King of Slaves (Jenna's Story) (The Slave Series Book 5) (41 page)

“No thank you, I’m good; Daniel is here with me – he just went to the restroom – but now that we delivered Jenna’s message we’re goin’ back to the palace.” She tilted her head and looked directly at Kioni. “Jenna said it was a prank, but you don’t seem to enjoy it very much.”

“Not a prank… more like a lesson,” he explained.

“Oh… goodness, I hope I didn’t do anything to offend you, Your Majesty.” She looked nervous, and Kioni was certain she remembered how Jenna had been thrown in a cell for offending him when she first arrived.

“No, you’re fine. Don’t worry about it.”

When they got back to the car, one of the cops that had helped get them there was waiting for them.

“I made sure no one touched the car,” he said with pride.

Kioni clapped the man’s shoulder. “I appreciate it. Thank you.”

“Do you want an escort to get you back to the palace?”

“Yes, but we need to make a stop first.”

Jenna

Jenna and Alex were waiting in a cozy café. It was one of the new shops that had opened within the ten months Jenna had live in Spirima. It was uplifting to see the city transform from the sad disarray it had been in when she first arrived to a new and funkier Mensau that was popping up all around them. This café had bright colors and artwork hanging on the walls, providing a modern atmosphere.

Alex had been squirming in her chair for the last forty minutes.

“Don’t be nervous, Alex,” Jenna told her and played with the cup of coffee in front of her.

They didn’t talk much; there was no need. They had already spent almost two hours agreeing that eavesdropping was unacceptable and a complete deal breaker. 

“He sounded pissed,” Alex said.

Jenna shrugged. “You already told me that three times, so let me remind you for the fourth time: I don’t give a flying fuck if Zurry is pissed. Or Kio for that matter. Those two men better come crawling in here on their hands and knees begging our forgiveness.

Alex scoffed. “And I’m telling you, that’s never going to happen. They are too proud to do that.”

Jenna bit her inner cheek. “Maybe.”

Alex blew a strand of her wild hair out of her face. “I’m not saying that they didn’t deserve a scare, but making them believe we were leaving them was kind of cold… I mean, what if they had been in an accident because they rushed to the airport; did you even think about that?”

“I’m sorry… I thought you and I were a team… are you forgetting what they did to us? Whose side are you on?”

Alex folded her arms in front of her. “I’m just nervous that Zurry is going to regret moving to the US. What if he doesn’t want me anymore after we pulled that stunt on them?”

“Then he doesn’t deserve you and you’ll be better off without him.”

“That’s easy for you to say…” Alex’s head snapped up. “Wait, do you hear that?”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “Oh Jeez, please tell me that’s not sirens.”

The insistent sound of sirens grew louder, and everyone in the café turned their heads to look out through the glass façade to see two police motorcycles and a sleek silver Bentley pull up outside. 

Murmurs of excitement broke out when Kioni and Zurry stepped out of the car. Like magnets, their eyes scanned through the windows and landed on Alex and Jenna.

“Stay cool, sis,” Jenna whispered and placed her hand on Alex’s thigh. “Don’t get up, let them come to us.”

Her heart was racing when the glass door opened and a collective sigh went through the café. Zurry and Kioni, equal in height, and so unbelievable handsome in their slightly pissed-off appearance, walked in and looked only at the table where Alex and Jenna were sitting.

The sisters stayed seated, waiting for the impact from the wave of masculine power that radiated from the two men. It was hard to look away from their intense glares, but Jenna forced herself to turn her head in anger and saw awestruck eyes all around them.
Yes, they do take your breath away… but then you find out they spy on you and don’t respect your privacy… and you lose some of that admiration, real fast,
she thought.

“Look at me, Jenna.” Kioni was standing right in front of her, and she slowly leaned her head back to look up at him.
Damn,
he was gorgeous with his eyes burning bright with emotions.

“Time to go,” he said and held out his hand.

Jenna kept her face impassive and looked down at his hand.
Does he really think I’m going to make it that easy for him?

She considered her options, but a public scene was not her thing – and there were already cameras pointed towards them. Slowly she rose to her feet and brushed at her pants.

“How nice of you to offer us a ride,” she said in a polite but slightly cool voice and turned to Alex. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Wait,” Alex pulled up her purse. “We need to pay first.” She pulled out money, but it was foreign currency to her and she was fiddling with it.

“Alex, don’t worry about it,” Zurry said and put his hand on her elbow, nudging her toward the door.

“No, I want to make sure we pay for our coffee,” Alex insisted, and with a frustrated sigh she put down the four biggest bills she had. “Is that enough?” She looked up at Zurry for help.

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Sure, if you want to pay their rent for the week.”

“Ohh…” Alex looked down at the money and then she hesitantly picked one of the bills back up.

“Come on.” Zurry took her hand and led her out of the café. Jenna followed but jerked a bit when Kioni put his hand on the small of her back.

When they got into the car Jenna noticed a smile between Alex and Zurry, and she pinched Alex. Hard.

“Ouch,” Alex cried out and received a scowl from Jenna.

For the first five minutes of the drive, no one spoke.

Jenna refused to be the first to speak and kept her head turned away, ignoring Kioni’s eyes searching hers in the rearview mirror.

“Do you know we closed down the airport?” Kioni asked.

“You did?” Alex exclaimed, and Jenna hated how impressed her sister sounded. She was still deeply troubled by the whole thing; Alex seemed to think she was overreacting. God, sometimes she hated being the older and more responsible sibling. Alex had always been too naïve, and gullible.
Can’t Alex see that if a man can be deceitful about one thing, he can be deceitful about other things as well? 

“What makes you think we’ve been listening in on your conversations?” Kioni wanted to know.

That made Jenna explode. “Stop the car!” she hissed.

Zurry turned around in the passenger seat to look at her. “Why, what’s wrong?”

Jenna was shaking with emotional tumult. “If you two even as much as try to deny what you did, I will walk back to the airport and get on a plane. I’m up to here,” she put her hand under her chin, “with men lying to us.”

“Don’t you think you’re blowing this a bit out of proportion?” Kioni said dryly.

If she’d been able to, she would have walked away.

Alex put a calming hand on Jenna’s shoulder and asked the men in a blaming tone, “Why did you do it?” At least now she managed to sound pissed.

Zurry shot a side glance at Kioni before he answered. “It’s a bit complicated, but after the unfortunate beginning that involved a call from your president, we wanted to know more about you, Jenna, and make sure you didn’t cause us any more problems. So we tapped your phone and told the security team to alert us if you spoke negatively about the king.”

Kioni pitched in. “And you did, the first time you called Alex… and as a result Zurry and I were alerted, and we listened to the recording,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“That’s not the only recording you’ve listened to,” Jenna bit back. 

“No, you’re right, it’s not.”

“You had no right to spy on us. You even have my phone tracked – how else did you find it at the airport?”

Zurry cleared his voice. “Actually, that’s standard procedure. Every member of the royal family has a tracker on their phone for safety reasons.”

“Why wasn’t I informed about this?”

“We didn’t want to alarm you,” Zurry told her. “But you should know that the tracking system probably saved your life.”

“What are you talking about?”

Zurry was talking in a placating tone that annoyed her. She didn’t like his treating her like she was a child throwing an unreasonable tantrum.

“Remember when I told you how I found you at the cabin when you were attacked?”

“Yeah, you said Kioni had told you he was taking me to the cabin,” Jenna said.

“Actually he hadn’t. But just like you, he has a tracker in his phone, and that’s how I knew where to find you.”

“So you lied about that too.” Just when she said it, she knew she was being an ass.
How can I blame the man who saved me for not telling me exactly how he saved me? Isn’t the only thing that matters that he did come to our rescue?

Zurry didn’t comment on her rude remark, and Alex shot her a troubled look. They drove on until they reached the palace and finally pulled through the gate and lastly into the garage.

The atmosphere was tense when they got out of the car, and when Kioni offered a hand to Jenna to help her out of the back seat, she gave him a don’t-touch-me look.

“I’m sorry, Jenna.”

She paused right in front of him. “For what exactly? Sorry that you broke my trust or sorry that I found out?”

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he said and cupped her face.

Go before you start crying… don’t make a scene.

Jenna hung on to the last piece of control she had. Afraid that she was going to break down in a puddle of self-pity any minute, she broke free of his touch and walked away.

“I need some time to think this whole thing over,” she said over her shoulder.

CHAPTER 35

Holding On

Kioni

Kioni’s first instinct was to follow Jenna. She was angry with him, and they needed to talk this through.

“Don’t!” Alex’s outburst stopped him in his tracks.

“It’s been a tough day; you should give her some space.”

“She needs to know I’m there for her,” Kioni protested.

“No, there are things you don’t know about, and she needs time to figure it out. We both do.”

“What things?” Kioni asked with concern written on his face.

Alex avoided Kioni’s questioning eyes and looked down. “It’s just been a really rotten day…” She shot a quick glance at Zurry. “I don’t mean the proposal part, but the rest…” she trailed off.

“Elaborate,” Kioni demanded and tried to soften it up with a “please.”

“All right. Our father confessed that he basically drove our mother to suicide with his infidelity, and that he lied and told us she died from breast cancer.”

Both men tensed up.

“And on top of being manipulated and let down by our own father, it also turns out that our grandparents accepted a bribe to stay away from us.”

“Fuck,” Kioni muttered.

“Yeah,” Alex said softly. “And then throw in the realization that the person you trust and plan to marry is betraying you as well.”

“I never betrayed Jenna,” Kioni objected.

“Didn’t you?” Alex tilted her head. “What do you call spying on her, then?”

He looked at the door Jenna had left through. He wanted so badly to go after her and hold her in his arms. He wanted to make her feel better and take away her pain.

“I know you want to go to her, but I know my sister,” Alex said. “She needs a good sobbing and then she’ll sleep. After that you can talk to her, but you need to apologize for betraying her trust.”

“I already did,” Kioni said.

Alex scoffed. “That was
not
an apology. You need to show her you mean it.”

“He’s not the only one who needs to apologize.” Zurry moved closer to Alex. “I know it was wrong to keep listening to your conversations with Jenna, but I fell in love with you from hearing your voice even before I met you, and I became addicted.”

Alex melted and rose up on her toes to kiss Zurry. Kioni took it as his cue to leave the two. He had a strong feeling it wouldn’t be as easy to make amends with Jenna.

Zurry

Zurry heard the door close when Kioni left the garage. “I’m sorry, Alex,” he said again and bent down to kiss her. 

“You really fell in love with me before you met me?” Alex asked with an open face, and it fascinated him that her anger from before had evaporated so fast. 

Zurry nodded distractedly while quickly scanning the ceiling, locating three surveillance cameras. “Come with me,” he said and grabbed her wrist.

“But…”

“There are no cameras inside the cars, and this one has tinted windows – I don’t want an audience for what I’m about to do to you.” He gave her a loaded smile that made her break into a small giggle and compliantly climb into the large limousine he had chosen. It was perfect for what he had in mind.

“Now where were we?” he asked and scooched in close to her on the backseat of the limousine, bringing her one leg over his and letting his hand slide up her inner thigh.

Alex licked her lower lip and he took it as an invitation to kiss her. For seven months he had thought about the night he claimed her and made love to her; now that he was about to do it again, it made his body vibrate with anticipation. He was sure he could win some sort of obscure price for the hardest erection in the history of mankind.

“You said you felt in love with me just from hearing my voice.”

“Uh-huh.” He kissed her, tasted her, and was four steps ahead, already undressing her in his mind.

“Zurry, talk to me… how could you fall in love with me just from hearing my voice?”

“Because you have that silky voice that feels like a caress when you talk, and makes me smile when you laugh.”

“So it wasn’t the things I said?”

He lifted his head and gave her a sexy smirk. “Nahh, with your voice, I think you could have given me a hard-on just from reading the phone book out loud.”

That didn’t give him the reaction he was hoping for. She didn’t smile at his wit but frowned instead.

“So it’s really not me, but just my voice that attracts you to me.”

“No of course not. Do you remember the time Jenna told you that I was like a Dom, and you got all excited about it?”

She shook her head.

Zurry played with her long beautiful hair and continued. “It was the night I took Jenna to meet the girls who live here at the palace.”

“Oh, right, now I remember – and by ‘the girls’ you mean your pleasers.”

Crap, why did I bring that up?

“Right… Anyway, when Jenna told you about me and called me a Dom, you didn’t sound alarmed, but rather entertained by the idea.”

“Of you being a Dom?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait a minute.” Alex pulled away slightly. “Are you trying to tell me something here?” Her eyes looked bigger than usual and her smile was gone. “Are you a Dom?”

Zurry shook his head. “No, I’m not. I think Jenna just misread the situation. Spirimian women are raised to show submissiveness in public, but I don’t take pleasure in hurting my partners.”

“But have you?”

“What, hurt them?”

“Yes. Jenna told me you had spanked someone.”

“I have.” His admission made Alex move further back from his embrace.

“Does pain excite you?”

Zurry sensed her uncertainty. “Alex, come here.” He pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms closely around her. “Before I met you, sex was just a physical thing. I always liked sex, but after you left it hasn’t been the same.”

“So you’ve had sex with others after I left?”
Shit!
He didn’t like the pain in her voice.

Zurry considered telling her a white lie to make her feel better, but he didn’t want any more deceit between them. “Alex, I don’t want there to be any lies between us.”

“Okay.”

“You’ve been gone for almost seven months, and for the first six weeks I didn’t want anyone touching me. But eventually I had to accept that you didn’t want me, and since I’m a guy with a high sex drive… well, the answer is yes; I have had sex with my pleasers.”

Alex looked away.

“Don’t be mad, Alex. I can honestly say that the best sex I’ve ever had was with you, and nothing that happened after you left came even remotely close to what we shared.”

He kissed her but she sat quietly and didn’t talk. 

“Alex, I haven’t gone six weeks without sex since I turned fourteen, and I hope I never will again. Six weeks for someone with my sex drive is an ice age.”

Her voice was raw with emotion when she finally spoke. “I haven’t been with anyone since you.”

Fuck… yes!
His head fell against her shoulder in relief. “If I had known you would come back to me, I would have waited for you, Alex… but I gave up hoping when you didn’t return my text messages or calls.”

Alex placed her hand on his forehead and pushed his head up to look him in the eye. “You called me?”

“At least ten times, and I wrote you every day for weeks.”

“No, you didn’t. I never heard anything from you.”

Zurry blinked and wasn’t sure what to say. They had texted while she was visiting Jenna the last time; he knew he had the right number.

Alex pulled out her phone. “It makes no sense.”

“Unless you blocked my number,” Zurry said slowly… the thought had crossed his mind before.

“Of course I didn’t block your number – don’t be stupid.”

He reached for her phone and she gave it to him. Refusing to let go of her for one second, he kept his arm around Alex while maneuvering her cell phone with one hand. “Are you sure you didn’t block me?” he asked while tapping into her settings and scrolling down to “blocked.”

“Yes, I’m sure. I even remember talking to Jenna about it on the way to the airport. I told her I wanted to block you to avoid waiting for a call that would never come, and she showed me how to do it. But I decided not to use that option, so I didn’t.”

Zurry opened the list of blocked numbers and showed Alex the screen. “You did block me.”

He unblocked his number and handed her phone back to her. “Don’t ever try to keep me away from you again. It won’t work.”

“I don’t understand how it happened. Maybe Jenna misunderstood me and thought I was asking her to block you,” Alex pondered out loud.

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that, as of this day, you belong to me and I belong to you and nothing will ever come between us again,” he said.

She placed her arms around his neck and leaned her temple against his.

“I’m not happy that you slept with other women, but I suppose I can’t blame you since we weren’t together. Just tell me again that being with me was better than with any of them.”

He squeezed her tight.  “I may have had sex with others, but I can honestly say that you are the only one I’ve ever made love to.”

He didn’t catch how his words affected her until he heard a sniffle.

“Are you crying?” he pulled his head back to get a better look at her.

“No,” she said and contradicted herself by drying away her tears.

“Don’t be upset with me, don’t cry, Alex… I meant it as a compliment; that night with you was beyond any other sexual experience I’ve ever had.” He kissed her and swallowed another one of her sniffles.

“Making love to you was without comparison – it just felt completely right.”

“It was good for me too,” she said in a thick voice.

“Good? Just good?” 

“Better than good,” she corrected.

A small laugh erupted from him. “I tell you that you are a phenomenal lover and you reciprocate by telling me I’m good.”

Alex cleared away her tears and broke into a small laugh. “Let me rephrase that – you are the best.” She splayed her hands across his chest.

Zurry bowed down and nuzzled his nose against hers. “That’s lucky for you… because I’m also planning on being your last.”

Alex’s wet eyes shone brightly when she looked deeply into his eyes. “I can live with that.”

God damn it, she’s beautiful

“You’d better,” he said in a slow drawn-out way and cupped her face. “Because I’m claiming you as mine, and I might have screwed up by listening to your conversations, but honestly, can you blame me? It was the only part of you that I had access to.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“Maybe not, but I would do it again.”

“You’ll do it again?” She pushed at his chest – he didn’t budge.

“Relax. I’m not going to listen to your conversations anymore, but if I had to do it all over again, I would. I fantasized about you before I saw a picture of you, and the moment you stepped into my office, I already loved your playfulness, your loyalty, your humor, and your vulnerability.

“If I hadn’t felt like I already knew you, things would have been different and we might not have had our magical night of bonding.”

“But I thought that night was just role-playing,” Alex said.

“That’s because you didn’t know how connected I already felt to you at that point. It might have started out as role-playing on my part, but every word felt true to me and once they were said, I couldn’t take them back.”

Alex rewarded his honesty with a deep passionate kiss and pulled at his long-sleeved shirt. He was more than happy to help, and pulled it over his head.

“Wow.” Her hands ran across his muscular chest and shoulders. “You truly are gorgeous.”

He laughed. “I’m glad you like the wrapping,; just remember that when you find me obstinate, overprotective, and old-fashioned.”

“If I marry you, I’ll have to…”