Selena was quiet for a time. “You should have told me.”
“I don’t like to think about it.”
iAm rolled his eyes. “Truth.”
“And, Selena, I’m serious. I’m not going to do it in seventy-two hours or seven million.” Trez glanced over. “Did you see our parents while you were there?”
iAm shook his head. “I was only in the palace.” In a cell. “And they’ve lost their station so they were on the other side of those walls. I sure as shit didn’t look them up. They’re dead to me. I couldn’t give a fuck about them.”
“Me, too.” Trez looked back at Selena. “This is my life here. Here is my life—these people, this place, my businesses … you most of all. I’m not going to let anyone take it away from me, especially not because some astrologist looked at the stars in the heavens and decided they meant something.”
Selena wrapped her arms around herself. “I really wish you’d told me.”
“I would have if it meant anything to me.”
“And these businesses … do you still sell females through them?”
iAm stared at the door. Started inching his way to it.
“They sell themselves,” Trez countered. “I give them a venue to do so, but they are in charge of themselves. They choose who, how much, how often. My job is to keep them safe.”
“While you earn money off of them.”
“They pay the club. Not me.”
“But you own the club.”
“iAm,” Trez said sharply. “I want you to stay.”
He closed his eyes. “That’s not what I’m thinking.”
“No,” Selena spoke up. “If he has nothing to hide, let him say it in front of an audience.”
Great. Just what he was looking for. A job as mediator.
Not.
And maichen was still at the condo.
“Actually, I really do have to go.” iAm glanced back and forth between the two of them. “I’ve never been in a relationship before, so I don’t have any advice for the pair of you. But, Selena, I think you should be aware of two things. One, his entire life has been defined by rebelling against the s’Hisbe and our parents. And two, he has not been with a single female since he got with you last year. He has been faithful to you even when you two weren’t together. So don’t crucify him because you think that the human women who work for him are somehow with him. I’m out.”
He didn’t give them a chance to reel him back into their drama. He had enough of his own. He’d left maichen buck-ass naked in his bed and he was worried she was going to take off without his getting back.
Rushing down to the foyer, he bolted through the vestibule, broke out into the night, and dematerialized to the Commodore.
As he assumed form on the terrace, he yanked back the glass door and rushed across to the corridor that led to the bedrooms.
“maichen,” he called out.
Just as he rounded the door to his bedroom, she said, “Yes?”
He took a deep breath as he saw her reclining against the pillows, her bare shoulders emerging from the cover of the duvet.
“Oh, thank fuck,” he said.
“Are you all right?” She sat up. “iAm?”
Kicking off his shoes, he didn’t answer her. He couldn’t. There was too much to say about things he couldn’t change and hated.
Instead, he pulled back the sheets and got in fully clothed. Her body was warm and naked and yielding as he brought them heart-to-heart.
As her arms came around him, and she stroked the back of his head, he shuddered—and realized that in all the years he’d had on the planet, this was the first time he’d had somewhere to go when he felt like the world was a shitty place and time was nothing more than torture to be endured.
It was so much better than even the sex.
This moment where he sought and was given haven? It made him understand why the Brothers lit up every time their shellans came into the room, and why those males would lay down their lives for those females.
“Thank you,” he heard himself say.
“For what?” maichen whispered.
“Being here.”
“Is Selena unwell?” she asked. Because he’d told her why he’d needed to go.
“Not acutely so. But she and my brother got into it.”
“Why?”
“There’s nothing like your fiancée finding out you’re betrothed to another while she’s dying. That is just such an awesome conversation to have.”
maichen stilled. “This has to end.”
“The shit with Trez and that fucking Princess? I agree—if you come up with any bright ideas … let me know,” he said starkly.