The
calayas
looked petrified – no doubt from the prospect of jumping off a ledge ten stories high into a narrow hatch without any safety. The shuttle rose as high as it could and got as close as possible, but it was too big to actually land, so they had to jump.
There were guards closing in on them from both sides of the circle, not to mention the ones who’d finally caught up with them from behind. The audience still present was cheering for them wildly, overjoyed by the addition to their spectacle.
“We’ll die,” Marelle put the thoughts of the girls into words at last.
“No you won’t,” the Prince said. “You won’t jump yourself. You’ll just have to trust us. Think you can make it, Ronay?”
The warrior measured the distance and snorted. “Is there a choice? You sure do know how to make an exit. Don’t you think they’ll start firing at us soon?”
“With the
calayas
here? No,” the Prince said. “They want to get close enough to make sure who they’re hitting. I suggest we be gone by that point. I’ve had enough blood for one day.”
Ronay looked at the awaiting shuttle again and shrugged. “I can’t say life is boring around you. Maige?”
The
calaya
was looking at him with the kind of trusting smile only true love could muster. Areon sincerely hoped Ronay’s skills were good enough. It wouldn’t have been in good taste to get the audience’s favorite couple killed right before their eyes.
Maige nodded and Ronay took her into his arms. “Relax,” the warrior said and jumped.
To her credit, Maige just squealed and let his movements guide them. They landed squarely in the shuttle. Judging by the grunt Areon could hear even over the shuttle’s engines and the audience roaring beneath them, there was no cushion.
“Stand and fight like a man,” the Overlord’s voice carried over the arena, magnified to sound in every corner of the vast space.
“He really doesn’t know you very well, does he?” Reim asked, wrapping his arms around Marelle.
Areon laughed. “Apparently. Mercenaries don’t fight fair. And I don’t know if he’s noticed, but we don’t really have weapons. You want to get going now before the guards figure that out too?”
Reim snorted and jumped, gone in the whirl of Marelle’s long dress. He managed to land better, but he’d also had practice on their many misguided adventures.
In the meanwhile, the guards
had
figured out that he wasn’t armed and were getting too close for comfort.
“Stand back, Violet, this –” Areon warned, but the
calaya
just laughed.
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “You’re not unarmed. You have me.”
She stood right in front of him, her back to him. It wasn’t a conscious decision to wrap his hands around her slim waist, it was pure instinct. It still did the trick, though. The smell of Violet’s hair was divine, the strand of purple he loved so much right under his nose. He resisted the urge to nuzzle himself against her.
She was quite something, wasn’t she?
“You stand back,” Violet warned the guards. “If my father sees you hurting a hair on my head, I doubt you’ll live to see tomorrow.”
It wasn’t an idle threat. Areon remembered well from his time in the Overlord’s service that he didn’t joke around with his daughters.
“Tell my mother I’ll miss her and my sisters,” Violet told the guards, who stood there baffled. Truly, Areon had to give her credit, no one had considered using
calayas
as weapons before. And there he’d been prepared for another fight, the fool that he was. “Tell my father he needs to start accepting his defeat.”
“You can’t seriously expect us to tell the Overlord that,” one of the guards complained.
Areon thought he recognized him – an old guard then, well informed of the way the Overlord handled constructive criticism, and what he thought of killing messengers.
Violet laughed. “Tell him what you want. I’m going now. Any time you feel like it, Areon.”
The Prince looked behind him, standing nearly on the edge of the circle. He could feel the drop under his heels. The guards were creeping closer, hoping to seize him somehow without hurting Violet.
He’d had such a great parting line prepared, but he felt Violet deserved her moment of outsmarting. He tightened his hold around Violet’s slim little body, shuddering at having so much contact with her, and jumped. The looks on the guards’ faces were hopefully caught by one of the screens, otherwise it would have been a pity. It was difficult to see the shuttle from where they were standing, so for a moment, the guards seemed to think they’d jumped straight down. They were left staring mutely while Areon landed securely in the shuttle with Violet in his lap.
She laughed, twisting herself around in his arms.
“That was
amazing
,” she said. “That was so fun! Let’s do it again, but maybe without the guards.”
He smiled and kissed her, tasting her soft, sweet lips. She laughed into the kiss, so happy that she made the air around her brighter as well.
“You can let me go now,” Violet said after another long kiss, the shuttle already speeding away. It was flanked by an escort of similarly baffled fighters, unable to really take any action because of the
calayas
on board. Soon they broke off, sneaking back home defeated.
“We’re safe.”
“Yes,” the Raider Prince grinned, pulling her against him even tighter. “My point exactly.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Violet liked Beren
from the moment she laid eyes on him. Ships were generally known as women, but Areon insisted that his flagship was part of him and therefore a man. Reim insisted that the ship boasted the same aggravating, infuriating qualities as its master from time to time. So
he
it was.
Her new home. Hers, Marelle’s and Maige’s.
To be completely honest, Violet was glad the other
calayas
were with her. The life of a
calaya
bride was scary enough; she wouldn’t have wanted to bear it alone. Of course, she loved Areon and trusted him, even with Reim jokingly insisting that that was a fatal flaw. But she felt better knowing there would be someone on board she could talk with freely. It would make getting used to the life of a mercenary much easier.
She supposed she would be fine, though. Irmela had gotten used to the Overlord, so she could deal with the Raider Prince. Amazing how the span of two days had turned her mother from the symbol of all misery to a role model.
The shuttle had not been bothered as they made their way to Beren. Even Areon himself admitted that it had been easier to escape the Overlord than he’d thought. The fear of somehow hurting the
calayas
had stayed his hand, but the Prince didn’t seem to be under any illusions of forgiveness.
“Oh, he’ll come after me the second I’m away from you,” he’d told Violet on their way up to the flagship. “You’re my shield now.”
***
Violet was slowly learning not to take Areon by his word, as Reim had warned her not to. Instead, she’d found that Maige’s comment about him being a better man was a more accurate tool. Once they were on board, all three of them honestly expected to be carried into beds, but the warriors gave them a breather. It didn’t stop them from spending every moment with them, but it was clear they hadn’t fought for them for nothing.
When Violet asked Areon straight out if he’d changed his mind about her, the Prince laughed. His voice took on that timbre that made Violet’s knees weak as he whispered into her ear, “This is a torture worse than anything the Overlord could devise, but I’ll wait until we’re in open space. There will be no surprises, no one to bother us when I finally have you.”
So they sailed for two days to reach space not controlled by any fief lord, nor bustling with mercenaries. Violet didn’t see much of the other
calayas
in that time.
She felt a bit hurt. The pride she’d held so dear rose to the surface again, refusing to be cast aside. But the Prince was merely waiting for the right moment. It became clear on the night he returned to their room from the bridge, locking the door behind him. Violet still couldn’t fully comprehend how he went so easily from his one persona to the other.
There weren’t really two of them. They were mixed together, forming a single unity that just let different parts show.
The warrior looking at her with flashing, bright gray eyes was still Areon underneath it all. Except that the kind man she knew hid under the visage of a hungry beast. Slowly, holding her gaze, he stripped himself out of his armor. Violet was so scared and so thrilled by how much she liked the sensation that she didn’t even move to undress herself. She simply stared, lips parted, her tongue flicking out to wet them.
It occurred to her that she’d only seen him naked when he was covered in blood or muddy water or something similar. For the first time, she got to fully enjoy and take in the body she was now destined to have as her own.
The Raider Prince didn’t seem to have a single ounce of fat on him. Every line on his perfectly sculpted chest was drawn tight over his muscles, smooth and lean. Although the armor surely added to his already impressive height, he seemed to grow taller as he removed his clothes. It was like unleashing a beast hiding in the man’s flesh. The strand of ivory in his dark curls fell over his eyes. Underneath, the gray eyes burned with inner fire in a way that assured Violet she would be devoured. Her eyes couldn’t decide what they wanted to admire most – the delicious, enticing curve of his ass as he turned, or the eyes that promised her everything she’d ever dreamed of, or his broad, mighty shoulders, rolling as he moved. The Prince shook himself like a creature ready to pounce, and he did.
Violet suddenly found herself pinned to the bed with the Prince on top of her, the look in his eyes wild and untamed. The moment three years ago was repeating itself, but the man staring back at her wasn’t a clumsy guard this time, no, it was the Raider Prince and Violet didn’t know why the danger in him made her shiver.
“Are you afraid?” the Prince asked, his voice so deep it gave her goosebumps. The room was warm and still she trembled beneath him. It was the closeness of him, the touch of her victor, at last. Violet had already been in his arms before, but suddenly it felt more real. What had been dreamlike in the tournament was now solid, hot and heavy against her. His body instantly reacted to her trembling and she felt his cock harden against her belly. It was the only part of him she still hadn’t seen, always hidden in his pants. The outline she could make out though. Now she really was shuddering out of fear, out of anticipation – they seemed the same to her.
“Yes,” she whispered, but her lips were smiling hopefully.
He laughed, kissing her neck. It tickled, making her twist in his arms and press herself tighter against him. The Prince growled deep in his throat, a sound that went straight to her pussy. The heat felt unreal, every nerve in her body stimulated by his presence. She could feel goose bumps on her skin. Her panties would be soaked by the time the Prince got to removing them, she had no doubt of that. Merely the sight of him was bringing her closer to the edge than she was capable of bringing herself.
“
Good
,” he said into her ear. Violet whimpered at the promise that word implied. Her legs were spread wide around him, her back arching off the bed to get more friction, but he wouldn’t allow it. “Not yet,” he said. “We have some unfinished business, you and I.”
Before she could respond, he kissed her, forceful and sweet. Hungry, desperate – or was that her doing? She was left reaching for his lips, but he kept her pinned to the bed with that demon-like smirk of his.
“Do you remember this?” he asked, low and seductive. “Being like this three years ago?”
“Yes,” Violet whispered. How could she not remember? It had been the moment when everything good and bad in her life had begun. Good – the realization that she was in love with the guard. Bad – being horrified of the former realization. Worse yet – driving him away.
“Mm,” the Prince murmured, something feral in his eyes. “And how did you feel?”
Violet started to answer, but the Prince chose that moment to kiss her again, turning the response into a moan. “Any different from how you feel now?”
“Not much,” Violet moaned. “More surprised.”
“I imagine,” the Prince purred. “But what I want to know is whether you felt the hunger you feel now? The feelings you have now?”
Oh.
“Yes,” she admitted quietly.
He ground down, his gorgeous body pressing itself against her. His thigh between her legs was grinding against her pussy, rubbing her clit. It pushed her past every possible sensation she could have brought herself, straight into the realm of blinding pleasure. Violet bit her lip to keep from whimpering, but the Prince chuckled again.
“Oh no,” he said, dark and dangerous. “I’ll hear every whimper and moan that comes out of your pretty little throat, Violet. Every plea and every confession.”
Suddenly, his weight disappeared from on top of her and the next moment Violet found herself pulled over his knee. Her cheeks burned with shame at being treated like that, but the ache in her pussy was growing unbearable despite it, or maybe because of it. Somehow she didn’t think begging would help her much.
The Prince slid his hand over her ass, still clothed. She pressed her lips together, ready to hold back a scream, but the blow wasn’t really that painful. Just enough to send a shiver down her spine. She felt him throb against her chest, his cock pressed against her breasts as she lay there. Violet moaned. It was huge. And it wasn’t even properly hard yet!
“Now tell me,” the Prince said, spanking her again, sending her rocking against his thick, strong legs. “Do you want me?”
She nearly laughed, but stopped herself. What did he expect from a girl never touched before? “Yes,” she said. “I want you so much it
hurts
, you have to know that…”