He comfort me

That fuels my fire towards him. Tears stung in my eyes.

"If I am shaming your title, why did you dress me up and haul me down to your breakfast table huh? If I deserve it then why don't you fuck me roughly and kill me?" I hiss. My fingers clutch at the gold necklace around my neck. I snap it off of my neck and throw it at him.

This surprises him, for he wasn't

expecting me to throw the jewels at him.

"Why did you try to fuck me if I'm just dirt on the bottom of your feet? If I am so worthless then why don't you give me to someone? "

Another strip of gold lace comes off. "I didn't want to be here!"

His face crumbles as he walks forwards. I punched him relentlessly with my fists. And started to hurt me, He wrestles me back, stopping my nails from clawing at my skin. "Elizabella," he whispers.

"Stop it. You're hurtin' yourself."

I sob silently, resting my head against his chest. He's warm, and his arms comfort me. But I realize who he is, and I pushed him away, my palms hitting him hard in the chest. He stumbles back in shock. He was off guard

"Don't touch me," I say again. "I'm not your whore. I am just worthless flesh "

Cesar grits his teeth. " Stop it! The one who choked you was my brother."

I turn away from him, my arms folded and my head bent. Tears run silently down my cheeks. I wonder if he can see the bruises on my neck.

"I could not stop him," he whispers. "Our people, for centuries, have believed that if you start a fight with your brother, a long sword fight must begin. And long sword

fights usually result in one person's death. And my brother has wanted my throne for years."

I didn't answer him. I wouldn't care if he lives or dies. He sits down in the big chair near the fireplace and stares into the

burning logs. I walk slowly away into the corner and sit on Cesar's bed.

He lifts his goblet of wine to his lips. "Are you hurt badly?" he asks me. I do not answer him. He sighs. "Come here."

His voice is so powerful, superior, and calm that I find me subconsciously moving towards him. He pulls me by my waist and makes me sit on his Lap, He looks down at me with blazing, heated eyes. His long, heated fingers brush my hair out of the way to reveal the handprint-shaped bruises

imprinted on my skin.

He looks away in disgust at what his brother did to me. He made a fist and punched the table placed in front of the Chair. A loud voice echoed, I screamed due to fear.

"Shhh! It Will heal soon," he mumbles. The muscles in his jaw tense as I look at him.

"Elizabella," he begins. "I shall not…

make you warm my bed tonight."

My heart flutters. He gets up from where he sits in his chair and gulps the rest of the wine down his throat. He slips off his pants, leaving only his breechcloth. His legs are defined and muscular; he's visually a work of art.

"But," he interjects. "You will warm my bed tomorrow. Men have appetites that are meant to be fulfilled. Rumor has it,

Elizabella, I am sure that the harem must have told you of my talents, hmm?"

I blush, and my mind forgets completely that I was angry with him.

"I don't know what are you saying."

His lips tug up at the corners. "I know a liar when I see one." Cesar turns and climbs into his bed, waiting expectantly for me to join him. "Come to bed. We should sleep."

I'm reluctant to join him in bed. I undress from my silk and make him turn away before I put on my nightwear. Once I'm

finished, he lifts the covers for me to climb in. I'm wary.

I slide to the very edge of the bed, my feet hanging off the edge. I'm still angry with him. I'm still hurt from what he just said about me, basically telling me that I was nothing to him, and he wouldn't tell his brother to stop choking me because it would have spoiled his crown.

When he says goodnight, I do not say it back. He licks his finger and pinches the fire on the candle out. He then pulled me close to him from my waist and placed one arm underneath my head and another hand on my chest.

He smells my hair and kissed my neck.

" Sleep Elizabella, Next time I Won't let it happen to you " He whispered in my ear.

I close my eyes and try to get comfortable. But it's near impossible. I'm in a foreign land, in a foreign bed with a foreign man

that wants me in an utterly foreign way.

*

*

*

*

*

"Sit here with me," Cordell whispers. I feel the passing breeze kissing my neck as it wanders by and the smell of sweet wildflowers it carries with it. I sit by him in

the meadow, my knees hugged to my chest.

His reddish-brown hair gleams in the sunlight and I can faintly see the freckles on his pale cheeks illuminating with the sun's presence. He looks like a spring tiger lily. I smile and wrinkle my nose at him.

"This place is beautiful. How come I've never been here before?"

Cordell looks up towards the clouds. His horse, which is tied to the nearest tree whinnies softly. "I'm not sure. As a child,

I always used to come up here for some peace of mind. Majestic, isn't it?"

I nod breathlessly. "More than majestic," I agree. The whippoorwills and the nightingales sing in the trees, the common loons calling their mysterious call from the lakes deeper into the surrounding forest. Woodpeckers drill into the bark of trees, the clunking noise echoing in my ears.

"Elizabella," he says. I pull my attention from the authentic bird noises and the quiet rustle of the trees to focus on the wonderful man sitting beside me. "One day you will be mine. Promise me, Elizabella, that you will save yourself for me. Wait for me. Because I will always come for you, no matter what. And only I can love you. "

My heart flutters with joy. "Okay. I promise you." He grasps my hand and plants a warm kiss on my skin. Near my neck which tickles me. He smiles a honey-sweet smile, one that spreads over his face slower than the thickest molasses.

"That's good. I think about our future life together all the time. You and me in the

countryside, living in a big old wooden house built by yours truly, a farm in the back, and little bare-bottomed babies

running wild around the living room.

You are in the Kitchen cooking dishes for me and our babies, while I help you with the cooking along with kisses to tease you. Can you see it?"

I giggle like a little girl and bat my eyelashes at him. "That sounds wonderful. And yes, I can see it." I say bashfully. I can't help but picture the scene myself. Little redheaded girls with big green eyes and pretty faces freckled like a robin's egg, and big strong brunette boys with her brown eyes and Cordell's sweet smile.

He smiles and lays his folded hands on his knees, puffing out his chest proudly. "Alright. Then it's settled. You and me? and Lots of kids"

I nod. "You and me."

.~.~.~.~.

My heart is pounding as I depart from my dream. For once I thought I am in Cordell's arm. My mouth falls into a frown as I realize that I'm not in Cordell's bed, but in his bed, in his lands. But I'm comfortable, I'm so comfortable, and I don't want to get up. My eyes flicker open slightly, taking in my surroundings. A heavy tanned arm is draped across my body, and my legs are tangled with another pair of long, hot legs.

My eyes widen in realization. I'm lying closer to a man than I ever had before, he wasn't even Cordell. Cesar is still sleeping

soundly. I don't want to wake him, so I try to slip out of his grasp quietly. I lift his arm off of me and set it on his side. I pull my right leg out of his. He stirs quietly.

I silently curse and try my left leg. I've almost got it free.....Almost! Almost free when a huge hand wraps around my neck, a gigantic thumb threatening to push on my pulse point. "Where are you goin'?"

he asks. This angers me. The bruise on my neck still hurts from his brother's assault yesterday. and he is holding it again "Let me go," I hiss. "I'm trying to get up."

His grip tightens. "Lay back down," he instructs in a firm voice. "I don' wanna get up yet. you should accompany me"

Shivers crawl up my spine. My fingers try to peel his hand off of my skin. "You don't need me to sleep," I say. I struggle to get out of his grasp, but he's unrelenting.

"Use a pillow, Cesar." He brings me closer and buries his nose in my hair. "Stay,"

he whispers. "We got a long day ahead of us. I wanna sleep as long as I can with you lying beside me."

I'm somewhat comfortable in his warm arms, even though it's like lying in a soft bed with a steaming hot rock.

My fingers trace a pattern on his hand. "What do you mean that we've got a long day ahead of us?"

His hot breath on my neck gives me goosebumps all over my body. "The raid parties are goin' out," he whispers huskily. "I got to go with them oversee it in an hour."

I don't say anything, for I fear that saying something insulting while in his arms could mean something dangerous for me. For I must live to meet Cordell again. It's a wise choice, not saying anything. His warm hand caresses the smooth skin over my hip and his fingertips skirt over my thigh. I tense up almost immediately He kisses a bruise on my shoulder as his fingers trail down

towards my womanhood. I clench my legs together and roll away from him.

"Don't," I whisper. I try to stand but he just pulls me closer to his body.

"What are you so afraid of?" he asks me.

"I told you I wouldn't rape you. I am just giving you a little pleasure, I…I am not like my men. I take a woman when she begs me to take her, to fuck her so hard and fast that her vision goes blurry and her voice is short for days."

Heat flares in my southern regions, my eyes as wide as saucers as I listen to him. Cesar's huge hands settle on the soft swell of my hips and he grinds his erection into my backside. I find myself gasping before I can even register it.

"But I—"

"I won't take you unless you ask me to," he confirms, " Unless You Beg me to " He added somewhat soothing my worries. "And I don' think you'll get a better offer than that. But Elizabella, my Tiger Claw, I doubt if you'll be able to stay away from me for long."

I shudder as he rolls away onto his back, his his back, his arms coming up to shield his eyes. I'm frozen in my position. I don't know what to think, or what to say. I look down and see his breechcloth lying on the floor.

My eyes flicker back to his huge, thing lying

beneath the sheets—I realize that he is naked under the covers and that he was flesh to flesh against me, completely aroused.

He looks at me from under his arm, his long black lashes hiding his mischievous brown eyes. "You like what you see?"