The kings queen, p.23
The King's Queen, page 23
By the time Catriona did appear, his manservant had already helped him get cleaned and dressed and Elske had been given something to drink. He tried a bit of food, but his stomach seemed to rebel.
He was working his way up to trying magic on his shoulder. He needed to kill the rot in his wound, but he was exhausted, and he didn’t know how his magic would respond after all that time in irons.
Catriona flung herself down on the bed and cupped his face in her hands. “You look terrible.”
“Good to see you too,” he said with a little smile. “You look beautiful.”
She sighed. “Oh, Elske, your wound. I can smell it.”
He grunted.
“You said—”
“I’m just going to try it now,” he said. “I’m so very tired.”
“Elske.” She sounded on the verge of tears.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s Herrick.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I have to go to him, and you’re like this.”
“Go to him.” Elske looked up at her. “Like that? But he… he hasn’t…” The jealousy went straight up his spine and exploded red in his brain. “You did that?” His voice was severe.
“No, I didn’t,” she said. “It wasn’t my idea.”
“Oh, but it’s happening, and you promised him—”
“He made me,” she said. “He said he’d slit your throat if I didn’t.”
“Gods, Catriona, he can have any cunt he wants, why does he…”
“Want my old and withered one?” She barked out a laugh.
“No, you know that’s not what I…” He shut his eyes. “I hadn’t realized how much I thought you were mine.”
“I am yours.”
“You’re his wife.”
“He just wanted…” She brushed fingers over his forehead. “He wants to hurt you.”
“Well, objective achieved,” Elske whispered. “But locking me up in a damp dungeon without caring for my wound, that did the job well enough, I think. He hates me, doesn’t he?”
“Maybe going to him is a good thing. Maybe if I can… maybe if all three of us…”
“I don’t think so. I don’t think ever again,” he murmured.
Her fingers feathered over his skin. “I just want to stay here with you.”
He caught her fingers and kissed them. “You go to him. Do whatever he wants. We have always whored ourselves out to him, Catriona.”
She pulled her fingers back. “Is that what it’s been?”
He shut his eyes.
“You love him, Elske. I love him, too.”
“But he hates us,” said Elske, without opening his eyes.
“Maybe he doesn’t.”
Elske used his magic and delved into his wound and began killing off the rotted skin that was festering. He cried out.
She jerked next to him. “What are you doing?”
He could only moan, craning his head back, straining his neck, reaching in to root it all out, get rid of all of it.
“Your wound,” she whispered.
When it was done, he panted, and he reached for her.
She went for linens, binding it, because it was bleeding freely now.
He passed out while she did it. Woke up as she was finishing, screaming.
“Elske, I’ve never seen you like this.” There were tears wetting her cheeks. She was terrified.
“I’m fine,” he said, but his voice sounded grim.
“No, you’re not,” she said, shaking her head.
“Go to Herrick,” he said through gritted teeth. “Go fuck Herrick.”
She let out a sob.
HERRICK WAS NOT in her bed. He was in front of her fireplace, sitting in a chair. He had a foot resting on the seat of the chair, his arm wrapped around his leg. He was peering into the fire. He was still only wearing breeches. His chest was bare and hairy and he was beautiful. “I was beginning to think I needed to come after you. Were you busy sucking his cock first?”
“He’s in no condition for such things, as you well know,” Catriona said. She wanted to slam her fist into Herrick’s stupid face. “Let’s have this out, Herrick, right here and now. You had no kind of relationship with your mother. You would have been happy to have her live away from you, in exile, and you—”
“I don’t see what this has to do with anything.” He was still gazing into the fire. His voice was even, no inflection.
“Gisila was out of her mind because of you,” said Catriona. “If you hadn’t sent her off like that, she wouldn’t have blamed me or Elske or anyone else and she wouldn’t have gone after our Soli. You say she would never have hurt an infant, and maybe normally she wouldn’t, but you drove her mad.”
Herrick’s whole body went stiff. “Get over here.”
“Nothing to say to that?”
“Get. Over. Here.” His voice dropped into a low, imperative register.
She went. She stopped in front of him, blocking the fire from his body. She glared at him. “You are just as much to blame, and it’s not fair of you to take it out on Elske.”
“What if he killed your mother, Catriona?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t spoken to my mother in… My mother stopped caring that I existed after I went to the temple.”
Herrick shook his head. “On your knees, bitch queen.”
She licked her lips. “Look, there is no reason—”
“On your knees,” he repeated.
She shook her head. “You love Elske.”
“Correction. I used to,” said Herrick. “He never loved me back. He only ever loved you.”
Catriona furrowed her brow. “No, he did love you—”
“He used me,” said Herrick. “You both used me. I decided to stop being used, that’s all. Now, I intend to use you.” He nodded meaningfully at the floor.
She clenched her hands into fists.
His hand shot out. He grasped one of her wrists and tugged.
She lost her balance and landed in a heap in front of him. “We don’t use you, Herrick. You are… we… you’re the sun.”
“I’m the throne,” said Herrick, giving her a sad smile. “If I weren’t king, neither of you would be here.”
“That’s not—”
“It’s true of everyone.” He looked over her head into the fire. “I’ve known it a long time. My mother… I know I wasn’t always good to her, but she was the one person who loved me because I was me, not because I was king.”
“Herrick, I love you—”
“I have something for you to do with your mouth besides lie to me, slut queen.”
She laughed, a broken sound. “You want to debase me, my king?”
“Unlace me and take me out. Do you think I’m hard for you, or will you have to get me hard with that lying mouth of yours?”
“How long have you been this angry?” she whispered.
“Always, Catriona,” he said.
She shook her head.
“Since I found you kissing him,” he said with a shrug. “Since I… gods, since the moment I clapped eyes on you. You destroy me.”
She gasped at that, the unwitting echo of the thing she and Elske exchanged.
“You were meant to be mine,” he said. “You were the one thing, the one woman, I earned. You didn’t know what I was. You got nothing out of… but it was all ruined too quickly, because I can never not be king, and women can never not want things from kings, and gods, haven’t I given you everything, Catriona? Suck my fucking cock in gratitude, would you?” He was trembling.
She swallowed.
She went for the laces to his breeches.
He was soft. Pink and soft and small and vulnerable, and she ran a finger over the head of him, coaxing him out of his foreskin, like a shy little boy.
He groaned, tipping his head back over the back of the chair.
“I’m grateful, Your Majesty,” she whispered. “Let me show you how grateful I am.” She licked him.
He stiffened in two seconds flat, letting out a hissing breath.
She licked him all over, getting him slippery, so that when she began to use her hand to pump at the base of him, tonguing over the head of him, her hand slid easily as she tightly gripped him.
His cock swelled and lengthened and he let out only harsh, sharp, affected breaths.
She slid her fist down, made it just her thumb and forefinger encircling his base, nice and tight the way he liked it, and then she tucked him down her throat.
He grunted. “Fuck, Catriona. That’s good.”
She took them there, deep, as long as she could, until her eyes watered and she was gasping for breath, and then she took a break, using her tongue on the head of him again before she took him deep again.
His fingers hovered against her cheekbone, barely caressing her.
She looked up at him as she took him down her throat.
He held her gaze. His voice wasn’t strong. “You’re not grateful, that’s just the thing. You always want more. Nothing is ever enough for you.”
She had to laugh at that. She spat him out and spoke against his wet stiff skin. “Nothing’s enough for me? You had a virgin girl in your bed tonight, and you need this?”
“She didn’t know what she was doing,” he said with a little smile. “You think anyone can throat my cock like you, my queen?”
She licked the tiny slit at the tip of him.
He hummed. “Suck me.”
She took him obligingly into her mouth again. She took him long and deep again and then came off to use her hand on him in jerky movements. “What do you want me to do, Herrick? You want me to thank you? Tell you how lucky I feel to be allowed to get on my knees and put my lips on the royal cock?”
He groaned, shutting his eyes. “Uh… if you don’t mind.”
She let out a throaty chuckle. “Thank you for giving me your cock, Your Majesty.”
“You like sucking it.”
“I like it,” she said, pumping his length. “Thank you for letting me suck it.”
“Again,” he breathed, throwing back his head.
“Thank you, Your Majesty. You can’t know how grateful I am for the chance to taste your hard, thick cock.”
“My royal cock.”
“Your royal cock,” she agreed.
He groaned. “Fuck. Fuck, Catriona.” Suddenly, he lifted his head and seized his cock himself, pushing her hand away. His voice was mangled. “Stay right there. On your knees like that. Close your eyes.”
She cringed, slamming her eyes shut. Not on my face, Herrick, fuck you, not on my—
It spattered her, warm, thick, liquid, all over her forehead and cheeks.
Herrick panted.
She had to keep her eyes closed. It would sting if she opened them. She stayed where she was, trembling in a combination of rage and arousal, because—fuck him—that had gotten her going. Even this part, his disgusting semen and the fact it was all over her face and how she was on her knees… Something about it made her quim loose and eager.
Herrick’s fingers on her face now. Painting his release this way and that over her cheek. “You look good with my seed all over you, slut queen. You like it, don’t you?”
“Fuck you,” she said through clenched teeth.
He laughed. She felt the air move and knew he’d gotten up.
A moment later, something else hit her in the face. It was a towel. She mopped at herself. God, it was in her hair.
She seethed, still on her knees, clutching the towel in fisted hands. She was going to murder this man. She was going to come into his chamber with a knife and plunge it into his throat.
He touched her shoulder. “Get up,” he breathed, something regretful in his tone.
She breathed for several seconds, tightening her grip on the towel. Then, mustering whatever dignity was left to her—not much—she got to her feet.
He touched her face again. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
She let out a bitter laugh.
He slid his hand around until it gripped the back of her neck. “No, really I…” He stepped closer to her, pressing his forehead against hers. “Do you ever sometimes feel like everything’s sort of… meaningless? Like no matter what you do, nothing means anything at all?”
“Everyone feels like that, Herrick.”
“Do you…?” He kissed her cheek, lips against the spot where he’d splattered her with his release. “Should I return the favor?”
“What do you mean?”
His hand came up, gripping her between her thighs, through her skirts. “Are you wet here, Catriona? Would you like me to lick you until you come?”
She let out a mewling noise. She should get back to Elske. On the other hand, if she denied Herrick this… Herrick never offered to use his mouth on her anymore. It had been… she couldn’t remember the last time he did it. It meant something, even as he was telling her that everything was meaningless.
“Yes?” whispered the king, capturing her mouth with his own.
She moaned against his lips.
He moaned back and then sank to his knees.
She gasped. He’d never—
He yanked her skirts up and pressed his face against her.
She shut her eyes, her core lighting up in pleasure.
His tongue delved in between her folds. At first, he poked her with his tongue, and she winced. She tried to squelch it, but the words came out of her before she could stop them. “Gentler.”
He grunted appreciatively, picking up one of her hands and settling it against the back of his head. Now, he loosened his tongue, lapping her, curving gently around her clit.
She sighed, holding him in place with one hand.
He moaned into her sex.
“Suck my clit,” she ordered in a guttural voice.
“Yes, my queen.” He complied.
Her entire body tightened like a whip cracking. Her pleasure built, one layer of it, and then another layer, and then they stacked on top of each other, breaking free like loose chunks of ice on a mountain side. Suddenly, her climax was on her, as if the ice mountain had collapsed, and she cried out as pleasure tumbled through her again and again.
He was still sucking.
She had to stop him, because it was too much, a kind of torture in the wake of her orgasm. She tugged him to his feet and their lips met again and he clutched her tightly against his body.
He breathed in her ear. “I would never have let them cut off his head. You know that, right?”
She burrowed her face against his bare chest. “Yes, of course, I know that. Of course.”
“Gods, I love you, Catriona.”
“I love you, too, Herrick. I really do love you.”
“I know you do.” He kissed her jaw. Her temple. “Forget all those ugly things I said. I’m… I’m just an arsehole sometimes, my love, you know this about me.”
She nodded against him.
“Go to him,” said Herrick, pulling away. “It was cruel for me to take you from him for this.”
She looked up at her husband. “Come with me. We’ll both go to him.”
Herrick considered. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
She smiled encouragingly. “Maybe?”
“Maybe I’ll catch up with you.” He smiled at her. “You go to him now, so he’s not alone.”
“All right,” she said. “But you must come to him, Herrick. You must.”
“I will,” said Herrick.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
ELSKE DREAMED THAT Catriona came back and sat by his bed, or maybe that really happened, and he half-woke for it.
When his manservant shook him awake in the morning light, however, he was alone in the bed.
“Orders are to have you dressed and down to the throne room,” said the man.
Elske wasn’t sure how easily he’d be able to get out of bed.
As it turned out, not easily, but with copious help from his manservant and two other servants, he was standing and dressed within three quarters of an hour.
He had to be escorted down to the throne room, because he could not stand on his own, and he was intercepted in one of the hallways leaning on his manservant by Herrick himself.
Herrick’s face paled as he looked him over.
Elske found he couldn’t meet the king’s gaze.
Herrick hurried closer. He dismissed his guards and dismissed Elske’s manservant, leaving Elske to hold onto the wall for support.
They were alone.
Herrick spoke in a low voice. “I… I came to see you last night, but you were fast asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you. Somehow, you look worse this morning.”
“Thank you ever so much, Your Majesty.” Elske tipped his gaze up to smile at the king.
Herrick looked down at his hands. “You know what I mean.”
Elske didn’t think he did. He waited.
“I didn’t have a choice, you know,” said Herrick. “I had to lock you up.”
“How was Catriona last night?” said Elske. “You chose right then to snap your fingers and summon her to spread her thighs for you?”
Herrick pressed his lips together.
“That good? Did you make her come?”
“I did, as a matter of fact.” The king stepped closer. He put lips against Elske’s ear. “First I made her suck me on her knees and I came on her face.” He pulled back, looking the fae over. “Good to be king, I suppose.”
Elske’s heart was not beating in a proper rhythm. He couldn’t speak. Was that true? Had he humiliated her in that way? Had she really had an orgasm despite it? Fuck.
“You’ve never even apologized,” said Herrick. “For what you did to my mother.”
Elske barked out a laugh. “Oh, I’m very sorry, Your Majesty.”
“Fuck you,” said Herrick. “Look, here’s what happens. You come in, we stand together, Barnacus stands with us. We announce that Barnacus has found evidence to convince him it was incee, you say you understand and hold no ill will toward the crown, and then tonight, at dinner, we’ll announce the engagement of Leon to Jannica.”
“Wait. What engagement?”
“Hasn’t Catriona told you everything?”
“I was distracted by the fact that my shoulder was rotting off, I suppose,” said Elske, glowering at him.
