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  At last it did though, and I felt myself collapsing, panting and gasping, into the still-warm water.

  Kristoff caught me and lowered me gently, letting my head rest on the edge as the soothing liquid lapped all around me. He stripped off the gloves without a word and rinsed me, his bare hands on my flesh this time, deliberate and possessive.

  I purred with sleepy pleasure and arched under his touch as he cupped and stroked my breasts and caressed gently but firmly between my thighs. This was what I had been needing—the release I had been aching for almost from the first time he’d touched me and held me.

  Why couldn’t it be him? I thought drowsily as I felt his big, warm hands sliding deliberately up and down my naked body. Why couldn’t Kristoff be my Consort? Who cares about status or rank or caste or whatever it is they make such a big deal about here?

  It was Kristoff who had come for me back on Earth. Kristoff who had protected me. Kristoff who had saved me again and again, risking his own life to do so. I knew the desire I felt for him was supposed to fade when the effects of the blood I had given him wore off but it wasn’t—my feelings for him were only getting stronger.

  “Kristoff,” I murmured as he lifted me out of the tub and began toweling me off with a big, warm, fluffy piece of blue fabric. “Why does it have to be this way?”

  “What way, my Lady?” He sat me on the edge of the tub with the towel around my shoulders and began combing out the tangles in my hair gently and expertly.

  “Why do I have to pick some other guy—some other male—as my Consort?” I asked, frowning. “I don’t want to be with some stranger—I want to be with you. Why can’t we be together like Sundalla the 887th and her Guard were?”

  His face grew grave.

  “Never say that, Charlotte,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re a Goddess and I’m nothing but a commoner. The idea of the Goddess-Empress mated to any but a Royal is sacrilege—blasphemy of the highest order.”

  “But why? Who says?” I demanded. “Why should they get to decide who I marry, er, mate with? You said you thought half of them are in Morbain’s pocket anyway.” I had a sudden thought. “You know, if I could shake hands with them or touch them in some way, I might be able to find that out. My touch-sense usually tells me if someone is friend or foe.”

  He frowned. “It is forbidden for the Empress to have physical contact with the Council of Wisdom. The law states there must remain between them a divide, in order to preserve the balance of male and female powers.”

  It was my turn to frown. “There sure are a lot of rules about who I can and can’t touch around here. Not to mention who I get to spend my life with.” I looked at him again. “Kristoff…”

  “Don’t speak of taking me as your Consort again.” His eyes were hard and his face was stern. “For your own safety, I beg you my Lady—put the thought far from your mind.”

  How can I? I wanted to say. When your hands on me feel so right…so good? But at the look on his face, the words stuck in my throat.

  “I still don’t think it’s right,” I said as he finished with my hair and started rubbing some kind of cool, green gel over the scratches I’d gotten from the exploding mug. “And…I don’t feel those, uh, cravings Dr. Churika said would fade getting any less. If anything they’re stronger than ever.”

  He frowned. “She will be here tomorrow to attend you after the Trials of Ascendancy. We can ask for a prescription to cool your lust then.”

  “It’s not just lust,” I protested. “I want to be with you—want to touch you. To feel you hold me like you did that first night.” I looked at him pleadingly. “Could we do that again tonight? I mean, sleep in the same bed together?”

  He looked indecisive as he capped the jar of gel and put it away. “I shouldn’t…if word got out it would be devastating to your reputation.”

  “But you’re here to protect me,” I pointed out. “And I’d feel so much safer if you were right there with me. Also, you had the other guard sweep the place for bugs, right? So who’s going to know?”

  “I’ll know,” he said in a low voice and sighed.

  “What does that mean?” I asked, frowning.

  “Never mind.” He shook his head. “If it would ease your mind for me to share your bed tonight, my Lady, then I will serve you in that capacity gladly.”

  “It would.” I thought longingly of how good it felt to be wrapped in his muscular arms—of how safe and warm I felt. No one could hurt me when Kristoff was holding me like that—I was sure of it. “It really would,” I repeated, though I doubted he would actually hold me. Still, just having him near would be comforting.

  “Very well.” He picked me up, towel and all, and carried me into another room like a sleepy child. By now I was getting used to being carried all around by him and I didn’t even protest. I just rested my head on his broad, bare chest and breathed him in—that warm, masculine, spicy scent that was uniquely Kristoff.

  I thought of how much I loved feeling safe in his arms. It had seemed so alien and strange to me the first time I was close to him but now it represented safety and security. I knew to my bones that when I was in Kristoff’s arms, I was being held by a male who would kill or die to protect me—who would spend his last breath keeping me from harm.

  I was almost asleep, worn out with the intense pleasure he’d given me and the crazy events of the day. I woke up a little though, when he set me down on a vast bed covered in a shimmering, coverlet of rich scarlet.

  “Hey, don’t leave me,” I protested sleepily as he left the bed and went to rummage in a large ornate armoire-looking piece of furniture on the other side of the room.

  “I’m just getting you something to sleep in, my Lady,” he said. “It wouldn’t be proper for us to sleep in the nude together, as we did when you had the Burning Blood.”

  I sighed unhappily. Being naked with him was exactly what I wanted—what my body craved. But I wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t allowed. Now that we were on Femme One, the rules seemed to be different—different and much stricter.

  “Okay,” I said. “But I don’t want to wear a pair of granny panties and a flannel gown just to be proper. I can’t stand being hot while I sleep.”

  “I will bear it in mind. Although I have no idea what ‘granny panties’ are,” he rumbled.

  “Just find something light, please,” I said. “I’m a Florida girl—I don’t do heavy PJs. In fact, I usually just sleep in an old t-shirt.”

  “Very well.”

  Kristoff pressed a hidden button on the side of the tall, carved armoire—which looked surprisingly like a piece antique of furniture you might find on Earth. Suddenly a glowing holo-pad made of red light appeared on its side. It had lots of squiggly looking characters I supposed must be an alien alphabet.

  Kristoff had explained to me how the Commercians had been sending translation and immunization viruses down to Earth through the hole in our ozone layer. The viruses enabled me to understand just about any spoken language in the galaxy but apparently that was only good for speaking—reading was another story.

  Great, was I really going to have to learn to read all over again in a different language? I supposed so. After all, I could hardly be expected to rule over these people if I was illiterate in their written language. Just another thing to add to my growing list…

  Prove I’m the real Empress—check. Rule the known galaxy—check. Try not to fall in love with my hot Guard—check. Learn a whole new language— Wait a minute… Was I really falling in love with Kristoff?

  If I was, I’d better stop it now, at least according to Kristoff and everyone else I’d talked to.

  It’s nothing, I told myself uneasily. It’s just a side-effect from giving him that blood transfusion.

  But if so, why wasn’t it fading? Why did I want to be with him more, not less? Why—

  A soft beeping sound from the armoire cut off my troubled musings and I saw Kristoff open one wooden door and pull a white, silky garment