Stardust Dreams (14 page)

Gallant stood and came
around the panel to where she was seated. "Did you notice the bog as we
were coming in?"

With a sarcastic laugh,
Cherry rose to her feet. "If you mean that sea of slime, I could hardly
miss the only spot of color on the whole planet."

"That
slime
is known as the elixir of life around here. Not only does it provide necessary
fluid, it has rejuvenative properties. A few glasses of the stuff takes years
off a persons life, heals the sick, and mends the wounded."

"If that's true, why
hasn't anyone bottled the stuff and marketed it"?"

"Because it only works
after it's been drawn out through the tube plants, and those plants can't
survive anywhere but here. And before you ask, the place isn't overrun by
youth-seeking tourists because the residents value their privacy and keep it a
secret. There are dozens of oases in the quartersphere, but this is the only
one where I'm assured someone will recognize me."

"You
want
to
be recognized?"

He shrugged. "It would
help. Strangers aren't exactly welcomed with open arms in places like
this."

Cherry didn't care for the
sound of that. She still wasn't certain Gallant would keep his promise to
return her to Earth any time soon. Since she learned he was a cheat as well as
a liar, the odds against his keeping that promise had gone up drastically. If
the natives were hostile, catching another ride home would be next to
impossible. Until she had a better handle on her situation, she decided to play
along with him as if she didn't know he had won her promise to cooperate under
false pretenses.

"Where are these
privacy-loving residents?" Cherry asked when she realized no one had
investigated their arrival.

"Inside the shelters,
probably just waking up. The sun here is too brutal during the day for anyone
to move about. It will be dusk any minute now, and then we'll go have a look
around."

"Don't you think it's
about time to tell me about this acting gig you want me to do?"

Mar cleared his throat and
Gallant threw him a warning look before saying to Cherry, "Yes, it is. If
you would come to my room with me, we'll leave Mar-Dot to complete the landing
check and secure the ship."

Cherry had been doing a
fine job of not thinking about him or his incredible body, but being closeted
in that cramped room with nowhere to sit but his bunk had her traitorous pulse
picking up speed again. She remained standing with her arms crossed beneath her
breasts. "Shoot." Apparently one glance at his bed convinced him to
stay rigidly upright as well.

"The first thing you
need to know is that just about every being out there has come here to hide
from something—usually the law. Some of them would incinerate you just for
looking them in the eye. Others might not be murderers, but they're still
capable of doing you harm. An attractive, humanoid female has a number of uses
in a place like this."

"You're making this
planet sound more delightful by the minute," she said with a sneer.

"I only wanted to warn
you in case you had the urge to befriend someone out there. You have nothing to
worry about… as long as you stay with me."

Cherry cocked her head at
him. "If everyone's so hostile, how can you be sure they'll put up with
you?"

He paused and rubbed his
chin. "As I said before, I should be recognized."

"And accepted as one
of them?" she asked warily.

"In a manner of
speaking."

She had thought he looked
dangerous, but she hadn't considered the fact that he might have a criminal
background. What had Dot told her?
Compared to Frezlo, the captain was a
good guy.
The key words now seemed to be "compared to Frezlo." Cherry's
need to pace was building, but there was no place to go.

"You look
worried," Gallant noted with concern. "Don't be. I'll protect
you."

But who will protect me
from you?
Cherry was tempted to ask, but held her tongue. "What do I have to
do?"

"Nothing… except to
let yourself be seen with me. Although one of the ships out there looks like
Frezlo's, I'm not positive it is. I have no way of knowing if he's at this camp
or another. Questions about someone's whereabouts aren't tolerated any more
than snooping around the shelters. I need Frezlo to come to me."

"What if he's not
here?"

"If I offer the right…
incentive, he'll hear about it wherever he is."

Cherry's puzzle logic
clicked into gear. "Incentive? Like something you have that he might
want?" His mouth shifted from side to side and comprehension hit her.
"Me?"

"It won't—"

"You
son-of-a-bitch!" She crossed the room in a flash and delivered a solid
punch to his gut. Wine-ing, he backed up to the door. "You planned to use
me as bait all along, didn't you?"

"That's not
true."

"You wouldn't know the
truth if it walked up and introduced itself to you!"

It looked as though she was
preparing to strike him again, so he grasped her wrists and secured them
against his chest.

She started to pull away,
but a sudden tingling in her robotic hand where it was pressed against him distracted
her enough to keep her from moving.

"I did
not
intend to use you… until after Mar-Dot touched your mind and came up empty. I
couldn't think of anything more effective to lure Frezlo than to let him find
out the Weebort had told you something important before he died."

"I don't believe
you." She could tell he was getting angry and she didn't care. It was all
she could do to ignore the peculiar sensation of warmth creeping up her right
arm. "Tell me, were you including beast bait as one of the
uses
a
female might have around here? I bet, with a little effort, I could find
someone with a use for me that wouldn't put my life at risk."

He inhaled sharply. "You
want the truth, Cherry?
This
is the truth." In a heartbeat, his
hands moved to brace her head and his mouth came down on hers.

As before, there was no
warning, no build-up to the explosion of passion. He was instantly devouring
her and she was driven by an urgent hunger of her own.

They dove headlong into an
age-old struggle of need and dominance, with neither combatant willing to be
the first to surrender, yet both desperate to do just that.

It was wrong and right at
the same time. She was furious with him, and she wanted this devastating kiss
to go on forever.

But recalling how
unsatisfactorily their last bout had ended gave Cherry the willpower to retreat
a bit. Perhaps he had been thinking the same thing, because his attempt to draw
her back was easily discouraged.

He retained a firm grip on
her shoulders to prevent her from moving further away while he caught his
breath. After a moment, he spoke in a raspy voice. "I will admit that I
intended to use you as bait for the last couple days, but believe this—I'm the
only
one on this godforsaken planet that's going to use you… for anything."

With her own breathing
barely under control, she simply stared up at him. For once, she had no doubt
he had spoken the truth. For better or worse, he had appointed himself her
protector, and for the time being, she was dependent upon him.

Slowly, he released her,
but another few seconds passed before she moved away and shook the tingling out
of her arm. She wasn't sure what happened to her each time they came into
physical contact, but she definitely noticed that it was the only time her arm
acted up. Whatever
it
was, neither one of them seemed anxious to talk
about it, but sooner or later, she was going to discover more about the
phenomenal chemistry between them.

Taking another step back
from him, she reminded him of why they were in his room. "You said I
needed to do a little acting. What role am I supposed to be playing?"

The question returned
Gallant the rest of the way to sanity. He rubbed his chin as he tried to come
up with a way to ease into what she had to do. After her offhand threat to seek
someone else's protection he really had no choice but to follow through with
his original idea… for her sake as much as his own. But he knew she wasn't apt
to be complacent about it.

He walked over to a storage
cabinet in the wall and said, "I've tried to give you a fair picture of
the kind of beings that inhabit this area. If there was any way I could draw
Frezlo to me without your help—"

"You're repeating
yourself, Captain. Get to the point."

He opened the cabinet door
and took out her peasant girl costume. "I held on to this. You need to
look the way you did when Frezlo saw you last."

"And what if I say
I've changed my mind about helping you?"

He raised his eyebrow. "I
thought you were in a rush to get back to Innerworld. If you refuse to play
along, it could take weeks to ferret out Frezlo. And then there's the little
matter of our wager. You lost, remember?"

She opened her mouth to
protest that he'd cheated to win that game, then resealed her lips. If she told
him that, she'd be giving away her only chance to get back at him later on…
if
she was still dependent on him to get home.

Despite Gallant's numerous
deceits, Dot had convinced Cherry of the seriousness of his mission and genuine
need of her assistance. Besides, she could see the logic involved in using her
to speed things up. "Okay. Give me the damn costume."

He waited patiently for her
to don the sackcloth gown over her jumpsuit and arrange the braided, blond wig
on her head. "Good. Now there's just one more item to add."

She watched him remove
something else from the same cabinet, but as he turned around to her, he
managed to keep it behind his back.

"Understand, this is
the only way I can positively insure your safety."

Cherry groaned. "Spit
it out already!"

"First, close your
eyes."

"Absolutely not.
Whatever you've got planned, I want to see it coming."

He frowned with the
knowledge that he hadn't yet earned her trust. "All right, but at least
stand still for five seconds."

She gave him three, but it
was all he needed to get the collar around her neck and lock it.

"What in the—"
Her fingers quickly examined then tugged at the circle of heavy metal links. She
had played a slave girl often enough to recognize the collar by feel, but those
she'd worn for fantasy reen-actments had an escape catch. This one was missing
that feature. Before anxiety had a chance to set in completely, Gallant was
explaining.

"I swear I'll take it
off as soon as I've got you safely back on board."

"Does it ever occur to
you to tell the truth to begin with, or do you just naturally have to be
underhanded about everything?"

"I beg your
pardon?"

"Why don't you try
explaining things to me instead of always tricking me into them? I'm an
intelligent person. If you ask me to do something, and it makes good sense,
I'll do it willingly. Your way only makes me angry, and I'm much more
cooperative when I'm not angry."

He let her words sink in
before responding. "You have a valid point. My only excuse is that I'm not
accustomed to dealing with cooperative people and deception is often the only
way I get a job done. From now on, I promise to try to explain things to you
first."

She studied him for a
moment and decided that a promise to
try
was probably the best
concession she would get from him. "Begin by explaining why I have to wear
this collar."

Looking somewhat contrite,
he said, "It's for your protection. The only way I can be sure you'll
remain unmolested out there is if everyone's convinced you're my
property."

"Hmmph. You make it
sound like all the dangerous characters are so afraid of you that they wouldn't
dare mess with what's yours."

"Let's say, I have
managed to establish a certain reputation among this element."

She considered asking him
to elaborate, but decided she was better off not knowing exactly what he had
done to earn that reputation. There were al-ready too many risks involved for
her peace of mind. However, her conclusion was that it would all be worth it if
it got her home faster. "Okay. I'll pretend I'm your slave. But don't push
the master business too far or you'll regret it."

With a loud click, he
snapped a chain leash to the back of the collar. On the other end of the leash
was a manacle that he clamped over his left wrist. "I'll do my best not to
take advantage."

Cherry wondered how he
managed to say that with a straight face. Those two white stripes in his hair
looked more like devil's horns every day!

As politely as if they were
going out on a date, he asked, "Shall we go? I'm sure the sun is down by
now."

Lifting a section of chain
to take the strain off her neck, Cherry grimaced and gave him a nod of
readiness… for whatever he was dragging her into.