Excerpt from BONDED :

Chancellor Chariz imprisons a young man with strange ways and a shocking power.  Chariz seeks only sexual entertainment, but Oriel offers something in return that will transform his captor for ever.

~~

Oriel stirred on the bed, hearing me, and his eyes slid half open. The flash of green was almost luminous in the darkening evening light. "Get up," I said sharply. He struggled up to a sitting position, glancing around to see where I had brought him. He rubbed the back of a hand across his face in a sleepy gesture, and I felt that strange frisson again.

"Are you recovered?" I asked, abruptly.

His eyes hooded briefly, and he nodded. He swung his legs slowly over the side of the deep mattress. "Thank you for allowing me to rest," he said, softly. "They only see your arrogance and aggression-you hide the compassion well."

"You sound like a memory-caller at the fairground stalls," I snapped. "Trite, cheap talk. Or do you expect some payment for it? You can have the lick of my whip around your shriveled balls, if you like…"

He didn't flinch, a slim, half-bare figure swamped by the plump comfort of my fleeced covers. "You use crudeness to intimidate them all. To keep people away from you." His voice was a little sluggish, but still absorbing. "You're respected in your work, but they're all scared of you. They obey you without question. They accept your lies as truth."

"Lies?" My heart beat a little faster. "I prefer to call it diplomacy, fool, and you'll watch that tongue or I'll slash it off for sport and let the servants sauce it for the supper broth!"

He was shaking his head now, eyes wide. "No, not the lies of politics, of your work. I meant the lies to yourself, the lies about your love for your mother; about your loneliness; about the loss of your younger brother…"

I struck him then--the slap of the blow reverberated around the room. He cried out and slid off the bed on to the floor, scrambling with hands and knees to keep his balance.

"How dare you talk about me with such familiarity! " I hissed. "Who gave you that right?"

"You did," he gasped. "You spoke to me, sir! Your sadness; your anger. I can't deny it, the connection's rarely been so strong. I didn't know not to say it…"

I bent down to him, wrenching his head back again. There was a red, shining weal on his face made by my hand. His pupils were dilated again and he was panting slightly. "Is this how people connect with you, Oriel? They strike you?"

"Sometimes…" he whispered. His gaze met mine, a braver resistance than any of my servants had ever shown after such a blow from me. "They do what they want. Sometimes they use me instead."

I grimaced. "Is that what the captain did? Saved you from the common soldiers only to use you himself? What kind of protection is that?"

"It's how I serve," he said. His voice was teasing at my nerves again, yet the tone was steady and almost unemotional.

"You're a ridiculous mystery, Oriel! You describe yourself as a helpless, passive victim, used by your masters, sexually and otherwise, and still following like a household dog, begging for more abuse. Yet your eyes show strength you shouldn't have …" I looked back down on them, which was perhaps my greatest mistake. But I couldn't help myself; I felt drawn into his weird, disorientated gaze. Even as I felt an unfamiliar shame at losing my temper with him, I wanted the touch again. From finding him insipid and disinteresting, I now felt the strongest flame of desire that I'd ever known, flaring suddenly to life inside me.

He drew in a deep gasp, as if he'd felt it too. I let go of his hair and forced myself upright again. For a moment I was frozen there above his kneeling form, trying to regain control over my feelings. My trousers tightened across my groin; my fingertips brushed lightly across the flat muscles of my belly, tormenting the goose bumps that sprang in response.

"Is this your magic working on me?" I groaned.

"It comes from you," he whispered. His face was level with my groin, his hands fisted gently at his sides. He dropped his eyes from mine and gazed instead at my arousal, straining against the silk cloth. "I can only respond. Let me serve you." His hands were gentle but confident as he teased down the fabric, letting my cock spring out to blessed freedom. I tried to remember when I'd last been swollen so hotly, so swiftly…

His mouth was damp and warm and it sucked me in with a youngster’s enthusiasm. I stumbled back against the bed, supporting the backs of my thighs against the mattress, keeping myself upright. I gripped at his hair and wound it around my fingers, guiding his head back and forth along me. His tongue licked gently at me as he sucked, circling round the head. It was a caress that I was especially fond of, and one that my inexperienced bedmates took some time and instruction to master. Oriel had an instinctive skill-or the true understanding of my needs as he’d already claimed.

I wanted to despise him and his tricks, I wanted to abuse him as I had so many before. Perversely, I didn’t want to enjoy this! But I felt the serpent of climax stretch and yawn in the pit of my groin as if he’d been neglected for tens of moons, not for mere hours as was the truth. Oriel’s palm cupped at my tightening balls, rolling them gently between his fingers, his mouth sinking right down on me until I nudged at the back of his throat and his lips nestled into the curls at the base of my shaft. I groaned, barely recognizing my voice.