Marked 2: Marked for Desire (5 page)

Rather than see the fake invitations as a threat, she was determined to view the whole thing as a joke. Leo did learn these appearances provided income for families descended from the Placido population. The council revealed that little tidbit when Leo wanted to keep the princess under wraps for a while. It wasn’t charity. Princess Sera viewed these rituals, these social functions, as her job, and the galaxy was willing to pay top dollar to clothe her, host her, and take pictures of her. The Teran Three job had paid handsomely. Leo still didn’t think performing the ritual had been the real reason for that priest bringing her to the religious planet.

Why was she so reluctant to see she was in danger? She had no friends, no one close to her. There was no one Leo could ask. Her staff seemed distant, only repeating crap he could have seen on the vid stream.

His answer came from the most surprising source. A total stranger.

He stood beside her as she took a vid call from a Sethos Five minister named Melar Jans.

“The Central Arena is sold out, Princess Sera. We are looking forward to having you.”

“Princess Sera has not consulted me on this appearance, Minister Jans. I’m afraid you may have to put this one on hold.”

Princess Sera gasped. “This is an important date, Mr. Eyler.” The princess never called him Leo. Only Mr. Eyler and, when she was thoroughly pissed at him, Dom Boy.

“It’s too exposed. The Central Arena on Sethos Five is a nightmare to secure. Now, if you let me take care of the security—”

“Fine,” she snapped. “You talk to the man. I give up.” She stalked out of the room, and Leo gazed at the minister.

“I want all the specs for the arena.”

The man nodded. “I’ll e-mail them to you. Anything you want, as long as she is able to appear.”

“What the hell is so important about this date?”

The minister blinked. “It’s the date specified in the prophecy.”

The prophecy. Of course. “What the hell is this prophecy?”

Minister Jans stared at him. “She hasn’t told you?”

“Princess Sera doesn’t tell me anything. Let’s just say I’m not her favorite person.”

“Must make the job interesting.” The man drummed his fingers. “It’s a Placido prophecy, but their temples and artifacts hold a thrall over the rest of the galaxy. Apparently, someone from the royal line will lead the people back to their planet. It will be done within a certain time period.”

“A time period we’re in now?”

The man nodded. “Yes. It began a year ago. The comet Eros Seeking makes a pass around the Placido star. It takes three years for the comet to traverse the system, and then it won’t come back for another five hundred years.” The minister’s glance was steady, his brown eyes serious. “When the population left Placido five hundred years ago, it was rumored something devastating had happened to drive them away.” He shook his head. “No one knows why. That’s why the princess is a hot commodity. Mysterious disaster, a wandering people, rumored telekinesis power all add up to a great show.” He grinned. “Princess Sera has a fantastic stage presence.”

“It didn’t work out so well for her mother,” Leo pointed out.

The minister’s grin dropped. “No. That was tragic. Her mother wanted to take the people home, but Placido is a deadly place.”

Right. Like Leo bought that fairy tale. “So what happened?”

“No one is really sure,” the minister said slowly. “Only the princess and her council know. They were the only ones there.”

“Princess Sera watched her mother die?” Stunned, Leo tried to match the information he was getting to the woman who’d been a pain in his ass for the last three weeks.

“So we’re told.” Minister Jans shrugged. “Like I said. No one really knows.”

* * *

Sethos Five offered more than just a little entertainment. Leo flanked the princess while she dealt with the rabid vid streamers, all trying to get a good vid shot.

“Now that you’re back on Sethos Five, Princess, will you be using your club membership?” one of the vid stream reporters asked. Bastard. The man was at every one of her appearances. What was his name? Nigel. Every night the man did a show on celebrities and the latest gossip, and the following day whatever vitriol the man spewed was all over the data streams.

“Of course I will, Nigel. After all, I’m part owner. But no details,” she said with a laugh and wagged her finger at the reporter.

Sure. No details. Yet somehow her last visit to a pleasure club on Sethos Five had been recorded and released all over the vid streams. Though she’d never said a word, Leo had seen her fists clench briefly every time her exploits there were shown.

“Aren’t you afraid of the Blueshift Brotherhood?” a reporter shouted from the back. Leo strained to see who had asked the question.

Princess Sera tossed her hair back with a flick. It should have been a ridiculous gesture, but from her it seemed regal and confident. “What for? There’s no reason for them to assassinate me. I’m no politician.”

The appearance was tomorrow, and he wondered if he’d implemented enough security. She was reckless, almost taunting the Brotherhood to make a try for her.

She answered a dozen more questions, and then Leo moved her along. “We have to get to the hotel, Princess Sera.”

Sethos Five was filled with people. This event was attracting a lot of attention. Attention Leo didn’t like.

Once he checked her into her room and made sure it was secure, he went over his notes for the arena security. He’d gotten a room next door and kept surveillance on her with a vid watch.

The door to her room opened, and Princess Sera strode out into the hallway.

“Damn her,” he murmured under his breath and sprinted from his room.

He caught up with her as she stabbed the button on the elevator. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” This little excursion wasn’t on the schedule.

“I’m going to the Star.” She checked her hair in the mirrored elevator walls.

“Are you insane?” he snapped. “You were going to go there alone?”

She sighed. “No. Barrett and Tony were going to meet me in the lobby.” She made a restless movement with her hand and smoothed down the skirt of the soft green material of her dress. It clung to her curves and barely reached her knees.

Leo pressed his lips together. “This wasn’t on the schedule. A schedule you created.”

Her nostrils flared, and her eyes narrowed. “I know that. Don’t you ever need a tension reliever? Well, I do. We can’t all be inhuman robots like you, Mr. Eyler.”

“I’m going with you.”

“I see that,” she snapped. “Just don’t get in my way.”

The elevator doors opened, and Barrett met her there. Okay, so she wasn’t being a complete idiot. But why did she test him? Maybe she wanted Barrett and Tony with her because they were both clearly besotted with her.

He just wasn’t the kind to be besotted. His cock had other ideas, but he’d been around her for weeks sporting a perpetual hard-on.

And what the hell was she going to do for a “tension reliever”? The Star of Pleasure was one of the most infamous clubs on Sethos Five. As a Nyral dominant, he knew exactly what kind of experience the club offered. Since the riot, however, the princess hadn’t gone to public dance clubs. Still, she was vulnerable at these places.

The hovervan took them to the club, and the closer they got, the more nervous Leo became. There was only one way to protect Princess Sera in a club like that. And she wasn’t going to like it.

The Star of Pleasure was opulent, luxurious. A waterfall dominated the entrance and created cascading water into clear plaz walls along a long corridor leading to the check-in desk. The sound of low, sexy music throbbed through hidden speakers and created an atmosphere of sexual tension that made Leo’s system tilt.

Control. He had to find control.

It didn’t help that Princess Sera’s hips swayed to the beat of the muted music and her gorgeous legs encased in white boots seemed to go on forever. He almost groaned from the torture. Graceful, stunning, and feminine, Princess Sera was a temptation Leo didn’t want to ignore. But he had to. He had to ignore the auburn tresses and the wickedly sensual blue eyes. He had to ignore the way the material of her dress stretched over her sweet curves and her high waist. And he couldn’t let his gaze linger on her generous tits or her fantastic ass.

He also had to ignore his hard dick straining in his pants.

The princess approached the front desk with Leo, Barrett, and Tony close behind. The clerk, clad in skimpy leather and a black collar, glanced at them and said, “A foursome, then?” He lifted his eyebrows in inquiry.

She shook her head. “No. These men are my bodyguards. I want a Nyral dominant.”

Leo glared at her back. He was going to have to stand by and let another Nyral dominant top her? Why did that make him want to growl? Why was he suddenly willing to rip any man who touched her to shreds?

Not any man. A dominant. He’d seen her go through one pretty boy after another without a single problem. But the minute another Nyral dominant was suggested—There was nothing he could do. Just grind his teeth and watch.

“Yes, Princess Sera. I have just the man for you. Would you like the same suite you had on your last visit?” the clerk asked.

“Yes, I would, thank you.” Princess Sera took her assignment sheet and turned to face Leo.

He snatched the paper from her hand and read it.

Nyral dominant Shaun Reynald. Twenty-two.

“You enjoy robbing the cradle,” he taunted.

Her eyebrows rose over sparkling blue eyes. “Are you questioning my choice?” She sounded surprised. When he didn’t answer, she cocked her head to the side. “Maybe he’ll have more…enthusiasm.”

Leo snorted. “Like a puppy?”

She shrugged, and he looked at the rest of the order. A bit surprising. He’d considered her more vanilla than this order indicated. At the bottom he noted something else.

One observer.

His head snapped up. “And just who did you plan to have ‘observe’?”

“Oh you, Leo Eyler,” she said with a sweet smile. “Definitely you.”

Leo had worked undercover with Primarian soldiers who were known for making a man lose his temper. None of them had made him lose his. Now he had this princess who was going to drive him crazy. “Why not Barrett or Tony? That’s why you brought them, isn’t it? You want an audience.”

“Ah, but you’d be a much better audience. After all, you’re a Nyral dominant.” She turned and strode down the hallway. “You can make sure he does it correctly.”

He started to follow her when he saw the one person he had never expected to see.

“Rina,” he whispered.

Her hair was midnight black at the moment, but Leo knew her real hair color was a mousy brown. Just as her eyes were a chocolate brown. He nodded to Barrett. “Keep an eye on her. I’ll be there in a minute.”

He noted that Carina Tao kept her face averted from the cameras. So she was still working undercover. She waited until Leo reached the hidden recess where she stood. “I need to warn you.”

“Didn’t you get my message? Damn it, your cover may be blown.” When Leo had exposed General Ancred, his Primarian superior, and General Halloway, his undercover contact, as the men behind several Brotherhood assassinations, he’d had to reveal himself. And once Leo had revealed his undercover identity, Carina’s had been in jeopardy too since he’d recruited her for the mission. Well, recruited was a loose term. She would have gone after the Brotherhood no matter what he said.

Those brown eyes gazed at him steadily. “I got your message. The job isn’t done. The Brotherhood should have been finished when the generals were exposed. Instead, it’s business as usual.” Her gaze flicked to the right and left. “Listen to me. Shaun is Brotherhood. I’m part of the team. You’ve got to let him try and make an attempt.”

“Why?” Urgency flooded Leo’s system. He had to get to the princess.

“Because he’ll be blamed when it fails, not me.”

“Carina—”

She glared at him. “I have to find out why the Brotherhood killed Shanie.”

An empty hole opened up in Leo’s chest. Shanie Tao. His mate. Carina’s sister. A Brotherhood attack three years earlier had left him a marked Nyral dominant without his mate. It had left Carina Tao with no family but Leo.

“There has to be another way.”

“No,” she whispered frantically. “Please, Leo.”

Something in her gaze riveted him, and he nodded. He glanced toward the hallway where the princess had gone, and when he turned back, Carina had vanished.

He sprinted down the corridor toward the suite where an attempt was going to be made on Princess Sera’s life.

Chapter Four

Who was that woman? Sera glanced back to see Leo in close conversation with a woman in the shadows. She got the impression of long black hair, a leather skirt, and a vest that covered her small breasts…barely.

Why should she care? She shot a quick peek at them again. Okay, so maybe she did have the hots for Leo. Maybe the blond good looks and the long, wicked-looking scar on his left cheek made her blood tingle. But he was a pain in her ass.

She had to face facts, though. Hadn’t she picked a Nyral dominant because she really wanted Leo Eyler? All her efforts at charming Leo had been fruitless. Not to mention he made her grind her teeth. He was high-handed, pushy, annoying…and masterful, dominant, and sexy as hell.

Barrett and Tony didn’t say much. Both were pouting, probably because she’d specified only one man could observe, and that was Leo Eyler.

She was going to fuck this Shaun Reynald so good that Leo would pant to get inside her pussy. And then she’d torture him.

By the time she opened the door to the suite, Leo was by her side. Impatience ripped through her as he made her wait so he could inspect the room and check the cameras. She sighed. Cameras were a necessity. They were supposed to be private, for the staff to monitor for trouble, but more often, the footage was sold to the highest bidder for vid stream fodder. Leo probably was just checking to make sure it wasn’t a live feed.

He set his blaster on the table beside the chair and stood at attention, not looking at her at all.