Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“Have you considered what you’re going to say to the Rainbow Empress when you meet her for the first time?” I asked him.
The Emperor frowned.
“Well, I shall tell her that we must be together and that she is mine now, of course,” he rumbled, as though it was completely obvious.
Uh-oh… Rylee and I exchanged looks.
“Your Majesty,” she said diplomatically. “I know you don’t have much, er, experience dealing with females, but speaking as a female myself, I can tell you that women like to be wooed.”
“But how does one go about this ‘wooing’ them?” Emperor Shadout demanded. “Tell me quickly before the doors open!”
“Well,” I said. “I can tell you what I saw in my vision of the two of you together.”
“Yes, yes—tell me now!” he rumbled.
“Well…” I cleared my throat. “First I saw you coming into the throne room and then I saw you kneeling on the seventh step of the dais where the Empress’s crystal throne sits.”
“What?” Shadout thundered. “You saw me kneeling? Visionary, you should know that as Emperor, I kneel to no one!”
Double uh-oh. Rylee and I exchanged another look. If Shadout refused to kneel, this new relationship was going to go nowhere fast. I knew the hard and fast rules of the Empress’s throne room—if you didn’t kneel on the seventh step of the dais, you got thrown out. But how could we convince the Emperor of that?
“Your Majesty,” she said tentatively. “In this case, kneeling isn’t a sign that you believe you’re inferior in any way. It’s part of wooing—it shows the woman how much you care for her and respect her.”
“It’s traditional on our planet, too,” I added. “When a man asks a woman to marry him, he’s supposed to get down on one knee.”
Emperor Shadout’s face was as dark as a thunderstorm about to break.
“I do not like the idea of debasing myself,” he growled. “No matter what the customs say!”
Well, now what were we going to do? From the corner of my eye, I saw that Rylee had that look of intense concentration on her face again. I felt a surge of irritation. Was this really the time for her to be talking to her guys? Shouldn’t she be giving her complete attention to the situation at hand?
Before I could answer either of those questions to my own satisfaction, there was some movement in the guards behind us and suddenly two new alien men appeared.
The two of them had to be Rylee’s husbands because they looked like she had described them. One had dark blue skin and the other had olive-green skin tones and both of them looked overjoyed to see her.
“Rylee! Baby!” the one with blue skin exclaimed.
“Ma’frela,” the green skinned one said, which I supposed must be some kind of nickname.
And then both of them knelt at her feet.
Ah—so that was what she’d been doing, I thought as I watched the Emperor studying them from the corner of my eye. Damn—it had been really quick of Rylee to let them know through their Bond link what was going on.
And then, to my surprise, a third alien male appeared and this one I recognized.
“Vik’tor!” I exclaimed, as he came striding up to me.
“Hello, little girl,” he rumbled and dropped to one knee before me. Taking my hands in his, he kissed them gently as he looked into my eyes. “I missed you, baby,” he told me. “I was fucking scared to death when I woke up and you were gone.”
“Oh, Vik’tor…” Laughing and crying at the same time, I leaned down—though I didn’t have to lean very far—and put my arms around his neck. We kissed deeply and I tasted his warm, cinnamon breath that made me want to melt against him and do a lot more than just kiss.
After a moment, someone cleared their throat and I looked up and realized that Emperor Shadout had been watching the whole display.
“Oh, excuse me, Your Majesty,” Rylee said. She and her two husbands had been locked in a three-way embrace but they were all looking up at the Emperor now.
“Yes, forgive us,” her green-skinned husband said. “We’re just so happy to see our mate again.”
“Fucking right,” the blue-skinned one remarked and Vik’tor rumbled agreement as well.
“I see that you are,” the Emperor remarked. “But…you do not feel denigrated by kneeling in front of your females?” he asked.
“Never,” Vik’tor said firmly. “I’m happy to kneel at Natalie’s feet to let her know how much I love her.” And though he was speaking to the Emperor, he was looking at me as he said it.
My heart leapt in my chest and I felt like my whole body was blushing.
“Oh, Vik’tor…” I whispered and then didn’t know what else to say.
At that moment, the crystal doors began to swing open and Thallia stepped forward again.