Page 28 of Crown of Thorns
Before I can get even another half step down the hall, with my foot raised in the air like the statue of an old war general, Rhys grabs me from behind and pushes me up against the silk covered walls. The tops of my breasts spill out of the demure neckline of mygown, pressed against the wall below my cheek, as I breathe heavily, in and out. I feel the rigid length of him pressed hard against my backside and I gasp as he cups my pussy over the layers of tulle that make up my skirt and pulls me back against him by the anchor point between my legs. But it doesn’t matter how much fabric blocks him from the very heat of me because I feel him there as if I’m bare.
“Rhys—” I whisper a cautious warning, but he stops me short when he rocks his hips against mine. I feel him everywhere.
“Hush, hen,” he snaps. “I’m tired of the attitude and I’m tired of the bullshit. Aye, it’s true I’m hard all the time but it’s for no one but you.”
My heart thunders in my ears. He’s never taken this tone with me before and it scares me. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t also light a fire inside of me, and that fire licks up the inside of my pussy with a molten wet heat.
Still, I know better than to challenge him now, so I keep my mouth shut.
“Aye,” he says. To me? To him? I don’t know… But I want to and at the same time, I don’t. “I think you need to learn a lesson, hen. Learn fast and listen well.”
He rucks up the back of my dress and I feel the cool air of the hallway wisp over my exposed flesh as I hear the snick of his zipper. I feel the sting as he rips away the expensive silk panties that he paid for and stuffs them in his pocket.
And then he’s there. The blunt tip of his hard lengthpressed up against me but it’s the only warning I get before he thrusts all the way in, my body burning as it tries to make room for him. It hurts… but there’s more to it than that, and I have a feeling Rhys needs this. He needs to show me this cruel side of him, and I’d be foolish not to see this lesson for what it is. This man, who has tied me to him so thoroughly, is not a hero of my story… He’s the villain.
It’s all I can do to press the flat of my hands against the wall and brace myself as he drives into me over and over. His hands grip my body over the front of the dress that looks as if it’s come from Cinderella’s own closet.
I hear a gasp and look over my shoulder as a shocked maid stands at the end of the hall. I have no idea what door she came from and I suspect it doesn’t matter either. She looks as stricken as I’m sure I do, both of us being debased by Rhys’s sudden cruelty.
“That would be Meg,” he growls into my ear. “And aye, I’ve fucked her too. Just like this, hen. In this very hallway no less. But it’s no’ her body that drives me to distraction, it’s no’ her sleeping in my bed every night, and it’s no’ her bloody bullheadedness that’s driving me daft!”
“Rhys, please—” I beg as I watch Meg bite her lip.
“She’d let me fuck her even now, knowing that I’m to marry you. How does that make you feel, hen?”
“Does it matter?”
“Aye,” he growls as he fucks me harder. My bodyis no longer burning for him, this is nothing but pure punishment. This is nothing short of torture. “It does. Tell me, do you want me fucking her instead of you?”
“No,” I whisper as the first tear rolls down my cheek.
“Do you want her to join us in our bed then?” he asks as he plunges into me over and over. “Do you want to share me with her? Or anyone else?”
“No.” I close my eyes, unable to look at the maid anymore, knowing that she could take him from me at any time. My place here is as unstable as my safety, even though I’m not sure I want to be here. But that’s not about being with Rhysthe man, that’s about living life with Rhysthe king.
“Then she won’t be,” he says as if it’s that simple. “Now take your fucking like a good girl and you’ll wear the cum of a king through dinner to remind you of not only who you belong to, but who belongs to you.”
And then his hand slides down the ruched bodice of my gown and slides under my skirt where it’s bunched up to accommodate him. His fingers effortlessly find where we join and he strokes me, knowing exactly what my body wants, what it craves, and he sends me hurtling toward an orgasm when I didn’t think one was possible.
“Rhys,” I pant.
“Aye,” he groans, his hips moving faster as he pumps into me. “That’s it, hen. Aye but you’re a glorious fuck.”
“Yes,” I beg. “Fuck me.” I need it. I need what he can give me. I should have let him give me that orgasm in front of my dressing room mirror and then I wouldn’t have been so wound up to begin with.
But then he plants himself deep and groans as he spills himself inside of me. His hands slide away from my body and land on the wall beside mine as he holds himself up. The only part of him still touching me is his cock as it softens, and he effectively denies me my own orgasm even though he upped the level of humiliation I’ve been dished out inside the walls of this castle.
Tears well in my eyes and fall unchecked as he tucks himself back into his slacks and rights his clothing before letting my skirts fall back to the ground. If there is such a thing as a fair and just God, Rhys would leave me alone to go back to my rooms and lick my wounds. But he’s shown me how awful he can be and he seems to want to hold on to that cruelty for a little bit longer still.
His hands fall gently on my upper arms, and he turns me around.
When I open my eyes again, Meg is long gone and only Rhys is standing with me in the long hallway.
“I said you own me, hen, but I didn’t say you could come. Maybe a bit of delayed gratification will be good for you.”
“Please let me go,” I whisper.
“You know that Icanno’.”
