Milked by Royalty: The Full Collection (A Human Cow Erotic Romance) (25 page)

If you enjoyed A CALLING TO THRALL, please consider writing a review at the place you purchased it. Other Thrall Series novels will become available throughout 2013. Among those currently published are MILKED INTO THRALL, a 23,000 word novella, and the first full-length novel in the Thrall Series, HIS BLACK PEARL, a 53,000 word novel detailing the capture and conquest of one of Thrall’s newest inhabitants. A synopsis and the first three chapters of HIS BLACK PEARL are available below. If interested, any of Jena Cryer's work can be downloaded from the Kindle Store or Smashwords.com.

Adair Bartlett was always a good girl. A devoted daughter, a straight A student, and a future graduate of one of the most prestigious medical schools in the South, she has more going for her than she'd ever dared dream.

So why, then, does her life still feel so empty?

She doubts she'll ever find an answer to that question. Even a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy can't dispel the bleakness that tugs at her soul. Still, she presses on, determined to live up to the standards set by her family and friends.

Only one man understands what she needs.

When she stumbles inside a hole-in-the-wall leather shop in the back alleys of Florence, Adair never expects its shopkeeper to take such an interest in her. He swears to help her find the happiness she so sorely craves, and when he straps an exquisitely crafted necklace around her more-than-willing neck, she finds herself helpless to say no

Little does she know the future he has in store for her is just as dark as the priceless black pearl hanging from her neck

Kidnapped and sold to a man whose language she can't even understand, Adair's life becomes a lesson in submission. Collars and chains are her new clothing. Her every waking moment is spent learning to become the perfect pet and plaything to a man whose touch she both fears...and craves.

She has to escape. Freedom is all that matters. But as time passes and the man she knows only as Master opens her eyes to the pure joy of total submission, she's left to wonder whether true happiness lies in the life she left behind or rather at the end of her master's leash.

The first three chapters are available for reading
here
.

“Adair Bartlett. Such beautiful name for such beautiful woman.”

I blushed at the old shopkeeper’s flattery, and shook my head quickly. No, I wasn’t beautiful. I had frizzy brown hair and skin far paler than any native-born Texan should ever condone. My clothes were wrinkled. My jeans were too baggy. And my short-sleeved T-shirt was purposefully one size too big.

If not for the rather prominent swell of my chest, I doubt the old man would have known I was a woman at all.

But still, the flattery was nice.

I was standing inside a leather shop just a few blocks south of the Florence train station. Alone. I should have known better, but the old shopkeeper was so nice, and besides, my cousin was still shopping at the seventeenth century farmacia just a few streets over. She’d made four trips to the monastic shop already, and though I still thought the frescoes were gorgeous, there was only so much time I could waste looking at scented oils.

And anyway, I still hadn’t found my leather souvenir.

Since beginning our grand tour of Italy, Erica and I had sworn to pick up one cheesy, Italian-made trinket from every city we visited. I already had a feathered mask from Venice as well some Murano glass beads, and since coming to Florence, Erica had snagged a leather purse and jacket. She’d tried to coax me into haggling with the street merchant for a pair of my own, but I hadn’t. Blowing through a few hundred euros might mean nothing to my cousin, but as the daughter of a police officer and a pharmacy technician, I’d learned to be much more frugal. No way would I ever blow through my spending money, especially not after the fortune my parents had already spent on the plane tickets.

“Don’t worry about it,” my dad said after enduring nearly an hour of my guilt-ridden protests. “I’ll foot the bill. You just go have fun. You know you deserve it.”

I’d almost argued, but well, it was Italy, and he really did want to give me a good graduation present. I was the first Bartlett to graduate college, and I’d gotten my bachelor’s in chemistry—a choice neither one of my parents ever could understand—as well as a letter of acceptance from Vanderbilt Medical School. Of course my parents had been thrilled. Everyone in the family was excited.

Everyone but me.

“Bella?” The shopkeeper stepped out from behind his counter. “What wrong? Sad eyes not belong in such beautiful face.”

“Nothing,” I said. “I’m just…I’m fine.”

And I was.

My life was wonderful. I was smart and successful. My future was the envy of most of my class, and as for my present, well, I was on the trip of a lifetime, so enough said. I had absolutely nothing to complain about. I should have been the happiest woman in the world.

Only I wasn’t.

I was alone. My whole life I’d been adrift in a sea of people who knew exactly who they were and what they wanted while I never had managed to make a single decision on my own. My twelfth grade counselor was the one who recommended I major in chemistry, while my mom was the sole reason I’d chosen to apply to medical school. She’d always dreamed of having a doctor in the family, and how could I let her down? I was her good girl. I was the one she could always depend on. I couldn’t just turn my back on my family’s expectations, especially when I had no idea of what I actually wanted to do with my life.

The shopkeeper clucked his lips before taking my chin in his hand. “Don’t worry, mia bella.  Old Pietro here now. He know just what to do.”

He opened a cabinet door behind me before I could even speak, and the clank and rattle of heavy ceramic overpowered all of my objections. This man was a stranger. It wasn’t his place to fix me. For God’s sake, I’d been trying to do that on my own for years now, and nothing ever worked. I was just destined to be sad, that’s all. I’d come to accept my fate long ago, and nothing this old shopkeeper could do would ever change that.

“Ah, look here, bella.” He withdrew a dusty mortar and pestle from the depths of his cupboard and held it out before me. “Is truth in here. Truth and happiness. Just watch old Pietro show you. Then we see sad eyes go bright.”

I forced a smile even though a small part of me wondered if I was about to become the victim of some Italian scam. Just what did he intend to do? His hands grabbed tiny vials of herbs and oils from the shelf above him, and he dumped them into the mortar seemingly at random. Only after the bowl was half-filled with a heavy amber tar did he pull a jagged black stone from his pocket and press it into my hand.

“Here, bella. All need is one kiss, then wishing stone know what make you happy. Now go on. Kiss. Kiss.”

I still couldn’t figure out why the owner of a leather store would have a miniature pharmacy housed in the back of his shop, but I went along with the game anyway. After all, what harm could there be? The shopkeeper looked like he was having fun, and I couldn’t deny my own excitement. I wanted to know what he was going to do next. I had to know. So I pressed the stone to my lips and prayed for all the happiness I never could find on my own.

“Bene, bella, bene. Now drop in potion and watch. This magic. Real magic. And it going to fix you like nothing have before.”

Despite myself, I half-believed what the old man was telling me. I dropped the rock, and it thunked against the ceramic mortar with a splash. We both laughed. He dusted a light sprinkle of silver powder over top before dousing the whole concoction with a heavy stream of red wine. I prayed he wouldn’t ask me to take a sip. God only knows what all he put in there. But no, after a few turns of his pestle, he sank his fingers into the mixture and pulled out something dark and glistening.

A pearl.

It was a giant black pearl.

Neither of us spoke. I wasn’t sure if I should applaud or pull out my wallet. The pearl was nearly the size of a golf ball, and it was just so beautiful. I’d never been very interested in jewelry, but for some reason this prize sparked a need I’d never felt before. I wanted it to be mine. No, it had to be mine.

I grabbed my debit card. “Look, I know it’s probably expensive, but—”

“No, no price.” The shopkeeper shook his head over and over again before he looked up at me with wide eyes. “Wishing stone always right. It know what make you happy. And this…this make you happy, si?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “I mean si. Si, it makes me very happy.”

He chuckled once before his lips curled into a soft smile. “Then that all that matter.”

He cleaned the pearl with a wet handkerchief before he pulled open a drawer in the bottom of his counter and removed a thick leather strap. The tiny belt was beautifully crafted. Elaborate scrollwork was etched into every inch of its tanned hide. I just couldn’t understand why he’d need such a thing until I saw him affixing my pearl to the large silver hoop hanging from its center.

“Here.” He held the belt—no, the choker—up to me, and I lifted my hair as he strapped it around my neck.

It felt perfect.

“Take look, bella.” He led me to a mirror in the corner of the room. “You like?”

The black pearl filled the space between my collar bones divinely, and the darkly stained leather hugged my throat just as naturally as my own skin. It was perfect. Oh, God, it was absolutely perfect. I never wanted to take it off. Just thinking about loosing it sent a chill through my heart, and once more I pressed my wallet into the old shopkeeper’s hands.

“Please,” I said. “I know it has to cost a fortune, but I really want—”

“No.” He pushed my money away. “No cost. Just wait, bella. Pietro still have more surprise.”

He patted my cheek before he disappeared through a door in the back of the room. Was this for real? Was this man, this stranger, actually going to give me such a gorgeous necklace just because he wanted me to be happy?

I couldn’t understand it.

I heard the shopkeeper tinkering around in the back of the store, but I hardly noticed anything besides the flawless beauty hanging from my neck. How could anyone ever part with something so magnificent? The thought of him giving it up still baffled me, but I wasn’t about to question my luck any longer. This necklace was mine. It became mine at 5:42 pm, and it would stay mine until—

Wait a minute. 5:42 pm?

My heart hammered.

I was supposed to meet Erica at Leonardo’s Self-Service Ristorante at 5:30, and I was late, so late. What if she got worried and called Daddy? We’d promised both our parents that we’d stay together on this trip. God only knows how much he’d freak out if he found out I was on my own.

I couldn’t wait to thank the old shopkeeper for his gift. I had to go. Now.

With my purse thrown over one shoulder and my necklace clasped tightly around my neck, I shouted out a single goodbye before racing through the door. I thought I heard him call after me, but I didn’t have time to turn back. I was in trouble, more trouble than I’d ever been in before, and I couldn’t waste time with even a single arrivederci.

Erica wasn’t at the restaurant when I arrived, and from what I could tell, she never had been, so I ordered a plate of pesto lasagna, settled down in a booth by the window, and waited for her to show up.

By 7:30, I finally figured out she wasn’t coming.

In all my life, I don’t think I’d ever wished for a cell phone more than I did right then, but of course my little pay-as-you-go plan didn’t have international coverage. No, Erica had the phone with all the options. If I could have just remembered her number, I might have been able to call her from the restaurant’s pay phone, but as always, I hadn’t thought ahead. I’d just programmed her digits into my own phone—the one I’d left on my bedside table back in Texas—and now my only option was to make the long trek back to our hotel alone.

It was after 8:00 by the time I made it up to the second floor lobby, and the lady at the front desk just waved me through before I could ask for our key. Erica must have beaten me home after all.

God only knew how much she must be freaking out.

I paused at the door to our room and sent up a quick prayer.
Dear Lord, please don’t let my over-protective cousin be on the phone with my parents. I really, really don’t want to deal with a lecture right now, so please, just take a little pity on me, okay?

With my final request made and my heart still fluttering, I took one last deep breath and knocked. The door opened almost instantly.

“Adair?” Erica pulled me inside before I could even speak. “Oh, God, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I—”

“Look, Erica, I am so, so sorry. I just found this little shop, and I guess I lost track of time.”

“Lost track of time? You lost track of time? Do you know how close I was to calling the cops? Christ, another hour and I might have even called your parents.”

I sucked in a quick breath. “So you didn’t call them yet?”

“What do you think?” She held up her silent phone. “If your dad was on the other line, I’m sure the whole hotel would be hearing him right now.”

I was so relieved to be in the all clear that I couldn’t stop myself. I wrapped my arms around my cousin and squealed “Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!” over and over again while I whirled her around the room.

She rolled her eyes when she finally shoved me away, but at least she was smiling, too.

“You know, Adair, I think you’re the only person I’ve ever met who’s more worried about disappointing daddy than getting abducted by serial killers.” She shook her head. “If I could—hey, where’d you get that?”

Her hands darted to my neck, and before I could pull away, Erica’s fingers latched around the pearl still hanging from my throat. After all the excitement over being late for dinner, I’d half forgotten it was still there.

“Adair?” She looked up at me with wide, brown eyes. “Is this…is it real?”

“No,” I said. “I mean, I don’t think so. It’s just some little trinket this shopkeeper gave me. I asked if I could pay for it, but he just said ‘no price.’”

“More like price
less
.”

Silky black hair swayed across her shoulders as she shook her head. Erica had always been a little princess, and even after an all day shopping and sight-seeing binge, she still looked like one. Heavy hoops hung from her ears, while a shawl of gold necklaces blanketed her narrow neck.

She knew jewelry. If anyone could tell me the value of this bauble, it was her. Only…I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to know. I wanted this necklace to be mine. I wanted it more than anything else in my life. But if it was valuable, how could I ever justify accepting such a gift from a man I’d barely even met?

When she finally looked up at me, her eyes were even wider than before.

“It’s real.” Her words were little more than a breath. “The damn thing’s got to be real.”

“But…” I licked my lips. “But it’s not
real
real, right? It’s not like it’s a diamond or anything valuable, so—”

“Adair, it’s a black pearl. A real black pearl. These things are rare. Even the little ones you can buy online go for a fair price, but this…this… I don’t know what to say. It’s priceless.”

And that’s when my legs buckled beneath me.

What had I done? Oh, Lord, what was I going to do? By accepting this one token, I’d as good as stolen more than my father’s yearly salary. Probably a lot more than that. Erica launched into some speech about how black pearls were formed. Something about black lips and Tahitian clams, but I couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying. All I could think about was how selfish I’d been.

This necklace didn’t belong to me. It could never belong to me. And now the only right thing to do was give it back.

The thought alone nearly made me cry.

“I guess I’ll just go back in the morning and return it.”

“Return it?” Erica said. “You already said that guy just gave it to you. Why do you want to return it?”

“Because it’s not mine,” I said. “There had to be some misunderstanding. No one would give away something like this. No one sane, anyway.”

“If it was me, I’d keep it.”

“Erica…”

“What?” she said. “He gave it to you fair and square. If anyone says anything—which they won’t—all you have to say is you thought it was a gift. You speak English. He speaks Italian. How were you to know this was some priceless family heirloom he just let you try on?”

My stomach churned.

All night long Erica tried to convince me to keep the necklace, but I wouldn’t budge. I knew what I had to do, and no amount of temptation was going to sway me from taking the right course.

I just wished the damned thing didn’t have to be so beautiful.

“Well, if you really are going to take it back,” Erica finally said, “can’t you at least wait a few days? You know I’ve got my Sorrento tour tomorrow, and I really,
really
want to be here when you go back to that shop. Please?”

Half of me wanted to cave in, but I couldn’t. Erica was set to leave on a three-day tour of Southern Italy early the next morning, and I couldn’t wait until she got back. I probably should have listened to her advice. After all, it was bad enough we were splitting up for half a week—a fact neither of us told our parents—but to go to an otherwise empty shop with only an old man I hardly even knew for company, well, that was just asking for trouble.

Still, if I didn’t return this necklace soon, I knew I never would.

I didn’t remove my choker when I went to bed that night. Wrapped tightly in the sheets, I cupped my pearl in both hands and prayed that God would give me the strength to give this little beauty back in the morning.

In a fit of selfishness, I also prayed that I wouldn’t have to.

But whatever the outcome, I knew I’d do the right thing. If the shopkeeper wanted it back, then it was his. If not…

Well, it couldn’t hurt to dream. Could it?