Flesh and Bone ◇ Bucky Barnes ◇

XLI: Queen of One

Joana

Her heart stopped when she heard the door handle turn. A smile crept up her face when she realized what it meant. 

She stood to greet the King as he entered. 

"Inoko, was it?" The way he talked, the way he moved, the way he breathed was American. He had none of the regalness that moved within Wakanda like oxygen. He was raised like Joana was. She knew him, everything about him, just by the way he spoke. 

But Joana revealed none of this. She simply nodded her head. 

"You're mute because of some sacrifice to your goddess, Bast?" He asked, walking around her in circles. Joana nodded again, fighting away the twisting feeling in her gut that so reminded her of HYDRA and the days she spent stalked and preyed upon. 

"You changed?" Joana raised an eyebrow as if to ask if he liked her outfit. "Did you change just for me?" 

The King dropped his voice and Joana's breath stopped. She knew the sound of his voice, recognized the way he breathed. Her skin itched, goosebumps covering her entire body. The King ran a finger across the scars on Joana's neck and her eyes fluttered shut. 

"You have some pretty nasty scars for being a priestess." Joana opened her eyes again and met his gaze dead on. She would not be intimidated. She had a job to do here. She would do it. "I have some scars myself, would you like to see them?" 

The King pulled off his shirt and Joana's heart seized. This had happened to her before. Not exactly this scenario, but she knew where it was heading. She told herself that she could handle it, whatever the cost. 

The King stepped toward her, chest riddled with scars. Before he even asked her to, Joana began to trace the scars with a delicate finger. She tried to seem amazed at those scars, but she knew what they meant. She had learned well enough in her time at Wakanda that scars like the ones worn by the King represented a life taken. 

"Do you know my name?" He asked her quietly as if it was somehow important. Joana met his gaze once again. The look he was giving her turned her stomach to lead. "I am N'jadaka, and I do not care what promise you gave to your goddess, by the end of this night, I will having you screaming my name so all those in the palace can hear." 

He grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her. It wasn't a sloppy kiss like the others, but it was forceful. Joana tried her best to kiss him back, but she couldn't breathe. Her heart convulsed rapidly. She tripped over her long dress as N'jadaka pushed her backward. While she fell, she was free from his grip and she could almost breathe, but as soon as she hit the ground, he was on top of her and her breath left again. 

He was slower than the others Joana had been with. They always seemed in a rush to be somewhere after they were done with her, but N'jadaka was in no hurry. She almost preferred it the other way. It meant it was over quicker. 

Before he even began to undress her, Joana knew she wasn't going to make it. She was already hearing Aleksi and Pierce and Rumlow in her hear. She could already feel their breath on her neck, their hands on her body. She couldn't do this. She needed to end it before it began. 

N'jadaka was so busy kissing her neck that he failed to realize Joana reaching up toward the bed, where her dagger was waiting. She could just barely get her hand under the pillow. Her fingertips grazed the hilt on the dagger, but she couldn't grab it. She groaned as she reached just a tiny bit further.