She shook her head. “No.” She stood up and glanced at the ones who would be left behind. “We came here for a purpose, and to do that, you all will have to return home.” At that moment, she wished she’d gotten to know them. They were all there to help, loyal to Earth Central, loyal to her father. The intimidation factor hadn’t worked. It backfired. “I wish you safe journey.”
“And to you, Ms. Denny,” the soldier murmured.
One man stepped forward and reached for her hand. Ah, old Zebediah. A white-haired old coot she’d known as a child. He’d been too old for this trip, but he’d insisted. She was glad he was going home, going before violence and death were forced on them all. She shook herself from her morbid thoughts.
“Fallon, little one,” Zebediah murmured. He leaned closer, ostensibly to kiss her cheek, and whispered, “Follow your father’s words, my child, but not to your grave.” He backed away and joined the rest of the departing crowd.
After a moment’s hesitation, she turned toward Matthew Lestrano and the gangplank that led to Asberek’s surface. Now, she only had Simon Boular and Todd Aster. Both were men who advised her well, but how would they hold up under this pressure?
Simon and Todd stood tall, one fair-haired and one dark. She stared at them. Why these two? Lestrano had chosen them for a reason. Simon was one of her closest advisors second to Ceasar Steiger. He was listed as her number two man, so he wasn’t so much of a surprise. But Todd? He was younger than the rest, and this was his first trip with her. Yet, as she studied him, she realized he had a hard, dangerous look about him.
When she glanced at Lestrano, the same demeanor was carried by the Asberekian. Her eyes narrowed on Todd’s face. Dark complexion, straight nose, black hair and large, slender hands all gave him the look of an Earthling from the country of India or perhaps Africa. The way his gaze soaked in his surroundings and the tension in his muscles screamed military.
An undercover Tribunal? Probably. And she didn’t know a damn thing about him.
Lestrano broke into her thoughts. “If you’re ready, Ms. Denny.”
She bit her lip and glanced out the bay door. The wind whispered through the trees outside that she could just glimpse beyond the large plaz windowed building. Pink-colored clouds dominated the sky, and she wondered if that would be the last sky she’d ever see.
There was a good chance she could die on this planet.
She squared her shoulders and pursed her lips. “After you, Mr. Lestrano,” she said.
“Call me Matthew,” he said.
Her nostrils flared, but she kept her voice level. “Thank you. Shall we go?” She didn’t offer name privileges in return. If she could have plunged a knife in his back she would have. But her training held, and she slipped her hand through the arm he offered.
Asberek had won the first round, but Fallon wasn’t done fighting yet.
Chapter Three
No doubt Ms. Fallon Denny had been shocked. Of course, that didn’t mean she was innocent. Matthew smiled as he knotted his tie and smoothed down his uniform. Full Asberek dress uniform was pleasant to wear except for the damn tie. And this diplomatic party was important enough to require full dress.
The Asberek council would be there. The Merek Stone Mining Company CEO would be there. The Truffula Conglomerate representative would be there. Every important member of Asberek’s society would be attending.
There was no way some Earth Central spoiled princess was going to be impressed by any of it, but Elise Pasquel insisted they make an effort. Adonis Pasquel’s wife was a unique woman. Smart, headstrong and, yet, very feminine. Not that Matthew envied Pasquel. Though he liked a challenge, the woman he wanted would submit to him, obey him.
And yet, the women he did play with in the Virtual Fantasy Rooms were submissive to a fault, but left him empty and wanting. Perhaps a tame submissive wouldn’t fulfill his needs. Perhaps that was why he enjoyed topping men so much. Many of them resisted, but their submissive needs overwhelmed them. When a man gave in, it was so much more satisfying. But Matthew liked the soft curves of a female and the sweet dampness of a woman’s pussy. A man’s lubed up ass had appeal, but not in the long term.
He shook his head. His thoughts were wandering to sex, and he knew why. Fallon Denny was a beautiful woman. He’d seen videos of her many times, but they didn’t do her justice. She had deep brown hair that shone like polished cherry wood, and her eyes were a light brown with golden flecks. The woman was tall and sturdy, not willowy. The videos hadn’t revealed the way her jaw set when she was angry or how her color changed in the midst of strong emotion. He’d watched the color drain from her face, and that vulnerable moment was burned in his brain.
He’d met her, determined to hate her. Instead, he admired her courage, her strength. He’d intended to scare her into leaving Asberek. But she’d raised her chin and stuck it out. She surprised him. It wasn’t easy to surprise Matthew Lestrano.
How would she surprise him tonight?
He left his quarters and strode down the wide, paved street that led to the Causeway. Central to life on Asberek, the Causeway housed politicians, scientists and their labs, and visitors from off planet. The large shuttle bay had been built next to it, and lights from incoming shuttles gleamed in the descending Asberek evening. The last shuttle from Skybase, the military barracks orbiting the planet, left the surface, and a glowing trail followed as it roared through the sky.
Familiar sounds, familiar sights, made Matthew’s muscles relax. This was his home. Most men who studied on Earth stayed on Earth. Not Matthew. His experience on the homeworld taught him valuable lessons about bigotry, cultural differences and control.
After all, he’d been raised on a planet where sexual satisfaction wasn’t a pleasure, but a necessity. The inoculations to Synthetic Endorphin Xstasy hadn’t been perfected until Matthew was fifteen, and by that time, he’d discovered he enjoyed the rush of the drug in his system.
What would the uptight, upright Ms. Denny think if she knew that some members of the colony refused to be inoculated from SEX? His lips lifted. She would be appalled. Why would any human risk their life that way? After all, if a human being allowed the drug to go unabated, it would kill them.
But Matthew loved the risk, the adrenaline. He loved to need sex. It amazed him that this reckless part had never been unearthed by the Earth Psych evals. On Earth, sex was boring, tame. Even when he topped Rodger at a BDSM club, it wasn’t the same. Neither Rodger nor Olivia ever knew how restrained Matthew was with them.
On Asberek, he could exercise the full capacity of his sexual prowess. The women here understood his absolute control and his desire to dominate. And they even understood why sometimes he would refuse a monthly inoculation and spend thirty days risking everything.
The plaz doors to the Causeway opened automatically, and warm, stale air hit his face. The twists and turns of the corridors presented no problem to him since he’d been raised in the Causeway. His mother, a prominent scientist, had worked here and lived here. Matthew’s father, a retired Tribunal soldier, had made sure Matthew would never be lost in the sprawling complex.
Fallon Denny. Daughter of Harbold Denny, Earth Central politician and one time ambassador to the Ang. Matthew reviewed what he knew. She was single, twenty-seven, and on the fast track to a successful political career on Earth. Her mother died when she was a small child, and Fallon was raised by nannies. Harbold Denny was a hard man to please apparently, since Fallon rose to political prominence by her own merits as far as Matthew could find. There were no short cuts for her.
Yet, she and her father were the leading advocates of colonial control and using military force to keep colonies within the Earth Central system. Rebellion was dealt with by force. Hadn’t they all seen what happened three years earlier when Mars attempted to rebel? A mysterious and deadly virus spread over the colony and forced Mars to beg Earth Central for medical help.
Matthew tightened his lips. Not on his colony.
&nb
sp; Oh, the irony that the drug present in Asberek’s atmosphere—a drug put there by the Dormrela and the Ang in an effort to cover up an experiment gone horribly wrong—would give native Asberekians immunity to several biological weapons. How that must have chafed the bullies on the Earth Central Senate council.
But S.E.X couldn’t protect them from those Ryser bombs. He rubbed a hand over his face. Someone set the bomb to kill only Asberekian colonists. The DNA key had been turned, and all it needed was a button pushed to wipe out anyone with the Asberek signature DNA. Perhaps Matthew should have packed up the Earth Central contingent and taken the political consequences.
He shook his head. The colony wasn’t ready to deal with EC aggression. Yet.
When he reached Fallon Denny’s door, he nodded to the two Asberek guards. “Any problems?”
“No, sir,” they answered in unison.
The door opened, and Matthew did a double-take. The woman had changed from a simple flight suit to what looked like a strip of silk that wound around her entire body. It encircled her neck and criss-crossed over her breasts revealing her luscious cleavage. The material hugged her curves and flowed over her legs to brush her ankles. The shimmering gold color matched the flecks in her eyes and brought out highlights in her hair.
Matthew had rarely paid attention to women’s clothing before, but his first thought was how to remove that beautiful dress. Like a gift, he thought, unwrapping it slowly and—
“Do I pass inspection?” Her voice sounded amused.
“Absolutely,” he said and met her gaze.
He held out his hand, and she took it. When she stepped forward, he noted her feet were encased in golden Roman sandals. Very classy, and they emphasized her narrow feet and shapely calves.
Diplomacy was her stock and trade. Her appearance was a call to arms. He smiled. A challenge. Her hand rested in his, and she smiled back, a small lift of her lips that told him she knew the effect she was having on him.
“Shall we go?” She nodded to the guards and moved her hand to the inside of his arm.
“As the guest of honor, you can’t be late,” Matthew commented and covered her hand with his. “Are you prepared to meet the colony’s best and brightest?” Right. She probably thought Asberek was a backwoods colony, only fit for servicing Earth Central. Best and brightest, hah!
“Not just Asberek’s best and brightest,” she said. “My father told me some of Earth’s most brilliant minds colonized this planet.”
An opening to brag. He wanted to. Matthew was proud of his people, proud of his family. But he was convinced Fallon was buttering him up. “Some of them.”
He could have mentioned the second generation had tested some of the highest competency numbers in centuries, but he didn’t. He could have mentioned the innovations created on Asberek that save millions of lives on Earth and elsewhere. But he didn’t. “You were a graduate of Earth Central School of Diplomacy, I believe?”
“Yes. Three years ago. Since then, I’ve mentored with Senator Colin Asher and traveled all over the universe. No place as remote as Asberek, however.”
Yes, Matthew had heard about Ms. Denny and Senator Asher. Rumors flew that they had been sleeping together, but Matthew’s sources were not very friendly to the daughter of Harbold Denny.
“Did you accompany the Senator to Angina?” The home planet of the Ang was one of the most restricted locations. And Matthew was fascinated with any information on it.
She shook her head. “I’m afraid not. The Senator traveled alone to Angina. I didn’t have the clearance at that time.”
Too bad. Matthew led her through the twisted corridors to the large atrium in the center of the Causeway. The waterfall gurgled, and the native plants filled the space with sweet smells.
“The design for the Causeway is stunning,” she said, her gaze focused on the plaz ceiling hundreds of feet in the air.
“It was actually designed by Alfred Kettig on Earth.”
“Kettig buildings are quite famous now,” she said.
“So I’ve heard.” Matthew wondered when she was going to get down to brass tacks. Small talk was a prelude to something. Or maybe that was all she sought with him? If so, she had much to learn about Asberek politics.
They stepped out of the Causeway and into the wide lane that ran down the middle of the colony.
“The sunset is quite beautiful.” She stared at the setting suns on the horizon. “Why don’t the temperatures get higher on the planet surface? With two suns, I would think it would be much hotter here.”
“The stars that heat the planet are much farther away from Asberek than the Earth’s sun is from Earth.” Matthew loved the complex physics that made his planet habitable. “In fact, if Asberek revolved around only one of those stars, it would be a cold, empty planet. It takes both stars to create the heat and balance needed for life to be sustained here.”
“Is it true there was a human population here a hundred years ago?” she asked.
She had to know there had been. Earth Central had been a major player in covering up the existence of the human colony. Factions on Earth allied with the Dormrela to hide an experiment, a human population put on Asberek by the Ang but destroyed by the Dormrela. It had been Adonis Pasquel who revealed the alien influence on Earth Central. And they hated him for it. Thirty years later, and they still hated him for it.
Why would Fallon Denny pretend ignorance? “Yes, about a hundred and thirty years ago. There had always been stories of alien abductions especially during the twentieth century on Earth. Apparently, they were brought here as an experiment.” He glanced sideways at her. “Our archeologists have been studying the Old City for thirty years.”
“Oh? Anything interesting?” Now, she sounded bored.
Matthew grinned. So, something about the Old City and the human population, had gotten Earth Central’s panties in a wad. What in the world could be hidden on Asberek that Earth Central wanted to hide this time?
“No, not a thing. They were a pretty uninteresting bunch.” Except for their DNA. “They farmed and lived a fairly primitive lifestyle.”
She gave him a sharp look. “So, what happened?”
“Oh, the Dormrela wanted to disrupt the Ang experiment. After centuries of being under Ang domination, the Dormrela had broken away, become free. They hated to see the Ang using another species for experimentation.” Matthew’s lips thinned. “Especially if the Ang developed a weapon to use on the Dormrela.” He shrugged. “What happened? The human colony got caught in a war between two alien forces.” And it almost happened again when Earth Central tried to cover it up. The Dormrela and the Ang had been adversaries for centuries. Humans were in the middle.
“But wasn’t Adonis Pasquel saved by the Ang?”
Matthew stared at her. Was she really trying to pretend she didn’t know, hadn’t studied all this? “He was. After Earth Central paid a Dormrelian ambassador to destroy the colony.” He stopped outside the Capital building and squeezed her arm with his hand. “What will Earth Central use this time?”
She blinked. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Mr. Lestrano.”
Bullshit. “I’m sure you know exactly what I mean.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I’m afraid you’re overstepping your bounds, Mr. Lestrano. I am an Earth Central diplomat sent to negotiate a trade agreement with your council.”
Sure she was. His nostrils flared. “You will find the council appreciates honesty over diplomacy, Ms. Denny.”
“I’m sure they will be reasonable.”
“Not if you lie to them as you’ve been lying to me.” He shook his head. “Why ask questions about things you must already know? What is your real purpose for being here?”
A shutter fell over her face. Smooth, placid and unreadable, she tipped her shoulder. “Why should I answer if you will only call me a liar?”
“I see.” And he did. She had her orders, and they weren’t the orders she publicly stated. It was no coincidence
that the attempt on Pasquel’s life was the day The Star Gazer left Earth. Whether this woman knew about it or not, her purpose on Asberek was not to negotiate a trade agreement. But what her true purpose might be, he had yet to discover.
He took a deep breath and smiled. “I had no intention of insulting you. Please forgive me.”
She gazed at him steadily and then nodded. “You are forgiven.”
Deliberately, he slipped his hand around her waist. “Allow me to make up for my bad behavior.” He loved the way she trembled beneath his fingers. “Come with me.”
He led her into the Capital’s huge receiving room.
Chapter Four
As grating as he’d been earlier, now Matthew Lestrano was charming and attentive. It was difficult for Fallon to stay focused with the man’s hand pressed just above her waist where her heart slammed in her ribs. His dark hair and dark eyes complemented the dress uniform he wore which was a blinding white with gold braids and navy blue trim.
When he’d inspected her from head to toe, she felt undressed, naked. Then, he responded to her small talk with straight talk. Now, he was the perfect host, introducing her to everyone and attentive to her every need.
The evening turned to night, and Fallon had spoken to every big player on the council. Matthew was right. The council would not appreciate deception of any kind. They were a scrupulously honest group of people who had made the colony work under great stress. Fallon realized why her father had armed her with blackmailing information. It was going to be the only way to force Asberek to comply.
“Matt!” A blonde woman threw her arms around Matthew’s neck.
He smiled, and Fallon stared. Now that was a real smile. Tender, sweet and very hot. Damn, she wished he looked at her that way. The blonde kissed his cheek and leaned back. “You look fully recovered.”
“I am.” He grinned. “You didn’t come to see me when I was recuperating either. I took note.”
The woman rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m no good at hanging out around sick people. I know you. You’re a terrible patient.”
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