No matter how little the trust was, she felt jittery on the insides because she knew that trust was hardest for him to give. And now, she had earned just a little of it. She would cherish that bit for eternity.
“I’m thirsty,” he rasped.
“I’ll get you water, Master.” She got up from her chair, took one of his long wooden cups, and walked out of his chambers. She didn’t have to go far because the courtyard nestled the best spring water just a few feet from the royal quarters. She bent down and filled her cup.
When she returned to his chambers, he hadn’t moved since she left. She locked the door and walked to him. She sat on the bed and waited patiently while he sat up a bit with his back resting on the headboard. He struggled with the movement, but Danika pretended not to notice.
Any progress she had made with her master would turn to dust if she ever tried to make him seem weak by offering to help him sit up.
Finally, in a better position, she offered the king the wooden cup, and he took it in from her. He downed the content slowly until nothing remained. Danika took the cup from him and dropped it on the ground. Her eyes scrutinized him as she made sure that he was alright. She wanted to place her hand on him to make sure his temperature was okay. She bit her lips and decided not to tempt the devil by putting her hand on the king without permission.
“What is it?” he asked reluctantly.
“May I check y-your temperature? Have to make sure,” she trailed off.
His eyebrow shot up. “You may.” He said, surprising her.
She leaned forward and placed her palm on his forehead. A feeling of relief rushed through her; his fever had broken. She slid the back of her palm down his neck and chest, her brows knitted in concentration. King Lucien could only feel her soft touch from his forehead to his neck, his chest.
How was it possible that the touch that should repulse him was the only touch he could feel without disgust and discomfort?
“Your fever has broken, Master,” she whispered with relief in her voice.
“You undressed me.” His eyes pierced hers.
She swallowed tightly. It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway. “Yes, Master.”
His eyes hardened, and she watched his jaw lock. “Why?”
“You were r-running a high temperature, and I n-needed to run the cold water on you.” She swallowed nervously. “Your face and your neck weren’t breaking the fever. I knew I had to extend it to the rest of your body.”
“And now that you saw the damages your father made, does it repulse you?” he asked harshly, anger flashing in his eyes.
“No.”She shook her head firmly. “Battle scars are not repulsive, Master. I only saw the extent of your bravery.”
Similar words reverberated through his memory. Followed by the sound of her cries. She’d cried right here beside him and whispered to him that his scars were a mark of bravery. The marks that made him the lion he was.
Another chunk of ice cracked around his frozen heart and fell away.
He couldn’t stop staring at her. At the slight reactions she wasn’t aware of. The nervous way her hand gripped her nightclothes, the flush of her cheeks, the flash of her eyes.
His body had been reacting to her since he rose from slumber, but now his phallus hardened and lengthened.
He didn’t know that a man could get this way when he was unwell, and most definitely, not a man like him. What was it about her?
His eyes on her, he noticed the imprint of a hand on her cheek. “Who struck you?”
The question took her by surprise, and her hand fluttered up to caress that cheek. “It was Mistress Vetta.”
He gave no reaction. “Why?”
She shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “She, um… she was angry because of what happened to you, because of my father h-hurting you even a-after death.”
“You doctored me through the night,” he stated suddenly.
The abrupt change of subject rattled her. She didn’t expect it, but she answered, nonetheless. “Yes, Master. I apologize for falling asleep. Please forgive me. I really wanted to stay awake.”
“Why?”
She hesitated, then swallowed softly and whispered, “To watch over you.”
King Lucien didn’t know what it was about the whispered words that made another bit of ice crack around his chest. But it did. “I don’t need protection, Danika,” he stated firmly.
“I know, Master,” she replied readily.
Silence. “I will give you a reward for doctoring me through the night. Tell me what you want.”
Her heart skittered. She wanted to tell him she didn’t need a reward for nursing him. She wanted to tell him she’d still nurse him again wholeheartedly in the future. She wanted to say those things, but she didn’t because she knew it wouldn’t end well for her.
Tell me what you want.
Danika tried to think it through. A master rewards a slave occasionally when she pleased him.
Unbidden, she remembered her first reward from him. Her body went hot all over as she remembered the way he’d kept pushing into her body until she released. With the way he watched her, Danika would swear that he knew what she was thinking about, even though his face didn’t change.
“If it’s not too much to ask, Master, I want you to g-give orders so that the m-mistress will stop yanking on my hair whenever she wants, whenever I didn’t do anything wrong,” she whispered. When he kept staring at her, saying nothing, she added, “My scalp has been burning for the past few days.”
No words at all. She couldn’t read his expression, so she didn’t know what was going through his mind.
“Strip,” he ordered.
The command was so unexpected; it made her jerk. She got up and started pulling off her clothes. What was going on in his head? Did he want to take sexual pleasures from her body? But he was unwell. Just sitting up on the bed had been a struggle. How did he expect to…
A blush crept to her cheeks and worked its way down her neck. She stood naked in front of him, her clothes discarded on the floor. She took a peek at him, but there was still no reaction from him. Only the hardening of his organ that tented the bedcover showed he wasn’t as unaffected as his facial expressions wanted her to believe.
“Turn around.”
She turned and gave him her back while standing several feet away from him.
The silence was deafening and so unsettling; it made her fidget. He hadn’t said anything about her reward-request and that also made her nervous, too. Was he angry at her for making such a request? With the king, you’d never know. What did he want from her?
“Your back healed right.” His deep voice rose suddenly, interrupting the stillness of the night.
“Master?” She didn’t expect that.
“Your back. From being whipped. It healed right; there is no scar.” He spoke in the same impersonal voice she was used to.
“Y-yes, Master. Thank you so much. It is all because of you. The orders you gave Madam Baski to treat—”
“I didn’t do you any favors,” he stated. He always said that whenever he did her a favor.
She lowered her head in submission and gratitude. The first thing she realised about the king was that he was a man of few words. He barely spoke, and if left to him, he wouldn’t say anything to anybody.
And so, when silence stretched out between them, Danika did her best to stop the nervousness in her mind—to stop herself from picking on her fingers.
She still had her back to him, and at the lengthiest of the silence, she swiveled her head to him. He had a huge frown on his face and seemed in thought. It almost looked like he was battling with himself.
He stretched out his hand towards her. “Come here, Danika.”
She swallowed tightly. She didn’t know what he wanted from her, but she stretched out her hand to meet the strong confinement of his.
He pulled her closer and glared at her. “This is just for tonight,” he stated matter-of-factly.
She nodded her head.
And then his expression dissolved. Without words, his hand directed her until she rose above him and straddled his middle.
At his lengthened phallus behind her, she started understanding what he wanted from her, and her cheeks turned redder.
He wanted to draw sexual pleasure from her body. In this position?
But he didn’t pull her down to his straining manhood immediately. Instead, he pulled her forward until her upper body came closer to his. Her breasts were only a few millimeters away from his face. Then he pushed forward, placed his mouth onto her nipple, and suckled on it.
.