5. Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Annie
T he campus pub is far from my favorite place on Earth, but coming here gives me a chance to be around Carlton. He hasn’t even glanced my way these past few days, and I refuse to believe I had this insignificant of an impact on him.
He’s just not that into you, Mireille’s words echo in my head.
But if he willingly fucked me again the night of the ritual, if he kissed me while doing it, then there must have been something more there, right? He couldn’t have done it just to discard me the next day as if none of it mattered.
Well, apparently I was wrong, because when he walks into the pub he’s got company, and it’s not just the other Kings. Rosalind is hanging on his arm with a big white grin in place, her eyes sparkling as they rove around to make sure everybody sees she’s the “chosen one”.
A stab goes through my heart, but I can’t take my eyes off them. I won’t take my eyes off them. So what if I look stupid? Let him see I’m seething. Yes, I wanted him to take my virginity in the rough, brutal way he did, but just because it was him. I wanted Carlton , and he knows it. So why does he slap me in the face like this?
A hand rests on top of mine across the table.
“This too shall pass,” Justine says in an attempt to lighten my mood, her poetic caramel gaze offering comfort.
Eva, on the other hand, stares with knitted eyebrows at Carlton, her blue eyes sharp, her arms folded across her chest. I can see the wheels viciously turning inside that brilliant mind of hers.
“I mean, real men are overrated anyway, aren’t they?” Mel chimes in. “Book boyfriends rule. They just do it better.” The smile is forced on her noble porcelain face, but she’s not wrong. I always said that I preferred book boyfriends to real guys.
But this big bastard is still the man of my dreams .
I push my glasses up my nose. If I am to ogle him, I’m going to have to do it much less obviously than I have so far, just to save face. Because, clearly, he doesn’t want me. The rejection stings my face like a thousand slaps, and I bite into my lower lip. He’s fucking irresistible tonight. His black T-shirt clings to the rocky bulges of his muscles but tapers down to his waist, showcasing the combination of bulk and agility. Putting on full display how deadly he can be. Complete with cargo pants and combat boots, he’s a young war god on a night off—which he’s choosing to spend with the woman his Elders chose for him.
He’s the most conservative of the Kings.
Mireille was right. Everybody was. The girls warned me about him so many times, and I won’t have them put up with my wallowing now. Did I tell them about the ritual? Of course I did. And they listened without judging, also promising not to tell their men anything. Let Carlton spill the beans to his friends if he chooses to. The girls just gathered around me in the end, comforting me as Aunt Rita brought cookies, and maybe I’ll go back for more tomorrow. Nothing like Auntie’s baking to mend a broken heart, if that’s what I have.
Sade and Micah walk in after Carlton too, so we can’t talk about the elephant in the room anymore. Justine and Eva join them, and soon I’m left with Mel at the round booth under the dim light, watching the blonde beauty on Carlton’s arm reach out to air kiss my friends. The girls keep their smiles on, since it’s not like they can be openly hostile. They’re the closest thing to royalty now, so I guess that socializing with the heiresses that the Elders arranged for the other Kings comes with the territory.
I catch Carlton glancing at me a few times, probably to see if I’m watching like a heartbroken puppy.
“For what it’s worth, he seems to be very much aware of you,” Mel says, pretending to be looking anywhere but at Carlton so he doesn’t know she’s observing him. I doubt it’s working.
I push my glasses up my nose, looking away before it hurts too much. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. ”
“I don’t like that word,” Mel protests. “ Fault . By doing what he does during those rituals, Carlton is offering a service. You took it. Paid for it.”
I flinch.
“You all right?” she inquires, gently rubbing my back.
“I actually got away without paying.” I glance up at Carlton, and this time our gazes meet. I immediately look away. “Thanks to him.”
I didn’t tell the girls about the part where he broke those guys’ arms for me, right before he got me out of the church. I tell Mel now in a few general lines.
Her eyebrows shoot up to her hairline. “Wow! He assaulted other participants in order to get you out of there?”
I push back against the rush of emotion in my chest. “He did it when he recognized my voice. Ever since the mayhem at the Royales mansion he’s been feeling responsible for me. Maybe that’s the reason.” I fidget, pulling at the hem of my dress under the table. I get restless every time I remember the mayhem. Every day I marvel that I can still function .
“Annie, I don’t think you understand,” she says, grabbing my arm to make me look at her. “That wasn’t nothing. It isn’t how these things work, and the people behind those masks aren’t just anybody. They’re rich and influential, and they’ll come after what was promised to them. They can’t do much against a Heathen King, no one would be stupid enough to try, but there’s so much they can do to you .”
I smile in an attempt to calm her down because she’s staring at me like it says “target” on my forehead. “Don’t worry, they don’t know who I am. They never saw my face.”
Mel shakes her head as if I’m missing something. “Then how did Rainer know? You’re a wizard with a computer, Annie, and I know you’re perfectly capable of keeping yourself tucked away safely online, but you were at that church in person . You used a network to get there, you used contact people, and someone with enough power and grit will get the information out of them. There’s no way they’ll just let that debt go.”
Before I can decide whether she’s starting to scare me or not, a shadow dims the cozy light in our booth. Both Mel and I look up to see the guy who accosted me a few days ago at the cafeteria, Rainer, the same two guys flanking him as before. He’s looking down at me with that sleazy grin on, his hair bushy over a small, narrow forehead, the whiskers on the sides of his face making him resemble a wolf. Even though the sharp features of his face would do a hyena more justice.
“What do we have here,” he says by way of greeting, sinking his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans and pulling his shoulders back to make himself look broader. “If it isn’t the pretty little thing who does a fine job licking ice cream.” He jerks his head in Eva’s direction, who’s now perched on a barstool with Micah behind her, his leather-clad arms wrapped around her like the black wings of an angel. “Seems like your bodyguard is busy tonight. Finally letting you enjoy yourself for a change?”
Rainer Kovac is big, with beefy layers covering his muscles to make him look more buff than most guys here. I can see why he’s attractive to many girls on campus, but there’s something slimy about him that would put me off even if I weren’t hung up on Carlton. I don’t think he fosters much respect for women if the lecherous way he’s staring at me is any indication. By what he said to me at the cafeteria a few days ago, Mel might actually be right, too. He could have participated in the ritual.
Mel gives him a bug-off look, but it doesn’t seem to impress him or his chums. On the contrary.
The guys flanking Rainer pull two chairs from the other side of the table. The idea was to face what happens in the pub, but now the guys obscure much of the view.
“We didn’t invite you to sit with us,” Mel protests.
“Relax,” Rainer says, pulling a chair and plopping down on it too. “We’re not here for you, tobacco princess. Everybody knows your pussy is under lock and key.”
Mel stiffens by my side. She’s not a virgin, but, to keep unwanted advances at bay, she spread the word around campus that she was, and that she’s already been promised.
As for me, I never made an announcement in that regard, since I was only a scholarship student and not someone important like Mel, but everybody on campus assumed that I was. But Rainer clearly knows more.
“You almost fooled me, you know, with your pigtails and your glasses, your stupid pastel dresses and your little books. But you were just getting inspiration for real life, weren’t you?” He grins. “You like your fucking dirty, ritualistic even. Preferably involving desecrating an old church, and a masked beast fucking you on the altar.”
I glance over Rainer’s shoulder in Carlton’s direction. I catch him staring back at me, his coal eyes simmering, his jaw ticcing. He seems annoyed, the way he did before the ritual, whenever he caught me ogling him. I guess I’m pissing him off in the same way now, so I leave him the fuck alone. Rainer is my problem now.
I jut out my chin defyingly.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He laughs, his chums joining in. “You know what? I believe you. Most of you sluts are already fucked up when you show up for these rituals. Maybe you passed out by the time he finished.” Then, leaning over the table, “But don’t worry, you won’t be missing out. There’s video.”
The sweat on my back turns to ice. I remember watching myself get bent over, cuffs on my wrists, Carlton ramming his cock into me in front of the hooded figures. I couldn’t check the chat rooms to see if the footage got uploaded because Carlton banned me from them. Couldn’t hack in under another name either. He would have known.
Mel rests a reassuring hand on my thigh under the table.
“Thank you for the information,” she tells Rainer in her polite voice that would calm down even a raging lunatic. “But now we would appreciate it if you got up out of those seats. We’re expecting company.”
Rainer’s eyes cut over to her.
“I’d keep my head down if I were you, princess. We’re not the kind of animals you want to poke at.” His grin drips with a sleazy threat. “You wouldn’t want to end up like your girlfriend here—cummed up by multiple men.”
His knees touch mine under the table. I flex to pull back, but his feet trap mine between them while guys approach from all around the pub. I don’t know if they’re Rainer’s guys, but they come suspiciously close, making a lot of noise as if to shield what’s being discussed at this table from the rest of the pub. With more people trickling in by the minute, it’s grown pretty crowded, bodies blocking the Kings from sight. I can no longer see Carlton.
“Here’s the deal, Lolita,” Rainer says, lolling my nickname on his tongue. “You’re going with me to the men’s room in the back, to bend down over the sink and let me drive my cock deep into the cunt you promised all of us.” He motions generally around, and my eyes follow the movement. There were six guys in the church that night—besides Carlton. If Roy, Rainer and the other big guy Carlton beat up were three of them, anyone here could be the other three. There are over a dozen men surrounding us, the air growing thick with testosterone.
“Creep,” I bite through my teeth. But it only serves to amuse Rainer.
“Call me all the names you want while I fuck your cunt and then watch my boys take their turns.” He gets in my face over the table. “You’re gonna give your cunt to a few more than you originally bargained for. Consider it an interest for running away without paying last time.”
Outrage flashes through me, causing me to shoot up to my feet.
Rainer moves at the same time.
“Wait, let’s talk about this,” Mel calls, standing up too, but at a flick of Rainer’s hand, the guy next to her grabs her and pulls her back down to sit with him.
“Seems like the princess won’t stay out of it after all,” the guy almost slurs, draping an arm around her and grinning down at her face. She struggles against him, turning her face away as if from some disgusting smell that must be the alcohol on his breath. She demands that he let her go, but he only laughs at her attempts, not budging at all.
“Don’t worry, Ms. Sorbaine, you’re not going to get fucked tonight,” Rainer says. “Some powerful people say you’re off the table. But we might make you watch.”
Keeping his grin on, Rainer walks around the table. As much as I draw back toward Mel and the other guy, there’s no possibility of escape. I’m trapped, and when Rainer moves to grab me, I know he’ll make it hurt. His hand is almost on my arm when a deep voice stops him.
“Touch her, and I’ll rip your limbs off one by one.”
Rainer’s eyes grow even smaller. I stand frozen, holding my arms tight by my body. I see the group behind Rainer part to let Carlton through. He stops behind the wolfish man, looming large, his eyebrows dipped over his shimmering coal-like eyes in an expression of quiet hostility. Rainer turns around slowly, raising an eyebrow as if he can’t believe someone actually has the guts to intervene.
Seeing who it is, he takes a step back, but the hesitation lasts only a moment before his arrogant grin returns, his eyes darting from Carlton to me.
“Carlton Wilde, what an honor to have you meddling in my business.”
The sarcasm is obviously lost on Carlton.
“It seems you’re bothering the lady,” he states, cool and controlled.
Rainer laughs and spreads out his arms as if to lighten the mood .
“Come on, can’t a guy make a move on a girl around here anymore?” Then, with a hand on his chest, feigning innocence. “That’s really all I was doing, I swear. I like them small, pretty and feisty, and Annie here is spot-on my type. Or, shall I say, Lolita?”
“You’ll have to find someone else,” Carlton decrees. “This small, pretty and feisty girl is off limits.”
Rainer folds his arms, theatrically interested. “Really? And why?” Turning to me, “Do you have a boyfriend, sweetheart, is that it? Is it one of Carlton’s friends?” He waves a finger at me. “You naughty little thing. You’ve been playing me, haven’t you?” He shakes his head and clicks his tongue. “Not nice of you to string a guy along like this.”
“I didn’t string you along in any way, asshole,” I cry out, my body shaking. The bastard is trying to make it look like I had it coming, or like I somehow invited his fucking attention.
“Now, we both know that’s not true.” His grin stretches with subliminal meaning.
“Leave her alone,” Carlton orders.
“You know, I have great respect for you, Carlton, my brother being a King too and all,” Rainer says like he’s losing his patience. “But right now, I must say—” his little eyes twinkle with mean intent, “—get the fuck out of my business. This doesn’t concern you.”
Carlton steps into him, and everybody around us draws back. As for Rainer, he’s trapped between Carlton in front of him, me behind, the half-moon booth seat to one side and the round table to the other, so all he can do is hold his ground and push his chin up. One more step from Carlton, and he plops down on his ass. His friends retreat more, leaving him completely at the mountain man’s mercy.
“Listen to me, and listen carefully, because I’m only going to say this once,” Carlton rumbles, his bulk towering over Rainer. “Annie Jones is off limits for you and all other fuckers who might think they have a chace. Try to lay your filthy hands on her, and I’ll cut them right the fuck off.”
“You can’t do this,” Rainer protests, glaring up at him, his chin trembling with frustration. “You can’t threaten me. My brother is a fucking Heathen King!” He snarls the last word, throwing his body forward, but Carlton doesn’t budge an inch.
The pub has turned awfully quiet .
Slowly, Rainer’s eyes widen, as if he just realized something.
“Wait a minute. It was you, wasn’t it? The masked man. The Master of Ceremonies. You’re the one who fucked her during the ritual.” He raises a finger at me like more is just dawning on him. “Wait, did she ask for you specifically? You were the prize she was willing to whore herself for?”
He laughs, but he chokes on it a second later, when Carlton’s hand dashes down and grabs his throat. His eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, his tongue sticking out as he gurgles.
“You should know better than to make public issues of delicate things,” Carlton drawls. He pulls Rainer up to his feet, the latter gripping Carlton’s wrist with both hands, struggling and failing to free himself.
“This is amazing,” Mel whispers in my ear. The drunk guy holding her captive backed off too, realizing that shit was about to hit the fan and not wanting to become the mountain man’s next target.
Rainer keeps trying to get Carlton off of him, all in a spectacular show that has everyone around gawking. Carlton has him in a chokehold, his feet dangling off the ground.
“Put my brother down, Wilde,” a male voice demands. My head whips around to see a man standing behind us. The first thing I notice about him is that he’s tall, with sharp features, and that he’s glaring at Carlton with murderous resolve. Next thing I know, he’s got a knife at my throat.
I inhale sharply. The whole world comes to a stop. A shadow falls over Carlton’s face, his features tightening into a deadly look.
“I’d love nothing more than to do just that, Aragon. Put down your dog brother.”
Aragon’s blade pushes into my skin, but I don’t think he broke it. I wouldn’t know though. I’m too shocked to feel any pain, and too frozen to do anything but stare at Carlton with bulging eyes.
“I suppose I could do the same with your bitch.”
This isn’t the first time my life has been in danger, but I guess you never get used to this shit. I can’t get my mind to spew out a single thought that makes sense, but I do recognize the look in Carlton’s eyes. Calculation. Precise, ice-cold computation, but something more is boiling beneath it. Something he’s making a serious effort to keep a lid on.
“You’re a step away from starting a war, Kovac,” he warns darkly.
The guy’s arm locks around my waist, and he yanks me against his body, knife at my throat. Mel’s hands flash to her mouth in panic.
“I could say the same,” he says, his mouth close to my ear. “Let. My. Brother. Go.”
Carlton doesn’t hesitate. His grip loosens, and Rainer’s feet hit the ground. Rainer bends forward, gripping his own throat and coughing like he’s about to spit his lungs out. Carlton takes a step back, but a dashing smile spreads over his face, carrying some sort of promise. For the first time, I see how that million dollar smile can feel like a curse for whoever he aims it at. How it can turn from an instrument of seduction into one of intimidation.
He doesn’t prompt Aragon to let me go. He just stares at him with that chilling smile on, as if daring him to do anything else. Everything in his stance shows that he’s ready to go ballistic any second .
“Good boy,” Aragon says, slowly lowering his blade.
I start to breathe again, but I can barely get enough oxygen to my head. Aragon shoves me forward, causing me to stumble over the table. I’d end up bent over if Carlton didn’t kick it out of the way, his arms catching me in the air.
Grabbing on to his arm like a rock in the storm, I look back to see the grin curling up the corners of Aragon’s mouth. He looks very much like his brother, with the same wolfish-hyena vibe, but he’s taller, his build leaner and wirier. I recognize all the deadliness of a Heathen King in his stance. I think he believes himself to be every bit Carlton’s equal.
“It was about time someone put you in your place, Wilde,” he says as his brother staggers his way to his side. “You’re not above any of us. Threaten my family again, and there will be consequences.”
“I have no beef with your family, just your brother,” Carlton retorts.
Aragon points at me with his knife. Carlton steps in the way, shielding me with his arm .
“She owes my brother something,”Aragon hisses. “He’s entitled to payment, and you don’t get to erase the bitch’s debt.”
“I’m taking her debt on me,” Carlton says through his teeth. “So name your price. But call her a bitch one more time, and I’ll fucking end you.”
Aragon lets out a low but nasty laugh. “If you can.”
“Keep in mind,” Carlton adds calmly, “that a war breaking out would be on you in that case. I told you specifically how to avoid it. Call her a bitch again, and you’ll be the one answering in front of the Elders instead of me.”
Aragon’s frown deepens, his eyes moving to me.
“Quite the bodyguard you got yourself there, Lolita. But don’t get too comfortable. There are more men coming to collect, and they’re all nasty fuckers.” Then, to Carlton, “Good luck keeping her safe, pretty boy. And keep pumping up those muscles. You’re going to need them.”
Aragon turns around, grabbing his brother’s shirt and dragging him along. The crowd makes way to let them pass .
Only then do I realize how tightly I’ve been holding on to Carlton’s arm. My hands slide off of him, my awareness extending to the rest of the pub, and to our gawking spectators.
Fuck.
Now everyone here knows I slept with Carlton Wilde. It won’t be long until the entire campus will be raving about it.
“Thank you,” I manage, my voice shaking.
I glance around, trying to assess the consequences of tonight’s revelations. Justine is fidgeting while Eva keeps perfectly still, the Kings behind them watching with icy calm. I know they would have stepped in for Carlton if push came to shove. They may not always agree with each other, but they back each other up under all and any circumstances. The loyalty between them is a holy bond forged in hell.
The way Carlton stares at me, it’s like he’s stripping me naked, not just to my skin, but down to the very secrets that brought us into this situation.
“You keep a low profile from now on,” he commands. “Don’t draw this kind of attention again, not until I have this fucking mess sorted out. ”
“I didn’t call this upon myself, if that’s what you’re saying,” I bite back.
“It’s not what I’m saying.”
“It’s obviously what you’re implying.”
He steps into me, but I don’t back off even if everybody else creates a void around us.
“You put yourself in harm’s way when you slid into those group chats,” he hisses.
I tilt my head back to look up at him, narrowing my eyes. “You know why I did it and what I was after.” Then, quieter, “I was only interested in your attention, and that was the only way to get it. Besides, who are you to judge?”
He grabs my arm and yanks me closer, ignoring the murmurs all around us.
“I’m the one who’s going to pay the price. That entitles me to certain things, Lolita.”
“Oh, yeah? What things exactly?” I push, holding his gaze. He raises that perfectly strong jaw with that sexy cleft.
“Answers,” he says. “To always know where you are and with whom. To decide who you get to see and when. ”
I yank myself from his hold, closing my arms across my chest. “Well, aren’t you the most entitled bastard that ever lived?”
“Indeed,” he replies coolly. And when Rosalind steps into the picture, venom coats the tip of my tongue. I probably shouldn’t make any more poisonous remarks since he did take a crazy amount of heat when he stood up for me, but let’s face it, it’s not like this is hurting his reputation in any way.
Everybody knows he’s screwing around and that he likes his fucks dirty, kinky, and often humiliating for the women involved. Rosalind must be fully aware, too. These things are common knowledge around campus and, even though she doesn’t go to Norton King’s—none of the heiresses who are set to marry Heathen Kings do—there’s no way her future husband’s reputation hasn’t reached her. Lifting her aristocratic eyebrows, she looks down at me like I’m something to be squashed.
“No more coming to the pub for a while,” Carlton orders, doing nothing to keep Rosalind from looping both of her arms around one of his in a full show of possession. “No parties or visiting friends. It’ll take some time to live this down.”
He gives me one last once-over before he turns around and heads toward the pub exit with his fiancée on his arm. Rosalind keeps looking disdainfully over her shoulder as she walks along with him, flipping her hair like a whip just before they exit.
I drop down into the cushioned seat, burying my heated face in my palms. Mel sits down next to me, her arms enveloping my body and her perfect chestnut hair falls like a curtain to obscure me from all the judgmental eyes around.
“Jesus Christ, that was a close one,” she breathes, shuddering next to me.
I don’t even want to think about what could have happened if Carlton hadn’t stepped in.
Justine and Eva are with us within seconds. I can feel their hands rubbing my back, but they’re not saying a word. Eva’s tongue is probably itching with an “I told you so”, but she’s too kind to actually let it out. As for Justine, she probably understands me better than any other creature on Earth. She desired Sade as much as I wanted Carlton, only she never dreamed she could actually have him before he made a move. Inspired by their love story, I got my hopes up with Carlton, and when things didn’t turn out my way, I took matters into my own hands and forced contact.
I snort against my palms. What I did was actually kind of rapey, and my mistakes didn’t stop there. I read too much into him fucking me again at the sorority house while I was passed out. I was a mess, naked and covered in cum. Sure it turned him on, so he unloaded his dick inside me again. I’d practically begged him to do it at church after all, I’d risked getting fucked by half a dozen other guys for it, so he knew he had my consent. I found the foil of emergency pills on my nightstand, one of them already missing, so I figured he put it under my tongue before he left, probably thinking I might do something even crazier to keep him.
“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Eva whispers, she and Mel trying to help me get up. I raise my head and pull back my shoulders.
“I’m perfectly capable of doing this myself.”
I stand, arranging the hem of my blouse and pulling my shoulders so far back that they hurt, my chin held high enough for it to look almost comical. No one dares tell me anything, but hell knows they all think the worst of me. From the corner of my eye I see a few guys ogle me like predators, but it’s enough for Sade to step in for them to scatter like ants from an incoming boot.
Sade and Micah escort us out like bodyguards, neither of them saying a word until we get to the curb.
“One of us is staying with you at the sorority house,” Eva declares. “We’re drawing straws when we get there.”
I roll my eyes. “There’s really no need for that, Evita. I’m tired. These past few days have been a fucking rollercoaster.”
“I’m sure they have, but you can’t be alone right now.”
Sade and Micah tighten the ranks behind Eva.
“You’re getting guards, too,” Micah decrees. “Aragon Kovac is no fucking joke, and he’ll stalk you until he finds a vulnerable moment to attack.”
I get into the car without another word, because it’s not like I can argue with Micah Royales. Besides, I think both he and Sade are enjoying Carlton’s predicament, since he was so damn vocal when the two brothers broke the Heathen Kings’ rules, and now they want a front-row seat for his downfall, if that’s what it is. But I’m done fooling myself. What he did for me tonight came only from a sense of responsibility that he developed toward me after the mayhem. I’m like a sheep he saved from slaughter, and I’m done reading more into his actions. I’m done hoping. And I’m sure as fuck done being stupid.
***
Carlton
“You slept with her?” Rosalind shrieks, knocking over a vase in my study.
“That was Chinese Imperial from the eighteenth century,” I say coldly as I pour myself a glass of brandy. “And I have slept with many women, but I don’t get the drama. It’s not like you didn’t know.”
“You humiliated me in front of the entire fucking campus.” She slams her finger into her chest to emphasize how much this is about her, her face crimson with frustration.
“The pub can’t hold the entire campus.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter! By tomorrow, everyone will know.”
I sit down into my leather chair and arch an eyebrow. “I thought we agreed that I already have a reputation for fucking dirty. Everyone already knew I was screwing other women.”
“But not that you’re also defending the honor of those bitches.”
“Annie Jones isn’t a bitch.” My voice remains calm, but that’s never a good omen, and she knows it.
“See?” she shrieks, gesturing hysterically. “Even now. You’re defending her.” She lunges forward, gripping the back of the chair in front of my desk with her long, perfectly manicured fingers. “Well, she is a bitch, and I’m gonna keep saying it, because it’s the fucking truth.” She bends forward over the chair, her chest exposed from the deep plunging V of her dress. Rosalind has the perfect lean model build. She’s perfect in both pictures and on paper, and she’s totally not my type. It’s as if the Elders handpicked her to go against all my preferences.
Not that I expected genius-girl Annie Jones to do it for me, but there I was when she started flaunting that bubbly ass around the cafeteria, clenching my jaw to refrain from bending her over.
“Or what else do you call a woman who offers herself to a bunch of men in exchange for getting to fuck one of them?”
I open my mouth to tell her, but she’s not done talking.
“Oh, I know.” She shoves the chair aside, her hands slamming down on the mahogany desk, her fingers bloodless and looking like claws. “Desperate! That’s what you call her!”
“I agree.”
She starts scratching her neck like she’s getting the hives.
“At least we agree on something,” she seethes.
I stand up and walk around the desk, setting the glass of brandy down.
“I remember us agreeing on one other thing, Rosalind—that our relationship was a pure formality. A scam, to speak plainly. Which is why I find your reaction now rather—” I look around as if searching for the word, “—disconcerting. You said you didn’t expect love from our relationship. I remember specifically telling you that you didn’t have to be intimate with me. I don’t mind remaining childless.”
She drops her hand, forcing herself to stop scratching.
“Carlton,” she attempts sweetly, her lips trembling as they pull into a fake smile. Any other guy might kill to have her but, no matter how hard she tries, my cock doesn’t even twitch. I’d have to think of Annie to be able to fuck her, so I better set the record straight now and make sure I never have to.
“You can’t remain childless.” Her eyes travel down my body like she’s ready to drop to her knees right now and do what it takes to secure this alliance. “You’re your parents’ only child. You have to continue your bloodline—”
“I have no interest in perpetuating their bloodline,” I cut her off. Anger starts a slow boil in the pit of my stomach as her eyes lick me all over .
“You can’t possibly let these fantastic genes go to waste.”
“You know damn well why they should die with me,” I growl under my breath.
Her voice softens to that perfectly studied tone that makes stupid bastards weak at the knees. “The men in your family did what had to be done in order to maintain the Heathen Kings on top of the world. I don’t know anyone with a stronger sense of responsibility than you. Surely, you must see—”
My upper lip curls over my teeth, causing her to snap her mouth shut. When I speak, my words sound like poison. “Don’t pretend to understand what I am, Rosalind, or what the Kings are, because you don’t. No one does, not really, except us. The other Kings agree that my genes should die with me, even if they don’t say it.” At least not often, and not to my face.
“They’re being jealous.”
“They’re being rational. I’m an asset to them now, but also a great risk for the future. My father should never have had children, and he knew it. The Elders insisted that he did, and look what came out of it.” I motion to myself. Rosalind has never seen the tattoos underneath my clothes, but she must have heard what a monstrosity I am. Her family must have debriefed her.
She doesn’t seem to care about it though, because all she does is bite into her lower lip. Who cares about the rot inside as long as the outside is hot and shiny?
“I don’t mind that you’re a monster.”
Disgust crawls up my throat. She steps closer into my space, slowly raising her hand.
“Touch me, and it will be the last thing you do with dignity,” I grumble.
Her smile deepens. If you look closely, she’s not even that attractive. Her smile is too toothy, her teeth too white.
“You wouldn’t hurt me. You never hurt women, even your biggest enemies know that.”
“Not physically, I don’t.” I grab her raised wrist and yank her to me. I get out of the way before she can knock into my body, causing her to stumble against my desk. I twist her arm behind her back without causing harm, but enough to bend her over. Keeping her down with one hand, I reach over the desk and into the first drawer, removing the remote control and turning on the big screen above the shelves behind my desk. It lights up to show her bent over with me behind, as filmed by the cameras set in each corner of the room.
“But I have no problem tearing your reputation to pieces. I could get a friend in here and spit roast you. I’d let him shove his dick down your throat while I take your ass. I wouldn’t even touch your cunt because that’s for women I give a shit about.”
“Like Annie Jones, am I right?” she spits hatefully through her teeth, staring at me from the screen. “Tell me the truth, Carlton,” she demands, struggling in anger. “Did you give her your cock? Did you come inside her cunt?”
I grin, letting her glimpse on screen the monster she respects so much.
“I will become your husband, Rosalind, because that’s what our families and the Elders decided. You’ll have the status, the connections, the opportunities, the money. You’ll also have the freedom to fuck whoever you want, when you want it—as long as you keep it quiet.” My voice turns darker, my grip on her wrist harder, just to make a point. “But try to get into my bed, even once, and I’ll make your life a living hell.”
I jerk her back to her feet, causing her to brace her hands on the desk for balance. She whips around a moment later.
“Why?” she demands, rubbing her wrist and staring at me with unabashed hatred. “Why refuse to fuck me? It’s not like I’m entirely disgusting, am I?” She pushes out her chin to expose the beauty that everybody praises her for.
I’m tempted to go for the low hanging fruit and serve her ego the blow it deserves, but I keep my jaw tight.
“I don’t like to mix business with pleasure,” is all I say instead, and round the desk to sit back down.
“You could at least make your disinterest less hurtful.” She flips her hair over her shoulder, spinning on her heel to face me. “I understand that you don’t like it, but I am your future wife. You could at least try.”
“It’s not my intention to hurt you. Just to make things clear between us. ”
She forces a slow smile again, still inviting. She’s stubborn, and not in a good way, like Annie. “You could find other ways to convey these things. You could say it’s not me, it’s you. Or you could invoke, for example, your preference for girly-looking women.”
“Annie Jones isn’t girly.”
She grins, but her eyes radiate poison. “So you are into her.” She starts to lower herself into one of the chairs across from me.
“Don’t,” I warn. She freezes mid-motion, then slowly rises back up. She pulls her shoulders back.
“Okay,” she declares. “Say I agree with your conditions, and I won’t give you a hard time about it. Even though the Elders do think it’s a good idea for you to have children and continue the bloodline. After all, you are superior to normal men, and they would hate to see your genes go to waste.”
My mouth turns sour, my jaw ticcing. I can understand Annie being attracted to my polished exterior because she doesn’t know my past, but Rosalind has some idea. Still, she doesn’t give a fuck about the maimed soul inside this body .
“But allowing you not to have children also means giving up my right to my own.” She paces slowly, her hand trailing the back of the chairs across my desk. “So you’ll have to give me something in return.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her she can have all the kids she wants with the guys she fucks. I don’t care whose children grow up in my house. I won’t be here much anyway, and if they don’t show special abilities and naturally brutal, violent or psychotic inclinations, the Elders won’t demand their initiation. They’ll be safe. But only until someone discovers they’re not mine. It could cost them their lives, and I’m sure as fuck not going to get children killed.
“Name it,” I say.
That large, toothy grin appears again, as if she’s ready to deal me the last blow.
“You won’t touch Annie Jones again. You can have all the women you want. I’ll even watch you fuck them, if you want. Anyone but her.”
I stare at her with a blank face.
It shouldn’t be hard to concede, since I already decided I won’t touch Annie again. I already had her, I consumed her, and I always lose interest after that’s done. Yet the words don’t come out. My hands tighten on the arms of my chair, the leather squeaking under my grip.
I reach over for my discarded glass of brandy and throw it back, the alcohol burning its way down my throat, but the words don’t come out any easier.
“I have no interest in Annie Jones,” I say instead. “She was just a casual fuck.”
“A casual fuck that’s not going to repeat itself,” Rosalind presses.
My cock twitches at the memory of Annie’s sweet virgin pussy wrapped around it. I remember my tongue plunged deep into her mouth while I fucked the living daylights out of her, the headboard knocking against the wall. The joy spreading through my muscles knowing I was making her mine, and that everyone in that house knew it. The way her cunt milked me and gushed with cum, the way my big, veined, tattooed cock pushed through her soaked walls, the way she sighed and cried my name, dreaming of me while I pinned her wrists to the bed. I’d been desired before, but not quite like that. And I’d never enjoyed the feel of a woman’s skin like that, being inside her body, possessing her. Subduing her.
“I have no intention of fucking her again.” That part is true.
So she was special. It would be stupid of me to pretend otherwise. I fucked her twice—once at church and then again in her bedroom—and I never wanted more than two fucks from a woman.
But I want more from this one.
Fuck.
“That’s still not a promise,” Rosalind insists.
“Why do you need a promise?” I counter.
“You still ask?” Her skin is reddening again. I think the hives are returning. “You defended her in front of the entire pub today! Do you remember the scene you made when Sade Royales did the same thing for that janitor’s daughter, Justine? You almost punched his face off.”
“That was different.” My voice is low but my tone is biting.
“Yes, it was different—Royales didn’t beat anyone up that day. You, on the other hand, almost choked that guy to death tonight, and you rrreallly wanted to do the same with his brother. So, do you see why I’m worried here?”
“No.” Gripping the arms of my chair, I get up and start toward the door. “Annie Jones’ identity had been revealed. I would have done the same for any other woman I fucked in that situation. It doesn’t mean that she’s in any way special.”
Turning the knob, I pull the door open for Rosalind to get her annoying ass out. “Our arrangement stands,” I offer, looking perfectly ready to kick her out. With a deep breath, she grabs her purse and stomps over.
“It stands.” She holds a finger in my face when she reaches me. “But I get to fuck whoever I want. Even if it’s so taboo, it would give the Elders the fucking hives if they ever found out.”
“Everything goes, as long as you keep it low-key. Anyone but you, me, and the guys you fuck find out about it, and there’s going to be a mean-ass divorce.”
She purses her lips and nods, even though it’s clear she doesn’t like it.
It’s not that she intends to fuck other guys just to spite me—she really, really likes dick, and she enjoys variety, too, even if she’s supposed to be a virgin—but her ego took a serious beating. Part of me feels sorry for her. The world is much more lenient toward a guy who lines up cunts to fuck them, but much less so toward a woman who enjoys multiple dicks, no matter how powerful or rich the woman or her family. This society is even more of a prison for women than for men.
“And no more special treatment for the scholarship girl,” she demands just before she steps over the threshold. I nod, waiting for her to flip her hair over her shoulder and head down the hallway toward the palatial living area where the butler is waiting to give her back her coat and accompany her out.
“No more special treatment for the scholarship girl,” I repeat to myself as I close the door and head toward the shelves behind my desk. I pull one of the books like a lever, and the shelves begin to slide apart, revealing the rows of weapons behind them, different blades glinting sharply in the light. “Right after this one last time.”