Free Red Chrysanthemum by Laura Joh Rowland

never see Lady Reiko again? You’ll tell her it’s over?”
    He expelled his breath. “Yes.” Heartache etched his face. “I’ll tell her.”
    “Tonight,” Lady Mori specified.
    When night came, Lady Mori was stationed at her spy-post outside her husband’s bedchamber. Storms had beset Edo all day; faint thunder heralded another. Smoke from a fire shrouded Lady Mori as she knelt on the veranda beneath the window. Inside the room, Lord Mori and Reiko sat drinking sake together.
    “My, but you’re quiet,” Reiko said. “What’s the matter?” Glum and haggard, Lord Mori wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I can’t see you anymore.” His voice quavered. “This is the last time.”
    “What are you talking about?” Reiko demanded. Disbelief marked her beautiful features. “We’re in love. You said you can’t live without me. How can you just cast me off?”
    Satisfaction filled Lady Mori. Let Reiko feel the pain of rejection. Let her suffer instead.
    “I don’t want to,” Lord Mori hastened to assure her. “I love you more than my life. To lose you will break my heart. But my wife is jealous. She told me that unless I give you up, her clan will declare war on mine.”
    “Idle threats!” Reiko scoffed. “You don’t believe her?”
    Lord Mori hung his head. “I can’t take the chance that she can make good on them.”
    Reiko surged to her feet in outrage. “You mean you won’t stand up to her. You think I’m not worth the danger!”
    “That’s not true!” Lord Mori rose and embraced her. “You’re worth the world to me!”
    She pushed him away. “Then go tell your wife that you won’t bow to her wishes. Tell her that if she’s stupid enough to start a war, you’ll fight it, for the sake of our love.”
    His posture sagged. “I can’t,” he mumbled.
    Reiko’s eyes flashed sparks of indignation. “Then it’s over between us? Even though I’m carrying your child?”
    He nodded. Lady Mori had never seen him look so miserable.
    “Oh, no, it isn’t,” Reiko fumed. “No man has ever rejected me. I won’t let you go.” She sounded like a spoiled, petulant girl on the verge of a tantrum. “I’ll show you that you’re mine until I decide we’re finished!”
    She yanked the pins from her hair, which tumbled to her waist. She untied her sash.
    “No!” Lord Mori was breathless with alarm.
    Reiko dropped her robes to the floor and stood naked. Her pregnant belly protruded round and ripe beneath her breasts.
    “Don’t. I beg you,” Lord Mori whispered. Desire engorged his face.
    “You want me.” Reiko’s smile was tantalizing. “You know you do.” She snatched at his clothes, undressing him.
    “Stop!” Lord Mori tried to push her away, but she tore open his kimono; she tugged down his trousers and pulled off his loincloth. His manhood sprang erect.
    Reiko caught hold of it. “This belongs to me.” She fondled him while he moaned. “I never give up anything that’s mine.”
    Lord Mori seized Reiko’s hands in an attempt to wrench them off him. “Leave me alone,” he ordered.
    Yet his voice and his actions lacked force. Reiko knelt. She put her mouth on him. As she licked and teased, he collapsed to the floor. She laughed with triumph as she positioned herself on top of him. “You can’t resist me. You’ll do what I want.”
    She spread her legs, took him inside her, and moved up and down. “We’ll be together always. Never mind your wife.”
    Although Lord Mori said, “No! Stop. Please!” he heaved and thrust at her. Lady Mori wept because her husband was so enthralled by Reiko that not even the threat of war could break her hold on him.
    “You’ll be the ruin of me!” he cried. His hand fumbled under the bed near them; he pulled out the sword that he kept there in case an intruder should attack him in his sleep. He brandished it at Reiko. “Go away, or I’ll kill you!”
    Reiko stayed. She moved faster, her body pumping, her breasts bouncing. Her expression turned