AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I… uh… was she the owner’s daughter?”
“No. Guess again.”
“A servant?”
“Oh, my Cleo loved to serve, but no, she wasn’t the help. Her talents lead… elsewhere.”
“Oh.” Katrina swallows hard. “I see.”
“Shall I proceed with the tale, or have you had enough?”
Her gaze slices to me, and I can’t help but snicker.
“Very well. So, as I was saying,” I start, before getting up from my seat, so I can lean at the corner edge of my desk just so I don’t miss even one of her expressions. “At the time, I was going through something.”
“Going through what?” she interrupts curiously.
“Let’s just say that I had a lapse of judgment that made me spiral into someone unrecognizable even to myself. I was inflicted by all those pesky emotions you northerners love so much. Shame, guilt, remorse, all of it weighed on my soul, but it was the feeling of heartbreak and utter loneliness that really did a number on me. I saw all the best physicians in the kingdom and none of them could erase the torment I was under. None of them knew how to help me. It took a whore in a whorehouse to show me the way to my salvation.”
“Cleo,” she mutters under her breath.
“Yes, Cleo. From the moment I saw her, I knew she was special. I just never realized what a significant role she would play in my life. However, it took that one encounter for me to seek her out again the next day, curiosity being the ruling force behind my decision.”
Katrina chews on her bottom lip, walking over to me so she can lean against the desk beside me.
“So she was your lover,” she says, no judgment to her tone at all.
“Not at first.” I shake my head. “At first all I did was watch. Watch her as she commanded her lovers to do her bidding. And every night I went back, the more entranced I became with the power she ruled over them. I saw grown men weep in euphoria. Women laugh after being unshackled from their personal demons. What Cleo offered wasn’t just sex. It was catharsis. Something I unknowingly had been searching for and desperately needed. So one night, I asked her if she would be willing to quit her position at the pleasure house and move into my palace. I needed to have her sole focus on me to cast away all the ghosts that tormented me so, and for that to happen, I had to be her only client.”
“So she took you on?” Katrina asks, completely wrapped up in the story.
“Have you met Cleo?” I chuckle. “Not only did she laugh in my face, but told me to get lost and never show up at her doorstep again.”
“But you didn’t take no for an answer.” Kat smiles beside me.
“Do I ever?” I wink at her, causing the blush on her cheeks to darken. “No, I refused to give up. I had seen with my very eyes what she could do, and I needed her expertise, more than I needed my next breath. So every night for a full month, there I was, offering her the same deal as the night before. I’m not sure if Cleo finally said yes because she was intrigued, or because she just wanted me out of her hair and this was the only way to go about it.” I chuckle. “I brought her home, and that same night we went to work.”
“Did it work?”
“I’ll be honest. It took us a while to figure out which ones of her methods would work best on me. But once we figured it out, then yes, kitten. It worked wonders. Cleo saved me from myself. No matter how much gold and luxuries I gift her, I will never be able to repay the debt I owe Cleo. Never,” I explain, recalling all those feelings Cleo was able to expunge from me.
When Katrina goes oddly quiet, I cover her hand with mine on the desk and give it a light squeeze.
“Did you love her?” she asks, her gaze lowered to our feet, unable to look me in the eye.
“I have only loved one woman my entire life and I have yet to stop. No, kitten. I did not love her.”
She tilts her head upward and unnamed emotions coat the beautiful shade in her eyes.
“Did she love you?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I believe the love we have for each other is mutual and strictly platonic. She’s my family and I am hers.”
Katrina nods as if understanding what I mean by that, but I see it in her eyes that there is something else weighing on her mind.
“Ask me.”
Her brows pinch together in hesitation and it’s only when I squeeze her hand again that she speaks her mind.
