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I clenched my teeth until I thought they might crack.
“Open your eyes,” he said again. I did. Goddess, I opened my eyes and felt the world fall into place as his expression softened. “Will you fight me if I let you finish on your own?”
“Fight you?”
“Spar with me.”
I swallowed and could do nothing more than nod. He dropped the cloth into the basin and made quick work of unlocking the manacles. Retreating to the back of room, he crossed his arms over his chest. I rubbed my wrists and then, before he changed his mind, stripped and gave myself a cursory bath.
“Clean clothes.” He tossed a bundle at me. Buckskin breeches with laces for fastenings and a loose white shirt. Both were finer than anything I’d ever owned and when I asked why I was being given a gentleman’s clothes, Puck laughed and asked if I would prefer a hair shirt.
The light in his eyes told me he’d happily put me in one.
“Shoes?” I asked.
“No. You won’t need them.”
He led me out of the room and along the hall. A simple door cut into the party wall between the residence and the Hell took us into another—more richly decorated—hall. One with rooms leading off it at regular intervals and the sounds and smells of sex.
“I thought you kept these activities elsewhere.”
“We don’t tell our people where to do their business. Besides for the younger ones it is safer for their clients to come here.”
“How young?” I asked, suddenly aware how little I knew about Oberon and Puck’s business.
Puck whirled on me a nasty sneer contorting his too handsome face. “We do not traffic children.” He must have seen some horror in my face at the thought. “They must have reached their majority.”
“Two years younger than me. I merely asked for I was eighteen when I came here.”
“An oversight on our part.” Puck cracked his neck and gave me his back. I followed more sedately, more cautiously for my slowly returning alpha senses were overwhelmed by the scents coming from the rooms.
Puck pushed me into the long, low room at the top of the Hell. Betas, male and female, boxed and practised wrestling against each other. These were the famed bodyguards employed by the highest in society. I’d never been one of their number. Perhaps because I’d come to Puck and Oberon as an alpha, they’d not once been invited to spar here.
“A couple of rounds.”
“I’ve no skill at this.”
“You’ve strength and anger enough to pummel me. Jepson, give him some wraps.”
I watched as Puck took strips of cloth and wrapped them his wrists and hands. I doubted there was much protection but my eyes were drawn to his movements for he pulled his shirt over his head in a single, fluid motion. His smirk had a playful tilt to it and that more than being caught staring at his perfectly muscled chest had my cheeks heat.
“White people always get so pink.” He laughed. “It is attractive on her. On you it is a little more…” He waved his hand in a familiar sign of so-so. “Let’s get that heat in your blood pumping in a different way.”
I pulled my shirt off and resisted the impulse to shield my body from his assessment. It was not the same hard plains as his. A side effect of my inactivity rather than a side effect of the drug.
“Put your fists up.” He bounced on the balls of his feet, light and agile giving a few stabs at the air between us. “Come on, pretty boy.”
I mimicked his stance. “You’ll embarrass me.”
“Show me what I’m working with.” He grinned and threw a punch even I could dodge. When I tried, I overbalanced, stumbling. But I wasn’t a fool and caught myself fast enough and spun, taking him around the waist. What had been a poor excuse for sparring, turned into a more evenly balanced wrestling match. His technique against my weight and height. We grappled, our sweat slicked bodies making it harder to get a good grip on the other.At last I managed to I roll and pin his arms above his head but the hot look in his eyes told me he’d let me best him.
“Except for that first move, you fight fair,” he panted. “I’m impressed. A little longer and you might actually be able to beat me. Now off, I’ve things to do.”
“No,” I growled. “I’ll not—”
“Oh?” He smirked and rolled his hips forcing me to acknowledge the press of his cock. I wanted to pull away and express the disgust I should feel at being attracted to another alpha but it was impossible to deny when my cock ached. And even if he could not feel how hard I was, my scent told all my secrets. The advantages of a beta’s muted senses had vanished in the last week. “Just cocks,” he purred as he ran a hand through my hair. “You can do that right, pup? Fuck your cock against mine?”
I bristled at being called pup by him. That was Oberon’s name for me. I was “pretty boy” to Puck, but I didn’t dare reveal the importance of the difference when I didn’t know it myself.
