Burning for Love by Evangeline Anderson
23
“Princess, you can’t listen to her.”
It was clear to James that the old female’s words had deeply affected Princess Ka’rissa.
She looked up at him with wounded eyes.
“But what if she’s right? What if I am a dirty, disgusting girl?”
“You’re not,” James said firmly. He wished there was a way to get rid of Lady Mildew completely. It made him so angry when she upset the Princess and made her feel bad about herself!
Then he realized what he had just thought—angry? Was he having an emotion? Was his damper failing him?
Surely not, he told himself. I’m just trying to protect the Princess—that’s my mission. Of course any threat to her mental wellbeing is unacceptable.
“Have you considered,” he said to Princess Ka’rissa. “That the reason you’ve been taught that you are ‘bad’ or ‘dirty’ is to keep you from touching yourself, thereby keeping you under the thumb of the people who are trying to control you through your Heat Cycle?”
Ka’rissa nibbled her bottom lip, her big, amber-brown eyes filled with uncertainty.
“Do you really think so?”
“I think it’s highly possible,” James said grimly. “Or it could be that Lady Mildew is simply raising you the way that she was raised. Maybe she was taught to believe that a female is inherently dirty between her thighs—while nothing could be farther from the truth.”
“Really?” The Princess still looked uncertain. “What…how do the Kindred view that…that area?” she asked softly.
“With great reverence,” James answered seriously. “My people believe that a female’s sex is one of the most beautiful parts of her.”
“Beautiful?” Ka’rissa shook her head. “Really?”
“Beautiful inside and out,” James assured her. Though he had almost no physical experience with females himself, he was, at his core, Kindred. It was in his DNA to revere females and appreciate their feminine beauty—something he found very easy to do where the petite, curvy little Princess was concerned.
“Beautiful inside?” She was still looking at him with a mixture of both skepticism and hope. “But how can you be sure that I would be beautiful inside, James? I do not even know what…what I look like there. Inside my…my nether lips, I mean,” she added, her voice dropping to a shameful whisper.
Again, James felt himself getting angry—it was a feeling that rose in his chest and made his hands ball into fists and his eyes feel hot and red. It was the same feeling he’d gotten while watching that bastard, Duke Grabbington, holding Ka’rissa too tightly on the dance floor.
This new, strong emotion—if it was an emotion—wasn’t directed at the Princess, of course. He was angry at Lady Mildew and the whole society of Regalia Five which taught that a woman was somehow less than a man, that she was dirty and disgusting in the spot where she was actually most beautiful and feminine. It seemed wrong to him—wrong and reprehensible—to make a female feel ashamed of something that should be a natural, normal part of her body. Not to mention shaming her and making her feel guilty for wanting to explore that part and bring herself pleasure.
“James?” Princess Ka’rissa touched his arm, pulling him out of the strange new feelings that seemed to be swamping him. “Are you quite all right?” she asked softly. “Your face…it’s so very grim.”
“I just want you to be all right,” James told her. He took a deep, calming breath, centering himself and reminding himself that he was a Dark Kindred, with no illogical emotions. All these sensations were just a result of his desire to protect the Princess, that was all.
“I am all right,” Ka’rissa whispered, but she sounded doubtful. “I…that is, I think I am,” she added.
“Are you?” James demanded, frowning at her. “Are you really well, Ka’rissa?”
“No,” she admitted at last, in a small voice. “No, I…I guess that I am not.” She sighed deeply. “The things that awful Duke Grabbington was saying to me tonight—”
“What was he saying?” James’s voice dropped to a low, ominous growl and his hands began to curl into fists again.
“Just that he would rule me through my Heat Cycle and make me beg him to slake my Heat,” she said quickly and made a face. “Ugh—I can’t stand him! I really would rather go up in flames than let that disgusting man touch me!”
“I would rather you didn’t go up in flames,” James told her, frowning. “I think it would be much better if you took control of your Heat Cycle yourself, Princess.”
She bit her lip, looking up at him with shy hope in her eyes.
“Do you really think I can?”
“I know you can,” James said firmly. “But you have to forget the lies you’ve been told your whole life and take charge of your own body.”
“I want to, James.” Her voice grew stronger. “I really do—especially after dealing with the Duke all night long. I’d go mad if I had to truly take him as a husband. But, well, I hardly know where to start. Could…” She looked down at her hands. “Would you help me?” she asked at last, shyly.
The anger was gone and now James felt as though something was filling his chest with warmth and sunlight. The thought that she trusted him to help her—that she wanted him to touch her… Well, he had no words to describe it. He only knew that he wanted to be gentle with her, to not scare her, to help her take control of her Heat Cycle and learn to discover her feminine core—that part of herself that had been so maligned her entire life.
“Of course, I’ll help you, Princess,” he murmured. “Come on, let’s go to the bedchamber where we can get more comfortable.”
