Chapter 30 – Treated Like a Common Wh*re
“You never gave me a chance to see you. I couldn’t afford to think about manners,” Clara cooed in a coquettish voice, leaning into his chest.
However, his reply was cold. “Then you probably do not expect politeness from me, either.”
Although disappointed by the indifference in his voice, she thought that she could easily melt an icy heart. Her hand seductively grazed his waist, stomach, and sculpted chest.
“I shall not treat you as a lady of status and breeding.” The Archduke, who showed no response to her caress, suddenly lifted her and threw her onto the bed quite roughly.
“Ah!” Startled by the sudden change in his attitude, she stared up at the Archduke. His enormous body towered over her like a giant. He climbed into the bed and trapped her under him with his arms on either side of her.
Quickly reading the situation, she wrapped her arms around his neck and attempted a kiss. Then again, the Archduke turned away his face. Her pride wounded, she raised herself and tried once again, but he bluntly rejected her lips.
As though annoyed, he grabbed her neck and pinned it down the mattress. Clara was shocked by his violent treatment, but all she could do was to flail under his overwhelming power.
No man had treated her this way, and no man could.
When her gaze finally met his cold eyes, she began to come to her senses. She had walked voluntarily into a war-crazy devil’s bedroom and tried to seduce him. Enthralled by his beauty, she had ignored all the warnings about him. She had underestimated the fact that everyone was afraid of him.
Observing the fear upon Clara’s face, Alexandro released her neck. She assumed that he had changed his mind, and slowly raised herself from the bed. But she was mistaken. The Archduke grabbed both of her ankles and dragged her downward.
“No!” She emitted a short cry, but the Archduke’s next move put her into an utter shock. He violently grabbed at her dress and pulled. The fabric tore like a piece of paper in his hands.
Her undergarments exposed, she quickly raised her hands to cover her chest. But he snatched both her wrists and pressed them above her head with one hand, while savagely clutching her bosom with the other. One of her breasts became exposed in the struggle. She trembled in humiliation.
“Let me go! How dare you treat me this way! Right now! Release me… Ahh!”
“How annoying.” He furrowed his eyebrows and flipped her over, pinning down her head and pushing her face into the pillow, which muted her screams.
He handled her as if she was a mere plaything—a wh*re. She could no longer bear such a humiliating ordeal. She struggled against his grip, but underneath his body her movements were meaningless, like those of a butterfly caught in a cobweb.
Alexandro grabbed her pelvis and lifted it, forcing her to support her weight on her knees. With her face still pinned to the pillow and her hips raised high, she realized what he was after.
Even though Clara had pleasured herself while thinking about him, she had never imagined being taken this way. He and she were both of noble birth, and no aristocrats to her knowledge made love in such a brutal manner. Rough s*x, she had been told, was reserved to vulgar people looking for something different.
How could he treat me this way…! The Archduke was not fooling around, and she was planning on becoming his wife. She could not marry him and spend her life being treated like a common wh*re. And it was clear that he was only planning on taking her for a night of amusement.
She could no longer afford to think of what would happen. His hands raised her skirt up to her waist. Her privates, covered only in her drawers, were revealed to him. He hastily tore the drawers off, exposing her luscious buttocks.
As if playing a joke, he painfully gripped one cheek of her bottom and shook it. With his other hand, he slapped her opposite cheek, producing a loud noise.
“Ahh!” The slap must have made a mark. She quivered in utter disgust. Even though she had daringly come into his bedroom to seduce him, she had not intended to get r*ped. Tears streamed from her eyes in unbearable shame, her face still buried into the pillow.
Her body shuddered violently. When Alexandro heard her sobbing, he immediately stopped his actions and promptly rose from the bed, snatching her waist.
“What are you…!” Dangling like a ragdoll in his hands, she was unable to understand what was happening. His rough handling, carrying her all around the room and lifting her up and down, kept her delirious.
In his final act of mercy, he released her by the door and lowered her skirt to the floor. She staggered in his savage hands.
Her legs shaking, she could not remain standing on the floor. Her face was stained with tears. Without a shred of concern, he bent down to meet Clara’s eyes.
“If you ever come near me again…”
She sobbed piteously.
“…I shall not regard you as a lady.”
Fearful eyes, filled with tears, peered at the Archduke.
“Do you understand, my lady?”
Bewildered by the pressure of his voice and eyes, demanding a precise answer, she nodded her head like a madwoman. Convinced that she had understood, he opened the bedroom door and pushed her out. Faltering at his shove, she fell into the arms of the startled servant guarding the door.
“Take the lady home.” The Archduke slammed the door behind him and went back to bed. The smell of her perfume lingered in the air, making his head throb in intolerable disgust. Despite the icy winds outside, he bounded up from the bed and opened the window. The cold air wrapped around his head and rushed into the room.
While he did not know exactly who she was, given her daring visit and Aaron’s description of the woman, he assumed that she was Lady Clara Bandorras.
He could have easily cut her with his sword for entering his room without permission. He believed that he was being generous.