I could tell this was a hard limit for her, so I let it be. “Alright, no baby. I promise to release you in a week, but you need to promise you won’t try to run or kill me. I’m a much better lover without my guard up.” The corner of my lip rose in a smile. “And I’d rather not lock you in a cell every night.”
* * *
I left the gate wide open so she could walk through.
It was a tense moment. I watched her like she might run off, and she sauntered through the bars with her head held high and her shoulders back. Her posture was strong, but her movements were fluid. Her hair had lost its volume after a night in the cell, and the bruises on her skin had deepened as they’d had time to settle. But she was still the most eye-catching woman I’d ever seen.
She looked at me.
I stared back, trapped in those intelligent eyes.
“Lead the way.” She gestured with her raised palm.
I moved ahead and took the stairs to the ground floor. Now we were back in the palace, and after a couple of different hallways, we approached my bedchambers. She was still behind me. I heard her all the way, and despite her promise, I wondered if she was mapping out the area for an escape route.
I opened the door and let her walk in first.
She stared into the bedchambers but didn’t walk ahead. “Looks like you already have company…”
I stepped inside and saw one of my prey in a tight dress as she sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for me to retire for the evening. “Leave.”
Her eyes narrowed in offense. “But this is my night—”
“I said, leave.”
She clenched her mouth closed, but the battle continued in her eyes. But then she made the right decision and escorted herself past us and down the hallway.
“My apologies.”
A subtle smile moved on to her lips before she walked inside.
I followed and shut the door, the excitement like electricity in my nerves. My eyes dropped down to her ass as I moved behind her, plump and perky with strong muscle. I’d love to bury my dick between those cheeks.
“I’m going to shower.” She moved to the door to the bathroom. “I want something to eat when I’m finished. And I need clothes.”
She ordered me around like I worked for her—and it was sexy. “Of course.”
She gave me a final look before she entered the bathroom and shut the door.
Fuck, I was hard.
A moment later, the door to my bedchambers flew open. “The prisoner has escaped.” Viper emerged with tinted skin like he’d run the entire way here. “The gate is wide open. She must have picked the lock.”
“Viper—”
The water started to run.
He glanced at the doorway before he looked at me again. Only took him a second to figure it out. “You released her?”
“Let’s talk in the hall—”
“Are you mad?”
“Shut up and get your ass out here.” I stepped into the hallway so he’d have to follow. “Look—”
“Is this how you rule your own people? With your dick?”
“Yes,” I said. “And it’s worked pretty well these last fifteen hundred years—”