A gasp came from Darma, as Dominax’s face took on an expression of pure fury.
“You KNEW where she WAS!?”
“I…”
“Get out of my sight, Darma,” he growled. “You little bastard. You will suffer for this. You will never have another lover again, that I vow. I will have you made eunuch…”
“Okay. So you’re not in the best mood, but I kept her safe.”
“This is not safe. She’s seriously ill. You kept the truth from me. You…. Get out. Now.”
15 Wanna Be Sedated?
A rogue guard. A traitorous brother. And a rebellious pet. Dominax sincerely hoped that these problems only happened in threes, and were not indicative of rot and rebellion throughout his home.
Darma fled the room, which was the only smart thing he had done in three months.
“He did help me a bit,” Katie said. “So don’t actually kill him. He protected me from being caught by soldiers, and…”
Dominax let out a low growl. “I don’t want to hear about my brat brother. I want to know about you. You’re not well.”
“I’m just sick sometimes. That’s all. It happens to humans.”
“You could have come back to me, pet. I will always look after you.”
“Sure, and you would have beaten the shit out of me.”
“I would have spanked you. I still intend on spanking you as soon as I know that you are well enough to be spanked. You’ve been a bad little pet, running away from your king, making him worry for you.”
She loved the way he said those words. They sent one of those thrills through her, the kind she had not experienced before Dominax — or after him, for that matter. Dominax did things to her she couldn’t explain. But she couldn’t admit that. She had to argue. It was the human way.
“I don’t think I’ve been bad at all. Someone let me out, and I went and saw the world. I liked the city, by the way. I’d like to go back sometime.”
“On a leash, perhaps. Or in a cage, as an example to the people you spent almost a hundred days robbing blind.”
“Well, what was I supposed to do?”
“Turn yourself in and return to me.”
“Obviously, I wasn't going to do that. You whipped me. You hurt me.”
“You deserved it.”
And just like that, they were back in complete and total opposition. No matter how hot and dominant the king was — maybe even because of how hot and dominant he was, she couldn’t submit to him.
“I don’t think I did. I think I’m a person. You think I’m nothing more than a pet.”
“Nothing more than a pet? Being my pet means being my everything,” Dominax growled. “It means being in my care for the entirety of your life. It means I will always look after you, in ways big and small. You do not know what your absence did to me, do you? What pain it caused…”
“Was it as much pain as being lashed with a leather belt?”
He did not reply to that, but started running his hands through her hair, massaging her scalp with the sweetest, most delicate of oils and she somewhat lost interest in rebelling.
It had been thrilling to be on her own for a time, but it had also been hard, and lonely, and she had found it almost impossible to properly fend for herself.
Now, Dominax was taking care of everything. Once he had oiled and combed her hair with those huge hands of his, he finished toweling up the last few wet spots on her body, her shoulders and upper back which had re-wet themselves with the fall of her hair.
She felt the towel stop at her shoulders.
“What have you done here?”
“I don’t know. Can’t remember. Can’t see either.”
“You have bumps on both your shoulders in the same place,” he said, running his hands down over them. Now, strangely, she could feel what he was talking about. Previously, she hadn’t noticed anything there. “One is underneath the tattoo of some kind of creature. I always meant to inquire about that…”
“Oh. Yeah. That’s a pig.”
“You have a pig tattooed on your body? An Earth animal? Does it hold great significance?”
“No. I just thought it was funny.”
“You marked your body permanently for amusement?”
“I’m human. At least half of what we do is because we’re bored and the other half is because we’re horny or hungry.”
“You’re leaving out the things you do out of sheer, pointless rebellion.”
“I guess tattoos fall under that category too, sometimes.”
He sighed and finished drying her off, paying careful attention to her breasts and between her thighs, down her legs, and the soft down between them. He had absolutely ravaged her in all those places at one time or another, but now he was being careful and treating her like someone or something that mattered.
Dominax helped her stand, and reached for a golden silk robe, sliding it up her arms and over her shoulders, he took care to secure it about her waist and slide her hair from beneath it. Every movement was made with more gentleness than she had expected upon her recapture from the brute king.