His eyes dropped and I saw this throat as he swallowed what was apparently a very bitter pill. When he looked up again, he nodded and said, “Fine.”
“Do you have a library here?” I asked once we’d come to an agreement.
“What? Fancy doing a spot of reading between betraying your sister and fucking that brute you brought along?” he asked. He tried for a sarcastic smile but just looked bitter instead.
“No, I need some books to help you understand what human women want.”
“Isn’t that your job?”
“Yes, but even the best teachers need textbooks sometimes. If I can find something similar to the stories we have at home, I can get a better understanding of what passes for love here and hopefully, find some common ground that will make sense to you.”
“Hmph, sounds ridiculous, but if a library is what you want, you’ll find an outlet to the Celestial Record on the upper floor. I’ll have Mellors take you.”
I briefly remembered Gump mentioning it back in Bartertown. “What the fuck is the Celestial Record?”
He smirked at that, “Your world is too backward to subscribe to it, I see. Well, never mind, I’m sure you’ll muddle through. All homes of import have an outlet; it’s an access point to a library that contains all of the significant texts of all planets in all galaxies.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Quite. You speak to the librarian assigned to the house and they will find what you are looking for.”
“You have that, in a house with no electricity, in a world where people don’t know what guns or a combustion engine is.”
“A what?”
“Exactly.”
“Well, I’ll have Mellors take you there now. The sooner you start—”
“No.”
His eyebrows shot up, “Are you serious? We can continue what we started. . . .”
“No, I’m holding on, but only just. I’m going back to my room, having a shower, burning these clothes and then having a cry. A long one. You assaulted me. The only thing that saved me, that continues to save me, is your gargantuan self-interest. My only way out of this is to get my sister, my favourite person in the whole world, to fall in love with you, a disgusting animal who gets hard thinking about forcing women against their will. After I’ve dried my eyes and the hysterics have stopped, I’ll go to the top floor with my men. Mellors is a repugnant panderer who has no compunction in delivering me into any danger you see fit. I don’t want him within fifteen feet of me.”
His smile was sly as he watched me fight for control as I delivered my monologue, “That will make dinner quite a difficult premise.”
“Send my meals to my room. Spending more quality time with Tess may help you, anyway.”
“Very well, but I expect you to report to mine after the evening meal. You will help me to plan the next day, to find something to tantalise your sister.”
“Fine, but the guys come with me.”
Returning to my room played out much the same way as I described. I didn’t, couldn’t answer the guys' questions, sinking onto the bed, the tears, unfortunately, coming first, continuing on in the bath and resulting in me hysterically ugly crying as I got dressed. The sun was very low in the sky by the time I was reduced to stupid post-cry hiccups. “He tried to rape me. I talked him out of it,” I said, my voice a harsh croak.
“Fuck, Ash, we’ve gotta get out of here! We can grab Tess—” Flea said.
“No, we can’t. Gabe tried to stop them and he’s locked up now. I’m getting an agreement that guarantees us a way out of here, but not for Tess. I have to help the prince try to get her to fall in love with him.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Flea asked, his face falling, shifting to a perfectly flat expression. “You sold your sister out? For what, Ash? Huh?”
“He was on top of me, holding my hands down, shoving his cock in the gap between my jeans and my thighs, just about ready to jam it in me, Flea, so fuck you.”
“That’s why you–” Natty gestured to the fire where my jeans smouldered.
“Yes, I’ll never wear them again. Not sure what I have that’s rape-proof, but I need to start looking.”
“If he succeeds, if he gets her to . . . he won’t keep her, he’ll switch into animal form and–”