The Iriduan’s Mate by Susan Trombley
Twenty-Four
Shulgi performed his scan of the private dining room as soon as they entered, the door sliding shut behind them, leaving Molly’s two guards posted on the other side of it. He detected traces of electronic monitoring, but they had been deactivated recently, just as he’d requested.
He knew meeting her again, particularly on the fifth tier, was a huge risk. One he might end up regretting, but seeing her now, finally, made it difficult for him to worry about future regrets. The more they communicated with each other, the more he realized how much they had in common, despite so many differences between them.
Unsurprisingly, Molly felt passionate about freedom and abhorred the injustices of slavery. Her own situation was the likely cause of her deep anger at the practice, but he felt that she might be just as passionate were she free. She also despised the abuses of the lower classes in the city by the wealthy elite, including the city bosses who took increasingly higher shares of their income just for the privilege of living in the hellish lower tiers.
It wasn’t just their fundamental beliefs that Shulgi and Molly shared. She also enjoyed many of the same forms of entertainment that he did, loved trying new foods and restaurants like he did, and also appreciated luxury but did not require it for her happiness.
Once assured they were alone and unmonitored, he turned his attention to Molly, who had removed her cloak and set it on one of the bench chairs surrounding the main table in the private dining room.
She looked so beautiful that it stole his breath. The gray silk gown he’d given her skimmed her subtle curves, highlighting her petite and graceful form. The hair ornament he’d sent to her glittered as she turned her head to meet his eyes, the gemstone beaded chains swinging with the movement. She wore only his and he pretended it made her his queen, even knowing that he couldn’t make her so in any official capacity.
Even if he could spirit her away from this world and keep her for himself, he could never let their mating be known in Syndicate space without being hunted by the empire for illegally mating. Not that he’d had much of a problem avoiding imperial enforcers thus far.
She’d tucked one of the flowers he’d sent her into her hair right beside the golden ornament, and the subtle pink sheen of the delicate and fragrant petals gleamed against her blonde locks.
She watched him study her with a hint of uncertainty in her eyes, and he closed the distance between them and took her into his arms. Her slim arms encircled his waist as she laid her cheek against his chest.
“I can hear your heartbeat,” she murmured, planting a kiss on the silk that covered his pectoral.
He shivered with pleasure at the feeling of her lips touching him through the barrier of fabric. His cerci unfurled at his back, pulling his robe tight so the ridge of his erection was easily noticeable.
“I only wanted to see you, Molly,” he said, lifting a hand to trace the petals of the rose in her hair. “As much as I desire you, I didn’t bring you here for sex.”
Her chuckle sounded husky with her own desire, recalling their previous holo chat, when she had laid upon her own bed, gloriously naked, with her legs parted as she pleasured herself for him. She’d been sweetly seductive even then, exuding grace and class even as her back arched in climax, her hair spreading across her pillow and her fascinating eyes closing in bliss. She’d called his name as she’d come, which had brought his own orgasm, his hand fisted around his girth, stroking in time to her fingers moving inside her.
He’d wished then, more than anything, that he could have been in her bed with her at that moment. Now, it was enough that he could feel her in his arms again, even if he couldn’t taste her the way he wanted to. It wasn’t safe here to do so.
He could clean her scent off his robe before leaving this room, but if he made love to her here, he wouldn’t be able to completely purge her much stronger aroused scent as well as his own from his skin without potentially drawing notice from other Iriduans.
“I wouldn’t mind if you’d brought me here for sex as well,” she said, her hand sliding from his waist to cup the hard ridge at his groin.
He moaned, shuddering as his hips bucked reflexively, pushing his erection harder against her palm. She sucked in a shivering breath, tilting her head to look up at him, her eyes sparkling with her arousal. She licked her shapely lips, leaving them glistening like an invitation it took everything in him to resist.
With much regret, he caught her wrist, tugging her hand away from his groin. “We should think of other things, my queen, or I won’t be able to leave this room for a long time after you without raising suspicions.” He felt the edges of full engorgement creeping in on him and knew if he let his arousal go that far, he would end up in pain if he didn’t make love to her.
Her lips spread in a soft smile as she lifted her captured hand to trail her fingertip along the upper edge of his mask. “Your queen?”
He reluctantly released her, stepping away from her before he lost control of his own will. “I shouldn’t call you that. I have no right to claim you as such.”
Yet he wanted to. As much as if he had been truly imprinted on her. Only this time, it felt like his choice, not his biology betraying him. Namerian had ventured to discuss this phenomenon of Shulgi falling in love with a female he hadn’t imprinted upon, though Shulgi was still irritated with him since their discussion in his office. He hadn’t been thrilled to listen to Namerian pepper him with further warnings about the dangers of continuing to expose himself to Molly. The professor speculated that he would still slip into the singularly devoted role of a mated male because it remained a part of his biology. Once he’d determined a female to be his queen, after she caught his interest—regardless of how she did it—he would feel emotionally bound to her, just as if he’d imprinted on her. The difference was that he would not die without her, but Shulgi suspected he might want to if he didn’t put an end to this soon.
The best way to do that was to free her and send her home to Earth, where he would never have the chance to see her again now that it was under Akrellian guardianship.
She lowered her eyes, her smile fading. “I am no one’s queen, I suppose. I’m just a whore.”
He caught her in his arms again, pulling her tight against his body as his hands smoothed up her back, feeling the warmth of her skin beneath the sleek material of her dress. “Molly, you are not that! Not to me. Never to me! I love you, and there is nothing I want more in my life than you.”
She sucked in a startled gasp, her hands pressing against his chest. He didn’t want to release her, but he allowed her to push him far enough that she could look up into his eyes. “Do you mean that?” Her tone expressed doubt, but also a tinge of something else he told himself was hope.
He cupped her face between his hands. “I do. I would gladly claim you as my queen, and announce it to the entire galaxy, if I could.”
Her lips parted as if she would speak, then her gaze fell. “I wish I was free to accept that claim, Shulgi, because I would—in a heartbeat.” When she lifted her eyes again, they shimmered with unshed tears. “You make me happier than I’ve ever been. Whenever I get a message from you, it brightens my day. When I hear your voice, it lifts my heart. And when I see you….”
She ran her hand up his chest to settle over his heart. “When I see you, I feel like I’ve finally found where I belong.” She rested her head against his chest, laying her cheek beside her warm palm. “I can’t remember the last time I felt at home, but that’s how I feel when I’m in your arms.”
He embraced her gently, his arms folding her close to him. Though her body felt incredible against his, his mind seethed with frustration and despair at the thought of what he must do.
He had taken on the burden of the cure without hope of ever having anything else in his life that mattered to him. He’d believed that such a thing as love was forever beyond him, despite encouragement from Paisley to find a mate. Though he’d grown to admire and respect Paisley to the point that he’d even fancied he could fall in love with her, he hadn’t truly believed that he would find someone who made him feel the way Halian had felt about her. Someone who could make him forget the horrors of being imprinted on Ninhursag, being manipulated by her, having her use him like a mechbot to do her bidding.
Molly had blindsided him with her grace and elegance, her soft voice concealing a strong will. She had suffered so much in her life and yet managed to remain unbroken by it. She held onto her true self, even as she was forced by Zaska to wear a mask for everyone else. He couldn’t help but admire her and respect her.
He couldn’t help but fall in love with her.
“Tell me we will be together someday, Shulgi,” she whispered, her fingertip tracing the embroidery on his robe. “Tell me we will live happily ever after.”
“I can never lie to you, my queen.” But how he wanted to when it came to this!
She sighed, her breath warm as it swept over the silk covering his chest. “I know it is folly to dream. I thought, once before, that I would finally escape this life. He promised me many things, but all that mattered was that he’d sworn he’d love me forever. Then I discovered that he didn’t love me at all.”
“I am not him,” Shulgi growled, wishing he could find this male who had hurt her.
He also realized he was no better since he couldn’t give her his love freely either. Though he would at least have the decency to give her freedom before he left her life forever.
She stroked her palm down his chest, then slipped both hands around his waist to hug him. “No, you are so much better than him! You are a good person, Shulgi. You don’t break my heart without reason. I understand that.”
“I will find a way to set you free, Molly!”
She pulled away from him, stepping out of his arms so quickly that he didn’t process she was doing so until she’d put a step between them. Then another. Though her eyes were lowered, he saw the dampness of tears on her dyed cheeks.
“I don’t want to be free.” She lifted her gaze, her eyes green with a golden halo. “I have nowhere to go. No home to return to.”
“We can find your family,” he insisted, shifting towards her, only to freeze when she shied away from him, holding up one staying hand. “I know people who are good at finding things.”
She slowly shook her head. “I was taken as a young child, Shulgi. I don’t even remember my family. I doubt they would recognize me or understand what I have become.”
“Do not judge yourself so harshly!” He noted how her hand trembled as she lowered it, taking another step away from him. “You have become stronger, wiser, and more beautiful, both inside and out.”
“I don’t want to be free,” she repeated, reaching behind her to grab up her cloak. “I’m sorry, Shulgi. I know you want to rescue me, but I don’t need a hero.”
He wanted to beg her to stop as she swung her cloak back around her shoulders. “Molly….”
She shook her head, the beads on her hair ornament sparkling as they swung. Then she lifted her chin, her spine straightening as she met his eyes, her own cool and distant. “I am better off where I am, and I should have recognized that from the start. I should not have allowed this to go on for so long.”
“Don’t,” he pleaded, recognizing the walls she was forming around her heart. He’d been behind their shadow for too long himself.
She gestured to herself, then him. “This only hurts both of us.”
Her long lashes fluttered as she blinked rapidly, tilting her head down as two tears slipped free. She swiped them away impatiently before lifting her gaze again. “It is also far too risky. I have been too distracted from my purpose, and from my duty to Sha Zaska. I cannot allow that to happen again.”
Shulgi clenched his fists, his teeth grinding and jaw ticking. “You would choose that foul creature over freedom?”
She leveled a look at him that struck him to the core, as remote and resolute as an ancient empress leading her troops into battle. “I am more than just a slave, Shulgi. I am Zaska’s mouthpiece. You have no idea how much power and consequence that gives me. I will not abandon all that to return to a world that no longer calls to me, and a family made of strangers who could never truly understand me.”
She swept past him regally, her hands lifting to settle her cowl over her head, concealing the gleaming gems and gold of the mating gift he’d given her. She didn’t turn to look back at him as the door slid open upon her approach.
He watched her guards fall into step beside her as smoothly as a military formation. He couldn’t think of the words to say that would stop her from disappearing out of his life. He couldn’t make the one promise that might have kept her in his arms. The one promise he would give anything to make to her.
Anything but what remained of his honor. He couldn’t ever become the “good” man she wanted him to be if he abandoned the promise he’d made to others. The promise that now held him bound as surely as an imprinting would have. Namerian had been right. Their mission needed him. The other Iriduan males afflicted by this curse needed him.
He had been selfish to even allow things to go this far. He’d taken unnecessary risks that could have destroyed all that he’d already accomplished.
His wrist com notified him of an urgent message sometime later as he sat in a dining chair, still staring blindly at the door where his queen had swept out of his life forever, because he hadn’t proven his devotion to her.
He glanced at his wrist without much interest, expecting it to be yet another request from Namerian, who was careful now in how he addressed Shulgi, still apparently unnerved by their disagreement.
Then he stiffened as he spotted the identity of the sender. The message itself was brief and enigmatic, but like before, it contained a location, and a time. That time was very soon, the information peddler clearly unwilling to give him a chance to set up an ambush before the meeting. He jumped to his feet, then strode towards the door, not bothering to send a reply.
She would know when he arrived.
