Jacinda's Challenge (Imperial 3)

  "But you would have been in the back and wouldn't have taken the full brunt of the attack."

  "It wasn't an attack! It was an accident."

  "Do you really think that matters if you're dead?!!" Jotham shouted.

  "Jotham." She framed his face with her hands, her eyes searching his. She'd never seen him this upset before. "It's alright. I'm here and I'm safe."

  "I'm not losing you." His mouth captured hers, his tongue plunging inside, staking his claim. Jacinda was his, his to hold, his to protect, his to love. And he wouldn't lose her. He knew he was being irrational, but he couldn't stop himself because he would never survive losing someone else he loved.

  Feeling Jacinda's arms wrap around his neck, he bent down and swept her off her feet quickly carrying her to his bedchamber.

  He wanted her.

  Needed her.

  In his bed.

  The only woman to be there since Lata.

  Laying her down in the center of the bed, he pulled back, breaking off the kiss. He looked down at her and what he saw stole his breath.

  She had casually pulled her hair back in combs when she arrived. They had fallen away during his embrace and now her long chestnut hair fanned out around her framing her in its silken beauty.

  Reaching down, he slowly pulled the loose blouse out of the tailored pants it was tucked in to, revealing that 'uninteresting' scar she had told him about. Leaning down, he reverently kissed it, thanking the ancestors that she had survived, knowing she had downplayed its severity.

  "Jotham..." She sank her fingers into his thick, lush hair trying to pull his mouth back to hers.

  Jotham knew what she wanted, but there were other areas his mouth wanted to explore before returning to that wondrous place. Places he didn't feel he had given enough attention to before.

  Such as the indentation at her side where her waist was. No, it wasn't the narrow waist of a younger woman, one fresh out of the Academy, taut and firm. It was the waist of a mature woman that had successfully carried three children. A little softer. A little wider. With the feathery marks left from those experiences. It aroused him. Kissing it, he moved higher. Where he discovered a smattering of freckles, he had missed before. They seemed strategically placed, beckoning him to follow where they led. So he did, but only after making sure he suitably appreciated each one.

  In return, they led him to the valley between the peaks he loved to worship at and revealed what they wanted him to see. There between her breasts, previously covered by bruising, lay three small, faint, connected spiral suns.

  The first on the inner, underside curve of her left breast.

  The second cradled between them.

  While the third rested along the upper curve of her right breast.

  It was the royal symbol for the House of Healing!

  Yet not.

  What were they doing on Jacinda?

  "Jacinda..." He lifted his mouth away from the first symbol to stare up at her.

  "Hmmm?" she asked looking up at him with desire-filled eyes.

  "What are these doing on you?"

  "What?"

  "These marks. They are the Royal symbols for the House of Healing."

  "No, they're not. They're similar, but not the same. Only the men of the House of Healing carry that symbol and it's always on their hand."

  "Yet here it is on you." He watched the flush that ran up her body. "Jacinda..."

  "I didn't think we were 'talking' right now." She tried to distract him by pulling her blouse over her head.

  "We'll get to that. Now tell me how this mark came to be on your body." He smiled gently at her putout look. It was adorable. Jacinda was too used to no one challenging her. He wanted to spend the rest of his life putting that look there.

  "It really is nothing. Just family legend whispered in the depths of the night."

  Jotham rolled to his side, propping his head on one hand as the other rested on her stomach, giving his fingers access to all three marks.

  "Tell me anyway."

  Jacinda huffed but knew that look that said Jotham wouldn't be swayed.

  "Family legend, on my mother's side, tells of how cycles ago... so many cycles that no one really knows, a woman in my family fell in love with a Royal from the House of Healing. The King didn't approve and the prince wed someone else, but not before my ancestor conceived."

  "And the Prince never claimed his child?" Jotham couldn't believe it.

  "He was never informed, especially since the child was female and no threat to the throne."

  "Yet she carried the royal mark."

  "She did, in the same spot I do, but her daughter didn't nor her granddaughter, but her great granddaughter did."

  "It only appears every third generation?"

  "Yes, but only down the direct female line."

  "Like Cassandra in the House of Knowledge."

  Jacinda frowned slightly, "In a way I guess you're right, but it's not the same."

  "Why not?"

  "Because only a King can rule the House of Healing. A King with the full mark." She gently touched Jotham's mark on his right forearm. The Arrow, representing that he was the King of the House of Protection, proudly blazing full of color.

  Jotham thought about her words, thought about how William's sons with Cassandra, while House of Knowledge, still bore his House's symbol. Now a female from the House of Healing carried its royal mark. Something never before heard of. "Perhaps things are changing."

  "Some things can change. Some things can't." She moved his hand so it cupped her breast, arching up slightly into it.

  Jotham's fingers instinctively tightened over the full globe. "You are trying to distract me."

  "Is it working?"

  "Yes." Leaning down he captured her nipple, sucking it deep into his mouth, his tongue lapping at it.

  "Damn." She ran frustrated nails down his back, wanting to touch skin, not fabric. "Why aren't you naked? I want you naked!"

  With a pop, he released her breast and gave her a look that had her channel flooding with desire.

  "Do you now?"

  "Yes. Please, Jotham. Don't tease me. I need to feel you inside me."

  All the teasing left Jotham’s face, replaced by a need that took her breath away. "Then you'll have me." Pushing up to his knees, he ripped his shirt off before his hands made short work of both their pants. Settling between legs that welcomed him, he paused at her entrance.

  "You are mine!" he proclaimed and thrust deep making sure he claimed every part of her.

  "Yes!" Arching off the bed, she accepted his claim and made one of her one. "And you are mine!"

  "Yours!" he acknowledged.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Jacinda wrapped her arms around Jotham's neck, pulling his mouth down to hers as she met him thrust for thrust. Her body tightening around him. His words had triggered something deep inside her, something she never expected to feel again.

  Love.

  She. Loved. Jotham.

  Her heart stuttered slightly at the enormity of it.

  Ripping his mouth from hers, Jotham glared down, his violet eyes glowing. He felt something shift. "Don't you hold back on me, Jacinda. I want everything!" With that, he increased his thrusts knowing from the way she trembled that she was close.

  "Give it to me, Jacinda!" Jotham ordered. "Come for me!"

  "Jotham!" His words sent her over the edge, and as her orgasm exploded through her, Jotham thrust one final time and followed her.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Jacinda tried to catch her breath, as she lay draped across Jotham's heaving chest. He only remembered, at the last moment, to not crush her by rolling onto his back taking her with him.

  Her mind was still trying to absorb what her heart knew was true. She loved Jotham Tibullus. The King of the House of Protection. How was this ever going to work?

  "What's going on in that mind of yours?" Jotham's deep voice had her propping an elbow on his chest, resting her
head on her hand to look down at him. He lay on his back, eyes closed, a relaxed, satisfied expression on his face.

  "What makes you think my mind can think at all?"

  "Because I can hear it." He opened those amazing eyes to look up at her. "Also you are starting to tense up."

  "Oh," she said, giving him a sheepish look. Should she tell him? She was too old to play games, but still, she needed some time to process this. It wasn't something she could just blurt out.

  "Jacinda?" Jotham's satisfied expression began to turn into a frown. "What's wrong?" he demanded again.

  "Nothing, just thinking."

  "About?"

  "Lots of things. You have to know that it doesn't matter that you can turn me into mush, I'm still not going to agree to ride around in a limisin."

  "Why not?"

  "Because life is meant to be lived."

  "Damn it! You were in an accident, Jacinda!"

  When he tried to rise, she refused to let him. "Yes. Which could have happened anywhere. In any type of transport. I could fall down a flight of stairs." She felt him stiffen as she mentioned how Dadrian died. "Or I could die picking flowers in the garden." Which was how Stephan died. "I'm not going to live my life in fear, Jotham."

  "I'm not asking you to."

  "You are to a point. I promise I'm not going to take unnecessary risks. I have too much to live for. I drive what amounts to the safest transport on the planet. I don't drive fast. I don't drive in bad weather. I take every precaution."

  "That doesn't always matter."

  "No, it doesn't." Reaching out she cupped his cheek. "That's life, Jotham. I'm going to live mine, fully. Let me. Enjoy it with me."

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Jacinda Michelakakis! I will speak to you!"

  Jacinda briefly closed her eyes hearing the high-pitched, scratchy voice of Madame Nitzschke. She had just closed her front door and was heading down her sidewalk to her transport. She had Deffand leave it parked out front when he had driven her home the night before.

  She and Jotham had just been finishing up a late meal when Chesney notified him that something had occurred that needed his attention. Jotham had wanted her to stay, but it was late and she knew it would be better if she wasn't seen driving away from the Palace in the early morning hours.

  Jotham hadn't liked it, her accident still weighed heavily on his mind and he demanded that if she refused to take a limisin, then she would allow Deffand to drive her. Jacinda remembered opening her mouth to argue, but then realized it was a small thing to allow. So she had agreed, knowing it gave Jotham a sense of comfort.

  Deffand had driven her transport, with Jacinda sitting beside him, not in the back, as he would have liked. They were followed by another transport so he could return to the Palace. She had him park in her driveway, and after he walked her to the door, he left.

  Now Madame Nitzschke was tottering down her walk as Jacinda was on her way out to shop for the trip to Kisurri, and apparently it was too much to ask that she not run into the neighborhood gossip.

  "Hello, Madame Nitzschke. How are you today?"

  "I would be much better if you would stop having all these male visitors!"

  "Excuse me?" Jacinda bristled at the condemnation in the old woman's tone.

  "You heard me! It's an embarrassment to the entire neighborhood what you are doing! That man is half your age! He comes and goes, day and night! Assemblyman Stephan would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how you were disrespecting him!"

  Jacinda felt her rage growing as each word passed the old biddy's lips. She knew Madame Nitzschke kept an eye on everyone in the neighborhood. For cycles, she'd found it comforting, knowing her children couldn't get away with anything. Now she found it intrusive. The interfering but caring woman Madame Nitzschke had once been was now a judgmental one, and Jacinda would not tolerate it. Later she might laugh over the thought that Madame Nitzschke thought she was involved with Deffand, but right now it infuriated her.

  "Madame Nitzschke," Jacinda bit out. "While I have always respected your position in the community, I will not tolerate you thinking you have the right to judge me or my life. Who comes and goes from my house and when they come or go, are none of your business! Now if you will excuse me, I was on my way out."

  Turning from her, Jacinda walked to her transport and left the woman glaring at her.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  "Mother?"

  Hearing her name called out, Jacinda looked to her left and smiled seeing her son striding toward her. "Danton."

  "How are you?" Kissing her cheek, he reached for the bags she carried. "Here let me take those for you."

  "I'm good. I was just going to head to Pittaluga's for coffee. Can you join me?"

  Danton twisted his wrist to check the time. "Yes. I have an hour before my next meeting."

  "Wonderful." Slipping her arm through her son's, she let him lead her down the street.

  "Madame Michelakakis!" Mister Pittaluga rushed forward to greet her. "You are here! You are well! I was so concerned when I heard of your accident!"

  "Hello, Mister Pittaluga. Thank you for your concern, but I am fine. "How are you today?"

  "I am wonderful now that you are here and you've brought Assemblyman Michelakakis. Wonderful! Would you like your usual table?"

  "Please." Jacinda was startled for only a moment hearing Pittaluga address Danton as Assemblyman Michelakakis. For a moment, it was as if Stephan were at her side.

  Danton was frowning when he sat down at the table Pittaluga had led them to.

  "Can I take those for you, Assemblyman Michelakakis?" Pittaluga gestured to the bags he carried.

  "Thank you." He handed them to him.

  Pittaluga nodded, "I will be right back with your coffee."

  "What's got you frowning all of a sudden?" Jacinda asked once Pittaluga walked away.

  "He was flirting with you," Danton's frown deepened.

  "What? Who? You mean Mister Pittaluga?" Jacinda asked, surprised.

  "Yes."

  "And you have a problem with that?"

  "I... well yes. You’re my mother."

  "Danton, we've been over this before. While I may be your mother, I was and still am a woman first."

  "I know that, but still..."

  Jacinda suddenly realized that Danton was truly struggling with this and sat back in her chair gathering her thoughts. She understood that Stephan's sudden death had shaken all her children, but it had hit Danton the hardest, because he so idolized his father. She remembered all those late night talks the two of them would have, sitting in Stephan's office discussing hundreds of different things. She knew he wished his father were here to guide him now that he was an Assemblyman.

  Since Stephan's death, Danton had taken his roll of first son very seriously. He made sure he checked on her, by calling her or stopping in. And while she appreciated it, he needed to understand she was still going to live her life. A life she hoped included Jotham.

  Before she could speak, Pittaluga arrived with their coffee and a plate of sweets.

  "Here you are."

  "Oh, Mister Pittaluga, you spoil me." Jacinda looked at the plate with all her favorite bites and several of Danton's too.

  "Impossible, Madame. Is there anything else I can get for you?"

  "Yes. I'm going to need several pounds of your wonderful coffee blend for my sister before I go."

  "I will see to it." Smiling Pittaluga bowed slightly then left them.

  "Danton. I love you. You are my first male, but you are not my keeper. Not even your father was that."

  "Mother..."

  "Let me finish." Danton immediately snapped his mouth shut, even at his age that certain 'mother's tone' still worked. "Your father was my life mate and I miss him immensely, but he would no more want me to stop living my life than I would want him to if the situation were reversed."

  "But..."

  "But nothing." She knew she had to start broaching this su
bject with Danton even if it made him uncomfortable. "What that means is that I'm going to live and enjoy my life, and if that involves seeing other men, then I am and you're just going to have to deal with it."

  "Mother!"

  "You see women don't you, Danton?"

  "Of course, but that's different."

  "Why?"

  "Because it just is! The thought of you..." Danton's face began to turn red.

  "Of me?" Jacinda knew exactly what he was thinking, but was going to make him say it.

  "Mom, you can't possibly be thinking of seriously becoming involved with someone other than Dad!"

  "Why not?"

  "Because Dad was your life mate."

  "Yes, and no one could ever replace him, but that doesn't mean I can't fall in love again, that I can't share my life with someone else."

  "I just never considered it." Danton took a deep sip from the cup in front of him. "It's going to take some getting used to." He set his cup down and gave her a hard look. "I also want to approve anyone you might be thinking of seeing."

  Jacinda looked at him in shock, then began to chuckle. "You want to 'approve' my dates?"

  "Yes. You don't know the kind of men that are out there, Mom. You've been protected all your life.

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “I know exactly what kind of men are ‘out’ there. I have been on ‘dates’ since your father died, Danton.”

  “What?” Danton’s eyes widened in shocked. “How? Who? When? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because it was none of your business, it was mine. All you need to know is that I know what is right for me.” She slid the plate of treats toward him "Now have one of Pittaluga's pastries."

  Still slightly shocked, Danton reached out, chose his favorite pastry and bit into it.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  "Thank you, Mister Pittaluga. You will add this to my account?"

  "Of course, Madame Michelakakis," Pittaluga held out the bags to her. "There are two individual bags of coffee in your bags."

  "I'll take those." Danton took the bags. "Thank you, Mister Pittaluga."

  "Always a pleasure, Assemblyman Michelakakis." Bowing slightly, he turned to greet another customer.