Perfect Master(4)

It puzzled her that they went about handling her body with gentle precision, exquisite care, and a total lack of the admiration she’d come to expect from all males—even the eunuchs who served in her father’s household. Although they expressed the proper appreciation for the small, jeweled casks that she presented each of them as bride-gifts, they didn’t seem affected by the blue and lavender gems—tanzanites and Tiffany Stones from Earth—that her father had told her should hold special significance for eunuchs.





Chapter Two



While Emerald was being prepared, the fourth of the royal eunuchs attended his prince, preparing him to greet his mate. When Arik waved away the royal robes Hikaru tried to set on his leather-clad shoulders, the eunuch protested. “My lord, you must look the part of a prince.”

Indeed. There would be no mistaking his position, for Arik would be the only whole male participating in the mating ceremony, a fact that would be evident to all since he was wearing a bodysuit that left his cock and balls exposed. Already his cock had stiffened, whether from anticipation or the loving attention Hikaru had shown it while freeing it from the confines of the leather, Arik couldn’t say. “I will dispense with the royal trappings. It is not as though my bride is likely to object to their lack. After all, I look less fearsome in the leather than I would in my princely robes.”

For a moment he imagined himself whole, naked but for that translucent robe, presenting himself for his bride’s inspection and admiration. Shoving that fantasy aside, he reached behind his neck and checked the security of the lacings that held his hood in place. “It’s time for us to go.”

“As you say, my lord.” When Hikaru bowed, the diamond studs in his ears and left nostril twinkled.

The bridegroom cometh. It is of no consequence that he looks less adorned than the royal eunuchs who serve him.

Arik had refused the diamond-studded cock ring his father had offered the night before and wore only a large diamond stud in his left earlobe to mark his status. A stud hidden beneath the leather hood that hugged his face, concealing the ravaged side of it from view.

His footsteps resounded against the marble staircase, strong yet muted by the soft kidskin boots that encased his feet. One step sure, the next halting, each footfall brought him closer to the point from which there could be no return. The point he had crossed, in truth, on the day he had obeyed his father’s order and returned to Obsidion to take his place as heir to the Diamond Throne.

He’d become practically immune to the courtiers’ stares and the sympathetic murmurs that drifted to his ears whenever he ventured from his chambers. The black leather bodysuit he wore served to distance him from them, and to provide a barrier that shielded his emotions as well as his ravaged body from their view. There she is. My bride. Laid out on the dais in the great hall below, she practically took his breath away. Her ivory skin glowed with the sensual oil he’d chosen earlier from the selection the royal eunuchs had offered. The smell of her female musk, accentuated by the aphrodisiac in the oil, made Arik’s nostrils flare behind the mask.

His cock swelled with anticipation. This delectable morsel belonged to him, as certainly as his princely robes of gold and purple and the cask of jewels that he kept secure in his chamber where no one could plunder them. His balls tightened when he watched her squirm with obvious pleasure at the attention she was getting from two of the royal eunuchs. They were stirring her passions with their practiced hands and mouths while the third one clipped her long, fiery hair. He longed to touch that short, soft-looking pelt with his naked hand—the ringlets only her Master could look upon once the vows were consummated—but knew he must not.

If they are consummated at all.

Arik had thought about it long and hard. He would not take her against her will. And he couldn’t believe she’d accept him willingly once she saw what he’d become. He should disrobe, show her the monster behind the leather and give her the choice of walking away.

He paused, his gaze steady on Emerald’s perfect face as his head filled with the smell of woman—the heady aroma of the incense, the oil, and sex. His testicles drew up tight against the leather of his bodysuit, weakening his resolve to reveal himself. His sex, the only part of him besides his eye that he had not encased in the concealing garment, swelled and tightened. His cock rose up against his belly, rock-hard and throbbing now that the prospect of burying himself in the fragrant cunt of his mate was so near. So close.

Ignoring the voice of his conscience that screamed for him to show his true colors, he stilled his hand, which had moved behind his head to begin unlacing the hood. His conscience prickling him for his cowardice, he continued his deliberate journey toward destiny.