King of Slaves (Jenna's Story) (The Slave Series Book 5) (12 page)

“I love you too.”

The conversation ended and left Kioni in his quiet office, missing the two female voices and their loving connection. The way they shared intimate details and supported each other was intriguing.

Closing his eyes, he tilted his head back, and imagined being in Jenna’s bed: holding her, caressing her, kissing her, and making sure she felt safe.

He wished he could kiss her neck, and rub her back – just like her sister said she loved – but he knew Jenna didn’t want him there. She wouldn’t welcome him in her bed.

For five long years he had longed for peace for his country; now he was longing for peace inside himself.

He was torn inside, caught in a battle between reason and emotions.

Rationally, he should be able to not care about her, but emotionally, he was close to being obsessed with her.

Rationally, if she didn’t want to be his pleaser, then there were thousands of others women dying to take her place. Emotionally, he didn’t care about the others – he only wanted Jenna.

The war among his people might be over, but the battle with himself had just begun, and this time no number of soldiers could win it for him.
I need to find a way to either get Jenna into my bed or out of my head.

CHAPTER 10

Fascination

Zurry

Escorting Jenna and Erin to the three building sites for the future shopping malls had been surprisingly enjoyable to Zurry, until Kioni called and threw a small tantrum. It was unusual for Kioni to act that way, and it told Zurry that his friend was deeply frustrated about something.
Maybe there is something on the agenda for the council meeting that I haven’t heard about yet.

Zurry was sitting on the hood of his car absently observing the two women walking around, talking, pointing, and looking up and down from their tablets while discussing the designs.

He had only met Erin today, but found her pleasant to be around with all her jovial chitchat. On the way out here, she had been asking curiously about Spirima and complimenting the beauty of his people and the wonderful weather of his country.

He appreciated the older woman’s kindness that seemed genuine and he didn’t mind answering her questions.

Now, as he was looking at Jenna in her tight white pants and her feminine flower print blouse, he couldn’t stop thinking about what her sister might look like. Was she as blond and pretty as Jenna?

Zurry had listened to the recording of the sisters’ conversation from last night, and there was something about Alex that had him intrigued. When Jenna compared him to a Dom on the phone, Alex had become playful and said,
Uhh, kinky
, like it didn’t scare her or repulse her that he was dominant.

He would never meet Alex of course, but he had already dominated and fucked her in his fantasy this morning. Alex had been in the shower when Jenna first called and it had been a major turn on to know she was most likely naked while talking on the phone. Zurry’s mind took him back to the scene he had imagined while satisfying himself and once again he was taking Alex in the shower with her thighs resting on his hips, her back pressed against the wall, and him balls deep inside her.

“We’re almost ready to go, just give us two minutes,” Jenna called out to him, and Zurry lifted a hand to acknowledge that he had heard her while he covered his crotch with his other arm.
One of those moments when I’m grateful that thoughts don’t appear in bubbles over my heads
, he thought.

Zurry took the two women to the two other sites and observed them discuss different pros and cons for each site. He didn’t understand why women had to work in the US and why they couldn’t find husbands to support them financially.
A woman as beautiful as Jenna would have received many offers in Spirima,
he reckoned.

After listening to their technical talk for hours, he had to give it to them that they were making sane arguments and really seemed to know what they were talking about. Despite their gender, Jenna and Erin were clearly professionals; he had gained a new respect for them. 

On the way back to the palace Erin was in the passenger seat, pointing and asking questions again.

“How many kids do people typically have here?”

“Two or three… some have more. My parents had me and my sister,” he answered.

“At what age do you start school?”

“At six.”

“Ohh… we start school at age five. At what age can you drive a car?”

“At eighteen.”

“Really? And at what age can you drink?”

“At eighteen.”

“That’s not so different from us,” Erin said and looked back at Jenna.

“No, but ask him at what age they marry.”

Zurry tensed his jaw. He didn’t appreciate Jenna’s talking about him in the third person when he was sitting right here, and he didn’t like her critical tone.

“At what age can you marry?” Erin asked like a puppet.

He thought about not answering, but really, he didn’t have anything to be ashamed of. This was his country, and who were they to say that the American way of doing things was better than Spirima’s? His mother had been thirteen when she married and his parents were very happy together.

“Twelve.”

Erin turned in her seat. “I’m sorry, dear, did you just say people can marry when they are twelve years old?”

He nodded.

“And do they?” she asked with a frown.

“My mother was thirteen, my sister was seventeen, and they are both very happy in their marriages,” he said, hiding all emotions.

“That is… very early,” Erin said slowly. “We consider a twelve-year-old to be a child still.”

“How old were you, when you got married?” he asked Erin.

“I was nineteen, and even then I was considered to be a young bride.”

“Nineteen isn’t that young.”

Erin glanced at him. “It is, although I do have a friend down in New Orleans’s who got married when she was fifteen.” Erin turned to look at me. “We all thought it wouldn’t last because she was so young, but so far the marriage has lasted for forty years.” Erin turned back to look at Zurry. "I see a ring on your finger. How old was your wife when you married?” she asked.

Looking down at his hand on the steering wheel, Zurry studied the ring on his finger for a second. It had a round flat surface with the royal seal.

“This isn’t a wedding ring, every council member has one like this; it holds the royal seal and signifies my status as a coun.”

Jenna leaned forward. “Coun is a title?”

“Yes, all eight members of the council hold the title Coun.”

“Huh! And here I thought that you and Meme just had the same funny first name.”

He gave her a smile in the rear view mirror. “My name is Zurry… my title is Coun.”

“Got it!” Jenna told him. “Would you like us to use that title?”

“In public – yes, when we are alone – no”

“So you’re not married then?” Erin asked curiously.

“No, I’m not married,” Zurry replied.

“Why not?”

“I was engaged before the war started, but she was killed in an attack.”

“I’m terribly sorry to hear that,” Erin said with compassion.

He nodded to signal he had heard her, but didn’t say anything. Normally Zurry didn’t appreciate personal questions. He was a private man and preferred for nosy people to keep their curiosity fixed on others. For the same reason he disliked official events and being in the tabloids.

That he was answering Erin’s many questions so willingly and openly surprised him.
I bet that woman would be a world-class interrogator. The enemy would deliver up his darkest secret and not even realize it.
He gave her a side glance.
Maybe it’s the non-threatening granny look and her soft way of asking like she just really wants to understand…

“I’m sorry too,” Jenna echoed from the back seat. “How long were you engaged?”

“Eight years.”

“That long?”

“And how old was she when she died?”

“Almost sixteen.”

“But if you got engaged when she was eight and you could legally marry her when she was twelve, then why weren’t you married to her already?”

He answered honestly. “Because she wanted to finish school first, and her parents and I chose to respect that. The wedding was planned to take place after her graduation a year later, but that never happened.”

There was a moment of silence in the car before Jenna spoke in a low voice. “So girls can get educated too?”

“Yes, but most drop out when they marry. In general girls from privileged families stay in school the longest, and many have private tutors even after they get married.”

“I like that you were willing to wait for her,” Erin told him. “How long has it been since you lost her?”

“It’ll be four years next months.”

“Do you have a new fiancée?”

“Not yet – the war has been my main focus – but I do want children.”

“And you can’t have children without marrying?” Jenna asked softly.

He shot her a glance in the rearview mirror, wondering if she somehow knew that he had a child with a former mistress.
Impossible.

“I think you’ll find this culture a bit more old-fashioned when it comes to children and marriage,” he explained.

“Hmm, so what you’re saying is that when you decide to have children it will be with your wife.”

“Yes.”

“And will you give up your mistresses when you marry?” Jenna asked challengingly.

He kept his gaze on the palace coming up in front of them and slowed down to let the guard get a glimpse of him. There was no need for him to show ID; he was the highest ranking in the military, and every palace guard was under his command.

“Well, would you?” she repeated.

“Of course,” he lied. He didn’t have time to argue with her and felt no need to defend himself for having pleasers.

Next to him, Erin was busy scrolling through pictures on her phone. “I wanted you to see a picture of my daughter at her wedding. Oh, here she is.”

Zurry pulled slowly through the gates and took a minute to park the car before he accepted the phone Erin was handing to him with the picture of her daughter in a pretty white dress. “She’s beautiful,” he said politely. “Is she your only child?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. And if you scroll this way….” Erin leaned in and flicked past a few pictures… you’ll see my son-in-law and my two grandchildren.” Erin’s pride was obvious.

Zurry complimented her grandchildren who were sweet toddlers, and then he turned to Jenna. “What about you? Do you have pictures of your family?”

She gave him a puzzled look. “I don’t have any kids.”

“I know, but maybe you have nieces or nephews.”

“Nope, my younger sister isn’t married yet, although she hasn’t been talking about much else since she was five.”

“So you have a sister?”

“Yes, her name is Alex; wanna see a picture of her?” she teased.

“Sure.” Zurry smiled and could tell that Jenna was slightly confused by his interest.

“Oh, okay…” Jenna pulled out her phone and scrolled quickly through her pictures. He tried to suppress his eagerness and play it cool when Jenna handed her phone to him. “This is Alex.”

There she was; the playful woman with the silky voice that he had fantasized about this morning. Alex’s picture made him lift his eyebrows in surprise. “But she looks nothing like you.”

“I know… sometimes we joke that we might not have the same father. Alex thinks her father is from Ireland or Scotland.”

“Why?”

“Because she looks like Merida with her flaming red hair and the freckles of course.”

The woman in the picture had a large aura of long curly hair in the most amazing red and orange colors. Zurry knew he was staring, but he had never seen anyone like her and brought the phone closer to study her bright blue eyes. They were large with long lashes and he thought he saw a cheeky sparkle in them.

“She looks very happy,” he said, taking in how Alex was blowing a kiss at the camera, something that went straight to the area between his thighs.
I wouldn’t mind her kissing me.

“Who is Merida?” he asked.

“You know, Princess Merida from the
Brave
movie?”

He shook his head.

“It’s an animated Disney film about a Scottish princess who is wild and brave, and accidently turns her mom into a bear.”

Zurry shook his head again. “I haven’t seen the movie, but your sister is very pretty.”

Jenna smiled. “I keep telling her that, but she doesn’t seem to believe it.”

Zurry handed back Jenna’s phone. “Well, tell her I said it too.”

Jenna just laughed, and he was pleased that she had moved on from her initial anger with him. This morning she had been cold, reserved, and not happy when he told her that he would be driving her and Erin around.

Maybe the many hours of listening to him and Erin talk casually had softened her up, because she had warmed to him during the day and there was a new playful energy between them that he enjoyed. Maybe Jenna wasn’t such a pest as he had originally thought.

“No way… I know Alex, and if I tell her you think she’s pretty, she’ll be all curious about who you are and what you look like,” she said.

That made him smile. He wanted Alex to be curious about him, just as he was curious about her.

“You can wipe that smug smile off your face. I’m not telling my sister anything about you,” Jenna told him with a grin, and got out of the car.

Zurry got out too. “What do you mean? She lives on the other side of the planet; how can I possibly be a threat to her?”

“Precisely! You’re not a threat to her, and that’s how I prefer it.”

“Ahh, come on, I would never hurt your sister, Jenna.”

“Ha!” She pointed up and down his body. “You have heartbreak written all over you. No way, José, I don’t want you anywhere near my sister.”

He stopped in front of her. “Nonsense, I’ll prove I’m a nice guy. Give me your phone and I’ll send her a text telling her she’s beautiful.” He reached out his hand and Jenna’s eyes widened as she pulled the phone behind her back. “You wouldn’t,” she muttered.