Finally, he eased back from her, smiling as if he had just brought her great pleasure.

"There now," he said, "Not so bad is it?" He lifted the glass he had taken from her and drank from it. "Why satisfy yourself with the parasite when you can have the king, my pet?"

"I-I-I love Antoine."

He drank again. "Love? Humph!" he grunted. "A word… not a very meaningful one either. Only an excuse for attachment." Again, he drank, "Never mind, it isn't important what you think, or want. It's what I want that counts… and I want you, my dear." He backed away and moved in a small circle before her. "You'll do what I say from here on… unless you prefer to be completely destroyed… along with your illegitimate daughter."

"What are you saying? You… you wouldn't do anything to hurt Igat…?"

"Why not? Bastard kids are born every day. What's one more? If she or he holds me from getting what I want… then, it's time to destroy them."

"My God! My dear God! You're horrid! An unadulterated monster…!"

Larreau set down his glass and moved against her once more. His left hand encircled her small waist while his right darted to her left breast, encompassing its full, rotund protuberance, squeezing and kneading, working at its nipple through the several layers of garments until it stood hard and erect, and in her helplessness she submitted to him.

"No… I'm not what you think," he said, letting his hands trail down her slightly delineated ribs to her hips, then moving behind her while she stood spellbound, and slipping downward to envelop her soft, warm, full buttocks in cupping fashion. He pulled her to him and once more she felt the hard unbelievable length of him grinding against her pelvis. "I'm human enough. Trouble is… you don't know what made me the way I am. It isn't important, anyway. What's important is that I want you… and I know I'm ugly. So… I have to take you… to force you. I-I-I'll make a deal with you. You be 'nice' to me and I'll get your kid back for you… make Antoine accept it. I promise, I will. Girarde is a nothing… a Ministre Of Gouvernment, but a nothing. I'll get the child, I swear it… if you're nice to me…"