Page 47 of Star Champion

“Yonson won’t be far behind, what with your learning curve. I’d really like to get you back to the training center on Chéyasenn as soon as possible to continue honing your skills. Before we know it, the regular season will begin. We have work ahead of us. Will you be able to settle your affairs here in the next day?”

“I think so, aye. I already told my family.” She swallowed nervously with a now familiar mash-up of anxiety and anticipation. She forced her focus on pulling off her bajha boots and stowing them in her bag, pulling out her work boots to wear. Then one by one she undid the upper fasteners on her bajha suit.

“Very good. They are agreeable to your leaving?”

“My mother would rather I kept my old job—she ain’t a fan of bajha—but it’s an opportunity beyond our wildest dreams. No one will argue my going off with you, especially now that she’s feeling a wee bit better from that medicine ya gave her.”

“Good.” He absorbed all that, then nodded. “Mothers always worry. If it makes you feel better, you should know that bajha is no mere hobby for me, a way for an idle royal to pass the time. It is a passion, yes, but to see Team Eireya win is a necessity. We will win that cup, Sea Kestrel. The Galactic Cup. This is our year. The Vedla Clan will reign supreme.”

He reached for the hem of his overshirt to change clothes and pulled it over his head, tossing it into a laundry container. His black tank top clung to his muscled shoulders and chest. His coppery skin gleamed. He selected a plush towel and brought it to his face before draping it over his neck. “I want the honor not for me, Kes. I want it for my family. For everything they’ve had to endure the last few years.”

“Did something bad happen to your family?”

“Ihappened.” She could tell he had tried to make a joke, but remorse slid over the planes and angles of his face like shadows over the badlands. “Let me just say I am not the most liked, or the most trusted man in my family. The road back to being liked and trusted will be steep. This—you—the team, it’s a start.”

Whatever transpired, he was willing to own the blame for it. She admired any man who did.

Not enough to tell him the truth, apparently.

Viewing him through her biased, trill-rat lens, she had dismissed him as an aimless royal. It was a hasty call and it was wrong. He did have a purpose in life: using the Galactic Cup to bring honor to his clan. In the past few minutes she had learned that he had a family he loved and felt compelled to protect, as well as sins for which he felt obligated to atone. This was why he had come to this remote corner of the frontier to seek her out. This was why he had her train with pro players he had pulled away from other obligations, and this was why he radiated unabashed excitement every time he looked at her. Sea Kestrel was the path to his hopes and dreams.

Until she scuttled the entire thing for him.

Her insides knotted up with guilt. Until now she had worried only about herself and her family, but what about Prince Klark and his family? Didn’t they matter, too? If her secret was uncovered, the scandal would potentially taint the entire team and sully his reputation as owner. No matter how desperate she was, what right did she have to do such a thing to a man who had shown her nothing but kindness?

“Kes?”

She swallowed. “Aye?”

“Sometimes I get the sense you’re keeping something from me.” To the sound of her hammering heart, he took a seat on the bench next to where she stood. His expression was even more solemn than usual. His accented words were measured, quiet, his pale golden eyes frank and unsettling as he searched her face for clues. “I want you to learn to trust me. Going forward, I’d like you to feel comfortable telling me anything.”

Anything…

I’m Jemm.

Anything…

I’m a lass.

Blood pounded in her ears. She opened her mouth, then shut it, then nodded. “Aye…” She was perched on the precipice of embarking on a journey where the discovery of her secret could cause countless problems, for her and for these off-worlders who had trusted her. What about Skeet and Xirri, and their insistence on ending her innocence? That would not abate, just because she said she was too busy for romance. Not to mention the danger zone of the locker room with not two or three men undressing and showering but an entire bajha team, all of them growing more and more curious as to why she did not join in. Then, when her monthly womanly concerns came, what then? How would she deal with obtaining such personal supplies when she ran out? More, she owned only one cushioned vest to cover her breasts. Eventually, she would need to launder it, or order a new one made, both of which would raise suspicion. The deeper she sank into the abyss of this arrogant sham, the more the lies piled up on top of her. But if she called her own bluff, it meant giving up a future brighter than anything she could have imagined.

Perspiration beaded and tingled between her breasts, crushed behind the vest, as if her own body were calling on her to stop the madness. To confess.

Anything…

He meant everything.

What was she going to do?

“I should wash up.” As if she could wash her lies away. She stalked over to the sink with soap and a towel. The face in the mirror did not look like a teenage boy at all. She saw a pale, worried lass with too-short blonde hair with dark red roots. She had cut her hair and quit her job while blinded by wishful thinking she could somehow fool this clever aristo, this prince. Well, she had fooled the man, all right, and maybe she could keep on fooling him. But that did not make it right.

What had she told Princess Katjian? Everyone should be allowed to pursue their dreams, as long as it did no harm. The probability of this ruse causing harm to Prince Klark and his family was high. Because she took this desperate gamble to help her own family, she was able to convince herself of the selflessness of her actions. But, it made her—a lass who had always valued decency—nothing more than a con artist.

Da would be ashamed of ya.

Thatwas what she could not live with.

She turned around to face theVash, the truth perched on her lips, and found him scrutinizing a glint of metal in her open gear bag: her timepiece, exposed by the sloppy packing of her work leathers. When he glanced up, their eyes met, and she knew he had figured her out.

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