She reached for the compact with quivering fingers, but stopped at the last moment.
“It’s okay, Bella. Take it. It’s yours. A little gift for the wonderful performance you put on last night. The audience loves you, and I can tell how much you love the performance.”
She took the compact, stopping to run an admiring finger along the rough cut stones. Opening the hook latch, she saw a palette of colored powders, just like the ones Valentina made up her face with the evening before. It was simply stunning.
She mouthed the words ‘thank you’ to Valentina.
In return, Valentina smiled, and for a one fleeting moment, she appeared as a beautiful woman to Princess, rather than the repulsive witch who destroyed the lives of her brothers and herself.
Valentina ran a hand through Princess’s hair, her fingers with their long, lacquered red nails, stroked over her cheek. On her first finger was the onyx rose ring Erich mentioned to her. It was the ring that contained her poisons. Princess held as still as she could, and fought the urge to slap her hand away. She came too far in this bitter adventure to ruin everything now.
When Valentina bent forward and covered Princess’s lips with her own, she didn’t understand the gesture and froze. Was this how women showed affection? This was how she thought a man kissed a woman. How Erich kissed her in their little dream world.
Yet, Valentina’s lips parted slightly and deepened the kiss, her lips soft, rather than the firmness of Erich’s lips. It wasn’t unpleasant, and in fact, if she didn’t despise this woman with every fiber of her body, she might have enjoyed this new twist.
Valentina slowly pulled back from the kiss.
“You know, Bella, if you play nice with me, I’ll make sure you are generously rewarded for it.”
There was a gleam in her green eyes that caused bile to rise in Princess’s throat. Play nice? Just what was Valentina getting at? She didn’t make as much as a twitch in response.
Valentina tossed her hair back with a chuckle. “You are an innocent little thing, aren’t you? You have no idea how two women can show affection for one another? Women know how to please each other. They are gentle, and treat each other’s body with respect. Not like a man who mauls your beautiful body, and who takes what he wants, when he wants it to satisfy his own ugly needs, and doesn’t care if he leaves you in tears.”
Valentina then held Princess’s eyes with her own. “I bet you taste very sweet, Bella. I could spend hours and hours of pleasuring you.” She interlaced her fingers with Princess’s fingers.
Princess quivered just then, and an intense heat rose from her core, and flushed her chest and face.
“I’ve only wanted someone to love, you know.” Valentina’s expression turned suddenly serious. “I thought I might have found that with Tinsel…but…Tinsel betrayed me. Now, I am very bruised, and will not fall in love again so easily.”
So, Valentina wasn’t faithful to her father after all! She had been in love all along with another woman! A concept that was still foreign in Princess’s mind. Quickly she pointed at the elaborate gold wedding band Valentina wore on her ring finger.
“This?” Valentina twisted the band. “This is from the miserable louse who’s never had a drop of affection for me! Only to ravish my body!” She practically spat out the words.
Was this true? Did her father only marry Valentina for carnal pleasures? Is it possible that she took her revenge by hurting his children? Princess couldn’t comprehend what she was being told. All Valentina’s words only served to further confuse her.
“Well, I must get back now, Bella.” She looked around the small cell. “Perhaps we should move you out of the servants’ wing now, and over to where my pretty girls reside.”
When she was gone, Princess tried to digest what had just happened. Was Valentina strongly hinting she wanted the two of them to become lovers? Her heart, her body, belonged only to Erich. But the fate of her brother was paramount. She could not refuse Valentina’s advances. If needed, she would return an ardor she did not feel. Suffer through the woman’s touches and advances.
The remaining time could not pass quick enough. Luckily, the six weeks was near its end. In the short time, she already saw things with her eyes, experienced things she never knew could happen. Not understanding this strange new world she was cloistered from for nearly twenty years. Perhaps the sheltered home life she was held in really was her prison. It never allowed her to live life. Now she’d been cruelly cast into a new existence she could barely comprehend.
More than anything, she wished to be back in Erich’s arms, safe and warm in their private little dream existence and to stay there forever. Yet she knew that even if she could smuggle her brothers out of the club, she could never have a forever love with Erich in this life. He was poison, toxic, ruined because of Valentina. Just the thought of Valentina taking away not only her father, her brothers, but the man she loved, it renewed all of the hate she felt for the woman, and the venom inside her doubled. Valentina nearly got in a little, almost got her to lower her defenses.
Never again.
Never again.
Chapter Five
Princess lay naked beneath Erich, and arched her body upward, greedy for his lovemaking. Still, he lay perfectly still above her, fingers stroking her hair. A gentle, contemplative look on his face, different from the wide-eyed, lustful way he usually looked at her when they made love.
“I’m afraid I’m losing you, Princess,” he whispered.
How could he think such nonsense? She was dedicated to loving him forever.
Never. She mouthed the word to him.
“Never say never. In just the time you’ve come into my life, and worked at the
