Page 30 of The Alien's Cruel Starfrost Domain

That trade has been my cover for communicating with Vazor for quite some time now. Still, I shake my head and sigh. Baron Svalkat has been little other than an irritant since his arrival. I wouldn’t be surprised if he somehow broke that cover.

I turn around to head back upstairs and almost bowl Lara over, smacking into her and then reaching out to steady her, grasping her upper arms just below her shoulders.

When I touch her, a spark jumps through my body, an electrical shock directly to my heart, then shooting down to my cock, making me instantly hard. Just from a minor touch. And not even touching skin to skin, just my bare hands rubbing against her sweater.

She stares up at me with her topaz-brown eyes, her tongue flicking out to wet her lips, and my hands tighten convulsively on her shoulders.

Her gaze flickers downward as if it’s being pulled against her will, landing on my erection pressing against the placket of my breeches, straining toward her. She lets out a little gasp.

When she moves her gaze back upward to meet mine, something twists behind her eyes.

“I was going to clean your study,” she murmurs, her voice shaking.

The scent of her repressed emotion, tasting of both fear and desire, calls to the beast inside me, and my voice comes out harsh and gruff as I take in her torn and frayed clothing. “Don’t you haveanything else to wear?”

I fight the urge to sweep her into my arms, carry her up to my room, and strip her out of those clothes.

I begin to tremble as I picture the rest of it, the images flashing through my mind. I imagine myself smoothing her hair from her face. Pressing her down into the bed. Pinning her beneath me. Opening her legs. Using her as another Icecaix might use a servant. Or better yet, seducing her…

Fuck. If only she weren’t so integral to my plans to overthrow Prince Jonyk. Plans that have only solidified even further over the last few days.

“I have something Adefina gave me to wear on wash days,” she says, and it takes me a moment to remember what I’d asked.

My lips tighten. Clothing. Right.

The look I give her is full of anger, as much at myself as at her. Lara is doing double duty, working as both a kitchen drudge and a housemaid since Adefina doesn’t actually need any help in the kitchen, so the Earth woman’s position in the household is an odd one. And thus no one has thought to clothe her correctly.

Including me.

Because you’ve been trying to ignore her entirely, a voice inside me accuses, and some emotion—shame, guilt?—burns through me.

I shove down both the voice and the reaction as hard as I can. They, like my desire for Lara, have no place in my current schemes. My fingers tighten again. Finally realizing I’m still clutching her, I peel my hands away from Lara.

I’m still glaring at her when movement on the stairs catches my attention. My gaze flickers upward to find Baron Svalkat standing on the first landing of the grand staircase where it splits into two, heading toward the east and west wings. He stands paused with one hand on the railing, the other clutching several envelopes, his eyebrows raised and his face frozen in an expression of interest as he takes in the tableau at the foot of the stairs.

Although I’m no longer touching her, I realize my fingers are still hovering mere inches from Lara’s shoulders. I take a step back from her, dropping my hands behind my back and clasping them.

“You may go.” I wait a beat before adding, “Please ensure that you tidy my writing desk.” With a slight nod, I dismiss her.

Lara glances between the Baron and me, and then drops a reasonable facsimile of a curtsy—but her face is screwed up in a scowl. I wonder, not for the first time, exactly how much of our conversation she heard the night of the baron’s first dinner at Starfrost Manor.

When she glances up at me, I no longer see some undefined emotion in her eyes. This time, it’s anger. Pure, unadulterated, burning, hot rage.

Feel that, I find myself urging her silently.Let it fuel you.

And as she turns to head toward my study, her back is perfectly straight, unbowed.

Unbroken.

I can’t help but stare after her as she makes her exit.

“Well,” the baron says, dropping his satin-slippered foot from where it had been hovering over the next step down. “Here are those letters I promised.” He finishes tripping lightly down the stairs and drops the envelopes onto the underbutler’s silver tray. “I assume these will go out today?”

But I can tell he’s not actually interested in the answer—his thoughtful gaze keeps drifting down the hallway after Lara.

It’s all I can do not to remind him yet again that she belongs to me.

Instead, though, I answer his query. “Yes. In fact, Tenyt”—I’ve remembered the servant’s name finally—“will take them now.”

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