24. Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Caelan
E ave was not used to riding. When evening fell and I lifted her from Ufuk’s back, her legs shook and her jaw was clenched.
“Is your wound hurting you?”
“No. I’m fine.” She tried to straighten but her legs stayed bowed. She shook them out, wincing.
I laughed. “You’re not used to riding.”
“Tanead told you. Losians don’t ride.”
“You’re not Losian." She should stretch later, I thought. Perhaps naked. The prospect of a night in my tent together loomed.
I rushed through our evening meal, eager to pull her away from Amon’s gaze, which tracked her as if she were the loudest drunkard in camp. His smirk followed us as we retreated to my tent, practically daring me to take her just to prove him wrong. A part of me wanted to, though not just for Amon’s sake. Eave awakened the beast in me, stoking my sadistic urges like dry wood thrown on a fire in the cold night.
With Baris guarding the tent’s entrance, I allowed Eave to stroll freely, stretching her stiff legs while I poured myself a steadying glass of red.
I found myself wishing for some of Broker's advice to guide me. The words he'd said to me in Los— Haven’t you realized yet that if you want your father to get the message, you have to speak to him in a language he understands?— had hardly left my thoughts since I claimed Eave as my companion.
All the ways owning her was a bad idea were obvious. But I was beginning to think it might be a good idea, too…if I could properly navigate the challenges. There was nothing my father understood better than the language of power and domination. A traitorous enemy priestess on the end of my leash might be just what I needed. So long as I didn’t fall into her trap.
I turned and my eyes seemed to stop Eave in her tracks, rooting her feet to the floor for my inspection.
"I have ordered Baris to protect you with his life unless you show yourself to be a threat to any member of my family or the empire of Vaharilar. In which case, he will kill you. If you try to disobey me, he will stop you and tell me. If you find yourself guarded by another man, be assured he will have instructions to kill you if you even attempt to circumvent my instructions."
"It's treason to kill a companion,” Eave said in a flirty, light voice. She resumed her pacing. “None of them would dare touch me. Like you said, the only person I have to be afraid of is you."
"Trust me, Eave. Any man I task with guarding you will obey my orders. Think of them as extensions of me."
“And Amon?”
I took a large gulp of wine to mask the flare-up of my temper. I didn’t like even hearing his name on her lips. "That’s Prince Amon to you.”
"It would be treason for him to touch me now," she said. Her tone suggested she understood exactly why the word ‘companion’ had slipped out of my mouth in that Borderlands village.
"My family's history is littered with convenient accidents. It's only the stupid ones who get caught breaking the code."
"You should kill him, then. It's clear you'd like to."
Was it? That wasn't good to hear.
"I'm too stupid to get away with it," I joked, except it wasn't really a joke. Scheming was never my forte. Hiding my murder of Junaid felt impossible enough and that had taken place on foreign soil with no witnesses.
"So, obey you. That's what you're saying. Understood." Eave executed a sloppy curtsy. I suspected her gracelessness was just a part of some joke.
I leveled a glare at her that would make most young soldiers piss themselves. "You will want to take my instructions seriously."
Eave stilled and her gaze darkened, eyes raking my body up and down. "You haven't given me any instructions yet."
My blood heated for an entirely different reason. So much power. So many possibilities. But I wasn't ready yet to test the limits of my self-control.
I held out a goblet of wine. "Drink with me."
Eave's face fell. " That's what you want?"
“Are you disappointed?” I mocked.
“Confused. Have I misunderstood what a companion is?”
I swallowed back another gulp of red. I was taut as a bowstring, overflowing with longing to throw her on the bed and show her exactly what a companion was. “I have no idea what your understanding is.”
“I belong to you. My body. For you to use however you wish.” Was she trying to make her voice so sensual, husky with desire, or was that just its natural timbre? It drove me fucking crazy.
“That’s right.”
“Yet now that you’ve claimed me, you’ve no wish to have me.”
My cock assured me that was definitely not it. But if I let go of the tight hold I’d always kept on my impulses and desires, I might hurt her beyond her limits. Truthfully, I didn’t know what I’d do. I’d never let go before. I refused to be like my brother.
“Your brother will assume you had me whether you do or not,” she said.
“Do not speak of Amon again tonight," I snapped.
Eave pressed her lips pressed tightly together, her hands balled into fists.
I laughed dryly. “For a woman who has always been a slave, you’re quite bad at it.”
“Thank you.”
I snorted. “Take your drink."
She sauntered over.
Too late, I regretted bringing her close. She smelt like the stables, of dry hay and oiled hair and earthy soil. And her eyes…those unsettling eyes pierced me. The hatred she carried within her was not on the surface of them right now. Curiosity—more dangerous than hatred—had replaced it. If I answered her questions and let her know me, she would use the answers to hurt my family.
“You lie well, Eave, but your eyes do not. It will be dangerous for you at court.”
“I’ll work on that,” she said carefully.
“Don’t, I like it. Just look down at the floor like a good little companion and we won’t have a problem.”
Those eyes came suddenly alive, copper burning in fire, as she took the goblet from my hands. An electric charge enlivened my blood as our fingers brushed. Her thick eyelashes blinked in surprise and her expression transformed to that of a helpless doe at the mercy of a hunter. It was intoxicating, inviting. It made me want nothing more than to throw her down and take her. But I fought the instinct. Eave was no easy prey.
The moment passed and Eave’s indignation returned. “A companion is a servant only to the man who owns her. I will not behave as a servant to all your father’s court.”
Damn the Father, I'd rather spar with actual knives than these fucking clever words. “You’ve chosen to stay with me, Eave. I offered you freedom and you declined it. Now, you will serve me however I wish. If I want you to lower your eyes and bow before every insipid noble you meet, you’ll do it.”
Eave smiled sweetly, saccharine and false. “If you make a joke, I’ll laugh at it. How’s that for service?”
I nearly laughed. I never knew what she would say next. It was invigorating.
“I was hoping for something else,” I admitted.
“And what's that, Prince Caelan?”
“Honesty,” I said.
A little frown came into her forehead and she took a sip of her wine.
I chuckled. “Not what you were expecting?”
“No. But then, you’ve been a surprise from the start.”
“Ah,” I tipped my glass to her. “That was honesty. Good.”
She looked up at me through her lashes. A teasing smile crept up her face. “Do you want some more?”
Fuck. Yes, I wanted more. What were we talking about? Oh, honesty. No, that was no longer what I wanted. Or at least, not the only thing.
I allowed my hold on my self-control to slacken, just a little.
“Take off your dress.”
Eave swallowed, her sultry facade slipping as nervousness took over, revealing the vulnerability beneath her seduction. It was a more satisfying expression to me than any other she could have worn and I waited in eager silence for her obedience.
Slowly, she slipped her fingers around the knots that tied her clothes on. Piece by piece, the riding outfit fell onto the floor. First, the top, revealing the roundness of her small breasts and the slim line that narrowed at her waist before sweeping out at her hips. Her skirt dropped to the ground, followed by her pants. My fingers twitched, yearning to caress the softness of her olive skin. How would it feel to run my body along hers as I lowered her to the bed? How would she feel beneath my tongue?
Tempting to find out, but…
“Turn around,” I commanded.
Her hair fell in black-blue waves. Her ass had little dimples above it and her legs were as long as the road home. But on both shoulders, where her lush waterfall of hair couldn’t hide them, black wingtips marred her skin.
I studied the stain of another man on my property. Eave was mine now. The thought of seeing another man’s mark when I wished to admire my own property made me want to flay the skin off her back.
Just the thought of flaying skin made the scar tissue of my right shoulder itch. It felt swollen, drawing my attention to the old wound and the nightmare of how it was made.
I would never do such a thing to Eave. I hated having even thought it. I must not break this woman. I must keep my desire to hurt and possess her under control.
I took a step closer but stopped before I touched her. I was close enough to feel bumps rise on her skin as she shuddered at my nearness. I raised up a single hand to trace the line of her neck with a finger. “I gave you a chance to run and yet you stayed. What is it you think you can accomplish here?”
She turned, slowly. I kept my finger on her neck so that it traced the line of her collarbone. I was close enough that the peaks of her breasts brushed my ribcage as she turned around. I wore only a thin shirt that did nothing but enhance the sensation of her nipples as they dragged along my skin. She must feel it too.
She did. Her nipples hardened.
We were both breathing more heavily now, and yet we both held back. Warm breath and promise mingled in the space between us. My skin felt like the air during a lightning storm.
“Do you feel that, Slayer?” Her voice was hardly louder than her breath.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“It feels like want.”
Yes, it fucking did. My breathing was very heavy now. I was trying not to touch her and I wasn’t sure why anymore. Perhaps because I wanted to draw out the moment of agonizing almostness. The moment I kissed her or touched her, it would be broken. It was a delicious torment to stand on the edge of my want and not fall over into it.
It was only one of a thousand reasons to hold back.
There was Amon and his predatory eyes. He probably had a man listening outside. The more he saw my desire for Eave, the more danger she'd be in.
There was my determination to restrain my desire for violence. To be a kinder man than my kin. To not break this woman who’d, for some reason, put herself in my care.
And then there was my distrust of Eave. She wanted me to give in to my desire for her. She wanted me to stop thinking, to stop asking questions. Every time I got too close to something, she tried to distract me with this. Whatever this was, this fire that sparked between us like flint catching.
“I do want you,” I admitted. I let my hunger come into my voice and she leaned into it, her breasts pressing more firmly to my chest. My hands came up to stroke her arms gently. She blinked rapidly and I wanted to kiss both eyelids.
My voice hardened. “But not just your body. I claimed you because I want you to be mine, all mine. Body, heart and soul. That’s what a companion does, Eave. She surrenders herself completely.”
Eave swallowed. Her eyes were round and big. They darted around the space as if afraid we weren’t alone. Then, quietly, she said, “I can do that.”
My heart beat so fast it was more like a thrum in my chest. I wanted to throw her on the bed and crush her soft lips against my own. I wanted to pull my cock from my trousers and bury it inside her. I wanted to claim every part of her, leave my mark on her, make her mine, truly mine. But I didn’t fucking believe her.
I took a deep breath. Tried to regain my equilibrium and sanity, a near-impossible task with her standing before me, soft and naked and looking up at me with those eyes.
“Get on your knees,” I said firmly.
Her muscles tensed and shook at once. I watched a battle on her face between the proud, hateful priestess I’d captured and the part of her that really did seem to want this.
Slowly, her knees bent. They made no sound when they touched the rug inside my tent. She bowed her head—in subservience or shame, I didn’t know. Her hands rested in her lap, but if I looked closely, I could still see them shaking.
“Good girl." Her head was so close to my cock; she must be able to see it straining beneath my pants. I could take it out and she’d open her mouth and…
I took another deep breath.
“Are you going to give me what I want?”
“Yes.” A quiver of noise. I wished desperately to know what was going through her head. The fierce woman I’d battled was gone. She’d given way to someone soft and compliant. A perfect companion.
I leaned over so I could whisper in her ear. She flinched as I drew close but didn’t move. Her jaw was tight and I wanted to caress it with my tongue.
There was only one reason Eave would beg to come with me to court when she so despised my family. She was using me to get close to the crown. And I was playing right into her hands. Prince Caelan, blundering warrior fool. Or so she thought.
“Liar,” I breathed.
Eave stiffened, her breathing quickening as I loomed over her. I let her stew in her fear for a few moments before I stood back up.
“If killing Slayers is what you want, you should've killed me when you had the chance. It was the only one you'll ever get. I'll make sure of that."