Page 54 of Alpha's Embrace
One of his dark, sleek eyebrows rose.
I continued. “I have had no contact with anyone but bonded Alphas and Omegas.”
“You had contact with Geo. He is unbonded.”
My face grew more heated. I wondered if the color changed enough for Doctor Prim to notice. I was always hot, always in the Burn, so maybe he would see it as normal.
“He’s a friend. He’d never harm me,” I finally answered.
“Of course. But there were times when you both came into contact, skin to skin, I mean.”
Where was he going with this?
I thought again about the day I’d been so overwhelmed I’d fainted. How Geo had carried me to the baths and placed me in a tub. He’d bathed me until he became very uncomfortable and couldn’t finish. Geo was a good man. I wanted him badly. I loved him. He had responded but he had also restrained himself.
“Geo is a man who has great control. He helped bathe me one day when I was sick. I responded and he never once took advantage of that. Why are you asking me these questions?”
“Ah, just routine.”
“It’s not routine. Is Geo in trouble?” My heartbeat increased. My throat went dry. “Is that why he doesn’t visit me anymore?”
My insides felt shredded at the idea that maybe he no longer even worked here. I’d never have hope of seeing him again. Heat pulsed behind my eyes at the horror of that thought.
“Nothing for you to worry about.” Prim’s voice was kind, controlled. His lips curved up slightly. “The protocol of wearing gloves while treating patients is a minor infraction.”
I thought about the times he’d touched me, skin on skin, in the colony hospital. Had Prim seen?
“I didn’t think about it. That he touched me. But he didn’t harm me. He never would. I don’t want him to get into trouble because of me!”
Prim opened his mouth to speak. I interrupted him.
“He’s only ever been fair and kind to me. He listened to me in ways no one ever has when I talked. He cared that I might be more than capable of participating in some sort of life routine outside this locked room.”
“You called him your king.”
I let out a half-laugh. “I did. And I’m a Sylph prince who sits in wait in his castle by the green sea until he comes of age and can inherit his destiny.”
Prim swallowed. His dark eyes seemed to bore into me.
“What else am I supposed to do with all this time locked away but create a life for myself?” I continued. “I can read and learn and watch TV only so much. Your life is what you make it, don’t you think? Well, I’m a prince. And by whose law can you say I am not? Yours? I don’t live in your world, Doctor.”
“You’re very articulate.”
“I don’t know what to say to that.”
“I’m saying that I am impressed with you. And I do not for one moment condemn Geo for taking an interest in you. But there is something you must understand. And I know you do. Geo does not live in your world. Nor you in his. He must obey other rules and laws.”
He was a king from a visiting kingdom with a different culture from my own. I understood that. Geo had to answer to other authorities I’d never know.
“This means,” Prim continued, “that he cannot do for you the things he might have wanted to try. He might want you to have more freedom, but he puts his own career and life in jeopardy by trying to give you those things. He can harm himself if his judgment is impaired.”
Shock ran through my system in bursts of sharp adrenaline. Had my behavior somehow harmed Geo?
I got up and started pacing the small space by the window. “I don’t want him to ever come to harm.”
“You want him, though.”
I didn’t answer.
