Stardust Dreams (44 page)

Theodophilus greeted her
briefly, then turned her over to one of the crew members for a tour of the ship
she would be living on for the next six months. As the fawning young man
escorted her from one level to another, she kept wondering how something this
enormous could ever get off the ground. Why, Gallant's whole ship would fit—

Damn! There he was again,
insinuating himself into her every thought. Since this was a mental handicap
she had never experienced before, she fretted over how long it would be till
she was rehabilitated.

When they reached her
quarters, she thanked her guide and promised to have dinner with him some
evening. She had been very pleased to hear that she had a two-room suite with a
private bath and supply station. Automatically, she thought of Gallant's
mi-niscule cabin and knew before she saw the suite which one she would have
preferred walking into at this moment.

The living room was an
ultramodern masterpiece of design, and she supposed she would get used to it…
sooner or later. Hoping the bedroom had a little more warmth to it, she opened
that door.

And gasped.

The room was a picture of
femininity in pink-and-white chintz, with a ruffled canopy over a four-poster
bed, and a decorative dressing screen in the corner. Only one thing was wrong
with the picture.

There was a man in it. A
very big, dangerous-looking man to be precise, stretched out in the middle of
the bed, with his back propped up by a stack of frilly pillows.

Cherry's bewildered gaze
traveled from his bare feet, up over tight black leather pants, to a matching
vest with no shirt. Two silvery gray streaks ran through his long black hair,
and a black patch covered one eye. Even without the piratical costume, the look
on his face was enough to frighten any sensible woman.

But then, no one ever
accused Cherry of being sensible.

She took two steps into the
room and abruptly stopped again. Around his neck was a black leather collar
with a row of short silver spikes sticking out of it and a chain that ran from
the collar to a manacle clamped around one bedpost.

Her heart was pounding in
her chest. That mindless organ didn't care in the least why he was here, just
so he didn't go away again. Ever. Seeing him once more was all she needed to
confirm how foolish she had been to think she could forget about him. But her
mind needed something more before giving in and admitting her weakness aloud. "Explain,
please," she said without getting any closer.

"Isn't it
obvious?" Gallant said casually. "I'm giving myself to you. To do
whatever you want with me. I was a day off of Terra when I realized you were
absolutely right the whole time. Love does make a slave of you. My mother
always said that it was best to accept the inevitable. So, here I am."

"You're crazy,"
Cherry murmured.

"I'm in love."

"But you despised
being a slave."

"Being your slave
would be better than living without you. And this way, you don't ever have to
worry about my making a slave out of you.
You
are the master, er,
mistress, and I'm here to submit to you."

As Cherry's gaze took a
second, slower, tour over his muscular body, her eyes twinkled with the
possibilities his declaration suggested. She recovered from her shock
sufficiently to take a step closer to the bed. "Just so I don't jump to
any false conclusions here, exactly how long is this term of slavery?"

"Aah, that is one of
the conditions to my subservience. The term is forever."

"I see. But what if I
get bored with you?"

His uncovered eye narrowed
with warning. "One of my duties as your slave is to make sure you
never
get bored."

She angled her head and
tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I don't know. I tend to think a slave who
did everything I ordered, and agreed with everything I said, would become
rather tiresome."

"I think it would be
safe for you to assume that I

would occasionally refuse
to do your bidding and frequently argue the clothes right off you."

She couldn't hold back the
grin or the eyebrow wiggle. "Promise?"

"Guaranteed," he
said with an answering smile.

"You said there were
conditions,
plural,
to your being my salve. What else besides the
term?"

"Because of certain
arrangements I've made, you'll have to allow me to go without the collar
outside of your bedroom."

"What
arrangements?"

"I'm still working
secretly for the Consociation, but it was decided that I needed to change my
operating cover. Being a free agent for hire carries too many risks, and it
makes it difficult for the Regent to contact me when she wants to. After some
consideration, I came up with the perfect solution."

"Are you going to get
to the punch line, or do I have to beat it out of you,
slave?"

"If you keep
interrupting me, we're never going to get to the good part. Now, where was I? Oh,
yes. The solution. As you may have noticed, my previous cover required a fair
amount of acting ability. I auditioned for Theodophilus this morning, and he
admitted that I'm adequate—which is a compliment from that old crank. I've been
hired on as a regular member of the Noronian Performing Company."

"
What
?"
She was too stunned to fully comprehend.

"With a few special privileges
that only Theodophilus, and you of course, will know about. After our first
stop on Norona, you and I will travel in my ship instead of with the company. Mar-Dot
is already flying there ahead of us. In between appearances, we may be asked to
handle a problem or two for the Consociation, and it would be best if we had
independent transportation."

"Did you say
we?"

He managed to keep a
perfectly straight face as he said, "Didn't I tell you? The Regent
officially approved you as my partner."

"Holy stars," she
whispered, then repeated the exclamation several decibels louder. A rush of
adrenalin urged her to pace back and forth as she absorbed what he was saying. "This
is incredible! Never in my wildest dreams could I have come up with this."
She started toward him, but halted again. "Is that everything?"

He shook his head. "Now
we get to the good part." He paused just long enough to make her anxious. "The
good part is where you agree to all of the above. Then we make up for lost
time."

"Well, let's see. I
agree with the part about you working with the Company, and I definitely agree
with me being your partner on secret missions. Did you renovate your supply
station?"

He chuckled. "You can
have waffles for breakfast and toasted marshmallows at night. You'll also have
your choice of the latest fashions, and by reducing the cargo area, we were
able to have a larger water recycler installed. You'll be able to take short,
but genuine, showers."

"Okay, then I also
agree with traveling on your ship instead of this monster. But that
collar," she said, pointing to it, "I don't agree with." His
smile faded so quickly, she realized he misunderstood. She hurried to his side,
but when her fingers reached out to stroke his cheek, they encountered nothing
solid.

The man on the bed was only
an illusion! The imaginary Gallant vanished and the real one stepped out from
behind the dressing screen… without his eye patch. In the next second, the
blatantly feminine decor also disappeared, leaving modern furnishings similar
to the outer room.

Gallant answered her
unspoken question. "I thought if you were going to reject me, it might be
easier to take if I didn't have to experience it firsthand. I was wrong."

Cherry went to him and took
his hands in hers. "Oh, love, I'm not rejecting you. All I meant was, I
don't want you as my slave, any more than I want to be yours. If we stay
together, it should be because we make each other happy. I want you to tell me
you love me again and again, yet feel free to leave if you ever stop feeling that
way."

She had repeatedly demanded
honesty from him and now it was time she faced the truth herself. "Because
of you, I learned how wrong I was about love. The right kind of love doesn't
enslave you, it sets you free—the way I feel when I'm with you. I should have
said this before you left, but I guess it took your walking away for me to
fully understand what you'd been trying to show me.

"I love you, Gallant. I
don't want us to be slave and master
or
mistress. I want us to be
life-mates."

He pulled her into his
embrace. "Say it again."

She took a breath and met
his heated gaze. "I love you, and I want to be your mate."

With a low-pitched growl,
he carried her to the bed and made love to her with all the passion of several
days of abstinence compounded by a much-needed release of nervous tension.

When Cherry was able to
speak again, she said, "I take it that means you accept my proposal?"

He kissed the tip of her
nose. "Without a single condition. I shouldn't have been so surprised by
your change of attitude. My mother always said a good man eventually gets what
he wants if he's patient enough."

"Hmmm. Am I ever going
to meet this paragon of parables?"

"You and my mother, in
the same room, at the same time?" Gallant had to think about that for a
moment.
"We'll see."