“Then don't let her go! Please, my king!”
“I have no control when it comes to her. I act against my better judgement. For a man like me, it is not an easy feat. She is a slave, and yet she managed to have an unsurmountable power over me even without trying.” A broad shoulder lifted and fell. “You will not understand, Baski.”
“Oh, King Lucien.” A step forward, she took his hand into hers. “You are the most cultured and controlled man I have ever known, but there is nothing wrong with caring for a woman in a way that is uncontrollably.”
“For a man like me, there is.” He walked away from the window, striding to the other side of the room where the huge table occupied. “Do you remember what happened that day? The day I saw her lying on that hay with the slave trainer.”
Of course, Baski remembered. How could she ever forget that day? She also began to have an idea what he was driving at.
“I lost it completely. Having to live the next few days with the thoughts that all she showed me was a lie—that she had been sharing her body with other men—you have no idea what that did to me.”
No, she did have an idea. She could still remember clearly.
“I made a few bad decisions. I had no care in the world—not of anybody. Not of my people.” In steady strides, he walked back to the window. “I took out the rough part on Vetta. Poor woman took everything I had to give. I was almost insane, Baski—all because of Danika.”
Poor man. Being so in love with a woman and having no idea what to do about it. He thinks he can stop it. There is no stopping a feeling as intense as the love he has for her. Baski kept her mouth shut, knowing he wouldn't appreciate her analysis now. Instead, she tried another way. “You are only human, my king. Any man would have went crazy too knowing that his woman shares her body with other men.”
“But Vetta is my woman too, Baski.” His voice was so low, Baski had to strain to make out his words. “And yet, I don't see myself being half as mad.”
Because she's not the woman you love. She placed her hand on his arm. “There is nothing wrong with lov—caring about a woman in that way. It is most beautiful, I assure you.”
“But she isn't just any woman, Baski. She's King Cone's daughter. And she is in slavery.”
“I thought we established that Danika is very different from her father,” she stated firmly.
“We do. I know that much more than you do, but she's a slave, and a slave will do anything to get out of slavery. You know this as much as I do. We were there before.”
“We were,” she conceded.
He nodded once. “A slave will do everything to get out of slavery, including pretending to love your master.” He turned away again and faced the window because he did not want Baski to see his pain. “Pretending that his mind isn't too dark for you. That his scars isn't too scary for you. That—” A pause. “—That That his sexual urges aren't too much for you.”
“But Lucien!”
“I want her with an intensity that is frightening, Baski. A year and two months as my slave—my property—has not dampened that want at all, but instead it only grew. I wanted her even when I hated her, but now? Now, I crave her...badly. Her present condition has not been a dampener at all.”
“Then keep her close! She is yours!” Baski intervened vehemently.
He lowered his head and stared at the empty lane. Two guards patrolled by. “It is not my decision to make anymore. I am giving her a choice.”
“No, you aren't. To uncollar her is to give her a choice, but to make her a queen is to take the choice of her ever staying away from her. Please, don't do it. Please. You deserve to be happy! She deserves to be happy too!”
He would not budge. “She has a duty to her people. Once I uncollar her, being a free person isn't an option, Baski. She was a princess. Her father's throne is empty. She has a duty to fill it.”
Baski cut in. “And hold a royal banquet and take a husband who will rule with her. And produce heirs to the throne,” she paused. “She will be forced to take a husband by duty! She is very beautiful and she has power! Another man will have her! Are you truly okay with it?” But even as she asked, she knew that he was not okay with it at all. His fists were clenched tightly to his sides.
“A man who will be deserving of her. Who isn't battling insanity with so many scars on him and a hunger for her that always has her breathing through the nose to keep the pain of the intercourse at bay.” He spared her a glance. “You know I am not a normal man. Cone made sure of that.”
“She knows too, my king. She knows and yet, she loves you wholeheartedly.”
Silence met her words.
Baski shook her head miserably. “But that is what all this is about? You do not believe. You think she will grab the freedom and power you offer, take to her kingdom in a flash, drop all her pretense of loving you, get married to a man of her dreams, and live happily ever after.”
He raised his hands and stared at them. They were watery and swimming, not because he had weird hands but because his eyes are blurry with tears. He blinked hard to keep them away. This wasn’t what he bargained for. When he set out to take his revenge on Cone and enslave his daughter, this wasn't what he bargained for at all.
His chest filled like there was a mountain growing in there. It hurt. It hurt badly.
All this is on the inside. On the outside, he looked almost as composed as ever. Almost.
“Get her ready on the morrow. At the middle of the morning, tell her I summon her in court.” His voice was hoarse.
Baski shook her head, pained. But she knew the king so much. This subject was closed.
“As you wish, Your Highness,” she whispered and bowed her head in obedience. She was at the door when she heard his voice again.
“Baski.”
She turned and stared at him.
“Where is she?”
He had never sounded more alone than he did at this moment. “I gave her dinner and prepared her bed. But we both know she won't be there. She'll be in the golden chambers.”
In his chambers. He did not think he could bear seeing her tonight. It would be too much for him, for he was barely hanging on a thread. “Can you go there and take her?”
Baski shook her head. “I'm afraid that that is the one thing I can't help you with. If you want her out, you have to go and face her yourself.”
“Baski...”
“Tomorrow, she will be the queen of Mombana, with so much power and strength resting on her pregnant shoulders,” she whispered. “But that is tomorrow. Tonight, she is still yours. She is still yours.”
With that, she turned and walked right out of the door of the consultation room.
The king stood there with a heart as heavy as a lion's that swallowed a wolf. It hurt badly.
.