Minutes later Jareth nodded to the guards on the door, thankfully in the black on black uniform of Sector Seven rather than the pomp and useless gilt of the palace guard, and walked directly into Prince Sethan’s chambers. High-ceilinged with floor-to-ceiling windows draped in light gauzes and sumptuous furnishings in cream and gold, they looked every inch the rooms of a ruling prince.

A young woman reclined on a low couch in front of one such window, dangling a string for a small kitten to play with. The Imperial Princess Jaida, Sethan’s wife of less than a few months, was a lovely woman. Slender and graceful, she was as kind and loving as she was beautiful.

She also had a mean streak a mile wide and after spending five years on the run, more than enough life experience to kick any man’s ass, her husband included. In fact, she had kicked Seth’s ass when Jareth had run them both through close protection and self-defense training, a memory Jareth was incredibly fond of and reminded the prince of on a regular basis.

She looked up and a broad smile spread over her face. “Jareth! I didn’t think you were back yet. Honey,” she called out through the open doorway on the other side of the room. “Get some clothes on, Jareth’s here.”

She looked back at Jareth, her eyes twinkling with amusement and held up the scrap of fur on her lap. The kitten responded by fixing Jareth with a glare, hissing as it swiped at the air with tiny claws.

“He said something Mr. Tygar didn’t agree with. So Mr. T expressed his displeasure in a very fundamental way.”

“Huh?” Jareth was used to women not making sense and had long since given up even trying to work out what Jaida meant half the time.

“It pissed on me,” Sethan groused, emerging in the doorway naked to the waist with a shirt in his hand. “Imperial Prince of Lady knows how many planets and systems…and I got pissed on.”

Jareth shrugged. “Life’s a bitch.”

The prince grinned as he shrugged his shirt on. “Yeah, and then you marr…”

“Sethan Kai Renza, you finish that sentence and you’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight!”

Jareth hid his smirk as Jaida’s voice sliced through the air. It had that tone married men the universe over knew and feared. Even unmarried, he recognized it. It was the one that said behave, or no sex for a month. Or longer, if the guy was really unlucky.

Standing at ease, he linked his hands behind his back and waited for the royal couple to finish their little staring match. He already knew the outcome. Jaida would win. She always did. When it came down to it, all she had to do was close her legs and Sethan was screwed.

He blinked as something struck him. “You called the kitten Tygar?”

Jaida nodded as Seth gave up the fight with a sigh and started to button his shirt, grumbling under his breath about “disrespect.” The other two completely ignored him.

“I did, yes. Why?”

“Tygar pissed on Seth.” Jareth sniggered, the low sound dirty even to his ears. At Jaida’s blank look he elaborated. “You gave him the same name as the Sector sergeant-major.”

Her eyes widened and a smirk snuck over her lips to match his.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, will you two cut it out!” Seth seethed, looking from one to the other and then back again as Jaida collapsed in a fit of giggles. Mr. Tygar sat next to her with a smug look, then turned his back pointedly on the prince.

“I give up. Right…”

He transferred his attention to Jareth, who straightened up instinctively and wiped the smile off his face. Although they were friends and had been since the first day of training when they’d beaten the snot out of each other, Seth had a “look” that signaled when he was being His Majesty, Imperial Prince Sethan Kai Renza.

“Colonel Jareth Nikolai, it has come to our attention—”

“By that he means I told him,” Jaida added from the couch, ignoring the glare her husband cast her.

Told him? Told him what? Instinctively, Jareth froze, wariness energizing every inch of his large frame. Had someone seen him with Keliana and ratted him out? They hadn’t done anything other than kissed and that only today. How had Jaida found out? He really doubted that Keliana had told her.

“That your service and conduct has been exemplary over the years you have been in your current role.”

“He thinks you’re good at your job.”

Not a bollocking then. Good. Relief shuddered through him as he concentrated on what Seth was saying.

“As such, for acts of courage during the recent Detarian incident and your unending drive to eradicate piracy in the Verilian systems, it has been decided to grant you a boon.”

“Boon?” He couldn’t help it, allowing his confusion to show in the blank look he plastered across his face.

Jaida smiled. “Because you’ve been a good little boy and killed all the nasty bad guys he wanted you to, he wants to give you a present.”

“Huh? Present?” Jareth shook his head, his hair getting in his eyes. Absently flicking it back, he looked at Seth. “I’m a professional soldier. Why would you give me something for doing my damn job?”

“See?” Seth crowed, shooting a triumphant look at his wife, who wrinkled her nose. “I told you he wouldn’t get it. It’s not about the power or glory for Jareth. Is it, mate?”

Jareth shook his head, not quite able to wrap his head around being gifted something for what he considered to be just doing his duty.

“Not unless you’re planning on rolling out those high-yield laser array’s you got on your flagship to the entire fleet.” He smiled in grim satisfaction. “They’d be sweet in a one on one with the pirate frigates. Make the bastards think twice about taking on imperial cruisers for sure.”

“No, no, no!”

Jaida put the kitten, which had crawled back into her lap for a nap, on a silken cushion next to her and rose to walk across the room, her teal gown rustling as she moved gracefully.

For a second he was reminded of Keliana’s scarlet gown. He’d only ever seen her in red, the color of a whore. The desire to see her in another color, emerald or deep purple perhaps, rose up inside him.

“This is for you. Something you want. A house, lands, hell, gold or jewels. What do you want?” she asked as she came to a stand in front of him, her head tilted to the side and her hands on her hips. “We want to acknowledge your service, so you know we appreciate you.”

“I say we make him a lord or something.” Seth cut in, then grinned. “Lord of the privy sounds good.”

“Screw you, Prince-boy.”

“When you’re big eno—”

“Will you two stop it.” Jaida all but stomped her feet in frustration. “Have your pissing contest later. Right now, Jareth, what do you want most in the universe? Anything?”

His smile disappeared under her serious look. What did he want? He didn’t need anything. His suite was expansive, his staff looked after him, he ate in the officer’s mess or at the prince’s table. He had no family to lavish gifts on or provide for. His weaponry was all provided by the army.

His answer, when it came, surprised even him.

“I want the harem-mistress.”

* * *

Careful to avoid any hint that she and Jareth had been in the gardens together, Keliana made sure her route back to her rooms was as random and circuitous as possible. It was the best she could think of to throw someone following her off the scent and to ensure that the heat decorating her cheeks had died down before sneaking back into the harem.

The last thing she wanted was an encounter with one of the remaining courtesans while she was all hot under the collar from Jareth’s kisses. There was no one who could pick up the subtle signs of a woman who’d just been kissed thoroughly than a woman who made a living on her back. Since the only man who should have been kissing her was too wrapped up in his new wife to even look at another woman, it didn’t take a great leap of mental agility to work out it wasn’t the prince who had her heart all atwitter and her breathing shot to hell. At least two of the women left were total bitches who’d like nothing more than to cause trouble for her before they left, so she figured discretion was the better part of valor.

That or she was too cowardly and scared to get into a pissing contest when her position here was so unsure.

The main hall of the harem chambers was empty when she slipped through the doors. The high vaulted ceiling and intricate mosaic revealed the harem as one of the older parts of the palace. Unlike the throne room and the prince’s suites though, it hadn’t been modernized beyond the bare minimum. Keliana wrinkled her nose as she flitted around the room, staying in the shadows beyond the pillars that circled it to avoid detection. The high ceiling in the main area with its stained glass roof was perfect for amplifying the smallest sound.

A huge couch dominated the center space. Built to order, it had once been used by Dasan, several princes before Sethan, for entertaining multiple courtesans at a time. She shook her head as she made it to the far side. Even though she wore the scarlet silks of a whore, the thought of an orgy and being made to service several men in the same session, or be part of a baying pack begging for attention from one man made her feel sick.

Deep inside, in a small part of her heart she’d locked away, she longed for one man. A man she was free to love and who would love her in return. Jareth, the tiny voice whispered again in her mind. It had been there since he’d started to leave her the roses, a little temptation, a hope that just wouldn’t go away no matter how much she tried to squash it.

She shook her head again and reached out for the closed door to her rooms. Just her luck she had the most difficult rooms to sneak into. Opening in pride of place directly onto the main chamber, her door was in full view. She was supposed to know all and see all. No one had foreseen a situation where the harem-mistress would be sneaking around herself.

“Mistress Keliana?”

A male voice sounded from behind her. Jumping, Keliana bit back her instinctive squeak. They’d followed me, they know. Slowly, wariness stampeding through every cell in her body, she turned. Two guards hovered in the open doorway to the main chambers, looking uncomfortable. Well, the one on the left looked uncomfortable. The one on the right, as young as his uniform was ill fitting, peered into the chamber eagerly as if expecting to see nubile young women in various states of undress reclining on every available surface. Sorry sweetheart, you’re about a decade too late for that.

“Yes?”

Once a courtesan, always a courtesan. True to her profession, she glided over the space between her and the guards with grace and an added sway in her hips that kept their attention firmly on her body rather than on her face, just in case they could read blind panic.

“Can I help you gentlemen?”

She came to a stop just before the doorway, slippered feet carefully on her side of the dark line of tiles that marked the harem from the palace main. They wouldn’t step over it, and neither would she. This was the harem, her country. Still her domain, for a day or so at least.

“Yes, ma’am. The prince sent us to fetch you. He requires your presence, immediately.”

Prince. Fetch. Immediately.

Keliana’s brain latched onto the three words and wove a damning message into them. He knew. Somehow her master knew she’d kissed another man. Fear and anger wound itself around her heart, coiling into a seething mass in the center of her chest. But he doesn’t want me, she wanted to yell, to scream to all who would hear, why not let me go?

She didn’t yell, scream, or otherwise disturb her perfectly calm appearance. Instead she folded her hands over each other in front of her hips and inclined her head. At least they hadn’t come with chains to drag her in front of Sethan, nor did they look inclined to physically lay hands on her, stepping back to allow her to precede them.

“Thank you,” she murmured, the epitome of grace and elegance as she’d been taught, and allowed them to escort her to the prince’s suite.

The journey didn’t take long, and was a new one for Keliana. In years past she would never have walked the main corridors, instead using the screened passages reserved for the harem women. Would have been quicker, she thought as they finally reached the heavily engraved main doors to the prince’s chambers. She shivered as her heart beat a manic tattoo against her breastbone.

The door was flanked either side by guards, but not palace guards like the pair who had accompanied her. Instead the two grim-faced men were dressed in the black on black uniform of Sector Seven instead of metal and mail and armed with high-yield laser rifles instead of ceremonial swords.

The fear coiled around her heart extended icy fingers out to the rest of her body. The pane of sheer scarlet in front of her lips trembled as she fought to control her breathing. Sector Seven were the most feared regiment in the Princedom. The best of the best, many aspired to join their ranks and gain the right to wear the stylized skull tattoo they wore on their wrists, but few managed it. Utterly loyal to Sethan, they were his backup plan, his ace in the hole, and basically turned him from just another prince into a person no one wanted to fuck with.

The man she belonged to. The master she’d betrayed.

“Thanks guys, we’ll take it from here.”

Her knees weakened as the nearest guard looked her over, a flicker of something in his cool green eyes before they iced over. What was that? Pity? She fought back a whimper as the doors swept open.

“Breathe,” the green-eyed guard advised softly as he peeled off from his position guarding the door to walk her through it. “He doesn’t bite, I swear.”

She nodded, flicking a glance from under her lashes at the man next to her. She hadn’t expected compassion from any of the Sector, but his expression was understanding as they walked through an antechamber through into the main chamber of the prince’s suite.

Tall, with close-cropped sandy hair, his looks would easily earn him a place on any of the intergalactic catwalks. The scar running down one cheek to twist the corner of his lip only added to his attractiveness. It was a scar that teased any woman with blood in her veins, screaming bad boy, tame me if you can. A bona fide badass soldier who’d probably killed more men than she’d had hot dinners offering her moral support? Fuck, she was screwed six ways to Sunday.

“Chin up, Mistress,” he said, his voice low so only she could hear and stopped at the door.

All she could do was nod, her heart beating so fast she could feel herself going light-headed as her vision grayed around the edges. Calling on the resolve that had gotten her through the more unpleasant parts of life as a courtesan, she forced steel into her spine and thanked him quietly as she glided past. He hadn’t needed to offer words of support and she didn’t forget things like that quickly.

Three people occupied the room, but she didn’t get time to do more than process their presence. The prince stood to one side, dressed in heavily embroidered black with his shirt open to the waist. Gracefully, Keliana stopped and dropped into a low curtsy, her scarlet skirts pooling out around her on the expensive silken rug as she kept her gaze on his feet.

“You summoned me, sire.”

Her voice was soft, breathy. Good. At least she sounded like a woman of the night, rather than guilty as sin and scared as hell. Any second now he would denounce her, have her dragged outside. A public flogging before execution was the old practice for a whore who betrayed her master and that was the nice version. Often denounced whores were thrown to the guards for them to take their pleasure before they were “dealt with.”

“I did. Oh, for the Lady’s sake get up, I can’t talk to you when you’re groveling on the floor like that.”

His voice held a touch of irritation and anger that made her jump. Pressing her lips together, Keliana rose uncertainly. She couldn’t help darting a quick look around the room. Seated on a couch behind Sethan was the princess.

Quickly, Keliana dropped her gaze in respect. Although they’d called her the prince’s courtesan, Jaida was noble by birth and it showed. She was a stunning woman, slender with masses of dark hair and the silver-shot eyes of the Lianl family, one of the Princedom’s oldest lines. It was easy to see why Seth preferred his wife to the women of the harem.

The last person took her breath away. Standing in a classic military at-ease posture the other side of the room was Jareth. She gasped, unable to keep the small sound of surprise contained and backpedaled a step before she got herself together. Don’t show recognition, surprise—don’t show anything, she told herself firmly, ignoring the heat crawling over her cheeks.

“Don’t worry.” Sethan chuckled, drawing her attention back to him. “I know what the gossips say, but he’s been fed, so he’s quite harmless.”

What was she supposed to say to that? Agree with him? Disagree? Jareth was positively the most dangerous man she’d ever met, in terms of both reputation and his ability to get through the painstakingly erected shields around her heart. Pretty as the man who’d brought her in had been, or as handsome as the prince himself was, neither of them stirred her or triggered the sheer fascination she felt when with the tall colonel.

Never argue with your master, always agree quietly in a gracious manner. Even if he’s a totally inbred fucktard, you agree. A whore’s place is not to correct. Just to spit in his coffee later.

“Of course, sire.”

Hovering uncomfortably, she addressed the center of his chest. He had a nice chest, but it wasn’t Jareth’s. Not that she’d ever seen Jareth’s chest, but she could imagine. She’d had long nights of imagining as she pleasured herself in her lonely bed. In her dreams he’d been the perfect lover, kind and considerate, taking her gently or roughly in tune with her moods.

“Good.” Sethan clapped his hands, voice ringing with satisfaction. “That’s agreed then. Makes things so much simpler than trying to find a buyer.”

“Huh? I’m sorry…what’s agreed?” Startled by his abrupt statement, she forgot her place and looked up to meet the prince’s eyes.

“Mistress Keliana, I hereby transfer your deeds to Colonel Jareth Nikolai, effective immediately.” He smiled, a dimple playing peek-a-boo in his cheek at her blank expression. “He’s your new master.”

New master? She wasn’t going to be… Sethan didn’t know… Jareth owned her now. Her heartbeat reached a shuddering crescendo. Swaying on her feet, Keliana gave up trying to process all the new information and just fought to hold onto consciousness.