“Among other things,” Xairn said darkly. “Believe me, Lauren, it’s not a life you’d want. And as beautiful and exotic as you are, you wouldn’t have lasted a month on the streets. Blix would have sold you piece by piece until there was nothing left.”
Lauren shook her head. “But…but I don’t see how trading food cubes for clothes would make me Blix’s, uh, whore.”
“The rules of trade in O’ah state that every transaction must be of exactly equal value. That is why it’s so dangerous to barter here instead of just buying something with credits. The Spider gave you very expensive clothing and in return, you gave him nothing but a few food cubes—you owed him more. Much more. And he could have forced you to pay the difference with your body.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes tightly for a moment as though trying to hold back a headache. “Gods, if you hadn’t given him the cubes with the grieza worms…”
“What would have happened?” Lauren whispered.
“I would have fought for you to the last—please know that,” Xairn said in a low voice. “But there is no surviving a physical confrontation with the Judge of the Market. He is a Quinlow—they carry the power of life and death in their hands. So I…I would have lost you.” Suddenly he pulled Lauren to him in a crushing hug. “Gods, Lauren, I can’t lose you. I won’t.” His deep voice was raw with emotion.
Lauren was so surprised she could barely think. In the entire time they’d known each other, Xairn had hardly ever touched her willingly. In fact, he’d even gone so far as to ask her not to touch him. Which made his spontaneous display of affection all the more rare and precious.
“Oh, Xairn…” She hugged him back tightly, nuzzling her face into his neck, breathing in the warm, spicy scent of his bare skin. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered in his ear. “You were gone for so much longer than you said and I was so afraid…” She choked. “Afraid something had happened to you. And then Blix tricked his way into the ship by pretending to be Mr. Kittles—the pet rabbit I used to have. And then he seemed so nice and reasonable and he kept saying you would never come back and I…I was so scared and I missed you so much.”
“That is what thought thieves do.” Xairn’s voice was soft and fierce in her ear. “They sense the troubled thoughts of their prey and then they stalk them mercilessly using their own fears against them. Forgive me for not warning you in more detail but I did not want to frighten you.”
Lauren kissed his cheek impulsively. “That’s okay,” she whispered. “And I’m sorry I disobeyed orders. I should have known you had a good reason for me to stay inside the ship.” She shifted closer to him, happy to feel his arms around her and the comforting press of his muscular chest against her breasts. “I’m just so glad you’re safe.”
As she pressed her body against his, Xairn stiffened in her arms. Abruptly, he drew away from her, ending the hug as suddenly as it had begun. “I am pleased and relieved that you are safe as well,” he said formally. “And I have good news—I have located an Alteration house that will perform the necessary manipulation of our respective DNA.”
“That’s nice, I guess,” Lauren said doubtfully. “But Xairn…” She closed the distance he’d put between them and put a hand on his arm. “I still—”
“Please.” Xairn pulled his arm away. “Don’t. And I believe it would be best if you would give me back my shirt and go put on the other garment I bought for you before I left.”
Lauren frowned, scanning the heavy muscles of his chest and arms for chillbumps. “I’m sorry. Are you cold?”
“No.” He suddenly wouldn’t look at her. “I just think it would be best.”
“All right.” Feeling hurt by his sudden about-face, Lauren withdrew. How could he be so effusively glad to see her one moment and so cold the next? Try as she might, she couldn’t help wishing to be in his arms again. He was so big and warm and she felt so completely safe when she was pressed to his chest. But from the closed look on his face, she could tell that wasn’t going to happen.
Sighing, she went to the bathroom. So much for new clothes.
She was so busy removing Xairn’s shirt and replacing the silver-blue muumuu, she almost missed the fact that she was still wearing the blue slippers with crimson red soles. When she finally realized she still had the shoes on, she had an uneasy feeling. Was this going to cause problems later on? Or were the worm cubes enough to pay for the slippers as well as the clothes Blix had given her? Would Xairn be upset when he saw that she had kept them?