Page 58 of Crown of Thorns
Grace just laughs and replies, “Of course it was… you know my husband.” And just like that the tensions in the air are lessened.
The rest of dinner passes as well as can be expected with a mix of fear, wedding jitters, and excitement, not to mention the tenuous balance of international treaties. My stomach is in knots, and I do the best I can to portray a nervous bride and not a terrified hostage.
Truthfully, I’m somewhere in the gray between the two.
“Shall we adjourn to the Spanish Parlor for after dinner cocktails?” Saoirse says, ever the hostess. She delicately pushes her chair back from the table andstands.
I was just starting to relax as dinner came to a close, thinking that we were almost through with this current nightmare. But alas, there’s more. I feel like she’s the fancy version of the ShamWow guy—But wait! There’s more!
Rhys pushes his own chair back, rising to his feet before helping me from mine.
I’m tired and just want to be done with this evening but I try not to let my fatigue show.
“We’re going to call it a night, but be sure to have a good time,” Rhys says smoothly as he takes me by the elbow.
I can’t tell if he’s mad at me or not, but I’ll take his anger over this room of weirdness. Besides, I’m plenty mad all on my own. If he’s going to yell, then so am I.
“But we have company,” Saoirse says playfully. There’s no doubt it’s fake; she’s seething at the opportunity to toy with me more being snatched away from her
“Tomorrow is a big day and the after, even bigger. Stella needs to rest, and I need my beauty sleep,” he says with a wink and a smile. “We’ll see you all tomorrow night at the marina.”
With that, Rhys turns us around and leads us out of the dining room, without a backward glance, and propels us down the hallway. He turns us this way and that, so much so that I have no idea where we are. This structure, built to withstand a siege more than fourhundred years ago, has more hidden passageways and hallways and corridors that it’s no doubt a boon if you know where you are. But I’m left feeling more displaced than usual until he turns us down our hallway and stops in front of our door.
Rhys pushes it open and doesn’t let me go, he kicks the door closed and continues to propel us through the rooms to the bedroom where Leo the cat greets us with a “Merow.”
“No’ now lad,” Rhys says, and Leo just flits from the room, orange bushy tail swooshing as he goes.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“You canno’ cower,” he says crowding me. “You canno’ flinch.”
“Stop it, you’re scaring me.”
“You do no’ get to be embarrassed or let them humiliate you.”
“You humiliated me!” I shout.
“Aye, and you need to learn to deal with it.”
“I don’t want to learn to deal with it,” I snap, pushing against his chest, not that he moves. “I don’t want to be here.”
“Too bad. Deal with it.”
“Fine! If I have to deal with it, then you need to treat me with respect. If you don’t, no one else will.”
“So, you’re demanding my respect now?” he asks, his voice low and terrifying but I’m too mad to back down now.
“Yes!”
“There she is.”
“There who is?”
“My queen,” he says, his chest rumbling against mine. “And now she’s going to fuck her king.”
He quickly and efficiently strips off my clothes and tosses me onto the bed. I watch, with my heart beating out of my chest, as he undresses, piece by piece, before climbing onto the bed, grabbing me as he goes and lifts me to straddle his hips.
He begins to play with me and his lips graze mine as he asks, “Who is my queen?”
