She started, off guard.
“I am still unmarried,” she replied, choosing her words with great care. “That shouldn’t surprise you. I can only bring a man debt, not a dowry.”
“Doesn’t it seem a little old-fashioned to you?” he asked, his tone conversational, almost friendly. The gun wasn’t friendly at all.
“Our customs may seem strange to an aristocrat,” she replied, thinking rapidly. Where was he going with this? “But they serve a valuable purpose for my people. Of course, we’ve had this conversation before.Without guns. I’m not going to change my mind about sleeping with you.”
“Having sex,” he corrected gently. “I wanted you to have sex with me. Sleep was always optional.”
He stepped farther into the light, and a crooked smile stole across his lips.
“You’re always cold, aren’t you, princess?” he asked.“Always high above us mortals?”
“Mortal?” she asked, her tone harsh and bitter. “You’ve never been mortal, Von Saur’rel. As far as I’m concerned, you aren’t even human.”
“You’re right about that,” he replied. “I stopped being human a long time ago. But probably not for the reasons you think. You were always too smart for your own good, Tessa. You’re lucky I happened to go out with the scouting party that followed you here. Otherwise you’d be dead by now. Instead, you have a choice.”
His words struck her hard. Followed her? How and why would Daaron Von Saur’rel be following anyone on this nearly empty planet in the back of beyond? And any choices Daaron might offer her wouldn’t be good; she knew that in her bones. He’d never made a secret of what he wanted from her.
Sex. In her darkest moments she could even admit that she’d wanted him too. Every girl in their class had, and a good many more than that. He’d worked his way through more of them than should have been possible.
But how had he found her in the first place?
He strode into the firelight, eyes holding hers, blaster steady. He held it low, near to his hips, drawing her eyes toward that part of his body she always pretended didn’t exist. Dear Goddess, she could see his erection from here. Answering heat flickered to life in her own groin, he’d always done that to her. She cursed her response even as her mind raced.He’d followed her. Did he know about the garnets? How long had he been watching? Could she strike a deal with him? There were enough riches for both of them.
Although with his family, he didn’t need riches, something she’d been all too aware of at school. He’d been a frequent customer at the bar where she’d worked, spending more credits in a night that she’d earn in a month.A year.
Money couldn’t motivate Daaron Von Saur’rel.
He pointed with the tip of his blaster toward her tent.
“It looked to me earlier like you’d found something,” he said. “I’m assuming garnets?”
“How did you know?” she asked. “I sorted through thousands of planetary surveys to find them, records that nobody had accessed for generations. They’re mine.”
“I can’t let you keep them,” he said, and for one second she could have sworn there was compassion in his eyes. “You don’t want me to explain all the reasons why, trust me.”
She nodded toward the blaster.
“Are you going to kill me?” she asked. “Because unless you plan to do it, get out of my campsite. I don’t want you here, and I won’t let you get in the way of my plans. You may not have ever had to do anything more important than find exactly the right suit for an Imperial ball, but I have commitments.To my mother.
She sacrificed everything to give me my education, and this is my chance to pay her back. Surely you can understand that?”
He nodded his head, surprising her.
“Actually, I can.”
He leaned one hip against her camp table, ignoring the careful piles of flimsies he crushed. She gritted her teeth—same old Daaron, oblivious to other people’s hard work. She stood slowly, eyeing the blaster as she set down her glass. Then she took a careful step toward him.
“Please don’t touch my papers,” she said, doing her best to maintain her dignity. She remembered him leaning that same way against her lab bench at university, tempting her with delights she couldn’t allow herself to contemplate.
Daughters of bond servants can’t afford relationships with aristocrats, not if they want to stay honorable.
And Tessa was always honorable. Honor was the only inheritance her mother had given her, despite the fact that most nobles thought honor belonged to them alone.Stupid aristocrats with their duels. Daaron had fought three of them during those two years they’d studied together. Each time she’d been terrified for his life. But Daaron simply laughed at danger. To him, life was nothing more than a game. Still, she wondered if playing on the ancient aristocratic code might work in this circumstance…
“I found this claim fairly, using open records and my own intellect,” she said, walking toward him slowly and steadily. “When I sunk those core samples, I staked a claim that will hold up in Imperial court. You need to leave or you’ll be dishonoring me, not to mention opening yourself up to liability.”
He laughed, relaxing his grip on the blaster.
“I don’t give a damn about your claim,” he said. “And to be honest, honor doesn’t come into it. The Code wasn’t written for people like you. The Imperial officials would laugh in your face if you challenged me.”
Tessa froze. She’d always known he considered her inferior, but he’d never spoken so baldly. It hurt more than she’d realized.
“But this isn’t about the garnets,” he continued. “I don’t give a damn about money. I have more than I need. This is more important than money, more important than our pathetic little lives put together. If you discover a new source of cerulean star garnets this planet will be crawling with speculators. Even worse, a consortium will eventually come in and strip mine. I can’t allow that to happen.”
“Why do you care?” she asked, genuinely puzzled. “We’re in the middle ofnowhere, I don’t even understand why anybody settled here. It’s not an environmental preserve, not even ecologically unique. I checked. There is nothing special about this planet, it’s not even very good for farming, Goddess help those poor settlers who are trying. The spaceport looks like it might shut down any day from lack of use. Why are you determined to destroy this for me?”