Scarlet Nights. Lucinda Betts

hated when he was in this mood—he knew that the itch to catch the slavers wasn’t the only factor making him want to run for the nearest door and the safety of his horse’s back.

      The truth was…he didn’t want to see her again. He didn’t want to see her perfect breasts, or her khal-colored skin. He didn’t want to see the way her gown clung to her lush curves. He didn’t want to see the set determination of her jaw. And he really didn’t want to lose himself in the depths of her dark eyes, the eyes that saw him so well.

      The crowd around him began to whisper excitedly, and he looked at the dais. Queen Sureya had arrived. The woman’s raw sexuality put her so-called Virgins to shame. Her red hair was piled on top of her head, but small tendrils escaped and snaked down her naked shoulders. The red fabric of her gown covered the curves of her breasts and hips, barely. The slightest brush of a hand would lay her bare—and willing. Was there a man in the room who wouldn’t serve her? Was there a woman?

      As her Temple Virgins poured water over her hands and dried them, he tried not to scan the room. Solstice might be the only woman whose beauty compared to the queen’s, her black skin night to the queen’s day. But he couldn’t help it. He looked. Everywhere.

      When he couldn’t find her, he took a deep breath. Of relief, he told himself—although he didn’t quite believe it. Maybe it was frustration.

      And then a prisoner at the back of the room caught his eye. Not a man. He stared at her with a growing horror. The scarlet cloak covered her curves, and the black blindfold covered her face, but he’d recognize her anywhere.

      Solstice.

      Axel stood then. He couldn’t rescue her. Not from this. But he couldn’t watch, either.

      He walked toward the door, Kamir right behind him. But as his hand embraced the cool brass of the handle, a Temple Virgin stopped him. “Axel de la Couere.”

      “Yes.”

      “The queen asks you to stay.”

      “Asks?” Axel didn’t bother to keep the scorn from his voice. “I was a child with that woman.” He pointed to Solstice. Blindfolded and quivering next to the oversized Virgin at her side, she looked as helpless as a newborn foal. “Why would I want to see her punished?”

      A feral smile crossed the Temple Virgin’s lips. She tossed her hair like she was an untamed horse and laughed. The sound wrapped itself around his cock. “You’ll do more than see her punished.”

      His blood chilled then. “What do you mean?”

      “You’re to wield the whip.”

      “Never.”

      In a swirl of crimson silk, the Temple Virgin moved in closer to him. He could smell the tangerine fragrance of her perfume as she caressed his thigh. “You haven’t been initiated, have you, not in a Temple.”

      This woman with her smug confidence was beginning to irritate him. “No woman has ever complained.” And that was true. As a follower of the One God, he’d been chaste.

      Again that sultry chuckle. The hem of her red gown fluttered over his boot, joining them somehow, in a way he liked despite himself. There was a challenge in this woman’s eye, and he wanted to meet it, wrap his hand through her long dark hair and wipe that smug expression off her face with a kiss she wouldn’t forget. A kiss she wouldn’t learn from these over-groomed Temple Virgins.

      “No woman may have complained yet,” the Virgin said. “But Solstice will definitely do so.”

      That thought stopped him cold. First, because he could never pleasure her and stay true to his faith. And second, how many nights had he dreamed of tumbling Solstice? How many ways had he fantasized rolling her between the sheets until she screamed his name to the stars themselves? “I have no idea what you mean.” He couldn’t control the growl in his voice.

      “I mean…” The Virgin ran her long fingernails over his chest. She pressed the flat of his nipple with her nail. He would have described the sensation as painful, but his cock hardened. “I mean that if you go in there and whip her like she was an unruly horse, Solstice will complain—and so will your audience.”

      “But I thought—” He stopped and looked up the aisle at Queen Sureya. A black whip with long fringe hung from the narrow belt at her waist. It matched the one the Temple Virgin held. “I thought Solstice was to be punished.”

      “If I had my way…” The Virgin leaned into him, felt his rigid cock, and smiled. “I’d make it the law. All men would require indoctrination into the ways of the flesh. Then you’d know.”

      “Know what?”

      “What sort of Punishment your lovely lady must endure.”

      “She’s not my—”

      “You will return to your seat. You will wield the whip.” She licked her lips and smiled. She looked hungry, and not for food. “Remember the point is not to rip flesh from the bones.”

      “What is the point?”

      “To tear pride from her heart.”

      Which was why he’d been chosen. The Supplicant Queen knew how Solstice loathed him, and how he loathed her goddess.

      “Come visit the Temple after the Punishment, and I’ll show you the correct way…” She let the back of her hand brush against his hardened cock.

      “I know exactly how to—”

      “To wield a crop for sport.”

      “And what happens if I ignore you and go through these doors into the night?”

      She grinned. “That would be fun.”

      Something in the gleam of her eyes made him believe that her idea of fun and his idea might not have much in common. “How so?”

      “The city guards would retrieve you, and the queen would subject you to the appropriate Punishment.” She stepped away from him. “Maybe the queen would allow me to whip you.”

      Anger washed through Axel. He had no desire to play whatever game the Temple Virgin was playing.

      He tried to push her hand from his arm, but the woman leaned into him and gave him a full kiss on his lips.

      Within half a heartbeat, he knew who was master, and he wasn’t it. The crowd cheered when she stood on the tips of her toes and wrapped her fingers around his neck, pulling him toward her. She sank her teeth into the lobe of his ear. Chills raced though his stomach and right to his cock. He couldn’t stop himself.

      And when she stepped away from him, he found that he had the whip in his hand.