Blushing and trembling, I did as he asked. Reaching between my thighs, I used two fingers to spread open my outer pussy lips, revealing my slippery inner folds and my aching clit.
“Your Goddess-pearl is so beautiful,” Kristoff murmured. “So swollen with need, my Lady.”
“It is really achy,” I admitted softly. “It…it almost hurts, Kristoff.”
“In that case, I must kiss my Lady to ease her pain,” he murmured. Leaning down, he placed a hot, open-mouthed kiss on my spread pussy.
For a moment it was exactly like the accidental kiss he’d given me while we were aboard his ship. Then I had felt his tongue against me, but he hadn’t moved it at all. This time he held still for a long moment…and then licked me, pressing his tongue deep into my pussy and dragging upward to slide over the tender bump of my clit.
Sparks of pleasure shot through me and I moaned and bucked my hips. It felt so good it was almost too much. I gasped and bit my lip as he did it again…and then again, lapping my open pussy as though I was his favorite flavor in the whole world.
“Gods,” he muttered hoarsely, looking up at me. “You taste so good, Charlotte. And I can feel your Goddess-pearl swelling under my tongue.”
“Having you taste me…lick me…it feels amazing,” I whispered breathlessly. “I…I never thought it could feel this way.”
He leaned down and swirled the tip of his tongue around my swollen clit. I moaned and bucked against him again, shamelessly offering myself to his hot mouth and seeking tongue.
“That’s good.” He looked up, his eyes filled with lust and need behind the black mask he still wore. “Open yourself completely, Charlotte.”
“I…I thought I was open,” I said, my heart pounding. “What…what else do you want?”
“This.” Reaching under me, he twined his long, muscular arms around my legs, splitting my thighs wide open, baring my pussy for him completely.
I gasped at the sudden feeling of vulnerability. Not only was I open—he was holding me open—holding me down. And since he was exponentially stronger than me, there was nothing I could do to stop him. Nothing but give him what he wanted.
“I’m going to lick you deeply now, Charlotte,” he told me, his eyes heated behind the mask. “Going to penetrate your pussy as deeply as I can with my tongue and taste your sweet honey right from your cleft.”
“All…all right,” I said softly. “I…I won’t try to stop you.”
“I want you to do more than just submit to my tongue inside you.” The look in his eyes was incredibly intense—almost scary. I felt my breath catch in my throat as a need that matched my own blazed from them.
“What…what else can I do?”
“Give yourself to me, my Goddess,” he murmured. “Press back against me. Feed me that sweet little pussy and fuck yourself on my tongue—hard.”
“Oh God, Kristoff…” When he talked to me that way and looked me in the eyes so directly as he told me exactly what he was going to do to me and what he wanted me to do in return, I felt like I might melt into a puddle right there on the couch. Or else catch fire from the intense heat between us.
“Promise me,” he said, bending to rub his cheek against my pussy mound once more. “Tell me you’ll give me what I want and you won’t stop until you come on my mouth.”
“Yes,” I whispered, loving this new, aggressive side of him. He was always so deferential to me, so protective and careful. But here and now in the pleasure chamber he was different—possessive…hungry…dominant. “Yes, Kristoff—I’ll give you what you want.”
“Good,” he murmured. “That’s very good, Charlotte.”
Then he pulled me closer and bent his head to press his tongue long and hot and wet, deep inside my open pussy.
I moaned and bucked against him, as well as I could. He had such a tight grip on my thighs I couldn’t do much more than roll my pelvis. Which I did, moving to meet him as he stroked deep inside me, tasting me as deeply as he could.
At the same time, he shifted his grip on me so he could reach between my legs. The pad of one broad thumb came up and began to slide over my swollen clit once more in that hot, back and forth motion that drove me completely crazy.
Gasping, I reached for something to hold on to and found my hands buried in his thick, dark hair.
“Kristoff!” I moaned helplessly. “Oh, God, Kristoff!”
Hearing his name on my lips seemed to drive him wild. He tongue-fucked me even deeper, pressing long and hard inside my channel as his thumb continued to caress my aching bud until I felt like I was either going to come or pass out from the pleasure. I writhed against him, crying out—his name a prayer on my lips.
I don’t know how long it lasted, only that it seemed to go on forever as the pleasure built and built until I could barely remember my own name.
All the need, all the desire that had been building inside me from the moment I had been Invested as the True Incarnation seemed to hit me at once. The orgasm felt like an explosion—something so strong it might rip me apart. I cried and gasped and begged, unable to help myself, unable to stop the moans that came from between my lips.
Through it all, Kristoff just kept tasting me, driving his tongue deep in my pussy as he stroked my clit in that same, slow, deliberate rhythm which refused to be hurried no matter how much I begged and cried and rolled my hips.
God, I thought. Good…so good!
And it was—incredibly good. I rode Kristoff’s tongue and mouth, just as he had told me to, and I had never felt anything so intense in my entire life.
I never wanted it to end.
Kristoff
I never wanted it to end.
Having Charlotte under me, spread as wide as possible, her soft, pink pussy open for my seeking tongue was a fantasy I had only dreamed of and had never expected to fulfill.
Shouldn’t be fulfilling it now, whispered a harsh voice in the back of my head. You should have let the pleasure attendant take care of her, as was the original plan.
I had tried to follow the plan—the Goddess knows I had. But when we’d gotten to the House of Goddess Pleasures and I had seen the fright—the outright panic in Charlotte’s big, green eyes—I hadn’t been able to go through with it. Not to mention the fact that the idea of another male touching her in any way—especially sexually—sent a surge of possessive rage through me I could hardly control.
You’d better learn to control it, whispered that same, acerbic inner voice. The Culling Ceremony for the Consort candidates is tomorrow. The day after that she’ll belong to another male—a Royal who deserves her touch. One who will bond her to him and bring her pleasure as often as he wants.
The thought made a possessive growl rise in my throat and the urge to bond Charlotte to me—to claim her for my own—came over me so strongly I could barely hold myself back.
Instead of plunging my shaft into her, I concentrated on fucking her with my tongue. One release wasn’t enough. I wanted to make her come again and again—to feel her honey flowing and taste her sweet nectar on my lips, knowing I was the reason for it.
Determined to make our encounter last, I brought Charlotte to the edge over and over, making her writhe on the pleasure room couch as she called for me—called my name and mine alone—at the moment of release. I told myself that no matter what else happened or who her Consort turned out to be, we would always have the memory of this night together. The one night when I had allowed myself to give her what we both so desperately needed, though I knew it wasn’t right.
At last she lay panting and spent, shying away from my tongue as though the sensation was too intense when I bent to lick her again.
“Kristoff,” she whispered, her sweet voice husky from crying and moaning for so long. “I…I don’t think I can take any more.”
“Very well, my Lady.” I placed a soft, chaste kiss to her mound and unwound my arms from around her thighs. She tried to sit up but the pleasure had made her weak. I had to help her get upright
on the couch and then I sat beside her.
“That was…amazing,” she whispered weakly, looking up at me. “How did you do that? How did you make me come again and again like that?”
I allowed myself a small smile. “Didn’t I tell you Majoran males take special classes in pleasuring females?”
“Well, you must have been at the head of the class,” she said, answering my smile with her own. “Because that was an A plus performance with some serious extra credit thrown in.”
“I was happy to serve you,” I murmured, taking her hand in mine. “No, more than happy—it was the fulfillment of my deepest and most forbidden fantasy.”
“Well, I can’t say I ever fantasized about it before, since I didn’t really have much of a sex life back on Earth,” she said, sounding thoughtful. “But you can bet I’ll be fantasizing about it now.” She looked up at me shyly. “You really liked it that much?”
“Tasting your sweet pussy…hearing you call my name…pull my hair…buck against my tongue?” I licked my lips, savoring the taste of her nectar. “Oh, yes my Lady. I loved it.”
“But what about you? Did you, uh, get any relief?” She reached for my still-hard shaft but I moved her hand away gently.
“Forgive me, my Lady but that is forbidden. I am the one attending you, not the other way around.”
“That hardly seems fair,” Charlotte protested.
“Nevertheless, that is the way it is.” Not that I didn’t want her sweet, soft little hands on my shaft—it would be an intense pleasure. How I had kept myself from coming while I tasted her, I would never know but I wasn’t about to let her make me come now. I had already broken enough rules for one night.
“All right. I’ll let it go—for now. But next time—”
“There can be no next time,” I interrupted her. “I’m sorry, my Lady but this night is all we can have together.”
“But…but I thought…” She shook her head. “I mean, you said this happens all the time. A Royal and a non-Royal who want to be together meet at the Pleasure House—right? So why can’t we meet here again?”
“Only unmated people may meet at the Pleasure House,” I told her gently. “In another day or two you’ll be bonded to your Royal Consort and then I can be nothing more to you but the Captain of your Guard, as I was to my old mistress.”
“But I don’t want another Consort!” she insisted fiercely. “Who made the stupid law that the Empress has to marry a Royal anyway?”
“I believe it was the Council of Wisdom—to preserve the divinity of the Royal bloodlines,” I told her. “No male without the blood of a past Goddess-Empress running in his veins can be allowed to bond with the present Goddess-Empress.”
“But that’s ridiculous,” she protested. “Who cares about the bloodlines?”
“The Council of Wisdom,” I said. “As well as the priests and priestesses in the temples of the Goddess of Mercy, of whom you are meant to be a corporeal scion. And because they care, all of the Majoran system cares.”
She sighed and looked down at her hands.
“All right, I get it. I don’t want to throw my new people’s religion in their faces or flout their customs or break their rules.” She looked up at me. “But isn’t there some way of getting the law changed?”
I shook my head regretfully.
“My Lady, you are the thousandth ruler in an unbroken chain of Goddess-Empresses. The tradition against Royalty interbreeding with the other, lesser nobility or commoners has been in place since Sundalla the first and by Sundalla the 100th it was made a law. Now it is part of our religious beliefs. It would take a miracle by the Goddess herself to change it.”
She frowned. “Do you really believe in her? In the Goddess?”
I thought of the panicked prayer I had offered to a deity I didn’t really believe in back when it had seemed Charlotte might die of the Burning Blood. A prayer which had been answered…but by the Goddess, or a simple whim of fate?
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I never used to. Now…I’m not sure.”
“I’m not either,” she said and sighed. “But it does seem like if I’m supposed to be the Goddess’s scion, feeling her emotions and feeding her needs and desires here in the mortal realm, I should get to pick who I fulfill those desires with.”
“But you don’t get to,” I said gently. “The Council of Wisdom, which is meant to balance the Empress’s power, are the ones who will bring forth suitable candidates.”
“Who did the old Empress marry—er, bond to?” she asked. “The one before me, I mean.”
“I never met him,” I said. “He died before I came to serve at Court. But I do know he was not one of the Council of Wisdom’s choices for my old mistress. He was, in fact, the General of her entire armed forces.” I frowned. “The Head of the Council—Councilor Tannus in fact—was most displeased that Sundalla the 999th went against his wishes, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. The General had the entire might of the armed forces at his back.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened. “So then there is hope! We can go against the Council's wishes!”
I shook my head. “The General was still a Royal. He just wasn’t one of the candidates the Council had deemed worthy for the Empress.”
She frowned mutinously. “I don’t like the idea of a panel of old men getting to pick who I spend the rest of my life with! Especially not that Councilor Tannus—I’m almost sure he and Morbain are in bed together.”
“What?” I asked, slightly shocked. “You think they—”
“It’s just an Earth saying that means they’re in cahoots. You know—that they’re working together,” she explained, seeing my blank look at her strange Earth vernacular. “I don’t trust them is what I’m trying to say—either of them! Did you see how Tannus kept on letting poor Eucilla go through Trial after Trial, even after it was obvious she couldn’t have been the True Incarnation? He could have stopped it but he just kept agreeing to everything Morbain said.”
“I agree that did seem to be the case,” I said. “I wouldn’t hesitate to urge you to look outside the candidates the Council offers you if you don’t find one that’s pleasing to you. But you must look to a Royal—not a commoner or a minor noble like myself.”
Charlotte sighed and looked down at her hands again. “We have a saying on my world—the heart wants what the heart wants.” She looked up at me, the need clear in her lovely green eyes. “I can’t help it, Kristoff—my heart wants you.”
I felt as though someone was ripping me up inside—shredding my heart with the sharpest dagger imaginable. It was nearly unbearable and yet, for my Lady’s sake, I knew I must bear it—bear it for the rest of my life.
“As mine wants you, Charlotte,” I told her gently, taking her hand in mine. “But this must be the last time we speak of it. Come…” I rose and tugged her to her feet. “Our time in the pleasure room is over. We must go back to reality and try to forget this ever happened.”
“I can’t forget,” she whispered, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “I don’t want to forget.”
I drew her to me and leaned down to taste her mouth—a sweet, forbidden kiss I could never repeat. The dagger in my heart had turned dull now—a throbbing pain I knew I would never get over. Knowing that she must go to another male was like knowing I must die…and yet continue to serve, staying at my post and protecting the woman I loved while she loved another.
It was agony.
It was the way things had to be and there was nothing I could do to change it.
“We must forget,” I whispered to her. “And now we must go.”
I found her cloak and put it on her, pulling it low to cover her face and hide the tears that slipped silently down her cheeks, each salty drop like another stab to my already wounded heart. I would have given anything to dry those tears but it was beyond my power. I could do nothing to help—nothing to ease her pain which I felt through my bond to her as clearly as I felt my own.
&n
bsp; Chapter Twenty-seven
He who had been Count Doloroso chafed within the bonds of his new Majoran host body. Since assuming the identity and life of the Imperial Guard, T’zorin, he had been waiting for a chance to get the Earth girl—the La-ti-zal called Charlotte—alone for his own purposes. But it was impossible—that damn guard, Kristoff, was constantly with her, never leaving her side even for an instant. In the guise of T’zorin he had gotten as close as he could, making himself indispensable—trustable. Yet still Kristoff would never leave her.
I need to get her alone, he thought, pacing the corridor outside the Council Chambers. I need to take her someplace no one will dare to come after her, someplace safe from where I can make my demands. But where?
Actually, he had an idea of where he could take the new Empress once he had her. The problem was getting her alone in the first place. How could he separate her from Kristoff? How could he get her away and breed a whole new race of Organic Assimilated unless—
“So everything is set for the Culling Ceremony tomorrow evening?” a soft, familiar voice murmured, coming from the narrow corridor just around the corner from him.
Doloroso froze, listening intently, barely daring to breathe.
“Indeed it is. She’ll not suspect a thing until its too late.” The other voice was also familiar—familiar and gloating, Doloroso thought. “All you have to do is be certain she gives her blood. Once I ingest it, she’ll be drawn to me like a twila moth to an open flame. You did make certain that the other candidates are not as, ah, suitable as myself, correct?”
“It was the first order of business,” the other voice said. “And I pushed a new declaration through as well to make certain she cannot pick another Royal besides the ones we offer as candidates.” The voice turned hard. “I’ll not have another Empress run rough-shod over me in the way Sundalla the 999th did.”
“Yes, my mother was quite willful,” the other male replied. “It was good thinking on your part to close that loophole. Something tells me this new Empress is every bit as willful as her predecessor.”