CHAPTER 2: OF PATIENCE AND OF NOTHING
She was taken to his chamber immediately by some other guards. She didn't dare turn around to see if he was behind her as she was marched there. When they arrived at his door, one of the guards unlocked it, took Leo by the arm, and thrust her in. Then he closed the door and locked her in.
She hadn't been told she may sit, so she didn't. Instead she walked around the room, absorbing it with her senses. She'd never worked for anyone with anywhere near the amount of wealth the king had, so she was utterly fascinated by what she saw: the hanging pictures of regal-looking people, the astonishingly intricate embroidery on the bedcovers, the thickness of the wood all the furniture was made of, how everything gleamed and shone like it had all been polished only moments ago.
It may have been an hour or two before the door opened again and the king came in.
"Get on your knees," he said before he'd even looked at her. He immediately began to brutalise her mouth again, but this time she slipped into that heady state of blissful calm as soon as she dropped to her knees - and though the king didn't know it because he was too busy with his own pleasure to realise, Leo orgasmed from this profoundly erotic feeling even before he did.
When he was finished, he sat down on the edge of his bed and beckoned her to him. At his direction she too perched awkwardly on the bed, feeling altogether unworthy of such a bed.
"You have an important role to play for your kingdom, Leo," he began. "You are to be the King's Pleasure."
She nodded mutely.
"You will service me sexually as I please. I will use you as I please. You will always be available to me. That means accompanying me everywhere I go. Even if I must go to war."
Her head had been bowed until this point, but when he said the word "war" she accidentally looked up at him. Catching herself immediately, she cast her gaze sideways and said:
"Yes, Sire."
"You sound excited. Do not think that an exciting prospect. War is not exciting. It is dirty, cruel, and often very dull."
"Yes, Sire," she said, but she was undeterred - the thought of accompanying her king to war was without doubt the most exciting thing she'd ever heard of.
"In a week's time, there will be a ceremony. Well, it is called a ceremony, but it is more like a test. You must pass this test."
She wanted nothing more than to ask what would happen if she did not, but she knew wasn't allowed to ask questions, so she merely nodded again.
However, he correctly interpreted the curious-nervous expression on her face, and said:
"Say what you would, Leo." She opened her mouth and then closed it again. "That was an order from your king."
"Sire, I wanted to ask a question but I know it is forbidden."
"I will allow it."
She sat up straighter. Honour upon honour!
"What would happen to me if I did not pass?"
"You would be drawn and quartered."
She tried not to gasp. This was the worst of all executions, a punishment handed out to the worst offenders - traitors, murderers, mutineers - designed to be as terrible a death as possible.
The king broke out into a grin. "A joke, Leo! You would simply be sold on again."
She exhaled in relief. She loved that he joked with her - but some joke. She contented herself with simply saying: "I do not wish that, Sire."
He looked happy with her answer. "Good. Then you must pass the test. I cannot tell you what you must do, but I can prepare you for it. But first, I wish to enjoy my new property. Stand up."
She stood and dropped her head so that she could only see the floor: her own bare feet, and his leather shoes hand-crafted by the most talented cobbler in the kingdom, and the plush, thick carpet between them.
He stepped forward and began to explore her body with his large hands, roving over her belly, her breasts, her rear; he felt the contours of her face, ran his fingers through her hair, pushed them into her mouth; cupped both hands around her throat and closed her airway for longer than was comfortable, then released; as she gasped for air, his hands roved further south again. With one hand curled around the back of her neck, he drew her body into his and held her there while the other explored her cunt. He penetrated her with one finger and then another, and then began thrusting them in and out of her, as if they were his cock. She'd never in her life experienced something like this before; men always used that opening, or another, for their cocks, not their fingers. But she didn't have the capacity to wonder on it for long as the pleasure that coursed through her body as he fucked her in this way was so intense that her body began to convulse and her legs began to buckle. Sensing this, he picked her up with one arm and threw her down on his bed, his fingers still inside her, and continued to fuck her in this way.
"You have my permission to orgasm," he said quietly.
Nothing had ever shocked her more in her life, and immediately she emitted a loud cry and orgasmed frenetically.
When it was over she realised she had closed her eyes tight. Unsure of whether this was disrespectful or not, she opened them again and tried to find an ear to look at again.
"Look me in the eye," he said, and she obeyed. Thus eye-locked they remained as he pushed his cock free from his clothing, got on top of her body, and rammed himself into her willing cunt.
"Do not look away," he said, and fucked her in short, urgent thrusts, penetrating her with his eyes even more than with his cock. He grunted slightly as he came in her and then did something that shocked her even more than everything else that had happened so far:
He kissed her.
Men had stuck their tongues in her mouth before, but she did not consider that a kiss - more like another form of sexual coercion done to her. But when the king kissed her, although it was strong and controlling, it was also gentle enough that she felt she was being invited into it. Instead of merely enduring it as she had in the past, she allowed her mouth to be pliant to him, to welcome him.
At length he pulled back and she said off-handedly: "I knew you had a nice mouth." After she'd said it, she immediately shut her mouth in horror - the post-coital bliss she was experiencing for the first time in her life had made her forget to be demure and silent.
He roared with laughter and rolled onto his back. She froze, on her back on the bed next to him, waiting to see what he would do next. After a few moments of this display of hilarity, his loud, bellowing laugh filling the room, he breathed slowly and said:
"I knew you would be a good choice. But of course, you must be punished for that."
He sat up, put a hand underneath her, and flipped her over.
"I think I remember what you said you *didn't* like," he said. "Get up onto your hands and knees."
She obeyed, and waited. He knelt behind her. She knew what was coming and clenched her fists in anticipation. The tip of his cock was now positioned in readiness against her narrower passage. Her previous owner had only ever used her this way a few times before, tending to prefer the easier access of her cunt, but she'd experienced it enough to know that it gave her no pleasure at all and sometimes hurt. Sometimes a lot. She clenched her fists even harder, her nails cutting into the flesh of her palms.
But the pain never came. He moved away from her, and seemed to hesitate. "Your punishment can wait," he said. "It will be much more enjoyable when you are not expecting it." She wondered at his change of mind, but, of course, did not question him.
"Tomorrow I begin training you for the celebration," he continued. "Put your dress on and tell the guard I said that you should be bathed and fed and then have him bring you back here."
She did as bade and was led in silence by a guard to a bathroom where a tin bath full of tepid water was waiting for her. She had never bathed in anything but cold water before, and it felt ludicrously luxurious. She was given a dress very similar to the one she had worn before, short and clingy and absolutely marked out her status, but this one was clearly brand new.
After this luxury she was taken to the kitchens where she was given a small portion of the most delicious food she had ever tasted - fresh, soft bread with some kind of stew full of all kinds of vegetables and flavours - food more suited to someone far above her station. She ate happily and allowed herself to be led back to the king's chamber.
He was not there when she returned, so she found herself mirroring her earlier behaviour of waiting around, on her feet again as she hadn't been told to sit, until he returned.
"Ah, you're back. Excellent," he said. "On your knees."
She obeyed, and for the third time that day she went into that place of sublime thoughtlessness as he took his pleasure roughly from his her mouth and throat.
Afterwards he disappeared into an adjoining room and then reappeared in regal-looking bedclothes. A serving-man entered and took out the bedsheets, ready for sleeping, and then left.
She watched all of this wide-eyed and in silence.
"Get in," he said, standing next to the bed.
She looked all around the room, sure he must be talking to someone else or that there was something other than his bed he wanted her to get in.
"The bed. Get in the bed, Leo."
She opened her mouth to speak before remembering that she wasn't allowed to ask him questions. She closed it again and walked tentatively over to the bed.
"That's right," he said, as softly as if he were speaking to a child, but with an air of mocking. "You do know how to get into a bed, Leo."
For some reason this made her furious with embarrassment. She blushed violently red, shook her head sharply and looked at her feet.
"You - you've never slept in a bed," he said.
She shook her head sharply again and felt tears spring to her eyes. Of all the moments in this day to feel humiliated!
