MasukRonanI didn't answer. I flipped Nadia onto her front, gripping her small waist as she landed face-first in the pillow, her dark hair fanning out across her sharp shoulder blades.I pinned her pale wrists with one large hand, her knuckles whitening as she fisted the sheets, and kneeling on the bed, I forced her slim hips up, exposing her smooth back and the dip of her spine all the way to her pert ass.Firelight glimmered along her naked skin, picking out the ridges of her ribs and the jut of her hipbones, and I yanked her back against my cock with a grunt.A painful cry tore from Nadia's throat, muffled by the pillow, and her body bucked and undulated beneath me. My fingers sank into her waist, leaving angry red marks behind, and I dragged her back hard against me until she threw her head up with a choked moan.Dark hair slid over her shoulder as she twisted to look back at me, tears glistening in her pale eyes, her lips parted and swollen.A wince contorted her face and she buried i
RonanHer pale eyes went wide and fixed, never blinking as she stared at my freed cock, and her lips parted, her tongue sliding out and wetting her lips.Her fingers twitched toward my shaft, unsure and greedy, as a slow smile spread across her face with something unhinged in it. The back of my neck prickled, and I knew I was being looked at like meat."Oh, Majesty," she breathed, still staring. "You're so massive."Almost in a trance, she dropped to her knees, gripping me with a bold, greedy hand, her eyes daring me to do something about it.Gripping the bedpost, I watched her through narrowed eyes as she licked a slow stripe up my length. "Don't you dare tease me, girl." My words were a low warning.She just laughed, the sound vibrating through me, before taking me into her mouth. Her hand fisted my base as she worked me in deeper, her lips stretched around my girth.I let my head fall back, groaning at the wet heat of her mouth."Oh yeah, you like this, don't you?" she said around
RonanThe fire in my chambers was too loud, every crack of the logs going through my head, and I had my shirt half open because my skin wouldn't stop burning.The moon was coming, and it curled at the edges of my vision, a red filter laid over everything, making my temper thin.I heard the laugh first, loud enough to carry through two doors, and under it I caught the scrape of wood in iron as the bar came out of its brackets.Maren must have opened her door when they passed. That shrill bray from the tribute bitch grated on me as she laughed that I couldn't go another night without using her.Maren's flat, bored voice carried down the corridor, and the gist of it went straight to my temper. The King went through girls like dirty washing, and he would soon be sick of this one too. Then the bar scraped back into its brackets with a heavy clang.I was on my feet before the knock came. I opened the door to find Sigrun, courteous, a guard at her side, the tribute behind them in some fancy
MarenHe stayed where he was by the door. "My mother told me you wouldn't kneel to her this morning.""I didn't," I said."Next time, if you don't want to kneel, say so. Don't use my name."I stared at him, then nodded. "Okay."He glanced at my untouched plate. "Eat," he said.I stayed where I was and left the plate alone without a word, and he looked at me a moment and didn't say it again.He turned to the door and put a hand on the latch. "Tomorrow night," he said, "you bar that door, keep Brida in here with you, and no matter what, you must keep it shut. Do you understand?"I frowned even though I understood."Why?""Keep the door shut, Maren."He went out toward his own chambers, and the door shut behind him.He hadn't been gone a minute before Brida let herself back in, shutting the door behind her and looking me over as if she expected to find marks on me. Her grey eyes held a mix of gleeful disbelief and worry as she shook her head."I never thought I'd live to see one of them
MarenSince dusk I had been listening to every set of footsteps in the corridor, waiting for the one that would bring Nadia to the King.Behind me, Ilsa moved quietly in the sitting room, laying out the supper I had no intention of touching. I had eaten nothing all day, and I would keep it that way.That afternoon a carpenter had come on the King's order and fitted a heavy wooden bar to the inside of my door, set in iron brackets, and nobody would tell me what it was for. When not in use, the bar rested against the wall beside the door, its brackets sitting empty.Ilsa set a dish down on the table and bowed her head to me. "Perhaps the King wishes to keep his pet in a cage, Madam," she said in her smooth voice.Brida snorted from her seat by the hearth. "A bar that size is made to keep something out, not in, and nobody's saying what. The kitchen has been heating bathwater over in the Tributes' wing all evening, for tonight."Ilsa set the next dish down a beat too late at the word "ton
MarenThe Queen's eyes moved to Ilsa, who knelt on the floor in a plain grey servant's dress, her back held stiffly."Ilsa," she called flatly. "Why are you dressed like this, and what happened to you?"Ilsa didn't answer. Her eyes stayed on the floor in front of her, her face impassive.The Queen's voice hardened. "Ilsa, I'm talking to you. Why are you dressed like a servant and what happened to you."Ilsa's gaze flicked up to meet the Queen's for a brief moment before dropping down again."The King took the wing from me and gave me to Madam to serve, Majesty," she said smoothly."Yesterday he had me whipped."I had been there both times it happened, and both times it was because of me. But Ilsa had left that part out.The Queen's eyebrows arched. "Madam?" she echoed, a note of amusement in her voice. "And who is Madam?"Ilsa turned her head, just slightly, to look back at me.The Queen's eyes followed Ilsa's back to me."Who died and made you Madam?" she sneered.Before I could get







