by Dante King
A knowing smile spread across Lyra’s face as the redhead watched Regina slide closer to me. “You can’t really tell me you’re surprised, are you, Eric?” Her brows furrowed in sudden confusion. “Oh my goodness...you really didn’t know, did you?”
“Know what?” I asked, pushing my own chair backward.
“I would’ve figured you’d have seen it the moment she asked to come with us,” Hazel said smoothly, sipping her tea. “Regina has a huge crush on you, Eric. You meant to tell me you’ve really never noticed the way she looks at you?”
I hadn’t. Had I been too busy with my other women, and with doing the work of expanding our guild, to appreciate the woman riding with me? To tell the truth, I felt kind of awful about that. Here was Regina putting out all these signals, with me too clueless to notice them.
Regina blushed cutely. “I’ve come to admire you,” the woman purred, unable to meet my eye as she spoke. “Since the Silent Auction, certainly, but even before that. You defended me from Jalen, like no other man in our town ever has. You’re different from other men, Eric Hyde.”
“I’m not from around here,” I admitted, prompting a titter of laughter from the other girls around the table. “But I get what you mean, Regina. I think your world’s been used poorly by those in a position to do better. It’s been going on for a very long time, but I intend to change things.”
Regina nodded. “That’s part of why I want to join you, too. I want to be more than just a form of support for the team. I want to become a cultivator.” Her face scrunched up, and the beginnings of tears watered in the corner of her eyes. “I know Jalen wasn’t a good man, but I can’t help but feel like at least a little bit of what happened to him was my fault.”
“Your fault?” That was Anna, who looked so shocked she nearly dropped her glass. “He tried to sell you into slavery, Regina!”
The woman sitting across from her couldn’t have looked more conflicted. “I know,” Regina mumbled. “But even as evil as he was, he was still my husband. If I’d been able to cultivate, even a little, back in the village… then the Armored Boar wouldn’t have gotten loose. We would’ve never needed to hire you and Eric in the first place. None of this would have happened, and Jalen would still be alive!”
I could understand the impulse to blame yourself for a thing like that happening. If there was anything I’d learned about Regina since saving her and adding her to the team, it was that within that small body lay a depth of feeling most women her age were unable to match. Even as rotten and wicked as Jalen, her ex-husband, had been, she still felt responsible for his horrid fate.
She was wrong, though. Nothing that had happened to her was her fault.
I reached over and put my hand on top of Regina’s. Just that slight contact was enough to make her start, a hot blush rising over her cheeks.
Damn, Eric, I told myself, feeling stupid. How in the world did you miss this woman being so into you?
“Jalen made his own decisions,” I told her firmly. “I’m glad that you’re no longer with him, Regina. You were shackled to a man who beat and abused you. Whatever happened with the Armored Boar wouldn’t have changed that.”
Tears spilled silently down Regina’s face now, though she refused the sobs that pressed at the interior of her throat. “I know,” she said, giving my hand a squeeze. “Sorry. Forgive an old woman her fancies. I’m so silly…”
“You’re not silly,” I told Regina, wiping a tear from her cheek. “And you’re not old, either.”
“Hell, you’re younger than me,” Lyra said, twisting her lips into a wicked pout. “And my age doesn’t stop Eric from drooling all over me. In case you were worried he wouldn’t be interested…”
“I make no secret of the fact that I love older women too,” I said with a smirk. “You know exactly how to treat a man—and you’re more than willing to teach the younger women what you know.”
This last part was directed right at Anna and Hazel. Hazel sighed and rolled her eyes, while Anna nodded with a chuckle, as if to say when you’re right, you’re right.
I looked back to Regina, gauging the desire in her eyes. How much of this was her lust for me, and how much of it was merely her longing to join the team, to be more than just a serving girl or a barmaid in Lyra’s employ? Did she truly want me, or just my power?
Not that it truly mattered. I would’ve taken her one way or the other. We’d just been discussing transforming all the unmarried women in the town into cultivators, after all. But as I watched her shoulders rise and fall faster, and heard the little catch in her voice as my hand moved from her knuckles to caress the spot below her shoulder, I realized the truth.
This woman wanted me. She’d wanted me for a long time. And I’d been a fool not to see it.
Still, I had to be certain. “Are you completely sure you want to go through with this?” I asked, my fingers squeezing Regina’s shoulder through the thin fabric of her robe. “Once you and I practice Dual Cultivation, you’ll be one of my women—and that won’t stop after I give you the power to sense the world around you. You and I will be linked forever, Regina.”
A faint smile lit up the woman’s features. “Why do you think I want it so badly?” she asked with a giggle.
“I’m serious,” I told her, stilling her. “You won’t be able to go back to a normal life after this. If there’s any other path you wanted to follow, one that people will look at with more respect…”
Regina pulled a face. “I’m a widow, Eric. I was very nearly a slave! Given the opportunity to become one of your women, I’d gladly take it.”
“And we’d gladly welcome it.” Lyra gave me a little punch between the shoulder blades, as if warning me not to push things any further. “You’d better go on and do your duty then, Eric. You’re going to need the practice if we end up turning the whole town into cultivators.”
Regina and the other girls watched me, waiting to see how I would react. For the first time since the conversation began, I realized the power truly was completely in my hands. I could turn Regina down, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Save spend the rest of her life working for Lyra, that is.
She is a good looking woman, I thought, taking in Regina’s assets with a frank gaze. Jalen was a fool to ever lay a finger on her. Such a good-natured lady could have made his life so much sweeter than it was.
“Alright then,” I agreed. “You’re in.”
I hadn’t even realized how charged the atmosphere in the room was until the tension broke. Hazel and Anna came around the table, already embracing Regina and welcoming her into the group. And we hadn’t even done anything yet!
The sight of her with my girls made me think of something else. “Would you like some company for our first session?” I asked, gesturing at Anna and Hazel. Either of them would do—or both. Yeah, both would be killer. “It might make things easier. Or if you want your first time to be alone, I completely understand.”
Regina nibbled her bottom lip, no doubt picturing herself in bed with either or both women. “Alone, please,” she finally said, looking more than a little regretful at the proclamation. “I’m not quite that adventurous—not just yet, anyway.”
“That’s totally fine,” Anna assured her. “We’ll move at whatever pace you’re comfortable with. Why don’t you and Eric use our suite? The rest of us have work to do, anyway.”
We certainly did. Lyra begged off first, recruiting both Anna and Hazel to help her in her survey of the eligible women in the town. That left me to lead Regina upstairs, grabbing a bottle of wine on the way there from Kij behind the bar. The serving maid gave me the world’s most obvious wink as she handed it to me, not even bothering to pluck two glasses from a cabinet.
Tonight, we’d both be drinking from the bottle. And by the time we were done, Regina would be my newest cultivator.
And my newest weapon.
I couldn’t wait to see what she’d turn into.
Chapter 16
/> “Sorry the place is such a mess,” I said, closing the door behind us. “Lyra’s maids tend to do their work in the mornings, and Anna likes to sleep in. We’re usually, uh, occupied around then, too…”
Beneath our feet, the Hungry Herb Inn thrummed with conversation. Lyra’s survey of the town was in full swing, and the shrewd proprietress of the most popular tavern in town had come up with the perfect way to take the temperature of the town girls on the sly. Anna and Hazel had spread news of a brand-new recipe of ale Lyra’s tavern was going to be testing out—and between the two of them, they’d every young woman in the town as a taste tester. The ladies of the town were treating the whole thing like a big party and gossip session—and among them, Lyra pulled a few into a hallway and asked the questions that would decide whether we got a new cultivator or not.
I didn’t bother fixating on all that, though. They’d get back to me with the results. At that moment, I only had eyes for Regina.
“Oh please,” the woman said, stepping into the room. “I’ve seen far worse, believe me. It looks like this place is filled with love. Compared to that, what’s a little mess?”
I liked her attitude. “That’s a good point.”
She frowned, lifting something from the foot of the bed. It turned out to be a lacy black pair of panties—Anna’s. They’d been torn off the previous night and left there. “The place could use some cleaning up, though,” Regina said, her free hand tugging gently at her brain. “Maybe, if the maids aren’t coming in here and you don’t mind, I could keep the place clean.”
“You?” My eyebrows shot to my hairline. “You’re going to be a cultivator, Regina. You’re not going to have time to make beds and dust furniture…”
Regina looked as if she were holding back laughter. “I can do both, young man. I contain multitudes.” She glanced over the room as if mentally calculating what she’d need to give it a good scrub. “I used to be in charge of a warehouse bigger than this entire Inn. A single room isn’t going to give me any trouble. I can easily fit in on my way to the garden for drills.”
Drills, I thought, a little dizzy. The mention of it made everything more real—the cultivation, the sex. The harem. I was about to take this woman, mark her soul and make her mine.
“Would you like the wine before, or after?” I asked, setting the bottle on the nightstand. Rich, dark liquid sloshed inside the glass as I settled onto the mattress.
Regina was brought up short. A nervous look flickered over her face as she looked me up and down, and instantly I knew something was wrong.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “You’re not getting second thoughts, are you?”
It would have made sense. But Regina shook her head. “Not at all,” she said, glancing down at the floor. “Here, let me help you with those.”
Before I could stop her, she began unlacing my boots, removing them one at a time. It felt very wifely, and I found I didn’t dislike it in the slightest. It was nice to be cared for, waited on. Regina seemed to understand that implicitly. But this wasn’t why we were here.
As she took off my second boot, clucking her tongue, I grabbed her wrist. “Talk to me,” I said, meeting her eye. “What’s got you so anxious, Regina?”
She stared down at the floor for so long I thought she wasn’t going to answer. “You… you have so many girls,” she whispered, her cheeks going pale. “I know you’ve had Anna in this bed, and Hazel—and probably lots of other girls besides. Two or even three of them if you want…”
“That’s got nothing to do with this,” I said, taking her chin. “Right now, you’re the only woman I’m looking at, Regina.”
She swallowed hard. “I just… I don’t have that kind of experience. I worry I won’t be able to keep up with you, is all.”
What was this all about? “Regina, you were married when I met you,” I said, my brows furrowing in confusion. “I’m sure you know perfectly well how to make a man happy…”
Regina flushed crimson. “I’ve never had a lover besides Jalen,” she admitted, shaking like a leaf. “I might be older than you, Eric, but you know so much more than I do. Jalen, he… he wasn’t ever very interested in what was between my legs.”
I sat up straighter. “Regina. What are you saying?”
She glanced away, her lips a tight little line. “He didn’t… he couldn’t… oh, Gods. I’m besmirching the poor man’s name and he’s dead and gone and can’t defend himself. I just don’t think I have enough experience to satisfy you, Eric—and I know from talking to Anna and Hazel that if I don’t satisfy you, this won’t work! You won’t be able to Dual Cultivate with me, and I’ll be useless again.”
I was nearly speechless. She couldn’t be saying what I thought she was saying, could she?
“Regina,” I asked, my voice low as I tilted her chin to meet my gaze. “Are you telling me you’re a virgin?”
Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Oh, Jalen would whip me so hard right now if he knew I was saying this! He used to get so angry about it. He said it wasn’t a wife’s place to question these kinds of things…”
“Regina,” I snapped. “Stop.”
She did, looking at me with such a submissive air that it made my heart hurt.
“Everything is going to be fine,” I assured her. “Tonight is going to be the best night of your life. No man is ever going to whip you again—unless you want me to, that is.”
Regina let out a shocked little laugh. “Is that why Hazel was wincing the other day when she sat down at the breakfast table? You spanked her?”
“Of course I did,” I murmured, pulling Regina into bed with me. “She was a bad girl, Regina. You, on the other hand, are a very good girl. You have no idea how good. I’m going to have so much fun with you.”
She came with a squeal, her lips pressing against mine. We rolled so that I was on top, and she opened for me like a flower. My tongue slid into her mouth, making her gasp, while my thick cock made a tent in my trousers to push between her thighs. Her hands gripped my shoulders oh so tight as she writhed beneath me, experiencing sensations she’d never felt before.
“Wow,” I groaned, breaking the kiss. I leaned back, fiddling with the laces on Regina’s top. “Let’s get you out of these, babe. I want to see that gorgeous body.”
Still, she was nervous. “I don’t know,” Regina panted, one of her legs kicking out involuntarily. “Are you sure I can make this work—”
I put a finger to her lips, silencing her. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” I said. “Are you listening?”
To tell the truth, I was a little tired of her self-doubt. What Regina really needed was someone to take control of her—in the way Jalen had never been enough of a man to do. The fact that he’d never fucked her had destroyed my estimation of her ex-husband—but the fact that she was untouched made my heart melt. And it explained so much about her.
Regina nodded, shuddering with lust.
“I’m going to take the lead,” I told her, slipping into the commanding manner that always made my women’s panties wet. “And as long as you’re comfortable with what I tell you, all you have to say is this: ‘yes, sir.’ If I do something you don’t want, you tell me: ‘no, sir.’ Understood?”
A new look entered Regina’s eyes, as if I’d just given her the tool she needed to let go and enjoy herself. A blissful look settled on her face, her pink tongue darting from her mouth as she cooed in a shockingly girlish tone: “Yes, sir.”
“Good.” One knot came undone, then the next. Regina’s breasts strained at her top, very nearly free. “This is going to be wonderful. I’m going to make you come so hard, Regina.”
She arched her back and moaned as the last knot slipped free on her top. “You’d be the first one to do it,” she whimpered, spreading her legs.
“Other than you, surely,” I said with a chuckle.
When she didn’t respond, it was like a bolt of lightning struck me in the spine.
“Regina?”
&nbs
p; “N… no, sir,” she whispered, using her words in a new way. “I’ve never… I…”
Oh fuck. Fuck. Regina being a virgin was one thing, but knowing she’d never even had an orgasm before? I can’t even describe the feeling that spread through my chest as I realized what was in store for her.
“I’m starting to understand why you’re so nervous,” I said, sliding my hand under her top. The fabric fell away, revealing Regina’s luscious breasts. Her nipples were hard, as dark as her hair, aching for the touch of fingers, lips, tongue.
“Please, sir,” Regina whimpered, writhing beneath me. “Teach me. Show me what to do…”
Oh yeah. That I could most definitely do.
“Give me your hand,” I grunted. She let me take it gladly, her hair a messy halo around her on the pillow. I tugged it lower, then lower, and she gasped as she realized where it was about to go. “No,” I said firmly, tugging. “You do what I want.”
“Yes, sir!” Regina’s cute little butt wiggled back and forth as I put her hand between her thighs. My free hand tugged at her pants, pulling them down her smooth, tanned thighs as I disrobed her from the waist down. Underneath them she wore nothing but a pair of thin cotton panties, as white and pure as her virtue.
God, it was going to be fun to corrupt her. I wasn’t a wicked man, not naturally in any case, but if any of the unmarried women in this town were as inexperienced as Regina, I was going to have so much fucking fun teaching them Dual Cultivation!
“Touch yourself right there,” I commanded, slipping her fingers beneath the waistband of her panties. Regina resisted for a moment, then let her hand go under the fabric. A low, throaty moan erupted from her lips, her ass lifting off the bed as her fingers pumped.
“Yes, sir,” she whimpered, her voice tight with pleasure. “I… I love that you’re watching me do this, sir! It feels so much more special with you right here, teaching me how to make myself feel good!”
“Good girl,” I growled, already noting the way that praise amplified Regina’s arousal to the maximum. “I’m going to take your panties off now. I want to see that tight, wet little pussy. That untouched pussy. Are you alright with that?”
