Eros Ascending: Book 1 of Tales of the Velvet Comet by Mike Resnick Read Free Book Online

outside a restaurant that was decorated to resemble a sanitized and opulent version of one of the notorious drug dens of Altair III. The waiters looked like blackhearted villains, and a sultry, olive-skinned girl, an unlit analog of a hashish cigarette dangling from her lips, was doing a slow, sensual dance to the music of a single flutist. Redwine noted, however—as he had earlier in the day—that the food was as well-prepared and carefully-served as in the other restaurants.
    Suddenly the Leather Madonna's belt buckle beeped twice, and she turned to him. “Wait here just a moment, won't you?” she said, walking over to a small visual intercom on a nearby wall. She returned a minute later.
    “I'm afraid a little problem has come up,” she said apologetically.
    “Nothing serious, I hope?”
    “It won't be if I attend to it quickly. We have a very assertive lady who has decided to extend her stay, and a very demanding gentleman who has booked her suite and insists that no other rooms are acceptable.”
    “Can't your computer come up with a solution?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “Computers are rational machines, and they expect people to behave in a rational manner.” She chuckled. “Poor things.”
    “Where would you like me to wait for you?”
    “That won't be necessary. I've arranged for Suma to take you to Security.”
    “I'm happy to wait,” he insisted.
    “You don't realize what a favor I'm doing you, Harry. Half of our patrons would happily walk through fire to spend a few extra minutes alone with her.”
    “I never got along well with children,” said Redwine.
    “How flattering,” said the Madonna.
    “Especially very bright, very self-centered ones,” he added.
    “And how perceptive.”
    “So, if it's all the same to you...”
    “Harry, this could take me two or three hours of delicate negotiating,” she said firmly.
    He sighed. “You're the boss.”
    “I'll try to catch up with you later,” she said, heading off toward her office. “Suma should be here shortly.”
    He watched her walk away, and decided once again that she was a damned attractive woman. Cordial and self-controlled, too, especially since she was obviously convinced that he was here to usurp some of her authority at the behest of whoever ran the gambling concession.
    He lit a cigar and let the smoke roll around on his tongue for a few seconds as his accountant's mind kept cataloguing: attractive, cordial, self-controlled, well-read, demonstrably successful at managing a huge operation like the Velvet Comet, doubtless skilled as all hell in bed.
    He frowned. He wished he hadn't hit it off so well with her this morning, that he didn't feel a sensation of budding friendship toward her.
    He was going to feel genuinely sorry when he brought her tidy, affluent little world crumbling down about her.

Chapter 3

    Suma arrived about five minutes later.
    Her outfit was, to say the least, spectacular. She wore an elaborate golden slave collar, from which were suspended perhaps twenty strips of narrow cloth that hung down almost to the floor and were gathered in very loosely at the waist by a gold belt. The outside of the cloth was scarlet, the inside a metallic gold, and as she moved the strips opened and closed, presenting Redwine with the kind of peepshow he'd paid good money to see when he was a kid.
    She wore huge golden earrings, covered by gold coins, that hung down to her shoulders and jingled when she walked. Her hair was piled high in another complicated hairdo that involved dozens of gold beads.
    Slave bracelets, an armband, and a pair of very high-heeled shoes, also all gold, completed the picture.
    “Good morning, Mr. Redwine,” she said with a feline smile of greeting.
    “Hello, Suma. You're looking exceptionally lovely today.”
    “Do you like it?” she asked, extending her arms and turning around, to the delight of a trio of passing patrons.
    “It's eye-catching, that's for sure,” said Redwine.
    “Have you