Page 25 of Loaned to the Leonid Knight

“Should I call the doctor?”

“Let me just send him a message to make sure that this is normal. I remember back when I was a kid, when I got my seasonal anti-viral shots, I always had to stay home from school the next day. I get hit hard.”

“My poor blossom. Well, this surrogacy shouldn’t make you ill!”

“I’m not ill—just hot. And pregnancy is risky anyway. People do it all the time, but it can give you diabetes. It can make you throw up, give you terrible headaches, and cause skin breakouts.”

“And Farhet was expecting you to go through such things alone?” Gideon demanded.

Sasha laughed. “If it were him, I would want him to leave me the hell alone. You? You stay right here and be my big, comfy cuddle toy.”

His tail went wild with joy, tapping and twittering behind him, his purr bursting out loud enough to make the mithrium tree in the center of the table reverberate.

“Wh-what? What’s that?” Sasha stood up quickly, banging her head on the table’s edge. “Ow!”

“Oh, Sasha.” He patted her head awkwardly, trying not to muss the already messy pile of waves or touch the sore spot she’d just injured, even though the crown of her head was about the same size as his paw. “I was purring. No one has ever wished to cuddle with me. Or keep me close. No one besides my parents and siblings.”

“If I weren’t so hot, I would want to sit in your lap,” she moaned, fanning herself with one hand and rubbing the tender spot on her scalp with the other. “Here, let me send Marcus a note, then I’ll get out of these clothes.”

Get out of her clothes?

Gideon’s mind went to a thousand forbidden places. “Do I leave, my Queen? Or stay to support you?”

“Oh, my God, don’t,” Sasha grabbed the towel and started running it all over the front of her neck, down past the collar of her dress, and into her cleavage.

Gideon swallowed and tried to think of something unpleasant, like the time Farhet had accused him of creating an inter-district incident by not ensuring every inch of the mithrium serving plates (including the ones not used but hanging in the kitchen) was polished before he had a council meeting.

“I will not,” he said with the utmost contrition. “Although I am not sure what I should not do, so if you would just explain that, then I will never do it again, my Queen.”

“Don’t be so adorable, and helpful, and sweet, or I’m going to fall in love with you,” Sasha groaned.

Gideon licked his lips slowly. “Oh. I... I’m not adorable. I think the only way I can bear to be less helpful is to leave your side. That doesn’t seem right.”

Sasha looked up at him, blinking in surprise.

“But I will go, of course. Naturally.” He held up placating paws, backing away.

“Do you know how many guys would take total advantage of what I just said?”

“Well, perhaps some might, if they have the money and prestige to woo a Queen. These days? I do not think any male would press his advantage. Queens have their pick of Knights, and if someone were pressing them, or manipulating them, they would simply leave.”

Sasha continued to stare at him, her flushed face slowly regaining normal color as the cool towel remained on her skin. “You realize that you have money now? You’ve already done the first part of the job, and you’ve got a contract from Farhet, right? A hefty one?”

“Enough to start a whole new life, a lavish one, depending on where I settle.”

“And prestige? You don’t need that with me. Not that you care what you need withme, per se, but to the right person, things like—”

“Oh, no. You are the only... You are the only Queen I have ever been with, or been close to in this way. Where we spend time together and might be intimate,” Gideon admitted his shameful secret, words escaping him in her dark cocoa and cream gaze. “I care very much about what you want and need. Even if it is only for these few days, or few cycles. For now, you are my right person. Maybe for always.”

Sasha dropped the towel and set her personal computer, a small device she wore on her arm, to the side. “That’s not just a line?”

“A line of what?”

Sasha giggled, “Oh, Gideon. Like, a pick-up line?”

“Are you feeling faint? I can pick you up,” he surged forward, alarm in his eyes.

Just when you thought she was better, she is worse. Humans are so small and delicate. Is it cruel to ask them to take such risks for us? A mother would take such risks for her child... But poor Sasha. She says she will not be able to raise a child, and that she is not maternal, but she would be the kindest, dearest mate and mother. She will not get to raise her cub.