A Love Beyond Time

Chapter 21: Round one's over. Checkmate, Your Majesty

Tenza moaned throatily as deft hands ran seductively down his youthful, lean torso. The 10-ranked Asaemon shuddered and swallowed hard; the hand paused at his lower abdomen, its soft fingers kneading the muscled expanse. He whined in frustration.

"Please...please don't st—stop. Con—continue....ehhh"

Just an hour ago, Tenza would never have thought that he would have such an erotic experience that stirred his desires and turned his blood into liquid flames.

He was testing his new katana and practicing his sword skills, incorporating some Tao techniques Seimei had taught him into the moves. Much to his joy (and pride), he successfully executed a particularly tricky maneuver, and he grinned and punched the air triumphantly.

He could not wait to show it off to Seimei and his sensei.

Just then, a flustered and slightly disheveled Saito found him and told him there were some disturbances near the Valley's southern barriers. The Byakko wanted him to go and investigate together.

Feeling worried—and slightly proud that the usually stern Saito wanted him to join on this important mission—Tenza agreed. He never once stopped to think why Saito, the strongest fighter of the clan and who usually works on his own, wanted him along.

Neither did he consider why the Byakko approached him instead of Shion or the other mortals who were more accomplished swordsmen. He just believed that the invitation meant that he had impressed Saito with his vastly improved swordsmanship.

Shortly after they left the Valley and set foot in the actual Shinsenkyō, they ran into an incredibly stunning young lady who looked like a heavenly nymph who had descended to the human world. And she was seated on the ground, weeping.

Tenza, being the gallant young man that he was, immediately rushed to her aid.

And felt his brain fizzle when the nymph-like beauty raised her lovely, tear-stained face and he looked into emerald green eyes shining with tears.

Then those full red lips parted and uttered words in a voice sweeter than honey, and Tenza's fizzled brain turned into mush.

He could not hear—remember—what the young lady said. Oh, he vaguely recalled something that sounded like accident, stranded, injury, help...blah, blah, blah. But those were all.

Nevertheless, through the dense haze that had enveloped his intellect, a part of him—the aforementioned gallant part—still remained lucid enough to look for Saito for advice.

But the Byakko had vanished into thin air.

When Tenza turned back to the lady, he realized she was sitting very close to him. So close that her perfume, tantalizing and alluring, drifted to his nostrils and turned his mushed brain to liquid. But years of strict tutelage and endless drilling about etiquette and chivalry caused Tenza's body to shift away subconsciously.

Still, the lady continued to move closer, and now her long russet-black hair brushed against the blonde's arm. She then smiled shyly and blushed.

The chivalrous side of Tenza gulped.

The lady raised a delicate hand and laid it on his chest, right over his heart that had started pounding madly.

Tenza's gallant subconsciousness guided his body backward. Yet, arousal—sudden and fiery—had begun to thrum in his blood. Unable to help himself, his attention was drawn back to those alluring green eyes, now sprinkled beguilingly with gold dust. His liquefied brain had ceased functioning altogether and no words exited his opened mouth.