Alien Best Man

Chapter Three

He had clipped a leash to the choker, and if I was honest with myself, I’d known from the start he would. He’d been inside my head, knew what I craved, and he was giving it to me, one cruel move at a time.

Zyn returned my gaze, leisurely checking me out, holding the leash in one hand, and in the other—the riding crop.

I wrapped my arms around my chest. But my stupid shoes forced my back into an arc, pushing my breasts forward and my ass backward. I could deal with nakedness, but those shoes turned me into his plaything, his object. Blood rushed to my face and shame crept up my spine under his scrutinizing gaze.

I was glad that he had sent Qay away.

He stepped behind me and swung the riding crop at my ass. I bit my lip, catching the moan that wanted to escape at the sound of leather meeting my bare skin with a satisfying snap. And there was the sting, the pain that his smack had evoked.

It hadn’t really hurt—the smack. Not nearly enough. But the implications of him swatting at my bare ass while I stood before him, wearing those shoes, the choker, the leash. It brought me to my knees. Lust tugged at me, intensified by the humiliation he put me through.

Crouching, he seized me by my neck and tugged my head up, forcing me to look at him. Calmly, he said, “I didn’t allow you to kneel. The next time you do anything without being given permission, I’ll punish you.” This was when I stopped pretending that I didn’t long for Zyn.

He stroked the riding crop lightly over my breasts. My cunt spasmed as he gave each nipple a sharp little flick. I didn’t know how much he could sense of my desires.

But he licked his lips like a snake tasting the air when I let out a long moan. He didn’t penetrate my thoughts, hadn’t tried to. But I was astutely aware that he still sensed something about me. My inner thighs were damp and I noticed how his gaze was drawn to the juncture between my legs. I spread my thighs, just a little, giving him more to look at. My move didn’t fool him. He knew exactly that I was baiting him.

The flat tip of the riding crop traveled over my stomach and a breathless surge of excitement gripped me. I wanted to lose myself in his touch, in his cruelty, but couldn’t.

Something was holding me back, and I realized that if I ever wanted to find mindless pleasure with him, he would need to earn my limitless trust. How, I couldn’t say. But I found myself wanting him to find a way for me to submit completely and utterly to his wishes.

I wanted him to rope me, spank me. I wanted his sadistic eyes on me as he shamed me into tears. I craved this rough treatment, it made me feel alive. And I wanted him to fuck me, never knowing what he would do or demand next.

Pointing with the riding crop to the bed, he said, “Get over there.” I rose to one knee, attempting to stand, when a hard tug at the choker brought me down on my knees again. Wincing, tears shot into my eyes as the metal choker bit into my neck.

The smack he wielded had me crying out. There was nothing teasing about how he had brought the crop against my ass.

“Why did you try to stand?”

I shook my head, my movement restricted by him holding the leash. “I just thought—”

“Don’t,” he said. “Now get over to the bed.”

He stayed behind me, leash in hand, and I felt his gaze against my ass as I crawled on all fours toward the bed.

“Stop,” he said, giving me a light tap with the crop. He grabbed one, two thick pillows and stacked them on top of each other in the middle of the bed. “Up,” he said, nodding toward the pile of cushions.

I slid myself onto it, resting my upper body on the length of the cushions, keeping my knees on the hard floor. I hugged my arms around the pillows, enjoying the softness at my breasts while my knees already hurt from kneeling on the floor.

“Spread those legs,” he said, slapping my inner thighs with the crop. “Don’t get up from this position until I tell you to. If you ever feel the need to scream, you can muffle the sound by biting into the pillow.” He laughed, a truly dark sound that had my nipples hardening into aching points. I rubbed against the pillow until a tug at the leash had me gasping. “Stop that,” he said. “You will not touch yourself or bring yourself pleasure in any way.”

He tugged harder at the leash, putting pressure on my throat, making me gasp for breath. I wanted to rise to ease the strain but couldn’t. He hadn’t allowed me to move, and obeying him was more pleasurable than getting oxygen.

When I stopped rubbing against the pillow, the pressure of the choker against my throat eased.

The riding crop traveled up my inner thigh. “Spread more so I can spank your cunt.” He dealt my ass another slap, softer this time.

A hard shiver gripped my body, fear rising to the surface like the blush surely blossoming on my face. I arched my back, pushing up my ass, and spread my legs more for him. I couldn’t see him standing behind me, I kept my face buried in the soft pillow, but I felt his hot gaze until my entire body burned with lust. Would he be able to see my shaved cunt, how wet I was? Wasn’t he tempted to run his hand through my folds? I rocked my hips, stopped when he smacked me. Heat bloomed beneath my skin and I bit into the pillow, desperate for release.

When he stroked the tip of the crop over the slick folds of my cunt, I cried out with relief.

He grazed the crop up and down my bare lips. “You like spreading your legs for me, making me see how wet you are, don’t you?”

When I didn’t answer, he flicked the crop against my clit. The touch raced along my body like a current, enflaming every nerve. I bit into the pillow because the moan I let out was one of pure lust and I didn’t want him to know for fear he would stop punishing me this way.

“Answer.”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I want you to see me spread open.”

“Why?”

This time, I controlled my hips, controlled my urge to jump up and hump the pillow if need be to find my orgasm. “I want you to fuck me.”

“Maybe I don’t want to fuck you,” he said quietly. “What I want is to see you writhe on the floor, until all you can think of is how you can please me.” He slipped the crop’s small leather paddle between my folds and turned it, spreading me open. “You do want to please me, don’t you?”

My throat was too tight to speak. Then I heard something that forced me to freeze, made my heart stop for a second or two.

Footsteps, but not Zyn’s, who always moved silently like a cat.

“Who is that?” I quickly closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see who was watching me, on my knees, submitting to Zyn. But I knew it had to be Qay—it had to be. Shame crept up my spine, leaving me breathless. And so aroused and needy for some form of release, I’d do anything for Zyn to get it.

“Answer.” He dealt my ass another slap, softer this time, ignoring my question.

“You do want to please me, don’t you?”

“You know I do,” I whispered, and the knowledge that Qay might look on, might be in the same room sent my awareness into overdrive.

“Yes, I do know what you crave; know exactly what you need too.” He slapped the crop down on the small of my back. “Close your eyes.” They already were. I sensed rather than heard him walking through the room.

When he came back, his hand settled on my shoulder. Then he slipped something in front of my eyes, blindfolding me. He smacked me, nothing more than a light tap.

“Push your ass higher.”

I arched my back, biting back a sob when he said, “Not good enough.” Air went into my lungs in a sharp hiss as a series of rapid smacks landed on my cheeks, each stroke a little harder. I felt flushed and swollen and I breathed out with a sob that turned into a high-pitched cry every time the riding crop smacked my ass.

Pain and lust clouded my mind until I only heard his harsh breath and my own moans of pleasure. Stars exploded before my eyes when a slap landed between my legs, the small paddle hitting my clit. Then a hand slipped between my legs, rubbing my throbbing cunt. I bit down on the pillow as a sudden orgasm rocked through my body in quick convulsions. My inner thighs were still quivering when I opened my eyes behind the blindfold, and I rested the side of my face against the pillow.

“Did I give you permission?” He gave my cunt another surprisingly gentle slap, but it still felt as if I had touched a bolt of lightning.

“No,” I whispered, fearing he’d stop playing with me. “Let me please you. Let me show you I can be good.”

He made a rough sound in his throat. “Fine. We’ll see if you can make it up to me.” The crop hit the floor, and I heard him walking through the room and opening something with sliding hinges. I knew he would come back with something to punish me for climaxing without permission, and I scrambled to wrap my mind around what it might be.

“I’ll be enjoying this.” He gathered my wrists behind my back, wrapped something that felt like a rope around them. His groin pressed against my ass as if he were about to fuck me from behind. I could only wish. My orgasm had left me wetter than before.

When he pulled the ropes tight, securing my wrists behind my back, the material warmed against my skin. “I’ll take my pleasure with you now.” I couldn’t suppress a yelp as he grabbed me by the rope around my wrists and yanked me up and off the bed. On the floor, I sat up on my heels, aware that my entire body trembled. I felt watched as I sat there, blindfolded, and I started to wonder whose hand had reached between my legs to make me come. Had it been Zyn or Qay?

I tensed as a hand closed around my breast and twisted my nipple, and another hand came to rest on top of my head. I heard how fabric slid to the floor, and I imagined Zyn taking off his pants, imagined his erect cock resting against his stomach. I licked my lips, anticipating, knowing what Zyn would make me do.

Still, I jumped when a third hand settled on my shoulder.

“Qay,” I whispered, sure that I’d die of humiliation that he saw me like this. But even stronger was my need, my wish to be dominated. “Qay, talk to me, please.” Zyn laughed quietly, the tone in his laugh giving me pause. “Maybe it’s just a complete stranger, my heart. Maybe I’ll make you suck him off. Maybe I’ll let him fuck you. Do you want to be used like this?”

I shook my head, his words both repulsing and arousing me, I couldn’t help it. He was playing with me, he wouldn’t let a stranger fuck me. But I didn’t know, I didn’t know.

I licked my lips, wound so tight I thought I might burst, when the thick head of a cock pushed at my mouth. Then a hand fisted into my hair, pulled me forward.

“Open your mouth,” Zyn said quietly from above my head.

For him, I did, and he pushed his cock between my lips. I sucked him in and out of my mouth, my eyes watering behind the blindfold as he shoved his erection deeper.

“Deeper,” he growled, withdrew when I began to gag, gave me a moment to concentrate and then pushed his cock in even farther. “Take me, take me all in.”

He fucked my mouth, his thrusts growing faster and brutal, his hoarse groans arousing me. I could feel him swell against my tongue, knew he was about to come in my mouth, welcomed it too when he pulled out.

I made a noise of protest when I felt Zyn stepping away from me. My heart beat faster, my breath leaving my lungs in hard gasps when a hand stroked my cheek tenderly. I opened my mouth as a cock pressed against my lips. Not Zyn’s, and I knew that it was Qay, it had to be him, the size, his taste so familiar. I pulled away and whispered, “I want to taste you,” and took his cock deep again, knowing that Qay couldn’t resist me, and sure enough, I heard his familiar deep groan as he started fucking my mouth.

Zyn’s hands wrapped around me from behind, covering my breasts in his palms, kneading and teasing, and it was his voice telling me to suck harder, faster while his cock pressed against my bound hands. I tasted the saltiness of Qay’s arousal and I licked the thick head, taking my time to pleasure him while I rocked my hips, wishing I had my hands free to make myself come.

“That’s enough,” Zyn said against my neck, pushing me back on my ass. I licked my lips, feeling bereft of the pleasure of tasting Qay’s come in my mouth.

“Get back on the bed, same position as before.” Zyn gave me a push against my shoulder, not hard, but I fell against the edge of the bed because it was difficult to keep my balance with my arms bound.

I came up on my knees, my heart racing as I leaned myself onto the pillows again. I fully realized that I had stopped fighting Zyn’s dominance, but wondered what it meant for my relationship with Qay when a flat palm spanked the right cheek of my ass. My ability to analyze vanished when the pain from his slap wrapped around my senses.

“I think I’ll have that tight tail of yours now.” Zyn reached between my legs, finding my wetness, spreading it. His slick finger traced lightly over my anus, slowly pushing harder and harder until I relaxed enough to allow its entry, making me shiver in anticipation. “How do you feel about that, my heart? Do you want me to fuck your ass?”

“If…if it pleases you.” I thought of Qay watching me, watching me with Zyn. I moaned, rocking my hips, the need to be filled increasing with every move of Zyn’s finger.

“Yes,” he said, “you please me.” He ran his other hand up and down my back, stroking me, giving me chills. “There was a wound here, once.” He sounded oddly detached, as if he were only thinking out loud. Once more, he ran the tips of his fingers along my back, crisscrossing back and forth. “Many wounds. I didn’t know…” I swallowed, the gentle touch of his fingers throwing me for a loop. Looked as if he hadn’t unearthed all my thoughts and secrets that day. But I knew what he meant of course. I had paid good money to have the wounds healed and the resulting scars removed. I would have altered my memory too, but preferred to never forget the mistake I had made.

“Who did that?” Zyn asked, getting up and moving away from me, which was absolutely frustrating.

“A man I used to…date.” I kept my voice neutral while I fought to control my emotions. “He cut me.”

“Yes,” Zyn said quietly. “I can see that now.” I heard the snap of the leather crop as if he had flicked it against his palm, and then felt how he traced the crop down my back. “You didn’t like that,” he said. “You don’t like to be cut. You don’t like that kind of pain. Why did he do it if you didn’t like it?” He sounded so genuinely puzzled, I almost laughed.

“No, I didn’t like it one bit. He did it because I agreed to, agreed to…” I shut my mouth. The memory wasn’t as hurtful anymore, yet I didn’t like to think back to the evening where I had agreed to let this guy tie me up. It had excited me, I had longed for it. I had longed to submit to him. I should have stayed in a virtual room with him, but I had wanted the real deal. And paid for it in blood.

But it was long ago—what girl had never made an error in judgment when it came to trusting a man? My throat closed and my limbs started to shake the longer I thought about it. The guy had eventually stopped torturing me and I had moved cities and changed jobs. But here I was again, bound and helpless on the bed of a male a hundred times more frightening than the bastard who had used the knife on me.

I bit back a whimper when Zyn growled behind me. A sharp slap from the crop landed on my ass that made me scream out. Pain blurred my mind, blurred the images and the memory of the night where I had thought I would die. Another slap landed on my other buttock, softer this time, and he made a hushing sound as if I were an animal he was trying to soothe.

If he had said, “You can trust me,” I probably would have started to cry. Because that was what I had heard before a blade sliced my skin open. But Zyn didn’t say those words. Instead, he trailed the crop from my neck down my ass, tickling me. And when he knelt behind me, his hands wrapping around my middle, I felt only need cursing through my veins, not fear.

Zyn already knew what I wanted, what I craved. And I wasn’t sure anymore if that was reason to fear or to trust him.

His hands slipped between my legs, finding my cunt, and he plunged his fingers inside me. “I want you wet and ready and begging for me. Do you understand? Please me.”

I let out a strangled cry, aroused at his demanding touch, but it was his words that got to me most. I wanted to please him. My breath came hard as his cock slipped between my legs, rubbing over my clit. I rocked myself against the hard ridge as he pushed his knee between my legs, spreading me wider. He guided the thick head of his cock into me, just the tip, but the sudden invasion left me desperate for more.

“Do it,” I pressed through my teeth, my body shaking with suppressed need. “Fuck me.”

His low laugh sent shivers down my spine as he raked his fingernails across my back. It hurt, and fear clouded my senses. I barely sensed him getting up, but what I felt when he returned had me holding my breath. Cold metal pressed against my back, the tip of a knife.

I bowed away from the bed, instinctively. The rope holding my wrists dug into my skin as I tried to break free.

Grabbing me by the neck as if I were a cat, he pressed me into the mattress. It was as if all my senses increased tenfold as fear slammed into my body. He ran the metal tip up and down my back, and it was so terribly familiar, I knew that any moment now he would use the knife to slice my skin open.

It took me another second or two to get what he was doing. He cut the rope holding my wrists. When my hands came free, he reminded me with a tug at the leash that I was still wearing his choker.

“On the floor,” he said, and I obeyed without thinking. Sliding from the bed, coming up on hands and knees on the floor. He took off the blindfold.

I lifted my head, looked at him towering over me, the crop in his hand. He flicked it against his leg in steady rhythm.

Then I saw Qay, his clothes stripped off, showing how aroused he was. He looked at me with the same love, the same tenderness in his gaze. I swallowed, reached out to him, yet he remained a couple of feet away, maintaining his distance.

“Bow your head to the ground.”

I did, rested my forehead against the smooth, cold floor, even though it meant losing sight of Qay. A light slap landed against my flank.

“Raise your ass.”

I wanted to spread my legs but didn’t in fear he would notice how desperately I wanted his touch, wanted the release of tension, fear and sexual arousal.

He stepped behind me, lowered himself to one knee, pushed my legs farther apart.

He thrust the length of his cock into my wet heat in one hard stroke. Making sure he filled me completely, he pulled me hard against his groin. Everything inside me coiled tight as he began to fuck me in raw and hard strokes. I heard myself say his name, even if I hadn’t meant to.

He reached forward and wrapped his arms around me, covering my breasts in his hands. He rolled my nipples in his fingers while he pumped his cock into my cunt. And with each stroke he twisted my breasts a little harder, and the pain twisted my lust into an unbearable need for release.

He fucked me almost brutally, as I wanted him to. When he pinched my nipple again, I groaned out, my internal muscles clenching around him while he worked his cock deep into me.

Helplessly, I surrendered to his thrusts and pinches and the twisted way he played with my lust. The way he played with my fear. Closing my eyes, I reveled in the feeling of his thick cock pounding into me. His hand closed around my neck, grasping the collar, reminding me that he had put it around my neck, and that I had let him. That I was his.

I was close, so close, but he pulled out of me, rose to his feet while I rested my cheek against the cool floor, cursing him, thanking him for his cruelty of not giving me satisfaction.

Slowly, my heartbeat calmed, my breathing too. I glanced up at him. His skin glowed, his cock rested hard against his stomach, glistened from my juices.

He hadn’t come inside me, and I had the sudden fear that I hadn’t pleased him enough. From the corner of my eyes I saw Qay watching me, and shame hit me, shame that I wanted Zyn in the first place. I was in love with Qay. It wasn’t okay to crave Zyn as well, was it?

“I know what you need, know what you fear too,” Zyn said quietly. He reached down, brushed his hand against my cheek, removed the leash from the choker. “I’ll push you to the edge, but I’ll never let you fall. Do you understand?” I lowered my gaze. “Yes.”

I couldn’t see his smile, but I heard it in his voice. “That will do—for tonight.” Rising to my feet, I wrapped my arms around myself as I met Qay’s gaze, knowing I had stripped more than just my clothes in front of both men. Zyn had always known my wish to submit at least sexually to him. But now, meeting Qay’s gaze as he walked toward me, blood rushed into my face.

“You stayed,” I said, entirely unnecessarily.

“I’d never leave you.” Qay closed his arms around me and I leaned my head against his chest. “You don’t have to decide between us, only embrace that we are meant to be together.” He kissed me slowly and lovingly, and I rubbed my hips against him, against his hard cock, slicking him with my juices. Zyn had brought me close, but he hadn’t made me come. Qay wouldn’t do that.

I wrapped my arms around Qay’s shoulders, my leg around one of his until he swept me into his arms and carried me to bed. I climbed on top of him, his cock hot and hard between my legs. I leaned forward, took him into my mouth to taste him. Working my tongue up and down his shaft, hearing his hoarse groans, I realized I had no control left. My body demanded release. I straddled Qay, taking his cock, inch by inch, into my eager cunt.

I paused, enjoying the feeling of having Qay inside me, then I sought Zyn’s gaze.

He stood beside the bed, watching me. I followed his lazy movements as he ran his hand up and down his cock. It didn’t escape me how similar this was to the scene I had seen in the book.

“Come to us,” I whispered, reaching out to him, and took his hand to pull him close. “After all, it’s tradition.”

Zyn smiled, his dark eyes lighting up, and he moved behind me on the bed, between Qay’s legs. Kneeling there, he closed his hands around my hips. He guided me up and down, controlling my movements, then reached between my legs. I looked, closed my eyes with a strangled moan. I moved my hips faster, holding on to the image of Zyn’s hand between my legs as he touched me and Qay’s cock at the same time.

Qay began to knead my breasts, gently, teasingly, sending hot sparks from his fingertips all over my skin. My nipples hardened under his skilled fingers. I fell against Zyn’s chest to enjoy, who bit into my shoulder, sending a firework of lust straight between my legs.

Qay trailed his fingers across my cheek, across my mouth. “Kiss me, Jana,” he said, and I leaned forward, seeking his mouth, my hands splayed over his hard chest.

I lost myself in the hands of both men, their fingers, their mouths. Lost myself in touching Qay, tracing every curve of his body, lost myself in the rough touches Zyn gave me until touching and being touched blurred to one feeling. Hands roamed my body, leaving nothing left to explore.

A hard slap landed on my ass, taking away my breath, and Qay wrapped his arms around me, pulled me down against his chest until I rested with my nose nestled at the side of his neck, inhaling his scent. Zyn used some kind of cool lube, fingering my ass. I gasped as the thick head of a cock replaced his fingers. I clenched around Qay’s cock while Zyn pushed slowly into me.

“I’m going to fuck your sweet ass,” Zyn said, and his cock inched deeper, stretching me wide, making my thoughts spiral away. It didn’t hurt, but it was so intense I closed my eyes, digging my fingers into Qay’s chest, who wrapped his hands around my face, kissing me.

“Push back,” Zyn ordered, his voice rough, and I did what he told me. My breath faltered then I moved, adjusting to the tighter sensation, knowing that both men could feel each other.

Zyn’s hands came around my hips, rocking me against him. The friction, the sensation of having two cocks buried deep inside of me turned me mindless with desire. I groaned, pleasure rippling through me as Zyn thrust into my ass while Qay’s cock inside my cunt rubbed against my clit.

I felt Qay’s heart beating against my flat palm, making me seek his gaze. I moved against him, working the two cocks sliding in and out of me, moaning at the bliss of being filled so completely. It was a careful dance, three bodies, moving in sync, back and forth, each thrust and pull wringing a sound from me until Qay pulled my hips against his groin, shouting out his release as his cock pulsed inside my cunt.

Zyn reached for me with his mind, his heat wrapping around my senses. I screamed as heat blazed through my every nerve, white stars erupting behind my closed eyelids. I climaxed, my release erupting from my core, and I clung to the shivers and spasms convulsing through my body, feeling Zyn coming inside of me, his cock jerking as he spilled his seed.

I opened one eye, sliding off Qay, who was sleeping soundly. I must have fallen asleep on top of him—but it was still night. Zyn was nowhere in sight, so I slipped out of the bed, moving quietly.

“I can’t believe I did that,” I murmured, searching for my dress, the choker around my neck suddenly too tight. I took it off, left it on the bed. When I found my dress, I slipped it on, turned toward the door. And stopped short.

The cat was sprawled in front of it, tail moving lazily up and down.

I silently cursed Zyn.

I searched for a different exit, found a second door. Keeping my gaze on the cat, I tiptoed toward the door that would lead me away from the two males I just had sex with.

I needed time to think, and I couldn’t with them close.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Zyn’s voice came from behind me, entirely too loud and surely waking Qay.

I rotated on my heel, struck speechless as I gazed into Zyn’s stormy eyes.

“Come to bed,” Qay said, sounding sleepy but looking at me.

Any moment now Qay would say something sensible and make everything seem normal. But I’d spent the night with two men, and one of them had lured me onto his planet with the promise of marriage. I should have read the fine print.

My gaze traveled back and forth between the two males, both similar-looking with their copper-colored skin, their sharp features, their strong, muscled bodies. But they couldn’t be more different. Still, both felt so right.

Zyn moved toward me, and I held my hand up, which did not stop him in his tracks, so I backed away. “I can’t deal with this right now,” I said, addressing Qay.

“We will see you in the morning then. Or,” Qay said wearily, “or you can decide not to attend the ceremony.”

I let out a long sigh. “What happens at the ceremony?”

“We will propose,” Zyn said quietly. “Qay’s pledge will be different from mine because he is your husband, but we will both ask you to choose us.” His dark eyes swept over my body in an all-encompassing gaze, as if he was prepared to pounce if I started running. “And we will do so in front of my people. And you will accept us.” Qay let out a series of harsh words from which I understood only a few, but I gathered that Qay wasn’t happy with Zyn at all.

I grinned. “So, the ceremony is the actual wedding? A big deal, right? And I can decide if I want to accept both of you? Because I can’t have one without the other.” It wasn’t a question. They’d both spoon-fed me the truth, but it was still up to me if I wanted to embrace it. “Or I can return to Earth, right?”

“Yes,” Qay said simply. “It’s your decision.”

I looked at Zyn, waiting for him to acknowledge that I had a choice. He didn’t.

I looked at Qay. “Did Zyn send you to Earth to seduce me?”

“I fell in love with you, Jana,” Qay answered quietly. “But yes, he told me he’d found Dezra’s heart but that he lost his cool in the heat of the moment and scared you away. So he asked me to go and get you. If it helps, I didn’t believe him at first, until I met you.”

I turned, heading toward the door. “Considering all things in the past, I might choose to return to Earth.”

As I had expected, Zyn stepped in my way, the cat trailing at his footsteps. “I won’t let you leave,” he said. “You are mine.” He held the choker in his hand, the metal glinting softly.

I lifted my head, meeting his gaze square-on even though inside I was trembling.

“You will await my decision. Or do you want to enslave me, control me with your mind, like you do with this cat?”

“I’ll set the cat free.”

“That’s a good start,” I said, stepping around him, but his hand landed on my shoulder, stopping me again. I caught Qay’s gaze, saw him smile, and I was sure that he knew what went on in my head. Zyn, however, was for once clueless.

“You are mine, woman.”

“Set me free,” I whispered, “and when I return to you, I’ll be yours forever.” A vein throbbed in his temple, and I knew he struggled with the concept of giving me the freedom of making my own decision. Then he stepped away from me, giving me enough space to step through the door.

The only way I would ever leave Dezra—and both men—would be kicking and screaming. But they needn’t know that yet.

Well, I hadn’t fooled Qay—about that I was sure. But I was messing with Zyn, and that was curiously satisfying. I walked on, slowly, my heart lifting when I heard Zyn’s voice behind my back.

“Catch,” he said, and I turned, instinctively raising my hand as something flew toward me.

When I opened my hand, I stared at the choker, and I traced along the three-leaved flower pattern. Zyn kept his distance, but his gaze was on my face as I raised the choker and closed it around my neck.

“Never take it off again,” Zyn said, and I bit my lip, already looking forward to my punishment, and admitting that it took a whole lot more to fool the best man when it came to his woman.