The Impatient Lord Read Online Free Page B

business—code for the hairpin was tipped in poison. It was then Riona knew they were of the same mold.
    Unlike her stuffy sister , who hid out in her luxury room for most of the trip through the stars, Riona had found a small group of potential brides that were a little more her speed. If she didn’t know better, she’d say this Olena Leyton was much more than she let on. Riona didn’t care. The woman was allowed her secrets, even if they were of a piratical sort.
    They were lounging on the floor of her luxury suite on the Galaxy Brides spaceship. The rest of the prospective brides were getting ready for the official docking the next evening. The women were quarantined from the crew to ensure nothing unseemly happened, which caused some of the women to jokingly refer to their quarters as the harem.
    Olena began to hum. Riona laughed, recognizing the old pirate drinking song.
    “ And we sail the high skies looking for gold,” Olena sang softly.
    “ Looking for treasures that never grow old,” Riona added, louder.
    Olena laughed to discover her new friend knew the words and they both instantly burst into drunken concert, “The wind in our sails, lads, the stars at our feet, as we plunder for women, thick brown and good mead!”
    They fell over laughing, barely able to get the last part out.
    Riona had spent the last month being pampered and primped. Personal droids were assigned to each room. There were cooking units in each of their quarters that could materialize almost any culinary delight. She readily admitted she loved everything about the ride. Who wouldn’t? Massages and manicures, pedicures and servants… Plus, the ship had a medic unit. Free health maintenance.
    Happiness and bliss. Happiness and bliss .
    Riona ’s stomach hurt from laughing. She fell to the side, dropping her arm before tossing her disc at the game board. It slid off course and was electrocuted into dust. She laughed harder.
    Smirking, Olena continued, “ These dopey brides actually think they’re going to marry royalty. I mean, the whole rumor about there being four princes going to attend is just an advertising technique to get women to sign up. They’ll probably end up with farmers and servants. There has to be a reason the Draig don’t let the people talk to each other before the ceremony. My guess, the men are stupid. The best we can hope for is they shut up and look pretty. Yeah, like anyone ever found true love at the end of a glowing crystal.”
    “ Glowing crystal?” Riona interrupted.
    “ Yeah, you know about the crystals, right?”
    Riona shook her head in denial. “ I didn’t get around to the whole wedding ceremony uploads, just the planetary survival facts.” Mainly because she had no intention of going through with an archaic ceremony. Once they told the right person why they were there, surely Riona and her sister would be excused from the whole contracted marriage thing.
    Out of boredom, Riona had taken advantage of some of the basic Qurilixen uploads. The process worked using the ship’s computer to load information directly into the brain. It made universal understanding a lot easier and more efficient. Riona had researched practical things—the planet, the people, a general sense of where they were going in the universe on the off chance she had to steal a ship and escape.
    Olena motioned to her neck, absently waving her finger back and forth. “ They wear the crystals around their necks and, when they look at their future woman, the rock starts to glow. Apparently, it reacts to their level of horniness of something.”
    “ You’re joking,” Riona drawled skeptically.
    “ Maybe about the horniness levels part,” Olena admitted, chuckling as she lifted her glass of Old Earth whiskey to her lips. Taking a drink, she sputtered a little and said, “This stuff is surprisingly good…after you’re drunk of course and really can’t taste it anymore.”
    “ What are medic units for if not to cure a