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“I will have to see what I can do to wake you. I don’t like servants hovering around me unless it is necessary.”

“I need her for all the makeup and other crud I have to wear every day.”

“Understandable, but when I am here, she will not attend you. I can manage to help with your bathing.” He winked.

Marginally more aware, she looked over the contract again. “This is ridiculous. I was only supposed to be here for two years.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You have an objection to being the empress of Hredu?”

“Not really. I just never considered it as a career option.”

He fell back on the bedding and laughed, a wild sound that woke her up completely.

She pressed a kiss to his lips, and his laughter slowed as he pulled her against him. The desk and contract floated to the table in the corner of the room, and he rolled with her across the bed.

“I am very glad that you have not considered it a career option, but it is one that is before you nonetheless. You will be empress and I your devoted servant and companion.”

She surrendered to his kiss for a moment before she asked, “Do I still get my scribe bands?”

He gave her a look that said she was insane, but he nodded. “Yes, my single-minded darling, you will have your bands.”

She smiled, and he got on with the pursuit of morning sex. He didn’t have to pursue it far, she enjoyed being with him and the contrast between their skins.

When he sat up and pulled her into his lap, it was the first time that they were truly face to face as their bodies joined. She made a note to try this again.

* * * *

It was late and someone was missing from her bed. After ten years, he still rarely left her alone in the morning. He knew she was not at her best.

Nexica came in with a wide robe. “Here is your robe. They are in the morning room.”

A few moments later, her hair was straight down her back and she had slippers on her feet with the heavy, ornate robe on her shoulders.

Captain Kredik was waiting for her, and he escorted her to the morning room through the halls and past those who served the imperial household.

“You look lovely today, my lady.”

“Implying that I looked crappy yesterday? Don’t worry, Kredik. I know what I looked like.”

Being forced to wake early had caused her system to rebel in a violent manner on Kredik’s boots.

“Sorry about your shoes, Kredik.”

“Do not trouble yourself, my lady. I am sure that I deserved it.”

Kredik constantly seemed to be the victim of her strange lapses in decorum. He was pelted with food that slipped from her spoon, caught her shoes whenever they flipped lose, and the day she blew the bands of her corset, he had nearly lost an eye.

They entered the morning room, and she froze at the sight of the brunette that was on Usorn’s lap.

He looked at her and smiled. “We did not want to wake you.”

The little girl looked at her and the fruit that she had been balancing near the ceiling dropped to the tablecloth.

“Urena, where is my morning kiss?”

Her daughter sprinted around the edge of the table and ran up to her, frowning as she lifted in the air to kiss her mother on the cheek. Ari caught her and walked with her to the emperor’s seat.

The chair was pulled out for her, and she put her daughter down as she settled herself.

“What is on the agenda today, dear heart?” She smiled at him.

“There are the petitions, Urena’s teachers need to speak with us and Yomin’s sleepover did not go well. He will have to have his friends over here in the future. He lit the room on fire.”

The breakfast that was placed in front of her was just what she wanted. “Any matters of state you need me for?”

“No, just rest and take care of yourself.”

She grinned. “That is your job.”

He snickered. “You won’t let me do it.”

“I let you do many things. Some you have to fight for.”

Urena was playing with more fruit, balancing the berries in the air.

“You are doing well, Ury.”

“Thank you, Mama.”

To Ari’s surprise, Urena focused with her face flat and her brows furrowed. Ari knew that face, it was her concentration face.

Usorn smiled at her and winked. “Not for a bit.”

“What?”

“You often ask me if I regret you, and the answer is now as it always has been, not for a bit.”

She worked on her breakfast as her husband helped the imperial princess put a berry through a seeded fruit slice. Some kids did puzzles, hers levitated fruit and turned fabrics into flame.

She rubbed her belly and wondered what this next child would bring. She already had backache and nausea; she hoped that the child’s talent wasn’t inducing seasickness.

Time would tell. At least there were other Terrans on Hredu now. Urena had other children to play with that understood the peculiarity of a chalky mother and the burden of power that rose unbidden.

When her breakfast was over and her morning tea consumed, she got to her feet and headed back to her quarters for a bath and a change of clothing. An empress couldn’t run around in a robe all day, not twice in one week, anyway.

This release date, Jan. 1, 2015, marks my 300
^th
solo story in publication. Yay!

I would like to take this moment to thank each and every reader who has picked up one of my works, the loyal fanatics, and my editor, publisher and cover artist.

Book 300 will officially be the work of my alter ego, Zenina Masters,
Snow Time for Love
. Zenina gave me an outlet for some of the stories I didn’t have space to write and so she gets book 300.

Thanks for reading one and all,

Viola Grace

http://www.violagrace.com

[email protected]

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.

An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.