Page 33 of The Ruler
“At least now I can keep track of you and if I’m not moving, you don’t move either.”
Pearl clicked her tongue and crossed her arms. “This is absolutely ridiculous. I demand that you let me go immediately.”
“No.” Behind my word was an iron will; and even though this punishment had been spontaneous I already smiled internally at the thought that tonight she would be sleeping in my bed, tied to me.
“Well,” she snorted lightly, “you’ll have to eventually. How else do you suggest we shower and dootherthings?”
“No,” I said again, my tone sharp enough that she would know I was dead serious.
Pearl visibly paled. “Tell him he’s insane,” she pleaded with Boulder.
“Khan, you’re insane,” Boulder said, chuckling, and started talking about his and Magni’s search for Laura in the Motherlands.
“Yes, we heard.” Pearl knitted her brows closely together. “And I demand to know how you crossed the border last night. It’s a major breach of Motherlands safety and it shouldn’t be possible.” Despite my fury with Pearl, a small part of me appreciated how changed she was from when she first arrived. The annoying soft, almost whispering voice she’d had when she first came was long gone, and it was a mystery to me how she could have hidden such a fierce temperament under that façade of control to begin with. Pearl wasn’t meant to limit herself, and seeing her point her index finger at Boulder with indignation amused me. The man was at least a head taller than her and exuded raw strength. I had seen Nmen intimidated by Boulder, but not Pearl.
“We have invisible drones that your detectors don’t see,” Boulder told Pearl with a straight face. “We cross as often as we please. We just never told you, but since it looks like you’re not going anywhere soon, I guess there’s no reason to hide it from you.”
“Invisible drones?” Pearl turned to look at me. “Is that true?”
I gave her my best poker face, revealing nothing, although it was absolute nonsense and more proof of her naïveté.
“How long are you going to keep Pearl trapped like that?” Christina asked me.
“That’s no one’s business but mine,” I said grumpily, still pissed after being scared out of my mind.
“It’s my business too since I’m forced to be close to you – and just so you know,” Pearl said and wrinkled her nose up,” you smell.”
“Yeah?” I lifted my arm and sniffed my armpit. “It’s not that bad, but if you’d like we could go and shower, right now.” To freak her out, I took a step forward and that made her dig her heels in.
“No!” she shrieked. “No, no, no.”
“I don’t think she wants to shower with you.” Boulder laughed, but to me it was the perfect way to teach her once and for all thatIwas in control.
Pearl
I protested when Khan dragged me from the garden back into the Manor. “I’m not a child, I’m a thirty-three-year old woman.”
Tied together, I couldn’t get away from him, and it seemed to be no great strain for him to lift me up by my waist and walk with me.
His guards looked the other way when I asked them to help me, but the whole time I was sure he was only doing it to scare me.
There was no way he would actually insist on our being tied together for very long. He had told me often enough that I was crazy, naïve, and insufferable. Really, he should have been grateful that I gave him a break once in a while when I wandered off. But no, Khan was pissed and resolutely walked into the bathroom with me lifted from the floor and only let me down when we stood right outside the shower unit.
“Let me go,” I repeated.
“Not a fucking chance,” he said in a low growl.
“Stop, what are you doing?” I closed my eyes and counted in my head when Khan pulled his shirt free from the flexi-band.
“This may surprise you, but we don’t shower with our clothes on in the Northlands,” he said and tugged the shirt over his head.
I’d never been this close to him before and certainly not when he was almost naked. With my eyes closed it was like my other senses took over, and his masculine fragrance filled my nostrils. Men from the Motherlands preferred sweet perfumes, but Khan had a clean masculine scent with a hint of leather, lime, and sandalwood that should repulse me, but it didn’t.
Squinting an eye open, I saw him adjusting the band to take his pants off.
“You’re not actually going to get completely naked, are you?” I asked with my pulse racing.
“I am and so are you,” he said pragmatically.
