This bathroom is the opposite of that – welcoming and cozy. The bathroom is replete with luxury, such as bathtub built for the size of an Aurelian bather, standing on clawed feet made from wrought iron. The bathtub looks like something from a holo-vid of the Old-Earth past.
I feel like I’m stepping back in time as I draw the bath, filling it with steaming water - hoping a hot soak will relax my nerves and give me some kind of clarity.
This isn’t like me. There’s always fear in the back of my mind – there has to be, whenever you’re on a job…
…but this is a different sort of tension.
I worry it won’t be sated until I’ve been taken hard by those three Aurelian warriors. I crave it; like a piece of me is missing until it happens.
I step into the hot waters and massage my body, trying to take out the tension and knots that have hardened in my shoulders during my turmoil. I wish the future could be as clear as the waters I’m now soaking in – but, instead, it’s murky and dark. I have no idea what to do.
I’ve been a survivor my entire life – never taking a risk I shouldn’t. For all my close calls – and there have been many – I’ve always had an escape plan.
But now, for the first time in my life, I feel utterly lost…
And soon I’ll have to see them, at the business dinner.
Where I’ll be serving them… in whatever devious costume they can think of next.
8
Varian
I slam my open palm across the drinks stand, sending the rest of the crystal glass set – the priceless collection that Mia had ruined by dropping one of them – flying across the library.
The glasses impact like cannonballs on the hard floorboards, instantly shattering into a million pieces.
“If that isn’t proof enough that she’s working for the other side, you’re both fucking blind!”
I’ve lost my cool completely, and that makes me lose it even further. To Aurelians, it’s shameful to lose control of your emotions like this. To my own disgust, Mia has taken control of my mind as well as my body. She can inflame my temper just as she engorges my cock.
Gallus stands. He walks to me and reaches beneath the stand to the bar, pulling out a crystal decanter of a dark, amber liquid. He takes off the crystal lid and takes a big swig, swallowing down a quarter of a pint of the stuff. Then, he passes it to me. I prefer wine, but I need a drink right now – so I gulp down a big swallow of searing liquid. It burns so good. I take another swig, and by then a third of the rare whisky has been transferred from the crystal decanter to my stomach.
It was a rare Old-Earth vintage called Macallen – probably worth more than the glasses Mia made me break, and now I’ve added to our loss by swilling it down like the local moonshine.
Gallus pats my shoulder.
“Explain what you meant,” he murmurs, “by ‘working for the other side.’”
Gallus seems cool and stoic – he always does – but I can sense our auras burn the same way; broiling with pent up lust, like a volcano about to erupt.
“Think about it! We’re securing a huge deal tonight with the second wealthiest agricultural families on the planet. The Seer family looks trustworthy on the surface, and their ancestors have always been fair– but who says they don’t have darker aims? They hired Mia to keep us off balance.”
Cyrus shakes his head, and motions for the bottle. I toss it to him. A few drops of the liquid spill in transit, and yet he catches the bottle effortlessly, taking a long swallow.
“No,” my battle-brother muses, smacking his lips as the whisky burns them. “Think about it, Varian. What other women has ever had this effect on us? Sure, they’re always better before we find out we’re not Bonded with them… but this isn’t normal. Mia’s always on my fucking thoughts – ever since I first laid eyes on her. She’s put down roots.”
I grunt in acknowledgement. Cyrus is right – my theory was one born of frustration, not logic. My cock is ridiculously hard – throbbing and painfully filled with blood. I won’t be sated until I’m deep, deep inside of Mia. No other woman will sate my lust. I could unleash my full, boiling balls into any one of the beautiful women in our harem, and yet all I would feel would be anger. I’ve been able to push down my desires for hundreds of years, not touching a woman since Lalana died, and only now is the mating urge rearing up too powerfully to hold back.
Every other living woman is a shadow compared to her. For the first time in my life, I’ve found a woman that can fill the void that I had in me for so long.
Gallus sits back down. He runs his hand across his favorite book – the one he read from earlier.
“No.” His eyes narrow. “She’s scared. I don’t think she’s working for anyone except herself, and she’s scared of something – but I don’t know what it is.” He looks up. “She wants us, but she’s living in fear.”
Cyrus takes another swig, then tosses the almost empty decanter to me. I down it. Alcohol never has much of an effect on me, and right now, no amount of alcohol could ever temper the edge
