Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
I stare at him, not knowing how to relate to someone who has clearly experienced terror after terror. Wound after wound. Battle after battle. Some of the scars look old, as if they were inflicted when he was very young. Maybe not even yet a man.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“There is a lot you do not know,” he says kindly. “You are an innocent, and I would like to keep you that way as much as possible. Whatever I might experience out in the world, the notion of coming home to your sweetness is already a salve for me. To see your unblemished face, and to look into your innocent eyes… that will give me so much hope.”
I am stunned to hear those words, and judging by his expression, I think he might be surprised to have said them. The confusion and borderline derision he expressed when we first met is gone and has been replaced with appreciation.
I did not expect him to say something so sweet, or to express such emotional honesty. He beat me for my so-called insolence, and I think it might have been good for both of us. I think am falling in love with this man, who only an hour ago I would have sworn I loathed with all I have.
He reaches for me, taking me by the hand, and he draws me up from the bed and toward him, inviting me to explore his body.
“Don’t be afraid to touch me,” he says. “It won’t hurt me. All of these are long-healed.”
I reach for him curiously. I want to make him feel how he made me feel. I want to show him that I will be a good wife, and that I can serve him the way I am supposed to.
I touch his chest first, my fingertips running over muscle and then scar. It is impossible to touch him without touching remnants of past pain.
I find myself softening toward him, feeling as though he is perhaps not as much of a monster as I first thought he was. Or if he is, he is not as much of a monster as he could be. He has suffered cruelty after cruelty…
How much cruelty has he inflicted on the world in return?
I have had a taste of it, but is there more to come?
Arthur
I have destroyed a lot of innocence in my time. I do not want to strip hers from her entirely, but tonight some will be lost one way or another. She must learn the ways of womanhood and of wifely duties. It is our destiny, it is required, and there is another force at play—a powerful one.
I want to claim her.
I want to be the one who first conquers her flesh, who makes her cry out in pleasure as much as I have made her cry out in pain. I never imagined I would ever have to whip my wife. I thought the entire affair would be very polite and formal. I thought the sex would be chaste and perfunctory. I thought I would put a baby in her because that is what is required of me, and I have always done what is required of me.
I cup her face in my hands and I lower my head to kiss her. She tastes sweet, hesitant, and hungry. As I break the kiss, I make a promise.
“You are a wild little thing, but I’m going to tame you. You’re going to be fucked long and hard, and learn your place.”
Her eyes widen, but I can feel her pulse against the lower part of my hand, which is against her neck. Her breath quickens, and so does her heart rate. She is excited by me, and she is equal to me in some intangible, indescribable way. When I first saw her, I thought I had been given a fragile little bird I’d crush in an instant. But she is stronger than she looks.
Maybe the Artifice does not make mistakes after all. Maybe it somehow knew that this young woman from another country was made to fit me, not just physically, but in every way.
I pick her up, my hands sliding across her punished skin. I know this grip hurts, and I know the pain is still instructional for her. She is going to lose her virginity to me with her ass covered in cane lines. She is going to suffer as much as she enjoys every sensation I arouse in her, and the light in her eyes tells me that she is anticipating this as much as I am.
Laying her down on the bed before me, I spread her out like the sacrifice she is. She was given to me, this beautiful young woman who has never been touched by any man before. Her skin is smooth and creamy, her breasts are full and beautiful, and her hips are shapely. Childbearing. She was made for this, to be wifed, to be mated, to be bred.