you to take me. Come! There can be nothing else Kedar can do after he has satisfied his passions upon his slave girl Muna.”
Hamal hid a knowing smile. For all her power, Turkhan was incredibly ignorant in matters of lovemaking. Kedar was only beginning, but for Ashur’s sake his younger brother did not bother to tell his mistress that. He could not really imagine how Ashur felt, but he knew what they had just witnessed was not to his friend’s liking. European men had very strange ideas about their women.
In the meantime he and Ashur would have to convince the princess not to force them to the particular perversion she was so innocently suggesting. Hamal was quite sure that Ashur would be in total agreement with him, although he knew that several of the young men in Turkhan’s harem often amused themselves thusly, particularly as their mistress was so engrossed these days with Ashur.
Kedar was equally engrossed with Skye at that moment. His lust was running quite high this night, its fires stoked by the delicious performance Zada and Talitha had given for him. Once, twice, three times he brought Muna to a wailing peak; but Kedar was barely satisfied. Now, he noted with some slight annoyance that she lay unconscious. He rolled away from her and lay on his back. Instantly Zada was there, flinging herself upon him with great enthusiasm. Braced upon her hands, her head thrown back, she rode him like a fury while Talitha squatted over his head and presented herself for his loving attentions. Eventually the two women exchanged places, and finally Kedar was replete with their bodies and released his first burst of passion into Talitha.
For several minutes the three lay panting with exhaustion upon the soft rugs. Zada was the first to rise, and with Dagan’s aid she bathed with cool rosewater first her own sex, and then those of Talitha, Kedar, and the still unconscious Muna. When she had rejoined her master and the others Kedar said, “Help Talitha to rouse Muna from her swoon, my spicy little Berber.” Zada felt a glow of pleasure at the endearment. She would do whatever he wanted, for she loved him. When Talitha began to suckle on one of Muna’s breasts, Zada moved to Muna’s other side and imitated the older woman. Clawing her way up from the dark depths a
nd finding her two companions thus engaged, Skye wondered if she would survive this orgy. She had never seen Kedar so aroused, and she was more frightened now than she had ever been in her months with him. She had to survive! She had to! She was so close to success!
The night became a blur of sensuality where one body blended into another; and one sexual act followed another so closely that she soon became confused as to who did what to whom. She was spared the worst of it, however, for Kedar was truly jealous of anyone else, even another woman, touching her. Eventually, Skye never remembered when, they all fell into a deep sleep, the bodies tangled together. When she finally woke the sun was streaming into the room, and as Skye stretched gingerly her gaze met the very amused one of Talitha.
“So, sleepyhead, you are finally awake,” the older woman greeted her.
Skye nodded. “Where is the lord Kedar?”
“Meeting with the princess. It is at least two hours past the noon hour.”
“The last thing I remember is the dawn,” Skye replied.
“We were up in time to see that our lord Kedar was fed and bathed properly,” Zada said smugly. “You could not be roused.”
“Are you so in our master’s favor, Zada,” Skye said sharply, “that you dare to offend me?”
“The master is pleased with me,” Zada retorted pertly. “He is!”
“That is not what I asked you! Now, unless you have been relieved of your duties by the lord Kedar, you will fetch me something to eat and to drink. My mouth feels like cotton, and I am ravenous.”
Zada hesitated a moment, looking to Talitha for support, but Talitha took that moment to assiduously study her long nails. Defeated, the servant girl hurried out to do Skye’s bidding.
“You are stronger than you pretend to be,” Talitha remarked calmly.
“You know that I am of the nobility in my own land,” Skye replied. “I am used to commanding servants.”
All the Sweet Tomorrows Page 42