Lorian calls the guards in. “Take herback to her suite.”
“But I’m naked.”
“Yes. I never said the punishment was completely over,” Rafe says.
The shrine doors slide open, and Lorian hands me off to the guards, who get me to my feet and begin to push me ahead of them, half carrying me into the corridor. My bare feet slap against the polished floor. We take the elevator up, and I’m forced to walk through the public corridors and the Grand Lobby.
Gasps.
Whispers.
Stares.
I hear guests ask if I’m the Sovereigns’ new human companion. I hear them comment on my pubic hair, which they call fur. One man requests I be sent to his room. It’s humiliating, and I want to close my eyes and pretend it’s not happening.
“Eyes open,” Rafe says from behind the guards.
I obey although my sight is blurred by tears threatening to fall. But I have cried enough. I will not give them the satisfaction of doing it in public.
Receptionists in black tunics freeze mid-stride, their eyes darting to my breasts, my bound wrists, and the wet sheen between my thighs. Thankfully, Lira must be on a break because I don’t see her anywhere.
I want to disappear. I want the floor to swallow me whole. But there is no hiding. Not like this. Naked. Bound and humiliated before everyone.
Rafe’s voice sounds behind me. “Let this be a reminder to all staff. Disobedience will always be seen. And it will always be corrected.”
I stumble, but the guards grip me and haul me forward until at last we reach my suite. The door opens with a soft hiss, and they help me inside.
Once there, Rafe undoes my bra straps with a tug of his hand, then he leaves me, naked and shaking.
Silence.
I collapse onto the bed and get under the sheets. I want to disappear. My whole body aches, but worse is the shame. They made me crawl for their alien goddesses. They paraded me through the hotel naked. They stripped away every shred of privacy, and I hate them for all of it.
But that’s not entirely true. A part of me, the darkest part of me, longs for them to come back. To touch me. To tell me I belong to them and to fuck me hard with my underwear in my mouth.
What is this place doing to me?
32
WATCHING HER, RAFE
Eve’s punishmentin the shrine lingers in my mind even as I watch her andthe coming and goings in the Grand Lobby from high above in my office.
I often think about her bound, naked, and humiliated in the shrine from our punishment months ago. It was a turning point for all of us. Since then, our training sessions have gone much more smoothly.
With me, she has been the model student.The model employee in training sessions only, though.Outside of them, she still bends rules when she thinks no one is watching.
She lingers too long in the staff archives, looking over guest rosters and shipment manifests as though idle curiosity were harmless. Slowing her steps near secured doors, straining to catch fragments of conversations not meant for human ears.
And sometimes, late in her suite, she reads newspapers from Earth through the tablet the engineers configured for her on theIgo. I should strip her of access. I should blame Cal and the engineers for leaving such a loophole. But I don’t. I don’t have the heart to take it away from her.
I worry about her becoming lonely. She and Lira are close, but I see how little else she has. Unfortunately, Earth has not sent another sanctioned message looking for life in the galaxy. That means, legally, my hands are tied.
So, I let her have these small rebellions, not only because they are of interest to her,but because I want her to believe she’s choosing these moments of defiance and that she’s clever for finding them. So when Gael finally tempts her, she’ll have the confidence to break the rules and think she can get away with it.
However, sometimes when she is being too obvious, I have to reprimand her. I don’t want her to become so bold that she forgets about discretion entirely. When she’s been reading her Earth newspapers for too long, I send her a message that says,
Focus on your training.
