Scarlet Nights. Lucinda Betts
gossip,” Solstice said. “What are the queen’s plans for me?”
“You know.” Aster’s playful tone was gone. She rubbed her slick hands over the curve of Solstice’s thighs, and Solstice had to admit that her touch did calm her. “The queen adores you. She’ll forgive you.”
“It’s because she loves me that her Punishment will be…surprising.” Solstice tilted her head so that Aster could reach her neck. “I’ve betrayed her. She’ll want her justice.”
Aster turned her back to Solstice and rummaged among the contents of her table. “I think you’re right.” Aster found what she was looking for. “She wants justice. The question is: what kind?”
Solstice’s gut twisted. “You’ve heard, haven’t you? You know exactly what she’s going to do to me.”
With a small smile, Aster hummed. She opened a small pot and found a painting brush. She dipped it into the paint and tested the color on Solstice’s foot, pale blue with a shimmer. “This color is perfect for skin as black as yours.” She began to run the brush over one of Solstice’s areolas.
For a heartbeat, the pleasure of the brush distracted her—but only for a heartbeat. “Aster,” Solstice said. “Please, tell me. What have you heard?”
A gleeful smile crossed the young woman’s face. “I can only say that the entire court is looking forward to tonight. The goddess hasn’t been honored like this in…” She threw up her hand to show the length of time, and blue sparkle splattered the table. “In forever.”
“What’s the Punishment?”
“What’s the worst the queen can do to you?”
Solstice thought for a moment and then laughed. “Make me honor the goddess by lying under Crescent while he pumps away over me.”
“Even you couldn’t honor the goddess that way.”
“I could.” Solstice shrugged. “But it wouldn’t be easy.”
Aster gave her a sly glance, her gray eyes shining. “But what if Crescent looked more like…hmmm…I don’t know. Lord Grip?”
“I have to lay beneath Lord Grip for my Punishment?” Would the queen actually compel her to honor the goddess with the man forbidden her? It was twisted enough to believe.
Aster shook her head. “That would be boring for everyone.”
“Boring?” Her brief time with Grip had been anything but boring. The fact that she’d disappointed so many people had been humiliating. Axel’s surprise entrance was particularly humiliating. But would people find her and Grip boring? “No.”
“Oh, la,” Aster said. “I don’t mean the partnering. No one wants to watch you lay beneath anyone. We’d all rather see you wield the whip or feel its kiss.”
“But with Lord Grip? Is that what the queen plans?”
Aster continued as if she hadn’t heard. “The queen doesn’t want to bore you or torment you. She wants to teach you humility.”
“Humility?” That gave her pause. “I’m humble.” But would a humble person say that?
“You’ve just been caught pleasuring the only man in the kingdom you’re not allowed to pleasure.” Aster laughed. “That wasn’t humble. That was prideful.”
“But—” Solstice blinked. She wanted to tell Aster the truth. She hadn’t honored the goddess with Grip out of a disregard for Queen Sureya; she pleasured him to save her queen!
“Just face it, Lady Solstice. You’re prideful.” Aster laughed. “How could you not be, accomplished as you are?”
“I’m not any more accomplished than the other Temple Virgins.”
“La.” Aster shook her head. “You play the pnignocio better than anyone at court, even the music master. Everyone agrees your dancing inspires more people to honor the goddess than any other dancer. And—”
“Stop!” Solstice would have put her hands over her ears if they weren’t tied about her head.
“Don’t shush me.” Aster nipped the side of her breast, sending pain right to her core—where it spiraled through her belly and turned to lust. “I was going to say that you’re the only one who not only endures the queen’s whip, but thrills in it.”
“Nadil enjoys the whip.”
“He’s a graceless fool, and you know it. Even by denying your skills, your humility and modesty are false. In seven short years you moved to the top of the court, and everyone says someday you’ll achieve the status of Perfect Hand.”
“I’m not achieving anything after today’s fiasco,” Solstice said through her distraction. She hadn’t been prideful in sleeping with Grip; she’d been sacrificing. She’d worked so hard to achieve all that Aster praised, but she’d thrown it away, unthanked.
Aster set her brush on the table and corked the pot of blue paint. “She’ll forgive you. She adores you.”
Solstice didn’t answer. Would a humble person agree or disagree? She suspected a humble person wouldn’t need to mull the question over.
“Which one do you prefer?” Aster sifted through more items on her table until she found what she sought. “This one?” She held up a leather bodice that showed a lot of skin. “Or this one?” She held up an even skimpier one.
“You’re going to pick the one opposite of my choice, aren’t you?”
Aster grinned. “Yes.”
“Then you’d better pick the one you prefer.”
“You were always my favorite,” Aster said. “Smart and lovely.”
“And prideful.”
Aster shrugged. “I’m not going back on my words.”
Guilt surged through Solstice. Aster was permitted her opinion of her. Of course she was. “Then at least tell me about my Punishment.”
“And prepare you for the surprise?” She laughed lightly. “If you were forewarned, you might not be as much fun tonight.”
“Ha.” Solstice knew an untruth when she heard one. “Would I ever disappoint you when it comes to honoring the goddess?”
“You’ve never disappointed us, it’s true.” Aster began to paint pale swirls of white around the curves of Solstice’s waist. “But you’ve never dallied injudiciously with the king’s man before today, either.”
“You’re not going to tell me?” The brush licked the sensitive flesh around her breast.
“I’ll tell you this.” Aster dipped the brush into the paint pot and brought it to Solstice’s nipple. “The Punishment lined up for tonight exceeds any I’ve seen—and not even old Hemlock has heard of anything like it.”
“Hemlock’s never heard of it?” Solstice swallowed. The queen must have her partnered with Grip. Would he hold the whip or would she? “But she’s a hundred years old if she’s a day.”
“That’s my point, exactly.” Aster laughed and ran a playful stroke of the brush over Solstice’s pearl. “And the frightening thing is…”
“What?”
“Even old Hemlock is looking forward to it.”
The queen truly had captured his men. The fact that Lord Kamir accompanied him through these halls proved it. A so-called Temple Virgin led Axel and his second-in-command through a labyrinth of halls. Regularly placed sconces lit the dark-paneled walls, and every turn looked just like the last. The scent of incense hung in the air, and the smoke burned his eyes. It also loosened his muscles, making him wonder what exactly the Virgins