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BA’SH
Ba’sh peeled off his t-shirt and breeches and tossed them into the basket in his walk-in closet.
Walking back into the bedroom, he slipped his circlet off and laid it in its case with a sigh of relief.
There was no one around, but it still felt good not to have one of his senses dulled. He felt balanced now. Too bad he could only take it off to sleep these days.
It’s a small price to be a world leader,he reminded himself.
The day had been long, but satisfying. Other than Madge making off with Yasmine before he had a chance to talk with her, it had been pretty much perfect.
The kids seemed relaxed and happy, no doubt due to Yasmine’s upbeat influence. The security crew seemed to like her, too. And he would check in with Madge in the morning for her take, but he was pretty sure Yasmine had won her over. How could she not have?
Yasmine could charm anyone. And besides, Madge had hired the girl herself.
The only downside was that naturally one of the freelance photographers had snapped feed of her at a local café and deemed her awfully pretty for a nanny. Madge wouldn’t like that kind of potential distraction.
But in fairness, Yasmine was awfully pretty.
He found himself thinking about her again, the way her eyes lit up when she was talking about something important to her. He liked that she talked with her hands a little bit, like his favorite grandma had done when he was small, and she sat him on her lap and told him stories.
But it was more than just her ideas and her animated way of talking with him. There was something there, a connection between them, a pull so deep he felt it now, even though she wasn’t near.
A soft tap on the door roused him from his thoughts.
Assuming it was Pia needing one more hug, he opened it without bothering to pull on a robe.
But the person in the threshold wasn’t his daughter.
“Oh,” Yasmine breathed. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
For a moment he was frozen in place, awash in a storm of her emotions.
It had been so long since he had interacted with anyone outside of his own family without his circlet on. But this was different. He felt almost assaulted by towering waves of sadness, guilt, and fear.
Her eyes raked down his body and he felt another emotion swirl to the surface.
“You didn’t wake me,” he managed. “Come in.”
She hesitated for a moment and then stepped inside as he closed the door behind her.
She looked around and he watched her looking. The room seemed even more excessively large than before with the little Terran in it. She spun around once in wonder, the heat of her unhappy emotions softening slightly.
In spite of her unleashed emotions and her old-fashioned dress, he found her devastatingly sexy.
Am I dreaming? Did I will her into appearing just by fantasizing about her?
“Your room is amazing,” she said almost apologetically. “Again, I’m really sorry for bursting in so late. I didn’t want to speak with you until the kids were sleeping.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, moving to her and instinctively offering her his hands. “How can I help?”
She took his hands and he nearly reeled under a shock of emotions. Sorrow, fear, and… something else again, the same unfurling curiosity he’d read when she’d looked at his bare chest.
“I took this job because I wanted to be a nanny,” she said, her voice shaking.
“Why don’t you sit down?” he offered, leading her to his bed.
She let go of his hands to sit, smoothing her long skirt down demurely.
