ROMULUS (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

release.
    Afterward, he stroked her hair and whispered, "Thank you."
    Tarla sat still for a moment, feeling suddenly drained. It didn't take much thought to realize it wasn't due to the physical energy her efforts had required. It was his response. Please. Thank you. Those were appropriate words relating to a full-body massage. She knew what she had done was merely a physical service performed for a friend but he might have offered to return the favor. Since all she had to do was ask, his unintended neglect should not have annoyed her... but it did.
    "Rom," she said as she got up and gathered his clothing for him. "I need you to go home now."
    He was clearly confused.
    She put her fingers to his lips. "I'm just tired. I'll see you in the morning." Tarla said no more while he dressed and walked to her door. Placing a light kiss on her forehead, he bade her good night.
    She had told him she didn't know her heart's desire. That was not entirely true. She knew she wanted to be loved by a man whose hatred of another race did not blind him to her love, a man who would put her before everything else, including his work, a man who needed her touch as desperately as she needed his.
    Once upon a time, that was not such an odd goal for a Noronian female.
    Once upon a time, Noronians were as uncivilized as Terrans. But going back to that less complicated, more interesting era was not an option.
    * * *
    On his way home, Romulus analyzed the evening's events. The game had been his best ever, as well as the most strenuous. And without requesting a favor, Tarla had treated him very well and that took care of the other item on his agenda for getting rid of his frustration. So why didn't he feel better?
    He could tell something was bothering Tarla also, but he had no idea what it might be and she didn't seem anxious to reveal it.
    He should have been ready to drop into an exhausted sleep. Instead, he felt as though his nerve endings were on the outside of his skin. Maybe it was the knowledge that he was truly in the running for the governorship, that it was no longer wishful thinking. After all, he had devoted his entire life toward that goal and now it was within his grasp. He had every reason to be excited. After a moment, however, he rejected that explanation. He knew intimately the feeling of having achieved hard-sought goals and this was not quite it.
    He suddenly recalled that he had felt like this once before.
    When he was ten years old, for a week or more, he had roamed around aimlessly, scratching his oversensitive skin, agitated by every little thing. An old woman with white hair hanging to her ankles had arrived at his parents' farm. Her name was Mem, eldest of the Ruling Tribunal of Norona. She had stayed for two days, talking, questioning and debating with him. By the time she had left, he knew a future of leadership awaited him and his path had been neatly planned. His case of nerves had departed with her.
    Though he was not precognizant, the answer hit him like a thunderclap. He had never put much effort into developing any of his extrasensory powers to their fullest potential but this message came through in spite of his limited abilities.
    Something important was about to happen again.
    The second he acknowledged that probability, a dream from the night before came back to him. He had been tangled in a silvery spider web and the more he struggled to get away, the more he was entrapped. He was aware that the web held danger, maybe even death, and yet it also had a seductive quality that made him want to burrow deeper into the snare. When he finally pushed the silver strands away, he was gazing into a clear midnight blue sky.
    Rom tried to analyze the symbols of the dream but if they held a clue about what was coming, he had no idea what it was.
    As he entered his residence, his facilities manager announced that a confidential transmission awaited his attention. Romulus sat down at his desk and opened the vidcom. A coded message