by Mina Carter
“Bollocks…”
She abandoned the lift and raced up the corridor, grabbing at each handle as she passed, hoping beyond hope one would give. If she could just get into one of them she could find a ventilation shaft or something. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d escaped him that way.
“Lady Jaida Lianl, by order of his Imperial Majesty, you are under arrest—”
“Screw his Imperial Majesty!”
Her hand closed around the last door handle, and wonder of wonders, it opened. She stumbled through and slammed hard into a solid chest. Strong arms closed around her, and with a gasp she looked up into familiar silver eyes.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
“No…” Her gasp of denial was automatic as she fought against his hold, vicious as a wildcat, bucking and heaving in his embrace.
“Yes.” He quelled her struggles by yanking her up hard against him.
Panic and awareness flared through her at the familiar feel of his body against hers. His Imperial Highness, Prince Sethan Kai Renza. Seth. The man she’d once loved with all her heart and soul.
Defeat wrapped around her heart in a crushing embrace as she looked up.
He had the face of a dark angel, all hard, masculine lines. His eyes were mercurial silver, their cast almost feline, surrounded by thick, dark lashes. A straight nose sat above sinfully full lips reputed to make even a priestess think wanton thoughts. He was as handsome as she remembered, but where once his expression had been charming, it was now hard and triumphant.
“Let me go!” She shoved at the brick wall of his chest, but it was a futile gesture. Seth was solidly built with a warrior’s physique. Once it had thrilled her, but right now she’d give everything she owned to be on the other side of the galaxy.
“Anyone would think you’re not pleased to see me.” His drawl was rich and mellow, just a hint of his court accent tainting the galaxy-standard he spoke.
Jaida’s lip curled into a sneer. “You don’t think? Goddess, you musta been at the back of the queue when she was handing out the brains.”
He winced at her words. She knew he would. The rough dock dialect would grate on his nerves just as much as the insult.
“Don’t talk like that.” His hand slid into the hair at her nape, and his thumb stroked along the sensitive skin at the side of her neck. Refusing to be cowed, either by his touch or his larger, more powerful body, she pulled against his hold.
“Or you’ll what? Declare me an outlaw, exile me from my family, and denounce me as a criminal? Oh…wait. You already did that.”
Anger flared in his silver eyes. He leaned in until his lips brushed against her ear and whispered. “You’re mine, you always were.”
She snorted, an inelegant sound of amusement and contempt. “I’ll never be yours, Seth. Never. Why do you think I left? You’re not man enough for me.” It was a foolhardy thing to say to an Imperial prince, especially Seth, but she wasn’t thinking. She wanted to hurt him. Deal a blow to his masculine pride. Her heart ached at the lie, but now that he’d caught her, it was the only weapon she had. Her heart had been shattered beyond repair anyway, so what was one more hurt?
All that mattered now was hiding the effect that seeing him again was having on her. She kept her expression cold and furious, but deep inside a flutter had started in the empty and bruised space in her soul. Blood surged faster through her veins at his touch, and the solid strength of his body against hers started a fire low down in her belly that burned brighter every second.
“Not man enough?” His eyebrow winged up, a raven arch against his pale skin. Court pale. None of the nobility would be uncouth enough to allow their skin to tan. Well, unless they’d been on the run for five years like she had, taking any job they could just to eat and provide a roof over their head. The first thing she’d done to fit in was get a suntan.
“Never.”
As soon as the word was out of her mouth, she knew she’d pushed too far.
Fury blazed in his eyes, scorching her to her soul. His fingers tightened in her hair. She tried to turn her face away, but he hooked a finger under her chin and tugged. Not gentle, not rough, just unstoppable.
Held fast, she watched as Seth’s lips descended. A whimper escaped as he pried her lips apart and thrust his tongue past them to claim the sweetness within. The touch of his lips shattered her defenses. Disbelief and need surged through her in equal amounts. She’d promised herself that, should the worst happen and he captured her again, she would be as cold as the grave.
Wouldn’t respond to him at all. To her, Sethan Kai Renza had ceased to exist as a man.
Yeah, right.
His kiss was designed to punish and humiliate, but as soon as he touched her, her body responded. The blood in her veins heated, and her breasts tightened as he held her. Her heart rate skittered and went through the roof as she developed trouble taking her next breath. Worst of all was the heat spreading out from her core. Shame burned bright banners across her cheeks.
She moaned against his lips as his tongue thrust again, sliding along hers and demanding her response. A response she gave, tentatively at first but then with unwilling passion. Her tongue tangled with his in an erotic dance, but her heart ached. After all he’d done, how could she crave his touch?
He lifted his head. Heat and smug satisfaction colored his eyes. “Not man enough, was it?” he taunted as he stepped away.
She clamped down on the sense of loss. There was no way she wanted him touching her, not ever again.
“Take her to my room at the Babylon, and for heaven’s sake, scrub the stink of the dock off her.”
Chapter Two
It was over. Her life was over.
Jaida stood by the huge picture window of the hotel’s penthouse suite and looked out. Below her the city of Severnas Three lay sprawled out like a glittering jewel against the turquoise backdrop of the ocean. Severnas never slept; the city was famous for it. The pleasure capital of the galaxy. At one time, when she’d been Lady Jaida Anais Lianl, youngest daughter of the house of Lianl, she’d have reveled in its gaiety.
But she wasn’t Lady Lianl anymore; she had no right to the name. She looked down at her rough, callused hands. She hadn’t been a lady for a long time. Now she was just a dockworker with a bounty on her head.
She’d been here an hour already, thrown through the door by Seth’s guards and told to “prepare herself.” At least they hadn’t taken it upon themselves to make sure she was presentable for the prince, but then she was the prince’s whore. She always had been. No man would mess with something that belonged to an imperial prince.
She’d stripped out of her work coverall and bathed, luxuriating in the sumptuous bathroom suite. The guards hadn’t left her anything to wear, so unwilling to put on her filthy overalls, she’d tried the replication unit. To her surprise she’d been able to access her old credit line. She’d been sure her access had been blocked years ago.
She studied her reflection. It was the same as she was used to yet not her at all. Her slender fingers reached out to stroke the cool glass. The dull, flat dye she’d used on her hair was gone and it’s true, purple hues were once again revealed. The contacts that turned her eyes worker-brown were gone as well, leaving them bright in the dim light of the suite. The Lianl eyes, sapphire blue ringed with silver. Distinctive on any planet in the galaxy.
She screwed her eyelids tight as memory assaulted her. She’d been eighteen, new at court, and so innocent she hadn’t seen the trap that had been set for her until it was too late.
Sethan was the handsome prince. The man of every young girl’s dreams, particularly one who’d grown up on the fringe of the court, desperate to be old enough to join its glittering array. Her moment in the spotlight couldn’t arrive fast enough for the young girl she had been. Clad in the red of a debutante, she’d stood at the top of the stairs to the prince’s court and waited for her name to be announced.
He’d been there at the bottom of th
e staircase, silver eyes warm with appreciation. She’d barely set foot on the top step before she was stepping from the last, her silken skirts rustling around her as she dropped into the lowest curtsy she’d ever given.
Eyes still closed, Jaida took a shuddering breath. If she’d known then what she knew now, she’d have run from that hall as fast as she could. There was no escape from Sethan. She knew that now. He was the consummate warrior-prince, famous for his ruthlessness on the battlefield and his passion in the bedroom. They said he never lost a fight he picked or a woman he chose.
Except one. One woman had run, her heart mangled beyond repair, and she’d been branded a criminal for it.
She drew a shuddering breath and swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. She would not cry. She wouldn’t give Seth the satisfaction. She would never give him—the man who in one glorious night and one equally horrific morning had ruined her life—the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
Not then, not now, not ever.
She opened her eyes. It was time. For five years she’d put off her fate, and she was exhausted. She couldn’t do it anymore. She was done running, and now she had to pay the price for trying to escape. Exhausted, she stood by the window and waited. It was over. There was nowhere left to run, not now.
* * *
Seth stood in the corridor and tried to compose himself. She was in there.
He could feel her psychic signature as it uncoiled and brushed against his mind. The delicate contact, the one he’d sought for so many years, had him hard and aching in a heartbeat.
He sucked in a harsh breath. He thought time had exaggerated his reaction to her, but the need hit him with the force of a star cruiser, as sharp and immediate as he remembered it. It had been all he could do to control himself earlier, when she’d been in his arms.
She’d shielded herself though, concealed the glory of her aura from him so he couldn’t feel it. It was probably automatic for her. She’d spent so long hiding among commoners without a jot of psychic ability. If she hadn’t learned to conceal herself, then she would have stood out like a sore thumb.
Easy pickings for those he’d sent after her.
Here, where she couldn’t see him and she had no need to conceal her abilities anymore, she’d relaxed a little. It was just a fraction, but it was enough to test him. He leaned his head against the cool metal of the door and sighed as he basked in her warmth. All he wanted to do was break the damn door down and get in there. Gather her into his arms and take her as his again.
He stepped through the door and paused, all his senses on alert. His men had checked out the entire hotel, and the sensor sweeps had confirmed it was clear, but there was no sense tempting fate. So many assassins had been sent after Seth that he’d learned never to relax his guard. The instant he did, the prick of a knife against his throat would end his life.
His gaze swept the main room of the suite. When his eyes and instincts had assured him there was nothing out of the ordinary, he looked at the petite, slender woman framed by the window. His heart slammed into his chest as triumph surged through him. At last, after so many years, he finally had her, but it was a bittersweet victory. He had her prisoner, but unless he kept her shackled, she would be gone again.
Her back was to him, but the tension in her frame told him she knew he was there. He walked forward, his eyes caressing the lines of her figure. The purple-black hair he remembered cascaded down her back in silken waves, brushing against the creamy skin he’d spent night after night fantasizing about. The court gown bared her delicate shoulders and the sensuous curve of her spine, but the slender arms at her side were unadorned by a noblewoman’s arm cuffs.
The slight plumpness of youth had faded from her cheeks and limbs, leaving a haunting air to her features and a delicacy to her build that bypassed his anger and plugged straight into the instincts of a man looking at the woman he loved.
He came to a stop behind her, so close he could reach out and touch her.
He didn’t though. He’d waited so long for this moment, played it out in his mind many, many times, but now that it was here, he didn’t know if he could go through with it. He’d planned to humiliate her, to take what he wanted in the most brutal way possible, then cast her aside when he got bored.
She stiffened, just a small movement, but Seth caught it. Her head turned to the side, just enough for him to catch a glimpse of her profile.
“How did you find me?” Her voice was melodious and soft, betraying no emotion. Mentally he applauded her. She projected the image of the perfectly brought up lady. Even if he’d stormed in here, bloodstained blade in hand after cutting a swathe through the entire staff of the hotel, he doubted she’d do more than raise a delicately arched brow.
It was perfection, and at the same time, a total sham. Sethan gritted his teeth. He knew under that prim and proper manner there was fire and passion. Just one night with her had bewitched him, but then she’d run and left him bereft.
“You’ve been sloppy these past couple of months, Jai,” he replied, giving the name of the worker she’d been masquerading as. She’d been working as a menial, lowly worker cleaning up after other people rather than come to him.
Anger mounted again, but he controlled it.
“There was a sighting last month at the spaceport on Terranis, so I was in system when your ID was picked up here.”
Jaida nodded, turning to look out the window again.
Seth’s temper went up another notch. “You didn’t really think you could outrun me for much longer, did you? Even if you hadn’t come here… You know I would still have found you, don’t you?” He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face him.
His breath caught in his throat as he looked down into her face, clear of grime for the first time. Lady, she was more beautiful than he remembered.
She looked up. For a split second Seth fell into the sapphire depths of her eyes before her lids swept down. When she looked back up, the fear he’d spotted there was gone, and the mask back in place. Under his hands, a tremble ran through her frame, cluing him in. She was scared, more than she was letting on.
Seth’s lips compressed a little. Good. She should be. He leaned in, his breath stirring the curls by her ear. “There’s no escape from me, Jaida, not for you. Not ever.”
She tried to stifle the shiver that ran through her body at the callused grip on her shoulders. The threat in Sethan’s voice was implicit and the look in his eyes hard. He was exactly as she remembered him.
Those thoughts were ones she had once reveled in and built teenage fantasies about. Thoughts she’d spent five years trying to forget, and Lady help her, ones she didn’t want to be reminded of now. Her heart ached as she avoided his gaze. She couldn’t meet it, or he would read the expression in her eyes.
“Look at me.” His voice was soft, but the words were an order. The words of a man who was used to being obeyed. “Answer me. Admit there’s no escape.”
Her throat tightened in panic. Her gaze travelled up the heavily embroidered tunic, past the open collar, and up to his jaw. Strong and shadowed with stubble, it was as far as she dared look. She wasn’t a noblewoman anymore, and despite her bravery earlier, no commoner looked upon royalty directly.
“No, Your Highness, there’s no escape. There never was,” she replied dully, trying to deflect the storm she knew was coming. She started to look down again, but his hand moved, driving into the hair at the nape of her neck. His fingers twined in the long strands and pulled her head back gently.
She didn’t fight; there was no point. He was stronger than she was. She kept her eyes down, refusing to look at him.
“Look at me. I won’t ask again,” Sethan said in a low voice. “You don’t want to anger me or—”
Her gaze snapped up, and she glared at him. “Or you’ll what? Hunt me across the galaxy again? Or this time do you plan to do me a favor and kill me?”
His eyes hardened and she quailed inside, refusing to show fear.
Seth’s temper was as famous at court as his charm. Five years ago she’d been treated to that charm, but now, after she’d wounded his ego, she suspected she was going to get treated to the other.
“Oh no, my lady, I have something far more…pleasurable in mind than killing you.” He leaned in, his intent unmistakable. She waited until his breath whispered over her lips, until his lips were mere millimeters away from hers, then she turned her head.
His kiss landed on her cheek.
Seth froze. His hand, still clamped around the back of her neck, stilled as he rested his forehead against hers. A moment later he pulled away, and his warm breath fanned against her hair.
“If that’s how you want it…we can play hardball. But I guarantee you won’t like it.”
His voice was tight with anger, body coiled with tension. Jaida knew better than to look up. She was sassy, yes. The places she’d been, she’d had to run her mouth off to avoid being overruled and lost in the masses. Even so, she’d never faced down any loudmouth in a bar who was half as dangerous as Seth.
His grip tightened further on the back of her neck, forcing her to look around. She didn’t want to. She tensed her neck to fight him, but it made no difference. Within seconds their standoff was over and he dragged her chin around and up. Her gaze darted to his for a second and met warm mercury.
His eyes blazed with anger, desire, and hidden beneath, a deep, dark need that frightened the life out of her.
Unable to look him in the eye a moment longer, she looked down. An answering desire flared through her body like a flash fire, leaving a simmering heat in its wake. Desperation and denial chased each other throughher head.
She didn’t feel anything for him, didn’t want to feel anything for him. Not with how he’d treated her in the past…how he continued to treat her now.