You"re awfully quiet, Cuinn whispered through my mind.
You"re awfully fond of shattering that.
He made a disgruntled noise.
Cuinn...
The both of you, stop it.
"You heard us?" I said. "I thought you couldn"t hear Cuinn?"
"I cannot. I can hear you," Renata whispered against my temple.
"Oh." I felt a gentle smile tug at my lips. "So now it is I that has ruined your quiet moment."
Renata slid her palm down my back, placing her hand flat against the base of my spine. She drew me closer to her.
"Yes," she said, brushing my knee with her thigh. I raised my leg and she nestled her thigh against me.
Sorrow like soft feathers touched my mind.
"What happens when al this is done?" I asked.
"When we execute the traitor?"
"I stil have the chal enges..."
"Unless you influence a number of Elders to vote in your favor."
I sat up. "You never told me the Elders could vote someone in."
"It is an unusual way, Epiphany. I do not al ow them to cast votes lightly, as they more often than not bicker and squabble and try to swing one another"s votes in support of their own wil s."
"What I am doing does not prove anything to them, you think?"
"It proves everything to me, but if the Elders were to cast a vote you would have to sway them, not I." She searched my gaze. "Is that a path you would like to consider?"
"It is an option," I said, "that"s al . Even if I sway enough of them to vote in my favor, there are those that stil would not respect me."
"Even if you pa.s.s the chal enges there wil be those that do not respect you. Such is the life of our kind." She leaned forward and I closed my eyes. Her lips fol owed the line of my jaw to my neck, nibbling lightly and sending desire like wine coursing through my veins.
"What about us?"
Her mouth found my neck and I tilted my head to the side, offering it to her.
"What do you mean?" Her lips framed the words dangerously close to my ear.
"What happens to us after we execute the traitor? What happens to us if I become an Elder? What happens if I fail the chal enges?"
She drew back, frowning at me. "Given your position, you are thinking entirely too much."
She leaned in as if to kiss me and I stopped her by placing a hand high up on her chest.
"If you kiss me, I won"t be able to think."
"That is the point, cara mia."
"Your sweet Italian nothings wil not distract me," I said. "I"ve been overexposed these past some years and the effect it once had has diminished."
She caught the edge of my earlobe between her teeth, tugging until I made another sound.
"Renata," I said in a breathy voice.
"I want to make love to you."
Italian, English, it didn"t matter coming from Renata. I shuddered and tried to focus.
Renata let me push her thigh out from between my legs. I started wiggling toward the edge of the bed.
"Epiphany, what are you doing?"
"Presently trying to remember what I was talking about."
"My sweet Italian nothings wil not distract you." She grinned slyly.
I gave her an impatient look. "Before that."
"I do not know," she said, getting to her hands and knees and crawling toward me. "I seem to have forgotten."
I slid from the bed to my feet. Renata crawled across the mattress, fol owing. Her midnight hair cascaded around her like a cloak of dark silk as she moved to the edge of the bed.
"You forget?" I asked. "I don"t believe it, my lady."
"Suit yourself." She gave a reserved smile, eyes glistening deviously by candlelight.
I glanced at the plum colored curtain that hid the doorway leading to the other room.
Renata tsked softly, the corners of her mouth curving seductively, predatorily. "We have played this game before, cara mia."
It made me want to run.
It made me want to get caught by her.
It always had.
Renata smiled darkly, as if she knew and was remembering the same thing.
"You forget I can read your thoughts, Epiphany. If you run, I wil catch you."
I moved as I had seen Vasco move, as I had seen Renata move. I ran, not for the door, but further into the room. Renata caught me and a sound very much like a squeal came out of my mouth. She snaked her arm around my waist, and with her other hand clutching the arm she had caught, swung me around in a dance-like move to face her.
She laughed, pul ing me close.
"I told you I would catch you." Her arms locked like shackles around my torso. I touched those arms, running my hands up the length of them.
"Perhaps I wanted to be caught."
Someone cleared their throat and I turned to see Vasco holding the purple curtain aside. He looked to the opposite side of the room. Dominique stood in the other doorway.
"I heard a noise," Dominique said, looking somewhat foolish as there was obviously no threat. "I beg your pardon, my Queen."
"You are pardoned," she said, looking highly amused.
Dominique stepped out and shut the door behind him.
Vasco grinned at me. "I did not think you were in trouble," he said. "I just could not believe such a noise actual y came from you."
I narrowed my eyes at him and he grinned even wider, raising his hands in mock surrender.
"We do not have much longer, my lady."
Renata acknowledged him with a nod. "I am aware, Vasco."
When the door clicked shut and the curtain fel back into place, I looked at her.
"It has been a long time since I have heard you make a sound quite like that," she said.
I knew the expression I gave her was a serious one. "What happens to us, Renata?"
"You are persistent."
"And you are evasive."
"I am not being evasive."
"No, now you are being elusive." I sighed, slightly frustrated.
She took my hand and I fol owed her back to the bed. Renata pul ed me down into the circle of her arms and I tried to relax, but found it hard to because she would not answer my question and I could not understand why she would not answer it.
"I have already decided what I wil do whether you succeed to pa.s.s the chal enges or no."
"And what is that?" I asked, not meeting her eyes, afraid of what she would say.
She cupped the side of my face in her hand and turned me to look at her.
I will declare you Inamorata, she whispered through my mind. I will inform the Rosso Lussuria that you are my lover and my consort.
I knew her wel enough to know that she had told me telepathical y and had been evasive because she was Renata. She was the Queen and once again my lover, but being Renata, she did not want anyone to know until she chose the right moment. She told me because I had asked.
It was a great risk for her and not one I expected her to take.
It is a risk I am willing to take, but you must understand, Piph, that it does not solely put me at risk. It will put you at risk as well.
"I understand," I said. "It is a risk I too am wil ing to take."
"Good. That pleases me." Her tranquil expression turned quizzical y amused as I moved down her body. "Epiphany," she said, imbuing my name with a thread of amus.e.m.e.nt, "what are you doing?"
My fingers brushed the hem of her dress. I turned my head, hiding behind my hair.
"You were not satisfied earlier."
"What do you propose to do?"
I bowed my head even more, stil hiding. It was a demure gesture and a subservient one that I knew would please her.
"I endeavor to please you, my lady."
She touched my chin with cool fingers, turning my face to hers. "If you would please me," she mused, rising and catching the edge of my knee-length tunic in her hands, "take off your clothes."
I undressed quickly, but she did not remove her own attire. Renata merely raised the black velvet of her skirt and al owed me to draw the undergarments hidden beneath the heavy material from her porcelain skin. I situated myself between her legs, kissing her thighs with half-parted lips.
We did not have long until the sun rose. But what time we had left, I would use wisely.
It would not be a quick and pa.s.sionate outburst. There would be no bloodl.u.s.t to fan the fire or exquisite force to bend the wil . If there had been more time, I would have requested that she disrobe. I would have taken great pleasure in running my lips over every inch of her body. As it was, there was not the time for such languid lovemaking. I kissed her thighs, tracing an invisible path with my lips to the hol ow near her groin. The smel of her arousal hung in the air like something sweet and honeyed. With closed eyes, I stroked her cleft with the tip of my tongue, teasing her open.
I kissed her, burying my mouth between her legs. Renata moaned, hips rising to meet my face. I licked her, once, twice, a sensuous glide of tongue, searching and exploring her inner folds.
"Epiphany," she said, voice caught somewhere between a whisper and a moan.
I stopped my prolonged investigation and rose, taking her c.l.i.t into my mouth with lips and tongue. I sucked her gently, tracing her with lazy circles.
Her hips jerked and she ground herself against my face. I felt her frustration but did not lose my deliberately leisurely pace.
"Epiphany," she said again, and this time there was enough command in her tone that a shiver of excitement p.r.i.c.kled down my spine.
She slid from between my lips as I drew back, watching the shudder tremble through her limbs.
"Yes, my lady?"
Her look hardened in a way that promised penalty.
Steady desire like quiet waves murmured through me.
I bowed my head. "As you wil ."
I took her between my lips, licking and sucking, ceding my mouth to her pleasure without restraint. I drowned in her. The taste of her fil ed my mouth like honeyed wine, subtle yet no less intoxicating.
She moaned, muscles going rigid as she spent herself against my lips.