He kept just out of sight except for his black boots as he walked around her. The humiliation of standing naked in the middle of his chamber was only the beginning. Shara knew he would do so much more to her.
She wondered if Kiril had come to her house yet. The fact Balladyn was with her meant that he wasn’t looking for Kiril yet. And she had to wonder why. If it was so important to catch a Dragon King, why was he lingering?
“Why did you leave the pub?” Balladyn suddenly asked.
She swallowed and cut her eyes to the side when she glimpsed his boots. “As if I’d remain and get between two males fighting.”
Balladyn cackled. “That wasn’t a fight. That was my boot stomping on an ant.” There was a pause before he touched her head, causing her to jump. His hand then slid through her hair. “If you hate Farrell as much as he despises you, then you should’ve wanted to see him put in his place. But you didn’t watch it, which leads me to believe you used the time to go somewhere else. Your Dragon King, perhaps? What’s his name?”
“Why would I want to be near a Dragon King?” Shara retorted, hoping the heat she added to her words would be enough to convince Balladyn.
He continued his caress down her back, pausing to fondle first one butt cheek and then the other. “I wanted to show you off, and I wanted you to see how I hurt Farrell. For you. I almost believed your lies, just as I believed Rhi’s once.”
Shara’s heart pounded at his words. His meaning went deeper, but she wasn’t sure how deep when it came to Rhi.
Her attention was diverted as he continued to stroke her skin. She wanted to cover herself and scream at him to never touch her again, but she couldn’t. Not if she wanted to get out of this alive and be able to help Kiril. In the end, she knew her chances of living were on the slim side, but she would do it for Kiril.
No one had ever cared enough about her to risk such danger. Rhi had no idea how lucky she was, and Shara wished she could be the one to tell her.
“What’s this?” Balladyn’s voice had gone hard.
Shara’s lungs locked when she realized he was tracing the spot on her shoulder that Kiril had nipped. Kiril had marked her. She hadn’t comprehended it until then and it gave her hope. A man didn’t mark his lover on a whim.
If there was a chance that he had feelings for her Shara would fight with everything she had to return to him.
She had to think of a story fast, or everything she had done to stay alive would vanish in an instant. “It was the Dragon King’s response when I teased him to a state of desire and refused to finish him.”
“Why would you do that?” Balladyn asked skeptically.
Shara tried to shrug, biting the inside of her mouth to hide her wince when pain shot through her arm from hanging from invisible bonds. “My mission was to seduce him in order for my family to trap him.”
“Is that what you do? Seduce?”
“I was released from my prison in order to carry out this mission. Do you really think I go about seducing males?” she asked sardonically.
He squeezed her butt painfully. “I think it comes easily for you. You set out to seduce me.”
“Because I thought you might be worthy of me.”
He lifted a black and silver brow. “And you no longer believe that?”
“No.”
He smiled coolly. “It doesn’t really matter what you think. By the time I’m finished with you, you’ll be begging me to be mine.”
Shara wondered if he would use magic to hurt her, or if he would force himself on her. So when the first lash fell across her bottom, she couldn’t hold back the scream, she was so unprepared for the pain. Shara bit the inside of her cheek as she sat through five more lashes before Balladyn finished. Her ass was on fire, the skin crackling from the whip.
“I didn’t break the skin this time,” he warned. “The whip was made special for me. The wounds remain for days. No Fae magic or the naturally quick healing of our bodies will ease you.”
As if that made it all better. Shara glared daggers at him. She was suddenly released. Her knees barely held her when she was back on her feet, and her arms felt as if millions of blades were piercing her when she was able to lower them and let the blood rush back to her fingers.
“Get dressed, Shara. You’re coming with me to hunt the Dragon King. Since you were sent to seduce him and he knows you, you’ll go in first so we can take him by surprise. You’ll complete your mission. Only for me instead of your family.”
She clenched her teeth when he tossed a dress on the bed and stood by the door waiting. Of course Balladyn would have a specially made whip, the bastard. Her skin was on fire, the stinging growing exponentially by the second.