to being a merciless maverick king was that you got used to being hated. Archon had spent his entire adult life doing awful things to those who were close to him. He had no family left, much like Iris, though to be fair, it was his fault her family were missing.
It occurred to him he could make it up to her and prove that he did not lie by reuniting them. It was possible, though he had not planned on it. The place the others were was very distant from where they were now, and technically outside the realm of his control. He’d wanted to keep Iris on her world, or at least the same general realm. She belonged here. She was part of this place, the living embodiment of wild humanity. Taking her, showing her the rest of the universe, that would change her.
He thought he might live with her anger, bear the brunt of it to save the last of what she was. She might hate him, but at least she would remain herself. He could stand her loathing. He just couldn’t stand being without her.
So he changed the subject.
“Come. Get cleaned up. There are baths and food and clothes upstairs, all for you.”
She came with him, her hand reluctantly trapped in his. He was not going to let go. Her touch meant everything. The warmth of her flesh, so soft against his rough palm made all the pain he’d experienced in her absence better.
Iris bathed while he sat on the side of the tub, watching her. She cast him the occasional resentful look, but otherwise did not seem to object to his presence. He was surprised to discover that he enjoyed spending time with her, just looking at her, almost as much as he did fucking her.
It was tempting to pull her from the water and fuck her thoroughly, but he knew she was in far too foul a temper to find that in any way arousing - and for perhaps the first time in their relationship, he was considering what she found arousing.
"Why are you looking at me that way?”
“You’re changing me, human.”
“I doubt that. I really, really doubt that,” she replied, sinking down in the tub so that only her eyes and top of her head were visible above the ceramic rim. She had such dark eyes. He felt as though he could lose himself in those eyes. There was a very real possibility he already had.
“There is a wardrobe full of clothing in the next room,” he said. “I believe they belonged to one of Naxus’ mistresses. Find something you like.”
Iris rose from the bath, water streaming from her body, coursing over her shoulders and breasts, fresh rivulets emerging from her dark locks with every motion of her head.
“Dry me,” she said.
Archon lifted a brow. “Excuse me, human.”
“I’m wet,” she said. “How am I supposed to get dressed if I’m wet?”
When she put it that way, it almost sounded reasonable, but the way she’d spoken was not reasonable. It was imperious. Almost worth of a queen.
Torn between thrashing her for her insolence, and, well, thrashing her for her insolence, Archon moved toward her, prepared to turn her over his thigh and whip her ass with his palm and any other implement which came to hand. There was a brush with a very long handle which held intriguing possibility. She’d used it to scrub her back. He’d use it for something else entirely.
The closer he got, the smaller she seemed, and the larger the marks of her imprisonment loomed. Dark circles around her wrists and ankles, not to mention under her eyes made her look pitiful.
Archon tipped her head up, his massive hand gentle under her chin. “Watch your attitude,” he murmured gently. “I don’t want to hurt you this soon.”
“I need a towel,” she replied.
So much attitude in such a little package. He would be whipping it out of her for months and probably years to come.
“When we return to my ship, I’ll have Anna attend to you,” he told her. “In the meantime, I suppose I will be Anna. Get out of the bath and stand on the mat. Wait for me.”
Chapter 20
Iris waited, a light shiver passing over her body as the water started to evaporate from all the most tender parts of her. She knew she was pushing the king, but she had her reasons. She wanted to know why he had come back, what he really wanted with her. She