I t was then, she realized that—despite all of her bravado, and while she'd asserted the exact opposite to her sister—she really had little idea what to do with him beyond what she'd been taught. That was that he should be bound to the bed, head and foot—the bindings had been installed on her bed since she began to bleed, not that they'd gotten any use—and that she should be on top. On top of what, she was a bit fuzzy about, but she was sure she could figure it out, and she was certain that he would be more than willing to help her do so, since it seemed to her that all men were ever interested in was mating, eating, or sleeping .

And, of course, the chips would act as translators for them both, so that she should be able to—if it was absolutely necessary—describe to him what she wanted him to do, although she couldn't imagine that she was going to want to spend much time talking to the likes of him .

Long moments later, she realized that he was just standing there, staring back at her. "Lower your eyes," she ordered sharply before shouldering herself away from the door, gratified to see that he did exactly as she told him to do. This might be easier than she thought .

"Were you told why you were brought here ?"

His head came up again, although he very carefully avoided meeting her gaze, but she would have sworn she detected just the faintest hint of a smile on his lips. "As I understand it, I am to be your mate," he responded .

Cika was intrigued. He was surprisingly well-spoken—and his voice—deep and dark and somewhat mysterious as it was—did things to her that no one's ever had, much less a man's. It made her stomach—and distinctly not her stomach—feel tight with not just nervousness, but something else, a different kind of warmth or something she hadn't encountered before that wasn't altogether unpleasant, she had to admit to herself .

"Well, I suppose we should just get this over with," she mumbled to herself .

"Not if you wish to enjoy this, my queen," he stated smoothly, as if he knew exactly what he was talking about .

"Who gave you permission to speak, slave?" she commanded in what she hoped was an imperious manner, almost cringing at how much she sounded like both her mother and her middle sister, but then he wouldn't know that .

He didn't look a bit abashed when he responded, "No one, my queen — "

"I am not a queen," Cika corrected. "I am the Princess Royale of the House of the Great and Noble Queen Raythe, Ruler of all of Aristol ."

He bowed as low to her, and as elegantly, as his chains would allow. "My apologies for my miscalculation, as well as my boldness in addressing you, Great Princess ."

His tone and words went a long way towards mollifying her, as she wasn't used to being angry or demanding all the time, unlike some who were close to her .

"But if I may be given leave to speak?" he pushed .

He stopped there, and it took her a minute to realize that he was waiting for her to give him permission to do so .

She waved her hand at him as she sank down into the chair she'd recently vacated .

He turned to face her. "Far be it for me to presume that I—a mere slave—would know more than you do about anything, but I have the sense that you might not be as well versed in matters such as these as you might wish to be." He paused there deliberately, for effect, adding, "Nor as I am ."

"Of what matters do you speak, slave ?"

The bold devil met her eyes as he answered, slowly, deliberately, "Why, those of mating, of course ."

She couldn't stop herself from blushing brightly, barely believing that she was having this conversation with him at all .

"You see, if I may be so bold — "

"Why not? Nothing's stopped you up to this point," Cika commented dryly .

He had the grace to color a bit then continued, "You see, just getting it over with will leave you at a terrible deficit ."

She was intrigued, she had to admit—at least to herself. "How so, pray tell ?"

"May I approach, Princess?" he asked, trying to make himself appear as small as he could, so as not to put her off the idea .

"You may, but not too close ."

He shuffled—surprisingly gracefully, as if he was merely performing prescribed dance steps—to stand not three feet away from her, his height and blatant masculinity making her feel very small and not just a bit overwhelmed, although she tried to squelch the feelings. After all, she had the ultimate control at her fingertips, if he actually risked his life and got out of hand .

"I don't know what you've been told or how you've been educated about the subject ."

"Apparently not as well as you have, but go on ."

"Well, Princess, I am not only educated in the matter, I am quite well experienced. I have been taking women since my sixteenth birthday, as is the custom on the planet from which I come ."

"'Taking women'?" Cika's eyebrows almost met her hairline as she bristled .

His blush brightened again. "A poor choice of words, but then, one I would hope I could be forgiven for, because on my planet, it is women who are bred by their masters—their husbands—rather than the other way around ."

Cika found herself sitting up more attentively in her chair at his words. "It is a man's world, then? Even a very young man's, such as yourself ?"

The slave nodded, showing a hint of a smile again. "Yes, Princess. Men—officially once they are eighteen, but even before that, in most cases—are in charge ."

She had read a book once that had that preposterous premise—when she was much younger—but her mother had seen her reading it and had literally snatched it out of her hands when she had barely begun it, throwing it into the fire right in front of her, as she said it contained seditious ideas. That book had made her feel then the way he was making her feel now, though, she realized with a start .

"How horrible!" she exclaimed, hoping it came across as genuine. "And I suppose that your poor women are treated as slaves, too ?"

"There are pockets of that, yes, although my father, the king, has fought all of his life to try to eradicate those who would reduce women to such ."

"But that is not the prevailing attitude towards them in your father's little kingdom?" Cika made certain that her tone would convey to him just how absurd she found his tale. Why this subject intrigued her so, she would never know. He was obviously delusional, believing himself a prince, as she'd known, but she couldn't seem to stop herself from inquiring about a society—even a fake one—that was such a polar opposite from the one in which she lived .

"No, in our society, women are to be protected and revered, respected and loved and cared for ."

"Are they, then, equal to men ?"

He seemed a bit discomfited by her question. "No, Princess, I wouldn't quite say that they are ."

"In what way are they treated differently ?"

His eyes darted to hers for less than a second, and he bowed his head before raising it again to answer her clearly. "They are more than children, but less than men. Their husbands are their masters, and they are expected to obey them—it is a part of the ceremony that binds them together that they must vow that they will submit themselves to the man whose work houses, protects and feeds both her and any children they might have ."

Cika's eyes flared wide. "And they agree to such terrible restrictions of their freedoms ?"

"They do, I believe, because the vast majority of men on my planet care deeply for their wives and—although they might punish them from time to time as they see fit—they only want what's best for them ."

She gripped the arms of her chair unconsciously. "They are beaten, then, as you have been ?"

"No—at least, they should not be. Such—if you would excuse my expression—barbaric means of punishment should never be used on a female, and, if discovered by the authorities, would result in the husband being jailed, the wife being granted an immediate divorce and the state assuming responsibility for her as well as her children until such time as she may find another husband. It would be much more common that a wife would be spanked or paddled or switched or caned on her bottom ."

For some reason, that idea had her fuming—it stirred up more and more of those unfamiliar sensations he was inspiring with his tale, and that annoyed her, too. "Those are methods of training the young, not women !"

His smile was less than apologetic. "As I said, more than children, but less than men—although still very valued and respected. After all, without women, there would be no men ."

Cika stood and began pacing. "I cannot believe that any self-respecting woman would allow herself to be subjected to such demeaning, highly embarrassing forms of discipline—and by a man! It is one thing to be physically chastised by one's mother while growing up, but it's an entirely different thing to allow an inferior such as a man to lay his hands on a full-grown woman to correct her in any way whatsoever, much less as one would a child !"

It made her even angrier than he didn't answer her accusation in any way .

"Well? Will you not defend your warped parody of a civilization—such as it is?" she demanded derisively .

He shrugged. Shrugged! She was positively furious, for no real reason, but she was .

"As I said before, Princess. My world is a man's world. Some women are quite tightly controlled by their husbands—or fathers until they get married—some are given quite a bit of freedom, but when it comes down to it, their husbands will hold them to account for any behavior they do not like, with the state's complete approval. Men are the dominant sex. They're stronger and faster and tougher, and they make the rules by which their women live, most of them, as I've said, in my experience, very happily ."

Cika snorted softly. "I don't suggest you say anything of the sort around my sister ."

"I shall not, Princess," he responded gravely .

She shook herself to dispel the intoxicating web of obvious lies he'd woven around her. "That's quite a fantasy kingdom you've created for yourself. You should be a scribe—you have quite the imagination ."

He said nothing—not rising to her bait, but smiling almost benevolently down at her, as if he knew a huge secret .

Standing about two feet in front of him, Cika asked, "What is your name, slave ?"

"I am called Vallon ."

"Prince Vallon, I'm sure," she mocked, but he merely nodded, with a look on his face as if he was silently laughing at her. "Well then, Prince, we have wandered far from our original topic and into your flight of fantasy. But I am still interested in the answer to my original question. Why should we not simply get on with it ?"

"Because you would be missing out on the delights that can be achieved between a man and a woman during the mating process ."

"Delights?" she repeated, her tone dripping with doubt. "No one mentioned any such thing to me. Males are mounted and used for impregnation. That's it ."

"If you will again forgive me, I'm not absolutely certain that everyone around you has your best interests in their hearts, and, also, I'm not sure that the average male here—if the ones I've had around me recently are the usual caliber—would be capable of such things ."

She raised her eyebrow at him. "But you, of course, Prince Vallon, are ."

He wasn't blushing, nor was he looking away from her, as he should have been when he replied deeply, and with great conviction, "Yes, Princess, I most definitely am ."

"And I suppose that you would only be able to perform such wondrous feats if you were unchained ?"

"Well…" He managed to look a bit bashful. "It certainly would help to be able to touch you more than I could at the moment. And allowing me to do so would help you avoid discomfort when we couple ."

"Couple?" Cika was unfamiliar with the term .

"When we mate," he supplied .

Her face went blank then her expression turned more than slightly towards panic. "No one ever mentioned discomfort !"

Vallon sighed softly. "They never do. If you thought it was going to hurt, would you do it ?"

"Probably not ."

He, then, very carefully, didn't mention what childbirth was like .

"And if I told you that I can probably make it so that you feel very little, if any, pain at all, and in fact, I can almost guarantee that you'll find an ecstasy beyond your wildest dreams, would that tip the balance towards you releasing me from my bonds ?"

Cika stood there considering him for a moment. She knew that none of what was happening should be happening. One did not converse with one's mate—usually because they had very little to say, if anything, but still. The fact that this one slave could use words of more than one syllable with ease did not mitigate that fact, and part of her really wished that she'd just done as she knew she was supposed to, bound him to the bed and gotten on top of him to do whatever it was that came next .

But she wasn't much interested in experiencing any discomfort. And he didn't sound as if he was lying. But then, he'd just told her a fantastical story about a planet where men spanked their wives and ruled over them in what should have sounded—to her—like an altogether unsatisfactory arrangement, when in reality it sounded like something she'd love to see in action—without committing herself to anything, of course. She'd just dearly love to visit his little dream world, just once, to see how that kind of society might work .

Not that she believed what he'd said in the least, which called into question everything else he was saying to her, too, of course .

But he sounded so convincing—about everything .

And she did have a way to bring him back into line, if she needed to use it against him .

She stood there, looking at him, for the longest time, unable to make up her mind .

"I give you my word that you will come to no harm in my presence, Princess," he added, just in case .

She chuckled. "The solemn vow of a delusional slave prince, who seems—surprise, surprise—quite desperate to be set free ?"

"Something like that. But on my planet, a man's word means something, man to man, or man to woman. A wife might vow to submit to him during the commitment ceremony, but he vows in return to care for her and keep her safe by the sweat of his brow and the edge of his sword. My father taught me at his knee not to give my word to anyone unless I intended to honor it ."

Wondering why she was doing so the entire time, Cika touched her index finger to the inside of her wrist for a second, and his chains fell to the floor .

For a long moment, he simply stood there, stretching, and Cika found her breath catching in her throat at the sight of him doing so, even fully clothed, as he was. He seemed in absolutely no hurry to get to her, and indeed, was quite absorbed in what he was doing to and for himself—and that, whether it should have or not, made her feel a bit better about her decision .

Then, Vallon took the few steps necessary to get closer to her than he ever had before, reaching out and pulling her against him, dipping his head to seal his mouth tightly over hers and holding her still for a few seconds past the point that she began to struggle, then letting her go, making sure she was steady on her feet—with a badly concealed smile of triumph—before he took a step away from her .

"Forgive me, Princess, but I have wanted to kiss you since I first saw you in the market ."

Her finger hovered above that spot on her wrist that he knew would leave him in agonizing pain if she pushed it, but it was more than worth it, as far as he was concerned .

Princess Cika was his woman. He was absolutely certain of it .

Vallon was relatively confident that—despite the device that had been implanted in his body—he could leave this place pretty much any time he wanted to. But he wasn't about to leave without her in his possession, in more ways than one .

Her team had been secretively invading the same planet as the team he was to lead for exactly the same reason, but in search of the opposite sex. They had crash landed and were caught off guard. Three of their other team members had died, and it was just himself and his copilot, Hawl, that were thrown into chains and brought here, to this crazy place where women ruled and men were used for little more than semen donors and donkey labor .

He'd spotted her from afar across the market—along with her sister, with whom he was eventually going to have a confrontation of some sort—and had instantly recognized that they were not the usual customers there. She, in particular, was something special, and his opinion had only been confirmed when she had interceded with the slave trader in order to get her to stop beating him, although he hadn't been all that happy to have been compared to a dog, he was glad that she had such a soft heart, which seemed to be missing entirely in most of the women on this planet that he had encountered so far .

She was much too fine for this rough place, and he had vowed to himself—right then and there—that he would have her for his own, if it was the last thing he did. He intended to make his escape and bring her back with him to Juqar, where he intended to marry her. Whether she wanted to or not. In fact, he greatly looked forward to the task of taming her. She might have been small and soft, but he had a feeling that she had a wonderful backbone and a strong will, neither of which would he seek to stifle, but rather bend them, gently but firmly, to his own not inconsiderable will .

She would submit herself to him—and he intended to plant that seed—one of many this evening—beginning as soon as possible .

"Don't do it again. At least not without asking permission," she quickly revised, her lips still tingling from his possession, so much so that she was having to school herself not to reach up and brush her fingertips over them .

"Yes, Princess." It was a very interesting position for a man who was used to giving the orders to be put in—to even have to play act that he was submissive, and asking permission to do things was harder for him to do than getting her out of here would be eventually. It did not come at all naturally for him to defer to a woman—except perhaps his mother, whom he adored and respected. And he anticipated that he was likely to find himself in trouble—and on the receiving end of many jolts of pure agony from that insidious weapon they all used to keep the males in line—before he had shed this planet forever, with her in his arms. Or unconscious over his shoulder, he cared not how he got her home, as long as he did .

"Well?" she interrupted his train of thought. "I do not see you doing anything that's making me feel any better ."

"If I might kiss you again?" Vallon asked, hoping he sounded subservient enough, because it was all he could do not to simply grab her and have his way with her right then and there, which, of course, was not the point of all of this .

He wanted—needed—to make her want him. She was so innocent—so pure—but he felt as if he could sense a current of sensuality—one that jibed with his own—within her that he intended to tap. He would not—could not—live on this planet. But he would do his best—before he ended up having to simply kidnap her against her will—to try to make her want to go with him. It would be quite a feat to convince a woman—a princess royale, no less—to give up her freedom and submit herself to him for the rest of her life, to his will and his body and his punishments .

But he'd seen what she'd hoped he'd missed when she'd been questioning him about his planet—despite the fact that he knew she still thought he was making it up. She had begun to breathe more erratically the longer they spoke, and he had snuck several looks at her eyes and her pupils were dilated. She had fidgeted nervously when he spoke of spankings and discipline, and he felt that those were things he could build on—and would work on—for as long as he could, before he took the decision out of her hands completely .

For now, though, this was the first time she would have a man inside her, and even if he hadn't chosen her as he had, he would have felt obligated to make it good for her, in return for her kindness at the market .

She cleared her throat, trying to steel herself against feeling what she'd felt before—that weakness, the unfamiliar throbbing and aching in places she barely recognized on her body, and the sheer enjoyment of being cradled against his strength, essentially helpless yet not really feeling so, her every area of softness forced to conform to his hardness .

And it was no easier this time than it had been last time—in fact, it was much worse .

After kissing her again in the dominant way he had, he began to tease her a bit, nibbling at her lips, careful not to hurt her. "Open your mouth, Princess," he whispered, and she was so surprised by his command that she forgot to correct him for his high handedness .

She was appalled .

She was horrified that he should want her to do that .

It was an utterly outrageous demand .

And yet, when his mouth claimed hers again—and it was claiming, there was no doubt about the way he handled her—she yielded to him, letting his tongue slip past her teeth, touching hers and slipping over the tops of her front teeth as he slanted his mouth across hers, holding her face in his impossibly big hands, not allowing her to step away from him until he ended the kiss, almost abruptly, and again had to help her find her balance as he, reluctantly, moved a bit away .

"That is a very good start," he pronounced, being so bold as to tip her chin so that she was looking up into his eyes. "But it is just the very beginning, Princess." He waited a beat, then said, "Please take your clothes off." He smiled broadly at how quickly he found himself standing there alone while she glared at him from across the room .