"It's called Kiss."

Well that explained it. "The really expensive perfume?"

"Yes."

No wonder they charged so much. Normally, Zarya despised perfumes of any kind. They made her sneeze and gave her headaches. But this one was very subtle and...

Yummy.

Gera smiled in satisfaction. "The trick to wearing perfume correctly is to only apply enough that if someone else can smell it, they'd better be intimate with you. A fragrance should never linger without you in an area after you've left it. Rather it should be a subtle reminder that only stays on your pillow or clothes, and only when your lover's face is buried in them."

That was an interesting philosophy and one Zarya could agree with. Nothing bothered her more than to step into a room and be assaulted by oversprayed scents.

Gera dabbed the stopper on Zarya's neck and then her wrists and elbows. When Gera went to put it between her breasts, Zarya protested again. She was a little tired of being groped by other women.

Tsking, Gera gave Zarya a chiding, but patient stare. "Mistress, please, we've already gone through this. Either you allow me to prep you or I'll be forced to have the guards hold you down for it. Either way, you will submit to this."

They'd be bloody and blue from it if they tried... While she might not be able to expertly groom herself to Gera's satisfaction, she did know how to fight.

Zarya started to tell the older woman that she wasn't Darling's property, but legally she was. Something the slave collar around her neck testified to.

Damn you, Maris.

Couldn't someone have removed the stupid thing?

No doubt Darling intentionally kept it there to remind her of her new position in his world. No longer the love of his life...

She was now his piece of property to do with as he wished, regardless of her own thoughts.

A knot formed in her stomach as she remembered his words from last night. The words he'd growled to her downstairs after they'd made love.

"This changes nothing between us..."

He hated her.

Her stomach cramped with pain. "Fine," she said irritably. After all, none of this was Gera's fault. The older woman was just following orders and the last thing Zarya wanted was to get her into trouble.

But...

Darling had better duck when he came in the door.

Gera slid the stopper down Zarya's chest, then underneath her breasts.

She tried not to cringe. "I don't think you're paid enough for your job."

Gera smiled. "It's not so bad. The other mistresses I've tended haven't minded my attention. Most enjoyed it immensely."

The thought of Darling having a mistress really stung, even more so if he'd had one while he was seeing her. "How many have you served?"

"Between the four rulers I've worked under, it's probably somewhere around seventy total."

That was a lot of women cycling through this room, especially for only four men. "Why so many?"

Gera returned the bottle to the tray. "There were fourteen under Governor Ehrun Cruel."

Ehrun... That would have been Darling's grandfather.

"He was very kind and giving to his mistresses, but he never kept one for more than three years."

A bad feeling went through her as she remembered what Senna had accused Darling of. Could his grandfather have been that twisted?

"Why not?"

Gera picked up a brush to style her hair. "He would choose women from the stews who were already selling themselves, and then have us educate them. After two or three years, their choice not his, he'd set them up with a new home and a stipend for them so that they could move on with their lives. They were allowed to take all of their clothes and any gifts or jewelry he purchased for them while they were here. He considered it an even exchange. They would provide him with temporary companionship and he would take care of them for the rest of their lives. Many of their children and grandchildren still live on the trusts he set up for them."

While that was extremely generous of him, she couldn't help but wonder about Darling's grandmother. 'Cause she knew what she'd do to her husband if he set a woman up in this room and she found out about it. "His wife didn't mind?"

Curling Zarya's hair around her face, Gera shook her head. "It wasn't for her to say. But no, she didn't mind. She never spent much time with him. Rather, she stayed with her family on her home planet and only visited a few times a year until she birthed Lord Drux. Then she didn't come back at all."

Drux had been Darling's father.

"Why? Did they not get along?"

Gera shrugged. "Political marriages don't always match up those most compatible. Her ladyship didn't have much of a sense of humor and she was very fastidious. His lordship was much more fun loving and free spirited. Very much like Lord Drakari and Lady Annalise. He lived for intelligent debate, and she didn't like thinking that hard about anything. She found him tiring, and he found her tedious."

How sad for the two of them. They both must have been terribly lonely.

"What about his lordship's father? How many mistresses did Lord Drux have?"

"Only one. A beautiful, fiery woman he met in a club he shouldn't have ventured into." Gera tucked the curls she'd made around a small white band on Zarya's head. "Kirren was something very special."

She paused to meet Zarya's gaze in the mirror. For the first time, she had a feeling the older woman might actually like her. "You remind me a lot of Mistress Kirren-you have the same defiant and fearless look in your eyes."

"I hope that's not a bad thing."

Gera's smile widened as she went back to styling Zarya's hair. "Not at all. I honestly had a lot of fun while she was here. She taught me some rather interesting things."

"Such as?"

Gera blushed.

Wow, that was a first.

"C'mon, Gera, dish... What did she teach you?"

"Things about men that you will now be learning."

Oh great. She'd learn tricks from someone her mother's age. That was...

Creepy.

"So what happened to her?" Zarya asked.

"His lordship asked her to leave when his father betrothed him to her ladyship."

That was stunning. Rarely to her knowledge did the rich give up their mistresses for a wife. "Really?"

Gera nodded. "Lady Natale was so young and uncertain of herself at the time their parents contracted their marriage that Lord Drux feared hurting her feelings. Because of his parents, he didn't want to start their relationship off badly. He also felt that it wouldn't be fair to Kirren to keep her while he was married to another woman. He really did love her, and they remained friends to the day he died."

That said a lot about Darling's father. He must have been an incredible man. She only had a handful of memories of his visits to her home. He'd been tall and usually smiling, but other than that, she remembered very little about him really.

The one thing she did remember though was that her father had never once spoken out against Drux Cruel. Not about anything.

He'd railed solely against Arturo.

Gera sighed. "Oh you should have seen how happy they were together while he lived. They loved each other so much. His lordship even moved her ladyship into this room to have her near him at all times-something no governor had ever done before. Lord Darling and his siblings were all conceived and born right here in this very room."

That was an interesting tidbit, and Zarya wasn't sure how she felt about it. On the one hand it was sweet. On the other...

Ew!

Zarya looked up at the pornographic illustrations on the ceiling over her head. "Was it always decorated like this?"

Gera giggled as she glanced up, too. "No, Mistress. Her ladyship has much more modest tastes and would have been horrified to bathe here." Her gaze turned sad. "Lord Arturo had it redecorated to his tastes after he became Grand Counsel."

"So where did Lady Natale go for a room?"

"The governor's family quarters are on another wing entirely. Far enough away that none of the ladies ever ventured here. Rather the governors would go to them when they wanted to father children."

That seemed odd to her. "Lord Arturo kept Lady Natale at this palace even after her mourning period ended?" Normally the widows were set up in their own households on other planets, or they returned to their families and home planets.

Zarya couldn't miss the way Gera's hands started trembling. "He... he used her ladyship to control Lord Darling, and he used Lord Darling to control her ladyship."

"How so?"

Gera flinched. "I'd rather not say, Mistress. I promised her ladyship that I'd never betray her. Sorry."

Those words gave her a sick feeling of dread. What exactly had gone on here?

It made her wonder if that was why Darling and his mother seldom spoke to each other. She remembered asking him once about his parents when he'd been Kere to her.

"My father died when I was young."

"And your mother?"

"We don't talk much."

"Why not?"

"It's complicated. Whenever we're together, I disappoint her, and she disappoints me. It's easier on both of us if we just avoid each other."

Since both of her parents were dead, she'd never understood how he could avoid his mother who was still alive.

What could make a mother hate her son so much?

The light returned to Gera's eyes. "It did my heart good to see the governor's parents together. The only blight they ever had on their happiness was his lordship's illegitimate son who lived here with their children for a time. Her ladyship tried not to let it bother her, but she couldn't seem to help resenting him."

Zarya frowned. Darling had an older brother? She'd never heard that before and the Resistance had done a thorough background screening on the ruling family.

How had they missed that?

Frowning, she couldn't remember another son ever coming in with Lord Drux on his visits to her childhood home. Nor had Kere ever mentioned it.

Of course, Kere had never mentioned his younger brother, either. And very seldom had he spoken of his sister.

"What son?" she asked Gera.

"Lord Ryn. He was conceived during Lord Drux's short affair with Kirren. After his lordship married, Lord Ryn would spend the school year here and then his breaks with his mother."

Ryn... that was who Darling had been visiting when Maris had found out that Darling knew he was gay. Finally, things were starting to make sense.

Sort of.

But Zarya wondered what had become of Darling's brother. "Where is Lord Ryn now?"

"He was an ambassador, last I heard. But I don't think it's for us. He and Lord Darling were extremely close when they were young, but regretfully they grew apart after Lord Drux died."

"Do you know why?"

"No, Mistress. Sorry."

Fascinating. It made her curious which of them had caused the tear in their relationship.

Darling or Ryn...

"So all the other mistresses belonged to Lord Arturo, then?" she asked Gera.

Unless Darling had someone in his past that neither she nor Maris knew about. That thought stabbed her.

A troubled frown creased Gera's brow. "Yes. They were all his. You're the first of Lord Darling's."

She didn't like the way Gera phrased that. She didn't want to think about Darling with other women. Men, either, for that matter, especially given what Maris had told her... I don't want to be his first.

She wanted to be his last.

Not wanting to think about a time when she might not be with him, she returned to their discussion. That was a lot of women for only one man, especially one who'd been married before he became Grand Counsel. "Why so many?"

Gera set the brush aside. "He kept four and five at a time."