The Superman & Wonder Woman Fan Archive

Chapter Three

The corridor that I sprinted down led into the Empress’s gardens. The silver gleam of the moon played on the white roses that the Empress Lara loved so much. Pausing to catch my breath, I looked up at the star shine. The soft swish of the leaves drifted over me.

It was like being at home on the island. Oh, how I wished to be back in my own private spot at home, watching the surf coming in.

Inhaling deeply, I felt the calming breath course through my body, feeling the cool winds blow over me…

I sensed the heartbeat of another person close to me, and I looked around quickly… had Kal followed me here?

A footstep sounded just beyond the heavy palm trees and I waited anxiously for the person to come into the clearing. From the sound of the footsteps, it was most definitely a man.

“You’re not Kara.” A different accent with the earthy touch of a Terran. “So, good evening, Princess Diana.

A smile pulled at my mouth and I padded over to him. “Well, you have the advantage on me.” I directed my voice to the far corner, where he obviously was, hidden by the darkness and a profusion of exotic venusian flowers which filled the night with their aroma. “You are?”

“Wayne, Captain of Her Grace’s personal Guard, the Empress Lara.”

So, one of the Empress’s closest advisors, Godfather to Kara, perhaps, and reluctant to have her find him.

I brushed past a twisting vine, my eyes growing used to the soft light. Wayne’s heartbeat pulsed with the life-energy of the plants. “What’s of interest here, Wayne?”

“Before I became the Captain of the Guard, I was interested in cultivating plants. This garden is my creation. The Empress finds it therapeutic.”

Affection warmed his voice. A shaft of moonlight cut through the roof, slicing the dense knot of vegetation and I could just make out a dark head of hair. Light edged his smooth features. The Empress had ensured that a man of carved classical beauty, Wayne, represented her and her household across the Empire. Evidence of her alluring power on males. “So you’re hiding?”

“Nektar gives me heartburn. I prefer this.” He lifted a small cup, took a sip from it and sighed. “Green tea. Drunk here, surrounded by all this pure life-energy.” He grinned and the gesture was infectious. “Invigorating.” He lifted a pale eyebrow. “Want some?”

The bitter scent drifted through the heat and something in it lifted my heart, had it beating harder. I gave him a rueful smile. “I have to have a clear head.”

Wayne watched me over his little cup, his dark eyes gleaming. He drained his tea and shook the dregs over the nearest plant container. “Yes, you do. I smell Kal on you. Be careful, Lady. He’s played and caught too many aikaterines.”

Wayne stepped out from the swathe of thick planting and walked to stand directly in front of me. He continued talking, “But on the other hand, do not despair. Do you know how Kal was trapped by your compatriot, Artemis?”

I stopped thinking for a moment – Kal had been captured by Artemis? What had happened? Artemis was now Queen of the Bana-Mighdal in Sector 23 of the Empire. And by her side, as her Prince Consort was Hal, the Sentinel Lantern. I don’t know whether they made a well-matched couple, but certainly Artemis always looked as if her body had recently been licked in all the important places.

I pulled myself away from the image of Hal and Artemis mating together and tried to focus on what Wayne was saying.

“In the very first hour of the hunt, Kal was careless. He stepped out into this very garden. Artemis had dropped her dagger on the ground in front of him, Kal knelt to pick it up, and Artemis was quick, very quick – she placed her foot upon the small of his back and bid him submit.”

My mouth dropped open. If Artemis had been next to me, she may have found herself without a head, foster sister or not. How dare she make the move on my man? My chosen mate?

I contemplated doing terrible things to Artemis when I next met her. Then, Wayne’s smile turned wicked and my stomach dropped. Damn it, had Artemis mated with Kal already? However, did she find the time to snare Hal?

“She was very willing to mate with Kal. It was fortunate that the Sentinel Lantern came upon them and saw them both. He fell to his knees immediately, submitting to Artemis. It was a strange situation, the Empress’s son and the Sentinel Lantern were both available to Artemis as mate and by the ancient laws, she could keep them both.”

It was more difficult to draw breath now. I wanted to wipe that smile of Wayne’s face, and at the same time, I wanted to find Artemis and pull the hair out of her head, slowly. Had she snared Kal?

Wayne lifted an eyebrow. “What?”

I forced myself to ask the next question, “What happened next?”

A big grin broke out on Wayne’s face.

“Artemis has a great love for bed-sport. She seemed intent on enjoying her Hunter’s Moon celebration, she declared that she would need to mate with them both before she could choose one of them for her mate.”

I was afraid to know more, afraid…? No, no Amazon is afraid, but I felt fury course through my veins and I vowed vengeance with every last drop of blood that flowed in my veins.

Wayne continued, “Oh, your foster sister enjoyed herself, but she finally chose the Sentinel Lantern - Hal, leaving the Empress’s son free to be the mate of another.”

So, that was why Artemis looked so smug every time I had brought up Kal’s name as possible mate. Not only had Artemis had a taste of the man who had fired my blood but Artemis was the only aikaterine to capture Kal and release him. That was why she was not his sklava.

I looked at Wayne and wondered if I should snare him – much easier than Kal, perhaps more responsive and oh, more malleable. And now, in any case, I was irritated with Kal, how could he have been so foolish as to have been snared by Artemis?

I gave Wayne what I hoped was a warm smile of sensual promise. The sudden gleam of teeth against Wayne’s pale lips caused a hitch in my chest.

Was Wayne thinking of me in a similar manner? Was this it then? Would Wayne be my Prince Consort? If the reactions of my traitorous body were anything to go by, it was a resounding yes. Liquid fire that had been roused by Kal and was smoldering just  beneath my skin, was already surging through my veins in response to Wayne’s overwhelmingly masculine appeal. The warm garden air heated the scent of my own body, a little wind wafting it obligingly towards Wayne, who sniffed most becomingly.

“But I can see why Kal wants to play. Your spice burns the blood.”

Oh, if Kal hadn’t slid under my skin, then Wayne with his dark perfection would have been worthy of the hunt. My skin prickled and something in Wayne’s gaze, a wry humor, put a deliberate sway to my hips as I moved forward. Then I felt it. The other heart beating out of rhythm with ours, a heart I knew. I lifted an eyebrow.

Wayne had a wicked streak I liked. “I could make it hotter.”

“Wayne, leave now.” Kal’s rough order rolled over me.

He gave a short nod. Wayne was the Empress’s Captain of her personal Guard and had to obey her son. He stopped beside me and gave a deep bow, “An honor to meet you again, Princess Diana.”

I let out a slow deliberate sigh, my gaze flitting over Wayne’s muscled perfection. Kal’s heartbeat thickened. Good. He had to learn who was in command. “My only regret is that we were so rudely interrupted.”

Wayne’s eyes glittered and the beginning of a smirk cut his mouth. “Indeed, Princess.”

“I said out.” Kal’s command came with an undercurrent of tension. “Now.”

Wayne bowed to me, bowed to Kal from where he stood in the open archway and left the summerhouse.

I glared at Kal. “So you plan for me to be the first queen who will be neither sklava nor mated by dawn?” Smoothing a hand down over my hair, I turned to a smaller door opening out into a narrow, arched corridor. Chill air washed through the sheer silk of my gown and I held down a shiver.

Kal followed me, catching up with my fast pace. His boots echoed over the old, damp stone. “Don’t worry, Diana, you’ll be sklava. My sklava.”

My laughter rang around the stone walls. “I’m following the trails of four young men. I’m sure any one of them will be eager to please and welcome the prestige of being a queen’s consort.”

“This is all hot air.” Kal’s soft, deep voice flowed through the silence of the stone corridor. “You’re hunting me, Diana. No boy with fuzz on his chin would satisfy you.”

“I’m hunting you?” I glanced back. The warm glow of one of the corridor lamps washed white glow over his features, highlighting planes of his face and giving me for a brief moment a glimpse of his cerulean blue eyes.

“Do people usually hunt by walking away from their prey…at high speed?” I smirked at him.

“You, I have no interest in. Too mature, too conventional,” my smirk grew, “too used to being your mother’s boy-scout.”

Kal stopped, his harsh in-drawn breath revealing the white gleam of his teeth, the action making my gut tight.

No one had the right to be that beautiful, and the primitive emotions of my too willing body demanded I stop right there and jump him.

“Boy-scout?”

I stopped and turned. The fury rolled off him, a thick wave of anger that surged at me. I willed self-control and kept the sharp grin on my face. “Aren’t you?” His blue eyes gleamed, alive with fire and I had a hint of how his favorite sklava Lois felt when he watched her do the Dance of the Seven Veils. I felt the heat of his emotions, could hear his heart beat, could hardly resist the pull of his body. I longed to mate with him, to lock my lips onto his and to make Kal mine.

I soothed my feverish body with promises, trying an old trick Artemis had taught me – mind over matter, she had said. But I could scarcely trust Artemis any more, right?

To myself, I whispered the strategy Donna had come up with. Brute force wouldn’t win a man like Kal. He had to be played, as he planned to play me. The rewards if we won almost had me purring. But the danger if we lost terrified me.

Tilting my head, I softened my smile and saw the mistrust flitter across his features. “Now, run along, Kal. I’m sure there must be something in our ancient laws about hounding a aikaterine like this.”

“You touched me.” The distance between us vanished and his body heat swept over me. He took my hand and pressed my right index finger to his lips, the contact running a shock under my skin. His mouth curved into a smile and satisfaction swept off him. “Feel that connection? You are made for me, Diana.”

I traced the edge of my thumbnail under his lip. My heart thudded as my mind raced. Already, Kal had backed me against the cool stone of the corridor wall. His height blocked the lights, throwing his face into heavy shadow. His heat and musky scent wrapped around me and I tried to ignore the sudden rush of need that had my nipples hard and aching. “Hardly,” I said, very aware of how close his mouth was to mine. I wet my lips and the soft liquid growl escaping him pulsed a need low in my belly. He pressed his body hard against my abdomen. “You’re grabbing at any excuse, aren’t you?”

“Bluff all you want, Diana.”

Firm hands slid over my hips to pull slowly, inch by inch, the silk of my gown up over my buttocks. The constant brush of light fingers against my rear end, the rush of cool silk against my skin and Kal, holding my gaze with a promise of such wickedness… My heart thudded and the ache intensified. I wanted him. And he knew it.

“Tell me you don’t want me now.” The soft words brushed against my lips and my body melted under him. Clever fingers caressed my skin, sketching lazy patterns, edging over each cheek. Unable to hold back, I gasped aloud as he caressed my tight, hot flesh. His fingers stilled. “Let me have you, submit to me, and I promise, I promise you such pleasure. An eternity of pleasure.”

He pressed little kisses over my jaw, edging down over my neck to the pulsing artery just below my ear. Teeth nipped at my skin, hard, sharp, pinpoints of assured ecstasy. So simple just to give in.

My power as a queen, my mission to establish peace, the heavy burden of it, I could let it all devolve to him and have no fears ever again.

Thoughts of Kal blanketed me, the surge of him in my mind, my flesh, all consuming. Two natural-born royals… equals, mating – the sensations would be incredible.

I tugged at his belt, his shirt, pulling off his cape, my fingers finding the solid heat of his body. Kal’s head jerked up. He bit and laved his healing tongue over my throat, jaw, lips, my mind dizzy from the burning points of bliss.

He stared at me, his eyes flared red, and I circled my palms over his chest.

His arms tightened, trapping me against his body. “Say you want me, Diana.”

It would be so easy to fall under his spell, and it was a spell.

A heady magic that had trapped seven women through the years.

Seven.

My saner mind railed against that. Share my conquest with other women? I didn’t share. I was to be a queen.

My quick fingers slid down and then up and over his chest and Kal began to growl, deep within his throat. Kal buried his face in my neck, with his teeth almost, almost breaking the skin.

I crushed my eyes shut against the tight knot of desire in my belly, the hollow ache of my flesh, the need I had to shift my hips and sink onto Kal’s body, moving with him till I screamed aloud my pleasure.

I could submit to him and find complete bliss—just like all the others.

My raw emotions wrapped around my conscious thoughts. My mind pushed back – hard.

I hunted for myself, not to share Kal with weak-willed women. The roar I released then stilled him, a snarl of possession, of power. “Kneel.”

“No.”

Pushing out, I loosened his arms and his fingers slid from my hot flesh. I stepped away from him, and eased my silk gown back over my exposed skin.

Deep in my soul, I felt nothing but pity for Kal, and I let that feeling show as I glanced over his disheveled clothes. He tucked his damp shirt back into his trousers and resettled the smooth material of his cape over his shoulders.

I wiped my palms and fingers on his shirt as I lifted my chin. “I release you from my touch.”

“You can’t do that, Diana.”

“I can do anything I bloody well like, I’m a queen… or will be at dawn!” And I turned from him. The air was still heavy with the scent of desire and need; and drawing it into my lungs, I wanted nothing more than to mate with Kal.

But my body and mind were finally in agreement. Kal must submit before he mated with us.

“You will kneel before me.” His voice echoed over the stone walls, raw, hard and the ache to taste his body again burned through me.

I resisted.

But as I moved away from him for the second time that evening, I heard him say softly, clearly, “This isn’t over. Before dawn, I will have you.”