Snow (2 page)

“Yes,” he rasped as Anais ground her pelvis against him, her own breath coming faster. He lunged up and took hold of her, flipping her onto her back once more. He reared over her, his hands pinning her wrists. A drop of sweat trembled on his chin before falling. Now it was his turn. He withdrew then pushed forward again, as slowly as she had ridden him before. One thing she had learned about Rui Alvarez this night—the man had incredible control. It was endless, the slow slide of his cock in and out of her. She threw her legs around him, digging her heels into his firm buttocks, trying to draw him deeper inside. He gave a huff of strained laughter and withdrew completely, sitting back on his heels.

“Turn around,” he ordered her harshly. “On your hands and knees.”

She bridled at his tone, even as her belly clenched with excitement. A slow smile lit his face.

“Please,” he whispered, laughing at her. Anais obeyed him, turning to crouch before him. He trailed a finger down her spine, and she shivered. “Good girl,” he murmured. That same finger slid between the crease of her buttocks before slipping into her wet sex. “Good girl,” he said again, harsher this time.

He bowed his body over hers, sweat-slick and hot. She felt his breath against her neck when he pushed her hair over her shoulder and bit gently at her nape. His cock nudged at her opening as he wrapped his arms around her and she pushed back against him, wanting him inside her. His arms tightened, and he entered her on one powerful thrust that sheathed all of him. His groin slapped against her buttocks, and she stifled a scream of pleasure. He was so deep inside her.

He kept one arm around her whilst the other hand moved between her legs rubbing her sex. His breath gusting against her neck, he began to move, not slowly this time, but hard and fierce, slamming into her over and over. Anais’s mouth was open, dragging in breath after breath. She felt her pleasure rising as she ground against his hand. Each penetration brought her closer. Rui was grunting, his movements becoming more frenzied, less controlled.

“Oh gods,” Anais heard him moan. At the same time, her climax rose and slammed into her. She screamed, feeling the muscles of her passage clench around his cock. “Gods,” he moaned again. She was still riding her own release, feeling it shiver outwards from her sex, deep in her belly. “Fuck,” he cried out, thrusting once, twice, a third time, harder and deeper than before. His teeth sank into her shoulder. The hot rush of his seed flooded her. He ground his pelvis against her buttocks furiously, lifting his head and uttering a guttural moan. He thrust again, less fiercely now. Anais could feel his cock pulsing deep within her. “Oh yes,” he murmured softly on one last thrust. His head dropped against her shoulder, the weight of his body collapsing over her back, heavy and slick with sweat.

One more battle fought, and Anais had no idea which of them was the winner.

Towards dawn, as pale grey fingers of light crept across the room and fell upon the ruin of the bed, Anais clutched the torn sheet to her breasts and watched Rui as he dressed. She could see that he was well pleased with himself, the smile he turned upon her full of lazy self-satisfaction. She swallowed, her mouth dry. She needed to think clearly, to formulate some excuse not to see him again. It was too dangerous, the risks too great. Adultery for a queen meant death.

As if sensing the tenor of her thoughts, Rui leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. “I must have you again,” he murmured, his soft breath stirring the loose hair on her face. “And soon.” The kiss deepened. Anais let the sheet fall and clutched at Rui’s shoulders.

Recalling something he had said earlier that night, Anais released him and pulled back, gazing into his dark blue eyes. “Did you find fucking a queen to your liking, Master Alvarez?” she asked, her voice a trifle unsteady. “Do you find me fair?”

For an instant, thick black lashes veiled his eyes, hiding his expression. Incongruously, it reminded Anais of her stepdaughter, the Snow Bitch, and she shivered. Then he lifted his head, and she gazed into his eyes and was lost.

His hands cupped her face, the fingers digging into her jaw, forcing her to keep her eyes on his. She could see her face reflected in them. Mirror eyes.

“The fairest of them all.”

And thus Anais committed adultery. She was ever fearful of discovery, but Rui seemed to delight in taking the chance that they might be seen. He took her in the stables, in corridors, in the falconry under the disapproving eyes of his great bird. He swallowed her cries with his mouth so that she wouldn’t frighten the other birds. One night they even made love upon the plump purple cushion that sat upon the king’s throne. Anais stifled her fear by looking into his eyes and seeing her reflection there. As long as she remained the fairest of them all in Rui’s eyes, she didn’t care. Gradually, she came to learn things about him. He was venal and amoral. He liked to hurt her. Not too much. Just enough to let her know who was master. Just enough to make her fearful when sometimes he would ride her as though he wanted to break her beneath him. Just enough to make her crave the fear as well as the pleasure.

Sometimes the fear was the pleasure.

After that first night, when they had been equals in passion, it was Rui who must win every battle and Anais who must concede. Oh, he was ever mindful of her and never forced her to do anything that might degrade her, but there must be no doubt who was master and who servant. When she finally realised his true nature, it was too late. She could no more do without him than she could breathing.

One day he had pushed her up against a wall in a rarely used servant’s corridor, tearing at her clothes in his haste. Anais watched herself in his eyes, a fair, golden queen, and tried to convince herself that this was love. Suddenly, she became aware that they were not alone. Snow White, the Snow Bitch, stood at the end of the corridor, watching them. She had only one of her attendants with her, the youngest one. For a moment Anais could only stare at her in confusion. Had Snow White and the dwarf been holding hands? Then the reality of her situation flooded her, and she gasped and pushed at Rui’s shoulders.

“Stop,” she cried frantically.

He raised his head and followed the direction of her gaze. He stared at Snow White, and Anais saw her stepdaughter’s image in his eyes before he turned back to her and resumed what he had been doing.

“Let her watch,” he grunted as he pushed against her.

“No.” Anais struggled in his grip. “She’ll tell the king. Stop.”

“She won’t say a word,” said Rui. He continued without pause, but all the while Anais could see that he watched Snow White and that his pleasure came from the fact that she watched him. The girl and her companion stood unmoving until Rui had finished, then, without ever uttering a word, they turned and left. Anais straightened her clothing, then looked up into Rui’s eyes but she couldn’t see her reflection there anymore.

That was when she first hated her stepdaughter.

Sick with fear, Anais spent the rest of the day in her rooms. She was left alone until deep in the night when Rui finally came to her. For once, he wanted nothing more than to talk to her, but as she listened to what he had to say, she felt her blood turn cold.

He spoke of the death of the king and how Anais would rule as regent for the child Snow White who, although almost eighteen, still had three years before she could act in her own stead unless she should marry. In three years anything could happen to a young girl. Who could say if she would ever reach her majority? As regent, Anais would have power enough to ensure that her seat upon the throne was inviolable, and Rui would rule beside her. No more fear of discovery.

“I could have you in front of the whole court and no one could say us nay,” Rui breathed against her ear.

Anais looked up at him. “Do you love me?” she asked.

“You are the fairest of them all,” he said, and once more she could see herself in the mirror of his eyes.

“Make love to me,” she whispered and, for once, he did. Rui’s body covered hers, his dark eyes never leaving her face as he moved within her. Anais wanted to look away. She didn’t want this. Knowing what he was and what he was capable of, the languid tenderness with which he pushed into her was unbearable. He made her forget her doubts and her fears. He made her want him until that want was a fire within her that she feared could never be quenched. When he kissed her now, it was slow and sweet, his tongue caressing her mouth like wet velvet. This time her climax rolled over her like a warm blanket, soft and comfortable. At the last, Rui closed his eyes and a shudder ran through him as he spent himself inside her. He lowered his head to rest it against her shoulder.

They lay like that for a time, neither talking nor moving, and then with a sigh he pushed himself off her. His cock, finally sated, lay soft and vulnerable against his thigh.

“So,” he murmured. “Will we do it?”

“It?” Anais said, although she knew well enough of what he spoke.

His lips curled in an ironic smile. “It,” he said as his hand traced a lazy circle on Anais’s bare hip.

Desire uncoiled deep within her again, lust and fear forming an uneasy alliance in her stomach. “It won’t be easy.”

“Easier than you think. An old man and a girl?” He moved down the bed to kneel between Anais’s thighs. His warm breath stirred the damp curls of her sex. She trembled. “Let me take care of the king. The rest will follow.” His mouth settled against her aching flesh, his tongue flicking out to caress her, rough and warm. Anais gasped, arching against him, her fingers tangling in the long black silk of his hair. He licked and suckled her into a boneless, screaming mass of pleasure before rearing up and thrusting himself deep inside her. There was no tenderness this time. Anais stared up into his beautiful face as he pounded into her. He had shown he was capable of tenderness. She loved him, for all that she sometimes feared him too.

“Open your eyes,” she whispered.

His mirror eyes flew open, and Anais stared into their blue depths. His breath came shorter, his lips drawing back from his teeth.

“Yes?” he gasped as he shuddered his release into her.

“Yes,” Anais replied, answering his question. They would do
It…

Yes.

She was the fairest of them all, and for now that would have to be enough.

The king died the next night. An apoplexy, they said. Anais never asked Rui how he had accomplished the deed. Snow White and Anais stood side by side as his gold-embellished casket was sealed into his tomb. They did not speak to each other. Only the High Priest would enter the king’s tomb to perform the blood rites that would send his spirit onto the Pillars. The rest of them must wait outside until the ceremony was completed. It was a bleak, cold day. A bitter rain was falling. Over the wind and the sharp hiss of the rain rang the bells of Gessedian Cathedral. Snow White’s fair hair hung to her waist and her pale grey eyes were colder than the rain. To Anais’s eyes she looked as brittle as glass. She could almost imagine that if she leaned forward and touched her that Snow White would shatter into a myriad of icy shards. Rui stood behind them. Anais couldn’t see his face. He kept his head lowered so that his long black hair hung down around his eyes. But the faintest of smiles curved the sculpted lines of his mouth.

When the ceremony was completed, Snow White and her seven dwarves all bowed to Anais before they left. One by one the courtiers drifted away with murmured words of respect and condolence. As queen, it was Anais’s duty to spend the night in prayer before her husband’s tomb. The bells finally stopped tolling at midnight. Anais drew in a deep breath. In the sudden, all-pervading silence, it sounded ragged and far too loud. She suppressed a shiver, huddling deeper into her woolen cloak. The candles ringing the catafalque cast grotesque shadows over the carved stone walls.

“I thought those damn things would never cease.”

Anais whirled about. Rui lounged against the entrance to the tomb, his colour high and his eyes glittering feverishly in the fitful candle light. He straightened up, executing a bow. “My Queen,” he murmured, moving towards her.

Anais took a step back, then another until the catafalque pressed against her back. Rui leaned over her, one arm on either side of her body. She could smell wine on his breath as he lowered his mouth to hers.

“Are you cold?” he whispered. “I’ve come to make you warm.” One hand dropped to the placket of his breeches whilst the other pulled at her skirts. He took her against her dead husband’s tomb before he led her back to the palace.

And so Anais was, to all intents and purposes, queen. At least until the Snow Bitch came of age. It was a far merrier court than when the king had been alive. A glittering casket of a court with the brightest jewel, the fairest of them all, Anais, with her dark huntsman by her side. If any of the courtiers looked askance at the baseborn upstart who ruled the queen’s heart as well as her body, they were too well bred to express their displeasure. Especially when the queen’s stepdaughter expressed nothing but respect and obedience towards her stepmother. Or her lover.

On the night of her eighteenth birthday, the Snow Bitch even let the queen’s huntsman lead her into a dance. Anais sat upon her throne watching them, swallowing jealousy along with the wine in her goblet. Along the far wall, Snow White’s seven dwarves watched too, their eyes as black and cold as a winter’s night.

Snow White danced with fluid grace, as supple as silk in Rui’s arms. Yet her face wore its customary mien of glacial indifference. Anais’s fingers tightened around the stem of her silver goblet as she saw the expression in Rui’s eyes. As if sensing her regard, he lifted his eyes to hers, but whatever she thought she had seen was gone. He smiled at her, and she shivered at the dark promises that smile held.

A promise of pain that made her stomach clench with fear.

A promise of pleasure that made the sex between her legs throb with anticipation.

The dance ended, and Rui led Snow White back to her seat, bowing over her hand with insolent grace before sauntering back to lean over Anais’s throne and kiss her throat.