Chained To Him [Editing]

Chapter Twenty-Four

"You have a visitor, Jayde."

She wished that the words didn't make her heart leap to her throat, but they did. Jayde glanced up quickly to where Maigi hovered in the doorway to the sleeping quarters. It was late morning, and Jayde was cleaning the room along with another girl who'd been assigned to cleaning duty that day. She wiped her hands on the apron tied around her waist and glanced up.

"Madam?"

"Wash up quickly and get dressed."

She nodded quickly and smiled softly at the other girl, who watched her leave with a wistful expression as she looked over the rest of the floor yet to be scrubbed. As she stripped out of her working clothes and stepped beneath the stream of water in the washroom, Jayde closed her eyes and prayed that it would be Luc waiting for her in the other room. It had been a week since their night together, and he hadn't asked for her since, though he'd taken other girls. She tried not to think bitterly about it, knowing that he didn't remember her; and there was no pledge of faithfulness that she could uphold anyway.

She'd seen Chev since then, and she'd had no qualms about fucking him in a dusty storage room in a quiet wing of the palace. He'd grinned when she told him about Greywood choosing her, and she knew that in some strange way it gave him satisfaction to secretly take her behind the backs of the two most powerful men in Aésadel. She was reserved only for ranking officers now, being one of Greywood's chosen slaves. Chosen by Luc. She shook her head; often she found herself thinking about him as though he were two separate people. But she was a slave to Luc as much as she was a slave to Greywood.

When she ventured into the common area, she didn't need to look around to know who had come for her. Her body registered Aragon's voice with a spike of fear even before she recognized it as his. He was talking to Maigi, but his gaze flicked lazily over to her as she approached.

"Jayde," he said softly, and the sound of it made her skin prickle.

"My lord."

Maigi looked coolly between them but either didn't see the hatred that passed through their gazes or refused to acknowledge it. "You'll be pleased to know that she's been selected by Lord Greywood. She turned out to be a very capable dancer." Maigi looked at her with an expression she'd not worn before, one that Jayde took a moment to realize was pride. She'd been in Maigi's good graces since her night with Luc; it was rare that he let women stay overnight, and she'd taken it to mean that he was pleased.

"Really," Aragon said slowly, a smile playing at his lips as he looked at her. "How surprising." She flushed at this and searched his face for some sign that he knew Luc's identity. But despite his smile, he seemed genuinely surprised – but whether he was pleased or not she couldn't tell. "She must have a certain charm that I've failed to witness."

"Many, my lord." Jayde glanced quickly up at him, ignoring Maigi's distraught expression as she anxiously watched Aragon's reaction. But he only laughed and held out his arm for Jayde to take. She hesitantly reached for him, setting her fingers on his arm as he started for the door. How easily he acted as though he owned her. Perhaps he did own her, in a way.

"You seemed disappointed to see me today, Jayde." The hall was quiet as they walked down it, and Jayde was thankful. It didn't matter that no one knew her here, and that to them she was just a slave. It still made her stomach twist to think of being seeing on Aragon's arm.

"Does that surprise you?"

He seemed to think for a moment. "No, it doesn't. But I wonder if you were hoping for someone else."

"That shouldn't surprise you either."

"Did you think one dance for Greywood would have him personally calling on you?"