Chapter 11
Eleven
Elaine
Timur and I had a common goal in mind. He had his reasons for becoming a pleasure trader, and I worked with him for my share of the gold we earned. But whether he knew it or not, I also earned another reward besides money.
I loved giving joy to those who couldn’t feel it otherwise. It thrilled me to watch the shadow fae’s faces light up with genuine smiles, their bodies relax, and their conversations start flowing. I enjoyed being the source of their merry mood and the reason for the good time they had.
Usually, I felt safe because I believed I was in control. I never drank too much alcohol and always made sure not to drink on an empty stomach.
Tonight, I’d only had one glass of wine with dinner. Sadly, Lord Arnaf didn’t seem to handle alcohol very well. Or maybe he tended to be naturally slightly unhinged and the few drops of intoxication that had filtered through the only tendril he had connected to me had made it worse.
“We’re not done here,” he declared. “You want double the money, I want double the joy.”
He constantly tried to alter our agreement, creating the uncertainty that jeopardized my feeling of safety. I might’ve made a mistake by agreeing to have six clients instead of one after all.
Lord Darfin’s handsome features folded into a grimace of displeasure.
“She isn’t feeling that good anymore, Arnaf,” he complained.
“Great, Arnaf. Now you spoiled it for all of us,” Lord Kamir, another one of my clients this evening, groaned with disappointment.
“We’ll just need to get her in here.” Lord Arnaf sauntered to a screen of black and red silk stretched over a wooden frame.
They talked about me as if I wasn’t there, which further unsettled me.
The soft whirring of Timur’s chair came from the entrance. I sensed him coming closer, and my anxiety settled a bit.
Lord Arnaf gave a silent order with a flick of his wrist, and his guards removed the screen, revealing a pale pink shell so large, it could easily accommodate a person.
The shell was half-filled with water. At a wave of the lord’s hand, several servants walked in from outside, carrying buckets of steaming hot water.
“They say humans enjoy baths,” Lord Arnaf said, and I nearly moaned with anticipation.
My anxiety melted. Excitement warmed my limbs, spreading through me with soft tingling along my skin.
I hadn’t had a real bath since… Well, since forever.
Even in Teneris bathing had been fairly simple.
Since no one tried to taste my joy from bathing, there hadn't been the need for anything fancy like the milky white oils or pink petals that Lord Arnaf’s servants were pouring and sprinkling over the water in the shell now.
As if on cue, my skin itched, reminding me of the sweat and sand that seemed to permanently be clinging to my body lately. The sponge baths or rain showers paled in comparison with the luxurious bath beaconing me.
“See? I told you she’ll love it,” Lord Arnaf boasted with deep satisfaction. “Take her clothes off,” he ordered to the servants.
I sucked in a breath as two servants, a man and a woman approached me.
“Now what’s the matter?” Lord Arnaf groused, sensing the shift in my mood through his tendril connected to me.
I raised both hands, trying to stop the pushy fae from manhandling me.
“I’ll do it myself,” I said. “Just…stay back, please. I won’t derive any joy from strangers touching me.”
A gentle touch of Timur’s left hand on my arm told me he was next to me now.
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to,” he said softly.
I cast a longing glance on the warm water in the giant shell. “I could really use a bath.”
“If you wish.” He nodded, then turned to our unpredictable client. “Lord Arnaf, I’ll ask you and your friends to return to your seating, please. I’ll also ask for the screen to be placed between my Joy Vessel and all of you.”
“The screen?” Lord Darfin scoffed. “What the fuck for?”
The lord and his friends were wearing only skirts themselves.
Those who still reclined in the cushions didn’t seem to care that their long side slits had opened, the material bunching up around their hips, exposing them almost up to their waists.
Neither of them had their mating clusters anyway, there was nothing to hide.
They wouldn’t understand my unease from being forced to undress in front of a bunch of strangers.
Lord Arnaf tensed. I couldn’t make out his expression, but I saw the change in his posture, his squared shoulders, and his slightly bent arms at his sides.
He clearly wasn’t used to receiving orders from others, and Timur’s polite request must have sounded like an order to him.
As any insecure man, fae or human, Lord Arnaf hated having his authority questioned.
“I say what happens around here and how it’s going to be,” he snapped, raising his chin haughtily.
“Right, Arnaf, the trader is way out of line,” Lord Kamir drawled lazily, pouring fire onto Lord Arnaf’s disdain.
I gripped Timur’s hand, no longer holding back my apprehension.
Lord Darfin hissed, yanking his tendril out of my leilatha.
“So much for her pleasure,” he complained. “This Joy Vessel is way too sensitive. They’re a bit more stable in the queen’s sarai.”
Lord Kamir got up from the cushion and retrieved his tendril too.
“I guess we’re done here then?” he asked with a whiny note of disappointment in his voice.
“Yes, we are.” Timur’s words slashed through the air like a whip.
“No, we’re not.” Lord Arnaf advanced onto me. “We didn’t come here all this way, carried the Olathana shell with us, and spent a fortune on bringing the water into the desert for her to just turn around and leave. You’re staying, Joy Vessel. And you’ll do what I tell you to do.”
“We’re leaving,” Timur said firmly, gently guiding me toward the exit.
Following a gesture from Lord Arnaf, the guards flanked Timur on both sides from behind. Their spears landed on his shoulders, their sharp tips crossing under his chin.
“Timur…” I gasped, fear lancing through my insides.
Lord Arnaf made no move to retrieve his tendril from the leilatha on my arm, despite my emotions now being far from enjoyable. Maybe he just forgot. Or maybe he derived some kind of sick satisfaction from my terror?
“Elaine, take two steps toward the shell, please,” Timur said in a strained, quiet voice.
Reluctantly, I retreated to the shell, stepping away from him.
He moved so fast, it looked like a blur.
Grabbing both spears, he yanked them out of the guards’ hands.
His tail lashed out from under his cloak, knocking the guards off their feet.
They sprawled on the floor on each side of his chair, and he propped the spears against their necks, just above their chain-link armor.
His hood fell off as he tossed his head back and roared, baring his teeth.
I choked on my scream at the sight of the beast unleashed. I knew Timur better than anyone here. I’d spent weeks living under the same roof with him. He was the only one I had relied on for both my safety and my survival. I’d seen him without his cloak before. I’d witnessed him roaring in pain.
But even I was struck by terror at the sight of his wrath.
With a loud hiccup, Lord Kamir plopped down on the floor, missing a cushion.
Lord Arnaf staggered backward, hit the edge of the giant shell-tub, and barely avoided falling into it.
“W-what the fuck are you?” he mumbled, with his mouth dropping open.
I forgot how to breathe, staring at Timur unblinking. I didn’t need perfect eyesight to feel the danger rolling from him in thick swells of barely contained fury.
“I’m someone you have to listen to very carefully tonight,” Timur growled in reply to the fine lord.
“My Joy Vessel does as she pleases. Neither I, nor you, nor any of your friends, can tell her what to do. If she chooses to stay and have a bath, she’ll do it on her own terms. But if she wants to leave, I’m getting her out of here this very minute.
The only choice you have in this matter is to either let us go in peace or risk your life by trying to stop us. ”
Lord Arnaf swallowed hard, looking like he’d either forgotten all his words or just couldn’t squeeze any through his throat.
“Do you understand?” Timur insisted. “You do as she says, not the other way around.”
Goosebumps rushed down my arms. No one had stood up for me like this before, so frank and uncompromising.
Propping his butt on the edge of the tub for balance, Lord Arnaf moved his perturbed look from Timur to me.
“What do you want to do, Sweet One?” he asked in a suddenly higher pitched voice.
I met Timur’s mismatched stare. He gripped the two spears with the sharp points of their Nerifir iron tips pressed to the guards’ necks.
It would take little effort on his part to pin the guards’ necks to the precious rugs on the floor, and they knew it.
Spread on their backs, they lay still, breathing heavily in sharp, shallow pants.
This powerful, incredible man-beast was on my side. I trusted him to defend my life, my freedom, and my dignity, and it lifted the weight of dread from my chest, making breathing a little easier.
“Well,” I said. “Do I have your word, Lord Arnaf, that our safety is guaranteed inside your tent? That there is no threat to me or my master from you, your friends, your guards, or your servants?”
I’d never called Timur my master before tonight, never thought about him that way either.
Since the day of the auction, our relationship had changed.
He stopped making me feel like his property very early on.
We became equal partners in our joint venture.
Now that he had acknowledged out loud that I was in charge, that my free will mattered, and that the choice was mine, I sensed the bond between us growing even stronger.