King of Me (The King Trilogy #3)(12)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

I wearily climbed the stairs towards King’s room, but found Stefanos Spiros, the head of the Spiros family and of King’s mysterious Greek mafia, blocking my way. Stefanos was also the chief of police, which is why he wore an intimidating uniform.

“You are to go to your personal chamber to prepare for tonight,” he said with a thick Greek accent. “To the left and at the end of the corridor.”

I had stayed in King’s suite during my handful of nights at the estate, upon King’s request.

“Why the change?” Not that I minded, but King never did anything without a reason.

Stefanos shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. When our king asks me to do something, I do it.”

“And when I’m your queen, what then?” I asked just to torment him. “Will you follow me blindly, too?”

“No. You are not my king,” he replied.

“And I’m a Seer of Light.” The Spiros were not super-fans of my heritage—being related to Hagne—despite the fact she’d died over three thousand years ago. The strange part was that the Seer “gift” was passed on through bloodlines, but not everyone had it. How did I know? There were quite a few women in my family—cousins and aunts, yet I was the last living Seer. The end of the line.

“Yes.” He narrowed his dark eyes, eyes that matched his thick brown hair.

“You do realize how ridiculous it is to hold a grudge that long.”

“We have our reasons,” he replied.

“Such as?”

He gestured toward the corridor to the left, meaning he wasn’t going to answer. “Ypirétria awaits to assist you.”

I sighed. “In what?”

“Dressing for your evening. The helicopter leaves in thirty minutes.” He glanced at his watch. “Make that twenty-eight minutes.”

There was no point in asking where I was going because King would have already told me if he wanted me to know. “Thank you, Stefanos.” I nodded. “I’ll be ready in forty.”

The look in his eyes told me he was about to remind me of King’s punctuality obsession but decided against it. After all, it was my ass that would be chewed out by King for being late, not his.

I passed Stefanos on the stairwell and was almost to the top when I stopped. “Stefanos?”

He gazed up at me from the bottom of the stairs.

“I’m sorry if my being here makes your family feel uncomfortable.”

He gave me a cold look. “You won’t live forever.”

I assumed he thought I’d want to live here until my last dying breath, even after King departed this world. I had no such intentions. “I’ll be out of your hair by next week, actually.”

He gave me a peculiar look, then glanced at his watch. “Twenty-seven minutes.”

I shook my head and continued on my way. When I got to the fairly large room with a balcony overlooking the side garden, Ypirétria, which was Greek for “maid,” sat in the corner with a pair of knitting needles and pink yarn.

“Hi. I’m back,” I said, knowing she didn’t understand English (nor I her language), but saying nothing felt strange.

She blurted out an exclamation I imagined meant, “Where the hell have you been, young lady?” But who knew?

“I went for a long walk.” I made my fingers walk across my palm to illustrate.

The elderly woman, who wore a black drapey dress and scarf, pointed to the bathroom and mimed that I needed to shave my legs.

Err. Okay…thanks for the concern? “I’ll be ready in five minutes.” I held up five fingers, expecting she’d get the cue to leave.

She mumbled something, shook her finger at me, and then pointed to my armpits, once again miming that I was to shave.

I’m twenty-six years old and have a mother, I thought, but didn’t want to say something so rude, even if she couldn’t understand.

She walked over to the enormous walk-in closet and emerged with a black satin strapless dress. She swept her hand over the front as if presenting me with a very nice gift, which I’m sure it was. King didn’t buy dresses off the clearance rack at Macy’s or Neiman’s—my usual hunting grounds. But with its ultrashort hem and scandalously plunging neckline, it was the sort of dress a woman wore when she didn’t intend to keep it on very long.

My body involuntarily reacted to the thought of King selecting something so seductive for me.

The woman then pointed right at my groin while making her other hand into scissors. “See-reez-ma,” she said slowly.

I scratched my head. “You want me to groom the kitty?”

“You make di lobe tonight,” she said in broken English. “Sex weet King.”

My jaw dropped. Not because the woman could barely speak a lick of English and had managed to say something so shocking, but because it gave me a sick sort of sexual satisfaction imagining King telling her how he wanted me to look for him, right down to my na**d body.

Get it together, Mia. This is a mind game. The guy was probably in the room right now, watching me and enjoying the hell out of my reaction. Well, I wasn’t going to give him one.

I cleared the sticky, indecent thoughts from my throat. “No. You tell King, no sex. No sex tonight.”

The woman repeated her instructions.

“Tell King if he wants sex, he can go f**k himself.”

She stared.

“You don’t understand me, do you?” I asked.

She slapped her palms together, symbolizing a man and woman lying together. “You make di sex tonight.” She nodded happily as if she believed we’d come to some sort of understanding, and then walked from the room, leaving the dress laid out on the bed.

Lord, help me.

The entire time I showered—yes, and shaved—I kept thinking about the part of me that really did want him. He was a beast that oozed sexual desire. More like a goddamned lion. And you’re lunch.

So why couldn’t I make the feelings go away?

Mia. Stop. Just be on your guard and stay focused. We had the Artifact now and were so close to the end of this nightmare. Justin would be brought back. King’s suffering would end.

And King will be gone from your life forever.

I drew in a deep breath, the hot water beating down mercilessly on my tense neck. “This is goodbye.” The man who’d lived over three thousand years, who’d witnessed the world age and change, would soon cease to exist. And curse or no curse, this would be the end of something profoundly epic, the end of a king from a lost civilization.