With a fluidity that belied two decades of separation, Wei Feng lifted her into his arms. There was no effort in the gesture, only an innate authority that her body instantly recognized. He laid her down on the black silk sheets, a brutal and exquisite contrast. A perfect jade upon an obsidian altar.
He leaned over her, not touching her yet. His weight, his presence, was a blanket of heat and pressure. The air thickened, heavy with the scent of aged wine and the clean, masculine fragrance that was uniquely his. His shadow covered her completely.
"Twenty years, Shuyin. Twenty years in a golden palace, pretending to be a statue," his voice was a deep murmur, a vibration she felt more in her bones than in her ears. "But statues don't tremble."
She clenched her jaw, her knuckles white against the dark silk. "I am not trembling."
A low, humorless laugh escaped him. "You lie. You lie to the empire, to my brother, and you lie to yourself. But you've never been able to lie to me. This body of yours... it's an open book. And I am the only one who knows its language."
His hand, large and calloused from the grip of a sword, finally descended. It didn't seek an erotic point, but settled with deliberate slowness on the curve of her hip, over the fine fabric of her robe. The contact was a brand of fire. An undeniable tremor ran through her from the soles of her feet to the nape of her neck.
"Nnngh..." A choked, strangled groan escaped her. It was the sound of a crack forming in a dam of ice.
A dark, almost cruel smile played on Wei Feng's lips. "There it is. You respond as if not a single day has passed. This body has a loyal memory." His hand began a slow, torturous pilgrimage upward, tracing the line of her waist. "It's good to know it only remembers one signature. Mine."
"You've been an arrogant fool for twenty years," she panted, the words stumbling, losing their imperial edge.
"And you've been a magnificently boring empress," he replied, his voice a dangerous purr. His hand ascended, his fingers stopping just below the heavy, full curve of one of her breasts, the pressure of his thumb a mere insinuation on the silk. "Tell me, Shuyin, has my brother, the Emperor, ever taken the time to truly appreciate the work of art that sleeps beside him every night? Has he ever noticed how your skin prickles right here?"
He pressed lightly. She held her breath.
"The Emperor has duties..."
"Duties!" He spat the word with disdain. "A man's greatest duty is to worship his woman. It is the first lesson of power. One he never learned. He sees a throne; I see an empire in the curve of your neck." His voice lowered, becoming a grave, possessive whisper that slid beneath her defenses. "But you and I have unfinished business. A lesson we left half-taught."
Wei Shuyin closed her eyes, her facade cracking with his every word. A trembling sigh escaped her lips. The word she uttered was barely a breath of air, a surrender that changed everything.
"...Master."
Wei Feng's smile widened, slow, satisfied, predatory. It was the smile of a man who had waited two decades to hear a single word.
"That's more like it. A diligent student, even after so long. I see you haven't forgotten the rules." He leaned in until his lips brushed her ear. "Rule number one: there is no Empress here. There is only you. And there is no General. Only your Master."
"Yes... Master," she repeated, her voice broken.
"Good. Now, let's prepare for the lesson. No distractions."
His fingers, previously slow and hesitant, now moved with resolute efficiency. They found the tie of her robe. There was no delicacy, but the decisive action of someone unwrapping a gift that was his by right. The silk slid away with a sibilant whisper, revealing the pale skin of her torso like a newly discovered treasure in a dark tomb.
A soft moan vibrated in her throat as she watched her own vulnerability being exposed. Her breasts, freed from the fabric, were offered to the flickering candlelight. They were the breasts of a mature woman, full and heavy, not those of a young maiden. The skin was a creamy, almost translucent white, and the areolas were a dark, wide rose. The instant the cool air of the room touched them, her nipples hardened, two taut, pleading pearls.
"Perfect," he declared, his voice a final judgment. There was no lust in his tone, but the appreciation of a connoisseur. "They are not the delicate flowers of a concubine. They are suns. The kind of power that could fuel an empire. My brother had two suns in his bed and preferred to gaze at the cold moon of his throne. A fool."
With the tip of a single finger, he traced a slow, deliberate circle around one areola, without touching the sensitive center.
"Nghh!" She choked back a sharp cry, her back arching violently off the bed as if struck by lightning. Her hips lifted instinctively toward him.
"Shhh." His other hand settled on her abdomen, holding her still. "Patience, student. A lesson is learned step by step. The Empress must be dismantled piece by piece."
His fingers continued their slow torment on one breast while his other hand untied the rest of her garments. When the last layer of silk fell aside, she lay completely naked on the black canvas. Wei Feng stood for a moment, his imposing figure silhouetted against the light. His gaze swept over her from head to toe, a meticulous examination that made her burn with shame and a dark, throbbing excitement.
He said nothing. He simply knelt beside her, an act of devotion that stole her breath. It was a contradiction: the dominant Master kneeling before his student. He took her ankles with surprising delicacy and, with slow, firm pressure, parted her legs. He exposed her completely.
His gaze fixed on the center of her womanhood. The triangle of dark hair that had once been there was gone. In its place, the skin was perfectly smooth. Her intimate lips, a tender pink, were completely bare, neat and defined. It was an unexpected sight, almost unnatural for a woman of her age and status in this court, where naturalness was the norm. It was the secret of a woman who had been waiting.
"My brother has looked at his throne every day," Wei Feng whispered, his warm breath brushing the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, "without realizing that the true seat of the empire's power was right here." His nose grazed the delicate folds. "Immaculate. Preserved. As if you knew the only man worthy of seeing this sanctuary would return to claim it. Did you keep it this way for me, Shuyin?"
She couldn't answer. A sob caught in her throat.
The first touch of his mouth was a wet, bold heat that made her scream.
"Ah!"
It wasn't a kiss; it was a takeover. She felt his tongue, expert and precise, tracing the outline of her folds, tasting her. Her hands, which had been inert at her sides, shot up and clung to the silk sheets, twisting them in her fists. Control, she ordered herself in vain. I am the Empress.
But he was relentless. His mouth covered her completely, and a soft but insistent suction was her final undoing. Logic shattered. Decorum evaporated. The Empress dissolved into pure, overwhelming pleasure.
"No..." she gasped, the word broken. "Ah... Feng... Master... please..."
One of his hands ascended her body and intertwined his fingers with hers, squeezing hard, anchoring her to the bed, anchoring her to him. That simple gesture of absolute dominance, combined with the exquisite torture of his mouth, shattered her.
"Aaaahhh!"
A long, sharp, liberating scream tore from her lips. It was the sound of twenty years of ice, frustration, and loneliness breaking in an instant. The orgasm wracked her with a violence that left her breathless, her body convulsing uncontrollably on the black sheets. She cried out his name again and again in a choked whisper.
"F-Feng! Feng!"
As the spasms finally began to subside, leaving her trembling and exhausted, he did not stop. He lay down beside her, his body pressing against hers. His hand, which had been holding hers, slid down her sweaty belly and stopped just over her dantian, the center of her spiritual energy. His expression changed, the lust in his eyes replaced by intense concentration.
"What... what is it?" she managed to ask, her voice barely a croak.
"There's something wrong," he murmured, his voice strangely serious. His fingers pressed lightly, and she felt an odd vibration, not entirely pleasant, not entirely painful. "I feel a cage of ice around your spiritual core. A dam of stagnant energy. This is why. This is why you haven't advanced in your cultivation in twenty years."
His eyes locked onto hers. "Was it him? Did my brother do this to you?"
"No... it was... it was a long time ago. An accident in my training..." she lied weakly.
He shook his head. "No. This is not an accident. It's an emotional seal. A seal you placed on yourself because of the emotional dilemma holding back your cultivation." His fingers pressed a specific point, one she didn't know existed. A new wave, deeper, stranger, electric and overwhelming, coursed through her.
"Nnngh... Ah!"
"It doesn't matter who put up the bars," he said, his eyes glinting with a dangerous light as he pressed again, harder, channeling a thin strand of his own Qi. "I will break them."
"Ah! Wei Feng! Stop... no... more!" she cried out, her body arching again, but this time it was different. It wasn't just pleasure. It was an exquisite agony, a painful release. It felt as if something ancient and frozen inside her was shattering.
The Empress no longer existed. The woman, Shuyin, turned on the bed, desperate, and clung to his shoulders, her nails scratching his skin. Her mouth sought his in a feverish, hungry kiss.
"Master..." her voice was a hoarse, guttural whisper. "Please... I've waited too long. I've been dead inside. I need you. Inside me. Now."
Wei Feng looked down at her, the predator in his eyes finally unleashed completely. He pinned her by the wrists, immobilizing her above her head.
"Need what, my Empress?" he whispered, his face inches from hers. "Say it. I want to hear the woman, not the throne. I want the student to ask her Master for exactly what she wants."
"I am not an empress," she moaned, rubbing her body against his in a frenzy of need. "With you, I never was. I am yours. Your student. Your possession. Your obedient girl." She looked up, her normally imperial eyes now flooded with total, abject submission. "Please, Master... take me. Claim me. Teach me my place again. Break this cage. Break my composure. Fuck me until I forget my own name and only remember yours."
A smile of pure conquest, dark and triumphant, spread across Wei Feng's lips. He released her wrists and slid between her now open and welcoming thighs. His hardness, thick and hot, pressed against her eager, wet entrance.
"As you wish," he whispered, his voice vibrating with a primal power as the tip of his member grazed her, a torturous promise that tore one last choked moan from her. "The lesson... is about to begin."