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  And even if he wanted to I don’t know if we could, she thought wonderingly, looking down at his massive erection. I don’t know if I could fit all this inside me!

  Shad groaned again as she stroked him up and down. Her fingers wouldn’t meet around his girth but she greatly enjoyed his warmth and the silky, petal-soft skin of his shaft.

  A bead of shiny clear precum had gathered at the slit on the broad head of his cock, Harper saw. She slipped her thumb over it, collecting the slippery stuff and using it as she worked her hand up and down his length. She loved the feeling of power it gave her to hold Shad so intimately in her hand—to know that he was at her mercy and he had to stand there and take whatever she dished out.

  “Empress,” he growled for a third time.

  In answer, Harper let her other hand drift down to cup his heavy balls. She rolled them gently in her fingers, liking the feeling of his vulnerability cupped right in the palm of her hand.

  She looked up to see that Shad’s eyes were closed, as though he was trying to control the emotions she was raising in him.

  “No, Shad,” she murmured, just as he had. “No, open your eyes. I want you to look at me while I do this…while I touch you.”

  “I can’t,” he growled but his eyes opened anyway, their strange opalescent depths blazing into hers. “If I do—if I watch you touching me—I’ll come. I want you too fucking badly. Having your hands on me like this is…”

  “Torture?” Harper asked sweetly. “Maybe like the same torture you put me through when you went back to being distant and aloof after the sex-milk incident?”

  “That was no ‘incident’,” he snarled softly. “I drank of you, Harper. Drained your sweet breasts and made you come on my fingers with your ripe nipples tight between my lips.”

  His words made her catch her breath and Harper felt her nipples tingle and her pussy pulse with lust. Only the fact that she was still wearing the rainbow cloak of thorns and knowing it would bite the big Kindred if she got any closer kept her from pressing her body against his to feel his skin caressing her own. If only…

  “Excuse me, Empress, but if you’re done jerking off your bodyguard there, maybe we could move on to the pleasure room?”

  The bored voice of Lady Marlbussen brought Harper back to reality.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed and pulled her hand away from Shad’s long, throbbing shaft. For a time there, it had seemed like they were the only two people in the room. She’d forgotten about the bathing attendant and Lady Marlbussen and even the other sexual attendant males who were still standing in a row.

  For a moment, Harper was chagrinned. How could she have done such a private thing in such a public place? But then the feeling of empowerment came back. Lady Marlbussen had done similar things to the other male attendants as she looked them over and made her choice. Even now she was only impatient to get to the pleasure room.

  And who knows what might happen there? Harper thought as she reluctantly stepped away from the big Kindred.

  She had a feeling she was about to find out.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Gods, she was killing him with her teasing!

  Shad wished he could convey to Harper how close to the edge he was—how little it would take to push him over at this point. Her soft, small hand on his aching shaft had made him burn to take her—every instinct he had was demanding that he push her to the ground and have her right here and now. But he knew he couldn’t.

  Have to resist these impulses—these urges, he told himself sternly. But it was an easier order to give than to follow, especially when he remembered her wet tongue tracing his nipples and the feeling of her stroking his cock…

  How was he going to control himself in the pleasure room when he felt ready to burst with unfulfilled desire?

  Shad had no idea but he resolved grimly to try.

  * * * * *

  “Now, the pleasure room is set up with all kinds of toys as you can see,” Lady Marlbussen remarked as they walked into another large room—this one padded on the walls and floors with some kind of shiny deep blue material which glowed in the dim golden light.

  Harper’s eyes went wide as she looked around. Toys there were indeed—toys aplenty. Some of them were obvious—dildos of all shapes and sizes as well as long feather wands, a few whips and paddles, and some other things she didn’t even know the name of.

  However, the room didn’t give the impression of a BDSM sex dungeon so much as an elaborate pleasure area with accoutrements to accommodate even the most exotic tastes. It seemed to be more about sensuality than domination.

  “I love the selection of personal pleasure devices here,” Lady Marlbussen remarked, going to stand by a wall of implements which might have been vibrators. “I picked most of them out myself when we were stocking this place. But I find that the best toys of all are the males you chose as your attendants.”

  She walked to a high bench covered in plush blue velvet and perched herself on it like a queen. Then she let down the top of her fish-scale gown, baring two large breasts tipped with grayish-pink nipples.

  “Come here, boys,” she purred to the two males who had followed her. “Suck my nipples.”

  At once the two attendants moved to do her bidding, standing on either side of her and leaning down to take her nipples in their mouths eagerly.

  Lady Marlbussen moaned appreciatively and stroked their broad backs, running her fingers through their hair. She looked over their heads at Harper challengingly.

  “Well? What are you waiting for, Empress? You asked me to show you how it’s done—just follow my lead and you’ll be fine.”

  “Oh, I…” Harper took a deep breath and lifted her chin. “All right,” she said feeling a flutter of butterflies in her stomach. Turning to Shad she spoke imperiously, using her best Empress voice. “Shadow, suck my nipples.”

  The look he gave her was pure, dangerous lust—his pale eyes blazing, his hands fisted at his sides. It made her breath catch in her throat and she almost took back the order. But she reminded herself she was playing a part here—they both were. She had to remain the strong and demanding Empress to be believable. Besides, she liked being in charge and she wanted Shad to know it.

  “Well?” she demanded, when he just stood there.

  “I will be pleased to do my lady’s bidding,” he said, his voice low and grating. “If she will be pleased to first remove the cloak of thorns. I don’t believe it will allow intimacies.”

  “Oh, uh…” Harper cleared her throat. “No, I guess you’re right. It probably won’t.”

  She took off the rainbow cloak, which whimpered a little in protest, and hung it on a peg which also held some kind of leather studded paddle. Then, feeling more exposed than ever in her long, green fringe gown, she turned back to Shad.

  “Do it now,” she commanded.

  With a low growl, he was on her. His big hands slipped between the fringes of the gown and caressed her body with hard, sure strokes not just exploring her but marking her—owning her.

  Harper made a little noise of surprise as his long fingers slid up to squeeze her breasts and then down to grip her ass. He pulled her to him and she gasped and took a stumbling step toward him, her breasts thrusting fully out from between the silky fringes.

  Her jutting nipples felt tender and hot as he sucked one hungrily into his mouth and drew on it hard. Then he pulled back and nipped her sharply, just as she had done to him. Before she could do more than give a little cry, he was sucking again, more tenderly this time—rolling his tongue around her throbbing tip as though to ease the ache he’d created.

  “Shad!” she moaned and threaded her fingers through his thick, black hair. Pressing her chest up and out, she offered him more—wanting to give him easier access to her body.

  “Well, well,” Lady Marlbussen remarked as Shad turned his attention to her other nipple and began sucking hard. “I can see that your attendant is certainly determined to do his job correctly.”