The Pride of a Slave Ch. 05

I grumbled and lifted myself back into the room with no more grace than I had exited it. My sketchbook sprawled out of my hands when I landed and I saw to my horror as Becka picked it up. Her laughter sobered, but the amusement in her face didn't stop. She flipped back and forth from the pictures blushing crimson at a few of the sketches but tilting her head and looking at them appreciatively anyway.

She turned to the last page, the one I had been working on and gasped and sat down on the stool in front of the easel, "Oh my goodness."

She blushed even darker and looked up at me then back down at the drawing. She closed it softly and held her hand over the cover of the book, and then hugged it to herself. I blushed in response and we both stared at each other for a quiet moment before Becka burst out giggling.

"I feel like I just make love to Prince Dimitri."

I had begun to walk towards her and tripped on the perfectly level floor catching myself quickly before righting myself and grabbing the sketchbook out of her hands. She eyed me knowingly, "When?"

I bit my lip trying to keep from smiling, "This morning."

Becka leaned back now surprised and I looked at her confused, "This morning? I had thought you had been lovers with at least one of the Princes by now."

I shook my head, "Are you serious?"

She nodded and shrugged, "Apparently not all of us are unaware of how attractive they are."

I laughed and shook my head again, "Yes, well it took a little while."

Becka stood up and grabbed my hand and climbed out of the window into the garden, pulling me after her. We walked along the perimeter of the garden talking about how she was doing. She loved her new life, even if once a week she was bed ridden for a full day after the Duke had fed. Isadorre and the Duke had given her a brand new tablet when she mustered up the courage to ask. She said that they seemed to already have had it before she asked to which she gave me a sly look out of the corner of her eye.

She also talked about how she had already written and drawn one book and Isadorre had taken it to an editor friend. The editor had loved it and had given it to a publisher who was working on getting it put out in print. I smiled and hugged her congratulating her.

"You did that really fast. It was only a few weeks ago that you had said you wanted to do it."

She shrugged, "You were right, I sit the rest day in bed doing nothing at all, the servants even serve me in bed. I go stir crazy, so instead I just write and draw and draw and write, and out popped the book."

I smiled at her wishing I could tell her everything about what was going on with me, and she asked a bit but didn't pry for which I was grateful. She stopped me when we were the furthest away from the Palace as we could safely get and grabbed my hand, "I know you never think of these things, so I feel compelled to ask you. You do know you need to take the bitter herbs now, right?"

I looked at her blankly, "What bitter herbs?"

Becka moaned in disbelief and looked upwards as if asking for divine guidance, "You never had the conversation with your mother about sex and babies?"

I scoffed, "Of course I did, she just never mentioned herbs or anything."

"Gods preserved us, you don't know about the herbs that keep a woman from getting pregnant?"

I shook my head, "No, mainly because I didn't have time to spend on that sort of thing, I was studying."

Becka laughed and shook her head, "I'll call mother tonight and have her send a messenger with the herbs, they will be here in the morning. Be sure to take them, last thing anyone needs is you to get pregnant."

I blushed and asked her how to take them. She chuckled and said they were in tea packets, just make the tea, add a little sugar and down it every morning. I nodded and thanked her, giving her a quick hug and continuing our walk. She talked about her family and how they were doing. It seemed that since she had gotten paired her family was received better. They were invited to parties, which they never went to but the invite was nice. They also were openly greeted in the market when they went shopping, and Becka beamed with pride.

As we walked another circuit of the garden something began to plague my mind. I turned to Becka and asked softly, "Have you ever had someone who kept trying to be alone with you, and complimenting you all the time, but it was uncomfortable?"

Her eyebrows raised and she nodded, "Keeps staring at you, even when there is no reason to stare? Finds ways to touch you, an arm, hand on the shoulder, brushing past you when they walk?"

I nodded, "And keeps telling me I deserve better than to be a slave here, keeps wanting me to move out and wants me to move in with him."

Becka scoffed, "Yeah I had that happen, you remember Joe's dad? He did that to me all the time. Kept staring at me, would drop by my house and talk to my dad in private. I snuck out once to see what he was talking about and he was trying to get my dad to release me to be one of his mistresses, he said he would raise the status of the family. I was lucky because my dad always told him no and would even lecture him about how shameful he was being. I'm so glad the old bastard is dead."

I gasped and froze, "He was the one that died?"

She nodded, "Yeah, Mother called last night and said he died of heart attack. You will never guess what he was doing?"

I laughed, "Sleeping with a very young mistress."

Becka nodded, "Too young, against the law young. Their whole family is ashamed."

I laughed, "Dimitri and Mariah went to put his daughter in his seat, I didn't know he had a daughter, I thought he only had Joe."

Becka shook her head, "No, his daughter is Erica, she was a servants daughter. He claimed her long before Joe came along because no one was sure that his wife could get pregnant. She ended up being sent to the east for University because when she was in high school Joe was born."

"I'm surprised that she got the seat instead of Joe."

Becka scoffed, "That's why the council had to be called, Joe contested the Administrators decision to give Erica the seat."

I snorted, "Erica couldn't be any worse than Joe, he was a spitting image of his father."

Becka nodded, "Yeah, and Erica went to that progressive University in the east, so she has lots of good ideas I bet. It couldn't be any worse than Joe."

We sat down on a bench under a willow tree and I sighed and looked up, the sun filtering through the green leaves reminding me of Ryder's eyes, "You know, Ryder is really upset."

Becka shrugged, "Doesn't surprise me Sera, you three have all been as thick as bread dough since forever. I bet Ryder probably feels hurt that you and Dimitri have progressed this far and it wasn't you and him."

"How do I fix it?" I looked back and her and she shrugged

"I have no idea, the pair of them always made me nervous. Only you would know what he is like and what he may need to be your friend. Which leads into a good question I have for you. What is going to happen now?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean, miss Sera, is are you and Dimitri going to be an actual couple? Are you going to get married? What?"

I sat back and looked back up through the trees, "No, nothing like that."

"That's sad, I guess I was hoping your fairy tale would be more than just going to University."

I smiled and looked back at her, "Yeah, well I don't particularly want the responsibilities marrying one of these boys entails."

She snorted, "Oh please, at the rate you are going, you will end up their advisor or something. You will end up as important as a queen would be, maybe even more."

I chuckled, "Considering all the political classes I am taking, one would probably think I was being groomed for that huh?"

Both of us froze and then began to laugh hysterically, not because it was impossible, but because it really did seem like I was being groomed to be their advisor, and it was weird that it took me this long to figure it out.

"Some advisor I will be, sleeping with one Prince and the other wont even talk to me."

Becka hooted, "You said sleep, as in present tense, which means you fully plan on doing it again."

I choked and flushed and nudged her with my shoulder, "Shut up, that's not what I meant."

Becka continued to hoot and giggle, "Oh please, I saw those drawings, and the last one, of Dimitri's face." She flushed and fanned herself, "It was like he had just, you know..."

I covered my face in embarrassment and pushed her a little with my shoulder again, "Okay, enough, I need to get back to work on my art assignment."

I stood up and retreated back to the Lilac room, and my abandoned sketchbook and canvas. I looked through the sketches and touched each one in turn until the last one. It was a sketch of Dimitri's face as I remembered it when he had reached his climax and had grabbed me. I flushed at the memory and felt my body warm up, the heat coursing through me before settling between my legs.

I was still sore but it wasn't as painful as it had been earlier that morning and the heated blush that was running across my body was slowly eliminating the soreness and replacing it with a warm desire. I sighed and began to work on the canvas skipping the drawing and working directly with paint. It was an abstract and the collection of colors is what I wanted to tell the story. I dipped the brushes into the paint and felt my mind continue to flash back to this morning, my body continuing to heat up as I painted.

All too soon I felt the painting was finished and dropped my brushes into the cleaning solution and stepped back taking it in. It was abstract in the fact there were no real shapes, but the colors were explosive and sensual all in one. I sighed in satisfaction, the desire in me still hot and bothering me greatly. I stretched myself trying to relieve some of the tension in my body and made quick work of cleaning my mess, leaving the canvas to dry.

I had noticed the light changing through the room and as I finished cleaning, I noticed the light disappearing and sighed again, the desire still settled in my stomach. I decided on a cold shower, not only to clean the paint and sweat from me, but to also possibly cool the burning in me and I quickly left the Lilac room.

I walked past Dimitri's door and thought about possibly showering in there then shook my head. I was trying to get rid of the arousal I was suffering, and going in there would only make it worse. I looked over my shoulder at the door when I slammed into something warm and very hard.

Arms caught me before I hit the ground and I looked up into deep green, sparkling, eyes. I righted myself abruptly and slapped Ryder's large chest, "Good grief Ryder, do you have to be a damned marble wall?"

I rubbed my cheek grumpily and side stepped him and continued to walk down the hall. I heard him walking behind me and I turned and stopped curious. He was disheveled and his clothes were ripped with blood stains on them. I gapped and frowned and grabbed a hand full of his shirt and pulled him the rest of the way into my room.

I sat him on the trunk in front of my bed and told him to take his shirt off, as I grabbed a towel and wet it with cold water and returned with it. He had a few good cuts and a few bites but most were already scratches and I sighed as I sat down next to him and cleaned the worst of the wounds. He sighed at the coolness of the cloth and leaned back letting me work.

When he was finally clean I sat the towel next to him and crossed my arms glaring at him, "I was under the impression you were handling business at the University. How did you get into a fight?"

He grumbled, "Fights actually, and the stuff at the University didn't last very long so I had time to burn."

"And you chose to fight?"

He shrugged with half grin, "I needed to burn off some excess energy and stress."

I nodded, "You didn't seriously hurt anyone did you?"

He shook his head, "They needed a good fight too, it was a good thing."

I smiled and tapped him on the side of the head with my knuckle when I grabbed the towel and took it back to the bathroom sensing Ryder on my heels. I rinsed the towel out and turned to him, seeing him regarding me intently.

"You alright?"

I snorted at his question, "Yep, you?"

He winced and shrugged and I sighed completely at a lost what to do. I grabbed his hand, "Come with me for a walk, exercise always helps both of us think."

He nodded and wrapped his large hand around mine and let me pull him down the stairs and out of the kitchen, the cook yelling at him as he grabbed two apples from the cutting block. We walked out and he took over, leading me into the forest and through a few food trails until finally we stopped at a creek. I sat down next to him on the soft moss and stuck my feet into the stream, biting into one of the apples he gave me. He leaned back with his arms under his head and I laid back as well, both of us watching silently as the sky turned from the bright fire colors of day into the cool colors of night.

Ryder shifted onto his side and looked down at me, and I smiled up at him, "What?"

"Will you get mad if I ask you something?" He seemed unsure which was unusual for him, and endearing as well.

"I don't know, probably not." I said lightly.

He leaned over me more, his face in my view entirely, "Was Dimitri the first, to...you know?"

I blushed and sat up slowly, letting him move to sit beside me, "Yes, Ryder."

"Oh, so that time, when I...you really hadn't ever had someone do that to you then?"

I blushed and shook my head, I wanted to end the conversation because I was embarrassed but I was so desperate for Ryder to stop being mad at me and Dimitri so I held my tongue and waited.

He reached up and pinched the clip in my hair letting it fall back down, "I hate that you always wear it up."

I smirked at him, "What is with you guys, it keeps it out of my face, and out of messes, like my paint. I know Di hates it because it shows my slave brand, is that why you hate it up too?"

Ryder snorted, "Of course not, I don't give a shit what someone puts on you, you haven't ever been a slave to me and some stupid scar isn't going to make that any different."

I leaned sideways and felt his arm wrap around my shoulders and rested my head on his big shoulder. He was always like this, warm and blunt but could make anything seem like a happy event. I closed my eyes and breathed in his earthy smell and felt his warmth battle the cool breeze on my skin. I relaxed fully into his arm sitting there quietly with him, listening to the creek trickle.

I nuzzled closer to his heat as the air became cooler and I felt him shift so that ours sides were pressed flushed with each other, "Sorry, sometimes I forget that it gets cold for you when the sun goes down."

I shrugged, "Your warm enough that I don't feel it much."

He chuckled and ran his hand up and down my back, rubbing friction heat into it. I sighed and shivered when his hand snaked up the back of my shirt, rubbing my skin with his bare, warm hand. He began to work the tension out of me, until I was nearly melted against him. I felt a flare of my forgotten arousal as his hand brushed past the strap of my bra. I found myself leaning more into him as he kept rubbing the last of the kinks out of me.

His touch changed gradually, no longer rubbing the tension out of me as much as caressing me. His hand moved along my side and then to the front, rubbing my stomach and sides. I gasped as his hand move up and pushed my bra out of the way and grabbed onto one of my breast and began to massage it. His other hand reached behind me and through my shirt popped the clasp of my bra off.

I couldn't help but to give him a sharp look and he grinned down at me before he leaned forward and locked his lips onto mine. His kiss was aggressive and it seared away any complaints that may have caused me to stop. I kissed him back, letting his tongue plunge in and out of my mouth. He picked me up and set me firmly on his lap and in a quick movement lifted my shirt up over my head. I lifted my arms as he pulled it from me and set it to the side.

I wrapped my legs around him and shivered as he kissed down my neck and collarbone and grabbing one breast he locked his mouth onto the hardened peak. I gasped and held onto his shoulders as the heat from earlier blossomed back and had the electricity of Ryder's attentions added to it.

Ryder unlocked from my nipple and looked back up to me and locked his lips back onto mine. I tried to control the kiss but he was too aggressive, his lips, tongue, and teeth demanding and mine were barely able to keep up. His hands gripped my waist tightly and I wrapped my arms around his large shoulders. He leaned forward and pressed me into the soft moss.

He pulled back and unlocking my legs, he unbuttoned my pants and yanked them roughly off of me. I laughed and helped by kicking them and he growled when he spotted me in my favorite pair of red, silk, panties, which he pulled down roughly too. His hands ran up my legs and he kissed my inner thighs while his hands ran up and down my outer thighs. His tongue licked towards my center, the heat of his mouth and tongue causing me to moan and open my legs wider, my center already dripping with arousal.

His hands ran up my outer thighs and cupped my butt in his hands and lifted me to him. With little more than aggressive desire he buried his face into me, licking up and down frantically. He locked his mouth to my opening and stuck his tongue in lapping at my arousal. I gasped and moaned beneath him grinding my hips against his tongue. He licked upward finding my sensitive clit and began to twirl it in his mouth, reducing me to a moaning and writhing mess as he did so.

He pulled away when I felt myself begin to build and I heard him undo his pants and pull them down. I wasn't sure he even got them all the way down before I felt the hardened head of him at the entrance of me. I only managed a small glimpse of him before he pressed himself into me. He moved slowly and I gasped and winced slightly as he stretched my already sore entrance, once his head was in he looked at me and grabbed me tightly.

"I'm sorry Sera...I cant stop..."

And with that he thrust into me violently. I cried out in pain and clawed at him as he pulled out and thrust back in hard. I buried my face into his neck and tried to relax as he thrust hard in and out of me. I started feeling a deeper sensation as he kept thrusting and soon I found myself meeting his thrusts with my own. I clawed at him as he slammed into me and I felt the dark heat build and build but it wouldn't break.

Ryder reached to me and grabbed one of my nipples and pinched it hard before leaning forward and taking it into his mouth. He bit it painfully but the sensation sent me off the edge and I cried out and kept thrusting against him, the explosion shuttering through me. Ryder never stop thrusting into me and I kept meeting each thrust, the explosion dulling only to replaces with another shock of electricity and another wave of explosion.

Ryder locked his mouth onto mine as I rode one climax after another. I gasped and bit his lip as the last most violent and intense climax hit me just as I felt his passion crest and felt him expand and burst in side of me. The sound of him moaning my name was the last thing I remember as my passion sent me into a black pleasure, my body over taxed with such new sensations.

I woke up to the feeling of ice cold water cooling my extremely hot body down. I opened my eyes and saw Ryder rubbing water onto my body. He noticed me open my eyes and relief crested his face and he grabbed me to him, crushing my naked body to his naked chest, "I thought I had hurt you. I'm so sorry Sera, I couldn't stop."