King of Slaves (Jenna's Story) (The Slave Series Book 5) (28 page)

“As his mistress, Jenna… I could never do that. Besides, I always envisioned myself living here… in Chicago… maybe in a suburb, but certainly not somewhere exotic abroad – that’s for adventurous people, like you.”

“I’m not adventurous, Alex. Why do you keep saying that?”

“Well, hello… meet my sister who lives on the other side of the planet and sleeps with a king in his gorgeous palace… ohh, when she isn’t being rescued by the President of the USA from a dungeon, that is.”

Jenna laughed. “I know what you should do with your free time, Alex. You should become an author. That way you can stay in your safe bed and write about other people’s adventures, because believe me – you make it sound a lot more exciting than it really is.”

“That’s not a bad plan… and then my heroine can be brave and tell her roguishly handsome warlord that she is madly in love with him and he’s all she can think about.”

“Does that warlord by any chance have a sexy scar across his right eyebrow?” Jenna asked.

“Sure does. And his name rhymes with Curry.”

“Get to it, sis; it’s going to be a best seller, I’m sure of it.”

There was silence on the line and then Alex yawned again. “I miss you already, Jenna, but I think I need to sleep now. It feels like I haven’t slept for days.”

“All right, goodnight, sis, and thank you.”

“Love you.

“Love you more.”

Jenna ended the call and took a minute to dry her eyes and summon the energy to get up from the bed. She wished it was Sunday and she could hide in her room and figure out what she was going to do about Kioni, but it was Thursday and she had a job to do.

CHAPTER 25

Regular Joe

Kioni

It was five o’clock, and Kioni was in a foul mood when he went down the stairs to the underground gym. He needed to punch something, badly.

He had informed his council that he wouldn’t be marrying any of the candidates and that he was pursuing Jenna. They did not take that well and couldn’t understand why he would marry a reluctant outsider. They had argued strongly against it and pointed out that her virginity couldn’t be guaranteed when she was thirty-two years old. He didn’t share that he had already slept with her several times and knew perfectly well she wasn’t an innocent. Nor did he tell them that he didn’t care.

He just told them that if she would have him he would be the happiest man in the world.

After the council meeting he had left with a massive headache and a pile of problems around the country he needed to address. The most urgent one: that there was still an acute need for housing for all the slaves that had been freed. They were searching for work and a place to stay, but there were simply not enough housing or job opportunities, and many were forced to still live in refugee camps that were neither safe nor sanitary.

His council had reported that down south there had been a series of uprisings of hungry, desperate former slaves, demanding to be helped.

He didn’t blame them for carrying anger and resentment over what they had suffered, and he wished they could see all the projects that were being initiated to help them. But building houses, hospitals, infrastructure, factories, and everything else took time. Time that the starving people didn’t have.

After the council meeting he had heard a recording of a new call between Alex and Jenna. Hearing Jenna cry and tell Alex about all her fears broke his heart. If she could only see herself through his eyes, she would know how wonderful he thought she was.

He felt guilty for listening in on their private conversation, but at the same time it gave him a better understanding; and hopefully he could help ease her pain and assure her that although he wanted an heir, he mostly wanted a lifetime with her.

It was so incredibly hard to know that she was frightened and not be able to address it directly, but he would have to find a way to soothe her worries without giving away how he knew about them.

Zurry waited for him in the gym. From the way his friend looked, Kioni guessed Zurry hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep since Alex left. He looked grumpy and worn out, with stubble and dark circles under his eyes.

“You look awful,” Kioni said.

“Fuck you,” Zurry growled back.

“I’ll let that one slide because I know you’re hurting, but don’t test me. I’m having a really shitty day.”

“You and me both.”

“I gather you heard the recording?” Kioni asked.

Zurry nodded, and pain slid across his face as he tensed his jaw.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kioni asked.

“No. I want to fucking smash something.”

“Good, because I want to hit something too. So I guess that makes us equal.”

They geared up and hit the boxing ring. It was a passionate fight with hard blows from both sides. Still, the pain of Zurry’s right hook was like a butterfly’s touch compared to the crushing pain in Kioni’s chest from hearing Jenna cry on the phone.

Why hasn’t she spoken to me about her fears? I said so many stupid things in that elevator and now she thinks I want perfection and won’t ever be satisfied with her. I really screwed up.

When Kioni was distracted with thoughts of Jenna, Zurry got a clean shot, and the last thing Kioni saw were stars.

“Kop… are you there? Kop, open your eyes, god damn it.”

Kioni opened his eyes, but there were three of Zurry’s heads floating in front of him and he couldn’t focus.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Zurry asked with concern but Kioni could do nothing but blink, unable to focus on the three hands in front of him.

“Shit… I’m sorry, Kop. Why the hell didn’t you block? Fuck, your pupils are different in size… I’m getting the doctor,” Zurry said gruffly.

“Give me a minute.” Kioni closed his eyes and felt the room spin. It was unnerving, and he thought for a second he was going to be sick.
A concussion
a voice diagnosed in his head, but he didn’t have time for a concussion. He had a date with Jenna this evening and needed to get ready to go out with her.

“Kop, open your eyes and look at me,” Zurry demanded and pushed up his eyelids.

Kioni batted Zurry’s hands away. “Get off me.”

“How do you feel?”

“Pissed… I don’t have time for a concussion, I have a date with Jenna.”

“How is your vision?”

“Fine.” Now, at least he saw only one Zurry, although his friend’s profile was still edgy and out of focus in his vision.

“Do you see me clearly?”

“Sure,” he lied. “You still look as awful as you did before.”

“I’m pretty sure I look twice as good as I feel.”

Kioni didn’t comment… The last time he saw Zurry in this much pain was when his fiancée was killed. Zurry was a tough nail, and even five years of war and immense stress hadn’t left him in this angry, depressed state.

“You only knew her for one day, Zurry… what the hell?”

Zurry lay down beside Kioni. “I know. It makes no sense, but Alex is unlike anyone I’ve ever met before. I think about her all the time. I lost my appetite, I can’t sleep, and when I heard that call and understood that she feels the same way, it just made it worse.”

“Yeah, well, deal with it, man. She’s lives in a different country and doesn’t want to move here.”

Zurry groaned.

“Why don’t you take all the girls in an orgy tonight and go crazy… they need the attention and you need to forget about Alex.”

Zurry shot him a dirty look and got up.

“Hey… what did I say?”

“I’m done talking to you, you’re being an ass.”

“Why? Because I’m telling you the hard truth?”

“Fuck you… let’s see how tough you are when Jenna refuses to marry you and leaves you in a few months. Then I’ll tell you the harsh truth and ask you to just forget about her and go have sex with a bunch of girls that mean nothing to you.”

Kioni wrinkled his nose. “She’s not going to refuse me.”

“For your sake, I hope not,” Zurry said and climbed out of the boxing ring. “I don’t care if you already have a concussion. If you
ever
say something as ignorant again, I’ll knock your bloody teeth out,” he shouted over his shoulder and left.

At seven that night Kioni knocked on Jenna’s door.

There was no way he was canceling a date night with Jenna when every minute counted and time was running out.

“Hey, handsome,” Jenna said smilingly when she opened her door. She looked lovely in jeans, flat sneakers, and a yellow blouse that showed just enough cleavage to make his mouth water.

“You look amazing,” he exclaimed and leaned in to kiss her.

Jenna quickly broke the kiss and stepped out of her room to close the door behind her. Her eyes scanned the corridor. “You’re lucky no one’s here. You know, if you kiss me like that in public, eventually we’ll get caught – and you wouldn’t want the council or your mother to find out about us.”

They walked side by side. Kioni thought about telling Jenna about his announcement to the council today, but after hearing her talk to Alex this morning, he figured it would only put extra pressure on Jenna if she knew he had informed the council that he was hoping to marry her.
No, it’s better to avoid the subject and focus on an entirely enjoyable evening.

“No one saw us, we’ll be fine,” he said. 

“So where are we going?” Jenna asked.

“That’s a surprise, but there’s been a little bump in my plans,” he confessed.

“What bump?”

“I was boxing this afternoon and I’m afraid I got a mild concussion.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jenna stopped abruptly and her right hand flew up to Kioni’s temple. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah… the doctor looked me over and gave me some painkillers. He wants me to take it slow and avoid strenuous activities but he agreed that I could take you out, as long as I don’t drive a car.”

Jenna smiled. “That’s okay, I can drive us and you can be my co-pilot.”

Kioni tried to swallow a grin. The thought of riding in the passenger seat with Jenna driving seemed laughable to him. He had never driven with a woman and although there were no laws preventing women from driving in Spirima, it was still a rare sight.

“There’s no need, I have arranged for a driver. I just would have preferred to take you myself,” he clarified and immediately recognized the stubborn expression that formed in her eyes.

“Are you saying you don’t think I’m a good driver?”

“No, I didn’t say that at all.”

“I have a driver’s license and I’ve seen other women drive here, so I insist.”

Kioni wanted to protest, but he knew his view on women was one of the things making Jenna hesitate to say yes to him.

He forced himself to say, “All right then.”

She nodded and squared her shoulders in a posture that bespoke a small victory. 

He led Jenna to the garage where twelve different cars were lined up. Her eyes instantly fell on his beautiful silver 1957 Porsche Speedster.

“I would have never figured you a fan of classics,” she said and moved closer to the car.

Kioni smiled. “Youth can be overrated, sometimes older means superior style.” God, that had sounded better in his head, where it had been a perfect metaphor for how he saw her age.

She looked back over her shoulder with one brow arched, but otherwise didn’t comment.

“Can we take this one?” she asked.

He wanted to say yes, but he knew Zurry would kill him if he was stupid enough to go outside the palace in an open car with no security following them.

“Not today… we’ll be going on some dusty roads to get to our location, so the convertible will have to be another time.”

“Then which car are we taking?” she asked and circled around to look at the other cars parked side by side.

Kioni picked a black Mercedes that wouldn’t stand out too much and offered tinted windows for safety.

“We’re taking this one,” he declared. 

Jenna shrugged “As you wish.”

They got in and Kioni buckled up, trying his best to give the impression that this was just a normal situation and he was completely cool with Jenna driving. He wasn’t!

He would be a “Pinlau” among his people if anyone got a picture of him in the passenger seat with a woman driving him around. Pinlau was the local expression for a feminine man without any male pride.

If it weren’t because he wanted so badly to show Jenna that he wasn’t a caveman living in the dark ages, and that he did respect her, he would have flat out refused.
Damn concussion
, he moaned internally.
At least the
tinted glass will keep our outing a private affair
.

Jenna looked confident as she adjusted the driver’s seat and the mirrors. “This is a nice car too,” she said and shot another longing glance at the Speedster.

“Do you like cars?” he asked.

“My father has some nice ones but at home I drive a dirty Jeep Wrangler.”

“Why would you drive a Jeep in Chicago? I can’t imagine that you see much rough terrain there.”

“Nope, but a Jeep is a cool car and I’m a cool woman.”

Kioni managed a smile. “That you are, Jenna.”

When they left the garage and drove up to the gate, as they waited for it to swing open a guard signaled for Jenna to roll her window down. He took a quick look inside the car and Kioni looked the other way, hoping the guard would assume him to be one of Jenna’s colleagues.

Once they were through, Kioni wrote a quick text message to let his driver know he wouldn’t need his services tonight after all.

“This is so cool. Just you and me, exploring Spirima,” Jenna said excitedly and steered through the streets with his guidance.