Protected by Emeralds (A Dance with Destiny Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

it on purpose, Nilakanta. It just never came up. That’s all.”
    “Oh please, do let me be the one to tell him. Please, please, please.” Goemon continued without waiting for her consent. “We Shinobi must practice our gifts regularly, or they fade. But since Yui is the only Iga warrior at the palace, he had to keep his talents honed through his Kata alone. Since no suitable sparring partner was available to him, he made a habit of training every evening at dusk in the little garden hidden along the side of the palace, just below his own balcony.”
    “The garden is not hidden,” she protested.
    Goemon ignored her and continued to delight the Dragon with his theatrical tale.
    “Yui’s daily routine was months along before he noticed her essence.” Goemon chuckled when he glanced over and saw her crimson cheeks. “He said she smells like roses and moonbeams, both of which were abundant in his chosen training spot. Only when an early frost bit the lovely pink blooms and caused their beauty to fall from the blackened stem, did he realize the enchanting smell came not from the dusk and the flowers… but from the magical woman standing before you now.”
    Nilakanta’s laughter was ever increasing within her.
    “Watch it, you two,” she warned.
    Goemon bumped her with his elbow. “Seems our beautiful Empress, here, was treating herself to a nightly feast of the eyes.”
    “Yui would never say such as that,” she snapped.
    “No. Those words were my own.” He chuckled. “Good Yui only told me how he thought he was dreaming when he saw your shadow standing there.” His laughter died away as his tone turned more serious. “He told me his body froze, but his heart raced,” Goemon said, in little more than a whisper. “He refused to believe his eyes, Milady. Since his mind was continually on you , on everything about you… he thought his deep desire and constant longing had conjured up a specter of your likeness.” He gently touched one of her curls. “Until you moved, that is.”
    Why? Tell me, boy. What happened next?
    She glanced toward her eager Dragon but did not speak.
    Goemon’s mouth perked up at one corner. “If you refuse to tell him, I will.”
    Still, she did not speak.
    The way-too-cheerful Shinobi waited a moment more before he continued recounting the parts she had kept hidden away in her heart.
    “When their eyes met, Yui’s world screeched to a halt. He said… When she stepped from the shadows into the pale moonlight, it made her ethereal skin sparkle like she had been sprinkled with stardust.” Goemon tucked a loose curl behind her ear and gently lifted her chin. “You stole his breath away, Milady… and what bits of his heart you had not already claimed. In that moment, any piece of himself he had hidden away from you… he willingly surrendered.”
    Is that all that happened? You just stood there in the moonlight, breathless, staring at each other?
    Jenevier slowly shook her head. Her gaze was still locked with the young ninja’s when she felt the painful burn of her coming tears.
    “…No,” she barely whispered.
    “No,” Goemon echoed softly. “She did not stop, Master Dragon. She walked right up to that frozen Iga warrior… and tenderly ran her tiny fingers into his long magical hair.”
    She bit her lip, trying to cease its trembling.
    Come. Finish the story, boy , Nilakanta coaxed. Tell me what happened next.
    Jenevier’s glistening pink eyes wavered as her gaze remained locked with Goemon’s.
    “I kissed him,” she whispered through her tears.
    The young Shinobi touched her cheek and smiled as he nodded his agreement.
    “And when I did, I could not stop… never wanted to stop.”
    “Neither did he, Milady,” he softly said. “Master Yui has never kissed another since that night. Did you know that, Empress? He desires no woman’s touch… save yours.”
    “I was afraid of that.” She drew in an unsteady breath. “I have done one of my dearest friends a grave