Page 52 of What Fury Brings
His face started to turn red, but still she held on. Until he went limp.
“He’s out,” Olerra said.
Ydra entered from the door in the hallway. They both stared down at the unconscious Brute.
“Well done,” Ydra said.
“I’m relieved.”
“You should be proud. You really are the best fighter among us.”
“Do you think I hurt him too much?”
Ydra looked heavenward. “You barely hurt him at all by the looks of it. He deserved worse for trying to escape. A lashing at best.”
“Both he and his pride are bruised. That is enough.”
“You’re lucky no one else saw him, otherwise you would have been forced to do much worse.”
“I know. That’s why I removed all the guards between here and my rooms, save one.”
Ydra picked up Andrastus. She didn’t grunt as Olerra would have under his weight. She walked effortlessly, without so much as a stumble. Olerra felt the usual envy wash through her system. She reminded herself that she’d beaten him. It was enough.
It had to be enough.
When Sanos woke hours later, he was chained to his bed. Alone. It took a while for the night to come back to him.
She’d choked him, just as he’d done to her guard.
His body was sore. His back throbbed from the elbow she’d thrown. And he’d fallen hard to the stone floor at least twice. Thrice? He couldn’t quite remember. He had been so desperate to escape. So angry with her for taking him in the first place.
He turned his head slightly and saw that the armband was returned to him. She’d taken the time to replace it before chaining him back up. That made him unspeakably angry.
And then he remembered the disarming things she’d said!
You make me wish I was naked.
You’re a very attractive man.
I was going to let you service me.
It was impossible not to picture it once she’d suggested it. Him on his knees. Her legs parted above him.
He’d never done that before.
Not because he hadn’t wanted to, but because his only sexualencounters were with prostitutes who could be carrying any manner of diseases. He was always sheathed when he bedded them. But he couldn’t protect his mouth.
But Olerra was a virgin…
He stopped that line of thinking immediately.
He was manacled to one of her beds. And he would not think of her.
As long as it took him to fall back asleep, he failed.
12
Olerra slept fitfully that night. Yesterday had been a victory in some ways. Putting Glen in her place was fantastic, but Andrastus’s escape attempt was disappointing. She’d expected it, of course. She knew, logically, she couldn’t expect her man to want to please her from the start. He wasn’t born or raised in Amarra. He needed their ways drilled into him until it was second nature.
