Treasures

~*Treasures*~
A Les Bijoux fan fiction
By: My Valentine

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Lazuli was his.

After all of her efforts at escaping, at letting Lapis lead her to the most exotic corners of the world in his quest, at hiding herself away when she was forced to emerge from his reluctant body, she had still found herself captured and at the mercy of this obsessed Habit.

As a girl, she would have been flattered that the handsome Lord Diamond had found her attractive despite her unusual colors. He was powerful, wealthy, and beautiful with his long hair so blond it was almost white and his pale skin the color of the endless snows of his domain. That eye that sparkled like a sapphire in a face carved of marble. He looked every part the Habit of the North. And although she could not deny her attraction to him, now, as a woman, she was appalled at the prospect of living out her life in the dusky chambers of his jujus.

As his concubine.

As his whore.

He had called himself her lover, he had tried to impress her, he had pursued her, this is certain. But after the prey was caught and the chase ended, what would she be to him then? Just another juju, another one of his dolls to lock away in his palace until he wished to play again.

She looked at his eyes, the color of clear icy waters, as they traveled over her body again and again. She wanted so badly to run away, to be far from those eyes that were already looking at her as though she were his possession. “You only desire me because I deny you,” she said, hoping that perhaps bringing such a revelation to light would break the mystery and damper his interest.

“So true,” he purred, stroking the side of her face with his pale, delicate fingers. She tried to brush him away but the hand returned, more forceful than before. “Your game has been well played.”

She wrenched herself from him and stumbled back several feet, seeking to put distance between herself and the infuriating, arrogant man before her. “It’s not a game,” she said. His single eye narrowed, the other covered by a black lace patch, but he made no move to cover the distance between them.

“No,” he agreed. “Not now that I have caught you. I have won and will receive my just rewards.”

“And what will you do with me after you have had your fill?”

“My precious jewel,” he said, striding confidently across the room to stand before her, so close that her nose nearly grazed the white collar of his robe. She refused to look up at him but instead stared solidly into his neck as a hand wrapped around the small of her back and other found its way into her hair. “I don’t think I will ever have my fill of you. I did not traverse the twelve mines for something so whimsical as a juju. No, my jewel, I was searching for a woman and now that I have found you, I certainly do not intend to let you from my side. You are mine.”

She stood helpless as she felt the hand on her back run up her spine, feeling his fingers pass each button on the back of her dress and slowly, with a careful twist, begin to unbutton each one. His chin came down, his warm neck pressing against her check as he dug his nose into her hair.

“I smell,” she said. She felt his hand still on her back, the fingers splaying over her spine. He sniffed slightly near her ear.

“How long has it been since last you bathed?” his deep voice rumbled into her ear. The warm caress of his breath, combined with the flick of his tongue, possibly accidental, caused goosebumps to raise across her exposed flesh.

“Maybe more than two weeks?”

He drew back slightly and looked over her form with more scrutiny. Yes, her hair was indeed slightly matted and smelled of old leaves and wood smoke. Her skin, although already brown, was smudged with pitches of dirt. Her bare feet were splathered in it and were even beginning to crack and bleed with neglect.

“I will not have a filthy body in my bed. I shall have hot water drawn for you immediately.” He took a bell from near the silver tray of olives and opened the flap to his tent where he rang it and a servant appeared at once.

“Yes, we shall require a hot bath to be drawn,” Diamond was saying. “And bring the orange oils and ointments I bought for her several weeks ago.”

They continued to converse in hushed tones while Lazuli looked around herself for a way to escape. There was little in the tent by way of an exit, save for the entrance Lord Diamond was occupying. Besides that there was a chair and desk, a large ornate bed, several chests of varying sizes, and a small fire in the middle lighting up with tapestries that covered every inch of the tent walls. He turned then, and she could see the lust growing in his eyes as he returned to her with a tiger’s grin, pulling her to him and continuing to tantalizingly undo her dress.

A wooden tub was quickly brought in and filled with bucket after bucket of steaming water by several servants. Diamond shielded their curious eyes from her body with his own and, by the time the tub was full, all the buttons were entirely undone and he peeled her dress away to reveal her dark seductive form to his eyes. Lazuli only looked away in shame. Though she had wanted him, this was not the way she had wanted. But she knew the Habit before her was used to having his way, and that he intended to have his way with her whether she desired it or not.

He lifted her chin with his finger. “You are beautiful, my jewel,” he said. He produced a key from within the breast of his robes and used it to unlock the chains on her wrists and ankles, then led her to the tub and held her hand to help her in. She sunk into the hot depths and willed herself to relax, but found she could not as she watched Diamond loosen his shirt and lay it across his chair.

“What are you doing?” she asked. She had been hoping perhaps for some peace in the warm water, some time to plan how to best escape from this again.

But he came to the tub and knelt beside it, his pale but strong chest glimmering gold in the firelight. “I am going to bathe you myself, since you clearly do not know how.”

“I can do it,” she began, watching as he lifted a vial of oil from beside the tub and poured several drops into his palms. He rubbed them together, creating a thick lather, and rubbed it into her hair. The smell of orange and spices invaded the room, carried with the steam of the tub in the heart of the humid jungle. The feelings of his fingers grazing her scalp, she had to admit, felt lovely, as did the shiver when she felt his lips on her ear again as he whispered, “I have longed to do such things to you.”

Then he rubbed an oily paste that felt as though it was made of sand all over her face, her hands, and even made her lift up her poor feet so he could gently rub it into them too. He held her calf so firmly, so tenderly, looking into her eyes all the while as he washed the paste away and rubbed her sole down with a porous stone. After swirling in more oils all over her body, in places and ways that made Lazuli’s face flame with embarrassment, he finally let her step from the tub and into a thick wool-spun towel. He made sure it was secure around her, then wrapped his large form around her as well and steered her backwards toward his bed where he picked her smaller form up and sat her back down upon the soft blankets.

He lifted her sore foot for his inspection. “You need ointment,” he said, plucking a glass bowl of orange paste from his nightstand and dipping two fingers in to rub the paste all over her feet. He took his time, pushing the muscles through his fingers and firmly stroking her toes from the base to the tips. Then he caught her eyes hotly and dipped his head, laying an open kiss on the sensitive tip of her toe.

Lazuli gasped and knew it was time to run.