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“A glass of visu punch?”
“No.”
That was it, just no, with no explanation. I wasn’t sure if I should be offended or not, but I kind of was. “Why not? I’ve had it plenty of times before.”
“I doubt that. Visu is too strong, and I don’t think your father would approve.”
“I’m twenty-one now, you know. I can make my own decisions.”
“You’re not quite that age as yet, and the king has tasked me with your well-being, so until we arrive, I’ll make those kinds of decisions. And I won’t buy visu for you.”
I was astonished by what he said. I didn’t have any money to buy a drink for myself, and surely, he knew that. I’d never even thought about using money before, because if I wanted something, someone would just always get it for me. And yes, that made me incredibly privileged. I knew that. In fact, it made me naïve.
I just sat there, feeling speechless and mortified as I came to the realization, and Tariq walked toward the bar. I got to my feet as quickly as I could, feeling ashamed and humiliated. Had everyone heard the exchange between us? What must they be thinking of me? I needed to leave and go back to my quarters. I could feel my face burning with embarrassment, and all I wanted to do was get out of there. I wasn’t deliberately trying to make him angry, but I practically ran out of the room and down the passageway back to my quarters. I made it as far as my door.
My arm was taken from behind, and I was whirled around to stare up into a grim Tygerian face only inches from mine. No outward traces of anger showed, but I knew Tariq was furious, nonetheless. It was something about his eyes, which were usually so pale colored and now were dark, emerald, green.
“Did I not make myself clear earlier?” he asked, his voice still deceptively calm. “When I said you go nowhere without me? Why have I had to spend the last few minutes chasing you down the passageway like a runaway child? I’m an Imperial, Your Highness, not a babysitter.”
I felt the words like little blows to my chest. They were even more hurtful because they were true. But that didn’t mean I liked them one damn bit.
“You didn’t have to do anything, as far as I’m concerned. I-I told you I’m perfectly capable of making my way around this ship. And for the last time, sir, I do not need, nor do I want a babysitter.”
“Then stop acting like a child.”
Maybe he hadn’t realized I was leaning my hips against the door, because he reached behind me and opened the door so fast and so unexpectedly that I fell backward inside the room and landed right on my ass. I looked up at him in complete shock. Had he done that on purpose?
Apparently not, because he looked a bit astonished too. He quickly held out a hand to me, but I was so furious I scrambled back to my feet without touching him and overcome with passion, I suddenly lunged at him with every intention of wrapping my fingers around his throat. I lost my temper for a minute there.
My mind too, if I’d thought I could hurt him.
He caught me in mid-leap and wrapped his arms around me as he was caught off balance and we tumbled backward to the floor. This time I fell right along with him and right on top of him. The next thing I knew, our bodies were pressed together from chest to thigh, and my face was nose to nose with his. I stared down into his wide, startled eyes.
His expression was priceless. His face quickly cycled through incredulity to shock to complete fury in mere seconds, like his mind couldn’t comprehend what had just happened and why I was lying on top of him. I knew if I’d been anyone else, he would have hit me right in my jaw, but because his strong sense of propriety simply wouldn’t allow that, he got the most frustrated look on his face that I’d ever seen. I think he wanted to wrestle me off him so badly, he was trembling with it. His expression was funny, so I couldn’t help what happened next. I began to laugh, and the more I laughed, the harder it was for me to move away or get off him.
We had sprawled outside the door, however, and we were lying in the middle of the corridor, where anyone could see us. And I guess having someone laugh in his face was not anything that had ever happened to him before, because it seemed to seriously bother him. He didn’t know what to do, so he heaved me off him to the floor beside us and scrambled back to his feet, straightening his clothing and his dignity with little huffing sounds coming out of his mouth. Meanwhile, I lay on my back and kept laughing, holding onto my sides and unable to stop. His huffs were totally adorable, and I don’t even think he realized he was doing it, but his great sense of dignity had taken a serious hit.
He stood staring down at me for a moment, breathing hard, and with a strained look on his handsome face. I think he was at a complete loss for maybe the first time in his life. With one final strangled noise, he turned to stalk away, but I didn’t want him walking away from me. Not at all, but especially not like that. I reached up to grab his hand and got a handful of the waistband of his trousers instead. My full weight was on it, unfortunately, and I heard a loud pop as the fastener on his trousers were no longer able to bear the strain. The snap flew off and hit the wall with a ping, and his trousers sagged down.
They didn’t go far, but far enough for me to see he wasn’t wearing anything under them, except for the cloth cup arrangement some Tygerians wore that held his dick and balls, went between his legs and then tied in the back of his waist with a string. It was called a brekan.
He made a sound like, “Oof!” and bent down to jerk his trousers up. As for me, I was horrified and reached up instinctively at the same time to somehow help him, but I managed only to get a handful of the cheek of his ass. He pushed me away violently, but the damage was already decidedly done. He gasped and stared down at me in horror. Then he quickly backed away like a scalded animal and yanked his trousers and his brekan back up. He turned on his heel and took off down the hall.
“No, please. Please don’t go!” I managed to get out, trying to control the laughing long enough to apologize.
He stopped after a few steps but didn’t turn around. His voice was strangled sounding when he answered me. “You…I-I need...” He waved a hand to indicate whatever it was and fled from me again.
I made it back to my door, calling out behind him down the passageway, “I can’t let you leave like this, Colonel. Please come back and let me apologize.”
“No,” was the word that drifted back to me from down the hall.
But had his voice sounded odd? I got up and went to the bend in the hall so I could see him. He was halfway down the corridor, passing a group of soldiers, and it was so tight in that narrow passageway, he had to turn to squeeze past. The soldiers he was passing had all been drinking, perhaps toasting our takeoff, like I’d wanted to do, so I quickly hurried back to my quarters and shut the door so they wouldn’t see me.
The thing was that those tight uniforms the Imperials wore under their robe didn’t leave much of anything to the imagination, though. And when the colonel turned to slide past them, I got a clear view of his magnificent body backed up against the wall. I clearly saw his huge erection and though I’d lived a sheltered life as a Tygerian prince and the son of strict parents, I was also a man. I had intimate knowledge of my own anatomy at least, and I knew an erection when I saw one. And his had been hard to miss.
I went back and paced up and down in my room, hoping he would come back and talk to me. I needed to see him and apologize for what I’d done and the way I’d acted, but I also needed him to return so I could find out what was happening—had that beautiful, large erection been because of me? I felt like it had to have been, but then if it were for me, how could that be possible? His mate had died two cycles into their marriage, and from what I’d been able to find out, a bonded Tygerian stayed bonded forever.
Which meant no erections for anybody. They literally didn’t have sex, because after their mates passed away, they didn’t get hard anymore.
