Treasure (27 page)

"I never lost them. I just often wish I had." Raiden smiled tiredly. "This time of year ... I remember why I was lost at sea. It is also around the time my father died—the man who took me in and gave me his name. So whatever the stars say, it's not a happy time of year for me."

"No, I suppose it's not. I'm sorry."

Raiden laughed. "Thank you, for the sympathy and for not immediately asking after details. Morbid curiosity is repulsive."

"Very true. I dealt with it often in the palace. The questions people ask, the information to which they think they are entitled—repulsive is not strong enough a word. I do not ask questions that are not my place to ask."

Smiling softly, Raiden said, "One of the many reasons I am quite fond of you." His smile widened when Taka turned away, clearly discomfited by the words. Raiden weighed what he wanted to say, acknowledged he should not say any of it, but found he just did not care. After so many years, it was a relief to find someone with whom he felt he could actually speak. "I had two brothers, once. We were very close:  lived together, worked together, did practically everything together. We were nearly inseparable. Then I went against their advice, and now they are dead because, despite everything, they still surrendered their lives to save me. They are dead now, and it is entirely my fault."

Taka frowned. "Nothing like that is ever the fault of just one person, not unless you held the blade or whatever that actually took their lives." Raiden shook his head, and Taka continued, "Then the blame falls with whoever actually took their lives. Whatever the provocation, I doubt you are completely responsible."

"Your faith is sweet, all the more because I know you are still angry I bought you—"

"I don't know what to think, anymore," Taka cut in, shrugging. Raiden ached to kiss him. "But I know you are no killer."

Raiden's mouth twisted. "Close enough. I fell in love with someone despite my brothers warning me he was a bad idea, and I loved him for a very long time. He was the center of my world. I gave him everything he wanted:  power, authority, standing, wealth. Everything he wanted, save one thing. That belonged to his brother who had worked for my brothers and me for many years. My lover would not stop being angry, jealous. He refused to accept that I would not give in to him on that one small matter."

Taka shifted on the bed, stretching his legs out in front of him, letting his hands fall to rest in his lap. He tilted his head thoughtfully and said, "You refused to mix business and pleasure, I take it?"

"Something like that," Raiden said. "I have since learned that in some respects, it is better to mix the two. Certainly I have every faith that mingling them in you is perfect."

Rolling his eyes, clearly fighting a smile, Taka replied, "Keep trying."

Raiden smiled back, but it faded away as he continued, "I refused to let him into more of the business aspect of things because he did not have the head for it, the ... maturity. I only wish I'd realized sooner how wrong I was too involve myself with him at all. I should have listened to my brothers and taken a lover who better understood everything, who would not succumb to greed and envy, and who would not have—"

He broke off and turned away to stare at the wall—and memories that were old, yet far from faded. The blood. The hate that burned in eyes that had once looked at him with so much affection. Raiden wondered now how much affection had really been there, and how much of it had been his own wishful thinking.

What he hated most was the memory of those eyes filled with nothing, but satisfaction when his lover finally took what he'd always wanted and threw away all he'd been given, all he'd had.

The worst memory, however, was of hearing his brothers' screams as they died to save him, gave everything they had to see to it that he lived. Their words of love, words he had not deserved, before they died.

Raiden jumped when a hand covered his, and only then did he realized he had balled it into a fist. "I wonder, sometimes, what would have happened if I had just given him what he wanted right from the start."

"I can tell from the expression on your face that you already know the answer to that question:  he would have done more harm faster. I know you like pretty, colorful things, but you're shrewd enough to know that next time, pick for sense and strength first."

Raiden twisted his hand, caught Taka's wrist, and pulled him down into his lap. "Strength and sense, a ruthlessly practical nature—someone who would also look wickedly decadent and beautiful draped in jewels and lying in my bed. I did learn my lesson, my treasure. Why do you think I chose you? If I handed you the world, you'd refuse it."

"What would I do with it? If I am practical, you are absurd. Let me go."

"Must I?" Raiden asked, sliding his hand down Taka's back and looping his arm around Taka's waist, holding him firmly in place.  One day, he hoped, Taka would lean into him and kiss him, curl up against him and be content to stay there. "I enjoy the way you feel when your barbs are not out."

Taka heaved a long sigh, but did not sound even the slightest bit annoyed when he said, "You really are quite ridiculous."

Raiden knew permission when he heard it, even if he had not actually been expecting it. Sinking his fingers into Taka's hair, Raiden drew him down into a soft kiss that was worth every bit of waiting and more. He was not surprised Taka tasted bitter, yet ever so faintly sweet. He was surprised by the way Taka relaxed in his arms and wrapped his own around Raiden's neck. He moaned softly and shivered as Raiden trailed fingers along his spine again, across the back of his neck.

After a moment, Raiden tried to break the kiss, do or say something sensible, but the need to keep kissing Taka was stronger, and he gladly succumbed to it, one becoming two becoming more than he bothered to count. Taka's mouth was addictive, and Raiden could not wait to taste the rest of him.

When they finally drew apart, Raiden could not remember what he had wanted to say. Taka spoke first, tugging on a strand of Raiden's hair that had slipped from his scarf. "Do not think that just because I am kissing you that I am, in any way, agreeing to being draped in jewels and nothing else. I am not a fish to be kept in a glass bowl for your amusement."

Raiden laughed and gently ran his teeth along Taka's jaw, slowly working his way down to Taka's throat to nip where his pulse beat strongest. "You are beautiful no matter what you do or do not wear, and you will only be more stunning drowned in pleasure, the most decadent treasure in existence—and all mine. The jewels are not necessary, merely an indulgence. I will convince you, though."

"Are you always this ridiculous with your lovers?" Taka grumbled, and he made a half-hearted attempted to stand up, squirming in deliciously distracting fashion on Raiden's lap and succumbing with delightful ease when Raiden held him more tightly.

Stealing another kiss, Raiden then nuzzled behind his ear and said softly, "I only ever took one lover, and he did like to call me ridiculous. Since then, I've been interested in no one—until you, and the way you call me ridiculous is nothing like the way he said it."

Taka froze in his arms. "You cannot be serious."

"I am, for once, quite serious," Raiden said. "Is that so strange? Do you have a flock of lovers to your name?"

"Only failed attempts. Being Kyo's secretary is not a position that easily reconciles with things like lovers. But you're not a royal secretary, and you do not like being alone, that much is clear. So yes, it is strange."

Raiden smiled faintly and kissed him again, sucking on Taka's bottom lip and nipping it, before taking another deep kiss, exploring every last crevice of Taka's mouth and committing it to memory. Now that he knew the feel and flavor of his treasure, he was drugged on it, would never let Taka go. He refused to consider the idea that someday Taka would grow weary of him.

Drawing back reluctantly, he said, "I cannot wait to show you my home. It's right on the coast, so near the water that if you step outside you are practically swimming."

"No doubt while I am swimming you will hide all my clothes and replace them with jewelry," Taka said dryly and burst out laughing at the expression on Raiden's face. "Do not pout because I figured out your plan." He was still laughing when Raiden shut him up with another hungry kiss.

Taka moaned softly, squirming and shifting until Raiden realized what he was trying to do and let him go to help him. He grunted in satisfaction to have Taka straddled across his lap, curling his fingers around Taka's hips before spanning his hands across his back, urging him closer, and devouring his mouth until they were both left gasping for breath.

Memories and other, more unpleasant thoughts tried to claw at him, but Raiden shoved them away, refusing to face them. He did not want to think about it, and so he wouldn't. Pulling back, he said, "You have to tell me what I finally did to earn your kisses."

"You stopped being obnoxious," Taka replied in that secretary tone Raiden loved more than he would ever admit. "You might also be infuriatingly difficult to ignore."

Raiden smirked, hands sliding down to Taka's ass, then back up again. "You can admit you liked the indigo paisley."

"I'm going to throw the indigo paisley overboard," Taka muttered, making Raiden laugh. "You don't need a secretary so much as you need someone to handle your wardrobe."

Putting forth his best innocent expression, Raiden said, "Let us strike a bargain. I will throw the indigo paisley overboard if you will throw all your clothes overboard."

"I am certain you are an excellent salesman. You must be, given your profits, but you will have to try a great deal harder to convince me to walk around naked. It will never happen."

"I would think that by now you would know better than to issue me a challenge."

Taka scoffed. "I would think by now you would know that you will not always triumph."

"Makes the victories sweeter when I gain them," Raiden replied, and he dove into another kiss, grunting in amusement when Taka shoved the scarf off his head to better sink his fingers into his hair, grinding against him in delicious, distracting fashion. Raiden fervently hoped they would someday have a proper bed to share and enjoy.

If not, well, he would face that pain when he must and not a moment sooner.

Taka abruptly drew back, making him frown in disappointment—and then in concern. "What's wrong?"

"I don't feel right, suddenly," Taka said. "The looming storm has made my skin crawl all day, but now it feels even worse than ever. I was hoping if I ignored it that it would ease off, or it was just Kyo, but it's getting worse."

Raiden reluctantly moved Taka off his lap and stood up. "Mermaids, I would wager. But if you are not going out of your mind with sensation, then there cannot be too many of them." He stifled a sigh, not wanting to explain why he sighed so heavily. "Come on, Kyo and Kin are probably already on the main deck." Leading the way from the cabin, he noted with slight annoyance that he had forgotten about his scarf and so his hair would fly all over.

Ah, well, the annoyance was well worth the reason for it. The fact he could still taste Taka on his lips made him smile as they reached the main deck and saw the sailors gathered in clusters, tense and unhappy—and all fixated on Kyo and Kin, who stood in front of a pair of mermaids who had definitely come out the worse in a recent fight. They were covered in cuts and bruises, their blood smeared across the deck. Another four mermaids lay around them, clearly dead, lying in lurid pools of their own blood.

They all looked at him when he approached. "You should have stayed below decks," Kin snapped, eyes quickly returning to the two mermaids. They were pretty, in that way only deadly things could be, and they were dressed only in sashes of pearls and jewels. There were sheaths for knives at their hips, but the blades themselves were nowhere he could immediately see. The slightly taller of the two had long, pale lavender hair and eyes a much deeper hue. The other one had hair so pale a green it nearly passed for white in the fading light, and her eyes were a pale blue that looked remarkably similar to Kin's. Though they looked young, Raiden knew from experience they were very old.

"What do you want?" Kyo asked into the silence. "You must want something, mermaids don't just let themselves be captured. I've seen more than a few of your sisters kill themselves rather than endure ropes about their wrists."

The mermaids stared at him, then Kin, Taka, and Raiden. Finally the lavender-haired one spoke. "We promised to guard the Eye of the Storm and guard it still. None may walk upon it without our permission."

"I see," Kyo said. "I was bid come here."

Staring at each of them in turn again, gaze lingering on Raiden and then the twins, the green-haired one said, "Yes, you carry the power of the Three Storms, and by their grace you may pass. We will remain with you until you reach the island."

"No—" Kin started, but stopped when Kyo pressed a hand to his chest. He glared, but remained silent.

"What are your names?"

"I am Shinju," said the green-haired woman. "My sister is Shio."

Kin sneered. "How many of you wait to attack us when our guard is down? You do not act like normal mermaids—"

"Neither do you," Shio cut in. "We guard the island known as the Eye of the Storm."

"It's called Sanhoshi," Kin snapped. "The island of the gods was lost forever nine hundred years ago. It sank to the bottom of the sea, everyone knows that."

Shinju looked at him with amusement. "Everyone is wrong then, though I think 'everyone' does not feel the same as you. The dragon-thief there knows we speak true."

"Dragon-thief?" Kin asked then realized they were looking at Kyo. "He's not a thief."

Kyo laughed. "Yes, I am. I stole the Eye, did I not? How close are we to the island?"

Shio started to reply, but as though on cue, far above them in the crow's nest the sailor there cried out, "Land!"

"Mere hours," Kin said, and he turned away to begin preparing the ship for landing. "Put the mermaids in the brig, set sailors to watch them, and at the first cry of trouble slit their treacherous throats."