Mischief was not too far from her mind as Jay Yi gently closed the book and quietly padded to the side of the room where her dresses from the life of Go Sun Dol sat, still folded neatly.

Rifling through the shelf, she quickly found what she was looking for. As a eunuch, she had been given three sets of tunics. She had lost the belt and the hat to the prison changing room, but two tunic sets still perched on the shelf, waiting patiently.

Taking a quick peek at Hwan, who seemed oblivious to everything but the parchment he was writing on, she grabbed a tunic set and headed for the washroom.

Hwan did not stir as she moved across the room's width. A little disappointing but not unexpected. Hwan had always been unwavering once his mind was fixed on something. She had never encountered anyone with such an unparalleled, needle-sharp focus.

She compressed her lips, suppressing a smile, imagining his facial expressions when he would realise she was wearing the eunuch uniform he hated with a vengeance. Truth be told, she was not doing this to vex him, at least not entirely. She had a mind to clean the room. The cobwebs and the dust were bothering her, a task she could hardly accomplish clad in yards of pure silk.

A few minutes later, she emerged from the small, enclosed enclave that served as the washroom, dressed in the eunuch tunic and pants.

Hwan was still engrossed in reading one of the scrolls. She walked over, drew the stool closer to his desk, and picked up the ink stick again.

"Tch, I told you to leave-" Hwan froze midsentence. "What are you doing?"

Jay Yi had to summon all her willpower to stop her facial muscles from breaking into helpless giggles at his dumbfounded expression.

"Grinding the ink stick, Your Majesty. The slab is almost running dry. And ink sprays won't matter now."

"Why-"

"Your Majesty, the faster you finish, the higher chance I will have to practice a bit of archery today. I want to impress Master Shin tomorrow." An exaggerated sigh later, "As it is, he is convinced I will never learn how to wield a sword. Min Jay Yi defeating ten soldiers is now a tale of lazy soldiers who made up stories to hide their incompetence."

He would have laughed at the irony of what she said if her sight didn't bother him so much. That tunic! She had done it on purpose, Hwan thought churlishly. He took in her compressed lips that were trying to suppress a very definite smile, a sure sign of devilishness running her mind amok.

Hwan returned his attention to the paper with a pained exasperation. He had been very aware of her every movement without seeing her, her presence soothing as always, which brought a certain peace where he could calmly focus on his work.

He had not expected her to don that awful tunic, though. It aggravated him to see her sweet, confectionary look turn into this ungendered vision where the uniform seemed to swallow her whole.

The algae-green tunic looked different on her tonight, though. Hwan squinted at the document. He was not sure why. He could not put his finger on it.

Deciding to ignore her determined grinding of the inkstone with single-minded devotion, he tried to focus.

His eyes had other ideas. They strayed, piqued.

Efficient fingers made small to and fro motions with the ink stick, sometimes pausing to add water from the spouted pot on the side, the face those elegant limbs belonged to a picture of concentration as she worked to get the desired consistency.

Hwan's eyes travelled from her fingers up her arm, and he suddenly felt his mouth go dry. The tunic looked different on her because she did not look ungendered any more. The slight but very definite feminine curves delineated the bodice of her tunic, the coarse fabric undulating with each movement, tracing and moulding, clinging in places and creating pockets in others.

Hwan went still as blood rushed to every wrong nook of his body he could think of. Unaware of the turn his mind had taken, Jay Yi continued to grind the stick, filling his nostrils with the smell of freshly ground ink, each scrapping noise accompanied by a measured force of her arms, creating tiny ripples of vibrations travelling all the way back to where he should not be looking.

Forcing his errant mind back to the task at hand, he tried to shut her troubling visage out.

He picked up a fresh quill and put it on the paper, only to realise not a single word had registered from the scroll he had just finished reading. For the first time in his life, Hwan could not recollect anything of what he had seen. Expelling a silent curse, he picked the scroll back up, only to disturb the neatly stacked pile below it, causing some of them to roll off the table.

He gave Jay Yi a half-apologetic smile, trying to make up for his most impolite thoughts, berating himself for acting like a lad in the throes of his teen years.

She immediately jumped up to pick up the wayward scrolls off the floor. Hwan went motionless, unable to breathe. In the absence of the eunuch belt, she had procured a random strip of rope to cinch the tunic to keep the cumbersome fabric in place. It accentuated her impossibly tiny waist that flared into wide, inviting hips and drew attention to the delectable curves of her chest. Hwan sucked in a faltering breath at the sheer beauty of the woman before him.

Clutching the scrolls to her body, Jay Yi left the table to lay them neatly on the one by the wall, adding them to the existing lot there. Hwan expelled a sigh of relief that did little to calm down the throbbing that seemed to have overtaken large portions of his body.

He reminded himself that he had grown up amongst women. Focus and complete control of his senses had never been an issue for him, no matter how inviting the temptation. That is because those temptations did not have your heart clutched in their palm, his perfidious mind mocked him.

He quickly scanned the blasted document in his hands and browbeat his mind to write a reply before he lost his train of thought again. He almost succeeded in settling down when Jay Yi returned, picking the ink stick back again.

No!

Appalled at how his body reacted, Hwan tried to soothe the burning with conversation.

"I think I have enough ink. Why do you not finish reading the book you fetched?"

Large, molasses eyes looked back at him. Her berry-like lips were full, so very inviting. His pulse raced madly.

"It's not enough ink. It will not last you even half of those replies. If there is extra left, you can use it later. I will wash the ink slab when I come tomorrow and keep it ready for next time."

Oblivious to his misery, Jay Yi went back to the work she had done hundreds of times before. The movements continued. Everywhere. Hwan felt beads of sweat on his forehead.

He wanted her too much and had done so for much too long. Hwan closed his eyes, trying to stem his thoughts that had nothing to do with ink, paper or letters and everything to do with his fingers itching to caress those butter-smooth cheeks, weave them through her hair and do every unchaste thing that he was not supposed to be even thinking of doing. At least not for a few weeks.

It did not matter what he told himself. His senses were spiraling out of control, in a freefall, like a boulder shaken loose and rolling down the hill, crushing every sprig of reasoning and sanity on its way.

He had to get Jay Yi out of here.

Clearing his throat, Hwan tried another track. "Jay Yi, these will take me way longer than I thought. Why don't you go and rest tonight and meet tomorrow?"

Her hands paused. Jay Yi peered at him. Was he angry? She could not tell. His next words belied her thoughts.

"I promise we will practice archery and do whatever you want," Hwan said without meeting her eyes.

Jay Yi got up and went to the angbuilgu, sitting on the table by the wall behind her.

"Your Majesty, please continue your work, and do not mind me. I do not need to leave for another two hours," she informed him cheerfully.

Two hours? Was it possible to die from the rocks that seemed to have replaced the flesh in certain parts of his body?

He gave up.

"Jay Yi, can you change out of that - that dress?" Hwan asked her in a constricted voice.

Jay Yi giggled and caught hold of the sides of the tunic, stretching it sideways, doing a half pirouette. "Why do you dislike these so much? You know, they are quite comfortable and easy to work with."

The incongruity of her neatly tied hair adorned with pale yellow accessories with the eunuch tunic emphasising every feminine curve curdled his mind. His restraint, clinging precariously to a thin thread of sanity Hwan held onto desperately, was about to fly the chamber.

He cleared his throat. "Change it, please."

"I will, Your Majesty, as soon as I clean some of these surfaces while you complete your work. With me in this tunic, pretend I am your eunuch."

That sounded obscenely erotic to his ears.

The legs of the chair scraped the floor noisily as he thrust it back with raw power and reached her in a flash.

"The cobwebs -" Startled, Jay Yi's words died in her throat.

Hwan caught her shoulders and pushed her until her back rested against the smooth, flat surface of one of the sturdy octagonal pillars of the room. "If I could have thought of you as anything but a woman, even for one second in my life, we would not be here today." He grated, hoarse and breathless.

A furious tremor of excitement streaked through Jay Yi at Hwan's out-of-character, barely suppressed brute force. Alarm and elation jostled for space in her mind. "I know," she said breathlessly. "I didn't mean to disturb you or anger you. I-I just meant to clean the room a little. I know how much you despise these tunics. I should not have worn it."

"I do not despise them. I just hate them on you."

She blinked. "Why - do they look that bad on me?"

"No, because they make me want to know the mysteries they are hiding beneath them-"

Jay Yi swallowed audibly.

"Especially today _"

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A confused look flashed in her eyes.

The woman had so little idea about the allure of her body or its effect on him that it was nothing short of criminal.

"You truly have no idea how beautiful you are, how crazy you drive me, do you?" Hwan laughed, half in amazement and half in ire.

Following his smoking gaze, Jay Yi looked down at herself and belatedly realised the fabric had moulded every curve of her body to perfection. Embarrassment transformed her face from a healthy pink to a heated red.

"I-I just meant to clean the cobwebs, I swear -"

Hwan shook his head, his thumb and finger reaching out to clasp a soft earlobe, playing with it. "The cobwebs are in my mind. How will you clean those? What do I do with you, Jay Yi?" Hwan asked, his other hand sliding behind her back, fingers spanning, drawing her closer, their tips digging into her flesh under the tunic.

The unbridled passion in Hwan's eyes turned Jay Yi's legs limp. She became acutely aware of their intimate setting and the bed, with their imprints on it, waiting patiently for them to come together. She suddenly wanted him close, very close, though the words belied her thoughts. "I-I will change," she dropped her eyes but not before Hwan glimpsed the unmistakable hunger that the curtain of her eyelashes tried to veil, and she unconsciously swayed towards him.

The ferocious pounding of his heart drowned every sense but that of the woman he loved so desperately.

"Too late," Hwan whispered. "I can't resist you any more."

The husky timbre of his voice sent anticipation shooting through her veins. "I can't resist you anymore either, Your Majesty," Jay Yi said, her heart in her eyes.

Her honest words pulverised all thoughts of caution and restraint. He had been tiptoeing on the volcano of desire for so long that this slightest crack was enough to burst open the molten lava rushing through his body. Delirious with a craving that obliterated his mind, Hwan dragged her to him, capturing her lips in demanding hunger. Her lips were plush, velvety soft under his hard ones, opening up like a sunflower facing east first thing in the morning. He folded her into his body with one arm while the other cupped her bottom to lift her bring her to his level, balancing her against the pillar, fitting her to him like a piece of a missing puzzle.

There was no hesitation, no resistance as Jay Yi held on to him, her hands locking themselves behind his neck. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his hips to stabilise herself against the pillar as his hand moved beneath her thigh to pin her between him and the smooth surface of the wooden beam, holding her in place.

A shuddering moan escaped him. His hand moved to her side and slid in front, wedging between them to mould her around his palm, his kneading fingers seeking the tip that had teased him through the fabric, setting his senses ablaze. He leaned into her, his weight between her legs pushing her back further against the pillar.

She, in turn, pressed herself to him to get more of him, slithering against her turgid man in an age-old rhythm she unknowingly possessed. In return, he shoved against her hard, arching helplessly, the timeless mating ritual a sensuous dance they could not escape. The intimate contact shot inexplicable arrows of pleasure radiating from her core to her head and toes. Unable to bear it, Jay Yi jerked her mouth free. She shook her head to deny it and threw her head back to accept it as throes of passion claimed her. Hwan nipped her throat, his tongue making rings of fire everywhere it went.

She writhed uncontrollably, her hands bunching the fabric of his shoulders, twisting them, trying to find purchase, her legs gripping him even tighter as she tried to get an ungraspable relief as he continued to rock against her. The more she moved, the more intense Hwan's need to own her became. He needed all of her. Hwan suddenly stopped, breathing heavily, and released her. She slid down against the length of him, and he stepped slightly away. Her body protested the sudden gap between them in ways Jay Yi could barely understand. She shivered, a reactive mass of throbbing and mush. "Jay Yi?" Hwan asked her as his fingers reached for the ties of her tunic, his gaze a mixture of pleading and demand. Her eyes widened as she grasped what he wanted to do. Closing them, she nodded in affirmative.

Trusting him with everything she had, Jay Yi stood still as Hwan released the knots of her tunic one by one, opening her up to his hungry, adoring gaze. Bathed in various shades of pink and red, she unconsciously arched towards him, giving him what he desired, clutching onto him as if her life depended on it. He eased the tunic off her shoulders and down her arms, letting it pool around her ankles. Cold air sizzled her heated flesh. Her eyes flew open as he sucked in a shuddering breath.

Suddenly shy under his smouldering gaze, she drew her chest in and pushed the rounds of her shoulders out, an arm crossing protectively, lowering her head, her legs buckling weakly.

"Don't be shy....you are so beautiful..." He told her, his voice heartbreakingly tender.

Hwan bent and put an arm beneath her knees, swinging her up effortlessly. His eyes held hers captive as his long legs made short work of the distance between the pillar and the bed. He laid her gently on it, dropping to his knees by its side. The bed was low, and he towered over her as he leaned in, running his thumb on her forehead in soothing strokes. She shivered, feeling vulnerable and not a little intimidated by his sheer build as she lay prone at the edge of the bed.

She was so petite and delicate, her skin gossamer soft. A fierce protectiveness overflew Hwan's heart. He cupped her face gently. "Are you afraid? Should I stop?" Though her eyes were large with apprehension, she shook her head, clutching his hand, "No, please don't stop."

"Don't be afraid," he breathed, taking in her pale, glossy skin against the bed's soft blue and white satin-encased quilt. His arm beneath her pulled her closer, cradling her, while his other hand traced her from shoulders to her waist lovingly, hungrily, almost worshipping her, both gentle and rough. His mouth followed his hands, and Jay Yi reared up, ecstasy and panic at the unfamiliar sensations tearing a cry from her. His mouth closed on a turgid, overly sensitive aureole, and she squirmed. Unable to discern what she wanted, she pushed at his powerful shoulders, then pressed down on his head, her mind wrecked from the white-hot pleasure exploding within her. She thrashed, and the neatly folded quilt at the foot of the bed tumbled to the floor. Hwan held her down and hushed her, coaxing her to relax, telling her how much he loved her, as every nerve of her body reacted to the mayhem his hands and mouth were creating.

She reached out to him blindly, urging him to rise from his kneeling position by the bed, needing him closer to her. He did not need further persuasion as he pulled himself up to lie supine by her side, pulling her into him. She felt his pressure against her hip, indenting her flesh deliciously, and the rising desperation of his scorching kisses as the core of her body throbbed in response.

She cupped his face, smoothing his jaw with her thumbs, adjusting her body to accommodate him. Her softness under him filled Hwan with an incredible thrill that almost sent him over the edge. His mind clattered with pangs of pleasure bursting each time her skin touched him, penetrating clearly through the silk spun of his handbok.

"Jay Yi - I - I don't think I can stop today," Hwan said thickly as he slid more on top of her, his rigid body urgent, insistent.

"I don't want you to stop," Jay Yi whispered. She did not know how this worked, but Jay Yi knew she would give Hwan all she had.

"It is still a month to our marriage," Hwan said, more to remind himself than her, though nothing seemed to matter.

"You said we were already married," Jay Yi argued, trying to make light of it, but her body craved something from him as urgently as he did; she just did not know what or how, though she had a fair idea. Her feminine instinct made her fuse herself with him, her bare skin revelling in the silken abrasion of the fabric of his hanbok.

Summoning the tatters of his self-control, Hwan shook his head, "I must let you leave; I should not do this -" Even as he said it, his fingers pulled at the waistband of her pants, untying the knot holding it while his mouth closed in on one rosy bud, driving her senseless.

She was past the point of caring, her wild-at-heart soul accepting her desire for him without inhibition, her liquid body more than ready to flow with him over the threshold into the horizon. "Would you-" she gasped, trying to form the words through the tormented haze that had enveloped her, "would you have stopped if I were a concubine?"

Hwan stilled as he looked at her. She returned his gaze, candid, pure and passionate.

The spirit of a scholarly kiesang.....

Hwan knew he was too far gone. He propped himself up on his elbow, guiding her fingers to the ties of his purple hanbok. Jay Yi untied them almost out of habit while Hwan eased the pants down from her hips. Jay Yi looked at him, mesmerised as his inflamed gaze travelled from the head to her stockinged feet.

"I love everything about you - you are so perfect -" Hwan's voice was thick with emotion.

Divesting himself of his tunic, Hwan splayed his fingers on her back, lifting her towards him. Their hands explored, tongues duelled, their inexperienced but drenched in love young bodies trying to grasp more and more of something that seemed tantalisingly elusive. A long, possessive leg covered her silky legs, his knee separating them. She felt empowered and vulnerable as she ran her hands down the spasming muscles of his arms and back. She had never seen Hwan unclothed and could only marvel at the silky perfection that vibrated with life under her curious hands. Her fingers found the scar where the venom-filled arrow had almost killed him. She gently traced it with her finger, causing him to gasp harshly at the pleasure points she was igniting.

He gathered her close, the meeting of their bare skin creating a tipping point Hwan could hardly bear. He needed her, and he needed her now.

"It will cause you pain, Jay Yi," He rasped, kissing the satin of her shoulders.

Jay Yi swallowed. She had some idea, and a fissure of fear coursed through her. Human anatomy was no mystery to her, but feeling the life-giving force alive and pulsating against her receptive flesh was beyond her knowledge and experience. The fear turned into a streak of pure excitement as she felt him surging on her, the silk of his skin and the wool of his trousers abrasing her sensitive skin in foreign but exhilarating ways. In that instant, she understood the cataclysmic needs of her own body, and that she wanted him to break every barrier separating them. "I don't want you to stop, please, Your Majesty -" she pleaded.

His hands had become more urgent, his kisses deeper, the pressure of his body almost agonising. A streak of fear again reared its head in Jay Yi's mind. Would it be too painful? What did she need to do?

Feeling too shy to ask Hwan, she tried to follow his lead by copying what he was doing. She put her tongue on his thumping heart. Hwan reared in reflex, a fierce tide of rush almost undoing him. Pinning her hands, he held her down in place. "Don't! Please don't!" He looked in pain, and Jay Yi got worried. "Are you all right, Your Majesty? Did I do something wrong?"

Hwan shook his head., releasing her hands. Relieved, her hand reached for the waistband of his pants, just as Hwan had done for her, but Hwan caught it, his fingers encircling her wrist. "No, not yet," he whispered hoarsely.

He took a quivering breath, burying his head in the crook of her neck. Jay Yi was surrendering herself to him with an abandonment that cut his heart out of him. His free-spirited woman, who loved to spread her wings wide, had willingly chosen the golden cage to be with him, giving him all she had.

He could feel her fear that she was trampling down, trusting him to protect her. Tonight, and beyond.

He looped her ear, grazing it with his teeth, before moving to her throat and down, frantically exploring her as his hand gripped her bare hips, his fingers digging into her flesh, trying to arrest the uncontrollable, primitive urge to plunge into her. It was inevitable Hwan would hurt her, he was too big not to, and he desperately wanted to pace himself to make it as gentle as possible. He just wanted to make sure she walked out of here unhurt -

Walk out of here unhurt. Hwan grew still. Dismay shot an unwanted arc of lightning in the fog of raw craving clouding his mind.

How would she walk out of this chamber without a rock hitting her squarely in between her eyes once she reached the detached palace?

No one knew she was with him!

Her maids would know right away that JaY Yi had laid with a man, and it would cause a storm so intense that even Hwan would struggle to contain it. His one reckless act would slash her wings forever, throwing her into ruin and lifelong whispers of promiscuity.

What was he thinking!

Horrified, he tried to wrestle back his fortitude from the brink of a disastrous precipice. He gritted his teeth, shaking his head clear.

As Jay Yi sensed his shift, her questioning gaze sought his, swimming with an unfiltered longing. Unaware of the magnitude of guilt and fear weighing on Hwan, she felt his withdrawal and wrapped a hand around his prone, rigidly aroused body that lay over her, cupping his jaw tenderly, pleading with him unconsciously not to leave her.

Perspiration trickled down his temple. He had to protect her. Too experienced not to understand he had to remove Jay Yi from his proximity right away but too inexperienced to do it the right way, Hwan hastened to do something he would agonisingly repent in leisure. He roughly grasped her wrists to pull her hands away to break the embrace and raised himself up, tearing his eyes away from her, the vein in his jaw standing out.

"Your Majesty?" Confused, Jay Yi reached out again reflexively, and Hwan thrust her away by pressing a hand down her shoulder, pinning her to the bed.

"No!" He said aloud, his voice harsh, his eyes clenched shut, helplessly clinging onto the last bit of sanity and control. Then, turning his back on her, he swung his feet to the floor and barked the first desperate thought that came to his mind.

"Jay Yi, leave. Now! It's an order."

Shock convulsed Jay Yi into a stupor, the jolt of his cold words ripping her. Bewilderment and then, as comprehension set in, tears of disillusionment and anger filled her glittering eyes.

Hwan was too consumed battling his body and mind, one ruthlessly craving release, the other cruelly flogging reason, to pay attention. As Jay Yi stared at the rippling muscles of his back, her body paralysed in disbelief at his callousness, he grabbed his hanbok and stumbled across the room, shutting the washroom door behind him with a finality that reverberated across the chamber.

With her body and soul lying bare, the anger of rejection balled into pain that clogged Jay Yi's heart. Jay Yi dragged the far end of the blue and grey silk of the quilt they laid on moments ago lengthwise and rolled it over herself, gripping the edges of the quilt tightly under her chin. Turning on her side, she pulled her knees to her chest as she curled into a foetal position.

He had ordered her to leave. Just like that.

Burrowing her face in the quilt fisted in her hands, she hid her face as hot tears of shame slipped down the corner of her eyes.

When Hwan came out, looking calm and unruffled in his beautiful purple hanbok, she wanted to die of mortification.

"Jay Yi, I - "

He might well not have existed. Without even sparing him a look, Jay Yi rushed past him to the washroom, dragging the blanket that all but swamped her and slammed the door shut.