by Randi Darren
She stared down at Alex as she pushed him deep into her. Grinding back and forth, she watched him as she came.
Slowly, it died away, and she let out a breath.
“Ravage me, Alex,” Carla whispered. “Have me while I’m coming down.”
Grabbing hold of the woman who could probably manhandle him with ease, Alex rolled her onto her back.
Pulling his knees up, he forced her thighs apart and then bent her knees, putting her feet into the air.
Then he lifted her hands above her head, laying one wrist atop the other, and held them in his left hand. With his right, he grabbed her hip and shoved himself hard into her.
Groaning, Carla shuddered beneath him, her fingers opening and closing, her body flexing.
Alex set to work at pummeling her with his manhood. As if he needed to quite literally break it off at the hilt inside of her.
While he pounded away at her thighs, Carla shook her head lightly from side to side. Soft, panted moans and grunts were all he heard from her as he did exactly what she wanted.
He savaged her.
Putting everything he could into the thrusts, Alex plowed Carla down into the bed.
Then Carla came again, arching her back as her eyes bore into his own again. She never looked anywhere else when she climaxed. It made it obvious to him when she did.
“Alex,” Carla whispered. “I love you.”
Grunting, and unable to help himself at all, Alex came. Pushing down hard against Carla.
Rolling himself against her with each desperate burst of seed, Alex couldn’t help himself as he tried to coat her insides. As deeply as he could.
With a few more thrusts, Alex was finished and empty.
Panting, he laid his head down on Carla’s shoulder.
“You’re just too damn good in the bedroom,” Alex muttered.
Laughing softly, Carla pulled her hands out of his grip and wrapped him up in a tight hug.
Nuzzling him, she pulled him down into her side and kissed his temple.
“You’re better at it than I am. I get all starry eyed when you send me over,” Carla murmured.
Laughing, Alex closed his eyes. Today was going to be a bedroom day with Carla, he imagined.
Only six or seven more turns to go.
***
Wearing peasant garb and moving with a load of charcoal on his back, Alex was able to slip out of the manse completely undetected.
His face had been liberally smeared with his dirty, messy load.
Beside him were Valeria and Carla, the most likely to dress down, disguise themselves, and blend into a three-person group.
Valeria looked like a coal runner’s wife, and Carla had the appearance of a city soldier.
Even down to the helmet that covered her head and made her look like one of hundreds of guards all throughout the capital.
Alex wasn’t sure where the uniform came from, but he was glad for it. It was giving them a perfect opportunity to escape without being followed.
And this part of the plan really did need them to be out in the town without being tailed.
Feeling as if the world was watching him, Alex trudged along. He kept his eyes on the backs of Carla’s boots as if the only thing that mattered to him was marching along, one step at a time.
“Changeover up ahead,” Valeria said.
Great. I feel like I’ve got a colony of fleas traveling with me.
Starting to wonder if they robbed someone for these clothes instead of making them.
“Good,” Carla said crisply. “You both smell awful.”
“Disguises have to match, and if that’s a smell, it’s a smell,” Valeria said.
“I don’t disagree with you, you just stink,” Carla muttered.
“And you reek of sex,” Valeria shot back.
“I… yes, I suppose I do,” Carla said. “I should have bathed, shouldn’t I?”
“Probably. Smell like a brothel,” Valeria grumbled. “Next time you lock the door like that I’m going to pick the lock.”
Turning the corner, the three of them entered a small, secluded alleyway.
“Here we are,” Valeria said, starting to pull off her clothes immediately. Before Alex even managed to drop his sack, Valeria was stark naked and fishing out something that had been wedged into a meeting spot between two buildings, where there was a dark fissure that could hold a rather large bag.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Valeria said, her arm coming back out with what looked like a grain sack. Opening it up, she fished out a water canteen and a cloth. “Only time enough to wash our faces, but it’ll have to do.”
Alex wouldn’t complain about that.
In short order, Alex was changed, marginally cleaned, and moving again.
Valeria was dressed in a house uniform, but with no colors.
Carla was wearing the strange mishmash of leather armor and plate Nannie had taken on, the two of them settling for that rather than going in for Eleanor’s full-gear setup.
“First is our direct dealing, the one for which we have oaths of loyalty and secrecy,” Valeria said. “Let’s go see the forgers.”
Carla nodded at that and set off in a direction.
Apparently, everyone knows the details but me.
Then again, I don’t actually need to know. I just… fund it and put the plan into action.
Hm.
Good thing my dependency on my Numbered is beyond questionable.
I should still try to address that, if possible.
Carla stepped up to a door and knocked four times, paused, then knocked one more time. They were in a dark side alley again.
Everything connected to the alleyways seemed to be the seedier side of the city.
“Remind me to remove all alleys from Brit,” Alex muttered.
“What?” Valeria asked.
“Nothing, sorry,” Alex said as the door swung inward.
Carla pulled her mace from its ring and stepped through the doorway, followed by Valeria.
Alex went in and was immediately struck by a wave of heat. It felt like walking into an oven itself.
Not far off, several oxen were walking a wheel around as a machine Alex didn’t claim to understand pressed two plates together.
Men and women poured molten liquid in one side into cast dies, and then forged coinage came out the other side.
It was scooped up by someone else, cooled, and then checked. If it was a good press, it went into chests. If bad, it went back into the hopper.
In the end, Alex wasn’t a part of the forging team that came up with the process or the means. He just knew that the coins looked perfect, the weight was dead on, and only cutting a nib from the coin would have a chance to reveal it as false. Even then, there would be a large number who couldn’t tell the difference anyways.
Or so he was told.
Honestly, so long as it could pass every test aside from cutting into it, he’d be happy.
If he flooded the market with the coins while removing a large surplus of real coins at the same time, he’d be able to cripple a portion of the economy.
Long enough that he could run away with the other half, if he did it right.
A man trundled over to Valeria and gave her something, then walked off after a brief exchange with her.
Turning to Alex, Valeria held out three coins.
“Which are the forgeries?” Valeria asked Alex, her hands spread open to him.
Picking up the three coins, Alex flipped them over, weighed them against one another, and then tapped one to another.
They all sounded the same, felt the same, and had a similar feel.
“Uh… this one?” Alex said, holding up a coin he felt might be odd.
“No. That’s a real one,” Valeria said, then picked up one of the coins in his hand. She inspected it and then nodded her head. “This is the fake. The foreman marked this one specifically for comparison.”
She pointed a finger to a small slit in the edge of the coin. It looked like
normal wear and tear.
Alex was impressed. He’d never be able to tell the difference.
“This is costing me a fortune, isn’t it?” Alex said.
“Yes. Yes it is, Alex,” Valeria said. “But this was never about making money. Just like you said. This was about crushing Glint.”
“Too true,” Alex said. “And I agree, of course. As you pointed out, I said it myself. Still… sad to see it all go so easily.”
“Imagine how Glint will feel,” Carla said with a chuckle. “He’ll see more than just his fortune go. If no one wants to trade in silver, there’s going to be a massive run on everything else.
“And the banks won’t be able to keep up. There isn’t enough currency at play either. It’s… going to go quite badly.”
“I pity the citizenry,” Alex said, shaking his head. “But that’s how it goes. He shouldn’t have crossed me.”
A thought struck Alex, and he turned to Valeria, raising his eyebrows.
“Could we rob the temples? Steal everyone’s money? Or if not steal it, could we set fire to it? A fire hot enough to melt all the coin inside?” Alex asked.
“I… I don’t know. I doubt we’d be able to steal it. It’s always rather well defended, and that’s a lot of coin to move,” Valeria said. “But melting it with a fire? Maybe. I don’t think a normal fire would be hot enough. Let me talk to the foreman; he might have some ideas.”
“Great, let’s do that,” Alex said.
“You do realize that’s going to make you the primary target,” Carla said, catching his eyes with her own. “You’re Count Inferno the Butcher. Fire is your weapon.
“If the temples burst into flame, all at the same time, they’re all going to look to you.”
“Well… I suppose I’ll just have to make sure I have a good alibi. Maybe we should schedule a meeting with the noble families. Introduce my wife, the princess,” Alex said. “That’d be a lovely way to mess with morale.”
“Oh, yes, be sure to mount her in front of all of them as well,” Valeria muttered. “You haven’t offended everyone in Hefen quite yet.”
“I mean… I could do that. Though Saoirse isn’t very happy with me right now,” Alex said. “When I came to collect her for our bedroom session, she was still rather mad at me.”
“You did kill her family,” Carla said. “Be thankful she was at least willing to sleep with you. That doesn’t sound like something most people would be willing to overlook.”
“That’s fair,” Alex said. Truth be told, he hadn’t really considered her at all when he’d made the decision. He’d just been blindingly angry at Glint.
And still was.
The fact that Saoirse hadn’t told him no when he’d asked to join her in the bed, and had invited him in quickly, spoke to a mentality that differed from most. When he really thought about it, she’d only seemed mad, not in a rage that had no limits or anything of that nature.
Must be her upbringing, or her family was awful.
Probably awful.
“Burn the temples,” he said.
“Your will is my desire, Alex,” Valeria said. “I shall see the very stones melt for you.”
“Grand. You’re a real peach, Three,” Alex said with a grin.
Chapter 32
“Thank you for coming,” Saoirse said, inclining her head to the duke and duchess. “My husband and I are deeply appreciative of your attendance.”
Alex took that as his cue to turn, pick up the present prepared for the noble couple, and hand it over.
“With our thanks for coming to our wedding celebration,” Alex said, holding out the items to the pair. They were an older couple that seemed more affluent than many of the others, and also far better put together. They seemed like a power couple.
In the end, Saoirse and Alex had both decided on a “wedding celebration” as the invitation reason.
It was the best way to make it readily apparent that change was coming to Hefen. Making a grand affair over the marriage of the princess to Alex. That they were already married and had consummated the union.
Presenting it this way to the nobility gave them little choice but to attend. Attend and realize just how drastic a change their world was about to undergo.
That the royal line had been snuffed out in a series of accidents, many almost impossible to believe, and that the last sole heir was married to the enemy.
“Of course, of course,” said the duke whose name Alex had already forgotten. In truth, he wasn’t that concerned with learning anything about the court here in Hefen.
His plan remained the same. Put a child in Saoirse, dethrone her father, and put her on the throne instead. That’d end his line and give Alex peace of mind when it came to Alanna.
Court politics were going to be her problem, not his. It was her country, after all. He had no interest in being a king.
He’d told her this, as well as his entire plan for Glint. All of it.
Even down to the temples.
After several follow-up conversations where he’d pointedly told her, again and again, that he didn’t want a puppet or a puppet state, she seemed to finally believe him.
Though she immediately asked for a loan after that and proceeded to make a number of purchases. All through intermediaries that Valeria and Sylvia found for her.
Both business and personal acquisitions.
Alex suspected she was buying up options that would prove lucrative further down the line. Options that would help her retain her queendom.
Not that he blamed her.
Insider trading is always hard to resist.
“…really be expecting so soon?” asked the duchess, looking to Saoirse. Most of the nobility were doing their best to ignore Alex as politely as possible. If he spoke, they responded; if they should include him, they did.
But they took it right up to the point of politeness and no further.
To which he was thankful, of course.
“We do, yes,” Saoirse said with a wide smile. “Though perhaps that’s me being naive and thinking the frequency and the… ah… energy involved somehow play into it.”
Well, that was frank and direct, wasn’t it?
No different than what she’s said to others, though.
Boils down to ‘This is my husband, we are bedding one another frequently, and this is how it is. Look no further for an heir.’
“Well, I can speak from experience when I say that frequency definitely does help the chances,” said the duchess with a smirk, her eyes flicking to Alex and back again. “Do be a dear and let me know once you’re with child. I would be… grateful… to be one of the first you tell, in fact.”
Mm. Smart.
Saoirse will need her own people to help rule her court. Getting in now is ideal.
“My husband and I will be sure to let you know,” Saoirse said, inclining her head again to the couple. “The count seems to have had a busy calendar as of late, though, having moved from one battlefield to the next. So it may just be me holding court for a long period.”
“I’d be here in a moment if you needed me, dear,” Alex said.
They’d already agreed on this public statement. It was certainly fine to make it seem like Saoirse would rule alone, but that Count Inferno wasn’t far.
His name carried weight.
Both the duke and the duchess had tight smiles on their faces now. No one wanted to see Count Inferno show up in that kind of situation.
Sylvia had deliberately spread word of what had happened with the Xer and his Wilds wife, Queen Quinn.
Despite overwhelming odds in favor of the enemy.
“Yes, well, thank you for having us,” said the duke, bowing his head and then moving to the exit. His wife followed along after him.
When the door clicked shut, Saoirse sighed.
“Is what you did in the Wilds really that terrifying?” she asked. “Every single person has gone eerily silent at the mention of it, or the very idea of you coming back to
Hefen in anger.”
“Depends on who you ask,” Alex said, folding his hands behind his back. “Ask Three or Four for their opinion on the matter.”
“He burned down somethin’ like twenty cities, enslaved entire noble families, and stole all their treasuries and horses,” Nannie said. “Delivered all those lords and ladies to Quinn, who beheaded anyone who didn’t swear to him or her. Master ended up taking on a few bedwarmers who got turned out to Mistress Anna after a few tumbles.”
“He also burned down every farm and granary within reach,” Carla said. “There is very little left of the Wilds that opposed Alex.”
Saoirse turned to look at Alex, her eyebrows raised. “You—”
The door flew open and Riley rushed into the room. She was red faced, panting, and looked as if she’d been running.
“Master!” Riley said in a huff, moving to him. She pulled out a letter from her uniform and held it out to him. “This was just delivered to us! The Brit house guard said you must absolutely read it immediately.”
Frowning, and with a decidedly bad feeling about this, Alex took the letter.
It had the Brit house-guard seal on it, which meant it was the head of his house guard who had written the letter.
Really starting to appreciate having all house guards undergo mandatory literacy education.
Breaking the seal, Alex unfolded the letter and began reading.
Lord, a man has arrived at the manor claiming to be the ambassador of King Harold. He has documentation to that effect and has demanded to speak with you immediately.
We have taken the man into the manse at this time, as I believed it would be better than leaving him on the doorstep to cause trouble.
Grunting, Alex shook his head and handed the letter over to Riley. “Apparently an ambassador has arrived from King Harold. Read the letter over for practice. Then pass it to someone else. Make sure it ends up with Two for destruction later,” Alex said.
“Well,” Saoirse said softly. “I suppose I’m thankful we finished and were already through most of the goodbyes. I can handle the rest.
“Go take care of the ambassador.”
Alex nodded at that and left the room quickly.
She was right on all counts, and there was nothing to gain from waiting around for even a second longer.
