The Beginning of Everything by Kristen Ashley Page 0,50
Cassius, who he knows. He is wary of everyone else and does not mind showing it.”
I had noticed this myself.
True continued, “It’s clear with my father and Gallienus, they’re taking this opportunity not to worry about the Beast, but instead to enter into negotiations under the guise of diplomacy. I can’t imagine they’re missing the fact that Aramus is no fool. Though it appears just that is happening. However, we have months of travel together as we fulfill the prophecy. So I’ll find my time. I just have to hope my father doesn’t cobble my efforts before I find it.”
“I’ve also noted he does not show great respect for the Mar-el,” I murmured.
He took control of my hand so I was no longer holding his, but he was absently fiddling with my fingers in a way that I greatly liked, giving him something of mine to touch, hold on to, as he sorted important things in his head.
“His counsellor thinks Mar-el is not of great import, as he wouldn’t, since he feels they can obtain an everlasting ruby mine and saffron fields. Though I’m uncertain who he intends to sell those rubies and saffron to, as, if we wrested that land back, the Firenz would embargo them, the Airenzian probably would too, and the Nadirii don’t put much consequence in jewels. Therefore, we’d need to ship them to The Mystics or Northlands, and to do that, we’d need permission to sail through.”
“This is very short-sighted,” I muttered crossly, my gaze dropping to our joined hands.
Just in time for True to stop fiddling with mine and squeeze it.
“Ah, beautiful Farah. In our short acquaintance, I admit, I’ve wondered often if your beauty makes you beautiful, or if it is your loyalty that shines through and gives you beauty.”
I stared at him, unable to breathe, for that was the highest compliment anyone could pay me.
“Perhaps both,” he whispered, lifting my hand to his lips and touching them to it but briefly before he gave it another squeeze, let it go and rose from the seat. “Shall I walk you to your rooms?”
Apparently, our brief interlude was done.
This saddened me.
“I’m going to sit for a bit.”
He bent, touching his lips to my forehead before he straightened.
“Sleep well, sweets.”
“I bid the same to you, my True.”
He granted me the gift of his smile in the moonlight.
Then I watched him walk away.
I looked out the window.
Tomorrow, I would see, and meet, this Elena.
Until then, I would hope that I would find it in me to like her for she was True’s and I highly suspected he was a man who would not let go of anyone who had a place in his heart.
Even if what they’d wished to share, heart to heart—what I was coming to wish to share with him—would never be granted.
For any of us.
14
The Plot
G’Drey
Marital Bedchamber, Manor of Captain of the Trusted, Fire City
FIRENZE
G’Drey really did not wish to climax.
He really did not.
Not like this.
But he would, and he had, not frequently, but regularly, after the warrior had found him again in the city.
This time being the most humiliating.
And after it, he knew, he would vow never to come back.
But he also knew, when the crimson envelope summoning him arrived—becoming obsessed with these encounters like a man addicted to the effects of the ashesh—to get his experience, Drey would steal into the night from the Go’Doan temple and find their home. He would make his way to the back door, which would be opened for him, and eventually, after they used him as they would, he would climax…
Humiliatingly.
This time, his chin to the bed, his wrists tied to his knees, his knees staked open, tied to a brace, a leather strap along his forehead bending his head back as it was tied to the baton that was working through his arse, his aching, rock-hard member being sucked on by a woman.
All this while he was forced to watch before him, his noises muffled by a scarf shoved in his mouth—one of hers—as the warrior pounded between her legs, their lips hardly ever disconnecting, his grunts muted by her mouth, her whimpers the same by his.
And Drey watched the warrior’s arse work.
He also watched his thick, veined, slick, rigid shaft plunging and retreating.
And he’d do anything for the opportunity to watch all of that.
Or the times the warrior would use that shaft on Drey.
Or the times he’d take a paddle to Drey after he’d filled him with something.