GALLANT (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 3) Read online

  "His explanations were fine... if they were the truth."

  Dot frowned. "I see. Since he lied to you before, you do not trust him now. I am afraid that the nature of the captain's business makes it necessary for him to prevaricate on occasion. Our lives have often depended on it. Like any male, he has his flaws but he is one of the finest men we have ever known."

  Cherry's look of utter disbelief surprised Dot. "You do not believe us either? How can that be? We touched your mind. Did you not sense that you could trust us?"

  Cherry thought about that for a moment. "Well, I suppose I did."

  "Go with your intuition, Cherry. It is quite strong and, I would venture to say, very accurate."

  "You'll tell me the truth?"

  Dot nodded. "Or nothing at all, but we will not lie to you."

  "Are we following a beastly assassin named Frezlo to a planet called Zoenid?"

  "That is correct."

  "Is Voyager a good guy or a bad guy?"

  "Few people can be categorized so simply. Perhaps a satisfactory answer would be that compared to Frezlo, the captain is... a good guy."

  "Uh-huh." Noting Dot's hesitation, Cherry got up and started wandering around the cockpit again.

  "Okay. Will he take me home after we get to Zoenid?"

  Dot pursed her lips and seemed to search the blackness beyond the ship for an answer. "We do not know."

  "That's what I thought. He lied again."

  "Not necessarily. We believe he has every intention of returning you, if at all possible. But since we cannot foresee the future, we do not know what might happen on Zoenid to delay your return."

  "All right. How about something easier. Why does he wear that eye patch?"

  Dot lowered her eyes for a moment, giving Cherry the distinct impression that she was conferring with Mar. "We are not at liberty to explain. If the captain wants you to know, he will have to tell you. I would like to tell you a story about him, however. It may help you to see him in a different light."

  Cherry shrugged, doubting that there was anything the he-she could tell her to change her mind about Voyager's character.

  "I told you that we were sold to a traveling circus as a baby. The owner was a horrid creature named Phlylox, whose only concern was profit. We were one of twenty-five strange beings he had bought or captured over the years. We were all featured as oddities of the universe. For most of our life, our home was a cage, smaller than our cabin on this ship. When we were on display, we were kept in chains. It was not uncommon for us to go for days between shows without sufficient food or to be brutally beaten for any display of insolence."

  "How horrible," Cherry said sincerely. "It's a wonder you remained sane."

  Dot gave her a sad smile. "Because we had each other, Mar and I were luckier than some. And remember, we never knew any other life. At any rate, about eight years ago, the captain was on an assignment that took him to the remote colony where the circus had stopped. When Phlylox wasn't looking, the captain spoke to us and promised to help if he could. We didn't think much of his promise because we were transported later that day. But he didn't forget us. When he completed the assignment he was on, he tracked down the circus and freed us all. He spent the next several months returning every being to his or her home planet."

  "Except you."

  "Yes, except us. Since we had no idea where we had come from and we discovered that we had a natural talent for navigation, the captain agreed to take us on as a member of his crew."

  Cherry sat down again. "Gallant said he was an orphan also. He must have felt an affinity for you."

  "We believe that is so. The captain understood what it is like to be an oddity."

  "An oddity? How so?" Dot said nothing. "Does it have to do with the eye patch he wears?" Again, no answer. Cherry sighed. "I see. So, what happened to the circus owner?"

  "The captain killed him." As Cherry's mouth dropped open, Dot quickly amended, "It was justified. The captain wanted to take Phlylox before the Consociation for judgment but he had other ideas. They fought. The captain was severely injured but Phlylox and his evil circus were both destroyed."

  Cherry felt a slight shiver run through her. It didn't surprise her that Gallant was capable of murder but that he would risk his life to save a group of abused freaks altered her totally negative opinion of him. She was about to admit that to Dot when the he-she blurted out the last thing she expected to hear.

  "You will be the first female to share the captain's bunk for quite some time."

  Chapter 5

  Cherry swallowed hard. "I beg your pardon?"

  "He insists he does not have a strong sexual appetite but we believe his desire for privacy has more to do with his avoidance of females than a lack of need. Although, we cannot really be sure. After all, I have offered him the use of my body but he has never been so inclined."

  Cherry's curiosity got the better of her good manners, again. "You mean, you can..."

  Dot chuckled. "Of course. Mar and I each function normally in that way. In fact, we have the unique ability of enjoying the other's pleasure, which works out very well since we cannot always find a male and female who are both attracted to us at the same time." She lowered her eyes for a second. "Mar agreed not to interrupt but he wanted you to know that he would be most happy to accommodate if you wish a demonstration."

  Cherry had thought she'd heard it all before now but the he-she managed to surprise her. "I, uh, thank you, but I don't think so."

  "Good. Then you will share only the captain's bunk. I believe he might prefer that."

  Cherry's smile vanished. "I'll do nothing of the sort."

  Dot looked truly confused. "But it is quite obvious that he wants you."

  "And what the captain wants, he gets, right? Wrong. On all counts. First off, your captain hasn't shown the slightest interest in me, but even if he had, I'm not interested in him. Not only is he a kidnapper and a liar but I got the impression he didn't particularly care for women even before you told me he avoids them. When I choose to bed a man, I prefer him to have a little heat in his blood."

  "Hmmph. The heat in the captain's blood is part of his problem."

  Before Dot could explain what she meant by that, Mar was facing Cherry. "I believe that's enough girl-talk. Let's get back to your navigation lesson."

  Cherry gave Mar most of her attention but a small portion of her continued to mull over all the little hints Dot had given her to the puzzle of the captain. She wouldn't admit it to Dot, but, with each passing hour, she was growing more interested in the captain... and his secrets.

  It was not until much later that day that Cherry and Gallant were alone on the bridge.

  By the time she passed in front of him a second time, Gallant was ready to strap her to the seat. "Don't you ever stop moving?" he asked, clearly exasperated.

  Cherry grinned. "Occasionally, like when I'm sleeping. I always seem to have all this energy just busting to get out." Thoughts of sleeping made her recall Dot's assumption that Gallant would soon have her in his bunk.

  She forced herself to set aside her annoyance with him and let her intuition take a reading. His brow had raised a fraction when she had mentioned sleeping then he'd immediately looked away. Yet, now that she considered the possibility, she thought she might have detected a momentary flash of male interest. But since she wasn't interested, there was really no reason to pursue it.

  Unless it would help her unearth some more of the puzzle.

  Cherry strolled around behind the captain's chair and peered over his shoulder, knowing it bothered him when she did that. Purposefully, she exhaled close enough to his neck for him to flinch in reaction. "I'll stop pacing if you'll play with me."

  Gallant's hands stilled and for a moment Cherry thought he may have stopped breathing as well. She eased away and sat on the bench, facing him. "We can even play for credits this time. Of course, if I lose, you'd have to take me home before I could pay you back."

  "Cubit,"
Gallant murmured then took a breath as he turned toward her. "You're challenging me to a game?"

  "Well, there sure isn't much else to do, is there? But if you're too busy, I'll just—"

  "No," he interjected before she got up again and quickly pulled out the table between them. He couldn't believe his mind had detoured that way. It had been a mistake to even allow certain thoughts to enter his consciousness earlier. It was almost as if just considering sex with Cherry was more than he could handle. What would happen to him if he actually—His body's sudden strong response finished the thought for him and acted as an alarm at the same time.

  He quickly began setting up the game. Aside from the infrequent, impersonal encounter, his experience with adult females was pretty much limited to his adoptive mother and Dot, neither of whom would help him analyze Cherry's behavior. But even without extensive knowledge of how her mind worked, he had the distinct impression that Cherry had not only been teasing him but had guessed his reaction as well. Since he couldn't imagine why she would tease him while she was still angry with him, he decided she must be up to something.

  Reminding himself that he needed to gain her trust, he politely asked, "Are you sure you want to play for credits already? Yesterday, you accused me of trying to... to..."

  "Con me," Cherry supplied. "Yesterday, I was a novice but I think I can hold my own today. After all, winning cubit takes more luck than skill and I'm due for some good luck after the way this week started."

  Gallant frowned. "Is that a hint that I'm supposed to apologize again?"

  Her eyes twinkled with a life of their own. "If you feel the need, then by all means, get if off your chest." She instantly regretted her choice of words, as she followed his gaze down his partially covered chest. Up to that moment she had been doing her damnedest not to notice what a perfectly splendid body he had. She forced her eyes back to his face again. "Sorry. Another Terran expression. I've never completely abandoned my roots, I guess."

  With his plan to befriend her uppermost in his mind, Gallant picked up the colored cubes and rolled two reds and two blues. "Tell me about your roots. I'm familiar with Terra and its people in a general sense, but even when I attended academy in Innerworld, I didn't get to know any Terrans." He rerolled the two blues and got another red and a green, which he immediately rolled again.

  Cherry smiled when the last cube came up blue and he had failed to make his quad. As she scooped up the cubes, she asked, "You lived in Innerworld before?"

  "Yes. That's how I know Romulus." He watched her make her first roll and try to decide which color to go for since there were no matches. "What was your life like on the surface?"

  Cherry left the purple and retossed the other three, but failed to get another purple. "Damn!"

  "You should have thrown them all."

  She picked up the same three cubes, rolled them between her palms, blew on them then dropped them on the table. When all three turned up purple, she let out a squeal. "You play your way and I'll play mine."

  As she set aside her purple marker, he snatched up the cubes. "You haven't answered my question."

  "What do you want to know?"

  "Everything."

  She laughed. "You must be more bored than you look. All right, you asked for it. The first eighteen years of my life was spent on a farm in Georgia—that's in the southeastern part of the United States. After that, I hitched my way across the country."

  While she told him of that journey, the places she saw, people she met, their game continued. Occasionally he would stop her with a question then encourage her to continue.

  Several hours later, they had each won two games and Cherry was getting hoarse from talking. She was fairly sure she had touched on every aspect of life in the United States as well as her personal history.

  "We have to play one more game to break the tie," Gallant told her. "I think you're ready for a wager."

  "Now you want to make a bet?"

  He grinned at her. "I didn't want to take advantage—"

  "Ha! Where have I heard that before?"

  "Well, we do seem to be evenly matched now."

  "Okay. How much?"

  "Not credits. I don't take promise payments."

  Cherry narrowed her brows at him as she drew her own conclusion about what he was leading up to, but she wanted to hear him say it out loud before she told him off.

  Gallant's instincts still told him that sharing confidences was the quickest route to establishing a bond between them. By telling her about his mission, he had already told her more than he should have. Now it was her turn. Unfortunately, she was a very open person. Her childhood had been the only subject she seemed somewhat secretive about, so he honed in on that. "If I win," he said slowly, "you tell me about the first half of your life. I noticed that you carefully avoided talking about those years."

  That was far from the forfeit she had expected him to demand. With a shrug she said, "Only because there's nothing interesting to tell." She considered her chances of winning rather than losing. "Okay, and if I win, you explain why you wear that patch over your eye."

  He hesitated only a second before nodding his agreement and passing her the cubes. As she made her initial toss, his fingers casually closed over the front edges of his vest and slid downward. A moment later his special set of cubes was in his left palm, ready to be exchanged for the honest ones on the table. She was going to share a confidence with him even if he had to cheat to force it out of her.

  Cherry was amazed at how quickly he won the final game. The odds against rolling three quads of different colors on three initial throws had to be astronomical but Gallant hardly blinked over his unusual good luck.

  As agreed, Cherry told him the tale of her dismal youth and described the ramshackle farm she had grown up on. "My parents truly believed that it was God's will that they have ten children and spend their lives struggling to exist. If Pa had put as much effort into that farm as he did trying to beat the devil out of us kids, we might have been fairly well off."

  Cherry's voice retained its joking quality in spite of the bitterness her words suggested.

  "You were beaten by your own father?" Gallant asked with surprise.

  Cherry waved her hand at him. "Oh, it was no big deal. Outerworld Earth is a far cry from Norona and Innerworld, you know. Lots of parents treat their kids worse than mine did. Anyway, I turned out okay." Smiling, she winked at him and added, "As long as I always get to be the center of attention."

  Gallant tried to return her smile but her light-hearted attitude failed to hide the pain he sensed beneath it. He had known only love and kindness from the Noronian couple who had raised him and experienced only comfort in their home. Cherry's story made him remember how very different his life would have been had someone not tampered with it.

  Though it would have been more comfortable to change the subject, his perverse emotions made him ask for more. "Don't you miss your brothers and sisters? Even with so many, there must have been at least one you were close to."

  Cherry started to give him another flip answer but something about the way he was looking at her cut it off. She was always the one who cheered up everyone else, quickly shrugging off any offer of sympathy in return. Why she should act any differently at this moment made no sense.

  The feelings his question triggered prompted her to rise and walk to the glass. Staring out into the darkness, she wondered why a look from this stranger had been able to evoke a memory buried so deeply she had consciously forgotten it. A heartbeat later she realized the reason. He was not looking at her with sympathy, but understanding... just as Rose had the day Cherry took off for California.

  "Rose," Cherry said aloud for the first time in eighteen years, and in her mind's eye she imagined seeing her baby sister's face. "She was ten when I left Georgia, too young to take with me. The day Rose was born, I claimed her as my own. There was a special quality about her that I couldn't resist. Of course, as she grew up, it was obvious what t
hat was—she was just like me—full of energy and curiosity and a need to be free that no amount of punishment could wipe away."

  An image of the two of them slipping and sliding in a muddy sty while trying to catch a family of piglets made Cherry smile in spite of the sadness the memory caused.

  "What happened to her?"

  Cherry could tell Gallant had walked up behind her but she didn't turn around. "I don't know. See, we knew Pa would never let her receive mail from me once I'd left. After all, I was the devil's handmaiden. And it might have even made it worse for her if I had tried to write. So we agreed that I would come back for her on her eighteenth birthday."

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I had it all planned to surprise her. Ten years ago, a group of us were going on a fishing trip from Florida and I figured I'd make a detour through Georgia on our way back to California."

  Gallant deduced the rest. "And that was when the accident occurred and you ended up in Innerworld."

  With a small nod and a sigh, she whispered to the black void before her, "She must have thought I forgot all about her."

  Letting his instincts override his common sense, he turned her toward him and wrapped his arms around her.

  She stiffened and looked up at him suspiciously but his hold was gentle and nonsexual and she gave in to the comfort he offered. Resting her head against his chest, she listened to his steady heartbeat. "For a tough guy, you do a pretty nice hug."

  Gallant stroked Cherry's hair and said quietly, "My mother always said that a hug is worth more than ten medical teams."

  "Smart lady." She tipped back her head to look up at him. "You're the only person I ever told about Rose. I don't know why I did that but I'm kind of glad I finally got it out. Thanks. For listening and the hug." Placing her hands on his cheeks, she drew his face down to meet hers as she rose on her tiptoes.

  She intended the quick peck on his mouth to end the unexpected intimacy that had sprung up between them. Rather than release her, however, he abruptly tightened his hold and a growl rose from deep in his chest. His body hardened against hers so swiftly that she gasped, only to have her breath taken away again as his hot mouth closed over hers.