GALLANT (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 3) (12 page)

At least she hadn't screamed or cried... or used her robotic arm on him. She must have been too stunned by his shocking behavior to fight him off. He knew he had better apologize before the shock wore off.

He heard the door across the hall open and shut and ordered himself to rectify his mistake immediately. Mentally reconstructing his civilized veneer, he left the privacy of his room and knocked on her door. The moment it slid open, he said, "I wish to apologize."

Remaining in the doorway with her arms crossed, Cherry cocked her head at him. "All right. Go ahead."

She was so calm, he assumed she was still in shock. "My behavior was unpardonable but I hope you'll forgive me anyway. I assure you nothing like that will happen again." She didn't respond one way or the other, so he added, "I'm sorry if I frightened you."

"Frightened
me? So far, you've infuriated me, humiliated me and left me frustrated as a bowlegged kid at a greased pig chase, but it would take a hell of a lot more than one aggravating man to frighten me!"

She might have made him squirm a bit longer if he hadn't been apologizing so politely. "Look, I've decided you were right. What happened up there was a mistake and it was as much my fault as yours. I'm afraid you opened an emotional floodgate and I took advantage of the outlet you offered. I shouldn't have kissed you, even if I was only trying to say thanks. Let's forget it and just be grateful Mar-Dot stopped us before things went too far. This trip is difficult enough without that sort of complication."

Although he nodded his agreement, he hadn't heard anything beyond her pronouncement that he had left her frustrated. He had been so caught up with the fact that he had let himself go that he hadn't allowed himself to notice that
she
might have been doing a fair amount of clawing at
him.
That thought didn't improve his state of discomfort one bit.

Cherry continued to try to ease the tension between them. "Maybe we could try for some middle ground, like friendship. What do you say?"

"Friends. Yes. That's a good idea," he said mechanically, reminding himself that friendship had been his goal to begin with.

"Well then, I guess I'll say good night." She held out her hand.

He didn't want to make physical contact with her again. Not yet. Not until he had a chance to completely rebuild his defenses. Yet he couldn't refuse to return the friendly gesture. As his hand clasped hers, he had to fight the almost involuntary urge to pull her back into his arms. The way her eyes widened with surprise made him wonder if she had felt the same surge of heat or merely guessed at his depraved thoughts.

Cherry withdrew her hand and closed the door. Her robotic arm came equipped with sensors that operated the same way the nerves in her other arm did. She had never noticed that they were more or less sensitive than the real thing. She flexed those fingers now, concerned that the tingling she felt when Gallant's hand had enveloped hers was a warning sign of a malfunction. It still felt a bit strange, as if he had not yet released her hand. She vigorously shook her arm and the sensation faded away, just as it had the other times she had come in contact with him.

She stripped off the jumpsuit and lay down between the clean sheets on Mar-Dot's bunk. She couldn't help but wonder if Gallant would fall right to sleep or if their unexpected moment of passion would replay itself in his head, as it was doing in hers.

She had told him her analysis about why it had happened. Emotional overflow could make a normally sensible person behave strangely. But she hadn't admitted aloud that nothing quite like that had ever happened to her before. It was bad enough that she had been crawling all over him as if she hadn't seen a man in twenty years!

* * *

That day set a pattern for those that followed, with Gallant and Cherry sleeping at the same time. Mar-Dot spent time teaching her about navigation and how the ship operated, and Gallant occupied her with endless games of cubit.

They told each other tales of people they knew and places they'd been but cautiously avoided anything too personal that might trigger an emotional response.

Cherry thought that if it wasn't for the fact that she didn't trust him any further than she could throw him, she and Gallant could have become friends. But that wasn't the only problem. The tension humming between them since the
incident
prevented either one from totally relaxing. She was constantly aware of how careful Gallant was being not to touch her or meet her gaze for more than a second or two and that only made her all the more curious about what had happened and why he had called a halt to it so abruptly.

Gallant was the one who suggested they play cubit for points rather than wagers but Cherry was quick to agree. So it surprised her when, two days later, he challenged her with another bet.

"A five-game match. If I win," he stated, "you agree to cooperate with anything I ask when we reach Zoenid."

Naturally she was suspicious of why he would change his mind about playing for stakes but since she had won more games than he had, she figured it was worth a shot. "And I'll claim the same forfeit I did before. If I beat you, you spill the beans about your eye patch." His dismayed look made her laugh. "You should be able to figure that expression out on your own. You know, by the end of this trip, I'm liable to have you speaking American like a native. So? Is it a bet?"

He gave her one of his slow grins that she had already learned to be wary of. "Absolutely."

The similarity of this match to the one that had ended so emotionally was uncanny. They were tied going into the fifth game when Gallant miraculously began rolling quads again. In practically no time, he managed to win the match... and her promise to help with his mission in any way he requested.

On her sixth day in space, Cherry awoke before Gallant for the first time. Except for very short periods, she and Mar-Dot had rarely been alone together. As she had once before, Dot wasted no time taking advantage of the opportunity.

"I see you are still determined to share our bunk rather than the captain's."

Cherry held up a warning finger in front of Dot. "Don't start that. This ship is too small for you to pretend you don't know exactly what is going on between Gallant and me. If it wasn't for this mission of his, he'd hand me over to the first passing ship to get me out of his hair."

Dot started to argue then changed her mind. "At least you are getting along now. Have you agreed to assist him on Zoenid?"

With a sly smile, Cherry confessed. "I was planning to help ever since he explained the situation to me but I didn't tell him until last night... right after he creamed me.
Beat
me," she amended for Dot's sake, but it didn't alter her look of confusion. "At
cubit."

"Oh, yes," Dot said with a relieved nod. "I understand you have become quite a formidable player."

"Ha! I thought so too, but the two times we played for more than fun, he's won. I have never seen anybody as lucky as Gallant. It's almost as if he can order those cubes to come up any color he needs. I'm telling you, it's really bizarre."

Dot smirked. "Hmmph. There is nothing uncanny about it. He must be using his—"

Suddenly Mar shifted toward Cherry. "Would you please get us a wake-up beverage? We are unusually fatigued this morning."

Cherry started to go when she realized Mar had rudely interrupted Dot. "You never have refreshments at your station. Turn back around. I want to speak to Dot." The he-she hesitated a moment, then complied. "He cut you off on purpose, didn't he?"

"It was nothing of importance," Dot answered quietly.

Cherry frowned at her. "You promised not to lie to me. What were you about to say about Gallant's luck?" When Dot couldn't seem to find the words to answer, Cherry made a guess. "Is he cheating somehow?" Dot's eyes rolled upward. "Has he got loaded dice? You know, cubes that he can make do what he wants?"

Again Dot's eyes rotated and Cherry understood that she was abiding by her agreement to be honest or say nothing at all. Since it was clear Mar didn't want Dot revealing whatever this was about, Dot was giving her answers the only way she could. Cherry opened the drawer beneath the table and removed the cubes. "Are these crooked or does he just switch them for another set when he's losing?"

Very slowly, Dot mimicked the way Gallant would rub his chin then run his hands down the front of his open vest.

How many times in the past few days had she seen him go through those motions?
A lot.
She had thought it was some sort of nervous habit. That son-of-a-bitch! He'd been switching cubes with a set he had hidden in his vest.

"What's going on?" Mar demanded, but Dot wouldn't let him turn them around.

Cherry returned the cubes to the drawer, saluted Dot and marched down the hall to Gallant's room. Without bothering to knock, she pressed the door opener but Gallant wasn't inside. With her temper building by the second, she headed for the facility chamber.

The moment she stepped inside, she heard the sound of the blower in the sanitation stall. She was tempted to barge right in on him but the sight of his clothing laid out over a chair gave her a more vengeful idea.

As stealthily as possible, she tiptoed across the carpet and lifted his vest. Within seconds she discovered the concealed cubes and quickly removed them. She suspected if she played with the trick ones for a while, she would surely figure out how they worked. Then she would turn the tables on the rotten cheat. And, of course, she would make sure the wager was something outrageous.

Just as she replaced the vest, Gallant came out of the stall.

Gloriously naked.

Chapter 6

Cherry was caught, and knew she should have been stuttering apologies and excuses for invading his privacy but the only word that came to mind was
big,
and in a matter of seconds, he was even bigger... and bigger. Not staring was out of the question. "Holy stars," she whispered.

Suddenly she was in the midst of a shower of falling stars, but a split second later they disappeared. Another space sickness hallucination?

Except for covering his left eye with his hand, Gallant didn't move or make an attempt to shield any more of himself. To get his clothes he would have to come closer to her. "What are you doing in here?"

Cherry swallowed hard and dragged her wide-eyed gaze up to his face. "I... I... thought you were still sleeping and I came in to use—"

"You're lying," he said in a hard, deep voice. "You would have heard the blower when you walked in. I recall your once giving me ten seconds to explain. I'll give you five. If you're not out of here by then, I'll draw my own conclusions. Five."

The temptation to stay was strong enough to make her forget every crummy thing he'd done.

"Four."

Good God, but he was gorgeous.

"Three."

She simply had to stand still and all that man would be hers.

"Two."

But then he'd discover what was in her hand. The reminder of why she'd gone in there and how angry she had been kick-started her brain. She wanted revenge.

"One."

She turned on her heel and walked swiftly to the door.

It took several deep breaths before Gallant regained the ability to move. When he could, he went back into the stall to cleanse the film of perspiration from his heated flesh. He was beginning to doubt that he would get through this assignment undamaged.

He couldn't allow himself to dwell on why she had come into the chamber. He supposed she could have been as curious about him as she was about everything else. But the trapped look on her face when he had exited the stall, combined with the fact that she did leave without fully satisfying that curiosity, told him she'd been up to mischief of some sort. He just couldn't imagine what it could be.

If there was any way he could quickly get hold of Frezlo without Cherry's help, he would avoid using her, but no better plan had come to him. Now he had run out of thinking time. They would be docking in an hour. He could only hope that Cherry didn't renege on her promise to help once she heard what she had agreed to.

* * *

Cherry sat on Mar-Dot's bunk, closely examining one of the trick cubes. To her eye, it looked exactly the same as an honest one. There didn't seem to be any weight difference either. No shaved edges or rounded corners. She picked all four up and dropped them on the floor. A blue quad came up—the same color set that had won the last game for Gallant. But he had been able to roll greens, reds and purples at will also, which meant there had to be a way to manipulate the outcome.