AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“—why have you got political prisoners in your home?”
He thinks for a bit like he’s considering something. Then, as if talking about the weather, he says, “Because that male and his clan used to profit greatly from the kidnap and sale of our orphans to foreign militia. He is looking to re-invigorate his old business and had attempted to hijack a schoolbus filled with young orphans, with the intent of harvesting them for sale. We intercepted him, and have brought him here for questioning.”
“Oh,” I say faintly, “of course, that’s what happened.”
Every time Tzelik does something that should be bad, it turns out that it’s not. He forces me to work for him—but promises to save my family from the station. He seems as if he’s going to force me into a skimpy uniform—but then fills my wardrobe with warm, elegant clothes. He has a prisoner hidden in his house—and he’s probably saving dozens of children from military slavery by keeping him here.
I just don’t know what to think anymore.
And with his hand still pressed lightly against my lower back, warm and solid, I’m finding it a little hard to focus.
“Have you thought about what I said this morning?” he asks.
But I’m caught on the whole ‘orphan soldiers’ deal here. “What?”
“About my wishing to court you.”
“Oh.” That. Oh, that. Right. “No.”
He doesn’t say anything for a long time, and when the warmth of his hand drops away from my back, I tell myself very firmly that I don’t wish he’d put it back.
“I see,” he says into the silence, and his voice is very quiet.
When I look up at him again, his normally inscrutable face is even more blank than usual, and I suddenly realize that he might think that “no” is my answer to him.
“Oh, I just mean, no, I didn’t think about it yet. I wasn’t actually—I didn’t mean that I don’t want you to, uh…”
He takes a breath, and when he looks at me, his feet stop moving. I sort of half-stumble to a nervous stop as well, suddenly feeling pinned under his electric blue gaze.
“So then you agree?”
“What?”
He smiles again, and this time it isn’t one of his small half smiles or his teasing smirks, but a slow expression of warmth that seeps all the way across his face and into his eyes. “May I court you, Analina?”
“You mean, like, take me on a date?” I squeak, my heart thudding in my chest.
“Would you like that?”
I should have left it at no.
It’s bad enough that I work for him! He’s my boss, and it wouldn’t be right. I should stop staring into his gorgeous eyes right now.
“Yes,” my traitorous mouth whispers, and his smile stretches further.
He lifts a hand and runs his fingers in a sweep from my temple down to the tips of my hair. “Tonight?”
I struggle not to lean into his touch. “Okay.”
“Be ready at eight, after you put Asili to bed.”
“Okay.”
He seems to hesitate for a moment more, his gaze flicking between my eyes and my lips, and I get that feeling again that he might…that he wants to…
“I will see you at eight, then,” he says finally, and with one more lingering glance he turns and heads back down the hall.
Maybe I should have kissed him, I think in an odd haze as I turn and finish my journey to the kitchen, just to get it over with.
I push open the door and head towards the marble benchtop, not even knowing why I’m in here other than because this is where Tzelik was bringing me, and my brain is not in any state to think on its own right now.
Asili is in here too, getting one of the maids to help serve him up a heaping scoop of ice cream. As he takes the bowl and starts stirring the frozen dessert into a cool, creamy vortex, I find myself blinking down at him.
“When I’m president,” he tells me as he walks past, holding the bowl against his chest while mixing and getting the contents all over his shirt, “I’m going to banish Stynava and all her dumb friends.”
“That’s a little extreme,” I mutter half-heartedly, staring at his bowl while he shoves a huge glob of the creamy paste into his mouth.
“I don’t care,” he says, scrunching his face in anger and heading out of the kitchen.
And with a foreboding, sinking feeling in my stomach, I can’t help but picture Elena doing nearly the exact same thing with her ice cream just a few minutes ago.
