Gateway To Xanadu by Sharon Green Read Free Book Online Page B

I am.”
    I watched him absorb the news. It hadn’t been necessary to tell him that with a two-month trip still in front of us, but I couldn’t hold back. Val knew well enough that I’d killed on Tildor-hell, I’d almost done it to him!-but there was a big difference between killing in self-defense and killing in cold blood. That the end result was the same made no difference to most people; deliberate executions of any sort were horrifying, and the soulless, inhuman creatures capable of taking life without the mitigating emotions of rage or fear-for-self were more horrifying still. Those black eyes watched me while I watched him, the thoughts behind them totally unreadable, and abruptly I didn’t care to play the game any more. I didn’t give a damn how shocked he was; at least it would keep him out from under my feet from then on.
    “Thanks for the meal,” I said, swallowing the last of my wine before replacing the glass carefully on the table and then standing. “If you’d ever like it matched in syntho, just let me know. ”
    I started back toward my cabin, looking forward to being alone, but Val was out of his chair so fast he practically materialized in front of me, blocking the way.
    “Come on, you don’t really want to put us back to where we were,” he said, sounding as if that was all there was worth discussing between us. “That wine is much too good to be left after a single taste, and I really hate drinking alone. And you haven’t finished telling me what we’ll be doing in the Federation once we take care of that Radman garbage. Just a little while longer, and a little more of the wine-What do you say?”
    “After we take care of Radman?” I echoed, feeling as if I’d already had more than enough wine. I couldn’t understand how he could dismiss what I’d told him so lightly, not with the way people usually took it. “What about-what I just said. Didn’t it bother you?”
    “Of course it bothered me,” he said, looking faintly startled. “Just because you’re capable of doing a tough job like that doesn’t mean they had the right to send you in entirely unprotected, without any back-up. Something can slip in any dangerous situation, just the way it did in yours. Next time he’ll have the two of us to contend with, and I don’t think he’ll do as well-no matter who warns him about what. ”
    “The two of us,” I echoed again, almost in a whisper, feeling so strange that I couldn’t describe it, even to myself. I’d had partners before, usually under protest and usually forgotten as soon as the assignment was over, but even when it had worked out I’d never felt so-really wanted. It was stupid, and probably a combination of imagination and too much wine, but as I looked up into those dark black eyes, it almost felt as though Val was considering me with an eye for more than what most men usually wanted. A big hand came gently to my face, and I looked up in time to see how close his face was. Warm lips touched mine briefly but without any doubt, and then we were heading for one of the couches, to discuss the Federation a bit more over another glass of the really good wine.. When it finally came to me that what he probably wanted was nothing more than some human interaction in the midst of the ultimate isolation all around us, I was able to relax again and hold up my end of the conversation. The rest of it was just wine and imagination after all, but that strange feeling still warmed the rest of that “night. ”

CHAPTER 3
    Life settled down into routine after that, but there wasn’t much of the boredom you’d expect. Val took to joining me in morning loosening-up exercises, but he didn’t know enough to join me in afternoon fighting practice and I wasn’t about to teach him. In the afternoons we took turns in the exercise room, and he didn’t offer to teach me what he was doing either.
    I continued to eat the syntho any time I wanted a quick snack, but Val cooked every time