Page 62 of The Enslaved Duet
I stood gracefully, my head still bent. I hoped I presented a picture of calm because I had the very awful feeling that these men were the predators that would dare to prey on a man like my Master, and I didn’t want to toss either of us at their feet with the stupidity of my actions.
I tried to find subspace and failed. Instead, I took deep breaths, counting as I did to settle my mind.
Even that didn’t work.
The entire dining room was filled with Britain’s finest men dressed tight to the throat in designer finery, their spines starched with noble titles and lips pressed tight against the threat of their many dark secrets. I could feel their countless eyes on me as they looked at the head of the table to the man who hosted them there for this society gathering.
“Gentlemen,” that man announced, standing up with all the authority of a born aristocrat, a learned man, a Master. “May I present slave Davenport.”
I stepped forward at the same time I bent my knees, sinking into a kneel before I could finish moving in line beside Alexander. My head was ducked, my hair curled and tied loosely with a red ribbon down my back so that I couldn’t hide behind the thick curtain of it, so that all the men could see the way my face was composed into careful, pretty blankness.
“A demonstration is in order, I think, Lord Thornton,” a creaking old voice said from somewhere down the table.
“Yes, after the reports we’ve had and your little tantrum with Lord Ashcroft, I’m of the mind to take the slave away from you and transfer her into the care of another, more capable Master. Perhaps Mr. Landon Knox.”
My head jerked up as my heart nearly flew out my throat.
Instantly, my eyes found his.
Landon Knox.
The man I’d known since I was a prepubescent teenager, the man who had launched my modelling career and driven me to anorexia was sitting at Alexander’s table.
The clash of my two worlds meeting resounded like crashing symbols in my head. I swayed as I blinked hard, trying to process.
Alexander’s stern voice severed our connection. “No one will be taking her away from me. I own her. The papers were signed, her virginity was taken, and she bears my gold at her tits and clit. She ismine.”
“Careful, Thornton, your caveman is showing,” Landon drawled.
“And caution to you, Mr. Knox, your lack of pedigree is obvious,” Alexander retorted.
“Gentlemen.” A man with steel grey hair stood up, long and thin as a reed but with the bearing of a king. “There is one way to settle this. The girl must be put through her paces.”
“I don’t believe it should be Thornton who does it,” Landon argued, his eyes over bright and overeager as he stared at me. “Let it be a new Master.”
“Agreed,” a voice said from the very end of the table.
I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but Alexander tensed beside me so viciously, I thought he was having a heart attack.
The man spoke again, his voice strong but oddly accented, a hop and a skip of something Latin in his tones. “If we are trying to prove whether the girl is being properly trained and if Thornton has neglected his duties because he is enamoured with her, we must separate them. Make him watch while one of us does the deed.”
“You take things too far by letting that man into my bloody fucking house,” Alexander said, each word sharp as a bullet casing tearing through the air. “Show yourself, Edward.”
My heart tripped and then raced through my chest.
Edward, the long-lost son and brother?
The slowly, cringeworthy sound of a chair screeching against the parquet floor was the only sound in the ominously silent room.
I risked Alexander’s wrath by lifting my chin to see the man Noel and his son had excommunicated from their lives.
I didn’t know what to expect from Edward Davenport.
My only knowledge consisted of his betrayal when he chose Salvatore over his own family. I’d never wondered what he would look like, how he would hold himself, or what I would feel if I ever met him.
I simply wasn’t prepared.
Because if Alexander was a golden prince, King Arthur or Emperor Augustus, some shining example of leadership and male beauty, Edward was his rival.
