Page 19 of Caught in the Devil’s Hand

He reached forward and pulled her dress from her arms, upsetting her balance enough to half tumble her back into the river, though only her shins were wetted again. With one pull of his strong hands, he ripped her dress in half. Seeing her one and only piece of clothing for the past several years irreparably torn, she dropped her jaw in shock.

“Y-You h-horrible child!” She climbed out of the river to grab at the remains of her old dress, no longer caring if she was naked or not. Not even the anger he had shown her so far would frighten her now. She literally had nothing left of her own.

Vallen tossed the two halves into the river behind her, then grasped her wrists as she tried to catch the tattered dress. He hauled her to her feet, picked up the towel, and roughly began drying her.

“D-Don’t you touch me.” She tried to squirm away from him, but his hold on her wrists was too strong. “You are breaking your end of the bargain by groping me in such a manner.”

He made a mocking snort. “When I am touching you sexually, you will know. I am merely drying and dressing you before you actually do catch some sort of disease. If you become ill from this stupidity, your next meeting with me might be more nauseating than the normal repugnance you feel for me.”

“Stupidity? If you had never harassed me in the first place, I would have finished my bath long ago. You were the one who kept me in that cold river and tricked me into—”

“Crying out with pleasure?”

“Into making a deal with you,” she supplied, forging onward, “and then you tore the only thing I had left to give me any semblance of decency in this ungrateful village.”

“I believe you were rather warm and comfortable when we were locked in that last embrace,” he said, pulling her closer. “And when I would give you a better garment to keep you warm, one that would give you more decency than that rag behind you, you were just as ungrateful as the rest of your fellow villagers by not accepting my generosity.”

“Generosity? When have you been generous?” Anger clouded her vision. “You seduced me! You blackmailed me into bearing your lusts once a week. You belittle me needlessly. You destroyed my only dress, however poor a dress it was. And you expect me to be grateful?”

She frantically scrambled for the worst insult she could think of, something that would specifically hurt him.

“You are the King of Oblivion himself, and everything about you is evil.”

“Enough,” he growled in the same inhuman voice she’d heard last night. “If you insult me again, then the next time we meet, I shall draw out our coupling to last the entire length of the sun’s trek across the sky. You’ll be begging for release. So help me, Shumei, I can drive you insane if I want to.” She hastily nodded. “Now hold still. You’ll be dressed in only a moment.”

Shivering in the cold, she didn’t resist as he dried her. He spent no more time drying her intimate parts than he did the rest of her, but she felt small, teasing pulses of desire coming from him. However unwillingly, she ached for another round, but dared not show him any encouragement. She didn’t want him to touch her any more than he had already threatened.

Satisfied she was dry, he laid the towel aside, unfolded the dress, and pulled it across her shoulders. She put her arms through the loose sleeves, silently pleased they reached her wrists, unlike her old dress’s. Then she held the folds of the dress in place while he tied the plain, black belt around her waist, deftly forming a large, flat knot against her lower back. The hem touched the tops of her feet, the perfect length. He let her lean against his shoulder as he knelt and slid on the socks and boots, and she was hard-pressed not to notice the gentle way he held her ankles.

She relished the feel of socks and shoes on her freshly cleaned feet. The boots were just as comfortable as she’d guessed—they even fit rather well—and the dress was warm and fine. She bit back a thank-you rising up her throat and stared at him while he quietly studied her. A pulse of desire from him told her how much he liked seeing the dress on her.

“Where did you get this?” she asked, wondering how this garment had been so readily available.

“That is a long story, indeed. I may tell you next week.”

“Why not now?” she asked, even more curious.

“If you don’t leave me now, I will not be able to stop myself from taking you again,” he uttered, rubbing his hand across his belly as if he were hungry.

“I shall take my leave, then,” she mumbled, hoping he would move out of the way so she could push past him and escape their little pocket of privacy.

“Do I not get a goodbye kiss? Until we meet again next week?” he asked, touching her shoulder. He hadn’t grabbed her, merely stopped her with the gentle pleading in his voice.

“That wasn’t in our deal,” she hedged, expecting to hear he’d slipped yet more tricky language into their agreement.

“No, it wasn’t. I’m merely hoping for one last taste of you before you leave.”

“Oh.” For once he hadn’t demanded something from her. She lifted her head and gasped at how close his face was. “Vallen,” she stammered, looking at his parted lips.

“Please?” His mouth dipped closer, but he didn’t close the distance.

With the thought that rewarding this kind of behavior was a good idea—she refused to think she also wanted one last kiss—she tilted her face up the last inch that separated them.

Eyes closing, she held back a moan as he took total possession of her mouth. Though he moved his lips slowly, sweetly, and stroked her cheek while sighing with pleasure, she was no less overwhelmed than when they’d both been in the throes of ecstasy. Arousal had turned her soft by the time their kiss ended, and she knew only some of the sensation was mirrored from Vallen. The rest was her.

“Go, then,” he whispered as he brushed his thumb along her jawline. “The seventh dawn from today, meet me in the field where we first met. I shall take up your entire morning, so be prepared.” He abruptly turned and left. She heard his retreating footsteps for only a few seconds, and then he was gone.

She waited a moment before emerging, and only when she had left the river behind her did she realize something that put a pause in her step.