He wasn’t as hard to find as she’d expected. He was seated at a table that had been elevated on a platform at the very front of the room.
The bitch was seated directly beside him.
Nye looked confused and scared and unhappy.
Until he spotted her.
He held out both arms then and said, very clearly, ‘ma ma’.
Ok, so he was inclined to make sounds that could be interpreted as words whether they were or not.
It sounded like mama to Emma, though, and that was all that counted, especially since he reached for her. She immediately rushed to him, ignoring all the curious faces she passed. She didn’t realize Kadin had kept pace with her until she reached the table and Nye all but leapt into her arms.
Struggling not to send the bitch a smug glance, she calmed him and examined the table.
It looked as if they’d started him on ‘real’ food—which immediately made Emma uneasy.
She had no idea how old he was—not that she knew a damn thing about human babies—but she’d guessed at his age and looked it up and followed the instructions. She hadn’t thought he was old enough for solids yet.
He looked like he’d been enjoying it, however. He had it all over his face and clothes.
And then she had it all over her.
Sighing, she helped him back into his seat and touched the seat beside him. “Can I sit here? Is it ok?” she asked Kadin.
Kadin nodded and helped her into the seat next to Nye—on the opposite side of the female Emma was really starting to dislike—a lot.
“Why you let she sit dere, Prince Kadin? She royal where she come from?”
Emma whipped a look from ‘Prince’ Kadin to Princess Bitch, stunned at the title, wondering if it was some kind of translation thing.
“She stands as the King’s mother,” Kadin responded coolly, dismissively. “And he wants her next to him. I should think anyone that serves the king would consider his needs and desires paramount.”
Emma might have felt a touch self-satisfied at the championing and Kadin’s offer to get her a plate except when she turned to give the bitch a smug smile, she discovered the female was watching Kadin like a cat watching a canary as he left to get food.
Her dislike magnified exponentially then, but she did her best to swallow it and focus on pacifying Nye.
Someone settled behind her and she glanced around in surprise, ready to point out that Kadin had already claimed the seat. When she saw it was Gaelen, though, she was too surprised and then too happy to see him to say anything at all.
“Gaelen!” she gasped, looking him over quickly for any signs of injury. “You’re ok? You didn’t get hurt?”
Irritation flickered over his face. “Am warrior,” he said.
Emma blinked. “So you can’t get hurt?”
He looked uncomfortable. “No hurt.”
She shook her head. “Kadin brought me here and then left again and I haven’t heard anything. We won, though?”
Something flickered in his eyes. “We take ship.”
She was impressed. “Really? We’ve got a new ship?” She frowned. “But this isn’t the same one we were on? I mean either of them? This is another ship?”
“Hab three ship now. Dey come for us.”
Emma had grown so used to Gaelen’s broken English that she had no trouble understanding that, particularly in the context of their circumstances.
“Will tow broken ship and fix.”
Emma blinked at him. “You mean to say the ship we were in was broken?” she gasped, undecided whether she should be outraged that she wasn’t informed or not.
She had, after all, hitched a ride without asking.
And it seemed obvious the military had damaged the ship—so guilt by association even though she certainly hadn’t had a hand in it.
But still ….
It was unnerving to know they’d been broke down and that was how the Sheloni had captured them.
It dawned on her abruptly, though, that the guys must have had some idea that help was coming when they were captured, and that meant …. What? They’d bred her because they had to play for time?
Was that any different, in any way, than being forced when there was no hope of rescue?
She supposed not, but it made her feel … bad.
She realized she hadn’t felt bad about it before—during or afterward.
She wasn’t sure of why she did now. They’d all been captives and all been forced to do what their captors wanted or suffer the consequences.
She supposed it was because they’d felt duty bound to do what they could to save her because they’d allowed her to come with them when she knew they couldn’t have considered taking anyone but the baby.
She thought they’d desired her, had wanted to have sex with her.
Now she wondered if it had been difficult for them or if they’d been given some kind of drug to make it possible.
She shoved the thoughts aside. She hadn’t felt bad about what had happened despite what the Sheloni had done to her and to them. She wasn’t going to start thinking that way now, questioning everything. That would make her crazy in no time at all.
“The repairs could not be done in space,” Kadin said coolly, breaking into her uncomfortable thoughts.
She saw he was standing over Gaelen, holding a plate in either hand, glaring at him. “That is already claimed, Prince Gaelen, by me.”
Gaelen eyed him speculatively and finally shrugged and rose. “Is glad you ok,” he said to Emma. “Got someping gib you … later.”
Emma felt a flutter of excitement at that. A present? Something nice?
A wayward thought emerged. She wondered if it was the ‘something’ her father gave her mother for every occasion. She’d always thought that was asinine, but she wasn’t against the idea of Gaelen bestowing his wonderful self on her as a gift.
Definitely not!
“That sounds … fun,” she said, smiling.
He lifted his brows questioningly and Emma felt a faint blush of discomfort climb her cheeks. “A surprise.”
He chuckled and left.
Kadin, she discovered, was smiling with his lips and teeth, but he didn’t look especially amused by the exchange.
Feeling uncomfortable, and guilty since she’d been chatting with Gaelen while Kadin had been getting a plate for her, she smiled at him a little nervously. “This all looks so good! I hardly know where to start.” Because it didn’t look even a little familiar.
Fortunately, she wasn’t nearly as picky as she’d once been and she was starving.
“Do not get too excited. I have little faith in the cooks.”
Emma chuckled. “Well, I’m completely unfamiliar with all of it so I won’t know if it’s cooked like it’s suppose to be or not.”
“Uhmm,” Kadin responded non-committally, then added dryly. “I believe you will still be able to determine good from bad.”
She shrugged. “I have to eat my own cooking and it isn’t the greatest. In fact, since I live alone … lived alone before Nye, I usually just made a salad or sandwich or ate some fruit.”
Kadin studied her for a long moment. “You have lived there … long?”
Emma stared at her plate trying to figure out where to start and finally cut a small bite size piece of the meat-like substance. “Not really. I moved out of the city after my grandfather died a few years ago and left the cottage to me. Before that I lived in the city. And I mostly ate out at fast food places.”
She glanced at him and realized it wasn’t likely he knew anything about Earth cultures in general or American in particular. “Sorry. I forget.”
He shook his head, smiling faintly. “My mother is American. I have heard many stories about your world.” He shrugged. “I will admit that it is hard to imagine without experiencing.”
Excitement jumped in Emma’s veins. She hadn’t thought until that very moment how much she was going to miss being around people and things familiar.
“Will I get to meet your mother?”
His lips thinned. “I have not seen her in many years. I was taken before I reached manhood.”
Emma gasped. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I wouldn’t have brought it up if I’d had any idea.”
“Mayhap Emma should tink before her spake?” Princess Valee cut in.
Emma felt her face turn red with embarrassment and anger.
And guilt.
She knew the bitch was right. She’d always had a problem with speaking and acting impulsively—and usually regretted it afterward.
She struggled with her temper, trying to convince herself that she’d just instantly decided to dislike Valee because she saw her as a rival for Nye’s affections and feared he would defect, would decide to love her more.
“Gaelen is a prince, too?” she asked Kadin as he escorted her and baby Nye back to the ‘King’s suite’.
He nodded. “Son of Chief Amarl.”
Emma frowned, trying to figure out where she’d heard the name before. A jolt went through her when it came to her. She gasped and whipped a wide eyed look at Kadin. “Gaelen is … uh ….”
“Princess Bitch’s brother,” he finished, a gleam of amusement in his eyes.
“Oh my god!” Emma gasped. “I didn’t say that out loud, did I? She really is a princess?”
“No, you didn’t say it out loud and yes, she really is a princess … and a total bitch, unfortunately. And Gaelen really is a prince. And I am also. We serve the king, on the council of lords—because no one else is considered worthy of serving him in such a close capacity. The customs on Earth are not similar?”
Emma gaped at him, struggling with everything she’d learned on her short excursion that had turned her world upside down. “I … don’t know. I’m not royal. Maybe.”
It wasn’t until she was back in the suite with Nye that something he’d said hit her that totally broke her heart.
Chapter Fifteen
Emma settled on the edge of her bed with the baby once she’d gotten back to the cabin, rocking him and singing to him as she often did—not that she was a great singer or anything, but the baby seemed to like it.
Well, it either soothed him to sleep or bored him to sleep and that was what mattered most.
Her mind wasn’t really on the task, though. She was sorting everything she’d learned in her excursion to the dining hall.
She’d been more inclined to think the titles of prince and princess were just some sort of translation fluke.
Maybe she’d wanted to believe that?
But it seemed Kadin had confirmed that, yes, they were all royals because their parents were royals and she was a nobody.
Really a nobody.
It had been hard enough to accept that her precious baby was King and all the potential ramifications of that news. Now she’d discovered that the men she’d come to think of as friends, at least, were too far above her in rank to actually be friends—maybe not lovers—but an outsider still that would always be an outsider.
It was as she was turning that over in her head that she remembered what he’d said about Nye being genetically engineered—basically.
And his mother was an Earth woman.
Like her.
And then it hit her like a ton of bricks.
Nye thought she was his mama.
She’d been so charmed by the fact that he’d come to her, that he’d trusted her to take care of him, and all that time it was because the poor little confused baby thought his mama had come for him.
She didn’t know who she most wanted to cry for—Nye or for herself.
She tried to tell herself it was just her insecurity coming out, that he really did love her even though he was confused about her identity, but she couldn’t banish the doubts. They ate at her confidence and she was afraid it was just going to eat her up.
She’d followed him halfway across the universe and left everyone and everything she knew behind because she loved him and felt like he loved her and needed her.
Now she was going to get dumped because she wasn’t a royal and she wasn’t Nye’s actual mother! Light years from home.
Without a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out!
She was at the lowest low she’d hit in her life when Gaelen arrived at her door.
She had reason to be grateful the water in the tank was so cold. After her crying jag she needed something to take some of the redness out.
Not that she had a lot of time to do a damn thing!
After checking to make sure Nye was still sleeping in his crib—where she’d put him so she could go in the other room and indulge in her crying jag—she went to the door to let Gaelen in. Prince Gaelen. Brother to Princess Bitch.
His smile fell when he saw her face. A frown took its place. “Valee say someting?” he demanded in a growl.
Emma blinked at him, but she knew instantly that the water hadn’t helped. “No. Really.”
“Somebody say someting?”
Emma chewed her lip, struggling with her emotions. “I think Nye thinks I’m his mother,” she confessed. “He doesn’t really love me. He’s just confused.”
Gaelen was also clearly confused. “He tink you mama. You tink you mama. Same ting, yah?”
Not really, but she realized she couldn’t explain it because his understanding of English was limited. And her understanding of her emotions was very limited and tainted with the same self-doubts she’d suffered her entire life—that she just wasn’t good enough—she wasn’t special enough to be loved just for herself.
She sniffed, struggling to push her misery to the back of her mind. “I’m glad you came to visit. Oh! Did you come to visit Nye? He’s asleep just now.”
“Came see Emma,” he said, frowning.
He looked pretty uncomfortable, but finally dragged a plain wrapped package from behind his back and extended it toward her.
Emma brightened immediately, recalling he’d said he had something for her. “Oh! I forgot!” she gasped, snatching the package and moving to the bed to sit down to open it. When she had, she just stared at the contents for several moments while they slowly blurred with the tears that filled her eyes.
“Wrong ting?” Gaelen asked in a gruff voice.
Emma sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Doe,” she said through stuffy nose. “Oh Gaelen! Thank you so much! I don’t know how in the world you managed to find my things, but I am so grateful you just can’t imagine!” She launched herself at him then and hugged him as tightly as she could considering she couldn’t reach around him.
It was the clothes she’d been wearing when she left home, when she was captured. Hers. Something that was actually familiar and belonged to her. Not the under things. Those weren’t hers, but the jeans and t-shirt was hers and the only things she had left to her name—which made them more welcome than the most valuable jewels would have been.
And he had known how much they would mean to her, she thought! And he had cared enough to look for them to make her happy.
When she pulled away he stared down at her face for a long moment and pulled her close to cover her mouth with his own. Emma curled her arms around his neck and kissed him back with an enthusiasm he couldn’t, and didn’t, mistake.
In a few moments they had both stripped everything off and were lying on her bed skin to skin, writhing with the sheer pleasure of simply brushing their bodies together, immersing themselves in each other’s scents and the textures and shapes of their bodies.
It was more instinct that thought that prompted Emma to glance at the baby to make sure he was still sleeping when Gaelen broke the kiss. Relieved when she saw he was, she focused on Gaelen once more.
Amusement flickered through her when she saw that Gaelen had also turned to look at the baby.
He grinned at her a little sheepishly when he looked back at her and saw she was watching him.
She lifted a hand to his cheek, smiling fondly back at him, thinking, as she had
before, that he would be easy to fall for.
Too easy.
She didn’t know anything about royals on Earth and less than nothing about what the customs were on their world, but she didn’t want to bet her happiness on the possibility when it was likely no chance existed.
It hurt to think that, which, she supposed, indicated that it might already be too late to fight it.
He touched her cheek, bringing her focus back. “What?”
She shook her head and lifted up to kiss him and distract him.
It worked wonderfully, diverting both of them. They generated fire with the exchange as Gaelen melded his lips to hers and then deepened it, until they were both coasting restlessly along the planes of one another’s bodies, stroking one another, kissing, teasing with light touches.
It felt every bit as good as it had before—better, because there was more physical comfort to be had without the distraction of bones grinding against hard surfaces or the cold that had seemed to freeze every part of her body not in direct contact with his.
It would’ve been a lie to say Gaelen commanded her senses entirely. More accurately, it was mostly, with a tiny corner of her mind keyed on the sleeping baby, but he didn’t even sigh deeply enough to divert her and Gaelen possessed her completely enough to hold her attention, building a steadily strengthening tension, building her pleasure until she completely focused on striving to reach the pinnacle.
Fortunately, either Gaelen was in sync with her or he just immediately grasped when she started trying to mount him that she was ready.
For a few moments, they fought over ‘the meat’, but finally Gaelen managed to break her hold and engage his flesh with hers. Despite the fact that Emma felt like she was melting, it was a tight fit and made for an uphill battle. Gaelen persevered, gaining ground with each thrust.
He had almost hit the perfect spot when there was a commotion outside the door that knocked Emma right off her ‘hard on’. She hit ice cold so fast it made her head spin.
Gaelen was a little slower to react.
He had his ass in the air when Princess Bitch brushed the guards aside and marched in.
She looked Gaelen’s ass over with no appreciable sign of embarrassment—making it clear as a bell that she’d expected to find him there. “That you, brother?”
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