Her lips curved into the hint of a mocking smile. "No, Amir Khan, you could not," she told him in a soft, assured tone. "You could take my body, but there is nothing that could pry my secrets from me if I did not wish to share them. Not passion. Not torture. Besides, if you should harm me then Kansbar will destroy you." Reaching up, she removed his hand from her throat. "You must not bruise me, my lord, lest I be asked questions that I shall not be able to answer."

"Who is Kansbar? Your lover?" He was shocked to hear the jealousy in his own voice, and he put an arm about her, pulling her close in order to reassert his dominance over her.

Again, her mouth twitched with her amusement. "Kansbar is the genie of the Golden Bowl. He is the guardian of Dariyabar. After my brothers were slain, my father gave the bowl to me as it was expected that Haroun and I would wed. My cousin does not even know the bowl exists. Kansbar, will be to your advantage if you wed me. He is a very powerful genie, and I will bring the bowl with me as part of my dower."

"If I agree to your proposal, princess, then you must give me your vizier's daughter for my general, Sabola. Such an alliance will make my position stronger."

"As his wife?" she queried.

"Agreed!" he said. "Now tell me, how it is you were able to leave your palace and walk into my encampment without raising any alarm?" He pushed her gown off her shoulders, his hands caressing the soft, silky skin.

"Kansbar has put a spell upon all of our little world this night but for you and for me," she explained. She shrugged her garment off, and it dropped to the floor of his tent.

He felt his breath catch in his throat. "Are you a virgin?" he asked her. Her breasts brushed against his broad chest, and he admired their perfection, not to mention the exciting contrast between his pale gold skin and her creamy ivory flesh.

"Of course I am a virgin, but I have been taught all the ways of pleasing a man, Amir Khan." Her hand reached beneath his sand-and-white striped robe. She fondled his rod with surprisingly skilled fingers. "You are very big," she noted. Then her hands moved to undo his robe so she might see his body as he was seeing hers. When she had succeeded she moved back slightly, saying, "You are very beautiful for a man, Amir Khan. You are not overly handsome like my cousin, but rather you are manly. I believe that you will arouse me when the time is right between us."

"Why not now?" he asked her, drawing her back against him, one big hand roughly fondling her breasts. By all the Gods! They were like the plumpest of summer peaches, and just filled his palm with their delicious ripeness.

"Patience, my lord Amir Khan. One should never hurry too quickly along roads to paradise, I have been told."

"Give me your lips!" his deep, rough voice grated out to her.

Zuleika raised her head up to meet his kiss, and the sensation that exploded within her took her by surprise. His mouth was hard, yet it was soft. It demanded, but oh, so sweetly. Her lips seemed to part of their own volition. His tongue plunged into her mouth seeking her tongue. Again she was overcome by feelings that threatened to overwhelm her. So this is passion, noted the small part of her brain still functioning. It was really quite breathtaking.

He lifted his leonine head from hers. "You kiss well for a novice," he told her, and Zuleika laughed aloud.

"I expect you kiss very well for a lover," she observed.

"You have never been kissed before? How is that possible?" he demanded of her, astounded. Surprised.

"I told you, I am a virgin. I was taught to practice kissing upon a sheet of beaten gold, my lord Amir Khan. This is the first time I have ever been kissed back. It is quite pleasurable."

Now it was he who laughed, and the sound was deep and rich. It sent a delicious shiver down her spine. "A sheet of beaten gold," he said. "Not silver? Or copper? Why gold?"

"I am a princess," she responded simply.

Suddenly his hand was smoothing her soft dark head. "Zuleika of Dariyabar, you are a conundrum I shall enjoy both exploring and solving," he told her. He was shocked by his great desire for her, but he also had the most incredible need to protect her. She was that rarest of women, strong, yet fragile too.

"I can feel your lust against me," she said in a soft voice. "Let me ease it for you, my lord Amir, as I am obviously the cause of your discomfort." Then she slipped from his tender embrace, and fell to her knees before him. She took the ruby-eyed head of his love lance between two fingers of her hand, holding it straight. Then she began to lick its length with slow, deliberate strokes of her tongue. "I shall sup upon your juices," she told him.

He closed his dark eyes. His temples were pounding in rhythm with his heart, and all of his pulses. When she took him into the warm cavern of her mouth, almost swallowing him, suckling strongly upon him, he wanted to scream with the incredible pleasure that she was giving him. He had never permitted a woman this privilege of his body, yet he could not have made her cease even if he wished it. And be didn't. Wave after wave of delight washed over him until his juices finally exploded, and she swallowed them almost greedily, retaining his flesh in her mouth until he finally softened slightly. His legs felt like water. Amir Khan was amazed that he did not collapse like some maiden, for he felt weak with his satisfaction. For a moment he could not speak.

Zuleika arose to her feet, reaching out first to pick up her delicate garment which she restored to her lush body. She licked just the tiniest pearl of his juices from the corner of her mouth, smiling. "I can see I have managed to put you at your ease once more, Amir Khan. Your juices are quite refreshing, as I had been told they would be."

"You never did that before either?" he asked, reaching for his own striped robe, and putting it on again.

"Of course not," she returned with a smile. "Bahira and I were taught the art of using dildos made of some magical material that grew hard and bigger as we sucked upon it. The juices within were always sugar water. Your juices are creamy, and slightly flavored with salt. They are very stimulating. Now, shall we conclude our bargain, Amir Khan?"

"I will take you to wife," he said, "and as you yourself have said, you will be the key that opens Dariyabar for me. And your vizier's daughter will wed with my general, Lord Sabola."

"And you will destroy my cousin, Haroun," she reminded him.

"Agreed. I agree to it all, Zuleika of Dariyabar! But you must know something before we conclude our compact. Once you are my wife, and Bahira is Sabola's wife, you are both bound to obey us in all things. Do you understand me?"

"Of course," she replied. "Wives are meant to obey their lords and masters, Amir Khan. Is that not the way of the world?"

"Will you attempt to rule Dariyabar through me, Zuleika?" he asked her bluntly.

"I will offer you the benefit of my advice, my lord Amir, and nothing more. Whether you choose to accept my advice is up to you." She smiled prettily at him, and her teeth were very white.

He had to laugh. "You are not very subtle," he told her.

"I will be a good wife to you, my lord. I know that my first duty is to give you a son. I will do it as quickly as I can," she swore. Then she took up her cloak, and drew it about her. "Kansbar's magic will not hold past the dawn, and the night wanes, my lord Amir. Come to my father's palace beneath a flag of truce today. He will not, despite my cousin, refuse you. And you must insist we be wed as quickly as possible. Do not allow Haroun to delay our marriage while he considers ways to thwart you. He is not particularly intelligent, but he has the slyness of a dishonest peasant. Both he and his favorite, Golnar, are wicked. They would stop at nothing to gain Dariyabar. That is why you must act quickly. Will you trust me in this, Amir Khan?"

"In this matter I shall heed your advice, Zuleika of Dariyabar," he told her. "Meeting you tonight has been both a surprise and a delight."

She gave him a final quick smile, and then disappeared through the entry of his tent into the moonlit night. Curious, he moved to watch her go. Her shadow passed swiftly through the maze of tents until he could see it no more. He stepped back into his pavilion and poured himself a goblet of wine. What had just happened here? Was it real, or had he imagined it all? No. His male member was still tingling from her bold attentions. Zuleika of Dariyabar had indeed been in his tent tonight.

He would take her to wife. Aye, he would! He had no wife. He had barely had time for any woman, particularly in the last three years. She was beautiful. She was clever. And she would give him Dariyabar! But she was right when she said her cousin, Haroun, would attempt to stop them. Haroun, who had encouraged his cousins to take up arms against Amir Khan, thereby insuring their demises while he remained within the safety of his city's walls to become his uncle's only male heir. The man was a coward, and he was a bully.

But Zuleika was also right when she said he had a peasant's cleverness. Choosing the vizier's daughter as his prospective wife was indeed a sly move. The khan chuckled to himself. General Sabola was his best friend. They had been raised together in the camp of his own father, The Great Khan. Sabola would be reluctant to have a bride foisted upon him, but by the Gods! If this maiden, Bahira, was as sensual as was the princess, Sabola would have no cause for complaint. Suddenly Amir Khan was overcome with a feeling of exhaustion. Was it natural, or was it the work of the genie, Kansbar? It mattered not. He lay down, and fell into a deep slumber.

When he awoke, strangely refreshed, he heard the sounds of activity in his encampment. His servants were immediately there bringing him his morning meal. He had barely begun it when Sabola arrived to share it with him. He was almost as big as Amir Khan, smooth-shaven, with the powerful frame of a bull. His dark hair was cropped very short. His brown eyes were intelligent. He sat down at his lord's table, and then his jaw dropped at the words issuing forth from the Khan's mouth.

"We are going to be married, old friend," Amir Khan said with a chortle. "Both of us! I shall have the princess of Dariyabar to wife, and you shall take the vizier's fair daughter as your mate." Having said it, the khan began to eat heartily.

"I slept the sleep of the dead last night, Amir," Sabola said.

"Of course you did," the khan noted. "A spell was placed upon the city and our camp by the genie whose task it is to watch over Dariyabar. All slept but for Zuleika, princess of Dariyabar, and me." Then the khan told his best friend everything that had transpired between him and the princess.

"How can you be certain it is not a skillful trap hatched by this princess and her cousin, Haroun?" Sabola asked, suspicious.

"It isn't. The princess hates her cousin. She realizes that it is he who was responsible for her brothers' deaths. Having finally understood his true character, she is determined he not follow her father as sultan of Dariyabar. By marrying her I gain a legitimacy as the sultan's heir. Zuleika is the key to Dariyabar for us as long as she is my wife. The vizier's daughter binds us ever closer if you wed her."

Sabola nodded. "If she is as skilled as your princess, my friend, I shall not be unhappy. I don't suppose we might share our women now and again?"

"Of course we will share them," the khan replied. "After we have had their virginities of them, we shall spend a night of pleasure and passion together with our wives. Have we not always shared out women? Zuleika will obey, and her friend as well."

"I suppose we must bathe if we are to marry today," Sabola considered. "We will wed them today, won't we?"

The khan nodded. "I think it best we do, if we are to thwart Prince Haroun. I will send a messenger with a flag of truce and a message for the sultan that I wish to meet with him. I shall say nothing of what I want, lest Prince Haroun read the message first and realize what we are about." He looked to a servant. "Fetch my scribe," he instructed him.

The scribe came. The message was dictated. The messenger was dispatched to the palace of Dariyabar beneath a flag of truce. He returned to say that the sultan would receive Amir Khan in the late afternoon.

Sabola nodded. "The die is cast," he said.

Amir Khan nodded. "Soon, Dariyabar will be ours," he said.

Chapter Two

Zuleika awoke after only three hours of sleep, but she felt as refreshed as if she had slumbered the entire night away. She listened to the birds singing out in her garden, a sense of great peace upon her. She had been kissed, but more important she had begun to put into practice all she had been taught about being a woman. She could not wait to share this with Bahira. She had found kneeling before Amir Khan, his wonderfully large manhood at her mercy, quite stimulating. The memory of it sent a flash of raw desire racing through her veins. His hands as he had lightly fondled her breasts had been exciting too. She realized that she could barely wait to have him atop her, his love lance eager to sheathe itself deep within her. She had been so tempted last night, but she had managed to push her own lustful thoughts from her mind for there was other business to conclude. "Rafa," she called to her servant.