She sighs contentedly, leaning on him.

"I don't know, my lord," she says. "What would you like to give me?"

He pauses. It is a pause full of things he isn't saying.

(The world. The sun and moon and stars. Anything but your freedom. It's insane to look at a slave this way, a human, a brief fragile creature who will wither and fade before her first century.

But she is his to do with as he pleases, and that smile on her face pleases him very much.)

"Your own room," he suggests, "where you can stay when I'm not using you. Supplied with any material luxury you like."

"I would appreciate that very much, my lord. And - calligraphy supplies. Good ones. That is the height of luxury to me."

He smiles and kisses the top of her head. "Then you shall have them."

- oh.

He is in love with her.

Suddenly everything makes sense.

The intense possessiveness, the fact that he spent all day watching her be gang-raped on his orders, the strange generosity. The - kindness.

That's... terrifying, but perhaps less terrifying than being in this situation with the Emperor not in love with her.

And now she should stop thinking about this before he notices. She nestles against him and enjoys the heat of his body and the warmth of the water and the feeling of being clean and uninjured and safe. The Emperor is fundamentally unsafe, of course, but - speculation about his motives aside, he does clearly value her and he is clearly going to keep her for a while yet. She's not going to go the way of his harem girls anytime soon.

Unless -

Pet pet. "What are you so frightened of all of a sudden?"

"I - I remembered what he said about - wanting to get me pregnant so you'd kill me," she murmurs.

"Oh. Don't worry about that," says the Emperor. "If it happens, I can and will tear your womb from your body without killing you."

"Oh."

She considers this mental image.

...it's kind of hot.

"Thank you, my lord."

"I want you to live a long and happy life spent mostly in my bed," he says, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. "You're a treasure, and I keep my treasures."

She laughs softly.

"Thank you, my lord," she says again.

Pet pet.

"You were so much less eloquent with them than with me," he says. "Should I be flattered that I merit your creativity, or insulted that I can't drive you past it?"

"Oh, definitely flattered, my lord. I tell you in detail all the awful things I want you to do to me because it's all true and I like saying it. With them, every word I said was forced from me by threat of death or torture. Of course I wasn't going to give them all I had."

"Mmm."

He holds her for a moment longer, then scoops her up and carries her out of the bath to dry her off.

"So if I said, 'lovely Niamira, beg for my cock or I'll make what they did to you this afternoon look like a pleasant stroll in the garden'..."

She meets his eyes.

"I'd say: everything they did to me, I wanted you to do worse. I would walk across a bed of hot coals to kneel at your feet while you fuck my mouth. If you stood over me with a red-hot poker I would spread my legs and say please. I want you to whip the skin from my back and then hold me in your lap and fuck my ass. I wish there were two of you so you could share me. If you decide to fuck me with a mace I hope it has spikes. You're beautiful and terrifying and I'm glad you can have me gang-raped. My biggest complaint about most of what I went through this afternoon was that you weren't the one doing it. Rape me. Torture me. Fuck me in every hole I have and then make some new ones. I want you to make me scream. I want you to make me cry. I want you to put your child in my belly and then rip it out again."

She drops her eyes demurely.

He grabs her face in his hands and pulls her to him for a deep, violent, passionate kiss.

"You'd best hope you meant that," he breathes, and then he picks her up and carries her to his bed and throws her into it and pounces. Lifecraft kindles warmth and pleasure everywhere his skin touches hers.

...she wasn't expecting quite that strong a reaction but she's hardly about to complain. She wraps her legs around him with a ragged moan. "Oh fuck, oh please, yes, my lord that feels so good, your cock feels so good in my cunt, I love the way you fuck me, love the way you rape me, please, yes, it's so good, you own my pleasure and I wouldn't have it any other way, please, please -"

And then further words are lost in a long loud wail of uttermost ecstasy.

He takes her and takes her and takes her, fucking her like she's the best thing in the world, the only thing in the world. Until she loses her voice from screaming, until he's out of breath and shaky with exhaustion. Then he stops, and heals her of her strained voice and numerous bruises, and curls up and wraps his arms around her and kisses her forehead.

"My lord," she yawns, snuggling close, "you are unparalleled. A lifetime of pleasure in one night."

He smiles and pets her hair. "My lovely Niamira."

"Mmm. Just please don't make it two," she jokes. "We mortals need to sleep occasionally."

"I can do whatever I please with you," he says, nuzzling her cheek.

She sighs happily. "I know."