by Lisa Daniels
“Why would I? They approached me with sweet words, but they had no interest in me. All that mattered was how they could use me. And they certainly didn’t leave me with the impression that physical contact was something a women should ever want. The feeling of a man panting on top of me for a couple of minutes isn’t exactly my idea of an enjoyable time. If I’m being honest, I don’t know how women choose to keep letting men do that to them.”
His eyes took me in, and I could tell the shifter was conducting his assessment. To my surprise, his next words were not critical of me. “It doesn’t sound like you have been with any men who know what they are doing.”
“Every man thinks they know what they are doing. They are all so certain that they are adept, but my experience shows that they only know what they are doing for themselves. Men rating their own performance in bed is like a toddler rating themselves on their physical prowess to run a race. None of them do it well, and the woman watching them is bound to lie to make them feel better.”
The shifter looked at me for a few moments, and I began to wonder if he was perhaps reflecting on his own abilities. He strode up to me and looked down into my eyes. “Would you like to learn what it should be like for a woman?”
I couldn’t help it—I burst out laughing. “Oh, have I wounded your pride? Do you want to prove that I don’t know what I’m talking about?” I gave him a condescending smile and patted him on the bicep. “Don’t worry, little shifter, I’m sure you do just fine.”
His hand moved into mine, and the way the palm of his hand glided against my own caused a shiver to go down my spine. It was almost like our hands were a lightning rod, and my entire body was starting to respond to that single touch. “It is a simple question, my little Jada. But if you prefer, I can start with a kiss. If you find it unpleasant, I will stop. We can go as far as you like until you are no longer enjoying yourself.”
His low, husky voice made me feel very warm, and it was so inviting that I knew I had no desire to turn him down. Trying to retain some control over the situation, I looked at him. “What if I don’t want…” I wasn’t quite certain how to finish my question.
His hand slid out of mine, and he took a step back. “If you do not want to engage in any physical contact, then I will not keep asking.”
I took a step forward, “No, what I was going to ask was, what if I don’t want you to stop at any point in time? Are you going to just disappoint me with your own limitations?”
A glint in his eye made me wonder if I had made the wrong choice, but the feel of his hand as it slid back into mine, then the way his other hand moved around my back and pulled me to him, made me forget all about asking him to stop. “I will stay until first light if you do not ask me to stop.”
His eyes focused on mine as he leaned down slowly. As soon as his lips touched mine, I found myself closing my eyes and squeezing his hand. He was unlike any other man who had touched me before that night. The shifter’s movements were smooth but gentle as he pulled me to him and started to explore my body.
It did not take long before I felt like I was starting to burn. The sensation was so primal that I was losing myself to it. Pulling back away from his kiss, I found that I couldn’t even open my eyes as I asked breathlessly, “Shouldn’t I take off my gown?”
His body pressed against mine as he leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I will do that for you, if you would like.”
The feel of him whispering in my ear caused me to moan and nod at the same time. When I was finally able to talk, I managed to say, “Yes, please. I find myself curious to know what your skin feels like.”
“All in good time,” was all he said as his hand pulled at the ties on the back of my sleeping gown. Once the ties were undone, he slid a hand into the now open back and I shuddered as his hand moved along my back, exploring the curvature of my spine. His touch was sensual and warm. A deeper moan escaped my lips as he began to kiss down my neck, sliding the gown off my right, then my left shoulder. Before my dress had hit the ground, the shifter lifted me off the floor. My body was responding in a way it never had before, and I pressed myself against him, wanting more of what he was offering.
I was vaguely aware of him placing me on the bed, but my mind was too intent on the physical sensations of the feel of his body against mine to pay attention to any of the surroundings. He quickly removed his shirt, and my hands began to explore the strong muscles that had seemed barely contained in his shirt. His skin was so smooth that I pulled him to me, trying to feel all of him at one time.
Suddenly my body began to tighten, and a part of me wanted to panic. Every muscle in my body was going rigid, but it felt so good that I figured if it killed me, it was a good way to go. I began to scream as my body arched up, but my screams were stopped as he covered my mouth with his. The feel of his tongue against mine and the rhythmic movements of his hips against me made me claw at his back.
Soon my body began to relax, and he stopped kissing me. The smile on his lips would have been beautiful if he hadn’t looked so cocky. “Are you enjoying yourself?”
He already knew the answer. I wanted to lie and say that I wasn’t, but that would have meant he would stop. Instead, I asked, “Why are your pants still on? I don’t think that is how this is supposed to work.”
“As long as you are feeling stimulated and happy, things are going as they should. But if you would like for me to remove the rest of my clothing...” He kept eye contact with me as he undid his pants and threw them to the floor.
“And this is the part where you start panting, right?”
“Only if that will help you.” He leaned forward and began kissing my neck as one of his hands barely stroked the side of my body. It was a strange and sensual sensation the way he was barely touching me. My body responded immediately, and as soon as his hand reached my thigh, I wanted to feel all of him.
Kissing the top of his head, I muttered, “I never found out your name.”
He stopped moving and turned his face to look at me with those deep eyes. “What do you plan to do with my name once you know it?”
“You’ll see,” I said, wanting him to start touching me again.
He gave me a sly smile. “Leland. My name is Leland.”
Before I could respond, he moved up my body and began to kiss me. I felt him sliding into me, and the shock caused my body to tense up. He barely did anything, had barely entered me before my body repeated the same stiffness as before. This time, I allowed myself to enjoy it. Throwing my head back, I began to say his name. I have no idea exactly what I said, but whatever it was, I loved how he responded.
It was easily the best night I had ever experienced up to that point in my life. My body felt weary, but I did not want him to stop. Almost like a drug, I just wanted to keep going until there was nothing left. When light began to shine through the window, Leland gently stroked my head as he pressed all the way inside me, bringing me to climax one more time. He lay his head in the cradle of my neck and pulsed inside of me a few times as I tried to say his name. I no longer had a voice, but I was not ready for him to leave. My arms continued to try to hold him against my sweaty body even after my body began to relax. His arms held me tight, and I thought perhaps he was considering staying.
This hope was quickly shattered as he gave me a soft kiss on my forehead. “I guess that answers that question. But I have to leave now. If they realize I am gone, it will be a lot harder to visit you.”
I was panting as I tried to force words out of my mouth. Realizing I was having trouble, he stood up and walked over to the water pitcher left by the servants the previous day. He poured me a glass and brought it over. For a moment, I didn’t notice him holding the glass out to me because I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his body.
“I could return tonight, if you wish. But for now, I need to get back to the room your father has graciously given me.”
I looked up and saw the proffered glass. Taking it, I began to drink. Finally able t
o talk, I managed to say, “What if we leave today? I am ready to go now.” My throat stung a little, but I was not ready to part with Leland.
He shook his head, “Unfortunately, I have a complication now. I will come back as soon as I am able, and if you would still like to leave this world behind, I’ll find a way to get you out of the current predicament.”
My eyes watched Leland’s form as he quickly dressed and slipped out of my room. Too late I realized that I had no idea how he managed to slip past the guards outside my door. Or how he had managed to get out of his cell. Staring at the door, I had far more questions about Leland than I had the day before when I was ready to leave the city with him.
After the hours we had just spent together, I didn’t much care what the answers were. If my luck finally turned, I hoped to have all the time in the world to learn.
Are you thinking about staying with him? The thought surprised me, but even more shocking was the realization that my answer wasn’t no. I lay back on the bed and tried to process the events of the last 24 hours.
Chapter 4
The Latest Wrinkle
As it turned out, Leland had left at just the right time. He hadn’t been gone 15 minutes when there was a knock on the door. Realizing that I was completely undressed, I pulled the covers over my chest. My dressing gown was on the floor, but it was just going to have to stay there. It was more than likely anyone outside would come into my room with or without my permission.
“Come in,” I called to the person at the door, deciding to take control as much as I could.
To my surprise, the steward entered. “Your majesty, I’ve been—” As soon as he was in the room, he looked at me in bed, then his eyes moved to the dressing gown on the floor.
“I was hot and no one came to help me last night. Maybe you should relay that to my father. Ignoring my needs is just as detrimental to him as to me.”
The way he stammered would have been funny if my situation hadn’t been so serious. “Y-Your m-m-majesty.” His face was bright red and he turned to face the door frame, the door still open so that any guards out there could hear us.
“Speak up, please. I can’t understand you.” In an act of cruelty, I sat up, letting the covers fall from me.
The steward’s eyes flicked toward me, then he put a hand up over them. “Pl-pl-please cover up!”
“Why should I? I’m a prisoner here, but it is still my room. If I’m not allowed to leave, there should be no surprise that I will do whatever I want while being trapped here.”
“But your modesty!”
“How sweet for you to be worried!” My voice dripped with sarcasm. “But wait, does that mean you are having impure thoughts of me? While in my room?” It was cruel, but I really just wanted the man to leave. It was impossible to think with him around.
“No, not in the slightest—I would never!”
“Are you saying I’m unattractive?” The hurt in my voice was only partly feigned.
“No! You are quite attractive. A young body with—”
“So you admit that you looked at my body?”
“Please, just cover up!” His wailing words would have been moving if he didn’t work for my father. That was pretty much a guarantee that the man was immoral at best, and I felt that his actions were little more than an attempt to appear to be offended.
With a sigh, I pulled the blanket up over my chest. “Funny that you would leave the door open so that anyone can hear us. Scandalous.”
“The guards are asleep! On the job. So your virtue is not compromised by the door being open. It would certainly be compromised if I were to close the door, though.” He was looking at me hesitantly.
I ignored his eyes as they moved over my body while he thought I wasn’t looking. As soon as he said that the guards were asleep, I stopped paying attention to him. Curious, I jumped out of the bed and moved to the door. He let out a squeak and pressed his body against the wall in what I thought was an overdramatic way of making it obvious that he wasn’t looking. Realizing that I couldn’t very well leave my room naked, I took an undergarment from my wardrobe and pulled it over my head. Sticking my head out of the door, I confirmed that the guards were indeed out, but I did not think that they were sleeping.
“Your majesty! You cannot leave like that!”
“Should not.”
The steward was moving around behind me like a headless chicken, but that seemed to cause him a moment’s peace. “Huh?”
I stepped through the door. “As you can see, I can walk through the door. What you meant was I should not go.”
“Yes, of course! Please come back into your room before someone sees you!” It was the first time where I could hear real panic in his voice.
Ignoring his pleas, I leaned over one of the guards. He was still breathing, but I doubted that he was sleeping. “My dear steward, I believe that there is something wrong with these men. They aren’t asleep. But I suppose that you didn’t stop to consider checking. Much easier to think the worst and pretend that they are at fault.” I picked up the first guard’s wrist and felt for his pulse. It was slow, much slower than it should have been. Next, I felt the back of his head to see if there was a bump, but nothing discernable presented itself. Moving over to the next guard, I conducted the same check.
Standing up, I folded my arms. “Judging by their condition, I would say someone knocked them out. They will probably have some head trauma when they wake, so a bit of time off will probably be necessary. Then maybe some basic training. I mean, two guards getting knocked out at the same time without any apparent struggle is certainly an indication that they are not trained well enough for their stations.”
The steward looked at me. “How would you know any of this?”
I gave him a mirthless smile, “Do you not know what kind of training is required for princesses to ensure they can properly serve their lords after marriage? I will be responsible for my husband’s health, so, of course, I have been given some fairly extensive training.”
He blinked at me, “Is that true?”
Rolling my eyes, I marched back into my room, slamming the door shut behind me. I knew that my initial diagnosis would work for this first round of guards, but it also meant that my father would station more guards for the coming days. At least they wouldn’t find out that someone actually poisoned them—they would trust my initial diagnosis and react accordingly. If Leland were to use the same method to knock them out for his next visit, they would do their own research, though. Then they would almost certainly move me somewhere else because it was incredibly obvious that the guards had been drugged, which was much harder to fight. Once they realized that someone was poisoning guards, Mrs. Teasdon would be dragged into this. I wanted to avoid that as much as possible, so had given a false diagnosis.
My brain began to work furiously as I moved over to my wardrobe. Given the men outside my door, there were going to be more visitors within the hour and I had no confidence that my father would send anyone to help me dress before the parade of visitors started. He would figure that shaming me in my nightwear would just be one more form of torture. Sad that he didn’t realize I really did not care.
The problem was that there were going to be questions, and I needed to have a story to tell them for when they arrived.
Clearly the guards had been out for a while. The steward had arrived in my room to find me unclothed. That was plenty to implicate me in the events from the night before.
And for once I didn’t do it. Didn’t even plan this one. I was feeling resentful because I knew that I was going to get blamed for it, no matter what I said or what other evidence they found. The weapons.
Suddenly, I realized that the kindness Falmen had shown the day before could end up being more incriminating. Any one of those weapons in the cloth would have been enough to knock out the guards when used properly. Since they would not have expected me to open the door, they would not have been looking, giving me the perfect way to knock them
out. Falmen would know that, and might believe that I had tried. If he did, I had no doubt he would take them.
Shit. I continued to dress myself, wondering if I should try to hide them somewhere else, or if I should just hope that Falmen wasn’t brought into this.
I didn’t end up having much time to really think about it.
Less than 10 minutes after I had slammed the door in the steward’s face, the door was flung open. Startled, I turned and faced the one person I had not expected to see.
Filling the entire doorframe was my father. And he was clearly angry.
There were a couple of servants and guards behind him, but he directed them to leave. As soon as the door was closed, he moved over to me.
“I don’t know what you are planning, but you are not going to get away with it, you little whore.”
Cocking one of my eyebrows, I didn’t express any other emotion. “You have had enough of them that I would have expected you to tell the difference between a whore and a slut.”
The next thing I knew, I was falling, my cheek stinging. Putting a hand out, I tried to catch myself. Instead, my hand missed the dresser. The corner struck me in the back, and I hit the floor with a loud thud. With the king in my room, no one was going to come in to see what was happening, no one was going to come to my rescue. Not that I had ever expected to be rescued.
My father stood above me, his black eyes cold and unfeeling. “I’m only going to ask once—”
“Good.” I spat the words out as a little blood trickled from my lip. “Then you can leave my room.”
“This room, like all of the palace, is mine. I have allowed you to live here—”
“You’ve kept me chained here. It was no mercy or kindness you were showing me. I’m not one of your sycophants, so keep your pretty lies out of this.”
My father looked down at me, “Do not interrupt me again.”
As much as I wanted to say something to him, the stinging on my cheek was too fresh of a reminder why I should do as he said. Now that the initial shock was over, I realized that there was a worse pain in my cheek. Keeping my eyes trained on his, I avoided showing any signs of how much he had hurt me. The king had never struck me before, which meant that he was well beyond any anger I had ever seen. Then again, I had interrupted his negotiations about my future, so I should not have expected better treatment.
