Haldis Imperium Excerpt

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Champions of Terra: Haldis Imperium - fifth and Final in the series. Available now! from Extasy Books. www.extasybooks.com After years of being encased in the armor of the Negotiators of the Alliance, Amy Tyrell is free. She can leave her armor. They take it off  and have her next assignment ready. A breeding partner for the most arrogant man in the Imperium, her old boss. He will have nothing to do with her, as his current focus is to find his favorite negotiator. He seems obsessed with finding his friend, and not looking beyond his own nose.  Until he sees the Terran flitting through the Imperial halls. 

Haldis Imperium Excerpt:

Amy steeled herself and dressed for formal presentation. Her Terran Champion markings clearly visible beneath the cropped top she was wearing, the waist of her skirt rising in a peak to just below her navel and falling in graceful lines to the floor. “Here we go.” She muttered under her breath as she walked through the corridor.

Entering the main audience chamber, Amy walked down the center of the room to the throne, where he was sitting. She dipped into a curtsy and kept her head lowered.

“So, you are the Terran Champion that Marvick and the council have been pestering me about. Well, raise your head woman, and lets have a look.” His arrogant tone began to slice through the thin threads that bound her temper, but she raised her head and met his eyes.

When she made eye contact, he looked startled. As if seeing something in her that she was unaware of.

She stood completely still as he eyed her up and down, his gaze lingering at her breasts and hips, and then strangely at her hands. "Not bad. Not amazing, but not bad.” His tone grated along her nerves. She had to wait until he asked her a question to speak. But, the pressure of his gaze and his insulting comments were causing her temper to flare.

He rose from the throne and began to circle her, taking in every nuance of her appearance and judging it.

“You have several scars on your arms and the back of your neck. What were you doing before they sent you here?” His tone held only polite curiosity.

“Working for the Alliance Council in my assigned profession.” Her answer was the simple and direct version that she had been trained to give when not in the safety of the armor.

“Just what was that profession?” He had stopped directly behind her and she jumped when he whispered the question into her ear. His warm breath sending ripples of sensation down her neck and beginning a slight increase in heartbeat that could be trouble for her.

“I…worked in the Trade Center.” Her answer was evasive. She knew he was up to something, but had no idea what.

“Trade…how, interesting. I suppose that you are unaware that the Alliance Council has offered me a considerable sum to delay the reproductive contract with you.” Her startled face made him laugh. “Apparently, they need your services immediately. Now why would that be?” He resumed his seat on the throne and met her eyes once again. He was amused, definitely, but she didn’t know why.

“I don’t know your highness. I haven’t received any notices from the council. This news is a surprise to me.” She was genuinely bewildered by his behavior, and only then noticed that she and Palden were completely alone in the room.

He withdrew a data pad from the table next to him. “Ah, here it is, ‘It is requested that Amy Tyrell of the Terran Protectorate be released temporarily from the procreative contract with His Imperial Majesty Palden VII, as her skills are required by the Alliance Trade Commission. Should she be carrying an heir by this time, it is the request of the council that she be allowed to consult in the negotiations for which her expertise is needed.’ Does that clear anything up for you, Tyrell?” He lifted a brow and tossed the data pad to her so that she could verify its contents.

“Oh, that. Hiya, Palden.” She was almost relieved that he had not discovered her other secret. “Is that what has gotten the bee in your bonnet, that I didn’t tell you who I was? You know, if you had just met with me right away, I might have told you by now.” She gave him a cheeky grin and the small abbreviated half-bow that was her trademark.

He removed himself once again from the throne and stood facing her directly, only two feet in front of her. “You let me believe that you were male, you arranged alliances between me and other women without batting an eye, you stormed into my private chambers whenever you wanted…and then you left me.” His voice was husky with emotion. As she lowered her eyes, he reached out to grasp her chin in a gentle yet firm grip.

“For five whole years you tormented me, beat me at Wings of War, fought me on every political decision that I made and refused to bow to my every whim and now you won’t even meet my eyes, why is that?” His voice had gotten suspiciously gentle as he waited for her reply.

“I am no longer a Negotiator. I have no value to you except as a means of getting your advisors off of your back by providing you with an heir, and you didn’t ask for me to be here.” She shuddered and took another deep breath. “I have not really considered this to be a welcome back, and by no means a permanent assignment. I know your tastes in women, and you tire of them as quickly as the tides change. Genetically, we are a match. Physically, you are looking for something else.” She raised her eyes to meet his once again. He looked surprised by the matter-of-fact way that she was describing her role on his planet. She braced herself for the hurt blooming within her and kept going.

“Should we breed your heir, and should it be healthy and male, I will be out of your life and granted my freedom from the Alliance Service. Should it be female, you will be free to choose another match and I will have fulfilled my contractual obligations to the Alliance and be sent somewhere quiet to raise my daughter. If you choose not to copulate with me, at the end of the six months I will be sent on to the next world where my match has been chosen.” Her voice held no trace of the emotions that she was feeling. In all likelihood, she was already pregnant and the thought of the baby in her arms with his eyes looking up at her was causing a small part of her heart to break. She closed her eyes and fought back tears.

“But we have already copulated Tyrell, don’t you remember? It is certainly etched in my mind. You were so tight, so wet, so hot, so responsive that it blew my mind.” His voice had dropped to a husky purr and her eyes flew open to meet his inches above her.

“You knew?” Her voice came out as a horrified whisper. “You knew all along?”

“Don’t be stupid, of course I didn’t know.” He seemed genuinely irritated with her now, how fast his moods changed. “I put it all together after the fact. The dancing, the hair, and of course the fact that I woke up covered in body makeup. Your only really exposed skin was your abdomen, and the only thing that you could have reason to hide with that much makeup would be ranking tattoos, which meant you were from off world. Only seventeen tattooed off-worlders are currently on this planet, and only two of them are humanoid. One is male, and I think that I would have remembered that. So, via process of elimination, I ended up with the contract Terran.”

“By the way Tara…very cute. So Tyrell, what did you think of me?” His voice had once again changed into the husky purr that seemed to reach into her belly and start a fire.

“Adequate…very adequate.” She murmured as he began to reach for her. “In fact, so adequate that if I had known, I would have tried to jump you while still in the armor.”

His boyish grin replaced the rapid frown that had started to grip his features. “Since I thought that you were male at the time, I don’t know how receptive I would have been, but hey, feel free now.” His hands gripped her upper arms and he drew her to him, hips to hips, breast to chest and thigh to thigh. He let out a sigh of contentment as she relaxed against him. No one had ever felt this right. Despite what she believed, he planned on keeping her.

She looked around to make sure that they were alone, then raised her face to his and leaned up slightly to join her lips to his. “So, ever done it in a throne room?”