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  “Leelah?”

  There was no answer. He checked her bathroom to make sure she was really missing. The entire suite was empty. He’d had one simple task to fulfill, and he’d failed.

  Ja-hun shouted into his comset for Pratt.

  Chapter Two

  It was easy to give Pratt the slip. When Leelah opened her door expecting to tease Ja-hun for the position he’d caught her in and found Pratt instead, she realized it was her chance to escape. He was part of the regular house security staff and didn’t hesitate to allow her to go down to the kitchen on her own.

  “Just hurry back, please. Special Agent Asshole will have my head if he knows I let you go alone.” Pratt grinned.

  “Ja-hun is an overprotective idiot. He should go back where he came from.”

  She’d make it up to poor Pratt somehow for the flak he’d catch at losing track of her. But meanwhile, Leelah raced down the stairs and headed for the underground passage out of the compound. In her youth, she’d often used the tunnel as an escape route. Sometimes she had gone out and made it back home again before anyone knew she was missing. Other times, she’d been caught outside the compound walls and punished for putting herself in danger. Of course, she’d always been able to talk her father into giving back her comset and vid privileges long before the grounding was supposed to end. And if she’d wanted Trianne to come over, all she’d had to do was let her eyes fill with tears and tell her dad how lonely she was and that his job made her miserable.

  Times had changed. The world had stabilized and in recent years security had relaxed. Leelah had gone to university classes like all her peers and been able to travel pretty much everywhere, along with a bodyguard or two. It had been several years since she’d needed to use her secret route. But with Ja-hun’s over-the-top protective measures, today it was her only option.

  She passed through the empty kitchen and the storeroom beyond then descended the steps to the lower level. When she was a child, her mother had told her about the escape route the smuggler dynasty that built the house had once used. Of course, she hadn’t intended Leelah to evade authority through it, but by the time Leelah had discovered and made use of the passage, her mother was dead. There was no one else in the household who knew about her secret exit hidden behind a panel.

  Emerging from the tunnel amidst brambles and bushes, Leelah brushed cobwebs and dirt from her clothes, rubbed at a scratch on her arm, and called for a skycab on her comset.

  A glow of victory swelled inside her as the cab whisked her away from the estate and her overly zealous bodyguard.

  Take that, Ja-hun! I can manage my own life, and I don’t need you or my father to make decisions for me.

  * * * * *

  Burdah Garan’s home was an elaborate structure with many flexglass plates that reflected the sun, turning the house into a sparkling gem perched above the sea. Leelah loved the panoramic view of the blue-green ocean from the wall of windows that overlooked it. People talking, laughing, drinking, playing games, or dancing crowded the rooms and spilled out onto the patio and gardens. In the evening, when it wasn’t so hot, they’d move the whole party down to the beach.

  As she entered, Leelah waved and smiled at friends then grabbed a glass of pinia from a table. Taking a long, sweet drink, she let her hips sway with the music and her head bob to the beat. She was glad to be free at last, but ready to network as well as have a good time.

  When Trianne spotted Leelah across the room, she shrieked loud enough to make heads turn. She jumped up from her seat next to her boyfriend, Burdah, and ran toward her friend with open arms. “I knew you’d find a way to make it. Come on. There’s somebody you’ve got to meet.”

  Leelah groaned. “I just got here, and you wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get out. Let me just sit and get Blissed for a few minutes, then I’ll be ready for socializing.”

  “You got it.” Trianne reached into a dish on the table where Bliss tablets were piled like candy and handed her one.

  Leelah popped the tab into her mouth and let it dissolve on her tongue. Almost instantly a melting feeling like warm butterscotch syrup fired through her synapses as the potent mineral blend hit her system. Bliss heightened the senses, but with no letdown at the end of the ride, and the high wasn’t addicting.

  The bustle and noise of guests and the thumping bass of the music was usually a balm to Leelah’s soul. She was a social person who loved parties and people. But as she sipped a smooth pinia and listened to Trianne and Burdah sell her on this guy she was about to meet, all she could think of was the trouble her disappearance would cause. As usual, she’d let her willfullness guide her. Perhaps there really was a good reason for her confinement, and Ja-hun wasn’t a stone-hearted bastard.

  Was he really as cold and emotionless as he seemed? He’d kept a perfectly blank face when he’d walked in on her masturbating, but she couldn’t believe it hadn’t affected him at all. It certainly had her. The memory of her embarrassment coupled with intense excitement sent a flash of heat through her that settled warmly between her legs. Bliss-enhanced arousal had her craving to either fuck someone or dance. The latter seemed the more prudent choice.

  “All right. Enough with the sales pitch. I’m ready to meet your guy, but only if he knows how to shake it.”

  “Trust me, Danje can dance, or just about anything else you’d want him to do.” Trianne laughed. “Here he comes.”

  Danje was a gilded statue of a man, with the most beautiful face, flowing hair, and golden eyes that outshone Leelah’s. He was a pureblood Anuvian with the height, grace, and physical perfection of the race. Sometimes Leelah wondered what had made her Anuvian mother leave her home planet with Rogent Blaine, a common man from OldEarth stock. It really must have been true love between the pair of them. Too bad she’d never been able to ask her mother about such things. Sun-shi Blaine died when Leelah was still too young to be interested in hearing her parents’ courtship story, and Daddy couldn’t bear to talk about his lost love. He changed the subject whenever Leelah asked questions about her mother.

  Trianne made introductions, and Leelah took Danje’s warm hand. “I hear you’re quite the dancer.”

  “Come on and I’ll show you.” His smile was like sunlight warming her. No wonder OldEarth primitives had thought the Anuvians were gods when they’d first visited the blue planet.

  Leelah followed his lead onto the dance floor in the center of the room where most of the gyrating couples wore little more than their swimsuits. Danje pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside, giving her an eyeful of sculpted chest muscles and biceps that made her pussy clench. Leelah followed his example, throwing her light sundress aside to dance in her bikini.

  She’d always loved music and at one time considered majoring in dance at university until she’d decided she could contribute more to the Worlds by studying social issues. The rhythm quickly wrapped her in its embrace, and the melody carried her away. Her eyes half closed as she swayed to the tropical beat, sliding in harmony with Danje in a sultry bump and grind with her bottom pressed firmly against his pelvis. As promised, the boy was a great dancer, and together they burned up the floor.

  She and Danje danced one song, two, three, before taking a break to gulp down a few more glasses of pinia. She learned that her date for the day was still a student at the university, which made her feel a little old.

  “I’ve been out two years and don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything,” she confessed. “I wanted to work with people, but my father’s position makes it impossible for me to have a job in the public sector. Your mother’s an ambassador, right? So you must know a little of what that overprotectiveness is like.”

  “Absolutely,” Danje said. “I’ve only recently found my own way to influence policy. I’m just like you. I want to make the Worlds a better place.”

  Leelah used the opening to bring up the D’jeering issue. “Where do you stand on the bill for penal colony reform? I understand Anu is on the fence wi
th factions on either side of the debate.”

  Danje gazed into his cup of pinia for a moment before answering. “My mother supports your father’s bill. She believes the prison at D’jeering and others like it are an abomination, and there should be either severe reform or abolishment of the system.”

  “You don’t agree?” She probed his seeming reluctance to give his own opinion.

  He shrugged and glanced at her. “I think the dregs of society have to be housed somewhere. While some of us are focused on keeping order in the world, others seem bent on destroying it and need to be locked away.”

  “Perhaps. But must the conditions be so deplorable? Punishment shouldn’t include enforced labor on starvation rations in cold, lightless cells. Wouldn’t efforts at rehabilitation be more useful?”

  “I think … that this topic is way too heavy for a party.” Danje shot her his sunshine grin and grabbed her hand. “Let’s dance. And maybe, after a little while, we can find someplace more private to continue our conversation.” His lowered eyelids, letting her know that more discussion was the last thing on his mind.

  Having fun and pushing her father’s platform didn’t have to be mutually exclusive. Leelah abandoned her lobbying and allowed Danje to pull her onto the dance floor, where they engaged in another hot and heavy faux fuck. She shimmied against him, her boobs grazing his chest. Her nipples were diamond-tipped, threatening to poke through the material of her bikini top, and her pussy throbbed in time to the music. There would be sex tonight. She had no doubt Danje would be a great lay. But as gorgeous as he was, she couldn’t stop picturing Ja-hun’s black eyes and stern features. She turned her back on her partner to rub her ass against him, the better to imagine her bodyguard in Danje’s place. Her eyes half closed as she writhed, getting into her fantasy of Ja-hun.

  Then she saw the man himself approaching across the dance floor and her eyes flew open. She blinked, but the large, dark figure didn’t disappear. Nope. He was really there.

  Ja-hun looked like an ominous cloud against a rainbow, his monochromatic white shirt and black suit a complete contrast to the butterfly colors and naked flesh of the party guests. They parted before him like he was a plague carrier, and Leelah’s heart nearly stopped at the thunderous expression on his face as he strode toward her.

  “Oh, shenje!”

  * * * * *

  The girl was practically fucking her partner right there on the dance floor. A surge of heat which was a mixture of fury and lust swept through Ja-hun as he headed toward his errant charge. Leelah had stopped thrusting her ass toward her pretty-boy partner, and stood staring at Ja-hun, openmouthed. He stopped directly in front of her, schooling his expression to cool aloofness. “Miss Blaine.”

  “How’d you find me?”

  Was she kidding? He’d tracked mech-killers in the course of his career. Finding one runaway party girl who’d already made it clear she wanted to go to her friend’s house wasn’t a challenge.

  “You’re going to need to come with me.” He kept his voice level and his eyes away from the tits that were practically spilling out of her tiny top.

  “Oh, come on! Do you honestly think something’s going to happen to me here? Most of the people at this party are affiliated with politicians from one planet or another. There’s enough security here to fend off an entire army of assassins. You’re supposed to be my bodyguard, so guard me, but don’t cage me like some kind of animal in my father’s house.”

  Again, Ja-hun wished her father had allowed him to share with her a few of the messages received on his comset. They’d made it clear that the person or organization had intimate knowledge of the Blaines’ lives and would as soon kill Leelah as kidnap her just to demonstrate they could strike anywhere at any time. The girl was a card in their game. Ja-hun had a gut feeling a member of this group might even be part of the president’s household. If he didn’t feel comfortable letting Leelah wander freely in her own home, he certainly wasn’t going to allow her to stay at some party. Something could be slipped into her drink so easily. She could be killed when she went to use the bathroom or even in the middle of the crowd with so many bodies pressed together. In the past, Ja-hun had used all of these methods to eliminate a target. Or, if the author of the threats wanted to take her, that could easily happen, too.

  “I know this seems extreme, but you’ve enjoyed some free time, and now I want to get you back home.” He hoped she wouldn’t get stubborn so he’d have to force her out to his waiting car. “I’m sorry,” he added as an afterthought.

  For a moment, he thought she was going to do exactly what he feared, throw a tantrum and dig her bare heels into the floor. Rather than toss her over his shoulder and carry her away kicking and screaming, he might have to back down and spend some time at this noisy bacchanal. Leelah was more trouble than Crin-tai. At least the mogul had listened when Ja-hun warned him of danger.

  “Fine! Let me get my things.” Her arms folded just under her breasts, pushing her cleavage dangerously higher. Considering he’d seen her entire chest bared earlier that day, he didn’t know why cleavage should seem just as provocative.

  She turned to talk to her dance partner. “Sorry, Danje. I’ve got to go. My bodyguard is having a meltdown.”

  After locating and slipping on her dress and sandals, Leelah walked stiffly past Ja-hun toward the door. She waved at a dark-haired girl across the room and spoke into her comset. “Trianne. Sorry to leave so when the party’s just getting started, but as you can see, I’m being arrested. Talk later, okay?”

  Trianne waved back and stared at Ja-hun. Her lips moved in answer.

  Leelah laughed at what only she could hear. “Yeah, I know. Scary, yet strangely sexy.”

  Ja-hun perked at her words. She thinks I’m sexy. He trampled the thought with a mental grind of a boot heel. Such an unprofessional feeling didn’t deserve to live.

  Gathering his focus, he unholstered his zynpher in case something happened between the house and the car. His weapon would be useless against snipers, so when they reached the outdoors, he scanned the area for any sign of a scope as he walked Leelah to his vehicle.

  He opened her door and watched her sundress ride up to reveal long legs as she slid into the seat. The sight of her dancing in the skimpy bathing suit she wore underneath had been nearly as erotic as walking in on her masturbating. He’d felt an urge to slam his fist into her dance partner’s face and drag Leelah away. Where were these animalistic urges coming from? He didn’t like the hormone-driven primitive he was turning into.

  Ja-hun slipped behind the console of his V-1 and engaged the screen. He gave his destination and the vehicle slid smoothly down the drive of the Garan estate, past the lax security post, and onto the street. Though skycabs flew overhead, privately owned vehicles were still land-bound. The V-1 ate up the miles, taking them back to the presidential compound.

  “Don’t blame Pratt for letting me go,” Leelah said after a moment. “He’s good at his job, but I’m even better at getting my way.”

  Ja-hun believed that. “He should’ve followed orders. I told him to stay with you until I returned.”

  Her eyes widened and she looked alarmed. “Seriously, it wasn’t his fault. I wouldn’t want him to lose his job over this.”

  “Maybe you should have thought of that before you left the building.” Ja-hun imagined he’d cut Pratt some slack, but he wanted to force Leelah to think about the possible consequences of her actions for someone other than herself.

  He focused his gaze on the road. They were passing the city center, where bright holo-signs clamored for attention.

  “I’m sorry,” she said in a contrite voice. “My will is stronger than my common sense sometimes. Don’t take it out on him.”

  It was obvious she was playing him, trying to buy his lenience with an apology. Somehow he doubted Ms. Headstrong had really learned her lesson.

  Leelah gestured to a holo-sign advertising a restaurant. “Can we stop for something to eat? I h
aven’t had anything all day.”

  Ja-hun thought of the Blaines’ huge kitchen and the on-site cook always available and didn’t feel any sympathy for her.

  “Just a drive-through? Anything to stay away from that house a little longer. I feel like a four-year-old. When will I finally be able to live my life instead of being overprotected?”

  He wanted to tell her there were a lot worse things in life than being pampered, but he kept his mouth shut.

  She slid closer to him and rested her hand on his thigh. His cock automatically stirred.

  “Please, Ja-hun.” It was the first time she’d used his name. “I’m sorry I ran away. It was childish, and I’m not just saying that to get you to do what I want. I know sometimes I come across like a spoiled brat, but that’s not who I really am.” She paused. “Or at least not all I am. I have dreams and goals. I didn’t get an education so I could sit around being catered to by servants like some OldEarth princess. I want to do things. I want to help people. But because of who my father is, I’m not free to make my own future. You can imagine how frustrating that is.”

  Ja-hun glanced sideways at her earnest expression. It didn’t seem like she was only trying to get more time away from the house. This was the most she’d said to him in the few days he’d been around her. Mostly she’d mocked, teased, complained, or begged. Sincerity was a refreshing change.

  Her hand pressing his thigh had nothing to do with his decision.

  “All right. Where do you want to go?”

  * * * * *

  They ended up at a restaurant, in a back corner booth where he could keep his eye on all of the entrances and the people at the other tables. Since not even the security staff at the estate knew where he and Leelah were, it was probably pretty safe here. Ja-hun had checked in with Nigeri to say he had Leelah with him and they would return shortly.