The Seduction Plan

The Master of the Realm was in the library, trying to look nonchalant. But I knew the difference between him reading a book and waiting for me to show up. I trudged in and dropped my satchel on the floor. The noise of it hitting the tile cut through the room.

He didn't look up from his book. "So?" he asked.

I shrugged. "They bought it."

A smile crawled over his face and his grey eyes came off the pages, glinting at me mischievously. I looked away before it got contagious.

"So, next month I'm supposed to let them know if you're 'besotted,' –their word, not mine – and then sometime after that they'll kidnap me."

"When?" he asked, closing his book.

"I don't know. Sometime after the next meeting."

"Well, that could be anytime. Even before you come home from the next meeting."

"Yeah, I guess it could," I replied. "Um, Eric?"

"What?"

"Uh, you don't have any of those healing apples lying around, do you?"

He stood suddenly. "Are you hurt?"

Oh geez, I had him all upset again.

"No, no," I replied, backing away. "Well, I'm just a little sore. I thought just a couple bites..."

He stopped. "You're always Little Miss Don't Get Me Addicted. It must be pretty bad if you're asking."

"Nevermind. Not asking," I said, and I left the room.

The truth was, I felt like shit after the ride home. I had barely moved in the last month and my muscles were pretty much dead. But, worse than that was that the plan was on.

And I still didn't know what I was going to do about it.

I should have told them. I should have just told them that he knew and let the chips fall. But he would have known. And then I would have had to tell him what I'd done. Everything would begin to unravel one lie at a time until he knew that I wasn't being coerced into working with the resistance. I had been planning to kill him all along.

Geez! I hurt everywhere!

I pushed open the door to my room.

Eric was sitting on my bed with an apple.

...And I think he changed clothes. His shirt was sleeveless, and propping himself up on the bed his right arm was taut with cut muscle. In his left hand, the apple. His shirt was just a little open over his chest. –Probably because the shirt was so tight he couldn't close it any further. His legs were straight out across the bed in front of him, linked at the ankles. Playful.

Right.

"I said nevermind. You're right. Those are addictive."

"You had enough of these feed the city last month. Two more bites won't kill you," he replied.

I walked over to the bed and put my hand out for the apple. He reached out too, but we weren't going to span the distance.

I crawled onto the bed toward him. He seemed to go still. When I neared the apple though, he pulled it away.

"Fine," I said, easing back off the bed.

He slumped and tossed it to me. "There."

I took the apple to the little slot in the wall that led to the trash heap. I tossed it in.

"Really, Dor!" He jumped off the bed. "You know better than to throw magic into the garbage heap. We could end up with giant rats or something." Wanting to get to the garbage slot, he put his hand on my shoulder to push me out of the way. –And it hurt.

"Oh. Kay." I hissed, rubbing the sore spot.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, bewildered. "I thought you were healed. You've been telling me for weeks that you're fine."

"And if you had let me out of the palace weeks ago, I would be. Instead, I can't go for a ride or carry some groceries without wearing out because I've been in an apple coma for weeks." He reached out to touch me again. "I'm fine!" I snapped. "Just sore."

"Come here," he said.

"I'm fine."

"Come here."

I walked over to him, and gently, he took me by the arms and turned me around. He pressed me up against the wall. "Uh... Eric?"

"Close your eyes," he said.

No. I wasn't going to do that. I opened my mouth to say so when –

Oh.

His hand pressed into my back and for a second, I thought it was going to hurt. But it didn't. Instead, the place where he pressed felt warm and liquid and the pain was going away.

Then he pressed somewhere else, lower, near my side. Same thing.

Both hands slid up my back, more firmly this time and I squished into the wall in front of me. –Still felt amazing.

His thumbs slid along the edges of my shoulder blades.

He seemed to be pulling me apart and putting me back together. His hands were emanating heat and power and they just seemed to absorb everything that I didn't want in me.

It was when I noticed that I was drooling into the wall that I realized that I may be a little too relaxed. "I'm fa-hing a-slee."

"What?" Eric asked.

I pulled my face off the wall. "I'm falling asleep."

He stopped, and I immediately regretted saying anything. Then he was turning me around again and putting my arms around his neck. I was too sleepy to argue, and then he swept up my legs. "You've gained some weight," he said.

"You're about to lose some teeth," I replied.

He took me to my bed, and I thought – okay, he's just putting me to bed. –Nice of him. I did say I was falling asleep.

Then he rolled me over onto my stomach.

"This isn't necessary," I began. But he was already straddling my waist and rubbing my back again. His weight pushed me into the bed and his hands seemed to melt my flesh into warm dough.

"I need to take your shirt off," he murmured.

"Ha! No you don't," I replied. "Believe me," I added, trying now to wriggle out from under him, "I'm not that sore."

But he just pinned me, lying down on me, his stomach on my back, and said, "No, really. I'll be able to fix you." His breath was hot on my neck, and a surge of desire pounded through my veins like a flash flood.

I had to swallow before replying, "It's okay, Eric. Please get off."

I felt the sudden pause in his already minor movements. Then, he said, "You sound funny."

I didn't answer.

"It's not like you to say "Please," like that, and your voice has gone all..." He began to laugh. "Thank God for you, Dor!" he said suddenly. But before I even had time to wonder what that meant, I felt and heard the distinct rip of my shirt as he tore it down the middle of my back.

"Eric!" I yelped, clutching what was left of my shirt tightly to my body. Nothing was exposed, but this was getting ridiculous.

His hands moved more liberally now, and quickly. But still, they seemed to magically emanate relief, and I accidentally moaned in pleasure at his touch.

I slapped my hand over my mouth in horror.

"Oops. Were you saving that for when we're in public?"

"Oh, shut up!"

"That's my girl. Kidding aside though, we do have to talk about the plan."

"Ugh. Why?" I replied in disgust.

"Our timeframe is quickly dwindling and we haven't exactly gotten down to details."

"What details... oh!" I couldn't believe he wanted to have a conversation right now. It was hard enough not just giving into my instinct to purr like a kitten. "I told them the plan was on. Next time I'll tell them you love me. Then they'll kidnap me. Voila."

Without warning he rolled me over.

He was straddling my waist with nothing but my ripped up leftovers of a shirt to cover my lady-parts. He stared into my face. "We should make it look real," he said with an intensity in his eyes that made my mouth go dry.

"Nah..." I replied, hoarsely.

"Why not?" he asked, insidiously lowering his upper body toward mine.

"We, we, we don't have to."

"You're in danger, Dor," he said. No freaking kidding! "If something happens to me, they can't know that you weren't doing your job."

Well. Uh. I couldn't think. His face was so close, and I could smell every inch of him. My voice went high. "Nothing is going to happen to you."

"You don't know that," he replied. He looked like he was going to kiss me, but something other than the drooling, conscious part of my brain lifted my hand and grabbed his chin.

"Yes I do," I said, with certainty I didn't know I had. "Nothing is going to happen to you."

He sat up a little then. The line of his mouth turned – not quite a frown, but almost. My brain scrambled for more talk; it was time to get out of this position, but I wasn't sure what to say. "After all," I finally added, "You're the Master of the Realm. You'll be fine. Now get off of me."

"You don't understand, Dor. Anything could happen on Gravlor's Peak, I mean, I don't know what's going to happen."

"You have some sort of reverse booby trap, don't you?"

"Yeah, but... I still might not make it. And you have to. You'll be the one that takes over, when I'm gone."

Huh?

"Wait, what?"

"I'm leaving it all to you." He smiled. "What, did you think I had a polite little nephew somewhere to give my things to?" He suddenly leaned down and kissed me on the lips, quickly.

And I remembered –

"You've done that before..." I said. He'd kissed me before. When I thought I was dying.

"I'd like to do it again," he replied.

This time he lowered himself slowly down again, sliding his groin over my belly and his legs along mine to get into position just inches above my face. "Why?" I asked, breathlessly.

But his lips were on mine then, parting them, snaking his tongue inside my mouth. His hands were in my hair. I didn't know what to do with my hands; I moved to rest them on his back, and I could feel that his body was so hard underneath his shirt.

Then his hand moved down toward my chest and ripped the remnants of my shirt away. "Hey!" I protested. "Whoa. No!" He kept kissing me. "Eric!" I tried to say with my mouth full of his tongue. He moved to my cheek. Then he began kissing down my neck.

I covered my breasts with my hands. "Stop it, Eric! You're freaking me out. There's no reason to do this," I said, as he tried forcing my fingers away with his tongue. "They'll believe whatever I tell them! We don't have to do this for real." He grabbed my wrists and pulled my arms up above my head.

I looked away in shame, still jabbering, "Why, Eric? It's just an act! It's just supposed to be an act!"

"Look at me!" he said, his voice low but loud. –So loud he startled me into flinching away rather than looking at him. For a moment, neither of us moved. Then my synapses started firing again and I slowly let my eyes creep back toward his face.

"I've let you live here for fourteen years. I've spent some of the most... trying years of my life, living alongside you, working with you, laughing with you, and most of all respecting you."

"Because I'm a badass," I squeaked, trying to ignore that my breasts were still fully visible.

"Because you're a badass," he assented. "But now we have a problem. -Multiple problems. One is that I don't know that should the time come, we'll be able to make a good show of having been intimate with one another. –Which is kind of weird, considering the situation. It's a small detail, but it may be important. Another is that you've tried to kill me, and you haven't yet apologized. Part of me is beginning to wonder if you do care about me at all."

"How needy are you!" I interrupted.

He yanked on my wrists with force. "And another problem is this: You're not the only badass. I'm the Master of the Freaking Realm, Dor." He tilted his head, and suddenly looked off into space like he was trying to figure out a math problem. "I've been so busy hanging out with you and respecting you, I haven't had a woman in over a lifetime. I might die on Gravlor's Peak." He looked back down at me. "I have no intention of letting any, not one, body of mine die a virgin. As the Master of the Realm I should be able to have any girl I want."

"Then have somebody else!"

He looked like I slapped him.

I didn't mean to.

Wait – yes I did! He was acting like he was about to force himself on me. My boobs were out! I wanted him off me!

"Oh," he said. He suddenly crawled off me and got off the bed. He didn't look at me. But over his shoulder he mumbled, "My spell must be off. I thought... well, nevermind then."

As I watched him exit my room, I realized that I had never felt so guilty for anything in my life. –And I had no idea why.

I avoided him for the rest of the night and next day – making a point to be absent from the spell room and the library and anywhere else I knew he'd be frequenting.

Of course, this was the problem of living in a gigantic palace in the middle of nowhere with just one other human being. When you get in a fight, there's no one else to talk to about it. I found myself just sitting in my room, or the bathroom, or the big bay window off the south hall, thinking about what he said.

And what he did.

I tried not to think about it, but I literally had nothing else to think about. Eric was beautiful. I mean, I had to face it sometime or another I guess – and it was true. The guy was hotness. His eyes alone were enough to make a girl's knees pop apart and I while I have no idea when he suddenly became ripped, his body was chiseled like a statue.

Also, I did... care about him. -Even though I had to kill him. He was my only friend. –Even though I had to kill him. And we did grow up together. Oddly enough, I trusted him.

Though the moment I thought of this, I recalled the way he held me down on my bed and growled about having any girl he wanted. Ass.

I supposed he thought I'd be flattered that I'd be the girl he picked. But really – it was probably laziness. He just didn't want to go all the way to town to get laid.

Of course, he did spend a lot of time in town.

And the locals were constantly trying to push their virgin daughters on him like free fudge day at the bakery.

...Boy, I love free fudge day! "Try this, Dor! Try that, Dor!" I always come home stuffed with fudge! So good!

...Of course, I didn't know that Eric had ever indulged in those girls. No, I guess he didn't, if he was whining about being a virgin.

Well, geez! Big freaking deal! So he's a virgin!

It's not that difficult; I had been one longer than he had.

Okay! It's a little difficult, I will admit, I guess.

Sometimes when I was down in the villages, killing time, I would see a woman link arms with her man, or kiss her husband, and I'd think – nice. And then my head would get wrapped up in it, imagining me in her place, running errands with him, walking home with him, setting the table amid kisses, and pulling him into bed later that night. Letting him fill me, and knowing he would protect me and that I never had to worry, because he'd always have my back.

It would be lovely to be normal and in love.

I missed having a family. I missed, deeply, being part of something.

What if I just let him?

Gosh, no.

I couldn't.

I just couldn't.

If I let him do that to me, well, how could I kill him then?

Worse, what if he found out?

He had been hurt enough by my betrayal, before he mistakenly decided I had been blackmailed into it. Gosh, if the truth ever came out...

If the truth came out now, he would kill me. And it would be fine, and fair – in its own way. I would have done my best to avenge my family, and he would know that his servant betrayed him. –Because that's all I would be. –A servant, maybe a friend. But that's why they call it "betrayal," right?

But if we were joined, I don't know. It would be different.

Suddenly I couldn't stop thinking about him; holding me down again, forcing me for real this time, taking what's his! My brain kept filling up with wrong thoughts and images.

I'd try to shove them aside, but that was the problem –

This was what was on the table.

And he had made good points. –Only one good point, actually, which was that we weren't used to touching each other. Playacting the role of lover would be difficult if it came down to it.

The other points were a little silly. He wanted an apology and he wanted to have sex. –Not really my problem. But I understood them. I felt all warm and sensitive just thinking about owing him something, when I did have only one thing to offer.

Dor, Dor, Dor! Get this crap out of your head!

I had worked in his spell room for enough years that I didn't owe him a damn thing. –Well, if you ignored the roof over my head and the food in my belly, and all the times he'd healed me when I was injured or sick.

And now he was my first kiss.

Okay.

I took a deep breath and exhaled all the sex thoughts.

Then I inhaled, hoping to have rational thinking find its way inside me.

I couldn't keep avoiding him.

The plan was underway.

We did have to try to be more intimate with one another, but NOT that intimate. –On the off chance he did discover my betrayal.

I would have to talk to him about this.

Next time I saw him, I would have to talk to him about this.

I should know what to say.

With that, I realized I needed to go for a ride. Yeah, riding hadn't really worked out too well a few days ago, but it didn't matter. I had to get out of the palace and work out what I was going to say.

I headed down to the stables immediately.

But even though I was fairly running by the time I reached them, I found myself skidding to a stop on the threshold between the palace and the stables. There was someone in there, and it wasn't the Master of the Realm.

The stables were dark.

The horses were uneasy.

Whoever was there had gone still the same moment I had, but I could almost feel this person holding his breath.

Part of me wanted to turn back and scream for Eric.

But I was a badass, remember?

And what if I was wrong? What if I screamed his name for no reason at all? He would think I was trying to get his attention. He would think I was toying with him.

If I was right, I could capture this intruder and show Eric how capable I was. Surely, if he saw that, he wouldn't be so worried about the seduction plan going awry.

Right. So I was delusional. I was having a very bad week, give me a break.

I stepped further into the stables, trying to think. There was a worktable just ahead of me with some horseshoes and a bucketful of dandelions. Why we had a bucketful of dandelions, I have no idea. Sweet! Punching someone with a horseshoe would have to leave a mark.

I quietly made my way over to the table, trying to keep my eyes peeled for any sudden movements. I took a horseshoe in each hand. I debated whispering the words that would further empower my punches; it would certainly help me fight, but I didn't want to let the intruder know what I was up to.

I crept along the stables, trying to find the intruder.

Greystone was getting ansy in her stall, neighing and stomping and whinnying. I half-wanted to shush her.

And then I just saw something out of the corner of my left eye – he was behind me. I swung a horseshoe, saying the words – but he grabbed my wrist and practically picked me up off the ground, shaking it out of my hand. I moved to hit him with the other, making contact with his jaw, and he dropped me to rub his face with his hand.

"By the stars, Dor! You're dangerous!"

"Saymar?" I asked, recognizing his voice. I was still on the ground, the horseshoes lost in the darkness.

"Yeah. It's me."

I looked around frantically; what if Eric found him here? "What are you doing here? How did you even get here?"

"Some of us have known for a while that one person can find the Master's palace, if he goes alone," he said.

"Yeah. I thought everybody was too chickenshit," I replied.

"Even me?" Saymar smiled in the darkness, before helping me to my feet.

"Well, do you come here often?" I asked.

"That sounds like a line, Dor."

I shrugged. "Sorry. Have to get my practice in before I seduce the Master of the Realm."

"Don't," he said quietly.

"What?"

"Don't do it, Dor. You don't have to."

"It's our big chance, Saymar. We can finally be rid of him," I replied, softly.