Burning for Love by Evangeline Anderson
15
“You’re overheating, Princess.”
James looked at her flushed face in concern as he helped her fit the elaborately curled silver-white wig over her own hair, which had been bundled up into a skull cap. It was the smallest wig he could find, but it would still put much more weight than he liked on her delicate neck. And now she was pink-cheeked and panting, adding to his worry for her.
“I am quite well, James,” she said, which was an obvious lie. “It’s only that I am so nervous as to who my Uncle should have chosen for me! If I don’t like them, I am obliged to wait an entire month before I can refuse them and he can name another. And I don’t know if my Heat Cycle will allow me to wait that long!”
“Here, let me cool you down. Just sit quietly for a minute,” James instructed. Taking her by the shoulders, he pushed her gently down into the dressing room chair and began to cool his hands.
“But my Uncle…the Throne Room,” she began.
“You’re all ready to go so we have a little time,” James said firmly. “Enough time for me to cool you down, Princess.”
They already had her dressed in a pure white gown with pearl beading and a long cape attached at the shoulders. She had been forced to wear the ice gel packs over her nipples as well, because though they had been cool all morning, they had begun heating up at once as soon as Ka’rissa had been summoned to the Throne Room for the announcement of a new suitor.
James was beginning to think that her Heat Cycle was tied to the messy emotions all feelers had to contend with. If only he could help her by installing an emotion damper like his own, he felt fairly certain that would take care of her problem.
But when he thought of her lively, lovely face without emotions, he found he couldn’t really wish that at all. Ka’rissa smiling was a delight to see and when she laughed, it gave him that warm feeling in his chest that he was beginning to enjoy very much. Even when she was sobbing she was lovely, he thought, as he stroked both hands—which he had chilled for the purpose—over her face and neck, which were hot and feverish to the touch.
“Oh James, thank you,” she whispered and he felt some of her heat fading. “You are so good to me.”
“I am here to protect you, Princess—both from outside threats and those which come from within,” he told her. “But I still say we must find another way to control your Heat Cycle. I’m concerned that you might heat up past the point where I can cool you down just by touching your face.”
“The only way to control it is to marry.” She looked up at him again, her lovely amber-brown eyes filled with worry. “I do hope my Uncle has chosen someone who isn’t too old or too young or too awful this time!”
James frowned as he slowly withdrew his hands.
“Is the Steward really the kin of either your mother or father?”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head and then had to put up a hand to steady her wig. “He was my dear Papa’s butler and he was named in his will as Steward if Papa should die. Many of the Nobles put up a fuss about it—I mean, a commoner and a servant without a drop of Royal blood ruling the planet? They were shocked!” she went on. “But then they came to see it as wisdom. For a faithful servant would never try to steal the throne for himself—he would only hold it in trust for the correct heir.”
“What about your mother, the Queen?” James asked. “Why couldn’t she ascend to the throne after your father died?”
“Oh, because the blood of the Very First Family came from my Father’s side,” Ka’rissa explained. “She needed to marry another Royal in order to hold the throne, but before a suitable one could be found, she…she combusted,” she finished in a whisper.
“I’m very sorry about the loss of your mother,” James said. Though he had never had a mother himself, he had seen how very much the other Kindred warriors who did esteemed and loved their own mothers. They seemed to be special people who had a great and important influence on the children they raised.
“At the time there was a bit of a scandal, because the Steward didn’t find a single suitor fit for my dear Mama—not even one from the Second Court,” Ka’rissa told him. “Some people said he wanted to keep the throne for himself, but that’s ridiculous of course. A servant can’t hold the throne—not forever, anyway,” she added.
“What is the ‘Second Court?’” James asked.
“Oh, it’s on the other side of the planet. There are plenty of people with Royal blood there, though I don’t know if any of them come from the Very First Family,” the Princess explained. “I wonder if the Steward has found me a suitor from there,” she added pensively. “Someone I don’t know, but who has Royal blood.”
“I suppose we’ll find out,” James said neutrally. But inside, it felt as though someone was simultaneously squeezing his heart and filling his stomach with cubes of ice. He didn’t like the idea of the Princess with another male—which was ridiculous and verging perilously close to having emotions, he was well aware.
But no matter how often he told himself that, he couldn’t seem to stop the sensations that swamped him. Still, he kept his face and tone neutral, though it was a struggle to do so.
This is my mission, he reminded himself. I’m only here to watch over Ka’rissa until she finds a mate and Joins with him. And that mate can never be me.
But he still wasn’t what the feelers called “happy” as they finally left her quarters and went down to the Throne Room to find who the Steward had selected to be her new suitor.
