A Lotus for the Regent (30 page)

Darien clapped
Kamen on the shoulder and leveled a serious stare at him. “Burdens of leadership.”
Kamen was not fooled by his put-on frown, so when Darien smiled, he was not
surprised. “It'll be good to sail again together. Are you hungry?”

“
Yes,” Kamen said. “Lira, are you?”

Ajalira nodded.

“
Come.” Darien led the couple across the main deck and up the stairs
to the quarterdeck. He threw open the door of his cabin, and the soft lamplight
and aromas issuing forth invited them in.

Saerileth was
already there. She sat at the table eating a piece of round, flat bread. A pile
of that same bread lay in the middle of the table next to an okra and lamb
stew. Steam rose from the dish, and Kamen's mouth watered.

“
You know, I thought about filching your cook when I got the
Aramina
,”
Kamen said, laughing.

Darien took a
seat next to Saerileth and poured himself another mug of beer. “Take my cook?
You'd split the kingdom.”

“
Men have gone to war over less.” Kamen pulled out a chair for
Ajalira. She sat, and so did he.

Darien sat at
the head of the table with Saerileth on his right. Kamen sat on Darien's left,
and Ajalira sat opposite the Admiral. The mixed scents of grilled onions and
vinegar assaulted Kamen's senses. He dug right in and started eating. They did
not have anything like this stew in Godswatch. Ajalira, too, fell to, and some
time was spent eating before any conversation resumed. The Sunjaa were not like
other people; when they ate, they ate. If they were nibbling on snacks and
walking around, as at a party, then they would be more inclined to talk, but
when they were sitting at a table eating, that is what they did. Especially
aboard ship.

Saerileth was
fine with it, for she was no doubt used to it being the Admiral's concubine,
but Ajalira seemed like she wanted to say something.

“
What is it, Lira?” Kamen wiped the grease from his lips.

Ajalira's mouth
turned up in a lopsided smile. She addressed Darien. “You call her 'Saeri'.”

Saerileth, whose
eyes had been coolly observing Ajalira, looked at Darien, who took her hand in
his.

“
Yes,” Darien said, “we Sunjaa like to give our wives nicknames.”

Ajalira's eyes
widened in shock, and her mouth fell open. Saerileth half-smiled and shook her
head, doubtless playfully disapproving of so blatant an emotional reaction from
a so-called Lotus. So, Kamen's secret was out.

“
Your wives?” Ajalira looked from Darien to Saerileth and back to
Kamen again. “But...”

“
The law forbids me marrying my Saeri.” Darien spoke to Ajalira, but
he looked only at Saerileth. “But she is my wife in the eyes of the gods and in
my heart.”

Ajalira stared
at Kamen, and he wondered if she would say anything out loud. She did. “You
call me 'Lira'.”

That was his
Tamari concubine, always speaking her mind. Always straightforward.

“
I do,” Kamen said. “You are my only one, forever.” He reached under
the table and ran his hand up her smooth thigh.

Darien laughed.
“Aren't we a happy foursome, then!” He raised his mug. “To ridiculous laws and
the women we got in spite of them.”

They all raised
their mugs and drank. Kamen had never known such contentment. Dinner aboard
Mirsa's Crown
with his best friend and
the woman he loved. Ajalira, whom he loved more than he had ever loved Darien.
Looking at her now and feeling the way he did about her, Kamen realized that he
had never truly loved Darien. It had been infatuation. It had been
hero-worship. Darien was closer to Kamen's father's age than Kamen's own age.
He was like an uncle to him, a role model. When Kamen had joined the navy at
sixteen, Darien had been his mentor. In the years they sailed together, that
mentor-ship had turned to friendship, and as friends, they, too, had become
lovers. When he met Darien, he had been an impressionable youth.

“
It'll be good to put back into Arinport,” Darien said. “The men are
aching for a fuck.”

Ajalira choked
on her beer.

“
You haven't called common quarters.” It was not a question. What
with the Ausir civil war, Kamen knew the men would have to be vigilant.

“
Not with so many Ausir warships anchored nearby,” Darien said.

“
What is common quarters?” Ajalira asked.

Saerileth smiled
and answered. “The Sunjaa believe that a man will fight more fiercely for a
lover than a mere crew-mate, and so they encourage communal sex among their
military.”

Ajalira stared
at Kamen. She was a quick-witted woman, so she had to know that Darien and
Kamen had fucked in the past.

“
But that does not mean
we
cannot have our own common
quarters.” Saerileth disappeared under the table. A moment later, Darien
gasped. He sat up perfectly straight, balled his hands into fists, and slammed
them down onto the table.

Kamen laughed,
and his own easy mirth melted Ajalira's obvious surprise. Saerileth was sucking
Darien's cock under the table, but why be shocked at that? Kamen had had
Ajalira strapped to an X-shaped device and had shoved ginger root up her ass.
They were all adults here, and besides, Kamen and Darien were the two greatest
lovers in all the Sunjaa lands, and they had the two sexiest women the Dimadan
had to offer. Kamen's own cock grew at the thought. His hand traveled up
Ajalira's thigh until it found her damp pussy.

Darien pushed
back the table with a mighty thrust, revealing Saerileth's head bobbing up and
down on his cock.

Ajalira gasped.
“It is massive.”

“
They don't call him the 'Water Serpent' for nothing,” Kamen said,
laughing to cover his feeling of inadequacy. Who could compete with the cock of
Darien? Kamen stood and picked Ajalira up, carrying her to the divan. He laid
her down, spread her legs, and ate her pussy, not feeling confident enough to
take off his skirt while Darien's cock was visible.

Ajalira moaned
and grabbed Kamen by his dreadlocks, pushing his mouth down onto her cunt. She
squeezed his head with her thighs as she locked her ankles behind his head.

Kamen realized
in that moment that though he and Saerileth would not mind a four-way, Darien
and Ajalira would most definitely not want it. Besides, jealousy would eat
Ajalira up if she knew that Kamen had ass-fucked Saerileth years before. But
Kamen was content with his Ausir concubine. He lapped up the juices from her
hairless cunt.

Saerileth and
Kamen needed people opposite from them, for they were both more sexually
perverted than their partners. Furthermore, they were more naturally
duplicitous than their mates, so they needed more good-hearted, straightforward
lovers. That was exactly what Darien and Ajalira were. They were
good
people.

The crashing of
crockery caused Kamen to look back from his dessert. Darien had cleared the
table with a swipe of his arm, and he clearly did not care that he was making
quite the mess. He climbed up on the table and brought his little Saerileth
with him. His massive cock lay across his stomach. Saerileth took it in her
hand, pulled up her skirts around her waist, planted her feet on either side of
her gargantuan lover, and held up his cock as she lowered herself onto it. It
was like a pillar passing inside her.

Ajalira gasped
again, and Kamen looked up into her eyes. Her expression was one of disgust,
and all Kamen's self-consciousness about the size of Darien's cock evaporated.

“
How can she take that?” Ajalira asked, staring at the physical point
of Darien and Saerileth's coupling. “It does
not
look pleasant at all.”

“
That's what everyone says,” Kamen said. He licked her wet cunt
again. “His old concubines used to run in fear of him. No one knows how
Saerileth handles it.” He gave no more thought to Darien and Saerileth, and
instead dropped his skirt. He pulled Ajalira onto his lap, and by the way
Ajalira fucked him, he suspected she did not think of them, either.

The four of them
trashed Darien's cabin in their love-throes, and Kamen could only guess at how
many of the crew peeked in, lured by the sounds of the women's howls.

Chapter Nineteen

Ajalira
fidgeted in the litter. She wore a Zenji short shirt, long skirt, and pallav,
and she kept the silk of the pallav draped over her head and around her face.
She knew that Kamen was right that here, in the heat of Arinport, wearing a
cloak and cowl would be as blatant a declaration of her identity as going
bare-faced, but she still disliked the garments of a Lotus. But they would soon
be back home, and she would be able to resume her Sunjaa gowns.

Saerileth was
handed in to the litter with Ajalira. A large, hand-shape bruised Saerileth's
hip, and Ajalira knew her shock must have registered on her face.

Saerileth did
not quite smile, but she allowed her face to relax slightly as she looked at
Ajalira. “My master does not know his own strength.”

Ajalira
remembered the night before, when, as Kamen had bound her hands and feet and
fucked her on the table, Darien had bent Saerileth over a chair, grabbed her
hips, and fucked her from behind like a man possessed. That Saerileth had
enjoyed it Ajalira was sure. Saerileth's screams had been of pleasure. Now,
however, Saerileth showed no emotion at all.

“
How do you do it?” asked Ajalira.

“
Take my master?” Saerileth shook her head. “I enjoy it.”

“
No, I meant hide your heart. You love your master. You told me so
once before, but I—I always suspected you loved Kamen.”

Saerileth
patted Ajalira's hand. “No, Lady Ajalira. I have never loved the Regent, but I
know that he is an easy man to love. If it were not for my master, you would
have had a rival in me.”

“
Of course.” Ajalira knew that was true. Any woman who looked on
Kamen would doubtless love him, and only Saerileth's heart belonging to Darien
could have prevented it. “But how do you hide?”

“
I do not, not when my master is near.” Saerileth's voice was
perfectly even. “He is such a man as to make even a Lotus forget herself.
Otherwise, Lady Ajalira, I
am
a Lotus. It is what we do.”

Suddenly
Ajalira leaned back, dizzy. “I am sorry. It must be the sudden change to such
heat.”

“
Doubtless.” Saerileth pulled from a fold of her pallav a handful of
carrot sticks. “Perhaps you would like one?”

Ajalira sat up
and took one. How Saerileth had known to carry carrot sticks off the ship,
Ajalira did not know, nor did she care at that moment. The carrot sticks
revived her, and when she was handed down out of the litter to Kamen's waiting
arms, she thought no more of it. Saerileth seemed to melt away, and Ajalira
assumed she had gone to meet Darien somewhere.

“
You look lovely, Lira.” Kamen held her hand as they entered the
King's palace. “But I will be glad to see you back in your proper clothes.”

“
That will have to wait until we go home,” said Ajalira. “All our
luggage is still on the
Aramina
, and she will not dock until tomorrow.”

“
If you want to go home at once, then you should.” Kamen pulled the
pallav from her head and stroked her horns. “I know how you hate this dress.”

Ajalira nodded.
“I do, but it does not sting the way it used to. Everything about my life up
until I came to you matters less than the least moment in your company.”

“
Already trying to get in trouble?” Kamen kissed her nose. “More open
displays of love?”

“
Your Grace?” A Sunjaa whom Ajalira recognized for one of King
Jahen's stewards came running up to Kamen. “We were not expecting you so soon.
The heralds did not say that the
Aramina
was in port. The Fihdal and
Vadal ambassadors are still here, and the Seranimesti lords arrived yesterday.
They are not expecting you until tomorrow either.” The steward seemed
personally affronted not to have known Kamen's itinerary.

“
I returned on the
Crown
.” Kamen's shoulders stiffened, and
Ajalira knew that, after the few days of sailing incognito, Kamen was back to
being Regent, back to carrying the weight of many kingdoms, but she resolved
that he would not have to bear these burdens alone.

She lifted his
hand to her lips. “I will see to the Ausir. I know that you have to attend to
the preparations for the coronation. I can speak to them on your behalf.”

“
They don't know, Lira.” Kamen seemed to understand her desire to
help him, and he pulled her close for a moment. “They don't know that you are
not going to wed him.”

“
Then I shall tell him.” Ajalira smiled up at Kamen. “You have your
hands full, my love. I am your concubine. If I cannot help you, who can?”