Page 82 of Star Prince

Upon reading the translated words, Tee’ah let the sweet warmth of relief fill her. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes to all.”

The chaos Tee’ahwas beginning to see characterized Ilana’s house resumed at dawn the next morning when Ilana poked her head into the small bedchamber Tee’ah had shared with Lara. “Time to wake up, girls,” Ilana said in heavily accented Basic as she pulled an untamed mane of hair through a circlet of the same light blue as her eyes. The roots of her hair were almost as dark as Ian’s, but the rest of the strands were infusedwith many lighter shades, from dark blond to nearly silver.Clay-roll,Tee’ah thought with an approving smile.

The woman dropped her hands, and her plume of hair flipped jauntily around her shoulders. “Chop, chop! We’re leaving in an hour.”

After being tracked down on every planet she had visited, Tee’ah didn’t have high hopes of escaping notice on Earth. “I must disguise myself.”

“I’ve got that covered,” Ilana assured her. Soon she returned with her arms full of clothes and hats. “I have to work, but I’m taking you both with me. There’s a major shoot on-location downtown—movie-making, Earth entertainment—and I’m filming the filming. Confusing, I know, but it’s Hunter Holt’s first film out of rehab.” She flashed an apologetic look at Tee’ah’s translator and enunciated, “A famous actor consumed too many mind-bending substances. I’m shooting a documentary about his road to recovery.”

She blew her messy hair off her forehead. “I want you to come. You’ll be safe with me…though maybe not with a few of my more Neanderthal planet-mates.” She glanced at Tee’ah’s translator. “Did that thing translate Neanderthal? I’m all for freedom of expression, for presenting opposing points of view, but these Earth-Firsters are ignorant, and in their ignorance they could easily screw up all my stepfather’sgood work.”

Ilana sighed as she draped the dresses over a bedside chair. “But that’s politics, and I try to leave that up to the rest of my family.”

She left them to their hasty preparations.

After using the shower, Tee’ah and Lara dressed in their borrowed clothes—oversized straw hats and flowing ankle-length dresses.

While Lara donned her boots, Tee’ah stepped onto the veranda to view the ocean. Ilana’s residence was on the second floor of a building separated from the beach by a busy road for ground cars. Until last night, she had never personally seen an ocean that wasn’t computer generated. The reality was staggeringly beautiful. In the early morning light, the sea was as smooth and deeply hued as a bolt of blue-gray Nandan silk.

The dress Ilana lent her was flimsy and low cut—likely by her own prim standards, though, and not by Ilana’s or any other Earthwoman’s. She raised her arms above her head and let the wind brush across the indecent garment, but the breeze was a poor substitute for Ian’s caresses. The mere thought of his skillful hands and hot mouth on her body brought her pulse throbbing to life between her thighs.

But he had his duty, and she had her dreams. Those things would forever keep them apart.

“You’re thinking about him again.”

Tee’ah whirled around. Lara stood in the doorway, watching her with ancient eyes. “It hurts,” sheadmitted to the pilot. “It will for some time, I think.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Haven’t you ever been in love?”

Lara glanced away. A muscle in her jaw jumped. “No,” she said softly. “Never.”

“I’m no expert,” Tee’ah quickly told her. “There was only Ian, and no one else. But I know in my heart that someday the right man will treasure you and respect you. You are beautiful and precious, inside and out. Any man who does not see that does not deserve you.”

Lara compressed her lips and stared at the sea. “That’s what he told me…this man. He sees in me what I don’t. Or didn’t.” Her face took on a look of innocence, or perhaps wonder, then the look was gone just as fast. She cracked a smile. “Perhapshedeserves me, aye?”

Tee’ah smiled back. “Find him and see.”

Thoughtful, Lara considered. “Perhaps...”

Together they walked inside, where Ilana met them. “Tee’ah,” Ian’s sister said. “We have to talk.” The Earth girl took her aside, leaving Lara to eat the morning meal with Linda Hurst, a perky, middle-aged red-haired “film-assistant” who had accompanied Ilana to the airport the evening before.

Ilana’s comm device—ringing constantly, it seemed—trilled again. She glanced at the incoming call and switched it off. “My latest ex,” sheexplained. At Tee’ah’s obvious bafflement, she tried again in careful Basic.

“A man-friend whom I no longer wish to see.”

Awed, Tee’ah gazed at her. “You have many lovers then?”

At first, Ilana appeared startled. Then she laughed. “Always. And I make it a point to leave while the bed’s still warm.”

Tee’ah sensed pain behind that cheerful declaration. She wondered if Ilana’s parade of lovers, her disdain of commitment, was a consequence of her father’s infidelity, just as Ian’s celibacy was.

Ilana’s sky-blue eyes searched Tee’ah’s face. “Now make sure you use that translator of yours. I’m going to speak in English because my Basic stinks and I have some things to say.” When Tee’ah had complied, she said, “You’re in love with my brother.”

Tee’ah’s pulse pounded in her throat. “Ian…is a man-friend I no longer wish to see.”

“Ha!”

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