Feeling far colder than the cool night allowed for, Aida curled onto her side and tugged the heavy duvet up to her chin. Tried to ignore the rich scent of him flooding her senses as she closed her eyes and let the overwhelming exhaustion take her.
It was still dark, and she felt as if little time had passed when she awoke again. He was already inside of her. Moving with a measured pace that one might even call gentle. Until he realized she was awake. Then it was just as before, violent and brutal. Glorious in its savageness. He took her again as soon as his knot released him, the swollen girth still plump and full as he began anew. Twice more he woke her, growling against her throat, moaning at her ear. Calling her horrible names even as he praised her and commanded she give him more.
By the time Er’it let her be, the sun was warming the horizon once more. He insisted on remaining inside of her, too. Forcing her to mold her back to his front, feet tucked snug between his calves to keep her from pulling free of the knot still binding them together as he let her drift off. Too exhausted by then, she didn’t remember his promise to rise early. It left her unprepared to be jostled awake as the sun filled her window, his sleep rough voice at her ear commanding her to rise and see to his needs.
Caught off guard when he mounted her yet again, forcing her pleasure with his hand between her thighs. Twisting at the raw bit of flesh that refused to stop sending sheer bliss rocketing through her veins as she cried out in wordless delight at the sensation. Their combined sounds echoed through the quiet room until Aida collapsed to the bed with a breathless shriek of pain as he pushed the knot deep.
He gave her little time to recuperate, climbing from the bed as soon as the swollen knot would allow him to tug free. Fingers working between them, he manipulated the plumped flesh, squeezing it to pull it from her tightness. Grunting as Aida wailed into the covers when he forced taut flesh to stretch even wider for his retreat. Not even a paltry mercy given as his hand closed over her arm and he dragged her from bed to bath.
Aida choked back her tears after he dunked her in the warm water. Half of her prayed the Abyss would open and take her while the other just wished for sleep. Hoping he’d mistake the salty sting of her misery for the barren moisture of water as he climbed in after her. Frozen as a hunted deer as he stared at her, she sprang into action when his lip twitched. Snatching up the soap and putting it to the skin of his shoulder, she concentrated on her task as hard as she could. Staring at the frothy bubbles while he watched through hooded eyes as her trembling hands bathed him.
More than cautious, her process was slow as she scrubbed every inch of him clean. Even the terrifying length of him received her utmost attention where it stood proud away from his body, her hand unable to close around its thickness. The delicate skin of the rounded flesh beneath received the same attention, and when he groaned and grabbed the back of her head, Aida’s fear spiraled out of control.
“Please,” she choked out around the sob lodged in her throat, bowing her head low to lessen the sting of her hoped for denial. Throat raw and scratchy, she would retch if he put the soapy member into her mouth again.
Er’it muttered under his breath, pushing her away with something close to a snarl. Cowering before him as he stood over her, she scarce dared to breathe until he sat, sending water sloshing over the rim and knocking Aida about in an angry sea of warmth and cedar.
“Come.” Snapping his fingers, he pointed at the space between his spread legs.
Aida bit her lip hard, shuffling forward on her knees until she sat surrounded by hardness and heat. She hurt all over, exhausted beyond all measure. There was no reality where she could withstand his treatment of her again. Fear slinking through her veins at what her further denial might bring, of the punishments he would dole out if she refused his attention, her lower lip began to tremble. A muffled shriek squeezed past her clenched teeth when she fell away in surprise at his touch, a ragged sob following tight on its heels. Arms up to protect her head, she waited for a blow. One that never came as her rasping breaths filled the sudden quiet.
The next thing Aida knew, he pulled her back into his warmth. Slammed against the brick wall of his torso before he stood, lifting her with no effort until she stood on her own. Movements becoming brisk and efficient, he smeared the soapy block over Aida’s skin. Cleaning away every last vestige of the tacky remains from his repeated pleasure. Until he came to the sparse curls at the juncture of her thighs. There he paused, hand wavering before he tossed the soap aside and pushed Aida to sit so he could dump too much of the cream to soften her hair into the bunched tresses. Even with the rough pads of his fingers scraping over her scalp, Aida found a low sound of pleasure escaping her. The simple act known and safe. He wasn’t mounting her, wasn’t shoving that thing inside of her, and for that she would be grateful.
All too soon it ended. His hands callous as ever as he dragged Aida about by the iron grip on her arm. Buffing her dry with hard strokes, tightening the laces of her gown himself. Too tight by far, but she didn’t dare complain. Not when he rounded her side, and she glimpsed the crimson swirling in the golden depths of his gaze. Instead she attempted to dress him, to hide away that pulsing thing in the hope he would not change his mind too soon. A brave act, despite her numbed fingers fumbling at every turn. His tunic slipped over his head, tugging on his tight trousers. The strange vest that hung to his knees with elaborate embroidery paired with a wide sash he directed her to wrap around his waist.
With a snort, Er’it took a chair and looked at the mismatched confusion of the buttons at his wrists. “Get my boots.”
“Y-Yes, sir.” Aida rushed to find the boots. Her mad dash leading to her dropping to hands and knees to crawl beneath the bed to get at the mate to the one she found draped over a chest. Returning to him, she knelt with care, keeping some distance between them lest he grab hold of her head again. Not that he couldn’t force her forward, but she could hope.
Aida grunted with the effort of tugging the tall boots into place. She didn’t understand why he made her do this. Sure that there were hordes of attendants that would do a far better job than she ever could, she assumed he liked to humiliate her. To watch her cheeks warm when she didn’t do it well or even right.
“Come,” he said, voice a whip crack in the calm. Destroying every trace of it as he stood and stalked towards the outer door.
Left to jog in his wake to keep up, Aida looked back at her room only the once. The only life she’d ever known was being snatched away and what lay beyond was nothing but new and terrifying horrors. All of it wrapped up in the man who made her cry out in bliss through the long night, the very one taking her away from whatever measure of safety these dark walls had ever afforded her.
She’d always prayed for more than what Otaso doled out to her in pathetic sips. It would seem someone had answered those bitter hopes, and with such utter contempt for her person as to cast her out into the middle of a world she didn’t know, with nothing more than a man who seemed to find her distasteful and desirable with a turn of his hand.
Chin tucked against her chest, the stairs she had traversed more often in the past few days than she had in her entire life sped away under her soft shoes. She was this man’s slave now, and there was less she could do about that than she could have helped Otaso being her guardian.
This was her life now. She must survive it somehow.
Chapter 8
Aida
Comingout into the brilliant sunshine, Aida wanted nothing but to run to the dim confines of her suite.
People milled about, shouting and yelling. A chaos of color and sound that bombarded her. Cuffing her about the head as Er’it led her through the fray of moaning, shaggy beasts tied to large carts. Overloaded with bounties shimmering in silver and ruby, things she knew would have come from Otaso’s fortress.
The snug embrace of her bodice constricted her panting breaths, leaving her to gasp as she ran after her new master. More terrified of her surroundings than the man who ignored her for the moment. Past those that would stare with open curiosity, more than one hailing Er’it in greeting. Calling him majesty with a smile on their face. A beloved king then, one who stole away lands and young women, leaving them broken and disused.
Dashing the back of her hand over a gritty cheek, Aida forced herself not to look back as clouds of dingy ochre surrounded her. The dry dirt of the courtyard worked into a suffocating frenzy as young men scurried here and there, the great beasts stomping their feet. Horses, things she’d only seen in books and from afar, made high-pitched shrieks and snorting grunts as she passed. Terrifying her as their muscled bulk shifted closer. Ringing metal and hollow wood swarmed through the yellowing cloud that surrounded her on all sides.
At the end of her reserves, ready to collapse, to scream and cry, Er’it drew up short. His head turned as if he would look at her, but he changed his mind in the last moment. Vaulting up onto a giant gray monster with feathery tufts of sooty hair around its feet and twisting horns of glossy alabaster. Before Aida could make sense of the thing she was seeing, he nudged the strange creature with his knees, edging it closer to Aida so that Er’it could snap his fingers in front of her nose. Scaring her half to the Abyss before holding his hand down to her.
“Come.”
There was no question in his tone, not a breath of mercy in the dust clogging her nose and coating her mouth with oily grit. Still Aida shook her head fast and hard, feet scuttling away from the immense thing. All of her attention on the heavy hooves that could crush her with ease and not the man astride it. When it snorted a great breath, long tail snapping as a pennant in brisk wind, Aida slapped a hand to her mouth to silence her scream.
