21 The Entire Empire is a Moral Quandary
The Entire Empire is a Moral Quandary
I n the corridor outside the ballroom, Nix withdrew a tiny piece of ma chinery from his ear canal. It looked a bit like a malformed spider . “Give me a half hour alone before sending the cameras in,” he said di rectly into it. Ah, a comm device. Who was on the other end? Kalvin , most likely.
“Disable,” Nix commanded the device, placing it within an inner pocket of his suit coat. He turned to Temmi and held out his gloved hand. “There, privacy. Kalvin won’t be able to keep the cameras waiting for long, so we should hurry.”
Temmi took his hand, and he tugged her along at a brisk pace. The fabric of her ruined dress strained against the princess’s pins, but the patch job held up.
Nix steered Temmi down two long corridors, passing the bathroom where she’d met with his sister, and up a narrow set of stairs ending before a glass-encased lift. Round like a capsule. Nix opened the door for her.
A control panel appeared on the interior of the glass, backlit by blue light.
Nix typed in a numbered code, and the lift shot into the air.
As they rose, a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree panorama of the manor’s estate came into view.
Under the light of Expan’s three moons, all at different phases of waning, Temmi saw her first ocean.
The watery expanse extended as far as she could see, nothing but glinting, roiling black broken occasionally by white foam. She shivered.
“Beautiful view,” Nix said.
More haunting, Temmi thought, but when she turned around, she found the imperial prince of an empire spanning seven solar systems staring not out the glass window but at her.
Her heart jumped into her throat.
Nix offered her a crooked grin. “Thank you, Temmi, for indulging me. The cameras and contestants were causing me some minor claustrophobia. I miss our quiet mornings on the ship.”
His use of her nickname made the already-small lift feel even smaller.
“And here I’d been worried you’d be sending me home tonight.”
Nix reached into a pocket of his suit jacket and withdrew a rectangular leather case. From within it, he pulled out his black-rimmed glasses. The ones he never wore in public. With them settled on his face, he looked less the prince and more the scholar. Temmi preferred the scholar.
“That’s my fault for being so distant,” Nix said. The lift slowed. “For the sake of the show, I can’t let on that we’ve already been getting to know one another. It would make you a target for the other contestants. But rest assured, Temmi, you’re the only person I wanted to see tonight.”
Only person . . . damn.
The lift’s glass door slid open with a slight keening whine .
Beyond, a tiled outdoor walkway snaked around to an arched doorway carved into one of the manor’s turrets.
Temmi followed Nix carefully along the walkway; the only thing stopping them from a hundred-foot fall was a knee-high parapet.
Great place to be murdered, she thought.
A chilly wind whipped at her loose hair, threatening to throw her off balance.
Luckily, the journey was brief. At the turret’s arched doors, Nix punched in another code. Seconds later, Temmi was safely inside the tower’s heated chambers.
The tower room was vast, with a concave glass ceiling more than thirty feet above Temmi’s head. Through it, stars and moons glowed. A steel ladder led up to a platform upon which sat a giant, handsome telescope. The optical tube alone was longer than Temmi was tall.
“She’s a relic,” Nix said. His voice echoed as he walked to the ladder. “My mother’s, actually. She used to collect primitive space-exploration technology when she was younger. Mapping the stars with her is one of my favorite memories.” He disappeared up the rungs.
Temmi found her own climb encumbered by her struggle of a dress.
As she reached the platform, Nix held out a gloved hand.
She gladly took it. He helped her to her feet, but when it should’ve been appropriate for him to drop her hand, he didn’t.
Instead, he tugged her closer to him, his gaze dipping down to hers.
This was the moment, wasn’t it? They were alone, breathless, their bodies close.
His hand gentle around hers, the leather of his glove cold and smooth.
His other hand found its way to her lower back, a solid pressure brushing tentatively upward and tangling gently in her hair.
Temmi tilted her chin, lifted her heels to go up on tiptoe.
She hadn’t kissed anyone since Scot—hadn’t wanted to (Spie Expani didn’t count because Temmi didn’t actually want to kiss her; she’d just been confused, scared of going home, maybe a little desperate).
Their breaths mingled.
“I—” Nix lowered his head, hovering close to Temmi’s lips. He had a dimple on the left side of his mouth. An imperfection that made his aching beauty more genuine. “I really want to kiss you.”
So, fucking do it, Temmi thought. “Then kiss me,” she said.
Diplomacy for the win.
The gloved hand in her hair shifted around to graze her jaw. “I’ve never, well—I’ve never kissed anyone before.”
Temmi blinked. That was the last thing she’d expected to come out of his too-perfect mouth.
Beyond the fact that he was a literal human sculpture and heir to the most powerful seat in seven solar systems, he was a twenty-six-year-old man.
Virginity, she’d have understood. There were plenty of reasons why a person might abstain from sexual activity, from the religious to the personal.
But kissing? How? Why? Surely, it wasn’t for lack of options.
His sister was notorious for being caught kissing a new woman every week, so surely, it wasn’t forbidden him.
Unless he’d never desired the physical? That was valid, though not something Temmi personally had experience with.
Seeming to track her sudden confusion, his touch left her jaw. He dropped her hand and stepped back, running black-clad fingers through his even-blacker hair. Behind him, the ancient telescope rose like a bird taking flight.
“You’re surprised.” He smiled wryly.
“A bit,” Temmi said carefully. She was starting to understand why Spie Expani had been willing to spend two million credits for her brother to date someone he could never purportedly marry.
“ Confused would be more accurate. Not that it’s a problem, I don’t mind inexperience; I just. ..well . . . Can I be frank?”
“Outside of my family, I can’t find any but you willing to be frank with me.”
“Then, why ? Have you never been attracted to anyone? No trysts at university? No high-class prostitutes snuck into the palace when you were thirteen? No drunken mistakes? No one? Ever? Sorry, I’m probably being incredibly insensitive.
It’s okay if you’ve never been interested in anyone romantically or sexually. ”
Nix half-turned and placed a hand along the telescope.
Black on silver. He dipped his head to the eyepiece.
“Can you imagine that thousands of years ago, humans believed themselves to be alone in the universe? That they’d look through devices like this and dream up the strangest imaginings of what might be out there? ”
“Your Highness.” Temmi crossed the platform, her boots pressing into the foam-like floor.
She stopped in front of him, her shoulder level with the telescope’s finder scope.
On X72, telescopes weren’t primitive. Technology in general was centuries behind.
On X72, the rest of the universe was still as distant as it’d been for those early space travelers.
Almost no one got off. Only the empire came and went. “Nix.” No response. “Nicky.”
He lifted his head.
“Why?” she pressed.
“You ever heard of the Midas touch? It’s an Old Terran myth.”
“You study a lot of Old Terran literature.”
“There’s something about ancient humanity, about how little has changed even when everything’s changed.
..” He lifted his hand from the telescope with a light caress.
With his other hand, he slowly removed one black glove, careful to take his imperial ring off first. His naked hand and forearm were a few shades lighter than the skin of his face, as though the appendage never saw the sun.
“In the myth, Midas is a king who is granted whatever he wishes. His wish is to have everything he touches turn to gold.” Nix stretched out his naked fingers.
“For a while, his wealth increases, but soon his wish becomes a curse. Everyone he loves turns to gold. And he is left rich but alone.”
“Are you trying to tell me that if you kiss me, I’ll turn to gold?” Temmi cocked her head.
Nix closed his hand into a fist. “Can I tell you something that I absolutely shouldn’t? Something I need you to promise you’ll keep between us?”
Obviously, Temmi thought, but said, “Yes, of course.”