I tellmyself it’s just another lesson, but when the lights rise around the holo-table and Rafe steps out of the shadows, I can’t pretend I’m not curious about what he’ll do to me next.
As I get closer, I take my eyes off Rafe long enough to look at the holo-table floating between us. Its surface is shifting with intricate maps of the Spire in real time, including corridors, gravity shafts, and guest wings.
Rafe stands across from me, hands clasped behind his back. “Today we will see if your human mind can keep pace with mine.”
A game?I try to hide my excitement.
“You may begin.”
A single blue line appears on the map. A security breach simulation. Sirens flare in miniature.
I take a breath and start moving icons across the table—locking sections, diverting guards, and sealing lifts. Rafe watches in silence. Every decision I make updates the hologram in real time, and I’m nervous I’m forgetting something because it all seems too easy.
When the system announces,Scenario terminated: threat neutralized,he circles the table. “You closed the breach in forty-seven seconds,” he says. “That’s faster than anyone in the Starlight Array.”
His voice carries no praise, but I’m proud of myself. “Were you expecting me to fail?” I ask not to be rude, but because I genuinely want to know.
“I expected you to panic.” He steps closer, and I’m reminded of how good he smells of petrichor soap and Starfire oil. “Most of my employees do when I watch them.”
“Do I get a reward?” I ask wantonly, expecting him to get out his IC and give me three-seconds of clit stimulation with the Venus Lock.
“No, you earned respect today, not a reward.” He reaches out, touches my chin lightly, then lowers his hand before it can become a caress.
By the time the simulation shuts down, my nerves are still buzzing, and he leaves without another word, and I’m left wondering what just happened. He was different today. So different.
I am the last one still here when the shift change happens. Most staff have already gone, but a courier drone glides up tothe desk before I can leave.
The package bears a guest seal I recognize from the upper suites—an ambassador. If it isn’t delivered, it’ll be my fault. So I take it and decide since I’m off duty now anyway, I’ll take it up.
The elevator carries me to the guest levels, a place I’ve only been a handful of times before with Lira. The hallway here is nothing like the staff corridors. The walls breathe with soft blue light, and each door bears a pulse of its occupant’s crest. I stop at the right one and set the package on the small platform beside the door. A polite notice glows:
Then the temperature drops.
“Eve.” His voice comes from the shadows at the end of the hall. Lorian steps forward, tall and with his shirt open all the way to his navel, revealing his muscular grey chest. “You’re off duty. What are you doing up here?”
“It was a mis-routed package,” I say. “It looked important, and I checked in the Ambassador, so I thought I would just take it up myself.”
“Staff protocol forbids unsupervised access to the guest tiers,” he replies. “Do you realize what could have happened if any of these doors had opened?”
“I didn’t go in?—”
“You could have been raped or worse, abductedand sold. Then I would have had to spend the next week tracking you down after you’d been raped, mutilated, and goddesses know what else.”
The words land like blows: abducted, sold, mutilated. I open my mouth, but he steps closer; the familiar scent of him, sandalwood and Starfire oil, fills the air between us.
“You will receive a punishment for believing good intentions erase risks.”
“Then punish me.” The challenge slips from my lips before I can stop it, and I’m already fantasizing about him whipping me naked in the shrine.
His silver eyes reflect his surprise, but it doesn’t stop him from pressing a control at his wrist, and the gravity field surges.
I painfully fall to my knees, as if I’ve been pushed by a G-force.
He stands in front of me.
Too close for me not to look at his groin and think about the Devotional Drink and Rae’s words about wanting it from the source.She wasn’t wrong.
“Disobedience doesn’t make you brave.” He circles me a few times and then says, “Return to your quarters.”
