My belly dipped, my heart surged and the area between my legs tingled.

Shit!

I shook my head again and got another touch of his tongue.

Oh God.

“Sahnahsoo nahna Dax neenkah, kah Dahksahna,” he murmured.

Let your King inside, my Queen.

Oh God!

I had to stop this, like, now.

One of my hands slid up his back, under his arm, up his chest, his neck and I cupped the side of his jaw, sliding my thumb between our lips.

“No, Lahn, kah lisa lapay kahna,”** I whispered.

His eyes smiled again, a knowing smile, therefore a scary smile.

“No, baby, your mouth is mine, ” he whispered back then his thumb swept across my cheek, my lips, taking my thumb with it and when he had access, he bent his head and touched his mouth to mine again.

I held my breath but he only lifted his head and whispered, “Okay, my Circe, anah na vatay. Anka, ta junay tooka.”***

I didn’t catch any of that but I felt extreme relief mixed with almost devastating disappointment when he slid off my side but tucked me close under him, tangled his legs with mine and muttered,

“Trahyoo.”

I wanted to trahyoo, I needed to trahyoo.

But all I could do was feel the specter of his lips against mine and the phantom of his tongue.

So it took me awhile.

Then, tangled with my warrior king, I trahyooed.

* Translation: “This is not the part of me you love but it must do.”

** Translation: “No, Lahn my mouth is mine.”

*** Translation: “Okay, my Circe, tonight you win. Tomorrow, we play again.”

Chapter Nineteen

The Judgment

Six days later…

“Poyah, kah rahna Dahksahna!” I heard, turned my head and saw Keenim, the boy who sang to me days ago in an open space. He was with a bunch of other boys kicking around what looked like a ball. It was bigger than a football but shaped like one without the pointed ends.

“Poyah, Keenim!” I called back, waved, he waved and his friends all stared at me in shock, their eyes then turning slowly to their friend in more shock that the queen would know his name and wave.

Clearly, he had not told them he’d been to my cham twice since his initial visit (where I played his guitar and he played with Ghost) or they didn’t believe him.

This made me smile until I made my way back into the sea of chams then my smile faded and my thoughts wandered.

I was walking, thinking and most importantly, being seen. With the return of The Horde, there were thousands more warriors, their wives, their children, their slaves and other hangers on. The din of the Daxshee had escalated as had its sprawl.

The good news about this was that Lahn’s returned army kept my husband busy.

And the bad news about this was that his returned army kept my husband busy.

Therefore, for the last six mornings, he woke me with his hands then wasted no time getting me hot before he fucked me fast, hard and brilliant. He always forced my orgasm before he let his go. It was sweaty, it was energetic, it was heated, it was freaking great but it never lasted long. Then he’d demand my mouth, I’d refuse, he’d grin his knowing, scary grin that told me, clearly, he was biding his time. Then he’d drag me out of bed so I could give him a quick bath and braid or arrange his hair how he instructed. Then he’d pull me

to him with one arm, wrap his other hand around my jaw to position my face so I couldn’t escape, touch my mouth with his and then he’d be gone.

As in gone. I didn’t see him all day and even though I tried to stay awake at night (though, I was not admitting this fact to myself); I was never awake when he slid in bed beside me.

The good news about this was it made it easier to resist his sweetness, his hotness and all other things Lahn.

The bad news about this was I missed him. It sucked to admit but there it was.

I missed my scary, savage brute, king of a marauding horde in another universe husband.

How whacked was that?

The other bad news about this was that it gave me plenty of time on my own.

Diandra had a husband, a daughter and a cham to see to and I wasn’t her only friend so although I spent time with her every day, as the days went by, I opened my eyes and saw cham, it seemed I was settling into this world and doing it on a permanent basis. This meant I actually had to find some way to settle into this world and I couldn’t have Diandra by my side every second.

The same with Narinda who had a very attentive savage on her hands and he didn’t have a legion to command. So she was tied up a lot of time (hopefully not literally, or, maybe, if he was sweet about it, then hopefully literally).

Nahka, the same with cham, husband and two kids.

And my girls seemed to be always busy pounding rugs, rinsing out baths, cleaning my sarongs, polishing candlesticks, baking flatbread in a clay oven, roasting meat on a spit over the fire and the like. I tried to help (more than once) but Teetru had a fit when she saw me laughing with Jacanda and Beetus while pulling my tops and sarongs off a drying line and she lost her mind (in her quiet,

solicitous Teetru way) when she caught me rinsing breakfast dishes at the creek with Packa so I stopped doing it.

I was a queen. I needed to do queen things. And queen things clearly didn’t include doing the dishes.

The thing was, I knew no other queens of primitive, savage hordes to tell me what queen things I should be doing and although Diandra was a great advisor, she’d never been a queen. My husband wasn’t around to advise me, I wasn’t sure he’d be good at it and his advice might be scary.

So I decided the best queen thing I could do was to get out amongst my people, smile, nod, talk (as best I could), get to know them and let them see me. Therefore, every day I took walks through the Daxshee followed by whoever was guarding me that day.

Today it was Bain, or the grinning warrior, who was friendly, unlike Zahnin, the other warrior who kept watch over me (and the one who had plucked me off my horse twice that day we were riding). Bain walked with me and talked with me all the while scanning the people and chams. Zahnin walked two feet behind me and never looked at me. However, he did look like he was in a perpetual bad mood. The first time he was with me, I tried to engage him in conversation. This was so unsuccessful, I didn’t try again.

And talking with Bain was fun. He had no clue when it came to English so I was forced to try out my Korwahk on him. This made him laugh (a lot, my Korwahk was really bad) but after he quit laughing, he was a patient teacher. He would correct me and as we walked he would point things out and tell me what they were called (for instance, firepit, pahkah, torch, pahkan and just fire, pahk). He also intervened when I chatted with my people, often miming what they were saying which made me laugh.