Page 84 of The Enslaved Duet

I tried to speak, but my speech was slurred nonsense.

Alexander looked up from his work to give me his small, slightly lopsided smile. “You passed out on me. I can’t say I’ve had a sub do that to me before.”

I frowned.

Alexander shook his head at me and tossed the facecloth to the floor before lying beside me and pulling over the covers. I sighed when he drew me against the hard lines of his body, my cheek against the inflexible swell of his pec and my fingers caught in the grooves between his abs.

“You have no need to be jealous of any one in my past. I had subs before you, but no slaves, and never anyone for longer than a few months. Even then it was casual because I had no need for a partner, only a warm, wet, and obedient woman.”

“Nice,” I mustered dryly.

His chuckle ruffled my hair. “Not everyone is looking for their future spouse.”

“I can’t imagine you married,” I said as I yawned into his chest.

“Probably because I don’t ever plan to be. I’d have to be out of my mind.”

“You don’t believe in it?”

He was quiet for a long moment as he contemplated my question. It occurred to me that it was only ever after a scene, when I was wrapped around him, that Alexander tenderized and conversed with me like a true lover.

I’d have to take better advantage of it.

“I believe in it,” he said at last. “I might be the pessimist, but I can’t think of a single married couple who is happy for it.”

I didn’t know one either, so I didn’t say anything.

“I have to believe if I ever felt moved to marry, it would be because I wanted my lover to have my name, my protection, and the promise of my love no matter what should happen in the future. I think it’s a promise that should never die, even if the love is gone. One that says I will care for you, stand up for you, and be there for you no matter what.”

I blinked into the darkness at the beauty of his words and the impossibility of them coming from such a man. But then I thought of other things he had said when his guard was down, how I was brave like the Goddess Athena and a queen who had been convinced she was a pawn.

It was the contradiction of his cold exactness and his warm soliloquies that seemed to crumble my defences before I knew they were even destroyed. It was impossible to stay on my toes around him because his behaviour was unpredictable, and his erratic moments of beauty were arresting.

Which reminded me of his strange behaviour upon seeing that submissive in the club.

“Who is Yana?”

His body stilled. “We won’t speak of her.”

“Okay, let’s talk about what happened with Sherwood tonight. Why was he threatening you, and why shouldn’t you be a little more concerned about it? I thought you said these men would kill you if you didn’t do as they said?”

“They can try,” he muttered darkly.

“Xan.” I propped myself up on one hand so I could look into his face, and I watched his face soften at my nickname for him. “Please, tell me what happened tonight.”

He sighed, an indulgent and vaguely irritated sound. “Fine, but lie down.” As I settled, he tangled his fingers in my hair. “The Order isn’t just about hedonism and women. It’s also about keeping the elite men of Britain in the upper echelons of business, politics, wealth, and society. I own a media company that I inherited through my mother’s family that I’ve made very lucrative. There are any number of people I should be supporting financially for mayor of London and Prime Minister, or hiring at my company because it is dictated by the Order. I refuse to do so.”

“You always have?”

“Yes. I know it’s hard to believe, given our current state, but I never approved of the Order even though I was groomed to be a leader of it by my father.”

“How were you groomed?” I asked, drawing my fingers in soothing patterns over his chest in the hopes that it would distract him into staying open and pliant with me.

He hesitated. “My father always kept slaves. It was something I’m not sure if my mum knew about at the time of their marriage, but she certainly knew about it when I was a lad. Mostly, they were kept out of our sight in the servants’ quarters or the dungeon, but when I was nine, my father decided I should begin my training as a sadist.”

I stopped breathing.

“He took me to the dungeon and introduced me to the current slave Davenport. She was only eighteen and so pale and thin… I could see her veins and bones beneath her skin. Noel taught me how to train her like a dog, how to present for her Master and crawl and beg prettily for more. I had my first orgasm by her mouth and then on my tenth birthday, I lost my virginity to her.”