Free Tangled Web by Crista McHugh

rolled through her body and warmed her like a sunbeam through an open window. This was what made Titus so different from her master. The latter would have left her a bruised and crumpled heap on the floor once he came. Titus stroked her head and continued to plant sweet pecks on her face.
    She cast one more glance at her comb and drew in a shaky breath. “For now,” she whispered and tucked her head under his chin.

8
    “No, that’s not what I was looking for,” Titus told the dressmaker.
    She held up another dress, one the color of ripe raspberries. “How about this?”
    He tried to imagine Azurha wearing it, and his mind immediately wandered to the game she played with the food the other night. If she wore that color, would he be able to keep his lips off of her? “Maybe.”
    A thin line of annoyance creased the dressmaker’s brow. “Is there anything in particular you were looking for, Your Imperial Majesty?”
    “I didn’t know you were the type to fancy women’s clothes,” Marcus said from the door way. The dressmaker’s gasp of horror only made him snicker. No one else would dare tease the emperor in such an informal manner.
    Titus let the comment roll off his back. If it had been one of his nobles, he would’ve considered it an insult, a jab at his masculinity. But Marcus rarely took anything seriously. “It’s not for me, but if you’d like to model a few of them…”
    “No thanks.” Marcus waved his hands in front of him before helping himself to a glass of wine. “I don’t think I’ll do them justice.”
    The dressmaker gave a dignified “hmph” and held up another dress. “How about this one?”
    The pale gold might have flattered the creamy skin of a Deizian woman, but not Azurha. “No, that won’t do.”
    “Are we picking out something for your new concubine?”
    “Yes.”
    Marcus met his gaze, the desire to say something more flickering in his eyes, but he instead turned to the dressmaker and said, “What do you have that would be fetching on a concubine?”
    The dressmaker’s mouth flapped wordlessly for a moment, her cheeks growing red. Then she turned and started digging through her trunk. “I don’t know if this is something Your Imperial Majesty might be interested in, but some of the madams in town have requested this style for their girls.”
    She held up a white linen dress that looked as though it came straight off the walls of an Alpirion temple. The pleated neckline almost seemed alien to him, but his desire to see Azurha in it took over his power of speech. He merely nodded.
    The dressmaker smiled. “Do you require anything else, Your Imperial Majesty?”
    He shook his head. “Please leave the dresses with my steward so he can have them delivered to the harem.”
    She draped both the white dress and the raspberry dress over her arm and backed away, her head bowed until she reached the doorway to the throne room.
    Marcus followed her and immediately closed the door. “And here I thought your grandfather had outlawed Alpirion fashion.”
    “In this instance, I’ll let it slide.” He sat in his chair. “What brings you in today, besides finding an opportunity to have fun at my expense?”
    Marcus immediately sobered. “I wish I were here just for that.” He lowered his voice. “I’ve been hearing rumors that there’s a price on your head, and the assassin who kills you will get a reward that rivals the royal treasury.”
    Titus’s chest tightened. He knew he wasn’t popular with the nobility, but for them to plan such a coup was almost unheard of. “Who is behind it?”
    “Judging from the amount, I’d say more than one noble.”
    He forced himself to laugh in an effort to relieve his friend’s worry. “And what will happen after they kill me? Who will take the throne? I suspect the empire will be torn into civil war if they succeed. And with the border failing, the Barbarians would overrun the planet.” He sank further into his chair, feeling a bit