Page 28 of The Pleasure Contract

DJ makes an electronic chirping sound as she hovers beside me – almost as though she’s asking what’s wrong. I don’t quite have the courage to tell her that I’m thinking with my coochie and need to knock it off.

So, instead I ask, “DJ, can you show me everything there is to know about Senator Glex, please?”

* * *

I end up starting dinner on my own.

I’d waited for Az, but gave up after the second bout of tummy rumbles.

The scenery outside the rail ship has changed a dozen times since we set off. We’ve zoomed through fields of crops, hugged a steep cliffside of a coastline, and occasionally pierced through the blackness of traveling under a mountain. Sometimes, the rail we travel on is level with the ground, and sometimes it’s high up like a viaduct. Currently, we’re on a section like that, and down below are little villages and small towns starting to get a dusting of lights as the day begins to recede into night.

A notification pops up on DJ while I’m eating, indicating a call from Az. Hurriedly, I swallow the delicious roasted meat I’d been served and use a soft napkin to dab at my mouth. Once I accept the incoming call, DJ projects an image of Az in front of me.

“Hello, little female,” he says, his somehow smooth but rough-around-the-edges voice accompanying his lopsided smile.

And, yep – there’s a really annoying fluttering in my chest.

“You’re missing the food,” I accuse in a tone that sounds bitchy as hell, and only a teeny-tiny bit flustered.

He leans back, casual and sexy as hell. “Yeah,” he sighs, and it’s only then that I realize he’s sat with his back up against some drak scales. I can see the gentle rise and fall of the creature’s breathing. “My girls are fighting their travel meds, unfortunately.” As if backing up Az’s claim, I hear a terrifying grumble-growl and see some markings in the scales turn from aqua blue to lava orange. Az calmly pats the drak, shushing them back to sleep. “They got a bit aggressive for the staff, and needed my help to keep things under control. They’ll be good once I can give them a slightly higher dose, but I can’t do that for another five hours, so…”

I blink at the projected image of Az, feeling kind of bad that I’d been pissy with him about not showing up for dinner with me, when he’d been needed this whole time. “So…?” I say, inviting him to elaborate.

I half-think he’s going to invite me to go sit with him and his sleepy girls – his sleepy, aggressive girls – but then he answers, “So, I apologize, but I don’t think you’ll be seeing a lot of me tonight.”

The suggestive way he’d just said that-

Was that just in my head?

“Ok,” I squeak, touching DJ’s smooth surface to end the projected video call instantly.

Az’s image disappears, and in front of me is the remainder of my roasted meat and vegetables. Under the food is a very fancy plate. If I move the hunk of perfectly roasted meat with my golden spork, there’s a gilded version of Az’s royal family crest staring back at me, a matching gilded pattern of vines reaching around the rim of the plate.

I don’t think there was one piece of crockery in our house growing up that didn’t wear a chip or two. Heck, my mom kept those plastic cereal bowls with cartoon characters on them for years. I remember cutting out and collecting the vouchers from the boxes for them.

We had to leave them behind when we ran.

I wonder if Jerry kept them?

“More pukpuk wine, Lady Lois?” a server asks, startling me out of my daydreams.

I nod, thanking the guy once my glass is full again. “Actually… could you leave the bottle?” I’m not one for getting drunk on the regular, but this stuff is sweet and slips down nicely. Besides, it’s not particularly strong.

I don’t think.

The Xaviann guy hesitates only a moment before smiling and bowing, leaving the bottle on the table for me.

“Come on, DJ,” I say, pushing my chair back from the table and grabbing the wine bottle by the neck as I pass by. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

* * *

“So, this guy has entered like a gazillion bride contracts, but only has one daughter,” I tell DJ, taking another sip of wine. I’ve been trying to go over my research of Senator Glex for the past hour. Before that, I’d been trying to sleep. Before that, I’d taken a bath – this was after the first failed attempt at sleeping.

DJ makes a Family Feud-style eh-ehhh buzzer noise that almost makes me jump out of my skin. When had she gained access to sounds beyond songs?

“What? He has other kids?”

The projection of all Senator Glex’s information started scrolling down so fast that the text, images, and little video clips start blurring together.