Page 25 of Maid for the Alien Prince

“Is everything all right?” Emma asked.

“Of course it is!” I growled at her.

She physically flinched back and shuffled her weight from one foot to the other.

I sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t snap at you. It’s just… being here, it brings back so many memories.”

And would doubtless leave its mark on me when I finally came to leave, I thought.

Many dark memories…

Emma leaned against the table and lowered her head. “I noticed you acted differently after you came back from your meeting with Ges.”

The creep!

He was so used to getting away with doing anything he wanted with the staff that he wouldn’t have known what shame or decency were if they slapped him across the face!

In fact, I might just do that next time he came anywhere near me. Give him a nice big slap across his fat, meaty maw.

But I knew that would be a mistake.

First, he might fly into a rage, and who knew how someone like that would react. Or, he would react the opposite way, liking the fact that someone had finally stood up to him, and become even more determined to take me for his own…

Either way, there was no winning with him.

“Sometimes he can be quite… forceful,” Emma said.

It was only then that I noticed her beaten look, the way a child might act after it had been admonished.

I touched her arm. “Is there anything you need to tell me about him? Anything that he might have… done to you?”

Emma shook her head. “No. He hasn’t… done anything to me. But it has come close. I think maybe his bark is worse than his bite.”

She gave me a smile that was not altogether convincing.

I peered around at the gorgeous furniture and portraits. “This place sure has changed since we were last here, hasn’t it?”

I couldn’t help but compare it with when my father was in charge. Sexual assault would never have happened. And if it had, my father would have dealt with it in his usual way: immediately, strictly, and without hesitation. Now, we were at our new masters’ mercy.

And I doubted Prince Rayaw or his chief goon had much of that to spare.

“Let’s get back to work,” I said. “Work always clears the mind.”

We worked hard and this time I kept my attention focused, polishing every surface to a high shine.

I liked that after I was done, each item shone with a brightness and life that it hadn’t when I started. I was making things better, improving them little by little. Everywhere I went, I was leaving it better than how I had found it. But it was hard, back-breaking work, and made me pant more than I expected.

Then I heard something behind me, growling, as if a big dog had a fat juicy steak hanging in front of its nose.

“Is that you?” I said, glancing over at Emma.

But she wasn’t listening to me. She stood to attention, her rag clutched in her hands, head bowed down. I followed her sightline.

Oh, shit.

And there he stood. Prince Rayaw.

Fully dressed now in a sharp suit, his eyes glaring at me with unmistakable hunger. He was the origin of the sound I’d heard.

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