Page 14 of Maid for the Alien Prince

“Then you sent yourself?” I arched my head back and said, “Lights on!”

The lights blinded me momentarily, but it was worse for the female beneath me as she was looking directly into them when they came on.

I was taken aback by her appearance. She was human. Her eyes were big and wide, her figure fuller than Akhi’s had been. She also lacked her height and, of course, her horns. Her hair was dirty blonde and she kicked and flailed to get me to release her, but she was out of luck. Not until I got some answers.

“Who are you?” I said.

My instincts told me that she was not a trained assassin. In fact, she looked like a normal, regular member of the palace’s workers.

The majority of the servants were human—they were cheap, effective, and formed close knit social groups that prevented many issues from developing to the point of duels.

Was she one of my servants? I wondered. If so, what was she doing creeping around in the dark in my bedroom?

“My name is Camila!” She became deathly still and glared at me. “I’m Bill’s daughter.”

“Bill?” I said, not recognizing his name.

“The manager you just had fired!”

“Fired?”

Camila rolled her eyes. “If you’re going to repeat everything I say, this conversation is going to take a really long time. Can you let me up now?”

I didn’t want to—I quite liked the feel of her beneath my hands—but slowly, keeping my eyes on her closely, I did.

She got up by herself and dusted the dirt and dust from her knees. “You know,” she said, “you could do with lessons in good manners.”

“Tell me, what is the proper way to react when finding a woman in your bedroom in the middle of the night?”

“Well, I doubt jumping on top of her and crushing her to death is part of it.”

“Crushed to death? You look plenty alive to me.”

“No thanks to you.”

I snorted despite myself. “What are you doing here?”

It occurred to me then that perhaps Ges had found a replacement Steyatt mate for me already. I looked her over and admired her shape.

Yes, I thought. She would serve all right…

“Hey!” Camila said, pointing to her face. “Eyes up here, if you please.”

Or maybe not…

“How did you get in here?” I said. “The doors are locked. Don’t tell me you stole your father’s keys?”

“My father doesn’t have any keys now. Besides, no stealing is necessary. This is an old palace. It has all sorts of secret passageways. You learn all about them when you grow up here.”

“You grew up here? When?”

“My father is… was the estate manager here. I would come over and help out sometimes with events. I’d get bored, poke around, find little cubby holes, secret passageways, things like that…”

She blinked and shook her head. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m here for.”

“So, what are you here for?” I asked. “For the fourth time.”

She glared at me before controlling herself and pointing at me. “Okay. So, you’re new here. You fired my father who, by the way, has been a loyal worker for the past twenty years—”

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