Fear gripped Danika, but she didn’t let it show. She bowed her head. “Please, f-
forgive me, Your Majesty. I lost track of… everything,” she whispered.
He stared at her; disdain written all over his features. “Drop that book,” he snarled.
She dropped the book as if it burned her hand.
“Kneel.”
Her knees sank to the floor. She held her hands together and twisted them.
“Come here.” He looked so angry; he scared her.
She walked on her knees towards him. Her knees aching, she stared up at him. He
leaned down and his hand went to her neck. He wrapped his big hand around her
collared neck and squeezed, choking her. Danika’s eyes widened as her breathing
hitched, and she found it hard to draw in breaths. His hand tightened; his eyes
blackened in dull rage.
“You don’t ever come in here again, Danika. Ever. Because I’ll kill you then.”
Tears filled Danika’s eyes. He wasn’t using all his strength, but he was choking
her. She tightened her hands in her skirt to keep from holding his hand.
He let her go. His eyes were bloodshot.
“But, then again, your father never gave Melia a choice when he spilled her
blood…” His low voice was like granite. “right here. With that book you were
holding in your hand.”
Melia, his late sister. Melia, the pregnant princess dead in this library.
Danika lowered her head, her neck burning as she tried to drag in breaths. Would
she ever outrun the sins of her father?
The king turned away from her and returned to his bedroom to his writing chair
behind the desk, waiting for her to follow. She followed him on her knees. His
personal bodyguard, Chad, was sitting down on the other chair in the room.
Another person? Is he going to share her? Her heart was in her throat as she moved
on her knees.
Could this be it? Or was it what she’d been dreading all week?
As a slave, she was long overdue for at least one torture session. Could it be why
he summoned her?
No, no, no! She was almost panicking.
She’d rather he share her with as many men as he wanted instead of commanding
her torture session. She didn’t want to be tortured. Danika dreaded it deep in her
bones.
Danika got to his chair and waited beside him, her body trembling, her heart
beating loudly in her chest.
Danika was still kneeling as she stared up at the king, her heart beating in her
chest. She didn’t know what to expect.
Would he share her or command her torture session?
“Get up and strip, Danika,” he commanded, opening yet a new scroll.
Chad was in the room, and for the first time, Danika couldn’t pick up what the man
was thinking or feeling. It was something to be afraid of, because Chad was always an
open book.
But now, his face remained as expressionless as Lucien’s. Her hands turned
sweaty.
Danika stood and started removing her clothes, one after another. She removed the
pins in her hair, loosening it wildly, then removed everything from her corset down to
her underthings.
Naked, Danika tried not to stare at them, her gaze pinned to the ground.
“To the table,” King Lucien’s voice came again.
Danika swallowed tightly and started for the table. She’d only been on the bed just
once… that first time. She didn’t know what was with him and the table.
Danika closed her eyes, pressing tightly on her table, almost hugging it like a
refuge. She felt the movement when someone came up behind her and pressed against
her, his body covering her. Her ass cushioned his heavy erection perfectly.
You don’t have to look, she told herself. She didn’t know if it was the big Chad
behind her or the king himself. Danika kept her eyes tight and willed her mind to
believe it was the king, but when he snaked his hand to her front and caressed her
breasts, Danika whimpered because she knew instantly that it was not the king.
The king didn’t caress or play. He got right down to taking what he wanted.
Chad turned her around and pressed closer to her, still dressed. His touch was
gentle as he forced her to look at him.
“This is a session, Danika,” he told her.
Her heart ran out of her chest, and all the blood drained from her face.
He must have known what the reaction meant, because he shook his head. “Not a
torture session. Actually, this is the only session a slave enjoys.” He paused. “I’m here
to teach you how to pleasure, Danika. How to give and receive pleasure. There will
be…less pain in here.” His English was halting, as usual. His handsome, chiseled face
stared at her.
Up close, she found a scar running down his cheek, too, just like the king’s… but
thinner. She wondered how much the two had been through together.
And what did he mean by ‘pleasure and less pain’? She couldn’t understand what
he was saying. She had only known pain from them-from the king. She didn’t know
pleasure.
Chad urged Danika to the top of the low table and spread her on it. His hands on
her breast caressed and soothed, but she couldn’t relax.
“Relax your mind, Danika. Free yourself.” His voice was almost hypnotic. Almost.
She didn’t want his hands on her. She didn’t want anybody’s hand on her. The
pleasure would be a sham. Pain was the only feeling sex produced. She was very
intimate with this knowledge.
She tried to relax because she truly didn’t want to be punished, but she couldn’t.
When his sturdy fingers caressed her womanhood, she almost jumped out of her
skin.
He leaned closer and pushed his face towards her ear. “If you truly want to survive
being a slave, you must learn to be a slave, Princess. In any session, in any torment,
you close your mind and say, ‘I must survive. I won’t give them the satisfaction of
seeing me dead.’ The words work like magic, sometimes. It was one of the ways we
survived, too.” He lowered his voice even more. “You’ll be going to court again soon;
you’ll need this knowledge. You’ll need to learn how to pleasure. Your introduction
must have taught you how sexually inclined the kings are, yeah?”
She nodded, swallowing tightly.
He nodded too. “You might never know what’s ordered of you. I think the king is
doing you a favor with this session, and I don’t even know why. Most of us had to
learn through pain and lots of humiliation in court. Including him.” Chad whispered
the last part.