‘How did he start this strung-out madness?’ Zolan rasped.
‘You want the full story?’
Shiloh exchanged glances with Zolan and Saba. ‘Of course.’
‘Brace yourselves for it,’ Mak warned. ‘This all began before the flotilla left Earth on Melilla. After my parents died and I was declaredŠar, the Sauvage elders began searching for an appropriate consort to provide me with an heir. They wanted to get it right this time. One of the luminaries was familiar with the Lisade girls. He said they were beautiful, accomplished, and pious. He recommended one to me. After messaging Tewa for permission, I agreed to meet her in a private garden. When I spotted her, I was taken by her beauty. I fell for her hard, a young man’s crush. I was just 25, and I thought she was meant to be mine.’
Mak paused and took a sip from his whiskey glass. ‘We met for walks, forkahawa, always chaperoned by Sylvana. Suri was always sweet and smiling, but unknown to me, she was resisting our union. She’d decided to enter a convent, but Tewa used emotional extortion to get her to comply. He made her agree to marry me after seven years. From then on, our courtship was unhappy. Suri was cold and disdainful. It turns out, Tewa had dragged her from the cloister to meet with me. I clung on, naive. She grew to hate me. She refused to stand when I entered the room. Once, I visited her while she was reading, and when I demanded to know why she was ignoring me, she said, ‘I am speaking with a power far greater than you.’’
Mak’s raw timbre cracked, and Saba’s heart ached with sympathy.
‘Šarrum,’ Saba murmured, touching his arm.
Mak shook his head and continued in a throaty rasp. ‘Suri’s coldness hurt me, since I didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes. When Tewa realized it was going nowhere, he locked Suri in the cloister ark ship when we left for Pegasi and promised me Shiloh. The rest is history.’
Saba sighed, soft with understanding. ‘Shima Kemisa onThe Basilicahinted that Suri’s early-onset dementia might explain why she retreated and treated you that way. Her behavior could have been the first sign of her deterioration.’
Mak stared at her, his eyes reflecting the weight of her words. ‘Makes sense.’
His gaze shifted to the view outside, and Saba detected the sheen of tears in his eyes. He glanced back at her. ‘It cuts,šarratum. So many years wasted. But the gift from all this is that it led me to you. Given what you’ve shared about Suri, all is forgiven.’
Shiloh, holding her cup still, cursed. ‘Is manual labor and whippings included in Tewa’s retirement package?’
Mak huffed, tossing his head back, exposing his neck. ‘Trust, he’s already showing signs of trauma. From tantrums to face tics and full-blown hair pulling, to flashbacks and nightmares. His brain cannot deal with the reality of losing his wealth and influence, and being reduced to life alone in a concrete cube.’
Saba nodded with an inhale. ‘That man was toxic to live with and greedy. He gaslit us, sold us, and locked Suri away. He never told us when she became frail of mind. He deserves every moment of the hell he’s in now.’
Later that night, Saba and Mak found comfort in each other’s arms.
She lay in their bed, her legs up, eyes gleaming as Mak stripped off his tee.
His injured shoulder bothered him less, so his doctor removed the sling and left the plaster in place. It stopped short of his palm, leaving his fingers free.
Damn, his muscled chest, rippling abs, and an array of inked patterns spilling from his sculpted spine and over his broad shoulders werefokkin’ alluring.
Then there were his sinewed forelimbs. One was still encased in a cast, which did nothing to detract from his corded muscles.
Saba loved his waist, particularly how the whirls of hair below his belly button accentuated his ridged sinews and pelvis.
He lowered his pants and shorts, as their eyes locked.
Her eyes glazed over at the sight of his thick cock bobbing in front of him, columned by his bulging thighs.
A wave of wet hit, and her hand went instinctively between her widened legs, stroking her clit as he stared, eyes hot, glittering.
One thigh sank into the bed beside her.
Without hesitation, Saba reached for the prize presented to her, shifted her hips, stroked, and slid her lips around his mushroomed cockhead.
His hand glided into her tresses and cupped her nape.
‘Woman.’
His growl ignited her, and she sucked harder, then lifted off to slide her mouth lower over the throbbing vein on the underside of his shaft.
Loving the scent of his musk, the aroma of his arousal.
Fokk, the straining veins of his groin as he worked his cock into her hand and lips.
