4. Mia

4

MIA

Ihad never known sex like it.

My body was still quivering with pleasure, and I wasn’t sure it was ever going to stop. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted it to stop.

Prince Rivvac had his eyes shut, laying on his back, facing the ceiling. I could feel the heat emanating from him in waves.

As the coolness of the breeze fluttered the curtains and brought a chill with it, I moved closer to him and tentatively wrapped my arm around his body.

When he didn’t respond with anger, I added the rest of me to the mix until I was pressing my whole body against him.

The sex was, in a word, incredible.

I knew he was desperate—any guy with a hard-on like the one he was sporting couldn’t be anything but—and I had assumed he wouldn’t have the stamina to last as long as he had.

“Thank you for that,” he said, blinking his eyes slowly awake.

“Thank me?” I said. “You did all the hard work.”

“Yes. But you let me do what I needed with your body.”

I snorted. “Could I have stopped you?”

He looked over at me curiously. “Yes, of course.”

Okay, so that was a surprise. He’d seemed like a possessed animal and I’d assumed he couldn’t control himself in the moment. “You seem to know your way around the female form.”

He snorted. “Not as well as you might think.”

His humility surprised me and made me smile. “Most guys think they’re God’s gift to women.”

He frowned at that. “The Creator’s gift? But we are, aren’t we? Aren’t we all gifts to each other?”

Huh. I’d never thought about it like that before. “I mean, sex is sometimes a little… disappointing. It can be great, don’t get me wrong. But it’s never felt—”

“Life-changing,” Rivvac completed.

I looked him over, the same sense of surprise I felt registered on his face.

There had been something somehow special about our sex. I just couldn’t quite put my finger on why though.

His cock was far larger than I was used to with human lovers. I supposed that must have played a role but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t the whole story.

His technique, then?

Possibly.

I wasn’t ready to admit it to him yet but I loved the way he used me for his own purposes, how he contorted my body into positions that he either thought would work best—either for him or me, I wasn’t sure—and how he got on with it, not asking pointless questions or spoiling the mood by talking all the way through.

Incredible wasn’t the right word. Exquisite was.

And yet, that still wasn’t the full reason why it had felt so good. Was it knowing the Sirens were outside, jealousy running deep like a river between them?

Again, that was another piece of the reason.

Or the fact he was a rich and powerful prince of an alien species what made it different? That he had chosen—of all females available to him—me?

Yep. Add those to the ingredients list.

But that was all they were—ingredients.

The recipe had some kind of secret ingredient that I couldn’t put my finger on, but I sensed it was right there, just beyond view over the horizon…

“What made you change your mind about accepting my offer?” he asked, interrupting my thoughts.

I shrugged. “Many reasons. First, a week of work—no matter how hard it is—is better than years of grinding. Although, I suppose I’ll be doing a lot of grinding this week too…” I blushed despite my best efforts to prevent it. “Anyway. An opportunity like this doesn’t come along often in a normal person’s life.”

“You didn’t think I was taking advantage?”

“I get my parents’ farm back for having sex with you for a week… Who’s using who?”

The alien prince smiled at that. “Yes, I suppose it could be looked at that way. But you turned to leave at one point. At the beginning. You opened the door and looked out and saw something… and it changed your mind.”

I recalled it clearly and was surprised he was astute enough to have noticed.

I nodded. “I did.”

“What was it?”

“It was the Sirens.”

He frowned. “The Sirens? Why should seeing them change your mind?”

“My whole life, I’ve been the executive assistant to many elites. Most of the top ones, the ones that I worked for, were nice. I think that’s how they got to their positions in the first place. They like helping other people, and later, when the time is right, those they helped responded in kind. So they become friends with all these people… and pretty soon, they have a network that means they can never fail—with anything they do.

“But some of their employees—and usually, it’s the more senior ones who have worked hard their whole lives to scale that power ladder—become bitter and twisted and they’re not nice people.” I turned to lock eyes on Rivvac. “They are not nice people. They’re bad mannered, liars, and deceitful. They steal from the boss, take advantage, and… well, that’s just the way it is.”

“But what does that have to do with the Sirens?”

“They’re exactly that type of person. They think they’re better than everyone else. I love my job, but if there’s one thing I wish I could live without, it would be them. And by agreeing to your offer, I would only have to put up with their sort for another seven days. Then I will never have to deal with them ever again.”

The prince leaned forward and kissed me on my shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay. Not your fault. And there’s another reason I chose to think about your offer…”

“What’s that?”

“The look on their faces when they realized I’m your Steyatt mate and not them, the fact I took that from them, the thing they want most in the world, and shoved it right down their throats!”

I couldn’t help but giggle and clap my hands.

Rivvac rubbed my back and tugged me closer. “And there was me thinking the reason was that you couldn’t resist my animal magnetism.”

We shared a look and burst out laughing.

“Well,” I said. “There’s that too. If you were that old Ulsen from the ballroom earlier, there’s no way I would accept his offer. I sense you’re a good person. There’s only so much trauma I’m willing to put myself through to get the farm.”

Rivvac nodded thoughtfully, all joviality gone. I realized I’d put my foot in it. As usual.

“Not that you’re going to cause me much trauma,” I added hastily. “But I don’t know you. And when you came to me with this kind of offer… I wasn’t sure what to think.”

“I suppose these kinds of situations aren’t common in your culture.”

“You can say that again,” I said.

The alien prince hesitated. “Alright… I suppose these kinds of situations aren’t common in your culture.”

I burst out laughing. “No, it’s an expression. It doesn’t mean you literally have to say it again.”

“Oh,” he said, confused.

He was cute, I decided.

With how frantic he’d been earlier during our negotiations, his expression smothered with lines of concern, his movements quick and jittery, I wasn’t sure if he was really handsome or not.

But now, after he had spilled himself inside me and all that tension was gone, I decided he was handsome.

Very handsome.

Better yet, he had the kind of body females of all species could only dream of getting to play with. He was not bulky and large as I had seen some of the other Ulsen males but lean and hard.

It was an intoxifying mix.

There was nothing at all artificial about his appearance, nothing bloated beyond what nature had intended, preferring to do exercises that improved his overall fitness rather than a single muscle.

He was also fit. There was no way he could have carried out his earlier attack on me if he wasn’t. (And I thought ‘attack’ was an apt description for the way he had gone after me.)

When he smiled, his cheek curled about his lips, leaving dimples in their wake. His eyes had small but noticeable wrinkles that curled upward in a pleasing way, as if his whole body enjoyed getting involved with smiling rather than just letting his lips have all the fun.

“I’m still surprised you don’t have a mate among your people for the Steyatt,” I said.

“I do,” he said.

I sat up. “You do?”

“Sure. Her name is Flara, and she’s my betrothed.”

“Betrothed?” I sat up and pressed the sheet to my chest, frowning hard. This was not something I had expected him to say. “Then why don’t you mate with her?”

“Because Flara… She’s from a rich and powerful family.”

“So? You said there’s honor and respect in being a Steyatt mate, right?”

“Yes. But her father… well, he’s a very… old-fashioned type.”

I sensed the anxiety he felt in this topic as his body had become tense as it had earlier when I first arrived.

“How do you know she isn’t a mate to some other male right now?” I said.

He shook his head as if batting away the image my comment conjured. “She isn’t like that. She’s more… traditional.”

I screwed my face up. “She sounds confused to me.”

“Confused how?”

I looked him over, then looked away. I shrugged. “I don’t know a lot about your culture, so my opinion doesn’t really mean much.”

Rivvac sat up on his elbows. “But you are a female. You might understand females of my culture better than any male of mine does.”

I searched his face before responding. “Well… she’s keeping herself pure. And that means she’s waiting until she gets married before she gives herself to someone. And if she’s from a rich and wealthy family… Maybe that someone won’t be you.”

“It definitely won’t be me if I can’t get enough money to prove I can take care of her.”

Rivvac blinked as if surprised he’d let the information slip.

“But you’re a prince. The Royal Family is always rich.”

His honeyed orbs flickered between my eyes as if deciding how much to tell me. He released and laid back down.

“We are rich. At least on paper. Our resources now belong to the Empire. As for Flara, we’ve known each other since we were very small. It was understood we were always meant to be together, that we were unofficially betrothed to marry.”

“Then what changed?”

“Politics, war, and caring for the poorest in society isn’t cheap and costs a fortune. When there wasn’t enough in the royal account to pay for those things, my father, the Emperor, took the decision to dip into the family’s personal wealth and use it to plug holes in the Empire’s accounts.”

“Your family did that?” I said, shocked at the revelation. “Our elites never do anything like that.”

“We’ll get our money back one day. But only if the Empire’s economy picks up, and there’s no guarantee of that happening. The Royal Family is no longer rich. We are poor. We survive on the interest payments of the money we used to help maintain the Empire.”

I gasped, and wrapped my hand around my mouth. “No.”

He nodded.

“We are still powerful. Rich… not anymore. But not many people know what happened. Very few people, in fact.”

“But your betrothed’s father is one of them?”

He shrugged. “He’s the Empire’s treasurer. He keeps track of every credit that goes in and out. There’s nothing he doesn’t know about when it comes to the finances of the Empire.”

It didn’t seem right that her father was willing to stop them from being together for the sole reason that his family was having some financial problems. It left a sour taste in my mouth.

“She’s also my fated mate.”

“A what?”

“Fated mate.”

“Fated mate…” I said, rolling the word around my lips. “It’s a big deal?”

“It’s the biggest deal.”

The alien prince pressed his arm to his forehead and stared at the ceiling. I got the impression that this problem had been keeping him awake at night.

Strange, I thought, that someone in his position—privileged, with a whole palace to live in and the adoration of the masses—should suffer from the same problems as the everyday Ulsen subjects.

“Is there anything you wouldn’t do for your fated mate?” I asked pointedly not looking him in the eye.

“Wouldn’t do? No. I would do anything for her.”

I nodded, unsure if I wanted to share my idea with him. “And… if there was a way for you to get the money you needed, would you do it?”

He raised my chin with a finger. I melted into his smile. “Does my mate have an idea?”

Have an idea? Have an idea? It was more than an idea…

I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe.”

“Then let’s hear it. It can’t be any worse than anything else I’ve attempted recently.”

I hesitated, still unsure whether or not to share it with him… but he had asked me, so why not?

I cleared my throat. “I once worked for a kind old Galaxian lady. She wasn’t rich but she had more than enough to keep herself comfortable for the rest of her life. Her only daughter died five years earlier after contracting a rare disease on the outer rim. The old lady never quite recovered from that, I think, as she kept her daughter’s rooms exactly as she had left them, treating them like some kind of museum or mausoleum.

“She never went into those rooms, except on important dates like the day her daughter had been born, the first day she went to school, the day she graduated… and she would always go into her daughter’s rooms alone, with no food, no water, nothing… I always asked her if she wanted me to go in with her but she always refused.

“And, the next day, at some point in the middle of the night, she would come out. I could hear her creeping through the house, returning to her bedroom. It was always heartbreaking. She seemed refreshed the next day, even though it was clear from her bloodshot eyes that she’d been crying all night, but she seemed happier. She never mentioned what happened to her daughter, and I never found out… not until much later.

“When he came.”

I shut my eyes and shook my head, wishing I could dispel the memory of him, the way he stood with his crooked gait and twisted eyes. He always had the look to me as if God had finished making him from clay and then decided to give him one last twist, contorting his spine, as if He wanted to warn others to be wary of him.

“I knew right away he was dangerous,” I said. “Something about him set off my survival instincts, but I couldn’t get through to the old lady. She invited him in. He told her he was a medium and had received messages from her daughter.

“You could have heard a pin drop when he said that. The old lady cried when he said her daughter never blamed her for what happened. She was beside herself. The old man apologized, saying he didn’t mean to upset her, and quickly left.

“It took the old lady three days to recover from that initial shock. Although, to be honest, I doubted she ever really got over it. She would stand at the window for hours, looking out. About a month after the first visit, the old medium returned.

“I didn’t want to let him in, but he raised his voice loud enough for the old lady to hear him. She came to the door and once again invited him in. That was when the real scam began.

“I don’t know how he got his hands on the information he shared with the old lady. I suppose he was a master at research or had someone in the records offices, but he revealed more about the daughter’s fate than the old woman had told me after two years of my working for her.

“The mother wanted her daughter to live and work on the Outer Rim the way her doctor husband had. Her daughter didn’t want to live so far from her mother, but her mother insisted. She would only continue to pay for her education if she got the experience she required to become a top surgeon as her husband had been. Her daughter wasn’t even sure she wanted to be a doctor, but it was the pure force of her mother’s will that compelled her to continue with her studies.

“That was the story the old medium revealed during his session with the old lady. He told her he could pass messages on to her daughter… for a price.

“The old lady was not stupid. She was very clever. But anyone is capable of desperation, and when you reveal someone’s personal emotions and history like that…” I shook my head. “She agreed to pay him whatever he wished. Over time, each message became more and more expensive for him to pass on. The old lady didn’t care. When I warned her she risked losing everything, she didn’t listen. Conversing with her dead daughter was all that mattered.

“Then one day, she made the largest payment, asking her daughter to return to her, to send her a message that she was in the house. Every night, the house creaked and groaned—the way all old houses do—and she was convinced it was her daughter trying to contact her. She stopped sleeping, stopped eating… I watched her waste away, powerless to stop what I knew what was inevitable…

“Unable to watch her make the same mistake any longer, I handed in my notice. The old lady barely even noticed. She wasn’t even really alive any longer and had become some kind of zombie.

“I learned what happened to her later in the papers, how she had died penniless, that an unknown benefactor had acquired her house and investments… But I knew who the ‘unknown benefactor’ was.”

I looked Rivvac in the eye. “The old medium’s name was Rizorback Wyre.”

Rivvac hissed through his teeth.

“You’ve heard of him?” I said, a little surprised.

“He was one of the most notorious loan sharks in the Empire. He was blacklisted by the authorities and disappeared for a long time. No one knew what happened to him. I suppose he must have gone underground and decided to scam old ladies.”

The contempt on Rivvac’s face was matched only by the angry heat in the pit of my stomach, roiling like a black tempest.

“Later, I learned that he hadn’t only scammed the old lady out of her wealth, but countless others all over the galaxy,” I said, “preying on those desperate for their loved ones to return, for some kind of closure they knew would never come.”

The pain from that period of my life remained inside me like dirty flotsam on a stagnant pool.

“Why are you telling me this?” the alien prince asked.

I snapped myself from those bitter memories and rejoined Rivvac in the present. “Because my interactions with the old medium didn’t end there. Some time later, I was working for another client, a mining magnate. I was in town one day when I saw him. That same twisted spine, the same skinny arms, the swollen knuckles clutching the same crooked walking stick, barking at children to get out of his way as he marched down the street.

“My blood froze in my veins. I could hardly believe it was him. I dropped my duties and followed him. He stopped at a bunch of businesses before he returned to his home—a drafty old shack on the outskirts of town amidst a small brook and a copse of trees.

His guard d’in almost tore me to pieces. I ran away but returned the next day, and the next… and each time, I gave those vicious d’in food. Old Wyre liked to starve them, thinking that made them more vicious. I always knew when he was going to leave because that was when the d’in were most pleased to see me. Soon, they were licking my hands and face, more like puppies than vicious guards. I crept into the old medium’s house and found what I was looking for.”

The alien prince leaned forward. “What?”

“The money he had amassed from decades of scams. I knew someone like him wouldn’t trust financial institutions and would keep his money locked away somewhere close to hand. I found it beneath the crooked floorboards of his old shack. It was a fortune. With that kind of money, he could have lived in a palace but I suppose habits die hard. He was too used to living in squalor.”

“Then why did he keep on ripping off old ladies and other desperate people?”

I shrugged. “Why does a cat toy with a mouse when it’s not hungry?”

Rivvac cocked his head to one side. He might not know what cats were but he could understand the analogy because next he said:

“Because it’s in his nature.”

I nodded. “He does it because he’s good at it. He does it because he can. And he makes a lot of money from it. Who knows, maybe he even enjoys the power it gives him over others. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”

“Why not go to the authorities? Tell them what he did to those poor people?”

“Based on what? They would look into his accounts and find he had acted legally. If people want to hand over all their possessions to someone providing a spiritual service… So what? It didn’t matter to them that he was ripping off innocent people. And I didn’t have any evidence of him breaking the law.”

Finally, I had come to the crux of what I wanted to tell him:

“I thought about taking the money and jewels and other items… but what if he noticed? Picking at the fortune might make him suspicious. He would set a trap and the next time I showed up, he could catch me with my hand in his stash… and knowing him, he wouldn’t let me off easy. If he was willing to treat poor innocent people the way he had, what would he do with someone caught stealing from him?”

I shivered at the idea.

Rivvac rubbed his hands over my arms to help me relax. “Then why not take as much as you could on your final day with your employer?”

“Because I couldn’t take enough to make sure I would be set up for the rest of my life. And he would know who had taken it from him. Wyre is a master conman and knew how to find the deepest, darkest secrets of anyone he set eyes on. How long would it really take for him to know an executive assistant recently left her post and had bought a farm and estate far exceeding her previous income?”

“Then why not keep it spend it later?”

“And live on what? And for how long? People like him have long memories. He could have me watched. I would end up looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life… still unable to use the money I had stolen.” I shook my head. “It was no good.”

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry at the thought of telling him the reason why I told him this story. I began tentatively:

“What I need is for someone, big and strong to help me carry the treasure out. Someone with access to projects and businesses to funnel the money into so it comes out clean the other side…”

The alien prince was silent and still.

I’d taken his silence for paying intense attention to me but when I looked up into his face, I saw the cold hostility in his features.

“You take me for a common thief?” he snarled.

The blood drained from my face. “No! I didn’t mean that. I didn’t mean—”

“Why are you suggesting this?” he said, pulling away from me. “Did someone put you up to this? Are you working with the Sirens?”

“The Sirens? What? No.”

His lips curled as if he had discovered the meal he’d enjoyed was made from dog shit. “I should have known this wasn’t real. You’re a plant, aren’t you? What have they promised you? I hope it was worth it.”

“I’m not working with the Sirens!” I snapped. “I don’t know them! I came here for an interview. Really. You can check with your HR department.”

He growled at me and said, “Aren’t you getting enough from this week already?”

I hated the way he spoke to me. “Says the pauper prince of the Ulsen Empire.”

He opened his mouth to speak but I beat him to the punch and stabbed a finger in his stupid blue face:

“Don’t you dare accuse me of being greedy! You’re the one living in a damn palace!”

He blinked in shock that I had snapped at him. It shocked me more that I had lost my cool with him. What had happened to the reserve I’d fostered over a long career of service?

I growled and threw the blankets aside. I tossed my legs over the side of the bed. I didn’t get out as something wrapped around my waist and yanked me back into bed.

I struggled but I might as well have been a child for all the effect it had.

Unable to win physically, I decided I would win morally, and let my body go limp.

Having give up all resistance, the Prince eased his grip to make sure he hadn’t squeezed all the air from my lungs and inadvertently hurt me. “Mia? Are you all right? I didn’t mean to hurt you—”

I swung my arm around and my elbow found his chin. He made a soft “Duh!” sound as I scrambled from him. I climbed from the bed and found myself buck naked. I grabbed the sheet and swept it around myself to at least feel a little less vulnerable.

Only Rivvac had hold of the other end of the blanket and wouldn’t release it.

I tugged hard while he held it between his thumb and index finger as if toying with a child.

“Let go!” I snapped. “Let go!”

I yanked hard at the same moment he released it. I won the sheet… and immediately fell, sprawling across the floor.

He leaped from the bed and strode toward me, his height and physical power dominating the entire room.

He rubbed his chin with his fingers. “You know, the penalty for striking a member of the Royal Family is death…”

“Go ahead!” I snapped. “At least I’ll be free of you!”

His smile faltered, realizing I didn’t find his behavior funny. He crouched, his enormous member swinging like a pendulum before me. Despite my anger, I couldn’t help looking at it.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to insinuate you were greedy. I’ve met greedy people. I’m surrounded by them. They’re like birds coming back for more, more, more… and it’s never enough. I’m sorry I confused you with them. You’re nothing like them. Forgive me.”

I had been ready to argue, to bite and spit, but with his apology, he had completely defused me. I might not be angry anymore, but I still didn’t have to be happy with it.

I gathered up the blanket and got to my feet. I shoved his proffered hand and moved to my clothes. I began putting them on.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Nowhere. You’ve seen to that!”

“If you want to break our deal then—”

“I don’t want to break our damn deal!” I snapped.

I had lost my cool completely now. How was I meant to regain any respect now? I buried my face in my hands.

He sat beside me, making the bed sink beneath his weight. I automatically slipped into him.

He wrapped an arm around me. And God help me, it felt nice to have him so close and caring.

I sniffed.

“I’m sorry for the difficulties you’ve faced, the terrible things you’ve gone through, but I’m not a thief,” he said. “Thank you for your suggestion. But I’m sure it won’t have to come to that. Something will come up. It always does in the end.”

Sure, I thought, and what if the idea I shared with him was the something?