Assistant for the Alien Prince by Tammy Walsh
Zai
“What the hellare you doing here?” I bellowed, the sudden screaming of the engines making it difficult to hear myself think.
I hadn’t heard her climb on board, hadn’t even known she was following me!
Although now that I thought of it, I had heard a voice shouting after me…
But I’d been too frantic to escape and get the hell out of there to think about it.
Now here she stood, bold as brass, in the cockpit of the shuttlecraft!
“You just took off!” Jessica said. “I had no idea where you were heading!”
“That’s none of your concern!” I snapped. “I’m the prince! If I wish to leave the palace, then I’ll damn well do it! I don’t need to answer to you! Or anyone else!”
Jessica just glared at me.
She would back down, I knew.
Everyonebacked down when it came to the prince and the royal family.
Our images were emblazoned on the walls of every home and business throughout the kingdom.
We were a part of the common people’s lives and over the centuries, we’d become almost like gods.
Jessica approached, her eyes fixed firmly on mine.
Her bottom lip quivered and her fisted hands shook.
She was upset.
She was an alien on my world, I had to remind myself.
She wasn’t used to our ways or our culture.
I sighed and raised a hand to console her.
“Look—” I said.
I didn’t get another word out as her hand flashed so fast I barely even noticed it before it smacked me hard across the cheek.
I stumbled back onto the controls once again, sending the oxygen systems haywire.
I fixed them before turning my fury on the human female.
“How dare you strike a member of the royal family! I’ll have you whipped for your—”
Smack!
Another one right across my cheek.
The same damn hand too!
Her lips were still quivering—not with fear as I’d first thought but pure outrage.
The red mist of anger before my eyes was so thick I could barely make the girl out on the other side of it.
I grabbed her by the arms, dragged her toward the seats at the back of the shuttlecraft, took her over my knee, and brought my palm down over her ass.
Smack, smack!
One, two. Just like that.
One for each of the strikes that she’d placed on me.
She kicked herself up off my lap and ran a hand over where I’d struck her.
Glowering, still angry.
And I just stared right back.
Her hands were shaking, desperate to hit me again but daren’t for fear I would retaliate—which I would.
The palms of my hands stung and would be stinging red if I turned them over.
Instead, they were curled into fists—not that I would ever use them against her.
I didn’t think I could cause her real harm.
But she had to learn.
You didn’t strike royalty, not without paying for it.
The temperature in the shuttlecraft felt hot, the space very small.
We might have passed into the eye of a black hole without realizing it.
We panted, out of breath, though we hadn’t exerted ourselves enough to warrant it.
No, we were panting for another reason—one we were both, for the moment, blissfully unaware of.
Then the strangest thing happened.
We fell into each other’s arms.
