The Soldier's Lotus (9 page)

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Saerileth trembled in the closet. Her nurse was beside her,
and the sounds of the battle outside held them both with chains of terror as
strong as any steel ones. Then the closet door was wrenched open, and Saerileth
saw the warrior-savior of her childhood, Darien himself, but he was not looking
at her. Instead, Kamen tugged on his hand, and Darien turned away, leaving her
to be murdered.

Saerileth sat up, trembling and soaked with
sweat.
The sheets she lay on
were wet, and she was more exhausted than when she had lain down. This was
unbearable.

She glanced out the window, which overlooked the garden,
and there the
moonslight
told her that the night was,
though not so far advanced as she hoped, dark enough to cover her escape. She
surveyed the room briefly, deciding if she ought to take anything with her, but
the knowledge that anything she took would remind her of Darien and her
weakness made her resolve to take nothing at all. She dressed herself in the
pallav
and skirt she had worn when Darien’s crew had pulled
her from the sea. Though she had no shirt to go with it any longer, she was
able to cover her breasts with a fold of the
pallav
.
She took only the herbs she had brought with her.

Silently, she crept from the room and through the wide
hallways. Her goal was the roof. From there she could climb down the front wall
of the house and be in the street straight away. To go over the garden wall
would put her in an open space that led to the sea, and Saerileth had had more
than enough of the sea and of sailors.

She passed by Darien’s bedchamber, and her feet stopped by
his door of their own volition. No sounds issued forth, not even breathing.
Saerileth closed her eyes. Kamen had gone home not long after their coupling,
and she dreaded that Darien might have gone after him. That very dread,
however, only hardened her resolve. She could not live in such a state, not while
Darien held such power over her. To love a man – and that man one whose heart
was given elsewhere? Had any Lotus ever known such shame?

Saerileth did not hesitate longer. She ran, still silent,
to the flat roof. Once there, she started to the edge that overlooked the
street, but she stopped. There, standing in the center of the roof, bathed in
the blue-red
moonslight
, stood Darien himself,
obviously up to cool himself in the night breezes. He was clad in the same
thin, white linen skirt as before, and the darkness of his skin showed up all
the more beautifully for the contrast. Her breath caught in her chest at his
perfect, rugged beauty. She had never wanted anything so much in her life, not
even the most precious death of her vengeance, as she wanted Darien. She
inhaled slowly. Her breath refused to even out, and her heart rate refused to
slow. But she ignored her own discomposure.

With three strides and one quick flip, she was behind him,
and her hands moved automatically in the five quick jabs that made up the
Katipo Form. Darien would temporarily be as helpless, as paralyzed, as if a
katipo spider had bitten him.

“
Good-bye, Darien,”
she whispered and darted toward the roof’s edge.

But Darien’s large, rough hand closed around her upper arm,
and he jerked her back to face him. “What do you think you’re doing,
Saerileth?”

She stared at him. “That’s impossible! How can you move? I
struck your fifth nerve cluster! You shouldn’t be able even to speak.”

“
You mean this spot?”
Darien did not release his hold on her, but with his free hand he tapped the
place on his back where she had struck him. “I can’t feel a gods-damn thing
there, not since I was flogged years ago. They lost a hook in my back.”

Saerileth was shaking. Darien’s voice was raw, and he spoke
through clenched teeth. He was absolutely glorious, and at that moment she
ceased to feel shame for having fallen in love with him. When the Lotus code
was devised, they had not known about Darien. He was beyond codes.

“
So I ask again,
Lotus. What do you think you’re doing?”

“
Leaving.”
Saerileth could not force out any further
words, and she hated the weakness in herself.

“
Abrexa’s
cunt!”
Darien still did not
let go of her, but he was not looking at her any longer, either. His eyes were
fixed on the street. “If you want to go, go. If you wait until the morning, I
will have a writ of freedom drawn up for you.
Fucking
concubinage
!”

“
What?” Saerileth felt
like a fool, unable to speak more than one word at a time.

“
If you weren’t my
fucking concubine, I’d not let you go.” Darien’s voice dropped even lower,
until it was more growl than speech. “It’s not fair to keep you here because
you can’t leave! But if you weren’t my concubine, I’d throttle Kamen before I
let him have you!”

“
Throttle?”
Saerileth’s mouth was dry.

“
Yes, throttle! Or gut
him maybe!” Darien grabbed her other arm in his free hand and half-lifted her
from her feet to press his lips against hers. “I love you, Saerileth, but you
know that. And since I can’t keep you—” He broke off and released her, almost dropping
her.

Saerileth shook once from head to foot. Darien was letting
her go, not because he loved Kamen, but because he thought
she
wanted
Kamen, and he did not want to keep her by force. Her breath fled from her
altogether. The city lay before her; her vengeance was out there somewhere. She
could leave Darien behind, leave his power over her—

And then her breath returned in a rush. She could not leave
his power over her. She loved him, and she would go on loving him even if she
were not with him. And he loved her. He loved her!

“
Darien,” she said at
last, laying her hand on his arm. The darkness of his skin in contrast to her
own pallor pleased her so much that for a moment she said no more.

“
What, Saerileth?”
Darien was looking at her again, and his dark eyes burned.

“
I do not deny that
Kamen is a lovely man.” She could not look at Darien’s face, and she looked
down, addressing his chest instead. “He is a fine lover and one most any Lotus
could want – but not I.”

“
Don’t play with me,
Lotus.” Darien grabbed hold of her once more. “If you are going to stay, to be
my concubine, then I will not ever let Kamen touch you again.”

“
I don’t want Kamen.”
Saerileth leaned against Darien’s chest, nestling against the water-serpent
tattoo. “I want you.” Her confession of love trembled unspoken on her lips.

“
But—” Darien’s voice
held a scarcely-bridled passion that caused Saerileth to flood with
anticipation.

“
I love you, Darien.”

“
Saerileth.”
The word was spoken so low that only her Lotus
training enabled Saerileth to catch it. Then he was devouring her lips as his
hands roved over her body. He tore her
pallav
from
her, and she did not care where it landed. Her skirt, too, he ripped, and the
very violence of the motion sent fresh dampness to Saerileth’s pussy.

“
My
concubine then?”
Darien
paused in his kisses long enough to murmur the words.

“
Always.”

Darien’s roar of triumph was accompanied by the sudden
thrust of his long, hard cock into her aching pussy. But then, as he always
did, Darien slowed. He was holding her up, but he did not allow her full weight
to rest against his pelvis. He kept her partially supported by his hands.

Saerileth wrapped her legs around his waist, trying to pull
him deeper inside her.

“
You’re mine, and I
don’t break what’s mine.” Darien lowered her onto her back, using her
pallav
as a cushion on the smooth stone of the roof.

“
I won’t break.”
Saerileth locked her hands behind Darien’s neck. She understood him; she knew
what he wanted. And she knew, too, why he had never been able to have it
before.

“
But I’m too big.”
Darien thrust forward slightly as if to make his point. “All my concubines have
said it hurts when I enter them.”

“
And they’re right.”
Saerileth kissed Darien’s lips, slipping her tongue between them. “Your cock is
huge.” She smiled up at him, and his massive form over hers was like a wall
crushing down on her. She loved the feeling, and she only wanted to explain to
him her desire for him to play more roughly with her. “You rip me apart each
time you thrust; you bruise my cervix even.”

Darien paused, stopping still.

“
And I love it!”
Saerileth kissed him again. “I have never had such pleasure as you give me.”

Understanding dawned in Darien’s black eyes, and the sight
sent the cream pouring out of her.

“
You mean you
like
it when it hurts?”

“
Yes!” Saerileth
leaned forward, and Darien understood her desire. He lay flat on his back,
allowing her to ride him. She slid up and down on his cock, but she never let
him fully inside her, instead riding only the top half of his enormous phallus.
“I never realized it before, Darien, because no one would have dreamed of
hurting me, but my pleasure is trebled when it is laced with pain.”

“
But I might injure
you.” Darien still hesitated.

“
No.” Saerileth did
not pause in her movements, tantalizing Darien by remaining only on the top
half of his cock. “Your girth is wonderfully painful, but it cannot damage my
cunny
.” She saw by the gleam in his eye that he understood
that
vaginae
were made to expand. “And as for the
length, I have herbal oils that will soothe the bruises away.”

Darien’s inarticulate growl was accompanied by a sudden
grasp of her shoulders, and he pulled her down with all his incredible
strength, ramming her onto his cock.

The delight and the hurt of the motion were so perfectly
commingled that Saerileth exploded.
Her cum dripped down
Darien’s balls and onto his thighs.

“
You were right.”
Darien clearly no longer doubted her assurances that she wanted to play as
roughly as even he could. He flipped her over onto her back, and he bent her
legs back until her knees were at her ears. Over and over he pounded into her,
and the jolting of her body was pure joy. Each time he pulled out of her, the
relief was exquisite, only surpassed by the perfection of his forward thrusts,
sending darts of agonizing pleasure throughout her entire body.

Darien leaned forward, taking one of her nipples into his
mouth.

She arched upward into his suckling, and when he bit down
on her, she cried out in her climax.

“
Darien!” She screamed
his name over and over until she was hoarse.

And still he rode her, his cock becoming the focus of her
existence. His hands moved to her sides, grasping her ribs, and he moved her
body as he moved his own. She shuddered afresh. He was thrusting forward with
as much strength as he was using to pull her back, thereby doubling the
pressure. Sobs of ecstasy shook her frame, and she could hardly breathe.

Then she realized that, if Darien kept up the pressure on
her ribs, he would break them without even realizing it. She could not let him
do that, for it would make him too careful of her in the future. She reached up
for his neck, and she pressed down as hard as she could. His hands momentarily
lost their grip, and he laughed at her.

“
Too
rough for my Lotus?”

She shook her head, for his grasp had altered to a
different angle, and her ribs were no longer threatened. “Take me as hard as
you want!”

Darien’s clasp would, she knew, leave bruises, and the very
thought made her cream. They were like a mark of his love in her flesh. She
knew that some men beat their women, but that was not her Darien’s way. No,
from him these bruises were the signs of their love-play, and she would wear
them proudly.

Then suddenly her world shattered into a blank whiteness as
Darien filled her with his seed. She was not sure, but she thought she might
have lost consciousness for a few moments; for when she could see again, she
was lying in the crook of Darien’s arm, and he was whispering words of love in
her ear.

She kissed him.

“
So,
my little Lotus, if you did not want Kamen, why then did you come to join us?
You saved my gaffe, true, but Kamen is my
friend. It would not have mattered much, and you know it.” He traced her cheek
with one finger.

Saerileth smiled. Darien’s love was more precious to her
even than the one death she sought, dearer to her even than her honor and her
vengeance. She cradled his face in her hands, and the sheer overwhelming size
of him drew another kiss from her before she could speak. “I did not want him
to be alone with you,” she said, and no shame touched her in the admission.
Darien loved her. This would please him, so it did not matter if no
self-respecting Lotus would do this.