Ruthless King

“You know you’re mine, don’t you?”

“Yes. Just like you’re mine.”

He slid his fingers from her and she whimpered, wanting him back.

“I’m yours. Forever.”

“You won’t ever leave me?” she whispered.

“Never, baby. I’ll never leave you.” He gave her another kiss. “Except to go and get a cloth to clean you up. Stay here.”

Jilly pouted as he slid off the bed. “What if I don’t want you to clean me up? What if I want to go to sleep like this?”

Hunger and satisfaction filled his face. “Yeah? You want to sleep like this?”

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s my precious girl.” He moved them both under the covers with him snuggled up against her back, his hand moving down to rest over her mound.

“My girl.”

Jilly smiled. That was all she’d ever wanted to be.

Jilly walkedinto the dining room the following morning, feeling lighter. She was going to be all right.

With time.

To her surprise, Victor was there eating breakfast with Regent.

“Good morning, Victor,” she said with a forced smile. She was wearing another black dress. This one had puffy sleeves and a full skirt. There were little flowers embroidered on the sleeves. This one was cuter, but still not her. And if she was being truthful, the sleeves kind of itched.

“Morning,” Victor replied.

She resisted the urge to run to Regent and hug him good morning. She was slowly learning the rules.

Instead, she picked up her plate and went to walk around Regent to get some food. But he held out his arm to stop her.

He pointed at her chair and she frowned slightly. Couldn’t she get some food? She hadn’t eaten much yesterday and was starving.

But then he took her plate and stood. “Sit. I’ll get your food.”

A flood of happiness hit her.

Regent might not tell her that he loved her. But he took care of her. He showed her how much he cared for her.

After pulling back her chair for her, he moved to fill up her plate. When Regent placed it back in front of her, it was overflowing.

“Thank you. That’s rather a lot of food.”

Victor snorted.

What did that mean? She gave him a startled look.

“You barely ate yesterday,” Regent grumbled. “I want to see you eat most of that.”

Right. Well. She didn’t think she could eat quite this much. But he was staring at her intently, clearly unwilling to eat until she did. So she dug in.

Victor and Regent spoke occasionally. She put her fork down to take a sip of coffee, ignoring Regent’s sharp look.