Page 92 of Bound

“Jayd.” The brutal slice did not belong to him this time. “You need to shut the hell up, girlfriend.”

“Ahhh!” As Trystan crowed it, he kneaded Power Ranger’s chin with growing fervor. “And here I was seeking wise people, when I already have one at the tip of my thumb.”

A scream fulminated in Jayd’s throat again. But she gulped it down, hoping it made its way past her frozen digestive tract. The ice invaded deeper as soon as she watched Trystan drag his thumb downward, marring her friend’s flawless olive skin.

Her friend?

She grimaced, forcing herself to accept the admission. The woman was as much a fly in Trystan’s damn web as she. Trapped and struggling—especially as the man caressed across her tattoo. When his fingers covered the mark, he pressed in with deliberate force. The woman trembled, appearing ready to throw up. Jayd shook in abject empathy.

“Hmm. What lovely sounds you make, darling.” He ran his tongue across his bottom lip before stretching out his other fingers, wrapping them against the front of her neck. “Perhaps my kinky little salpu wants to show our princess all the ways we have fun in the Pura?”

“No!”

Jayd longed to join her shriek with the woman’s but bit the inside of her cheek to stay silent. Something told her that any interference at this point would only make things worse for her terrified friend.

Creator’s mercy.

What if the coma prison and the involuntary tattoo were only the beginning? Was she not, in so many ways, already peering at that evidence? In every inch of the red marks along the woman’s neck. In every pitch of the rhythmic sighs that tumbled from her lips. Self-soothing mechanisms…

Which she was denied from the moment Trystan closed his hand back over her neck.

“Shame, shame, dearest,” he emphasized in a silken murmur. “You know you must have permission to scream. You also know how I detest little girls who disobey me.”

“D-Désonnum, Seigndim,” the woman rasped. “Désonnum beaupek. I am very, very sorry.”

Jayd hauled up her shoulders. Stiffened the set of her head. “Carris! Damn it! She says she is—”

The prispoul bellowed a laugh. “I know what she said, princess. But with naughty darlings like this, one just never knows about certain kinds of…boundaries.”

He demonstrated by twisting his hold even tighter. And then by unsnapping the woman’s jacket to the point that allowed him easy access to her breasts. Expertly, he reached in and found her nipple. Brutally, he twisted on it.

“Seigndim!” the woman cried out, panting hard to keep it from pitching to a scream. “P-Please! Just please…do not…”

“But darling, why not?” Trystan growl-hummed. “Isn’t this exactly what you crave? All of this—how do the kids say it over in the States now—the rough stuff, right? Come now, little salpu. Does this not make your blood race? Does it not soak your chanli for any stud who will dole it out?”

“N-N-No. N-N-Not anymore,” the woman rasped. “P-P-Please…stop.”

“Creator’s blessed mercy. Carris!”

The bonsun swung out a new glare. “This concerns you not, Highness.” He snarled the last of it so violently, the one word could have been two. “Unless you would like to start modeling courtly restraint with a gag between your pretty lips?”

She fought a new wave of nausea. “Are you just liking the sound of that promise, or do you plan to make good on it?”

“What?”

Despite how Power Ranger splurted it with him, Jayd stayed focused on the only face that mattered right now. The gray matter belonging to the only mind she had to sway.

“You heard me,” she declared. “You heard me loud and damn clear, prispoul. And yes, I am a hundred percent serious.”

“No,” her friend cut in from between her teeth. “No you’re not, damn it!”

She waved the woman into silence but did not look if there was compliance. She did not dare look away from Trystan now. Not with the ruthless focus he was not letting up on. Not with the heavy dose of bemusement that entered his speculative glare.

“It makes all the sense in the world, right?” she queried him. “You are still damned and determined to go through with all your…grand plans…for me, yes? So, Lord Trystan, why not begin now?”

She had to clench her stomach to keep its contents from spilling along with the title he did not rightfully possess, but her purpose was achieved. She had his attention. He even withdrew his hand from Power Ranger’s jacket. His hold eased on her neck.

As soon as Jayd gulped, he let up on the clamp altogether.