Free The Soldier's Lotus by Adonis Devereux Page B

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.
    “ You didn’t want him
to be alone with me?” Darien rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him. “Why not?”
    “ Because
he is beautiful.” Saerileth
looked down into Darien’s eyes. “And you and he have obviously been together
often—”
    Darien did not allow her to finish. “He’s never to touch
you again, Saerileth. Do you hear me? I’m sorry I let him anywhere near you.”
    Saerileth laughed lightly. “I didn’t mind what he did to
me.”
    “ Yes, you did.” Darien
traced her lip with his thumb. “I saw how you went still at the end, how you
took no pleasure from what we did.”
    “ Yes, how I took no
pleasure when you left me to fuck him.” Saerileth turned her face to kiss his
palm. “And you finished in Kamen, not in me. How could I have any pleasure
then?”
    Darien crushed her against his chest. “ Abrexa chain me! You were jealous of me?”
    Saerileth felt her cheeks burning with an unfamiliar blush.
No Lotus ever blushed, at least not without meaning to. “Yes.” The word was a
whisper. She closed her eyes to hide her embarrassment, but soon it vanished.
She was, she freely admitted to herself, the world’s worst Lotus when she was
near Darien, but that was inevitable. He had been, though nameless, her
childhood hero and savior, and as she had grown into a woman, her memory of him
had drawn her desire. Then to have met him by chance after becoming a woman, and to owe to him her life a second time – how was
any woman to resist? And even apart from what she owed him, he was Darien. Darien, the pinnacle of manly perfection. Darien, the
massive beauty who had shown her more pleasure than she thought possible. Darien, the man who loved her. Darien, the man she loved.
    “ Well, my Lotus, you
needn’t worry about Kamen and me!” Darien laughed, interrupting Saerileth’s
meditation on his own loveliness. “I’ve never thought of him that way. I don’t
actually like to have sex with men. I can do it because it’s a custom, and I’ve
had experience doing it. Common quarters is a required
practice in the Sunjaa military.”
    Saerileth smiled and surrendered, perforce, to Darien’s
possessive kiss, but she knew perfectly well that Kamen did think of
Darien that way. Kamen was in love with Darien, and she did not doubt that he
would try again to steal Darien from her.
    That, she resolved, should never happen.

 
    Chapter Six
     
    Darien’s hired staff filled the wide entryway of his house.
The men wore simple, linen skirts, and the women were clad in dresses of the
same material. They all stood with their hands folded before them, and they
cast their gazes to the floor. Beside them were reed baskets full of fresh
flowers and flower petals. The servants behaved just as Saerileth had
instructed them to: they were quiet and attentive, ready to serve. The
musicians strummed their lyres, plucked their lutes, and played their harps in
another room, and Darien could hear the music flowing through his house like
perfume. The master of the house looked down at himself and pressed his hands
down upon the wide gold and onyx necklace that rested on his shoulders. His
belt matched the colors of his jewelry. Saerileth stood beside him, and she
looked exquisite, more beautiful than Darien had yet seen her. She wore a
crimson dress of Zenji fashion, and her