Royal Domination (Planet Double Dick #11)

Visha

The king studies me, his gaze boring deep, as if already seeing my dark past. His tail is lifted high, as if also curious.

I turn away, my heart thumping and my throat suddenly dry.

“Here, drink this.” He curls his arm around me and hands me a goblet of wine.

It’s early in the day but I take it and sip, glad of the cool. “Thank you.”

“Nothing you say can change the fact that you are queen now, that I have claimed you as my mate. That is set in stone, overseen by the very mountains that preside over us. Together we are one, the rulers of this land and the servers of our people.”

I stare out at the purple tipped peaks that spike into a lilac, brush-stroked sky. This is all so much to take on board.

“Please, Visha, my queen.” There is need in his voice.

He is close behind me and I can feel his body heat radiating onto mine.

“We must trust each other,” he whispers huskily. “So that we are close in soul and body.”

I nod and take another gulp of wine. I turn to him, my fingers laced around the cool cup I’m holding. “Do you know what it is to dream, Athos?”

“At night? No, it’s not something we do. Sleep is for recharging our bodies and brains. We do not hallucinate as you do when you sleep, it is just quiet darkness, the brain switches off.”

“Hallucinate?”

“Isn’t that what a dream is? Hallucinations, unreal images and scenarios.”

“Perhaps.” I pause. “But I don’t mean dreaming at night, I mean during the day. For example you must have dreamed about the day Earth women would arrive on Planet Hade and begin breeding so that your species would be saved.”

“In that case yes, I understand what it is to dream in the day.” He reaches out and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. “To hope for something.”

His fingers skim my cheek and leave a heated patch of skin that tingles with awareness. This man dominates my personal space but I don’t dislike it as much as I feared I would initially.

“I used to have a dream,” I say, studying his thick eyebrows, dark against his light purple flesh. “A dream of becoming a ballerina. Do you know that word?”

“I am not sure…I…yes…it’s Swan Lake, Nutcracker, I read about it in an Earth culture document.” He nods.

I smile a little. “You are well informed, both Swan Lake and The Nutcracker are ballets, performed by ballet dancers…ballerinas.” I pause. “That is what I dreamed of being. A ballerina.”

“So why were you not happy on Earth? Why did you sign up to come here if you are a ballerina?”

“Because my dream didn’t come true.”

He nods slowly and then rubs his chin as though thinking. “Go on.”

“I had an accident.” The usual flash of pain sparks in my memory—a twist, a fall, a blinding agony.

“Visha,” he says quietly. “I am sorry for your accident. What happened?”

“I was roller-skating, with my friends and—”

“I do not know what that is.”

“It’s…you have boots on, with wheels, so instead of walking you can roll along, fast.”

“That does sound dangerous.”

“It’s fun, or it was until I fell and broke my upper thigh bone.”

“Your femur.”

“Yes, my femur.” I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes. “It was a bad break and it meant that I’d never reach the pinnacle of a career in ballet, to do that you have to be perfect in every way. No major bone breaks. I was no longer perfect.”

“I think you are perfect. Absolute perfection.” He glances downward as though he can see my healed broken leg through my clothing.

I open my eyes and look up at him. There is truth in his face, he’s not patronizing me, or being glib.

He’s speaking his truth and I am grateful for that.

“My mother. She never forgave me.” My heart squeezes with the torment of realizing I was never loved for being me, not by my mother, not by anyone on Earth.

“Your mother blamed you for hurting yourself? But isn’t an accident faultless. That is the definition, am I right?”

“Yes, you are, but even so she blamed me for hurting myself and for ending my career.”

“But it was your career, not hers.”

“Not quite.” I sigh. “She had always wanted to be a prima ballerina but had fallen pregnant with me just as she’d been accepted into a very prestigious dance school in London, England. Having a baby, me, was the end of her dream so she placed that dream onto me to carry.”

“So she wanted you to be a ballerina because she couldn’t be?”

“Yes.”

“And she wanted you to be a ballerina even more than you wanted to be.”

I can see his thoughts slotting into place.

He understands what I am telling him. “I wanted to please her, Athos, she was my mother and I knew what she’d given up to have me. And being a ballerina did that, it pleased her…until…well until I wasn’t one any more.”

I shake my head and turn away. I look out at the square bathed in a hazy light, and the people milling about there.

“She stopped loving me, overnight, or at least that’s what it felt like. Before long she was demanding rent I didn’t have because I didn’t have a job at sixteen. She began criticizing everything I did. I could see the hate in her eyes, the ‘what was the point in having her?

’ expression she wore whenever she looked at me.”

“What did your father say? Surely he defended you.”

“I don’t have a father.”

“Every human has a father, it is physically impossible not to have one.” He kind of huffs.

“What I mean is he wasn’t around. I don’t even think he knew I existed.”

“That is…that is very hard for me to understand. Every male on Planet Hade knows whether he is a father or not and he would always ‘be around’.”

“Which is very commendable. And one of the reasons I am here. I was sold on your people’s loyalty, your dependability, and your emotional strength.” I remember that now, wanting it desperately.

“I have plenty of all of those things, and my loyalty is to my people and to you, Visha. Never forget that. I will always be around for you and our children. That is a fact.”

I nod and my eyes sting with unshed tears. Will Athos still utter those words when I confess the next bit of my story?

“My love.” He sets his hands on my shoulders. “Tell me your pain.”

His voice is so deep and caring that it squeezes my heart.

“Please, we can face this together,” he says, “whatever it is you need to tell me. I want to know it.”

“I did still dance after the accident.” I blurt out.

“That is a good thing, isn’t it?” He frowns, clearly confused.

“No, because it wasn’t ballet dancing it was…pole dancing.”

“I do not understand what that is.”

I shake my head and look down at the wine in the goblet. The surface is trembling. “I had no other choice but to look for work. I needed to put a roof over my head and food on the table so I headed to Las Vegas.”

“I have heard of it. A city in the desert.”

“Yes, and it’s full of casinos and clubs and men who will pay to watch a woman dance.”

“Why is that a problem? It gave you a way to live, to survive.”

I turn to him. “On Earth it is not considered a profession for ‘good girls’.”

“You will definitely need to explain that to me.” He frowns.

“I danced, almost naked, for money.”

He nods. “Tell me more.”

“Money from men. They would throw it onto the stage or they would tuck it into my clothing, what there was of it. They would stare, jeer, try and touch me and…” I close my eyes, repulsed my some of the worst memories. “I had no choice, I had to have money to stay alive.”

“Money is not a concept I completely understand. We do not have it here.”

This is news to me. I stare up at him. “You don’t?”

“No, my people work and the palace provides them with a home, food, healthcare, whatever is needed. There is trade of physical items, yes, but not money, money is an alien concept in our minds, nothing but a fabrication of imagination.”

I nod slowly. “So here, on Planet Hade, no one would be homeless and hungry?”

“No, not in my kingdom. Because everyone contributes with skills and knowledge and are rewarded with a comfortable, stable life with everything they need.”

I nod. Had I heard that in the lecture I’d been to before signing up to Project Hope? I couldn’t remember.

“I think you should show me,” he says, cupping my face and drawing his nose to almost touch mine. “This dance…this pole dance. And then I will understand and you will have taken that burden from your shoulders.” He gives them a little squeeze. “I believe that will help you, to unburden.”

I hitch in a breath. “I don’t have a pole. So it’s not possible.”

“A pole is a length of metal, vertical in this case. Am I right?”

“Yes.” I nod.

“Then I think it will be possible, we can build speed-of-light spaceships after all.”

I swallow. He seems determined.

“It will clear this matter up,” he says softly. “For then I will comprehend what is troubling you so.”

My heart is beating fast and a bolt of nerves gets me in the belly. A private dance, for the king…my new mate. Can I do this?

“Visha.”

“Yes. Okay, I will do it.” I speak quickly so I don’t change my mind. “I will show you what a pole dance is, how low my life had become.”

“Good, then we can move on from this and talk about the breeding program.”

“The breeding program.”

“The planet would rejoice at the birth of a prince or princess.” He taps my goblet. “Drink this and I will call for you when the pole is ready.”

“But…but I have nothing to wear. This…gown…is not suitable.”

“What do you need?”

“Something more like underwear I guess.”

“I shall have something made and delivered to your room.” He pauses. “Oh, and expect a brief visit from the medic. You are due a check up.”

“A what?”

“To ensure you have adapted to your new environment, it is essential before…”

“Before?”

“Before anything else happens.” He turns and walks away, his broad shoulders set, tail half lifted, and his strides long. He’s so tall and muscular and I find that my body reacts to that strength and confidence. My mate is a fine alien specimen.

I finish my wine and then walk to my bedchamber.

The long corridor is empty though someone has been in my room.