“It’s all been taken care of, m’lady,” Pansy assured her. “His Majesty gave orders before he left the house that you were to eat without him. He will return late. Adali has sent Rohana to the kitchens of the zenana to arrange for a meal for us all. Let me make you comfortable, and then I’ll bring your food. You can rest afterwards.”
The meal arrived quickly and was hot and delicious. Velvet was hungry, and she greedily devoured the charcoal-broiled lamb kebobs with tiny sweet white onions, seasoned with pungent ground black pepper. There was a rice pilaf, a small dish of green vegetables, and little sweet cakes made from alternating layers of crisp dough, chopped almonds, and honey. Adali had also brought her a peacock blue carafe of sweet wine.
Finished with her meal, she bathed her hands and face in a basin of rosewater that Pansy brought her, and after the tiring woman had drawn back the silken coverlet on the bed, Velvet lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
It was close to midnight when Adali awakened her. “The master comes,” he said, gently shaking her from her slumbers.
Slowly she arose from the silken cocoon that was their bed. The eunuch whisked her blouse and skirt from her, leaving her totally nude. Hurriedly Rohana sponged her with water into which jasmine oil had been poured, while Toramalli brushed Velvet’s long auburn hair with a similarly scented brush. The room was then quickly neatened, the basin and brush put away just seconds before Akbar entered the room.
He opened his arms, and Adali swiftly removed his master’s white robe with its silver sash and the matching silver turban. Beneath his robes Akbar was nude, but he showed no embarrassment at displaying his fine body before his wife’s eunuch and slave girls. As Adali discreetly withdrew from the room, the emperor joined Velvet upon the bed. Rohana brought them each a cup of wine and then seated herself in a corner with Toramalli, who began to play a romantic Persian love song upon a stringed instrument.
“You are rested now, my Rose?”
“Quite, my lord,” Velvet replied.
“Good,” Akbar said with a smile, “for I intend to drive you hard this night.”
“My lord!” Her tone rebuked him gently.
He chuckled. “I must if we are to fill that cradle in that sad and empty room across the hall.” The look he sent her was a smoldering one.
“I would please you in all your desires, my lord,” she teasingly answered. How handsome he is, she thought. He is so totally different from Alex with his craggy face. My lord Akbar’s features are like those of a bird of prey, and yet when he looks at me those features soften and grow kind. It cannot be easy being a great ruler.
Akbar reclined on his side, his head propped up by his hand. “What are you thinking, Candra?” he asked her.
“I was thinking of how different you and Alex are,” she answered him honestly.
“He was fair of skin?”
“Oh, yes, very! The men of my country are fair naturally, though they are known to brown in the sun.”
“Does the fact that my skin is darker than yours bother you?” he asked.
“Oh, no, my lord! And except for your eyes, which slant just the tiniest bit, your features are quite like ours.”
“We will make a beautiful child, my Rose.” Then he reached out and caressed one of her breasts. Almost immediately the little nipple quivered into a point. He smiled and, leanning forward, stroked it with his warm tongue, circling it until it was rigid. Then his mouth closed over it, and he sucked hard, sending darts of painful pleasure to her very core.
Velvet fell back upon the bed, her breath coming in quick, little pants. Her fingers entwined themselves in his soft, black hair, sliding down to massage the nape of his neck. He rumbled with pleasure at her touch, and, having satisifed himself at her one breast, he moved his mouth to its twin. The deserted breast was not be neglected, however, for while his lips wreaked havoc on one, his free hand kneaded the other breast strongly, his fingers taunting it until Velvet was unable to lie quietly, so tantalizing were his actions.
“Keep still!” he commanded her. “If you give in too quickly to pleasure you lose half of it.”
“It is too sweet,” she protested.
“This is only the beginning, my Rose. It will be far sweeter before we are through.” He shifted his weight now so that he was lying almost atop her, and his hands caught her face, his lips finding hers. They kissed until Velvet was forced to tear her head away from his, gasping for air, but he forced her back to his will, his mouth coming down again bruisingly upon hers. She felt his tongue moving insinuatingly along her lips, and she parted them so that he might penetrate her. Boldly she pushed her own tongue into his mouth, and he sucked upon it, savoring her sweetness. Sated now with her lips, he kissed her shadowed eyelids, the corners of her eyes and mouth, the sensitive place where her jawbone met her ear.
“There are many paths to pleasure,” he murmured to her. “I would explore them with you, Candra. You are yet so innocent that the mere thought of your ignorance fires my blood.”
“Teach me everything,” she whispered back to him. “I would know all, my husband.”
He smiled to himself at the naiveté of her words. “Not all, my Rose, for there are those who find pleasure in pain, and I do not believe you are one, are you?”
“Pleasure in pain? That is mad!”
“I agree, and yet there are people who cannot gain the summit of joy without it.”
“That could never be my way, my lord.”
“No,” he agreed, “but there are other paths I would take with you, Candra. Perhaps they will not please you, and if that is so then we will not travel those paths again. Will you trust me to school you?” She nodded, and he continued, “Is the virginity of your bottom still intact?”
