Chapter Four
General Vargarra
I wanted to bite him. And I had the strangest urge to kiss him again too, damn it. No, to pick him up, throw him on the bed and then fall on top of him just to hear him beg. He was asking for it. I’d tear him up this time. Ravish him and fuck him until he cried out and pleaded with me for mercy. I’d spank his little ass and send him home with something to remember me by. It was all I could do to stop myself. I forced in a deep breath and then another.
“Get out of this room, and don’t you dare set foot in here again, do you hear me? I’ll be watching you and if you take one step out of line, I’ll know it, and I’ll come after you. Are you listening to me?”
He lifted his little nose in the air and sneered at me. “You don’t intimidate me in the least.”
“Then why is your voice shaking?”
“Because I-Ihateyou, that’s why.”
There was nothing much to say to that ridiculous statement, so I just glared at him. He whirled around to leave and I grabbed his arm. “Wait a minute. Not so fast. Maybe I should search you before you go to make sure you haven’t stolen something from me.” I looked him up and down and sneered. “Though, on second thought, I don’t know where you’d put it, unless you stuck it up that little ass of yours. Should I look there?”
He backed up in a hurry and put his hands against the door again, looking alarmed. “I didn’t steal from you. I was…only looking. Leave me alone and let me go.”
I could see I’d scared him—he was so little compared to me, after all, and I felt an unaccustomed feeling in my chest. Could it be shame? He was obviously young. His words had just proven that. Whatever this feeling was, I hated it. I huffed out a breath and made myself take a couple of steps back. “What were you looking for? Tell me, damn you.”
“I told you already! Your orders. I thought maybe you had your orders from the bloody prince inside your bag.”
He wasn’t cursing the prince—more than likely. The term “bloody” prince had been used to refer to Prince Mikos for years, since the last days of the Great Axis War, when we came so close to decimating the Alliance forces. Not that he’d been any more violent than the other battle commanders from the various worlds, but he’d definitely been more fierce and much more successful. In truth, it was King Davos who had finally pushed for a treaty with the Alliance forces, strictly on a humanitarian basis and on account of his mate, Blake. If they hadn’t accepted, and if Prince Mikos hadn’t married an Alliance colonel and son of the Earthan Prime Minister of the Council to seal the deal, millions of people would have been wiped out of existence and Earth would have no doubt been totally destroyed.
It had been a bold, outrageous, unexpected move, and some said it was instigated by Blake, his human consort. But however it happened, it showed courage and compassion that neither of them ever got enough credit for, in my opinion.
“What orders are you talking about?”
“Your orders to take over the Royal Guard on Laltana.”
“You think I carry something like that around with me? Why does a littlechibbylike you care about that anyway? Who put you up to this? Was it Larz? Or was it that fucking Janos?” I asked, putting all the contempt I felt for that man in my tone. I advanced on him again and grabbed his arm.
The boy flushed with anger, which surprised me.
“Don’t use that tone when you’re talking about Janos! How dare you!”
“How dare I? How dare I talk about the evil bastard who kidnapped Prince Larz and those other Tygerian children and then indirectly was responsible for some of their deaths?”
“That’s a wicked lie! King Janos hadnothingto do with that. He was completely innocent, but your bunch never wanted to hear it!”
“Pah!” I said, making the angry sound of disgust my people were known for. “Shut your stupid little mouth. You don’t know anything.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t know anything! And let go of me or I’ll tell the prince and everyone else that you-you attacked me and forced me into your room. That you met me on the stairs and then pulled me in here to have your way with me.”
I laughed in his face at his audacity and took his arm to draw him closer. Have my way with him, huh? Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea after all. I’d done it once, but maybe a more thorough job was in order.
“You little liar. I know you’re a Laltanan for sure now. I’m surprised Larz brought his little paramour all this way with him, but then he was planning on possibly staying here, wasn’t he?”
“I don’t know what that is, and I don’t know what you’re talking about. But you better let me go!And I mean it!”
“Oh, well, if youmean it, then I suppose I’ll have to, won’t I?” I laughed in his face and released him, enjoying the pretty pink flush that came over his face. “Run along then and go back to your master. Tell him if he wants to see my orders, then all he has to do is ask. Although, he’ll get his own orders soon enough.”
“Ha! You just wait!” And with that fearsome threat ringing in the air, he frowned up at me again and gnashed his pretty, white teeth at me.
He was a bold little thing. Perhaps I was letting him go too easily. With a little persuasion and my hand across that smart mouth of his to shut him up, he might have made a good bed warmer on this cold, wet night on Moravia. The rain had started up as I’d been coming up the stairs to my room, and it was coming down hard now, flinging itself against the windows.
“I’m leaving,” he snarled in my face. “And don’t you dare try to stop me.”
“Go on then. What are you waiting for?”
