Empire of a Thousand Universes Ch. 08

"As I, you. But was this risk done for me or what I can do for your son?"

"I won't lie to you. I originally went into this thinking that we would use each other, but my feelings have changed about you. I know you might have a hard time believing that, but it is true."

"It doesn't matter. I don't believe in the Empress, and I have evidence that once she takes power she plans to dismantle the Senate and install herself as dictator. I am prepared to face the consequences of my actions, regardless."

"But if we can do this thing, we can rule the universes together through my son."

"Together?"

"Yes together. You have to believe I want you by my side."

"I tell you what, you rule the universes. I have enough to do just commanding the Guard."

"But I want you with me."

"Let's see how this little coup of ours works out first."

She can't possibly stand against you."

"She's not who we have to worry about."

"Who else? Certainly not Phryne?"

"Maybe, but the Imperial Houses will take a keen interest in what happens, not to mention the military, the Senate, and of course the Ton Ton Maquote."

"The secret police? Are they involved? I thought they had become a non-issue?" She asked with surprise.

"No, they are still very much around."

"Do we have enough support?"

"That remains to be seen, but yes, I believe so."

"Then it's all set. When do we move?"

"We... don't move. You are staying out of it."

"Certainly not. Pretending to be an innocent won't fool the Dowager if this goes south, nor will it protect us from her having us imprisoned and executed. No, I either stand by you, or we don't do this."

"You're not making this easy."

"I have news for you. This may be the easiest thing we do compared to what will come later. Ruling the Empire and keeping my son in check, after he gains his majority, will be infinitely more difficult."

"You're probably right about that." He smiled at her.

"You don't have to go now, do you?" She asked tentatively while holding onto him tenaciously.

"You want me to stay?"

"Yes. I want you to stay the night."

"I think that can be arranged."

"But not like last time, though believe me it was nice. This time, I want you to make love to me like you're never going to see me again."

"That might very well come true?"

"Yes, I know," she said demurely.

Elsewhere in the Imperial Palace

Gordon York walked through the Imperial Palace with impunity. Though he came in through the servant's entrance and used the freight elevator to the more formal parts of the building, his credentials were unimpeachable. Other than that he looked like an ordinary businessman.

He walked through an area where few were allowed access, and then down the hall to a doorway protected by two Aeollian guards. And though the guards eyed him with disdain, they stepped aside and let him pass.

Gordon didn't acknowledge them at all, but only stepped between them as if they were only ghosts and into grand living quarters. There sitting on a great sofa of those living quarters was a woman of advanced years. He immediately, upon making eye contact with her, went to a knee and bowed his head.

To a person who lived in the early twenty-first century this woman would have appeared to be approximately seventy years of age, but in reality, she was more than twice that age. In a day when the average person lived past one hundred and fifty, people of influence could avail themselves of even more refined gene therapy, and live close to two hundred years.

Even at her advanced age, one could tell that she was once a beautiful woman, still tall and graceful she had an air about her. She was Infanta Isabella, Emperor Maximilian's only wife, a daughter from the House of Coronado and mother of the first heir to the Imperial throne, Zonig Concic, who died in the Great Civil War.

"Oh Gordon, please get up," the old woman said impatiently. "I don't have time for such foolishness. I'm not getting any younger, you know."

"Yes m'lady," Gordon said and stood up again.

"What do you have for me?"

"The latest Intel, Empress."

"Okay," she said with a sigh. "I don't know why you people can't just transmit this stuff over secure channels? Most of it is common knowledge, anyhow."

"When have we, at the Ton Ton Maquote, ever transmitted intelligence through channels, m'lady? I've told you before, even secure channels can get hacked."

"Whatever. Just transmit it, Gordon."

Gordon York stood there as if in a trance as he accessed the file in his Troon and transmitted it in such a way that only the Empress could receive it.

"Okay Gordon, I have it, but let me read it first before you go."

"Yes, m'lady." Gordon knew this whole protocol by heart. Every time he delivered the Empress intelligence, and he was her sole agent, she would say the same things, act the same way.

"Empress Dowager," the Empress said out loud, but speaking to herself. Who does this woman think she is, calling me the Empress Dowager? And to call herself Empress Regent, the woman is little more than a whore. Just because the Emperor sticks his cock in you, that doesn't make you an Empress."

Gordon kept silent. He knew his place.

"What's this? She's fucking the captain of the Aoellian guard? Now I have her. Ha! Now I have her," the old woman cackled. "Your people are sure of this?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"Then arrest them both."

"I'm sorry, m'lady, did you say you want me to arrest the mother of the future Emperor and the Captain of the Aeollian Guard?"

"What are you hard of hearing, man. Yes, arrest them both."

"On what charge?"

"Why, high treason, of course."

House Trieste

Paolo lay in his bed, extremely tired but unable to fall asleep. The events of the day were keeping him awake. Every time he decided what to do about one problem, another problem, or another facet of a previously settled problem would rear its ugly head.

Genevieve, who up to that point was his biggest dilemma, now took a back seat to Princess Phryne. He was also perplexed by how his father immediately took to this girl. This woman, no matter how beautiful and enchanting, could very well be an imposter. They hadn't finished the scans on her yet and his father was already granting her amnesty.

And her harebrained plan for a civil war, well he had seen the great imperial fleets on maneuvers, and he knew that even with the secret fleet they were building they were still no match for them either strategically or tactically. That secret fleet was being built to stop a Kleet invasion, not to take on the Imperial Armada.

Then his thoughts returned to his sister Genevieve. He missed her desperately, not just her body, but her calming influence. She could sure stir his lusts, but she could always calm his fears.

A few minutes later she sent him a message. "Are you up?"

"Yes," he sent back, and immediately regretted it.

"I'm coming down to your room," she sent.

"Gen, please don't."

"You don't want to see me?"

"Of course I do, but I'm... Afraid," he finished his sentence aloud as she slipped in the door.

"Afraid of me?" She asked looking wonderful in a silk negligee and matching silk robe.

"Yes afraid of you."

"Why?"

"Because you make me do things I shouldn't do. Like being in the same bed with you."

"Me?" She said feigning innocence.

"Yes, you," he said as she started to saunter over to his bed.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm coming to bed."

"No! No, you're not."

"What am I supposed to do then?"

"Just stand right there."

"And do what?"

"Look cute."

"Paolo!" She stamped, frustrated.

"Gen if you get in this bed, you know what will happen."

"Exactly," she said seductively.

"Right. So stay there."

"I'm hot. Are you hot? She asked looking around the room, and then started to disrobe.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking off my robe. I'm hot. Aren't you hot?" She took off her robe and stood there before him in her negligee, her tiny little negligee that covered nothing. It was see through, incredibly short and with long spaghetti straps that draped her bodice loosely over her breasts.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"I don't like the idea that you can resist me," she said as she started to slowly dance to the rhythms in her head.

"That's just it, I can't resist you. That's why I can't let you in this bed."

"I like this song. Do you like this song?" She asked upon sending the song to him.

In his Troon, he began to hear the soft melody of a Boss Nova and watched as his sister started to sway and twirl for him. Her negligee, which was as soft and light as a feather, lifted up in back from her dancing, to and fro. Exposing just a glimpse, one after another, of the small crescents of her ass.

"Gen, please don't," he pleaded, his cock swelling to the call of her flirtations.

"Why? I'm just dancing," she whispered while looking at him out of the corners of her eyes.

"Yeah, and a strip tease is just a dance."

"A striptease? You want a strip tease?"

"No, Gen, no."

She tilted her head down and smirked at him over her left shoulder. "A striptease it is," she said and lightly flicked the spaghetti strap of her negligee off her shoulder. Then she spun around and did the same over her right shoulder.

She had to hold the bodice up by crossing her arms in front of her, each hand cupping a breast.

"You want to see them, don't you, Paolo?" she whispered.

He was breathing hard already, and didn't say a word, but simply nodded his head.

"I don't know," she teased. "I don't know if you should see your sister's tits. You might get ideas."

"Gen, you're killing me."

"That's the idea, sweetie." And slowly, and with flair, she brought her hands down, and first one and then the other young round breast poked out from under the material. Then she twirled around with abandon and let her negligee float to the floor.

She continued to dance in place, her hands raised above her head, clothed in only a thong.

"My God's, you're beautiful."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"But you don't want me?"

"Gen!"

"Well, you don't."

"Come here."

"No."

"What?"

"Beg me."

"What?"

"I want you to beg me."

"That's not happenin'."

She stopped dancing, stooped over, picked up her negligee, and then covered herself as best she could with the small negligee.

"Then I'm not coming."

"Okay, okay, You win. Gen, please come to bed."

"Well if you insist," she said feigning disinterest. She got onto his bed, crawling on all fours. Their eyes never left each other, and as she hovered over him, he pulled her on top of him and kissed her softly.

They embraced for what seemed like hours, her young breasts up against his chest, skin on skin.

He then flipped her over, and within minutes he had her thong off and he dove head first in between her legs. The smell of her sex filled his nostrils as his tongue first found her slit, and then her clit.

"Mmmmph," she moaned as he licked her clit, and she rocked her pelvis up to meet his tongue.

She had just about the prettiest vag he had ever seen, with pouty lips all crimson with passion. He had her legs spread and a hand on each of her thighs.

"Please, Paolo. Please fuck me," she whispered as he sucked on her clit. But he just ignored her. This was all she was going to get.

"Seriously, though," she said to him later after the lights were out, but before they fell asleep. "It really upsets me that you are able to resist me."

"Gen!. It's impossible for me to love you more than I do, to want you any more than I do. You're all I think about. You've become a major distraction, and at a time when I least need it."

"Yet you won't tap me? How long can you be satisfied with just oral sex?"

"You know why. Why do we have to rehash this?"

"I don't care about all that. I love you, and I want you to make love to me."

"And what happens on your wedding day?" asked Paolo being overly dramatic to press his point. "When Adolph Kleet strips you naked, ties you to a post, and whips you to an inch of your life, all because you're not a virgin. Those butchers put that in the marriage contract. Did you know that?"

"Please stop."

"I'm sorry, but what are my options? To watch that happen to you, or to know that you are in Heinrich Kleet's bed.

"Paolo, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know, Gen. Just hold tight and hope for a miracle."