She dropped down onto her knees in front of me.
I said, “You’ll ruin your dress—”
“I don’t care about my dress,” she said. “Ever since we’ve met, I’ve dreamed you would ask me this question. I want nothing more than to be your wife.”
“Excellent!” I said. “I’ll get the organizers to prepare the ceremony—”
She held my hands and prevented me from standing. There was a look in her eye I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“Your proposal is… a little different from what I expected,” she said.
Was she going to turn me down?
My mouth turned dry.
“Different how?” I said.
“I never once, in all my daydreams, expected you to ask me to be your empress,” she said.
“But I am the emperor. When you marry me, you’ll become the empress.”
She pressed a finger to my lips.
“I would marry you in a heartbeat,” she said. “My answer to you is yes. Yes, I will be yours. I have been since we first met. I will be your wife. But I will not be your empress.”
Her response was… unexpected.
“I’m not sure I understand,” I said. “After the war and the devastation, the people need something to cling to, something they can look forward to, something that will give them hope for a brighter future.”
“I understand that, but I’m not sure… I don’t know if I can be the empress to so many people,” she said.
Of all the responses I thought she might say, I never thought it would be this.
“I love you,” she said. “But I don’t know if I can be the empress the empire needs. Back home, no one knows who I am. Here… everyone would know me.”
I was taken aback. She loved me and would marry me, but couldn’t be the empress?
What did that mean?
She wanted to be with me but she didn’t want to be the empress. It wasn’t a situation I’d even considered before.
I needed to give this some thought.
“Are you mad at me?” Hazel said.
“Never,” I said, taking her in my arms. “I could never be mad at you. It’s not an easy question to answer. It’s not about you and me. It’s about the two of us being leaders of hundreds of worlds.”
“I might be ready one day,” she said hopefully.
“But not right now.”
“I’m a regular girl with no background in taking care of entire nations—”
“You’re a nurse. You know how to take care of patients. Just think of every Titan as a patient in your hospital.”
She threw back her head and laughed.
“That’s a pretty big hospital,” she said.
We stood up and held each other close. We kissed.
“Are you sure it’s okay?” she said.
“Of course. You will be my wife. There’s nothing else I can ask from you but that. It’s all I want. We’ll have to play down your role somehow, that’s all.”
I smiled at her and squeezed her tight. I loved the feel of her, the heat and warmth of her skin.
Her hand gripped my arm and she stayed my hands from grabbing her ass, which I always attempted every chance I got. But she never blocked me before. I didn’t understand why until the waiters came with our meals.
“Leave the meals on the table,” I said. “My future wife and I need a moment.”
The servants bowed and backed off the balcony. They didn’t turn their backs until they’d stepped off it.
“Now I understand why it was surprising for you when I refused to follow your orders during the battle,” she said.
“Oh?”
“Because everyone always does exactly what you say.”
I laughed.
“Yes, usually,” I said. “Unless they want their heads cut off.”
Hazel started.
“What?” she said.
“It’s an old law,” I said. “We don’t use it anymore.”
“But you could if you wanted to.”
“Sure. I’m the emperor. What I want, I get.”
I scooped her up in my arms and carried her through the billowing net curtain and into our apartment. I placed her gently on the silk sheets.
I kissed her firmly on the lips. She met my passion with her own. I raised her hands above her head and ran my hands down her body, pinning her hands above so she couldn’t resist me.
By the look in her eyes, there wasn’t much chance of that.
I kissed her cheek and down her throat and neck. I nibbled at her soft skin.
Delicious.
“There’s going to be a problem with the wedding,” Hazel said.
“Mm?” I said.
“I don’t just want your friends and family to be there. I want some of mine too.”
I reached the bodice of her dress and pulled at the strings holding it together with my teeth.
“I’ll send a ship to pick them up,” I said.
“That’s the problem,” she said. “I don’t know where they are.”
I pulled back and looked at her. How could she not know where her friends were?
Then it struck me.
“You’re talking about your friends that were abducted,” I said.
“I have no idea where they were taken. They were on the same smuggling ship as me but they disappeared.”
“I’m sure I can find them.”
“You can?”
“Sure. I’m the emperor of the most powerful species in the galaxy. There’s nothing I can’t get if I want it. Speaking of which…”
I pressed my face into her succulent breasts and slipped my hands inside her dress. Soon, she would be my wife, and the lovemaking would be even sweeter.
I pushed the problem of her not wanting to be the empress from my mind. The issue would resolve itself.
She was going to be the empress whether she wanted it or not. That was how the empire was going to see her. It just might take her a little time to get used to it, that’s all.
I was sure that with enough time and experience, she could do a wonderful job. She was that kind of person. There was no stopping her when she got her teeth into something.
And right now, there was something I very much wanted to sink my teeth into…
Hazel
I bent over the card and used an italic pen. It had to be specially made for me. There was
