Page 68 of Slaying the Shifter Prince
I slid my knee forward, pushing the stones out of the way.
Roark huffed, thumping the table. “She’s cheating. Look, she’s—”
“I’m well aware of what she’s doing.” Sepher spoke calmly and raised his chin. “Hands and knees, little bird. Lift with each step. Or I’ll make you do it all afternoon.”
Teeth gritted, I smiled sweetly at him. Maybe life would be easier to withstand now His Princely Prickishness was back. Even though he hadn’t killed Zinnia, I still had plenty of reasons to hate him.
Plenty.
I sank forward as cool air inched up my thighs in the tiny slip of a dress. Chances were, someone would catch a glimpse under the hem as I crawled. He’d planned this extra dimension to my humiliation. Well, fuck him, I didn’t care.
My right hand I slotted into a space between gems, but there was no such gap for my left. With deep breaths, I eased my weight onto my palms.
The diamonds stabbed into my flesh.
It took a few more long breaths, but I could take it.
Swallowing, I lifted one leg and one arm and took my first step forward. A larger stone caught under my knee and no matter how much I tried to wiggle it out of the way before I lowered my weight, it wouldn’t budge.
No option but to move forward.
It was only a diamond, relatively small, but it felt like kneeling on a dagger’s tip.
The prince shifted in his seat, coming away from its back as he leant a little closer, as though eager to catch every hint of my pain.
I ground my teeth together against the sound clawing at my throat to be let out.
I will not give him the satisfaction.
I seized on that as I took my next step, a mental chant to keep me focused.
I will not. I will not. I will not.
My eyes burned as shards spiked through my knees and palms, streaking through every nerve like a dozen lightning strikes.
With my next step, a horrible realisation crept up my spine. The larger diamond in my knee didn’t drop away as I lifted it—it was stuck in my skin. My breath came a little quicker in grotesque anticipation.
I will not. I will not. I will not.
When I placed my knee on the floor and shifted my weight to it, the diamond dug deeper.
I clung to my chant and forged onward.
On my fifth step, the one that carried that large stone forward again and drove it deeper into my poor knee, a hissing noise puffed out between my gritted teeth.
The prince smiled and sat back. But his eyes didn’t shine with pleasure at my pain—not like they had as he’d drunk up my endless climaxes last night.
I kept going. There was nothing else I could do. Asking for mercy would get me nowhere and I would not give him that triumph.
Each step screamed in my bones until I reached his feet, trembling, my hands, knees, and shins bloody. Breaths sawed through me, and it took a few of them before I could raise my head and meet his gaze.
But he didn’t look triumphant, even as he smirked and pushed his foot closer.
“Kiss my boots.”
“Sepher.” That was Celestine’s voice cutting through the peculiar quiet of dozens of people watching with baited breath. “Do you—?”
He silenced her with a flick of his tail. “My boots,” he bit out.
