He quirked an eyebrow at her, but refrained from commenting on her reaction to his touch. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
She tilted her head, staring questioningly at him. “Why would I?”
Frustration hardened his face, his jaw clenched. “You are to tell me whenever someone mistreats you.”
“Don’t like it when the property gets bruised?” she retorted angrily.
She did not know why she was baiting him, didn’t know why she was being so rude when he had been nothing but nice to her tonight, but she couldn’t stop herself. There was something about him, and this whole situation, that caused a volatile and swift reaction from her. Apparently he hadn’t known what Lauren was doing to her, and he had not condoned the girl’s violent actions. He had been rude to her when his brother had been here, but she could not expect him to be nice to her in public, could she? Aria shook her head; she was too tired and too wounded to try and wander through the conundrum that was him.
“No, I don’t,” he replied coldly.
She bit her bottom lip as she studied him from beneath her lashes. Her question had truly aggravated him. “I didn’t mean…” her voice trailed off, she didn’t know what she wanted to say to him.
“Didn’t you?” Aria shook her head, but there were no more words within her. Mainly because she was certain that she owed him an apology, and she hated to be wrong, and hated to say she was sorry. Especially to someone that was her enemy, wasn’t he? “Come on, you need to rest.”
She lay stiffly upon the bed, her hands digging into the blanket as he laid it gently over top of her. He did not lie down beside her but stood up, pulled off his coat, and disappeared into the bathroom that she had used upon first arriving. She listened to the water as he washed himself before returning.
“You will have to eat tomorrow.”
Though it was a command, his voice was nowhere near as gruff as it had been before. She didn’t take offense to the command; in fact she sensed a hint of worry in his tone and demeanor. It warmed her further. Maybe she was far more wounded, and beaten than she had realized she thought dimly. Especially if she was already feeling as if she could trust him again, when she had so firmly decided that it was the last thing she ever wanted to do. “I will.”
She closed her eyes, settling in beneath the thick comforter. She had never been in someone else’s bed before, let alone a man’s, but for some reason this did not feel wrong. The mattress sank beneath his weight, but Aria did not open her eyes again, despite the pain she was already falling asleep.
Chapter 7
“Lauren?” The small blond rose swiftly to her feet, a bright smile lighting her pretty features.
“Yes your highness?” she asked softly.
He leaned against the doorway, studying the girl as he fought against the anger surging through him. Other than the few times she had arrived to tend to Arianna, he had seen her only briefly before. He may have fed off of her in the past, he did not recall doing so, but her reaction to Arianna’s presence here led him to believe that he had and that she had thought far more of it than he had realized. “I’d like to know why you think you have the right to lay your hands on my blood slave, for anything other than to help her in the way that I told you to?”
She looked puzzled, confused as she frowned at him, but Braith had not missed the flash of fear that darted swiftly through her eyes. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Don’t play with me,” he growled, swiftly losing patience with the girl. “I will not hesitate to rip your throat out.” Her eyes widened in true fear, her mouth parted slightly. “Now tell me, why did you feel you had the right to hurt her?”
Her mouth opened and closed for a moment, she did not know how to respond to his question. “Your highness, I uh… I uh…”
“Have we encountered each other before you were summoned here?”
The color drained from her already pale face, he could see the tears that bloomed in her eyes just as her lower lip began to tremble. Her reaction gave him the answer to his question. He did not feel bad about the fact that the encounter obviously had meant more to her than it had to him. What he did feel bad about was the fact that Arianna had suffered abuse because of his forgetfulness, and extreme lack of caring about the girl before him.
Her head fell back, her eyes widened as he moved to stand before her. Fear radiated from her, but beneath it all he could sense her hurt. “And you felt that gave you the right to treat my property poorly?” he grated.
A single tear slid down her face, her lip began to tremble even more. He was indifferent to her obvious distress, her race meant little to him, and she meant even less. “I am sorry.”
“Yes, you are. You are not to return here.” He grabbed hold of her chin, drawing her attention sharply back to him as her gaze darted to the doorway behind him. He knew that Arianna had entered the room; her presence caused it to brighten considerably. “Don’t look at her,” he growled. Lauren’s eyes widened, for the first time terror began to radiate from her as she began to shake within his grasp. “You are to leave here and never return, if you step foot in this palace again your life is forfeit.”
The girl gasped, the color drained from her face. Being barred from the palace was a social punishment that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Not only that, but she had just lost the wages and prestige that this job had awarded her. “Do you understand me?” She managed a small nod, batting back the tears that swarmed her eyes. He released her, disgusted by the feel of her skin beneath his hand. “Get out.”
The girl scurried away, shooting only a brief glance at Arianna before she fled the room. He turned toward Arianna, surprised by the fierce frown marring her features, and the dark anger simmering in her eyes. “You didn’t have to be so mean to her.”
His eyebrows shot up as he stared at her over top of his glasses. “Are you defending the girl?” he inquired, trying to keep the disbelief from his voice.
Arianna tilted her head slightly. The light streaming through the windows highlighted the deep red of it. She was still wearing the nightgown, but in the daylight he could see through some areas of it. Something new began to curdle through him, rising up out of the hopeless pit that had been his soul for so long. He did not know what was going on with this strange girl, why she affected him like she did, but for the first time he admitted to himself that whatever she did to him was deep, profound, and something that he had never experienced before.