CHAPTER FIVE

 

If only she could stay in bed forever…

Mindrin’s body certainly felt better after another round of lovemaking with her two princes. But lying sated in their arms after slowly coming down from her second orgasm, she hadn’t been able to shut off her thoughts. No matter how much she wanted to drift in a warm pleasure haze, her worry kept eating away at her.

Someone knew her secret. Someone knew she wasn’t who she was pretending to be and they wanted to make her pay. Now that she took a moment and thought about it, she shouldn’t have been the least bit surprised. All her coworkers, all the members of the temple, all knew exactly who she was. It was amazing Commander Dolzen had been able to keep it out of the media for a day already. This was inevitable. She needed to talk to Dolzen right now and hear what he thought she should do. It would crush her to have to say good-bye to Tyal and Valdur, but if the fate of the peace accords hung in question, she would do what needed to be done.

No matter how much it hurt.

She finally climbed out of bed, crawling over the top of Valdur, who was so big he practically was the bed. He laughed—a deep, warm rumble—and Tyal gave her ass a smack as she clambered across the big mar’don prince.

That playful smack surprised a yelp out of her. She turned back and pretended to glare at him. “Hey, laser face. That’s my butt you’re attacking.”

“If you put such a tempting target in my face,” he shot back, “don’t be surprised if I touch it as much as I can.”

Valdur was also smiling at her. See? Getting laid was good for everyone. She’d seen at least three smiles on his serious warrior face since he’d owned her with his cock. If that was what she needed to do to get more of his smiles into the world, she’d gladly shoulder the duty.

“Tyal lacks self-control,” Valdur announced. “He cannot resist your body.”

She finished climbing over him and stood beside the bed. Before she could reply, Valdur ran a big hand along the outside of her thigh, his warm caress moving upward until he cupped her butt cheek and gave her a loving squeeze.

“And you’re one to talk,” she teased.

“You have ruined me,” Valdur replied. “And I love it.”

She laughed again and made her way to one of the room’s closet alcoves. This closet had racks and drawers full of new clothing, all of which fit her. She found a drawer with underclothing and pulled on venkose silk panties.

Both Valdur and Tyal watched her dress. Before last night she might have felt self-conscious about it, but now she enjoyed seeing the desire in their eyes when they looked at her. But when she saw their cocks start to harden again, she raised both hands to ward them off.

“No way, you two. I have to meet with the delegation. Some official stuff I can’t get out of.” She cut her gaze down to their cocks and then gave them each a wicked smile. “As much as I’d rather stay here and be ravished by the two of you…”

“Testing our self-control is asking for trouble,” Tyal warned.

Valdur nodded. “Our little mate had better hurry and escape, or she’ll find herself dragged back into bed.”

She took him at his word and grabbed the first outfit that didn’t look like a formal evening gown costing more than her annual salary. She found finally found a shirt and some pants and yanked them on.

She stayed far enough from the bed so they couldn’t drag her back in, but she did a little pirouette for them. “How do I look?”

“Beautiful,” Tyal said, his blue eyes piercing. “Unforgettable.”

“You look best naked,” Valdur growled.

“He means you look beautiful,” Tyal added.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Then I can get naked for you again.” She only hoped that she’d be able to find a way to keep her word. She had to hurry out of their suite before she was the one who ended up attacking them in bed…or breaking down in tears.

In the hall corridor, a security guard asked her where she wanted to go. She told him, and he escorted her through the temple. It was a little sad that her days of wandering the temple with only a robot at her side were over now. But if someone was sending her threatening letters by robot, it was best to keep a guard around. Especially since she knew neither of her princes would let her out of their sight if they’d known about the letter.

Commander Dolzen met her in one of the temple’s empty conference rooms. She wasted no time telling him about the message. His expression grew grim as she finished the story.

“This isn’t good,” he said, sounding as though he was speaking to himself. “This could ruin everything.”

“Should I…should I tell Valdur and Tyal? I don’t think they would leave me, even if they knew the truth.”

His eyes narrowed. “Are you one hundred percent certain of that?”

Was she? They’d given her the best night and then morning of her life. They were passionate and tender, protective and patient. Valdur was a rock, and she could already sense he wouldn’t let her down. Sometimes Tyal seemed to understand her thoughts and emotions better than she did. His perception was so acute it was uncanny. But even though they’d said their vows, joined their bodies and shared their passion, she was also forced to admit they hadn’t known each other long…and they came from very different places. How certain could she really be about how they’d react? Enough to endanger the peace accords?

The simple answer was no.

“What should I do then? Why send me this message instead of going to the media? What do you think they want?”

“I don’t know. We have until sunset. I’m going to get my best people looking into this.”

“Could it be…?” She trailed off, not wanting to say it.

Dolzen pinned her with a stare. “If you know something, tell it. This is too serious for games.”

“Ishtali couldn’t be the one behind this, right?”

He frowned. “We promised to make sure she was well paid for this mess, but right now I’m not ruling anything out.”

“So what should I do?”

“Nothing. Go back to the princes. Pretend everything is fine. I will tell you when I find out who’s behind this.”

But his answers didn’t satisfy her. As the security guard escorted her back to the elevators, she felt even worse about the situation than she had before telling Dolzen.

That’s because you told the wrong person. You should have told your mates everything.

Yes, she should have told Valdur and Tyal. She was sick of pretending. She wanted to hear them call her by her real name. Just one time. To have them know who she really was.

Every step seemed to drag her spirits lower. She didn’t know what she should do. She didn’t know what was right. She only knew that she didn’t want to lose them.