“Let’s see what you have there.” Sapphire gestured to the box of stones, then patted the mattress next to her. “Sit with me. You can help me pick.”
“I cannot,” Sabine replied. “It’s forbidden to touch His Highness’s bed.”
“I see.” Sapphire frowned, considering. For security reasons that made perfect sense. It also made the exception given to her more puzzling. Did Wulf really discount her political connections? “You regard me strangely. Tell me, Sabine. Is Prince Wulfric acting in ways you find unusual?”
“That would be putting it mildly,” Sabine answered dryly. “If I were a more fanciful woman, I might think a completely different man had returned to us.”
“Could you tell me what it is about his behavior that’s out of character?”
A smile tugged at Sabine’s mouth. “To begin with, there is a bedroom set aside for his use of the concubines. Yet you are in his rooms, in his bed. And he means for you to stay here. That is the most shocking circumstance to me.”
“I see.” Sapphire hid the pleasure she found in the knowledge that she was special and separate from his other women.
The chamberlain continued. “It’s equally odd that he allows you to talk to him the way you do—to call him by his given name and to argue with him.” Sabine lifted the lid of the box and revealed a dazzling array of jewels. “You are special to him. If you maneuver well, you could achieve great power. I can help you.”
Sapphire admired the woman’s cunning. A great chamberlain knew how to position herself and the women beneath her to best advantage. But Sapphire wouldn’t be staying long enough to need the assistance.
A week. No more. And even that, she knew, was long enough to ensure that she wouldn’t leave unscathed.
Chapter 9
“Wulfric.” Anders, the King of D’Ashier, greeted his son with obvious joy.
“Father.” Wulf dropped to one knee and kissed the back of the hand extended to him.
“Thank you for finding time for me in your busy schedule,” the king teased dryly. “Between mercenaries and beautiful naked women, I’m certain meeting with your father is a great imposition.”
Wulf laughed while his father pulled him to his feet and gripped him in a backslapping embrace. The king wasn’t as tall, but he was equally muscular, giving the monarch a stocky and barrel-chested build.
“I spoke with you earlier,” Wulf reminded his father, “when I returned the first time. I expected that meeting would allay the most pressing of your concerns until the morning.”
“You spoke with me for thirty minutes and only about the ambush,” Anders complained. “Nothing about your whereabouts or activities since. You were agitated and clearly distracted. Then you left and came back with a beautiful captive.”
“Katie isn’t a captive.”
Anders sank into a pile of multicolored silk pillows and gestured for Wulf to do the same. Above them, a domed ceiling painted with a mural of many suns supported a single massive chandelier. Simulated candlelight lit the curved seating area and caused the strands of silver that accented the king’s raven hair to gleam. Despite the massive size of the royal private sitting room, a feeling of intimacy was achieved by the liberal use of colors and the fur rugs that warmed the stone floors.
“She’s a wildcat by all accounts,” Anders said, adjusting the train of his talgorite red robes. “And you thought I wouldn’t be eaten up by curiosity? You don’t know me at all, if you thought I could wait until morning.”
“A wildcat.” Wulf smiled as he sat. “That’s an apt description.” He could still feel the dig of her nails in the skin of his back and buttocks.
“Sabine tells me you’ve created a furor with your performance in your seraglio today. The other concubines are eager for similar attention from you. You’ll be a very busy man trying to keep up with the demand. How I envy you that!”
Wulf winced, still embarrassed that so raw an encounter had also been so public. “I’ll make arrangements for them when I return to my rooms.”
Anders’s brows rose. “Arrangements? Like a schedule? Or did your captive exhaust you? Give it a day or two, son. You’re young, you’ll recover quickly.”
“Recovery time isn’t a problem.” Just thinking of Katie made him hard and ready. The way she responded to him, as if she’d been made for him…He couldn’t get enough.
“I, too, have had my favorites.” Anders tossed his arm over a pillow and settled more comfortably. “Sabine was one of them. It’s heady while it lasts. Enjoy.”
“I am.” Wulf bent forward, setting his forearms on his thighs. “Perhaps you can understand why I was reluctant to leave her.”
Anders sat in contemplative silence for a moment. “Who is she? Where did you find her?”
“I don’t know where to start. And frankly, it doesn’t matter how I present the information, you’re not going to like it.”
“Start where you left off,” his father suggested. “Tell me what happened to you. Were you able to gather some useful information while you were in Sari?”
Taking a deep breath, Wulf started his tale with the moment he came to consciousness in the healing chamber and ended with him sitting in the king’s private sitting room. When he finished, he braced for his father’s reaction, which he expected to be nothing less than explosive. He wasn’t wrong.
“You’re a genius!” Anders leaped to his feet. “This is fantastic. We’ve got them by the balls now. Erikson’s daughter and Gunther’s favorite concubine—”
“Former concubine.”
“No wonder you’re enjoying her so much.” His father laughed and rubbed his hands together.
Wulf stood. “It isn’t like that.”
Anders went still. His gaze narrowed. “Think with your other brain. She’s leverage and a hot fuck. Don’t lose sight of who she is.”
Wulf couldn’t lose sight of it. Her history made her into the woman she was. A woman he respected and found fascinating.
His father scowled. “You can’t keep her, Wulfric. Erikson will come for her eventually, if we don’t ransom her within a reasonable period of time. And he’ll have the backing of the king, if that idiot is as in love with her as you say.”
“Not if she wants to stay.” Katie hadn’t said so outright, but he would make her want to. He was determined.
Standing with arms akimbo, Anders lip curled scornfully, a bitter nasty smile that caused Wulf to clench his fists. “What the hell does she have between her legs? To get both you and Gunther panting after…” He paused. Discovery lit his eyes. “She’s a spy.”
“No, damn it!”
“Think, Wulfric! She’s been sleeping with the King of Sari for five years! She must care for him.”
“She was contracted.”
“Bullshit. Your imprisonment doesn’t make sense any other way. Why the hell were you sent to her instead of the palace dungeon? Why did her Guardian allow you to watch her meeting with Erikson? Concubines don’t have combat training. Why is she so knowledgeable?” Anders drove his point home with a stab of his finger. “She’s a fucking assassin or a spy, that’s why!”
Wulf stood stiffly, his heart hammering. “Katie didn’t want to come. You know that. I brought her here against her will.”
“You don’t know whether you’re coming or going! First, you say she wants to stay. Then, you say she didn’t want to come. Which is it?” The king snorted. “It’s the oldest female wile in history—play hard to get. You can have any woman you want, Wulfric. The fact that she’s the only woman who denies you makes possessing her irresistible. But that denial melts when you fuck her, doesn’t it? It’s all for show.”
“You accuse me of confusion? While you suggest she doesn’t want me, then say she does…all in the same breath?”
“No matter how you look at it,” Anders retorted, “her motives are suspect.”
Sinking into the pillows, Wulf buried his head in his hands. His skin broke out in a sweat and his chest tightened, m
aking it hard for him to breathe. The suspicious circumstances surrounding his introduction to the beautiful Sapphire were unavoidable, but he’d done a damn good job of avoiding them anyway. He had been so grateful for her attentions after the horrors of his captivity.
Everything his father said could very well be true. He’d known Katie such a short time, how could he discern the truth behind her motives?
“Wulfric.” The king lowered to his haunches before him. “I’ve never seen you like this over a woman. Maybe they put an aphrodisiac in the healing chamber air. Maybe she’s wearing it in her perfume or lotion.”
Wulf exhaled harshly. “I’ll take care of her. I’ll uncover her true intentions.”
“Maybe we should give her to your brother. He can—”
“No.” Wulf’s tone left no room for argument. “Duncan is still a boy, barely a man. He couldn’t manage her.” Wulf stood, suddenly weary. “She’s mine. Whether she’s my lover or my mistake is a determination I’m more than capable of making on my own.”
The king straightened. “I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be.” Wulf looked straight into eyes the same color as his own. “My first love is D’Ashier. Always has been. Always will be.”
Still, the possibility of Katie’s duplicity caused a piercing pain in his chest.
He bowed. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Yes.” The king looked grim. “I’ll be waiting.”
The sight that greeted Wulfric when he returned to his room hit him like a physical blow. His gut clenched and his breath shortened. Katie waited on his bed, her body adorned with glittering red talgorite. Her beautiful features illuminated from within when she saw him.
Whatever they had between them couldn’t be a complete lie. There had to be some truth to it. When he was inside her, her response to him was real and heartfelt. He knew it.
Sabine exited the bathing chamber and lowered to the floor upon seeing him. “Your Highness.”
His eyes never left Katie.
“You look unwell.” Katie frowned. “What happened?”
She rose from the bed and came toward him. The red diaphanous gown she wore shimmered and wafted over lush curves, teasing him with tantalizing glimpses of the creamy flesh beneath.
The perfect weapon, if that’s what she was.
“Rise, Sabine,” he said gruffly. “Prepare a room for Sapphire with the other concubines. She’ll join you shortly.”
Wulf heard the doors slide shut behind the departing chamberlain. Something inside him closed along with them.
Katie stopped in front of him. “You called me Sapphire.” She seemed to wait for an explanation, but there was a knowing look in her dark eyes. “You don’t want to send me away. I can see it on your face.”
“I have an early day tomorrow.”
She shook her head. “That’s not what this is about, is it? Something your father said upset you.”
He couldn’t stop himself from embracing her. His head ached. He didn’t know what or whom to believe, and until he knew with certainty, he had an obligation to the Crown to protect himself and his people.
Turning Katie roughly away from him, Wulfric positioned her prone on the bed.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice huskier than usual.
Wulf bent over her, his lips to her ear. “Tell me, Katie. Why would a career concubine study combat techniques? You have the skills of an assassin.” He pushed her gown up around her waist and slipped his hand between her legs. The feel of her, so warm and soft, aroused him further. His cock grew heavy. Ready.
“I—I…My father insisted I learn to protect myself.” She gasped as he parted her sweet pussy and circled her clitoris with the pad of his index finger. “In secondary school there was a young man…umm…that feels good.”
“Keep talking,” he ordered, gritting his teeth as she slicked his fingers. As Katie’s skin heated, the scent of alluring, willing woman filled his nostrils and made him crazy. She didn’t need to wear an aphrodisiac; she was one. Whenever he touched her, he felt wild and out of control. If he trusted her completely, he would revel in the potency of the animal attraction between them. As it was, he felt as if he was drowning. He’d be damned if he would drown alone.
“He walked me home one day. He tried…”
Wulf pushed two fingers inside her, biting back a growl at the feel of tight yet plush tissues. He began fucking her in an unhurried rhythm determined to reduce her to the same base craving he suffered. In and out. He hooked his fingers and rubbed across the sweet spot inside her.
“Oh…” Katie moaned and writhed in a way that made him perspire from the effort of holding back. “I can’t think when you touch me.”
Wulf watched her rest her cheek against his velvet coverlet and close her eyes. Even now, divided as he was, he wanted her as much as he wanted to breathe. And he would have her. He would take her like this, facedown, so that she wouldn’t be able to see what she did to him.
“He tried to take liberties…” Her hips were swirling against his hand in tight little circles, taking what she needed, making her pussy ripple hungrily along his fingers. “But my father c-came…h-home in time. No permanent damage was done, but a-afterward I wanted to know how to defend myself.”
“You took it to the extreme,” he growled. “You’re trained to kill. Not just one opponent, but several.”
“I do nothing in half measure.” Irritation strengthened her voice. “Neither do you.”
“Aren’t you loyal in half measure? Betraying your father and king to protect me.”
Opening her eyes, Katie lifted her head and glared at him over her shoulder. “Something was said to you tonight to make you angry with me. If it’s a fight you want, face me directly. If you want to fuck, get on with it. Either way, get to the point.”
Snarling with confusion and frustration, Wulf unclasped his robe with deft fingers. The two overlapping halves parted, and he took his cock in hand. Without a word, he thrust hard into her.
She cried out as he filled her in a violent surge, the force of his entry pushing her flat on the bed.
“Have you always driven men mad?” he asked harshly. “Am I just one of many who lose their minds around you?” He raised her knees to the mattress edge and held her hips immobile, restraining her from pulling away. He began to drive into her, shafting her rough and fast.
“Yes,” she snapped. “Is that what you want me to say? That you mean nothing to me? That I’m just screwing you in every way I can?”
Katie was hot and tight, so extremely tight Wulf thought he might die of the pleasure. No man could live through endless lust like this. He fucked her like a man possessed because he felt as if he was, trying to crawl into her so he could see her motives and ascertain the truth about her feelings for him.
“You lie,” he gasped. “You care.”
Her helpless cries spurred him like whiplashes. He rode her with deep, long strokes, growling each time he hit the end of her. It was unbelievable, the coiling ecstasy that wrapped around his spine and burned through his blood. He loved making love to her. He craved the closeness, the feeling of connection he felt only with Katie.
She was fisting the bedclothes and thrusting back at him, fucking him as hard as he was taking her. Her pussy gripped his cock in delicious, rhythmic pulses that took him to the knife edge of climax. He reached beneath her and teased her clitoris, relishing the way she whimpered his name. He timed his thrusts to the movements of his fingers.
“Wulf…it’s so good…so good…”
He wrapped his straining body around hers.
“Katie,” he whispered, wishing he’d never gone to see his father, wishing he had stayed in the room with her, ignorant of outside prejudices and the doubts they created.
This was real.
He felt her stiffen, then her pussy contracted around his pumping cock. He stilled at the deepest point of her, allowing her body to milk him into orgasm. He shuddered
against her back, erupting inside her with a pained groan of pleasure. The pulses were endless and destructive, each spurt of semen followed by a shudder that rocked his entire frame.
Wulf followed her down to the bed, then turned them both onto their sides. Cupped together, their bodies were still joined.
As his erratic breathing slowed, he noted how her fingers laced with his and held their joined hands over her racing heart. He drew her against his chest, his plans to send her to the concubines’ quarters abandoned in favor of staying deep inside her. Connected.
If she was the traitor his father thought her to be, Wulf risked his life every time he slept with her. She could kill him when he was most vulnerable. His death would send D’Ashier into chaos, and since he was the head of the country’s military forces, his loss could create a momentary vulnerability easily exploited by his enemy.
Strangely the possible threat to his life didn’t frighten him, at least not enough to send her away. Yes, there was no denying that their meeting had been improbably coincidental, but she hadn’t killed him yet.
“If you send me to Sabine,” Katie whispered fiercely, “I’ll never forgive you.”
In answer, he nudged deeper inside her and cupped a full breast in their joined hands.
When they’d lain together in her bed in Sari, he’d thought having her here in his palace and his bed would ease the sensation of being minion to a ticking clock. But instead of the permanence he’d thought to feel, he felt a yawning chasm widening between them.
He held her tighter and knew he would have to keep her until he no longer craved her. Nothing would stand in his way.
Not even her.
Chapter 10
Sapphire sat up in bed with a start, her sleep-fogged mind attempting to discern what had awoken her. She pushed her hair out of her eyes with impatient fingers and was startled to see a man standing before the doors; his legs spread wide and meaty arms crossing an impossibly broad chest.
He was massive, his height easily nearing seven feet tall, his shoulders possessing gigantic breadth and tapering to a narrow waist and thighs the diameter of tree trunks. His skin and eyes were as dark as night, his head was bald, and large gold hoops adorned his earlobes.