Lady Lure (14 page)

“Serve me?” he said. There was no mistaking
the meaning of the fierce glare that lit his eyes. “Why? Because of
my rank? I have known many women who were willing to service the
Admiral of the Fleet.”

“No,” she whispered, intimidated by the anger
he had not troubled himself to hide. “It is because I like you.
Because you have been kind to me and have handled me gently.
Because when you kiss me I feel a wonderful warmth. If you want to
kiss me again before I begin, I will be happy to respond. But if
you do not wish to kiss me, I will not be insulted.”

“Really?” Halvo’s eyes had narrowed to mere
slits and his face was guarded and tight. Perri decided a few
intimate revelations might help him to relax.

“Elyr only kissed me on greeting,” she said,
“and then again on leaving me, which he always said was right and
proper. But never while I ministered to his discomfort. However, I
will not object if you wish to do so. Your customs are surely
different from Elyr’s.”

“I don’t doubt that for a moment,” Halvo
said. “No kissing? How interesting. How unexciting for you. Was
there no touching either?”

“What do you mean?” Her genuine confusion at
his peculiar comments must have communicated itself to him. Some of
his anger appeared to dissipate.

“Perri, I am not sure that you and I are
talking about the same thing.”

“Of course we are.” She smiled to show him
she did not mind what he would require of her. With Elyr, her
smiles had always been forced. Glancing downward along Halvo’s
stiffly held figure, she could see that they were, indeed, speaking
of the same phenomenon because she could tell he was uncomfortable.
In fact, her eyes told her that Halvo was extremely
uncomfortable.

For the first time in her life, the image of
what lay beneath a man’s clothing fascinated Perri, and the thought
of what she could do to relieve the distress Halvo was obviously
suffering was a desire blossoming in secret places where she had
not known it was possible for a woman to feel such warm urges.

“Let me help you,” she said, offering all she
had to give. “I am yours to use as you wish.”

“Thank you, but it would not be fair to you,”
he said.

“What does fairness to me have to do with
it?” she asked.

“I have tried to live my life as an honorable
man,” Halvo said. “I am not going to take advantage of a young
woman who clearly has no idea of the full implications of what she
is suggesting.”

“But Elyr did not object.”

“I don’t care what Elyr did or did not do!
Perri, in the name of all the stars, I am trying to do what is
right for you!” Halvo lifted one hand, pointing again to the far
rock face. When he continued, his voice was the coldest Perri had
ever heard. “Dinner has just been canceled. I cannot talk to you
anymore or even look at you. Do not ask why. You know why. Take a
blanket and go over there and lie down. Stay there and do not speak
to me again. Do you understand me?”

Perri’s lower lip was trembling so hard that
she had to bite down on it to keep herself from bursting into sobs
of humiliation and anger. She did not know what Elyr would have
done if she had voluntarily offered to ease his discomfort when he
had not indicated that he wanted such a service from her. Feeling
as she did about the way in which Elyr demanded and then directed
her aid, she had never offered.

But Perri did not think she would have felt
so forsaken and hurt if Elyr had rejected her as Halvo had
done.

Nor did Perri understand her own physical
reactions to the scene just ended by Halvo’s cold commands. She
desperately wanted Halvo to kiss her and she ached to feel his arms
around her. She recalled in vivid detail the incident in her cabin
aboard ship when he had kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth
and had drawn her upward so she stood pressed along his body – and
the disturbing heat and hardness of him when he had held her that
way.

She also remembered the time when, trying to
get to his feet so he could disconnect Starthruster and slow the
Space Dragon,
he had fallen on top of her while she was
confined on the bench. She had not given the physical sensations
much thought at that moment, because Halvo and she had been in
grave danger. But the feeling of Halvo’s full weight on her and his
thrusting, masculine hardness against her thigh had impressed
themselves on her senses, allowing her to recall every detail. He
had been uncomfortable then, too, though it had definitely not been
an appropriate time.

Her skin prickling and sensitive, her body
restless with a yearning she could not understand, unable to stop
thinking about Halvo and the discomfort he denied, Perri stirred on
her makeshift bed … and tried not to weep … and wondered if she
would ever again feel like her usual self.

Beside the silent pool Halvo sat with both
lights propped in the sand so they would shine on Rolli’s head
while he worked on it. Hearing Perri move behind him and make an
unmistakable feminine sound of unfulfilled need, he grimaced.

Uncomfortable? He was ready to explode! And
from the way she was thrashing around and moaning, Perri was
equally uncomfortable.

Damnation! Why did he have to be so cursedly
moral about sex? She had offered herself. She was willing. And he
was bursting with more than a year’s pent-up energy and
frustration.

She was so lovely, with her flawless ivory
skin and her hair the color of dark red wine. He could easily
imagine her naked, with that hair curling around her shoulders, her
breasts caught in his hands, moving as she was at that moment. He
could hear her moving. He remembered the feel of her wriggling
beneath him when she was strapped onto the bench. His mouth dry,
Halvo laid down his tools.

He looked toward Perri. If she sent the least
glance his way, the slightest hint of invitation…

She was asleep. She must be, since her eyes
were closed and her breasts moved gently with each slow breath.
Those beautifully rounded breasts! The skin of Halvo’s hands burned
to touch them, to feel the nipples harden against his palms. A man
could die of wanting Perri.

With a disgusting spaceman’s oath that he was
aware would be all the satisfaction he was going to get for that
night, Halvo turned back to Rolli’s head, knowing full well that if
he tried to work on it in his present mood he would only damage it
further. Propping his elbows on his knees, he rested his chin in
his hands and stared into the robot’s unlit, sightless eyes … and
wished he were anywhere but where he was.

Halvo and Perri worked on the
Space
Dragon
for several hours shortly after sunrise, with Halvo
inside the ship and Perri, again wearing the space suit, performing
some simple repairs to the outer hull. The sun was not very high
before they were forced by lung-searing heat to race back to the
cave. There they sheltered until nightfall brought cooler
temperatures that would allow them to go out and work again.

The emotional distance Halvo maintained from
Perri, coupled with his crisp orders and unembroidered instructions
about the work she was to do, provided a constant irritation to
her. She could not imagine why any man would be annoyed with a
woman who had offered, with the best of intentions, to ease his
urgent discomfort.

Her own discomfort was another matter. Perri
had never heard of a woman feeling the way she did. Thus, she did
not know how to help herself. She arrived back at the inner chamber
of the cave tired, overheated, and thoroughly out of sorts.

“Do you know how to prepare the food in those
packets?” Halvo asked with cold detachment in his voice. “I want to
eat at once, before I start the repairs on Rolli. I didn’t get much
accomplished the last time I tried, so I don’t want any
interruptions this time.”

“Of course I know how to prepare food!” Perri
snapped, adding with great irritation, “What other purpose is there
to a woman’s life but preparation of meals and supervision of the
servants who clean a man’s house?”

She did not mention the third thing a woman
was expected to do for a man. Having stripped off her space suit
and folded it, Perri was clad in her purple-blue tunic, trousers,
and boots. She snatched up the water container and headed for the
pool to fill it.

“You are capable of far more than traditional
tasks,” Halvo said as she stalked past him. “Your assistance on the
Space Dragon
has been exemplary.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” she said. “I trust you
will note that fact on my personnel report.”

“Perri, you are making this situation more
difficult than it has to be.” He sounded weary.

“I,” she said with great dignity, “was only
trying to make you more comfortable. You are the one who is making
your situation difficult.” She pretended not to hear the
unrepeatable oath he swore beneath his breath.

Certain she was in the right and still deeply
offended by Halvo’s rejection, Perri barely deigned to speak to him
while they ate. Once the meal was over, Halvo spread out his
sleeping blanket on the sand and arranged his tools on it. He
positioned their two lights exactly as he wanted, then he picked up
Rolli’s head. At that point Perri forgot her injured feelings in
favor of open curiosity. Being careful not to disturb anything on
the blanket, she went to her knees beside Halvo to watch what he
was doing. He acknowledged her presence with a quick glance and a
nod before he began to investigate the opening at the base of
Rolli’s head, where the neck fitted to connect the robot’s head to
its metallic body.

“If I tell you to run for the corridor,”
Halvo said a few minutes later, “don’t stop to ask me why. Just
follow my orders.”

“I must ask questions,” she said. “If I do
not, no one tells me what I need to know.”

“Very well, then. What you need to know here
is that I am certain there is still a danger lurking in Rolli’s
head. I have some mechanical ability and I understand how computers
and robots function, but I am not a surgeon. I cannot repair
damaged human bodies.”

“Nor can I,” she said, meeting his eyes. For
the first time since their quarrel they regarded each other without
anger or reservation. Perri could see that he was worried. “Be
careful, Halvo. In this environment, our lives depend upon each
other.”

“That is what I have been most afraid of.”
The look in his eyes was unreadable, but a faint smile curved his
lips. “I have been lying to myself about my motives,” he added
quietly.

“I cannot imagine you afraid of anything,”
Perri said, and she got in response another long, searching
look.

“Not even of a young woman’s scorn if I do
not measure up to her expectations?”

“Halvo, you have always exceeded my
expectations.”

“You really don’t know what I am talking
about, do you? Perhaps it’s just as well,” he said and returned his
attention to the metal head in his hands. “We can discuss it later,
if you like. Shall I explain what I am doing to Rolli?”

“Yes, please.” She settled herself more
comfortably in the sand. “Halvo, several times I have attempted to
tell you about Rolli’s memory banks. There is something you ought
to know that might help you in your repairs.”

“Oh? And what is that?” As he spoke, Halvo
lifted away the faceplate to expose the inner workings of Rolli’s
head. To Perri, it was a confusing tangle of wires in many
different colors that connected together square or oblong pieces of
metal or plastic. What she saw made little sense to her, and the
sight made her queasy, as if she were watching actual surgery and
the doctor had just opened the skull of a dear friend. Her stomach
churning, she looked elsewhere, preferring to watch the icy water
of the pool. But she did answer Halvo’s question.

“When I was a little girl still living in my
parents’ house, I had a nurse named Melri to care for me.”

“I am glad to hear it,” Halvo said. “From
what Rolli told me of your past, I thought you were raised by a
robot.”

“In a way, I was. Shortly before my ninth
birthday, which was the date designated for me to go into Elyr’s
household, Melri fell ill and the doctors told her she would die
soon.

“No companions are permitted to go with a
girl into the home of her betrothed. Such lingering ties to her old
life can only impede adjustment to her new circumstances. But a
robot, presented to the girl as a gift, to be a personal servant
and guardian of her safety, would be allowed, and in fact, such
robots are common on Regula.

“My father was a brilliant man, a famous
inventor. He built Rolli for me. And on the last evening before my
betrothal, knowing she had at most only a day or two more to live,
Melri asked my father to drain her mind of memories and then
transfer those memories to Rolli.” At this point in her story Perri
stopped talking because Halvo had just made a strangled sound.

“By all the gods of Demaria,” he said
angrily, “what was done to Melri was neither morally right nor
legal. Mind draining is forbidden on every world of the
Jurisdiction!”

“It was Melri’s last wish,” Perri said, “her
own idea, done willingly, because she loved me. She knew we would
be parted forever within a day, by my betrothal and her inevitable
death. And she did die of natural causes, Halvo! She and my father
assured me it was so, and I have no reason to doubt either of them.
Rolli’s memory banks are their dearest gift to me.

“What neither Melri nor my father foresaw,”
Perri went on, “was the change that being a robot would impose upon
Melri’s memories. Melri is truly dead. Her physical body died,
still holding my hand, early on the morning of my betrothal. Rolli
is a new and different entity, with all the deficiencies and the
superiorities of a robot. But Rolli can recall my birth and all of
my childhood. And like Melri, Rolli loves me.”