Her head shot up, embarrassment and anger fighting for control of her words. Anger won.
“I am a chaste girl! I could not sleep. The air was too warm.” That was a lie. The air was slightly chilled, but she had been restless, anxious about her upcoming presentation to the emperor. “And now I must go back.”
“How?” he asked as he lifted up her hurt foot. Before she could object, he pulled off her slipper to expose her throbbing foot. He touched the biggest toe and the second. In the moonlight, the fact that they were swollen was obvious to them both.
“Are they broken?” she asked, trying not to panic. If her toes were broken, how would she dance for the emperor? Dance was her cultural talent. She couldn’t paint worth a damn, her singing voice was acceptable but unremarkable. Her only real skill was dancing.
His hands cupped her foot. The heat from his palms warmed her, and her belly tightened at the sensation. Then it quivered inside her like a fluttering bird when he gently stroked her swollen skin.
“Can you move them?”
She wiggled her toes, pleased that it didn’t hurt too bad.
“I think they are merely bruised.”
That was good. “They should heal quickly, then,” she said more to herself than him.
He gently set her foot down, but his fingers lingered. Indeed, he started to caress her ankle, his motions random and so thrilling. No man had ever touched her there and her body stilled just to memorize the feel of it.
Calloused fingers stroking over and around her ankle bone… Heavens, she was so aroused by it, she thought she might faint.
But then he abruptly squeezed her ankle. “Someone is coming!” he whispered.
What? She blinked, startled back into the here and now. And then she heard it. The sound of footsteps in the garden.
“Ling Xin? Are you out here?”
“My cousin,” she whispered. Damn it, what was she going to do?
He pressed a finger to her lips, and she was panicked enough that she didn’t dwell on the roughness of his skin or the heat against her mouth. Instead, she stared hard at the wall. She would have to find a way to scale it. She would—
She gasped as he swung her up in his arms. What was he doing? He couldn’t lift her over the wall. Only a giant would be able to do that. Then he lifted her higher in his arms so that he could whisper into her ear.
“Did you really climb up the wall? You are that strong?”
“Yes,” she whispered back, fighting the shiver that his lips caused as he tickled her ear.
“And your right foot is strong?”
“Yes.”
“Then I shall help you.”
He carried her over to the knotted tree that grew against the wall. It was a good climbing tree and would have been easy for her normally. But without strength in her left toes, she wasn’tsure about it. Even worse, she would have to climb along the top of the wall in order to get back to her own garden. Not to mention the jump down once she got there.
It was a daunting prospect, but she had no choice. Li Fei called out again in a loud whisper.
“I know you are out here, Ling Xin! You never sleep when there is moonlight.”
Truth.
Meanwhile, Ko Zhi Hao had set her hands on the lowest branch of the gnarled tree. It was large enough to support her weight if she had the strength in her arms.
With a last glance at him, she hoisted herself up easily, but now she needed some sort of foothold. She would have to swing her injured foot around somehow.
His hand caught her injured foot, providing a solid base for her weight as she scrambled to the next branch up. From there, her good foot had a place to land. She made it the rest of the way up with relative ease and was soon on top of the wall, looking back down to where he stood bathed in the moonlight.
“Thank you, Ko Zhi Hao,” she whispered, loving the way his name felt on her lips.
