Chapter 4
FOUR
He checked up on her. Probably too much. He didn’t want to, but he did.
He didn’t want to admit it, and he wouldn’t. Ever.
It was his palace, after all. Not unreasonable for him to keep an eye on an extraterrestrial visitor. She was an alien here.
So far, she’d spent most of her time in the last three Virilian weeks exploring the city or talking with his great-aunt.
They were proving to be good companions, he hated to admit.
Ferias had assigned an attendant to her when she left the palace alone, which Drex approved of.
In fact, if the Sage hadn’t, he would have.
It wasn’t that the males of Exir City were savages.
He didn’t think she would be randomly attacked, but the female was so friendly.
She liked talking with anyone who wore a translator or a v-link communicator, which, to be fair, wasn’t many.
When she found someone to talk to, her whole face lit up and she smiled.
It was a potent thing, and there were some Virilian males who had not seen a young female in so long, they could mistake Madison’s normal way of being for an invitation to something more.
Despite what he had said on the day she arrived, he was not fine with Madison having “something more” with one of his citizens.
Not that he could do anything about it, if she decided one of the males she chatted with struck her fancy. So far, it didn’t appear that any had.
She also hadn’t shown interest in him. At first, he had expected she would try to pursue him.
After all, in order for her to get her fee, she had to produce an offspring.
For the first week, he had braced himself, preparing to see her everywhere he went, dressed seductively or trying to ambush him in corridors, but none of that happened.
Instead, she was pleasant and polite to him when they did happen to encounter each other, and quickly moved on. No lingering looks, no “accidental” touches. Nothing.
It was as if she wasn’t affected by him at all, while he was increasingly aware of how much he was affected by her.
To make matters worse, there were the moments when she laughed and his body went tense and tingly. Truly, the main reason why he watched her was just to hear that amazing sound.
He had started having fantasies. Not the usual ones of her naked and willing beneath him—those he expected.
These fantasies were more basic, and surprisingly, far more disturbing.
He imagined being the one she was talking to, the one she smiled up at.
He imagined saying something to her—he had no idea what—and making her laugh.
It was powerful and dangerous and it was getting harder and harder to sit near her during their evening meals together with his aunt and not look at her constantly.
Did she always have to be so cheerful? The female seemed to emit a light from within her, because every room she entered seemed to light up. He feared he was dazzled by her.
One morning, after a fitful night of trying to sleep with an unyieldingly hard cock, he listened to his briefs through his v-link.
One of his assistants prepared them for him every morning.
He bathed, pulled on clean yulian leather pants.
Finally, he donned the gold chest pieces, called rittu.
They crossed over his chest and denoted his status.
Unlike his half brother, Drex had only known combat during the hard training in his youth by palace military staff.
He still trained daily with his most elite fighters.
The work he put in on the training room floor not only felt good, but paid homage to his ancestry, which was made up of some of the fiercest warriors in all of Virilia.
Besides, he never knew when he would need to wield a blade.
If he did, he wanted skills to match his elite guards.
He was not a male to stand back and allow others to fight for him.
Many Virilian males in Exir City wore nothing above the waist, although some did.
He wondered what Madison thought of what she saw here.
He understood humans were given to covering their bodies in public.
Of course, they had a wider variety of climates on their planet, while Virilia had one habitable one.
Everywhere beyond the desert became so hot, even the toughest of metals buckled and melted.
As he left his chambers and walked to the dining hall, he made a mental inventory of his day’s duties.
He needed to speak to Ferias on several matters, but the Sage was not in the dining hall like usual. Instead, Madison was there.
She didn’t sit at the formal table, but across the room, where a circular, sunken seating area existed for casual meals. It was furnished with soft, plump cushions and pillows. He never sat here. His idea of a casual meal was eating something while he walked.
The female looked up from the small, clear screen she held on her lap. “Hello, King Drex.”
He paced toward her slowly, feeling his heart thud heavier and his throat thicken. She was dressed in a simple white shift that fell loosely over her body. Her blond hair hung in loose, silken waves past her shoulders. She looked up at him questioningly.
“Just Drex, please.” He peered down at her screen. “What are you doing?” He had not seen her use a screen before. This one was designed to be held with two hands and was meant for reading. Blue words glowed through the clear panel, too far away for him to read.
“Trying to learn Virilian,” she replied with a sigh. “It’s difficult. Ferias is teaching me and gave me a tutorial to study while she is away.”
“Away?” Ah, he had already forgotten that he was looking for the Sage. “Where is she?”
Madison tilted her head. “She was invited by the king of someplace called Tagja City. She said she sent you a notification.”
Drex frowned. “She may have. I could drown in notifications, I receive so many.”
She laughed. Not a full-throated laugh, but a warm chuckle that made his belly twist with hunger.
“She said she will return in three days.”
Here was his out. The smooth transition to “have a good day,” and his departure, but Drex remained rooted in place, gazing down at the lovely female reclined before him. She looked up at him, a gently questioning expression on her face.
He jutted his chin toward her screen. “You’re learning Virilian?”
She nodded, but held up a hand. “Don’t worry. It’s just to pass the time until you send me home.”
He raised one brow. Sending her home would be the smartest thing to do, but he had not given it a single thought in the last several weeks. “You’re finding it difficult?”
“Yes. Not only are the words different, obviously, but the alphabet is completely new. You use a lot of symbols for words and entire thoughts.” She shrugged and glanced down to the screen. “It takes some getting used to, but it’s fascinating.”
Not as fascinating as you. He gritted his teeth as he searched for something else to say.
Just then, a tremor ran through the palace. It wasn’t violent or rattling, but it was enough for Madison’s gaze to fly to his in concern.
Wide, blue eyes locked on his. “What was that?”
He had a feeling he knew exactly what it was, having experienced that precise sensation numerous times in his life.
Drex held up a finger to her, then tapped his v-link.
Assistants were already speaking, telling him what he had suspected.
He listened, keeping his reply short so Madison wouldn’t be alarmed.
When he ended the connection he looked down to see her gazing up at him with worried eyes.
“No need to be alarmed,” he said in soothing tones. “In the tunnels far below the city lives a hive of worms. One of them appears to be on the move through some levels below. Still nowhere near us, yet.”
“Worms?” Her brow scrunched. “I don’t understand.”
He didn’t know if there were creatures on Earth to compare with the beings moving below the city.
“That was the best translation I have for it.” He stepped down to the sunken cushions and held out a hand for the screen.
She handed it over and he found an image and showed it to her.
“We call them Urtass. They can burrow through solid rock and have made a network beneath the whole of this planet. They were the first burrowers of these tunnels we now live in. As you can see, they’re quite large. ”
She studied the image with fearful eyes. “They look enormous.”
“They are.” Carefully, he lowered himself to the cushion beside her. This was as close as he’d ever permitted himself to get to her. His hip was close enough to feel the warmth of her body. He was near enough to catch her luscious scent.
“Will they come here?”
“Perhaps. This happens periodically, when Urtass come to the surface to mate.” He reached over and tapped her screen, returning it to her Virilian lesson.
His fingers slid over a fall of her hair.
He pulled his hand back. The urge was there to tunnel into those locks and test the softness of them.
“The transports will be readied, just in case. We have a system in place and evacuate to a neighboring city until the worm leaves.”
Her eyes searched his. “You’re not worried.”
“I’ve gone through this too many times for it to be anything but routine. You’ll be safe. I promise.” He couldn’t resist testing them both. His hand came up and caressed her cheek. It was just a light brush, but he caught a visible tremble and the brief closing of her eyes.
She was attracted to him. The knowledge of it slammed into him. He stood up abruptly, feeling hot, cold, and shaky all at once. If he didn’t get out of there now, he would touch her again, and based on her reaction to his light touch, she likely wouldn’t push him away.
“Good day, Madison,” he said in a rasping voice, and then he left without daring to look back.