Rejected Royalty (Rime & Pyre Book 1) Page 6

  “This place is fancy,” Onan said, looking around as the three of them walked through the clubhouse. Ethan grinned.

  “Yeah, it is. It’s nice,” he replied.

  “You don’t seem to be as enamored with it as most of the other people that we’ve walked past since we arrived,” Seth said, always the observant one.

  “I’m not. But it is nice, and I do have free reign here, so beer and golf are completely doable,” Ethan said with a grin. Seth smiled and laughed softly.

  “Nobility does have its benefits,” he said.

  “That it does,” Ethan replied.

  It was the perfect day for being outside. Small clouds here and there, but for the most part, clear blue skies. The temperature was warm enough that they didn’t need a jacket, but not so hot that they would sweat at the slightest provocation.

  “Sen would love this,” Seth said softly.

  “She likes golf?” Ethan asked, as they waited for the staff to finish loading the cart. Seth chuckled and shook his head.

  “She’s terrible at golf, so she hates it because she always loses. She’d love being out here in this weather drinking beer and relaxing, is what I meant,” he explained. Ethan smiled.

  “She doesn’t strike me as one who takes losing well,” he said.

  “She’s not,” Onan chimed in. “At all,” he added.

  “She’s wonderful at driving the ball, but not so good at putting,” Seth said.

  “That kind of fits her, though, don’t you think?” Onan asked.

  “I’m pretty sure Sen would hit you for saying that, if she were here,” Ethan said. Onan smirked.

  “Yeah, but she’s not. That’s why I said it,” he said with a chuckle.

  The golf course looked to be practically empty as the three men drove away from the clubhouse. Onan mentioned it, and Ethan stated that they always changed around tee times and such for him when he came, because he didn’t want to run into people. That had made Seth laugh.

  “That’s terrible!” he commented, as Onan popped open a few beers from the back seat, and handed one up to Ethan, and another up to Seth.

  “Hey, look, I can’t stand some of the nobility here. I swear, some of these women would bring their daughters to me naked on the green, if they thought that I’d have sex with them right then and there. It’s insulting the way some of them are willing to whore out their children simply because of my bloodline,” he said.

  “Wait, I want someone naked on the green, that sounds kind of kinky,” Onan said. Seth rolled his eyes, but laughed at his little brother.

  That set the tone for the first few holes. They talked, they drank, Ethan discovered that Seth was a pretty good player, and that Onan was a bit of a lightweight when it came to alcohol, but he was also aware of it, and drank slowly to accommodate it. It wasn’t until the fourth hole that things got interesting.

  “There you all are. The clubhouse sent me out here to find you and make sure that you have everything that you need,” a voice said, bringing everyone’s attention around to the gold cart that had parked just behind there’s.

  “Were we hard to find?” Ethan asked the stunning redhead in the tight tee shirt and the short shorts that was walking up to them.

  “A bit. I thought you’d be farther along, so I ended up working my way backwards,” she said with a chuckle. She slipped up beside Ethan, and put her arm around his waist. Seth’s eyebrow went up in mild surprise, and he glanced at Ethan.

  “Gentlemen, this is Amber. She is employed for one of the… perks, here at the club. One of the perks that they don’t talk about too much,” he said, introducing her. Amber grinned.

  “I’m for sale, gentlemen. By the hour. Our lovely prince here is one of my regulars, which is probably why I got chosen to come out here looking for you. Not that I mind, it’s a beautiful day. I’d rather be out here anyway,” she said. Seth and Onan shared a look, neither of them sure what to divulge, and what not to. It was Ethan that finally smirked and let them know.

  “She knows about Sen,” he said. The two brothers seemed to release a collective breath that they’d been holding.

  “Don’t worry, I am paid very well to keep my trap shut. Prince Ethan comes to me because he trusts me,” she said with a wink.

  “She is the only woman here in the kingdom that I haven’t cut things off with. The others, I don’t trust to be discreet,” he said.

  “Smart.” Seth nodded.

  “How?” Onan asked.

  “Because, sweetheart, Prince Ethan has to keep up appearances. Someone three countries away saying that she slept with him is laughable, but someone here saying it… that’s a scandal. Honestly, I’d like to meet your sister. I think she ought to be acquainted with the woman who’s boinking the man that she’s about to marry,” Amber said with a shrug. “It seems polite, given the odd circumstances.” Seth laughed softly.

  “I think she’d like you. You’re someone who knows the game when you see it, and catches on quickly. People like that have a tendency to take to Sen quickly. You’re probably the only person she’d tolerate sleeping with Ethan while she’s close by,” Seth said. Ethan grinned.

  “You know, we don’t have to play golf all day,” he said, inclining his head towards Amber.

  “Wait, really?” Onan asked, his eyes a bit excited.

  “Amber, these two men are the Princes from Artifice. My soon-to-be brothers-in-law,” he said to her. Amber smiled.

  “You two are just as welcome as Prince Ethan is. All I need is the word. I’ll make a call back to the clubhouse and they’ll be waiting when we get there,” she said with a wink.

  “Who will?” Seth asked. He hadn’t shown any sort of reaction, though that didn’t seem out of character for him. Ethan wasn’t sure what he was thinking, honestly.

  “The girls. All of them. You can take your pick,” she said with a wink.

  “I rather like you, myself, Amber,” he said. Ethan smiled, there it was. That ‘man’ bit that Sen said that her brother had. He chuckled to himself.

  “Go ahead and make the call. We’ll finish this hole, and meet you back at the house,” he said.

  “Hot damn, big brother, I like you,” Onan said. Ethan laughed, Amber giggled, and the three men watched her as she trotted off towards her golf cart.

  *~~*

  THE AREA THAT ETHAN LED Seth and Onan to was lavish. There was no other way to describe the way that this portion of the clubhouse was outfitted. Add to that they fact that it was secluded behind a rather nondescript and locked door that no one would even know was there unless they were privy to what was behind it, and which required a special key to get through, and the illusion for something fantastic was all set.

  The room was decorated in warm, autumn tones meant to evoke feelings of comfort and welcome. There were a few plush couches and chairs about, but most of the seating seemed to consist of large pillows on the floor, covered with smaller pillows, and large blankets. There were a few girls lying about in various stages of undress, but it was Amber who simply walked up to the trio.

  “Gentlemen,” she began, obviously to Seth and Onan, “since this is your first time here, allow me to introduce you to the way things are. Most of the girls who are not currently occupied stay here, in this room. They won’t approach you, you will have to approach them. This allows you to take your time and choose someone, or someones, that you are attracted to. Once you have chosen, simply sit down beside them, and introduce yourself. Tabs are calculated on your way out, and rules are posted outside of each girl’s door,” she said.

  “Rules?” Ethan asked. Amber smiled and nodded.

  “There are some things that are house rules, and that none of us will do. Then there are things that certain girls aren’t willing to do, individually. They post lists of both, or you can simply ask, should you already have something in mind. For example, Hannah, the blonde at the bar, doesn’t like sharing, so she doesn’t do jobs that involve more than one girl. She is, however,
quite flexible, and has no issues with anal. Bambi, the blonde over by the window with the drink in her hand, is the opposite: No anal at all, but is completely secure in her bisexuality. Both have no problems letting you know up front, so don’t hesitate to ask,” he said.

  “What about the other girls here,” Onan asked, more to Ethan than Amber. “Won’t they tell that you’ve been here?” he asked. Ethan smiled and shook his head, but it was Amber who responded.

  “The girls here are paid well, and most of that pay is simply for knowing how to keep their mouths shut, not the naked aerobics bit. No one here will breathe a word that any of you were here today.” Seth took a quick look around the room, though he had been watching as Amber spoke.

  “In that case, please excuse me. I believe I see who I’d like to talk to,” Seth said, slipping between Ethan and Amber.

  “He’s a smooth one, isn’t he?” Amber said, an amused look on her face. Onan grinned.

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t really use it too often,” he said. The three of them watched as he moved to the bar, whispered something in a beautiful, dark-haired girl’s ear. She stood and took his hand, following him across the room to where Bambi still stood by the window. He whispered something to her that made her blush, but she took his free hand, and the three of them walked off down a hall together.

  “Smart man. Variety is the spice of life, and between those two, he’ll have it all,” Amber said.

  “I wonder what he said to Bambi to make her blush like that,” Ethan wondered out loud. Amber giggled.

  “It must have been one hell of a whisper, that girl has seen and done more than just about everyone else here. Not much makes her blush,” Amber said.

  “Your turn,” Ethan said to Onan, motioning to the room. Onan took a deep breath and looked around, his eyes on a redhead with a fantastic ass over in the corner.

  “That’s Kelly. She’s a lot of fun,” Amber said, following his gaze to where it rested. Onan smiled, squared his shoulders, and walked off towards where she waited, following him with her eyes. “And you, Prince Ethan? What will you do while your future in-laws amuse themselves?” she asked, leaning in against his hip. Ethan slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her tightly against him.

  “Oh, I’m sure we can think of something,” he said with a wink.

  *~~*

  QUEEN EVE AND THE TWO ladies that she didn’t hate were bearable. Well, the Queen was; Sen could have done without the other two. They were annoying as hell, and did not seem to know how to shut up from time to time. By lunch, Sen’s patience was wearing thin.

  “I wanted to bring you here specifically, Sen, dear. This is one of Ethan’s favorite restaurants here in Irencia,” she said. It was a steak house that seemed to cater to those who preferred smaller cuts of meats, and healthier options such as salads, or mashed cauliflower.

  “Is it?” she asked, looking around.

  “Mm hm. Believe it or not, he actually is quite picky about what he eats,” she said.

  “Hm,” Sen said. She was getting an awful lot of information about someone that she was marrying for show. But sometimes, show required learning one’s lines, so she tucked that away for later.

  The four ladies sat down at a small table together, making small talk and being polite. It took a second for Sen to notice that things weren’t right. The others hadn’t noticed at all, and she didn’t want to alarm them. Instead, she slipped her napkin from her lap, and placed it back on the table.

  “Dear?” Queen Eve said softly, inclining her head towards the napkin. Of course, it wasn’t polite, and they were in public. Or, she thought they were.

  “Look around,” Sen said softly. The Queen looked behind her, about to dismiss Sen as being silly, until she saw it: The entire restaurant was empty. That wasn’t normal.

  “Ladies, it’s wonderful to see you,” a booming voice said as the mountain of a man that it belonged to walked towards the table from an area that looked like it led to the kitchen. He clearly wasn’t a chef, nor a waiter, and he held the knife like he was about to stab someone with it, not slice some meat.

  “No one say a word,” Sen hissed to the women, who she was pretty sure were useless in a crisis, such as the one that she was pretty sure that they were about to be involved in.

  “That’s not the owner,” Queen Eve whispered. Sen nodded once without taking her eyes off the man and his approach. That was the acknowledgement that she’d heard her, and all that she had time for before sending her attention back to the man before them, and the other four men that had slipped in at their backs.

  “What’s going on?” Annalise asked. Sen wanted to smack her, and was on her way to telling her to stop being a babbling fucking idiot, but the Queen beat her to it.

  “Shut up, Anna,” she hissed. Thankfully, Bethany seemed too terrified to try anything. Sen was willing to take that as a plus.

  “I’ve come to you with a message,” the man in charge said.

  “From whom?” Sen asked. It was an attempt to keep attention on her more than the other ladies, and for the moment, it worked. The man’s beady eyes turned to her and he sneered.

  “Don’t you worry about that, pretty lady. Just know that I’ve been paid to deliver this message, and deliver it, I shall,” he said. Sen felt the shift in energy behind her, but wasn’t able to get in front of it quick enough to stop the man from ripping a small blade across the Queen’s shoulder. Before he could do any more damage, Sen slammed her high heeled shoe into the man’s knee, kicking it completely out of socket, and sending him to the floor, howling in pain.

  The Queen, horrified, froze as her ladies began screaming and whimpering. Sen briefly thought to herself that those two actions weren’t helping anything, but neither of them knew to do anything else, most likely. Standing there thinking about how useless they were being wasn’t really helping anything either. However, helping with the wound would. It was pretty deep, and it was going to bleed all over the place if she didn’t get some pressure on it.

  Sen turned back to the table, snatching up the napkin that she’d had in her lap just a few moments prior, and held it out to the Queen. Eve barely blinked.

  “Queen Eve!” Sen snapped, her voice a bit harsher than she’d really meant for it to be, but it had worked. She had enough of her attention. “Hold this to the wound,” Sen said, giving the napkin a shake for good measure, since the Queen seemed to be slipping into a sort of shock. Her hand trembled, but she took the napkin, and held it to her bleeding shoulder, willing her mind to pay attention to what was going on, and not slip into whatever fog seemed to be swirling around in her head.

  “Alright, you little bitch, don’t do anything else stupid. We aren’t here for you,” the big man barked, glancing back to where his fallen man sat in the floor, holding his ruined knee.

  “Ladies, please forgive what you are about to see,” she said softly. The Queen nodded in acknowledgement out of habit. She had no idea what Sen was talking about, nor why she seemed to be asking permission for something, but whatever it was, she gave it. Sen seemed to be doing better in the mental faculties department than she was, that was for sure.

  Sen saw the nod, and stood, giving her back to the now three other men behind the table, and facing the obvious ringleader. Most times, you only had to intimidate the one in charge into backing down. The others were followers, and as such would normally follow suit.

  “What did I just say?” he yelled so loudly that the Queen covered her ears against it.

  Sen smiled, and let the heat that lived inside of her flow out through the pores of her hands. She let it dance slowly up her arms, decimating the sleeves of her blouse, but stopped it from creeping its way across the fabric covering her torso. Naked in public wouldn’t really have the effect that she was going for. That was the moment that the big man hesitated.

  Sen’s hair ignited, a trick that she’d learned wouldn’t destroy her hair, but would scare the hell out of people that weren’t expecting it,
and gave her a terrifying sort of halo. She laughed as the big man stumbled backwards, almost taking a table out with him.

  “Well come on, big boy,” Sen said, her eyes dancing with the fire that lived inside of her. “Let’s dance,” she whispered. Then, all hell broke loose.

  9

  “SHE WAS AMAZING, GEOFFREY. THOSE horrible men didn’t know what hit them.” Queen Eve’s voice could be heard from halfway across the castle, as she excitedly described to her husband why he was sitting beside her while she got stitches and a bandage across her arm.

  Annalise and Bethany had been sent home from the restaurant. Sen had taken their phones and called their respective households, claiming to be one of the Queen’s ladies, and stating that the Queen wasn’t feeling well. Neither of them had been in a state to tell anyone otherwise, and she’d mentioned briefly to each driver to watch them both for signs of severe shock. She’d had to borrow a jacket from the coat room to cover the sleeves of her clothes to go outside, but she’d felt it was the right thing to do.

  Once that had been handled, she’d called for the Queen’s car, which had been parked a few blocks away, gathered her into the back, climbed in, and told the driver to floor it. The Queen seemed to be coming around, thankfully, so Sen’s panic about shock had significantly lessened by the time that they reached the castle. Instead, she’d turned her attention to the wound on Eve’s shoulder, barking out orders with so much authority that no one questioned her when she said she needed a doctor, the King, and to be left alone in the front living room with the Queen until both of them had arrived.

  The King had come in calmly, until he noted Sen taking a good look at the wound on his wife. The doctor hadn’t arrived yet, and Sen wanted to make sure that nothing was inside of it, since she was pretty sure that stitches were needed. It had taken a full five minutes of trying to calm the King before Sen finally threatened him into listening. That had been when the Queen began telling him what happened, and Sen, noting how concerned he was and how out of place she felt there in that moment, had slipped out. The doctor slipped in behind her, after she’d softly told him what she could about why he was there, since she wasn’t sure that anyone else in that room would have the presence of mind to.