Free Alien's Bride: Lisette by Yamila Abraham Page A

her throat.
She was furious to the point of tears.
    Prax-Denay merely sighed. “Are you done
wasting our time? We were in the middle of a damned
experiment.”
    “ Don’t try to deflect me. I
bet you slept with her the second I was gone.”
    “ If you were so worried why
did you leave us unsupervised?”
    “ I didn’t leave you
unsupervised. I had the feeds of three different robots tapped to
watch you two in the lab.”
    Lisette felt as though her gut had been
punched.
    Prax-Denay remained smug. “Yes. And
what did you see?”
    “ Nothing.”
    Lisette stopped chewing her lower lip
to eye him.
    “ Because you disabled their
connections.”
    “ Damn right,” Prax-Denay
said. “I don’t need your snide nose prodding into my lab. If you
want to know what we’re doing, then drag your lazy carcass into
work. The girl and I have worked ceaselessly since you’ve been
gone.”
    “ I’m sure you found a few
segments here and there for recreational activities.”
    “ I already told you we’re in
the middle of an experiment!” Prax-Denay strode to the front of his
desk. Lisette felt them to be united against their common enemy.
“Are you going to lob baseless accusations all day?”
    Jorenkis turned toward his console.
That felt like a triumph to Lisette. He couldn’t confront the two
of them head on. He spoke to his monitor.
    “ You don’t think she’s cute,
Prax? She’s timid and bookish. Easy to bully. Just your type,
right?”
    “ I think she’s a lure, set
by you and your more ignorant superiors, in order to take me down.
None of you can bear for an Etiken to be as accomplished as I am.
Someone above you is intimidated and wanted to use a slave to
destroy my career. Your convenient month long absence only
confirmed my suspicion.”
    Jorenkis shot him a dubious
look.
    “ Tell them their ploy has
backfired. Not only have I resisted your bait, I’ve used her to
bring my work to even greater heights than before. Tell them this
Etiken hasn’t touched a petal on the pretty flower you put in his
lab. That’s something even Lord Drathek admitted he couldn’t do.
For me, who is in all ways superior to you and your ilk, it was
easy. I put her to work. I used her to further my supremacy over
the rest of you dullards. That’s all.”
    “ All right!” Jorenkis said.
“You’re not sleeping with her. I believe you.”
    Lisette felt like clapping. Prax-Denay
was magnificent! His words were so strong—so eloquent. She brimmed
with pride to be married to him.
    “ He doesn’t even want you,
Lisette,” Jorenkis said, while turning his face toward her only
slightly. “I’m here, and I want to make it work with you. What? Are
you going to just die unmarried?”
    “ Lord Elentinus said I
didn’t have to—”
    “ He’s not here. I’m running
things. I’m not going to let a woman go to waste when we’re
practically extinct. If you don’t want me then you’ll have to be
with someone else, and most of them here are from the old guard who
think women are supposed to be collar-shocked into
submission.”
    Prax-Denay groaned and cupped Lisette’s
elbow. “Up. Up!”
    She scrambled to her feet.
    “ We don’t have the whole day
to waste on your idiocy.” He pulled Lisette towards the
door.
    Once out of his sight Prax-Denay’s
gruff hold became gentle. He hugged her against his side and kissed
her forehead. Lisette stifled a joyful laugh.
    ***
    Jorenkis remained in the building too
late for them to share their evening meal together, a ritual
Lisette had come to cherish. Prax-Denay and Lisette exchanged looks
of abject annoyance when the light in his office was still on past
dark.
    “ He does have some duties,”
Prax-Denay told her as they ascended the stairs. “We’ve built up a
large back-log of work for him to report to Lord Matoranis. He can
get obsessed with his tasks sometimes. He’ll likely be here all
night.”
    Lisette pouted. Her sweet husband
deserved some extra-special loving for dealing