Gateway To Xanadu (28 page)

When I’d looked that way I had expected to see the open water of the lake middle with solid ground a good distance away, but saw instead a floating city very close around us. Pastel colored buildings and walkways rode solidly on wide, stable pontoons not forty feet away, and between us and them were various-sized boats making a leisurely way in the same direction we were going. The occupants of the boats were looking at our vessel with less curiosity than faint amusement, some of them frankly staring, and it came to me that “Jennifer” should by then be free of the drink-breeze grip of the night before.

“Greg, there are people looking at us!” I gasped, squirming against the arm that held me still for his attentions. “You’ve got to let me go so I can find my clothes!”

“Of course people are looking at us,” he answered in a distracted murmur, tightening his hold to keep me from slipping away. “This is the Pleasure Sphere, remember? Some people get pleasure from doing, others from looking. Arid you can’t have your clothes, at least not until after the preliminaries. Now stop squirming around until I’m in a position to enjoy it.”

His lips and tongue hadn’t just been forming words during his short speech, and I hadn’t been able to keep from closing my eyes against the sensations coursing through me. It turned out that closing my eyes was the wrong thing to do just then; before I could try any other stall, he was around third base and sliding into home.

“No, don’t,” I moaned, finding it impossible to either keep him from thrusting deep or keep the words inside. “Greg, you can’t.”

“Stop worrying about being watched,” he chuckled in amusement, his hands smoothing my hair back as his hips began working, happily misinterpreting my blurted protests. “Before you leave here you’ll be completely used to it, .and this first time won’t be a really good session. I have to be through and back on duty before we dock.”

He put his lips on mine, then, ending all further conversation, and turned his attention to getting through.

It didn’t bother him that I was at least able to do nothing more than follow along; right then he was more interested in simply using a female than in finding fancy response. He used me to his complete satisfaction, taking only enough time to be sure I had some satisfaction of my own, and then he was gone, standing up from the bunk to retrieve his wrap-around from the deck.

“You’ll wear your sarong until the preliminaries are over, and then you’ll be given your clothes back,” he told me as he wrapped the cloth around his middle, a soft smile on his face as he looked down at me.

“Right after that you’ll find me showing up again, since I’ve decided to exercise one of the privileges of my rank. Talla will be by in a short while to show you and the others to the sanitary facilities, and then you’ll- be given something to eat. Just relax and take it as it comes, and I’ll see you later.”

He winked at me before turning away toward the door, and once he was gone I just sat there on the bunk with the sheet held modestly in front of me, working hard to keep the disgust I felt off my face. I’d done a good job complicating things, and right then couldn’t see any way to uncomplicate them. I’d have to wait and see how bad it would be, and then try to think of something to shake myself loose.

I retrieved my own sarong from the floor and wrapped it around myself without giving the staring individuals in the small boats anything to look at, noticing in passing that the clothing I’d worn onto the vessel was gone. The security in the Pleasure Sphere was even tighter than I’d expected, and I was glad I’d kept my earrings on. There would be nothing odd to be found in them if anyone but a member of my department began fooling with them, but that would ruin the bug detectors in them in a permanent way.

A casual electronics check would find them inert and leave them usable, so I hoped that’s all that would be done. I touched one of the tiny buttons casually as I sat back on the bunk to wait for Talla, and felt the soundless beep that told me the bug detector was still working.

I was expecting the arrival of the pretty woman-slave at any time, so the sound of the latch sliding back on the communicating door between Val’s cabin and mine didn’t surprise me: I’d thought he still had Talla with him, but when the door opened he walked in alone.

“Generally speaking, I’m here to check on my property,” Val said in the Absari trade language, his tone bored and slightly annoyed. “Specifically speaking, I’m here to check on my partner. Are you all right?

He didn’t do anything to hurt you, did he?”

“Generally speaking, I’m resenting your insufferable attitude,” I responded with the necessary stiffness, glancing toward the small-boat watchers still looking us over. “Specifically speaking, I’m doing lousy.

Instead of turning him off the way I’d planned, I now have a new boyfriend.”

“How did that happen?” he asked with a frown I was sure was real, the annoyance growing noticeably thicker in his voice. “I thought you knew how to handle men.”

“I do,” I told him, letting my tone go momentarily dry. “Why do you think I have a new boyfriend? I’ll try to get rid of him as soon as possible, but until I do you’ll have to watch your step. He’s not very fond of you.”

“The feeling is mutual,” my trusty partner assured me, the look in his eyes hardening as he stared at me.

“Why didn’t you refuse to get involved with him?”

“You’re under the impression I had a choice?” I asked, having some trouble keeping the sarcasm out of my voice. “If I had met him in my own persona, I could have either given him a friendly welcome or sent him on his way, whichever I liked. As a little girl with a big, bad uncle, I was in no position to tell the knight in shining armor to get lost. He’s decided to protect me from you, you know.”

“Bully for him,” he answered sourly, leaning one hand against my cabin wall. “Where I come from, men who want to protect women don’t do it in bed. Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”

“With his level of skill, if he ever hurt a woman it would have to be on purpose,” I told him with a shake of my head, briefly wondering if dear old Greg ever did get into anything like that. “Hurting an inexperienced young female the first time you take her to bed would be crude, and my new friend is definitely not crude. If he switches tactics, it won’t be for a while yet.”

“I love the way you keep reassuring me,” he came back, still sounding and looking annoyed. “How fast do you think you can get rid of him?”

“Depends on how things go.” I shrugged in answer, grinning privately. “If I have to suffer playing footsie with him for another couple of days before he gets distracted, well, the job has to come first, you know. Have you told your buddy about your change of heart in the question of having me appraised?” ‘

“Yes, and he was delighted,” Val answered with even more of a frown, leaning off the wall he’d had a hand against. “We’ll be making the arrangements as soon as we’re off this boat. What do you mean, if you have to ‘suffer’ for a couple of days? You can’t possibly mean you enjoy having sex with that—

conscienceless user?”

We were interrupted by the opening of my cabin door. Talla stepped in with a friendly smile for me and a shy one for Val, and that was the end of our conversation. Which was probably a good thing. I was immediately tempted to ask Val how he could possibly have enjoyed himself with a slave-something he obviously had from the warm look he and Talla exchanged-and it wasn’t likely my partner would have appreciated the question.

Talla collected Little, who had already been called, and then led the three of us back toward the area we’d had dinner in the night before. Val’s good buddy was so pleased to see me he was almost civil, a pleasantness brought about by the thought of my upcoming appraisal, no doubt, and I suddenly remembered I hadn’t shown him my altered character. As we walked along I tried to decide if there was enough time right then, but the decision was taken away from me.

“I must admit I was rather surprised a few moments ago, Jenny,” Little said to me in his oily way, falling back to walk next to me while Val brought up the rear. “I had expected to see you leave your cabin with Mr. Rich rather than your uncle, as my own friend and his stayed until the last possible minute. Can it be Mr. Rich wasn’t quite as pleased as he had expected to be?”

The thought that I’d lost my powerful protector really tickled Little, an attitude that brought me the urge to sneer in his face, but there’s more than one way to rub someone’s nose in the distasteful.

“He said he had to be back on duty.” I shrugged, totally uncaring about the whole thing. “But he also said he’d see me later.”

“My dear girl, later he’ll be gone with this boat, back to the pick-up point for the next group of guests,”

Little told me with vicious condescension, delight glowing in his eyes. “Perhaps I would do well changing my mind about requesting you, should you ever be made a slave. Your efforts must be devastatingly unsatisfying. ”

“I don’t care about anybody else any more than they care about me,” I said with another shrug, giving him the line I had intended giving him the night before. “My mother never cared about me, and even gave me away to uncle Val. I thought for a while he might be different, but all he wants to do is get rid of me the way my mother did. I don’t care if Greg doesn’t want me any more than anybody else, I never expected him to. If they try to make me a slave, I won’t do it. ”

I glanced at the faint frown line that had developed between Little’s brows, seeing nothing showing in the way of suspicion, then turned away from him at Talla’s gesture and went to the part of the wall she’d indicated. The entire area was enclosed this morning, and some of the other people who had been led into it were looking around wondering where the extra two walls had come from. The night before the wall in front of me had been blank and had stayed blank, but right then the polished wood slid aside as soon as I was in front of it.

The sliding panel let me into a cozy little bathroom area, complete with orange carpeting, yellow lounge, and red dressing table and chair. I couldn’t keep from wincing at the color combination as the panel closed again behind me, but that didn’t stop me from heading straight for the facilities and using them.

After that I stripped off the sarong and my earrings, and stepped into the shower, and once the water was running I could take a couple of minutes to think.

Little had seemed surprised at my lack of fear, but not surprised to the extent of being suspicious, and that’s what I’d been trying for. It was perfectly logical for a child who was rejected by everyone around her to in turn reject everyone else, and that despite the initial fear she’d shown in shock over a newly threatening situation. If I couldn’t show fear without taking the risk of having Val blow both our covers I’d have to show indifference instead, and now that the indifference had been justified it ought to work.

I’d expected more in the way of a reaction from Little than the frown I’d gotten, but he probably needed time to adjust to the new situation he’d been hit with. Once he adjusted, he might have to be watched.

I soaked for a time in the shower before washing, then relaxed while the air jets dried me. When I left the shower stall it was to find a fresh, neatly folded sarong lying on the spot I’d dropped the old one, but my earrings were apparently untouched. I wrapped the clean but identical sarong around me and carried the earrings to the dressing table, brushed my hair for a couple of minutes, then casually replaced the earrings. The silent beep telling me they were still operational almost made me smile; it seemed there were going to be benefits after all to being young and innocent-looking. The Sphere’s security people were apparently giving me an automatic pass, which would hopefully turn out to be one of the bigger mistakes they’d ever made.

The dressing table had cosmetics of nearly every description, liquid, solid and invisible skin cover, eye shadow and accenter, lid liner and lash enhancer, lip and cheek rouge and paler, permanent, semi-permanent and temporary. There was also sparkle and decals and paint and brushes for original art work, and every bit of it suited the coloring of a redhead, which was very thoughtful and thorough of my hosts.

It said the room had been prepared just for me, even though it had been decorated with a color scheme designed to hurry me out as soon as possible. Not wanting any of the make-up I felt ready to be hurried out, but then I had a thought. Kids who felt unwanted very often did things to make themselves unwanted, as though justifying the attitude of those around them. Make-up would make the face I wore then look cheap and used instead of fresh and innocent, and that might just be the key to sending Greg Rich on his way. Since I had clear justification for it in any event, it was certainly worth a shot.

With the decision made I got to it, and in a way it was a lot of fun. I had never been one to enjoy heavy make-up, but deliberately putting on a mask is another matter entirely. My skin was already light but I lightened it further, making it look dead instead of alive. Next came very dark brow pencil, shadow and eye liner, then very bright lip-gloss, leaving me to sit and stare at my reflection for a minute, trying to decide if I ought to use rouge. I already looked terrible but cheekbone coloring should add to it, so I tried it and it did. I didn’t even look as wholesome as your average joy girl, and that gave me even more of a kick than the painting up in general. I surveyed the results one last time, decided I was satisfied, and so took myself from the dressing table and the room.

Val and Little were already back in the large area when I came out and headed toward them, and the way they both did a double-take was really funny. Little looked startled, but Val was struck absolutely speechless for a minute, and then he became scandalized.

“What the hell have you done to yourself?” he demanded, stepping forward to stare down at me. “You look like a walking ad for the two-credit special.”

“Why should you care how I look?” I came back with muttered belligerency, trying to remind him what his attitude was supposed to be. He really didn’t like what I’d done to myself, and was reacting outraged when he should have been scornful.