The Right Way to Handle a Tyrant - Chapter 1

Unhurriedly, I pressed my hand over his.

“Blades have no eyes. I much preferred the way Your Majesty handled your… weapon last night.”

The tyrant spoke with leisurely ease. “Every man in my royal house is afflicted with a love poison. We can only take our first lover to bed for the rest of our lives.”

“Unless, of course, the first wife dies. Only then may we seek another.”

My expression stayed calm. My heart did not.

How could my luck be this bad? I had found myself a virgin—and not just any virgin, but one restricted to a single partner, with a throne to pass on!

What if my political rival had suddenly developed a conscience and the whole fertility-drug business was a lie? How was I supposed to explain that to this tyrant?

He had only recently ascended the throne, too. I did not even know whether our political views aligned.

He withdrew the sword and caught my chin. “What are you thinking?”

I met his eyes. “A woman choosing a husband and a minister choosing a sovereign are both looking for someone to entrust their lives to.”

He snorted. “Ah. You regret stumbling into ‘marriage’ after a single night in bed.”

If you are not the sovereign of my dreams, I thought, I will run even if I really am carrying your royal heir.

Outward appearances still had to be maintained. I quickly bowed my head. “Your servant would not dare.”

“Wouldn’t you?” He suddenly leaned down to look at me. “You seem remarkably daring to me. Already plotting your escape.”

I was startled. How did he know?

Was his family’s poison so peculiar that sleeping together let him hear my thoughts?

“They say harmony in bed makes for harmony in marriage,” he teased, “just as shared political views make for harmony between ruler and minister.”

“You just compared a ruler and his minister to husband and wife. Tell me, then—were we harmonious in bed last night?”

I remembered the brocade quilts churning, the bed rocking until the fourth watch of the night…

He had been like a tiger tasting flesh for the first time, determined to devour me whole.

Still, I could not deny his extraordinary gifts. He had taken me to heaven and back.

The tips of my ears burned. “Your Majesty was… formidable.”

His lips curved. “Then ours must be a harmonious marriage. And since you say ruler and minister are like husband and wife, we must be a harmonious ruler and minister as well.”

Was that how logic worked?!

I glanced at his sword. For the sake of staying alive, I could only flatter him. “Your Majesty is a mathematical genius.”

He gave a low laugh. “None of that will help you if you fail to conceive an heir. I shall kill you all the same.”

And so Jing Yao took me back to the kingdom of An.

All I could say was that harmony in bed really did make for harmony in marriage.

For all his reputation as a tyrant, Jing Yao was stunningly handsome. Whether I looked at him as my husband or my sovereign, he left me dazzled.

Emotionally speaking, getting a virgin like that into bed had made my life worthwhile.

But that was beside the point. I had come to An to secure a high-ranking post.

If I became the indispensable blade he wielded at court, then when my looks faded, his affection cooled, and our lust burned out, he would not actually kill me. We could grit our teeth and go on making hate instead of love.

That night, with our lovemaking just ended, Jing Yao touched my lower belly in wonder.

“Can you truly bear children?”

“Does Your Majesty imagine a political rival would go easy on you?”

He raised an eyebrow meaningfully. “What if he is in love with you?”

Why would he say something so horrifying?

“My rival coveted the chancellorship of Ning. He feared he could not beat me fairly, so he resorted to this filthy trick. You call that love?”

Jing Yao propped up his chin. “The trouble would be if he loved you a little, but loved rank and power more. Drugging you would keep you from becoming chancellor—and make you his wife, bearing his child.”

His fingers slipped beneath the brocade quilt. “That would give your rival a high office, a wife, and a child, all at once.”

I caught his wandering hand, laced our fingers together, and rolled over to straddle him.

“But I am in An now. I am Your Majesty’s minister and wife.”

I deliberately stressed “minister.”

“Consider it, Your Majesty. My political rival feared me like a wild beast. He was willing to drug and ruin me just to defeat me. Surely that suggests I have some ability.”

Jing Yao watched me for a moment, then smiled. “Tell me. What post do you want?”

The higher the better, naturally. Chancellor would suit me perfectly.

But I was newly arrived, so I made a show of restraint. “How about guest minister?”

Guest minister was practically chancellor-in-waiting.

With one deft movement, he pinned me beneath him. “You certainly don’t hold back.”

I kissed his chin. “One masters the arts of peace and war to offer them to a king.”

“Now that we share a bed, surely my ambitions and desires should be laid…” My knee brushed his waist. “Bare. Before. Your. Majesty.”

One hand closed around my ankle.

The candlelight began to sway before my eyes again.

Jing Yao leaned close to my ear. “Do not forget, my dear minister, that you still owe me a child. If no child appears, no office, however exalted, will save your life.”

I looped my arms around his neck. “Physicians say that to conceive quickly, a husband must not only till the field diligently. His wife must be happy, too.”

He looked down at me. “And what do the physicians say will make a wife happy?”

“Why, giving your wife high office, a handsome salary, gold, silver, and treasure.”