Page 8 of His King Enslaved

“How the hell did Xandar do this?” Arousal still lapped at his brain, tugging at his cock. He’d never ached to worship before. Not like this.

He played at it sometimes, sure. He’d once had a fat, beautiful Kysanian girlfriend who was beautiful precisely because she was large and soft and strong and honest and kind, and she loved to roleplay being a naughty queen. It amused him to grovel between her pillowy thighs and kiss her feet, knowing he was a heartbeat from the role she coveted. He even developed a bit of a liking for feet. But after seeing Ardor on that bed, he wanted to do more than kiss feet and play at submission. Sindar wanted to be prostrate, a slave. He wanted to suffer, knowing suffering for the sake of Ardor of Pavar would be bliss. He yearned to surrender and accept love as his master.

Once safely in his apartment, Sindar sank into a chair and put his head in his hands. Patel soon joined them, and he was just as pleased as Ambani.

“Well done. That should turn the rumors in our favor, for once.”

“Ardor was relieved I didn’t touch him,” Sindar said. “What the devil did my brother do to him?”

Ambani’s good humor dimmed. “I couldn’t say. His Majesty was polite and professional toward His Eminence in public.”

Ah, but Sindar could say. His brother excelled at brutally ambushing his enemies in private and skewering every vulnerability. As teenagers, Sindar had given up trying to hold his brother accountable for the petty cruelties inflicted behind closed doors. He never had the stomach to match his brother’s meanness, no matter how much it hurt.

Xandar had done something to his Flower, all right. And whatever it was, Sindar was going to find out, and he was going to fix it.

DUTY

THE CEREMONY DID not go as Ardor expected. Everything happened so quickly, and he was preoccupied with Raven Hara’s presence. Had his mind played tricks on him?

Ardor had only ever seen the king in shadow, and barely touched him at all. In the warm light of the audience chamber, Xandar was like a different man. He was moderately fit with powerful thighs, and Ardor would surely have remembered those features. His voice was slightly different, too. The timbre and cadence were softer, just as they’d been earlier that day. In fact, he seemed softer all around, except for one notable thing.

The erection was, by far, the most surprising part of all. The king’s advisors had finally talked him into taking an aphrodisiac, clearly. But why now? Hadn’t the entire point of his exercise been to humiliate Ardor and prove he could not rouse his consort to passion?

Ardor had prepared for three different scenarios, and none involved Xandar getting hard, let alone coming all over him in five seconds. The surprising heat of the king’s release was still with him.

It was one thing to self-inseminate each night from the meager saucer of seed Xandar’s manservant provided. It was quite another to have the king of Kysan prematurely ejaculate all over Ardor’s lap as he shivered with excitement and barely contained arousal.

For the first time, Ardor’s bloom pulsed, warming. The narrow opening was unusually pliant as his finger slipped inside, and he didn’t know how to feel. He’d masked his surprise reasonably well from the Kysanians, but he couldn’t hide from the keen eyes of his mother’s spy. Of course, Raven Hara promptly paid him a visit afterwards.

The loyalist posing as his champion had one purpose: the Archon’s will. She would as soon betray Ardor as protect him if her orders demanded it. Surely his mother considered the loss of a broken Flower a small price to pay for Kysan’s verdant fields.

“Beloved Eminence,” Raven Hara said, smiling pleasantly. She spoke his familiar title easily, as if she’d known him her whole life. Like all the Archon’s spies, Raven Hara blended in seamlessly with crowds and wore a friendly, approachable demeanor until the moment of betrayal. Routine cosmetic surgeries ensured she had no scars or blemishes that made her stand out. She was a ghost, rarely noticed and easily forgotten.

“Champion,” Ardor replied. The lie was poison on his tongue. He ached to be with Jain, his bedrock, so he could lower his guard and process what had just happened. But as long as a spy was around, he could not afford to make any mistakes.

“You’re getting along well with your consort, it seems.”

“Did my family send word?” Ardor asked, knowing they hadn’t.

Raven Hara surveyed him, her eyes lingering on his flat stomach.

“I won’t fail,” Ardor said. “I will do this.”

“It’s not for me to presume whether you will or won’t. For what it’s worth, I believe in you, Eminence.” He wondered if the flicker of sympathy in her eyes was real. The Archon craved war, but the legislature and her inner circle did not. Perhaps her spies did not either.

“What will you tell my mother?”

Raven Hara inclined her head. “I will report what I have seen. The king of Kysan is most eager to breed his Flower. A besotted royal is a fine thing. The Archon will be pleased to hear it.”

His mother would be pissed. She’d expected Xandar’s infamous arrogance and foul temper to set things in motion by now. However much the Archon sought war, domestic politics demanded she wait until the Kysanians offered a suitable pretext for invasion. An insult to Pavar’s Flower would demand retribution.

Perhaps he should let his mother think an insult was inevitable. It would buy him more time. Ardor ran his fingers through his hair, allowing the sleeve of his robe to ride down, exposing the bruises on his pale skin. Raven Hara’s eyes flicked to his wrist and back, so swiftly she might not have looked at all. “They’ve asked us to leave within the hour,” she said. “Kysanian hospitality at its finest. I’m sure you will teach them proper manners by the time this is through, Beloved.”

Ardor’s heart quickened. Was this a vote of confidence? He longed to ask how much time he had before the Archon took matters into her own hands. “Tell mother I expect to have a child within the next few weeks,” he said, drinking in every aspect of her countenance, searching for some clue. “I will notify her as soon as possible.”

Raven Hara’s bland smile did not waver. “Surely, if the king is so besotted, you’ll have a child much sooner than that.”

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