Jucai burst out laughing. “Very well, I will take the gift back. Honestly, I only sought to make our time together more pleasurable.”
“Some men might enjoy having that thing in them all day, but I am not one of them. I will not be constantly uncomfortable just so you can fuck me faster.”
Frowning, he asked, “You'd be uncomfortable? Then, of course, I'll take it back. I'm sorry, Nadar. I truly thought you'd enjoy it.”
“And you truly thought I'd enjoy you putting it in me in front of Bantar?”
He shrugged.
“It was just a way around my dislike of sex in public. You were going to shove something into me in front of a witness.”
“You speak of it as if it's wrong or disgusting when it's neither. It's natural, and yes, I enjoy displaying my prowess with my lovers. With you, I would very much like to show you off. I'd like my court to know that you're mine.”
“Yes, that's what you said last night. Here's a thought—you could off our relationship through affectionate touching—holding hands, a kiss on the cheek, that sort of thing. It doesn't have to be sex.” I shook my head. “Don't you want to be the only one who knows what I look like when I come? Doesn't it excite you to know that out of your entire court, only you have seen me writhe and heard me moan? You lose all of that intimacy when you make sex public. It stops being something special, shared between two people, and becomes a show for the masses. Well, I will not be your latest possession used to prove your masculinity. You may have given away all your sexual secrets to your court, but I will not allow you to give them our secrets.” I grabbed his hip and ground against him. “Thisbelongs to us alone.”
I untied Jucai's pants and pushed them down. Kneeling before him, I nuzzled his hardening cock and sucked it into my mouth. Sighing over him, I enjoyed the feel of his flesh lengthening and swelling inside me. I lashed at him with my tongue and then sucked free.
“You have given me a new perspective, Nadar,” Jucai whispered as he stroked my hair away from my face. “I like the idea of having you all to myself. We shall try things your way.”
I massaged his sacs and licked his tip. “Let me give you a little taste of how good it will be.”
One hand on his sacs and the other on the base of his cock, I sucked him into my mouth and moved over his silken length. Of all the lovers I'd had, Jucai had the most beautiful cock. Unsurprising when considering the rest of him. Pale with a pink head, it was free of veins and perfect—the perfect width, the perfect length, and the perfect upward tilt. I took him as far as I could into my mouth and slipped off. Back and forth, faster and faster I went, shifting my gaze up to his often. Jucai watched me the entire time, his hands stroking my hair and then cupping my head. He didn't take control, just let me work him.
When Jucai came, he made a brilliant display of swinging hair, tightening muscles, and arching body. He clasped my head to him, ensuring that I took all of his release, and then bent forward, panting. I tongued him one last time and stood up to steady him in my arms. With his face buried in my neck and his arms around me, I felt happier than I'd been in a long time, and my body gloried in it. I came in my pants.
But then Jucai straightened out of my embrace, fastened his pants, and patted my ass. “You'd better change your pants. Bantar will escort you to me when you're ready.”
I looked down to see that there was a spot on my crotch—from his wet cock and my release. Then I looked up to watch him leave.
With only the fish to hear me, I asked, “What the actual fuck was that?
Chapter Twelve
I fumed the entire way to the King's private garden. We had a meeting of minds and bodies. He saw things my way. He understood. I gave him an amazing release, and then he just left. As if nothing of importance had happened.
It wasn't just our talk this morning that had made me believe Jucai was changing. It was the way he behaved the night before. I had expected some kind of protest to my withdrawal, followed by his leaving in a huff to use one of his bed slaves. When instead, he had sat down beside me and sung me to sleep, all my doubts about him vanished.
Then he brought me gifts. Jucai must have gotten up early to prepare all that. He'd had Bantar put away an entire wardrobe before I woke up. A wardrobe! How did he have the time to commission a new wardrobe for me? And why bother when I'd only be leaving? But then he brought out that damn butt plug and tried to put it in me in front of Bantar. I'd been furious until he made it seem sweet. How did he make a butt plug and public sex into something romantic? It was masterful. Still, I had talked him into seeing things my way. It felt like a huge step forward for us, and a big win for me. But then he had left as if it had meant nothing to him.
Bantar motioned me through an archway. “Here we are.”
Bantar remained in the corridor, guarding the passageway as I went into the garden. As the lush beauty welcomed me into its peaceful embrace, my tension eased. I was still angry, but I was also calm. Breathing in the scent of rosemary and roses focused me. Mint grew in fluffy bundles beneath the trees, and wisteria covered an entire wall, its vines dripping with lavender blooms. It was the same garden Jucai had brought me to the day we met.
As I wandered through the winding paths, I realized that he'd chosen the garden with the precision of a hunter. It was private but felt open—easing me into exhibitionism. The lush plants calmed anxiety with their beauty and perfume, and no one would interrupt us there. The King reserved the garden for himself and his guests. Bantar had babbled on about what an honor it was for me to be allowed in it without the King present. In short, I'd been his prey from the very beginning. Which, granted, was only two days ago. Two days that felt like a lifetime.
I was grateful Jucai wasn't there yet. It gave me a chance to enjoy the beauty of the place without him distracting me. It also gave me time to think. Veering away from the golden railing at the garden's edge, the place where we'd first been together, I found a bench half hidden by a tree laden with pink blossoms. Sitting there beneath the frothy overhang, I found myself at a loss.
This was not acceptable. No man had ever outmaneuvered or outwitted me. Then I came to Kansu and met the Sea King. For two days, we had challenged each other. We had verbally battled and bantered. Over and over, I thought I had won our little skirmishes, gaining ground toward my goal, when all along, he'd been steering me in the opposite direction—toward his goal.
My mission was to establish an amicable relationship between our kingdoms. Upon meeting the Sea King, I added a personal mission of establishing an even more amicable relationship with Jucai. It was supposed to be fun. Uncomplicated. But the more I was around Jucai, the more complicated things got. I thought I was manipulating him when I changed our arrangement from a casual, semi-faithful one to a genuine commitment. I thought it would make him focus on me and give me influence over him. But did I really need that? I could do my job without him fucking me alone. No, it was Jucai who wanted monogamy. Ugh, I didn't even like the word.
“Oh, he's good,” I whispered.
I thought I was twisting him to suit my needs when he was twisting me to suit his. I had gone from denying him oral sex to kneeling before him in two days. From protesting his claim on me to agreeing to “receive” him. Even worse, when he had walked away from me that morning, my first reaction should have been fury. He had manipulated me into behaving like one of his slaves and then treated me like one, walking away as if I'd just performed a service and nothing more. And I'd performed that service believing that I was manipulating him into keeping our intimate moments private. Ridiculous! Horror and fury should have been my initial reactions, but they weren’t.
When Jucai had left, my first instinct had been to chase after him.
I put my face into my hands in shame, heat suffusing my cheeks. In the darkness of my humiliation, I analyzed things more critically. I replayed everything in my mind, going over every detail of what had happened between us. I had to know how Jucai had manipulated me so easily. If I could only see how he did it, then maybe I could turn this around.
