"What else do you possibly want?" Lynn laughed.
"Right now, besides your own life, do you actually own a single goddamn thing?"
"Oh, wait. No."
"Joffrey was going to murder you. I stopped him."
"Which means I'm the one who gave you your life back."
"You don't even own your own life anymore. So what exactly are you hoping to get out of this?"
Lynn closed the distance between them. He reached out, his fingers gently tracing her immaculately maintained but thoroughly exhausted face.
"The question you should be asking isn't what you can get."
"It's what you can do for me."
Cersei's body went completely rigid.
"You!"
She violently slapped his hand away and shot up from her chair.
She wanted to rage. She wanted to scream. She wanted to spit the most venomous, vile curses she knew right in his face.
But the second her gaze locked onto Lynn's dead-calm, pitch-black eyes, every single word choked in her throat.
There was no lust in those eyes. No mocking amusement. Just a vast, freezing apathy.
He was looking at her like she was an inanimate object. A piece of trash he could toss out whenever he felt like it.
Cersei's heart instantly turned to ice.
She understood.
In his eyes, she didn't have a single ounce of bargaining power left.
"I..."
Cersei opened her mouth, but the sudden burst of courage completely evaporated into thin air.
She powerlessly bowed her proud, arrogant head.
Lynn looked at her shattered demeanor. He didn't push any harder, deciding instead to strike while the iron was hot.
"Your father, Tywin, treated you like a cheap bargaining chip to buy an alliance with Highgarden."
"Your son, Joffrey, tried to strangle you to death over a secret."
"Cersei, it's time you start thinking about yourself for once."
Lynn's voice was faint, but every single syllable drove like a dagger straight into her heart.
"Is House Lannister really worth bleeding yourself dry for?"
Cersei didn't say a word.
She just wrapped her arms around herself, her body trembling slightly.
She thought of Lord Tywin's face—forever as cold and unyielding as solid rock.
She thought of Joffrey locking his hands around her throat, looking at her with the rabid, psychotic eyes of a total stranger.
Was it worth it?
She didn't know.
All she knew was that the entire world had completely abandoned her.
"Your value doesn't lie in your last name."
Lynn stepped behind her, resting his heavy hands firmly on her bare shoulders.
Cersei's body violently stiffened.
She could feel the burning heat radiating from his palms, carrying an absolutely undeniable, crushing authority.
Lynn leaned in close, his hot breath brushing against the shell of her ear.
"Let's see exactly what you're good for... aside from being a Lannister."
His voice carried a dark, predatory tease.
His hands slowly slid down, beginning a deeply invasive, unapologetic exploration of her body.
Cersei's breathing instantly turned rapid and shallow.
She wanted to fight back. She wanted to shove this man away.
But her body completely refused to obey her brain.
A bizarre, electric shiver sparked wherever his rough hands stroked her bare skin, rapidly surging through her entire nervous system.
Fear. Deep, burning humiliation. And a twisted, filthy shred of... anticipation, one she completely refused to admit to herself.
She hadn't been handled like this in a very long time.
Cersei bit down hard on her lower lip, her perfectly manicured nails digging deep into the tender flesh of her palms.
She knew that if she just said the word "no," this man might actually stop.
But she also knew that stopping meant completely, permanently throwing away her absolute last lifeline.
She would officially become a pathetic, worthless worm with nothing left to her name.
No.
She wasn't going to accept that!
Why the hell should she be dragged down into the mud like this?!
Why the hell should she be abandoned by absolutely everyone?!
She wanted revenge!
She wanted to destroy Tywin! She wanted to destroy Joffrey! She wanted to completely ruin every single bastard who had ever looked down on her!
And the dominant man standing right behind her was her only ticket to making that happen.
Even if that ticket was soaked in pure, unfiltered degradation.
Cersei's violently tense muscles slowly, inch by inch, surrendered and relaxed.
She closed her eyes, letting the man's hands ruthlessly claim every single secret inch of her bare flesh.
She could smell the heavy scent of raw leather and freezing northern snow radiating off his body.
It was the intoxicating, primal scent of an absolute conqueror.
The night was incredibly long.
Inside the Tower of the Hand, the fire in the hearth burned with a quiet, steady heat.
An impossible amount of time passed.
The only sounds left in the sprawling bedchamber were the woman's ragged, exhausted gasps, and the deep, powerful thud of the man's heartbeat.
Cersei lay naked on the heavy silk sheets, her eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling.
Her body felt like it had been violently dismantled and put back together; every single muscle fiber screamed in a raw, overused ache.
But her mind was clearer than it had ever been in her entire life.
Everything that had just happened in that bed felt like a deeply degrading fever dream.
But she knew damn well it wasn't a dream.
This was a choice she had actively made.
By willingly degrading herself into Lynn's personal whore, she had essentially turned her own body into a poker chip, shoving her entire net worth to the center of the table in a massive, winner-takes-all gamble.
Lynn sat up from the mattress. He didn't even glance at the naked woman laying beside him. He just strolled straight to the window, staring out over the sleeping, sprawling filth of King's Landing.
"Get dressed."
His voice brutally sliced through the heavy silence of the room.
Cersei's exhausted body twitched.
She forced her trembling, aching limbs to prop herself up. She gathered her ruined gown from the floor and started pulling her clothes back on, piece by piece.
By the time she smoothed out her tangled golden hair, fully stepping back into the skin of the regal, untouchable Queen Mother...
She walked up behind Lynn.
"Master."
The word caught slightly in her throat, sounding unnatural, but it was completely stripped of any lingering resentment or bitterness.
She had completely accepted her new reality.
If she couldn't fight him, she was going to submit to him entirely.
For Myrcella. For herself. And to utterly destroy every single bastard who had turned their backs on her.
"What do you want me to do?"
Cersei asked, completely surrendering the initiative.
Lynn slowly turned around.
He looked at the woman standing in front of him—a woman who had essentially been broken down and entirely rebuilt—and a dark, highly satisfied smirk spread across his face.
Smart women always knew how to make the right moves when backed into a corner.
Even the title she chose to address him with was exactly what he wanted to hear.
This was absolutely perfect.
"First things first. You're going back to the Red Keep."
Cersei's brows instantly pulled together in a deep frown.
"Joffrey... he'll never allow it."
"Right now, he'd be thrilled if I just vanished off the face of the earth."
"He'll allow it."
Lynn closed the distance, grabbed Cersei, and firmly pulled her down to sit straddling his lap.
Cersei hesitated for a fraction of a second, then compliantly settled onto his thighs.
"Relax. I've got it handled."
Lynn casually stroked her thick golden hair, his tone entirely relaxed.
"For a woman who literally gave birth to the kid, you understand absolutely nothing about how Joffrey's brain actually works. I know him better than you do."
"With a psycho like him, the more arrogant you act, the more you fight back, the more it gets him off."
"He's an incredibly petty, vindictive little shit. If you cross him, and he doesn't have the power to crush you yet, he'll just lay low and fester until he gets the muscle to strike back."
"And when he does, he'll make sure you suffer ten times worse."
Cersei's face shifted, a genuine shadow of dread passing over her eyes.
"Don't worry about it."
Lynn dragged his hands over her curves, offering a twisted, dominant brand of comfort.
"You really need to take some notes from Lyanna. Watch exactly how she plays that idiot like a cheap fiddle."
"You have to make him absolutely believe that you are totally castrated. That you pose zero threat to his throne."
"You're going back strictly to beg for your life and desperately cling to whatever 'family' ties you have left."
"Your royal chambers, your handmaidens, your political influence—he's going to strip absolutely all of it away."
"You'll be shoved into the most isolated, forgotten corner of the Red Keep, living exactly like a common prisoner."
"That's the only way he'll actually feel safe having you around."
"I'll handle the rest. I'll manipulate him into actually feeling sorry for you."
"And that is the only way you're going to stay close enough to him to handle some very important business for me."
"I understand."
Cersei closed her eyes, ruthlessly swallowing down every last ounce of her Lannister pride.
"I'll give him exactly what he wants to see. The most pathetic, broken, groveling mother in the world."
"Perfect."
Lynn nodded in absolute satisfaction.
"As for Joffrey, I'll have Lyanna whisper in his ear and talk him into it."
"That little girl has practically mapped out every single twisted corner of his brain."
Cersei opened her eyes and looked up at Lynn.
"So... when exactly am I going back?"
"First thing tomorrow morning."