Page 113 of Unmasked

“You’re doing it again.” She laughed. “You’re looking right at me, but you’re hearing nothing I say. Whatever is on your mind?”

My lips parted and I laughed with her, looking down. When I looked back up, my gaze lingered on her lips, lifting up to meet her eyes.

“It’s you.” I gestured to her empty plate, standing and watching as she joined me.

“Me? But I was talking to you. You weren’t seeing me.”

“Oh… I was.” I held out my arm, and she headed over, taking it. “We just weren’t here.”

“If not here, where?”

“I’ll show you.”

Leading her out of the dining room, I turned us deeper into the house. The hallway was empty as we headed down. When I turned us left, into an adjoining hallway, Penelope’s brow drew in.

“I may get lost in this house.”

“You’ll get used to it.” I stopped in the middle, leaning against a wall. Penelope slowed, turning to face me. My hand lifted, pointing to an old sconce. “I want to tell you a story. A very important one that links my family and yours.”

“Alright.”

I reached up, pulling the sconce. A panel holding a large portrait swung open, and Penelope gasped, jumping back. Big eyes shot to me, and I smiled as she hesitantly walked closer, peaking inside to the staircase that led down.

“When my family rose to power back in eighteen hundred, there wasn’t many families we could trust. Most said they supported our rule, but what they supported was themselves. It didn’t take my family long to discover how power worked. So, we gave orders—a proof of loyalty, so to speak. When it came to your family, their orders were special. This.”

I gestured, easing my hand to Penelope’s lower back as I nudged her forward to the stairs. Fear sparked in her eyes but eased as I flipped on the light and shut the panel behind us.

“Not everyone complied or passed the loyalty test. And when they didn’t, this was where they came. This was the Crown’s stronghold for royalist prisoners.”

Penelope eased to the bottom of the stairs, slowly taking steps forward as she took in the multiple shackles. Some were bolted into the wall while others hung from the ceiling. Six cells aligned the back wall, disappearing into darkness.

“My family made this space for yours?”

“To show their loyalty.”

I came up behind her, placing my hands around her biceps, causing her to jump. Deep breaths had the sides of her breasts sliding against my fingertips as I splayed them out, around her.

“It’s very interesting, isn’t it?”

Her head nodded. “Y-Yes. It is. I would have never known this was down here.”

My hand slid down one of her arms, and I lifted it, moving her arm toward the hanging cuff. Easily, I wrapped my fingers around her small wrist. My pulse was hitting against me so hard that I was shaking. I could see her—feel my cane tearing into her skin.

“I still have your family’s loyalty, don’t I?”

Deep breaths left her. “Of course, Your Majesty.”

“I know I do, but I think I’d like to hear you say it.” I paused. “I hear they have rooms like this in The Order. I have to admit I’m truly fascinated by the sound of this place.” I squeezed around her wrist tighter, stepping more into her body so that mine was molded around the back of hers. Lowering our hands, I drew it in so that my arm was wrapped around her waist. “Have you seen something like that there? A dungeon or room with cuffs and cells? I’m a bit sad it’s forbidden for me to go. They talk of auctions. Is it people they auction? I’m told it is. To buy a person… Whatever would someone want to do with them?”

“I… I’m not allowed to go into too many places down there. They don’t talk to me about such things.” Penelope eased out of my hold, and I let her. She turned back to face me as she put distance between us. “Why does the sound of it all fascinate you so much anyway? Do you like the idea of buying a person?”

The side of my lips pulled back. “It’s not the actual buying. I don’t have to do that now if I want something.”

“Even death?”

My lips parted, and I couldn’t stop the overwhelming arousal that ignited inside of me.

“They go that far there?” My eyes lowered through the surprise. “Of course they go that far,” I mumbled.