Mbaku looked confusingly at me and asked,
"What did you put in my soup?"
"Nothing," I said staring at the door.
"Really? I don't think so. You added something to it".
"I didn't" I replied trying hard not to meet his gaze.
"Then why can't you look at me?"
"Because I am not properly dressed"
"You're not a terrible liar. Tell me the ingredients you used for the soup"
I told him everything I used in making the soup and even went ahead to tell him about the quantity of each ingredient I used.
"And yes, mama gave me a dried stem which I soaked in water and added to the soup," I said innocently.
"Dried stem?"
"Yes, it did a great job!"
"That's it!"
"What's it?"
"Do you remember what I told you yesterday when we were on the platform?"
"You said a lot of things"
"I told you not to trust anybody in this palace, not even my mother. Didn't I?"
"Yes, you did"
"That stem was an aphrodisiac"
"What? An aphrodisiac?" I said and took a step backward.
"Don't worry! We can't control some of the things that happen in this palace. It would have happened sooner or later" he said as he took a step forward.
I couldn't help but take another step backward and asked innocently;
"But I heard you were impotent?"
"Do you want to find out? Should anybody doubt, you could prove him or her wrong or right" he said and took a step forward with a sly smile on his face.
The only thing that covered my nakedness was the cloth I wrapped against my body in haste when I heard the knock. I felt the cloth loosening and hurriedly tried to tighten it but before I realized, the cloth was on the floor! I was naked but for the beads around my waist. I covered my breast with my arms and crossed my legs. Nobody had ever seen my nakedness, not even Nana. I felt so shy and bent to take the cloth but Mbaku stepped on it.
He wrapped his hand around my waist and softly said;
"You know what? Even nature wants this to happen"
I closed my eyes, lowered my head and said; "let go of me, Your Highness"
"Look at me, Zui" he said with a deeper voice, but I refused to look at him.
"Don't make me force you" he said. "I want us to be on the same side"
I slowly raised my head to look at him but refused to look into his eyes.
"Look into my eyes, Zui".
I did so slowly, but I felt too shy to look into his eyes for more than a second. I tried to look away but decided to look into his eyes for another second. His eyes softened and his eyelashes fluttered. My body tingled in ways it never had. I felt a throbbing heat down the center of my body. I have heard from Feya, how men could sometimes use only their eyes to seduce women but had never felt it before, not until this evening. I was sure he was seducing me because of how strange I felt.
"There's no need to feel shy," he said as he took my hands and tried to hold them. "You're beautiful, more than meets the eye".
My breast felt heavy and I felt wet between my thighs. He capped my face in his hand and brought his lips to mine. I kept my lips tightly closed. He moved his hand to cup my breast, I gasped at the contact. He forced his tongue into my mouth. I felt him shudder. He moved his thumb over my nipple as his tongue stroked mine. I could no longer hold myself, I gave in as he wanted. I wrapped my hands around his neck and responded to his kisses. He suddenly stopped kissing me, pushed me into his arms, placed me slowly on the mat, knelt down in front of me, and blew air to turn the light off.
I woke up along the night and realized I was still in his arms. I touched his face, he took my hand, turned sleepily toward me and said;
"It's late, go back to sleep"