Feral King (The Dominant Bastard Duology 1)

He gestured and she knelt at his feet then pulled her closer to put her head on leg. Automatically, his hand went to her hair, petting her. She sighed and pressed her forehead to his knee.

“Do you have questions, Miss Korsgaard?”

She turned her face up to look at him, her brown eyes wide and eager to please. “When will you do it? What will it look like? Can I be drunk? Will you dress like cowboys?”

Tightening his fist in her hair so she didn’t bolt, he answered. “I’ll do it in a few minutes, as soon as the brand I made is hot. It’s the logo I put on my bikes. You can’t get drunk fast enough for it to help. I don’t think we own any cowboy costumes – I apologize for the oversight.”

“You’re doing it now? Today?” she squeaked and tried to squirm away, but his hold on her hair was too firm for her to go anywhere.

“Yes. You brought your bag, Ro?”

“Always. I’ll get it from the car.” He rose and went to fetch it, looking even more eager than Severin had anticipated.

“No! Let me go!” The girl tugged at his hands in a bid to get free. She couldn’t have been very serious about escaping, though, if she wasn’t using her safeword. “You could have given me some warning so I could brace myself.”

“I decided it would be better to surprise you so you didn’t have time to worry.”

She seemed to give that some thought. “This isn’t like piercing my nipples.” Her grimace was almost funny enough to force a smile from him. “This is completely permanent.”

“Yes.”

“What if you get tired of me? What if you decide to send me away and I spend the rest of my life with your mark on me?”

He sighed and let go of her hair in favor of pulling her up by the arms and sitting her in his lap. She seemed to be there a lot lately, but she fit there so nicely, and she was warm, and soft, and smelled good even when she was sweaty and exhausted and full of come. Right then she was still clean and feisty. It was his job to fix that.

“Do you really think I’m going to mark you then abandon you?” He kissed her hair, and she melted against him with only a small shift of his arms.

“I don’t know. We do this dance. We get closer to each other then you back off and treat me like I’m going to betray you. It’s hard for me to deal with sometimes. You keep claiming me in different ways – like you want us to be permanent, but then sometimes you act like you wish I’d go away.”

“I – want this to be permanent, but I have trouble believing you’d want to stay. Wondering when you’ll leave eats at me. I want to mark you so that even when you go, you’ll remember what we had.”

With a pensive expression she nodded. “Okay. I want that too. To have something of yours to keep after you’re finished with me.” She lifted her face to his, offering her lips. He kissed her slow and deep, until she was clinging to his shirt and sighing into his mouth.

Finished with her? Never. Maybe she’d be better off without him, but it wouldn’t be because he was finished with her.

Rodrigo came back and set out his supplies.

Severin coaxed Minnow to her feet.

“Where do you want it?” Rodrigo asked Severin, not Minnow.

“The front of her thigh so she can see it easily. It will help to remind her who she belongs to.”

“Has she had a tetanus shot in the last few years?”

Minnow nodded.

“Do you want to hold her down or do the branding?” Rodrigo asked.

“You hold her down. I’ve been practicing and I’m feeling cocky.”

A long, high-pitched whimper came from the girl. “Oh my god,” she murmured. “Why did I say yes?”

“You like it when things hurt, Minnow,” Rodrigo reminded her, his voice dripping with sadistic arousal. “You also like being a good girl for Mister Leduc.”

“Am I a good girl, Master?” she asked Severin.

“Very,” he replied. “I can’t imagine another girl letting me do this.” He draped her across the padded coffee table.