ANGEL'S INDECENT PROPOSAL

by Meg Xuemei X

  The king resorted to having his mistress privately whipped in the audience room of his palace.

  As a courtesy, I was invited for the viewing.

  Wearing a sweet smile, I watched the whip fall on Victoria’s scarred, bare back again and again. The king did nine lashes himself, which made me think of their fornication in his study as he’d whipped her while having sex with her. I wonder if both of them got high from this act as well.

  King Agro wasn’t trying to defend me. The flogging was a show of the consequences of trying to damage or violate the crown’s property. In this case, his property was me—his future bride. The king was also determined to keep a tighter leash on his mistress.

  If a lesser angel had tried to ruin his fun before his big day, the king would have hung the angel at Atlantis’s gate, but King Agro obviously wanted to keep his mistress. She was meant to last in the long run, but I wasn’t.

  I believed Victoria realized that as well. She flashed me a creepy grin as blood dripped from her back and tainted her grey feathers. I didn’t look away from the viper.

  Seth remained like cold marble beside me, though his body heat told me a different story. We both knew I was in more imminent danger than ever. The knowledge of our mutual lust would drive this male to do whatever it took to keep me alive, so he could fuck me in the end.

  The assassination attempt set off an alarm in me, reminding me that my time was running shorter. When I returned to my suite from the spectacular whipping event, I summoned Vanna, the undercover Dragonian servant.

  After Vanna pulled out the holographic tablet, she input a code on the side bar. A second later, the Dragonian rebel leader’s face showed on the holo-glass.

  Greetings, Empress. His words appeared at the bottom.

  I wrote, We must meet, North.

  Look forward to, he wrote.

  Tomorrow, I wrote.

  He answered, Perfume store at the Free Market Place in Babylon. Can you manage it?

  I wrote back, You got a date.

  He smiled. I’ll see you then.

  I hoped he wasn’t still smitten with me.

  But that shouldn’t be my concern now. Right now, I had to figure out how to throw Seth and his angel guards off my back and get to the city of Babylon.

  Actually, the high prince might just be the means.

  Chapter 25

  PRINCE SETH

  I wanted to fuck her every moment I saw her, and every second she was out of my sight.

  But the day had dragged on and on, and the lust flowed in my bloodstream like wine aged for thousands of years.

  I endured this burning every day. Did she even care?

  I would have to wait four more weeks to claim her, unless she cut me some slack. But it was obvious that the Princess of Mysth had no mercy. I didn’t know how long I could hang in there like this. The building pressure in my cock was more than merely torment. I needed to find some sort of relief badly, and soon.

  Just as I pondered how to make her surrender sooner, Rose came to me.

  “Prince Seth,” she said brightly, “you said that if I needed to go any place, I should just ask and you would escort me.”

  I smiled, trying not to look wolfish. “Where would you like to go, Princess Rose?”

  “Babylon,” she said. “I heard the Free Market Place is now the most popular shopping center on Earth.”

  Babylon was a diverse metropolis and the only city without angel guards. Free Market Place was the commercial area for all races to trade. We let the earthlings enjoy the illusion that they had a free realm on Earth. But if they truly believed they had the freedom, even in Babylon, they were seriously kidding themselves.

  The angels’ ground forces could level Babylon in a mere couple of hours.

  I wondered if the princess was indeed interested in shopping. She was possibly planning something else. I regarded her. “You’ll start a riot if anyone knows the Princess of Mysth is in the Free Market Place.”

  She frowned. “I’m not that notorious.”

  “The people will want to catch a glimpse of your legendary beauty.”

  She peered into my eyes to see whether I was being sarcastic or not.

  Very little trust there, as always, even after I had rescued her from all sorts of shit.

  “You think I’ll go anywhere just as I am? Without some sort of disguise?” she said.

  I arched an eyebrow.

  “Are you going or not?” she asked impatiently.

  “As you wish.” I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity.

  “Give me an hour,” she said, her eyes sparkling with wicked delight. “Even you won’t recognize me.”

  “That’ll be a first,” I said, then cleared my throat. “Since I’ll accompany you, I alone can guarantee your safety. We don’t need any extra guards.”

  “Of course!” Her eyes brightened more. “I’ll be in good hands for sure.”

  “Not just the angel guards,” I said. “We don’t need your royal guards, either. We don’t want to bring any attention to us in Babylon.”

  She smiled wider. “Your advice is wise and sound, Prince Seth.”

  I hadn’t expected her to be so agreeable, so I was sure that she was plotting something. I would play along. But there lay another possibility: she wanted some alone time with me. Or she might want to go to Babylon like any young girl of nobility, who couldn’t resist the world outside their limited social circle.

  And Rose deserved a break. I’d seen how the assassination attempt had rattled her.

  I also had my own plan for the trip. I had a penthouse in the center of the city. When she grew tired, I would bring her to my luxury suite and we could do whatever we wanted without disruption.

  I flashed a grin. “See you in an hour, Princess.”

  I went back to my quarters to shower and spray on expensive cologne, then soon returned to her suite. We were going to have a good time.

  I waited in the common room for an hour until an average-looking female walked out of the princess’s suite and headed straight toward me. If I hadn’t smelled her, I would never have thought she was Rose. And the challenging look she gave me confirmed that she absolutely was the princess.

  She wore a common girl’s outfit: a blouse, hooded grey robe, and loose pants.

  “I prefer your old face,” I grunted.

  “I thought you preferred me not to start a riot in Babylon,” she said.

  “Well, we all have to make compromises,” I agreed. “Although I can handle a riot in Babylon.”

  “I know you can,” she said, an undertone of anger in her voice. Then seemingly unable to help herself, she wheeled toward me, eyes burning with loathing. “You can just slaughter them all, as you slew my people.”

  I met her gaze—my glacial alpha look usually made people recoil—but she didn’t flinch. At the moment, there was no lust in her, only black hatred. And I didn’t want that from her. “I wasn’t there,” I said. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, but I haven’t touched any of your people. I fought only militia, not civilians.”

  She gave me a long look, and the icy hatred receded. Exhaustion lingered in the faint bluish hollows under her eyes. I knew she seldom slept in Atlantis. Though I wanted to pull her into my arms and warm her, I didn’t move.

  “Shall we leave, Princess?” I asked flatly.

  Her royal guards looked unhappy to be staying behind, but they obeyed her. Her lead guard stood by the door, sending me a hard, warning look. I growled back.

  Rose clapped her hands, and three Mysthian females filed out of her suite: the blonde guard and two courtiers.

  I could tell that the two courtiers were trained warriors and spies.

  Well played, Princess.

  “I thought we agreed—” I started.

  “No guards, yes,” Rose said. “But they’re just my companions. It’s improper for a princess, even in deep cover, to go anywhere without her escort.”

  I frowned. “But we
don’t want to bring any attention to us. This huge group—”

  “They aren’t huge.” The princess smiled smugly as she was getting her way. “They’ll tag along like shadows. Actually, they’re going to draw attention to them if necessary to make sure no one will be too interested in—mostly in you.” She eyed my outfit. I’d cloaked my wings and dressed as usual: a pair of loose trousers with a long trench coat that covered my hard-on. A long sword strapped down my back. I looked formidable enough for anyone who dared to glance at me twice.

  At her look of approval, my cock hardened painfully.

  “And who can protect us better than the mighty High Prince of Angels?” she asked with a big smile.

  I kept my look cold, though my blood boiled.

  The courtiers, especially the redhead, moved toward me and threw their flirtations my way. I didn’t pay attention to them. I focused on Rose and sniffed. She’d done something to tamper with her scent.

  All of her companions must have bathed with her and used the same soap and perfume before I’d come to pick her up. She knew I could track her down by her scent, so she had meshed her scent with her ladies, intending to confuse me at some point in the Free Market Place.

  What was her game this time?

  But she didn’t realize how unique her scent was to me. Even if she rubbed her scent all over the others, I would still distinguish her from the crowd. However, I didn’t want her to know that.

  “Fine, come along.” I smiled at the redhead, pretending to be enamored with her, and caught a glint of irritation in Rose’s eyes.

  If she wanted to play, I would indulge her. I wanted her to learn the lesson: every time she played with fire, it would burn.

  We set out for Babylon in an open-roofed royal jet I had brought to Earth. My lord father had prohibited any angel, including myself, from bringing a warp-speed spacecraft, because he didn’t want the natives to learn the technology and develop flying machines that would turn our advantage in the air into a disadvantage.

  After we landed near the Free Market Place, I ordered the pilot to come back in two hours.

  Babylon was the center of pleasure, greed, and crime. Without superior angels adding to the violence, the earthlings often fought among themselves for tiny territories. Racial issues were also big in the city.

  The Free Market Place was crowded, and any face was just a face amid tens of thousands here. The Mysthian princess could pretend to be one of the oblivion for a few hours.

  Many normal girls fantasized about being a princess.

  Yet the true princess wanted to be a normal girl.

  We prowled through the flow of the crowd. The princess’s companions stayed a certain distance from the princess and me, which I approved of.

  Rose and I covered half of our faces with our grey hoods. My wings were tucked in tightly and cloaked; even my shadow didn’t show them.

  Yet Rose still turned heads, despite her plain clothes and her makeup hiding her legendary beauty. Could it be her inborn brightness that she could never really mask? I was drawn to her all the time, regardless of how she looked.

  I glared at the onlookers until they couldn’t look away fast enough.

  I found that I enjoyed walking beside her very much, but I had to take pains to restrain myself from wrapping my arm around her shoulder. She would shrug me off with some snide comment, especially with her companions watching.

  I put my hand against the small of her back every chance I got, either to steer her through the crowd, or to urge her to stay close to me, or just because I could. When my hand lingered longer than necessary, she didn’t slap it away. Instead, she pretended not to notice.

  So far, she appeared extra nice toward me, which only raised a red flag. I wondered what she would demand next.

  I braced for it, even though I was constantly distracted by the pleasure of touching her.

  Every now and then, she sent me a sidelong glance through her lashes, which made me want to fuck her badly.

  However, my burning lust didn’t dull my contentment with striding beside her. We conversed casually without the usual tension that was between us in Atlantis.

  “Did you call me when the assassins attacked you, Rose?” I suddenly asked.

  She tensed, and I immediately called myself a fool for bringing that up while we were actually cozy with each other. But when a puzzle was out there, I had to solve it.

  “Why?” she asked defensively, but her voice was soft. “Why did you ask that?”

  “I heard you in my head,” I said. “And I sensed your need for me.”

  She gave me a long look before admitting, “I was too weak to call my guards, so I thought of you.”

  But she wasn’t too weak to reach me, as if there was a supernatural link between us. No wonder I was attuned to her scent. What was she to me?

  “You did right to think of me; think of me or call me anytime, Rose,” I said.

  She nodded curtly and appeared to not want to dwell on the subject. I didn’t pursue it. I continued to walk close to her, my arm brushing against hers. She didn’t move away.

  The streets changed. High buildings all around competed to thrust into the sky.

  Rose slowed and surveyed our surroundings, a look of calm excitement on her face.

  I watched her every move.

  For a second, I wondered what it would be like if she wasn’t a Mysthian princess and I wasn’t an angel. We might fall in love like normal lovers. There would be no taboo on our coupling, nothing forbidden that we alone consented to.

  Then I was taken aback by my daydreaming. That was idiocy! The princess and I would never fall in love. I had never been the loving type, and would never be one. But I was sure we would have fucked each other already if we weren’t who we were.

  We entered a vast shopping plaza.

  As we passed by a couple of brothels with bright neon signs in the windows—Babylon was famous for its large, diverse brothels—I spotted quite a few angels going into the places.

  Both Rose and I lowered our hoods to cover more of our faces and hurried by.

  She stopped at a corner near the fountains outside a few shops and looked over her shoulder. In an instant her companions had moved to gather around her.

  “Get yourself some fancy dresses and put them on my account,” I told them. “Rose is safe here with me.”

  “We’re not leaving Prin… Rose with you alone,” the Mysthian guard said hotly.

  If it weren’t for Rose, her guard would have been dead in a second for her offense. I wondered if she realized that.

  The Mysthian courtiers sent the guard a look of disapproval and turned to smile at me sweetly.

  “We’d better stay close together,” Rose said, pretending not to see any of the exchange, “so we won’t lose each other.”

  We resumed our adventure as a group, and soon the courtiers walked on either side of me, not the princess. They talked cozily, laughed easily, and flirted with me. Whenever they flattered me, it was done subtly. I could see why the king and his court were taken with them.

  I kept Rose in my line of sight as I dallied with her courtiers. Even though I hadn’t played around in millennia, I found that I wasn’t rusty. The females giggled in delight at my jokes. One of them fondly punched me on the arm.

  They were soft, warm, and knew the right things to say. They didn’t carry their princess’s haughtiness and occasional harshness. And unlike their princess, they aimed to please me instead of trick me or put me down at every turn.

  Rose kept her unreadable mask in place.

  The redhead courtier turned to the princess. “Your…Rose,” she said. They weren’t used to saying her name without a title, but we were in Babylon. The redhead pointed. “There’s a popular teahouse at the corner.”

  “Let’s go and have tea then,” Rose said amiably, but she didn’t spare me a look as if all of a sudden she couldn’t stand the sight of me. I wondered if it was because I’d made a pass at her courtiers
. I did it to see if she cared, though I didn’t give a damn about the other females or how charming and articulate they were.

  We entered an elegantly decorated, two-story teahouse. Everything inside was made of wood, including the teacups. Blue wood lanterns dandled from the ceilings; paintings of blossoms on wooden hand fans adorned the walls.

  Rose chose a long table in the center of the upstairs dining room. I should have been the one to pick where we sat, but I let it go. Not worth arguing with her now.

  She sat across from me. The courtiers competed to slide into the chair on either side of me as if I was the hottest dish on Earth. The blonde guard stayed behind her princess, her scarred hand on the hilt of her sword.

  An Aryanian server came to our table at once. Aryan was one of the mortal subspecies. Their lifespan was about thirty years.

  “Order the pearl tea for me, Femi,” Rose told the redhead courtier, then turned to me with a blank look. “I’ll go freshen up.” She stood up and her guard pulled back the chair for her.

  I frowned. “It’s a public lounge, which isn’t suitable for you. I have a penthouse not too far—”

  “I have a mundane need,” Rose interrupted me annoyingly. “When I need to go, I need to go.”

  What a snappy little creature!

  Her guard sneered at me, and the courtiers gazed up at me with sympathy.

  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll accompany you.”

  “Really, Seth?” Rose arched an eyebrow. “That’s a ladies’ lounge. If you need to go, you should go to the separate one for males.”

  “I won’t let you out of my sight,” I said.

  “The ladies’ lounge is right there, straight ahead.” Rose threw up her hands impatiently. “I’m not going to disappear on you, if that’s what your worry is.”

  “I’ll go with her.” The blonde guard gave me an evil look. “You can see us in and out from here.”

  “See?” Rose said to me. “Lexa will keep me safe and sound. We’ll return shortly. You go ahead, enjoy a drink and your lovely companions.”