Page 78 of The Baron's Bride
“Okay, so all this time you’ve been flying around the galaxy getting it on with two guys at once?” I demanded.
Rylee frowned.
“I wouldn’t exactly put it likethat.I’m married to both of them and the three of us are very deeply in love.” She sighed and put a hand to her head. “Which is why it’s so damnupsettingthat I can’t reach either of them mentally. I’ve been trying forhours.”
“So…you have amentalconnection with both of them? How did that happen?” I asked.
“It happened when we all three made love and Bonded,” Rylee said primly. She raised her eyebrows at me. “You mean to tell me you and your Baron haven’t Bonded yet? Haven’t you, you know, done the deed?”
I could feel my cheeks getting hot. Rylee and I had always been close when we were younger and we had told each other everything about the boys we dated. But when we got a little older, we drifted apart and it had been a while since we had discussed this kind of thing.
But as it turned out, I didn’t need to answer with words—my face said it all.
“Youdid, didn’t you?” Rylee crowed, looking at me. “You had hot sex with Baron Vik’tor and I bet it was the best sex of your life, right?”
“Well, yes,” I admitted, nodding. “We, uh,didhave sex—though we didn’t Bond. At least, I don’tthinkwe did. I mean, I certainly don’t have any kind of mental connection with him.”
“That’s too bad!” Rylee said, frowning. “How could you have sex and not Bond? It’s a thing that all the Twelve Peoples do—well, everyone except us Earthlings,” she added. “But wecanbond if we meet the right alien guy. Orguysin my case.”
“Vik’tor thinks we can’t bond because he’s a, uh, half-blood—half Braxian and half Naggian,” I said. I looked down at my hands. “He also seems to think it’s the reason we can’t stay together.”
“What? Ofcourseyou can stay together if you love him!” Rylee protested.
I shook my head sadly.
“How I feel doesn’t have anything to do with it. Even if Idolove him and even if heisthe only man who’s ever, uh, made my body react, if you know what I mean. Vik’tor has a business to run and it’s based on O’nagga Nine, which is just a horrible place—it’s freezing all the time!”
“Is it?” Rylee frowned. “I’ve never been there.”
“It’s like living in the damn Arctic,” I told her. “Besides, I’mhomesickand I miss my family. Plus I was almost finished with my PhD when the Commercians took me.”
“Forget all that—the reason Vik’tor made you react is because La-ti-zals often don’t have any sexual feelings until they leave Earth and find the man they’re supposed to be with forever,” Rylee lectured me. “The man you’resupposedto Bond with.”
“I’ve heard that but Vik’tor and I had sex and wedidn’tBond,” I protested.
“Well, maybe you did itwrong,”Rylee said, frowning at me thoughtfully. “I have a friend and former client who’s also married to a half Braxian—maybeshecan shed some light on the matter.Ifwe can ever get out of here to see her again,” she added, looking around our cell with a sigh.
“Yeah—what are we going to do about that?” I asked her, frowning. “I’m sure Vik’tor will come looking for me—if he has any idea where to look. Will your guys come for you?”
“Of course they will! Drace and Lucian would lay down their lives for me,” Rylee exclaimed. “But they’re not going to have any idea where I am if I can’t reach them mentally. We were just leaving Femme One when that Gumpas guy kidnapped me.”
“Femme One?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“Oh, that’s where I live now,” Rylee explained. “It’s the home world of the Majorans and it’s also where Leah—the client and friend I was telling you about—and her husband live. Drace and Lucian and I have been appointed by the Goddess Empress as Royal Delegates—we go and meet with important leaders and rulers on other planets and report back to her. We had just started on a new mission when I got sucked through a mirror and found myself naked on Gumpas’s ship.”
“Where did you get that dress and cape then?” I demanded. “All he gave me to wear was this awful hot pink mesh dress!” I gestured at myself with embarrassment.
Rylee laughed.
“Yeah, I don’t blame you for not wanting to wear that out in public. Here.” She took off her long red cape and gave it to me. “I got it from the Tangellans when they first dragged me in here—I told them I couldn’t help the Emperor unless I was well covered because being cold interfered with my La-ti-zal abilities.”
“Wow—you really know how to work them,” I said in admiration, as I wrapped the red cape around me. It clashed with the hot pink mesh of my dress horribly but I didn’t care—at least I was covered now.
“Yeah, but I’m running out of ideas and ways to put the Emperor off,” Rylee said, looking worried. “I kept stalling, telling him I couldn’t tell him what was wrong with him until another La-ti-zal arrived, but now you’re here and I don’t know what else I can say to him.”
“Well, we need to think of something,” I pointed out. “Or he’s going to have our damn heads cut off!”
“I know…I know…” Rylee shook her head. “I just don’t know anything about this planet. As far as I can tell, the Tangellans aren’t one of the Twelve Peoples. They just emigrated to our galaxy millennia ago and they mostly leave everyone alone and stay to themselves.”