Page 13 of The King's Omega
He raised his eyebrows at me.
“Teach me anything. Anything you like,” I breathed, wondering why my voice was so scratchy.
Something simmered in Axe’s eyes, threatening to burn down the world, leaving only him and me and… “Meow.”
How odd. Could he not speak, but make animal sounds? He’d growled like a bear, barked like a gigantic dog, and was now meowing like a cat.
Axe made a motion with his hand. I frowned and repeated the movement. “What does that mean?”
Lorn reached over and righted a few goblets that had sprayed their contents across the tablecloth. The table was really a mess; someone should speak to the servants about it. “He signed the word for cat,” he clarified, his cedar and sage musk tickling my nose. I leaned toward him for a better sniff, but Axe hauled me back over to his side. Lorn made a series of motions that looked more like the hand gestures I’d seen on the streets, rude and familiar.
“Cat. What an odd first word,” I commented, enthusiastically making the motion a few more times. “I’ve got it.” Then I brightened. “Oh! I forgot. I brought Mischief.” I reached into the side of my dress. “I do not like this dress at all,” I confided to Axe, who squinted like I was some sort of mystery. I pointed to my chest, where tan lace poked out of the brown, corseted bodice. “The colors are terrible, and it’s too tight in… well, places. But look, it has a clever little pocket!”
I fished in the pocket and extracted the sleeping kitten. “See? I brought Mischief.” I handed her to Axe, who placed her next to a spilled bowl of cream soup. The kitten lapped up the liquid. “Thank you for taking care of my kitten, Axe. You might be the kindest man I’ve ever met.” His smile peeked out from behind his beard, and I melted the tiniest bit more, sending up a wisp of peaches and honey. Axe licked his lips, and I copied him, wondering why my tongue felt so heavy.
“K-Kind?” Lorn was choking on his wine, or something. Should someone pat his back? “And did you…” He tried to speak. “Did you just pull an actual pussy out of your pussy pocket?” He lifted an eyebrow. “And give it to the King’s Executioner to feed?”
King’s Executioner? I ignored that part. “What’s a pussy pocket?” I looked first at Lorn, who was shaking with silent laughter, then at Axe, who had turned a rather unbecoming shade of pink. Neither answered. “The pocket was there, but there was a hole clean through so I tied it shut with some string and it just fits Mischief…”
Then I got it. “It’s a pussy pocket because you can…” My face burst into flames.
Lorn smiled down at me, his eyes full of disbelief, mirth, and… kindness? “Are you sure you grew up in a cathouse? Yes, lass. You can reach right in and pet your little pussy any time you like.” He slipped his hand slowly over my thigh and found the outside of the pocket. “Or you can let a man do that for you, sweetness. Have you ever had a man touch you gently there? Pet your sweet little pussy over and over until you cream—”
“N-no,” I managed to rasp. The only touches I had known were from the few men Madam had tried to sell me to, their hands cruel and hard. “Nobody has…” My heart beat so hard I was afraid it would pop out of my chest. As Lorn spoke, his fingers crept closer and closer to the pocket, dipping first one finger, then the next, into the cunning slit in my dress. He pressed against my thigh, setting off a tiny earthquake between my legs.
What would he do if I hadn’t tied it shut?
The room grew too hot. The dress had to go. Or something. “It aches,” I murmured, pulling the fabric away from my legs, and flapping it to get colder air near my skin.
Axe let out a deep growl. Followed by Lorn.
Suddenly, Tarn was there as well, sniffing the air like a hunting dog. “Goddess, is that her?”
Lorn grunted out an answer. “Yes. Have you scented the other one?”
“The other one?” My voice sounded weak and trembling. I needed… something. Air, that was it. I stood, or tried to. Axe caught me, pulling me onto his lap. Oh, no. That wasn’t proper at the king’s table. Lorn and Tarn were whispering about something, and Axe was making the most delicious sound. Purring, almost.
I relaxed into it, ignoring everything around me, everything except that sound, the feeling of Axe’s massive hand stroking my hair. His other hand was still, but pressing against the very spot where the ache was the worst, just between my legs. “That’s it,” I moaned. “Don’t stop. It still aches.” Goddess, so this is what the ladies had been talking about. I never wanted it to end.
“Axe, does the other one smell like this girl?”
Who were they talking about? I fought to open my eyes, to ignore the pull of that purr. Something hard pressed against my back, and I shifted against it, trying to move it so I could get closer to Axe’s rumbling chest. Axe’s musk surrounded me, and I breathed too quickly, close to hyperventilating.
“The same fragrance, but weaker. There might be two, I suppose…” The scrape of a chair on stone a few seats down made me sit up.
“Oh!” I scrambled halfway off Axe, who grunted low. My gaze snapped to the bulge that pressed prominently through the fabric of his trousers. I blinked. “Oh, my. That looks uncomfortable. Is it real?” I gasped when I realized I’d said that a bit too loud.
Axe’s eyebrows lowered in a very real frown, as if I’d insulted him.
Lorn and Tarn sputtered and laughed. I spun on them and snarled. “It’s an honest question. I mean, Selene has breast pillows stuffed down her chemise and is wearing a corset so tight she can’t eat. And that’s not all that’s fake about her. Trust me, growing up in a whorehouse, you learn exactly how much of what men think they see is really a trick.”
All three men stilled at that. Axe’s hands flew, and the twins answered in kind. I wished I knew more signs thancat.
I was about to ask them to translate for me when the king’s voice brought the hall to silence. “Generals, come and meet my mate.”
Hiswhat? I shot to my feet. Had he already mated Selene? They’d only been there for a few hours. I was terribly disappointed in King Rigol. Shouldn’t a man in his position be able to see through her act? I was disappointed in myself, too. I knew King Rigol had no idea Selene was so awful. I should have told him how cruel she was before now. Or told Axe, at least. But I never imagined he’d move so quickly.
Humph. Selenewasthe fastest mouth in the Sow. Perhaps she’d been under the table, securing the king’s “affections.”
