Dreamlands (22 page)

“And he tried to warn her that she was acting rudely.”

“I guess that she thought that flaunting her charms would make him interested in her,” Tamazusa said dryly. “Some women do not know the value of subtlety.”

Samojirou came over to me and smiled. “May I take you away from your admirers, Sakura-chan?”

I giggled and nodded, letting him help me up. As he escorted me away, he remarked. “It was a good thing that you sent for us. The outsiders’ ignorance will be their undoing, but I do not want blood spilled here. Even theirs.”

I shivered at the casualness he had talking about killing people. I hated some of them, but I didn’t want to kill them. But killing Romejinoff and Murphy would probably save Wolf and Mason. I FELICITAS IVEY

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didn’t know if I could condone or plan their deaths. But I knew that most everyone else here could.

“My lady and I have finished discussing business,” Samojirou said, dropping his voice down to a husky tone. “Would you join me in a walk in the southern garden?”

I fluttered my fan and smiled up at him. “I would be honored, Samojirou-sama.”

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DREAMLANDS

SAMOJIROU

KENO was slowly removing his makeup, clad only in his
fundoshi
.

Yukiko had come to remove his kimono to be cleaned and to help him pick out something to wear tomorrow. She giggled and gossiped for a couple of minutes with Keno before she left. I didn’t think he realized how much the servants and the samurai adored him. Keno was starting to unpin his hair when I murmured, “Allow me.” He stopped, and I started kissing the back of his neck. He moaned softly, relaxing after a moment’s hesitation. I had never done this before. I had always kissed his lips. I skimmed my hands lightly over his body. I appreciated the new muscles I felt there. Keno was making soft sounds of pleasure that aroused me beyond belief. I pressed my body into his and was surprised when he shivered and pressed back.

“Keno,” I whispered, “do you trust me?”

“Mmmm….”

“Keno….” I repeated. I stilled my hands.

“Trust you,” he said. He sounded very dazed.

I was curious about this change of attitude but accepted it. He had been very flirtatious on our walk. I continued to kiss the back of his FELICITAS IVEY

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neck, overjoyed when I felt his hands shyly stroking me and eventually worming their way underneath the
yukata
I was wearing. His hands never went below my waist, but we spent several enjoyable minutes this way.

I moved my lips, licking a path down his spine, before I turned him around and pressed him gently onto his back. I thought that I had pushed him too far, but he just shivered.

“Keno, I am not going to hurt you,” I whispered.

“Um….”

I could see he was getting nervous again and tensing up. “I will not penetrate you,” I promised.

“But….” His confusion was endearing and apparent. “What…?” I leaned over to kiss him some more, careful not to act as if I were trapping him. He tensed up a little but started fumbling with the obi on my
yukata
. I stopped kissing him and pulled back. “Keno….” He had never been this bold before, and I was hoping that he wasn’t doing this because he thought he had to. The timing was too coincidental, with the outsiders arriving. He wasn’t exactly trying to bribe me with his body; it could be that he just wanted to reassure me that he wanted to stay here.

“Samojirou-sama, I….”

Suddenly I didn’t want to hear it. I started kissing him again, letting Keno timidly explore my body. I brushed my hand down his body and fumbled with the tie on his
fundoshi
. He squeaked into my mouth, surprised, but obediently lifted his hips when I stripped him of it. I broke off kissing him and stripped off my own clothing as well. I was surprised to see that my hands were shaking as I did this.

Keno looked dazed and frightened as he sprawled before me. He was aroused, and he blushed when he realized I was staring at him. I was hard, and I wanted him. I was pleased I was able to coax a response out of him.

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I leaned over and touched him, slowly stroking my fingers up his leg until I reached his erection. I fondled his sac, and he arched into my touch with a whine. He hands were curled by his side, and he whimpered helplessly as I explored him further. I was careful not to touch his opening, but I stroked the smooth skin above it. Keno writhed and made the most amazing sounds. I switched my attention to his shaft, petting it as if it were a small animal before wrapping my hand around him, stroking up and down.

“Samo―” Keno choked out.

He blindly reached out and tried to pull me down for more kisses.

I let him and shifted my body so I was lying on top of him, our shafts touching, when I let him go.

“Ah….” he breathed into my mouth when he felt us together. He shuddered, and I moaned.

I worked my hand between our bodies and wrapped it around both of our erections. While I wanted to take it slow before, I was impatient to feel him take his pleasure with me. I had waited for this for so long, for Keno to lose his fear of me, of intimacy.

Keno started whimpering again when I stroked us, the pearls of our pleasure smoothing my movements. I wanted to make the same sound as well but moaned into his mouth instead. It didn’t take long for him to quiver and start arching into my touch again. Keno was young and innocent of any sort of pleasure, it seemed; I wasn’t surprised that he had no stamina. He seemed to ignore the fact that I had him trapped, and he even wrapped his arms around me and ground our hips together.

I groaned. The sound seemed to trigger Keno, because he spent his seed. I followed him into pleasure when he was done and collapsed on top of him. I stroked his hip as he tried to control his breathing.

“Samojirou-sama,” he sighed. He experimentally moved underneath me, surprised at both the joy he had found and the sensitivity of his genitals now.

“Keno….” I said as I rolled off him. I didn’t want to feel like I was crushing him. At times I forgot how slight he was. Keno rolled FELICITAS IVEY

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over and nuzzled my chest. He seemed to like doing that a lot; it was an endearing habit with him. I smiled down at him and combed his hair with my clean fingers.

“We’re a mess,” he announced sleepily.

“It was not distasteful to you?” I asked.

He sighed. “No, but I don’t think that I’m ready for much more than this. You’re… ah… impressive.”

I laughed and allowed him to fall asleep.

KENO

THE next morning I woke, looked down at the mess that had dried on my stomach, and blushed. Samojirou leaned over to kiss me, amused that I was so shy now. I was shy because I had no idea why I did that last night or how I was supposed to act now.

All right, I did what I did because I was tired of being afraid. I just didn’t know what to do
now
. I liked what had happened, but I didn’t know if I was ready for something more. It didn’t help that we both had woken up… interested. I’m not saying it hadn’t happened before, but usually one or the other of us acted like it wasn’t happening.

Samojirou was good to me about that, not teasing me about something I couldn’t control.

“Do we have time…?” I asked Samojirou. Time for what I didn’t know, but I wasn’t ready to just get up and pretend it didn’t happen.

“And what brought about this change of heart?” Samojirou asked.

I looked down at the floor, but he reached down and tipped back my head, staring into my eyes. “You do not have to use your body as a bargaining chip.”

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“Samojirou-sama!” I squeaked, very embarrassed. “I had never even thought of that!” Tamazusa might have tried to put that idea in my head, that Samojirou wasn’t someone to be scared of. I had known that for a while, but last night was the first time I had actually acted upon it.

“I’m just tired of being afraid,” I said softly. “I don’t know if I can do more than this right now, but I wasn’t scared last night.”

“We have time for you to explore,” Samojirou said.

“Me?” I asked, trying not to sound too shocked to him. I was curious, because that was my nature, but I was willing to let Samojirou do what he wanted. Frankly, he seemed to be more excited about this than I was.

“Are you not curious?”

“Um… I never thought of it,” I said quietly. “I’ve spent most of my time not thinking about
that.
”

“Then may I explore some more?” Samojirou asked.

I nodded after a second, blushing furiously as he started kissing me again, pleased that I kissed him back. I gently stroked his back, and eventually we rolled over so I was on top of Samojirou.

“I think that you might find this more comfortable,” he whispered huskily, rubbing my back. “And you may be less formal now, since our relationship seems to be changing. Here, you may call me by my given name.”

I didn’t say anything, but I leaned down to kiss him. I started moaning softly and rocking against him. Samojirou hooked his legs over mine as I skimmed my hands over his body, fumbling and tentative. I felt stupid for a second and then just didn’t care when passion drove any kind of thought out of my mind. Our bodies grew slick with sweat, and Samojirou let his hands slip further and further down, until his fingers were brushing against my opening.

“Samo… Aboshi,” I moaned into his mouth.

“Keno, I will not hurt you,” he promised.

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I didn’t say anything, whimpering because it felt so good, and bucked against him. I was close. Samojirou grabbed my hips and ground me into his. I whined, fighting him, wanting to move more than anything.

“Do not―” he started to say as I spilled, hot and slippery, writhing in his grip and whining. Samojirou held me through my climax. When the shuddering stopped I lifted my head, feeling dazed and sounding drunk. “I’m sorry.”

“Touch me,” Samojirou said harshly.

I blinked at him, not wanting to move because I felt so good, and I wrapped my hand around his shaft. He was hard, and I tentatively pumped once, marveling at the differences between the two of us there.

Samojirou was bigger and thicker than me, not that it mattered. I hadn’t jerked off all that often, between the fear of getting caught and the fear that whoever found me would take advantage of me. That was all he needed, though, and he released with a groan, coating my hand and my stomach with his stuff. It was sticky and made me feel good.

“Aboshi,” I said with a sigh, “that was good, but I’m sleepy again.”

I was tired, drained from the passion we shared. It was strange to call him by his first name, but I guess if we were sort of doing
that
with each other, it made sense.

He laughed. “We have time for you to have a nap if you want.” I didn’t say anything, instead curling up in a ball beside him.

Samojirou wrapped himself around me, his arm around my waist.

“This is nice too,” I whispered before slipping into sleep.

WE both woke up a little while later and hurriedly bathed and dressed for breakfast. Samojirou was slightly late escorting the outsiders to breakfast, which was another private audience with Tamazusa. I didn’t 163

DREAMLANDS

think they knew how honored they were that they had both Tamazusa and Samojirou entertaining them.

I knew Yukiko had helped the outsiders this morning, because she had mentioned last night that she was to attend them. Another one of the maids had helped me dress this morning, smiling when she realized what had happened. I didn’t realize that so many of the servants thought what Samojirou and I did was their business. But thinking about it, it made sense. There was very little privacy here, with the way that things were laid out, so the servants knew everything about us.

Romejinoff and McGann still looked awkward and unattractive in the kimonos they were wearing. Tamazusa had a sly smile on her face concerning our tardiness, and she was pleased at the cause, even if she didn’t say anything. I went to kneel behind her, eyes downcast and the picture of modesty.

“About time,” Murphy muttered. A glare from McGann silenced him.

Mason looked thoughtful for a second and started eating. I was curious about the arguments that most likely rocked the outlanders’

quarters last night. Tamazusa would tell me about them later.

“I know that we have been terribly rude to you,” McGann started.

Tamazusa smiled. “I understand that our customs are strange. But you must understand that you are in a strange land with no weapons and no one that speaks your language. You seem to be terribly ill-equipped to be here. Many of my fellow lords would have lost patience with you before last night. Those outside the territory of Nippon are even more dangerous and difficult to deal with. Do you understand that?”

McGann and Wolf looked at each other and nodded. “I again apologize for my people,” McGann said.

“Can I hang out with the cool kids again?” Mason asked when she was finished. He rolled his eyes at McGann. “I promise that I’ll eat all my veggies, and I won’t try and piss people off.” FELICITAS IVEY