Master of Desire by Lacey Alexander (read out loud books .TXT) 📕

was   not, and she just didn’t understand. Didn’t understand—and had

ruined…everything.

He looked up into the blue, blue eyes he’d  fallen in love with and said, “I hate  you.”

Teesia couldn’t have been more stunned. “What?”

“I hate you  for this,” he said, his voice dry, wooden.

Oh Ares. Oh no. What had she done?  She covered her mouth with her hand.

She’d only been trying to deepen their mutual pleasure, and even when  he’d resisted, she’d been sure that by  the time  it was done he’d know the pure delights she experienced in the same position. She’d  been sure—but now she knew she’d been

wrong.

Perhaps the anguish in his  eyes during the sex should  have told  her. But  had shenot suffered anguish at the start, too?

Still, only now did  she grasp the truth—the truth that suddenly seemed so plain and clear to see. Ralen was not a man who ever wanted to submit, only to master.  Shaena had  told her that. As had Ralen himself. Why hadn’t she listened?

Her heart sank in her chest. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t believe she’d just recklessly taken what had so carefully and tentatively grown between them anddashed it against the rocks like  a ship at  sea. “Oh Ralen,” she said sadly, at a loss, kneeling next to him.

He yanked against the silk scarves again,  wildly, and the look on his face told herall was truly lost. He truly hated her. And there was no fixing it.

When he got loose from the ties, he would probably rip her limb from limb.

“Untie me, you heartless whore!”

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She shrank back under the ferocity of his words, truly frightened of him—in a way she’d never been before, even on their wedding night.

She knew instinctively that he’d never forgive her—that their happiness was a thing of the past.

At a loss for what to do, she leapt from  the bed, grabbed up the clothes  she’d discarded, and fled the room without looking back.

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Chapter Ten

There seemed to Teesia  only one answer, and that was to run.

She loved Ralen now, loved him desperately, and was crushed  by what had justhappened, but it was her own fault, and irreparable.  Why, oh why, was I so stupid? Why did I think I  knew him so well,  better than he knew himself?  Well, that didn’t matter now, all that mattered was getting away  from the fortress before Ralen got free. She truly believed he might rip her to shreds in his anger—and she almost couldn’t blame him.

Racing across the cool grass toward the stables, unnoticed—she hoped—by the night watchmen, she thanked  Ares for the nearly full moon that  lit her  way.  It was easyto find Vixen in the corral and lure her with  a handful of clover. A moment later, Teesiahad bridled the sorrel and led the horse to  the mounting block,  where she climbedastride her.

As her cunt stretched over the horse’s back, still sensitive from sex, she was forced to remember her husband—both the horrible scene that  she’d just brought about as wellas all the wonder, all the passion and joy she’d experienced in his arms. “Oh Ralen,” shesobbed quietly.

But this is no time for tears. You must be  strong if you are to make your way home to  Myrtell.

It should be  simple, she thought.  Follow  the  beach—and in a day or two she wouldbe home.  Maybe even sooner, for she planned to  press Vixen into a gallop for as long as the horse was able, figuring the  farther away she got from Charelton before the sun rose, the better.

And yes, Ralen would likely come for her at  her father’s fortress, and she  wasn’t sure what would happen then, but at least this was a temporary reprieve. If her father wouldn’t protect her, perhaps she’d head farther north and inland to her sister’s home in Rawley. Maybe Maven and Dane would hide her there until Ralen tired of  searchingfor his “heartless whore” of a wife.

The words still burned, and the memory of the look in his eyes tormented her, but itwas too late now. As  Vixen neared the dunes that would give  way to  the sandy coastline, Teesia looked over her shoulder  at the fortress in the distance from which she’d just fled. “Goodbye, my  dear Ralen,” she said softly. “I love  you, and I’m so sorry  I hurt you.”

* * * * *

“Laene! Shaena! Someone get into this chamber—now!”

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He couldn’t believe it! First she’d emasculated him—now the little hoyden had left

him trussed up like a deer brought home from the hunt.

“ Shaena! Are you out there?” The walls were too thick, he knew—he simply had to  hope someone would pass by the door and hear him bellowing.

Reduced to crying out for help like a child, he thought bitterly. And then he  shook  his head against the bed, still trying to fathom  why Teesia had done this to him.

But perhaps it was simple—she was paying him back, reminding him how badly  he’d treated her in the beginning.  She was punishing someone who truly  deserved  to be  punished, he supposed. As for the pleasant  times they’d shared more recently, he could  only presume it was all pretense  on her part—her way of building his trust so that she  could enact her grand scheme to humiliate him.

“Laene! Shaena! Anyone! Is anyone in this entire fortress awake?”

Just then, the door opened  and Shaena burst in—horror  reshaping her face  when  she saw him.

“Don’t just stand there.  Untie me!” he barked.

“Where is Teesia?” she asked, moving to the top corner  of the bed to work at the

silk scarf.

“Gone. But when I find her…” he began through clenched teeth.

“When you  find her, what?”

He shook his head, still so deeply entrenched  in his anger that he didn’t care who  might be right or wrong—he only  knew he  wanted to do her harm, wanted to make  her pay now. “I  don’t know  what I’ll do to the evil girl,