Empresses of Pangaea: The Clash of Queens [ BOOK 1 ]

34

Bello was just anxious the rest of the evening. He had to stay at his post for the whole feast and party but was dying to leave already, ever since he saw Esi leave in a hurry during the middle of the party and hadn't returned since.

"What could have possibly held her up,"  He thought on a day like this.

Bello's shift was finished once the ball ended, all the guests left, and the ball and throne room were cleaned up from the feast. Bello was quick to help the servants, maids, and other guards cleaned up, trying to get everything out of the way to leave sooner.

Once all the party guests had left and the clean-up for the feast was over, the staff was now allowed to leave and most were heading to bed since it had been a long day, but Bello had other plans and he dashed his way to Esi's bedroom quarters.

When he arrived in the hallway where her bedroom was, he quickly approached Esi's door but stopped. He was tempted to knock at first but heard a noise from inside the room, causing him to pause. It was Esi's voice but moans of pleasure. Bello felt his stomach sink, who could she possibly be sleeping with at the moment? Was it a lord she met at the party?

He hesitantly twisted the doorknob and saw it was locked. The noise and moans in the room continued to grow.

Bello bent down to look through small the keyhole lock of the room and could see in a slight blur Esi naked and sweaty on her bed under another naked man with shoulder-red golden lock dreads. They were sharing a passionate kiss as he was thrusting back and forth in her. She had her legs wrapped around his waist and her hands rested on his shoulders. The naked man was no one other than the classified wanted criminal Ajani Croome.

Bello's eyes widened in horror, and he took two steps back away from the door with his hands placed over his chest. He was out of breath and trying to make sense of what he saw. There was just no way, how could have Ajani managed to even sneak in when there was double the number of guards roaming around the palace for the coronation? Did Empress Rehema know of this? How did Ajani just come two appear when he had been gone for almost two years?

Anger and envy started to twist in Bello's chest and started to crawl up his throat. Hot tears started to form in Bello's eyes blurring his vision. He could feel his face turning hot, Bello balled his fists and started to walk away from Esi's bedroom, down the dark light candle dimmed hall, slightly trembling. 

. . .

After the party and feast Sang-chul, his mates, and the rest of the harem went back to their homes after such a long festival day. Their bellies were full, and their bodies were sweaty from dancing, and sitting in hot rooms all day.

Sang-chul had to admit he truly felt like he was at home. He got to have a one-on-one dance with the empress herself, which he never imagined to happen. Especially on a night full of history that would be recorded on her majesty's legacy. He didn't even care if Omari Dalli attempted to poison him the next day. He was the first to give crowned empress a dance, and no amount of glares and scowls of jealous rage was going to take this away.

Now tonight after all the festivity he was taking a bath on the looming night, in a circle-shaped tub that was about four feet and made of fine wood. Addo was scrubbing and rubbing him in the tub, while Sang-chul relaxed in the tub with his knees close to his chest, while he had his back near the rim of the tub. The warm bath water was soothing on a chilly night and Sang-chul felt his body brewing as Addo scrubbed the dirt away.

It was nice to be able to get two or three baths a week here. Before he became a concubine and was just a commoner he could only afford to bathe once a month. It was what his family could afford, and they would mostly go by the spring river to do so, but not too often otherwise it would dry out the river. When he was under Empress Fan Du it was about once a week. But since so far Empress Rehema had a smaller harem, resources were not as tight.