“You’re ruining my hot moment, babe.”
Large hands grip under my thighs, and I help by hopping a little, and then squeezing my legs around his gigantic torso. I smile from above him and lean down to press my lips against his, cupping his sharp jaw in my hands, and wrapping my tongue around his.
Then I pull away and hop down. We really shouldn’t be more than a second, or Father will kick my ass.
He tilts his head. “That’s all you wanted?”
“What do you mean that’s all? You should count every one of my kisses as gifts from the Gods.”
My back meets stone, rattling my bones, and he cactuses my arms, breathing heavily against me. His mouth crashes to mine and I’m gone. He takes me, his alpha energy seeps into my base layers, and I’m a limp daffodil under his solid body.
“You’ve never stolen me away to kiss me before.” The orange rings around his irises burn for me. “Did you want to kiss me, Starfleet?”
His gruff tone sets my heart pounding as I inhale a sharp gust of his earthy scent. “Mhm. You’re fucking handsome today, okay? Did you do something different with that mane you call hair?”
Zhang rubs his nose with mine, nipping at my lips. “Nope. You brushed it this morning for me, remember?”
“I did, I …”
Long dark tresses. Whisky kisses. A violin. Ugh, a terrible violin.
“Did you play the violin?” I ask. He raises both brows. “No, wait. I did.”
“You weren’t good at it. I threatened to throw it in the fire every night. You tried because your mother loved to play. You figured you’d inherited her musical prowess, but you did not. Not a lick.”
My jaw’s frozen until I can get the words to work. “You said something.”
“The more you remember, the more you weaken the spell.” He pushes my hair off my forehead and presses a kiss there.
“I don’t remember all that much.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re remembering here, Treyu.” He puts his hand over my heart, but then he laces his hand with mine and tugs me along.
“I was enjoying that,” I complain.
“You won’t enjoy much if your father takes his strap to your hide.” He inhales sharply, probably thinking about a strap against my hide.
“You wish, Centaurus.”
“But I don’t have to wish anything. I have my own perfectly good strap, waiting for you in my quarters.”
I groan and he laughs. He’s right though, we shouldn’t delay or Father will have both our hides.
* * *
My lips are swollen, and it’s all I can think about as we walk into the war room. Father’s already opened a map of the Nebuli across the space of air above the table in the center. I reach to touch it just to see if I have any effect at all on it. I don’t. My hand falls through the iteration of the seven stars of the Nebuli. I frown.
The hawthors said I could take this bracelet off myself. As soon as we leave, I’m working on that. Maybe then I’ll have access to the ether again through whatever other powers I possess. I’m probably supposed to go through an identity crisis, and I guess there’s still plenty of time for that, but the truth is, I’m happy to get some special powers. I’ve spent a long time feeling powerless. Leading a rebellion with Boone sounds rad.
“I’m going to tell you a few things you’re not going to like, but I did them with the best intentions, son. Someday you’ll have a child, and you’ll want to protect them just as much as I did,” Father says.
I scrub a hand over my face. I get that on some level. I’d do anything to protect the people I love even if that means keeping them in the dark, but I’m me and I want control over my own life, dammit.
“I didn’t understand the king’s intention when he put that bracelet on you. I was incensed, and I confronted him, but then I found out he did it to protect you, and I kept it to myself—other than to tell your dad, that is.”
“You what?”
“Your sunstar was all that was keeping every cockroach in the galaxy from crawling out of the woodwork for you. A star legacy is no joke, Treyu. They’re not supposed to exist.”
