“I am fine,” she repeated, her curiosity piqued.
With a nod, he gestured her out of the bower. They walked together in silence. He kept a hand on her back and another on her arm, leading her through the dark maze that was the Forbidden City. They ended at a ladder that led up a massive tree.
“It is up there,” he whispered into her ear, “but I must empty it out first. Wait here in the shadows and don’t make a sound.”
She nodded her agreement. Within moments, he disappeared up the ladder. Then to her shock, four eunuchs descended in rapid order. They went in the other direction, both grumbling and laughing between themselves. Bo Tao descendeda moment later.
“They are gone now.”
“What did you?”
“I bribed them to leave. Now no one will know that you are here.”
She stepped forward, looking up into the blackness above. “What if someone else comes?”
“They won’t,” he said as he placed her hands on the ladder. “There is a way to bar entrance to anyone else. Besides, the show is not that interesting tonight.”
“Show?” she asked.
“Hush.Climb.”
She did as he bid, though it was hard going. Her skirt was already ripped, so there was no difficulty there. But he placed his hands on either side of hers, and he mounted each rung directly behind her. In short, he surrounded her on all sides, and when he bumped against her bottom or leaned close enough to heat her shoulders with his chest, she gasped at the contact and thought inappropriate things. What if she had not hit him in the examination room? What would have happened? With his body around hers and his hand exploring deep inside her body, what would have happened?
By the time she made it up to a platform at the very top, her mouth was dry and her breasts heavy. “What is it that you want me to see?” she asked, her voice breathless and thready in the darkness.
He didn’t answer in words. Instead, he crawled beside her and gently twisted her shoulders around until she looked through an opening in the branches. From there she saw into a room on the side of a palace. There were people inside–women–but what were they doing?
Bo Tao was still holding her to direct her attention. Now he leaned in to whisper into her ear. “We are looking into thesurviving harem of Dao Guang. This is a room in their palace.”
“But what are they doing?”
“Can you not guess? Do you not understand?”
She did understand, but she had never thought to see three women in the throes of sexual congress.
“Do you know how women establish a hierarchy in a harem? How one is the head female and the others must follow her rules?”
She nodded. That was why the fighting was so vicious in the virgin’s quarters. The hierarchy had yet to be established.
“That woman lying out on the floor is Tai Lai, the head of this harem. She has ordered the others to pleasure her.”
Ji Yue blinked, leaning forward on her knees to see better. The woman on the ground seemed to be the oldest there. She lay on her back as one girl suckled at her left breast and used her other hand to manipulate the nipple of the right. The second girl crouched at Tai Lai’s groin, using her mouth to lick and stroke there. All three were naked.
“With no men to please them, the harem delights itself. Sometimes it is this way, with each other or with willing eunuchs. Sometimes it is in ways more cruel and bloody.”
The moment of ecstasy was building inside Tai Lai. Her moans were growing louder and she began to thrash her head. The younger two intensified their efforts, holding Tai Lai down when her movements became too vigorous. And then she arched her back, screaming out in her passion. Meanwhile, the other two leaned back, breathing hard themselves from their exertions. Ji Yue could see that their skin was flushed and their eyes dazed.
Did they enjoy what they did as much as Tai Lai?
Unable to ask what she was thinking, she focused on something else. “How long has this platform existed?” Ji Yue whispered. “She should know she is being observed.”
“She knows.” he said. “She is the one who commanded that it be built. It intensifies her pleasure to know that eunuchs watch her and mourn for what they have lost.”
Ji Yue wanted to turn away, she wanted to look at Bo Tao’s face to judge if he lied. But she could not tear her eyes from the tableau before her. Tai Lai’s recovery came quickly. Her breath returned to normal, and she reached out to fondle the breasts of the nearest girl, pinching and pulling despite the younger one’s winces. Except, of course, the younger one did not seem to be in great pain. Her cheeks reddened, and her hand slipped between her thighs to touch herself.
“But that must hurt!” Ji Yue said.
“It does. But in this place, pain and sex can become twisted together.”
