by Gun Brooke
“You’re not.”
“You seem quite taken with this woman.”
“I’ve always liked Roshan, Mother.”
Le’Tinia laughed. “Liked? You were always infatuated with her. And it didn’t take long for that look in your eyes to reappear.”
“I’m sure you’re correct, Mother.”
“Of course I am. When I think about how the two of you danced—”
“Wait. Someone wants to use the communicator,” Andreia lied, and stood up from her chair. “Give Father my best.”
“I will. And cultivate this relationship. You could do worse, you know.”
Andreia said good-bye, relieved to draw a deep breath and terminate the conversation. She held on with both hands to the backrest of the chair in the communication room.
“So you like me, huh?” Roshan’s alto voice rumbled, and Andreia turned so quickly, she had to cling to the chair so she wouldn’t fall over.
“Ro!” How much did she overhear?
“Yes.” Roshan glided toward her with a mix of the leisurely feline and cold-minded predator. “Your mother says you have a look in your eyes when you see me.” Roshan walked up to Andreia and cornered her against the wall, between two of the tables. “Let’s see if I can’t get you to look at me that way now.”
“Please.” Her throat dry, it was hard to say the words. “Ro?”
Roshan placed a hand against the side of Andreia’s neck and caressed it in slow circles. “How about that?” she murmured. “You’re so damn soft. It’s as if there were no bones, just wiry muscles under your skin. And that caramel skin, that olive tint, makes me want to stay up until whatever ungodly hour to touch you, and have you touch me.” Roshan placed two fingers under Andreia’s chin. “And you’d touch me so sweetly, wouldn’t you? With your small, gentle hands against my skin?”
It was impossible to breathe. Andreia’s world shrank until it consisted of the bright blue eyes of the woman towering over her. Standing next to the Protector, Roshan had seemed like a slightly older version of Kellen O’Dal. The resemblance was uncanny, and Andreia had found herself shifting her gaze between the two striking women who seemed cut from the same mineral ore. They were both lethal in the most literal way, yet they also seemed capable of great affection. The way the Protector had taken Admiral Jacelon’s hand when they left the mission room for some privacy spoke volumes and reminded Andreia of how Roshan’s tenderness could surface unexpectedly. “Roshan?” Andreia breathed. “Please. Why are you acting this way?”
“You were quick to volunteer.” Roshan slid her hands languidly around Andreia’s neck, followed the neckline of her black shirt, and stopped at the first fastener.
“I am the best one for that particular assignment.” Out of breath, barely able to focus on her own words, Andreia tried to move away, but found it impossible. Her legs had stopped functioning, and she couldn’t tear her eyes from Roshan’s.
“Yes. That may well be true, but did you expect me to merely send you on your way without any chance of finding out?”
Confusion battled with a dark, heavy feeling that spread throughout Andreia’s system. “What? Finding out what?”
“You know as well as I do that this mission is beyond dangerous. The Protector’s plan is brilliant and daring, but risky. And as she said, we can’t make any mistakes.” Just as slowly as before, Roshan moved along the fabric in Andreia’s shirt, and suddenly it gave way. Roshan had unfastened the first clasp. “You’re leaving tonight, and I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again,” Roshan continued, and now her voice was husky with emotions, vibrating as if her insides were trembling in unison with Andreia’s.
“You’re reading my mind,” Andreia whispered. It was all she had thought of in her breaks from cramming the information she needed to concentrate on. Andreia looked up at Roshan, drinking in the image of the tall, stunning woman, so incredibly beautiful despite her obvious fatigue and distress. She also noticed something else in her eyes, something she’d glimpsed before, all those years ago, but never seen as fully exposed as now.
“I’m worried. It was clever of you to ask if you could borrow a derma fuser and claim mixed heritage as a problem. I think they all bought it. I know that Commander D’Artansis will use their derma fuser to make you look like a real Gantharian, but it’s still only superficial. Your physical strength doesn’t even come close to ours.” Roshan’s voice sank to a low, husky murmur. “And you’re so small. I mean, I know you’re strong, but you seem fragile.”
“I wasn’t fragile when I took out that OECS officer who nearly got to you in the forest.” Andreia tried a smile. “And trust me, I’m not the shy, awkward kid you used to know. I can handle myself.”
“I know all this!” Roshan said with a growl. “I know it. But to me, you’re small, you’re vulnerable, and you’re going straight into enemy territory. You’ll allow them to imprison you.”
“We’ll be able to talk over the earpieces that the Protector and the admiral brought. They’re even more advanced than our latest equipment.” Andreia jerked and looked down. Her shirt was now open to her waist, and her white lace-linen camisole wasn’t opaque enough to cover her entirely.
“I know that too.” Roshan’s words came out slowly, as if the sight of Andreia made her mind come to a full stop. “Gods, Andreia…” She pushed the top of the black coveralls off Andreia’s shoulders and left it around her elbows, making it impossible for Andreia to move her arms.
“Ro, please. You can’t just—”
“I can. I have to.” Despite the harsh words, spoken with obvious pain, there was nothing harsh or painful in the way Roshan caressed up and down Andreia’s arms. “You’re like pure Cormanian silk. And you smell so good.” Lowering her head, Roshan kissed Andreia’s forehead, brushed her lips along her cheek, avoiding her lips, and found the pulse point on her neck.
Andreia moaned and tried again to move her arms. If she had first intended to push Roshan away, now she wanted the opposite: to wrap her arms around Roshan’s neck and cling to this amazing feeling of being so utterly alive. Oh, Gods, she’s making me want her so much. How can she do that with one glance, one touch?
“I want to touch you too.” Andreia whimpered the words against Roshan’s cheek. When at first she didn’t seem to respond, Andreia did what she could to calm her own rampaging emotions by placing kisses on the part of Roshan’s face she could reach.
“Don’t touch me.” More pain. “If you touch me…” Roshan quickly cupped Andreia’s face, forestalling any more kisses. “If you kiss me, you may be in for more than you’re ready for.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Andreia said. “I think we’ve been ready for a long time.” Memories of heated looks and lingering touches flickered through her mind. Andreia’s legs trembled, and her blood seemed to rush toward her lower abdomen. She had never been this sexually aroused before, not even close. Now that she was, she wasn’t certain how to act. Assuming Roshan was the more experienced of the two, she waited while smoldering inside.
“Ready for this?” Roshan cupped a hand over Andreia’s left breast, holding it gently. “Ready for me to touch you like this?” She slid her other hand around Andreia’s back and firmly grabbed hold of her bottom. Pressing Andreia up against the wall of the semidark communication room, Roshan parted Andreia’s lips and explored her mouth thoroughly.
It was more than Andreia could ever have expected. She’d been kissed before, but never in this all-consuming way. Their tongues intertwined and caressed each other, over and over, and Andreia forgot to breathe, as if oxygen was no longer necessary.
Sweat ran down between Andreia’s breasts and along her back. She yanked her arms free of their constraints and flung them around Roshan’s neck. Pulling Roshan closer, she instinctively raised one leg and hooked it around Roshan’s thigh.
Groaning and trembling all over, Roshan slipped her hand around Andreia’s thigh and pulled it up. Andreia hooked it around Roshan’s hip.
/> “If we had time and a better place than this bloody communication room, I’d show you—” Greedy, passionate kisses revealed exactly what Roshan had in mind.
Opening her mouth, Andreia allowed the heat of her desire to spread through her veins. She filled her hands with the fabric of Roshan’s coveralls and tugged at it. The way Roshan tasted, the way she smelled all contributed to Andreia’s rapid loss of control. She knew she wouldn’t see Roshan for a while, and a small voice inside her head asked, “What if I never see her again?” Desperate for the sensations Roshan created with her mouth and hands, Andreia grabbed hold of Roshan’s left hand and placed it on one of her breasts. “Touch me. Gods, Ro, you have to touch me,” she whimpered. “I’m burning up.”
“Yes, you are.” Roshan cupped Andreia’s breast with far more tenderness than her voice relayed. Gently, she moved her hand in small circles, and Andreia moaned when her nipple puckered almost painfully.
“You’re so beautiful. You were cute when we were younger, and you’re stunning now,” Roshan said. “If I could have my way, I’d push everything off this desk and lay your naked body on it. I’d delve into every part of you to make up for all those years when I hated you.”
Andreia hardly heard the words. Her brain was in pure reaction mode, and she never wanted this moment to end. When it ended, they would have to return to the room where some of the rebels still waited for them. They would have to face reality, and reality dictated being parted from Roshan—for how long was written only in the stars. Instead, Andreia gasped aloud when Roshan left her mouth and kissed her way down her neck. “Yes, yes.”
Roshan caressed Andreia frantically, her hands greedy against her. When Andreia’s shirt came undone and Roshan’s touch was no longer on fabric, but on skin, Andreia whimpered quietly, her head tipped back. “Ro, oh, Gods, Ro!”
Roshan jerked, her hands still around Andreia’s breasts. “Gods, this is insane!” she groaned as she leaned forward and kept tasting Andreia’s skin. “For the love of the stars, I never meant for it to go this far. This is insanity.” There was agony in her voice as she pushed Andreia closer against the wall. “We should stop!”
Roshan broke free, and the sudden gush of cold air where her hot lips had just devoured her made Andreia sob and reach out.
“No.” Roshan backed off. She regarded Andreia with flaming eyes, her mouth pressing into a thin line. The silence between them grew, only interrupted by their rapid breathing, and that too mellowed after a while. Roshan made a dismissive gesture with her left hand. “Straighten your clothes and make yourself presentable. We have work to do.”
“Ro—”
“For skies and stars, remember to call me Paladin, O’Daybo.”
Andreia was astonished and hurt beyond words at how Roshan could switch from volcano to iceberg within seconds. The abrupt shift stung, and more than that, the stinging pierced her heart, left it to convulse alone and bleed. Her hands cold, Andreia tugged at her shirt and coveralls, pulling them up into something that could resemble tidy. She avoided looking at Roshan until she was done. Only then did she meet the ice blue gaze of the woman who’d held her in the most intense embrace Andreia had ever known. “There. I’m ready to go back.”
A muscle to the left of Roshan’s lips twitched. “Andreia, I—”
“O’Daybo.” Andreia pushed past Roshan and strode to the door. When she reached it, she looked over her shoulder, wondering if the shadows flickering over Roshan’s face mirrored her own pain. She told herself she didn’t care, but knew that was untrue. “Come on, then, Paladin. We can’t keep the Protector waiting.”
She left the room and didn’t stop a second time to check if Roshan was following her.
Chapter Fifteen
The rain on Gantharat didn’t just pour, it gushed from the gray skies, drenching everything completely. Owena and Andreia pressed against the wall of the dark gray concrete loading terminal as Owena scanned the premises.
“I read four guards on this side. This is it.”
Andreia nodded. “Yes. This is our chance to get to Vaksses.” She pulled the black fine-mesh hood down over her face, covering everything but her eyes. They needed to get inside and change into the gear the Onotharians issued the prisoners before they embarked to the smaller facility. Vaksses held members of the resistance who had just been rounded up and was meant to sustain up to a thousand prisoners before transport to the larger Kovos.
Checking her own scanner, Andreia punched in a few commands. “Let’s go. We have two minutes before the codes reset themselves.” She was deeply grateful for the SC device that allowed them to bypass the Onotharian seal on the doors. If it worked correctly, they would have disengaged the sensors and the alarm system for a few minutes. “O’Daybo to Paladin. We’re moving in.”
“Proceed with caution. We have you on sensors.”
As Paladin’s voice echoed through her eardrum from the tiny humanoid membrane earpiece, Andreia refused to listen to any special nuances in Roshan’s voice.
“Affirmative. O’Daybo out.”
With Owena right behind her, Andreia raced along the side of the building, making sure she was close to the wall the entire time. The concrete chafed the side of her coveralls-clad arm with a faint scraping sound. She could vaguely discern the outlines of the two closest guards through the dense curtain of rain. Part of her wouldn’t mind making sure these guards never bothered a Gantharian citizen again, but Andreia knew if she killed any of them, the Onotharians would lock down the facility and most likely delay the transport to Vaksses.
When Andreia and Owena reached the double doors, Owena used her scanner again. “No guards on the inside. Just like Boyoda’s intel stated, this holding terminal is almost entirely automated once the prisoners are inside. The Onotharians guard it from the outside.”
“A blessing for us,” Andreia said. “Not so great for the ones who figured that system out—they didn’t count on the scramblers we brought with us.”
“See, they work fine.” Owena chuckled as she pulled the lever. The doors hissed open without any resistance, and no alarm klaxons blared through the dusk.
“Good.” Andreia let go of the breath lodged in her lungs and followed Owena. SC technology came in very handy.
Inside, they ran through a long corridor leading to another set of double doors. Andreia scanned as she ran, and when everything read clear, she pushed one of the doors into its wall pocket.
Owena passed her and stopped just inside the threshold. “Look what’s here.”
Andreia stepped around her partner and stared at the long rows of coarse shirts and pants, stretching all the way through the long room, with an equally long counter running through the center of the room. No Onotharians were in sight, and Andreia guessed they were present only when a new prison transport arrived.
Owena’s voice was crisp. “This is where they hand out the uniforms. That way they homogenize the prisoners. Strip them of some of their personality.” “It’s easier to erase a person’s sense of self this way. Damn Onotharians.” She uttered the words in a quiet, decidedly lethal tone of voice. “Find some that fit you.”
Andreia didn’t dare ponder the Onotharian philosophy behind the uncomfortable, yet no doubt durable, clothes. She picked a set that looked her size and pushed her coveralls off her shoulders and down her legs. A set of recycling computers would take care of their clothes and headwear. Andreia and Owena dressed in the ill-fitting shirts and pants, which were scratchy; Andreia feared that the unforgiving threads in the seams would soon abrade her skin. And some people have lived for years in these clothes. Perhaps even decades if they’re still alive.
“We’ve just got a few seconds to go through the next door.”
Andreia tossed her boots into the recycling computer and stuck her feet into the black, rubbery shoes provided by the Onotharians.
Owena looked grim. “You ready?”
“Let’s go.”
Owena picked up two small bags wh
ere she’d stashed their equipment. The material was easy to shape around her waist and attach with a belt. Also, it was made of an organic component that made it difficult, but not impossible, to be detected by scanners. They couldn’t risk bringing weapons, so their hand-to-hand combat skills were all they had.
After they rushed through the next set of doors, which led into a narrow corridor with a low ceiling, Andreia fought the urge to bow her head and hurried down the hallway. All this time she scanned with the SC-issue mini-scanner that was shorter and thinner than her index finger, but accurate. The readings indicated a large crowd of Gantharian biosignatures farther ahead. Soon they’d be among the other prisoners, with no chance of getting out.
*
“Get in line! If you give me any trouble, I’ll shoot. Fucking Gantharian trash!” The tall, burly Onotharian’s voice boomed within the large holding station as he spat in Kellen’s direction. Kellen in turn made a production of clinging to Doc, her “husband,” as she stuck to her role. She’d been bumped into by people and shoved from one end of the vast room to the other. The fabric of the clothes she and Doc had stolen in a storage room made her skin itch. Sweat ran down her back, making her irritated skin burn.
Earlier, Roshan, Jubinor, and Rae had created an effective diversion, designed to trick the Onotharians into believing someone was trying to spring a few of the prisoners. Now the Onotharians were patting each others’ backs for managing to deter the resistance’s attack. Instead, Doc and Kellen had broken into the huge building, temporarily housing more than four thousand detainees, soon due for transport to Kovos. The prisoners had all gone through a screening of sorts, to determine if they were high-ranking or important enough to qualify for the Vaksses asteroid. The rest, the regular resistance fighters, were all packed away like this and herded into vast transporters bound for the Kovos asteroid where, rumor had it, every prisoner had to fend for himself. Because the prison had a minimal number of guards, and nobody to keep order, Kellen could only guess what conditions were like up there. I’ll find out soon enough.