I no longer had any opinion about whether this was real, staged, or just conjured by my imagination. But the existence of a being like this man defied all logic. His skin didn’t just glow. The light seemed to break in it like inside the many facets of a diamond, transforming him into a piece of art. Seeing him move, hearing him talk, was a surreal experience. He simply couldn’t be alive. He was too gorgeous, too stunning, too ethereal to be corporeal.
His beauty left me breathless.
The pissed-off expression on his face as he approached was very real, however. His pale eyes sparkled like a pair ofdiamonds too as he glided a bored gaze over his four men behind us, then paused it on Leslo, sparing me no glance at all.
“Leave,” the king said.
He wore no crown. As he stepped out of the light, I noticed that he wore nothing at all. Not even underwear. His impressive dick swayed ever so majestically between his muscular thighs, unburdened by any fabric.
Wouldn’t that be a nightmare for pretty much anyone to show up in public naked? Yet the king seemed perfectly unbothered. In fact, he wore his nakedness with more confidence than most people wore clothes.
Leslo took a cautious step back as the king approached but didn’t cower like the guards did.
“I have a deal for you, King Kye,” he said. “Goddess Ghata graciously sent you a human in exchange forwomora.”
A deal? I was part of some sick, twisted human trade after all?
The anger simmering inside me spiked. I wanted to scream, but shock choked me.
“This is illegal...” was all I could croak in utter disbelief.
“A human?” The king finally deigned me a quick glance.
Curiosity briefly flickered through his expression, but the emotion didn’t last long. Cool indifference replaced it, settling over his handsome features with practiced ease.
“What would I need her for?” he asked, sounding bored.
Leslo flinched, his cockiness wavering.
“There are currently no humans in Olathana, are there?” He didn’t sound completely sure about that fact.
The king shrugged. “So?”
Leslo perked up, taking it as a confirmation.
“You’ll be the only one with a human pet then,” he gushed, giving me a slap on the shoulder in the manner of a sleazy car salesman slapping the hood of a car he was hoping to sell.
Did he just call me a pet?
Indignant, I swatted his hand off me and opened my mouth to protest.
“What am I to do with a human pet?” The king looked utterly uninterested.
Yet he hadn’t ordered us out of his palace again. Apparently, Leslo and his proposal provided some kind of entertainment for the royalty after all.
“Do whatever you want with her,” Leslo shrugged. “You can keep her in your menagerie, show her off on a leash, fuck her while she is still young and...” he gave me an assessing look, like it hadn’t occurred to him to judge my potential attractiveness before, “...and pretty.”
“Asshole,” I hissed at him, using anger to combat the chill of fear seizing me.
Far stronger words pounded inside my brain, jostling each other out of the way in a rush to get out.
But the king spoke again. “She’s completely and utterly useless to me for any of those things, including fucking.”
Useless? Did he just call me useless?
I ignored the pinch of his words, trying to focus on the positive instead. If the king didn’t want me, then kidnapping me had been really stupid on Leslo’s part, which meant he’d have no choice but to let me go now. Right?
My heart pulsed with hope. Yet deep inside, some primal feminine pride did take offense. The king’s arrogance knew no bounds. He’d likely never been put in his place, had never been held responsible for his words, or accountable for his actions.
