Assistant for the Alien Prince by Tammy Walsh

Zai

For two days,I was ushered from one appointment to another, and although I rarely saw Jessica, I felt her hand in each of the decisions and took some relief from it, knowing she was my guardian angel, watching over me.

We never said goodbye when we stepped from the shuttlecraft ramp when we returned to the palace.

Between the time we set down in the garage and the hatch door opened, we said nothing and simply shared a look.

We held hands for the briefest of moments, a thousand things that needed to be said never got spoken.

The hatch door hissed open and she tugged her hand from mine and bowed to the Queen before slinking off to her room.

Mom beamed joyfully that I had returned in one piece—and in much less time than the four years previously.

“The Pairing Ceremony will take place and every tribe leader will attend!” she cried happily.

I beamed at her but failed to share the same level of excitement.

How could I?

I was to marry the daughter of one of my enemies that didn’t want to see me on the throne.

But duty dictated I must attend.

The first night, I tossed and turned in bed, unable to find sleep despite my body being more exhausted now than it had ever been in the past—even after being terribly injured after my ship crash-landed and the Bal family took care of me.

Unable to lie there any longer knowing Jessica was just down the hall from me, I slipped on my robe and snuck down to her door.

I rapped on it with my knuckles and waited.

When she didn’t respond, I eased the door open and crept inside, but a single glance at her perfectly-made bed told me she wasn’t there.

She hadn’t returned all night.

She must have still been working, I thought—preparing the Pairing Ceremony I was meant to be excited about taking part in.

I returned to my room and tossed and turned until sleep eventually found me.

I missed her.

I missed Jessica more than I could express.

The second night, I paused outside her room, but this time didn’t knock.

She likely wasn’t in, and even if she was, what was I going to say to her?

My Pairing Ceremony was tomorrow.

There was nothing that could be done to stop it now.

I would dance with my fated mate and marry her in the ceremony immediately after.

That night, I dreamed of a burgeoning supernova, glinting and golden and brighter than a thousand newborn suns.

It melted and formed the face of an angel

Jessica.

And when I placed the opal on my forehead and looked up, she was there, standing in my room.

She could do whatever I ordered her to do, as she was only a figment of my imagination.

When she reached down to touch me, her fingertips passed right through me.

Still, I thought I could feel her warmth.

There was no doubt in my mind about how I felt about her, but did she feel anything for me?

When she rose the endless rising glens of each cresting orgasm, I thought I saw something in her eyes that made me more than a lover.

There had been something real in them, I was sure of it.

I hadn’t only imagined that.

Had I?