The only problem she could see with the gown was the fact that it was so sheer she could see her bra and panties right through it.
“This is gorgeous,” she said, looking down at herself doubtfully. “But, well…”
“Well what, doll? Spit it out,” Kat encouraged.
“Well, I mean—is it really supposed to be so, uh, see-through?” Lisa asked. “I mean, everyone will be able to see my underwear right through it.”
“Oh, no they won’t—because you won’t be wearing any underwear,” Kat declared. “Not with that outfit, at least.”
“Won’t be wearing underwear?” Lisa exclaimed. “But then…what are those?”
She pointed to a matching set of underwear—a folded bra and panties that looked almost the exact same color as her own pale skin tones.
“Oh, those are your purification garments,” Kat explained. “The ones you’re going to wear when you go through the purifying ritual tonight when you get to Helios Beta.”
“Purification ritual?” Lisa asked, frowning. “What in the world is that?”
“It’s the reason you’re going tonight instead of tomorrow,” Kat informed her. “The Chorkays believe that you must be ritually purified in order to attend the coronation of their Potentate and apparently it takes some time. Otherwise you could just fold space tomorrow morning and appear there instantly, just in time for the ceremony.”
“And I’m supposed to wear those when I get, uh, purified?” Lisa reached for the garments and unfolded them. “What the hell?” she exclaimed, looking them over. “Am I really supposed to wear these?”
“What? What is she supposed to wear?” Sophie asked from the other side of the screen.
“We want to see too!” Liv chimed in.
Lisa came out from around the screen and showed the flesh-colored bra and panties to the two sisters. Both of them got incredulous looks on their faces and no wonder, Lisa thought! Printed on the bra part of the purification outfit were two perfectly realistic-looking nipples complete with wide pink bands for the areolas.
But the panties, if possible, were even worse. Printed on the front of them was a neatly trimmed patch of brown pubic hair and below that, a very realistic-looking vagina complete with partially parted lips which showed a pink clit.
“Oh my God!” Liv said blankly, staring at the garments and then at Kat. “I can’t say I blame Lisa for being upset—these are really weird.”
“Yeah, Kat-woman,” Sophie agreed. “What’s the deal with these?”
“They’re what the Chorkay women wear for the purification ritual,” Kat insisted, frowning. “From what I read, they used to do it completely naked but some of the women felt exposed. So now the men go naked but the women wear garments which completely match their skin-tone but have genitals imprinted on them, so as not to upset their gods.”
“Uh…it’s still pretty weird,” Lisa pointed out. “And I don’t love the idea of wearing this gown with nothing under it either,” she added, nodding down at the floating layers of the coronation gown.
“I can synthesize you a robe to wear over it,” Kat offered. “Though I don’t think it’s the fashion right now, it might make you feel a little better.”
“Or, it’s not too late to back out if you’re feeling uncomfortable,” Liv said comfortingly. “I mean, I know you said you would go but this is kind of weird.”
“No…” Lisa took a deep breath and shook her head. “I’ll take the robe but I’m not backing out at the last minute—that would be a crappy thing to do to Asher, especially after he risked his reputation to get me hired on to this mission.”
Plus, for two thousand, five hundred dollars an hour, she could stand to wear underwear with naughty parts painted on them for a little while. At least she wouldn’t be completely nude—although it was certainly going to look like she was, she thought with an inward wince.
“Well, I think you’re going to be fine,” Liv said firmly. “And if Kat says this is what they’re wearing on Helios Beta, then that’s what they’re wearing there. She’s never wrong about fashion.”
“I like to think I have a flair for it.” Kat tossed her auburn hair and smiled at Lisa. “Okay now, I packed you a few extra outfits just in case—all blue, of course—though I don’t think you’re going to need them. You’re only going to be there tonight and tomorrow and you’ll be coming home after the coronation ceremony ends.”
“And now our hour is almost up,” Liv added, looking at a chronometer on her wrist. “So we’d better get Lisa back to the Docking Bay.”
“You’re going to do great!” Sophie exclaimed, smiling at her as Lisa went behind the screen to change back into the traveling dress Kat had made her.
“And you’ll be home in time for Christmas Eve,” Kat added as she helped Lisa out of the gauzy coronation gown.
“Oh well—that doesn’t really matter to me,” Lisa said awkwardly. “I mean, I don’t really have any plans for Christmas Eve or Christmas, for that matter. I was just going to hang around my apartment and watch Pride and Prejudice again or something.”
“What? You can’t be alone on Christmas!” Sophie protested. “Don’t you have family to spend it with?”
“Well, I do but…” Lisa shrugged awkwardly. She had just met these girls and she wanted them to like her. How could she admit that her mom had spent Christmas Eve and Christmas passed out drunk almost every year she could remember? And her stepfather Gary was the same. The two of them aided and abetted each other in their alcoholism so there was no point in going home for Christmas, even if it had been safe—which it certainly was not with Cameron on her trail.
“It’s complicated?” Liv guessed, cutting into her train of thought.
“Yeah.” Lisa nodded gratefully. “Really complicated.”
“Well then, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Sophie assured her. “But I want you to know you have an open invitation to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with my family if you want.”
“Or mine,” Liv said. “Although it’s kind of the same thing since our families always get together anyway.”
“Or mine,” Kat said cheerfully. “If you don’t mind being completely outnumbered—I have two husbands and three boys.”
Lisa was touched.
“Thank you so much, you guys,” she said, smiling at all of them. “You’re all so nice! You barely know me but you’re inviting me to spend Christmas with your families.”
“Well, we take care of people on the Mother Ship,” Liv said, smiling. “And we can all remember what it felt like to be new up here.”
“So drop by and see any or all of us, doll,” Kat said and winked. “Unless, that is, you happen to be spending the holiday with Commander Asher.”
Lisa felt her face get hot.
“Um, it’s not like that between us. He just recommended me for this mission because he felt bad about getting me fired because he was a crappy Santa Claus.”
“He was?” Liv asked, interested, “You didn’t tell me that when Baird and I came down earlier.”
“Oh yeah.” Lisa nodded expressively. “But in his defense, he clearly doesn’t know anything about Christmas or Santa or any of it. And he really did try.”
Sophie shook her head.
“I just can’t see him as Santa Claus, to be honest.”
“He didn’t look a thing like him—even when he put on the suit,” Lisa admitted. “In fact he looked kind of…well, scary.”
“Scary Santa, hmm? I sense a story behind that,” Kat said, grinning.
“Me too—he is kind of an intense guy,” Sophie said thoughtfully. “What happened—he scared the kids and they wouldn’t sit on his lap?”
“Worse than that,” Lisa said and told them about how Asher had threatened to put “dirty lumps of carbon” in one boy’s stocking and promised a menagerie of pets to a little girl.
“Oh—I bet her mom was not happy about that,” Liv said sympathetically.
; “Not a bit,” Lisa agreed. “He promised her a kitten and a puppy and was about to throw in a pony for good measure before I stopped him.”
Kat started laughing. “Oh my God—what a mess!”
“Literally,” Lisa said and told them about the little girl who had puked in the fake snow and then about Dougie, who had peed all over Asher’s lap.
By the time she finished, all three of her new friends were rolling with laughter.
“But he tried, you know?” she finished, laughing herself. The Kindred Claus incident was much funnier in retrospect than it had been when it was happening, she thought. “I mean, you should have seen him holding the babies—it was adorable.”
“Kindred are good with kids,” Sophie said, wiping her eyes and still giggling a little. “Well, generally.”
“They make great dads—just FYI, in case things do get serious with Commander Asher, doll,” Kat remarked.
“That’s not going to happen,” Lisa said, trying to sound firm. “You guys are sweet to suggest it but, well…you don’t know what kind of relationship I just got out of.”
“That bad, huh?” Liv asked sympathetically. “Did he cheat on you?”
“He hit me,” Lisa said bluntly, not sure why she was sharing such private information with people she had just met. But somehow it felt safe to talk to these three. “But only when he got drunk,” she added. “The only problem was, he was always drinking.”
“Oh dear,” Sophie said, “We’ve had some experience with that here—girls running away from abusive men.”
“At the risk of sounding like a bad feminist, finding a Kindred to protect you works better than any court-ordered restraining order, doll,” Kat told her.
“I don’t need anyone to protect me,” Lisa said. “I’m just not ready for anything else right now. Things were really bad before I got away,” she added, looking down at her hands. “And for a while, I wasn’t sure I would make it.”
“But you did make it and here you are,” Liv said firmly. “I knew you were a fighter the first minute I saw you. I’m just glad you found your way up here to us.”
“Me too.” Lisa smiled at her gratefully. “You guys are wonderful and Commander Asher is amazing too. I’m just…not ready for any kind of relationship right now. That’s all.”
Not even with a seven-foot tall male model-looking warrior who had told her she was fucking gorgeous, she told herself firmly. Still, she couldn’t help thinking of Asher’s deep green eyes and broad, muscular chest and wondering if maybe after all this was over…
But no. There was still Cameron to contend with. She hadn’t even gotten a divorce from him yet, although she’d started going by her maiden name again. It wouldn’t be right—or prudent—to go starting something with the big Kindred.
No matter how achingly attractive she found him.
Fourteen
“Wow—that was intense.” Lisa let out a breath as they exited the red gash in the blackness where the Mother Ship had folded space for them.
“It takes some getting used to,” Asher admitted.
“And…we’re really sixty thousand light years from where we started? Just like that?” Lisa snapped her fingers.
“Just like that,” Asher assured her, peering at the viewscreen, which was showing a completely different pattern of stars, as well as a small blue and turquoise ball of a planet.
“Amazing,” she breathed and shifted in her chair. She had been doing that ever since they’d gotten underway, Asher thought, frowning. Shifting around as though she was in pain for some reason. He wondered if it had anything to do with the new blue dress she had on—which was absolutely stunning and clung to her curves like a lover’s hand.
He shifted some himself, wishing that the confines of the ship’s cabin were not quite so close. Her warm, feminine scent was working on him again, making him uncomfortably aroused.
It was ridiculous that her scent should affect him so strongly, he told himself. It was time to get his mind off the curvy little Earth girl and back to the business at hand. He tried to think of the mission and what he was meant to accomplish instead of the way the tight blue dress cradled her breasts and showed the creamy slope of her cleavage.
“That must be Helios Beta,” Lisa said, pointing at the green and turquoise planet which was growing rapidly bigger in the viewscreen.
“That’s it,” Asher acknowledged.
She turned to face him.
“I want to thank you again for getting me this gig…er, job,” she said seriously. “I really needed the money but more than that, I’ve always wanted to travel. My husband promised me…” She trailed off abruptly but Asher felt like she’d stuck an ice cold blade in his guts.
“Your…husband?” he managed to make himself say. “I thought you were alone, with no family or friends.”
“I am, for all intents and purposes.” She sighed. “My husband is only still my husband because I haven’t been able to serve him with divorce papers yet. He’s…not a good guy. Wow, look at that—I think Heliux Prime has four moons!” She looked away, clearly wanting to change the subject but Asher couldn’t let it drop—not yet.
“Not a good guy,” he repeated, frowning. “Not good in what way?”
“Not good in the way that he liked to drink too much and let’s just say he was a mean drunk,” she said, clearly unhappy to be talking about it.
“So…he hit you? Abused you?” Asher asked. He no longer feared her belonging to another male—it was clear her husband had lost any claim he had on her when he first raised a hand against her. But the idea of someone hurting her…the very thought made his blood boil.
“All of the above,” she said tightly. “And then some. Look, could we please not talk about this anymore? I’d rather hear more about the mission. We can’t just be here to attend the coronation, can we? I mean, isn’t there some other covert reason you had to come?”
Asher looked at her in surprise.
“That is…very astute of you,” he said. “How did you know I had a second reason for being here?”
She shrugged. “You said you were in the ‘Elite Espionage Corps’ which equals spy stuff, I’m pretty sure. Also, you were really anxious to be able to come here and blend in—that’s why you recruited me instead of just pretending your wife had just died. You didn’t want to be the only one without a mate and stick out. If you blend in, it’s much easier to get your real mission done—whatever it is—right?”
“Well…yes,” Asher acknowledged. He frowned. “Not everyone would have put everything together like that.” In fact, most people wouldn’t, he thought. Most people only saw what was right in front of their faces and didn’t care to see any more. So now, along with her devastating beauty and bewitching scent, he had to add sharp intelligence to her list of qualities.
Lisa shrugged. “Well, I also watch a lot of thrillers and spy movies. James Bond…Jason Bourne—that kind of stuff. Of course, the early Bonds, especially, are horribly misogynistic. I mean, the women in them are as disposable as Kleenex. But I enjoy the plots anyway.”
Asher shook his head.
“I have never seen any of the entertainments you mention but I would certainly be interested in the human ideas on espionage.”
“We’ll have to have a spy movie marathon sometime,” Lisa said, smiling. “Right after we do Christmas movie marathon, that is, so you can figure out what it’s all about. You know—for the next time you get roped into playing Santa Claus at a moment’s notice.”
Asher made a face. “I would rather watch the ‘spy’ movies, I think. And I have no wish to play Santa ever again.”
She laughed—a warm, feminine sound he liked immensely.
“Can’t say that I blame you. I never want to play an elf again either. It’s a pretty miserable gig to be honest.” She frowned at him. “But if you’re trying to get off the subject of what our real mission is here, don’t bother because I’m not going to let it drop.”
“You’re n
ot?” Asher asked, frowning.
“No, I’m not. So come on, tell me…” She leaned towards him, her big blue eyes avid with interest. “What are you really doing here? Are you supposed to get confidential information from an informant? Steal a classified lethal weapon? Assassinate someone?”
“Certainly not!” Asher protested. “I never would have brought you here if this was a kill mission. You don’t bring an untrained operative into a possible combat zone.”
“A kill mission?” Her eyes widened. “So you actually do that? You assassinate people?”
“On occasion,” Asher admitted reluctantly. “But not on this mission,” he hastened to add. “I have no orders to kill anyone on Helios Beta.”
“Then what are your orders?” Lisa persisted. “Come on and tell me, Asher…” She put a hand on his knee beseechingly, which made his shaft twitch in his flight leathers. “Don’t keep me in the dark,” she begged. “Tell me what it is—maybe I can help you. If nothing else I can be a distraction when you need me to.”
“Well…” He wished she wasn’t touching him. Her soft little hand on his knee made thinking difficult.
He had been planning to “keep her in the dark” as she put it, as to the real nature of his assignment, but now Asher admitted to himself that would be a mistake. He had claimed to Commander Sylvan that Lisa could be an asset on this trip—he ought to make good on that claim and use her as one. She was obviously sharply intelligent and could keep her mouth shut. It wouldn’t hurt to have her looking out for the communications device, whatever it might be.
“All right,” he said at last. “You’re correct—I’m not just here as a diplomat. The Kindred High Council has been given to understand that the Chorkay people have developed a method of long-range communication with a vast range—further than anything we currently have ourselves. As you can imagine, this kind of capability is extremely useful, especially when traveling through space where astronomical distances between star systems are common.”
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