Royal Recruit - Susan Grant Page 0,10

prime minister broke in. “Perhaps we can see the offending visual ourselves?”

She actually felt a quickening of her heartbeat at the prospect of watching the recording again. Was the prince as proactive and forceful in the other, more personal areas of his life? He’d mentioned a harem. An image of him making love to several women at once threatened to take her breath away—one: because she didn’t like the thought of other women touching him, and two: no man should look that good naked.

Trying to act as coolly as possible, she sashayed to her throne and sat on it with a whoosh of yellow skirts. “Display visual,” she commanded from the enormous, bejeweled chair to the leaders gathered in a half circle around the huge screen.

The recorded image was stopped and brought back to the beginning. Every one of the palace leaders present focused on the display—and the Terran prince. It grew very quiet in the chamber. All were sizing up the man, seeing if concern was justified, and if so, to what level.

Keira sat rigidly, her hands clasped demurely on her lap, until she noticed her fingers digging into her flesh and slipped her hands under her thighs.

The Terran’s voice filtered through the translator. His surprise had slid into interest when he first laid eyes upon her. He finds you attractive.

It took everything she had not to let his appraisal of her matter.

“How dare you?” Keira stiffened at the indignation and shock in her recorded voice. And the anger—anger at herself. That was new. Usually she was angry at other people. Another reason to despise the Terran prince.

“Trespasser. Barbarian!”

He’d laughed at her then, called her the barbarian. How dare he treat her with such disrespect?

On-screen, the Terran prince leaned forward, his mouth formed in that half smile that so unsettled her. She couldn’t be further from naked, dressed to her chin in the layered and laced traditional gown, but every time the man’s eyes swept over her, she felt exposed. She shivered as she always did when hit with a sense of vulnerability, but this time the trembling was different. Quite…different.

She imagined his muscled body sweaty and naked as he struggled to free himself from the cuffs with which she’d bind him. He’d be hers, all hers, and at her mercy. She imagined tasting his skin, touching him wherever she pleased. “By the goddesses,” she whispered.

Keira closed her eyes and prayed to get through this session with her dignity intact. Sometimes, it felt as if her dignity was all she had. In the frightening, lonely days after losing her family, dignity had served well as a protective wall, one as high and as wide as those surrounding this palace.

She fought to keep that wall around her now, listening to the prince rage, “My message to you is this—if your people come back for another try at landing on Earth, we’ll be waiting. A billion more guys like me, waiting.”

The visual ended soon after. Everyone was briefly silent. No one questioned her rage now. They appeared to be as shocked as she was.

The new minister of intelligence was the first to find her voice. “I am deeply sorry at the distress this invasion caused you, Your Majesty. I do not know why the transmission appeared on your screen, bypassing all our security. You have my word we will work ceaselessly on this until we have an answer.”

Keira nodded her thanks yet regarded the tall woman with pity. If the fates of her predecessors were any indication, Ismae Vemekk’s life span would not be noted for its longevity.

Supreme-second Fair Cirrus frowned, rubbing his knuckles across his chin. “Indeed, this proves Earth’s cleverness. That cleverness could very well lead them to be reluctant choosing sides in a war they know little about.”

The age-old war with the Drakken.

“There is one way to avoid uncertainty as to their loyalties,” Rissallen said. “A fail-safe way.”

“Nothing is fail-safe,” Zaafran said.

“This though is nearly so. A treaty to take precedence over all treaties.” The prime minister’s mouth slid into a winning smile, revealing perfect, if a little large, teeth. Rissallen could be so oily. What did he have up his sleeve this time? That they simply cut off the power to her visual communications screen? That they eavesdrop on all her private conversations from now on?

Keira slammed her hands onto the armrests of her throne. The jewels on her fingers clattered against the jeweled precious metal on the armrests. “I’ll have you know, Kellen, that I will