Silk, Swords And Surrender

Chapter Three

Lian placed the pebble into the leather sling and took careful aim. She was perched on top of the gardener’s ladder, which raised her high enough over the courtyard wall to see into the alleyway. She also had clear sight of the side entrance to the Guo residence. As soon as Baozhen appeared, she let the pebble fly. It flew past his ear and struck against the gate.

“Hey—”

She sighed. “I must be out of practice.”

Baozhen brushed a hand over the front of his tunic to regain his composure.

He glanced up at her from the alleyway, showing off the strong cut of his jaw and that playful mouth. “Miss Lian, I see that you’re in a bloodthirsty mood today.”

Some of the successful merchants in the ward wore bright embroidered fabrics, as a show of their wealth, but Baozhen and his family favored muted, darker colors. He didn’t need a bright banner to draw attention to himself.

“Have you heard?” she asked.

Baozhen responded with a raised eyebrow—a look that he thought made him endearing. Most of the neighborhood girls agreed.

“Liu Jinhai sent my family a gift of tea and lychees yesterday,” she said smugly.

“Hmm...lychees. You must have really made an impression.”

So at ease with himself. It wasn’t a matter of pride or vanity for him. Everything came naturally to him.

“There’s some creature hovering at your head, there,” he remarked.

She couldn’t help gloating. She touched a hand to the gilded hummingbird ornament. “It’s a hairpin. Jinhai had it delivered to me personally.”

“Let me guess: along with a few lines of poetry that he copied from somewhere?”

She sniffed, refusing to let him dim her glow. Baozhen disappeared momentarily into his house to re-emerge atop his wall. They were now face-to-face across the two compounds.

“So, only two days and Liu Jinhai is already introducing himself to your parents and sending you gifts?”

“Nothing as impressive as a slingshot,” she pointed out wickedly.

“I should have thought more carefully about arming you. I don’t think you’ll miss next time, and this handsome face is the only asset I have.”

“Don’t forget the mouth part of that face,” she retorted.

He laughed at that, and a lazy warmth filled her. It was so wonderful, speaking with Baozhen like this. All his attention was focused on her and it didn’t matter what they said. The only thing that mattered was spending time in his company.

“Now that you’ve shown yourself to be so highly sought after...” he began.

She preened accordingly.

“Are you certain you want to limit yourself to only one admirer? You should have an army of suitors pushing their way through the gates.”

“Not everyone needs to surround themselves with a flock of admirers,” Lian scoffed. “Some of us are only looking for one person to make us happy.”

He frowned, confused.

“Liu Jinhai actually thinks I’m pretty,” she added, a little too shyly.

“I think you’re pretty,” he replied, a little too easily.

“You call me ‘alley cat.’ Like all the scrawny strays prowling the streets.”

“I’ll have to come up with a better name. That one hardly suits you anymore.”

He granted her a look that was far from brotherly and her toes curled with delight. He didn’t even have to make an effort to coax every part of her into drawing toward him with longing.

“Are you going to the banquet tonight at the Ko mansion?” he asked.

Ko was the registrar, whose offices recorded and approved all the goods that flowed through the East Market. He was celebrating his son’s civil appointment and had invited all the influential merchants and businessmen of the ward.

“Father and Mother will be attending,” she said.

“And you?”

She shrugged airily. “I have a feeling I won’t be well enough to go out this evening.”

“Oh?” His eyebrow was raised again, but this time it wasn’t in a charming fashion.

Baozhen took all the attention bestowed upon him for granted. He was used to having women sighing at his every word and he had become indifferent. She would be just another lovesick maiden if she fell prey to him.

“My family will be out all night drinking wine and playing the dice. I’m already feeling a bit tired,” she declared, conspicuously adjusting the hummingbird pin. “It’s best I stay home alone and rest.”

“Lian...” he began in warning tones.

She took that opportunity to disappear down the ladder. Her heart skipped with excitement as her feet settled onto the ground. Baozhen’s look of concern had been the last thing she saw before descending. And it had been very far from indifferent.

* * *

It was evening and the neighborhood had cleared. Everyone had gone to attend the registrar’s gathering. Baozhen remained behind—only to find that Lian had already slipped away from home. He’d expected as much from the dreamy look in her eyes that morning. She was a smitten young girl, floating in a world of clouds. With cursed hummingbirds flitting about her.

Liu Jinhai could be a gentleman when he tried. He was capable of being smooth and charming and well-spoken. But he was a wolf at heart. Cads like Liu Jinhai and himself ran in the same pack. It was all in good fun. Flirtation, secret meetings, stolen kisses in the dark—until someone got careless. Until some pretty, passionate flower like Lian, who believed in eternal love, came along and made them lose their heads. The wolves were prey as much as predator in this game.

Baozhen would have been wasting his breath to try to dissuade her. No one since the first dynasty had ever been talked out of a romantic liaison. Certainly not any love-stricken young girl.

It wasn’t hard to figure out the location for their secret meeting. There were only a few places one could sneak away to in the ward. Baozhen returned to the public park. Sure enough, there was an orb lantern bobbing in the trees just beyond the carp pond.

“Were you expecting me?” he asked as he entered the circle of trees.

Lian jumped from her spot on the stone bench. To his relief, she was still alone.

“No,” she said. “I wasn’t.”

He made himself a place beside her. “One wolf is as good as another.”

“You’re more of an old goat than a wolf,” she complained.

Heaven help him, he liked her. He had always enjoyed her company, but now he was forced to admit it. She’d always laughed at him, at what everyone thought him to be. She’d teased him and challenged him as much as he’d tormented her. What they’d shared had become so much more than childish games, but he had never known it until now.

This was a more inconvenient discovery than his sudden realization that Lian was pretty. When Jinhai showed up, Baozhen would simply have to kill him. And with his bare hands, too, though Baozhen had never been violent by nature.

“So, Jinhai slipped you a note telling you to come here?”

She didn’t answer. Instead she folded her hands in her lap and stared into the night.

“And when you saw it your heart began beating faster than it ever had. You read that letter again and again, keeping the precious paper hidden from everyone. Every time you thought of it you could hardly breathe, and tonight you couldn’t come here fast enough. It’s exciting to be desired like that.”

He faced her and willed her to look at him. She finally did.

“You’re probably a little frightened, as well.”

“I never realized the likes of you put so much thought into what happens to their many admirers.”

“I don’t. I never did—” Before.

The word was left unspoken and it was his turn to stare into the night. The rising moon cast silver ripples across the pond and he was stricken by a sense of loneliness. Every new face, every kiss was a novelty, a new adventure, but they all faded away when the slightest wind blew. He’d known too many empty embraces.

“You really believe you and Liu Jinhai are meant to be?” he admonished her.

Baozhen knew what that was like. He’d once thought his first love would be his only love. The only love possible in his overflowing heart. It was everyone’s rite of passage, but Lian was so sensible and Jinhai was such a... The scoundrel just wasn’t enough for her, and Lian should be bright enough to see it.

“Oh, Baozhen, you sound so serious.” She sighed.

“This is serious. We grew up together.” This was exactly the sort of conversation he was not good at. The serious ones. “I’m older than you. There are things I know from experience.”

Lian stiffened. “Are you saying you have a duty to protect me?”

“You have no real brothers.”

She made an impatient sound. “You of all people should know. Perhaps Liu Jinhai is not my other half—the summer to my winter, the dragon to my phoenix.” The lantern light gave her eyes a wicked gleam. “But at least he might like me enough to kiss me properly.”

Properly?

The wolf instinct took over and a lightning streak of fire shot through him. He reached for her and pulled her against him roughly. Lian grabbed on to his shoulders to steady herself before his mouth descended.

She made a startled sound as his lips pressed against hers. The moment he felt her yielding against him a fever streaked through him. He had known Lian all her life. If she wanted to flirt and kiss someone just to satisfy her curiosity it should be him.

And he had no intention of keeping this kiss “proper.”

* * *

The first touch of his lips stole everything from her. All strength drained from her limbs and every breath was surrendered to him. Baozhen was kissing her. Kissing her. But it was so much more than the brief meeting of lips he’d shown her in the courtyard. It was breath and body. The smell of him was so close. The roughness of his mouth was urging her own to yield, to open to him.

His arms tightened around her and his kiss was relentless. Magnificently so. She could feel the heat of him as he surrounded her. Her own skin had come alive...her senses were awake and sharpened, demanding more.

When he broke the kiss, she was gasping for air. Her heart pounded as if she’d run a hundred li.

“Baozhen...” She murmured his name, her voice filled with wonder. He’d devastated her.

“Put your arms around me,” he urged in a low voice.

Her hands gripped his upper arms, the crisp material of his tunic clenched in her fingers. Then she circled her arms around his neck as he pulled her fully onto his lap. His mouth captured hers again.

She sighed into the embrace. His palm traced a slow path down her spine before curving at her waist to pull her close. Their bodies molded together, soft against hard. If the first kiss had been meant to destroy her defenses, this second kiss was intended to savor the victory. Baozhen’s touch was confident as he tantalized her. With each caress her body responded, becoming flushed and swollen with pleasure.

So many nights trying to imagine what it would be like to be kissed. Not by anyone, but by Baozhen. She’d wondered if she’d know how to kiss him back, or where to put her hands. All those doubts fled in his embrace. He held her and guided her. There was nothing to do but feel.

He coaxed her lips gently apart and a tiny shock rippled through her at the touch of his tongue inside her mouth. Every muscle within her tensed, but she gripped him tighter, exhilarated. He explored her with just the tip of his tongue, inviting her to taste him in the same way. Before long she’d grown bold, reaching for him with every part of her, her body pressing against him. He was broader, harder, stronger than she’d imagined. And she ached with a fever more intense than any she’d ever suffered. An ache gathered low in her belly, in the soft place between her thighs.

Baozhen lifted his head and continued to hold her cradled against him, though they no longer kissed. In the dim light his eyes looked black and endless. He was breathing hard and she could hear each labored exhalation. Down below she could feel him hardening, and it fascinated her. This was the way a man kissed a woman he burned for.

“Your reputation is well-deserved,” she said in awe, barely able to find her voice.

“Don’t say that.”

He rested his forehead against hers. His skin was damp and flushed, though the night was cool around them. She didn’t say anything. She was too happy to think of words.

They stayed that way, folded around each other, for what seemed like a long time. Was she brave enough to try to kiss him now? She definitely, definitely hoped there would be more of that.

“We should go.”

Before Lian could gather her courage, Baozhen gently lifted her from him and back onto the bench.

The darkness hid her look of disappointment. She would have been content to stay there all night.

Baozhen held the lantern for her and they hardly spoke as they made their way back to their street. Lian couldn’t help glancing at him as they walked side by side. Every inch of her had become awakened and newly aware. She searched his face for some small sign that things had changed between them—that she was something more to him than the plain, skinny girl who lived in the next house over.

Baozhen turned to her as they neared the front gate of her house. He slanted her a half-smile that held unspoken knowledge and a shiver of pleasure coursed through her. She didn’t care if he’d given this sly look to a hundred other girls. He was looking at her that way now. Only her.

“No one is home yet,” she ventured as they came to a stop and he handed her the lantern. The light sputtered inside, the candle nearly spent. “They won’t be back for hours.”

She could see the walls of the Guo residence just beyond her house, and the thought of watching Baozhen disappear inside them tonight left a hollow feeling in her chest.

He ran his thumb over his mouth, swiping at the color that lingered there from the tint on her lips. There was something so masculine and assured about the gesture.

“That’s a foolish thing to tell me,” he admonished.

Heat rose up the back of her neck. How silly of her! She should have left him gracefully and then waited for Baozhen to come to her—but there had been so many times when she’d waited and watched from afar, hoping he’d turn away from his newest beauty just to notice her. Give her one little look.

Here she was once again—overeager and naive before him.

“Farewell, then,” she mumbled.

Hastily, she ducked through the gate without looking back. She couldn’t wait to disappear into her room and bury herself beneath her quilt.

A moment later she heard the sound of footsteps behind her and her heart leapt.

* * *

Lian. Foolish little Lian.

Baozhen followed her through the garden, appreciating the tapering of her waist and the slight sway of her hips beneath the thin robe she wore. He was discovering all those things very quickly. That she had a waist and hips, and a luscious mouth and breasts, and all the parts a woman held in her arsenal to bring a man to his knees. His blood pumped so hard he could barely think.

Lian was the most dangerous sort of woman. She was impetuous and passionate and she lacked any fear of him. She was also too innocent to know how this game was played, and too bold to play it with caution. If Jinhai had come to the park tonight, as Lian had intended, would it be a different wolf now following her irresistibly to her chamber?

Foolish Baozhen.

The courtyard was silent as Lian opened her door. She used the candle from the lantern to light the oil lamp inside, and Baozhen found himself for the first time in Lian’s sleeping quarters. He noticed how her hand trembled as she set the candle down.

He approached her slowly. “What did you think would happen here, Lian?”

Her chin lifted and her eyes met his, though he could see her gaze wavering slightly and the slight blush in her cheeks. She was trying so hard to be worldly.

“I thought we would kiss some more.”

“And did you really think that would be all?”

He was close enough to detect her perfume. She smelled of springtime and innocence, which was seductive in its own way. Her mouth was still flushed from his attentions.

“You know better than to invite a wolf into your home.”

“I’m not a fool,” she insisted. “And I didn’t invite any wolf. I invited you.”

“And if Jinhai had come tonight?” A flash of anger streaked through him, but he countered it with a smile.

“I don’t see Liu Jinhai here.”

“Indeed...”

He reached for the damned hummingbird pin and tossed it into the corner in one motion. Despite her bold words he saw her pulse jump as he lowered his hand to her cheek.

He caressed her with just the tips of his fingers, murmuring close to her ear. “You shouldn’t have asked me in, Lian.”

This wasn’t just another pretty girl. This was Lian—his neighbor, a friend. The little brat who’d grown up into a beautiful and willful woman. He had to be careful and not let things go too far.

Baozhen drew her against him and her lips parted instinctively, as if she’d been waiting for him. The shortness of her breath as he kissed her told him everything. She wanted the danger...this small step into the unknown. This taste of passion that she was pursuing with complete recklessness.

He trailed a caress along her arm and along the underside of her breast. For a moment he hoped she’d shriek in outrage and demand that he leave. Instead she pressed closer, and he knew without a doubt that her once thin and sharp angles had been transformed into soft, pleasing curves. Entranced, he cradled her breast in his palm, stroking his thumb lightly over the rounded nipple. He could feel it tightening to a hard peak beneath the silk robe.

A shudder ran through her and he caught her as her knees weakened. She wound her arms around his neck and did something too seductive to resist.

She spoke his name.

The sound of it on her lips was sultry and decadent. It was a bedroom voice that promised abandon. He stroked her other breast out of greed, just to feel the eager response of her flesh. His own sex thickened within his trousers.

Lian didn’t protest when he backed her onto her bed, nor when he worked the edges of her robe open. The bodice hidden underneath was a tantalizing flash of red, embroidered with a lush orchid pattern. The garment fit snugly over her torso, accentuating the swell of her breasts.

“You shouldn’t be letting me do this,” he taunted lightly as he lay down alongside her.

“Then you shouldn’t be doing it,” she countered, but it came out as a sensuous purr that nearly undid him.

He reminded himself that there would be no release for him tonight, but that didn’t prevent him from easing the edge of her bodice downward. His mouth closed around one pink bud and his tongue circled it hungrily. She writhed against him, making him burn. Her fingers tangled into his hair to hold him to her.

A rush of power and possessiveness filled his chest. He was drunk with the taste of her skin. Lian was his tonight for the taking, if he so desired.

To his surprise, Lian began fumbling at his clothes, trying to disrobe him. He shouldn’t have been so shocked. He had never known her to be shy—at least not with him. Her movements, though eager, were unpracticed, and that was what saved her. This wasn’t some carefree and nameless dancer or song girl beside him. This was Lian, and she wasn’t meant to be used for a night of pleasure.

He took hold of her hands just as she managed to open his tunic. With a wicked grin he guided them over her head. Her wrists were slender enough for him to pin them beneath one hand.

“If you move, I’ll stop,” he warned.

Her eyes were fixed on him and her pupils were wide and black with desire. Her breasts rose and fell rapidly, half-exposed. She had no idea what would happen next, but he could see how much she wanted to find out. His hold on her would have been easy to break, yet she lay back...waiting. Waiting for him to show her.

With his free hand he reached for her skirt, sliding the silk up over her knees. She continued to watch him, her breath coming faster now as she willed him to continue. Her legs were nicely shaped and her skin glowed in the lantern light. Baozhen slipped his hand beneath the robe, but he didn’t touch her yet. If she denied him then there was a small chance he could still be a gentleman about it.

There was no denial.

Lian closed her eyes as his hand settled on her thigh and followed the shape of it upward. She bit her lower lip in anticipation just before he reached her sex. His own heart stopped the moment his fingers touched against warm, willing flesh. His mind clouded with a thick fog. She was already damp. Heaven and earth. Elation surged through him.

In slow circles he deepened the caress, gradually initiating her to a man’s touch. He was rewarded when her knees parted instinctively and her hips arched against his hand. Her head was thrown back and her cheeks suffused with color. The look on her face was indescribable. He moved just the tip of his finger over her most sensitive spot and she whimpered and moaned perfectly for him.