Ges, unaware of the harm he had done her, leaned back, hands stitched together behind his head, and beamed at me with joy. “This is the life, huh?”

“It’s a life, all right,” I said.

Ges had become more comfortable with living in the palace than I had. I suppose, as a former guard, it was more like home to him than me. No matter my lineage, I felt like a stranger here.

I stuck mostly to my bedchamber, at least four times larger than my previous hovel. For three months, we had lived in the palace, having progressively louder and more bawdy parties each weekend. But this weekend kicked off something special.

It was the week of Steyatt, where we would mate for seven days with a female—or in Ges’ case, multiple females—until we were fully relieved. It was well known that if the Ulsen did not relieve themselves, an explosion in violent crimes always happened the following week.

And so, we locked ourselves away in the palace with a female partner each to keep us company. Once the week was over, I would return to destroying everything I had inherited and fouling the royal name I had inherited.

“Where’s Akhi?” I asked.

“She said she would wait in your room,” Ges said, reaching for the pink crushed petals of the Ry’skang and snorting them up his nose, which gave the most thrilling high known throughout the empire. “She said something about making tonight a special surprise.”

He lay back and let the drug have its effect. He would lay there for two hours, at least.

And with nothing else to do, and my loins already beginning to burn with the Steyatt’s desire, I headed for my bedroom.

* * *

I shoved the door open and found Akhi sprawled across the bed among a field of pink petals.

“There you are,” she said, not stirring from her prostrate position. “I was beginning to get lonely.”

She was a true beauty; the kind that only the stage could draw. The fame and fortune that would follow her in the coming years was all but guaranteed. Her horns were delicate, strong, and oil-black, as was her makeup, lipstick, and sexy underwear.

I felt myself stir at her appearance, her large, glowing, emerald-green eyes as mesmerizing as they were entrancing. “Well, we wouldn’t want that now, would we?” I said, shutting the door behind myself.

I moved to the table in the corner, removed my jacket and draped it over the back of one of the chairs.

Akhi leaned her head on her palm and watched me closely. “Aren’t you going to undress for me?” she asked.

“That’s your job.” I smiled at her. “After all, that’s what you’re being paid for, isn’t it?”

Even if she was being paid to be there with me for Steyatt week, I had a great deal of respect for the female form. After all, she had likely come from a similar background to me—previous to learning I was a member of the royal family, at least—and did whatever she needed to survive.

Those were the rules of the modern Ulsen empire. Survival was everything.

She ran her tongue over her lips as I drifted closer, her eyes sliding down to the front of my pants. She reached over and lowered my flies before reaching through the gap and wrapping her hand about my girth.

“Big boy, huh?” She looked up at me and traced the outline of my cock with a finger.

“Did you expect anything else?”

“I suppose not. A royal ought to have a ruler-sized everything.”

I pressed my lips to hers, tasting the bitter flavor of her lipstick, and reached down and grasped a pert breast.

She groaned willingly, hungrily. Then I ran my hand down her flat stomach to the mound between her legs. I found her wet and ready, but didn’t slide my fingers inside her as Ges had done with his Steyatt partner.

I picked her up and spun her around so her head hung over the edge of the bed. I slipped my cock through my open flies and placed it in her mouth.

She took it as hungrily as she had my kiss, slurping on it with relish.

I leaned over her, pulled her panties to one side, and licked at her sex.

“You’re a naughty boy,” she said. “I’ve heard about royalty taking advantage of poor working-class girls.”