He would do well to forget her and focus on her cousin. After passing the imperial exam, of course.
Except that night, he dreamed of Ling Xin. And the night after that, he was waiting for her, already in the treetop bower. If she didn’t come, then he would know she had accepted the situation. She knew as well as he did what her father had offered him. She knew that he should take it with both hands.
She knew it. And yet, that night, he saw her creep out to the wall and climb up, just as she had done almost every night.
“You are going to marry Li Fei,” she said as she settled on the wall facing him. Her words were equal parts accusation and logic. She knew what was best for him, but she didn’t like it.
He didn’t either.
“You don’t deny it?” she challenged.
“Do you deny that you will enter the Feast of Fertility in three weeks’ time? That you will attempt to become the next empress?”
She shook her head, and he could see the shimmer of tears in her eyes. “I am not the empress yet.”
“And I have not passed the imperial exam yet.”
She nodded, and they both fell silent. In the end, she sighed.
“Li Fei is kind and loyal.” She sighed. “She will make you an excellent wife.”
He didn’t mention that what he wanted in a wife was a sense of daring. It excited him, and not just physically. Most girls were trained to be porcelain dolls, and he found them extraordinarily boring.
Instead, he patted her hand. “You are beautiful and smart. You will make an excellent empress.”
She smiled then, a little coyly as she looked up at him. “Did you like my dance?”
“It was grace and perfection. I was very impressed.”
“So you think it will interest the emperor?”
How he hated his ruler right then.
“Not in the least.”
She jolted, clearly shocked. “What? Did I do the steps wrong?”
He gentled his tone. “You know you did not.”
“But—”
“Your dance was skillful, graceful, and very proper. I have already told you that proper girls do not interest a man. Not the way you want.”
She frowned. “But you liked it, didn’t you? You said you were impressed.”
He took her hand, gently guiding it with his own. “Ling Xin, I have only to look at you to desire you. The thought of you haunts me so much that I thought you a fox spirit.”
“I am not a demon,” she said, and thankfully, her voice held humor not annoyance.
“And yet you have bewitched me. We have done nothing improper this night and feel me. My dragon weeps to be inside you.”
He set her hand on his organ, and it immediately pulsed into her hand. And true to her daring nature, she did not pull away. Instead, she shaped him with her fingers, toying with his organ through the covering of his pants. And her expression grew wistful as she played.
“If I am selected for the lower harem, I will never bed the emperor. This is as close as I will ever be to a man’s dragon.”
He winced. “There is always the possibility—”
“No. I have spoken with my father. He came to me this afternoon to discipline me for making eyes at you.”