A muscle jumped at the corner of the captain’s jaw. “Until she’s properly trained, yes.”
With a chuckle, Colonel Viridian ran his hands through thick, greying hair. Slicking it back with wet hands. “Guess there’s a few setbacks to bargain hunting for priestess, hmm my boy? Bet you wish you’d spent more than a measly fifty dollars.”
Returning his grin, the captain’s hands found my hips. Squeezing. “Perhaps,” he admitted, but that was all. Everything else left unsaid, yet somehow echoing all around us with volume enough to make me blush all the way from the roots of my hair, past my collarbones, and into the bunched fabric concealing my breasts.
“Ah, very good.” The colonel tipped his head back, watching through curious eyes. “Well, if you find yourself in need of assistance, reach out, will you? I’m fascinated by the tactical ramifications behind her issues. And”—he waggled bushy, silver brows—“I bet I could have her behaving inside of a week.”
“That won’t be necessary, sir,” the captain replied. “Mila is mine to break. And we’re enjoying ourselves entirely too much, aren’t we pet?”
Lip curled, I sneered but held my tongue behind clenched teeth, lest he force my silence.
A deep belly laugh rumbled up from the colonel’s side of the bath. “I thought as much. Feisty little thing, is she?”
“All fire and fury,” the captain agreed, but the gleam in those inky eyes was for me alone. “A complete pain in my ass,” he added, and my wrists and throat surged to life, igniting with the all-too familiar tingle that seized my every muscle with involuntary obedience. And with little decorum, the captain folded me into his chest. Stripped me bare. Leaving my bottom exposed to Colonel Viridian’s perusal, but kept everything else for himself.
Absent a single shred of regard for his own modesty, the captain undressed. Flicking the latch on his belt, he let his pants fall. His shirt went next, pulled over his head without bothering to work the buttons loose.
“That’s striking,” the colonel hummed at my back. Closer than he had been a moment before, but I was unable to turn and look. My muscles thrumming with a low-grade drone of compulsion. “It’s as if the gold actually runs through her veins.”
The captain made a sound at the back of his throat. Wrapping me up in a band of corded muscle, he lifted me, stepped over the lip of the bath, and sank into the luxury of heated water with a gusty sigh. “I think it’s linked to her disability.”
“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” the colonel said, watching as the captain claimed a place on a submerged bench. One that left him half in, half out of the water. His torso left dry as he moved to drape me across his lap—my weight sitting heavy across his thighs, where I couldn’t squirm without feeling him grow stiff beneath me. Couldn’t press for distance without exposing myself to the colonel.
And so I sat.
Curled into the arms of the man I hated most, seeking protection in a prison. My cheeks flushed with mortified heat. Jaw clenched tight enough to feel an answering throb echo in my temples.
Tormented.
“Have you any leads into what might be causing these issues?” the colonel asked, and took a sip from a sweaty glass left outside of the pool. “I took a look through the state records and saw nothing that bore even a slight resemblance among any of the other priestesses.”
For a moment, as the captain’s fingers tightened on my hip, I thought he’d choose not to answer. And then, “Apparently I’ve got the only one like her,” he murmured. “In several generations. Not even Sasha has seen the like. She’s an ‘empath’, or so we’ve been led to believe.”
The colonel frowned. “An empath, you say? Good to know. I’ll ask my girl. Carly was in training to become the next Head Priestess, after all. Let’s see if their stories match up.”
My heart skipped, and I flicked a glance at the colonel’s face. Breath caught in my chest, unsure whether or not Sasha’s teachings would hold up under scrutiny—and what it would mean formeif it didn’t.
“We wouldn’t want her affliction to spread,” the captain said, pressing a grin to the spot beneath my ear. “Unless,” he drawled, “we can figure out some way to harness such raw potential. I presume you saw the damage I was able to unleash with a single shot?”
“I did,” the colonel confirmed, pausing as if to say something else. Something… unsavory. And then, “But I wasn’t the only one who took note. Me?” He clicked his tongue. “I’m nearing retirement. Content with what I’ve got. A wife, a robust lineage, and a pretty young thing devoted to servicing the needs my wife refuses to acknowledge,” he said, and issued a wry chuckle. “But most others aren’t so ready to offer support to what could be seen as a threat to their position. And the capitol? The rumblings of their interest concern me most of all.”
Swallowing, the captain offered a single, tight nod that bumped my shoulder. “I hear you.”
“There’s to be a demonstration for the new generation of elites,” he went on. “A display of power from a bound pair. A promise of what the youths might aspire to, one day. And I’m already hearing whispers, Asher. Whispers thatyoushould be the one to lead the demonstration. Not the general.”
The captain’s breath caught, and I felt the surge of alarm when it filtered through his blood.
“I’ll help in any way I can,” the colonel continued. “Be it training or research. But keep your nose clean, son. Stay low. Avoid drawing too much attention to the girl, or you may find the capitol has a sudden need for bound elites and their priestesses, if you catch my meaning.”
“I do,” the captain said. His tone flat. Ominous as a moment of understanding passed between them, soaring directly over my head in such a way that left me aching to ask. Curious to the point of physical pain.
Clapping pruney fingers, the colonel’s lips curled around a benign smile. “Well,” he said, and stood without regard to his nudity. Shocking me utterly still with the full-frontal show. The subtle, yet obvious differences between them—the only two men I’d ever had a chance to really look at. One in his prime, the other cresting the hill of middle age. “If you’ll excuse me. I’ve some work to do. A few errands to run.” He winked. “Enjoy your slave, Asher,” he said, stepping from the bath in a shower of sloshing water.
We watched him leave. Silent as he toweled off, the captain’s hands still, yet humming with the sort of tension that needed to break. I could feel it lurkingjust there. Below the surface.
And then we were alone.
Iwas alone.
