...8...
PRINCESS ZOË XING
The room cackled with tension as the emperor's eyes bore into hers, oscillating in colour again.
His orbs were dark, glazed with a mix of desire and anger.
Her breath came in short soft gasps as she stared at him.
He leaned closer, staring deep into her soul.
Then he kissed her in half of a nanosecond
He took her by surprise, swooping down on her like a vigilant hawk on a chick before she could realize his intentions.
She wasn't expecting it, that unrestrained sudden assault of desire that engulfed her when he claimed her lips.
He ravaged her mouth with his kisses, taking and giving.
Her head swooned from all the hazy pleasure his kisses were arousing.
She moaned as he brought her against his body with a hand that snaked around her waist.
Her hands coiled around his trim waist, holding unto him, tightly.
His scent, that sweet hypnotizing coconut and lemon scent -or coco lemon- wafted into her nostrils, filling her head, enthralling her to stupor.
She moaned as his kiss did wonders to her body.
He kissed her neck, planting kisses along her clavicle.
'Why then do you want this villain if I am nothing but evil?' he asked her, his tongue skimming her heated skin.
'I don-'
The words died in her mouth, replaced by a needy moan as he drew her head back with her hair, after grabbing as much as his broad palms could.
The gesture exposed the glowing brown skin of her neck to him and his feasting eyes.
He nipped her ears softly with his teeth, his tongue drawing circles on her ears before they reached her neck.
He ran his tongue over the sensitive spot between her ears and neck.
Desire melted her, turning her into a messy puddle.
His caressing mouth left her wanting more of him.
He glided his tongue over and over again on her neck, earning her moans of pleasure.
She almost pleaded, unsure why she should feel the urge to do so, plead for something she didn't know.
His wandering mouth met her cleavage.
And when his mouth, ministered to one of her breast through her clothes, she purred delightfully, unable to control the sounds leaving her mouth.
It was same when his tongue circled the fleshy mound on her chest, wetting her thin blouse.
Sensations, overpowering and pressing ran through her, causing her to shudder and shiver.
Despite the barrier, his adept tongue worked her nipples into thick hard beads.
Soon, she was desperately clinging unto him, gasping for air as he did same to the other twin.
And then, abruptly, he drew back with a smirk on his face.
She stared back at him with passion ridden eyes and knew from the triumphant look on his face that she had been thoroughly played by him.
'I'll do this to you anytime you ignore me,' he informed her.
She was confused, unable to comprehend with the amount of emotions on the loose in her.
'I'll awaken your desire and then leave you hanging and dangling, very high and dry,' he stated.
She breathed through her nose, heavily, her skin hot.
'That will be your punishment for ignoring me,' he mandated. 'I am not someone that you should ignore mine.'
Then, he walked away from her looking completely unaffected by whatever passion had dealt with her thoroughly just a moment ago.
It confirmed her suspicion.
She was in the palm of his hands, under his mercy.
She was certes his.
Well, she hated it, hated that and equally hated him!
She stared at him until he left the room.
She fumed for a while, angry at him and herself for being so pliant to him.
She stomped out of the room and in the opposite of the direction that he had turned.
He watched her leaving figure from where he stood.
It had worked perfectly.
He didn't want to admit it, but the little prince was really a genius.
She stormed out of the left wing in anger and marched down the stairs.
She turned into the general living room, his receiving room, and nearly colliding with someone.
'Watch it!' the lady screamed at her. She knew that voice.
She looked up at the lady whose name she was yet to know.
They stared at each other in recognition.
'It's you again?! What the hell are you still doing here? Don't you have a home you tramp? Don't you?!' she asked obviously pissed.
She had seen the lady twice when they had held the last bimonthly meeting two months ago.
The tramp had no manners, no iota of respect whatsoever.
She had disrupted the meeting, barging in and demanding to see the beast who turned out to be their great emperor.
What impudence!
The lady went about operating on an insane amount of audacity.
It had infuriated her.
She could recall how the emperor had hurled her over his shoulders like a large bag of potatoes and had taken her away, to be disciplined she was sure.
They had all wondered who the woman was until one of the maids had tattled to her that the woman was there to satisfy the emperor's sexual needs.
She was a demimondaine.
She wondered what the geisha was still doing here.
'Oh please, mind your own business Mrs. Quick mouth and fiery temper,' she snapped at her.
It was an obvious transfer of aggression.
She went around the lady, not in the mood to banter with her at all.
'You dare to walk out on me?!' she questioned her, causing her to halt.
She turned to her personal aide, her escort and said to her, 'Jessica, make her pay obeisance to me. She seems to lack manners and I shall teach her how to do so,' she said staring straight at her, wickedly.
'Yes my lady,' Jessica received her mistress command.
She turned and grabbed her by the arm.
'Pay homage to my lady or be forced to do so,' she stated seriously.
She scoffed at the lady's threat.
She was unafraid.
'Why should I do so?' she snapped at her unafraid.
'You must because I am Princess Zoë Xing of the Xing Kingdom and you are below me in status.'
'Ahh, I see. But I am not interested in whatever you are ranting on and on about,' she muttered.
This statement infuriated Zoë.
'Come on Jessica! Make her pay for this, quickly!' she said with her eyes and head, fuming, with anger.
'Let go of me,' she snapped at the lady's aide, Jessica. 'I have no strength to war with you,' she continued with a forced sigh.
'Unhand the lady! Now!' Xiera barked harshly, arriving just then.
Her eyes were hard, dangerous, made more horrible by her fiery red hair which was hanging loose and wild behind her.
Jessica's eyes turned to her approaching figure.
'She disrespected my mistress warrior Xiera and I was only just trying to teach her a lesson,' Jessica explained to her. Xiera's brow rose at Jessica's unsought explanation.
'What disrespect do you speak of?' the lady asked with a laugh, eyeing Jessica's fingers on the brown skin of her arm angrily.
'Teach her a lesson my foot!' was Xiera's sharp retort. 'Unhand her, this very instant before I lose it!' she snapped at Jessica.
'She disrespected me female warrior,' Zoë said to Xiera, addressing her by the name she hated the most.
She hated to be called that.
'Your highness,' Xiera began with anger in her voice but was interrupted by her lady.
'Don't listen to her Xiera,' she said to the red haired warrior. 'She is just looking for a way to lash out at me. She detest my presence as much as I detest hers,' she spat out, instantly remembering how the sick lady had insulted her severely at their last encounter.
She had been called her a hungry stray and a dirty little whore by her when she had done absolutely nothing wrong to her.
'Now, that is disrespect and I myself will teach you a lesson,' Zoë snapped coming to her.
'Under the emperor's orders, no one is to touch the lady except him,' Xiera snapped at her, stilling her. She turned to Xiera.
'Under whose orders?' she asked Xiera in disbelief with a sneer.
'Mine,' came along the emperor's voice.
They all turned to him.
The emperor stood there, staring at him the four women with a lazy bit furious look on his face.
They all curtsied at his presence and paid obeisance to him save the geisha -Zoë noticed- and the emperor's escort who had come in with him.
She cursed inwardly as her anger brewed and boiled, simmering at the blatant disrespect to the emperor.
What sort of geisha behaved that way?
Was she not scared of losing he head in Linamine?
She was beginning to find it hard to believe that the lady was a geisha.
She seemed more like an unruly slave that was favored by its master.
'It was my orders Princess Zoë Xing,' he clarified, coming to take the lady's right palm in his.
Zoë watched this gesture infuriated, completely convinced of her earlier theory.
The lady sneered at the emperor.
He smirked at her, his eyes twinkling with unhidden amusement.
'Are you still angry mine?' he asked her.
She said nothing in reply to his question.
'You are ignoring me,' he stated, 'and you know very well what could happen next.'
Her gaze shot upwards to meet him, startled and doubtful.
'You would not dare,' she whispered, afraid he would do so.
He closed the rest of the little distance between them and her heart flew out of her chest.
The smirk on his face told her that he would, wouldn't he?
'It will take me about nothing to do so,' he pointed out to her.
He stepped forward, cupping her cheeks in his right hands and lifting her face to his in the process.
This caused her to look directly into his ever mesmerizing eyes.
'I wasn't ignoring you!' she quickly pacified him quite desperately. 'I just didn't know what to say to you,' she lied.
'That is better,' he accepted her reason despite knowing that it was a lie.
He stepped back a bit, having instilled the fear that he wanted to in her.
'So, what is the noise about Xiera?' he asked.
'The lady claims that my lady disrespected her,' Xiera reported to the emperor.
He turned to the lady.
'Did you?' he asked her.
Zoë seethed.
How could he ask the lady and not her?
She was the lady of higher rank standing there.
'I did not,' she stated. 'She insulted me and I did nothing but ask her to mind her business,' she said glaring at the hide-bound lady.
'Liar!' Zoë retorted instantly, completely prepared to speak a mouthful. 'You are manner less! You did not greet me; neither did you acknowledge my status and presence, intending to completely walk pass me.'
The emperor fixed his hard gaze on Zoë.
'She shall acknowledge no one but me Princess Zoë,' he said to the angry lady who gasped in surprise along with her aide, Jessica.
'Who the hell is she?' Zoë asked, forgetting she was addressing the emperor in her anger.
'Your highness,' Cora called her to order with a warning voice. 'Be careful with your tone!'
'She is mine,' the emperor answered her nonetheless.
He turned to Xiera.
'Escort your lady out, to wherever she is headed,' he mandated.
'Yes my lord,' Xiera answered him with a small bow of respect.
Her lady instantly removed her hand from the emperor's quite gladly and matched onwards.
Xiera followed behind her quickly, matching her pace.
He noted her direction.
She must be going to the flower garden, again.
'You are four days early Princess Zoë,' the emperor pointed out the moment he returned his attention to the woman before him.
'It is a long journey from the Xing kingdom to the Linamine palace My Lord,' she answered him. 'And I do not intend to arrive late,' the still fuming Zoë mumbled.
'Princess Zoë,' the emperor called. She looked up at him.
His face was angry.
'Yes My Sovereign Liege,' she answered him.
'Do not upset her,' he said to Zoë in a cold hard drawl.
The brutal warning in his voice was vivid.
'I will not condone such at all.' he started to turn away from her but stopped and turned back to her.
She stared at him, confused at his actions.
He gave her a much softer look.
'Welcome to the Linamine palace, Princess Zoë Xing of the Xing kingdom.'
And with that, he strode away, leaving her to fume as much as she wanted to.
...OmaPhinaPhire