Page 87 of What Fury Brings
“Nobody needs flowers. Do you enjoy them?”
He finally looked at her, really looked at her, and did a double take. “What happened to you?”
She cracked her neck from side to side. “I had a few bouts with some of my soldiers. Don’t worry. I won them all.”
She was covered in scratches and a few bruises, though these weren’t nearly so bad as when she’d taken a beating from Glenaerys. She looked more lively today, not less so. Still, he didn’t like the sight of her injuries. How they looked painful. How could she be in such good spirits?
“Fear not, Prince, you should see my captains. This is what women do. We challenge and test ourselves.”
Only the wild women here. He’d never seen women fight before he came to this backward country.
Olerra strode closer to the bed, and he found himself holding his breath for some reason. As she peered down at him, he willed his cock not to react.
“That doesn’t look terribly comfortable,” she said.
“Forced to sleep in one position all night long? It isn’t.”
“Let’s see what I can do about that.” She unlatched his wrists from each bedpost and brought his hands together above his head, where she reattached each separate manacle to a chain on the wall. Then she undid his ankles from the bedposts, discarded one of the shackles, and chained his feet together instead. “How is that?”
Sanos tried rolling over and found that the chain in the wall rotated in place. He could easily get to his stomach or side to change positions in the night.
“Much better. Thank you,” he said.
“Tomorrow I was thinking we could spend some time getting to knoweach other better. I’ve spent all this time trying to show you my country and my people, but I realize that I haven’t told you nearly enough about me. What do you think?”
He was surprised to find she was asking him his opinion. He could answer any way he liked, and he knew she would respect the decision. Something was… different between them. He shouldn’t like that difference, whatever it was.
“That sounds nice,” he said.
There was a pause, as though she waited for him to say something more. When he didn’t, she said, “Excellent. I’ll see you then. Good night, Prince.”
She left without a backward glance, and he found disappointment taking him over. What had he wanted? For her to touch him? With him chained up and hardly able to move? He shouldn’t be so titillated by the thought.
But he was.
Instead, he was forced to listen through the wall while she used her kit.
Gods above.
His cock rose, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He lay there and listened as her routine met its inevitable conclusion. This time, she screamed his brother’s name when she came.
“Andrastus!”
Nothing could have made his cock soften faster.
19
Sanos had trained his whole life to be a master of the sword, but he’d had to be careful. He could run drills with other men. Lead men. He could not befriend them. He had a reputation for being standoffish, even if he was well-liked.
Olerra was clearly friends with a great deal of her soldiers. She greeted them by name. Asked about their families. They, in turn, asked how things were going with, well, him.
The princess smiled and turned to him. “How are things going?” she asked, forcing him to answer.
He narrowed his eyes, wondering if she dared him to speak truthfully or come up with some great lie.
“Well enough,” he said finally.
The women giggled.
