Chapter 4 | The Queen Who Ruled by Herself

Shared Interests

Temmin was flummoxed. Why would Anda be at the Keep? It took a lot of nerve for anyone, let alone a commoner, to just show up and not just ask for but expect an audience. Then again, Anda was a fellow Supplicant; this was probably Temple business. "Show her up, Jenks," he said, "and make sure Affton isn't sniffing too disapprovingly at her--she's the senior Supplicant at the Lovers' Temple."

"Oh!" said Jenks, with an odd look. "That puts a different face on it, your highness, I'll fetch her right up. D'you suppose she'll be wanting lunch?"

"Request two covers just in case. Excuse me, then, Teacher, I appear to be having company for lunch. I'll see you after."

"Mm," said the Teacher. "If Miss Barrows was sent by the Temple, and I can only assume she was, I shall see you in the morning, I think." The Teacher gave a ghost of a smile and quickly slipped out of the room just before Jenks returned with the plump young woman in tow.

"Thank you, Mister Jenks," she dimpled at the valet, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"Anda!" said Temmin, rising from his chair and taking her hands, "I'm so glad to see you, but what on earth are you doing here?"

To his surprise, Anda reached up and kissed him full on the lips. Over her shoulder he saw Jenks go scarlet and hurry out the door. "I'm here to go over Neya's Day with you," she said, smiling. "And for selfish reasons I'm glad I was sent and not Senik or Bessa."

"Oh?"

"Yes," she whispered, and kissed him again, more thoroughly. "We've all missed you. Everyone will make me repeat all the details of how you looked, what we said, what we did..." She trailed her hand down his shirt.

"And what exactly are we doing?" he said nervously.

"Eating lunch!" she answered cheerfully. "I'm starving!" She took off her hat and stood expectantly until he helped her with her coat; her long brown hair was down, and her dress was a pretty fawn muslin sprigged with tiny roses. He couldn't remember ever thinking she was plain. "Now," she said, sitting opposite him at the window table, "How are you? You look well! Are you looking forward to Neya's Day?"

Temmin sighed. "I'm not sure. No one's told me what's going to happen." Jenks began to come into the room with luncheon on a trolley.

"Pfft, why would you be unsure?" she said. "You're going to fuck Allis!" Jenks quickly retreated. "Amma bless me, you are so adorable when you blush, Temmin."

"You're not one for subtlety are you, Anda?" muttered Temmin. "Can you just keep it down until lunch is served and we're alone? Please? Jenks! It's all right, you can serve!" he called. Jenks re-entered, set the food on the table and hastily left the room.

"Big strapping thing like that, upset at a little sex talk," tsked Anda, watching Jenks retreat. "Very nice ass, too, for a man that age."

"Please," winced Temmin, "don't ever talk about Jenks like that around me. It'd be like me telling you how much I wanted to make love to your mother."

Anda shrugged. "Go ahead, everyone else does. Mama's a knockout. As I am constantly reminded, I take after Papa."

Temmin closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes. Well. Nevertheless, just don't talk about Jenks like that around me. Please."

She patted his hand. "Don't get upset. I know I'm vulgar, Temmin, but only around friends, I'm almost painfully reserved otherwise. I just seem to store it up. Ooh, lovely, spring noodles!" She slurped daintily at the broth. "So. Neya's Day. Really, you have nothing to be concerned about and not much of a part in the public ceremony. You'll be with Bessa and me helping the Holy Ones prepare, then we'll all go to the Spectacle and sit with the Most Highs in their box. Right after the Spectacle, you'll be required to join the Holy Ones on the stage. They'll ask you if you're ready and you answer them. You give them a kiss, and that's it for the public part." She winked.

"Am I supposed to give a specific answer?" said Temmin over his last spoonful of soup.

"Just the truth. I should think you'll be ready by then, we haven't seen you in nearly two weeks! Yes, thank you, I should love a lamb chop."

Anda ate with true relish, savoring every bit unlike any woman he'd ever seen, and Temmin found he loved watching her. She didn't eat as much as he did, but she didn't hide her enjoyment of food. She exclaimed over the tenderness of the lamb, the freshness of the salad of tiny leaves, the buttery cheeses, the early apricots from the south, the rich coffee and especially the trifle.

When she licked the whipped cream from her fingers, he followed the tip of her tongue in fascination until finally she gave him a sly smile. "Shall we practice a bit?"

"Practice?"

She stood up and leaned across the table. "We could have sent you a letter, you know." She dipped her thumb in his unfinished trifle and slipped it into his mouth. It tasted of custard and girl, he thought as he sucked on it, what an odd thing. She pulled out her thumb, leaned down and licked his lips.

"Anda--I have to wait until Neya's Day--"

"Never worry, little Supplicant," she said, straightening. "There's lots we can do without doing that, as you know very well. Or ought to. Come here, I'll remind you of a few--Temmin, mind the dishes! Oof!" He lunged at her across the table, sending a plate to the floor with a clatter. He kissed her hard, hands gripping her head as he circled around the table. "I told them it was a mistake to leave you alone this long," Anda said breathlessly as he attacked her neck. "Slow down, I'm not going anywhere, I promise!"

"No," Temmin muttered, "you most certainly are not!" He walked her backwards to the green velvet sofa and pushed her down.

Anda watched as he hastily removed his jacket. "My, we've certainly gotten aggressive," she giggled.

"We've gotten tired of being by ourselves, is what we've gotten," he said, unbuttoning his waistcoat. "You're wearing far too many clothes, Anda."

"Come do something about it, then, you being so aggressive and all!" she purred.

He fell on her with a growl and fumbled at her dress in a passion that evaporated as soon as he realized he had no clear idea how to get her out of it. "Right," he said as she grinned at him, "not practice, lesson."

She got to her feet. "Stand up, then," Anda said, pulling him off the couch. "Let's play ladies maid. I promise it's fun." She began undoing the hidden hooks of her bodice.

He pushed her hands out of the way. "That much I can figure out now that I can see it." Her skin appeared bit by bit until her bodice was all undone; he pushed it off her shoulders, revealing a pretty blue corset and her spectacularly deep cleavage, framed in the lace of her camisole. "Turn around."

She obediently turned, and he put his hands at her waist. "It unties," she murmured. He found the ties for both her skirt and her petticoat and they fell to the floor, leaving her in her corset, boots and stockings, and the camisole, which he now saw ended in a pair of frilly drawers. She turned back around, stepping out of the puddle of fawn-colored muslin and white cambric.

Temmin put his arms around her waist and pulled her close. "This is where I get confused," he said, tugging at her corset strings.

"The rest stays on, sweetheart," Anda replied. "I just don't have time to get out of this and back into it. Oh, don't look like that, you can still reach all the nice bits of me." She took his hand and guided it between her legs.

"Oh--your pants--they're open!" He petted the soft hair covering her mound.

"And how else am I supposed to piss?" she grinned, slipping her arms around his waist. "You said it yourself--far too many clothes. If I had to take all this off to use the commode I'd be doing nothing but dressing and undressing all day."

"You do that anyway."

"No, once I get to the Temple I undress just the once, Temple garb is easy by comparison--ah! Oh gods." Temmin's fingers had found their way, and she leaned her head against his chest. "Oh--" Anda put her thigh between Temmin's, and he ground himself against her hip. "If you keep this up, I shan't be able to stand soon." He began to pull her towards the couch. "No, it's not wide enough for any two people to get comfortable, let alone you and me. You need a Temple couch in here, Temmin. Come, this is better." She untangled herself and took him by the hand into his bedchamber. "Am I the first girl in here?" she said, looking around at the grand room with its enormous curtained bed.

Temmin sat down on the bed. "You're the first girl in a number of things. Come here." She put herself cozily in his arms and kissed him, long and thoroughly, until Temmin's head swam. He replaced his hand inside her drawers; she was as she had been the first time he'd touched her, the first time he'd ever touched a woman, the fleshy wetness that he so often thought of in the night, and he groaned as she pushed her thigh against his erection.

"Now you have too many clothes on," she whispered, undoing his trouser buttons and then his pants buttons. He stood up long enough for her to slide them down, and he kicked them off along with his shoes.

Anda sank to her knees and took him in her mouth with no preamble. The thing with the tongue, he thought mistily as she swept hers around the head of his penis. "Oh, Anda. Oh!" She took it all the way to the base, moaning as she sucked at him.

He made the mistake of looking down at her, taking in her quivering breasts, his cock sliding in and out of her mouth, and their eyes met. Her pupils had swallowed up the brown of her irises, and they glittered black; they reminded him of Allis in the candlelight in the Temple the night he'd been there with Ellika, and the girl on her knees before him became all the girls he desired. "I'm getting close," he whispered, but she didn't stop. He kept his eyes on hers as long as he could, but it wasn't long before he threw his head back and cried out as he came, pumping into her mouth as she swallowed.

Temmin collapsed on the bed, and Anda crawled up beside him. He pulled her on top of him and kissed her, tasting his cum in her mouth. "I've wanted to do that since the moment I saw you," she whispered with a smile. "You were so pretty that day, all arms and legs and cock. I wanted to knock Allis's hands away and just swallow you whole." She kissed him again and again, exploring every corner with her tongue, as she rubbed herself against his leg.

Temmin slipped his fingers inside her."That's the way," she gasped. "Put them inside me--yes, just like that. Leave your--your thumb--on my clit. Oh, Nerr. Oh, gods. Please." She shimmied her heavy breasts free of her corset and offered a dangling nipple to his mouth; he took it eagerly, and squeezed her other breast with his free hand. They were soft and heavy, and her nipples were hard against his lips and tongue. He felt her gush around his fingers as she moaned. "That's it, Temmin, that's so good, your mouth feels so good, I love the way you're fucking me, oh gods, fuck me with your fingers, don't stop--ah--ha--ahh!!" She thrashed atop him, pushing against his hand and nearly smothering him with her breasts; he held on until she finally quieted and flopped down next to him on the bed, breathing hard and laughing.

Temmin sniffed at his fingers; her scent on them was savory, similar to but different from Bessa's. He slipped them into his mouth. She tasted savory, too, a little saltier, a little like truffles, he thought meditatively. He realized she was watching him with a dazed expression, and grinned. "You like to talk during sex, don't you?"

"You noticed!" she laughed. "I love to talk during sex. I love to be talked to during sex, to have a lover tell me what he's feeling or what he's doing to me or what he's going to do to me--and with the right voice, it's just--Gods, Issak can make me come just with his voice!" she said fervently. "It just curls up in my ear and works its way down inside me--oh Nerr!" She shivered with delight.

He brushed her hair away from her breasts and idly played with her nipples; she let out a contented hum, and eventually he rolled over and licked at one. "I can never play with them too much?"

"Never," she answered, her face awash in bliss as he took the nipple into his mouth and tugged. She reached her hand down. "Ah, you're ready again, I love being with men my own age. Do you have some oil?" Temmin rummaged in a pocket attached to a bedpost and pulled out a little vial.

She poured some in her hand and slicked his shaft, then poured more between her thighs. "You can't put it inside me, but you can put it there." Temmin pushed into her slippery thighs; they were surprisingly strong, and she clenched her legs tightly, holding him there. "It's not quite as good as the real thing, but it's good, isn't it?" Temmin couldn't answer. Speechless with pleasure, he thrust into her thighs, looking down at her breasts; they moved with him, bouncing against each other.

"You like watching my tits shake?" she murmured urgently.

"--Yes!" Temmin ground out.

"I like watching you come. I want you to come for me, Temmin, show me, I love watching you come!"

He let out a whimper and pounded his hips against her, his head buried in her hair until she lifted his chin up and kissed him. He came instantly, moaning into her mouth as he shook with the force of it, and then his arms gave way and he fell atop her, panting. Temmin rolled over, boneless. "We ruined your drawers," he murmured, close to sleep.

"The Temple gives me a clothing allowance," she said softly. "Go to sleep, sweetheart, I have to go."

"No, don't go, stay," Temmin mumbled, clutching at her ineffectually. But she slipped off the bed away from his hands.

"Wouldn't do for me to be found in your bed at tea time, would it? Even if we're allowed! We will see you soon." She gave him a good-bye kiss and covered him up with a throw.

"Anda? You said everyone would want to know what we said, what we did. Who are you telling?"

"You know I have to tell the Holy Ones if they ask," she said, stroking his cheek. "But other than that, it's between us. Unless you wouldn't mind my telling Senik or Bessa?"

"If you want to," he said yawning. "'S'all right. No one else, though. I'm falling asleep, Anda."

"I know, sweetheart, go to sleep now." Anda drew the curtains and quietly left the room. Just as she finished gathering up her clothes to dress, Jenks came in. She held a finger to her lips. "He's just dropped off," Would you mind?" she said quietly, waggling her skirts. Jenks helped her into her petticoat and tied it, then her skirt, and watched as she fastened her bodice. "So quiet," she murmured.

"You will understand," he said, "if I don't ask for you again at the Temple? I didn't realize you were a Supplicant."

Anda sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that, Mister Jenks. I must say I didn't know where you were in service. I never dreamed it was with Temmin. But please tell me, why does it make a difference to you?"

Jenks picked up her purse, fished out her comb, and gestured to a chair. She obediently sat and he began straightening her long hair. She smelled to him of sex, and of Temmin. "Will you treat this as a Petitioner to a Beloved?"

"Always."

"He's like my son, Anda. Some men like that idea, sharing a woman with their son, but I'm not one of them."

She nodded. "I understand. The other Supplicant is Bessa Vissek, tall, slender redhead, you may want to steer clear of her as well."

"This is between us?"

"I would never have told him even if you'd wanted to keep seeing me." She stood and took the comb from his hand. "Thank you. One last kiss?"

Jenks hesitated. A long snore from the bedchamber made up his mind and he gave Anda a brief, tender kiss. "Now, on with your coat and hat, and be off with you about the Lovers' business."

Anda winked and left the room, walking quickly down the stairs past the various curious domestics and out the door. As she waited for the little curricle she'd borrowed from the Temple to be brought round, she sighed to herself. Such a nice ass, that Jenks. Pity.