Empress Hiding Read online

  “You are quite belated in your arrival, Rafal.”

  Her voice was low and not confrontational, and Rafal sensed more than simple trepidation in her delivery.

  “And?” Rafal encouraged her to continue even as he saw her internal conflict with Runa. He reached out his hand to touch her cheek – to both remind her that she could cling to him and refresh his need for the sensations such contact sent through his entire being.

  Rafal saw her eyelids flutter as his palm met her skin and felt her head slightly lean into his touch. He watched her hands as she spoke – there was definitely some strife happening between her and Runa.

  “And Runa is adamant in her belief that you are mad, Rafal.”

  She winced slightly, almost as if she expected him to get angry for her statement.

  And his heart melted at her innocence.

  He pulled his hand from her face and placed it on his hip even as raised his other hand to his forehead and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes tightly and then re-opened them, a small smile peeling across his lips.

  “Oh, ashia,” he let his beast rumble amusedly from inside of him, “What are we going to do with …”

  He trailed off as Chiyoto took hold of the forearm he had lifted toward his forehead and brought it down for her to examine the slash that ran most of the way from elbow to mid-wrist – the still-sticky blood coating the arm and trying to adhere to the torn and already blood-soaked sleeve.

  Her face was horrified as she looked from the wound to Rafal’s face and back again.

  “What happened, Rafal?” her stare at the injury only intensified as her nostrils flared, “Is this the reason for your delay?”

  Oh, he really did not want to get into the incident tonight – this was supposed to be their ilk tareh, for all the Gods’ sake!

  “It is nothing, ashia, just a …”

  Rafal tried to pull his arm away, but his Chiyoto held firm to his palm and elbow as she leaned forward – lifting his arm just slightly so that she could close her eyes and sniff the wound. He tugged once again, but this time she growled at him as, not raising her face from his forearm, she let her eyes look up and meet his.

  Her growl and her grip held both him and his beast captive – in a very good way.

  And Rafal relented in his attempts to pull his arm from her grasp.

  Almost simultaneously with their eyes meeting, Chiyoto’s tongue met his blood-covered skin and a thousand heated sensations rushed through Rafal’s entire body from that point of contact, and every one of them – no matter their route of choice to get there – headed directly to his groin.

  And the Crowned Prince immediately threw his other hand up against the wall beside his Chiyoto to brace himself against the arousing sensational onslaught coursing through his body.

  Their stares continued to be locked as Chiyoto licked the skin surrounding the wound clean, and Rafal and his beast moaned in lust with nearly every stroke, their talons digging into the plastercrete wall as they searched internally to find an anchor for their minds as well as for their cognate body.

  But all Rafal could find was a vision of his Chiyoto locked beneath him – her substantial breasts keeping rhythm with his hips’ thrusting movements – as he drove his entire, aching length so deep inside of her – so fully claiming her beautiful body – that no other male would dare look at her, and then he would turn her over and ride her from behind as he held that generous ass of hers in his hands. Rafal’s breathing shallowed as he threw his head back and he pulled a hissed breath from between clinched teeth – it was taking all of his self-control not to cum in his pants with that picture in his mind and the vibes and sensitivities rushing through him.

  Chiyoto’s tongue reached the open gash and, this time, when she let her tongue brush over its entire surface, her saliva quickly began to fill the opening. But she became deeply disturbed when Rafal would no longer look at her and only stared at the ceiling. Questions by the handful began to spill into Chiyoto’s mind as Runa enjoyed her high from the strength they both gained from the very small portion of Rafal’s blood – the dragoness’ attention solely on the sensations the Crimson blood had introduced across their skins. It had been far too long since they were imbibed with the taste of pure Crimson . …

  But, still, Chiyoto’s worry: Had Runa been right? Was this all just some fantasy world he had built? Would Rafal now be disgusted by her once again?

  “Rafal?”

  The sound of her voice and the definite worry it carried cut through the lustful haze that held Rafal captive as both he and his beast tried to break free from that haze without physical release – release that he could not yet take from his Chiyoto.

  She needed to go slow her first time.

  Not really, Rafal.

  Needed him to have patience.

  Patient, perhaps, but extremely dominant. They will need that.

  Patience he did not have right now. Rafal had no idea a female could do those things to a male with simply the touch of her tongue – Blood-borne or not – his satisfaction of primal needs had always been through orospus and the like. What the godsfall would their joining be like if his body reacted like this simply to her tongue on his skin? And from where did his beast’s knowledge or alleged knowledge originate?

  Letting go of a small moan as he contemplated the answer to that tantalizing question, Rafal pulled his face forward again and slowly lowered his gaze until their eyes met – her questioning and timid smile meeting that gaze as her grasp on his arm increased substantially as she licked her lips to remove any remaining blood from them.

  “Are you … are we . . . ?”

  She was not even sure what to ask or how to ask it.

  “Ashia.”

  Rafal’s gentle yet domineering voice crept into her ears as she sensed his arm leave the wall and subsequently felt his palm warm on her back as he slid it up inside her loose-fitting tunic to the base of her mane and fisted his hand there.

  A low growl rolled up from deep inside of her – Runa’s response to his hold eliciting a chuckle from Rafal even as he leaned down into Chiyoto’s face, his lips on level with hers, as he brought his other hand to guide her jaw toward him.

  “My turn,” he whispered so close that his flavor already rested on her lips – his eyes glittering with something she had never seen there before.

  But her eyes widened and she pulled back her face as far as the wall at her back would allow, although both hands still held him near her as she whispered quite nervously.

  “Your turn for what, Rafal?”

  A mischievous almost childlike grin seeped onto his handsome face, and Chiyoto felt herself almost melt as his grip on her mane tightened and pulled her body against his long, hard length. But, even as she caught her breath at the realization of what her sampling had done to him, she barely had time to process all of what his hold did to her own body before he answered, “To taste you,” and his tongue grazed her upper lip before he moved to her lower one and sucked lightly yet intently.

  Chiyoto’s entire body stiffened substantially, but only for a moment before Rafal’s other hand tightened on her jaw line and he whispered into her tensed mouth, “Relax. Only a taste,” he took a ragged breath of her scent and of her essence and added almost unconsciously, “For now, my shioliah.”

  She relaxed her mouth enough that he slanted his mouth over hers and pushed his tongue inside – a groan of pleasure escaping him as her arms drifted around his waist, her nails finding purchase along his back and through his shirt. Rafal moaned again as he shifted her entire body flush to the wall with his weight against her, but only for pressure, not to hurt.

  But they will like it rough. Need it hard.

  Rafal ignored his beast – it was difficult enough fighting his own body – he did not need that battle as well.

  Chiyoto’s tongue began to
tangle with his – the action mimicking what he wanted to do to her in a much more inviting place with a much more needy part of him – and she voiced a slow feminine sigh as the kiss was locked between them.

  His beast growled in dominance as Rafal pushed a thigh between her now-inviting legs – working her body ever so slightly against his aching member with the grasp he held solidly on her mane. It was self-torture, he knew, but it was worth it – he was drowning in all that she was.

  And he wanted more.

  His beast roared from inside of him.

  They wanted it all.

  Finally, the name Rafal had just called her rang deep into Chiyoto’s being and something ancient unlocked deep inside of her, and she did not even fully understand it. She tried to look inward to Runa for explanation, but it was as if Runa was asleep or something – like she was disconnected from her at this moment. And like a tidal wave, the sensations and passions that Rafal’s body was inducing were too over-whelming for her to concentrate on anything around her. Suddenly, all she wanted or needed was Rafal – just him and his strong arms around her. A vision of him clothed in nothing but those pants and boots from yesterday on the ICT flashed before her mind, a huge sprawling tattoo emerged from his waistline to cover nearly his entire chest – it lapped over the top of his shoulders and scrawled down each arm to end almost gracefully on the back of each hand and fade into each of the fingers. And, by the Makers, he was gorgeous! In her vision, he leaned over to take her mouth in the same passionate kiss in which they were currently locked … only, now, a word rose up in answer to his claim of shioliah – it rose from deep inside of her where Runa was usually found.

  Mine. My Rafal.

  And she let herself be held and carried by her Rafal and his passionate embrace. She even raised her hands to his hair – hair that she much preferred to hang below his shoulders – and hastily removed the clip that held it. She tried to stand on tiptoe and run her fingers through the long, full locks as she had fantasized about doing from the first day she had seen him on the ICT …

  Rafal felt her inhibitions fall the moment they did – he had no idea what he had done to trigger such, but suddenly his Chiyoto came alive in his arms. She matched him for every kiss, for every sway, every moan. He breathed in for every time she breathed out. She even removed his hair clip without so much as a small suggestion for such action. He rocked and pulled for every inch she pushed until there could be a no more perfect fit.

  Except for their clothing – that certainly needed to go.

  Oh, yes, Chiyoto was their mate – there was no question now – this interaction proved that now beyond the shadow of any doubt – and he needed to take her to his bed. To lay her down in his sheets with his scent surrounding her. To gently break her virgin wall and then take her every way possible so there could be no doubt …

  But these were not his chambers!

  And gently is not what they need.

  Rafal pulled his lips from Chiyoto’s – the look on her face one of both disappointment and rejection – as he rested his forehead against hers and tried to massage her body against his own to bring them both down together.

  Slowly.

  But, oh!, how he loved the look of her lips from his kissing them, the muss of her hair – that was still the wrong color dammit! – from his hands grasping it, and the rumples in her clothing from his passionate handling of her.

  By the Gods, she was perfect!

  “Rafal, did I … I mean, was something wrong with …?”

  Rafal put three fingers over her lips to seal them even as another withdrawal shudder ran through his body.

  “Shioliah, if you did anything more right and I had not pulled away, we would be naked on that bed over there right now.”

  Chiyoto sighed and smiled through a healthy pink blush even as her fingers continued to unconsciously play in his hair – she absolutely adored the feel of it and the way he looked with it falling over his face and shoulders as it was – her eyes quickly averting downward and off to the side.

  “Rafal? I … er, we,” she paused as if looking for those proper words of hers again, “Well, I have not,” she swallowed hard and her focus went directly downward as she huffed a small embarrassed giggle, “Not ever …”

  Rafal pulled his forehead away from hers and stood straight again. He reached down to lift his Chiyoto’s chin so that their gazes met – he even allowed his beast to sound forth – gruffly yet tenderly if such were not such an obvious contradiction – in his voice as he spoke.

  “We know, shioliah,” Rafal’s stare cut through her – her grasp in his hair tightening at the effect simply his visual intensity had on her at this moment. Rafal’s his beast was not in the second part of his statement as he smiled gently, “Which is why you and I are not on that small, uncomfortable bed.”

  She grinned and blushed again as she nodded in the slightest, but then her face turned serious again, a frown gracing her beautiful eye brows.

  “That name, Rafal,” her gaze became intense again and Rafal could almost feel Runa’s eyes staring through hers, “It once indicated that a male and female were mated or betrothed to be such.”

  Rafal noted her hesitant tone with her so very proper words, prompting him to, once again, tighten his grip on her mane and use his other hand to guide her face into his. He spoke in a whispered tone just a hairsbreadth from her gorgeous yet scrutinizing face.

  “I believe you are correct, my shioliah,” he watched as there was a moment’s delay before she caught her breath at his comment. Rafal felt his heart and mind soar in victory as – just as her eyes flashed that deep magenta and a warning rumble rolled up from her chest – his Chiyoto clung tightly to his hair through which her fingers remained laced. He reached up with both hands and gently pulled her hands from the back of his neck and kissed them gently as his thumb rolled the chain of her Keeper over her skin – and he made a mental note to talk to his Dalis about the painting from the ICT, “And now, I believe we are already late for our dining reservations.”

  Her face lit even as Rafal could once again feel her inner strife with her animal through the slight muscle spasms and such.

  And Rafal knew it was imperative that – some how, some way – he and Runa call a truce over their conflict – which existed solely in the eyes of Runa herself – or said conflict would hurt the one being over whose well-being the whole issue had begun.

  Oh, he would win in the end – of that there would be no debate – because Chiyoto belonged to him now.

  And that meant – and, even as the thought occurred to him, he knew it was one of, if not the only, issue – so did her Runa.

  Rafal smiled to himself and let that smile light his eyes as he determined it was time to start working on that truce.

  He walked to the door and held out his arm to entreat his Chiyoto to join him – which she did straight away – her entire body smiling one of those heart-melting smiles.

  “So,” Rafal let his voice be upbeat and light – he had engaged in diplomacy for years – he could do this so very much more important diplomatic work, “I take it Runa helped find the materials to make your boots, yes?”

  He held the door for her as they stepped through together.

  She hesitantly looked at him and then smiled broadly to herself as she began walking down the hallway beside him – the memory of the challenging kill actually bringing back a thrill for her as well as for Runa.

  And Rafal could sense the thrill, the rush that they both had felt at what was probably a spectacular take down and kill – a Nelt that color was beyond formidable. And, once again, Rafal acknowledged to himself the true nature of his choice of a mate.

  It seemed as though he and Hondo were simply created to break rules.

  “Find? Aye, Rafal,” it seemed his Chiyoto was also quite skilled in the art of elusive-answer diplomacy, “Runa is a ma
ster at such finds.”

  Rafal smiled as he offered her his upturned wrist as escort to the formal dining area.

  And both he and his beast concealed completely their surprise that said wrist was not only healed but the sleeve on the shirt was like new. And Chiyoto did not even seem to notice.

  Perhaps she did not.

  Or perhaps such comes naturally to them.

  Rafal’s beast purred tremendously at the almost unbelievable revelation – as if the beast somehow completely understood it.

  They are ours.

  Yes, Rafal certainly agreed with his beast’s rare declaration. Rare because – until Chiyoto had come into their lives – there was hardly communication between them – at least none of which Rafal had been so acutely aware.

  But the revelation certainly left him with more questions than answers regarding their mate – definitely only questions for him, however.

  Because the beast that made up so much of himself was more content now than after hours of water play.

  Rafal decided that, for now and for their ilk tareh, the questions could wait. Rafal simply shook his head to shrug them off as his eyes met Sila’s – a slight nod to the male indicating Rafal’s command that the male unofficially and invisibly accompany them as he continued his diplomatic endeavors with Runa while learning more about his Chiyoto.

  Jaylis would surely spot him on the security feeds in the Black Guard suite soon – and the meddling Guard Captain would most assuredly make an appearance this night.

  Rafal’s beast growled threateningly at the thought.

  Okay, so it seemed he and his beast were in agreement on that sentiment as well.

  Ferenti bowed his head as he spoke to his obviously tensed Khedive.

  “My lord, should we take measures to reacquire Shiarah’s chip?”

  The Khedive’s bear growled long and low, sending chills up not only Ferenti’s spine, but up the backs of all those servants and guards within earshot, all of whom gave the two males an even wider berth for their discussion.