Horns for the Harem Girl (6 page)

“He was so dashing, so charming,” she said. “I felt like a princess at a ball. Even though I was in a dusty tunnel underneath the palace, and the prince was just rubbing me in all sorts of ways that felt both good and bad at the same time.”

She coughed. “Mostly good. All good, honestly.” She flushed and cleared her throat again. “Right, yes, well anyway.”

In the common room, the lower servants had begun laying out the morning’s food. “Is it tarts?”

Maret smiled, despite herself. “Yes, as usual. Date and plum, I’m sure.” She blinked a few times and then waved her hand in front of her face, dismissively. “Go on, child, take your food. I’m sure everything will turn out fine as far as all that goes. But listen to me, and listen closely.”

“Yes?”

“If the king catches wind of this, never admit to anything. Not that you saw Arad, not even that you know who he is. In this kingdom, child, there are jealousies and intrigues older than even me. Do you understand?”

Helena nodded, even though she didn’t. Not really, anyway. She hesitated just long enough that Maret asked her what was wrong.

“It’s just that... oh, I don’t know. I guess I’m only a simple country girl and all.”

“Nothing of the sort, speak your mind.”

“Well... I mean they are father and son. Why would the king not want Arad to be happy?”

Maret smiled. “You’re not simple, not in the least. But you have to remember that at court, things are not always as pleasant as they are outside of it. Father and son are related, yes, but they are also in conflict. If the son were to gain more influence than the father has, he would threaten the stability of the kingdom, of the empire.”

“But Arad wouldn’t—”

“And now you show your simplicity,” Maret said sharply. “This is a dangerous world, sweet. Blood in this world is thinner than many things – oil in particular. If something were to come between the king and his heir, why, the king would simply... choose another. Sons vanish all the time in the deserts. Kings, too, have a way of being sucked under the sands. Make no mistake – there isn’t room enough for two wills in Salomana. Make certain you don’t find your way into the middle of a war.”

With a heavy gulp, and wide open eyes, Helena stood and wrapped a silk shawl about her shoulders. She opened her mouth as though to say something, but managed only to flap her jaws like a fish brought up into a boat.

“Go get some food in you, child,” Maret said. “As I said, I’m sure everything will be fine.”

As soon as the young woman was out of the room, Maret finished, “Fine for... someone, anyway.”

*

T
he message came when she least expected it.

Arad seemed to have a particular ability to work in just that way – at the moment of greatest surprise, he tended to appear. Or in this case, his man Crane appeared with another of those carefully folded envelopes.

“You know they’re talking about me,” she said as the crooked-nosed Englishman slid into her room. And that’s really what he did – he didn’t stride or walk; he slid like a shadow. This was the first time she’d noticed it, but no other word fit. It was like he was part of the wall, moving through it without any friction or resistance.

“I expect so,” was his reply. When she didn’t say anything to that, he finished. “Every movement needs a hero. And every hero needs a song to sing.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ve never heard the great heroic songs?
The Iliad
?
The Odyssey
? There’s always a mission. There’s always some cause greater than the hero. That’s what we’re doing. It’s just convenient that you stepped in when you did.”

She bristled. “I
stepped in
? What is
that
supposed to mean?” She prodded him in the chest with a stiffened finger. “You roped me into this. You came to
me
, if you remember how it actually went.”

Crane smiled. “We all have our own perspective. Regardless, this isn’t the time, nor the place. Take this, I have other business around the place that doesn’t involve a bunch of back-biting women. Here.”

He held the envelope out, and when Helena didn’t grab it immediately, he threw it at her with a flick of his wrist. “Either way,” he said. “We’re moving on. The whispers have done their job, and that means I’ve done mine too. Whatever you choose, there’s no turning back.”

With that, he spun on his heel and exited, much less smoothly than had he entered. When she was sure he was gone, Helena bent down and retrieved the envelope from the ground, and opened it with a trembling thumb.

“Dearest Helena,”
it read.
“We must meet, not because I want to make love to you, which I do, and not because I can’t live without touching you again, which I can’t.”

Already her heart was beating faster, and she wasn’t even finished with the letter.

“We need to meet because I’m making good on my promise. And things are moving faster than I thought. Tonight, after the palace sleeps. Meet me in our place. –A”

“Oh, no,” Helena said into her empty room. “Oh... oh no.”

––––––––

“Y
ou came,” Arad said, grabbing Helena and pulling her toward his shirtless, hot-skinned body as she rounded the corner. He kissed her deeply, pushing her head backward against the smooth wall of the secret tunnel.

Helena opened her lips, tasting his breath, inhaling the prince’s scent as deeply as she could. She didn’t know why, but she was trembling as she did. He pressed her lips open, and swirled his tongue inside her mouth, running it along the inside of her lips and then hard into her.

Pressing her between his body and the wall, the prince made her feel every single curve and line of his body. She noticed that this time, there wasn’t any buckle holding up his trousers, only linen and silk separated their bodies. His heat burned against her belly and for a moment – just a fleeting, blissful moment – she felt him move against her, his thickness teasing her entire body to life.

“I can’t,” he whispered, huskily as he pulled away. “As much as I want to realize all my dreams, I can’t. Not tonight. Not like this. With you, I want it to be right. I don’t want to rush anything.”

With a smile on her bowed lips, Helena let her hand fall to the waist of Arad’s loose, linen trousers. The weight of her hand pushed them down just enough for the hair around him to brush against her knuckles. Just the thought of his body... in that way... sent a shock of excitement curling up Helena’s chest. Her nipples puckered and pebbled against the flimsy silk of the robe she’d worn. In the lantern light, she knew he could see her through the fabric, which is why she’d picked it in the first place.

A groan escaped the prince’s lips as he ground into her. His hips against hers, his face inches from hers. She felt him, she smelled and tasted him, and from what Crane said earlier, danger was on the horizon. It was now or never, she thought, afraid.

Sliding her fingers tentatively down around him, Helena blushed as she closed them around Arad’s girth and he let out another soft moan of pleasure. His hand found her, curling between her legs, cupping her sex. Every inch of her body ached for him, yearned to have him within herself. They stroked at one another gently, almost bashfully, for a moment, and then with a hiss, Arad pinned her against the wall, pressing her wrists against the wall high above her head. His thickness slid against her belly and when he adjusted his stance, went between her legs, parting her lips.

She felt him grind against her sweetest place and let out a quailing gasp of her own. “Touch... me,” she said. “I’ve never... never felt anyone like you, never wanted anyone so bad as I do you, right now. I don’t care if it’s right.”

He turned his hand and hooked his finger gently between Helena’s lips, testing her entrance and finding that she wasn’t wearing anything under her robe.

“Just for you,” she whispered. “Nothing to separate us.”

With his length nestled between her softest place, it was impossible for Helena to gasp again with pleasure. “I’ve never...” she stopped herself short, biting her lip as he pushed against her once again.

“Never what?” he asked, voice full of lust and desire. He kissed her again, hard on the neck, then the lips, pushing her teeth apart and swirling his tongue against hers. “What have you never done? Felt?”

“Never felt... anything like... you,” she moaned again, her voice a raspy whisper. “Never done anything like... this.”

His response was a scoff of laughter and another kiss, another taste, of Helena’s essence. Moments later, he slid his tongue down her chin and tickled the bare skin of her neck. “I just noticed,” he whispered. “No veil.”

“It’s dark,” she whispered. “You can’t see anyway.”

With a slow smile, the prince ran his tongue down to the hollow of Helena’s throat where he sucked another kiss, this one prickling the skin all the way down her chest and around her navel. “It’s a night of firsts then,” he said.

“Oh?” her question turned into a sweet moan of joy as her prince parted her robe and kissed between her breasts, along the line in her chest separating one from the other. With his hand still playing a soft crescendo between her thighs, it was hard enough for Helena to concentrate enough to keep herself standing, much less ask sexy questions.

The laugh Arad released vibrated against her nipple, the heat from his breath sliding around her in a slow circle. “I’ve never fallen in love. I know that now.”

If it was hard to keep on her feet before, when he said that, it was impossible. Helena’s knees buckled, she quailed and found herself sliding down the wall. Her robe stuck slightly to the stone, partly from the prickly texture of the mortar and partially from her sweat.

“You’re ready for me,” he said as he lowered himself to the ground and slid his finger in a slow circle around her entrance. “So wet,” he kissed her flavor off his fingertips, then pressed them against her once again. “Your nectar drips down my tongue, so sweet, so...”

Grabbing the back of his head, Helena forced the prince to kiss her, tasting herself on his lips. “Take me,” she whispered. “Take me now before the morning, before this stupid war you’ve decided on takes you away from me. Don’t let me die without knowing you inside me.”

“I want nothing more,” Arad whispered. “But I won’t. I won’t have it this way. I will come back to you – when I make promises, I keep them.”

His words were warming her almost as much as the patient, deep, throbbing pulses of his finger going deeper and deeper, taking Helena’s breath. As he pushed his finger in deeper, dragging the tip gently along the sweetest place on her inner wall, he kissed her again, drinking her breath as she exhaled her pleasure.

“I’m scared,” Helena whispered, in between the moans of her heightening pleasure. Her inner muscles were drawing tense, the tendons between her legs tightening until they were taut and pulled at her deepest places. “I don’t want to lose... mmm... you...”

“You won’t,” Arad said. He felt the deep muscles inside Helena begin to convulse. A wave of goosebumps ran down her neck that he only noticed because they tickled his lips as he brushed his tongue down again. He swirled it slowly around her bared breast, in a spiral that ended with his teasing her stiffened, pink nib. “You won’t ever lose me.”

His voice was steel, hard and rigid against her soft, prickled skin. Her breathing was coming quicker and hotter and shorter. She felt tension mounting, and knew that in just a few seconds, his finger was going to milk her until she wouldn’t be able to not scream out in ecstasy. “Stick something in my mouth,” she said, giggling a little when she realized what she said.

But the prince took her meaning. He kissed the rest of the way down her belly and then when his tongue danced across the tuft of hair above her opening, he slid his fingers out and tasted her once more before letting her taste herself.

He curled his tongue around her button, then kissed and sucked his way around her sex, slowly at first, and then harder, faster, and deeper. “I can’t...” she groaned. “I can’t stop myself, I’m going to...”

“Bite,” he whispered. “You have to keep quiet or someone will hear.”

She bit down, much harder than he expected. It was the prince who cried out, and then laughed as he lashed her with his tongue.
Her
tongue looped around one of his thick, long fingers, sucking at him like she wished to suck at his manhood, like she wanted to taste his essence as he’d tasted hers.

In the next second, all that tension was released with a flick of Arad’s tongue.

Helena gasped, then bit down on his fingers again, moaning heavily and breathing hard.

“That’s it,” he whispered. “I can’t see you, but I can hear. Let me hear how good this feels. Let me hear how much you want your prince to take you away from all this, to make you his forever.”

She arched her back hard against the wall, and against the floor where she lay in a crooked heap. Another wave of tension took her, and then a pulse of warm relief flooded every sense. “Don’t... stop,” she hissed.

Adjusting himself, Arad kept thrumming at her with his tongue, but slid two fingers on the hand he’d been using to hold himself up, deep within. As soon as he did, a second crescendo of ecstatic pleasure gripped Helena’s entire body. She shuddered, she trembled, and somehow, she kept quiet.

“Come,” he said, climbing to his feet.

“I just did,” she said, blushing in the darkness and chuckling softly. “Twice, I think. Maybe three times.”

He laughed roundly and softly. “Even after that, you can make me somehow smile bigger. Take my hand,” he helped her to her feet and supported Helena as her knees shook slightly. “We have to talk. We’re already running behind schedule but I can’t say I regret that choice.”

“Me either,” Helena said as the cool tunnel air kissed her sweaty cheeks. “Do I need to be worried about Crane?”

“Worried for him? No.” Arad took her by the hand and led her instinctually through the tunnels, around so many twists and turns and corners that by the end of it, when they emerged into a carpeted great room she’d never seen before, Helena couldn’t tell which way was up and which was down. They rushed so quickly that she hardly had time to catch her breath from their rendezvous, much less ask any other questions. Never in her life had she been so turned around. Then again, she’d never had a man give her that sort of attention before, so her addled mind had more than one reason.