“Crap, crap, crap. This is such a bad idea.”
She moved forward to the doors and tried to peer through them as the airlock went through its cycle. She’d always thought it was overkill, what with the bay outside, but now she was glad of the delay. Trying for nonchalance, she scanned the lobby. Already her agile mind was working out all the routes out of the building.
Miriam, the receptionist, sat behind the large flexi-glass-and-steel desk, headset on and hands moving swiftly over the holo-console in front of her.
Her fingers twisted and pinched as she worked, plucking at images Jaida couldn’t see from this side of the desk.
She scanned around, her vision panning from one side of the room to the other. Opposite the reception desk, a small group of couches sat in front of full-length windows overlooking the loading docks. Having worked on them for months, she’d have picked a different view. Even a blank wall would have been preferable.
Nothing was out of place, not even a leaf on the expensive Terranian palms in the corner.
“Okay, jumping at shadows. Get a grip, Jai,” she told herself as the doors in front of her slid open and she stepped through.
“Morning Miriam, boss called me. Shall I wait?”
Jaida headed toward the chairs discreetly hidden behind the palms.
Unlike the plush couches for the visitors, these were hard, wipe-clean plastic.
For the workers, people like her. The dregs of society. A long time ago she’d have sat on the couches and not thought a thing about it.
Those days were long gone. She went to sit on the chair nearest to the lift door.
“No. Go on up, go right in.” Miriam said.
One eyebrow winging up in surprise, Jaida stood and headed that way. It wasn’t until the door slid shut behind her and the lift started up that she processed what Miriam had said.
Go right in.
No one went right into Gregaris’ office. He was an approachable guy, if a bit blunt, but even so, no one went right into his office. The sense something was wrong hit her in the gut again, stealing her breath. The lift was too small. She couldn’t escape. For five years she’d made sure she always had an escape route, always had a way out. Panic clawed at her gut and her heart climbed into her throat.
Something was wrong. She dragged deep breaths into her lungs and forced her heart rate back down to something approaching normal. It worked, but only just. Her heart pounded and slammed against her ribcage. The sides of her neck hurt with all the tension as she battled her fight-or-flight instincts.
Gradually she got them under control, biting her lower lip as she watched the numbers above the door count up. Sweat slid between her shoulder blades and down the valley between her breasts. Nothing was wrong; there was no way Seth could have found her here, not with all the hoops she’d jumped through to set up this identity. A lot of money had changed hands for her to get the ID and med numbers of a kid who’d died at seven but whose parents had never registered the death. Med numbers were worth their weight in gold. The door pinged. She gulped a lungful of air as they slid open to reveal the corridor beyond. It was empty.
Shaking her head Jaida stepped out the lift and walked toward Gregaris’ office. Plush carpeting under her feet ate the sound of her steps as she approached the door. Her hand reached out, was almost at the handle, when she paused. A frown creased her brow.
Something was wrong. The instincts that had been clamoring since the lobby ganged up on her and became tribal screaming. This time, she listened.
She snatched her hand back from the handle and turned on her heel. The space between her shoulders itched as she headed back the way she’d come.
She could feel the crosshairs painted on her back, a little red mark dancing across her skin like a butterfly.
Walking past the lift door, she headed for the emergency stairs at the end of the corridor. She’d barely covered half the distance when it began to open.
Her heart stilled, fluttering deep inside her chest as she started to backpedal.
She knew what she’d see before the heavily armed trooper stepped through the open door.
Time slowed to a crawl as the muzzle of the trooper’s rifle swung toward her. The red dot of the laser sight raced across the pale walls, then across her field of vision, blinding her for a second. She turned and raced for the lift, yelling and slamming her hands against the flat metal of the closed doors.
“No. Oh please, Lady, no…”
They’d called it back down. She jabbed at the buttons frantically as more troopers piled into the hallway. There was no way out, just the lift and the stairs currently filled by imperial guards. Or…the office at the end of the corridor, the door looming in her peripheral vision like some harbinger of doom.
“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.”
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 the 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.