by Amelia Wilde
I knew my father was coming.
I knew the chain of debt would end with me, and I would have to pay this price.
Does it make me so terrible that I took what I wanted before it’s lost to me forever?
My own father is taking separate transportation to the mountain.
It’s the longest few hours of my life. No helicopter is permitted to land on the mountain itself, so we have to touch down at a private airfield some distance away. We have to board a train. We have to get searched at the entrance to the mountain. All the while, my princes is silent and pale.
Resigned.
I’m still on fire with her. Still in awe of how brave she is, how strong, and how much I want to keep her with me. No matter how many times I turn the situation over in my mind, however, there’s no way out.
The ink is already dry.
We’re led through a mountain entrance that puts my mansion to shame. Black rock, shot through with streaks of gold. High ceilings. An odd darkness that permeates even the lighted areas. It shouldn’t be possible, but it is. An office with glassed-in windows that look like they’ve been forged out of the rock itself.
Hades sits behind a desk in that office, an enormous black dog curled up next to his chair.
I could throw up.
I’m the biggest man I know, and he towers over my father and I when he rises to shake our hands. The dog lets out a low growl when he shakes mine. Can the fucking thing sense that my heart is beating out of my chest? Can the dog sense that I’ve fucked this woman senseless, that I left her blood on her thighs for this trip? Probably.
Hades gestures to two chairs across from his desk, and my father and I take them, leaving my princess standing. I want to take her into my lap and whisper an apology in her ear. I’ve never wanted to apologize to anyone before. The sex has gone to my head. This odd fated feeling has gone to my soul.
Hades is a strange man. Cruelly handsome, and his eyes—I force myself to meet his eyes. It makes me uneasy to be away from my home and my vehicles. From my security systems. And here, with his eyes on me—
What is wrong with them? They’re blue, but mostly black. Not like my princess’s at all. Cold. Unforgiving. He surveys us with that devil gaze, and I feel like he can see right through us.
Right through all of this.
My princess stands at my side, her head down, hands folded demurely in front of her.
My father produces a copy of the contract he signed. “All the documents are in order.” He pushes it across to Hades, who picks it up in his big hands and scans the pages.
“This is an interesting debt transfer,” he comments, leveling my father with his gaze. “Are you in the habit of purchasing debt, Mr. Prince?”
“I did it as a favor.” My father swallows hard. “A loyal employee.”
At this, my princess’s head comes up, and if my father turned his head he would see that she was sending a deathly stare his way. “You purchased the debt of your employee?”
“I took on the loan originally.” My father waves a hand in the air. “He suggested a transfer of assets in lieu of payment. As we discussed, I’ll be including it in my payment to you.”
It. My blood turns to acid and boils, racing through my veins, ready to kill me. It. “She’s not an it,” I say through gritted teeth.
This gains Hades’ attention. “You have an opinion on the matter?”
My princess doesn’t look at me, but I can tell she’s hanging on every word. I can fucking tell. “Yes, I have an opinion.”
He laughs, and if I thought I was a hard-edged bastard, I’m nothing compared to him. No doubt he’s noticed the way she’s dressed only in one of my shirts, with bare feet and swollen eyes. “Care to grace us with your thoughts?”
I can tell he doesn’t give a fuck about my thoughts, and with his words in the air, things shift again. What the fuck is with all this shifting? What is this presence that’s guiding me to do stupid, fucked-up shit? That’s giving me explicit permission to show the world exactly how dark and depraved I am? I can’t stop it. “This is a bad deal.”
My father whips his head around toward me. “Take that back, Maximus.”
“It’s a bad deal,” I insist, and my princess hangs her head again, cheeks red. “You won’t get anything out of her.”
Hades leans back in his seat. “Won’t I?”
“No. Because I ruined her.”
“Ruined her,” he comments, barely interested. “Ruined people are as good at working in the mines as everyone else, I’ve found.”
“I destroyed her,” I go on. “I twisted up her pleasure and her pain and I made her take all of me in every hole.” I’m on the edge of a cliff. It’s a high fall, and a deadly landing. But the fall is all I have left. “She’ll never be loyal to you. She’ll be a problem from now until the day she dies, because I did it on purpose. I stole her away and I fucked obedience into her and I made her mine.” I’m half-standing now, half leaning over his desk like I have any chance of killing this man. I don’t. I’d be dead before I got the first swing in.
But I don’t care.
Because it feels right.
It feels right to do this, even if it means blowing things up with my father, even if it means losing her in the process.
“I know you’re a stubborn bastard.” My father is going to die. He looks like he’s dying already. “But it’s a bad deal, and you should walk away from it.”
“The whole thing?”
“No.” I wave a hand in the direction of my idiot father. “Take his money. He owes you. Just don’t take my princess.”
A silence falls over the room, thick as a curtain of night, and I can’t believe, I can’t fucking believe, that I’ve just said this to Hades.
He watches my face, that strange stare burning into me, and fuck, I can’t breathe. I can’t get a breath. There’s no way for me to survive this. It’s a losing battle and my empire is falling all around me and for what, for fucking what? He’d rather toy with all of us than listen to me. “Your princess,” he repeats, and I feel no answering shame.
I’m not ashamed of her.
She should be ashamed of me.
I should have shot the helicopter out of the sky. I should have refused to get on. I should have taken her away into the night when I had the chance.
Fuck, there is something deeply wrong with his eyes. No eyes should look that black. Hades swings his gaze around to my princess, who must feel it on her skin even though she’s looking at the ground. She lifts her chin to look back at him, and I could fall to my fucking knees right now with how proud I am of her. “Well, princess,” Hades mocks. “Is it true? Did he ruin you?”
10
Desiree
I see it for what it is.
This cruel man with his cruel laugh and his strange eyes is giving me one more choice.
I take a deep breath and try to banish the hurt and the disbelief that’s clouding my mind.
He called me his princess. Maximus Prince called me his princess in front of this dangerous man, in front of this man who could kill us all and no one would be the wiser. Who would know? We’re far away from their houses and cars and people. We’re here alone.
Before I answer Hades’ question, I need my own answer, so I turn my head.
It’s a bold move, and he laughs again. But it’s Max’s eyes I need to meet. He’s leaned over Hades’ desk, a fighting stance if I’ve ever seen one. “My father signed me away?”
He gives a sharp nod. “Debt settlement.”
“And you?”
His jaw works. This is too much, and I know it. I know it because the only time he lets his real self show is behind the walls of his own house. Sometimes, not even that. There’s a whisper in the air and a strange pressure in my ears. It moves down to envelop my heart. Yours, it says. He’s yours, if you take him. “I would never sign you away,” he says. “I want you.”
I cock my head to the side, and this draws another mean laugh from Hades’ m
outh.
“I love you,” Max says.
“I love you,” I answer him back. It feels so right to say it. Right and wrong. Sometimes, they’re the same thing.
I turn to face the man who has our lives in his hands. I don’t understand, I’ll never understand, why my father did what he did. I’ve always known that his job was difficult, that he struggled to make ends meet, that he got wrapped up in scheme after scheme to try and clear his name.
That he was hardly successful.
I just didn’t think it would come to this.
“He ruined me,” I tell Hades, this powerful man who lives in this mountain, who looks like he spends all his time thinking dark, cruel thoughts. His dog wags his tail against the floor, settling in with its head on its front paws.
The dog is relaxed. It has no problem with my admission, and it hasn’t even leapt up to defend Hades from Maximus Prince.
Which means...
It means something,.
It does.
“And I won’t get anything out of you?”
“No,” I spit. “I’ll make it difficult every step of the way.”
A smile curves his lips. “I don’t mind a challenge.” Oh, fuck, oh, no. I’ve been too bold, too much of a brat, too stupid. Once again, I’ve paused at the wrong street corner and let the darkness catch up with me. “But.”
A flicker of hope, like the last candle in a rainstorm.
He takes his eyes off me, and I want to sink down to the floor so he can’t see me anymore, so this conversation can be really and truly over. “I was promised a virgin, Mr. Prince. Not damaged goods with blood on her thighs.”
It tug down on the hem of the shirt, but it’s huge—it’s so long that there’s no way he could have seen. He just knew.
Max’s father, who I don’t think he’ll ever see again, judging by the high spots of color on his cheeks, shifts in his seat. “Amend the contract, then.” His pulse ticks hard in his neck. “I’ll pay double the agreed amount.”
“Yes, you fucking will,” Hades says jovially. He takes a pen and strikes through lines on the contract in bold strokes, then shoves the paper back across to Max’s father. “Sign by the amendments. And don’t ever fuck with me again.” Or else is a given. I don’t want to know what this man is capable of.
Max’s father signs and gets up, straightening his jacket on the way. He offers his hand for Hades to shake, and they do. He turns on his heel without a backward glance at his son.
Hades looks back at the papers on the desk in front of them, not seeming to care that Max is still leaning on the desk. Not seeming to care at all that we’re still in the room.
My prince.
I can’t take my eyes off him. “Do you mean it?” I whisper.
“I mean every word.” His eyes meet mine, and I see him. God, it’s something else, to finally see the man there. The man who stole me from the street because he wanted me that badly. “Let me prove it to you, princess.”
“For fucks’ sake,” says Hades, not looking up from his papers. “Get out of my sight before I’m sick.”
Max doesn’t hesitate. It’s as if a spell has been broken, shattered over our heads, and there’s nothing keeping us here anymore. He takes me in his arms, his grip strong and sure, and we turn and go out of the office.
The mountain, it turns out, is not a fortress for a man alone. It’s alive with people, rushing here and there, all of them careful not to meet our eyes. If I was any other girl, I might be interested to know what happens here. How these people live here, or die here. How such a cruel man keeps them all in thrall to me.
But I’m not another person.
I put my arms around Max’s neck.
I’m free.
I’m free.
I was staring down the barrel of the rest of high school and a slog through a summer job and the cheapest college I could manage. I was going to bear witness to my father’s struggles and failures. That’s what I thought, and I was wrong. My father had other plans for me. He planned to sell me off. Debt settlement.
“I owe you,” I whisper into Max’s neck. “I owe you a debt.”
“Fuck that,” he answers, striding easily through the hall with its soaring ceilings and black stone. There’s gold in here, I think. Riches. Riches for miles and miles. But nothing matters more than the man who’s carrying me now. “You don’t owe me anything except forever.”
“Forever?” I tease, a small bravery coming back. “That’s a long time to be ruined.”
He leans down to kiss me and it sends new pleasure down between my legs. “Where are we going to go now? Back to your house?”
“That place is nothing to me now.” We’re on the stairs to the train and I’m not afraid at all. Every step he takes is sturdy. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
“If I’m going to be a princess, then I want a castle.”
“I’ll buy you a hundred castles.” He gathers me in close, inhaling my hair, his arms a sanctuary. “Hold on tight, my little princess. We’re making our escape.”
Epilogue
Maximus
Six months later
My princess turns away from the window, and in her profile I see no hint of the girl playing pretend that I took from that street corner at midnight.
I see a queen.
Which is fitting, since I’ve brought her to a real-life castle. My castle. Her lips quirk in a smile that makes my blood heat. “It’s fine.”
“Fine?” I advance on her the way she likes, watching her eyes darken with desire for me, and catch her up in my arms to kiss her. Deeply and hard, reminding her who she belongs to. “I’ve brought our joke full circle and it’s fine?”
“You could have done better.” My little princess manages to keep a straight face for several long moments, then bursts out laughing, grasping the front of my jacket in both fists. “It could always be worse, I suppose.”
“You deserve the belt for that.”
I’ve bought her a castle, and she has the gall to tease me in the master bedroom. An actual, honest-to-god castle with a view of a mountain range and tended grounds. I bought her a castle so that she’ll never be able to say she’s not my little princess.
This castle, unlike the estate back home, is far removed from all the things that might come between us. Like debt settlement and family entanglements. There aren’t any of those anymore. She’s my family, my only family, and my only princess.
Fucking disgusting, isn’t it? How soft I’ve become.
“I wish you would give me the belt,” she murmurs. My princess, it turns out, is a bit of a slut for the pain. Not too much, or for too long, but she likes a bit of harsh treatment before she takes her pleasure. Fuck, it’ll be a lifetime of excellence memories with her. “I’ll be a good girl and bend over the bed.”
I kiss her temple. “I know you would. But we don’t have time.”
Her eyes search mine, her pretty forehead wrinkling with confusion. “We don’t? Tell me, Max, tell me there’s not some helicopter coming to take me away.”
“I would never let that happen. It’s something else entirely. A short departure from our schedule, and then you can bend over the bed all you like.”
Those blue eyes light up, and she bites at her lip. The satin of her gown shifts beneath my palms as she twists in my grasp, wriggling her hips. “What is it? Tell me,” she demands. Nothing timid about her. She only plays timid when we’re in bed because she knows I like it so much.
I turn her around gently so that she’s looking out the window on the castle garden below. Our little kingdom. Not so little, actually, but our whole world is here. The rest of the planet seems irrelevant. “Down there.”
A gasp. “What—who is that?”
“A priest.” The man is black-suited and utterly at ease. He’s probably enjoying the opportunity to pray in a garden in full bloom and not a stuffy European church. “He’s here to marry us.”
“But we don’t have an aud
ience,” she protests. “I mean—we don’t have guests.”
“I don’t want guests, little princess. I think they’d be quite disturbed to hear our wedding night.”
She pulls me down and kisses me then, and I can taste her agreement on her lips. “You brought a priest here to marry us?”
“I did. Because I don’t want to spend another day without you as my wife.”
A pout crosses her face, as playful as I’ve ever seen. “I’m already your princess.”
“Yes, well. If you’re going to take half my kingdom, I want it to wrap it up in a nice, legal bow.”
My princess traces the lapels of my jacket. “I don’t have a gown.” I pick her up in my arms and take her to the closet door, which I open to reveal a floor-length gown with a plunging back and a mouthwatering neckline. “That’s hardly fair,” she laughs. “I wouldn’t have picked that for myself.”
“You would have, and you know it.”
“I do,” she laughs. “Fine. I’m only teasing.” I set her on her feet before the closet. “Before I put this on, though...” She tips her face up toward mine. “What will you say to me when the priest is marrying us?”
My heart swells, too big to fit in my rib cage and so taken with her that it’s difficult for it to continue its primary function. “I’ll vow to love you and keep you for all my days,” I tell her, my throat catching. “I’ll vow that I want this, and you, and only you, for as long as we live and longer. I’ll vow to cherish you and punish you—” A gasp. “All right, I’ll leave that for later. I’ll vow to be yours,” I tell her, and I mean it.
I mean it with all my fucked-up heart.
She pulls me down into a kiss, and it’s only when our lips meet that I taste the salt there. I made her cry, and I didn’t even spank her.
My little princess has gone soft.
I break the kiss only because I don’t think the priest will stay forever. “What will you say to me?” I tease as she wipes her eyes and glances toward the gown I bought her. “When the priest is marrying us.”
