Chapter 86
“You enjoy when he fucks you,” Samuel says with a sneer. “You getend that you don’t, but you do. The way you danced with him, the way you looked at him. You claim you don’t care for it You say you fight him but he takes anyway. Well, I think you want it. I bet you fucking beg for his dick.”
Again I look at Gwen. She’s in the harem too. She knows what i like. But she just crosses her arms and looks down on me with amusement quirking her lips and raising her brows.
“Oh, no. Are you going to cry?” Leah asks with false sympathy. Immediately shifts to hate. “I know you’ve been lusting after my husband since your disgrace, Harper. No, what do they call you here?”
“Harlot,” Gwen provides.
“Harlot,” Leah repeats. “It must hurt you to know how Samuel truly feels about you. How little you matter to him. How disgusted that the mere sight of you leaves him.”
“I see those marks on you and I want to be sick.” Samuel says.
I lift a hand, trying to cover a few of them, but there are many.
Samuel makes me feel so small. The other two, I could have handled, but Samuel is someone who supposedly loves me. He’s said so. He kept the necklace. Yet here he is, saying such vulgar and crude things about me.
Even if he’s angry or jealous or whatever else, there’s no excuse for the way he’s looking at me now, like I’m not even good enough to be put in the garbage.
I can’t face him, not when he’s like this, not if I don’t want to break down.
Currently, the rest of the room is focused on the dance floor, but how soon could their attention turn to us, if one of my attackers spoke too loudly. I couldn’t handle that humiliation, especially not if I were to start to cry.
So, looking up at the ceiling to hold back the tears, I turn away from Gwen, Leah, and Samuel, and start for one of the exits.
I don’t make it far before Gwen pushes me, making me collide with a table. I try to go around it opposite her, but this puts me against the wall. Suddenly, I’m boxed in, with Gwen on one side and Leah and Samuel on the other, and the table in front. There’s nowhere for me to go.
“What are you going to do now, disgusting slut?” Samuel mocks
“Face who you are,” Leah adds. “Admit that you are the worst kind of whore.”
Gwen just laughs.
“I’m not a whore,” I tell them.
Leah harrumphs. “Those marks say differently, you piece of –”
“Enough,” booms a nearby voice. All of us turn and sees Caleb standing tall and regal behind Leah and Samuel, glaring down at them both.
At his raised voice, the orchestra abruptly ceases, though not all at once. A violin shrieks out a last night. A tuba plays another bar before falling silent.
Everyone in the room is looking over here now, at Caleb, at my attackers, though Gwen is shying away now, hiding her face, and at me, trapped in a corner.
“Those marks were left on my consort by me,” Caleb says. “Perhaps you would like to call me a whore as well?”
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Chapter 86
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“Of course not, my King.” Leah says, dipping immediately into deep curtsey. “I did not mean you when I said those thing
จ
“Yet you insult the woman I share myself with. Is that not also an insult to me?”
“No, King Caleb, I. I only meant..” Her voice trails.
“Perhaps your husband can explain himself better than you,” Caleb says, turning his icy focus onto Samuel instead. Samuel bows.
“Harper offended us,” he says.
“She did?” Caleb asks with fake curiosity. His voice might have lifted upwards at the end, but there is a distinct annoyance in his eyes that he’s not bothering to hide. Maybe, since they aren’t looking upwards, they cannot see. That’s the only reason I can think of for why Samuel might try to double down on his accusation.
“Most vilely, King Caleb, Samuel says. “She is a disturbed woman, who meant to flaunt her sex in our faces.”
“How?” Caleb continues to play along.
Samuel takes a second to answer. He clears his throat, then he says, “She propositioned me.”
My eyes go wide. “I did no such thing!” I start to defend myself, but Caleb holds up a hand, silencing me. I can tell from his steady gaze on me that he doesn’t believe it.
Thank the gods.
Are you suggesting that I leave the women of my harem so unsatished that they seek pleasure from other, lesser men?”
Caleb asks.
Samuel stiffens as every inch of visible skin on his body pales. “N–no, King Caleb! That’s not what I meant!”
“Then perhaps you should think before you speak next time. If there is a next time,” Caleb says. He motions to a pair of guards that approach. To the guards, he orders, “Watch this pair. If they speak to any member of my harem again, remove them from the capital.” To Samuel and Leah, he says, “You’ve not appreciated my hospitality so far. Do not make me regret my decision to keep you here.”
“Of course, my King.” Leah says.
“Thank you, my King, Samuel adds.
Caleb’s already done with them, looking to me, instead. “Come with me, Harper. I would speak to you about this privately.”
Nodding, I step between my sister and ex–fiance to follow along behind Caleb.
Caleb leads me to a familiar side chamber, with a table and a couch. After we enter, with the door closed, he pushes me up against the wall and kisses me.
Even with his tongue in my mouth, I’m rattled from what just occurred. I can’t keep my hands from shaking, and a pair of tears drip from my eyes.
As Caleb leans back and sees the state of me, he deeply frowns. “I shouldn’t have left you alone.”
“I can handle myself,” I tell him, though my voice is weaker than usual.
“Clearly,” Caleb replies. Suddenly, he drops to his knees.
“Caleb?” I gasp, forgetting formalities for a moment.
In this moment of privacy, he doesn’t seem to mind. He grabs the hem of my dress and rolls it up and up, all the way to my
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waist
old this, and accept your king’s generous gift,” he says.
I hold the rolled–up skirt at once. The moment I do, Caleb lets go and hooks his fingers over the top of my panties instead. Slowly, he tugs them down, down, down to my ankles and then off of me entirely.
I’m bare and exposed for his hungry eyes. He licks his lips.
“Put one knee on my shoulder,” he commands.
As soon as I do, he lifts his hands, pressing apart my folds, exposing my clit. Then, he leans in, tongue first, and laps greedily at the tender bud.
Immediately I fall about against the wall, but with my leg over his shoulder, and one of his hands firmly on my hip, he keeps me steady as he sucks and licks.
“Ah..“I moan as he presses a finger up inside of me.
“So wet,” Caleb whispers against the meat of my inner thigh. “He’s just jealous, you know. He’s never had you like this, and he never will.”
He hooks his fingers inside of me.
Caleb.
You are mine, Harper. And you will never be his.”
守
