Chapter Five #2
“For the love of the gods!” Jaykun burst out angrily. “I’m not going to marry the girl! And so what if I did? I know my duty and where it lies. I know the responsibility that weighs on me!_My back is breaking from the weight of it!”
Jaykun turned and stormed back to his bedroom, leaving Jileana alone with his brothers.
Completely unfazed, she was enthusiastically eating food from the display in front of her.
Dethan and Garreth could only watch with bemusement as she gathered food to her and stuffed it into her mouth.
She made pleasured sounds and clearly took an almost erotic satisfaction in the food …
if her moans of delight were anything to judge by.
“Food is so delicious, don’t you think?” she asked them. “I don’t get to eat these kinds of things where I’m from. I especially like the fruit.”
“You don’t look like you’re starving,” Dethan observed. Although she was eating like a starving woman, she had a full, healthy shape.
“Oh no, of course not. I get plenty to eat. I only meant the kinds of food I eat are very different. You eat such a variety of foods. It’s very nice. If you’re not going to eat that…?” she said, pointing to the toast by Dethan’s wrist.
“Oh. Help yourself,” he said, handing it to her.
“It’s crunchy,” she noted after taking a curious nibble of it. “Is it fresh?”
“It’s toast. We hold it over the fire to make it crunchy on purpose,” Dethan said. He gave her a quizzical look. “Haven’t you ever had toast before?”
“Never! How fascinating! You simply apply heat to it and it tastes different.”
“That’s true of most food,” Garreth pointed out with amusement.
“We don’t use fire to cook food where I am from. We prefer our food fresh and unmolested. But I like this just fine. My brother told me about cooking and I didn’t believe him, but now I see we really must start cooking where I come from … if it is at all possible.”
“And where is it you come from that they don’t cook their food?” Dethan asked.
“It’s not far … and yet it is.”
“That isn’t an answer,” Dethan said.
“Isn’t it? You asked a question and I replied. Thusly, it is an answer.”
“Yes, but that isn’t a real answer!”
“Well, it isn’t a fake one,” Jileana countered.
“Stop it this instant!” Jaykun said sharply as he reentered the room.
He was fully clothed, looking tall and strong and confident as he tugged on a pair of gloves.
He was dressed in a black tunic with seams of gold, the emblem of their family crest emblazoned across his chest. It was the image of four serpents coming together from four different corners of the crest, their heads making up the four sides of a square.
Each serpent was of a different color and design.
“We weren’t doing anything,” Dethan protested.
“You were grilling her for information. She is my guest, not a prisoner or a potential source of information.” Jaykun reached out a hand toward Jileana.
She. took it eagerly, and after pausing to stuff another piece of toast into her mouth and grabbing up one of the fruits, she let him guide her down from the table.
“My lady, I believe I promised you an outing.”
“Did you?” she asked through a mouthful of food.
“For clothing,” he reminded her.
“Oh! You don’t have to do that. I’m fine with this—or I can go without it.”
Jaykun felt the stares of his brothers as he turned his back on them.
“No. That is not wise,” he said to Jileana.
He was still angry with his brothers, but in spite of it, her openness and innocence made him smile gently at her.
She honestly saw no trouble in the idea of running around naked.
If this were true of all of her people, he didn’t imagine they would be hard to defeat in battle …
not if they went into the battle stark naked and unprotected.
“I think it would be much better if you had clothing,” he said with a careful smile.
“If you think so,” she said, her enthusiasm for his input amusing. “I shall defer to your judgment on this.”
“Very well, let’s go shopping. I am told that it is a favored pastime for most women.”
“Well, if it is a favored pastime for most of your women, then I most certainly have to take part in it,” Jileana said eagerly.
Jaykun held out his arm and she took it.
In her excitement, she squeezed him. It was like that the entire time they walked from the castle to the middle of the city, where there was a great bazaar in place.
The bazaar was busy overall, but almost all the vendors were severely lacking in selections.
The siege on the city had taken a massive toll on the businesses.
But now that the siege was over, things should return to normal.
As it was, Jaykun did not venture out to the bazaar without an armed escort.
He was of course not worried for himself, but Jileana was a stranger to these people just as much as he was and they might mistake her for a member of the invading forces, which might put her in danger.
He would not have her harmed. The very idea of it turned his stomach sour.
He told himself it was a concern he would feel for anyone he deemed vulnerable, but in truth, the feeling ran a bit deeper than that.
He didn’t know why and he didn’t care to acknowledge or examine it.
So they were accompanied by guards as they walked through the bazaar.
It seemed the only vendors who had not been too greatly affected by the war were the clothing and household goods vendors.
They had their wares on ready display, the vendors themselves tidying up in the aftermath of the war.
The booth Jaykun and Jileana approached was manned by a Krizan woman and her two small children.
The children took one look at Jaykun and went darting behind the protection of their mother’s skirts.
“Will you service us?” Jaykun asked directly. “This woman needs clothing.”
The Krizan woman took one look at Jileana and her already large eyes went wide. “B-but sh-she’s …” the woman stammered.
“Will you service us?” Jaykun demanded. “I have gold and I know the business in this city has suffered. Are you so rich that you can afford to be prejudiced against us?”
“No, my lord,” she said at last, turning her attention on him. “I-I will give you whatever you need. Th-thank you, my lord, for choosing my shop. I-I need to feed my children and we have had so little to eat since the siege began.”
“I am sorry you have gone hungry,” he said sincerely. “But that is over with now. The battle is over, and you and your people will be treated as fairly as you treat us in return.”
“Yes, my lord,” she said with a weak smile. “That is much appreciated. Now … how can I help the young w-woman?”
“Whatever the latest in fashion is for a Krizan woman should be fine.”
“Oh, I like this!” Jileana said suddenly, dashing over to a mannequin with a dress of orange silk crepe on it. She fondled the fabric. “Oh! It feels so nice!”
“That is silk, my lady. The finest there is,” the shop keeper said with a wan smile.
She cautiously approached Jileana, her eyes shifting back to Jaykun often as she moved.
It was to be expected, this kind of fear.
He was one of the conquerors, after all.
They had no idea what to expect from him.
The one thing in his favor was that he had not allowed his men to pillage the city, stripping it of every valuable thing they could find.
He paid his men well enough in gold and gave them opportunities to fight.
He saw no purpose in raping a village once he conquered it.
It would take much longer to get it back on its feet if he allowed that to happen.
Besides, a slaughter of women and children and other nonmilitant types did no one any good.
“I love how it feels,” Jileana said. Then another brightly colored dress, this one in brilliant purple, caught her eye.
Krizan women were not the prettiest women on the planet, but they seemed to like colorful finery—plumage to make up for what their looks hindered.
The dresses would fall to mid calf on a Krizan woman, but on Jileana, who was much taller, they would come to about her knee.
There was something about the idea of being able to see her knees, perhaps flashes of her thighs, that made Jaykun go instantly hard for her.
The reaction took him completely by surprise.
Jileana was ignorant, laughing and coaxing the shopkeeper into relaxing.
How was it she could do this to him? Make him forget where he was?
Make him lose control over his body? He was a man in command of an empowered destiny.
He held the lives of thousands of people in his hands.
He controlled others; others did not control him.
Jileana then pulled the tunic up over her head in full view of the entire bazaar and let it fall to the ground.
The shopkeeper gasped and Jaykun lunged forward, grabbing up the tunic and crowding her body, hiding her from view as best he could.
Oblivious, Jileana was wriggling into the dress, letting it fall into place, all the while with a huge, bright smile on her face.
“Are you out of your mind?” he barked down at her. “Have you no shame?”
“About what?” she asked, genuinely clueless as to the source of his agitation.
“You can’t just strip in public, Jileana!”
“Of course I can. I just did it. Weren’t you watching?”
“I was! As was everyone else!”
“They’ve all seen a naked body before, silly. They have one of their own.”
She moved over to a long looking glass and viewed herself in the purple dress.
Jaykun had to admit she wore it well. He had been right about it hitting just at the knees.
The skirt was made of dozens of hanging kerchiefs, each falling freely from the waistband of the dress so that when Jileana moved, if she kicked her leg out far enough, they fell away completely and left her leg bared to mid thigh or a little higher. It was indecent in Jaykun’s opinion.
“I’ll take this one,” she said of course. “I do not have money, but we can barter for it. I could perhaps clean your home for you or watch your children. Perhaps I can teach them to read or write. I am a very good teacher. Or perhaps—”
“I have gold,” Jaykun said with a sigh. “I said I would buy it.”
“Then I will owe you something in trade,” Jileana said with a smile. “Have you small children in need of teaching? Or perhaps you do not know how to read.”
“I know how to read!” Jaykun said. “Several languages!”
“Oh, that is good,” she said with a smile. “But I am certain we will figure something out.”
Jaykun released a pained sigh. “It’s not necessary. I don’t expect repayment.”
“Don’t be silly. I am eating your food, sleeping in your bed, and now wearing your clothing. Or course there is repayment. Perhaps I could entertain you? You seem to like me naked, so I could strip and then—”
“It is a gift!” he said in a moment of inspiration before she could finish that thought aloud. Then again, he was incredibly curious as to where that thought would’ve ended up.
“A gift?” she asked, one of her arched brows lifting high. “But I have no gift to trade. Gifts are always exchanged. One gift for one gift. At least this is the way of my people.”
“A gift means you don’t have to trade. You get a gift for no reason at all and expect nothing in return.”
“How odd,” she said, her eyes drifting over him from head to toe as she took in the measure of the concept. She smiled enigmatically then. “Very well, I accept your gift for no reason at all.”
“But this isn’t the whole of my gift,” he said hastily. “The dress … Well, you require undergarments and perhaps a nightgown.”
“What is a nightgown?” she asked curiously.
“You wear it to bed.”
She laughed. “Don’t be silly. I’ll be in your bed. It seems ridiculous to dress up when you will only be undressing me for sex a short while later.”
The shopkeeper gasped and fumbled behind her skirts as if she would cover the ears of her small children. It was a fruitless attempt since it was too late already and they had four ears between them and she had only the two hands.
Jaykun couldn’t argue the point. It was the truth.
He was already beginning to obsess about the next time he would be able to get the shameless wench into his bed.
His lust for her was extraordinary and it only seemed to be growing.
He had never experienced such an instant attraction.
Usually he had to work up to the idea of taking a woman into his bed.
This had come so easily for him. So heatedly.
It should have burned itself out after one coupling.
Something that burned this hot and fast should die an equally quick death, should it not?
Yes. It would, he thought. She would only be there for three days and nights. It was more than enough time for this to burn out. In fact, he rather doubted he would want her beyond the second night. He ought to have her out of his system good and proper by then.
It was just … one coupling wasn’t enough.
It had been such a hurried affair. Something he had not had the proper amount of time to enjoy.
Nor had he properly seen to her enjoyment.
He was not a selfish lover. Not as a rule.
He took his pleasure by giving pleasure to his partner.
And the idea of making her writhe beneath him, of hearing her cry out, was an idea worth exploring.
To his shock, he was hard once again; just the thought of having her was able to give him sufficient stimulation. It simply amazed him.
“Very well,” he said, pausing to clear the roughness from his voice. “Another dress, then. Perhaps something a bit more conservative.”