Mastered By Love

by Tori Minard

  He rummaged in an armoire and withdrew two long robes, tossing one at her. “Put that on.”

  The robe was made of red wool, lined in matching silk, and all-enveloping. It looked nothing like the skimpy slave costume she’d expected. She put it on. It was a little long and dragged on the floor, but it felt warm.

  There was a protocol to eating. Tariza waited while he pulled a chair out and laid a cushion on the floor. She knelt on the cushion.

  Dario gave her a surprised-looking smile as he took his seat. “Very good. See? It’s already getting easier.”

  She nodded wordlessly. It was getting easier to behave the way he wanted her to, as she learned the rules. But in her heart, every concession to proper slave behavior was like a self-inflicted wound. Tariza cast her gaze at the floor. It was what was expected of her, but it also allowed her to avoid looking at him.

  Dario speared a bite of meat on his fork and offered it to her. She accepted it, chewed delicately. The rich juices of roasted lamb flowed down her throat. It tasted better than anything she’d ever had in her life.

  A knock sounded at the door. The servant who entered departed immediately to fill Dario’s order for ice.

  He continued to feed her meat, vegetables, fresh bread, all from his own hand, his own plate. Her wine came from his goblet. And he was generous with his offerings, almost as if he were trying to fatten her up.

  The food and wine filled her belly and gave her a warm, safe feeling she hadn’t experienced in a long time. It almost drove the memory of Grasos and his punishment from her mind, at least for a while.

  She sighed and leaned against Dario’s leg. Although she couldn’t see his face, she sensed his surprise. He laid his hand on the crown of her head, stroking softly. She closed her eyes, trying to hold on to the odd sense of contentment.

  The servant returned with ice tied in a large kitchen towel. He stood next to her and handed the ice to Dario with a short bow before departing.

  “Have you had enough to eat?” Dario said.

  “Yes. Thank you.”

  “You’d better lie on the bed so we can ice you, then.”

  She rose to her feet and padded over to the bed where she stretched out on her belly. Dario pulled up her robe. He laid the bundle of ice on her bruised ass.

  “Ouch.”

  “It’ll help take the swelling down.”

  “Believe it or not, I know how to treat a bruise,” she said dryly.

  “Do you?”

  “I’ve iced plenty of them. Or immersed in cold running water, like a stream. That works too.”

  “It does.” He settled cross-legged next to her on the bed. “How many of those bruises were yours?”

  “About half.” She peered up at him. “Falling off horses, sparring, a couple falls from trees.”

  “You did all that, huh?”

  “Yes.” Tariza made a face. “Not very feminine.” Goddess, why had she said that? As if she cared for his definition of femininity.

  He gave her a faint smile. “Feminine means something different in Concordia than it does here.”

  “Yes. Exactly.”

  “It doesn’t bother me, Tariza.” He brushed some hair from her eyes. “I’m trying to picture you as a girl, though. Climbing trees and falling off horses. You sound like me.”

  She wet her lips. “I still like climbing trees.”

  “Me too.”

  They smiled at each other, a silly besotted kind of smile that should have made her ashamed. It didn’t. She just had a hard time holding his gaze after a moment, as he seemed to look right into her soul.

  Dario stretched his long body out next to hers and slung an arm across her shoulders. “Someday we’ll climb a tree together.”

  For some reason, that made her eyes sting. She blinked rapidly to keep the tears back. She was turning into an utter crybaby. “I’d like that.”

  ***

  Tariza drifted, half asleep, feeling warmer and more secure than she could remember. She brought a hand up and found Dario wrapped around her from behind, his belly pressed to her back, one heavy arm pinning her to his body. A hairy male leg had insinuated itself between hers.

  She wriggled carefully out of his grasp and turned over to look at him. He was still asleep, his lips slightly parted, black hair tousled over his forehead. Her fingers suddenly tingled with the urge to run them through that hair. Would it awaken him?

  She reached out and touched the very surface of his locks. They felt as silky as they looked, and he didn’t react. Her fingers sifted hesitantly through the ebony strands. He really was an extraordinarily beautiful man. If he’d been born in Concordia ...

  He’d have been crushed. His spirit broken.

  She blinked. She’d never thought of her country’s traditions that way before. Was it true? Were they breaking men’s spirits in Concordia?

  They do it to women here. Do you think the men are that different from us?

  Yes, she had. Until Dario, she’d always thought men were fundamentally different from women. But talking to Dario was so much like talking to one of her female friends that she couldn’t continue to think like a Concordian anymore.

  She stroked the backs of her fingers across his cheek. His lashes fluttered and she snatched her hand back, face burning. He opened his eyes.

  “Good morning.”

  She couldn’t stop blushing. “Good morning.”

  “What were you doing?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing, huh? Then why is your face so pink?”

  “Is it?” She raised her hands to her cheeks. They were hot.

  He grinned. “I felt you touching me.”

  His arms came around her, gathering her to him as he captured her mouth.

  ***

  Dario moaned against Tariza’s lips as she plunged her tongue into him. God, she was so hot and eager despite her background and the way he’d captured her. He was achingly hard and ready for her, his cock twitching in its drive to get inside her.

  She rolled to her side, slinging a leg over him as they kissed. Her boldness excited him unbearably. He tightened his grip on her, ravaging her mouth, biting and licking. She was just as savage, as if she wanted to devour him, as if she couldn’t get enough of him.

  He found her breast, cupped the soft mound, rubbed his thumb across the hard peak of her nipple, absorbing her gasp into his mouth. He’d already discovered she was exquisitely sensitive there and he toyed with her, brushing her lightly with his palm, massaging, pulling and releasing the pearled pink of her nipple until she was arching beneath him, her gasping moans like music.

  He’d never wanted any woman as much as he wanted Tariza. He was intoxicated with her.

  He released her breast to slide his hand over her rib cage and the extravagant dip and swell of her waist, her rounded hip, then inward to the vee of her thighs. She gasped again, shuddering when he touched her there. He groaned. She was so wet already. She hardly needed any preparation.

  His finger slid into her with no resistance. She gave a loud ecstatic cry as he crooked that finger against the front wall of her vagina. Her scent drifted to his nose, musky, full of female desire.

  Dario’s breath came in rough pants now. He needed her, needed her so badly. He rolled her beneath him. She winced and he pulled back, frowning, dismayed.

  “What is it?”

  Tariza bit her lip. “I’m still sore. It hurts to lay on my back.”

  God, how could he have forgotten? His heart pinched with guilt. “I’m sorry.”

  He spanned her waist with his hands, lifting her as he rolled so she ended on top of him. “Ride me.”

  She gaped at him. “What?”

  Her moist pussy rubbed enticingly over his cock and he groaned loudly. She was killing him. “Ride me,” he said, his voice hoarse.

  “Are you sure?” she said, looking worried.

  “God, yes. Do it.”

  She grasped his cock and positioned it at the entrance to
her body. The sight of her guiding him into her cunt almost made him come. He bit his lip, fighting to hold back, to hold on long enough to give her an orgasm. Tariza’s lips parted on a long, low moan as she sank onto his cock. And God! So hot and wet and tight, so good ... his eyes rolled back in his head and he groaned again.

  He cupped her breasts. She braced herself on his chest and began to rise and fall, working herself back and forth on his cock, whimpering with pleasure. Her gaze locked on his and he couldn’t look away, didn’t want to look away. He wanted to fall into her and lose his soul in hers the way he was losing his body to the ecstasy of her cunt.

  Dario slipped his hand down to the place where their bodies joined. He found her clitoris and circled gently, gently, and she threw her head back with a shout as release rocked through her.

  He growled, his hands gripping her waist again, lifting her up and shoving her down hard on his rampant cock as he thrust his hips up to meet her. The delicious pleasure spiraled higher. His balls tightened and everything exploded. He fell apart, his whole body shaking with the force of it, jets of come shooting from him into her.

  “Tariza!”

  She screamed through a second climax of her own.

  Dario’s body continued to shudder and quake in the aftermath. He lay, spent and panting, beneath her. She rested her head on his chest, her arms holding him, and she kissed him, kissed his neck and collarbones. He wrapped his arms around her and sighed.

  She kissed me. With no instruction or coaxing from me. The thought made him feel strangely warm inside.

  Then he remembered her reluctance to ride him. “Why didn’t you want to get on top of me?”

  She didn’t answer. Dario lifted his head and studied her, but she resolutely avoided looking at him.

  “Tariza?”

  “I’d rather not say,” she whispered.

  That sent a cold spike of unease through him. “Tell me.”

  She swallowed. “Promise you won’t be angry with me.”

  What? Why would he be angry? “Just say it, Tariza.”

  She turned her face into his chest, hiding her expression. “It’s the only way we take slaves in Concordia.”

  “The only way you ... do you mean you’d never had sex in any other position until me?”

  She cleared her throat. “Yes. The men – they’re always chained so they can’t touch.”

  How bizarre. She’d never been under a man, never had a man behind her, never had a man’s arms around her. What would sex be like without the holding and touching? It sounded cold, impersonal.

  Dario frowned. He was still missing something. “Why would you think that would anger me? All that’s in the past for you.”

  “I thought you Saturnians wouldn’t want a woman on top, that it might offend you.”

  He smiled. “Sweetheart, there’s no sexual position that would offend me. I loved having you on top. I could see your beautiful body. I could touch your breasts.”

  She lifted her head – finally – and looked at him. “Really?”

  Dario stroked her cheek. “Really. I’ll take you in any position I can get you.”

  She smiled and it stole his breath. What he felt for her – he didn’t know its name. She meant more to him than any woman ever had and her smile gave him a sliver of hope that she might feel the same. That she might be coming to care for him.

  Something had changed between them since last night. She’d taken the king’s punishment very hard, but Dario’s defense of her, his tending of her seemed to have won her trust. A flood of tenderness came over him. He stroked her hair and back. There was so much he wanted to show her – all the good things Saturnios could offer – and so many things he wanted to do with her. And he would do them, because she was his and they had the rest of their lives together.

  Chapter 12

  The knock on Dario’s door came early in the morning – too early for Tariza. She groaned, burrowing under the covers. It was far too soon to face more Saturnians.

  “Come,” Dario called.

  A servant dressed in livery entered the room and bowed. “Your Highness, Prince Mateo has returned and invites you to breakfast with him. He awaits you in his quarters.”

  “Thank you,” Dario said.

  The servant bowed again and left.

  Dario sat up in bed. She lay nervously beneath the covers as he got up and began pulling clothes from his wardrobe. She’d met Mateo briefly at the Bellerenic embassy, but hadn’t spoken to him. Was he more like Dario or did he resemble Grasos?

  The two city-states of Concordia and Saturnios had never had easy relations, considering their opposite values and way of life, but this open animosity was relatively new. Once they had cooperated in the manufacturing and trade of fine textiles for which their world, Argelia, was famous. Now it seemed Saturnios was no longer content with their portion of the trade; they wanted to control everything. And Concordia wasn’t prepared to allow them to do it.

  Her capture might change that. She cringed inwardly. If her mother was wise – and she was known as one of the wisest rulers Concordia had ever had – she would ignore her daughter’s enslavement and continue with her plans. Tariza was only one person. For the good of Concordia, her capture could not be allowed to interfere with other matters of state.

  But, oh, how she wanted to be rescued.

  You’re a Concordian woman. Rescue yourself.

  How was she to do that when she was naked and harnessed, surrounded by people who hated her? She’d already fulfilled her duty to attempt escape. Yet perhaps there would be another chance. She must have faith that an opportunity would eventually present itself to her.

  Dario had finished dressing. He took her hand, pulling her out of the bed and toward the door. Did he mean for her to appear before the prince naked? She hung back, her reluctance dragging at him.

  “Don’t fight me, Tariza. You’ll only suffer for it.”

  “I have nothing to wear.”

  “Good.” He smiled smugly at her. “That’s the way I want you.”

  She pressed her lips together. He’d been kind, even tender, last night, and now he was doing everything in his considerable power to humiliate her.

  “Come along,” he said, tugging at her hand again.

  Fighting him would only bring another chastisement. Her shoulders sagged as she followed him out of his quarters.

  The thick carpets on the floors were warm and soft on the soles of her feet. Saturnios House certainly had beautiful interiors, filled with finely carved wooden furniture and the lovely hand-woven carpets for which Argelia was famous throughout the galaxy. Real paintings hung on the walls, the brush strokes showing clearly and announcing to all viewers that these pieces had been painted by hand in the ancient manner. They must have cost a fortune.

  They passed a number of women, all of whom wore collars of one sort or another and were lead on leashes held by men. Their clothes mostly consisted of filmy draperies that revealed more than they hid, or artistic arrangements of straps and jewelry designed to display and enhance the sexual attractiveness of their nudity. Although they gave her sidelong glances as they passed, all of them had downcast eyes, their movements graceful, designed to allure.

  One, a brunette with a red patent-leather harness and collar, looked directly into her eyes, her face tense with loathing. Tariza blinked. That woman hated her, and they’d never even met. Did she know Tariza was Concordian and hate her for it?

  Apparently, Lola wasn’t the only Saturnian woman ready to despise her.

  Dario led her down the corridor a short distance to the next door. He opened it without ceremony, revealing quarters that closely matched his in size and proportions. A tall, dark-haired man stood in the center of the room, talking with another who looked to be a servant, judging by his livery.

  The dark-haired man turned and grinned at Dario. “I heard you have a new acquisition.”

  “Mateo! How was your journey?”

  Mateo shrugged.
“The usual. Tell me about your new slave.”

  Dario pulled her forward. “This is Tariza.”

  Mateo whistled. “Yes, it is. You’re a lucky man, brother.”

  “Luck had nothing to do with it,” Dario said.

  Mateo stalked toward her, took her chin in his hand and forced her head up. She glared right into his icy blue eyes. “You lack the proper respect, Tariza. I hope Dario doesn’t continue to tolerate that kind of look on your face.”

  “We’re still working on behavior,” Dario said. “Give her a little time.”

  The prince released her. “She needs intensive training; that much is obvious.”

  “I already started. She’s made vast improvements in the time I’ve had her.”

  “Yes, I see she’s wearing that new collar of yours.” Mateo ran his hands over her back, all the way to her naked ass.

  Tariza jumped and pulled away from him. It took all her self-control not to strike him. He grinned and Dario chuckled.

  “Like I said.” Mateo winked at her. “Intensive training. Would you like some help?”

  “I can handle it myself.”

  “Don’t get too attached to her. She’s going to be popular. Everyone is going to want a turn or two with Tariza Concordia.”

  Dario’s hand tightened on hers. “I’m not going to pass her around.”

  Mateo gave him an odd look. “You’re going to cause problems if you try to keep her to yourself. Resentment.”

  “She’s mine alone. It would be cruel to make her service anyone who happens along. She’s not accustomed to that kind of treatment, and I’m not in the habit of abusing my slaves.”

  Mateo’s expression grew even more quizzical. “I’m not talking about abuse. Just sharing. It’ll be good for her, too. Get her used to the touch of many men, make her less defensive.”

  He cupped one of her breasts. Tariza slapped him on the arm. Oh, shit. Were they going to whip her now?

  He grinned and continued fondling her. “See what I mean?”

  Her nipple began to harden in response to his caresses. Her body was a traitorous bitch. She couldn’t control it, couldn’t stop herself from responding to his skilled touch, even though he didn’t stir her the way Dario did.