I am terrified to hear eople are saying about me when I wake up the day. The nobility already think there’s a sexual aspey retionship with Khysmet, so I don’t really care what gets spread around on that front. But the castle staff generally like and respect me. I shudder to think of what our little public spectacle will do to my reputation.

  Yesterday, I was seen as a badass who single-handedly slew three men in an alleyway. Today I might just be some upstart outsider who’s suspected of sleeping with the king.

  First thing in the m, it looks like my fears have been realized when Vizs will hardly even look at me while helpi ready. I sigh deeply and figure just asking her directly right now is better than waiting to hear the rumor from someone else. Also, I’d love to tradiy exaggerated aspects of what she heard, since I do care what Vizs thinks of me, and having her be hesitant with me is holy painful.

  “What did you hear?” I ask.

  She jumps. “W- What do you mean, Cat?”

  I give her a withering look. We both know very well that she knows what I mean.

  “Okay, okay…” she says, breaking after just a few seds of my gre. “I heard that st night you and the king were groping each other i in front of two cooks.”

  “Oh my gods, absolutely not!” I deny vehemently. “I just helped get him to eat, is all. It was a little i, but nothing that bad. Is that really eople are saying?”

  Vizs nods. “I mean, I’m really happy for you and his majesty, but I just couldn’t believe you would actually do something like that where other people might see you!”

  I would and have done many ihings in public pces, but now is not the time to discuss my sexual proclivities with this teenager.

  “Wait,” I say, a bit fused, “you’re happy for me?”

  “Well yeah,” she replies as though it’s obvious. “You make King Khysmet very happy. He was so much more reserved before you got here.” She grins shyly. “It’s o see him smiling all the time now.”

  Over the course of the day, I get a lot more people ing up to gratute and thank me. It would seem that the general opinion is that I am a good match for the king, that he has perked up signifitly ever since my arrival. Apparently, there was a only held that I didn’t seem to have the same affe for Khysmet as he does for me. People are gd to learn that I have "e around" to him.

  All the fuss seems a little premature to me, though. Despite what the rumors would have one believe, nothing of sequeually happened. I mean, he didn’t even really say much of anything, other than that the threat of losing me is the most terrifying thing he's ever experienced.

  Actually, now that I think about it, that's saying quite a lot. It's basically a fession.

  I'm the one who hasn't actually expressed anything. Just because I let him lick my hands and my tits doesn’t mean I’ve “e around” to him. As of now, I haven’t even told him that I like him, not onbsp; I don’t even know if I do like him. Do I like him? I definitely at least tolerate him at this point. When I think about the prospect of directly saying to his face that I like him as a person, it just feels like it would be a cession. Like that’s exactly what he wants, and I’m instinctively unwilling to give it to him. That’s probably a bad sign.

  However… I will say that this enter from the ht has… awakened something in me. Before now, I've had some instances of sexual tension with Khysmet, some moments of weakness wherein I would yearn to know him more intimately. Now that I've actually had his hands ohough, it's like there's a pit of gnawing, ravenous huhat has opened in my womb, and every time I see him it gapes open ao be sated.

  It's very inve.

  Khysmet is also ag strange sihe i. I sort of expected that he would be extra smug and flirt with me mgressively now that I've even slightly respoo his advances. I've given him an inch, so I figured he'd be trying to take a mile. But instead of being mgressive, he dials it all back signifitly, even being a little less frontational in his normal capacity of teasing me. He also spends a lot of time in the library iernoons but without talking about what he's reading like he normally does. Then when I look over at him he's nearly always staring at me. It's unnerving.

  So the dynamids up being that within five seds of being in the same room with him, I'm soaki, but he's barely talking to me. The fact that my predit isn’t beiernally addressed only intensifies my desire. When he’s not talking to me, my mind just ends up wandering, and the pces it goes to are not ducive to self-restraint. It's getting to the point where if he were to even start to make a move, I'd jump on his dick before he could finish his first sentenbsp; A he keeps givihing to work with.

  Meanwhile, the castle staff keep ing up to me and expressing their joy at my reception to his advances. It sort of rubs a little salt in the wound given that his advances have stopped advang. However, between all the different ents I hear about Khysmet in the process, I end up learning a lot about the history of his love life.

  Evidently, he had a wild streak as a teehat sted up until his early twenties, and he had several passiorysts during that time, but in the decade sihen, romantic retionships have been few and far-between, not to mention very short-lived. Since his parents, the previous king and queen, died in an act five years ago a him with the , there has been virtually no one he’s shown the slightest i in. It would seem that running a try doesn't leave a lot of extra time for dating – or so the popur opinioo have been.

  I know that to be bullshit, though. First off, he has plenty of extra time. Case in point: he's been dig around and b me nonstop since I got here. It's not like a ton of free time just suddenly opened up for him to bother me with – he already had his schedule set up before I even got here. "No free time", my ass.

  Sedly, he told me personally, right before that dinner with the Marquess, that his real problem is that he's picky as hell and unwilling to give people a bsp; I'm paraphrasing here, but that's what it boils down to.

  Not giving people a ce is something I’m happy to fault him for. I doubt he’s even been looking for someone since he became king, based on what I know about him. Piess, however, is something I uand when it es to romanbsp; I mean, if you know what you want, why would you settle for anything less? To me, Khysmet seems like someone who knows exactly what he wants and isn’t afraid to demand it. I respect that.

  That brings us to an iing point. Apparently, the picky person iion has picked me. And if he's barely been with anyone else for ten years, it seems he doesn’t pick lightly.

  I would almost think that makes his iions quite serious, if he hadablished from the beginning that he was only bringing me on as "eai". From the very start I have been toyed with, poked and prodded to see my reas, pyed with like a cat pys with a mouse. My very presence here is pletely at his merbsp; If nothing else, I am under his employ, therefore I only possibly have so much agen our retionship. There’s a massive power imbahat makes it impossible to envision a version of being with him that isn’t at least somewhat degrading to me.

  So does he see the potential for a serious retionship with me, or does he just waertai? Could he see me as an equal or will I always just be a subordinate? Am I a potential partner or his favorite toy? Thinking about it makes me dizzy.

  My head has been spinning with questions tely, and most of them don’t have easy answers. There is one, however, that has been b me which has a very definitive answer, and will be very easy to find out. I have to ask it, or it’s going to drive me crazy forever. One m in the great hall, I see one of the court chemists milling about, the one named Nora, and I take the opportunity.

  I call her over, and she, after looking around to make sure I'm not actually signaling to someone else, walks up to stand beside me and my harp.

  "I have a quick question for you," I say, keeping my voice down and gng at Khysmet to make sure he's not looking.

  "Yes?" she replies. "What is it?"

  "I wao know what the uses are for Sungian venom."

  Nora adjusts her spectacles and unches into a detailed expnation.

  "Well," she says, "it's only uood that our venom's primary effeost animals is to augment, for a brief period, the subjective experiences of our senses. It makes colors seem brighter, sounds seem louder, tastes more powerful, et cetera. It has seen use by soldiers and athletes in order to heighten their reflexes in battle or sport, but research has shown this to be iive, as the sensory augmentation often overwhelms and distracts the subject rather than giving them an edge. trated Sungian venom is occasionally used as a method of torture, si also intensifies the experience of pain.

  "Most only, however, it is ied directly from the sourto a Sungian's partner during sexual intercourse, as it amplifies the experience of pleasure and bring about more intense asm."

  "Son of a bitch."

  "I'm sorry?"

  "Nothing," I say quickly. "Sorry, I just heard about its properties from someone else, and I didn't believe them – looks like I was wrong. As always, your answers are incredibly elucidating. Thanks for your help."

  She nods and smiles. "Any time, dear."

  I look back at Khysmet and find that he's staring in my dire with a smirk on his fabsp; I flush a deep red and look away. There's no way he knows what I was talking about, right? Surely I wasn't that loud. Then again, I realize with a groan, if he heard even a s of what the chemist was expining to me, he could easily have deduced what I asked. Nosy bastard.

  My test hobby is findiremely specific Veilsung songs and pying the instrument apa without singing, in order to surreptitiously unicate with Khysmet. He doesn’t always get them right away, but there are a few that I use more often than others which he picks up on immediately. Right now I start plug a cautionary folk tune about a man who gets his snout cut off for stig it where it doesn't belong. I gnce bad see that he's giving me a withering gre. Excellent. Message received.

  I’m grinning indulgently and silently gratuting myself on being annoying, when I uedly overhear the new most iing versation I’ve ever heard in the great hall.

  “–we have to meet iabs? I hate it down there.”

  “Keep your voice down.”

  Then nothing.

  I strain my ears for more. Are they whispering now? If they are, I ’t hear it.

  I look around subtly, seeing if there’s any groups of people that look like they’re having a secret versation, but no one in particur catches my eye. They may have already walked away.

  My curiosity is immediately piqued. So someone is havi meetings iabs, are they? Also, what and where are the catabs?

  I’m even more thirsty for information than when I overheard Rolf and Sulfeng. That was so cut and dry. Someone’s stealing money? Okay, well where is the money? Oh, you found it? Guess you’re done. Sneaking around was fun, but there was h to the issue. Only took me about four hours to gather the necessary information, then it was just a matter of waiting for Sulfeng to make a move again and put a new drop in his desk drawer.

  This, oher hand, raises so many questions. I’ve never even heard of catabs under Dimos before. Or are they just uhe castle? Where’s the entrao them? Who is haviings there? Why would they o meet underground? What are they doing that requires that degree of privabsp; I desperately o know absolutely everything, and I o know it as soon as possible.

  First off, I o know more about the catabs themselves. I think for a long time about who would be best to ask. I have a feeling the information I’m looking fht not be widely known. It’s a far cry from idle gossip. It’s possible it might even raise some questions about why I’m asking and where I heard about them from in the first pbsp; Also, I have a feeling that if there is arao the catabs from the castle, its loight be kept under s. So if I’m looking for someoremely discreet and with intimate knowledge of the castle yout, there’s only one person I know I turn to.

  When Khysmet es out of his meeting, I’m practically boung on the balls of my feet, having been spending the past few hours swirling questions around in my brain.

  “I have some questions to ask you about potentially destiopics,” I tell him eagerly.

  He looks at me with a very ral expression.

  “Alright,” he says simply. “Let’s go to my office.”

  He walks away without waiting for a reply. I fall into step behind him, pouting deeply. What is his deal tely? I hought I would miss his releeasing, but this, this indifference, is somehow worse. Also, now that I’m walking behind him, I find myself uionally staring at his broad bad wanting to know what it looks like under his shirt. My skin starts to heat up as I think about it. I’ve never seen him even in a partial state of undress. I feel a desperate o remedy that.

  When we reach his office, I walk inside and plunk down onto the sitting area coubsp; Disappointingly, he doesn't even sit near me, instead walking over to his desk to fiddle around with something.

  "So," he says from across the room, "what's your question?"

  "I need you to tell me everything you know about the catabs."

  He snorts. "That's not a very 'destiopibsp; They run under many parts of Dimos and are widely known about. They're even mapped retively thhly."

  Ah. So they’re not as secret as I thought they’d be. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

  "Do they ect to the castle?" I ask.

  "Not that I know of. If they do, the entrance is likely cealed, or at least in a spot that isn't obvious."

  My brow furrows. "I thought you said they were well mapped?"

  "Retively well mapped,” he corrects, “pared to the size of them at least. They sprawl underh almost the whole city. Plus, even though the catabs might be mapped, there are defiunnels eg to them that are not. I'm sure there are tunnels and caves that run uhe castle that I don't know about. I didn't spend much time expl the castle in my youth; my brother was the one who knew all the nooks and ies."

  I kneel on the couch cushion and prop myself up on the arm rest to look at him more directly. He's still messing with something on his desk, not looking at me. Why isn’t he looking at me?

  "The reason I'm asking,” I say, “is because I overheard someoalk about having a secret meeting iabs. I was hoping if they only ran uhe castle or something, the meeting pce might be easier to find. But it sounds like it could be anywhere iy."

  "Secret meeting, you say?” he says with mild curiosity. “Iing."

  He doesn’t sound that ied, which pisses me off. Well he might not care about the furtive gatherings of his subjects, but that’s not going to stop me from iigating.

  "I think I'll start looking around for hidden tunnels,” I inform him. “Even if their meeting pce isn’t right underh the castle, it might be close by. Maybe a tunnel from the castle would ect there."

  "Sounds like a fun little projebsp; I'll allow it,” he says rally. “Let me know if you find something before you just start wandering underground, though."

  I frown. Patronizing asshole. Does he really think I would just blindly wander a secret cave system alohout telling anybody where I was going?

  "Of course I will," I say, "I'm not stupid."

  "I'll write to my brother and see if he knows any good pces to start looking," he offers.

  "Thanks, that would be a big help."

  He finally looks up at me and I feel a zing run through my body when he meets my eyes. Immediately heat pools low in my gut from his peing gaze. This untrolble desperation is getting old.

  "Anything else?" he asks.

  "No," I say, "that's pretty much it."

  "Good."

  Khysmet sets down whatever he retending to work on at his desk and strolls over to the door. I get off my knees and sit back down normally, watg him as he unhurriedly reaches for the doorknob. The click I hear when he slides the lock shut sends an anticipatory thrill down my spine.

  He approaches me slowly, taking his sweet time as he walks up directly before me, then crouches down to just below eye level and pces one hand oher side of my legs, g me in. I feel wetness pooliween my legs, and my heart is pounding against my ribcage. I exhale a shuddering breath that I didn't know I was holding when he flicks his toasting the air around me.

  "I want you to know," he says in a slow, deliberate tone. "The smell of your stant arousal has been driving me insane for days."

  My breath catches in my throat. So he hasn't been pletely ignorant of my predit. What then, has he been givihe cold shoulder on purpose?

  I look him square in the eyes.

  "So do something about it," I say, a challenge implicit in my tone.

  He smiles with a dark heat that has my stoma knots. I'm desperate to know what he has in mind.

  "Our st enter," he says, "as you may recall, was not explicitly sensual. I seem to recall pinning you down in my p in a delirious haze being a highlight of the evening."

  I y head. I hadn't really thought about it like that. It was ued, but I never felt like I was in any danger or anything. I didn't even try to stop him until he started ripping my dress, and then he did stop once he snapped out of it.

  "It caught me off guard, yes, but…" I bite my lip. "I didn't mind."

  He chuckles softly. "Yes, well. I still feel as though I didn't really put my best foot forward, as it were. In general…"

  He gently pces one hand on my knee and runs it slowly up my thigh, watg me carefully for any sign of reje.

  "I would like to receive a more enthusiastic 'yes' from you before I take what I want."

  He's leaned in closer, g me in further, his face just inches from mine. I barely think, my mind is growing so thick with a lustful haze.

  "For example," he tinues, "if I were to ask yht now if you wao touch you until you e, screaming my name, here on this couch, what would you–?"

  "Yes," I say before he's even fialking.

  He smirks at my eagerness. "Yes what?" he prompts. "Be more specific, Cat."

  Is he trying to embarrass me by making me ask for what I want out loud? Or just enjoying telling me what to do? Well if it's the first, I'll have to disappoint, because I have signifitly less shame than he might think. And if it's the sed… I'm so desperate that I don't even care.

  "Yes," I say, meeting his gaze directly, "I want you to touch me and make me e. Right here, right now."

  The hunger in his eyes intensifies to an unpreted level.

  "Very good," he purrs in praise. Then he nudges me to move into a more reed position and starts pushing up my skirt to expose my underwear.

  "Wait…” I hesitate, remembering something that makes me nervous. “What about your cws?"

  He smirks and lifts up his right hand. The way Sungian cws e out of their fingers looks sort of like human fingernails, but they’re much thicker aend a short distance before curving into sharp points. On this hand, however, I see that they’ve been ground down quite a bit, signifitly blunted.

  "I trimmed them a few days ago,” he expins. “Right after I realized how badly I o feel you e undone around my fingers."

  A shiver of excitement runs down my spine.

  "So wait,” I ask, “does that mean I don’t have to worry about you ripping any more of my dresses?"

  He puts his right hand back douts up his left so I see the cws on that oill have all their sharp tips.

  I smile, finding the asymmetry rather funny.

  "Don't you feel a little lopsided?" I tease.

  He snorts and raises a brow. "I tend to prefer fun over form."

  Then he slides his left hand down my underwear and with a sharp yet smooth movement, hooks in his cws and shreds them to ribbons, exposing me pletely in one fell swoop.

  I gasp and flin response, every single muscle in my abdomen g at ond arousal practically flooding out of me. Khysmet looks insanely pleased with himself. He cocks his head as he admires the view, and my skin grows hotter the longer he stares. When he pces a hand oher side of my t and spreads me wide open, I feel like I'm going to bust. He hums thoughtfully as my lips close again.

  "Now,” he says, trag circles with his fingers slowly up the inside of my thigh. “I've been reading up on human anatomy as of te, so I think I have a general idea of how best to pleasure you…”

  I blink. Is that what he’s been doing in the library this whole week? Every time he's been staring at me he’s been p the anatomy of my genitals? He could have just asked. I'd have been happy to give him a crash course.

  “…But I'm going to need you to be extra loud so I know when I'm doing something right, okay?"

  I exhale a weak chuckle. "Oh, I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

  "So if I were to do this…"

  He dips one finger slightly into me, wetting it, then drags it up my slit to my clitoris and starts rubbing into it with tiny circles. Instantly, I feel pleasure shoot through me in radiating spikes, so sensitive from being hot and bothered so long without release. My back arches into his cool touch, and I throw my head bad exhale in low, breathy moans. As requested, I don’t attempt to stifle my voice.

  He removes his hand. I hiss in frustration.

  “Iing,” he says mildly. “What about this?”

  He liwo fingers up to my entrand presses in slowly. I hum in appreciation as he pumps them in and out of me at an even, leisurely pace, then moan when he curls his fingers forward and hits the sensitive spot there. When I meet his eyes I find that he's watg me closely, head cocked in i as he measures my reas.

  Wheakes his fingers out, I again bemoan the loss. He doesn't make me wait long, though, before dipping his head down and lig a long stripe up between my folds, stopping at my clit aing his tongue writhe against it. My breath hitches at the sensation, and I instinctively grind fainst the pressure.

  He chuckles at my eagerness. “Do you wao fuck you with my tongue, Cat?”

  I melt at the offer. “Oh gods, yes.”

  “Yes what?” he prompts.

  “Yes, please, I want to feel your tongue inside me.”

  "Good girl."

  He readily obliges, sliding his tongue, long and thick, deep into my throbbing t. The sensation of it squirming inside me is indescribable, and when he uses his thumb to start cirg my clit, I feel my asm start to build rapidly.

  Before I get very far, though, he withdraws his tongue and angles his head toward my thigh instead. I look down to see what he's doing, and watch as he opens his mouth as his fangs slowly slide out, a jolt running straight through my ovaries as he does.

  “Do you wao bite you?” he asks, watg my rea closely.

  I hesitate, nervous. Those fangs look even longer up close.

  “Promise it won’t hurt?” I ask.

  He chuckles. “It’ll pinch a little, but trust me, the pain won’t st long.”

  I take a deep breath in, hold it a sed, then nod as I shakily exhale.

  He looks at me intensely. “I’m going to need a much more enthusiastic yes for this one, Cat.”

  I think harder about it, about if I really want this. The way my body responds whenever I see his fangs slide out, plus my intense, burning curiosity, brings me to the clusion that I will o know what it feels like eventually. Might as well let it happen now. I trust him not to hurt me.

  “Yes," I say definitively. "Yes, I want you to bite me. Please.”

  He smiles darkly. “Well," he says, "since you’re begging…”

  His fangs slide out again and he leans in close. His thumb is still cirg my clit, and I y eyes and focus on that sensation.

  Wheches on, there is a sharp pin my leg and the pressure of his jaws around it. I flind whimper, but as his venom drips down the side of my thigh, the pain diminishes greatly, drowned out by a flood of other senses – the soft feeling of fabric against my body is now making my skin tihe smell of Khysmet's bergamot and mahogany st floods over me in a wave, and the sound of his low moan before he uhrums into my chest. And most overwhelming of all, the feeling of his thumb against my clit is sending unbelievable pulses of pleasure through my whole body. My moans cresdo untrolbly, and I grind my hips in frehrusts, seeking more fri.

  He is his tongue bato my t, and the sensation es my entire being. The writhing pressure against my inner walls is intensified by the venom, and it's pushing every sihought out of my brain, leavih nothing but the pure flood of my senses. I'm careening toward the edge so fast it's blinding, pressure building in my core, every muscle in my body starting to twitch with the tension of my impending asm. I’m practically screaming at this point and grinding hard into Khysmet’s face, seeking every ounce of pressure and fri I find.

  Right before I reach my peak, Khysmet withdraws his tongue for just a sed.

  "Now be a good girl and e, Cat," he instructs.

  He licks bato me and when his tos the deepest point inside me I instantly explode around him, muscles tensing untrolbly as I find my release, calling his name along with several expletives in a hoarse moan. I've never had an asm this intense before; it tears through me in an all-ing fire, and I lose track of every other sensation and thought. Wave after wave of agonizing pleasure radiates out of my core, spreading to every er in my body. I'm overwhelmed by ecstasy, my whole being shuddering with it.

  Khysmet withdraws as me start my edown, which is punctuated by several aftershocks of pleasure that almost make it feel like I’m ing again. I mewl pathetically as I ride them out. It takes a long time before I regain awareness of my surroundings.

  When I e to, I realize Khysmet must have stepped away without my notig, because he’s ing back with a little cup and a sealed tainer of something in his hand. He offers the cup to me.

  “Antivenom,” he expins. “Otherwise you’ll have a nasty headache, especially si’s your first time.”

  I take the cup gratefully and down the liquid in it, thehe empty tainer on the nearby table. He holds out the tainer.

  “And some salve to rub oe marks to speed up healing.”

  I opeop to find a green paste inside. I scoop a little out with my fingers and rub it over the two little red dots on my thigh. They hardly bled at all. Before my eyes, they heal into near featureless skin with barely a ghost of a scar. I put the lid ba the tainer a o the cup.

  After seeing that I’m all fixed up, Khysmet sits down on the couext to me and motions for me to scootch close. I notice the clear outline of his cock straining against the fabric of his pants and wonder if he’s going to address that in any way, but he just has me y down a my head in his p, looking up at him. He gently runs his cwed fihrough my hair. I y eyes and breathe deeply, soothed by the sensation.

  “I k,” I say.

  “Knew what?”

  “I knew you get off on telling people what to do.”

  Khysmet scoffs. “I do not,” he insists, “get off on telling people what to do.”

  I open my eyes and gre up at him.

  “You literally just instructed me to e,” I point out.

  He shakes his head and rolls his eyes as though uo believe that I would even suggest such a thing. However, after a moment of thinking, he hesitantly makes a small cession.

  “It’s only fun if I think someone will say no,” he says.

  I blink up at him in fusion. “What do you mean?”

  “If I just tell someone what to do, and they do it without argument, that doesn’t do anything for me. It’s only iing if someone fights back,” he expins. “In my life as it is and has been, most people do what I ask of them. Generally, if someone tradicts me on something, it’s for political reasons, which is fun in its own way, but I don’t have a lot of people in my life anymore who will tell me no to my fa a personal level. That’s what drew me to you in the first pce.”

  He smirks down at me. “From the mome, I could tell that you are a person who is eager to tell me to piss off. I was worried when you found out I was king, you’d hold back, but fortuhat didn’t st very long.”

  I take a moment to process his words.

  “So… are you saying that you would wao say ‘no’ to you in the bedroom?”

  “First of all, I’m loving the implication that you wish to titing to know me ally,” he says smugly.

  My face heats up. I start to correct him, but he interrupts me before I say anything.

  “To answer your question, though…” he says, “no, that’s not really it. It’s more like… It’s more like I want to have to work for a yes. I don’t like having yesses just given to me. If someone is eager to tell me no, then I know that when they do give me a yes, it’s because I ear. And I’m a patient man. I wait for my yes. Holy, if you had gohe whole two years without ever reciprog my advances, I would have been still happy just having you around to tell me to fuck off every day.”

  It takes some time before his expnation sinks in, but when it does, a wicked grin spreads slowly ay fabsp; I have a brilliant idea.

  Khysmet jumps a little when I suddenly sit up. I crawl across the coutil I’m straddling his p, my hands braced against his firm chest, grinding slightly against the bulge in his pants. He looks ed about the expression of sinister glee c my face.

  “You,” I purr smugly, “have just made a very grave tactical error, your majesty.”

  He furrows his brow quizzically, but waits for me to tinue.

  “You’ve just revealed your weakness, one I am indescribably eager to exploit," I say with pronounced dramaticism, leaning further in with every word. "sider it revenge for everything you've put me through so far. I am going to spend every sed of the foreseeable future t and teasing you, dangling myself in front of you like fresh meat, and every time you try to make a move, every time you so much as attempt to touch me, I will deny you. You will not hear a yes from my lips until you are panting and begging for it. I will erode every ounce of patience you have until you are a hollow husk of a man, and I’m going to enjoy every sed of breaking you.”

  He’s looking at me in what I only describe as awe, and I feel his cock twitch against me even through the yers of fabric between us. I grind down on it to give him a little taste of the hell he is about to endure. He groans shakily in response, his eyes sliding shut. Then he opens them and looks at me hungrily.

  “Promise?” he says.

  I smile and hum a smug little ugh. Then I lean in close and raise my hand to his face to tap one finger gently against his snout.

  "No."

  I enunciate this very clearly, then rise up out of his p and walk to the door. Halfway there, I realize what's left of my underwear is dangling off my hips unfortably, so I pull my skirts up, rip them the rest of the way off, and throw them on the floor. Then I keep walking, unlock the door, a the room without once looking back.