Page 49 of Royal Captive
“Wait!” I called out.
He paused, his face tense. As he turned back to face me, he attempted to flatten his expression out into a mask of indifference.
“Princess, let me be clear. You are here at great risk to Prince Shyllon and me. I need you alive and whole for what is coming, not the broken shell that you would likely become after being passed around at the pleasure house to every fae with two coins to rub together. Shyllon owes me a favor and has agreed to put you up, knowing he’s Father’s favorite and able to withstand the scrutiny. Do you understand?”
No. Not at all.
His tone made it clear I was supposed to, though. So, I said nothing.
Alihandro nodded, convinced that I now understood whatever it was he’d tried to get across to me. He paused at the door one last time.
“Oh, and feel free to bathe.”
He left.
Feel free to bathe.
Yeah, because the purpose had been served, hadn’t it? All those fae had smelled him on me … or ratherinme, and they’dtell everyone else I belonged to him. It was supposed to keep me safe.
Instead, I felt dirty and used.
I didn’t regret it—Alihandro had comforted me when I needed it, and it had snapped me out of my self-pity. I wouldn’t feel bad about the act itself.
I just hated once again being a pawn for the men around me.
My hands balled into fists in the soft silk sheets.
They wouldn’t know what hit them.
Sixteen
ELLIS
“Morning, sleepyhead.”
Fallon rolled over in bed next to me, a teasing grin on her face. The covers fell away, exposing the swell of her creamy hips and her full breasts.
It was becoming harder to find reasons to say no to the fae princess who’d taken such an interest in me.
Her hands against my cheek were cold, but the sensation of contact with another being was so needed that I closed my eyes and relaxed against the pillows. “My handsome prince. What wickedness shall we get up to today?”
My lips had barely parted before she was already on top of me, straddling my hips while her breasts hung in my face. Her fingers brushed against my cock, barely needed since I was already hard.
There was only so much a man could resist, after all.
What wickedness shall we get up to today?
Oh, if only she knew. I groaned as she slipped me inside of her, sinking down and covering me with her heat. Her hipsmoved in a sinful, slowly gyrating pattern as she took charge. My fingers balled in the sheets.
“Poor prince. Is it too much?” she cooed, her smirk belying her sympathetic tone.
If she thought me reluctant or afraid, then I wouldn’t correct her. Let her mistake my reticence for inexperience; it didn’t matter either way. What mattered were the connections I would gain from this … dalliance: connections that would keep Eve and me safe.
Thoughts of death and blood filled my head as Fallon took her pleasure with me, her breathing growing more erratic and her thrusts harder. Her inner walls clenched and squeezed, and I thought of Peri’s dead face. I thought of my dead family. I thought of anything that would keep me from exploding and disappointing her. I needed Fallon on my side and happy. If I could get the king’s favored daughter under my thumb, I would.
That meant dead eyes, unstaring ahead of me. It meant my family in a tangle of limbs, dead on the floor. It meant—
“Surely I am not that awful at it,” grumbled Fallon.
