Chapter 22: Five Rounds

The silk cord was red, and it was three arm-spans long, and it lay coiled in the bowl of ice beside the bed.

Qinglan had set the bowl on the stool in the phoenix bed chamber and turned the lamps low, and filled a second bowl with warm oil.

She had not slept for two days.

She did not care.

Murong Yue lay naked on the red sheets with her wrists loosely crossed above her head.

She had not been tied.

She was holding them there herself, as a thing she was permitted.

"Five," Qinglan said. "Tonight I want five. You asked me what I wanted, so that is it."

"Five what?"

"Times you come. Different ways. I counted them in my head all day."

"That is a great deal of counting."

"I'm a physician."

She picked up the red cord, and it was cold, and it dripped.

She drew it slowly over the Dowager's breasts, and the pale flesh puckered.

The nipples stiffened into tight dark points.

Yue hissed.

"Cold."

"It's meant to be."

"I am going to ruin the sheets."

"They're only sheets."

She dragged the damp cord down the center of her belly, and the muscles jumped.

Qinglan leaned and followed the wet line with her tongue, and the Dowager moaned.

She took the cord lower and let the cold tip rest in the crease of the thigh.

"One," she said, and put her mouth on the clit.

She sucked it slowly, lovingly, with two fingers pressed flat against the entrance, until the Dowager's hips began to lift.

She did not hurry.

She had all night.

The first orgasm came in a soft rolling wave, with a sigh, and a long shudder, and the wet heat of it on Qinglan's lips.

"One," said Yue, dazed.

"Good. Two."

She wound the cord around her own hand, picked up a chip of ice with her fingers, and held it to the clit.

Yue's whole body convulsed.

"Qinglan!"

"Hold still."

"It is. Ahh. It burns."

"It's ice."

She let the ice melt on the swollen flesh and then pushed it, small and slick, just inside the opening with her thumb, and the Dowager screamed.

Cold, then heat, then the quick slide of fingers over the numbed skin.

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