Chapter 17
Ensure the Bloodline
Rhys made sure my bath was anything but relaxing by dropping that bomb on me and then leaving. I lay motionless for a bit and wonder what else I could possibly still need to do to ensure the continuation of the bloody bloodline.
But not wanting to be caught unaware or unprepared, I scrub my body and wash my hair.
The water is still warm when I climb out which is how I know I didn’t spend nearly enough time in there.
I towel off and then scrub my face free of all makeup.
I do make the executive decision to pat my toner and facial oil on my face although I do make a face at the oil container on my bathroom sink.
It’s too soon, but I’ll get over the humiliation in about eighty years.
I dry my hair, so it falls down my back in dark glossy waves and then walk into the bedroom to see what dress Rhys has picked out for this next trial and stop dead in my tracks.
On the bed is a cream-colored silk night gown, simple in its design with spaghetti straps and a long hem that will reach my ankles.
Next to it is a matching robe with lace trim on the cuffs.
Nothing else.
No panties. No shoes.
My heart races as I drop my towel to the floor. The cool air in the room sends goosebumps all over my skin. My hands shake as I reach for the nightgown and as I pull it over my head the luxurious silk slides down over my skin.
One look in the long mirror has me more worried than before.
This nightgown might seem modest and demure, but it hides absolutely nothing.
Not the flare of my hips or the way my nipples pebble against the thin fabric.
I quickly turn around and grab the robe, tying it tightly around my waist, and again, the rich fabric does nothing to conceal.
I turn back to the mirror and can’t help but laugh a little at the fact that I look more like a virginal bride on her wedding night tonight, of all nights, than I did on my actual wedding night when I was in a hospital ward somewhere else within these walls recovering from an attempt on my life.
I hear the door latch click and footsteps fall closer and closer and my heart beats like a hummingbird’s wings. I wonder if I’ll pass out because it’s beating so fast. Can I die from this nervousness? And when will I stop being so afraid of the unknown?
I watch as Rhys approaches, stopping just behind me in the large gilt mirror. His face is intentionally blank as he watches me. He’s trying to gauge me and my reaction as much as I’m trying to glean any information from him on what I might be walking into.
Whatever he sees in me must pass muster because he wraps his arms around me from behind and presses his face into the crook of my neck, placing a soft kiss there. I wish we could stay like this forever, but even I know that’s impossible.
When he straightens, I know that I’m not out of the woods yet, there are still more tests to endure. I have to believe that Rhys will do his best to make it worth it for me to continue to jump through these hoops to be with him. That is if we both survive it.
“I wish we didn’t have to go,” he says before turning me in his arms to face him. “You’re so beautiful like this that I want you all to myself.”
“I’d like that too,” I admit. “But I’m a little nervous that you’re not telling me what’s going on.”
“I’m going to need you to trust me,” he says.
“It’s when you say stuff like that with no context that I worry,” I reply.
“I know,” he says. “We have one more task to prove that we’re ensuring the future of the monarchy—”
“Honestly, if I hear ‘ensure the bloodline’ one more time, I might scream.”
“I know but that’s part of this life,” he says. “We have to do this one last thing in front of witnesses—”
“You’re going to fuck me in front of an audience again.”
“Aye,” he answers after a moment of watching me, gauging my reaction. “I’ll make it good for you, you know I will.”
“Does it matter?”
“Aye,” he says with so much feeling. “It does to me. There are things in this life I canno’ protect you from but I will do my best to guide you through it.”
I pull in a deep breath and try to calm myself down. Fighting with him is not the answer right now. I need him to get me through whatever comes next. “Okay.”
“Okay?” he asks and I nod. “I have to ask you… I’d like to blindfold you tonight.”
“What? Why?”
“There are things we haven’t had time to dabble in yet,” he says hesitantly.
“Now is not the time to be vague,” I snap. “Just be honest and straightforward. We don’t have time for anything else.”
“All right,” he says, pulling in a deep breath before he levels me. “Kink. I haven’t had an opportunity to introduce you to elements that I think I can make good for you, that you will enjoy in a different environment, but tonight is not that night.”
“You’re going to throw me into the deep end of the pool.”
“Aye.”
“How?” I ask.
“You really want to know?” he asks.
I can tell by the way that he’s looking at me that he cares about my answer, that he cares about me.
“Yes.”
His eyes flare and he turns me back to face the mirror, pressing his hard body against mine. I can feel the thick length of him against the small of my back, and even if the situation is not ideal, the fact that it’s with me turns him on, making my heart beat faster and my body warm.
“I’m going to blind fold you so that you canno’ see me or anyone else who might be in the room. When I’m done with you, you won’t even know anyone else exists but me.”
He slides his hands from my shoulders down my arms and slowly circles each of my wrists in his strong hands.
“I’m going to bind your hands so you can’t touch, you canno’ control what happens, and you’re at my mercy,” he says as he collects both wrists in one hand and drags them up my body and over my head.
“I’m going to touch and kiss and suck every part of your body that I want to, every bit that sets you aflame,” he says as he lets his other hand caress me over my robe and nightgown, plucking at the tip of one of my breasts, making me gasp as moisture pools between my thighs.
“Rhys,” I pant.
“And then I’m going to fuck you until you come,” he says.
Cupping my pussy with his palm, I know he can feel how hot he’s made me just with this little display.
“And then I’m going to fill you up with so much of my cum that there’s no doubt you’ll carry my heir.
And when all of this is said and done I’ll fuck you every day as your belly swells with my babe. ”
“Rhys—”
“Every. Fucking. Day,” he growls. “Feel how hard you make me?”
“Yes.”
“This is just for you. Only you. Will you trust me tonight to take care of you?”
“Yes.”
“To make it good for you?”
“Yes,” I gasp as his fingertip grazes over my clit for a split second. It’s there and it’s gone and I want more. “I want that.”
“Aye and do you trust me to protect you and guide you through this next test?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” he says, turning me to face him again, and he spears his hand in my hair while the other palms my ass. He crushes his mouth to mine in a drugging kiss. “You’re ready.”
Wait… What? Am I?
He drops his arms from around me and takes my hand in his, leading me from the bedroom, through the sitting room, and out of the safety of our suite.
He guides me down the corridor opposite of the way that we usually travel.
It reminds me of the secret path I stumbled upon when I first got here and saw Saoirse blowing Taylor.
From that angle I had thought that my boyfriend was having an affair with his very young stepmother only to find out it was his brother.
Rhys knocks on a door, and it’s opened for him by none other than his brother.
As we step into the room, I notice that it’s filled with a handful of people and my breath catches in my lungs.
Taylor, Saoirse, her father, my uncle, Craig, and Leo are all here to watch my husband breed me like a cow. Awesome.
The room holds a large four poster bed with red satin sheets and nothing else. The occupants just mill around with crystal glasses in their hands filled with varying forms of liquor. It’s like rich men waiting to watch a UFC fight only, it’s a sex act instead.
“Let us begin,” my uncle says, my skin crawling at the way the earl is looking at me.
Rhys pulls a silk tie from his back pocket and turns me around to face away from him.
“Close your eyes, hen,” he instructs me as he places the tie over my eyes and fastens it at the back of my head, He turns me back around and caresses my cheek, his knuckles skating along my skin.
It’s odd the way everything else became heightened when he removed my sight from the sensory equation.
I feel a gentle tug toward him as he unties the belt at my waist and then the pads of his fingertips as he slides them under the neck of my robe and parts the fabric, letting it float to the floor.
One at a time, he slides a slim strap of silk down my shoulder and then the next, letting my nightgown follow my robe to the floor.
Cool air grazes my heated skin, pebbling my nipples, and I gasp when I feel the back of Rhys’s hand skate over one tightened peek.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers for me and only me.
And then he scoops me up like a bride and carries me over to what I assume is the bed with the slide of soft, silky sheets below me.
He circles one wrist with his hand guiding it close.
He presses his lips to the pulse point on the inside of my wrist before drawing it further up, over my head and looping a soft cord around it.
I test my range of motion and find there is none.
I feel his touch again at the other side of the bed, lifting my hand, kissing my palm this time, before binding me with the silky cord. I roll my shoulders and get comfortable for whatever is to come.