Page 105 of Seducing Jenny
“This coming from you?” Discord teased the little man, until she glimpsed the island, as well. “Gods, itissmall. Justice’s idea of an insult, I suppose.”
Within moments, we were submerged underwater. It was midday, so all the sea beasts we could not see at night were fully illuminated, and I wished to the gods they weren’t.
I gestured to one particularly massive and gruesome one. “I think that thing is what threw me back to the island.”
“So many teeth,” was all Tiger could say about it, his voice coming through the comms.
When we parked near the house’s stilts, I dressed in one of Tiger’s float suits. Jenny lingered near me, anxious.
I gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be back at the estate tonight, at the latest.”
Tiger appeared from the cockpit, his expression grim. “I hate this. Promise us you’ll be careful.”
“I swear it.” I kissed him, then her. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
“You better be,” Discord said, crossing her arms.
Once I was suited up, Tiger opened the top hatch and I launched out, swooping around the building as best I could. I’d been gone only a few days, so I hoped the caretakers didn’t make a big deal of things and hopefully assumed I’d hunkered away somewhere on the island to be by myself. After all, they assumed there was no way for me to leave the island. I didn’t have to tell them anything, and I intended not to.
My room’s windows were shut, and there was no opening them quietly from the outside, so I snuck around the building to Credo’s bedroom. A group of seabirds sat on his window sill. I brushed them aside easily enough and quietly drifted inside.
No alarms. To avoid making the floors creak, I slid on my belly from Credo’s door to my old bedroom. Still no sounds. No voices. Nothing.
Where the hell are the caretakers?
Peeking out my window as I stripped out of my float suit, I saw nothing but the ocean until I craned my neck around theedge. The three caretakers were on the beach. I could tell it was them by the uniforms and who the hell else would be out there? They waved at something in the sky. The imperial cruiser.Shit, we timed everything just right. I hoped the cruiser wouldn’t pick upCheesecakeon sonar, but since they weren’t looking for it, spotting her seemed highly unlikely.
The cruiser landed on the beach, and a tall man stepped out from the ship. I was too far away to see who he was. Another one of Justice’s lackeys, I was sure of it. I stashed the float suit, grabbed a book, and lay on the bed to pretend I’d been reading and was not at all affected by my incarceration. I was not about to show a lackey how I felt about Justice’s stupid control games.
A few minutes later, someone knocked at my door. “Yes?”
It opened, and in walked a strikingly beautiful man. Tan skin with a purple sheen, penetrating violet eyes, a chisel cut jaw, and muscles big enough for me to climb onto his tall frame. His all-black uniform was cut to highlight all the work he had put into his body, as it stretched across his broad shoulders and his sleeves rolled up to the middle of his thick forearms.
The trousers featured bone thigh daggers, a helpful tool on a microplanet full of ghosts. But the most arresting part of him was his smile, arrogant and proud. He had the kind of confidence most men had to fake, if they tried at all. Everything about him radiated strength and prowess. He was a force of nature that had moved me, and he hadn’t even said a word.
He was trouble. And I’d always been drawn to his type of trouble.
I summoned a believable amount of outrage and snapped at him, “How dare you barge into my room!”
“I am here under orders from the Ruler Justice Bateen to take you to his palace on Orhon, where he will approve your freedom, Malice Ripper,” the man said, bold and brash. “So I’dthink you’d be grateful that I barged into this shabby dwelling of yours, as I am here to rescue you.”
That superior, devastating smile of his pulled at me like a long lost memory, which I ignored. “He sent a barbarian to come and save me? How generous.”
He arched a brow at my sarcasm. “Would you like to stop fake-reading that book and come home?”
“I don’t fake anything,” I said, annoyance in my tone.
He smirked. “The book is upside-down.”
I rolled my eyes and flung it at the wall. “I prefer to read upside-down, thank you very much.”
He laughed, genuine humor flickering in his eyes. “I remember,” he said, then left my doorway.
Frowning at his comment, I followed him out. “Remember? I’ve never met you before, sir.”
“Aw, that’s a shame. I had hoped my splashy entrance would have jogged your memory. I’m surprised you don’t recognize me,” he said, walking down the hall toward Credo’s bedroom.
Apprehension stirred inside of me. “I’m sorry…did we meet at the palace or something?”
