Tibor. Peeking out from his body armor was the light blue tunic of a eunuch. No way. The big man must have caught the surprise in Jared’s expression because his lips compressed and his dark eyes became unreadable.
Hmm. Jared made yet another mental note: find out more about this man who looked more like a pro wrestler than the neutered boys wandering around. Yet, the guard didn’t seem to show any interest in Keira in a sexual sense that Jared could tell, and that would take some discipline, seeing what she was wearing—or, more accurately, not wearing. “How long have you been my wife’s guard?”
“Since she was ten cycles.”
Since Keira was six or seven, Jared calculated. About the time she lost her family. “My pleasure to meet you, Tibor Frix. We’ll be getting to know each other well, I suspect.”
He turned to follow Keira and stopped. “Tibor, I know you’re used to coming and going in the queen’s chambers, but in the future it might be a good idea to make sure you let us know—that you let me know—before you enter. The queen needs more privacy now that she’s married.”
The guard’s mouth twitched. Was he embarrassed? “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Sir,” Jared said. “You can call me sir.”
He’d rather the staff called him Jared but he’d left informality behind the day he’d left Earth.
He made his way to Keira’s bathing chamber. Taye and the other eunuchs milled about, tidying up and generally appearing busy although it was hard to tell exactly what they were doing. Completely nude, Keira stood in the pool under a waterfall gushing from a rock wall. Water streamed over her skin as she lifted her arms over her head to shampoo her hair. Water sluiced over her breasts. She turned, lifting her face to the waterfall as water streamed over her bare ass and thighs. Jared was hard before his eyes ever got that far.
“A refreshment, sir?” Taye offered him a tray loaded with glasses of juice and a selection of what looked like rolls.
Jared glanced from the young man to his naked wife and back again. It was wrong, damn wrong: no less than a half-dozen boys milling around while his bride bathed and he battled a raging hard-on that was difficult to hide standing in a pair of boxers. Jared took two glasses of juice off the tray. “You may leave. You and the others.”
“But Her Majesty is bathing.”
“Exactly my point,” he told the baffled attendant. “Go on, take the others with you. I’ll call you when it’s all right to come back in.”
The eunuch’s pale blue loincloth flapped as he hurried to gather up the others. The herd of young men turned to bow in unison before they disappeared out the door.
Jared downed a glass of juice. Breakfast juice contained nano-computers that refreshed the mouth and cleaned the teeth. The shortcut to toothbrushing was one more Coalition creation he was fast growing attached to. His wife was another.
He stripped and dove into the pool, breaking through the surface behind Keira. “I didn’t have a chance to say good-morning.”
She went rigid in surprise but only for a second. From behind, he kissed the side of her neck, sliding his hands up her wet belly to hold her breasts. Her nipples puckered at his touch. She might not be overly eager to see him, but her body was.
He turned her around to face him. Water gushed down. Her drenched hair streamed over her bare breasts, making her look like a sultry mermaid. “You didn’t look very happy in the gym. Last night left me in good spirits. Why not you?”
He expected a defensive response. He expected an argument that would somehow place the blame on him. He expected anything but the reaction he got.
She threw her arms around him and kissed him full on the mouth. He staggered backward as she practically climbed up his body, wrapping her legs around him. He’d expected they’d talk first, work out her anger; then they’d make love. But she’d reversed it. A guy’s dream. He’d take sex over talking, any day.
She moaned in his mouth, writhing against him, trying to push him inside her before he got his balance. He supported her weight with both hands cupping her cheeks, swinging her around to the closest rocks. He sat her down and thrust into her.
She was so hot that he nearly came right there. Shuddering, he steadied himself and rammed into her, urged on by her cries. She gripped him