Qay gave a sigh, pulled out of my body in one slick motion. “He’s already gone.” I closed my eyes, all tension draining out of me. I spooned myself against him, sighing in bliss.
“You have read the book, right, my heart?” Qay asked, and I had the feeling that not all was as well as it should be. “Did you understand everything?” I moved in his arms, twisted my body to face him. “I understood that we wouldn’t be alone. But I got that over and done with.” When he didn’t answer, a chill crept up me back. “What more is there?”
“There’s another night,” he said quietly. “Only after the third night you’ll make your decision to accept us, to accept that you are part of three.”
“Part of three,” I repeated. “Okay, so tomorrow I’ll sleep with you and he gets to prepare me again?”
“No, my heart,” he whispered. “Tomorrow night, I will prepare you for him.”
“You look beautiful.” Qay held out his hand. “Ready?” No, I wasn’t ready to see Zyn tonight, but if he was the path to Qay, I was willing to follow it.
I smoothed my dress down—a deep black fabric with shades of gray made from the same silky material I already knew. I had wondered how the women dressing me had known that it matched my mood perfectly. I even liked the dark high-heeled shoes, which gave me the necessary height to kiss Qay without rising to my toes.
I lost track of direction as Qay led me through a labyrinth of hallways, but the general direction was up. He pushed open a set of wide doors and led me inside. The room resembled my own quarters, only less furnished, almost barren. Harsh, like Zyn.
But it had a bed, and I intended to get it over with quickly.
I turned to Qay. “And you are sure you want me to sleep with him?” Qay smiled, his eyes crinkling. “You take a moment and ask yourself what
you
want.”
“You, I want you,” I said without hesitation. I took his hand, placed it against my chest, letting him feel the rhythm of my heartbeat. “This is what I want. You and me, beat after beat, year after year, together.”
“We all need balance in life,” Qay said. “We all need something more. And there is nothing more perfect than the joining of heart, mind and soul.” I bit my lip. “There’s something else you’re not telling me, right?”
“Zyn is Dezra’s ruler by birth,” Qay said quietly, “and he has abilities no one else has. I was
elected
to rule at his side. He’s Dezra’s soul, and I am the mind. It is a law that we must find one woman to complete us. We both love you. But if you don’t choose us in return—”
“Stop,” I said, holding up my hand. “He does
not
love me, so there’s that.” I searched the room for Zyn, but I only found the large cat roaming restlessly.
“Where is he?” I asked, shivering slightly.
The cat prowled toward me, ears flat to the head. I took one step back then another.
The cat leaped, snarling. I froze in fear, sure that I’d feel teeth sinking into my skin any second, when a rush of heat whipped past my face. In an instant, the cat collapsed and sprinted into the far corner of the room.
“Miss me?” Zyn’s voice came from behind me and my heart jumped into my throat.
I swiveled around then took a step back because he was so close.
“That cat. I don’t want her. Set her free.” Clearly, he hadn’t tamed the animal but only controlled her with his mind. “It’s not right to keep her captive.” Zyn regarded me with a cool expression, his thoughts impossible to guess. Then I saw what he held in his hand and I couldn’t stop myself from staring. “I guess…I guess they came with the horses.” I went cold then so hot my face felt on fire.
“What, this thing?” Zyn hit the flat end of the riding crop against his palm.
“Interesting sound, don’t you think?”
I lowered my gaze because the gleam in Zyn’s eyes made my heart skip a beat.
“Let’s save your answer for later,” Zyn said, holding a polished dark wooden box under my nose. “In the meantime, open your present.”
“You open it,” I said, and when he did, flipping the box open, I sucked in a breath.
A copper-colored necklace engraved with a three-leaved flower pattern rested against the polished wood. He took the piece from the box. Cold metal greeted my skin as he wound the choker around my neck. I touched it, traced the engraved pattern.
He leaned forward, his mouth close to my ear as he brushed a strand of hair away from my face. “Now you look like the cat after I caught her and put a collar around her neck. Are you going for my throat too? Or will you kneel at my feet?” My stomach curled tight. I caught Qay’s gaze, sure he would take off the necklace because it was such a blatant sign of ownership.
But he didn’t.
Instead, Qay stepped to me to unlace my dress. It pooled to my feet and I froze, caught unaware that I suddenly found myself wearing only a pair of panties and shoes.
The high heels forced my back into an arc that pushed my breasts forward and I found both men staring.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said, sounding bolder than I felt. I just needed to spread my legs for Zyn, it should be easy. But I’d make sure I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of climaxing in his arms. I tugged the panties over my hips, tossed them aside.
Zyn laughed—a low, infuriatingly sexy laugh that sent my body all the wrong signals. He took me by the elbow and led me to the bed. I climbed on, flipped on my back. “Ready when you are.” I decided that it was best to handle the affair matter-of-factly.
I saw the two men exchange a glance, almost felt a whisper of thoughts cross through the room. Were they talking about me?
Zyn climbed onto the bed, hooked my leg over his arm, spreading me. The sight of him between my legs was more than startling, it was terrifying. He gazed at me, and the spark gleaming in the depths of his eyes was even more discomfiting. He knew I wanted to get it over quickly, but what could he do against it? What?
Qay leaned forward, his fingers slipping between my thighs. The back of his hand brushed my clit. A low moan escaped me as I realized how wet I already was. I would prefer it to hurt when Zyn thrust his cock inside me. Taking pleasure from his touch was wrong. There was only one male who was allowed to bring me pleasure and that was my future husband. That was how I’d dreamed it to be, as a girl, gazing at the stars and seeing spaceships sailing across the sky. I’d wished upon them to bring me a kind, gentle and loving husband. Something had heard my wish and sent me Qay, and that was all I’d ever asked for.
Qay slipped inside me, working his finger in and out of my cunt until I writhed with lust. I swallowed as Zyn pulled his pants over his hips, freeing his erect cock. His hand came to brace itself next to my head, and Qay’s hand was still on one of my knees, as if he was trying to prevent me from closing my thighs.
“I told you you’d be mine,” Zyn said to me quietly, guiding the thick head of his cock between my folds. He thrust forward in one hard shove. My breath came in a sharp gasp at the feeling of him. My muscles clenched as he spread me. It was a shock to feel him penetrate me, and all my intentions to be snide and blasé evaporated as he pushed his thick cock deeper inside my cunt. I had thought I knew how it would feel, having him inside me.
He’d kissed me. He’d read my mind. He’d even brought me to an orgasm. But he’d never penetrated me. He’d never really fucked me before. I gazed at him, the reality of the act sinking in with sharp clarity as he moved his hips flush against mine. Then he said something that sent my entire being into a spasm of fright.
“Qay, leave us alone.”
“No,” I yelled, trying to get up, but the movement alone wrought a startled moan from my lips. Zyn’s weight pinned me to the bed, almost crushed me. Already I couldn’t feel Qay’s hand on my knee anymore, already I saw him turning away.
“But, but…” I raked me mind. “You
have
to stay. It’s tradition.”
“I already witnessed the joining of heart and soul.” And I watched him leave the room, my heart breaking. How could I ever forgive him?
When the door clicked shut, the silence in the room grew thicker with each second.
I closed my eyes, knowing it made no sense to fight. Zyn was too strong. When he moved on top of me, I bit back a moan. I loathed that the friction of his cock stroking my insides brought me pleasure.
“I don’t care,” I said, trying to hide my broken heart in sarcasm. “Feel free to fuck me any way you want to.”
“Your permission, my heart, is something I won’t need tonight.” My damn breasts tightened as he pulled his cock out of me, the movement wringing a sharp intake of breath from my lungs. I grit my teeth, waiting for him to thrust in again, waiting for him to fuck me like the savage he was.
When he moved from the mattress, making me bounce on top of it, I stared after him. He’d pulled his pants up, walked to a small table and poured himself a glass of clear liquid.
“Thirsty?” he asked, carrying the glass over to me.
“Trying to make me drunk?”
“Sit up,” he said, and like a puppet on strings I did, didn’t even think about it. My throat tightened, seeing him loom above me while I was at his mercy on his bed, wearing nothing but a pair of shoes. “Now drink.” I took the glass. Water ran down my throat. I actually would have preferred something stronger. When the glass was empty, I flung it across the room. “You did that on purpose, you bastard.”
“I thought it would be best to get past all that tradition first, so I could send your lover away.”
“What the
hell
do you want from me?”
“You know,” he said quietly. “You know what we both want from one another.”
“What?” I whispered, knowing what he meant but not ready to admit it.
“I will give you the pleasure you crave,” he said. “The kind of pleasure Qay can’t give you because he loves you too much. He has mastered your heart, but not your body. I’ll master both.”
“I won’t let you.” I got up from the bed, had already crossed the room when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder. “I want to leave.”
“You don’t want to leave.” The cruel edge to his voice sent shivers down my back.
His hand came around my neck, held me still. He lifted my hair and something cold slid along my skin and snapped shut around the necklace. He gave a tug at the leash.
“Now we’ll play.”
He had clipped a leash to the choker, and if I was honest with myself, I’d known from the start he would. He’d been inside my head, knew what I craved, and he was giving it to me, one cruel move at a time.
Zyn returned my gaze, leisurely checking me out, holding the leash in one hand, and in the other—the riding crop.
I wrapped my arms around my chest. But my stupid shoes forced my back into an arc, pushing my breasts forward and my ass backward. I could deal with nakedness, but those shoes turned me into his plaything, his object. Blood rushed to my face and shame crept up my spine under his scrutinizing gaze.
I was glad that he had sent Qay away.
He stepped behind me and swung the riding crop at my ass. I bit my lip, catching the moan that wanted to escape at the sound of leather meeting my bare skin with a satisfying snap. And there was the sting, the pain that his smack had evoked.
It hadn’t really hurt—the smack. Not nearly enough. But the implications of him swatting at my bare ass while I stood before him, wearing those shoes, the choker, the leash. It brought me to my knees. Lust tugged at me, intensified by the humiliation he put me through.
Crouching, he seized me by my neck and tugged my head up, forcing me to look at him. Calmly, he said, “I didn’t allow you to kneel. The next time you do anything without being given permission, I’ll punish you.” This was when I stopped pretending that I didn’t long for Zyn.
He stroked the riding crop lightly over my breasts. My cunt spasmed as he gave each nipple a sharp little flick. I didn’t know how much he could sense of my desires.
But he licked his lips like a snake tasting the air when I let out a long moan. He didn’t penetrate my thoughts, hadn’t tried to. But I was astutely aware that he still sensed something about me. My inner thighs were damp and I noticed how his gaze was drawn to the juncture between my legs. I spread my thighs, just a little, giving him more to look at. My move didn’t fool him. He knew exactly that I was baiting him.
The flat tip of the riding crop traveled over my stomach and a breathless surge of excitement gripped me. I wanted to lose myself in his touch, in his cruelty, but couldn’t.
Something was holding me back, and I realized that if I ever wanted to find mindless pleasure with him, he would need to earn my limitless trust. How, I couldn’t say. But I found myself wanting him to find a way for me to submit completely and utterly to his wishes.
I wanted him to rope me, spank me. I wanted his sadistic eyes on me as he shamed me into tears. I craved this rough treatment, it made me feel alive. And I wanted him to fuck me, never knowing what he would do or demand next.
Pointing with the riding crop to the bed, he said, “Get over there.” I rose to one knee, attempting to stand, when a hard tug at the choker brought me down on my knees again. Wincing, tears shot into my eyes as the metal choker bit into my neck.
The smack he wielded had me crying out. There was nothing teasing about how he had brought the crop against my ass.
“Why did you try to stand?”
I shook my head, my movement restricted by him holding the leash. “I just thought—”
“Don’t,” he said. “Now get over to the bed.”
He stayed behind me, leash in hand, and I felt his gaze against my ass as I crawled on all fours toward the bed.
“Stop,” he said, giving me a light tap with the crop. He grabbed one, two thick pillows and stacked them on top of each other in the middle of the bed. “Up,” he said, nodding toward the pile of cushions.
I slid myself onto it, resting my upper body on the length of the cushions, keeping my knees on the hard floor. I hugged my arms around the pillows, enjoying the softness at my breasts while my knees already hurt from kneeling on the floor.
“Spread those legs,” he said, slapping my inner thighs with the crop. “Don’t get up from this position until I tell you to. If you ever feel the need to scream, you can muffle the sound by biting into the pillow.” He laughed, a truly dark sound that had my nipples hardening into aching points. I rubbed against the pillow until a tug at the leash had me gasping. “Stop that,” he said. “You will not touch yourself or bring yourself pleasure in any way.”