A Girl Named Calamity by Danielle Lori

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

SERVICING A PRINCE

Iargued with the women in the tent for more than ten minutes before the prince barged in. “You will take a bath, or I will have two of my men bathe you. Your choice. Decide now,” he ordered.

I didn’t have my soap, and I was worried about Weston being able to find me. But I doubted he could invade an army of Untouchables, no matter how good he was.

There was also the problem of my silver cuffs that I didn’t want anyone to see. There was no way out of this, and my heart beat quickly while I pushed my long sleeves up. The prince looked at the cuffs with a questioning gaze.

“I don’t want them stolen,” I said.

“Are you a witch?” he asked suspiciously.

I blinked. “Uh . . . no?”

“Silver means nothing to us here. It’s the witch’s metal. Trust me, no one will touch them. I am assuming it’s not that way in the north?” he asked, and I shook my head. “You will bathe now. We have much to go over, and I will not dine with you looking like that.” He gestured to my body. I bristled a little, about to tell him he would be lucky to dine with me at all, but I bit my tongue.

He walked out of the tent and left me with six women who all looked at me with disgust. I was the only blond of the group, and they looked at me as though I were a witch. I watched them warily before they all ascended on me like vultures.

In between undressing me and talking in a language I didn’t understand, I heard words I did understand.

“She stinks . . .”

“I don’t believe she isn’t a witch.”

“How could our prince be attracted to a light-haired woman?” a woman said while she yanked on a lock of my hair.

“Ow!” I said, clenching my teeth in annoyance.

They poked and prodded and plucked at me, all while making snippy comments. I snapped at one when she ripped the hair off my leg with too much gusto. Women were almost worse than men. Almost.

I bathed for a long time before one of the women yanked on my arm and told me the prince wouldn’t like to dine with a woman as wrinkly as her grandmother. I huffed and pulled myself out, eager to get out of this tent full of harpies hoping I wouldn’t walk into anything worse.

“Hold still,” a woman scolded while she drew black around my eyes, matching the rest of them. And I realized that I was becoming another woman in the prince’s harem. Before I could think more about it, I felt a sharp prick on my arm.

“Ouch!” I said while I scooted back, and felt the woman doing my makeup draw a line down my face. There was some shouting in a foreign language while I glared at the culprit of the prick.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked as I looked at the needle in her hand.

“You must wear His Highness’s mark.”

He wanted to brand me like cattle? No, a whore was the appropriate word. “I won’t,” I said.

She shook her head reproachfully. “You will make him angry.”

“I don’t care. I’m not wearing his damn brand.”

The women tittered in between themselves and shook their heads at me. They were all brainwashed. Every one of them. Could they not see they were only the prince’s whores? I would rather be paraded through the camp naked than willingly become one.

“You should be honored that he chose to protect you,” a woman scolded.

“I don’t need his protection,” I grumbled. The women reluctantly dropped it. One fixed the black line down my face while another braided red ribbon into my hair, grumbling about how she was supposed to fix up hair that was as short as mine.

“Stand up,” a woman said. I did with the hope they would give me some clothes. I was beginning to wonder if the prince would have me dine with him naked. But I relaxed as a woman got some cloth out of a chest. It was red and silky, the same as the rest of the women. I imagined it was red so that someone could see them easily if they decided to escape.

The cloth was one long strip, and I looked at it with confusion. A woman put it behind my neck and then crisscrossed it in the front to cover my breasts. She brought it behind my back again, and that was where I got lost. She crisscrossed it a couple more times, and I was wearing almost a dress, except for a triangle of my midriff and hips exposed.

It was a lot more decent than my Sylvian clothes, but I had not a clue how to get the thing off.

I was more worried the prince knew exactly how.

One of the women had taken my dagger earlier, and I didn’t have any place to put it anyway. I shouldn’t have been stabbing the prince either, so maybe it was a good thing.

When I was as polished and clean as I imagined a new toy was, two Untouchables walked on either side of me to escort me to the prince’s tent. I was more than hesitant, being so close to an Untouchable, my history with them too hard to forget.

I shivered as I walked through the camp, many Untouchable eyes on me. The hair on the back of my neck raised as my body became aware of the heavy stares on my skin.

“I heard you refused my brand?” was the first thing the prince said when I entered his tent. He wore loose white pants with at least two daggers that I could see fashioned into them. And a thin white sleeveless shirt that was slim fitted, and I could see his defined abs through it. No wonder the women didn’t want to leave. I’d still choose freedom over a man who was nice to look at any day. Though . . . I might miss it.

“You already have six women in your harem. Do you really need more?” I asked, trying to derail him from the conversation he wanted to have.

“Do I need more? Probably not. But do I want more?” he asked with a smile and a heavy perusal over me, and I knew the answer to that question. I stood in silence, not knowing what to say with a flush on my skin.

“I want you to go back to your tent and let the women brand you.”

Dammit.

“I’m not going to be marked like cattle.”

“You aren’t cattle, but you are mine and will wear my mark,” he said calmly.

“I will not,” I retorted. He might have believed he owned me, but I wouldn’t let him permanently mark me.

He raised a brow. “Shall we strip you down and drag you through the camp, then?”

The flush covering my skin had morphed into an angry heat. Did I let him draw on me or strip me naked? I was assuming he would strip me naked regardless, although it was unknown to me how many eyes would get to see me.

I stood tense while he sat behind his desk, relaxed, watching me. I might have ended up with an Untouchable who could kill me if he touched me. At least with the prince, I didn’t have to worry about that.

“I choose neither,” I tried.

He laughed. “Unfortunately, that is not an option.” A man entered the tent and said something I couldn’t understand. The prince sat up straighter before he looked at me with interest.

I wondered about his reaction, but I was too focused on my current problem to try and understand him.

“Are there other options?” I asked.

“What?”

“Are there other options besides the brand and being paraded through camp?”

He was leaning back in his chair while he appeared to be thinking about it. I had hopeful eyes until he smiled darkly. Then the hope in my eyes dimmed.

“You can come sit on my lap and kiss me like you mean it.”

My first kiss had been stolen from me by a Latent and my second would be taken by a stuck-up prince?

Nervousness settled in my stomach. “No thank you.”

“You have three seconds to choose. A kiss or a brand? If it’s the kiss, make it a good one.”

My thoughts raced through my mind. What made a kiss a good one, anyway? A kiss wasn’t a permanent thing. And it seemed the logical decision to make.

“One.”

My heart fluttered. The kiss I had with the Latent was far from bad. Would it be the same with a prince?”

“Two.”

I was over to him before he could say three. I leaned down hesitantly, brushed my lips against his, and tried to pull away. I jumped out of my skin when he grabbed both of my thighs and lifted me, so I was straddling him. My dress was pulled tight, and I was worried it was going to rip, but my thoughts were cut off when he grabbed the back of my neck and pressed his lips against mine.

They were smooth and soft. Heat traveled through my body at every slow kiss and lick he made until I slowly melted against him. His hand slid from my nape to my backside, pulling me tightly against him when he knew I wasn’t going to pull away.

His tongue slid into my mouth and brought a hazy wave of pleasure with it. I grabbed a fistful of his hair and slid my tongue in between his lips. With the heat of his hands on my ass, he rocked me against him, and I moaned while my tongue met his again.

“If you wanted to fuck an Untouchable, you should have told me. There were quite a few that wanted the honor before I slit their throats.”

I froze.

That voice. It had my heart pound in fear, but also had my blood flowing hot in excitement.

I saw the prince’s lips tip up, and it took me awhile before I realized I had been set up. He’d known Weston was in the camp. And for some reason wanted him to see this. I knew this because the prince’s hands got a lot more firm on my ass. I sighed. I was tired of being a pawn to men.

“He made me do it,” I said.

Weston laughed coldly. “It sure looks like it.”

I noticed I still had a fistful of the prince’s hair, and I quickly dropped it. Guilt ate at me. And I had no reason to feel that way. Relief had filled me at hearing Weston’s voice and knowing for sure he wasn’t dead. And he was my damn captor. I was so misguided.

A combination of feelings that I shouldn’t have had had me doing something I shouldn’t have.

I was just trying to prove a point. Show them both I could do what I wanted. Show myself I didn’t have to feel guilty for kissing someone. I grabbed the prince’s hair again and pressed my lips against his. I felt the warmth of his lips for only a second before there was a blur of motion and I was held against Weston’s body.

My back was to his front, and I watched the prince laugh. “Your woman claims she is not yours.”

“It’s a game we play. Keeps it interesting,” Weston said, and his deep voice rumbled against my back. It was really hard to protest anything with him pressed against me. I didn’t fight the hold; it would be pointless with his tight grip around my waist. And men’s games were exhausting.

There was some tense silence before things got serious fast.

“You walk right into my camp, what makes you think I won’t kill you?” the prince said with venom.

“Don’t forget I let you live, Maxim. Yet here you are, building an army, for what?”

Maxim’s shoulders tensed. “My plans were none of your business a long time ago!”

There was apparently history between these two. And not the pleasant kind. I felt a little cheap now that I knew Maxim only kissed me to get a rise out of Weston. Then I thought about it, and no, I didn’t; it was nice, regardless.

“Is this the girl?” Maxim gestured to me. I felt Weston tense against me, and I needed to know what they were talking about. How would Maxim know anything about me?

“Ah, I see. You have not told her, and it appears she won’t like it,” Maxim continued.

“Told me wha—”

Weston’s arm tightened. “Say another fucking word and I will finish what I should have done a long time ago,” he told Maxim.

The prince shot out of his chair. “You think you still can?”

“Weston . . .” I said nervously when he pushed me to the side. They were going to kill each other, and I would be left surrounded by Untouchables. I watched them stand in front of each other, only inches apart. They were the same height and similarly built, but couldn’t Maxim kill Weston with one touch? Was Weston mad?

I realized he was when he said, “Shall we find out?”

My nervousness settled in my stomach when I thought I would have to watch Weston die in front of my eyes. They stared at each other for another moment before Maxim spoke.

“Take the girl and get out of my camp, before I decide to keep her. She sure knows how to use her tongue.”

Okay, now I felt cheap.

Weston’s arm blurred in an arc and Maxim’s head whipped around. The motion was so quick, I would have missed it if I blinked. Weston spoke in a language I didn’t understand, and Maxim looked at him with hatred and a bloody lip. I took a deep breath when Maxim let Weston walk away; he grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door.

I heard Maxim’s voice behind me. “When he is done using you, come find me.”