Page 94 of My Five Daddies

“I need you to draw up a marriage contract forme.”

He stares at me for a second before laughing loudly. He shakes his head and stretches. “Okay, good one,” he says. “I needed a good laugh. What’s up,really?”

“I’m serious,” I say, sitting down in the chair across from his desk. “I need you to set up a marriage contract. Standard mistress terms, but we’ll actuallymarry.”

The smile on his face slowly falls. “You’re notjoking?”

“Not at all. I’m going to marry that cute American maid,Hazel.”

“Do you even know her last name?” he asksme.

I hesitate. “No,” Iadmit.

“What are you upto?”

I grin at him. “I’m playing the politicalgame.”

He sighs and strokes his chin. “You think getting a wife willhelp?”

“And an heir,” Isay.

“A wife and a kid.” He shakes his head again. “Never thought I’d see theday.”

“I’m growing up, I guess,” I say, grinninghuge.

“Okay then. I can write up the contract. But did the girlagree?”

“Not yet,” I say. “But she willsoon.”

“Right, of course. Since women can’t resistyou.”

“Exactly.” I cock my head at him. “By the way. I heard some whispering about Julian and his creepyagenda.”

Andrew’s frown deepens. “Who toldyou?”

“My mother,” I say, though I don’t tell him that she didn’t go intodetails.

“It’s some bad shit,” Andrew says. “It’s all rumor and hearsay at this point, but man, I know guys in Julian’s office. And I think the rumors aretrue.”

“How can he do it?” I ask him, hedging a littlebit.”

“I don’t know,” he admits. “There haven’t been social purity laws since… hell, the fucking darkages.”

My eyes widen in surprise. “Purity laws?” I ask him, a slightwhisper.

He hesitates. “Shit,” he says. “You didn’tknow.”

“My mother mentioned something dark, but fucking hell,Andrew.”

He groans. “Nobody is supposed to know. It’s not even realyet.”

“But if it could possibly be real, this can’tstand.”

Andrew eyes me for a second without saying anything. “You’ve been gone a while,” he says slowly. “You’ve lost the feel for court. People may be getting more liberal out there, but in here, the nobles are getting more entrenched in their ways. They don’t want things to change, Nolan. Julian is just going to give them what theywant.”

I shake my head, at a total fucking loss. Every kid learns about the social purity laws in high school. They were a group of draconian, awful fucking things designed to keep everybody in check. They banned jokes, types of music, sex outside of marriage, alcohol, and basically anything fun inlife.

The punishments for breaking a social purity law were about as inhuman as possible, such as stoning, hanging, dismemberment, and death. You could get killed for making an off-color joke. You could get your genitals mutilated for touching yourself. You could have your tongue cut out and your eyes removed for impure thoughts. It was a very dark time in Polovian history, and nobody thinks kindly about the social puritylaws.

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