Page 21 of Daddy's Reluctant Queen

“So, we meet again,” I say. “You know, there aren’t too many who can best Cyril in hand to hand combat.”

Her full lips turn up into a slight smirk. “How’s his nose?” she asks.

“Physically? He’s healing.” I walk over to the metal table on one side of the room and set the bag down. “Mentally, though.” I tsk and shake my head. “He’s not used to being beaten so succinctly. Where did you learn to fight, by the way? Surely, your father didn’t fund skills like that for his daughter.”

She doesn’t say anything. Her smirk dies away and she just glares.

“Ah, I see. So, it’s to be selective responses. Interesting. All right, then. I will be direct.” I walk to the center of the room, just far enough away from her so that she can’t reach me should she try to test the chains, but close enough for her to see the seriousness in my eyes. “Your brother escaped us. I’m fairly certain he’s the one responsible for my housekeeper’s death. I’d like to have a word with him.”

She scoffs. “I don’t know where he is.”

“Don’t you? Surely, you can give me some clue.”

She shakes her head. “Sorry. We got separated in the madness. If you haven’t found him yet, I imagine he could be anywhere.”

Smart woman. I believe her, at least partially. “Hmm. That’s a shame,” I say. “On to other business, then. We need to settle which way you’d like to live out your last days on earth.”

She continues to glare, and while she shows me no sign of fear, I can see a little of it in her eyes, shining up at me in the darkness.

“You have two options. Stay here in this room. You’ll be fed regularly, though no one will offer you anything else. You will see only these four walls for the rest of your days.”

“And the other option?”

I smile. I can’t help it. “You give yourself to me.”

She frowns slightly. “I’m sorry?”

“You heard me.”

She doesn’t respond. Her frown just deepens.

“I’ve fucked a lot of women in my time. Beauty comes and goes for a Pakhan. It’s almost part of the job. You, though… There issomething about you. From the first moment I saw you, I have been captivated by one singular thought. That breaking you in would be a very,veryinteresting prospect.”

“So,” she says, “you just want to fuck me. I do that, and then what?”

“There is no ‘then what?’ We aren’t negotiating the conditions of your release, my dear. I am telling you that you will become my own personal fuck toy. You will give over your body to me to do whatever I want, whenever I want. Or you will stay in this room and rot.”

Her eyes dart, looking me up and down quickly. Surveying me. “You’re just going to leave me here? Forever? Unless I agree to be your personal sex slave?”

“That’s about it. Think of it like this. Tomorrow morning, you could wake up to the gray light coming into this room after a long night on a lumpy mattress or you could wake up on a soft, luxurious bed, sore and maybe a little swollen from the night before, but in much better accommodations. No chains, better food, a nicer shower. A much better life than this.”

She licks her lips, then turns away from me as if trying to hide the sudden blushing around her cheeks. “And if I tell you where my brother is?—”

“It will continue, my dear,” I tell her. “As I said. We are not negotiating. You’ll stay here or you will be mine to use however I want.”

She purses her lips and looks away from me again for a moment, her fingers tracing the stitches of the mattress under her. “This… this is blackmail.”

“It is the terms of your imprisonment, Princess,” I say in a firm tone. “You seem to know a lot about vengeance, don’t you? Looking for me because I took out your father. Have you considered that I might be on my own mission for justice? For what he’s done to me? You will be my sweetest revenge.”

She looks up at me with wide eyes, the blushing covering the bridge of her nose.

“I am collecting the spoils of this war,” he says. “Be thankful that I’m bothering to offer you a choice at all.”

She seems to debate it. Her eyes dart around the room, looking for answers or anything that might save her. There is nothing. The elegance of the situation is what’s trapped her.

And I can be an impatient man. I sigh and say, “A non answer is still an answer,” I say. “Have a good life tucked away in solitude.” I turn to leave.

“Wait,” she says as soon as my hand touches the doorknob. I turn around and she says, “Okay.”