Page 22 of Princess Broken

“We don’t fuck clients.” Blade steps toward me. “Not ever. Besides, you just lost your mate.”

I look up to find his grey eyes full of empathy. Wait. I’m their client?

“None of us…” Blade shakes his head. “We won’t hurt you.”

“As long as you behave,” Phil adds, his tone menacing.

I make eye contact with the big, ginger-haired vampire, and the look in his eyes shivers through me. Some of his words have been objectively offensive—most of them threatening—but something about Phil continues to intrigue me.

Intrigue my body, anyway. Between my legs, my insides clench and pulse, and although I’d like to believe that’s my body’s defense mechanisms, tightening to keep out intruders, it feels like the opposite, like my body’s issuing an invitation, one I’m grateful isn’t visible from the outside.

Phil’s expression darkens. Inhaling deeply, he groans.

Can he tell what I’m feeling? Smell me? Of course he can.

I swallow and then draw a deep breath to regain my composure.

“I’m glad that you all understand my position on this matter.” I clasp my hands in front of me, as if they can shield my arousal. “None of you will touch me. Not ever.”

“Couldn’t pay me enough to fuck you,” Phil says, and then he turns toward the end of the cavern again.

“No need to be rude.” Flame claps him on the back, and Phil shoots the blond vampire a malice-laden look, so cold I’m shocked that Flame doesn’t freeze on the spot.

I press my hands into my belly. Phil’s words hurt in a way I didn’t expect. I might not want him, but his insulting rejection still stings.

But I have no time to process those feelings.

Instead, I study my surroundings. The blindfold prevented me from memorizing details on the many twists and turns it took to arrive here, but it’s time to pay close attention again.

The floor of the small cavern we entered is smooth and surprisingly warm, and stalagmites decorate the area above us. The highest parts of the ceiling must be at least twenty stories up, and the cavern is faintly lit with a blue-tinged, white light that tells me it’s likely still night up above, assuming there’s some kind of hole opening to the outside. Craning my neck to see around the various spears of stone jabbing down, I try to spot an aperture, and also the best route to climb up there. It shouldn’t take more than four or five high leaps, depending on the footholds I find on the way up. But I don’t see any opening.

Ahead of me, Phil and Crusher duck into the darkness. Flame lights a match and gestures for me to follow. Seeing little choice, I follow and find myself in yet another tunnel, this one narrow and damp and barely high enough for the men to stand upright. Phil’s hair brushes the ceiling in places, but he clearly knows he can make it through without ducking.

We walk in single file, and my night vision quickly kicks in. Crusher’s massive, strong backside is directly in my eyesight, and I admire how the boulders of muscle visibly flex through his jeans as he strides.

A faint glow appears around the men’s silhouettes, indicating some kind of lighting in the distance. Focusing, I sense more heartbeats than the five beating in our party’s chests. We aren’t alone down here. There are other vampires ahead, and I can’t decide whether that increases or decreases the level of danger I face.

I’m well trained in the art of combat, well trained enough to know that their size and strength, combined with their four-to-one advantage, gives them the edge over any superiority I might have in the disciplines of speed, agility, or skill.

For now, fighting my captors doesn’t make sense. Instead, I must trust their vow to protect me, until I can better assess my predicament and make a plan for escape.

Warm light ahead glows around the big silhouettes that nearly fill the tunnel ahead. Voices enter the mix of the bodily sounds I previously detected, and I try to control my own heart rate and breathing. I want to strike the best mix of alertness while appearing outwardly calm. Like I’m in charge.

They did call me their client, and I am a princess, an ambassador for the vampiric monarchy and council. I must conduct myself as such. If these men, or anyone down here dares harm me, the weight of the entire vampire world will descend upon them.

Assuming I’m ever found…

The two men ahead step out of the narrow tunnel, and the resulting light temporarily blinds me. Emerging behind them, I discover a space that’s more of a room than a cavern, although clearly it’s both.

Lights, mostly red, shine onto the stalagmites piercing down into the space and scattered around like cathedral chandeliers. Some stalactites rising from the ground seem more like sculptures, and are purposefully lit as such, while some have been carved to form tables and seating, along with other more typical pieces of furniture, clearly transported from above. I spot no wooden items from which I could form a stake.

Small groups of vampires lounge around the large space, and none pay attention to us—not at first.

“A stranger?” a voice asks, and I turn to see a tall female vampire striding toward us. “I trust she’s passed the trials?”

“Chill your jets, Ebony,” Crusher says. “She’s with us.”

The vampire approaching us is tall and beautiful, her skin tone nearly as dark as the wood she’s named for, and her hair bounces around her face and shoulders. Very long feathered earrings brush over her chest, bare above a blood red leather corset that’s low cut and forces her ample breasts up and together.

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