AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Really? This woman, this sad, desperate woman, who has been kept captive all these years, and you can’t think of a single reason why you shouldn’t be kissing her right now?
Control.
The word penetrated his lust-fueled haze. And for the first time in longer than he could remember he felt ashamed.
Ashamed of what he had done, ashamed of what he had been about to do, and the novelty of that was almost greater than that of the arousal he felt over the kiss.
Guilt. Guilt and uncontrollable lust. He couldn’t remember when he had felt either thing.
It was a heady cocktail, and one that did nothing to dampen the desire that he felt.
He wanted to luxuriate in that shame.
Because there was something about it that made him feel...human.
It had been a very long time since he had felt human.
“Enough,” he said, setting her back away from him.
“Why?” she asked, her eyes wide, her breathing fast and hard. “Why is it enough? It seems as if it is very clearly not enough.”
“Annick,” he said. “This was a dancing lesson, nothing more.”
“I don’t want just dancing. Show me this.”
“No,” he said, his voice hard, rough. A stranger’s voice.
He was choked on his need for her, and he felt nearly dizzy with it. She was...
She was practically glowing, like a magical creature the likes of which he did not believe really exis
ted.
But then, anyone who could make him feel... anything on par with what he did now was... Something he had not expected.
“I wish to know myself. You said that I should. How can I know myself if I don’t know what it is to be a woman?”
“When you choose a man to teach you,” he said, his voice rough, “he will be one who can give you what you want. Who can be gentle with you. To be slow and teach you all the things your body can do.”
“Are you saying you could not?”
“I could do things to you that would make you scream. I can make you forget your name. But I’m not gentle. And I’m not patient. I’m not the kind of lover a virgin should have.”
“Then I will find a man. And have him dispense of my virginity at once. So that I might have you before you leave. For I find I wish to know what it is to be naked with you.”
“The hell you will,” he said, the possessive statement coming out of his mouth before he could stop it.
“It is...that thing. Catch Thirty-Two.”
“Twenty-Two.”
“You will not have me if I’m a virgin.” She spread her hands. “You do not wish me to go become not a virgin.”
“You’re losing focus. Your virginity has nothing to do with whether or not you’re good at running a country.”
“I want to live,” she said. “And until I get past all these confusions, I don’t know how I’m going to. How will I be Queen? Tell me this, Maximus King. Because I do not know how to be a person. I was a child, and then I was a prisoner. I became a woman physically while locked in a cell. But I have not learned to dress myself. I have not learned to dance. I have not learned what to do when I feel these things.”
“A tip for you,” he said. “You enjoy spending time in bed. Make work of exploring your body while you do so. It might help take the edge off.”
