Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
The Firenz walked and Drey knew he was taking him to the man’s bedchamber (for he had walked this himself numerous times) before he was tossed like a sack of nothing to the tiled floor.
G’Drey bit back his cry of pain at that, but it was of such strength, it might not have come out as a cry, but it came as a strong whimper.
The hood was torn off and Drey shook his hair out of his face as he tossed the blanket from his person and stared mutinously up at the man.
“I sent a missive,” the man said. “Yesterday. And when you are called, you come.”
His wife was standing at his side, but Drey didn’t look at her.
“I got no missive,” he retorted.
“Do not lie,” the warrior warned.
Drey leaned forward and spat, “I got…no…missive.”
And it was likely he did not because it had been confiscated by Seph.
He did not share that with the warrior.
His (current) tormentor opened his mouth to speak, but the wife spoke first.
“Sanguina,” she whispered.
He bleeds, she said.
The warrior looked, and before Drey could blink, he was on his stomach on the bed and his robes were thrown up over his arse.
He heard her shocked gasp.
And the warrior’s surprised grunt.
But it was her who spoke.
“Who did this to you?” she asked in his language.
G’Drey started to struggle to get up. “It is not your concern.”
He could not get up for the warrior held him down with a hand in the middle of his back.
G’Drey felt the bed depress at his side and another touch, a lighter one, which pulled his hair from his face.
G’Drey stilled.
Except for his chosen one, and even his chosen one could not stroke as lightly, he’d never been touched in that manner in his life.
The wife was on the bed with him.
“Who did this to you, mio piccolo buco?” she whispered.
G’Drey stared at the silks.
She had called him my little hole.
And the manner she referred to him thus made something in his stomach loosen.
Therefore, his tone was much changed when he lifted his eyes to her and replied, “I cannot say.”
She turned her head to the side and tipped it back.
“Where did you find him?” she asked her husband.
“On his way to his school,” her husband answered.
“Riding?” she inquired, sounding horrified.
“Walking,” the warrior told her.
“That is not much better,” she snapped.
And in the manner she did, something loosened further in his stomach.
“Release him,” she demanded.
“Amore,” the warrior murmured.
“Release him. You might be causing him pain,” she ordered.
The hand went out of his back.
Drey rolled to his side, gritting his teeth as his injury again made itself known.
“Do not move, priest,” she said in a gentle tone. “Why are you not abed?”
“I cannot speak of these things,” he told her.
“You should be resting,” she replied.
He shook his head.
“You must know you should be resting,” she pressed.
“I am not…allowed,” he admitted.
Her brown eyes studied him before her mouth grew tight and she looked up to her warrior.
“We will keep him here,” she decided, and Drey’s eyes grew wide as his mouth opened to protest. However, she was not finished, “I will tend him, and you will send a missive to his temple that they are warned of an investigation into this matter.”
Drey spoke at that, doing it to exclaim, “No!”
She turned to him and raised her elegant, arched brows. “Why no, piccolo buco?”
“You cannot,” he said.
“Why can we not?” she pushed.
“You simply cannot,” he returned.
She seemed to consider this.
Then her gaze moved down his body before coming back to his face.
And her tone was again gentle when she queried, “You enjoy your times with us, no?”
“Yes,” he gritted.
“And we know this, or we would not use you as we do,” she shared.
He clenched his teeth.
“You give us much pleasure,” she whispered.
At that, his jaw went slack.
“This has meaning to us. You must know this,” she said. “A Firenz does not take to his or her bed someone who has no meaning. If you had no meaning, my husband would take your arse against a wall in the back room of an osteria or in an alley while I watched. We would not see to your pleasure. And he would walk away with his seed dripping from you without giving you another thought.”
Drey had…
Meaning to them?
“The mated ones of Firenz take others to their beds but only at the request of their mate, to the desires of them both, and with the presence of their mate,” she explained. “They do not, however, give their mouths to another but their own. Thus he, nor I, will ever suckle you or kiss you.”
“I did not know this,” he muttered.
He did, in a fashion.
Though he didn’t understand the whys of it.
She gave him a small smile and it was…
Appealing.
“Now you do,” she said quietly. “So now, I would hope, at the very least, if you cannot tell us what befell you, and that is yours to give, we will not press, you allow us to tend to you.”