Captive Mail (12 page)

“I do, but the queen expects us to pleasure her guests as wel .”

“Oh…” For once Inga was at a loss for words as Thoran slicked his thumb over her clit until she was grinding her ass against his flat stomach. Bron kissed her and pressed his chest close to her sensitive nipples, then added his fingers to Thoran’s, sending her into an orgasm that wouldn’t stop.

“Beautiful, my lady.” Before she had even stopped shuddering, Bron picked her up and brought her out of the water. He laid her on a soft daybed and knelt between her thighs. “Let me dry you.”

His tongue flicked out, catching the water and her swol en clit, swirling around her folds and dipping into her already wide, needy cunt. Thoran kissed her mouth, her throat and her breasts, sending her into another spasm of need. She pushed her mound against Bron’s wicked tongue and he added his fingers to her torment, exploring her cunt and playing with the tight bud of her ass until she climaxed again.

When he moved off her, Inga could only stare up at him in mute appeal, her body stil reeling from the multitude of sensations.

“Do you want more, my lady?” Bron asked.

Inga shook her head and glanced at his stil erect cock.

“What about you?”

Bron glanced down at his shaft, which was ful y visible against the dripping wet silk of his loincloth. “What about me?”

“Aren’t you going to try to fuck me?”

He smoothed a hand over his cock. “No, my lady.”

Inga gestured at Thoran who was in the same erect condition as Bron. “What about you?”

“It is our pleasure to serve you. We do not expect anything in return.”

Inga forced herself to sit up. “I don’t believe you.”

Bron smiled. “We are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves.” He pul ed off his wet silk loincloth and wrapped a hand around the base of his shaft. Thoran did the same.

His cock was even bigger than Bron’s. “It won’t take but a moment.”

They both started to play with their cocks, and after a moment, with each other’s so that both of them had a hand on each cock. It didn’t take long for them to climax. Inga watched cum flow over their thrusting fists and wondered at such a waste.

“What if a female wanted to do that to you?”

“They’d be most welcome.” Bron wiped his fingers on his discarded loincloth. “In truth, a female can do anything they want with us. We would be honored.”

“But what about the queen? What about your so-cal ed vows?”

vows?”

“I’m sure Harlan has already told you that we ready the queen for the king’s pleasure.”

Inga narrowed her eyes. “What exactly does that mean?”

He shrugged. “If you wish me to be blunt, we don’t penetrate her cunt. That is the king’s privilege.”

“But anywhere else?”

His smile was slow and ful of satisfaction. “My lady, I am a pleasure server. If Harlan doesn’t object, I can fuck your mouth or your ass, but I’l leave your cunt to him.”

Inga felt her cheeks heat. “He has no say in who or what I fuck.”

Bron rose from the bed and bowed. “That is true, my lady. The ultimate decision, even here, is yours.” He turned to a chest of drawers by the wal . “Now let me find you some clean clothes.”

Inga al owed the men to help her dress and braid her hair, her body humming with pleasure, her mind in turmoil. It seemed that either much of what Harlan had told her was true or the king was playing an elaborate game to deceive them. She couldn’t rule out the latter, it always paid to be wary amongst men.

She fol owed Bron out through the wide hal ways of the summer palace, passing several men who bowed and smiled at her, but no other women. Eventual y, Bron opened a large ornate door for her and bowed. “Princess, your mother is within.”

Inga walked past him and found her mother and Lady Hilda sitting at a large circular table with two other people who Inga had to assume were the king and queen. The man stood up as she approached and inclined his head.

“Princess Inga. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Marcus, King of Valhal a, and this is my wife, Queen Douglass.”

Inga bowed and inspected the king through her lowered eyes. He was a huge man, easily topping Bron. His dark hair was cropped short and his eyes were a startlingly soft golden brown in his harsh face. The queen, on the other hand, was at least a foot shorter than the king and delicately made. She also stood and came around the table to greet Inga.

“I’m Douglass. It real y is a pleasure to meet you. Your mother is awesome.”

Inga flicked an uncertain gaze at Sigrun who was smiling.

Was awesome a good thing to be? She had to assume so.

“Thank you. I wish I could say it was a pleasure to meet you too.”

The queen’s smile disappeared. “What’s up?”

“If by that, you mean why am I not happy to be here, I wil explain.” Inga fixed her gaze on the king. “I was brought here by force.”

King Marcus sighed. “I am sorry for that, Princess, but Sven was trying to avoid bloodshed within your temple.”

“I had no intention of fighting him. Al he had to do was leave as I requested.”

“But he couldn’t leave without Harlan and Harlan refused to leave without you.”

“He belongs to me, of course he couldn’t leave.”

Douglass frowned. “We do not al ow slavery on Valhal a, do we, Marcus? Harlan belongs to himself.”

“He made vows to me.”

The queen met her stare. “He also made vows to me.

Are you suggesting that your wishes are more important than the Queen of Valhal a’s?”

Inga took a deep, unsteady breath. “There is slavery on Valhal a, you know that. Al women here are enslaved.”

Queen Douglass shook her head. Despite her size, she was proving to be quite a formidable opponent “Not anymore. We are taking every step available to stamp out these archaic practices and put women on an equal footing with men.” She fixed her intense gaze on Inga. “And you didn’t answer my question. Why are the vows Harlan made to you more important than the ones he made to me?”

The king cleared his throat. “Perhaps we should bring Harlan up here to answer these questions himself.”

“That’s a great idea,” Douglass agreed. “Go and get him, Bron.”

*

As his armed escort led him through the hal ways of the summer palace, Harlan scowled at Bron.

“This is just as bad as it was at the temple. I thought you were supposed to be on my side.”

Bron shrugged. “You attacked Sven. What did you expect him to do? Fal down and let you beat him? He’s the joint head of Valhal an security. Thea would never let him hear the last of it if you’d beaten him.”

“He’s supposed to be my friend,” Harlan growled.

“We are your friends. That’s why we’re trying to protect you from that harpy.”

Harlan stopped moving and glared at Bron. “She is not a harpy!”

“She is certainly more than she seems.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

Bron gestured at the guards who made Harlan keep moving. “Thoran and I bathed her this morning before her audience with the king and queen.”

“What?” Harlan bel owed.

Bron widened his eyes. “You know that we always pleasure our female guests. Why should this one be any different?”

Harlan shoved away from his guards and wrapped a hand around Bron’s throat. “Did you touch her?”

“Yes.”

“Did she fight you?”

“No.” Bron steadily held his gaze. “She climaxed more than once.”

Harlan drew back his fist, but couldn’t bring himself to hurt his friend. “Did she let you fuck her?”

“No. Thoran and I just gave her pleasure with our hands and mouths. You know we would do nothing else to your female without your permission.”

“Did you tel her that?”

Bron grinned. “Yes and she didn’t take it very wel .”

“She wanted more from you?”

“Not quite. She said you had no right to decide who she fucked.”

“That sounds more like Inga.”

Bron’s smile faded. “Why do you like her, Harlan? She doesn’t even know your name.”

“She knows it. She is just rather stubborn about such matters.”

“I think she wil hurt you badly, my friend, has hurt you already.”

Harlan sighed, the guards forgotten. “Aye, but she is my mate. I cannot escape my fate.”

Bron slapped him on the shoulder. “That remains to be seen. Now stop arguing with me. The king and queen are waiting to see you.”

Harlan bowed low to the king and queen and nodded to Inga and her mother. He waited calmly in the center of the room. Inga refused to meet his gaze and his stomach knotted. What did she want from him? What did the queen want?

King Marcus cleared his throat. “I understand from my queen that you have taken vows to serve another female.

How do you explain such a betrayal?”

Harlan raised his gaze to the king. “I cannot explain it.”

“Surely you were coerced into taking these new vows?”

“No, sire. I took them wil ingly.”

In the long, lonely hours since his recapture, he’d decided not to make any excuses for his behavior or to blame Inga or her mother in any way. If anyone should be punished, it should be him.

“Is that true, Lady Sigrun?”

Inga’s mother nodded her head. “He did take the vows wil ingly. I asked him to confirm that before I completed the sacred ceremony at the temple.”

Silence fel in the grand chamber and Harlan could hear the steady thump of his own heart.

“What is the traditional punishment for a pleasure server who betrays his vows to the queen?” the king asked.

Bron unrol ed an ancient scrol on the table and ran his finger down the faded script. “Death.”

Harlan resisted the temptation to curl his hands into fists.

Inga suddenly stood up and faced the king and queen.

“You cannot kil him. I wil not al ow it.”

Marcus sat back and looked up at her. “The decision isn’t yours to make. I respect your position, Princess, but I am King of Valhal a and it is my wife who has been slighted. In my mind, there is no greater insult than that.”

“What if I release Harlan from his vows? What if I insist they were never made?”

Harlan stared at the princess and took an urgent step toward her. “You would give me up?
Why
?”

A tear wound its way down her cheek. “Because I would rather see you free of me than dead.”

“And why is that, Princess?” the king asked, his voice gentle.

Inga gulped down a breath. “Because I love him, sire.”

The queen let out a very undignified shriek and threw her arms around the king. “I
told
you, Marcus. I told you she was in love with him!”

“So you did, my love.” The king placed the queen firmly on his lap. “Does this mean that you release him from his vows as wel ?”

“Of course it does. I always told Harlan that if he found a woman to love I would release him anyway.”

The king grinned at her. “Why didn’t you mention that earlier?”

“Because I wanted to see if they truly loved each other and they do. Both of them tried to set the other free in their own way.”

The king turned to Harlan. “My queen has something she wishes to say to you.”

Queen Douglass descended the steps and Harlan fel to his knees. She touched the top of his head and then kissed him.

“I release you from your vows. Go and be happy, okay?”

“Thank you, my lady.” Harlan murmured. “I wil honor you and the king for the rest of my life.”

He remained on his knees as Bron squeezed him hard on the shoulder and Sigrun blew him a kiss. When he looked up again, Inga was stil sitting at the table. He rose to his feet and walked around to her.

“I would make new vows to you, Princess. Vows to love honor and cherish you for the rest of my life. Would you let me do that?”

She bit her lip. “Why would you want to?”

He went down on one knee and took her hand between his. “Because I love you?”

“Even though I treated you like a slave?”

He bent to kiss her fingers. “A slave you offered to set free, remember? Considering your past, what greater gift did you have to offer me than my life and my freedom?” He touched the gold col ar around his throat. “If it pleases you, I wil always wear this. I wil even let you chain me up and play with me for as long as you want, until I am so hard and wet and desperate to fuck you that I’l be back on my knees begging for release.” Some color returned to her cheeks and he smiled. “Do you like that idea? Me on my knees begging?”

“I like it,” she whispered. “I think there are some worthy males here after al . Males the handmaidens might like to enjoy.”

He sucked her thumb into his mouth. “I understand that you have already enjoyed some of them yourself.”

She shivered. “Are you angry with me?”

“Why should I be? At court, men vie to offer their sexual services to females. I am glad they gave you pleasure.” He bit down on the soft pad of her thumb. “When the court visits us in the summer, we can avail ourselves of al the opportunities for your sexual fulfil ment.”

She opened her eyes wide. “You wil stay with me at the temple?”

He met her gaze. “If that is what you wish. I could help you train the women in martial arts and organize the security.”

“You wil al ow me to receive sexual pleasure from other men.”

“If that appeals to you.” He smiled at her wary expression.

“It is an excel ent way for a young man to learn how to please a woman. The queen insists that most men suck at foreplay.” He drew Inga to her feet. “In fact, your handmaidens could probably help out with their education as wel . They’d learn not to fear men and the men would learn how to respect, honor and satisfy women.”