“Now let’s try again. Your name, sweetheart. Nothing more or I’ll have to continue your lesson.”
He huffed again a few times, clearly aroused but furious with me. I could see the idea to head butt me flit across his face, and I smiled down mockingly at him. “I’d advise you not to try anything,” I said, squeezing his ass harder. “I seem to have you at a disadvantage. Now what’s your name?”
“My name is Taran,” he finally ground out between gritted teeth, his face bright red with anger.
“Good boy.” I smiled and patted his ass, mainly to see his eyes flash at me with all that dark fire again. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? And now tell me who sent you to search my room.”
“No one. I mean, I-I wasn’t doing that!”
I put my hand over his mouth because he was getting loud and lying again. He made muffled sounds beneath my hand and tried to bite me. I gave his head a little bump against the door to get him to quiet down before removing my hand.
To my surprise, those slanted eyes of his filled with silly fat tears and one escaped and slid down his creamy cheek. I felt adecided pang of regret in my chest, and that just served to make me angry.
“Ow! That hurt me!”
“No, it didn’t, but the next time it will, unless you begin telling me the truth.”
“What do you want me to say?”
I just kept staring at him, waiting him out and finally, he sighed. “All right… no one sent me. I swear it. I saw you leave earlier with your men and I-I thought… I thought I might find out why you’re here so early when you’re not due until tomorrow. I made a mistake. I’m sorry!”
“Yes, you did make a mistake,” I said, ignoring the apology because it didn’t feel sincere anyway. “A big one. And now I’ll have to have a word with the prince about finding you in my room, going through my belongings.”
“No! Please don’t say anything to Larz. Please! He had no idea I was coming here. You have to believe me.”
His face was filled with panic, as I stared down at him.Larz?I’d been speaking of Prince Vannos when I mentioned having a word. Up until that moment, I thought he could be a part of this household. Perhaps a servant who was also used as a love slave. It wouldn’t have been unusual in a wealthy Tygerian home, though, come to think of it, I had heard that Moravians had no real traditions of love slaves and a different and perhaps stricter sense of what was right and wrong than we sometimes did on Tygeria. But this boy was worried about Prince Larz finding out he’d been prowling through my things. Why was that? Who exactlywasthis boy anyway? And what was he to Prince Larz?
“Is Larz your lover?”
“What? No, of course not,” he replied, looking outraged. “Don’t be disgusting.Let me go!”
“Why is it disgusting,chibby? He’s a handsome prince. A little one like you should be thrilled to have him in your bed.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not a whatever it is you’re calling me.”
“If you don’t know what I’m saying, how do you know you’re not?”
“Because, that’s why! How dare you? I’m not a prostitute. Or a love slave, damn it! I’m not any kind of slave at all.”
“Because?” I said, smirking at him. “That’s your answer? How old are you anyway?”
“None of your damn business! I refuse to answer any of your stupid questions. Get off me, I tell you!”
He made a quick convulsive move to get away and this time I allowed it. Whoever he was, I didn’t think he was any kind of real threat, though I’d speak to Prince Mikos about it in the morning, just to make sure.
I stood facing him. “Did you come to offer yourself to me and my men too? You do, in fact, sell yourself, don’t you, no matter what you say? You’re a pretty little thing,” I said, running a finger down his cheek. He slapped it away. “What’s your name?”
I could practically feel him thinking about trying to run, tensing to make the attempt to get out into the hall.
“Go on, then. Maybe you should run along and find someone else to play with,” I told him. “I’m working, and I don’t like little boys and their silly games.”
He bent to snatch up his coat, and I might have stood aside and let him go at that point, if it hadn’t been for what he did next.
He turned quickly and pulled open the door, his face tight with anger. The light from the hallway was now falling on that face, and I could see him even more clearly. He was uncommonly beautiful. When I’d watched him earlier on the view screens on Prince Mikos’s ship, he’d been wearing the long, red Alliance coat. I wondered what his connection was to the Alliance. His body was beautiful, too, and I could see now that he was no boy, but a man fully grown.
Was he going now to Prince Larz’s room or was he on the prowl for more business tonight? The idea made me unreasonably angry, and on a whim, I grabbed him by a couple of his long braids and pulled. Pulled him back inside and closer to me.
“Ow!” he cried out, grabbing for his scalp. Again, tears trembled there on those ridiculously long eyelashes, ready to fall down his pink cheeks.
