Beloved Stranger: Gaian Series, Book 5
Page 14
The men wore dark pants and colorful shirts under their jackets, just like Roan had changed into. Even so, he filled out his red shirt and black jacket better than most of them.
Or did she just think he did? Sonja couldn’t tell anymore. All she knew was that Roan looked better than any of the other men, no matter who they were.
Sonja lifted her glass of white wine, sipped appreciatively and grinned at her husband. “I have to admit, it feels good to dress up now and then.”
“You look beautiful.”
She took another sip. “I feel…beautiful, I guess.” She stared into the depths of the glass. “I’m not used to this sort of thing.”
“Not used to feeling beautiful? You are, you know. A very beautiful woman.”
“I suppose.” She’d been told that so many times in the past. Trouble was, it was always by someone who wanted something from her.
Roan was the same. He wanted her to stay his wife. But at the same time she also believed him. He did see her as beautiful.
“I think my nose is a little small and my chin is definitely on the stubborn side of pointed.”
Roan laughed and reached forward to lift her chin, tilting her head up. His eyes held nothing but warmth. “There is nothing wrong with your nose, and I like your chin, stubborn point and all. Gives your face character.”
“Like the scar on your forehead,” she said.
His lips twitched into a smile. “You like my scar?”
“It makes your face looked lived-in.”
Roan pursed his lips together. “You are an interesting woman.”
“And you like that about me?”
“Oh, yes.”
She fingered the fragile stem of her glass. “You know I have to leave. I can’t let my sisters go alone to the Outer Colonies, not even with my partners’ help.”
“Who are they? Your partners.”
Sonja hesitated but decided she should trust Roan. “They are a couple of slave runners I hooked up with six months ago.”
“Slave runners?” Roan looked appalled. “No wonder you don’t trust them.”
“Former slave runners, I should say. Denn Fuller owns the Bronda, a small freighter, and he has a crewman, Steven Kwam. They used to work for a big slaving operation in the Outer Colonies. Some friends of mine and I took out the slavers after they made the mistake of kidnapping the women of the Traveler village we were living in.” She shook her head. “Big mistake.”
Roan looked intrigued. “How’s that?”
She grinned at Roan. “Travelers are descendents of an ancient Earth tribe that moved to the stars a couple centuries ago. They are a proud and resourceful people who don’t like authority. To put it mildly, their women didn’t take well to enslavement. After I used my skills to break them out of confinement and got them weapons, they quickly took over the slaver’s ship.”
She chuckled. “I actually had to keep them from doing worse to the men we captured than just using stunners. I rescued Fuller and Kwam from them and got them back to their ship after making them promise to help me find my sisters.”
“So they brought you to the mining colonies and to a marriage meet. What makes you think they’re waiting for you?”
Sonja leaned forward with her elbows on the table. “Fuller and Kwam are waiting for me at the spaceport in the Bronda, and they’ll be there for at least two more days. I trust them because they know what I’ll do to them if they don’t honor their promise.” She grinned wickedly. “They are a lot more frightened of me than they are of anything else.”
Roan laughed heartily, but when he stopped he looked thoughtful. “You shut down a large slaving operation, and all this happened six months ago?”
“Yes. Why?”
He nodded. “It was after that I noticed how few women were coming in for the meets.”
“You’ve been going to marriage meets for six months?”
Roan didn’t meet her eyes. “Over that. About two years now.”
“Two years?” Sonja couldn’t believe he’d been trying for so long.
Roan studied his wine and didn’t look at her. “Once I knew I could afford it, I decided to return to Gaia with a wife. Trouble was, I didn’t attach, even when there were a lot of women. There was always something missing.”
“The women were mostly slaves. Maybe you didn’t want someone who was frightened or had been forced into the meet.”
Still looking at his glass, Roan smiled slightly. “Maybe. Or maybe I was just waiting for you to be there.” He raised his gaze to meet hers and what she saw in those green-flecked brown depths warmed her more than the wine. “Do you believe in destiny?”
“I don’t know.”
“I do. I believe everything happens for a purpose.” He finished the last of his wine. “My finally attaching, you being here to find your sisters, the way things are here on Ares Five. I think the universe is telling me there is something I need to do.”
Disturbed, Sonja sipped her wine and wondered that the flavor, which had been delicious, suddenly seemed a little flat. “What do you mean, Roan?”
“I’m not certain. But I have a couple days to figure it out.” He pushed his glass forward. “It’s getting close to curfew. Let’s go to back to our apartment.”
She finished her wine and rose to her feet, swaying a little. Not drunk, but the wine and the stars and this delicious man who cared so much for her combined to throw her off balance.
“I want to make love to you,” she whispered when he moved to put his arm around her.
“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.”
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.�
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“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.