22. Scream so Loud.

“You’re naked. How can you be naked?" Winifred asked further, refusing to open her eyes to see the dangling thing in between his legs again even though she was very much tempted to.

Arthur growled, "Stop making a big deal out of nothing,  I was here to ease myself. It's not that much of a big deal, you can stop covering your eyes by the way, I already tied my robe!"

Winifred trusted what he said and opened her eyes only to some in contact with his robe still untied and his manhood still on full display and at just a few feet away from her within touching distance. She quickly closed her eyes again wondering if this was some kind of punishment for what she did.

"Why are you doing this? You do know that this is sexual harassment, right?" Winifred blurted out before realizing that such laws probably doesn't exist in the time that she was in at that moment.

“Open those eyes!” Arthur snapped.

"Well, how about you put on some pants or is it trousers that you call them?”

“You don't tell me what to do, and I won't tie my bathrobe nor do anything like putting on clothes until you tell me why you are hiding in my bathroom with my keys in your hands!" Arthur said, remaining adamant.

Winifred knew that she had to just do as he said so she slowly opened her eyes, making sure to keep them only on his face. “I wasn’t hiding, I was taking my bath like you had asked me to...” She said, acting courageous even though she couldn't even understand what she was feeling at the moment.

He shot her a long stare before proceeding to speak, “Taking a shower with the water drained and clothes on? Oh dear Winifred, do I look stupid to you?"

Winifred found herself shrinking into the wall more and more even though she wasn't going anywhere, "I was putting on my clothes when you entered so I just quickly jumped into the bath tub."

Arthur put his right arm out and placed it wide on the wall. Leaning toward winifred, he said in a raspy tone, “Hm... why do I feel like you were just here giving yourself some pleasure though?"

"What? What pleasure? What are you talking about?" Winifred asked, in total honest confusion.

"Pleasure, you know what I mean. Don't act like you never do it." Arthur taunted.

Winifred gasped, "Wait, are you talking about masturbation? Oh my God!"

The tightness on Arthur's face melted away and his eyes shined with naughtiness. Before he could speak and end up saying one more thing that was sure to rile Winifred up even more, she stopped him, almost rasing her voice, "Don't even say it! Just stop!"

Throwing her a lopsided smile, he rasped in a low voice, “Tell you what. You can just continue what you started, I'm not a party pooper and I'll even be a gentleman and turn around until you... uhm... explode?"

Winifred stared long and hard at the man in front of him. Swallowing, she took a look at the curl of his biceps. They were huge. He could crush her, if he wanted. He could wrap his large arms around her, restrain her with his body, cover her and even hide her under him. And it would take days for someone to find her. On the other hand, she didn't understand how or why he would think she was masturbating in the bathroom after all that she had been through and while she was in his hellhole. Why was he so beautiful and hot yet so clueless and stupid?

With his thing in between them, Winifred couldn't stop herself from looking downwards again and then her gaze was hooked on something she hadn't noticed before, he had  a crescent birthmark on his v shape and for some reason, Winifred found it attractive.

While she was busy checking him out, he voice was heard again, “Give me my keys, Winifred, do you think stealing my keys could get you to escape these walls? Have you even seen this palace,  have you seen the high walls? Do you want to go through the same thing you went through last night due to your rebellious self and disobedience. Don't you ever learn?” he scolded, his voice getting more stern as he kept speaking.

Winifred strggled to keep her on him as his  frown went erce and scary. Biting her lip, she fished the keys out of her pocket and drop them onto his open palm.

“Do you know what happens to disobedient slaves like you?” he asked softly, running his eyes up and down her body for what looked like the first time that night. He was attracted to her, and seeing her more refreshed and cleaned up made her even more attractive.  Winifred noticed how he stared at her and she felt like her body was exploding, her skin was flushed and riddled with goose bumps.

"Whatever!" She blurted out with a little more heat. He ignored her rude putburst and continued “They get punished.” Winifred looked down at his manhood and could swear that he was growing right in front of her eyes since it wasn't the size that they were minutes ago.

She scoffed, pretending to be brave as usual, "with what? Huh? What is the problem?"

It was at this point that Arthur stepped inside the bathtub rendering Winifred speechless.  “Maybe,” he started to reply to her “I’m being too lenient with you, Winifred.  I think you're the sort of slave who would prefer to be tortured, maltreated. Even when your fate is in my hands, you keep proving stubborn. Listen carefully, Winifred, what you did last night will not happen again. Not if you don’t want to suffer dire consequences.”

“What will you do?” Winifred probed further, she wasn't trying to prove even more stubborn this time, she honestly just wanted to know what his list of punishments really were. “Make your wolves guard me around the clock? Will you tie me up to your bed if I try to run away? Lock me up in those dungeons people keep talking about? What will you do, you beast?” She saw him cringe at her words. She knew she was pushing it too far and that she might regret it, but she didn’t think he had it in him to actually do the worst to her which she thought was either hitting her or raping her.

And maybe, somewhere deep down, she wanted him to hit her so she would have an even stronger reason to despise him and have more reasons why she shouldn't stay in his hellhole.

Arthur breathed evenly for a couple of seconds, wondering for the thousandth time in the past hours if he hadn’t made the biggest mistake of his life by trying to keep this girl instead of just handing her over to his father.. The girl standing in front of him was fierce and defiant and as much as he liked that she had a mind of her own, it also annoyed him to a fault. He began to move closer towards the girl in front of him noticing how the dress tightened on her bust, thus emphasizing it.

“If you come any closer, I’m going to scream so loud that everyone in this... this environment will come rushing down.” Winifred threatened when she saw how much he was invading on her space.

“Oh really? You think anyone would come rushing when you scream? You think there's some angel somewhere who would come to your rescue just because you scream in this palace, in this room? You still don't know where you are, do you?" There was no expression on his face. Nothing but pure intensity, and Winifred couldn't look at him. He was too close. Too large. Too naked. His smell and the heat of his skin surrounded her like two strong arms and she couldn’t break their hold. When she felt him leaning towards her, she snapped her eyes up at him. Her heart was in her throat, ready to fly out of it as she realized that at any second he might touch her.

She thought he was about to touch her and was about to start screaming when a great rush of water started to rain down on her head like some heavy weight. It took a second for Winifred to understand what had happened. Arthur had turned on the shower with her inside the bathtub, fully clothed and all. “What i... is th... this?" She stuttered.

"Listen and listen carefully, I will not repeat this after this night. You have two options, you either be a good girl by being obedient and respectful and I'll make sure you at least have a comfortable life in this palace or you keep on being rude and disrespectful and I'll make you live a life that makes you think the house of babylon where I bought you from is way way better than this place. The choice is yours! Now get out!"