Read Marri's Approach (Brackish Bay) Online
Authors: Cerise Noble
“Yes.” Finally he turned to me. “And to what do I owe the pleasure of my errant slave deigning to grace us with her presence again?”
I swallowed hard, then lifted my chin. “Before you put your collar on me, Jacqueline asked me to swear that I would bring Katherine to her.” I took a slow, steadying breath. “I did so.”
He cupped my chin in his left hand, and seemed pleased that I stared into his dark eyes and did not look away. “Do you remember what I told you?”
“When, sir?”
“When I placed that collar on your throat.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What was it?”
I swallowed, my eyelashes fluttering, my heart thudding against my ribs and my breath short. I could feel the weight of the other men's gazes on me—Amadeus curious, William cautious, the man who lounged at the table predatory.
“You said—you said
submit or die
.”
I heard Amadeus's gasp.
“What did you swear to?”
“I—I swore that I was yours. That I would obey you.”
He lifted one arm, the one not holding my chin, up to my face so I could see the healing but still livid cut. I trembled.
“What did you swear to William?” he said.
“I swore that I would not harm any of the citizens of Brackish Bay.”
I could sense William's tension behind Roy's bulk. I couldn't bear the thought of William clashing with his governor over me, not when I'd broken some of my promises in fulfillment of others. Fortuna, it's so unfair to have given me crisscrossing loyalties. I lifted my voice to William.
“Please forgive me, my lord poet, for forgetting myself in the heat of battle with your lord governor.”
William spoke, protective and fierce. “You're forgiven, Marri. You have done more for us than you know.”
Roy's lips quirked up, but he continued to watch my face as he addressed William. “You forgive her for disobedience, for breaking her word, and cutting me?”
William remained my staunch defender, and my heart lightened toward him. “Yes. You have taken little harm from it. If you couldn't defend yourself against even her, you don't deserve to be governor.”
Roy snorted. “Spoken like a man who has yet to swear loyalty.”
“I am an artist, my lord. Freedom is essential.”
Roy snorted again. His fingers remained tight on my jaw. I wondered if I could best him from this close. Not without a knife, Fortuna, and not unless I was prepared to kill and die in the same stroke.
His right hand touched my shoulder. “You do not wish to die.”
“Does anyone?”
“Not usually.” He drew his forefinger across my throat, slowly, like a knife, and I shivered. Gods, Fortuna, must he torment me? “You know how easily I could kill you? With one snap.” He jerked my jaw just a centimeter to one side, and I gasped, my heart racing with terror, my fingers scrabbling at his wrist futilely. “I could end your life.”
My voice was breathless. “Yes, my lord, I know.”
His fingers caressed my throat again, then pressed hard against the throbbing arteries. I flinched but he held me too tightly to escape, and I felt the blood starting to thin in my head. I gasped again, my mouth gaping like a fish, my eyes wide while hot tears spilled from them.
“Please!”
He released the pressure on my carotid arteries, and I slumped, the rush of blood to my head making me dizzy. Still he held me with his left hand on my jaw.
“Even this way.” He pressed hard just below my ribcage on my solar plexus, not hard enough to damage, but hard enough for me to feel the threat. “It would not be difficult to break your body and watch the life seep out of you.”
I kept my eyes on his even as the tears streamed down. “I know.”
“Do you?” He mused, caressing my cheekbone. “Do you truly understand that your life belongs to me?”
I nodded, frantic, lost. Armed, I could kill him. But body-to-body, I was no match for his strength or reach or bulk. I have never felt so helpless in all my life, Fortuna. Even when my father died, I could run. I can do nothing at all now. Except submit.
Submit to the one man I could never best. Even when I escaped him, somehow, Fortuna brought me back to him, and bound my emotions in such a way that to destroy him would be to destroy a part of myself, for it would run contrary to the wishes of those I cared about.
Is slavery worse than death?
He leaned in, his hot breath on my lips, and then his mouth was against mine, pressing, parting, taking. A jolt of lightning dove through my core and sparked along my skin. If death had touched me before, this was life, incredible, rushing, brilliant life.
I surrendered.
He wrapped his arm around my back and crushed me to him, robbing me of breath until I felt the touch of death again, but always under it the explosive spike of pleasure in his dominance. He released me, set me apart from him, and I was lost, drowning in air and cold with fear and desire. He raised a brow to me, and I sank to the floor on my knees.
“My will is yours, my lord.”
“Good.” He walked away from me and reseated himself at the table. He glanced up at William and Amadeus. “She lives today.”
William ground his jaw a bit, but did not reply; instead he strode out of the room. Amadeus sketched a quick bow.
“Thank you, my lord,” he said.
Roy flicked a hand in dismissal and continued to read the papers in front of him. I felt like gelatin, like mud, unclear and wobbling, no longer solid, but oozing.
The man beside him looked up. “Stephanie will not accept her.”
“She does not have to accept her.”
“No?”
“No. It will be a long time before she's trained enough to live in this household without disruption.”
He nodded. “She needs discipline, that's for sure.”
“You may do it.”
“Sir?”
“You may discipline her as you see fit for the next week. I have much to attend to.”
“I also have my duties.”
“So let Jeffery help. Gerard, Devon, Lauren. She will learn that she is subject to all of you, now, because I will it so.”
My insides turned to goo, and I slumped. Not only were they speaking about me as if I had no sense to hear, but I learned that I was the lowest of the low, subject to all the members of his household. I felt boneless, held together only by the frisson of fear that leapt from limb to limb, vibrating my skeleton with desire.
Fortuna, what have you done to me now?
Roy looked up and snapped his fingers. I crawled to him, my limbs uncertain of their ability to hold my body upright. He wrapped his right hand in my hair—I never did get it cut, did I, Fortuna?—and yanked my head back so my body was forced into a hard arch. I flailed, gasping, my nipples tightening into pebbles and my chest heaving. Slowly, so slowly, he leaned down and kissed my lips, just a delicate, gentle kiss that ignited the fire in my belly. His left hand trailed down my body, cupping my right breast and rubbing his thumb over the nub through the chemise before sliding down my ribs. He squeezed my waist, then smoothed his hand over my hip before cupping my mons through the fabric. My hips jerked forward, his touch something I craved beyond words. I couldn't formulate the sounds to beg, even if I was allowed to.
“You are mine, and mine alone. I give you to my people for
my
benefit. You will serve them, or you will wish you had. Do you understand?”
It took far too many stuttered tries before I could get the words out of my mouth. “Y-y-yes, m-m-my l-l-lord.”
“Good girl.”
Somehow, my heart soared at pleasing someone as powerful as the man who'd claimed me. When he released me, I sank to the ground by his feet, too full of sensations to think. I touched the collar.
Master. Owner. Lord. Sir. I touched his boot, ever so lightly, and breathed the words, getting used to the shape of them in my mouth.
Fortuna, dare I thank you?
End of
Marri’s Approach
Cerise Noble
Cerise Noble is a storyteller. Her stories range from written books (like this one!) to onstage kinky performances (sexy!) to the delightful noises she makes when playing with people she enjoys (at least, people tell her they're delightful – but maybe they're just trying to get into her pants... oh wait, she wasn't wearing any by then...).
Speaking of people she enjoys, there's the BFF who's a witch (can we say “magical”?), the Engineer with a piston (kinky), the Minx with a pair of floggers (Florentine!) and the rest of the lovelies she plays with on a regular or non-regular basis. Want to play with her? Fetlife is your friend!
When not playing, she enjoys dark chocolate, cranberry anything, her bandana, a bottle of water... wait, that's her list for aftercare. Well, that's good to know, too! Let's see – reading, writing and arithmetic... mmm, poly-math and more-somes... Wait, what were we talking about again?
Visit her website here:
Don't miss these exciting titles by Cerise Noble and Blushing Books!
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