Page 19 of Star Prince

“I’m trying.” Her first attempt at speech came out as a raspy croak. Clearing her dry throat, she tried again. “One moment.” She hunted for clothes in the mess she had left upon finding her bed and collapsing into it. Cleaning droids at the palace scoured her chamber daily, while handmaidens returned everything she used to its proper place, leaving her room faultlessly clean. A neat chamber had never been a reflection of her preferences but of those wholooked after her. At that, she smiled. It seemed untidiness was rather liberating—and it was a far safer vice than Mandarian whiskey.

She left her brother’s shirt hanging loose over her trousers and limped to the door. Ian stood in the entry, a mug held in each hand. Steam rising from the exotic cups brought with it a tantalizing nutty smell. One mug was painted with Earth runes, SHOOT FOR THE STARS—RED ROCKET ALE. The other sported a montage of clothed black-and-white rodents with big round ears and the letters,DISNEYWORLD CHICAGO.

“Good morning,” her employer said pleasantly, looking her over as if searching for signs of the continued hangover she hoped to hide. Why did people drink if this was the consequence? “Sleep well?”

“Quite well. Thank you.” Awkwardly she attempted to tidy her uneven, spiky hair, then gave up and dropped her hands.

His expression was one of gentle amusement as he offered her the rodent mug. “Coffee. Try it. It beats tockhands down.”

She moved aside to allow him into her cramped quarters. He wore an outer garment cut in a foreign style and constructed of black leather. It was un-snapped to his waist, revealing a plain white, close-fitting shirt that drew her attention to his firm, athletic build.

“I apologize for oversleeping,” she said. “I usually never do. Of course there are quite a few things I’vedone lately that I don’t do, like stumbling out of bars drunk.” He looked a bit skeptical, and she couldn’t blame him. She had told him she drank all the time…and guzzled all that whiskey. “I shall set two alarm chimes from now on.”

“Quin can be your backup, I suppose.”

She laughed. “That’s all the incentive I need to wake on time.”

After a moment Ian’s grin faded. “All right, pilot. We have to talk.”

Her pulse sped up. “I figured that. Please, have a seat…if you can find one.”

The silver fastenings on his hip-length outer garment glinted as he contemplated the snarled sheets and blanket spilling onto the floor, the boot she had left sitting on the bedside table, and the soiled socks draped over the bunk’s metal footboard. After a moment, stymied, he offered her the mug of coffee again.

She accepted it with a quiet thanks, then clutching the delicious-smelling hot beverage in her hands, unable to come up with anything else to say, she simply stared in fascination as he moved aside her other boot and sat on the edge of the bunk. He wasn’t overly tall, yet he seemed to fill the room with his presence. There was something about him, something she couldn’t define but that nonetheless attracted her. Charisma, self-assurance. But as she had discovered since coming aboard theSun Devil,his confidence with his crew stopped blessedly short ofarrogance. She was all too used to that particular trait in the royal men she had met at court.

“All right, Tee, let’s talk. About that little incident on Blunder—what can you tell me about that?”

The ache behind her eyes began to throb. “With Dar security?”

“Yes.” He observed her as he sipped his coffee.

She fought the mighty urge to fidget under his scrutiny. “What would you like to know?”

Something flickered in his eyes, but she couldn’t tell whether it was annoyance or amusement. “Did you steal that starspeeder?”

“I borrowed it.”

“Ah.”

“Long-term,” she qualified.

“I see.”

Maybe he did, but she had the feeling he wouldn’t stop asking questions until she had satisfied his curiosity. She didn’t dare tell the truth. On the other hand, she was a horrible liar, and she wouldn’t feel comfortable wholly deceiving the man who’d helped her escape her father’s guards. She had best come up with a version of the truth, a background that paralleled her own.

“I worked as a pilot on Mistraal, the Dar home-world.” It felt strange, mentioning that fact so casually, as if the Dars were merely employers, not flesh and blood. “I wanted to fly, but my family wanted me to marry. Had I agreed, I’m sure I would have lost the last of what little freedom I had. Thespeeder was my only way off planet.” She willed him to understand the hopelessness that drove her to such a desperate measure.

“Didn’t you think the Dars would miss their ship?”

Her cheeks burned. “Well. They have it back now.”

“True.”

“I intended to keep it only until I saved enough for a down payment on a vessel of my own. I would have returned it. Eventually.” Nervously, she tried the contents of her mug, more out of a desire to appear relaxed than to quench her thirst. But the beverage tasted heavenly, and she brought the mug to her lips for another drink.

Ian leaned forward, balancing his forearms on his thighs. “Did you talk at length to anyone on Blunder besides me and the bartender?”

“Only the cloaker I hired. The only way Dar security would know that I boarded your ship is if the cloaker saw me go with you and Dar security forced it out of him.”

---