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  I couldn’t count the number of plots I’d foiled against my old mistress and Morbain had been behind all of them. A male like that deserved to be killed, not crowned Consort.

  Consort. Just the thought of Morbain’s greasy hands on Charlotte’s cool, white flesh made my stomach churn. If I had to see that…if I had to stand by and watch while he touched and took my Lady in the way that I was forbidden to …

  I shook my head fiercely. The idea was too much. I honestly thought it might drive me mad to watch the female I loved to distraction given to the male I hated most in the galaxy. My mind simply wouldn’t be able to stand the strain without snapping. I would wind up killing Morbain or myself or both of us if that happened.

  And yet, how could it be stopped? Morbain had Royal bloodlines and he had ingested twice as much of Charlotte’s blood as was needed to form a connection between them. Even now she might be feeling a pull in his direction.

  I looked at Charlotte. She was pacing up and down the living area of the Royal Apartments, a large room decorated in gold finery with a long, low couch and a fireplace at one end. One of the maids had lit a fire and it glowed red and warm, filling the large chamber with a ruby-gold light that made Charlotte look even more beautiful in her green banqueting gown. It swished and swirled around her, reflected in the three-paneled viewer which was opposite the couch—a place where the Empress could check her appearance one more time before appearing in public.

  Her beauty overwhelmed me but I tried to ignore it and concentrate on the bond I had with her instead. To my dismay, I could feel the lust already growing in her. The need and desire boiling to the surface like an overfull pot. She was very close to the breeding part of her cycle—if she had not already reached it.

  “My Lady,” I could not stop myself from saying. “I…feel the need in you. Are you…do you…?” I knew I ought to ask if she wanted me to escort her to Morbain, but somehow I couldn’t get the words out.

  She looked up at me sharply.

  “Do I need someone to scratch my itch? Yes, I do—very badly, in fact. But is it going to be Morbain?” She made a face. “Hell no, it’s not.”

  “But if you are drawn to him…” My throat wanted to lock on the words, to never let them out. “If you want him…” I finally choked out.

  “I don’t want anything to do with him!” she snapped. “And I don’t care how much of my blood he drank—he could drink it by the gallon like two percent milk—I still would never want him.” She crossed the distance between us and looked up at me. “I want you, Kristoff.”

  “My Lady,” I whispered. “You cannot mean…”

  “Kristoff…” She lifted her chin, the light of determination flaring in her lovely green eyes. “I don’t care about the rules anymore. I’m not going to abide by the Council’s regulations if they feel free to break or manipulate them any way they want.”

  “I understand why you would feel that way,” I said carefully. “But my Lady, no matter what wrongdoing has gone on, I am still not of Royal blood. I cannot be your Consort.”

  “Fine. Then I won’t have a Consort.”

  “But you must!” I protested. “Someone must help slake the need. Your Royal cravings…”

  “Can be just as easily satisfied by you.” Reaching up on her tiptoes, she took my face in her hands and looked intently into my eyes. “Kristoff,” she whispered. “I want you to help me—the way Sundalla the 887th had her Guard help her.”

  “My Lady…” I felt her need so strongly it was all I could do to stop myself from taking her then and there, as she was asking me to do. But I couldn’t let myself, no matter how much I might want to. “Charlotte,” I said, my voice hoarse with desire. “I want you as you want me. But the union between Sundalla the 887th and her Guard was sanctioned by the Council of Wisdom.”

  “Screw the Council of Wisdom,” she said, frowning. “They’re corrupt. Or at least Tannus is. Do you know what I saw when I touched him?”

  I shook my head, almost afraid to know.

  Charlotte took a deep breath. “Tannus would kill me if he could—he’ll try to if things don’t go according to his plan.”

  “What?” I glared at her. “You Saw that when you touched him?”

  She nodded. “That and the fact that he and Morbain have been conspiring together for a long time now. Oh, and he hated your old mistress—my predecessor.”

  “He didn’t like that she defied him in her choice of Consort,” I said bitterly.

  “Well, I’m defying him too,” Charlotte said firmly. “If I can’t have you as my Consort, then I won’t have any Consort at all.”

  “The Council of Wisdom won’t stand for it,” I said.

  “They’ll have to,” she said grimly. “I was willing to go along with their rules and bow to their religious authority when I thought everything was impartial. But tonight, after what we saw at the Culling Ceremony…” She shook her head. “I’m not playing by their rules anymore, Kristoff.”

  I knew I should advise her to play along with the Council, to give Tannus what he wanted. He was, after all, the most powerful person in the galaxy, after the Empress herself. If he truly wanted her dead, it would become a full time job keeping her alive and safe. In short, he was a dangerous male.

  But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was partly the unfairness of the situation but even more than that, I couldn’t bear the thought of the female I loved being given to another.

  “Very well,” I said in a low voice. “Then I will help you defy the Council. Just tell me what you want of me, my Lady.”

  “I want you Kristoff.” She pulled me down and I let her, sealing my mouth to hers for a kiss. Her mouth tasted as sweet as the lizten berry wine that had been served at the banquet and her sweet, feminine scent intoxicated me. I felt my shaft throbbing beneath my uniform and knew I wanted her as I had never wanted another female.

  But we must at least try to work within the confines of the law.

  “My Lady,” I said, my voice husky with need, when we finally broke the kiss. “You know how much I want you but in order to keep to the letter of the law where an Empress and her Guard are concerned, you must take and use me. Not the other way around.”

  “All right.” She was already shedding her gown, her skin creamy and glowing as she stepped out of the rustling green fabric and stood naked before me in the firelight. Her nipples stood out pink and tight from full breasts and I could see the way her outer pussy lips were swollen with need, allowing her Goddess-pearl to show itself.

  It was all I could do not to drop to my knees and bury my face between her thighs right then and there—Gods, how I longed for the taste of her! The feel of her pulling my hair and crying my name as she had at the Pleasure House was fresh in my mind. Just the memory of it made my shaft so hard it hurt.

  But now that we were back in the palace, the rules were different. I must only let her touch me and I must not touch back. I must give my body to be used and not use hers in return. And above all, I must not spurt my seed inside her and seek to bond her to me. Penetration was allowed, only if she impaled herself upon me. Allowing myself to come inside her, however, most certainly was not.

  It was hard, so hard but if we were questioned by the Council I needed to say that we had been guided by the laws Sundalla the 887th and her Guard had used.

  Promising myself that I would not violate the precepts of those that had come before us, I undressed as well—or started to, until Charlotte stopped me.

  “No, let me,” she murmured, after I finished removing my chest plate and greaves.

  I stood silent, watching her beautiful body and full curves in the firelight as she stood on tiptoe to remove my undershirt. When she bared my chest, she rubbed her cheek against it, making a soft sound of desire in the back of her throat. When she took off my kilt and underclothing, I had to clench my hands into fists to keep from reaching for her.

  And when we were both finally completely nude in the firelight, it w