Then without another word, he releases me, and I watch him turn and walk away, but as he does, he becomes invisible. I rub my eyes to make sure I’m not seeing things. But I’m not. He should still be visible walking down the hall and he’s not. Invisible tech.
How often does he follow me?
By the time I can get to my feet again, I walk gingerly back to my room, as my knees hurt from being pushed to the ground so aggressively.
Once there, I take a minute to go over what just happened. One thing is for sure, I’m no longer afraid of Lorian. Whatever he is… a monster, a sovereign, a shadow…he has shown me another side of himself today.
A spark of genuine concern for his human receptionist. Clearly, he’d been following me. I know Rafe watches me all the time through the Starlight Array, but I didn’t know that Lorian followed me in real time.
But, why? I highly doubt anyone could get me out of the Spire alive, not with the trackers or with the security. But the thought that Lorian imagined it—that he imagined losing me—makes the air in my room seem warmer, and I close my eyes, and tell myself I will forget the way he looked at me. But the image stays, and I touch my chest over my heart, and question myself, is this romance only in my head? Or is it real?
It’s the Watching. I’m at my computer seeing how far I can go in the system. And I have already gone too far, but surprisingly, the terminal hasn’t rejected me yet. I keep waiting for it to kick me out, but it never does. So I keep going.
I’m currently three tiers above my clearance. Normally, Tier Four is visible. Tier Five is read-only. And Tier Six doesn’t even acknowledge I exist.
But, the screen I’m on is on Tier Six.
I tell myself it’s a delay. A glitch. The system lagging before it snaps shut and flags me for discipline. But seconds pass and nothing has changed. I’m still on Tier Six.
So, curiosity gets the better of me and I scroll.
It doesn’t take me long to realize, this is a door that has been intentionally left unlocked. Security logs open without resistance. Shipment routes. Personnel transfers. Quiet annotations that don’t appear on official reports.
I stop scrolling with a sudden dread.
“This isn’t an accident,” I whisper to myself.
This is permission.The Sovereigns have opened this door on purpose and they expect me to step through it.But why?
34
SET THE BAIT, LORIAN
Eve’s transformationhas been phenomenal. No longer is she the frightened human employee right off the starship from Earth, but now she’s our perfect human liaison, who holds herself like she belongs among us.
Every day for the past ninety days, we’ve trained her privately for hours. Rafe has drilled her on numbers, laws, and policies, and I have taught her the subtler arts of galactic society and how to wield her humanity, not as a vulnerability, but as a strength.
And we trained her on the simple principle our father adamantly adheres to—that humans will do anything for the next orgasm. But what our father never mentioned is how difficult this would be for us. Eve is not only intelligent but beautiful, and if she weren’thuman, I have no doubt we would marry her.
So throughout these three months, we’ve made her drink from the Devotional goblet more times than I care to count, but every time, she’s reverently picked up the cup at High Table, made eye contact with us, and swallowed it all. Needless to say, we make the perfect triumvirate, and I wish it could always be this way.
I stand at the top of the Grand Staircase, and Eve, as if sensing my eyes on her, glances up at me from her post. I make a small gesture to remind her of our training session yesterday, and she blushes. I can still see her naked on the shrine floor, trembling while my paddle marked her thighs and ass in deep red as I let her fingers work her wet little cunt until she sobbed. I made her beg for release, made her believe I would grant it, and then denied her at the edge.
Rafe would never have risked letting her touch herself at all—he clings to his Venus Lock and his measured pulses like they are scripture. But I wanted to watch her work herself into a frenzy and then deny her to see her completely exposed.
And she was. The way she moaned when her fingers found her clit. The way her thighs shook, slick with need, desperate to be spread wider, fuller.
I’m aroused just thinking about what she looked like yesterday. And she would have welcomed my cock stretching her open, if I had let her. But I can’t do that, not yet.
Now, here she is, in her perfect black uniform, chin lowered, pretending to be the obedient receptionist. But under that immaculate uniform, her breasts still carry the sting of my paddle, her thighs remember the ache of denial, and her cunt remembers how wet she was when I refused her.
I can still almost hear her voice from yesterday echoing in my ears.Please, Sovereign. Let me come.
Not yet, little sinner.
But soon
Her eyes look up at me again, and I touch my face where she slapped me yesterday when I clamped back on the Venus Lock before she orgasmed.
