by Bonnie Dee
“I’m sorry,” she said in a contrite voice. “My will is stronger than my common sense sometimes. Don’t take it out on him.”
Ja-hun suppressed a smile. She was playing him even now, trying to buy his lenience with Pratt by acting apologetic.
Leelah gestured to a holo-sign advertising a restaurant. “Can we stop for something to eat? I haven’t had anything all day.”
Ja-hun thought of the Blaines’ huge kitchen and the on-site cook always available and didn’t feel any sympathy for her.
“Just a drive-through? Anything to stay away from that house a little longer. Goddess, I feel like a four-year-old. When will I finally be able to live my life instead of being overprotected and coddled?”
He wanted to tell her there were a lot worse things in life than being pampered, but he continued to keep his mouth shut.
She slid closer to him and rested her hand on his thigh. His dick responded automatically, stirring to life. “Please, Ja-hun.” It was the first time she’d used his name. “I’m sorry I ran away. It was childish. And I’m not just saying that to get you to do what I want. I know sometimes I come across like a spoiled rich bitch, but that’s not who I am.” She paused. “Or at least not all I am. I have dreams and goals. I didn’t get an education so I could sit around on my ass being catered to by servants like some OldEarth princess. I want to help people. But I can’t escape who my father is and start working. It’s very frustrating.”
Ja-hun slid a sideways glance at her open face and earnest eyes. It didn’t seem like she was playing him just to get more time away from the house. She appeared utterly truthful. It was also the most she’d said to him in the few days he’d been around her. Mostly she’d mocked, teased, complained, or begged. Sincerity was refreshing.
Her hand pressing his thigh had nothing to do with his decision. “All right. Where do you want to go?”
* * * * *
They ended up at a restaurant, in a back corner booth where he could keep his eye on all of the entrances and the people at the tables and other booths. Since not even the security staff at the estate knew where he and Leelah were, it was probably relatively safe here. Ja-hun had checked in with Nigeri to say he had Leelah with him and they’d return shortly. He hadn’t recommended Pratt’s dismissal, even though he’d disobeyed orders to stay with Leelah at all times. How could the guy have guessed she’d sneak out of the house like some teenager meeting her boyfriend?
Leelah ordered a surf and turf platter, Mahene crab and Korat steak. Ja-hun chose greens and fruit.
“You don’t eat meat?” she asked, closing her menu and handing it to the waitress.
“A little fish sometimes.” He’d also eaten rat and beetles for protein when he was starving in a D’jeering prison, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.
“Interesting. I wouldn’t have pegged you as a vegetarian.” She rested her chin on her hand and leaned against the table. “Actually, you do have that aesthetic monk vibe going, so it’s not too surprising.”
He didn’t reply. He sipped his water and scanned the restaurant.
“You know, dinner conversation is more interesting when there are actually two people conversing.” She cocked her head a little, and her gaze locked with his. “You already know everything there is to know about me. Tell me something about you. How did you get into the bodyguard business? What was Crin-tai like? Yes, I did my homework, and I know guarding him was your last job. But what did you do before that?”
You don’t want to know. “Other jobs. Other clients.”
“Mm. That’s very illuminating. Thank you,” she said dryly. “All right, let’s try something less complicated. What’s your favorite color?”
He paused. No one had ever asked him such an inane question. A favorite color? Who had time to think about such things? “Gray.”
She burst out laughing. “Why am I not surprised?”
“What about you?” he asked in an effort to participate in her ritual of small talk.
“Oh, shenje, that’s too hard. Any bold primary color. Royal blue and indigo are so satisfying and rich, but sometimes I’m more in a sexy scarlet mood, know what I mean? Then again, sunny yellow is a real spirit lifter, and a primeval forest green speaks to the soul.” She rattled on for several seconds in a monologue about colors.
He’d never heard anyone sound so passionate about something so mundane, and he suppressed a smile.
“What? Are you smiling? You think colors don’t matter?” She raised an eyebrow.
He shrugged. “They’re colors.”
“Color is life. Scents, too. Anything that touches our senses and stirs us to feel is important. And feeling is everything.”
Ja-hun remained silent.
“Go ahead. Say something. Your mind isn’t a complete blank, is it? You must be thinking something.”
“Most people I’ve known are passionate about either money, power, or both. You’re the first person I’ve ever met who could get excited about the qualities of colors or even suggest that colors have qualities.”
“I guess you’ve led a sheltered life.” She folded her arms on the table and leaned even farther across the tabletop toward him. “What about you? What are you passionate about?”
“Nothing.” He paused then added, “Except doing my job so no one gets killed.” A far cry from the days when doing his job meant someone definitely got killed.
“That’s a noble thing, but what about your life outside your work? What stirs you?”
You, apparently. “I prefer to keep my private and professional life separate,” he said, straightening the flatware on the table.
“I’m guessing your private life doesn’t exist at all.” Leelah’s voice lowered and softened. “I think your life is your job, and you’ve forgotten how to do anything else.”
He was saved from having to answer by the arrival of their food. As he picked at his fruit plate, he watched in amazement as Leelah packed away a trough full of food that would’ve choked a sumo wrestler. Where she put it in her slender frame, he had no idea, but her plate was empty and polished clean before he’d finished his salad.
“Guess you really were hungry,” he commented.
“Did you doubt it? I burned off a lot of calories dancing.”
“So I saw.”
She smiled and her eyelids lowered. “You like the way I dance.” It wasn’t a question but a statement, and he didn’t bother to deny it. “You should’ve danced with me before we left the party.” Suddenly, she leaped up from her seat and reached for his hand. “We should dance right now.”
“This is a restaurant,” he protested as she pulled him from his seat.
“There’s music, though.” It was true. Innocuous background music for dining played softly. “Perfect for slow dancing.”
Before Ja-hun could argue, her arms were around his neck and her body pressed up tight to his. The sweet scent of her shampoo drifted up from her hair to tease his nostrils. Her body was incredibly soft and light in his arms, which had slid naturally around her back. She swayed against him, encouraging him to do the same.
“Dancing works best if you move your body a little,” she teased.
He glanced around the restaurant. Most other diners didn’t even seem aware of them in the dark back corner. The few who’d noticed smiled a little then returned their attention to their meals. He shuffled his feet awkwardly back and forth. It was ridiculous. He was a man with lightning-quick reflexes in a hand-to-hand fight, yet he lumbered like a bear around the floor.
Ja-hun looked at the top of Leelah’s head and noticed there were golden strands in her brown hair. Then she raised her face to look up at him from inches away ‑‑ so close he could see the dark outer ring of her topaz eyes and the brown striations of her irises. He felt the faint puff of her breath against his neck, and his gaze zeroed in on her lips, plump, pink, and slightly parted. His tongue swept over his own lips in anticipation of something he knew he couldn’t resist.
His grip on Leelah’s back tightened, and he stopped shuffling back and forth. His eyes drifted closed, and he forgot to look out for danger. Besides, he’d already found it. While every shred of his intellect warned him he was making a huge mistake, every fiber of his being yearned toward the woman in his arms.
He clasped her body even closer and kissed her hard and deep, surrendering his hard-won detachment to a glittering moment of passion.
Chapter Three
Ja-hun was kissing her. Damn, he was kissing her with a masterful aggression that put her past lovers to shame. His tongue flicked lightly over her lips then plunged inside to coil around hers. One hand rested at the small of her back, and the other had slid up its length to cup her nape. He held her tight against him, and she could feel the hardness of his body beneath that ridiculous suit. How she’d love to have it off him so she could see the fine muscles underneath.
He smelled good, a clean, forest scent mingled with male musk that piqued her arousal. Her hands were hooked over his shoulders from behind, and she snaked one up into his hair to see if the glossy black really did feel like silk as she’d imagined. The strands slipped smoothly between her fingers. She moaned softly into his searching mouth. Arching against him, she pressed her tits more firmly to his chest and rubbed her crotch against his. Ah, yes, that’s the stuff.
For a moment, he responded, groaning low in his throat and thrusting his erection against her belly. Then he came to his senses and pulled away, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her back. “No.” His voice was a harsh rasp. His almond eyes narrowed to slits. “Enough!”
There it was ‑‑ the passion he’d repressed when he walked in on her masturbating. Ja-hun was finally aroused, angry and aroused. His snapping black gaze was every bit as exciting and magnificent as she’d thought it would be. She wanted him to push her back on the restaurant table and fuck her right there. What did she have to do to goad him further?
In an instant, the shutters came down. His panting mouth closed to a tight line. The smoldering sparks in his eyes died, and they became cold and dead again. “It’s time to get back now.” He hailed a passing waitress and scanned his card on her quickpay, grabbed Leelah’s wrist, and pulled her toward the door.
Back in the V-1 speeding toward home, Leelah made every effort to engage Ja-hun again, but he was steadfast as stone.
“Come on. You can’t act like that didn’t happen. I didn’t just throw myself at you. You kissed me, too, and you liked it,” she crowed.
“It was a mistake and won’t happen again.” That was all he’d say no matter how much she wheedled and teased. She felt like a wave beating against a seawall. She might erode it a little, but the structure had been built to withstand the battering sea.
Finally, even Leelah grew tired of hearing herself talk and fell silent.
At home, she jumped out of the sleek car and headed for her room, very aware of Ja-hun right behind her. Was he noticing her ass? She swayed it from side to side in case he was.
As she showered, she fantasized about Ja-hun attacking an intruder and saving her like some fairytale knight. A protection fantasy was so cliché yet sexy all the same. Soaping her body, she imagined falling into his arms after he’d killed the bad guys. Her hand slipped between her legs for a few moments of play, but she declined to climax again by her own hand. If she couldn’t have a real fuck, she didn’t want to come at all.
Her father was going to be home for a late dinner, back from the summit meeting on Anu. Leelah dressed up for the meal, even though she was still full from her late lunch. She’d just as soon eat pizza in her underwear, sitting cross-legged in front of the vid, but Rogent preferred a little old-school formality. It was a small thing she could do for him. Besides, she looked killer in her green and gold Tsymensi dress and wanted Ja-hun to see her in it.
But the stupid bodyguard showed no reaction when she swished past him on her way down to the dining room. He followed her like the good, faithful attendant he was. He made her think of a silent but deadly Doberman with his sleekness and all his points and angles.
“Ja, Daddy.” She crossed the room to hug and kiss her father. “Missed you. How are things in the Free Worlds? Everybody managing not to kill each other?”
“Currently.” He smiled and kissed her once more and then held her chair as she sat.
She knew no one had told him about her escape, or he would have been all over her and might have fired his new security specialist. Although her father may have supported her initial request to attend the party had she asked, he would not have been happy about her managing to give the slip to his entire security staff. And as much as Leelah had wanted to be rid of Ja-hun when he first arrived, she now wanted to keep him around, so she was glad he hadn’t felt the need to report the incident.
She chatted with her father about politics for a while. The Insurgent Alliance was demanding better working conditions for the very poor on planets like Bat and OldEarth, and there was the upcoming penal reform bill that would affect D’jeering and other prison planets. An increasingly large segment of Anu’s population threatened to separate from the Free Worlds to resume self-government. The latter situation required some tricky maneuvering on her father’s part as he strove to keep one of the most powerful and wealthy of the Worlds content, yet not appear to be caving to their every demand.
“Enough political talk. I’ve had it up to here with working out solutions to impossible situations. Tell me what you’ve been up to.”
“Hm. Imprisoned at home mostly, as you know, Dad. But last week when I still had a life, I went to a Kingset concert with Trianne. They were great. I mean, the music alone is sanshi, but combined with the vid screen show and the acting, it was amazing.”
“Good. I’m glad you enjoyed it, although their music doesn’t much appeal to me.”
“Oh, please, you still like OldEarth music from the turn of the century. That rock beat is about as intricate and challenging as a child’s puzzle.”
They finished their meal and moved to the living room where they sat and debated Leelah’s right to her freedom for a while. As usual, neither of them would budge on the topic.
“You can’t wrap me in cotton forever,” she told him for what felt like the millionth time. “I understand the dangers, the possibility for someone to use me as a tool to get to you, and I’m willing to have bodyguards, but this house arrest is ridiculous. I have to get out into the world. Why did I bother to study social work if I’m not going to practice it?”
“There are programs you could operate from an administrative position. That would be a useful and safe way to use your education, and you’d probably be doing more good than working on a case-by-case basis.”
“But, Daddy, working directly with people is what I want to do. Shenje! I don’t know why I bother. I’m going to bed now.”
Ja-hun remained behind to discuss security matters with her father, allowing Leelah to go alone to her room.
She took off her dress and sat in her living room in her underwear watching the vid. Her mind was awhirl with the events of the day, and she barely registered what was on. Memories of Ja-hun walking in on her private moment, their brief conversation at the restaurant, and most importantly, his kiss played over and over in her mind.
Gray? Who chose gray as a favorite color? She wanted to know more about what made this mysterious man tick, about his past, his opinions on things, and if he really was as bland as he pretended to be. Also, she wanted more of that stellar kissing and all the things kissing led to.
But now he was locked down tight again. He’d refuse to respond to her advances, she was sure, even if she pranced around him in her underwear. How could she get him to come into h
er suite so she could spend some time with him? She hated to play at female helplessness, but whatever it took.
Jumping up off the sofa, she went to her window and reached up to break off the device that operated the blinds. When she gave the “close” command, they no longer functioned.
With a smile, she went to her door and opened it. Ja-hun waited outside, seated on a chair in just his shirtsleeves, his jacket hanging on the back of the chair and his tie missing. He was looking at data on a palm-sized vid screen. He glanced up at her, eyes flicking briefly over her bra and panties before settling on her face. Hey, the underwear covered more than her bikini and certainly more than the bare tits and pussy she’d flashed him earlier.
“Could you help me a minute? My window blind is stuck or something.”
He rose without a word and accompanied her into the suite. “Close,” he ordered the blinds. Nothing happened.
“See.” She stood close to his side so her arm brushed against his.
He glanced at her then back at the window. “It’s broken.”
“Yes. Can you fix it?”
“I’m not a repairman. Have someone look at it tomorrow.”
“What am I supposed to do meanwhile? Can you hang a sheet over it or something?”
He turned to stare at her. The windows were darkglass, the view from inside as clear as if there was nothing in the frame, while those trying to look in would only see flat, black glass. The blinds were a formality left over from earlier times to give a sense of privacy already inherent in the windows themselves.
She smiled. “I know it’s silly and no one can see inside, but it makes me feel safer.” She rested her hand on his arm and gazed into his face with wide eyes. “Please.”
The clenched muscle in his jaw twitched.
“Wait here. I’ll get a sheet.” She whipped the top one from her bed and handed it to him, folding her arms and watching as he stretched to hang it over her window. It wasn’t going to take long. She had to think of something to say to delay his leaving.
