Chastity

King Garbin held his arm out straight through the bars, his fist clenched. Then his fingers straightened, and Kinlee's eyes widened. Dangling from a long, golden chain that glinted in the flickering torchlight, was a delicately formed, intricate key.

It swayed, and her wide blue eyes followed the tantalizing movement as her mind calculated all the possibilities.

"Why?" she asked breathlessly.

"I don't see how you will beget heirs locked in the dungeon."

"Ooohh, you have a one purpose mind," Kinlee informed her father, her own hand reaching through the bars of her own cell, her finger tips wiggling as she stretched out to reach the chain.

Her father drew his arm back, considering the key. Kinlee bit back a groan of immense irritation. He knew he had her, she knew he had her, but it wasn't seemly for a princess to make it obvious.

"Once my line is secured, I will happily hand over the kingdom to your husband through legal channels. It's time I retired."

"Father, if you have failed to notice, you are in the dungeon. There is no handing over, happily or otherwise. You may recall you imprisoned Prince Draven and tried to force him to marry my sister, before he managed to escape and --"

"Ah, yes. After deflowering my youngest daughter and using her hair pins to escape."

"- and later returning to seize your kingdom in vengeance. But clearly your memory has no fault in other matters," Kinlee muttered churlishly. Would she ever live down the hair pin incident?

"Daughter, you may recall you too are also a guest of this here dungeon."

"Only because I won't wear the blasted chastity belt," she grumbled. "How can you be so cavalier with what Draven has done?"

"Because I have achieved what I wanted. He knows it, I know it. I wanted him as a husband for my daughter and the future ruler of my kingdom. That he has chosen to marry my youngest daughter over my oldest daughter is of little consequence."

"So you truly don't mind spending time in a dungeon?" Kinlee asked, wondering if Draven similarly viewed recent events so calculatingly. Did Draven in principle agree to assuming the Kingship, but only on his own terms and not those forced on him by her father? Kinlee had expected something a little more bloodthirsty.

"My stay in the dungeon is merely to appease Draven's pride. No doubt -"

The sound of footsteps reached them, and Kinlee gasped when she was hit in the chest by the heavy gold chain. Her fingers instinctively rose to close about the key before it could fall to the ground. Biting her lip, she glanced down at herself urgently. Her pockets and bodice offered little sanctuary. Draven would feel it about her person. Her boots seemed the best option.

Kinlee was just straightening when Draven strode into view.

"Garbin," he acknowledged, while Kinlee drank in the sight of his tall muscular body in navy breeches and white shirt. Her fingers curled around the bars, her heart racing. He truly was a magnificent beast. Why, though, did he have to be so tempting, aggravating, stubborn and her husband all at once?

"Draven," he father returned, equally pleasant.

Kinlee wanted to roll her eyes as they attended to the niceties of prisoner and prisonee.

"Wife," Draven murmured, his voice deepening, his green eyes locking on her face. The quiver in her belly erupted into an earth quake of unfulfilled need.

"Prince Draven," she murmured, relinquishing the bars and taking a step back. Her curtsey was graceful beneath his intense gaze. "Thank you for taking the time and opportunity to visit our humble abode."

Draven crossed his arms of his chest, his back to her father.

"Kinlee, any time you wish to give up this game and inform me of the whereabouts of your chastity belt, you shall immediately be removed from this ...humble abode."

"You ask me to exchange the freedom of my person for the freedom to..." Kinlee's voice petered out and she glanced over at her father. Her father had returned to his book, conspicuous in his apparent disinterest.

She crooked her finger at her husband, and he obediently moved closer, his hands gripping the cell bars high above her head. "Frolick," she whispered, blushing. His eyes dropped to her mouth, then rose to lock with her own.

Draven's lips quirked. "It astounds me that one so wicked in thought as you can still blush," he whispered back.

"Pray tell me you wouldn't blush if the occasion somehow arose of discussing frolicking in front of your dear mother, Queen Elsbeth."

"It would be remiss of me to lie and deny it," he murmured, his green eyes twinkling.

"And how is your mother?" Kinlee asked in a much louder voice.

"She is happy of the news of our nuptials, and plans to travel here with my father in the early spring."

"Be sure to have them visit my father and myself in the dungeon during their stay."

"Kinlee," Draven rolled his eyes. "You will not be in the dungeon when my parents arrive."

"You mean you give up on the notion of my wearing a chastity belt and agree to release me from my cell?" she asked hopefully.

"Stubborn, just like her mother was," came the unhelpful comment from across the passageway.

"No. I mean I have posted a reward of a hundred gold pieces to whomever finds your chastity belt."

"That is cheating," she gasped. "No doubt every man and his dog will scour the kingdom, and won't sleep until they find it. That could feed and clothe an army for a season."

"It will be only a matter of time, yes." His husky voice sent a shiver down her spine. His hand reached out, ostensibly to stroke a blonde lock. Only the stray lock curled over her breast, and his thumb teased her nipple through the bodice of her gown. Kinlee bit back a moan as her nipple tightened in approval. He tweaked it, before his hand fell away.

If he thought to seduce her out of her cell, he had another thing coming. Kinlee acknowledged she would be really cross at Draven right then if she didn't have a spare key to her chastity belt tucked in her boot.

"Fine." Kinlee drew herself up to her full height and crossed her arms, her blue eyes narrowing. The movement bolstered her small breasts, and his gaze dropped for several disconcerting moments. "I can see when the skirmish is lost, but not the battle. I threw the damn contraption onto the roof of the tower from the window of my sister's chamber."

"I'm impressed," Draven acknowledged with a bow of his head. "You're a worthy adversary, Kinlee."

"Flattery will afford you nothing, Sir."

"Then I shall look forward to a time when I am afforded everything, princess."

His eyes dropped to her breasts and lower, before lifting back to her face. There was little doubt of his meaning.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously when he winked and strode away.

"Where are you going? I've told you where the blasted contraption is!"

He merely lifted a hand and gave a brief wave as he disappeared from sight.

Her father chuckled in the drawn out silence. "Did you really think he would let you out before he had his hands on the chastity belt? Your husband is not a stupid man by half. It's one of the things I like about him."

Kinlee scuffed the stone floor with one of her boots, emitting a loud 'hrumph'.

Would Draven be overly mad when he found out she lied? It wouldn't do to make it too easy for her toad of a husband, key or no key.

~*~

When four guards arrived early that evening, Kinlee thought nothing of it. They unlocked her cell and escorted her out, flanking her. It was only as they moved through the bowels of the palace, rather than the parts she was familiar with, that she became uneasy.

"Has Draven devised some new punishment for me that involves me being covered in cobwebs?" she enquired, quickly brushing them off as soon as they landed on her hair and gown. She knew they were in the tunnels of the older section of the castle for she had explored them when she was seven and had quickly become lost. Her father's fury when she had been found had been an awesome sight. Vargas's smacks on her tender behind, however, had kept her from sitting for days.

The guards didn't respond. They had picked up speed, and she almost had to run in her slippers to match their long strides.

"Doesn't he yet know I can eat a horse and it doesn't settle on my thighs? I'm not in need of exercise."

Still no response.

"Perhaps he has found a new wife and wants to be rid of the old?" she mused.

The guard in front of her turned, his hand holding something. He caught her up, pressing something soft over mouth and nose. She didn't have much time to mentally complain at the overpowering smell before everything went black.

~*~

When Kinlee came too, it was to a throbbing headache that seemed to stretch all the way past her temples to her jaw.

She rose on one elbow on the rickety cot, glancing around her. She was in some kind of hovel, judging by the earth floor and rough timber walls with light peaking in. A step down from the dungeon, she noted.

Rubbing her aching head, she tried to remember how she came to be here. The movement of her arm rustled something, and she gazed down. Pinned to her grimy bodice was a small scroll.

Sitting up, she un-pinned the scroll and stretched it out flat over her lap. In childish script were the words "This is only a warning."

Kinlee's blue eyes widened. A warning of what? That there are clearly worse places than a dungeon if she didn't reveal the whereabouts of the damned chastity belt?

The more she thought about it, being stolen from the dungeon, drugged, and left with a note didn't strike her something Draven would do. He was more likely to tease her to the point she wanted to die from frustration and caved into his every demand. Like marriage.

She didn't even know why it was so important to Draven that she wear the chasity belt. It wasn't like he chose her to be his wife. She had tricked him into taking her virginity, only to find she had misjudged his honour and his sneakiness. The end result was she was married to the sexy tyrant. It didn't matter to Draven that she had lied about who she was, or that she had had no intentions of marriage when she had welcomed him into her bed. Unfortunately, Draven had some strange logic that because he deflowered her, her being a princess and him a prince, he had to marry her. Any attempt to convince him otherwise had fallen on deaf, stubborn ears.

No, it seemed she had been kidnapped. How bizarre and insulting if they weren't going to ransom her, and only did it as a 'warning'. She was a princess, and worth her weight in gold to her father.

"Hmmm," Kinlee mused aloud as she crumpled up the paper and tucked it in her bodice for later. Perhaps her abductors realized that her father didn't have access to gold in his current living quarters. And maybe they also realized abducting her wasn't such a bad thing for her husband, who might not be keen to pay to get her back, and were instead actually doing him a favour by ridding him of an unwanted wife?

She collapsed back down on the bed, the room swaying. Strange, she mused. She didn't much like the thought of Draven getting rid of her so easily.

Kinlee woke to the sound of the walls of the hut trembling. It was darker now, the sunlight no longer seeping through the cracks. Her mouth felt dry as dust, and her throat ached for water. Rising up, she pushed her hair back from her hot face.

It was several moments before she realized it was the pounding of hooves that caused the hovel to shake. Galvanized into action, she toppled from the bed onto her hands and knees -- more bruises for the collection, no doubt -- and crawled over to a small table and chair.

Kinlee was standing by the entrance, the chair raised over her head, when the rickety door was flung open with a force that made it swoon, causing her to jump back and almost topple over.

A tall, muscular man filled the entrance, the shadows cast over his features adding a scariness to the proceedings she frankly could have done without.

The chair was tugged from her hands, preventing her fall. She was caught up in strong arms and lifted off her feet, the chair thrown carelessly aside. She struggled against the intimidating strength of her captor, her heart racing.

"Princess," a wondrously familiar voice murmured against her ear. She went limp in his arms in a storm of emotions, the utmost being relief. Tears brimmed on her lashes as she pressed her face against his neck, her arms tightening about his shoulders. He carried her outside, for she had no intention of letting go of him just then.

The ride back to the castle with Draven's arms tight about her, three score of guards as silent escort, was both the longest and shortest ride of her life.

~*~

All she needed now was a key to the dungeon, Kinlee mused, as she rose from the cooling water. Other princesses might have wished for jewels and bolts of the most expensive cloth and every colour, but clearly their needs differed to Kinlee's.

Kinlee stepped over the edge of the tub and reached down to collect a softly scented towel from the stool nestled beside it. Blotting her face, she walked over to her vanity, uncaring that she trailed water across Draven's floor.

She had dismissed her maidservants on the pretext of wanting privacy. It was unheard of that a prince and princess shared a palace chamber. Draven taking the liberty of having her things moved to his chamber didn't quite top the hair pin incident, but it wasn't far from it. The less witnesses to her depraved circumstances, the better. No doubt there were salacious rumours (double standards being alive and well) of her bedroom behavior circulating. If only some of them were true.

Wrapping a thin sea-green wrap about her body, she sat down on the circular cushion and glanced at her familiar combs, perfumes and jewels scattered before her. Annoying tears welled up, and she blinked them away. Picking up a narrow glass vessel, she lifted the tiny lid and drew the glass stopper along the inside of her wrist, the valley of her breasts, her throat. The fresh scent of orange blossoms was heady after the grime of her former prisons.

Her eyes lifted as the chamber door quietly closed. Draven. He leaned against the closed chamber door, arms crossed, one ankle crossed over the other. The intensity of his gaze made her thighs clench.

Picking up an ivory comb, she caught a clump of golden strands and started from the bottom. She gave every appearance of concentrating on the task of teasing the tangles from her hair. If only she didn't have to pretend to ignore her husband.

"It's in the lake," she said casually, running the comb the length of her hair.

"Pardon?"

"The chastity belt. That's what you want to know, isn't it?" she asked innocently. Placing the comb down, she turned on the stool and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. "And I'm not telling you this because my father gave me a second key because I inherited his stubbornness and he thinks stubbornness won't beget heirs."

She finished a little breathlessly, noting Draven's eyebrows had almost reached his hairline.

"Pardon?" Draven asked,

"It's what princesses do, isn't it? Marry and have lots of bonny little princes and princesses."

"No."

"No?" she asked hopefully. "I've never been married before, so I don't know what to expect."

"Not if they don't want. Is that what you want?"

"I don't know. Nobody has ever asked me what it is I wanted."

A pause.

"I didn't force you to wear the chastity belt so I could assure myself that if we were blessed with bonny babies they would be mine, Kinlee."

"Oh," she mused, perhaps more confused than ever.

"Let's just be clear, to avoid any miscommunication. The only man giving you babies is me, Kinlee. If you want babies, that is."

Kinlee tipped her head on the side. Something was up with her husband, but she wasn't too sure what. Thinking back over what he said, she asked "So why do I have to wear the chastity belt again?"

"Because your husband is a fool."

"If I listen to my old nanny, and the cook, all men are fools. It would help if you were a little more specific."

"When I returned with my men to seize the palace and couldn't find you after turning the place upside down, I thought I would go insane with the knowledge that I had lost such a treasure."

"You took this palace because of me, not because you wanted to stick it to my father?"

"After declining your father's offer of his daughter in marriage, I didn't expect him to willingly hand over a bewitching serving lass."

Kinlee gazed at him in the mirror, her lips parting. When he didn't go on, she tried to encourage him. "I hid from you because I thought you had found out who I was and planned on reuniting me with my father in the dungeon."

"Not because I had hurt you?"

"Perhaps a little bit," she blushed. "But the fault was mine. I was eager to rid myself of my maidenhead and didn't give much thought as to the how."

"Or to the whom."

Something in his voice, perhaps it was a hint of hesitation or unasked question, gave her pause. She twisted around on the stool.

"You think I just wanted to lose my virginity, and didn't care about the whom?"

"Yes," he said baldly.

Kinlee squirmed a little on the chair.

"There may be a little truth in that. In the beginning." She quickly rushed on, "In my defense, by my father forcing me to wear a chastity belt, it made me all the more curious and determined."

"But I was -- am - very pleased with the whom. I had watched you for days with the maidservants, fervently wishing it was me you enjoyed with such abandon."

"They meant little to me beyond a moment's bliss."

"I know, but it puzzles me why it is only with them that you seem so - so eager?"

"Is that what you believe?"

Kinlee nodded earnestly.

"Kinlee, you are an innocent, and deserve a tender and gentle lover to introduce you to the ways of pleasure. Not a fool who hurt you in his rush to have you. Or a husband who can barely control himself around his tempting wife."

Seeing Kinlee's doubt, Draven continued. "You are exquisite, princess. I find my every thought is of you, of what it feels like to have you in my arms, of loving you until you plead for mercy. In turn, knowing that you merely wanted me for the pleasure I could give you in bed has been slowly driving me insane."

"Oh," Kinlee mused on a long, drawn out breath. "So because you thought all I wanted was" she fluttered her hand, "and didn't care who it was with, you wanted me to wear the chasity belt so I would only do it with you." She paused, a frown gathering. "My old nurse was right. Men are fools," she said to herself. He had made her wear the uncomfortable contraption because he thought her a trollop?

Rising from the chair, the thin silk clinging to her slightly damp breasts with their hard little nipples, she faced her husband. Hands on hips, she glared at him down the length of her princess nose. "Get. Out."

Draven stared at her for a moment, weighing up her words. "I nearly lost you today because of my stupidity. First things first, princess."

He strode to her, his arms about her waist lifting her off the ground. His mouth found hers, forceful and demanding, cutting off her squeal of protest.

She found herself tumbled on the bed linens, his body quickly covering hers. His mouth forced hers to yield, his tongue seeking entry. Kinlee whimpered with delight, wrapping her arms around his neck and wiggling her wet body against him in pleasure.

"God, Kinlee, what you do to me," he breathed against her mouth as he tugged at the belt of her wrap. He pulled the edges apart, revealing her creamy loveliness to his hot gaze. "I want to ravage you. The thought of someone else having you drives me insane."