AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There she is.” Doryn offers me his hand wordlessly.
When I approach to take it, he tugs me until I fall to his lap, and brings his mouth to the crook of my neck, setting my skin and the flesh beneath ablaze. Somehow, the fleeting kiss travels straight through my limbs, and brings a jolt of energy right to my clit.
I am insatiable. I am unleashed. And I likely am exactly what the dark king of night accused me of being, because he’s right. My body, my soul, thrives when it’s being used. It likes it.Ilike it.
I wonder if my liking his abuse excuses him. I wonder if my not controlling my fate excuse my enjoyment of it. I wonder why either of us need excuses at all.
Have you ever questioned anything you’ve been told, girl?
I hadn’t, but I’m starting to, and it feels like a dangerous slope. I’ll either emerge wiser, or entirely corrupted.Evil.
30
CALDORYN
It is easy to forget that we’re just pretending. Rhea can’t help herself; by nature, she’s warm, welcoming, her body folding next to mine, following my lead. She lets me kiss and touch her, leaning into it, rubbing herself against me like the naughty, wild thing that she is. It’s getting hard to remember that she’d slice my throat at the first opportunity.
I play a hand against Lark and lose, then win against Vessorian, Silver, and Castien. When Alrion deals me against Rath, I decide to be a gracious host, and avoid aggressive moves I would gladly have made against any member of my circle. He utterly destroys me, so I make a mental note to pass on chivalry in the future where he is concerned. I was foolish to think a man of his age needed a softer opponent.
“Perhaps you’d like to play with us, Rhea?” the duke asks the beauty perched over my aching cock.
It’s been hard for the better part of an hour. I’m resigned that it’s likely to remain that way in my lady’s presence. She exudes carnality, more so now than she did a mere day ago. There’s no telling what she’ll become once she’s properly fed regularly.
“I don’t know that game.”
“There’s nothing to it,” he replies, dealing cards in front of her, and passing another deck to Daeron, the weakest player among us. “We start with ten. The goal is to rid yourself of as many cards as you can. You know the order, yes?”
“Numbers first, then the fool, the knight, the queen, and the king?” she guesses.
He inclines his head. “During the game, a king takes a queen, a ten takes a three. It’s rather instinctive. But when we tally the points, the higher they are, the last point they wield at the end. A king is one point, a queen, two, and so on.”
“Is the ace supposed to be highest or the lowest?”
“An ace takes anything at all, and counts for no point in the end.”
He makes it sound like the game’s easy, which I suppose it is. Most children could play. Winning is another matter.
“I don’t have any coin,” she says.
We’ve been playing for a few silvers. Before I can offer her a few off my purse, Daeron offers in a huff, “I’d play ten silver against a taste of your lips.” He’s a man of few words, and they come out as a gruff grunt.
I’m surprised Rhea smiles. “That’s an expensive kiss.”
“You didn’t ask which lips I want to taste, pretty fiend.”
The entire circle chuckles. Who knew Daeron could flirt? Certainly not I.
Rhea’s unbothered, either resigned to her position here or embracing her nature—I’d like to think it’s the second option. She certainly doesn’t seem to mind my cock digging between her legs through the tattered dress. “Who starts?”
“Ladies first,” Daeron offers magnanimously, though typically we pick a card from the deck to decide.
Starting gives an advantage with a strong hand—if she has a two or three, it almost guarantees high points—but I can tell her hand’s not great. I itch to advise her, but before I can, she puts down a seven. Exactly the card I would have chosen in her shoes.
She might have just recently learned the rules, but Rhea’s playing is exemplary. Daeron’s too restless to focus on a tranquil, lifeless game without real life-or-death stakes.Daeron believes in keeping Nyxar strong, and I can count on him to rally the lords behind a worthy cause. But as an affluentlord without much responsibility—it’s his aunt who rules their land—and with plenty of money, he nevercareswhether he wins or loses.
He cares today. He focuses. The lack of practice means that I could have beaten him easily, but he's the perfect adversary for Rhea.
She wins by one point, and if Daeron's disappointed, he doesn't show it. The sunny smile she sends his way as she collects the small pile of coin at the center of the table more than makes up for it.
