Page 20 of The Captive's Curse
Enzo shook his head, huffing in a way that suggested suppressed laughter, but his jaw clenched even tighter.
“They willnotbe so lucky, because my rule stays in place. We’ll have to find some other way to deal with this. If my men get the idea that you’re potentially available, and that I’m wishy-washy when I give orders, half of them will be panting after you like dogs and the other half won’t obey the next time I give a command. It’s simply a matter of discipline. They are a pack of outlaws, you know. Unshaven, unkempt ruffians, just like their master.”
Oh, for—that glint in his eye made me feel like my blood might boil out of my veins. How dare he use my own perfectly true words against me like that!
But…he’d remembered my exact words, hadn’t he? That meant they’d struck home.
Which meant he wasn’t, perhaps, quite as calm and in control as he clearly wanted me, and his men, to believe.
And he wasn’t quite as clever as he wanted to be, either. If none of his men could fuck me, and we were up here in this isolated castle, then…
“If you want to fuck me yourself, you should simply say so. I suppose if I have to spread my legs for an unshaven and unkempt ruffian, it might as well be you.” Except that it would be completely different with Enzo, and I knew it deep down, where my body ached to be possessed and completed and filled. Enzo, over me. Enzo, behind me. I’d had…I’d lost track of how many men I’d had. That didn’t matter much to me
So one more man shouldn’t have mattered, either.
And yet.
I cleared my throat, kept my voice even, and said, “If you’re the only man here who can take care of my needs without causing a riot, then so be it.”
Deep red flooded his unshaven cheeks right up to his unkempt hairline, where a messy fall of black hair waved over his forehead.
“Take care of your,” he stammered, eyes widening. Oh, that was satisfying. And then he cut my legs right out from under me by adding, “I wouldn’t say I—want is a very strong word, Lord Cyril. Asking me if I’m willing might be more to the point!”
Wantis a very strong word. A strong word. A—my mind stuttered, repeated, and finally ground to a halt.
It was my turn to stammer out, “Willing. Willing?” I practically launched myself at him, all but vibrating with fury, and he took a step back. I was still inches from him, close enough to yell in his face, as he deserved. “You ought to be begging for the privilege, you kidnapping, interrupting, high-handedasshole! You should also be so lucky! And if you’re not oh-so-graciously willing, then by all means, tell me what solution you had in mind, unless you’re proposing to send me home without a ransom after all. You can’t have it both ways. Either you stick to your principle of keeping me here against my will, or you stick to your principle of not letting me sleep with any of your men. Or you stick it in me. Pick one! And anyway, I’d rather fuck that cucumber, but apparentlyI’mthe one who’s stuck withyou.”
One of his eyebrows rose maddeningly. “I don’t think cucumber seeds would quite have the same magical effect as—”
“Shut the hell up!” Pure rage washed over me, my scalp on fire, crimson sparkles dancing in my eyes, my ears buzzing like a hive of bees. “If you were the one facing a choice between fucking you and dying in agony, you wouldn’t be so fucking flippant!”
Silence thudded down between us like a ton of masonry.
A long, long silence. The presence of his big body so close to mine prickled my skin with heat, made me feel small and vulnerable and hemmed in. If I shifted back I might collapse. So I didn’t move, and Enzo didn’t move, and everything around us seemed to hold its breath.
Enzo’s jaw worked. “You’re right,” he said at last, and for a moment I thought I’d hallucinated it. “You’re absolutely right. I’m sorry. I still think the cucumber seed thing is hilarious, but that wasn’t the moment for it.”
Oh, gods, I had to get it togetherright now, and not stand here gaping at him in shock that he’d apologized and admitted fault—admitted ittwice, no less. His voice had taken on such a softness, a low, intimate rumble, when he’d been speaking kindly to me, too. It made the weak, pathetic part of me that was homesick and tired and lonely and worried want to give in and lean my aching head on his chest and hope he petted my hair.
No chance of that, though.
And besides… “There is no moment for ‘the cucumber seed thing,’ as you so eloquently put it,” I said frostily. “Since it appears you’ll be fucking me every nine days or so for the foreseeable future,” oh gods, oh gods, this man would be fucking me every nine days or so for the foreseeable future, “I must request and require that you not mention vegetables of any kind! At all, Enzo,” I said, before the mischievous glint in his eye could resolve into further impertinence. “No vegetables. I mean it.”
Had he leaned down? Or had I stretched up? Because he seemed closer all of a sudden, his black eyes filling my vision, the warmth of his breath feathering over my sensitive lips.
“No vegetables,” he said. And then he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing visibly. “Lord Cyril, I’m not going to rape you. Even passively, by making myself your only viable choice. I’ll find you someone else who’s not one of my own men if you insist on it.”
“Hah,” I scoffed. “By kidnapping someone you think might suit my purposes?”
“Yes,” he said, quite seriously. “If that’s what you want me to do.”
Fuck me, I had to be losing my mind, because no man had ever said anything to me more likely to drop my trousers to the floor than offering to kidnap someone and force him to be my sex slave.
“No,” I gasped, as my stomach clenched with a wave of lust so powerful I nearly toppled over. “That won’t be necessary. Of course I don’t want to be partially responsible for any crimes.”
“Of course not,” he said, his voice dipping to an impossibly low register. Did he sound relieved? “Well, then. No time like the present.” He took a step back, leaving me reeling and dizzy, tilting forward as if I actually had been leaning on him and he’d taken his support away. He took the torch and openedthe door. “You probably don’t know your way to your room yet. Follow me, if you would.”
Any possible words stuck in my throat. I nodded, and I followed him out.
