I knocked on the door lightly. My fingers were crossed behind my back, hoping that the door would remain unanswered. But that was wishful thinking born of someone who liked to avoid her issues. I had avoided him successfully for the last few days, it would go against nature for my luck to continue.

The door swung open and there stood Ezra dripping water. I shifted from foot to foot. It was strange being face to face with him in a setting that wasn't his workshop. He usually wasn't here when I had to clean his room. I was pretty sure he wasn't in his room all that often in general.

He was shirtless and had a towel wrapped around his neck. His brown hair appeared darker from the water that dripped from the saturated tips. Water beaded on his skin before trailing down the lines and crevices of his body.

I swallowed as my eyes collided with his narrowed gaze. He had a hand resting on the doorknob and the other holding the doorframe that he was leaning on.

"Can I help you?" His words were clipped. It seemed the anger from a few days ago hadn't dimmed.

I opened and closed my mouth. For some odd reason, I was not expecting to be faced with hostility. It threw me off.

My own eyes narrowed in return. I was starting to feel rising anger of my own. My business was my own. He had no right to be angry that I didn't want to share my personal matters.

"You're an asshole," I blurted out, my eyes narrowed.

He looked dumbstruck, not able to process my words. "What?"

"An asshole. A big one."

His lips twitched.

"Am I, now?" His eyebrow raised.

I gritted my teeth. I could see the amusement showing in his eyes.

"Yes, you are."

He wasn't able to stop a laugh from bubbling out. All signs of his anger had seemed to vanish. He stepped back and moved his arm. "Come in."

Using the towel from around his neck, he dried his hair ruffly as he walked towards his washroom. The muscles in his upper back moved and flexed as he used his arms.

I entered and closed the door slightly, leaving it open. It gave the illusion of privacy and the false reassurance of an escape.

Ezra tossed the towel into a hamper inside the bathroom. Turning towards me, he leaned a muscled shoulder against the door frame. The anger from earlier had returned, not as intense, but it was clear.

"Come to apologize to the asshole?"

I blinked at him. "What?"

His steady eyes didn't waver from me. "You. Apologize."

I looked at him, flabbergasted. "I don't need to apologize for anything. If anyone needs to apologize, it's the man who exposed me by force and then left me alone!"

I was breathing heavily in outrage by the end of my words. My anger grew with each word I spoke, verbalising it made it even more obvious how outrageous it was that I was being asked to apologize.

He straightened in the door frame and stepped towards me. "You lied about your health."

"I didn't share personal information." And might have told a few white lies.

"You said he didn't hurt you." He continued to stalk towards me.

There were only a few. White lies.

"I was fine." I stepped forward, not backing down.

He stepped up to me, toe to toe, and looked down at me intimidatingly. He leaned down towards me with each word. "You. Lied."

My anger rose. The fact that he was right didn't help. I stretched my neck high and looked into his eyes. His green orbs were reflecting equal amounts of anger as mine. I opened my mouth to retaliate in a clash of words.

But Ezra wanted to use our tongues in a different way to fight.

My lips warmed mine with a sharp pain as his collided with mine. A clash of lips, tounges, and teeth. A fire fueled by anger. By frustration and hostility.

His hands clasped my waist bruisingly. One moment I was lifting my legs to wrap around his waist, the next my back collided onto the silken sheets on Ezra's soft bed.

His lips stayed locked on mine as he hovered above me, his knee firmly planted between my thighs. The fingers of one of my hands were buried in his wet hair while the ones on the other curled into the waistband of Ezra's pants and pulled him closer.

"No," he growled into my ear before grabbing both my hands and pinning them above my head as I ground against his thigh. He looked down at me. "I'm going to need an apology first, blossom."

I snorted in amusement. "Never going to happen, magical asshole"

I tried to push him away to get up, but his hands kept mine firmly pinned down. He transferred them both into one. The fingers of his free hand gently trailed down my cheek and neck and over my bruised skin. His eyes flashed up to mine, more heated at the physical reminder of where his anger originated from. His hand kept trailing lower, only pausing between my breasts before continuing slowly down to the top of my pants.

I squirmed under him as his fingers played beneath the hem of my shirt, dancing over my heated skin. They trailed up my skin and his thumb brushed over the underside of my breast. My body felt like it was on fire.

"I wouldn't say never, Nea." He sharply pinched my nipple before soothing it with his thumb. Once it was hard as diamond, he brought his hand back to the top of my pants.

I was so focused on his hand that I jumped when he nipped at my lower lip.

"I can be very persuasive," he said against my lips before his fingers delved into my underwear.

They trailed up my slit, exploring leisurely. "Now, blossom, apologize and I can make you feel wonderful."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I have no reason to apologize," I stood firm.

I went to get up but gasped as two of Ezra's fingers suddenly speared into me. He slowly pulled them out, spreading the embarrassing wetness that gave away how much I enjoyed his touch before thrusting them back in.

"Are you sure?" He asked, speaking into my ear.

My frustration and anger grew. He wasn't the only one who could get angry.

I bucked up against him. Biting my lip to smother the moan that built because the motion pushed his fingers deeper. I twisted my wrists in his hold.

"I- am," I grunted out as I fought against him, but he wouldn't let up. "You're the one who should be apologizing to me!"

"Why?"

I could feel tears embarrassingly fill my eyes. I looked away from his softening green eyes that were turning into the ones that I remembered, that ones that I lov- liked, the ones that reminded me of wet, vibrant, woods after a night of rain.

"I already told you. You forced me to reveal my chest."

He grimaced slightly. Looking down at me, his eyes roamed over me before he cocked his head. "There was something else too, wasn't there?" His lips twitched.

"No."

"Really? I could have sworn you mentioned something about me leaving you alone." He tried and failed to hide his smile.

"You must have heard wrong."

He glared at me. "Are you lie to me again, blossom?" I arched up as he reminded me of his fingers again. "Just admit it. Admit that you don't want me to leave you."

My heart pounded in my ears, drowning out my thoughts. All I could focus was on the feel of Ezra's fingers inside me and the weight of his body pressing down on me just right.

"Admit it, and I'll forget the rest. No need for an apology."

I almost growled. "I wouldn't apologize regardless."

He buried his head into my neck and peppered kisses along my bruised skin as his fingers leisurely thrust in and out of me. It was hard to focus.

"But-" my voice cracked. I cleared my throat and reinforced the courage I built to confess the words that were about to leave my lips. "But I will admit it. I don't like you leaving me."

His fingers paused. He lifted his head and looked down at me. His eyes roamed my face.

His lips spread in a bright smile.

His lips attacked mine.

His lips stayed in a constant battle with mine as he let go of my wrist so he could tug my pants down and toss them to the side. Laying with just wet underwear to cover my lower half, I shivered when Ezra settled himself between my thighs. His weight was heavy and calming. The thick hardness between his legs pressed into me. My skin burned.

A sharp knock made me jump and almost scream.

"Sorry to interrupt-"

"No you're fucking not," Ezra muttered as his body pressed down on me and he shoved his face into my neck.

"But I need to steak to Ms. Riar," Cassius continued to say nonchalantly.

Ezra raised himself up with one arm. Looking me in the eye's he lifted the fingers he had buried in me moments earlier and put them into his mouth. He happily lapped at them as my face drastically grew hotter.

* * *

I shifted uncomfortably in my moist underwear. My cheeks were still flaming, not from Cassius seeing Ezra on top of me- no, from him watching me scramble to grab my pants from the other side of the room.

It didn't help that I could still feel the ghost of Ezra's touch on my skin.

My eyes followed Cassius as he walked in front of his bookcase. His fingers trailed over the spines. When he found what he wanted, he pulled the book out, flipped through the pages at random before heading to his chair on the other side of the desk and taking a seat.

I didn't want to find myself seated in the soft chair that I was in again. it only came with negatives. For starters, the man seated across from me was terrifying in size and just as a general person. Secondly, I couldn't quite get over him walking in on me and Ezra, not once, but twice. The most recent time was so much more explicit.

He must think I'm a who-

He placed the book down heavily.

My eyes jumped from his thick fingers to his Stormy eyes.

"I hope you have been successfully learning the contents of the file I gave you?" He tapped the edge of a pen onto his desk.

I nodded. "Yes."

I had spent hours pouring over the file in the last two days while avoiding everyone. I had reviewed it before bed, right when I woke up, and during every moment I could find to spare. I carried the file, folded up and creased, tucked into the back of my pants so I could pull it out every time I had a moment.

Cassius leaned back. He spun the pen with his fingers. "How did we meet?"

I took a deep breath. Might as well prove to him that I had it all memoried sooner rather than later. "I was an orphaned child who grew up in Kurro. I sold tickets to games and sold jewelry at a stand in the village of Wokala where I met you while you were travelling back from delivering the annual taxes and harvest to the Queen. It was love at first sight, yadda yadda. We didn't want to not see where our love could go so I decided to travel back here with you where I met and fell in love with the others too and we all got married.

And lived happily ever after, I finished mockingly in my head.

He looked at me silently for a few seconds before asking a few more questions. Once he was satisfied that I knew what I needed to, he continued.

"You will be moving into the main suite on our floor tonight. The guests will begin to arrive tomorrow before lunch and the party will take place in three days."

I swallowed hard. At the reality of having to face and interact with others of higher status, I suddenly didn't feel so confident and ready. Memorizing was one thing, applying the knowledge was another.

"Lester will brief you each morning on your schedule for the day. He will also be hiring a few ladies in waiting to tend to you and will ensure that you know the proper etiquette for conversations and meals."

I calmly nodded like I wasn't internally panicking. That was a lot of responsibility I wasn't sure about.

After a few more minutes of being informed of what was expected of me, the conversation seemed to be over so I rose from my seat and prepared to be dismissed.

"Ms. Riar," I looked towards Cassius as he pulled out a few folders from his desk drawer. "Before you leave, there are a few things I need you to sign."

I tilted my head in confusion. Why would I need to sign anything?

He flipped open one of the folders and indicated where he wanted me to sign with a fountain pen.

I stepped up to the desk to see what he wanted me to sign, but what I read left me more confused than before. I couldn't read half the words- they were written in strange, unfamiliar symbols- and the ones I could understand were structured in sentences that didn't make sense with the mystery words.

I stepped back from the table. I could feel Cassius's narrowing gaze on my skin. I felt like someone on the verge of signing their soul away to the devil.

"Sign, Ms. Riar."

I glanced at him before glancing at the glossy, black pen.

"Why?"

I knew it was a mistake to question him a moment after I did it.

The air chilled.

"Ms. Riar."

I shrunk into my shoulders.

"It seems Ezra's coddling has given you the wrong impression of your position." My throat dried as he leaned back and ran his fingers over his lips, his elbow rested on the arm of his chair. "You are not in a position to question me nor do you have the authority to." His eyes drilled into me. "You are nothing but a pet that is tolerated for the time being. One that it seems Ezra has gotten too attached to."

I pressed lips together to hide the quiver his words drew. The way he talked about me, made me sound and feel like a toy. It hurt.

He leaned forward and slammed a hand over the folders and pen, making me jump. He pushed them towards me.

"Now, be a good girl and sign the papers, pet."

I swallowed past the dryness in my mouth and steps forward. Grabbing the pen, I positioned it above the space Cassius indicated.