by Aline Ash
“Sun Tzu?”
“I’ll explain him later,” she says. “The point is: I came to you with intel and a suggestion. My plan worked, and the information I brought you will eventually turn out to be a massive help in your war effort. Your response to all this was to lock me up and hold me against my will. So, here’s what I suggest: not only do you never lock me up again, and not only do you treat me as your equal starting immediately, but you accept my help in your strategic planning. An outside eye is often helpful when everyone working on a problem has been consumed by it for years. I may have some insight or out-of-the-box thinking that you can’t get to on your own.
“So, that’s the deal. Take it or leave it, but if you leave it, we’re done. For good. I stay at L’arten’s estate, you do not contact me, and the moment it’s safe, I’m back on Earth. Deal?”
She fixes me with a hard stare and waits expectantly while I internalize just how much of this I’ve done wrong. Finally, after some time, I’m able to speak.
“Of course, B’ecky. As you wish. All of it.”
She perks up with a look of ‘I didn’t think he’d say yes,’ but then fixes me with a piercing gaze.
“You swear?”
“I swear,” I say. “May I ask one thing in return.”
“That depends on what it is,” she says.
“I would ask that you return to the palace, to stay in your rooms as before, but without the locks. You’ll be free to roam about and come and go as you please, but with a proper guard when you venture out into the city, who will be there only to protect you from the spies who are still at large. Your proximity to me is still of the essence, given our predicament. Would you agree to that?”
“Fine,” she says.
“Alright then,” I reply. We both nod, then sit in awkward silence for some time before I add: “Since it is likely you will become a target when word of our bond becomes widespread, there are even subdermal defenses and security measures I can offer you.”
“Like what?” she asks skeptically.
“Well, for instance...you’d never know by looking at me that I have a communication device implanted behind my eyes. It’s been there for cycles now,” I tell her, pointing at my head with a conspiratorial smile. “It’s controlled with simple finger and hand movements. Oh yes, and I also have a subdermal tranquilizer dart implanted here at the side of my right wrist. I’ve never had cause to use it yet, but it’s a measure that has always made me feel safer. If someone tries to kidnap me or worse, it may someday be a real lifesaver.”
“It seems like they’d be a good idea for me to have some of these,” she agrees, clearly interested in the possibilities. “Especially since, as you said, I will likely become a target for the spies and their Raxian allies.”
I open my mouth to express how happy I am that we’re finally coming to at least a few agreements when one of the infirmary healers walks in.
“How is it going in there?” B’ecky asks before either the healer or I can speak.
“Very well, shan, you have nothing to worry about. However, given the unprecedented nature of this birth, we’ve slowed her contractions to try to allow the baby more time. We’ll be keeping her here, but we want to be sure she is as dilated as possible before we induce labor again. It could be hours, it could be taks. There’s really no reason to stay here waiting, Your Majesty. We’ll call you when the time comes, but for now, why don’t you both go home and get some rest?”
“Thank you,” I say as the healer turns and leaves. I turn back to B’ecky, who looks at me with such a mix of emotions spread across her face. I hardly know what to say, but I force myself to speak anyway. “Would you care to accompany me back to the palace, or would you rather I take you back to V’orin’s estate?”
“I’ll come with you, S’oraj. I feel like we have a lot more to... discuss.”
Chapter 11
Becky
S’oraj leads me outside where his guards and car are waiting for us. He opens the door for me and we both climb into the secure back seat. The driverless flying machine takes off with his guards in hot pursuit behind us in nondescript cars of their own. I finally can’t take the awkward silence.
“So... What now?”
“Well,” he begins, “I suppose that’s entirely up to you.” He flashes me this smile that I can’t quite figure out. It’s somewhere between bashfulness, wryly trying to hide something, and a kid who just got what he wanted for Christmas. Whatever it is, it hits me right in the center of my soul and I simply can’t resist my urges any longer.
I’ve been holding back for so long because of his treatment of me, but with the agreement we’ve just struck and the new approach he’s finally decided to take with me, all those desires I’ve held back this whole time no longer have anything to restrain them. They come leaping to the surface in a rush of passion. Before I know it, my lips are on his – and this time, I’m doing the instigating, and I have no intention to stop.
I’ve spent so much time using my anger as a shield to protect myself from these feelings that the reversal comes out in a desperate, almost animalistic surge of lust. My fingertips claw at the back of his neck, his back, his arms... My tongue thrusts into his mouth greedily. As I caress him, I allow myself the opportunity to slide my hand down his surprisingly firm torso, stopping as I smooth them over his bulge. I can feel him swelling with excitement. I grip his ever-growing member through his pants and his eyes go wide. He wasn’t expecting that, now was he?
The car swerves into a private garage with an elevator that goes directly to S’oraj’s rooms. As soon as we’re inside, we’re on each other again, but seconds later, he pulls away to ask, “How would you like to see the royal bathhouse?”
“I’d like that very much,” I say, unable to suppress a small giggle along with it. He takes me through the rooms he’d shown me before, and behind a wall in the private gym is a secret doorway that leads to the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.
It’s a room the size of any other, but the walls are lined with dark murals of a tropical forest that augment real – or at least real-looking – plants that are set against them. The lights are low, making it feel like an eternal nighttime, and the entire center of this already enormous room is one gigantic jacuzzi. Steam rises up from the water as the sounds of night play through hidden speakers. As I take it all in, it occurs to me that the sounds I’m hearing aren’t of an Orean night, they’re of Earth’s.
“How...?” I begin to ask.
“I had my staff design the soundscape for you, in case you ever wanted to visit this room with me. I couldn’t get a recording of your hometown, Jennersville, but I hope that this will suffice to make you feel at least a little bit at home.”
I’m stunned into silence for another moment before something else occurs to me. “You said you showed me all your rooms. So, you lied?”
“Not exactly,” he says less defensively than I expected. I figure that I’d put him on the spot again, but he obviously didn’t feel that way. “I thought it unwise to show you this particular room before. You had made it clear that you wanted nothing to do with any sort of romantic relationship, and this room seemed a bit... provocative. I didn’t want for you to feel I was trying to coerce you into anything merely by showing off this place.”
I start to rebut his excuse, but I have to stop myself. “Yeah, okay, you’re probably right. I would have taken it the wrong way.”
“But now,” he says, obviously trying to redirect the conversation back toward where it started in the car, “how would you like to take advantage of these amenities?”
I look around the room one more time. It even almost smells like home. “I think I’d like that very much.”
He shows me to where he keeps a stack of clean towels as well as where there are some modesty curtains – kind of like those folding Chinese screens – where we can each disrobe. When I emerge, only the soft towel around my bare skin, I see that he’s already testing the temp
erature of the water. He seems to like it, because in the next instant he tugs the towel from around his waist and looks over his now-completely naked shoulder at me. “Shall we?”
He tosses the towel to the side as he climbs down the steps into the water. I catch just a fleeting glimpse of his cock as he turns to walk down the stairs and I feel my stomach tie into a knot of anticipation.
I walk to the water’s edge and suddenly feel strangely shy. He senses my hesitation and turns his back to me again, granting me the chance to drop my own towel to the deck and slip into the warm, luscious water.
“Here,” he says, pressing a button on the pool deck near the edge of the water. A few little containers rise up out of the deck, each containing sponges and various vials of soaps and oils. “Take however long you like to bathe and relax. I’ll give you some privacy; I’ll be right over there behind those rocks if you care to join me or if you need anything.” He points to a set of what look like volcanic rocks in the far end of the water. They create a kind of private room within the pool into which he disappears, leaving me free reign of the majority of the space.
My head is spinning with a flood of thoughts and emotions, but I try to focus on just taking some time to scrub my body and luxuriate in the hot water. However, as I rub the sponge across my skin, over my breasts, down to my thighs, I can’t stop wishing that the sponge were S’oraj’s hands. My heart is pounding as hard as sophomore year homecoming when I had my first kiss. I can’t stop myself from calling out and contriving some reason to bring him to me.
“S’oraj?” I say. His head peeks around the corner of the stones almost instantly. No... he wasn’t hoping for that at all. “Could you help me scrub my back?”
He almost manages to contain his excitement as he glides through the water over to me. I glance over my shoulder to hand him the sponge, and he places one hand on my upper arm as he begins to massage my back. It feels wonderful, but as far as ploys go, it’s done its job, and I can no longer fight against this urge.
I whip around, taking the sponge from him and throwing it across the pool, and I press my body to his and kiss him as though I’m trying to devour him. His arms wrap around me desperately as he squeezes us together more tightly. I can feel his cock throbbing against my thigh, and I can’t stop myself from reaching down and taking it in my hand again, now with nothing between my skin and his.
I have to stop myself from gasping the moment I have my hand around him. I’ve never felt anything like this! His cock is huge and – I can hardly believe what I’m feeling – it feels like it’s naturally ridged in a way that makes me want him inside me even more. Before I can get my head around how incredible he would feel, he uses his tail to pull me closer and lift my feet off the bottom of the pool.
I wrap my legs around him as he carries me over to one of the inset benches around the edge of the water, and sets me down gently, letting me recline as he kisses his way down one side of my neck, across my collarbone, and up the other side. His tail slides out from behind me and caresses its way over my thigh.
“Oh my God,” I breathe as the tip of his tail gently begins to massage the area all around my clit. His hands stroke up from my waist and both of his thumbs find my nipples. He uses them to good effect, testing and teasing out the best ways to make me moan. He finds just the thing I like as that tail of his slides down lower, spreading my lips and, with an unexpectedly spectacular surprise, slips inside me.
His breathing quickens just as mine utterly stops. He presses his tail deeper and deeper into me, still toying with my nipples. I can’t believe how hot it feels, and I’m only surprised more when I reach out to pull him toward me with every limb I have, and I feel exactly how muscular he is.
Though he’s not as bulky as many of the other Oreans I know, who are admittedly mostly military types, his slender frame feels like it’s made out of granite rope. His skin stretches over his frame like a drum across the bulging muscles beneath.
I’m practically panting already when he adjusts his grip on me and turns me over. I elatedly position myself with one hand on a submerged step and the other on the deck as he nestles himself up behind me. I reach back between my legs and find his pulsating cock – somehow slick already – and pull him into me.
My knees go weak for a moment at his first thrust; it’s been years since I’ve had a man inside me and maybe I’m just not remembering accurately, but he feels more incredible than anything I’ve ever had or ever even imagined. His hands grasp me at the hips as he begins to work in me, and yet again, throwing me for a loop, he winds his tail around to find my clit with the tip and begins to massage.
My entire body is quaking at the overwhelming pleasure. I can hardly force air into my lungs. I slam myself back onto his cock harder and harder and he takes the cue well, pounding into me with as much force as I give and then some. My fingertips start to tingle, and my toes go numb as every muscle in my body begins to clench.
He quickens the pace of the tip of his tail and rocks his dick into me somehow even harder and I can’t stop myself from crying out in ecstasy as he builds me up, up, up toward—
“Oh, shit, yes!”
In an explosion of passion, I come harder than I ever thought was possible at the exact moment that he erupts into me, his own body shaking and shivering in tune with mine. My crescendo continues with aftershock after aftershock as I come for what feels like a lifespan before finally collapsing forward, my body going limp, my hair drooping into the hot, steaming water.
He slowly pulls himself out of me and turns me around. He holds me close and kisses the top of my head as the pool steams around us. Holy shit, I can’t believe this is what I’ve been missing.
Chapter 12
S’oraj
Still reeling from the thrilling turn of events from the last few days, I’ve arranged for B’ecky to have a coms system implanted along with the tranquilizer dart in her wrist. She took to the idea with shockingly little hesitation, so we wasted no time. And while she’s been with the surgeons, I’ve taken the time to move forward with the plot to uncover exactly who these spies for the Raxians are. As soon as she’s recovered and back in her rooms, I pay her a visit to fill her in on the next phase.
“How does everything feel?” I ask her first.
“Really good, actually. All this stuff is super easy to use. Can you see what I’m seeing if we open a direct channel?”
“Let’s find out.” She makes the series of hand movements that activate the camera and audio recording systems, then hails me directly. I make the complementary series of movements and, overlaid on my own sight, is suddenly a picture of myself looking at myself. “Works perfectly.”
“Great,” she says, flicking the channel closed. “So, what’s the plan?”
∆∆∆
As we enter the ballroom together, I still can’t take my eyes off her. Even amidst all the finery of this gathering that I’ve thrown together for all my top commanders, ministers, and social elites, she stands out above all the rest.
Her dressers created a dress for her that outshines even the stars. Red and shimmering, its thin, almost threadlike straps connect to the sheer, shining fabric that hugs her curves deliciously down to break just above her ankles, except for the long slit down the front that periodically reveals nearly her entire left leg, right up to the hip. If this soiree weren’t so important for identifying the spies, I’d have her right here, right now.
The room collectively bows as I enter, but I can tell that many eyes are still lifted to investigate this Palian shanin who has taken the heart of the king. Since this is the first time we’ve publicly revealed our bond, and since we have yet to go through a Witnessing Ceremony, there is likely to be some social discourse and pettiness. When I warned B’ecky of this eventuality, she brushed off the implication that she couldn’t handle herself, which, of course, I’m positive she can. Perhaps too well, in fact.
“Alright,” I whisper as we descend the staircase into the ball
room. “Let’s open our channel now and leave it running. I’ll be able to come to you if you need help, but—”
“S’oraj, I’ll be fine,” she shushes me. “Let me make a round and get a drink. You go do your kingly thing. I’ll find the spies and point them out.”
“Good,” I say, stumbling in this off-balanced feeling of being with someone so sure of themselves. I begin to make my own rounds, shaking hands and welcoming my guests, when not but a few moments later, B’ecky whispers through the com channel in my ear.
“There. Those two. Red sash and blue cap.”
She’s looking at two High Ministers and I nearly spit my own drink when they turn, and I catch a glimpse of their faces.
“Sons of Oraj, that’s High Minister K’orx and High Minister G’rava,” I whisper back over our channel. “Are you absolutely sure?”
“I’ve never been surer of anything in my life,” she replies.
“Drak.”
“What?”
“Not only are they top-ranking ministers in the court, but K’orx’s daughter is K’tara, your s’andukar. I can’t imagine she’s not part of their plot. She’s likely been feeding them information about you and us this entire time.”
“Which means that the Raxians absolutely already know about me and our bond.”
“Yes. So, you can see why—”
“Shut up, one of them is coming over.”
I silence myself and pretend to move toward the bar for another glass of golden wine while I watch and listen as Minister G’rava introduces himself to her and asks if he may accompany her out onto the balcony for some fresh air. I have a bad feeling about what he’s planning, but I don’t intervene.
“May I say,” G’rava tells her, “our king could not have found a lovelier S’ulin Kara had he picked one out himself.”
“Thank you,” B’ecky replies. “That’s very kind of you.”