Chapter 5
Five
Some people need to be stabbed.
Others need to be castrated.
- King Richard
My queen surges forwards, but I grab her hips to keep her seated. The irony of that isn’t fucking lost on me. She sat down on my lap to stop me from stabbing someone I wasn’t even planning to, but if she gets up right now, I’m damn well going to stab Jace. In his ballsack.
Then I’ll cut off his cock and pin it to his face.
I scowl at him for having played dirty.
He grins with pure delight as he sucks on that godsdamn berry. I’m going to ban the damn things just to piss him off. And cake. From now on, no more cake.
“What are your limits?” Arienna breathes, and I can hear all her fantasies in that single sentence. Having us in two holes at once. Or fuck, even in one hole at once, our cocks sliding against each other.
My jaw locks as she turns on my lap to face me. I try to breathe out slowly. A deal is a deal, and although I didn’t make a fairy promise, which would be magically binding, I will not go on back on my word.
The heat in her eyes turns mischievous. Leaning in until our cheeks are touching, she whispers in my ear, “Can I get him to give me a pedicure?”
I pull back, my eyes flying to hers. She grins wide as a little giggle escapes.
Ducking my head, I lower her bra, then pull her jumpsuit back up, covering her breasts.
“I made a deal,” I say slowly but firmly.
“I won’t go back on one with a member of the Court.
I sure as hel won’t go back on one with my wife.
” I lift my head, holding her pale-pink gaze with my own.
“But there will be limits. No touching below the waist, for either of you. No coming from his touch. And if he comes on you, I’m skinning his fucking dick – with a hammer and spoon. ” That last part, I say a lot louder.
“Starting the dirty talk already?” Jace teases as he walks over to the bottom of the dais.
Ignoring him, I grab my queen’s hips and rock her pussy against my erection.
Her eyes flutter closed on a little gasp.
I lean forwards to kiss her. Then I nudge her off me so I can stand.
I start to walk towards the stairs with her, but she grabs my hand and tugs me to a stop.
Lowering her voice to a mere whisper, she asks, “Have you ever shared a woman with him before?”
“No.”
“A man?” Arienna teases, her eyes shining.
I shake my head, and her humour dies a little.
“Have you shared with anyone?”
“No.”
“Did you at least like watching Jace and Deirdre?” she presses.
I glance over at my head of security, remembering all the times I stood watch for them. His taste runs darker than I normally get to indulge in, so watching them rarely fails to get me hard. Looking back at my queen, I give the slightest of nods.
Her grin blossoms wide. She looks at me hungrily. Then she leans up on her toes to kiss my cheek. “Tell me, ‘Peace treaty,’ at any time.” Placing her hands on her hips, Arienna growls, “And none of that fairy shit where you keep silent because you made a deal.”
The tension inside me disappears in an instant. I press a kiss to her forehead. “I promise,” I murmur. “And thank you for checking in.”
She tilts her head back, beaming up at me. She looks so proud for having eased a bit of the weight on my shoulders. My breath catches. Those three words she said to me last night bounce around my throat.
Swallowing them down, I turn away and lead her down the stairs.
“Your Majesty,” Jace says, having finished his berry. He licks his two fingers from the base to the tips, his eyes never leaving my wife. Then he turns to me. Moaning, he sucks them all the way into his mouth.
Arienna practically swoons in front of him. I pull out a knife and throw it at his fucking chest.
Gasping, my queen cries out for him, and her concern for the bastard makes me want to stab him again.
Or rather, stab him still considering the fucker caught the blade I threw at him.
He perfected that move years ago. When we were on the front lines, fighting beside Aurelia, he went on and on about how he could totally catch a throwing knife while we were all trying to sleep. So I agreed to do it just to shut him up.
But he did not catch it.
Well, at least not with his hands.
As I stood there horrified, he just blinked at me. Then he looked down at the blade sticking out of his chest and said, “Huh. Well, that was unexpected.”
As Jace fell to his knees, Princess Aurelia smacked him upside the head. As he passed out, my sister kicked him in the balls, yelling at him for being an idiot. Then she shouted for Deirdre to resurrect him so she could stab him herself this time. She didn’t though; her heart was too soft.
But Evangeline did, annoyed she’d been woken up. Or rather, that’s what she said, but we all knew she just wanted to stab him. While we were all on the front lines getting traumatised over being child soldiers, she was having the time of her life.
If only Aurelia could’ve been brought back as easily...
A cruel pain fills me.
Jace’s teal eyes darkening, he twirls the black blade in his fingers. “Are we starting the foreplay already?” he asks with a smile that’s nothing but a lie. Trailing the blade straight down his abdomen, he cuts a thin line in his purple tunic, revealing his chiseled stomach.
Arienna gasps. Resisting the urge to lose another knife to him, I grab her hand and lead her out of the Throne Room. But I shoot a quick glance at Jace. If my sister is haunting him tonight, he won’t get anywhere near my queen. I might trust him with my life, but I do not trust him with hers.
Arienna turns to me as we enter the hall. “Does Jace use knives in bed?”
“Jace doesn’t fuck in beds.”
She stumbles to a stop. I pull her along. “But he uses knives?” she asks breathlessly.
Narrowing my gaze on her, I wonder just how naughty my little queen is. Although she grew up in a sex cult, it’s all vanilla sex and orgies in Brownston. Reminding myself that she doesn’t even have a safe word, I shake my head. “He does. You don’t. Blood play is not something you just jump into.”
“Do you do it?”
“Yes.”
“Can you do it with me?”
I glance at her as I steer her towards the rooms where the merchants from Vyla are staying.
They’ll be packing up their wares, ready to bring them to the market.
The number of guards on this floor has been increased, but they’re not all Razians.
Vylian soldiers stand at attention too, but even if they weren’t, I’m all too aware that not all of my women are completely loyal to me.
The tension between the sides is thick enough to choke on, and my hairs rise as I walk between them. I don’t want to have a private conversation so publicly, but I tell myself the Court already knows how much Arienna means to me.
Word would have got to them by now about what I did to Lief.
They’ll put the pieces together – realising I risked my life to deal with the wasps simply because my wife cried and not for the political alliance with the brownies like I told them.
They’ll know I manipulated them into dropping the charges against Arienna – that I’m willing to share my crown with her. Kneel at her feet as my queen.
A mere conversation, heard by more of their spies and the Vylians, will not increase the danger to my wife.
So I give her my full attention – as soon as Jace is back by our sides. “Maybe we can do bloodplay one day.” My gaze snags on one of the Razian guards stationed against the wall. Her eyes are locked furiously on a man further down the hall – a Vylian with a missing hand.
“You’re relieved from here,” I tell her. “Find Echo for your new orders.”
She hesitates for a second, her eyes not moving from her target. Anger radiates off her. Her fingers touch the handle of her blade. Then she looks at me, nods tightly, and leaves with a small bow.
The tension in the hall doesn’t ease. I might as well have just sided with the enemy, sending one of my own away.
But if a fight breaks out between our soldiers at the market, blood will be drawn on both sides.
The Vylian king and queen will be targeted, and if either one of them falls, we will go back to war.
Then I will not be able to wave the white flag again. I’ll be forced to raze their kingdom to the ground – killing their children, taking their lands. Peace through slaughter.
I’m so close to turning Aurelia’s dreams into a reality, so close to making her death mean something – yet, it’s never felt more uncertain.
Feeling the crows circling overhead already, I focus back on my queen. On the peace she gives me. “We can build up to bloodplay if you want,” I say.
“What if I want to do it now?”
I shake my head as we move down the hall, towards a group of fairies loading up a cart of goods. My eyes flicker across them, judging their risk to my queen before we pass. One catches my eye and nudges the other. Abandoning their job, they stand against the wall and bow.
“Your first session was last night,” I say as we pass, “and that was too rough. I never should’ve pushed you that hard.
“I wanted –”
“I took advantage of your naivety and ignorance,” I cut in. “You didn’t know enough to know what you wanted.”
She stops, then tugs me to face her. “I trusted you.” Her eyes searching mine, she lifts my hand to her heart, where I carved my initials into her skin with the prong of my belt.
Where I whipped her raw and left her covered in bruises.
There is a flash of pain in her eyes, but when I go to pull back, she grips my fingers tighter.
“I understood how to say yes and no and all the colours in-between,” she says softly but firmly.
“You made sure of that. I just didn’t want to. ”