She couldn’t bear the pain in his voice. Sudden sympathy made her put her hand on his shoulder. "I’m sorry, Garran. I didn’t know."
"Few outside Gaia do." He grabbed her hand and closed his eyes as he pulled it to his mouth. The touch of his lips against her palm incited that familiar warmth.
His deep voice was rich with meaning. "Earth’s government cost me my family, Sarah, and now I find that they deliberately released a vidclip guaranteed to make me look a monster. I’m not a monster, Sarah, I’m not a beast of any sort. If it takes all three days, if it takes a lifetime, I’ll prove that to you. I won’t let them ruin this between us. I won’t let them cost me you.
Determination in his face, he released her and gestured to the trunk. "Why don’t you unpack? I left room for you in the right side cabinets. I have something to attend to." He left for the lounge without another word.
Chapter Fifteen
By the time Sarah had found a place for all of her belongings, a steady murmur was coming from the lounge next door. After closing the trunk and shoving it into the corner, she went to investigate.
At least fifteen people were in the room, mostly The Promise domestic staff, working to set up tables and chairs, or creating a buffet along the countertop in the small kitchen facility. The busy workers acknowledged her arrival with the same nods and knowing smiles that the bodyguards had given her.
Well, at least no one resented her marriage to Garran. If anything everyone couldn’t have looked more pleased.
Even Bethan had a happy smile as she greeted Sarah from across the room where she stood in conversation with Garran. He smiled as well, apparently over the mood he’d held in the bedroom. Now he gestured to her with another glass of wine.
Bethan threw her arms around Sarah as soon as she was within reach. "Oh I’m so glad things are going so well!"
"Are they?" Bemused Sarah directed her attention to Garran who studied the bottom of his glass with intensity. "What did you tell her, Garran?"
"Only that you’ve agreed to stay with me for the three days, my wife. Isn’t that enough?" A look of almost comical innocence was in his eyes when he raised them to meet hers.
Sarah returned her attention to Bethan. "Bethan I can’t promise to stay Garran’s wife. You know what I told you before. I’ve spent the last five years hating him!"
"So he said." Bethan’s frown was fierce. "But you weren’t told the truth, Sarah. There are things you should know...."
"Sarah knows enough," Garran interrupted, his smile disappearing. "She knows what her government is capable of and what we aren’t." The hand on his wineglass tightened to the point Sarah thought he might crack the stem. "She needs to see me as the man I am instead of ‘the Beast’ and if she can’t then we should go our separate ways."
Bethan’s mouth dropped open. "But you’re matched, Garran."
"That’s not enough this time, Bethan. We both need more." His face turned grim. "She needs to see me as I am, not what they painted me to be."
He turned to Sarah. "Could you do that, knowing only what you know now? See me a man you keep as your husband?"
Sarah stared at him. So, there was a truth, something that would change her mind about Garran if she knew it. But he didn’t want Bethan to say what that truth was.
"I already said I would try, Garran. I can’t promise more."
His smile returned. "Then that’s enough."
One of the workers called to Bethan who watched them with a troubled face. She nodded at him. "I better get back to organizing this party."
"Could I help?" Sarah offered.
Garran grabbed her waist and swung her towards the door to the bedroom. "I think it better if we get out of everyone’s way." Balancing his glass, he grabbed another, plus an open full bottle from the beverage table.
Mischief was in his eyes as he pulled her through the door. "Let’s hide out until the coast is clear."
* * * *
Sarah sipped her wine cautiously, making certain she wasn’t drinking more than her normal capacity. Garran had taken care of most of the bottle they’d drunk with lunch, and again he kept his glass full. Fortunately he seemed better able to handle it than she knew she’d be.
Garran searched the ship entertainment files and found a comic holo-vid that she hadn’t seen, apparently produced on Gaia. It was about two families that had never gotten along, but when their children matched they were thrown together for a claiming dinner, not unlike the one being prepared in the outer room. Each family had brought special dishes for the meal, and took turns insulting each other and competing for their offspring’s favor. The resulting mayhem had Sarah in stitches and even Garran left his bad mood behind to laugh at the antics.
The actor playing the father of the bride seemed familiar but Sarah couldn’t remember where she might have seen him before. She was pretty sure he’d never been in any holo-vid she’d seen on Earth.
The story finished with the offspring threatening to move to the Outer Colonies if their parents didn’t stop their shenanigans, forcing the couples to make friends. In a moment of conciliation, the mother of the bride even asked the father of the groom for his pranas recipe and they all gathered round the table for a final toast to the bride and groom.
As it ended, Garran leaned over to fill Sarah’s glass and she quickly put her hand over the top. "I want to keep a clear head for the party."
Ruefully he nodded and put the bottle down. "Wise of you, my Sarah. I’m glad you enjoyed the story."
"It was very funny. You don’t have any screwball parents do you? Sisters or brothers?"
"Not by blood. My parents died sometime ago and I was an only child." He played with glass. "There’s Metta’s sister and her husband. They’re about as much family as I have. Except for you."
She ignored the look he was giving her. They’d used the armchairs to watch the holo-vid, not the couch where they could have sat together. His open warmth almost made her wish they’d used the couch instead.
"Did you remain close to them after your wife’s death?"
"It’s more like they stayed close to me. I owe them a lot, Sarah. They’ve always treated me like a brother."
He did have someone who cared for him. She was glad of that...at least her departure wouldn’t leave him totally alone. "I suppose they’re on Gaia. I’m sorry I won’t get a chance to meet them."
Garran actually chuckled. "Actually, no. They are much closer than you think."
A knock at the door drew their attention. Garran rose to answer it. Bethan stuck her dark curly head in. "You’ve got about ten minutes." Her gaze fell on the partially empty wine bottle, she strode in and reclaimed it.
She shook it under Garran’s nose and glared at him. "Don’t you dare get drunk tonight, Garran."
"Now why would I do something like that, Bethan? I know what my limits are."
"And I know that sometimes you like to go beyond them. Your wife deserves better than a intoxicated husband in bed tonight."
"Incapacitating myself is the last thing on my mind."
As the pair exchanged glares, Sarah realized why Bethan had reminded her of someone. Garran’s cryptic remark about his wife’s family staying close to him also came to mind. She glanced over at the holopic on the wall behind her, of the woman with dark curly hair. "You’re Metta’s sister!"
Bethan’s mouth dropped open. "You told her?" she asked Garran accusingly.
He shrugged. "I told her I had a wife and that she had a sister. You do look like her," he added helpfully.
"Well, it does explain why you’ve always been so nice to me."
Bethan folded her arms and glared fiercely at them both. "That is precisely why I didn’t want you to know, Sarah. I knew Garran had attached to you before I met you, but I liked you from the first. I think of him as a brother, so of course I’m glad he found someone, but I’m even more glad that it’s you."
Sarah glanced down at the beautiful blouse Bethan had given her, and consider
ed the work that had gone into it. "You made this for me. And the one for Garran."
The dark-haired second-in-command of The Promise looked embarrassed. "I finished them after Garran attached, but they were started long ago in the hopes that they’d be needed." Her warm, hopeful glance took in both of them, and Sarah felt the love Bethan bore for Garran and herself, the love of a sister and friend.
"I didn’t know if Garran would find someone but I had hope when he agreed to our using women from Earth. I used the roses because they represented your planet."
A low amused chuckle emerged from Garran. "I wondered at that. Sarah’s hair...it’s the exact color. I’ve been looking for a match for it and it was the roses."
Bethan blushed, her cheeks taking the color of her embroidered flowers. "Earth-flame roses are the most popular variety. I didn’t realize you’d find a woman with red hair. I’m not prescient."
Garran smiled. "Perhaps not, but it is singularly appropriate."
Sarah fingered the delicately depicted blooms. It must have taken hours to do just one row, done with love for a man and a wife Bethan hadn’t even met. Love for a man that she’d named in her thoughts a monster over the deaths of the Earthforce fleet. He’d said she was wrong and that governments lied. Bethan had stated that there was more to the story, but Garran had forbidden that story be told. He wanted her to discover the truth herself.
"They were a beautiful gift, Bethan, and we do appreciate them, just as we will appreciate the dinner."
Bethan’s smile was Sarah’s reward. She opened her mouth to say something but a knock on the door from one of the catering staff interrupted her. Instead she reminded them that dinner was now in five minutes and left.
Sarah headed for the mirror and her hairbrush. "I should fix myself up."
Garran took hold of her shoulders and she could feel the warmth of his breath against her neck. In the mirror she could see his face behind her, his expression alive with hope and desire. "You already look beautiful, Sarah. Nothing you can do will change that."
"I’m not a beautiful woman, Garran. I’ve known that for a long time."
Denial was in his half-smile. "You don’t know how I see you, Sarah. To a Gaian man, his match is perfect...otherwise he wouldn’t attach to her. To me you will always be beautiful."
Tentative fingers stroked her neck and unconsciously she leaned back into his arms, his cheek against her face. Tilting her head his lips reached for hers. As they met, she turned, and their kiss became a prolonged thing, something outside the uncertainties of how she felt for him.
It was their first kiss since the day before, the first time since she knew his name. He tasted of wine, and sweet need, and underneath the taste of the man she’d exchanged bands with in the darkness.
He was the first man she’d ever kissed with passion, but she knew him. Any lingering doubts that the man who’d held her and promised everlasting love, was also General Garran Doranth, fled.
When their mouths parted he gazed at her for some time, his face expressionless. Sarah wondered what he was thinking of, this over-bright, passionate man who claimed he wasn’t the beast she’d labeled him.
He hadn’t taken advantage of her brief surrender to touch her more intimately. All he’d done was claim her lips, his hands still on her shoulders, no wandering to feel her breasts. Her nipples ached, the memory of how he had held them rising. Other parts of her woke to his presence and the promise of intimate caresses and she felt as if she’d fallen into a waking version of one of her many erotic dreams.
And all he’d done was kiss her and hold her shoulders. Resisting this man for three days wasn’t going to be difficult, it was going to be impossible.
She was in very big trouble
.
* * * *
"Welcome to The Promise!" The tall, thin, pale-haired man Garran had just introduced as the head medical officer thrust a glass into her hand. "I’m prescribing this, for medicinal purposes. You’ll need it to endure this crowd."
When Garran and Sarah had entered the lounge the party had been in full swing, at least twenty present, nibbling on the platters of mini-bits as Sarah was informed the appetizers were called, and drinking wine, fruit drinks, or javi.
Bethan had done a marvelous job of setting up the claiming party.
Sarah accepted his offering with a smile. "Thank you, Dr. Jeffrey, but I’d almost prefer some javi at the moment."
Garran took her glass and handed her a fresh mug of the fragrant brew in exchange. "I agree completely. I want you awake this evening." Sarah frowned at his mock-leer and he winked at her. He lifted the glass, taking a sip from it in the process. "No sense letting it go to waste."
Symon came by, newly arrived. "Jeffrey, where’s your better part? I’d have thought your wife would be here."
The doctor darted an anxious look at Garran. "Unfortunately, she had to stay behind."
"Not something with the baby, I hope."
"No, not at all.…"
Garran caught her arm and swung her away from the two men. "Sarah, why don’t we move to the appetizer table? I believe there are some cinibuns that go wonderfully with javi." Looking behind her she noticed the Symon and Jeffrey in intense conversation, their voices low, and she wondered what could possibly be the issue with the Doctor Jeffrey’s wife.
Maybe the woman had strong feelings about Earth people and Garran hadn’t wanted to expose her to them. That would make sense. Everyone else at the party was delighted to meet Garran’s Earther wife.
Helia, The Promise bio-systems expert, kept Sarah enthralled with her descriptions of the shipboard gardens that provided most of the fresh vegetables on the menu and the water systems where fresh fish were grown and harvested.
Even the pranas she and Garran had eaten for lunch turned out to be a significant part of the water purifiers. That information gave Sarah a moment of concern until she was reassured that the shellfish’s meat retained no form of the toxins they removed from the water.
As the evening wore on, and the bottles of wine emptied, those present began to make toasts, many toasts to her health, Garran’s health, the health of their potential children, the health of their grandchildren, and so on.
The toasts unsettled Sarah, but she said nothing. If she and Garran weren’t to remain together long enough to have children, this was not something she wanted to be discussing with these people. She liked them, even if she didn’t really know them, and didn’t want to bring up unpleasantness tonight.
Finally Bethan stood. "I would like to propose one more toast, a wish, one we can all appreciate. I propose a toast to the future, a future of peace, of love, of laughter, and of the mixing of peoples. May we all learn to love our differences as much as we love our similarities."
All at the table drank to this, including Sarah, who smiled at her friend and Garran’s sister-in-law with delight. Bethan had managed to find common ground for them all.
Chapter Sixteen
After dinner the party broke up. Singularly, or in pairs, the guests came to Garran and Sarah, offered their congratulations and said good night. By the time the last guest departed and there was no one left but Symon and Bethan, Sarah was leaning against Garran and trying to suppress her yawns.
Bethan nodded at them. "You and Sarah go on to bed. Symon and I will make sure everything is done here." She activated the lounge com-link and spoke briefly into it and the answering voice said they would be there directly.
Garran took Sarah by the hand and pulled her toward the bedroom. "There are going to be a lot of people here soon, and we don’t want to be in the way," he told her.
At the doorway Sarah looked back at Bethan and Symon standing with their arms around each other, his face nuzzling her neck. For a moment she envied their closeness, recognizing how much she wanted something like it. When she looked up at Garran she noticed the same look of wanting in his face.
He coveted it too, someone to be close to, a partner, a mate... and he thou
ght she was the one to fill that role. Sarah sighed. Why did it have to be this way? Why couldn’t he have been someone else, any other man? Why couldn’t she have been a woman who wouldn’t care about his past?
Why couldn’t they be together as Bethan and Symon were?
Without answers, she allowed Garran to lead her to the bedroom, just as the door chime from the corridor sounded.
* * * *
Garran let Sarah go and watched as she looked at the bed, the floor, the chrono on the wall.… Her busy eyes took in everything in the room but him.
Obviously she was having second thoughts about sharing his bed, in spite of their nap earlier today. Maybe his wandering hands when they’d woken hadn’t been such a smart move. Not that he could have resisted the urge to touch her, so sweet had been the feel of her in his arms. Even now his hands itched to caress her warm flesh.
All evening Sarah had seemed comfortable with his arm around her waist or shoulders, or his hand holding hers, but that was when they were standing or sitting, and other people had been around.
Now she was clearly skittish about being alone and horizontal with him.
From one of the cabinets Sarah pulled a heavy looking garment that he recognized as the gown she was wearing under her robe the night she’d arrived on The Promise. Her attitude screamed uncertainty as she clutched it to her chest and abruptly he realized she needed privacy.
"I’ll get my things and change in the sanitary," he told her, hoping that would help relieve some of her discomfort. It did. Sarah’s grateful smile gave him a warm glow as he grabbed some drawstring pants and a sleepshirt.
It took barely any time to get out of his claiming outfit and clean up for bed. Garran knew he was rushing, wanting to return to her, some part of him concerned that she might not be there. But no she wouldn’t do that, he had her promise to stay with him. He forced himself to slow down and when he was done, redressed, washed, and ready, he checked the small wall chrono, only to discover that barely five minutes had passed. She was a woman, with more clothes to take off, mysterious rituals to perform...surely she wouldn’t be ready yet for his return. The last thing he needed was to burst in on her when she was only partially dressed.
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