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She caught her breath, a teasing smile played along her lips as she released my thumb. “You’re not so bad yourself, Your Imperial Highness.”
I grinned down at her. “If you are not satisfied, I can—”
“Oh, I’m satisfied,” she interrupted, stretching underneath me enticingly. “Trust me, I’m more than satisfied.”
“Good.” I lifted myself off her enough to kiss her swollen lips.
“Are you hungry, thirsty?” I asked, pulling out of her and rolling over so she could lean her head on my chest while she snuggled into my side.
“I’m happy as a lark,” she stated.
I didn’t know what a lark was, but understood the meaning of her statement.
“Me too,” I admitted. “Your effect on me is unparalleled.”
“Oh?” She leaned up and looked at me, her large eyes took me in questioningly.
“I don’t know what it is about you, but you calm me. Whenever you’re around, I don’t… feel this seething anger in me,” I admitted, aware I was giving her more leverage over me than I had ever permitted any other being to have. But it needed to be said. I needed her to know.
“Oh,” she repeated, looking a bit sad. “It has to be hard, being responsible for so many lives.”
I brushed a stray strand of blonde hair from her forehead. “I don’t mind the responsibility, it’s my temper that is exhausting me,” I admitted. “Carrying this anger in me all the time is… draining. But you”—I lifted my neck to look at her—“your presence soothes me like nothing or nobody ever has.”
“I’m glad I can be of some use,” she replied with a slight hint of bitterness in her voice.
“Don’t ever underestimate yourself,” I chided gently. “You don’t have to be a powerful person to make a difference. You make a difference in many lives, every day, by just being around them. Giving someone a smile who might be down, picking something up that somebody dropped, a friendly word, all those things matter and make a difference, every day. I might keep the empire safe, but it’s you and every person in it who makes it work and happy.”
Her gaze softened. “I never thought about it that way.”
“Especially you.” I didn’t like to say this, but if she needed to hear it I would. “You and the other humans are giving my people hope. You brought something back to us we had forgotten existed.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Yeah. And I keep forgetting how important it is to your species. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” I kissed her hand, her fingers. “If anybody can understand how tiresome duties can become, it’s me.”
This time her smile was real and warm, but there was still some self-deprecation in her tone. “I feel extremely ungrateful when I look at it as a duty. I should be elated to be able to pay back some of the kindness your people have shown me.”
“Are you feeling guilty for being here?”
She nodded. “Some, yes. And then I feel ungrateful.”
“The will of the gods is always mysterious, but I’ve learned one thing, and that is that their will is always done and we are the servants playing it out. Don’t feel guilty about being here while others are… not. You are right where you are supposed to be.”
“In your arms?” she chided with a grin.
“Exactly.” I pulled her up to claim her lips once again.
I hummed happily to myself on my way back to Lady Natoi’s suite. My body thrummed with satisfaction. Every cell in my body was alive and bursting with bliss. How can one person be this happy? I wondered.
Daryus turned out to be an incredible lover, thoughtful and self-sacrificing. We made love twice more, and every time he ensured I came first. He was giving, generous and observant, by far the best lover I had ever had.
I didn’t know where this was going, the word mekarry never entered our conversation and it left me strangely insecure. I wasn’t even sure how I felt about it. Did I hope to be his mekarry? Or was that an outlandish assumption? As much as I tried to forget it, he was an emperor. A man with so much power it was still hard for me to wrap my head around. We clicked on many levels, and by his own admission I liked the effect I had on him, but I wasn’t a fool. Somebody like him would not marry somebody like me.
Not to mention that marriage shouldn’t even enter my mind at this point. We had barely known each other for a few days, but still… did emperors date?
He would have said something if he thought you were his mekarry, my mind whispered. I remembered all the men I met over the last few weeks, men who had looked at me with so much hope, waiting for a sort of revelation. But try as I might, I couldn’t recall a single face.
All I saw was Daryus’s face and his desire for me reflected in his eyes, something that had been lacking in the others’. Still, that didn’t mean he thought I was his mekarry.
