I leaned down, softening my gaze with apologies and choking on a torrent of despair. Ashley’s mouth was so close, if not for our gags, I would’ve felt the velvety warmth of his lips against mine.

His shackled hands lay trapped between our hips. He shifted them, reached down, and curled his fingers against the apex of my legs, cupping me in a startling show of possessiveness.

A chill dripped down my spine. I lifted my head, turned my eyes slowly over my shoulder, and found Priest climbing onto the bed behind me. He knelt between my legs, between Ashley’s thighs, forcing us to spread around his muscled lower half.

My pulse lost its rhythm, and the taste of sour milk washed over my tongue.

He untied the flap on the front of his breeches.

This was happening. He was really going to do this with Ashley beneath me. Horrified, I shook with panic and angrily growled my objections behind the rag in my mouth.

“Leave your hands there, Cutler.” Priest bowed over my back and grabbed Ashley’s throat, pinning him to the mattress. “I want you to feel me when I impale her.”

Ashley seethed, his body bucking under mine. Until I felt the cold press of metal against my temple.

Priest’s flintlock pistol…gripped in his free hand… He was holding a gun to my head.

Enthusiastic voices raved in the audience, but I didn’t hear anything they said. My mouth filled with hot sand, my mind blank with incomprehension.

Why was he doing this? Was this a private war in which a jealous husband wreaked vengeance on his wife and her lover? Or was it part of his plan to help us escape?

I had to trust him. No matter what, I had to believe he wasn’t here to hurt me.

“Hold this, would you?” Priest said to the man-eating giant leaning against the wall.

The bearded ogre approached and took the flintlock.

“Careful with the trigger. It’s loaded.” Priest gripped the barrel, pushing the man’s hand farther away from my head. “I just cleaned the flint. It’ll spark with barely a twitch. If you spray my face with powder, I’ll open your throat before I die, no mistake.”

The ogre chuckled in a deep baritone. “I know how to use a pistol, mate.”

It wasn’t loaded. I couldn’t tell by looking at it, but Priest would never take such a risk with my life. No one here knew that, though. Including Ashley.

Priest released Ashley’s throat and gripped my hips with both hands. The gravity of what was about to happen crushed my lungs in a vise grip. If we lived, how would we move past this? What did my future even look like with a husband and a lover and…

Stop. Not helping.