Whatever you do, don't fall asleep. You'll be punished if you do. She expects you eager for her arrival.'
'How fortunate I napped earlier,' Dagon said wryly.
Vernus chuckled. 'Suneva help you,' he remarked as he hurried from the chamber.
Dagon's mind was awhirl assimilating all the information the gossipy Vernus had imparted to him. How in the name of all the gods was he to breach the icy stone walls Kalida had allowed to be set up around her heart? Especially in a situation where the beauteous young queen believed herself superior to all men, and did not know how to yield herself to a lover's passion. He shook his head wearily. He was already half under her spell with just one look at her. She was much too lovely to be allowed to go through life without knowing love. He had to succeed!
'You are thinking,' she said. She was standing by the bed stark naked. 'Of what do you think? Your past life? Another woman?'
He had not even heard her enter the room. He tried to keep himself from gaping at her beauty. She had a body such as he had never seen. It was utterly flawless. Small, but perfect cone-shaped breasts crested by dainty pink buds. Her torso was in proportion; her belly flat; her limbs rounded and long. Her hair was now unbound, and hung about her like a shimmering curtain of pale silvered gold.
'I was thinking of you,' he responded frankly. 'Of how I could win your heart, my queen.'
'How amusing you are,' Kalida replied, slithering onto the large bed, and reaching out to caress his penis. 'It is magnificent,' she said softly. 'I can barely contain my desire to sheath you!'
He caught up her hand, and, turning it over, placed a kiss upon the palm. 'Pleasure,' he said, 'is best enjoyed when the anticipation and the appetite for it is whetted slowly. You are, I am advised, impatient. Let me teach you to be more composed with passion.' He slipped one of her fingers into his mouth, and began to suck upon it, his deep blue eyes meeting her emerald-green ones.
'You are bold,' Kalida murmured, fascinated in spite of herself, 'and you speak to me as if we were equals. I am the Queen of Kava. You are naught but my slave.' She could feel her heart hammering erratically within her chest. 'I will overlook your behavior this one time, for you have just come to Kava, and have not yet had time to learn our ways. You must obey me, Dagon, for I am your mistress. I am not above beating my slaves when they are disobedient. You are very beautiful, but you must be docile. I do not yet want to send you to the fields, or to the mines.'
'I speak to you as I do, my queen, because of all the men you have ever met, I am your equal,' Dagon replied softly. 'They say you have no heart, but I do not believe it. How can someone so beautiful, so wise a ruler, be heartless? I am already half in love with you!'
Then before she might remonstrate with him, he pinioned her beneath him, and his lips met hers in a deep, passionate kiss. Kalida's head spun wildly. The mouth against her mouth was firm and warm. A tiny tingle of pleasure raced through her body before he lifted his head but briefly, and then again began to kiss her. His lips played along hers, touching at the corners, brushing over her eyelids.
'The gods!' he whispered. 'You are so damnably sweet, my queen!'
Kalida attempted to regain her mastery over this unruly slave Zenaida had given her. 'You do not have my permission to kiss me,' she scolded him. 'I will whip you if you do not behave! You must be trained to respect the superiority of the female, Dagon! Cease, or I will punish you!'
Releasing her, he leapt from the bed, and, looking into the basket by the bed, drew forth a small leather whip. 'Punish me then, my queen,' he said, 'for I will not come to heel like the others who have peopled your bed. Passion is to be shared equally by the man and the woman, not just taken to be enjoyed by only one alone.'
His kisses had rendered her almost drunk, but she was a queen, and not to be bullied or disobeyed. Taking the whip from his hand, she arose from the bed. 'Stand upon the floor, and bend, bracing yourself with your hands upon the bed,' she commanded him.
The gods! Would she really do it? he wondered, then winced as the fingers of the leather whip bit into his buttocks. Dagon grit his teeth. She would raise no cry from him, but to his surprise she struck him only three times before ceasing. His flesh was burning nonetheless, and there was a tingle in his manhood.
'You may reenter my bed,' she said loftily. 'Are you now chastised, and comprehending of my authority over you?'
He lay gingerly upon his back. 'You are utterly beautiful when you are so masterful, my queen,' he told her.
Her exquisite features darkened with her displeasure. 'Must I give you over for common pleasures then, Dagon?' she demanded of him.
'Why are you angry with me because I find you beautiful?' he countered. 'You have hair like thistledown.' He took up a strand between his fingers, rubbing it, and then bringing it to his lips to kiss.
Kalida felt a catch in her throat. This man was confusing her. She was used to abject obedience, utter devotion, a quick, pleasant sheathing, and then she would send the slave away. Men did not speak as this man was speaking to her. Men were rough, crude creatures whose baser nature must be kept under strict control.
His hand wrapped about a length of her long hair, and he drew her down so that their faces were but inches apart. 'You have always held the upper hand, my queen,' he whispered so only she might hear him. 'Have you never wondered what it would be like to give yourself over totally to your lover's care? It takes a
'By the gods!' he swore softly.
'I am not!' Her cheeks were pink with the denial.
'Then trust me, Kalida,' he coaxed her.
'I did not give you permission to address me by my name,' she scolded him nervously.
'Give yourself to me,' he gently pressed. His lips brushed her brow.
'It is forbidden,' she protested.
'Is not forbidden fruit the sweetest?' he countered teasingly, kissing the tip of her nose.
'I am the queen!' she cried. 'You must let me have my own way! I shall send you to the mines if you do not!'
'I will be a king one day, and must have
'Yes,' she answered him, and her voice was shaking.
She rolled onto her stomach, and he began to smooth the liquid cream onto her long back. It smelled of apricots. His hands moved rhythmically and soothingly. Dagon felt her begin to relax beneath his firm touch. Without realizing it, Kalida had given him the key to her conquest. He would stake his life on the fact that she had never felt real passion, and was possibly even afraid of it. The first man to bring true joy to her would be the man with whom she would fall in love and take for her mate. But cajoling her into giving herself over to him would not be a simple or an easy task. Still, it must be done tonight lest Zeras, who had obviously taught Kalida to stifle her emotions, intervene to prevent the queen from favoring him.
Dagon leaned over as he worked. Pushing aside her lovely hair, he bent to kiss the nape of her neck. It was soft, and delicately perfumed. His fingers dug gently but with strength into her shoulders. She murmured contentedly beneath his touch. His cupped hand took a dollop of the apricot lotion and smoothed it over first one buttock, and then the other. He kneaded the rounded halves of her tempting bottom firmly, his finger running teasingly down the shadowed groove separating the twin parts. Now he was spreading her thighs, his lotioned fingers sliding along the satiny flesh, caressing them, brushing gently.
Kalida was purring with contentment. She had certainly not expected an evening such as this one was turning out to be. Usually her male slaves were brought to her like a plate of pretty sweetmeats, all oiled and muscled, and she would choose one to favor that night. She roused him, sometimes allowing him to kiss, or even caress her. Then she sheathed him, and when he had released his tribute to Her Majesty she would send him from her bed.
