A Brother's Price by 111325346436434

‘‘They approached us. We listened. That was all. That is not an agreement for marriage. Frankly, Corelle, we can do better than them. We have land, money, and breeding. We’ve got Queens’
    blood in us, and don’t you forget that. You’re acting like a cat in heat, presenting yourself to anything that might want to service you.’’
    ‘‘At least I’m not servicing women on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night!’’ Corelle hissed. Jerin clapped hands to his mouth to trap in a cry of protest. Corelle witnessed him and Ren? Eldest turned toward him, saw his face, and went white.
    ‘‘Corelle, go to your room,’’ Eldest said.
    ‘‘I’m not a child!’’ Corelle whined. ‘‘I have a right to hear—’’
    ‘‘Now!’’
    Corelle flinched backward from Eldest, shot an angry glare at Jerin, and then bolted from the room. Her footsteps thundered up the stairs and her door slammed shut with a bang.
    Jerin sat frozen, hands still over his mouth.
    ‘‘The rest of you too.’’ Eldest indicated the youngest sisters, and they filed out.
    ‘‘Who was it?’’ Eldest asked quietly, emotionlessly, when he was alone with his middle and oldest sisters. His voice would only come out as a whisper. ‘‘Princess A BROTHER’S PRICE
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    Rennsellaer.’’ Unbearable silence followed. He had to break it. ‘‘She didn’t mount me.’’ The silence continued.
    ‘‘She was sitting in the dark when I came down for something to eat. I didn’t see her until she had me in her arms, and—and—I tried to resist. I asked her please not to—and she pushed me against the hearth and kissed me. She didn’t mount me—we didn’t go that far. Father told me ways to make a woman happy, and that satisfied her.’’
    ‘‘The bitch!’’ Eldest muttered finally. ‘‘Come to our home, eat our food, sleep in our beds, and then rape our little brother!’’
    Jerin wrung his hands, feeling guilty for not confessing that he had done nothing he hadn’t wanted to, that it wasn’t truly rape. He was afraid, though, of his sisters’
    fury, and the cold disapproval he would have to live with until he married well, proving he wasn’t ruined by the incident. His life would be bearable only by claiming the part of wronged innocence.
    Still, it galled to leave the dangerous word floating there, uncountered. ‘‘I’m still a virgin, technically. In the end, when I said that going farther would ruin me, she let me go off to bed alone.’’
    The level of anger in the room lessened slightly. He rocked slightly in his chair, chiding himself for being a coward. Should he tell them how he surrendered to the seduction, enjoyed giving pleasure to the princess, and received ecstasy beyond description? Who was the true hussy in this family?
    ‘‘Do you think,’’ Summer said quietly into the stunned silence, ‘‘he did enough to catch any diseases she might have?’’
    ‘‘She’s a princess!’’ Jerin cried.
    ‘‘She’s a rapist,’’ Eldest snapped.
    ‘‘She didn’t rape me. She didn’t try to use any crib drugs on me. I’m still a virgin.’’
    ‘‘She took you. Maybe not completely, but still she took you against your will.’’
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    Wen Spencer
    Was it rape? He didn’t know. Certainly if she had let him go when he first asked, he would have fled back to his bed, remaining chaste in his lips, his hands, and his memories. Now only parts of him were virgin. He wavered in the belief of his virginity. Maybe being a virgin was like planting a garden—you could turn the earth and rake down the soil all you wanted, but until you pushed a seed into the dirt, you hadn’t created a garden. Or was being a virgin like a frosted cake, where once someone stole a slice, you couldn’t proudly serve it to visitors?
    He realized that while he debated his virginity, his sisters were discussing the issue of diseases. It would be too soon, they had decided, to tell if he had caught something. They would take him