The Kings Choice Read online

  A tick began on the red robed man's hard jaw. "Then how did you escape the others?"

  For a gorgeous man, you're rather narrow-minded.

  "Not all women sit around all day waiting for the king to call them before him in hopes they'll be his queen. Some of us actually need to protect ourselves and those that we love." Thinking of her sister brought unshed tears to the surface. Dijana blinked them away, hoping no one noticed them. Looking up, she found Andrija staring at her with warm eyes.

  "Perhaps you should speak with the king on these matters. Sabian is on the border and word does not always travel back to us on matters such as this." He cast a wary glance at the red robed man.

  "Oh, I want to have a word with him but I do not wish to do so wearing this. This is not who I am. I am no man's painted whore. I've spent my life preventing others from turning me into this very thing. Why the king, sworn to protect, would purposely do this to me is a question I wish answered personally."

  "Speak with him. It matters not what you wear. He will want to hear all that you have to say. And he will want to thank the men who have aided you. While it makes sense that you would present yourself as powerful, it is not necessary within these walls. You are safe here. You..."

  "You dare think me untruthful in regards to protecting myself and that of my sisterhood?"

  "It is most honorable that you should want to present yourself in a manner...."

  Dijana let a slow, deadly smile move over her face as she took a tiny step toward Andrija. "This is your last warning. Beyond this, I cannot be held responsible for what comes of you."

  Andrija laughed, the sound mocking, a challenge. One she would not only rise to but win. He shook his head and glanced toward the red robed man who nodded slightly, appearing amused.

  Outraged, Dijana lifted her hand and pointed it toward Andrija. She let her magic flow through her veins and directed it toward him. "Vect?resupin?."

  Instantly, Andrija lifted off the ground and was thrust backwards. Falling, he hit the floor with a thump. She watched as he struggled to get up. "If you were one of the invading army's men, I would use this opportunity to crush your airway or take your heart from your chest. Be very happy that you're not one. Also, I do not sense that you would take a woman against her will. That cannot be said for all in the room presently." Dijana let her magic drop and Andrija got to his feet quickly.

  He gave her a rather stunned look and glanced behind her toward the red robed man. "We were told that the Sabian Antistitas perished years ago."

  Dijana stood tall and nodded. "For the most part that's true. All priestesses that were old enough to practice were slaughtered. Those of us who were too young to be part of it yet where kept hidden away."

  The red robed man drew in a sharp breath. "Tell me who the Sacerdos is."

  Turning toward him, Dijana bit her lower lip, not willing to reveal herself to him just yet. "Why? So you can offer our high priestess over to a king that cares nothing for her or her people? We work, healing the sick of the land and fighting the evil that walks among us. We have had to teach ourselves how to do it all. There's been no one to follow, no one to instruct us. No warriors to stand by our side and keep harm from coming to us. We do this in secrecy, afraid that if the outsiders' armies don't kill us, the king and his men will. You are most welcome to turn me over to him. I will not reveal the rest of my sisterhood, nor will I give him the Sacerdos' name. And dependant upon my mood, I may or may not allow him to live. I will eagerly sacrifice myself for the greater good."

  The man looked over to Andrija and arched a dark eyebrow. "This changes everything."

  "Yes, it does."

  Dijana let her gaze run down the length of the red robed man while his attention was on Andrija. She wanted to touch him, run her hands over his chiseled body to see if it was as well-crafted as it appeared to be. He had the body of a warrior and that was what she had always dreamed of bedding, not some whiny king who sat on a throne all day deciding the fates of others.

  Glancing up, she found the man staring at her with a smug look upon his face. "Do you like what you see?"

  She stood straight, refusing to let him get the better of her in her moment of weakness. "As a matter of fact, I do. If I wasn't in such a hurry to get away from this palace, I would entertain the idea of letting you bed me."

  "Letting me bed you?" He looked at Andrija again. "You brought a priestess here who is not even a virgin?"

  "I--I...." Andrija stammered.

  "I never said that I wasn't a virgin. I simply said that I'd think about letting you bed me. There is a big difference. No man has slid his serpent into my body before. I'm a virgin by choice. No man has piqued my interest enough to allow him entrance to me. Standing next to the two of you is testing my limits. Andrija may be a pain in the backside but he's not bad on the eyes. It's all I can do to stop thinking about the both of you driving your hard serpents into me at the same time. Maybe it's the outfit or lack thereof. Perhaps if you dressed me I wouldn't feel the need to think such thoughts."

  The red robed man grabbed hold of her arms and shook her hard. Shockwaves of tingling sensations moved throughout her, caressing her, slinking over the apex of her thighs. "Let me never hear you speak of wanting any man but I to enter you!"

  She tried to break his hold on her, but he was too strong. The feral look in his eyes left her wanting to both leap on him and run. "You have no claim on me. I belong to no man."

  "That is where you are wrong." Bending down, he put his face dangerously close to hers. The need to press her lips to his was great. She held back. "I claim you, Dijana of Sabian."

  "No, you are destined to the claim only the high...."

  The red robed man put his hand up, silencing Andrija instantly.

  Her mouth dropped open. "You don't have the power to claim me, only the king can do that."

  "And who, exactly, do you think I am?"

  She gulped. "No, you can't be ... you're not ... no."

  A wolfish grin spread over his face. "I can and I am, King Jakov, and as king I can and did claim you as my mate."

  Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. This couldn't be happening. She wasn't supposed to be selected to be the queen. She had no desire to be married, and thought better of Marocioton beast's dung than she did of the king. Considering the two-headed beasts were known to excrete remains bigger than a horse that wasn't saying much.

  "No, I refuse your claim. Take one of the others. They're all dying to let you bed them until they carry your child. Take one of them. They'll listen to your every order and bend at your every whim. I am not like that. I am a handful; ask my mother. She was so desperate to rid herself of me that she told the guards where I was hiding. She actually went to them and pulled them to me, squawking the entire time about destiny, fate. Oh, I believe I was chosen all right. Chosen to slit your throat."

  He raked his hot gaze over her. "You wish death upon me and I wish me upon you. I believe part of you wished to come to me. Somewhere in there you wanted to know what I looked like, if I am what they claim I am and if I can truly give you the world by merely sinking deep within your silken depths. That is why you came to me. Is it not?"

  Heat flared through her and slick cream originated from her core. "Pfft. Trust me, they had to drag me here. I should have used my power and destroyed them as I have done to so many others. I foolishly thought I could merely blend in and leave, not once risking my people's secret. I never dreamed you would select me over one of the endless women willing to give up all they have ever hoped and dreamed of for the honor of being had by you. Please. No, you do not want me and I certainly do not want you."

  "I take what I want, Dijana, and I am taking you."

  Instantly, Dijana brought her magic up, ready to strike out against him. "Remove your hands from me before they melt away before your very eyes. You should feel special. The last man who refused to release me found his flesh pulling back from his body as I glared at him. I have not live
d as long as I have untouched by man to allow the one that I despise the most to have me. No part of your pampered backside wishes to spend its life with me. No. I am nothing more than a challenge--a woman who dares to defy you when no man would think to. That is all I am to you. If it is a challenge you seek, it is a challenge you shall receive. I would face execution rather than allow you to touch me another second."

  It was a horrible lie. The feel of his strong hands on her made her want to lie down and allow him to touch her, take her, claim her fully, but he was the king. The heartless barbarian she'd spent her life despising.

  Arching a dark brow, he pulled her closer to him. His warm breath skated over her as he leaned down to meet her eye to eye. "If you feel the need to harm me, to punish me for all that you believe I have done to wrong you and your people then I will not stop you."

  Do it! Rid Braluse of him.

  As Dijana's mind encouraged her to cause him pain, her body refused to listen. She glared at him, wishing seven types of death upon him. None came to be. The longer she stood there, staring at him, soaking him in, feeling the slight buzz of his essence moving around her, the harder it became to envision any sort of death for him. Suddenly, the very thought of hurting him made her stomach turn. Looking away, she did her best not to look pathetic. "I want nothing to do with you."

  Brushing his hand lightly over her cheek, the king left her eyes fluttering and her breathing ragged. Jakov kissed her cheek lightly. The moment his warm lips touched her sensitive skin, shivers of delight tore through her body. The need to turn into the kiss, make her lips the target was great. Somehow, she held true and didn't give in.

  "Am I to believe that you do not wish me to fuck you?" Jakov asked softly.

  Fuck? It was such a crude way to refer to the practice of copulating that she'd only ever heard the warriors saying it to the brothel whores. Images of Jakov's sweat-covered body riding hers flooded her mind. She knew what sex was; she and her sister had sneaked enough peeks through the cracks in the brothel windows to know what a man and woman did.

  Prior to arriving at the palace, the idea of a man sinking his serpent into her and doing what she'd seen done so many times before had turned her stomach. Now, as she stood before Jakov that faded away.

  Chapter Two

  Jakov watched as the golden-haired beauty before him bit her lower lip. Her tongue darted out and left a tempting line of wetness over her rose-colored lips. The urge to taste of her flesh was too great to resist. He swept his lips over hers gently, savoring the sweet perfection and moaning softly before clamping down and claiming them with force. The feel was glorious.

  She was so different from the other virgins brought before him, so outspoken, so strong willed, so incredibly beautiful that he could scarcely breathe when he'd seen Andrija dragging her in behind him. Her pierced pink nipples swayed as the chains around her waist jingled, creating a vision so erotic that none would ever compare to it. He knew that he had to have her. No small sample would do.

  The revelation that Sabian Antistitas lived should have stopped the burning hunger to claim her and make her his for all eternity. It didn't. It had been said long ago that he was to wed the Sacerdos, the high priestess of the Sabian Antistitas. News had spread throughout the lands. It was so many moons ago that he could scarcely remember, let alone keep track. At the time, the thought of bedding females period was intoxicating. The harem had been passed down to him and he'd had it stocked with new additions. It had been his first step into manhood.

  Seeking pleasure from so many willing mouths, cunts, and asses was so easy. At a mere click of his fingers he had them there, touching him, sucking him, fucking him. All of it had been so overwhelming that the very thought of having only one woman had been something he laughed off. Forgetting about the Sabian Antistitas, Jakov had left them with a group of guards overseeing them and had not looked back.

  Then, twenty years ago when news of an attack on Sabian brought with it tales that the entire race of Sabian Antistitas were annihilated, wiped out in but three short hours, Jakov had felt grief for the first time in his life. He'd wept for the life of a woman he did not know, had never met and was not even sure existed. He'd led the battle against the army that had invaded them.

  One by one, Jakov had cut through the enemy, each swipe of his sword dedicated to the one chosen to be his wife. The one he'd laughed at the idea of settling down with. The one who he fully believed dead. But now, as his mouth drank of Dijana's honey filled lips he felt that fire again. He'd thought it dead.

  Jakov had been positive that he would never find a wife since the day the news of the attack reached him. After the battle when the enemy had been defeated and Jakov's hands bloodied, he thought the feelings he'd been experiencing would simply vanish. For the most part, they did. He'd buried them deep, not letting them out. But the minute Dijana lifted her hand in the air and sent Andrija into the air with nothing more than a flick of her wrist, hope had surged through him.

  At that moment, her golden hair had laid in waves over her back, dusting the top of her luscious, perfect ass and had called to him on a primitive level. The ceremony drums had beat madly in his head. Jakov truly believed Dijana to be the one he'd lost so long ago. When he asked of the Sacerdos, he'd assumed she'd shout out that she was the high priestess, confirming why it was he wanted to see her lavished in his riches, cared for, under him with lust-filled eyes and swollen with his child.

  When she didn't profess to being the Sacerdos, Jakov's insides had clenched tight. By law he was to try to find the Sacerdos, see if she lived and claim her. It mattered not if he cared for her, only that she was who she was. After seeing Dijana, Jakov cared not for the law, the old stories and prophecies. He cared only for her.

  Her tongue ran over her lush bottom lip as he wrapped his arms around her slender frame. When her soft breasts pressed against his chest, his cock sprang to life and demanded to be freed. In no position to argue, he reached down and moved his wrap to the side, allowing his shaft to bob freely.

  Dijana broke away from the kiss and glared down at his penis. Her jaw dropped and her face reddened. "Your serpent's monstrous. It will never fit within me. See," she said looking up at him. "This is why you should select someone else to be your queen. I neither like you, nor can physically accept you."

  Jakov grabbed hold of the chain around Dijana's waist and pushed the thin veil of material that covered her pussy out of the way. She'd been shaved clean, just as he liked his women to be. "My serpent? Hmm, I like the sound of that. I'm assuming since your dislike of me is great that my serpent is poisonous in your mind. Would you like to suck out the toxins? Free me of my evil? Use you body, that of healer, to filter it out?"

  "No," she whispered, her breathing irregular, her breasts heaving forward, testing his will.

  "I am sure that it will fit in you, wife."

  "I'm not your wife!" she cried out, attempting to back away from him.

  He held her tight and looked at Andrija for assistance. Andrija nodded and moved in to aid him in subduing Dijana. She would take his "serpent" as she liked to refer to it, he would see to that. She'd been attracted to him when she believed that he was not the king, and he knew that she'd desire him again--very soon. No woman had ever resisted him.

  Dijana fought against Andrija's hold on her, causing her breasts to bounce uncontrollably. Jakov seized hold of one and brought his mouth to it, taking her nipple and running his tongue over it. Sucking. Pulling. Nibbling on her soft flesh. It went hard under the touch of his tongue and he moaned at how truly delectable she was. At the rate he was going, he'd end up spending more time fucking his own wife than his harem.

  Ridiculous notion.

  A man needed to bury his cock in a variety of pussies or risk it falling off. At least that's what he liked to tell himself.

  "Guards!"

  The door to the chamber opened and several men entered. They never questioned what he was about to do to the woman before him or why
she was there. They simply formed a line and waited for instructions on what to do. Jakov waved his hand over Dijana's head, sealing her power with his own. Now, as her husband he could do so and successfully hold her power down for periods.

  "Take her and chain her in my sleeping chambers. I wish to fuck my new bride this fine day."

  They looked at one another, shocked. He nodded to them. "Yes, indeed. I have claimed a mate. The official announcement will come later, but according to our ways, she is my wife now, and I shall take what is rightfully mine--her."

  Without question, they grabbed the outraged Dijana and dragged her toward the door. She kicked and screamed as she went, visibly trying to draw on her power. Two guards were repelled away from her by an unseen force and he couldn't help but laugh. She was so spirited, so strong-willed and so not the one he was to have taken. How she had managed to pull forth any type of power, let alone enough to knock two men over, was a mystery he fully intended on solving.

  The sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach caught his attention. He'd been disgusted by the idea that he had to select a wife. Long ago he'd resigned himself to the fact that his true mate was dead, murdered along with all the other priestesses by the outsiders' armies. He'd given up hope of ever actually loving the one he'd be tied to for all eternity. Sure, Dijana was a priestess but she wasn't the Sacerdos, the high priestess. Why did he still desire her so?

  You do not just desire her. You are consumed by her.

  "I'll never submit to you ... you ... monster! You will not take my virginity! Do you hear me? It's a gift that you don't deserve! You stood there pretending to be a decent man but you're just what I suspected you were--an animal."

  As the door closed, Andrija turned to face him. "Brother, you cannot force yourself upon her. If she is unwilling then you should allow her to leave. So many others desire nothing more than to please you. She is not the Sacerdos. Let us find her. You will be able to take your true mate and end the charade that we have been forced to put you through."