It didn’t matter.
She would drink. And she would do her duty.
For Fallon.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.” She accepted and sipped on the drink. The wine was strong, and she remained careful not to drink it too fast. She would need her wits about her tonight.
“Have you heard from the Empress? Did they arrive?”
He turned and glanced at her, his eyebrow raised, the red room making him look taller than he was as he stood over her. “Why do you care?”
“My Lady is on an important mission. I want to know how it is progressing.”
A smirk passed over his face. “If you cared so much, you would have been with her.”
Bianca looked down.
She did want to be there, to support the Empress. That was what a Lady in Waiting did.
She supported her Empress.
If that meant pretending to be sick in order to keep the Emperor’s attention while the Empress was gone, then that was what the Lady in Waiting did.
While Bianca’s cold had been a ruse, as planned by her and Fallon before she left, now, she felt horrid about the part she had to play to find out what the Emperor was up to.
The Empress left with the girls and got them away from him and his scheming. If Fallon could bring peace, the Emperor would lose his fight in the people’s eyes, and the Senate could regain control.
It was a risky game they played.
Fallon, Bianca, and the Rhimodians.
Something to stop the Emperor’s greedy grab for the Sol system.
But they would do what they must to bring back stability to the Terran Empire.
That was the plan, in any case.
The Emperor reached down and touched her chin. She turned up to meet his dark eyes. “Your true loyalties are revealed, Bianca.”
She took a sip from her wine to distract herself from the trembling. “How do you mean?”
He smiled at her again. “Oh, sweet little Bianca. As if you thought I was a fool.” He sat down next to her. Far too close, in fact. “I know you have been watching me. I see you staring at me whenever I enter a room.”
“I…” She didn’t dare say that she watched him like she would watch a snake prepared for his attack.
Oh, why had she agreed to do this? What was she thinking?
To pretend an attraction to the Emperor was difficult. He remained highly suspect of anyone. But to do it and keep him unaware of the movements of people around him? The ones who did everything they could to offset his power over the new, violent war?
She had lost her mind agreeing to this.
“I know,” he said as he put his hands on her neck.
If another man had done it, she might have found the move sensual. Maybe even sexy.
But not this time.
He yanked her toward him, wanting a kiss.
