Ji Yue did not want to look at the man. She already knew what was coming. She had no wish to see the bastard’s gloating face as he spouted lies.

“Do you know what a wife does, virgins? I will tell you. A wife brings satisfaction to her husband.” One of the girls began to cry. Within seconds, the opium pipe was put to her lips. “Before you is a man’s organ,” continued Duan Xu. “The emperor wishes to see who can bring that man satisfaction first. The winner will gain a special prize! Begin.”

No one moved. No one except the men who surrounded them. The eunuch used his grip on Ji Yue’s hair to move her face forward. The man in front of her thrust his hips at her, pushing his wet tip into her nose. She reared back, but there was nowhere to go. She could tell from the sounds that the other virgins were being treated with equal brutality. So she did the only thing she could.

She reached up with both hands. She took hold of the horrible thing with all her strength, and she squeezed. She even used her nails.

The white man screamed and hit her about the head. She saw it coming and avoided the first of his wild blows, but the eunuch behind her still had a firm grip on her hair. The second blow caught her on the top of her head. That threw her far enough away that the white man was able to scramble backward, pulling his organ from her grip. But she had not released him and she felt her nails cut long scrapes off the narrow thing.

Meanwhile, she slammed her elbow backward into her captor. She connected with his upper thigh, and he grunted in pain but he did not release her. He threw her to the ground. Her shoulder and head landed painfully hard, but at least she was free. She tried to scramble away then, but she was too slow.

Someone grabbed her leg, twisting her painfully so that she landed on her back. She screamed and kicked, but someone else dropped hard onto her chest, pinning her to the ground. Rough hands grabbed her head and legs. And then another pipe was pressed to her lips.

17

A ROAR CUT ACROSS THE ROOM. Ji Yue thought it was the blood rushing through her ears or the echo of her own screams. The opium smoke was filtering into her blood, dulling her thoughts and her feelings. Sounds came from a distance with delayed meaning.

The man holding the pipe disappeared, and the pipe lay on the ground forgotten. Then she saw him: Bo Tao. His face was contorted in fury. He moved so fast-faster than any of the men-that he peeled her captor off her and threw him aside. She could breathe again, but she didn’t move. She was watching her love. She could see every flex of his muscles, every bead of sweat on his face. His movements were fluid, the exchange of blows like the flow of water in an elaborate fountain dance, and yet she knew he gritted his teeth and she heard his grunt with every blow given or received.

She heard the screams of virgins, the bellows of other men, but Bo Tao consumed her vision and her thoughts. A part of her feared for him. Whenever someone else blocked him from her sight, she ached with the fear that he would not resurface, he would not survive. But he always did. He always came back to fight for her again.

Her heart swelled with love.

And then, to her delight, the room cleared. Bo Tao was free to kneel down beside her, his eyes anxious with fear. Blood and sweat were smeared across his cheek, his chest heaved as he breathed in great gulps of air and his hand trembled as it extended to her face.

“Ji Yue! Ji Yue! Are you all right?”

“I love you,” she said. She felt it so strongly that the thought and the words formed without pause. “I love you.”

His body stiffened in reaction. His eyes widened and she watched him swallow, the corded bands of his neck standing out in stark relief. Then he pressed his fingers to her lips. “Shh, Ji Yue. You are not feeling well.”

She wanted to say she was feeling quite fine, but she wouldn’t argue with him. And it didn’t matter anyway, because he wasn’t looking at her. Though he kept one hand on her mouth, the other began pointing as he issued orders.

Ji Yue hadn’t realized there were others in the room, others that had fought by Bo Tao’s side. She had seen only him. Now she heard Bo Tao order arrests. The whites were to be escorted out of China, never to return. The other virgins were sent to a palace she hadn’t heard of before-yet another building in the vast Forbidden City. And the doctor was sent for.

It wasn’t until someone accidentally stepped on her hair that she realized she shouldn’t be lying here on the floor. It was time she got her excruciatingly heavy body back to the safety of her bed. Except, of course, she wasn’t thinking about her bed in the virgins’ palace. There was no safety there. She wasn’t dreaming of her bed back with her family in Peking. She could only think of Bo Tao’s arms wrapped around her. How she wanted to rest her head on his shoulder and watch dawn soften the heavy, black night.

But that wasn’t going to happen, she realized. She was an imperial virgin and would soon become an emperor’s wife, even if she was locked in the lowest harem and never heard from again. Bo Tao was not part of her future, and she needed to remember that. She did remember that, but when she told herself to get up and go back to the virgins’ palace, she remained curled on her side again with silent tears streaming down her face.

She heard a strangled moan above her from Bo Tao. She felt for his pain and wished for his sake that she could stop her tears. But she couldn’t, so she buried her face into the dirty floor.

“You need to see the women’s doctor!” he said harshly. Then she felt his hands gently gather her up. She wanted to say she could walk, but his arms felt so good as he pressed her tightly against his chest. Then she heard him say something else.

“Throw his body out for the dogs.”

Someone had died? Curiosity and fear made her lift her head. Was it the man she had scraped with her nails? Could that kill him?

It was the eunuch Duan Xu. She stared at the body for a moment and tried to feel something. He had been a major instigator of tonight’s terrible events, but he wasn’t the sole one responsible. Still, she could not be sad that he was dead. In truth, she was grateful that she’d never have to face him again. Then another image filtered through her mind. She saw Duan Xu throw a heavy wood tray at Bo Tao’s head. Bo Tao had ducked, spun and thrown a kick that caught the man under his chin. Duan Xu’s head had snapped back and he had dropped as he lay now, his neck broken.

“You killed him,” she murmured.

Bo Tao’s arms tightened around her. “Does that bother you?”

She shook her head and buried her face against his chest. “Thank you.”

Bo Tao uttered a very masculine grunt and then began walking. He carried her out of the emperor’s palace. She closed her eyes, allowing the rhythm of his heart to mix with his steady stride. She felt the cool night air against her skin and the rippling pull of her unbound hair. She opened her eyes to see if the sky was lightening into dawn, but saw a thousand stars instead. It was deepest night, and she smiled. She would have more time to stay right here in his arms.

She closed her eyes and prayed that this moment would never end. She felt him step over the entrance to an inner courtyard and then again into another building. They maneuvered through passageways until he finally set her gently down on a pallet.

“Ji Yue, do you need a doctor right away?” he asked.

“No,” she answered. “No, I’m fine. My head hurts, though.”

He immediately began touching her head, probing her scalp with gentle fingertips. She winced once or twice, but mostly she liked the feel of his hands in her hair.

“Hmm,” she murmured.