Page 16 of Loaned to the Leonid Knight

Nessa put down a tray on the table and shook her head. “Sweetie, you can’t tell this Felid that you want dinner for two without him turning it into a ceremonial banquet.”

“I have all the foods of love,” Kamau boasted, lifting metal covers off of tureens and bowls, waving his paw in the steam to waft the aromas around. “Red rice balls. Razortusk filet. Sumptuous bisque of silverfin. Plumcotta wine.”

“They smell amazing, but I’m not sure the love thing is going to work. This is business, and I’m a human. I never even heard of silverfin or razortusk before I came here,” Sasha cautioned.

“All food that Kamau makes is the food of love,” Nessa said loyally, putting her head on his chest. “I hope you made enough rice balls for baby. He’s hungry.”

“She. It is a little Queen, like her mother,” Kamau purred, nuzzling Nessa’s dark curls.

Sasha didn’t ask them any other questions, just let them trail out of the room, kissing and nuzzling in a way that was adorable—and worrisome.

She wasn’t supposed to start picturing her and Gideon like that. Wasn’t supposed to picture her and Gideon escaping to some faraway land, some distant planet where humans and Felids were free to do what they wanted, where they both hadgood money from this contract and all the luxuries that came with it.

Definitely don’t think about how it would feel if he did more than shake your hand.

Why not? He’s going to. He’s going to do so much more.

Her eyes closed, and she let herself give in to a fantasy of slow caresses and touches in just the right spots, things she’d long ago sickened of.

“Snap out of it!” Sasha scolded herself and hurried to put her beautiful new mithrium tree on the table as a centerpiece.

“May I come in?”

Sasha whirled and found Gideon hovering a few steps outside of her doorway. “It was open,” he explained.

Holy crap, he looks amazing with a shirton,too. “Come in!” she exclaimed, hoping she wasn’t staring.

Gideon flowed into the room, silent and graceful despite his size. He wore the matching shirt that went with his cream-colored trousers, something white, slit way down the chest, with little blue threads running up the sides and around the cuffs.

“Your outfits are amazing. They look so comfy.”

“Oh. My uniforms. This is what a secretary-slash-servant wears at home. Out in the city, I wear a suit in the same colors.”

“You must look amazing.” Sasha clapped her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“I—I don’t know. I think it’s rude?”

“To give compliments?” Well, I don’t! I’ve never been given as many in my life as I have since meeting you,” he chuckled. “Is it wrong to tell a Queen how beautiful she is on Sapien-Three?”

“Uh, no. It’s context. A man can tell his partner that, or a friend can tell you that, and it’s all good. Where I lived, I didn’t have friends or a partner, not anymore. Men would still call out all kinds of ‘compliments’ every time I left the house. Sayingexactly how I looked and exactly what they’d like to do to me for looking this way.”

Gideon looked horrified, then angry. His lips curled back, revealing long, sharp fangs. “That’s no way to treat a Queen.”

“There aren’t Queens where I come from.”

“Then you must not go back there, Sasha, because you are a Queen, as plain as plain can be,” he said earnestly, patting her hand.

His simple, gentle touch made her insides bunch into a knot. A hot, tense knot. Instead of pulling her hand away, she gently brushed her fingers over the long digits of his paw, feeling their suede-like texture blending into the thickest, plushest fur. “Do you mind if I do that?” she whispered.

“Not at all. I wish you to do anything that makes you comfortable with me.”

“It’s just so soft. There aren’t soft things where I come from, either.”

Gideon hesitated before his other paw reached out and brushed against her cheek, then fluffed her long brunette waves. “There is softness here. So light and soft, not like fur.”

His touch startled her, but not in a negative way. She let herself stand there, let him stroke across her cheek, let his paw flick through her hair like turning pages in a sacred text. “Only on the outside. We have to be hard on the inside to survive.”