by Zara Zenia
"I believe you fully intend to make good on your word. But you can't know that the rest of your brothers feel the same way."
"Are you not close with your siblings?" he asked. "Can you not make semi-accurate guesses as to their likely behavior based on previous experience?"
"No siblings nor cousins," I said, swirling the glass by the stem. "I’m the only child of only children, and though my mother is dead, my father and I do not speak. I do have friends I know that well, I guess. Well, just the one."
I took another sip of wine to cover my deep frown. The rhythm of my life had been the same for almost two years, but I never realized how lonely it sounded until I explained it to another person.
When I looked back at Lortnam, I expected to see sympathy, or worse, pity. To my surprise, he looked relieved.
"It seems I’m not the only one who gives the impression I wish to be more isolated," he said. "I know my brothers, Kelly. They would not risk the destruction a war would bring to either of our people. We learned that lesson well with Manzar. Thankfully not many lives were lost. The potential trauma our people would suffer if one of our lives were lost would be devastating. We nearly lost Akrawn a few months ago, and I can tell you, we nearly left then. Akrawn and his wife encouraged us to stay. But if it would come to war, it’s better to leave."
In the silence that followed, Wendy came back with our dinner. The earthy aroma of roasted root vegetables and fresh meat drippings wafted to my nose, making my stomach rumble with anticipation. Lortnam must have heard it, because he cracked a brief smile before he slipped a piece of steak with a perfectly pink center into his mouth. He grunted softly and closed his eyes as he chewed.
"It can’t be that good?" I said in wonder.
"My cook has been with me for years. He knows all of my favorite meals. And I can tell you for certain he’s never made anything this delicious."
"You said you don’t eat Human cuisine often, right? Maybe you just really like it?" I cut a piece of my lamb and popped it into my mouth. A juicy burst of garlic, basil, olive oil, and the deep earth lamb rushed over my tongue. Mr. Mustache and his eager pizza seemed like greasy cardboard by comparison.
"Tell your cook I apologize for talking shit," I said. "I don’t know where the chef is from, but this is not what we usually get here. At least, it’s not what I usually get."
Lortnam speared his steak again and cut a smaller slice away. Using his massive hand as a shield against spills, he offered it to me.
"Then I insist you share in my experience," he said. "Food this good is meant to be shared."
I stared at the dripping hunk of meat hovering inches over the Prince’s palm for a microsecond before leaning forward and snagging it between my teeth. As I used my tongue to guide the juicy morsel of deliciousness into my mouth, I locked eyes with Lortnam. They smoldered with desire.
My knees wobbled, forcing me to plop back down into my seat. After two bites, Jezebel’s had me hooked. So did Prince Lortnam, and that just could not be. Something about the sudden shift brought me back to reality. This wasn’t a real date. Lortnam wasn’t a man I could really get close to no matter how much I was starting to enjoy his company.
Now that I knew Lortnam wanted me, I had my way in. All I had to do was decide if I wanted to take it. If Lortnam was telling the truth, Jake Corbin’s attack had put a timer on the Trilyn Princes’ occupation of Earth. The only real question was whether they would find their wives before they had to abandon the project.
"Why did you ask me if I believed you about leaving?"
He shrugged, his eyes moving briefly from mine to linger on my lips. "Given the circumstances of our meeting, suspicion would have been a fair response."
"You mean you would have been suspicious," I said, injecting my voice with a note of teasing.
"What makes you say that?" he asked.
"Because the way I remember it, I’m the one who cornered you and demanded an exclusive during which you came clean at considerable potential cost to yourself. Not to ask me out, but to get the truth out after your first attempt failed. On Earth, we call that being a boy scout."
"For someone with no siblings and few friends, you’re good at reading people."
"It’s just part of the job," I said. On a whim, I cut little pieces of each ingredient on the plate and piled them onto the fork in a single bite. My reward was a mouthful of heaven twice as succulent as the lamb had been on its own.
Seeing my excitement, Lortnam did the same with his own food, albeit with heartier portions than mine. Judging by his expression, the trick worked just as well for him as it had for me.
"That, I don’t believe," he said. "At their most basic, a journalist should report the facts and evidence without emotion. Even allowing for the entertainment news Humans prefer, seeking the greater truth, the connections beyond what’s in front of us, is certainly not part of the job description. But you don’t seem to be able to help yourself, Kelly."
Lortnam never looked away from me as he spoke. It was as if he read each word written in my eyes and I only realized we had been staring at one another again when he stopped talking. I blinked and turned back to my food, desperate to break whatever spell had come over me. I probably should have had Mei research Trilyn anatomy to make sure they didn’t secrete heavy duty pheromones— not that I would have known what counter measures to take if he had.
The moment shook me so much, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything else during dinner. Luckily, the stellar meal gave both of us an excuse for the silence. But all too soon, the plates were empty and our excuse was gone. When the waitress came to offer dessert, Lortnam looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"I don’t have much of a sweet tooth," I lied. The reality was the longer I sat at that table with Prince Lortnam, the more I wanted to stay there. The more I wanted to engage in this strange exchange of ideas and theories. For Tony to have cared about my thoughts, he would have had to be comfortable with me having them at all.
Lortnam hid his disappointment— barely. I was surprised to find the flicker of emotion made my heart ache. There was no reason for me to care if I disappointed the alien Prince, but I cared deeply.
"Shall we have coffee then?" he asked earnestly.
I stifled a laugh. "That suggestion has... different connotations here, Lortnam. Usually a woman suggests it, and it’s just a euphemism for sex."
"Why must Humans be indirect about everything?" he asked, rolling his eyes and climbing to his feet. "When I come to you in that way, Kelly Fillmore, there will be no mistake. No misdirection. No euphemism."
If any other man on the planet had said those words to me, I would have thrown a drink in his face for his presumption and stormed off into the night. All right, so there’s no way I would have made a scene that big in a place as fancy as Jezebel’s, but I definitely would have walked away. But when Lortnam said it, I found my knees shaking again, my abdomen quivering. I wanted him to want me because I sure as hell wanted him.
Lortnam crossed to my side of the table and offered his hand. "If we take our coffee in the courtyard, will the additional connotations be mitigated?"
I nodded, sliding my hand into his, unable to find my voice for a moment. Lortnam snagged my jacket from the back of my chair and draped it over my shoulders. He led me back to the courtyard and to the lone bench that hadn’t been moved to make room for the transport.
"Not exactly a night for star watching," I said, nodding toward the sky. A gentle burst of cold air swung through the courtyard, making me shiver.
Lortnam leaned closer to me. "I enjoy the clouds. For my country, it means the promise of a good harvest which means good trade between our country and the other islands."
The warmth radiating from his tanned, muscular body felt so good, I found myself leaning into him in spite of myself.
"I wasn’t thinking," he said, a note of worry in his voice. "I should have brought my cloak. Should I ask them for a blanket?"
I shoo
k my head, letting my head fall against his shoulder. For the first time that evening, I took a deep breath, searching the air for Lortnam’s scent. I don’t know if it was spiked with pheromones, but he smelled clean and earthy, like a man who had bathed with fine soap in a fresh mountain stream. I liked it.
"This is fine," I whispered. "I’m pretty warm right now."
"I thought about wearing a scent, but I couldn’t decide what you would like," he said, frowning in a way I found adorable.
"Are perfumes a big deal on your planet? Because I like the way you smell." Somewhere in the back of my mind, my rational self screamed for me to move away. What was I saying? What was I doing cuddling up to a subject of a case? What the hell was I thinking?
I wasn’t thinking a damned thing. I was feeling and it was amazing.
When the waitress returned with our coffee— Lortnam took his black, but I liked mine decaffeinated with sugar and milk —I cupped the mug between my hands and glanced back up at the night sky.
"How different are our stars from yours?" I asked.
"I can barely see the stars here," he admitted. "My country is the wildest on our planet. It’s far too big to ever be tamed properly. At night there, the stars stretch in every direction as far as the eye can see. By moonlight, everything shines like silver."
"There are places like that here," I said. "But you have to go far from the cities to see them."
"Perhaps we can venture there together. If you would like to see me again."
My heart thundered in my chest. Kelly Grant absolutely wanted to see him again, but he wasn’t asking her. He was asking Kelly Fillmore, a woman who only existed to trap him. But I didn’t need to be her after I reported to Nora one last time. I was supposed to disappear when the case ended. A story in the Prince’s life that went nowhere and amounted to nothing.
Instead of answering, I leaned up, brushing my lips against Lortnam’s. I caught a glimpse of his pleased— though astonished —eyes in the half second before I closed mine. The scent of him filled my senses. His warmth cascaded over my lips and through my body, centering into a gentle throb in my core.
Lortnam made a small noise in the back of his throat and wrapped his arm around my waist, tucking me against his side. Despite our different sizes, I fit against him perfectly. His tongue slid out to gently caress mine, sending tendrils of pleasure through me. Enticing, but not enough.
When I pulled back and looked up at him, the look of heated desire had returned to his eyes. And heaven help me, I knew it was in my eyes too.
"I… need to catch a cab home," I said, struggling to catch my breath.
Lortnam caught my hand before I pulled away completely. The look of hurt on his face broke my heart.
"Is something wrong, Kelly?" he asked. "If you wish you leave, I can take you anywhere you wish to go."
I shook my head. "I like to get home under my own steam, Lortnam. It’s a Human thing."
The truth was I knew if I got back in Lortnam’s transport, the only place I was going was to his palace. To his bed. Until I gave Nora my final report, that was a major conflict of interest. I’d crossed several lines already just with the kiss.
As I turned to go, I paused. The world had no use for Kelly Fillmore after tonight, but I couldn’t let go of her. Not when one night of her life had put me on the best date of mine. It was selfish. It was almost certainly going to blow up in my face. But I just didn’t want to let go of that night, of the feeling of Lortnam’s lips on mine. I understood the fairytale the women of the wave were so hungry for now. And I was beginning to crave it too, because I knew it was real.
"Lortnam? I think I would like to see the stars next time," I said. "If you think your cook can arrange a picnic."
The smile that spread across his face drove all the chill from my body. "That I can absolutely arrange."
Chapter 11
Lortnam
The next morning as I took breakfast in my sitting room, the gray sky over Baltimore seemed to shine brighter than before. The meal the kitchens sent up was somehow a pale comparison to the one I had taken with Kelly, and yet it was the most delicious I could remember ever having eaten. The coffee was richer, the tea more fragrant. My senses were alive in a way they had never been before.
If this was love, I could see myself growing accustomed to the beautiful distraction. Only waking up next to Kelly would have made the morning sweeter, and after the kiss after dinner, I dared to hope that might be in our future. Kelly in my bed, my mate. The place setting across from me not meant for Special Agent Yadav, but for her.
Yes, it was a glorious distraction, but it was a distraction nonetheless. I needed only to look at the morning newspapers for that fact to be driven home.
If Kelly had submitted her report, the trickle of attention it received was no match for the deluge that came from other reporters. The lie persisted. Maddeningly, it seemed to have gained strength since I’d been seen visiting the holding facility— a fact which the reporters were all too aware.
I folded one of the national papers and set it aside, preferring the memories of my dinner with Kelly to the reality of the web of lies growing around me. To the miracle that she had not only enjoyed herself, but also wanted to see me again. I’d only asked her on the date on a whim. I certainly had no solid plans for a second, nor any idea how to strike luck twice.
It occurred to me to reach out to my brothers again. Indeed, any one of them who had already successfully found a Human mate might give me valuable information on how to proceed. But that came with its own set of problems. First, too much depended on this working out. I knew the stakes, I carried them with me every minute of every day. To reach out to my brothers for advice again would only hammer them home more. A bond this new couldn’t withstand the weight of all those expectations. Second, I didn’t want to speak to Gardax again until I had more information on Jake Corbin’s accomplices. More than anything, I wanted to reach out to Jinurak, but knowing I had a potential mate might reopen old wounds.
Until I had more answers to give or progress to report, I was on my own. And deep down, I preferred it that way. I didn’t want help wooing Kelly. I wanted to win her on my own.
A picnic under the stars in winter. But it must be warm. I’ll not stand for her not being warm. I grabbed my pad and started searching. Somewhere on this planet I had to be allowed to start an open fire. If she ever agreed to come to Norna with me, regulations would pose no problem. The wet seasons kept the lands fertile, periodic controlled burns kept the brush in check. But on Earth, a careless spark could start a raging inferno.
The chime on my door sounded, alerting me three seconds before it opened that Special Agent Yadav had arrived for our breakfast meeting. He strode to the table after shaking my hand briefly and slid into the spot I had assigned to Kelly in my mind. I couldn’t help but frown as I took my seat again, setting the pad aside.
Soon, if things keep going well.
"I know what you’re going to ask, sir," Yadav said as he grabbed an orange from this morning’s pile. "And I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I haven’t come up with anything new in the last day."
"I suppose it was too much to hope for all of this to resolve quickly," I said, unable to keep the disappointment from my voice.
"I don’t think quickly is in the equation here. The press is making things… complicated. When a case gets this much attention, it draws a lot of tips from the public. You would think that’d be good, but almost all of them are useless. Either bad information or outright lies."
"You’re joking, yes?"
"Afraid not. Some of them have mental illnesses and really think they see the things they tell us. Some are lonely or unhappy with the way life is going and just want some attention." Yadav popped a slice of orange into his mouth, chewing it quickly before speaking again. "Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Humans have a lot of flaws, and we’re pretty rotten at acknowledging them."
"That is a factor common to all
sentient life, as it happens Agent Yadav." I glanced at the small feast before us, my appetite suddenly diminished to a fraction of what it had been. "What happens now? Investigations of this sort are not my area of expertise."
Yadav hesitated. "If you don’t mind me speaking freely, sir? I don’t know you well enough to know how thorough an answer you want to that question."
"As complete and as honest an answer as you can currently give me, Special Agent Yadav. Always."
When Yadav nodded, I thought I detected a note of appreciation in his expression. "In my experience, this story plays out one of two ways. Either it turns out that we were wrong, Jake and his brother are criminal masterminds and they pulled this whole thing off alone—"
"Which seems unlikely," I said.
"Or whoever paid them makes a move. It may be a move on you. It may be a move to clean house. But they won’t sit idle while their plans go to shit, sir."
To say I didn’t like that answer would have been an understatement. The muscles in my body tensed involuntarily, readying for a fight even though there was no single foe to engage. Whoever had set their sights on me had the advantage, a state of affairs which could not be allowed to stand. Any danger they posed to me was danger posed to Kelly.
Kelly, with her deep brown hair and silver eyes. With her sweet lips and the gentle curve of her waist that fit so perfectly in my hand. I would not stand for any harm to come to her. I could not live with it.
Exhaling deeply, I grit my teeth together, willing my body to calm. The tension was too close to panic. I might have been more of an administrator than a warrior, but I knew enough to know that a battle fought from panic was a battle lost in its infancy.
"I would prefer not to have this hanging over my head forever, Agent Yadav," I said. "How do you suggest we proceed?"
Yadav split the remaining orange down the middle and shoved the smaller half into his mouth. He folded his arms across his chest, letting his eyes drift to the table in thought.