Page 168 of The Enslaved Duet

Only the quiver of Cosima’s thigh as she struggled away from Ashcroft’s lingering touch made the tin man fill with feeling.

I knew because the same feeling echoed within myself.

Finally, the first lord finished with his slave, and there was a smattering of applause. No one was enthusiastic about the performance. It had lacked screams, blood, and begging, the three cornerstones on The Trial’s grading rubric.

“Now, gentlemen and slaves, I know we’ve been waiting to see what Ashcroft will do with the supermodel, and I am sure it will be delectable. Ashcroft and slave, please take the stage.”

I watched, not breathing, not even blinking as the man untangled Cosima briskly from her chains and then hooked a leash through the leather collar at her throat before forcing her to crawl after him up onto the raised dais at the back of the room.

My body moved like smoke through the shadows, silently making my way up the stairs to the left of the stage where I lurked behind the navy-blue curtains. A hand slipped into the silk lined pocket of my blazer and carefully grasped the syringe between my knuckles.

Ashcroft said something to the crowd that made them laugh as Cosima folded to her knees in the perfect submissive posture.

I uncapped the plastic lid and shifted deeper into the cover of the velvet drapes.

Ashcroft’s shoes clicked like the timer of a ticking bomb as he crossed the black lacquered stage toward me to retrieve some of the plethora of tools laid out on the sideboards backstage.

Click, click, click.

He appeared parallel to me; his profile sharp with excitement for what was to come. There was a smile on his lips, twisted like his lust into something ugly.

I wiped it from his face in one smooth swoop as I stepped from the blackness, wrapped my arms sinuously around him, and then squeezed like a python. My prey froze in fear before the struggle began, but it was really no struggle at all.

I hooked my leg around his feet so that I could leverage his stumbling step forward back against my chest, holding him closer, suffocating him harder.

“You dare to touch what is mine, Ashcroft?” I hissed into his ear, just loud enough to be heard over the thundering rush of blood to his head.

“Not yours…anymore,” he managed to wheeze.

My god, but I wanted to rip him apart right then and there, twist his spine until it cracked and everything inside him spilled open like candy from its papier-mâché holding.

“Cosima is and will always be mine,” I told him calmly, focusing on my breath so that I didn’t kill him too quickly, and end all the fun I’d planned for him. “But even if she wasn’t, I would kill you all the same for blackmailing her as you have, for daring to touch a woman so much better than your pathetic self.”

Then, before he could infuriate me to murder, I plunged the tip of the needle I held in one hand deep into his neck and pushed the drugs into his system.

Ten seconds later, he was out.

Riddick stepped out of the dark to catch him as I let him fall forward out of my arms.

“Keep him in the Iron Chair until I get there,” I reminded my manservant and friend. “Somehow, the bastard retained his ability to get an erection after the last time he sat on the spiked throne. See to it that the same mistake isn’t made again.”

I turned on my heel before Riddick could respond. The crowd outside the stage was beginning to murmur at the delay, and I didn’t want to give them any reason to investigate. Quickly, I gathered my tools and strode into the light of the stage.

There was a collective gasp at the change of Dominant, but no one rushed the stage to stop me from continuing the show. Things like this happened. We were all lions in a cage filled with a limited supply of meat. There were no rules to curtail our natural aggression and need for dominance, so only the strongest thrived.

And I was strongest of them all.

Cosima knelt with her head bowed, her veil of glimmering black hair almost blue under the spotlights. She didn’t know why the audience had gasped, but the tight set of her shoulders and the bracing set of her toes against the floor spoke to her readiness to prepare for the worst.

Nearly naked and bound, my beauty was still a gladiator.

Music pulsed like a heavy heartbeat over the speakers as I wrapped the leash around my palm and used it to force Cosima up onto her knees to lessen the strain on her neck. Bowed into me, mouth parted like a split cherry, I felt myself get hard at the sight of her.

“Are you ready for your punishment, wife?” I asked against her damp lips before running my tongue down her jawline and sinking my teeth hard into her neck.

Her gasp punched into the air like an exclamation mark as her body swayed even closer to mine. I watched her golden eyes turn up to mine and go black with shocked relief and dark desire.

Yes,I told her with my eyes,this was what she deserved for locking me to the bed and running away from me.