“I do not wish to do this to you, Dani,” he said tightly. “But I am the military ruler of this station. My forces occupy every corridor, and I am ordering you to hand over Devora or face the consequences.
They will not be pleasant.”
Dani stiffened, placing the contract carefully on the table. She didn’t reply for moment. Then, carefully folding her hands neatly on the desk in front of her, she said, “Seth, I feel it is my duty to remind you that not only am I pleasure worker negotiating a contract for Devora, I am a fully licensed member of the Pleasure Guild. You may not realize this, but Guild Houses such as this one are not merely places of business. They are sovereign Guild territory, and enjoy full diplomatic immunity. At this point in time, the Guild and the Saurellian Federation enjoy a relationship based on mutual respect and understanding. This relationship may be jeopardized if you choose to forcefully remove a woman from Guild premises without Guild support. Is this something you really wish to do?”
Her expression didn’t change, but her eyes had become as hard as his had. Seth was livid.
“Don’t play these games with me, Dani,” he said coldly. “I’m better at them than you are, and you could get hurt.”
“It’s not about me, anymore,” Dani said tightly. “This is about diplomatic immunity and Guild sovereignty. To date, the Guild has not opted to take sides in your little conflict with the Empire. We find that neutrality is better for business. Once you breach that neutrality, we could change our minds. I think you’re too good a commander to allow that to happen over something as unimportant as a personal pleasure contract.”
She had him, Seth realized. He could easily tear apart the house to find Devora, but doing so would be criminally irresponsible if it drove a wedge between the Saurellian High Council and the Guild. There was no justification for allowing his private battle to hurt his people.
Nodding tightly in agreement, Seth stood up so abruptly that his chair fell back. Dani wasn’t as cool as she pretended, he noticed with dark satisfaction. The sound made her jump; her folded hands clenched in tension.
“I’ll leave, but I’m warning you that if I find Devora off Guild property I’m taking her,” he said. “And you might want to warn her other client that if I find out who he is, he’s mine. Tell him it’s in his best interests to stay away from her. Send the contract to my office. I’ll want full control of her when I leave at the end of the week—there won’t be any vacation and there won’t be any time off. Money is not an issue.”
With that, he turned and stalked out of the office, slamming the door behind him. Dani let out the breath she held with a mixture of relief and trepidation. Seth was taking the contract far more seriously than she ever imagined. Calla might be in trouble.
* * * * *
Seth kept his promise.
Within an hour of his leaving, guards were posted at every door of the House of Lilies. Every visitor was scrutinized carefully, his entry and exits recorded in a log.
With Dani’s assistance, Devora made a formal request for temporary asylum to the House manager and governing council, which was approved on the understanding that she would leave within a week. Seth struck back. He made a formal request that she be held under house arrest, and barred from receiving any guests or visitors who were not Guild members.
It was a condition that Calla and Dani agreed to readily. The last thing Calla wanted was more attention, and her little room in the House of Lilies provided far more comfort than she’d ever experienced during her life as a slave. At Dani’s suggestion, she spent her time preparing for her trip, compiling data on everything from Imperial legal codes to star maps and cultural histories of a thousand planets on a small computer tablet. She and Jess would need the information to plan their new lives, assuming she ever found him.
She also shopped using the terminal in her room. It was a difficult process, because Dani was almost completely out of funds by then. Fortunately, she had the credits Jess had been hiding in the storeroom. It wasn’t much money, and she had to be careful to select clothes costly enough to keep Seth from becoming suspicious about her origins. Dani had a few things that might work but she was bigger than Calla, and neither woman was skilled enough to make alterations. Calla finally decided on a mix-and-match wardrobe of attractively-cut yet sturdy tunics, pants and skirts. They flattered her figure without being too overtly sexual–the mark of an amateur, according to Dani.
To add a little spice, Dani selected a variety of lingerie that made Calla blush. Everything from a silken, white dressing gown that covered her fully to tiny black and lace garments that left nothing to the imagination.
“Remember,” Dani told her during one shopping session. “The key is to keep him guessing. Every time he sees you, he should be wondering what he’ll find under your clothes. Are you the virgin or the whore?
Are you ready and naked or will he have to unwrap you slowly? It’s a game to heighten the pleasure–make the most of it. Six months is a long time to entertain a man like that, so make your clothing work for you.”
In the end, the week went by far too quickly for Calla. She had watched the recording of Dani’s meeting with Seth, and she was nervous about seeing him again. He’d said “full control,” something that had been emphasized in the contract negotiations that followed. Each time Dani sent over a contract, he’d send back revisions. “Devora” would be under contract for six, not three, months. She would have no personal leave during that time. She would be available to Seth all day, every day. She would be required to participate in any and all sexual acts he requested, no exceptions.
It was hardly standard, but he had all the power. Calla’s Guild asylum would end in a week, and then he would take her whether she had the protection of a contract or not. At least with a contract there would be a substantial sum of money waiting for her in a Guild escrow account in six months. She’d be off station, she’d be free and she’d have enough money to set herself up somewhere. Calla figured that whatever those six months held would be worth it, especially if she could find Jess.
Dani was less comfortable with the situation. Seth had her followed day and night. Her apartment had been seized and searched twice, and her Saurellian customers were avoiding her. She was used to being appreciated by men, not punished.
* * * * *
On the day Seth was supposed to come and pick up Calla, Dani felt like a mother hen losing her chick.