Liberation Origins: SciFi Romance (Robotics Faction - Origins Series Book 1)

by Wendy Lynn Clark

  “Since we are only in the preview period, our engagement isn’t official. I don’t want physical closeness.”

  “No, of course not. Not like your genetic heir contract with my cousin, Valorious.”

  His eyes narrowed slightly.

  Yes, the shot was fired. Would he confess the colors of his house mirrored Valorious’s colors because he still loved her, and Emprezia’s proposal would get thrown out now? She held herself still as glass.

  “Yes,” he repeated slowly. “Marriage would be nothing like a genetic heir contract.”

  He moved like a cobra, eyes slitted, weaving gently, watching her for movement. Waiting for the chance to strike.

  “Perhaps you remember why you accepted our engagement?”

  “Tentatively considered,” he said, flicking his fingers. “Either of us can back out right now without penalty.”

  “Yes.” She cleared her throat. “Unlike Valorious, who is happily married and hugely successful with her acting and luxury goods empires, my family has a shipping empire. Very convenient for moving ore from your refineries to the manufacturing centers that will pay for them.”

  “Yes, that was the proposal I entertained. However, you are not the only shipping magnate. The Corleons offer their ships without a distasteful marriage contract.”

  Damn. Her enemies had reached him, and with a better offer.

  “I bring my own valuable ore contracts,” she said.

  “Interesting. How valuable?”

  “So valuable my enemies would kill to prevent me from telling you.”

  Dom’s gaze flicked over her from proud head to set toes. “I’m listening.”

  She set the heavy gold tea box on the desk and opened it.

  A jagged piece of green-blue quartz floated up slowly. It was about the size of two fists clenched.

  The room dropped silent.

  Dom’s eyes widened. His jaw dropped. “Is that…?”

  “Rubilum.” Emprezia sat back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap. His reaction was everything she had hoped. “Pure and unrefined.”

  He grabbed it out of the air and studied it.

  Rubilum couldn’t be synthesized, and the only ore-producing moon was locked on the other side of a trade embargo by the Antiata conglomerate’s arch-rivals, the Nar. This amount could be made into fifty of his see-through balcony floors.

  The hunk Dom held in his hands was worth half a planet, castle included.

  Kaolin’s shocked noise behind her told her he had never seen so much money in his life.

  Dom turned it over and over. His muscles shook from the tension of holding onto the anti-gravitational orb. It started to lift him out of his seat.

  He nodded at the box, and Emprezia clicked a button on the side, then was able to lift it and close it over the hunk. She latched the lid and clicked the button a second time. It thunked down on the desk.

  “The box is…?” Dom asked, leaning back and breathing hard.

  “Lined with ultra-lead.” She tapped beside the buttons. “These are the gravity-assists. Of course they are unnecessary when the rubilum is inside. You can also place the rubilum in a negative-gravity environment. That is how it is transported.”

  He wiped his wet brow. “This is quite the bargaining chip.”

  “I have secured a supply route.”

  “Through legal checkpoints?”

  “Do you care?”

  His eyes narrowed slightly but he did not reply.

  “This is the first shipment,” she said, keeping her fingers on the box. “A prenuptial gift from bride to groom. Premature, perhaps, but a token of future good wealth for our mutual benefit. In exchange, I will give you twenty percent of the final refined price.”

  He leaned forward. “Eighty percent without marriage.”

  “Marriage is the only reason I have come to you.”

  He tapped his desk. A holo of their contract appeared. He pointed to the concessions about his ports. “As trade partners, I will enforce the rules of safe passage. Violators will be caught and fined.”

  Emprezia removed the gold box from the desk and placed it on her lap.

  He watched the box with glittering eyes.

  “I have my heart set upon becoming Emprezia Chen.”

  “The Corleons have promised me rubilum also.”

  “Did they put a stone in your hand?” She tightened her smile. “You can’t afford not to marry me.”

  His nose wrinkled. He leaned back and covered his mouth. With mouth covered, he snarled. “I don’t like to be tied down.”

  She didn’t want to be either.

  The more powerful name meant more avenues would open to her family. The Corleons were not their only antagonists. Wealth and power were not enough. Only with this connection could Emprezia reach the same level as Aris’s father, solar director of a system, and then rise through the family ranks to the Star Chamber.

  Once she was in the Star Chamber, her family would be untouchable.

  “For how long?” Domingo ground out.

  She had won.

  The shift of the other man in the room told her he was aware of her victory too.

  Her heart grew heavy with regret. To protect her family, she would ruin her own desires. Forget about him right now. She turned to her fiancé and placed the box on the table between them.

  “Let’s negotiate.”

  Kaolin knew from the small smile on Emprezia’s face that his friend had lost. They continued their negotiations, never settling on a number, but circling around it. She clearly had what he wanted.

  He couldn’t blame Dom.

  She was brilliant and deft and easily able to hold his attention. The witty friend transformed into an unfamiliar, hard-edged negotiator.

  “Explain how you came upon this supply route, or I will end this farce of an engagement and place you in the hands of your enemies.” He curled his hands more possessively around the box.

  “You can’t do that,” she said. “Your friend promised me safety.”

  Domingo grimaced.

  “However, as your fiancée, I will answer.” She smiled at him with dangerous eyes. “I met a captain at a party. We had a nice chat.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because research is my specialty.” She tapped her chest with her thumb. “I chose you because we make sense, Domingo Chen. I will increase your fortunes.”

  “While allowing your family to defeat their enemies and make a thirty-three percent share of the rubilum profits.”

  “Seventy-six percent.”

  Dom studied her for a long, long time.

  And in that gaze, Kaolin saw begrudging admiration.

  Fuck.

  “We’ve just had a ‘nice chat,’” Dom said slowly, leaning back. “Tell me something about me.”

  “Are you sure you want me to? That’s dangerous.”

  He cast his gaze wider, fell on Kaolin. “Tell me about Kaolin. Something I don’t know.”

  She turned as well.

  Heat rooted Kaolin to the spot. He held up his hands. “You two fit each other. Leave me out of it.”

  Dom ignored his awkwardness.

  She parted her lips, surprised by his comment, and then sad.

  “Well?”

  She hardened and faced Dom again. “He’s a better friend than you deserve.”

  One brow rose. “You think so?”

  “You know so.”

  They both studied him, and then each other.

  Kaolin shifted awkwardly. “You guys—”

  “I want a demonstration,” Dom said, leaning back and resting his ankle on his knee again. “Let’s see this ‘personal skill’ in action.”

  “If I can tell you something useful about every guest you’ve invited to your private party tomorrow, will you set a date?”

  Shock echoed through Kaolin.

  Setting a date made it real. Kaolin turned away so his miserable feelings wouldn’t show. They weren’t pay
ing attention to him anyway.

  “I don’t remember announcing the party,” Dom said.

  “Then it wouldn’t be private, would it?”

  “Would you like to see the guest list?”

  “Why would I?”

  He snorted, then poured himself another drink. “Kaolin, another shot?”

  “No.” His voice broke. He cleared his damned throat. “I’m fine.”

  “I’m ready,” Emprezia said.

  Kaolin turned around.

  Dom’s hand arrested on the way to his mouth. “Proceed.”

  “You are inviting the company presidents of Allied Mining to discuss your plans for expansion into the Gold Nebula, but what you don’t know is that they have already secured an expansion contract with another family.”

  Domingo reddened and clenched his fist. “Continue.”

  Emprezia listed the reasons for every guest, all the way down to the second cousin of a former contractor. A botanist. “This person may provide ideas to beautify your gardens but will give you no real benefit.”

  A long silence followed her recitation.

  She was amazing. Prescient, even. Within an hour, she had learned more about Dom’s tastes and interests than Kaolin had in a century.

  But Dom didn’t give in immediately.

  He set his glass down. “Thank you for that illuminating demonstration. I hope you reconsider the final guest. That botanist is, perhaps, my most valuable guest tomorrow.”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  Domingo smiled. He clearly had a secret up his sleeve.

  “Well.” He rose, signaling the end of the discussion for the present time, and escorted her to the door. “Enjoy your stay, refresh, and we’ll meet again soon.”

  She glanced at Kaolin and exited.

  What was in her gaze? Regret? Resolution?

  A strange warmth pounded in his chest.

  Fuck.

  “What do you make of that?” Dom asked, his solid door shutting the two of them into privacy. “What a woman.”

  “Yeah,” Kaolin agreed.

  Dom rounded on him. “Why the hell did you let her in and promise ‘safety’? You know how I feel about these sticky personal contracts.”

  “I thought you wanted to meet her.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “She sent you the proposal. You didn’t say no.”

  Dom curled his lip. In the century since his last personal contract, he had immediately rejected all proposals. Emprezia’s was the first one he tentatively agreed to review. That made her special, so far as Kaolin was concerned, and he figured Dom would at least want to interview the woman rather than read about her scattered molecules outside his borders.

  Now that he had met her, he couldn’t imagine having turned her away. “Do you think she’ll figure out the botanist?”

  “Yes. She’s a spy and a thief. She probably stole that stone from the Corleons, and that’s why they want to kill her so badly. Her whole family’s ruthless, manipulative, walking automata with no hearts.”

  But Kaolin also thought Dom was obviously intrigued and impressed.

  “Then, you are going to set a date?” he pressed.

  “I have to. If she goes to my rivals with this….”

  He peeked into the box again, his eyes darkening at the responsibility of it. He had been a bachelor for years, and had apparently intended to continue.

  Dom slammed the box shut. “Out of all her family, why did it have to be Emprezia? She’s the coldest one of all.”

  That didn’t seem fair. “She loves her son.”

  Dom looked skeptical.

  “She bought this ridiculous med pen.” Kaolin snorted with the memory of her embarrassment as she explained how it worked. “It’s for kissing kids and making their injuries heal.”

  Both brows rose. “That’s hard to picture.”

  “Yeah. It was…” He shook his head. “Something else.”

  Dom poured Kaolin a drink.

  He accepted it, knowing his actions were forgiven. “Hey. Do you think her son could visit here?”

  “He’s not her genetic heir,” Dom said. “So, no way in hell.”

  “Why not?”

  “If anything happened to him, it would be an epic clusterfuck. I’d owe the genetic father serious money. My risk assessor is breaking out in hives because you’re asking the question, and she doesn’t even know why yet.”

  Yeah, the upper half lived completely different from families like the Sarits. They’d had friends over all the time and no one worried about who’d owe money if one of them broke an arm.

  The sadness in her eyes as she told Kaolin that night why she couldn’t see him now seemed justified.

  “She could take responsibility,” Kaolin pushed. “There’s got to be some clause, right?”

  “The boy’s father will say no, so it doesn’t matter.”

  “If the father says no anyway, what’s the harm of you saying yes?”

  Dom paused, and then started to smile. “Yes. You’re right. I’ll concede and get something else out of her for the concession. Maybe we can shorten this ridiculous marriage. Very good, Kaolin, very good.”

  Whatever the cost, surely having her son would be worth it to Emprezia.

  He had a close relationship with his parents and siblings. Growing up together, he had played rough-and-tumble with a sister and brother and cousins nearly his own age. None of them had a position of power to pass on to a genetic heir, like a planet. They had been ordinary.

  “But really this whole situation is stunning,” Dom continued. “What must she have risked to acquire this supply? Clearly it’s a smuggler, of course. Her mother was a pirate before settling down with her respectable father, and I see the genes expressed in the offspring.”

  “She must really want you.”

  “She wants my name,” Domingo said dryly. “The Corleons are as ambitious as her family. Normally I would stay out of it, so long as they both pay for moorage in my ports. Her initial proposal did intrigue me. But this…” He stared at the mineral box and swore. “I’m sorry I ever looked at it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I had long entertained the notion of marrying like the lower classes do. Not for mutual protection from shared enemies, but for love.” Domingo sighed, rubbed his eyes, and put his glass in the reprocessor for a refill. “No offense.”

  Kaolin shook his head. None taken.

  Domingo paused, the glass half to his lips. “Well, we don’t want anything ‘negligent’ happening while she’s under my hospitality. We still haven’t identified the person who sabotaged your cruiser.”

  If she died, she would be resurrected at her last restore point.

  A claim of negligence would get family enforcers to intercede on her behalf, costing Dom whatever price they determined was worth Emprezia’s inconvenience. It could be as much as the rubilum contract. More.

  She would forget she had ever met them. Ever met Kaolin.

  Dom put a call in to his security head with the information, and then relied on Kaolin. “Keep an eye on her, will you? And try not to let her wander around unaccompanied.”

  The flush of warmth at the idea of being forced to spend days with her immediately raised alarm bells.

  Spending more time with his friend’s delectable fiancée was the last thing Kaolin needed.

  “I’m practice-racing tomorrow.”

  “Take her,” he urged. “You don’t know what kind of assassin the Corleons have hired. It could be anyone.”

  Shit.

  And even though every part of his body shot through with hot and cold and hot again, guaranteeing it was a bad idea, he still heard himself agreeing with Domingo to watch over one beautiful, vulnerable, undefeatably brave diplomat.

  Chapter Six

  Emprezia studied her reports. Since their negotiation the previous day, Domingo’s security had found and removed over half of her hidden recorders. She was no ordinary hacke
r, however. Her information network ran deep.

  She would discover the importance of the botanist, secure their wedding date, and leave once more for her next contract opportunity. They would not see each other until their wedding.

  Leaving behind Kaolin, she would move on. Just as she always did.

  Her head hurt.

  She set aside her report and stretched. Headaches had been coming on more frequently lately, even though she was doing the same work and demanding the same effort from her body as she always had. Since leaving Aris at the wellness center and resuming her duties, she hadn’t recovered her former stamina.

  It was stamina. That was the problem. Not depression.

  The door chimed.

  She rose and checked her appearance. Long white silk crossed with a splash of imperial black. Perfect.

  Kaolin stood at her door. Her body flooded with heat. He looked mouthwatering in a crisp flight suit and helmet. The stubble on his healed jaw tempted her lips.

  “What are you doing here?” she heard herself asking.

  “Racing.” He rested an arm against the doorjam, filling her doorway with his masculine presence. “Want to come?”

  Her heart thumped hard. He was asking her? “Will Domingo be there?”

  A dark brow rose, evaluating her, but his smile remained unchanged. He shook his head.

  There was no benefit. She needed to remain in her room, studying these reports, until she uncovered Domingo’s weaknesses and used them against him.

  It would make her happy, her traitorous voice whispered.

  “Will I get to drive?” she asked.

  His eyes smoldered. “Sure.”

  “Let me change.”

  He waited in the lounge outside her room while she threw off her dress and shimmied into a flight suit.

  This was crazy. What was she doing? The question swirled in her mind even as she urged herself on. Maybe it would replenish her energy. She already felt more energetic, and her headache was gone like it had never existed.

  They spent an amazing day. He flew her to the racetrack in a cruiser that growled like a wild animal, but carried her as gently as a tiger. First, he left her on the viewing platform and tore up the obstacles in the course. Next, he gave her a ride that threw her heart in her throat, defying death only to swoop around and meet it face-on and send her laughing. After a quick lunch, he gave her the wheel.