tantrum.
'Do you think I care for your women's entertainment? I was just interrupted from an important meeting with Han Du Yu. Why? For this?' He hefted the ugly statue. He curled his lip. 'A gift from your parents, Chen Ji Yue.'
Ji Yue had straightened, a look of horror on her face.
'You will come with me now. You will write a letter to your parents to tell them that the master of the festival does not accept bribes.' He curled his lip at the offending item. 'And certainly not ones this ugly.'
It was a lie. He had, of course, been given hundreds of gifts from the virgins' families. All of them were dutifully catalogued and passed over to Yi Zhen, who wished to know the nature of the family who sired his future empress. Had Bo Tao kept even a tenth of the gifts, he would have enough money to establish a proper household and find a wife. But Bo Tao had been honest and so he had nothing. Nothing to support a wife, nothing to impress Madame Chen. Nothing, that is, except this one hideous carving.
Meanwhile, the dowager consort narrowed her eyes and stood as she addressed him. 'You must be thirsty, Sun Bo Tao, please join us. Have some tea. After the performance, I am sure Chen Ji Yue will have time to do whatever you wish.'
So it was a planned expulsion. The dowager could not fail to see Ji Yue's condition. If she wished to spare the girl, then she would have allowed Bo Tao to whisk Ji Yue away. But she hadn't. Which meant that the dowager wanted a public excuse to eliminate her. Anything private could be recanted. The humiliation had to be public and therefore assured. Which meant that someone even more powerful must want Ji Yue to remain.
Bo Tao nearly groaned. The only one more powerful than the dowager consort was the emperor himself. Yi Zhen had clearly taken an interest in Ji Yue, if only to torture Bo Tao. Sweet heaven, women's politics gave him a headache! He sighed and spoke from the heart.
'Great Imperial Dowager Consort Kang Ci, I do not care! I do not have time to eat nor do I wish to tarry. Chen Ji Yue will be punished for her parents' hideous effrontery to myself and the Dragon Throne. And she will be punished now.'
And with that he gestured widely with the phallic statue. People cleared a pathway before him, if only to avoid being hit by the heavy thing. At the opposite end of the path stood Ji Yue, tears escaping from her eyes and streaking her makeup. An ache welled up deep inside him. He hadn't wanted to cause such anguish in her, but he'd had no choice. With a last bow to the dowager consort, Bo Tao turned away, forcing Ji Yue to limp after him.
Chapter 12
'MY PARENTS DID NOT SEND that ugly thing!' she snapped.
Bo Tao almost smiled. Trust Ji Yue to defend herself to the very end, for all that she was alone and vulnerable in his private office suite.
'What is wrong with you? Why do you limp?'
She flushed and looked away. 'It is nothing.' Then she abruptly spun back to him, her eyes blazing. 'And if you really cared, you would have stopped it from happening two nights ago!'
He grimaced at the confirmation of his fears. 'So the virgins have continued beating you.'
She nodded. 'I have brothers. I know how to fight back.' Then she took a wobbling step forward. 'But why do you allow it? They are vicious bitches!'
He shrugged. 'It is a woman's life in the Forbidden City. Like hens and a pecking order. Eventually the hierarchy will be established, but for now—' he shook his head '—as long as the dowager consort despises you, you will stay on the bottom. If I were to interfere, it would only go harder on you.'
She didn't answer. She knew it was true.
Then he gestured to the couch. 'Come, come. Let us see your injuries. I will call the doctor and she will do what can be done.'
Ji Yue crossed her arms over her chest. 'Call no one. I know what is wrong. It will heal in time.'
Bo Tao narrowed his eyes. He did not like the fact she kept these things from him. 'Tell me what is the matter or I will call the doctor.'
She balled her fists and glared at him. 'It is nothing, I tell you! I am beaten and bruised.'
He stifled a curse. 'I should have been here. I should have guarded you better.' Then he sighed. 'You know I must see these injuries, Ji Yue. You cannot always know what will fester and what will not.'
'But you cannot!' she cried.
'I can. I am master of the festival, and I will see how a virgin under my care was injured.' He had thought that seeing her again would decrease his desire. That his lust would fade in the cold light of day, but it was not so. Now that he had her alone, he would not be denied her. Not on this most frustrating of days.
She understood what he meant. She knew and he could smell her excitement in the closed air of his tiny office. His dragon stiffened to painful intensity, but he did not move. He saw the fear in her eyes. Finally she shook her head. 'Someone will know.'
'The door is shut.' Then on impulse, he dragged a heavy table in front of it, blocking anyone from entering. 'Someone must hear you being punished, Ji Yue. Your screams of pain must be very loud as I beat you for frustrating me so.'
She straightened. 'You do not seem like a man who beats a woman.'
'Ah, but who knows where lust will take a man?' He took her to the couch, setting cushions behind her back before she slowly sat. 'The emperor knows I crave you like a sickness, Ji Yue.' Her eyes brightened at that, but he paused to let the knowledge sink in. 'He is testing my loyalty. He knows there is another physical examination in two days.'
She nodded. 'The final check for virginity before he selects his brides.'
'If you remain a virgin despite our time together, despite my beating you now, then he will know lust cannot tempt me away from my duties to him.' He took a deep breath and told her everything. 'I pray it is his final test before he gives me an appointment.'
Her expression turned serious. 'Then what my mother said is true. You have no wealth of your own?'
'Not enough for a wife or a family. Barely enough to keep a modest home on my parents' land.'
'You depend upon the emperor, then,' she said. She reached out, touching his face with a tentative caress. 'As do I, since my parents will not have me back.'
He took her hand from his cheek, pulling it slowly to his lips, where he pressed a kiss into her palm. 'My fortunes may change,' he said. Then he gestured to the papers in his office. 'I am working very hard to get an appointment and a salary, but…' He shook his head.
'Not soon enough. Not for my mother, at least.' She took a deep breath. 'Did you know that the dowager expelled the Luo girl this morning? We are now down to the final twenty-eight virgins.'
The news hit him like a blow to the chest. He had not realized that all the extraneous girls had been culled. Every one that remained would be divided into one of Yi Zhen's harems. He could barely breathe for the pain of it. 'You have been selected then. You will be a concubine.' His heart broke to say the words. Six days ago, he hadn't even known she existed. Since that time, he had gone from despising her to lusting for her to maneuvering every way he could so that he could court her. All to no avail. 'I can never have you, Ji Yue. I thought if you were expelled, if I stayed away and the others found a way to push you out…' He began to pace out his agitation. 'But I couldn't stay away any longer. I couldn't watch you in pain, humiliated for all to see.'
He looked into her eyes and saw tears glistening there. She understood what he was saying. She knew what he would offer her if he could. But she didn't speak, and so in her silence, he did the boldest, most dishonorable thing he'd ever done. He guided her hands to his groin. She did not fight him, but let him lead, and when her fingers touched the bulge in his pants, he nearly groaned at the feel of her slender fingers.
'But there is a way we can take what pleasure is left to us without risking your virginity.'
Her eyes leaped back to his face. 'Like the women in the old emperor's harem. You would put your mouth…' Her voice trailed away and her skin turned bright red.
'Yes. And you could do the same to me. If you wished.'
She bit her lower lip, her small white teeth pulling at the pink flesh in a way that made his blood pound. 'It is
