"My lord, you are hurting me," she whispered as his hands cruelly crushed her soft breasts.

His grip loosened, but he did not for several moments turn his head from the two women performing before him upon the thick rugs. When finally Talitha collapsed upon Zada, Kedar let out a long sigh of obvious satisfaction, and once more turned his attention to his companion. He tsked to himself over the red welts his rough fingers had imprinted upon Skye's tender, creamy flesh. Pushing her back amid the cushions on the couch, he fastened his mouth over her nipple, and sucked forcefully while his hand vigorously teased her other one. Automatically her hand entwined in his dark hair, and smoothed down to caress the back of his neck, which she knew he liked. She could feel him against her leg, hard and demanding, but she knew that he would not take her quickly. The two other women had built his excitement high, but it had not yet peaked, and Kedar enjoyed the foreplay almost as much as the act itself.

His head lifted and moved to her other breast, which he bit at softly but sharply. She gave a small cry of protest, and in answer he rolled them off the couch onto the carpeted floor. Skye lay flat on her back as Kedar slowly rubbed his swollen maleness over her face, pausing suggestively at her mouth. She kissed the throbbing length of him with what he believed to be great fervor, and Kedar growled to the other two women. "Open her legs, and hold them wide." Skye felt her legs being grasped, and pulled up and apart, while Kedar continued to rub himself against her breasts, torso, and belly as he knelt by her side. Her arms were stretched above her head, and for the moment she felt absolutely nothing. Half her brain was with Niall, although the other half kept track of what was happening to her, and she occasionally moaned with convincing passion.

Kedar now moved himself around and between her legs. Resting on his elbows he spread her nether lips with his fingers and then his hot mouth found her and began to feast upon her sensitive woman's flesh. "Allah!" Turkhan whispered as she peered at the tableau before her. "Your brother is most inventive, my little Hamal."

"Wait, my Princess," Hamal said, "Kedar is but warming to his beautiful subject."

"You think she is beautiful?" Turkhan queried him sharply.

"Yes, I do," Hamal answered. "She is nothing like you, my magnificent mistress, but she is fair in her own foreign way. To compare you would be like making a comparison between a rose and an exotic lily. Impossible!"

Turkhan was well pleased by Hamal's little speech, and reaching out, she caressed his cheek, although her eyes never left the scene being played in the guest apartment. The slave girl was writhing and moaning in earnest now, her shapely hips pushing upward to meet her master's eager mouth. Kedar sucked aggressively upon Skye's little jewel, and his tongue then licked at her with sure strokes until she opened for him and he was able to push his tongue into her with a lingering, agonizing slowness. For several long minutes he moved his tongue back and forth within her-an exquisite torture. Finally he was no longer able to hold back his own lust, and pulling himself up, he drove into her well-prepared body.

"Allah!" Turkhan exclaimed again. "He is a bull!"

"Perhaps," Hamal teased, "Kedar should have sold himself to you and left me in charge of our father's business."

Turkhan laughed softly at his jest, but her eyes remained glued to the tiny peephole. "You are very silent, Ashur," she noted. "Are you not impressed by the lord Kedar's incredible performance with his slave girls?"

"He is too obvious, and far too heavy-handed a lover for my taste, my Princess," was Niall's tight reply, but he, too, could not take his eyes from his peephole. His anger was so great that his entire body felt icy. Strange, he thought, I should at this minute be strangling that devil who so possessively rides my wife, yet I am numb. I can barely even feel my heart, and I am so cold. So damned cold! He focused again upon Skye. Her head with its marvelous wealth of dark hair was thrown back; she was moaning audibly as she approached her peak; he could even see the distended delicate blue veins in her slender white neck. Did she enjoy Kedar's lusty attentions? Were women like men in that the fulfillment came even if the love was not there?

“This becomes tedious now," Turkhan said. "Let us go and play our own little games, my darlings. I have heard that men when they have no women to amuse themselves often put their own lances into each other. Tonight you and Hamal will amuse me thusly before I allow you to take me. Come! There can be nothing else Kedar can do after he has satisfied his passions upon his slave girl Muna."

Hamal hid a knowing smile. For all her power, Turkhan was incredibly ignorant in matters of lovemaking. Kedar was only beginning, but for Ashur's sake his younger brother did not bother to tell his mistress that. He could not really imagine how Ashur felt, but he knew what they had just witnessed was not to his friend's liking. European men had very strange ideas about their women.

In the meantime he and Ashur would have to convince the princess not to force them to the particular perversion she was so innocently suggesting. Hamal was quite sure that Ashur would be in total agreement with him, although he knew that several of the young men in Turkhan's harem often amused themselves thusly, particularly as their mistress was so engrossed these days with Ashur.


***

Kedar was equally engrossed with Skye at that moment. His lust was running quite high this night, its fires stoked by the delicious performance Zada and Talitha had given for him. Once, twice, three times he brought Muna to a wailing peak; but Kedar was barely satisfied. Now, he noted with some slight annoyance that she lay unconscious. He rolled away from her and lay on his back. Instantly Zada was there, flinging herself upon him with great enthusiasm. Braced upon her hands, her head thrown back, she rode him like a fury while Talitha squatted over his head and presented herself for his loving attentions. Eventually the two women exchanged places, and finally Kedar was replete with their bodies and released his first burst of passion into Talitha.

For several minutes the three lay panting with exhaustion upon the soft rugs. Zada was the first to rise, and with Dagan's aid she bathed with cool rosewater first her own sex, and then those of Talitha, Kedar, and the still unconscious Muna. When she had rejoined her master and the others Kedar said, "Help Talitha to rouse Muna from her swoon, my spicy little Berber." Zada felt a glow of pleasure at the endearment. She would do whatever he wanted, for she loved him. When Talitha began to suckle on one of Muna's breasts, Zada moved to Muna's other side and imitated the older woman. Clawing her way up from the dark depths and finding her two companions thus engaged, Skye wondered if she would survive this orgy. She had never seen Kedar so aroused, and she was more frightened now than she had ever been in her months with him. She had to survive! She had to! She was so close to success!

The night became a blur of sensuality where one body blended into another; and one sexual act followed another so closely that she soon became confused as to who did what to whom. She was spared the worst of it, however, for Kedar was truly jealous of anyone else, even another woman, touching her. Eventually, Skye never remembered when, they all fell into a deep sleep, the bodies tangled together. When she finally woke the sun was streaming into the room, and as Skye stretched gingerly her gaze met the very amused one of Talitha.

"So, sleepyhead, you are finally awake," the older woman greeted her.

Skye nodded. "Where is the lord Kedar?"

"Meeting with the princess. It is at least two hours past the noon hour."

“The last thing I remember is the dawn," Skye replied.

"We were up in time to see that our lord Kedar was fed and bathed properly," Zada said smugly. "You could not be roused."

"Are you so in our master's favor, Zada," Skye said sharply, "that you dare to offend me?"

“The master is pleased with me," Zada retorted pertly. "He is!”

“That is not what I asked you! Now, unless you have been relieved of your duties by the lord Kedar, you will fetch me something to eat and to drink. My mouth feels like cotton, and I am ravenous."

Zada hesitated a moment, looking to Talitha for support, but Talitha took that moment to assiduously study her long nails. Defeated, the servant girl hurried out to do Skye's bidding.

"You are stronger than you pretend to be," Talitha remarked calmly.

"You know that I am of the nobility in my own land," Skye replied. "I am used to commanding servants."

"Yet I have never seen you act so authoritatively," Talitha said. "Is it true, then, that Kedar will make you his wife?"

"I know not," Skye answered truthfully, then added to confuse Talitha, "but it will be as he, and he alone, desires. He is the master." Talitha might think what she would, but she would never be able to say that Muna said she was to be Kedar's wife. Skye stood up. "I am going to bathe."

“I’ll come with you," Talitha replied. "So far there has been little time for indulging anything other than Kedar's various appetites."

Skye laughed. "Does Kedar know how sharp your tongue is?" she asked, genuinely amused.

"No more than he knows how strong you are, Muna, my friend. Hurry now lest that little upstart Zada try to join us. I can bear no more of her chatter today. Is she never quiet?"

"No," was the short reply, and the two women departed quickly for the guest bath.

They bathed in leisurely fashion, and then returned to the apartment and ate what Zada had brought them. Kedar was still with the princess, and Talitha and Zada lay down to sleep while they could; but Skye took the opportunity to walk in the gardens that opened off of the guest quarters. The day was warm but not uncomfortable, and she enjoyed the peace and the solitude of her own company. Slowly she strolled along the carefully raked gravel paths. About her a multitude of bright flowers bloomed in exotic and riotous fashion, their many scents almost overpowering in the still air.

"My lady Muna." She heard Hamal's voice, but looking about did not see him. "I am on the other side of the hedge," came the explanation. "It is better that we not be seen talking. Just walk along. I will keep pace with you."

"Which way?" Skye asked.

"Toward the fountains at the end of the hedgerow."

"Have you some news for me, Hamal?"

"I have managed to convince both my brother and the princess of the advisability of journeying to Algiers. As I have explained to Turkhan, she cannot entrust her goods to her own caravan people until she knows the risks and variables of the trail. Since Kedar, having never over the years lost a shipment, is really the expert in this, I suggested that he go with her to aid her. Also the Dey of Algiers is an old friend of the princess's father, Sultan Selim II. He will aid her in her dealings in Algiers, and Kedar will benefit by meeting the Dey through Turkhan. Everyone will profit all around."

"What of Niall, Hamal? What of my husband?"

"The princess will take both myself and Ashur, your husband, with her."

"But how are we to escape?" Skye's voice had a nervous edge to it.

"Kedar has confided in me that he is so enamored of you that if you could not go along he would not go."

"Oh, God!" Skye whispered. "I will never escape him!"

"Courage, Muna! You must only put up with my brother for a few more months. I have already dispatched a pigeon to my Uncle Osman. Your ships will be awaiting you in Algiers. Do not fear! Has my uncle not said it was not your fate to remain in this part of the world?"

“We cannot compromise Osman," Skye said firmly.

"Do you think I am so foolish as to endanger him?" Hamal's voice sounded hurt.

"I do not like returning to Algiers," Skye fretted. "There is danger in that city for me."

"What danger?" Hamal was curious.

"My second husband was Khalid el Bey, the Great Whoremaster of Algiers. He was murdered by his best friend, Capitan Jamil, the Sultan's commandant of the Casbah fortress, in order that Jamil might possess both me and my beloved Khalid's fortune. Your uncle helped me to escape, Hamal. When Osman sent for me a few months ago, Jamil was in Istanbul. By now, however, he will have returned. If he suspects for one moment that I am there, he will attempt to exact revenge on me for spurning him."