26. Sunzi

26

SUNZI

I was extremely grateful not to be equivalent to the Isador alpha who must manage all the Blood himself and order them into individual roles and duties about the nest.

Because as my queen led me up the stairs to her personal chambers, I could only focus on the vibrant sparkle of her hair. The lingering scent of her blood. Sunlight and flames, smoldering with intensity. The simple pressure of her fingers on mine. The promise shining in her eyes and in her bond.

The rest of her Blood had already deployed themselves around her house and property as any logical warrior would. The Scotsman waited at the top of the stairs, after already searching her quarters for any intruders. Vlad and Antonius followed us, protecting our backs. Leonides and Kuros prowled around the first level, alternatively stopping for more tarts. Everyone else was outside, enjoying the fresh air and green growing things, while still guarding from any threat.

Such a blessing after an eternity of punishing sun and burning gold.

She hesitated outside an open double door and glanced down the hallway where several doors lead to other rooms. "Tonje said there were additional bedrooms for Blood on this level, but I only see three doors."

"Dinnae worry about not enough beds, my queen." The Scotsman shook his head, his lips twitching toward the closest thing to a smile I'd ever seen on his face. "None of us will be thinking of lying down to sleep for at least a century or two."

"You don't need to rest?"

"The Isador Blood said we rarely sleep, though we need to eat more to make sure we're replenishing our blood as quickly as possible."

She looked up at me, her eyes soft yet dark with secrets. "When you lie with me, you don't sleep?"

Silently, I shook my head.

Vlad didn't hesitate to say the truth. "Why sleep when we can look at you?"

One corner of her mouth tipped up and she glanced over my shoulder at him. "I'd like to look at Sunzi in private this time, if that's alright."

He bowed at the waist. "Your wish is our command, Your Majesty. We guard your door without fail."

She gave a tiny tug on my hand. As we passed through the doors, the guarding Blood carefully shut them behind us. Though Vlad whispered, "You're one lucky bastard."

I didn't feel lucky.

I felt blessed beyond all hope.

Just to be here with her. To be allowed to give her my blood whenever she needed. To keep her safe. To watch her bloom with confidence and strength and courage outside of the hell she'd endured. It was all I could do not to fall on my knees and press my face to her feet.

She made a soft sound of wonder that drew my gaze to her face. Staring outside at the wind-swept ocean, her face illuminated by nothing but starlight, she gleamed with pure, inner light. A true Brightest Sun, blessed by her goddess.

"I've never seen anything so beautiful," she whispered.

"Me neither."

She turned, her lips quirking again. "You're not even looking outside."

"I know."

Still holding my hand, she turned to look around the large chamber. Her cheeks blushed rosy pink as she stared at the bed front and center in the room beneath a large window of glass overhead. "I think we could all fit."

"If that's your wish, we'll eagerly test your assumption."

Her head cocked slightly, her gaze stroking over my face. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Mind what, my queen?"

"Sharing a bed with so many other men?"

"Are you there?" She nodded. "Then I'll share the bed with whomever you wish to call to your side."

She stepped closer, her breath fluttering over my skin. "Perhaps another time. Right now, all I want is you."

These foreign clothes felt entirely too tight on my body, constricting my breathing. Strangling me. "How do you want me, my queen?"

She slipped her hands beneath the shirt and pushed the thin material up. I helped her pull the shirt over my head and tossed it aside. Her fingers settled on the closure of the jeans, fumbling with the unfamiliar button and zipper. I burned to take over and ease the slow torture of her fingers grazing my skin, but I refused to interrupt or thwart any of her actions. If she wished to torture me one slow stroke by stroke until the end of time, so be it. I'd survive it. Surely.

"Have you done this before?"

Her words startled me out of my fierce concentration. "What specifically, my queen?"

She rolled her eyes, an unexpected and delightful reveal of a facet of her personality I'd never been allowed to witness. "Sex."

"In my previous human life, yes," I said slowly, not sure why she asked. "In Heliopolis, absolutely not, even if I had been physically capable of such an act."

Flashing a brilliant smile of victory, she finally shoved the trousers down my thighs. "Do you remember how to make sex feel good?"

Ah. Impaled as viciously as if Vlad fed me his spear, I almost stumbled to my knees. "I do, my queen."

She turned around and gathered her hair over her left shoulder, giving me a shy, yet burning look over her shoulder. "I've never felt good, Sunzi. Not ever. I want you to make it feel good. That's all."

I unzipped her gown as slowly as she'd unzipped my pants. The material slipped easily down her body to puddle on the floor. "That's everything, my queen. The most important thing of all. I'll make you feel good or die trying."

KARMEN

I waited for the familiar pit of dread to spread through my stomach each time I'd been called to Ra's bed. For my heart to seize up and stop beating. Or worse, hammer like a caged bird beating its wings on the bars, desperate to escape.

But this was Sunzi. His lips softly brushed the curve of my shoulder. The side of my neck. His fingers lightly traced every bump of my spine down to the silken underthings I'd put on to catch the blood and avoid staining another dress.

The first niggling sense of unease unfurled. Would he mind if I was still bleeding?

His fingers stilled immediately. "What's wrong, my queen?"

For a moment, I couldn't breathe. Not because I was scared or worried, but because he'd known. Immediately. He'd sensed a tiny moment of unease and stopped. Without hesitation. Without throwing a fiery tantrum and injuring me with his fury.

"I might still be bleeding," I whispered. "I don't hurt any longer, but I wasn't sure if that would disgust you."

He rested his chin on my shoulder and gently wrapped his arms around me, pulling me back into a full-body embrace. "Nothing about you could ever disgust me, my queen."

"Karmen," I said firmly. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, Karmen, my queen. Honestly…" He paused, drawing in a breath as if he needed courage too. "The thought of any of your blood excites me. If I hadn't been so concerned for your wellbeing at the hotel, I would have joined Leonides in enjoying every drop of your blood, even spilled on the floor. Though I might have been tempted to throw myself into the pool and wallow so every inch of my body was coated in your blood."

His fingers closed around my right wrist and lifted my hand up over my shoulder so he could kiss my palm. His tongue swirled over the dried blood, probing gently where I'd bitten myself, even though the punctures had already closed.

My entire body tightened at the thought of him biting me again. Licking my blood from my skin. Feeding. While he moved inside me.

"Absolutely." His lips moved up the tender skin of my inner wrist. "But only if you're feeding on me too."

I drew in a shaking breath. "Yes, please."

He swept me up in his arms but staggered and almost fell. I had a heart stopping moment of terror, fearing I'd somehow killed him with my request. He'd carried me countless times before without issue. Had I weakened him?

"Fucking human boots," he growled, shifting his weight from side to side as he tried to work his shoes and pants off his lower legs without the use of his hands. "The one benefit of the manor house was your ability to make clothing disappear in an instant."

I bit back a choked laugh, trying not to insult or embarrass him. If I'd ever dared laugh at Ra… Especially when he was attempting to be intimate with me…

Lightly, Sunzi tossed me onto the mattress so he could untangle his feet. "Don't you dare tell the Impaler. I'll never live it down."

Vlad chortled on the other side of the door. "Too late."

And it dawned on me that this is what my life should have always been like. Easy laughter and companionship. Trust and loyalty. Gentleness and kindness and good humor. Especially in a bedchamber.

Along with a healthy dose of hunger and lust.

As soon as he felt me looking at him, he paused and straightened to his full height, giving me time to drink him in. The black silk of his hair sliding over his shoulders. Long, lean muscle flexing beneath his skin. His cock, hard and thick and ready, but not monstrously huge. I didn't cringe with pain at the thought of taking him inside me.

He wasn't a big brute of a man like Shara's alpha, but staring at him, I couldn't deny the strength coiled in his body. Power shimmered around him. A controlled threat of violence promising swift, fatal action if anyone approached me without his consent. His eyes burned with intensity, missing nothing, calculating everything, every single moment. He wasn't the kind of man to shout and bluster threats.

No, when he killed someone, it'd be silent and quick. A simple twitch of his hand without warning.

"Except for the wolf king." He kept his voice soft, but I heard the undercurrent of anger that approached vitriol. "His death would be loud and long."

"I don't want to waste a single moment thinking about Eivind Ironheart ever again."

Sunzi crossed his arms over his chest and bowed. "As you wish, so let it be, Karmen, my queen."

I lifted my hand toward him, and immediately, he was there beside me on the mattress, wrapping me in his arms. He lay beside me as he'd done countless times. I'd even been naked before. But I hadn't been so aware of the way our skin heated together. The rapid rise and fall of my breathing rubbed my breasts against his chest. He stroked my back, the curve of my hip, the same as he'd done countless times before, but the weight of his hand was more intent. His fingertips seemed to buzz with an electrical current that stirred tingles through my flesh.

He touched me like a man touches his woman. A woman he loved. Not a simple Blood guarding his queen. Still reverent and controlled—but with so much more emotion. In fact, his hand trembled and his breath snagged in his throat, the same as mine.

"I love you more than life itself. I'd rather die now or return to march the golden streets of Heliopolis for all eternity than ever cause you a moment of fear or pain."

I pressed closer to him, lifting my thigh over his, bringing our bodies closer together. Heat rose higher, an inferno raging in my veins. Hunger throbbed through me, the roof of my mouth aching. My core, empty. Eager, for the first time in my life, to feel him inside me. "Please, Sunzi. Show me exactly how much you love me."

A tremor rocked through his body. "If you're scared?—"

"I'm not," I replied. Then I pressed my mouth to his.