“God’s teeth,” Alex muttered as the realization that his wife was alone in the den of vipers sunk in. He glanced at Lachlan. “I can release ye and say ye escaped, but if I do that, then I may nae learn the second laird who has betrayed the king and yer men will be imprisoned still.”
“I’ll come with ye.”
“They may torture ye,” Alex warned.
Lachlan offered a grim smile. “I dunnae believe there is aught they can do to me that has nae been done before. Besides that, Lena will need me.”
“Aye,” Alex said. “I will have to ride out to convince the lairds to pledge themselves to the king once more, as he ordered me to.”
Lachlan nodded. “One of yer men will free me, and I will get my sister to safety. If ye live, ye can come for her.”
“I will live,” he said, his body tensing as he spoke.
“Aye,” Lachlan agreed with a satisfied smile. “I hear the sheer determination in yer tone. I believe ye will live for Lena, aye?”
Alex nodded, his throat tight with emotion. “Let us ride.”
Lena awoke with her head pounding and the memories of what had happened washing over her like a tide. She sat up with a gasp, swallowing back a wave of nausea and rage. She gasped again at the sight of Thomas sitting in a chair beside her bed. Her anxiety was so acute that it felt as if something had slammed against her throat to cut off her air, but then she recalled her dagger.
“I’ve sat here for a long while just watching ye and waiting for ye to wake,” Thomas said. His voice held a rasp of excitement that chilled her.
“I’m glad ye’re here,” she replied, her voice husky from the deep sleep brought about by the potion the dirty rats had given her.
“Ye are?”
“Aye,” she said, considering every possible way to divert his attention so she could escape the room. And if she failed to escape, she’d stab him directly in the neck as her brother Lachlan had once told her to do if her aim was to kill a man. She’d rather die for Thomas’s murder than be the victim of a man’s unwanted attention ever again. “I heard what ye said to Lady Euphemia, and ye were correct. I dunnae wish for Alex’s attention, but yers…” She let the lie trail off, praying he’d read into it what she wished. She could not utter the rest for fear that she’d shudder involuntarily.
His gaze raked over her, lingering—to her sickening realization—on her breasts. “I kenned I was correct,” he said deeply.
She inhaled a steadying breath. “What is the art of dark pleasure? Tell me what secrets my husband has kept from me.” She hoped she sounded beseeching and intrigued.
A voracious look swept across his face and settled in his glittering gaze. He stood, went to the table where the bucket was, and came back holding a rope. “I’ll show ye,” he said, his voice throbbing with glee.
Her heart raced as she swallowed. He was between her and the door. She shifted off the bed with a forced giggle and scurried around him. “First,” she said, batting his hand away as he grasped for her, “let me remove my clothes for ye as ye tell me what ye will do. I want to hear it.”
His mouth twitched up in a cynical smile. “Yer husband is a fool nae to have shown ye sooner. Ye like to be controlled in the bedchamber, dunnae ye?”
Her stomach clenched at the horrible memories flashing in her mind, but she shrugged. “I dunnae ken.” As she started to speak, she backed ever so slowly toward the door. “My first husband was cruel, and he hurt me. I did nae like that,” she offered. “Do ye mean to hurt me?”
“Nay. But there is a fine line between pleasure and pain. I mean to take ye to the brink and show ye a new world. Alex tries to deny the desires that Gillis awoke in him, in both of us. More so in me, of course, much more, but Alex got a small taste of being helpless, of being made to do things he did nae wish.”
Lena cringed at the thought of what such a revelation might mean.
“The things Gillis did—” Thomas stopped speaking for a moment, and his face twisted into a grimace before it smoothed once more. “He did things that would make yer skin crawl and hate for yerself fester inside ye like a black wound. Just ask yer husband.”
She could do no more than stare in shock at him.
“Gillis changed me, and there is nae a way to change back to what I was or may have been had I nae ever apprenticed under him. Alex will tell ye,” Thomas said.
Lena felt hollow inside and then full of sadness. She did not know Alex, not really. He hid too much from her. She loved him, and she believed he loved her, but between them was a loch of secrets that would drown their love. She desperately wanted to understand her husband.
“How will ye take me to the edge?” she asked, praying Thomas might reveal something more to help her understand how Alex had been changed.
Thomas grinned, but it was not a pleasant sight. “As I said, lass, with great pleasure there must be pain and binds. Always binds. Now strip yerself of that gown and crawl onto the bed, face the wall, and get on yer knees. I’ll bind yer wrists to the bed and then show ye the pleasure to be found.”
Without hesitation, she grasped the door handle and opened it.
“What are ye doing?” Thomas asked, frowning.
