She stood, understanding that it was no idle threat. The king had sold her to mercenaries. “I’ll go now.”
“Come here,” he said, standing and holding out his arms.
She hesitated. Did he really expect her to embrace him when he’d plotted to ruin her life? Yes, he obviously did. She stepped forward, letting him hug her. This was not the time to take a stand.
All her life her virginity had been carefully guarded. Now it and her future had been casually bartered to a brutish warrior from a savage world? By all accounts, Kettura was overrun with bloodthirsty raptors, and the people were barely able to survive in the most meager of villages. That world had no institutions of higher learning. No old relics or museums or palaces. There was no rich history or civilized culture. She felt ill. Her father knew her taste well. Her strong preference had always been to surround herself with clever companions. That he could be planning to banish her to such a fate, likely with very little way to even contact home, showed how little he cared for her. She was chilled to the marrow as he smiled.
I won’t go, she thought mutinously.
The first thing she must do was speak to the king’s highest advisor. In addition to being gorgeous, Lord Evston Calex was smart and cool-headed. She had sought his friendship and advice for as long as she could remember. If anyone could convince the king that another course of action was better, it was Lord Calex.
* * *
It took a little investigatingfor Brandese to learn that Lord Evston and his brother, the commander of her father’s armies, were to meet with the king in Alorn. Without delay, she arranged to join the royal traveling party. Alorn was an idyllic little hamlet with its own mansion where the king had grown up. The brothers would likely stay in the inn so that the commander could dine and meet with his general and soldiers, too.
Upon arriving in Alorn, Brandese quickly crossed the estate and went to the inn. But inside the establishment, she was told by the young man in the inn’s round entry that Lord Evston Calex had not arrived and he wasn’t expected. A mistake, surely?
She glanced at the inn’s com screen to see which room the commander had been assigned to and then hurried out without another word of conversation.
Princess Brandese did not plan to spy on Lord Evston Calex’s brother. She only wanted to confirm for herself what she’d been told, which was that Commander Rocurt Calex had arrived alone. She thought the inn’s manager’s information might be wrong since the room location and key code had been auto-delivered to the commander’s com. He had not stopped in the lobby, and so Lord Evston might very well have been with his brother when they took possession of the quarters.
She used the balcony pass code to enter the walled enclosure. She would simply look in on Commander Calex. If he was alone, she would return to the royal ancestral home and await the Calexes’ arrival there. She frowned, knowing if she didn’t encounter Lord Evston before his arrival at the mansion, it would make it more difficult for her to speak to him privately.
Brandese froze, her breath catching. The commander was most certainly not alone in his room. She stared through the glass.
Rocurt Calex, the tall and excessively muscled military man, sat on the edge of the bed with a nude person—likely a girl from the round shape of her upturned bottom—draped over his lap. He was vigorously spanking the pert, quite red bottom while his victim kicked and struggled.
Brande’s hand reached for the glass door, thinking she should intervene. She herself had been spanked twice in her life. Once the token time by Evston Calex. The other by a disciplinarian chosen by the king. Both times had been frustrating for Brandese, but neither had been humiliating in the way that this must be for the poor defenseless girl. Who was she? A maid who’d made some minor infraction?
Brandese’s hand fell away from the door’s slide latch as the commander’s enormous hand stopped beating the naked bottom. Instead he gripped it, which must have been painful given how inflamed it was. His expression wasn’t menacing, but it was intent—and something more. He looked the way men looked at Brande when they believed no one was watching.
Rocurt spoke to the girl. It was definitely a girl, a young one near her own age of nineteen. She had light brown hair, like freshly baked ginger cookies, and a slim frame with a quite round bottom. When she turned, Brande’s mouth went dry. She had jewelry piercing her nipples. Once, Brande had snuck a history book on the Vella slave trade to read. Those beautiful boys and girls had been pierced in just the same way. A throb of arousal gripped her. Then she gritted her teeth at herself. Enslaving anyone was a wretched, shameful practice.
The commander ordered the girl onto the bed. Brande covered her mouth. Was he planning to strike her with something else? She was positioned in such a way, with her bottom high and her face down on the mattress. Her hands were clasped together in the hollow of her lower back.
No, the commander didn’t appear to be preparing to strike her. He had a stoppered glass bottle of something, a clear liquid.
The girl reached up and actually spread her bottom cheeks open. The commander poured the liquid, but not onto her red cheeks. Instead the liquid, which moved like oil, drizzled into the cleft between her red globes.
Brande sucked in a soft breath. He put his hands right between her buttocks and rubbed it there. Why? The girl didn’t appear to be in pain.
The commander unfastened his trousers and stripped from his clothes. She knew she should interrupt now, but she could not bring herself to do it. She would see everything that he did. And if it turned out that he had taken this girl as a slave from a conquered people, she would see him fully punished for his crimes. First though she would know what those crimes were.
The girl had not tried to flee the room. Was she afraid to? Did she know it was futile to try? She had clearly been forced into this position before.
Brande knew what he intended. She had seen animals mate a few times and had snuck peeks at the restricted-access screen shows that featured couples engaged in certain acts. Only oil had never been used, and the commander was now coating his sex organ with it, too.
She bit her lip. She did not want to find this compelling, but he did have a very well built and powerful male body. And the girl bent before him was lovely. He clasped her hands in the small of her back and tugged the girl’s body back against his, his sex disappearing into her.
Brande took a small step back, a hand on her throat, a deep ache in her belly and lower. This was not what she imagined rape to be. Nor what she imagined physical love to be. It was something in between. And it was more than a little arousing.
The commander was thrusting his hips and speaking to the girl, who seemed to be struggling to endure the forcefulness of his thrusts. He slapped the girl’s bottom a couple of times. Then he continued in his pursuit of release.
The way the girl raised her bottom and moved her hips, it was almost as if she was enjoying it. Was that possible with nothing touching her in the front? Brandese had discovered there was a small nub on her own body that created incredible excitement when pressed or rubbed. She’d told Lana about it in case she hadn’t discovered it for herself, but Lana had been scandalized and told her royal girls didn’t mention anything about their private parts.Ever.
The commander continued to couple with the girl for quite a long time. Brande wondered if it took so long for her to get to her release when she touched herself. She’d never timed it, but she didn’t think so. My goodness, the girl must be very sore and tired.
A sudden shocking thought occurred to her. Lord Evston and his brother were very close. Everyone knew that; it was often commented upon. Did Lord Evston know of this situation? Did he accept it? Even condone it?
