Free Perfect Master by Ann Jacobs

man being unable to fully
enjoy his lovers’ bodies. I vow that on my life. On our love.”

Epilogue
    One year later, in the royal palace of Obsidion
     
    At the sound of footsteps on the tower
stair, Emerald handed their eleven-week-old son to his nurse and shooed them
both from the room. Yesterday she and Arik had celebrated the anniversary of
their mating with the king and members of the royal court. Today they were on
the way to her sister’s mating ceremony. Afterward, she intended to have her
own private celebration with the prince who’d made almost all her fantasies
come true.
    The matchmaker had done right by them.
Though others might think Meredith had made an awful mistake in matching her
with Arik, Emerald had never doubted from the first that they were soul mates.
When Arik had offered to go to Pak Song and have himself turned into a cyborg
so he could appear as he had before—the perfect prince for his perfect princess—she’d
realized he loved her, too.
    Too much to let him do it. She loved her
mate for what lay within him—no matter how the gods had wrecked the outer
wrapper. She was glad she’d persuaded him to compromise, keep his own body
parts but let the surgeons repair the damaged facial nerves that kept him in
constant pain and replace the hook with his modern, bionic right hand.
    Not for her, because she loved him as he
was, he’d let the surgeons fit him with a prosthetic eye and cheekbone to
repair the ruined side of his face, so he wouldn’t look quite so fearsome to
his subjects. She was glad he’d opted not to get bionic eyes, for as long as he
could see well with his left eye, she hadn’t wanted him to trade it, not even
for the flawless X-ray vision he could have had with the bilateral bionic
replacements the cyborg maker had tried to sell him on.
    What they both appreciated about the repair
to his face was that he didn’t hurt anymore. Not that his improved appearance
didn’t make life easier for Arik as well as for those who looked upon him. That
had become important these past few months, since the king had ceded most of
his royal duties to his son.
    “You look stunning, Master,” she told him
when he joined her on the stairs, his emerald-green uniform the perfect
complement her green-velvet court gown. “I do believe we’ll outshine the
celebrants today.”
    He laughed. “It’s only right. After all,
the crown prince and princess must outshine mere subjects. Besides, I couldn’t
let my princess grab all the attention, or risk that she might look at me and
faint again today.”
    Emerald let him tuck her arm through his
and they began to descend the long, curved stair. “I wouldn’t talk about
fainting if I were you.”
    Her fainting the first time she’d seen him
had become almost their only subject of contention. Arik seemed determined
never to let her forget she’d passed dead away the first time she’d seen his
face. But she had him now. Every time he mentioned her squeamishness, she
reminded him how he’d collapsed in a heap on the birthing-room floor when
little Arik made his entrance into the world.
    “I won’t, then. Why don’t we make a pact to
forget about fainting?” He squeezed her hand as they headed across the
courtyard where the litter awaited to take them to her sister’s mating.
    She looked up at him, the unlikely prince
of all her fantasies. Meredith had done well, indeed. The matchmaker had truly
found Emerald a diamond in the rough. Her perfect Master.
    The End
     

About the Author
     
    Ann Jacobs is a sucker for lusty Alpha heroes and happy
endings, which makes Ellora’s Cave an ideal publisher for her work. Romantica®,
to her, is the perfect combination of sex, sensuality, deep emotional
involvement and lifelong commitment—the elusive fantasy women often dream about
but seldom achieve.
    First published in 1996, Jacobs has sold over forty books
and novellas, some of which have earned awards including the Passionate Plume
(best novella,