“Don’t you tell me what I’m doing, Brandt! You don’t know her.”
“You don’t either, Ash. The person you left ten years ago is gone. In her place is a different woman. Your actions put cracks in her foundation, and you will not exploit that to get into her uniform. I won’t allow it.”
Before Ash could respond, Brandt left the room and headed up to her quarters.
Sera slammed the door and leaned against it, reaching deep to try to locate some kind of inner strength and stability. Her heart threatened to burst from her chest, and she fought the conflicting shame and desire that rushed through her body.
“You will not cry!” she whispered, taking a deep breath.
That moment when his big hand and powerful fingers closed around her neck—not hurting—it had come back to her with vivid clarity. Each night when she walked into their home, she’d shed her public self. She’d changed into one of the diaphanous gowns with thigh-high slits he’d selected for her. And became his.
The black case lay on her bedside table. Each time, she opened it with care, pulling out the wide leather collar, taking it to him. Kneeling, she’d hold the collar out for him to put on her.
There were days when he would shake his head slowly and put the collar aside. “Tonight, Sera, my words are your collar.”
He would often come to her as they prepared the evening meal or some other household activity and put his hand at her neck like that, holding her to him as he devoured her mouth.
It had been a very long time since anyone or anything had made her feel that cherished and safe.
She’d never submitted to another man after the day she moved out. She didn’t plan to let Ash lure her into some elaborate mind fuck game now, either. It had been a long, hard road to pull herself out of the pit of self-loathing he’d dug for her with his fancy nuptials splashed over every vid screen and newspaper in the Federation.
There was no way she’d throw all that work away.
She began to pace, working through her options. There was no technically about it, she’d been outright insubordinate down there. She’d refused a direct order and assaulted a superior officer and a member of the Families.
“Sera?” Brandt called out softly as he tapped on her door.
She froze a moment and ruthlessly turned off as much of her emotions as she could. She would not give them anything. She would not shed another tear for Ash Walker if she could possibly help it.
Crossing to the door, she took a deep breath and opened it. “Yes, PC Pela?”
“May I come in?”
“If you’re planning to help him with this ridiculous ploy, you’re wasting your breath.”
“I’d just like to try and work through this to find a solution. On my word as an officer, I promise I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. I just ask that you listen to me and help me to find a resolution here.”
Sighing, she stepped back and waved him inside.
“Thank you.” Brandt moved past her to the small couch and sat.
Sera went to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water, handing one to him as she took the chair across from him.
“Sera, you know Nondal is a patriarchal ’Verse. As a woman you’ll be forbidden to move freely unless you’re a wife or concubine accompanied by your husband or lover. And a concubine won’t be expected to observe all the same rules as a wife. You’d have more freedom as a concubine.
“But if you don’t go in as a concubine, you won’t even be allowed to leave the transport. We need you on the ground. We need your ears and your experience with the Nondalese if we’re to get inside. You saw that file; you know who we suspect.”
“I won’t pose as his concubine, PC Pela. I won’t. I’ll never allow Ash Walker to make me feel like a whore again.”
“Please, can you call me Brandt? A three-person team is very intimate. We’ll be out in the field for long periods of time. If we stick to referring to each other by rank, it’ll just be tedious, don’t you think?”
Sera narrowed her eyes but nodded after a few long moments.
“Okay, good. Now, would it be acceptable to you to be my concubine? Rather, um, to pose as my concubine?” He took a quick drink of his water.
Sera thought it over. Brandt was right. Nondal was a ’Verse where she’d be unable to move about at all without a man. A wife would be expected to mix with the other married women and stay separate from her husband except for certain social events and after retiring for the evening. But a concubine could easily move about with her lover. The Nondalese would dismiss her as a pretty piece of fluff. A piece of fluff could hear a lot.
She nodded slowly. “All right.”
Brandt smiled at her, and her heart sped up. She realized she’d just agreed to pose as his lover for as long as necessary. It would certainly take some time to get in with the right people on Nondal. They’d be watched closely, and she’d have to be convincing. The Nondalese were notorious for having spy cameras everywhere. But as she looked at him, she realized it wouldn’t be very hard to act like a woman smitten with him.
“I’m glad we could work this through. Your clothes for the assignment are in the transport already. You are aware what you’ll be expected to dress and act like?” Sera appreciated that he said it so carefully.
“I’m aware. I’ve never been to Nondal, but I’ve dealt with enough Nondalese people to know.”
“And from your file it appears that you have extensive background in the local accents? We’ll be dealing with mainly upper-class Nondalese.”
Nondal had a very stratified class system. Each class grouping had linguistic variants and accents. Most citizens in the Federation Universes spoke Standard. In addition to Standard, on Nondal the population spoke Nondalese. But there were small but important differences in the language that varied by group. Those small differences made the language nearly unintelligible to most people. Fortunately for Sera, she’d done extensive study on the different variations, and that would be a big asset to the team.
“Yes. But Ash is very recognizable. How is he planning to get any information at all?” Nondal was a very closed society. The lower and working classes did not have free access to news from the Known Universes. Or contact with outsiders even. Their travel was restricted, and most Nondalese never even left their domed city levels much less folding to visit other universes. But the upper classes did have access to the outside news and information, and they’d hold their knowledge of gossip and celebrity news as a mark of their status.
“How closely have you followed him over the last ten years? Just between us.”
She studied her hands. “Not very. Not after his engagement was all over the place. But his wedding was big news for a very long time. It was inescapable. His face was on every vid screen and newspaper and every damned day of their honeymoon, which seemed to last forever.”
Sera returned her gaze to him. “After that first year, I made it a point not to see him or hear what he was up to. But given that his Family is so powerful, it’s not like you can hide it.”
“No. You can’t. So we’ve played on it. I told you a bit downstairs about our general cover. From the outside, Ash Walker is a playboy with too many credits and too much free time. Sure, he has a position in the military, but he doesn’t do any more than collect the credits and show up every once in a while. It makes him ripe for approach by certain people, and we’ve cultivated it for the last seven years now.” His smile wasn’t a happy one. “Just two irresponsible men out for as much pleasure as possible.”
“Playboy? And how does his wife feel about that? Or does she just look the other way?” Oops, that may have sounded a tad bitter.
“Kira dissolved their union seven years ago. She’s remarried one of Ash’s cousins. What Ash does is of very little consequence to her. You didn’t know?”
Her breath caught a moment. “I’ve had better things to do than read the Family pages in the newspapers or watch the vids about you people.”
Brandt winced. “That’s some chip on your shoulder you’ve got there, Sera.”
“Let’s get this straight, Brandt. Ash Walker professed his undying love to me one day, and the next he brought me the paperwork to be his mistress. Because, and imagine my surprise, it turned out he had a fiancée. He’d even shown me the deed to the new apartment he’d purchased for me. Near his house, of course. He could leave her bed and come to mine with impunity. His resistance to marrying according to his family’s wishes lasted about as long as his love for me did.
“The Families have walked all over me and mine and acted as if they are better by virtue of blood than people who actually shed it. So it’s not a chip, Brandt, it’s called experience.”
“My father is a decorated military officer who led the troops at Varhana. He lost an arm that day but continued to fight alongside a great many soldiers, including my older brother and my uncles. I’ve given up a life of leisure to fight against the Imperialists. We’re not all the same. I know who you come from. I know you were wronged, but I’m not Ash. My family, although they have their own flaws, aren’t the Walkers.”