Beloved Stranger: Gaian Series, Book 5 (19 page)

“I know,” he said, smiling into her eyes. “And I want to make love to you, too. That’s what makes it so good.”

Chapter Seventeen

Sonja woke late to find the bed empty, Roan’s place in it rumpled but the sheets cold. They’d made love most of the night and then again in the morning, but she’d fallen asleep soon after the last time.

Obviously Roan had been up for a while. Sonja got up and dressed and headed into the living room to find her missing husband busy on his datastore. He shut it down when she came in.

Her immediate thought was there was something he didn’t want her to see. Her next was that he looked pleased to see her. “I’ve been waiting for you to get up. I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?”

He pulled her into the kitchen and opened the pantry and cold storage. Inside were eggs, fresh meat, vegetables and packages of dried goods lined up on the pantry shelves. Sonja stared at the ingredients of a dozen mouthwatering meals.

“You bought way too much, Roan,” she said when she recovered from her astonishment. “I couldn’t use most of this up in a week.”

“I was thinking you could show me how to cook. Once I got the hang of it, I could make my own meals.”

Sonja favored him with a stare. “You want to learn to cook?”

“Can you teach me?”

“You really want to learn?”

“Of course. Otherwise I wouldn’t have bought all this food.” He gave her a roguish grin. “I know how much you hate waste.”

She laughed and handed him a cloth then showed him how to wrap it around his waist. “The first lesson is that if you’re going to make an omelet you have to start by cracking eggs.”

An hour later Sonja bit into Roan’s first attempt at an omelet and let out a sigh. Not bad for a beginner, particularly if you ignored the occasional crunch of eggshell. He’d get better. The vegetables were cooked to perfection and the cheese melted just right.

Roan looked pleased as well as he ate his concoction and happier still when she complimented him. “I have a good teacher,” he said.

“You’re a good student. Later I’ll show you how to grill meat and what goes into a salad so you can make your own dinner.”

“Sounds great.”

Sonja finished her breakfast and put the dishes in the cleaner. She began wiping down the counter. “At least when I’m gone you’ll be able to take care of your own meals.”

Roan came up behind her and put his arms around her waist. “Let’s not talk any more about your leaving. I know you have to go, but…”

She turned in his arms and put her head on his chest. “I know. I’ll miss you too.”

“Will you?” He touched her face. “I’m glad.”

For a moment Sonja didn’t know what to say, so she simply held him tight. “Let’s clean things up,” she said. “And when we’re done you can show me around the bubble.”

“You’ve seen most of it already.” He grinned. “On that little expedition you took the first night.”

“But you miss so much when it is dark. And, besides, I think I could use some exercise.”

“If exercise is what you need, I know just what we should do. Wait here.”

Sonja finished cleaning the kitchen while Roan again disappeared into the spare room where he kept his smuggled inventory. When he didn’t reappear, her curiosity got the better of her and she went to the back of the apartment and found the door to the second bedroom ajar.

Tentatively, she pushed it open to reveal racks upon racks of clothes, shoes and other things. Astonished, she stepped inside the room.

Roan appeared from behind one of the racks and caught her expression. He gestured at the racks. “See anything you like?”

She reached out to touch some of the hanging clothes. “How did you get all this here?”

“I’ve brought it in over time. Much of it was ordered before the slowdown in the marriage meets. Fewer women, fewer marriages, less demand, more inventory. But that just means I’ll have less to order over the next few months.”

“You could open a shop with all this.”

Roan grimaced. “I’ve thought about it. I could even hire some of the wives to run it. There isn’t that much work for them here. But a shop would have to be approved by the company, and there would be too many questions about where all this came from.”

“What about selling to an existing store? I saw some over in Alpha that had women’s clothes, but nothing as fine as this.”

“Again I’d have to work with someone from the company.” He shook his head. “So far they’ve been impossible to deal with.”

“I see the problem.” Sonja stared at the full racks. “Too bad, though. If the demand for women’s clothes is that great you would expect there would be someone in the part of the company who handles the stores you could work with. It would certainly be of benefit to both of you.”

Roan stared at her for a moment and then smiled. “Maybe you have something there.” Carrying a bundle of clothes, he led her out of the room and closed the door. “Here, try these on,” he said and handed the bundle to her. “There is something I need to do.” Then he disappeared to the living room, leaving Sonja shaking her head.

“I wonder what he’s up to,” she said quietly to herself before taking the bundle into their bedroom.

One of the items she threw to the far side of the bed. “Not going to be needing that.” With a grin, she dressed in the form-fitting exercise clothes and began to stretch out before the mirror.

Roan returned from the living room and held up the item she’d discarded. “Didn’t it fit?” he asked, puzzled.

Sonja put her hands on her hips. “It’s a swimsuit.”

“Yes. I thought you’d like to try the pool.”

“I’d rather not.”

“But the water isn’t cold. They run it through the generators as coolant, so the pool is warm enough to swim in all the time.”

She tried to control her shudder. “It’s not that. I can’t swim.”

His smile faded into astonishment. “You can’t? At all?”

She shook her head. “I can barely float and tend to sink like a stone when I’m in water over my head. On my home planet we used wells to irrigate the land and feed the livestock, so there was never much in the way of open pools of water on the farm where I grew up. I never learned to swim as a child, and since I’ve spent so much time in space there was never a need. Why are you so surprised?”

He shook his head. “I guess I’m just shocked that there is something you can’t do.”

Sonja laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Roan took the suit and put it into the drawer of the cabinet Sonja was storing her clothes in. “I’ll keep it for you anyway. Perhaps later we can find some time, and I’ll teach you.”

She wanted to tell him there was no reason and to put the suit back into his inventory. But they’d agreed not to mention how she was leaving soon, so she said nothing.

The Beta Residence gym held a wide assortment of exercise machines, and Sonja took advantage of most of them. It felt good to use muscles that hadn’t had a good workout in several months.

Given that Denn Fuller was obese, out of shape and generally happy to be that way, his ship’s gym had held only the most rudimentary of exercise equipment. This had forced Sonja to improvise ways to stay fit, including running the long corridors that led past the empty cargo holds of the freighter.

She’d forced Fuller, grumbling all the way, into joining her until the man had at least been able to fit into a normal-sized chair. Some of that had also been her cooking, which she’d tailored to force him to lose weight.

Sonja pushed the weight up on the biceps machine she was using. Fuller was likely to live a lot longer because of her. And he’d keep that good health if he didn’t betray her.

Not that she expected he would. She had good friends among the Travelers in the Outer Colonies, and Fuller knew they’d go after him if she didn’t reappear soon.

Roan came out of the dressing room wearing only a set of trunks and carrying a towel on his shoulder. As he headed for her, Sonja couldn’t help but stare. Broad shoulders and bare chest, long muscular legs—he looked magnificent.

“I’m headed for the pool. Want to come with me?”

She should stay here and continue to work out. But he looked so good… and besides, her muscles were already aching nicely. “I’ll come.”

Sonja followed him and watched as he dove neatly into the pool. She sat down and continued to stare as he swam underwater most of the length then turned and headed back. His movements were so graceful, so strong. Roan seemed as much at home in the water as she was in a knife fight.

He broke the surface and took several long strokes before returning to the side where she was seated. He pushed the wet hair out of his eyes and grinned up at her. “You should try it. The water is great.”

“Maybe later,” she said.
In another life.
“How long have you been able to swim like that?”

“All my life. My mother said I learned to swim before I could walk.” He hauled himself out of the pool to sit next to her. “I grew up on the coast in a fishing village. I learned to swim, sail and catch fish before I was old enough to go to school.”

That must have been where he learned about boats. “Your father was a fisherman?”

He chuckled. “Not exactly. My parents own a fishing company and a fleet of boats. But my dad always went out with the fleet, as I did along with my mom, brothers and sisters.”

“Brothers and sisters?”

“Four. Two of each, and all of them younger.” He grew pensive. “I suppose they’re all married now. I’m probably an uncle several times over.”

“Don’t you have any contact with them?”

Roan shook his head. “Not permitted. Prisoners aren’t allowed contact with Gaia, or anywhere else. Not while we’re in the mines. That’s why the company gets away with so much. No one can say anything when things happen.”

“That’s so wrong,” Sonja said. She couldn’t help but be angry. “Why don’t people complain about it when they return to Gaia?”

“I guess once they get back home no one wants to say anything for fear of being sent back,” Roan said quietly.

“Someone should say something. It isn’t right that this has gone on so long.”

“I’m beginning to agree with you.”

“But will you do something about it?”

Roan said nothing, but he stared at her for a long moment. Then he dove back into the pool and swam long strokes while Sonja watched, the warm light of the sun filtering through the dome and making sparkles on the water.

Much later they were back in the apartment, making love in the late afternoon. This time they were in no hurry, and the result was sweet and fulfilling. Roan held Sonja as she moaned her completion before allowing himself to slip into ecstasy.

After she returned to herself, she smiled. “You are so good at that.”

“Making love?” he teased.

“Well, yes. But it’s more than that. You know where to touch me, how long to do something. It’s like you know what I feel.”

The look in Roan’s eyes turned thoughtful. “I understand my woman and know what she wants. There isn’t any magic to it other than the magic any relationship has.”

He kissed her, and she felt the magic as he did. When she could think again, she knew she wanted him with her.

“Roan,” Sonja said. “There is something I don’t understand.”

He stroked her back with long, fluid movements. “What?”

“This system of water-filled tunnels. You use them to smuggle goods to and from the spaceport.”

“Right.”

“That’s the way we’re going to escape, and you said the first night I was here that escape wasn’t all that difficult but none of the prisoners would do it. Why is that?”

His hand stopped moving for a moment. “I could leave the prison that way. But I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“If I did then I could never go back to Gaia.” Her confusion must have shown, because he gave her the barest bit of a smile. “I said you had to understand Gaian society.”

“So explain it to me.”

He settled her against his side. “There aren’t very many criminals on Gaia. For the most part we aren’t a violent people, and not too many people refuse to follow the laws. But when people do break the law seriously and are convicted, they are given a choice. They can leave Gaia permanently or serve time in a prison like Ares Five. There they can redeem themselves by mining the precious metals we need so badly.

“Gaia is a rich planet in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t have a lot of metals, so when some of the smaller planetoids in the solar system were discovered to be metal heavy, the idea of opening mines here became a priority. But getting people to work the mines was harder. That’s why we use them as prisons.”

“So mining is a kind of public service?”

“Yes, and once prisoners have served their time they can return to society. If they’d rather leave the mine earlier, they can, but then they would never be able to return to the planet.”

“And that means a lot to you?”

He turned towards her and touched her face, and for a moment Sonja found it hard to breathe. “It means almost everything to me,” he said. “There is only one thing I want as much.”