Page 20 of Kept

Except in this. In the Rose Room—and in bed—Varick gave the orders. “I make the rules,” he’d told me when we were alone together in the hut after Vai Seren. Now I knew just how much he’d meant it. Varick didn’t give even a little bit during sex. He controlled everything. Demanded total obedience, all the way down to requiring Laurent to keep himself waxed smooth between his legs so Laurent never forgot who gave the orders. Varick had asked if I might like to do the same.

“And you’ll raise your skirts and show me your bald little pussy, because I fucking ordered you to.”

I shivered. Heat pooled between my thighs.

He drew a fingertip down my sex, stroking lightly over the seam where my lips met. “When did you do this?”

My face flamed hotter. “A couple of days ago.” He touched me again, and I whimpered. If I’d learned one thing growing up in a castle, it was that servants knew everything. No subject was too intimate. The maidservant I’d pulled aside had smiled and murmured, “Leave it to me, Your Grace.” Hours later, a richly dressed madam from the most upscale brothel on Gate Street had swept into my chamber with a satchel full of very interesting tools and creams. An hour later, I’d experienced the novel and intensely pleasurable sensation of bare skin in my intimate areas. My sense of touch was heightened—and concentrated between my legs. The brush of my chemise against my mound had been erotic torture.

Varick’s finger was even more so as it continued its languid descent. “And you didn’t think to tell me.”

My breath hitched. Was he…angry?

Pale eyes snapped to mine. “That was naughty, halfling.”

My nipples tightened. More heat built between my legs, my wetness leaking from between my lips. “You were busy,” I breathed.

His fingers tightened on my hip. With his other hand, he spread my lips with his thumb and forefinger. I knew without looking that moisture gleamed there. He left me that way, open and achingly vulnerable, my clit throbbing under his gaze. Then, almost casually, he leaned forward and licked up my center.

My knees loosened. I clutched his shoulder so I wouldn’t fall. “Varick…”

He eased back, his lips wet from the brief kiss. A frown formed between his blond brows, and he shook his head. “I’m never too busy to know what’s happening with my pussy.” His fingers still held me spread open, and he let his gaze linger for a second before lifting his head. His fangs flashed as he spoke in a growl. “And it’s mine, isn’t it, halfling?”

My heart pounded. A sense of surreality descended over me. Laurent was a strong presence at my back. My husband was just behind us. Watching. To most of the world, this was so very wrong. Even in Sithistra, husbands didn’t bed their wives at the same time. And yet here I was nude before my husband’s general with my husband listening to every word in tacit approval. The three of us had done this before. It shouldn’t have affected me this way. But it did. Having Varick stake such a blatant claim with Laurent in the room made everything feel more forbidden.

Heart racing, I looked at Laurent over my shoulder.

Varick pinched my clit hard, making me yelp and jerk my head back around.

“I asked you a question,” he said.

“Wh-What?” I licked my lips, desire and more than a little fear muddling my thoughts. “What question?”

His hand on my hip moved to my ass. He squeezed and pulled me into him, and he released my clit and turned his wrist so the heel of his hand pressed firmly against my mound. He gripped my ass harder, pulling me onto my toes as he thrust his middle finger inside me. “Whose pussy is this?”

“Yours,” I gasped, rocking helplessly. His finger filled me. My inner muscles contracted, squeezing around the intrusion. I was so hot and slippery between my legs, I could feel my pussy wetting his fingers. “Yours, General.” The second his title left my lips, my face burned with the wrongness of it. I needed to come. I was so close. I dug my fingers into his shoulder and thrust my pussy against his hand, struggling to get his finger where I wanted it.

Before I registered him moving, he’d gripped my waist and settled me over his lap with my legs spread and my knees on either side of his hips. I grabbed his shoulders to steady myself, and I was wholly unprepared for the sharp smack that landed directly over my pussy.

I cried out. Instinctively, I tried to slam my thighs shut, but I got nowhere with his hips holding my legs open. Before I could get my bearings, he smacked me again—a stinging, open-handed blow that struck my clit.

“Varick!” Even as the rebuke left my lips, I rolled my hips. Everything between my legs burned…but it also ached. I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to stop or keep going.

He gripped my thigh with one big hand. He kept his other hand between my legs, his palm ready to strike at any second. “Who makes the rules?” he demanded.

“Y-You,” I gasped. I tensed, anticipating a swat.

It didn’t come. Instead, he dropped his voice low. “First rule, and the most important one. You tell me to stop, I stop.” Warning entered his eyes. “But if I stop, I don’t start again, understand?”

I tensed, confusion and protest twirling through me. “Like…ever?”

He took my chin in a light grip, and his voice softened. “Just for the night, halfling.”

“Oh.”

His fingers tightened. “Don’t say it unless you mean it.”

My stomach fluttered. “All right,” I whispered.

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