LITMIR.BIZ

      A warm breeze stirred branches, filling the air with the incense of eucalyptus. Yet Egmath glared into the sultry night, a mixture of defiance and despair making this magical place seem unfamiliar, though he had always found refuge here.

      “How can so perfect a night herald such heartache?” he demanded of the dark that lay as sweeping velvet over the river, studded by stars and illumined by moonlight.

      He would find no shelter this night. He could escape neither destiny nor duty, for on the morrow his marriage would take place in the Hall of a Thousand Pillars.

      Always, Egmath had intended to speak the sacred vows with his beloved Batu, but the priests had sworn him to her sister, the heiress to the throne. And the gods would mock them all, for he and Batu would fl ank their future queen before the altar while he uttered vows binding him to the wrong woman, tearing the heart from his beloved’s chest, from his own.

      These past days of feasting and preparation had blurred together, marked only by his spiking dread as the wedding approached. He told himself a feted warrior who had faced death in battle should be more courageous of spirit and reconciled to duty, yet obligation lay as a death pall over his future. When he could fi nally endure the agony no longer, he had summoned Batu, knowing he would not find the strength to endure the morrow without holding her in his arms one last time.

      He stared into the moonlit darkness with eyes hungry for the sight of her. She emerged from the shadows as she always had, bereft of the adornments of the royal court, a simple gown flowing around her, tempting him with sleek curves and raven hair that gleamed silver and gold beneath the night.

       In her welcoming smile he found his shelter.

       “You came to me,” he said.

      She approached with a grace that had made her fi endishly difficult to catch when they had played their youthful games as children, liquid strides that had enticed him since his arrival in manhood. Feasting on the sight of her, he extended his hands. She slid her own within.

      “I would look upon you one last time as we have always been.” Her heart glowed in her eyes. “I would look upon you as you always will be—my love.”

      Their bodies swayed close, drawn together as naturally as the pull of the tide, barely touching, yet her nearness soothed away the ache in his soul and righted the universe.

      Then he brought his mouth down upon hers. For the spate of one shared breath, the promise of a future that should have been theirs lay between them—the prelude to their kiss, so agonizingly sweet, before need crashed in, and passion reigned.

      Batu yielded beneath the press of his lips. He thrilled to her giving response, his own yearning that defied destiny and circumstance, made him ache to toss obligation to the four winds and follow the call of desire. This woman was his lifeblood…his friend, his strength, his fantasy.

      With his mouth upon hers and his tongue tasting the demand of her kiss, Egmath would have laid down his life to avoid the morrow. But self-indulgence was not to be his. Only in his strength would Batu fi nd her courage to face their future. He loved her too much to deny her any chance to fi nd peace.

      When finally they broke apart, their passion lingering in their ragged breaths, in the whispers of the palms on the breeze, she pressed something into his palm.

      “What is this?” He gazed down upon a mother-of-pearl amulet fashioned in the shape of a star.

      “I would give you my heart.” Her voice trembled through lips reddened by his kiss. “To keep with you forever.”

      “I will cherish your gift always. Your heart shall be my strength and my beacon through this darkness.”

      When she held her hand over his, he knew she understood all his feelings so poorly conveyed.

       “I would beg such a prize of you as well, Egmath.”

       “It is yours, my beloved, as is my heart.”

      “Then grant me tonight, where I will be yours alone. Gift me with a memory I shall cherish forever.”

      The amulet blazed in their clasped hands, a fire that captured the power of their love, the force of their shared passion, a heat that would bind them in spirit forever.

      Egmath brought their hands to his mouth, breathed a promise in the kiss he pressed to her smooth skin.

       She trembled.

       “Tonight shall be ours,” he vowed.

      Loosing the clasp at her shoulder, he swept away the gown to expose her golden loveliness. The double- edged

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