"..." The woman crossed her legs and took out the proof of ownership from her cleavage like a battle trophy, waving it in front of Lucian's face, "I have already paid for you, so you belong to me now. Just accept it."
"Is it possible to buy my freedom in the future?" Lucian asked, attempting to shroud himself with a priestly act of virtuosity. He used the auctioneer's lie to stay calm without attracting suspicion.
She laughed in disbelief, "You? A slave? How are you going to earn that much money? And even then..." she made a show of tucking the document back into her cleavage, intentionally arching her back a little and pushing her chest forward, "I might just decide I like owning you too much to let go."
Her assets must have gotten her through many situations before and she probably thought it would work on Lucian too, watching him closely for any sign of weakening. In her world, men offered favors and gifts just for a lingering look at her. Could a man really prefer other men over her? The idea was so strange and foreign that she must have felt compelled to test it.
Lucian felt nothing but mild annoyance. It was like she was waving a shiny object in front of him and expecting immediate drooling obedience. "A rich man might take a fancy to me, who knows, anything can happen."
She held the pose for a moment. When she found nothing, not even the polite pretense most men offered, she untied her cloak and threw it on him, covering his naked chest and head. "You are not to seduce any other men while you are with me."
"Noted, My Lady." Lucian finally got a better look of her.
She lacked the polished, well-learned grace of someone like Lady Lily. Instead, a dark, underworld aura seemed to envelop her, an aura that followed her father's name. Yet that same darkness protected her, wrapping around her like armor no one dared to challenge.
Lucian hoped she wasn't the crazy kind. But with her high status, she was bound to be arrogant, and arrogance came with a bit of crazy.
She reminded him a bit of Celine, but lacked the self awareness that Celine had.
Celine would never let him get away with calling her chest stuffy with paper or saying he liked men better than her.
He had tried in their childhood, when he wanted her to move on from him. Her reaction was memorable: she decided to make him fall in love with her soul instead of her body, and they would have been a perfect match, since she saw nothing attractive about his sickly body at the time (speak about throwing insults right back at him).
Lucian's heart ached from the nostalgia of the past. Calling her flat only made her blame him for the chestache he caused her with his insults.
Yes, somehow it ended up being his fault and he had to massage her chest to ease the pain and help them grow.
He was a weakling, but his hands were full of magic, Celine also knew how to praise the right places.
Lucian wanted to go home. He wondered if she also felt the same in presence of other men. Because right now, he wanted to hide himself somewhere only she could find him.
"Hey, are you listening to me?" the woman's voice snapped him out of his reverie, "I told you, my name is Karina D'Angelo. You will call me Miss Karina. Understood?"
Lucian leaned against the carriage, the cloak covering his face gave him space to drop his gentle expression, "Yes, Miss Karina."
"Good. Don't try anything stupid on my father's ship, he won't hesitate to cut you into pieces and feed you to the sharks," she threatened. "And my fiancé─"
"You have a fiancé?" Lucian asked.
"Cray, the son of Kingpin Roderick."
Cray Roderick sounded like a love interest from the prophecy, who bought the heroine from an auction and fell in love with her.
'How did the heroine end up in the sea to begin with?' Lucian wondered. She should be in the South, staying close to the prince.
Celine was in the South, but something told Lucian that his absence might make her drag the conflict and the heroine to the sea instead, or he was just being paranoid. All the more reason for him to get rid of the woman by his side quickly.
"May I ask why you need a fake lover, Miss Karina?" Lucian asked.
"Men are dirty pigs," she answered with disgust, "and I bet this Cray is no different. He thinks he can get away with anything because his father is a kingpin."
"So you haven't seen him yet?"
She coughed, hiding her awkwardness, "There's no need to see a man to know his nature. But that's where you come in. He is only interested in virgin girls, so I will pretend to be a deflowered woman who is already in love."
Lucian went back to dozing off, as she continued to explain her plan. He was restless enough with his own problems, he couldn't be bothered with hers.
The rest of the journey to Karina's ship was spent with her instructing him on how to act like a bedazzled lover, which was a difficult task, since he already had someone he wanted to act like a bedazzled lover with.
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Torches and braziers lit the way as they rolled onto the wooden docks, the carriage wheels thumping over planks. Finally, they stopped.
The ship loomed like a massive sea beast. A sleek, black and gold galleon with three tall masts and menacing carvings of snarling sea serpents along the railings. Armored pirates stood guard before the gangplank. One of them barked orders in a gravelly voice, and the others snapped to attention when Karina appeared.
They treated her like royalty. Several pirates immediately flanked her as she descended from the carriage.
"Miss Karina."
"Prepare my cabin," she ordered, voice crisp. "And make sure no one disturbs us tonight."
Lucian was hauled out and marched up the gangplank, the chains on his ankles forcing him into a humiliating shuffle.
Karina led the way below deck to her cabin at the stern of the ship. A large, canopied bed dominated one side while a heavy oak desk sat near the windows, which overlooked the dark sea. Maps, navigation tools, and a locked chest were neatly arranged on the shelves. Lanterns with colored glass hung from the ceiling, casting a warm, intimate glow. There was even a small private bathing alcove behind a screen and a wardrobe.
Lucian was not treated badly. He was dismissed after being given a proper meal, which made it even harder for him to end her life just like that.
"Are you a child?" she observed him when he began to build a pelt out of the furs and blankets on the floor, "What are you doing?"
"Making a nest," Lucian said, arranging the pelt.
"Why?"
"Priests do this to get closer to the Gods, and ward off evil spirits." Alibi was necessary against Celine. Lucian couldn't get caught in any dubious acts, so he moved a few chairs and stacked a few crates to make his nest look like a fort. "They need their holy space to sleep in, it's sacred."