Heart of Stone (14 page)

Rose smiled mistily, following her
friend's lightning swift conversation with the ease of practice.
"Yes, I'm fine, I'm safe, and we have a new sat-com
system."

Farah frowned, zeroing in what was
important. "You don't look or sound fine."

"You're right," Rose admitted woefully.
"I'm not. I'm in love, and he—he's a pirate and he doesn't love me
back."

"Ohh," Farah crooned, her face
crumpling in sympathy. Then she scowled. "Do you want me to come
and laser his ass?"

Rose snickered through her tears, and
then the two of them were laughing just as they had in their tiny
apt by the culinary school. "Oh I miss you. I know you were joking,
but … you should come to Frontiera."

Farah's brown eyes widened. "What would
I do there?"

"We'll open our own bakery," Rose
offered impulsively. "And sell the best quarking pastries and
breads these wild Frontierans have ever tasted."

"Really?" Farah looked intrigued. "Is
it great there? Do you love it—other than that ass-helmet of a
pirate, I mean?"

"I love it here," Rose said. "And you
would, too. I'm sure the settlers here will pay big credit for some
decent baked goods. Everything we get is packaged."

"Well," her friend said, twirling a
strand of her dark hair. "I must admit, I've been watching the
holo-vids about Frontiera."

The two of them chatted a while longer.
Rose forbore to mention her adventure with the Jangoes. That could
wait for another time. By the time Farah said goodbye, promising to
call back tomorrow, Rose felt a little better. She saluted the side
of the room where the holo-vid had displayed.

"Okay, Dr. Smiley-face, you
were right. I have a plan. I can still do
something
."

She'd go tomorrow morning and ask to be
reassigned to the inn's kitchen, where she could practice her
baking skills. And if she missed her untamed pirate every single
waking moment, well, she'd learn to live with that,
somehow.

She'd followed Branch, and they were
together again, at least until he took off on his next
adventure.

But she couldn't follow Stone and force
him to love her. The love she felt for Branch was sweet and steady
and calm. Her love for Stone was meteor-hot and wild as this
planet. Like the man, it couldn't be tamed, unless he allowed
it.

# # #

Jark wandered into Stone's office a few
days later and dropped heavily into the chair across from the desk.
Stone ignored him, focused on the galactic market readouts on his
computer.

Jark sighed gustily. Stone continued to
ignore him. He'd been ignoring his errant memories of Rose and
refusing to long for just a few moments of her gentleness or even
her fiery anger, so he could ignore his mountain-sized
pilot.

He didn't need her, quark
it. Needing someone made a man weak and vulnerable. He was one of
the most powerful men on this planet. If he
needed
a woman, he'd fly in another
courtesan and then tell her to leave when he was tired of
her.

"How long have I worked for you?" Jark
asked, and then answered his own question, which was as well
because Stone was in no mood for idle conversation. Or any other
kind, for that matter. He would give the giant five minutes, and
then he'd think about shooting him.

"About twelve years. And y'know, in all
that time, I never seen you do anything this quarking
stupid."

Stone looked at his pilot from under
his brows. "Is there a point to this conversational meandering?" he
asked softly. "Because if not, get out of my office."

Jark frowned at him like a thunder god.
"You're gonna break her heart," he said. "I seen you use and lose
plenty of women, but never one like this. This one is quality.
She's the real deal. The forever kind."

"And she's going to
stay
alive
," Stone
cut in, rage rising in him so fast he nearly flew out of his chair.
"We both know that means far from me and the scum that are after
me. Mobius may be dead, but I've two bounties on my head at the
moment—one courtesy of his partner, and another from that
Serpentian smuggling operation. And those are just the ones I know
about!"

Jark stared at him. "Nah, this is more
than that. MacNeil told me once about your mom. That was a real
tough thing for a kid to go through."

Stone didn't trust himself to speak.
His head was going to explode.

His pilot tapped one booted foot, and
then the other. Then he rose and walked over to stand by the
window.

He wandered back to stand behind
Stone's chair. Suddenly he moved with the speed that never failed
to startle in such a big man and grabbed Stone up out of his chair,
holding him with one massive arm crooked about his throat, his feet
off the ground. His grip was suffocating, but because it was Jark,
Stone held still.

"Scared?" Jark rumbled in Stone's
ear.

"No," Stone managed.

"Huh." Jark loosened his grip so Stone
could speak. "Why not? I'm a hell of a lot bigger than you, and I
got the drop on you."

"Because I've a knife aimed
at your right kidney, and I'm going to use it if you don't let go
of me
now
."

"Gotcha." The fool actually sounded
satisfied. He let Stone down, patting him on the shoulder as he
stepped back.

Stone sheathed the knife with a precise
stab and jerked his suit jacket back into place.

"What the
quark
was that all about?
It better be good, because I've the laser gun under the desk, as
well. And I'm now in the mood to use it."

Jark beamed at him as a proud teacher
does a slow student who has finally gotten it.

"Y' see there, Boss? You're not the
biggest guy out there, but that don't mean you're not safe. 'Course
you're also snake mean, but that's beside the point. The point—and
I got one—is that Rose Thorne is plucky. She's got spunk. When she
was cornered by Jangoes, the meanest slime in this galaxy, she did
what she had to do. She survived. And you could teach her to be
even tougher, even more savvy."

Stone stared at him, appalled. So
that's where this had been going. A clumsy attempt at matchmaking.
Great God beyond.

"The reason she got into
trouble is because she was with
me
," he said, enunciating very
clearly. "I'm the one who nearly got her killed—by Jangoes, as you
so kindly pointed out! That's the worst way a woman could ever
die—mauled by those marauding pieces of slime until she begs to
die. And those are the sort of bounty hunters that are after me
still."

Jark shook his head
patiently. "No, Boss. I know you're in charge of a whole lot of
people, and a big piece of the action here on Frontiera. But you
can't control everything and everyone around you. This one is her
own woman.
She's
the reason she got into that mess.
She
came looking for
you—
bound and determined
to get to Adamant. If you hadn't taken her, she would've gone
another way. And probably gotten in worse trouble, because you
wouldn't a been there to back her up. Your mom, too. She had to
know about the dangers, livin' where you did on Earth
I."

He looked down at Stone, and his boss
was appalled to see sympathy in the big man's eyes.

"I'm sorry," rumbled Jark. "But I think
you've found your weakness, and you're just gonna have to accept
it. Are you strong enough to reach for it? Or are you gonna wuss
out 'cause you're not willin' to live with a little fear? That's
what love is all about, y'know. Being vulnerable."

"
What?"
Stone had been dropped into an
alternate universe. That was the only explanation for Jark daring
to speak to him this way. Not to mention that his speech eerily
echoed Stone’s earlier thoughts.
"
Who do you think you are? A quarking
lonely hearts counselor?" He pressed the heels of his hands to his
eyes. "Get out!"

"Hey," Jark said in an injured voice.
"A fella can learn a lot watching holo-vid programs, like Dr. Daria
Lovejoy. She's full of good advice on this kind of thing. Someday
I'm gonna find that special woman, and when I do, I'm tellin' you,
I'm not makin' this kind of mistake …"

His voice trailed off in a rumble as he
finally exited the office.

Stone dropped his hands and stared
bleakly out his window. It was a bright, sunny winter day in
Adamant. Hovies zipped by and pedestrians hurried along, all manner
of beings busy at work. He'd helped build this bustling frontier
town, and there was his warehouse looming on the edge of the town,
along with other new businesses. A cruiser took off from the small
but efficient spaceport that his people had built, flashing across
above the buildings.

A successful settlement, much of it
dependent on his own ingenuity and daring. In no way like the
filthy, crowded, crime-ridden docks of his youth. But since he'd
returned from the sat-com installation, his usual satisfaction in
this scene was absent. Instead, he had an empty feeling in his
chest that seemed to spread each lonely night, until he felt like a
robotic copy of himself. Moving and speaking, but feeling no
emotion.

Slowly, unwillingly, he turned his
head, looking at the peak of a roof down the street, the jaunty
holo-vid of a foaming flagon of ale whirling over it. And emotion
stirred at last: anger. He was tired of being alone. Quark it, had
he worked and schemed and brazened his way into all this wealth to
discover there was nothing he wanted to spend it on? Nothing except
…

Except her.

Fine, he'd tried to stay away, hadn't
he? Tried to keep her out of his world, where danger might lurk
behind every stranger's face. But she wouldn't stay away from him.
Oh no, she had to prance into his very office, looking like a sexy
little ice-maiden in her white furs. Well, he was in the mood to
melt some ice.

With a curse, Stone grabbed his jacket
and stormed out of the office.

# # #

The first person he expected to see
when he strode into the Yolovana Bar and Grill was Rose. Standing
by the bar, wearing that ridiculously sexy leather excuse for a
dress. Damnit, every man around could see her bare legs and even
that little dimple in her back.

Instead, a few customers leaned over
drinks at the bar. A family ate and squabbled at a large table. A
sleek Serpentian stood at Rose's station, wearing a brief leather
halter dress. It didn’t look even a fraction as enticing on her.
She eyed Stone and smiled slowly, avariciously. "How may I help
you, sir?"

"Where's Ms. Thorne?" he demanded. A
chill iced his gut. Had he discouraged her to the point that she'd
… gone?

The Serpentian looked disappointed.
"She's in the galley. Do you want a table or not?"

He didn't bother to answer. He was
already striding toward the open doors behind the long bar. The
bored bartender, watching a droid dry cups, looked over without
interest.

"Hey, that's Masterson," he said to the
hostess as Stone passed. "What's he doing?"

In the big, brightly lit galley, three
other humans worked busily at various cookers and stations, but all
Stone saw was Rose.

She stood before a large work station.
Although she was swathed in a white smock, her beautiful red hair
nearly hidden under a white toque, he'd know her anywhere. As Stone
stopped in the open doorway, she reached up to wipe the back of her
hand over her forehead, without looking up from the row of pastries
on the worktable before her. She looked hot and tired. Fury boiled
up inside him. How dare they keep her back here, slaving like a
galley droid.

"Are those pastries ready yet?" called
a tall, stout man from a doorway across the galley. He wore a fancy
smock with the lodge's logo on his lapel, and a scowl.

"In a sec," Rose answered without
looking up.

"Better be a fast sec, young woman, or
I'll—"

"You'll nothing," Stone cut in, in a
pleasant tone that nevertheless sliced through the hot, steamy
kitchen like a laser.

He glided past Rose to stand between
her and the other man, his stance open, ready to fight. "Any more
threats to the lady, and I'll have your guts for my first
course."

For one instant, everyone in the galley
froze. The man's eyes widened, his mouth forming a round O of
astonishment. Out of the corner of his eye, Stone could see the
other cooks standing stock still as well.

"Stone?" Rose spoke behind him, her
voice soft and tentative. "What are you doing here?"

"What the seven hells does it look
like?" he asked. "No one speaks to you like that. What are you
doing slaving in this fool's galley? If you needed credit this
badly, you should've come to me."

She leaned around him and peered up
into his face. Her eyes were wide, her mouth quivering between
shock and a smile.