to wrap a stunningly beautiful woman in his arms. She squealed and cried and spoke all in one breath while Tracy stood to one side and tried to guess who this was. Sister? Lover?
Her age was hard to estimate, but her skin was dewy soft, her hair sleek and jet-black. Was this one of the women Nathan had fallen in love with? Was she a former lover? Tracy tried to suppress a surge of jealousy as Nathan finally unwound the woman’s arms and set her back down. Then they both turned to look at her. Tracy forced herself to smile despite the envy biting deep. The woman defined willowy beauty. Looking at her now, Tracy judged her to be forty years old. She wore no makeup, but her eyes were dark, her lips a soft pink and her small body was perfectly accented in a silk skirt and tight bodice.
“Tracy,” Nathan said as he smiled warmly at the woman. “This is my aunt Li Li. You may call her Tigress Lily. She speaks no English, but she has a good heart.”
Tracy nodded politely, her mind grappling with details. “Your aunt? But she is so young—” Her words were cut off as the tigress abruptly grabbed Tracy’s hand and shook it vigorously. She was all smiles as she gestured inside, her words flowing like a babbling brook.
“She says Stephen told them we were coming, but not when. She is very happy it is so soon, but they did not have enough time to prepare a proper welcome for a new tigress.”
“Tell her that I don’t need—” Tracy began, but Nathan interrupted.
“Don’t bother,” he said with a laugh. “She won’t stop speaking long enough to hear you. Just smile and follow along.”
Tracy had no choice but to agree as she was half dragged inside. The front hallway was dark, but pleasantly cool compared to the outside heat. Tigress Lily kept up a running banter as she led them into a cushioned sitting room. Sparse wood furniture decorated the space, but mostly there were silk cushions everywhere—the floor, the chairs, even on the low coffee table. Lily swatted them aside, then guided Tracy to one of the lower chairs.
Another voice sounded, again in excited Chinese. Nathan turned to the door only to wrap his arms around a girl of maybe sixteen. She was dressed in light cotton, her hair in two long pigtail braids. Her happy smile was more than returned, especially when Nathan pointed out the flour that coated her braids.
“My sister Cai Ting, the chef,” he said as the girl jerked her hair out of his hand.
“Hello—” Tracy started only to have the girl bow deeply before her.
“My greetings, Tigress Tracy. We are honored to have you here.”
Other voices—all female—came around the corner. She’d thought temples were quiet, holy places, but she was obviously wrong. This was a place of noisy, chattering women all pushing forward to greet Nathan before bowing formally before her. Tracy nodded back, becoming more bewildered as bodies crowded into the small sitting room. And then, almost as if someone had hit a mute button, the room fell abruptly silent.
Tracy had been about to say some greeting, but managed to choke her words off before hers was the only voice in the suddenly hushed room. She looked to Nathan for a clue, but he was surrounded by gorgeous women and was blocked from her view. Then the women began to part, some dropping their heads in respect, some looking with rapt adoration to…
A young Chinese woman of stunning beauty and elegance. In her thirties, she was near the peak of her sexuality. Her body stalked through the air: sleek, supple and entirely predatory. Her face had the dewy softness of youth, but with a lush beauty to her full, moist lips. Her hair fell behind her in a curtain of perfect black silk, and her eyes seemed dark and mysterious, as if she looked upon great secrets of the universe. But it was her body that caught one’s attention as it seemed to offer every exotic, erotic delight.
While Tracy stared, Nathan stepped away from his gaggle of women to stand at the beauty’s side. “Tracy,” he said, “may I present to you the leader of our order, Tigress Mother Pin Ya.”
Tracy had the strongest urge to curtsy, but she didn’t quite know how. So instead, she dipped her head in greeting, not even bothering to offer her hand. “I am honored to meet you,” she said.
The Tigress Mother didn’t speak, but her gaze studied Tracy from head to toe, no doubt seeing the wrinkled clothing and the extra pounds on her hips. It was ridiculous that a beautiful woman could make Tracy feel so inferior, but then the woman was extraordinarily beautiful.
Silence reigned for several heartbeats while Tracy struggled not to look to Nathan for help, or worse, bite her lip the way she had as a child. It took another dozen beats before Tracy found her spine. So she wasn’t beautiful; she was still a person. Though it took an act of will, Tracy did it. She steeled her shoulders and met the woman’s gaze eye to eye, earning an arched eyebrow as her reward.
Meanwhile, Nathan began speaking. His words were in Chinese, so Tracy understood none of it except for one word: Mama.
The woman flicked his comments away with a negligent wave, somehow managing to make even that gesture a sensuous delight. And then a brain cell managed to fire. Understanding slipped through until Tracy’s gaze shot to Nathan. “Mama,” she echoed. “You said Mama. This can’t be your mother.”
Nathan nodded. “I told you my mother led the temple.”
“Yes, but…But…She’s so young!”
The Tigress Mother smiled, the gentle pull of her lips bowing her mouth in a most feminine display. “How old do you think I am, little cub?” she asked in English. Her voice was velvety smooth, her accent almost negligible.
Tracy swallowed, scrambling to upgrade her estimate. “Um, forty?” But that would mean she’d had Nathan when she was eleven.
“I turned fifty-eight this year.”
Tracy swallowed her knee-jerk “bull hockey,” response. Instead, she simply shook her head. No plastic surgeon was that good. This simply could not be Nathan’s mother. Meanwhile, the Tigress Mother gestured about the room, her wave going first to Nathan’s aunt.
“Tigress Lily is fifty-four,” she said. Tracy gaped.
“Tigress Ting Bo is forty-eight,” she continued. Then one by one, other tigresses stepped forward, each announcing their ages with clear pride.
“Seventy-one.”
“Thirty-four.”
“Twenty-two.”
All appeared younger than their stated ages, some by a little, some by staggering amounts. But none could match the apparent youth or sensuality of the Tigress Mother.
“And you, Tigress Tracy,” she asked after a half dozen had spoken, “what is your calendar age?”
“Twenty-five,” she answered, her voice tiny.
“Ah, the same age as my daughter,” she said as the flour-dusted girl stepped in. The one who looked sixteen.
Cai Ting grimaced. “Mother, please. She has come all the way from the United States, and we haven’t even given her tea. Let her get her bearings.”
“Of course,” Mother Tigress said with a bow. Then she settled herself into the largest, most ornately carved black lacquer chair. A queen in her throne? It would be easy enough to think so, and yet as she sat there, she appeared not so much a queen as a courtesan—gorgeous, sensuous, her every breath an act of mysterious seduction. Then her eyes scanned the crowd. “Attend to your studies,” she said sweetly.
The room quickly emptied of all except for Tracy, Nathan and his mother.
“My brother is at work,” he said. “You’ll meet him tonight.”
Tracy nodded, completely fine with slowing the introductions. “Is there a room where I could freshen up?” she asked. “And where did my luggage go?”
“Nathan will take it to Dragon Stephen’s practice room,” the Tigress Mother answered. “There is a bathing chamber there.”
Tracy opened her mouth to object. She had no intention of practicing anything with anyone just yet. But before she could respond, another gorgeous woman entered the room. She was carrying a silver English tea tray, which she settled carefully—and of course beautifully—upon the low coffee table. In truth, she appeared nothing less, nothing more than anyone else Tracy had met so far—young, beautiful and with a sensuous quality about her that could not be denied.
The difference? She was white. A redhead to be exact, complete with freckles and emerald-green eyes. And as soon as she set the tea tray down, she looked up at Nathan and offered him a full, seductive smile. She said
