“I’ll make sure to keep people away,” Li Fei promised. “Just don’t—”
“Go over the wall. I won’t.”
Chapter Two
It took severaldays before Ling Xin could put her plan into action. Master Gao was a hard taskmaster, and he kept Ko Zhi Hao studying deep into the night. Her own studies also demanded her attention, especially her cultural talent, which was dancing. She spent most of the day practicing until her body ached and she wanted nothing more than to sleep.
But somehow, she always managed to find time to visit the garden wall. She couldn’t help herself. Because late at night, Ko Zhi Hao practiced shadow fighting. After his teacher had gone to bed, the man stripped nearly naked in the back garden and began to move, as if fighting invisible enemies.
And Ling Xin couldn’t keep her eyes off of him.
He was a beautiful man with big muscles and broad shoulders. And when he fought, he moved like a man in water—steady, controlled, and fluid.
Which made it all the more exciting when he struck out with startling speed. His punches, kicks, and whatever it was he did with his elbows came like a blow to her breath. She gasped every time some part of him moved. And her body tightened with desire.
“I know you’re there,” he said when he finished a lengthy sequence of punches.
She grinned. They had spoken several times now. Not in great detail, but enough to start a friendship. They hadexchanged names and spoken of their studies—well, mostly his studies. Thanks to her brothers, she knew the basics of a bannerman’s education, and she had pressed him on his knowledge.
He had impressed her. And she thought she might have impressed him too. Most women wouldn’t know a fraction of what she did.
Either way, they had passed several evenings in discussion of the classics while she kept her face hidden. And though he asked about her, he never pressed. Instead, he practiced his shadow fighting, and she watched with a crazy kind of obsession.
“How were your studies today?” he asked.
“Long. Yours?”
“The same.”
He stepped into another series of moves and her mouth went dry as she watched. She needed to get closer. She wanted to feel his heat, smell his scent, and watch his eyes as his fists flew.
That was not allowed. She was a virgin destined for the Festival of Fertility in the Forbidden City, well placed to become the next Empress of China. She was purity itself or such was her parents’ claim. The last thing she should do was climb higher on the stone wall between her garden and the neighboring courtyard. A pure woman would be asleep in her bedchamber, not wandering around, restless in the moonlight.
But here she was, being poked by tree branches and risking skinned knees from the rough wall. Thank goodness it was thick stone, wide enough that she could lay down flat and have no part of her body seen, assuming she kept her arms and legs close in.
“You’re here earlier tonight. Are you feeling anxious about the festival?”
“Yes.” Of course she was. After the Feast of Fertility, successful virgins would never leave the walled fortress of the Forbidden City again. Unsuccessful virgins would be thrownback in disgrace. Many would not be accepted back into the family, for any woman rejected by the emperor was considered impure. And no man wanted an impure wife.
Thinking about such a frightening possibility had brought her outside early tonight. Watching him distracted her from her fears.
“What about you?” she asked. “Worried about the exam?”
“Always. I do this to relax before I go back to my studies.”
He’d told her that before. Still, she enjoyed simply being with him. But it was uncomfortable, too. What could she say to a man whose body fascinated her? There was no way a virginal girl could express such a thing. But she had to figure out something! If this was how she conversed with the emperor, she would be cut from the competition in the first hour!
“How do you stay so calm?” she asked. “The exam is only a few weeks away.”
“I do this,” he said, spinning around and delivering a high kick. Then he paused, his gaze going up to her. “I could teach you, if you like. Come down here. Let me show you.”
She shrank backwards into the dark bower of her favorite tree. “You know I cannot.”
“I know,” he said, his tone light. He never pressured her, simply made the offer. And that patience made her like him even more.
Unable to resist, she pressed forward again. If he looked up, he would see her. Worse, she wore only her sleeping gown and a light robe. If there were a breeze, it might puff out to show much more than she intended. But she hadn’t wanted to layer on more clothes now that winter was finally losing its grip on the world. She’d wanted to feel free, if a bit cold, and so she’d wandered into the garden, then up the wall, and now…
How beautiful he was! His pattern of movements had ended. He stood statue still, his chest expanding in slow inhales whileshe was entirely breathless. Her legs shifted awkwardly. She was kneeling, holding onto a branch above her head to keep her balance.
