5: PRINCESS ZOË XING

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...5...

PRINCESS ZOË XING👑

Two weeks passed by with her acting just fine, not trying to escape or to even do something remotely mischievous. She was lax, just enjoying her freedom to the fullest. She bounced around the house delighted, especially the left wing where he resided due to the library, for she loved books, especially loved the ones he had. She also frequented the flower garden and the kitchen. She loved watching food being made for she was not good at doing so. She was a disaster at cooking meals. She also liked the small stream close to the garden, the one running through his manor. She never thought of escaping via the stream for it wouldn't get her far away from his manor. She liked swimming in the shallow watercourse, playing at the very edge for she could not swim and then lying in the sun, basking in its warmth.

He knew all these because he watched her from a distance, wanting to be half sure that she will do just as she had promised him and not try anything funny. And his suspicion was refluent with each passing day. It ebbed away, little by little until he could no longer distrust her anymore. She would keep to her word for a while. He was sure of it. She had been giving him the cold shoulder ever since then. Now, that was the only thing that bothered him, her blatant silence at his appearance. She would completely ignore him if he spoke to her, no matter what he did to provoke her speech. She would be stubbornly mute if he cornered her, even when he kissed her. She would leave the room instantly if he entered into it. It was quite frustrating yet rather challengingly fun to him -trying to conquer her resolve.

'What are you thinking about?' the third prince's voice broke into his reverie. He turned away from the window of his study to his brother, the little prince.

'Her,' was his tired reply to his brother.

'Well, that should not bother you too much for I can see that she is quite promising. She is finally settling in and accepting her fate from what I have observed.'

'Little, I see that too. But, she is not settling well with me. She is putting me out of the picture and that is what bothers me,' he confided in him, going to take a seat.

'I do not blame her for doing so you know.'

'What did you say?' he asked although he had heard him.

'First, you are crass and rough. You are absolutely no woman's dream. I support you being out of the picture. You will utterly demean its value,' he said taking a seat with an evil smirk on his face.

'Why you little imp,' he cussed out at him, angry and quite hurt. 'I'm your brother.'

'Well I'm just saying,' he said to him with a nonchalant shrug.

'Oh keep your stupid thoughts to yourself Maximilian!' he scowled. Maximilian chuckled, enjoying teasing his brother who was struggling to collect himself. His brother was only ever not composed in matters concerning his woman, the one he kept. 'Why are you even here?' he demanded. They got serious.

'The bimonthly council meeting is around the corner First. It is just four days away.'

'I am aware of that. You tell me that every day now you know?'

'You shall be housing only three of the clan leaders this month. The centre prince normally does but that itinerant bastard Jasper is nowhere to be found and I doubt he will show up in time for the meeting or even show up at all,' the little prince lamented. The emperor stared at his brother long and hard. 'What is the matter?' the little prince asked when he wouldn't stop.

'Jasper is my brother.'

'Well, he is also mine if you must know,' he told him with ease.

'I guess that makes both of us bastards because that is what I am trying to point out,' he snapped at him.

'He's a dildo in the ass and you know it. So, stop trying to guilt trip me. It won't work.'

'Who and who shall I house in my manor?' he asked him, dying the previous matter.

'You shall be housing Princess Zoë Xing of the Xing clan, Princess Fairy Rion of the Rion clan and King Thor Oswald of the iron clan,' he stated.

'Tell me Little, why do I have the brunt of the litter?' he asked him.

'I already informed your butler Peter of this,' he continued, ignoring his irrelevant question.

'Is there any other thing?'

'Unfortunately, no,' he said.

'Then, leave me be Max, I have had about enough of you for today,' he said with a scowl.

'I shall head to my manor then,' he stated, getting to his feet and turning away. He halted after only but three steps. 'Lord Linamine,' he addressed the emperor with his noble man title. He looked at him, the scowl still on his pissed and sour face.

'What is it?'

'Seduce her,' he advised him. Then, he turned and walked away with that his loop sided smile. The first prince grunted. The little imp! But would seducing work? Would it really break her resolve? He would have to try it and see. After all, it had once worked, perfectly, before she had become an irony. Anyways, he would have to try it now, at that very moment for his patience was badly lacking, fast. dwindling to the last. He stood and suddenly wondered where exactly she would be at that given time. He strode out of his study and above the stairs to his quarters. He turned into the corridors and into his personal living room. There he found Peter addressing two maids who were receiving his sharp but quick orders with lowered heads.

'My lord,' Peter greeted him with a bow the moment he noticed his presence. The maids turned to him and did same, chorusing "My Sovereign Liege" simultaneously.

'Where is the lady?' he asked the man with wandering eyes.

'She's in your wing my lord, the library to be precise,' Peter answered him. 'If she isn't there, then she must be in your bedroom for she asked me moments ago where she could find the third volume of your father's biography,' he informed him. 'I told her a copy must be in one of your bedroom shelves for it is the volume you love the most,' he ended. The emperor nodded, assimilating the information.

'Thank you Peter,' he said. He turned to leave after the three subjects bowed again.

'My lord,' Peter said halting him. He turned to him and lifted a brow in answer. 'We have been asked to host three of the clan leaders in our manor due to the centre prince's absence,' he informed him. 'I was only informed of it about thirty minutes ago by the little prince,' he explained. 'He must have informed you of it my lord, I suppose?'

'Yes Peter, I have been informed. I trust your capabilities so see to it that all goes well,' he appraised his butler. The man smiled at the compliment.

'You flatter me too much my lord.'

'I have no time for flattery good old Peter,' he assured the man, amused.

'Then I thank you for the compliment my lord,' he said with a bow.

'What has the lady done today apart from being in the library?' he inquired of Peter.

'She tried to bake in the kitchen. She ended up experimenting with the flour instead; making beautiful explosives I must say. I was just assigning maids to clean up the kitchen catastrophe my lord,' he said. The emperor chuckled greatly at the hilarious information.

'Her place is not in the kitchen,' he said, amusement still twinkling in his melanous eyes. Peter smiled broadly.

'I do agree with you my lord.'

'I shall be above stairs with her in the case that someone seeks me,' he informed him.

'Yes my lord,' he said with a bow. The emperor turned and went up the stairs. He found Cora lurking in the corridors, playing with her sword. The warrior was always war minded.

'My lord,' she greeted with a bow the moment she saw him. He nodded in acknowledgement, walking past her to the bedroom. If the lady wasn't there, he might as well change his clothes. He needed to look good to seduce her, didn't he? Well, she was not in the bedroom, which meant that she was either yet to find the third volume or she had already taken it. He changed into another of his white shirt and immaculate white trousers after a small cold soak. He had always enjoyed a good cold bath due to having so much internal heat because of what he was. He dabbed some scent before he went in search of her. He did not find her in the library as Peter had predicted. He instead found her in his above stairs study, the one in his quarters, the left wing. She was standing at his desk, backing the door, backing him. She was holding a framed photograph, studying it, so engrossed that she didn't hear him come into the room for she had left the door ajar. He knew that photograph. It was one of her. He crept up on her noiselessly.

'It is beautiful right?' he asked her, leaning in and speaking into her ears. She looked up, quite startled. She gasped as the photo left her hands. He caught it and she whirled around, not quite noticing the speed he had used to do so.

'You sneak!' she snapped, 'must you always frighten me?' she asked angry at him.

'I didn't mean to,' he said to her setting the photo on the table behind him with his two hands at her side, trapping her between his body and the table, entering into her personal space. 'Besides, you were lost in the photo,' he pointed out to her. She sneered as she tried to look at anywhere else but at him.

'You could have announced your presence more loudly,' she scolded. He lifted a brow at her words. She came out of his entrapment. He let her do so; amused at the effect he had on her. Her cheeks were coloring faintly. He stared down at the photo he had set on the table. It was a painted picture of her at a cliff, spear in hand. The wind was whipping her buttocks long oxblood hair in varying directions. Her shoulders were set with defiance and there was a look of confidence on her face. She studied him. 'Who painted that?' she asked him, curious.

'Your grandfather did mine,' he told her. She was very surprised at his words.

'You know my grandfather?' she asked him in puzzlement. So she had a grandfather? Well, she could not remember him just as she could not remember much of anything.

'Is there any reason why I shouldn't mine?' he asked her with a smirk.

'Anyways, he gave the photograph to me,' he informed her. She scowled at the statement.

'He gave it to you or did you steal it, along with me?' she asked him snidely. He shook his head.

'He gave it to me,' he stressed, 'and told me to protect you.'

'Protect me my foot,' she said with a sneer. He sighed exasperatedly. He turned away from the photograph to her and walked to her. 'What is it?' she asked as he came up to her.

'Must you always think the worse of me?' he asked her taking a fist full of her hair, caressing it. She watched his hands move over her hair.

'You are a villain,' she stated in a matter of fact way. 'And villains do not do good things. You will only know that if you are educated.' That was obviously an insult. She had just implied that he was not learned.

'Well well, you are quite certain that I am a villain?' he asked her. She nodded certes sure. He kissed her in half of a nanosecond, taking her by surprise; swooping down on her like a hawk on a chick before she could realize his intentions. She wasn't expecting it, the sudden assault of desire that engulfed her when he claimed her lips. He ravaged her mouth with his kisses, taking and giving. Her head swooned from all the hazy pleasure his kisses were arousing. She moaned as he brought her against his body with a hand that snaked around her waist. Her hands coiled around his trim waist, holding unto him, tightly. His scent, that sweet hypnotizing coconut and lemon scent -or coco lemon- wafted into her nostrils, filling her head, enthralling her to stupor. She moaned as his kiss did wonders to her body. He kissed her neck, planting kisses along her clavicle. 'Why then do you want this villain if I am nothing but evil?' he asked her, his tongue skimming her heated skin.

'I don-' the words died in her mouth, replaced by a needy moan as he drew her head back with her hair, after grabbing as much as his broad palms could, exposing the glowing brown skin of her neck to him and his feasting eyes. He nipped her ears softly with his teeth, his tongue drawing circles on her ears before they reached her neck. He ran his tongue over the sensitive spot between her ears and neck. Desire melted her, turning her into a messy puddle. His caressing mouth left her wanting more of him.

He glided his tongue over and over again on her neck, earning her moans of pleasure. She almost pleaded, unsure why she should feel the urge to do so, plead for something she didn't know. His wandering mouth her cleavage, and when his mouth, ministered to one of her breast through her clothes, she purred delightfully, unable to control the sounds leaving her mouth when his tongue circled the fleshy mound, wetting her thin blouse. Sensations, overpowering and pressing ran through her, causing her to shudder and shiver. Despite the barrier, his adept tongue worked her nipples into thick hard beads. Soon, she was clinging desperately unto him, gasping for air as he did same to the other twin. And then, abruptly, he drew back with a smirk on his face. She stared back at him with passion ridden eyes and knew from the triumphant look on his face that she had been thoroughly played.

'I'll do this to you anytime you ignore me,' he informed her. 'I'll awaken your desire and then leave you hanging and dangling, very high and dry,' he stated. 'That will be your punishment for ignoring me,' he mandated. 'I am not someone that you should ignore mine.' Then, he walked away from her looking completely unaffected by whatever passion had dealt with her thoroughly just a moment ago. It confirmed her suspicion. She was in the palm of his hands, under his mercy. She was certes his.

Well, she hated it, hated that and equally hated him! She stared at him until he left the room. She fumed for a while, angry at him and herself for being so pliant to him. She stomped out of the room and in the opposite of the direction that he had turned. He watched her leaving figure from where he stood. It had worked perfectly. He didn't want to admit it, but the little prince was really a genius. She stormed out of the left wing in anger and marched down the stairs. She turned into the general living room, his receiving room, and nearly colliding with someone.

'Watch it!' the lady screamed at her. She knew that voice. She looked up at the lady whose name she was yet to know. They stared at each other in recognition. 'It's you again?! What the hell are you still doing here? Don't you have a home you tramp? Don't you?!' she asked obviously pissed. She had seen the lady twice when they had held the last bimonthly meeting two months ago. The tramp had no manners, no iota of respect whatsoever. She had disrupted the meeting, barging in and demanding to see the beast who turned out to be the emperor. What impudence! It had infuriated her. She could recall how the emperor had hurled her lover his shoulders like a bag of potatoes and had taken her away, to be disciplined she was sure. They had all wondered who the woman was until one of the maids had tattled to her that the woman was there to satisfy the emperor's sexual needs. She was a demimondaine. She wondered what the geisha was still doing here.

'Oh please, mind your own business Mrs. Quick mouth and fiery temper,' she snapped at her. It was an obvious transfer of aggression. She went around the lady, not in the mood to banter with her at all.

'You dare to walk out on me?!' she questioned her, causing her to halt. She turned to her personal aide, her escort and said to her, 'Jessica, make her pay obeisance to me. She seems to lack manners and I shall teach her how to do so,' she said staring straight at her, wickedly.

'Yes my lady,' Jessica received her mistress command. She turned and grabbed her by the arm. 'Pay homage to my lady or be forced to do so,' she stated seriously. She scoffed at the lady's threat. She was unafraid.

'Why should I do so?' she snapped at her unafraid.

'You must because I am Princess Zoë Xing of the Xing Kingdom and you are below me in status.'

'Ahh, I see. But I am not interested in whatever you are ranting on and on about,' she muttered. This statement infuriated Zoë.

'Come on Jessica! Make her pay for this, quickly!' she said with her eyes and head, fuming, with anger.

'Let go of me,' she snapped at the lady's aide, Jessica. 'I have no strength to war with you,' she continued with a forced sigh.

'Unhand the lady! Now!' Xiera barked harshly, arriving just then. Her eyes were hard, dangerous, made more horrible by her fiery red hair which was hanging loose and wild behind her. Jessica's eyes turned to her approaching figure.

'She disrespected my mistress warrior Xiera and I was only just trying to teach her a lesson,' Jessica explained to her. Xiera's brow rose at Jessica's unsought explanation.

'What disrespect do you speak of?' the lady asked with a laugh, eyeing Jessica's fingers on the brown skin of her arm angrily.

'Teach her a lesson my foot!' was Xiera's sharp retort. 'Unhand her, this very instant before I lose it!' she snapped at Jessica.

'She disrespected me female warrior,' Zoë said to Xiera, addressing her by the name she hated the most. She hated to be called that.

'Your highness,' Xiera began with anger in her voice but was interrupted by her lady.

'Don't listen to her Xiera,' she said to the red haired warrior. 'She is just looking for a way to lash out at me. She detest my presence as much as I detest hers,' she spat out, instantly remembering how the sick lady had insulted her severely at their last encounter, calling her a hungry stray and a dirty little whore when she had done absolutely nothing to her.

'Now, that is disrespect and I myself will teach you a lesson,' Zoë snapped coming to her.

'Under the emperor's orders, no one is to touch the lady except him,' Xiera snapped at her, stilling her. She turned to Xiera.

'Under whose orders?' she asked Xiera in disbelief with a sneer.

'Mine,' came along the emperor's voice. They all turned to him. They all curtsied, paying obeisance to him save the geisha -Zoë noticed- and the emperor's escort who had come in with him. She cursed inwardly as her anger brewed and boiled, simmering at the blatant disrespect to the emperor. What sort of geisha behaved that way? She was beginning to find it hard to believe that the lady was a geisha. She seemed more like an unruly slave that was favored by its master. 'It was my orders Princess Zoë Xing,' he clarified, coming to take the lady's right palm in his. Zoë watched this gesture infuriated, completely convinced of her earlier theory. The lady sneered at the emperor. He smirked at her, his eyes twinkling with unhidden amusement. 'Are you still angry mine?' he asked her. She said nothing in reply to his question. 'You are ignoring me,' he stated, 'and you know very well what could happen next.' Her gaze shot upwards to meet him, startled and doubtful.

'You would not dare,' she whispered, afraid he would do so. He closed the rest of the little distance between them and her heart flew out of her chest. The smirk on his face told her that he would, wouldn't he?

'It will take me about nothing to do so,' he pointed out to her, cupping her cheeks in his right hands, lifting her face to his in the process and causing her to look directly into his ever mesmerizing eyes.

'I wasn't ignoring you!' she quickly pacified him quite desperately. 'I just didn't know what to say to you,' she lied.

'That is better,' he accepted her reason despite knowing that it was a lie. He stepped back a bit, having instilled the fear that he wanted to in her. 'So, what is the noise about Xiera?' he asked.

'The lady claims that my lady disrespected her,' Xiera reported to the emperor. He turned to the lady.

'Did you?' he asked her. Zoë seethed. How could he ask the lady and not her? She was the higher one here.

'I did not,' she stated. 'She insulted me and I did nothing but ask her to mind her business,' she said glaring at the hide-bound lady.

'Liar!' Zoë retorted instantly, completely prepared to speak a mouthful. 'You are manner less! You did not greet me; neither did you acknowledge my status and presence, intending to completely walk pass me.' The emperor fixed his hard gaze on Zoë.

'She shall acknowledge no one but me Princess Zoë,' he said to the angry lady who gasped in surprise along with her aide, Jessica.

'Who the hell is she?' Zoë asked, forgetting she was addressing the emperor in her anger.

'Your highness,' Cora called her to order with a warning voice. 'Be careful with your tone!'

'She is mine,' the emperor answered her nonetheless. He turned to Xiera. 'Escort your lady out, to wherever she is headed,' he mandated.

'Yes my lord,' Xiera answered him with a small bow of respect. Her lady instantly removed her hand from the emperor's quite gladly and matched onwards. Xiera followed behind her quickly, matching her pace. He noted her direction. She must be going to the flower garden.

'You are four days early Princess Zoë,' the emperor pointed out the moment he returned his attention to the woman before him.

'It is a long journey from the Xing kingdom to the Linamine palace My Lord,' she answered him. 'And I do not intend to arrive late,' the still fuming Zoë mumbled.

'Princess Zoë,' the emperor called. She looked up at him. His face was angry.

'Yes My Sovereign Liege,' she answered him.

'Do not upset her,' he said to Zoë in a cold hard drawl. The brutal warning in his voice was vivid. 'I will not condone such at all.' he started to turn away from her but stopped and turned back to her. She stared at him, confused at his actions. He gave her a much softer look. 'Welcome to the Linamine palace, Princess Zoë Xing of the Xing kingdom,' and with that, he strode away, leaving her to fume as much as she wanted to.

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... OmaPhinaPhire🔥