Promises to Keep

by Promises To Keep (lit) (NCP)

  Garran broke in, dark-blue eyes flashing. "Why do you want to know, Sarah? Do you think he’s the man you’ve been dreaming about?"

  Surprised, Sarah took in Garran’s fury. Gaian’s didn’t suffer from jealousy, but Garran was not a typical Gaian.

  Karen seemed unconcerned with Garran’s reaction. "Maybe he is. What about it, Sarah?"

  She thought about it. "The face is wrong but the rest of him.…" her voice trailed off. The man in the message had reminded her of her dream lover.

  "But you said that you never saw your dream lover’s face. I can tell you right now the face in that clip isn’t real. The NLC edited the clip to change the face and make it a composite of several men’s faces. They wanted someone who looked Gaian but wasn’t any one man. But suppose we do this." Karen started another clip that began as the first, with the cooing image of Killy, but when the man appeared, his face was edited, the features smeared to be unrecognizable. In addition, the shirt was different, higher necked and black, not blue in color.

  Karen ran both clips side by side, and Sarah could see they were identical otherwise. Her heart pounded as she watched the adulterated version, reacting again to the man’s deep chuckle. It was her dream lover, she could tell.

  Glancing at the strangely quiet Garran, she said nothing. How could she hurt him further by admitting her dream man actually existed? Karen had an image of him...she could tell her who he was.

  Karen wasn’t going to let her stay silent. "Do you recognize him now, Sarah?" her voice coaxed.

  Reluctantly Sarah nodded. She heard Garran’s quick intake of breath and felt his gaze as he turned to stare at her.

  "Would you like to see his face this time, Sarah? I have a completely unedited version."

  Again she nodded, trying to ignore the weight of Garran’s stare.

  The clip replayed from the beginning, but when the face of the man came into focus, Sarah gasped. It was Garran smiling at the baby, his hair longer than it was now, his now familiar laugh thrilling her as he cooed at Karen’s child.

  "I gave the vid-clip to the NLC for their advertising campaign," Karen said. "They were looking for a half-Gaian, half-Earth baby, and Killy came along at just the right time. This clip was my favorite, showing Garran as something other than his usual grim self. I didn’t realize they’d use him too, or at least his body."

  The magnitude of it struck her. "That means it was Garran all along. All those nights, I’ve been dreaming of him?"

  Bethan laughed. "Sarah, I’m not a psychologist but it seems to me that viewing a vid-clip of a man over two thousand times and then dreaming about someone like him must mean something. I think you fell in love with Garran a long time ago but couldn’t admit it to yourself."

  Garran cleared his throat in a harsh sound. Bethan and Karen exchanged glances and headed for the door. Bethan beckoned to Maxxa, who after a brief hesitation, followed them into the hallway. The door closed.

  The couch shifted as Garran slipped in next to her. His big hands rested on his knees...Sarah could see them from the corner of her eyes. The same big hands she’d dreamed of so many times, aching for the pleasure they’d give her.

  Those same big hands had shown her what pleasure really was yesterday afternoon, and then had comforted her last night. Garran’s hands. Big, strong, and loving. Just like the rest of him.

  She covered them with hers. Raising her head to meet his eyes, she tried to smile and failed, her emotions too intense. "Garran.…"

  He lifted her hand to his mouth. "I wanted you from the moment I saw you, Sarah. Now it seems you wanted me as well, in spite of thinking I was a murderer."

  She couldn’t help her smile. "I guess so. Apparently I’ve been making love to you for years. In my dreams."

  "It’s much better in person."

  His finger traced the crescent moon on the wristband she still wore. "Sarah, will you stay my wife?"

  "Only if you’ll be my husband."

  Gathered into Garran’s arms, Sarah kissed him passionately, barely registering when he headed for the bedroom.

  "You have no idea how hard it was to leave you in bed this morning, woman," Garran growled in her ear as he hauled her back to bed. "I’m in serious need of making up for it."

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Three days later they arrived at Gaia. Sarah watched from The Promise’s bridge, Garran beside her as they approached and readied for landing.

  Her new home. It looked something like Earth from space--blue oceans and green and brown land--but there were differences. The clouds were whiter, the water a deeper blue, particularly near the land. There was a lot more green, a reminder to Sarah that Gaia was still mostly virgin forest.

  It was the most beautiful planet she’d ever seen, and she could see the smiles of pride on her husband and his friends’ faces as they completed a single orbit while waiting to land on the surface.

  "Happy, Sarah?" Garran whispered in her ear.

  "Very," she replied. She leaned against his strong arm. "I’m looking forward to seeing that house you keep promising me."

  "We’ll need to hire some people to make it livable. I haven’t been there in years. Someone to clean the place, deal with the gardens."

  "And a cook," Sarah reminded him.

  Garran sighed dramatically. "I suppose so. Serves me right for attaching to a woman without domestic skills."

  Behind them Sammul snickered then looked innocently out the window at Garran’s glare.

  The ride to the surface was amazingly smooth and within an hour the ship landed in what seemed like an open field. Only the fact that the ground was clear of vegetation and incoming convoy of vehicles told Sarah that they’d really arrived at the spaceport.

  Green plants were everywhere, and an aqua sky stood overhead, just the color of the garden’s sky on The Promise. Sarah took a deep breath of anticipation and stood with Garran as the room erupted into applause.

  "Welcome home, General." Symon told him with a warm smile at both of them. "And I hope you and Sarah enjoy yourselves."

  Behind them came another chuckle from Sammul but this time Garran ignored him. Sarah shook her head. Their unmarried bodyguard was getting far too much enjoyment out of Sarah and Garran’s relationship. Not more than they were, of course.

  Garran held Sarah’s hand as they moved through the corridors. Sammul walked ahead, keeping an eye out for trouble, although no one expected anything now.

  All the other Earth women had been screened during the last couple of days and only Mary had turned out to carry the homicidal parasite. To Sarah’s relief they’d even been able to free her of the creature, and its body now rested in the ship’s labs, waiting for Gaian ingenuity to find a way to detect it earlier and destroy it without harming the host.

  They turned one final corner and down a narrow hall, taking them past a corridor that intersected with the shuttle bay.

  "SARAH!!!" No sooner had Garran and Sarah passed the intersection, but a large woman appeared, apparently having broken free of the group of women and guards she’d been part of. With surprising speed she caught up with them and tried to throw her arms around Sarah.

  Seeing what he saw as a threat, Sammul stepped between them and caught her, effortlessly restraining her. Unable to break free, the woman sagged in his embrace, crying hysterically.

  Shocked, Sarah recognized the weeping woman. "Jenny? Are you all right? What is it?"

  "They were going to take us away, Sarah. To the planet. And I’d never get to see you again or say good-bye."

  One of the guards caught up with them, breathing heavily at the exertion of running after them. "Jenny, it was just for a little while. Until we could arrange another marriage meet."

  Sarah watched Jenny sob in Sammul’s arms then realized that the guard wasn’t the only one breathing heavily. The bulky bodyguard also seemed to be having some trouble catching his breath. As she watched, his grasp on Jenny became gentler, the palm of his hand stroking her arm in a
soothing fashion. He leaned over and sniffed her neck, his eyes unfocused.

  The guard put a hand on Jenny’s arm. "Come on, now. We need to get back with the others. She shook her head.

  "No!" Sammul knocked the guard’s hand off Jenny’s arm. His grip on her tightened and Jenny turned a startled gaze up into his face. For a moment the pair stared raptly at each other.

  Jenny blinked. "Who are you?"

  Sammul seemed inclined to answer, then his eyes widened. His face turned red and abruptly he released her. "I shouldn’t say."

  Jenny lifted a hand to her face, rubbing the tears from her eyes. "Why not?"

  He seemed at a loss for an answer. Sarah pulled Jenny to one side of the hall, while Garran took Sammul to the other. They talked but the big man kept sneaking peaks over Garran’s shoulder at Jenny.

  Their bodyguard was well and truly attached, Sarah decided. Then she noticed that the suddenly dry-eyed Jenny also kept watch on what Sammul was up to and she grinned. The pair seemed to be matched!

  Bethan arrived with Maxxa and his wife, a petite little woman named Assa. They all looked on with amusement as Bethan took charge of Jenny, enlisting the guard to lead Sammul away.

  "It’s pointless to wait for a meet," Bethan told Sarah and Garran before she took the bewildered Jenny away. "Clearly Sammul has attached and she’s responded. But we’ll come up with something for them. Maxxa can take care of things until Sammul’s ready to return and then you can have both Sammul and Jenny working for you."

  Garran stared after them. Sarah decided he couldn’t have looked more forlorn.

  "So now I have both a bodyguard and his wife on my staff? What am I going to do with her?"

  Chuckling, Sarah patted him on the arm. "Well, remember how I told you we needed a cook?"

  Garran’s eyes lit up. "Can she?"

  "Jenny was the head of the kitchen at my favorite restaurant on Earth. She loves to cook. She’s been sneaking into the kitchens on the ship, and I’d be surprised if she didn’t already know how to prepare cholumb and pranas."

  A satisfied smile took over his face. "Well, that’s different. A house could always use a good cook."

  "Garran, you promised to show me your planet."

  She smiled as he took her hand--her dream lover for five lonely years--and now, her husband.

  Garran kissed her hand. "Let’s go Sarah. I’ve a lot of promises to keep with you."

  The End