Master of Desire by Lacey Alexander (e ink manga reader txt) 📗

She nodded. “Anything else?”

“As for sex— well, I cannot say, since I don’t know exactly what he has in store for  you, but…try not to fear, Teesia. Try to be open-minded.” Bella’s similar advice came to  mind as Shaena leaned slightly forward, bringing their faces close. “It may not be so horrible as he intends for it to be, if you know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t know what you mean,” Teesia  admitted on a sigh of frustration. Here Ralen thought she knew so much about  sex,  but clearly she remained completely  ignorant about it.

Shaena smiled. “I won’t lie to you, Teesia—I have been in Ralen’s bed before. And things I once thought distasteful are now pleasing  to  me  because  of  what  he  taught  me there.”

A short shock of jealousy struck,  however  insane, followed by more confusion. “Do you still…you and he?” In Caralon, it was within a  man’s rights,  even a married one, to fuck whomever he wished.

“Not for a while now,” Shaena said with  a reassuring smile. “Except for Banya,  Ralen has not been a man to confine himself  to one woman, ever. But I know he intends to be faithful within his marriage, so now it would seem that you alone  shall reap the pleasures he can impart.”

Teesia shivered. “Pleasures? Or tortures?”

The maid cast a knowing smile. “I can only  say that perhaps you will find being his

slave is not such an unsavory thing.”

37

Lacey Alexander

Chapter Three

Ralen stood, dressed in black, watching as his bride approached. The sun set over the hills behind her, the shock of late daylight making her seem to  glow as she crossedthe sand toward him in  bare feet.  The red  silk wedding gown he’d chosen for her clung deliciously to her curves, reminding him of a  frock of sea green that had fit her just as well. Wanton she may be, but she was undeniably comely, making his cock perk to attention within his leather pants even now.  Her raven hair still fell in a  long braiddown her back, a gold cord wound about it  to match the thicker sash that bound herfrom just below her breasts to the flare of her hips.

Bound, he thought. Did the sash make her feel bound? Did it hold  her as tightly, mold to her flesh as warmly as he liked to  think? Did it somehow give her even theslightest arousal? He narrowed his gaze on her.  You’d best hope  so,  vixen, for there’s much more of that  to  come.

Part of him wished things were different —that he’d  never recognized her, that some other foolish man had fallen prey to her seductive charms in the hallway, so that he’d never know what a wanton little royal she was. Had he never met her beforeyesterday, he’d be very pleased with the thought of spending the  rest of his life with  Enrick’s middle daughter.

And despite her transgressions, a girl  so pretty would make any man’s bed awarmer place. Once her punishment was over, she would warm his nicely, too. Once hefelt certain she would never stray from him.

“You selected a lovely spot for our marriage rites,” she said, smiling up at him as if they were a happy couple in love. “As a child of Myrtell, I love the ocean.”

He replied dryly, making sure not to look  into her crystal blue eyes. “Chosen before  I knew who you were, I assure you.”

The priest behind him  let out a sigh  of dismay, but Ralen ignored him.

The ceremony was the drudgery he’d expected, although thankfully short. When the priest asked Teesia  if she had a gift for  her groom,  she held out the bit of  cloth he’dnoticed in  her hand,  fluttering in  the sea breeze. Surprised she had anything—given that she’d had only a day’s warning before leaving home—he took it from her, smoothing  it in his hands.  To my husband. Yours forever, Teesia.  The words were embroidered in thread  dyed indigo, the edges of the cloth embellished with flowers ofyellow, red and fuchsia. He was surprised to find his heart softened—only slightly—by the feminine offering.

“For you to carry with you when you must leave home, or if you are called to battle,” she explained. “A remembrance. A token of my affection.”

38

Master of Desire

He  didn’t  plan  to  meet  her sparkling eyes, but once he  found her staring up at him so earnestly, he was trapped within her gaze—just for a brief moment before stuffing the cloth into his waistband and turning back to the priest.

“Have you a gift for  your bride?” the older man asked, the breeze ruffling what remained of his grayed hair.

In response, Ralen reached down to a small leather bag next to him on the  sand, extracting the extravagant jewelry he’d  commissioned. Before he’d known he was wedding a  woman in need of training  and  punishment, he’d intended the gifts to beseen as merely that—jewelry—figuring he’d reveal their real use sometime later in the marriage when he  felt his new wife was ready  for a taste of his darker appetites. Teesia, however, would discover the true purpose of the gift  tonight.

“Your wrists,” he said, indicating that she should hold them out. He locked first onethick, bejeweled bracelet around her arm, then the other.

She gasped. “They’re exquisite, Ralen.”

“Indeed,” he murmured tightly.  But he did like the look of  them on her, feeling they made her  his  in a way mere words spoken by  a man of Ares could  not. “There’s more,” he said, then stooped to clasp the matching  ankle cuffs just  above her feet. Valuablestones of red, green, blue and gold glittered beneath the rays of the setting sun.

He almost felt sorry for the naïve little wanton  as they left the beach to return to thefort. She was smiling, happy, thinking somehow  that his expensive gifts spelled love, orforgiveness. But soon enough she would understand that nothing had been forgiven, that her indiscretion could only be  forgotten through punishment, learning to obey.

The feast was grand, every person in Charelton there to celebrate his marriage.

Ralen  made  an  effort  to  smile  through