He started violently, and his hands grasped and drew the sword he kept always by his knee. The blade sang from beneath the sheath, turning to kill even as he recognized his lover. The edge caught in soft silk and stopped, barely short of bloodshed.
‘Woman!’ Shimizu’s face paled, then flushed with anger, both at the lateness of Teani’s arrival and the stealth of her entry. As he recovered his poise, he noticed a queer brilliance in her eyes. Her lips were slightly parted, as if the sword had been a lover to embrace. Her nipples hardened as she breathed deeply, excited by the brush of the razor-sharp edge against her flesh. Recognition of her twisted passions soured his welcome slightly; he sheathed his weapon with a show of disgust. ‘You’re mad, woman, sick in the mind. I might have run you through.’
But the anger, the disgust, never lasted. When Teani tipped her face upward, her breasts pressing firmly through his tunic, Shimizu lowered his head like one starving and savoured the kiss made hot for him by a slight brush with death. She had solved him like a puzzle. Every touch seemed to melt him to the marrow of his bones. Unable to suppress his surge of joyous welcome, Shimizu caught his fingers in the ties that closed her gown. ‘You can stay, my love? Tell me that Jingu is preoccupied with his guests, and that you will not have to return to his bed this night.’
Teani brushed his ear with her tongue and answered, her breath hot against his neck. ‘Jingu does not expect me back to his chambers,’ she lied. Then, waiting for his fingers to grip more insistently at her clothing, she fended him off. ‘But tonight I may not stay.’
Shimizu frowned, his eyes suddenly hard in the light of the single oil lamp. ‘Why not? Do you share your affections elsewhere?’
Teani laughed, letting him dangle a moment before she slipped her robe from her shoulders and bared her lovely breasts. Shimizu tried to remain stern, but his attention was clearly engaged. ‘I love no other, my fine warrior.’ She shaded her tone with just enough hint of sarcasm to leave him a bit in doubt. ‘It is state business that takes me from your side this night. Now, will you waste what time we have, or will you . . .’ And she moaned, biting softly as he stopped her words with his lips.
Yet this time, deliberately, she held back enough that he did not lose his train of thought.
His hands roughened on the bare silk of her skin, and his tone grew demanding. ‘Why, then, did you delay so long in coming to me?’
Teani whipped back her honey-streaked hair in a show of pique. ‘How distrustful you-are. Do you fear that your sword is not enough to please a woman?’ She moved away, both to tease and to allow him a better view of her half-nude body.
Shimizu frowned, and his hands caught her shoulders. But now Teani softened like butter against him. Her fingers slid skilfully through the slit in his robe. He tensed in delicious apprehension as she scratched her nails along the inside of his thigh.
‘And such a mighty sword,’ she murmured, eyelids drooping as her mouth formed a pouting smile. ‘My Lord of the Minwanabi detained me with tiresome instructions. It seems he wants the Acoma bitch dead, and I’m the one chosen for the filthy chore.’
But even as her hands found their mark and stroked in the manner he most preferred, Shimizu pulled back. Instantly Teani knew she had pushed too fast; or perhaps erred in her manner of presentation. She bent instantly, her hair trailing across his thighs, and teased his flesh with her tongue.
Shimizu took a moment to respond; then his hands tightened against her back, and his voice, dreamily, resumed above her. ‘That’s most strange, my love, that my Lord gave such instructions.’
Teani’s interest sharpened. She straightened and set her hands to untie the laces of his sandals. ‘Gods, do you always have to wear your studded soles in the house?’
Shimizu shifted impatiently, but the concubine continued with his laces. The hardened tip of her breast brushed the inside of his knee as she worked, driving him wild to the point where he answered her next lazy query without thinking.
‘Why? Oh, my Lord told me yesterday that the Acoma girl was to die, but he intends to break her spirit first. Terrify her, he said, by killing off her servants and retainers so that when he strikes, she will be utterly alone.’ Here Shimizu stopped and flushed, aware that his tongue had become loose. He tangled one fist in red-gold hair, drawing Teani away from the sandal as yet left fastened. ‘I think you lie, woman. You do not go to kill Mara, but to couple with another this night.’
Teani’s eyes flashed, partly in excitement, for violence aroused her; and also because men were so laughably predictable. She did not deny the accusation, but provoked further by saying, ‘What makes you think that I lie?’