His Virtual Bride Page 13

  "You knew. All these month, you knew who Keely really is."

  "I'm the one who…shall we say arranged for her transformation."

  Geoff fought the murderous rage that boiled in his belly. He wanted to kill the Marsienne, feel her breath slip away as he strangled her, watch her eyes dim as life seeped out of her. But first he needed answers. "Why?"

  Paris shrugged. With only a hint of seduction in her sensuous glide, she crossed to the bar. Pouring herself three fingers of brandy, she toasted Geoff, then took a healthy gulp. "I'd heard your Honey was trying to get herself a body. Thought I'd help her out."

  "Why?" Geoff repeated, his voice low and gravelly.

  Her narrowed eyes indicated she heard the thread of danger in his voice, saw it in his eyes. She retreated behind the bar. "I'd feel more comfortable if you'd sit down."

  "I don't give a flying fuck about your comfort, Paris. You don't rule on The Honey and you've never ruled me."

  "I thought I could! That's why I did it, Geoff. I couldn't compete with a spaceship. But I thought--against a flesh and blood woman--I had a chance to make you love me."

  "You…nobody can make somebody love her. Not even a queen."

  Paris bowed her head. A moment later, she met his gaze and offered a brief smile. "I realize that. Now. Can you… Will you forgive me?"

  "Why should I?"

  Paris grinned. "Because I led you to the only woman who can compete against your Honey. The only woman you can love. Do love."

  Geoff bared his teeth, a parody of his own smile. "Just one more question. Did Le Roi beat Keely? Because if he did and you ordered him to do it…"

  Shaking her head, her pale green flesh going nearly white, she said, "It was a planted memory. One meant to arouse your protective instincts. And if she repeated it often enough, you'd get sick of hearing it. Tire of her."

  "Never mind what it might do to her psyche." He raked his hair and glared at Paris. His stomach churned as his mind filled with suspicion. "Who helped you, Paris? How did you arrange to get The Honey to Jupiter in the first place, and later bring her to Mars?

  He clenched his fists, knowing if he touched her, he'd break every bone in her treacherous body. She just stared at him, every inch queenly in her posture and expression.

  "Herma-Frodie," he growled. "That Jove-blasted hermaphrodite just can't stop meddling."

  "They meant well." His glare brought a smile to her lips. "Try to put yourself in their place. The Honey was--is--their friend. They know she loves you. That she wants to make love with you. Your cousin Connor let that Venusian--let his lust for Kendra distract him from fulfilling… If you feel compelled to blame someone, Geoff, blame Kendra. She's the one who promised The Honey a body.

  Geoff growled.

  "Anyway, Herma-Frodie and your precious Honey grew impatient and contacted my personal data device. I--"

  "Saw a chance to make me grovel."

  "As if! Oh, you might occasionally let me have my own way--if it suited you. You'd bend, but I'd never break you. One of the many reasons I love…loved you."

  "And the search for Le Roi?" Geoff slapped his forehead. "That was just another game, wasn't it?"

  "Yes. I needed to keep you and Keely together. As I told you, I wanted you to grow tired of her. But you didn't."

  He fought hard to regain his outrage, his feelings of being betrayed--mostly by Keely. But he found most of his feelings sort of…seeping away. As if she stood beside him now, her hand in his leaching every negative emotion from him. He found himself wondering how he could so easily accept her having been The Honey. Keely was nothing more than a collection of circuit boards transformed into a sultry-voiced vixen. No, he'd fallen in love with a woman who'd died…a hundred years ago? No, he admitted again, he'd fallen for a smart-mouthed angel who had magic in her soul and his heart in her dainty hands.

  Paris cleared her throat. The sound brought his gaze to her face, her expression flooding him with certainty. Paris hadn't only led him down a primrose path about The Honey, she'd lied about everything. "What about your great-uncle? Is he really Sedna's mayor?" Glaring at Paris, he snarled, "That person masquerading as Le Roi… Who is he?"

  "He's the real mayor of Sedna. A close friend of my great-uncle."

  "Where is Le Roi? The real one?"

  "Le Roi is where he's been for more than two years. With Sylva on Pluto."

  "Jove-blasted hermaphrodite and their Jove-blasted H-FDD!"

  Aboard The Honey

  And his day just got better and better. Transporting himself to The Honey's flight deck, he found Frodie ensconced in his command chair, Herma on his lap. The couple eased from each other's arms, their expressions puzzled. When Geoff lunged at Herma, Frodie surged to his feet, gut-punching Geoff. Which only made him madder.

  Herma held up her hands. Both men froze in place--Frodie with his fists at shoulder height, Geoff clutching his belly.

  "Neat trick," Frodie gasped, sounding like he'd been gut-punched.

  "Learned it from Kendra's grandmother." She waved one hand, releasing her husband from his statue-like pose. "Take a hike, love."

  "No way. I'm not leaving you alone with this psycho."

  Geoff growled and his face got redder as he fought to free himself from Herma's spell. "Witch!"

  Herma laughed. "Give me a hint, Geoff. Why do you want to hurt me?"

  "Not hurt. Just want to get my hands you and choke you to death."

  Herma released Geoff. He shot her a glare, but said, "Thanks."

  "In the first place, you can't choke a holo-image. In the second place, we're Keely's friends. She won't let you hurt me." She slanted a frown at Frodie. "Or you either."

  Frodie slung an arm around Geoff's neck and marched them both to a bar someone had placed in a corner of his flight deck. "Brandy?" Frodie asked, setting out three snifters and a crystal decanter full of dark amber liquid.

  "It's ten in the morning," Herma scolded mildly.

  "Somewhere in the galaxy, the sun is over the yardarm," Frodie countered. "Besides, Geoff looks as if he needs a stiff belt."

  "Yeah," Geoff agreed, adding another inch of brandy to his snifter.

  Herma quirked a brow. "Oh well. If we get him drunk enough, maybe he'll tell us why he wants to murder us."

  "I'm in the room, you know," Geoff groused. He raked his hair, drained the snifter in a couple of gulps, then blurted out the story. Even sober, his tale seemed to make little sense to his listeners. And they knew more about it than he did!

  "Let me recap," Frodie offered, refilling his and Geoff's glasses. "Paris was jealous of The Honey. And yet she somehow arranged to get your ship to Jupiter, where she had The Honey cloned. Honey became Keely, who had no memory of being Honey until…until what?"

  Geoff glared at the male half of the hermaphrodite. Some things a gentleman didn't tell. "Until she regained her memory and confessed."

  "That's a story I'd like to hear," Herma murmured. "Why did you go to Paris?"

  "Because we've been looking for Le Roi for eight months now. Our suddenly finding him on Sedna seemed too great a coincidence to ring true."

  "Which led you to believe we were somehow involved." As if that made no sense at all, Frodie shook his head.

  Ignoring Frodie, Herma observed, "None of which explains how Paris got The Honey to Jupiter."

  "Keely told me that computers communicate with each other, but don't always log it. Paris probably had one of her computers send a message to The Honey. 'Get yourself to Jupiter and get a body.'" Sighing, raking his hair, Geoff slumped on a handy barstool. "Which doesn't explain how Paris knew Keely--The Honey--wanted a body."

  Frodie choked on his brandy. Herma went to pat his back, the tips of her ears bright red.

  "Jonathan Jacob Jones! That droid Connor's been designing…that was for Keely, wasn't it?"

  "She won't need it now," Frodie joked, then grimaced.

  "Where are you going?" Herma demanded as Geoff strode to their door.
r />   "Dunno. Somewhere a man can take care of his own love life."

  * * * *

  Herma watched Keely fill her small case. To her it looked like her petite friend put in very few clothes, but loaded an arsenal of weapons on top. Where she could get to them more readily?

  Muttering under her breath, Keely named each weapon as it disappeared into her deceptively small pack. "Rope-cuffs. Handcuffs. Necklace." Holding up a silver blaster, she examined it closely, sighed and packed it, along with a half-dozen more. "Lazer pistol and prod. Ammo and backup power packets. My DeMedici ring." She slipped the last item on her left thumb.

  "You won't need that stuff," Herma told her. "Geoff won't hurt you. Or anyone else, for that matter."

  "Maybe not before now. But the situation's changed. Now he's a wanted man around here as well as on Earth. Wanted men do desperate things."

  She tossed two sets more sets of rope-cuffs into her pack, the second pair longer than the first. In case, Herma supposed, Keely needed to restrain Geoff's feet as well as his hands. Which, under less dire circumstances, might be fun. Kinky, but definitely fun.

  "I don't suppose," Herma began, thinking Keely might loan her the cuffs when she didn't need them anymore. "Never mind." The young woman's scowl doused Herma's desire to ask for favors--of any kind.

  "What I don't understand," Keely said, looking at Herma for the first time in a long, strained, nearly silent hour, "is why you and Frodie are being so kind. It's my fault Geoff's in this mess."

  Herma shrugged. "We feel every bit as responsible as you. If we'd taken you more seriously from the outset. If we'd gotten you a body sooner."

  "If I'd trusted Connor to keep his promise to make me a body. If I hadn't gotten so impatient."

  "See? We can play the blame game ad nauseum. If you hadn't loved Geoff so much…"

  Keely frowned as she went back to her packing. "My feelings don't matter. At least not to Geoff. And who can blame him? I deceived him. I made it seem as though he'd stolen me--The Honey, I mean. I broke every law he's accused of breaking." Her chin jutting, she whirled to face Herma once more. "Why hasn't Pushin had me arrested?"

  "Hopefully because he doesn't know what--who--you are."

  "And," Keely raged as if Herma had remained silent, "I don't understand why Geoff ran away. If he'd stayed here, we could have figured out a way to escape. To take me--The Honey--back to Earth and clear his name. I know he doesn't love me anymore--if he ever did. But he should have trusted me to get him out of this debacle."

  Herma listened to what Keely wasn't saying. That she felt inhuman, more alienated from Geoff than she'd felt as The Honey. Herma wanted to explain that a clone wasn't a machine, but she doubted Keely would accept that reasoning. The very human soul inside her human body believed she had betrayed Geoff. That her wanting him, loving him had brought him nothing but mayhem. She believed she would have to clear his name, but leave him for him to be safe. What Keely didn't believe was that Geoff loved her. Loved Keely. Herma could only hope they both realized that before Keely's guilt forced her into doing something stupid.

  Like refusing to talk with Geoff about their situation.

  Herma laughed. Seeing Keely's injured expression, she sobered. "Geoff's unaccustomed to letting the weaker sex protect him. So is Frodie. When I prevented Kendra's murdering Le Roi en route to Pluto… Never mind." Keely obviously knew what had happened on the way to Le Roi's new home. Or at least her Honey persona knew.

  "Speaking of blame…" Herma waited for Keely to look at her again. "Would you mind explaining just how you knew to go to Jupiter for cloning in the first place?" That was one piece of the puzzle she and Frodie didn't know.

  "Yes." With that, Keely picked up her pack and left.

  Left the room. Left The Honey. Left Herma wondering where in the entire solar system Keely intended to search for Geoff. Wondering why she wished she and Frodie had never tried to help their friend Honey.

  Pluto

  "Lookin' like hell, Justice Geoff."

  "Feeling like hell, Sylva," Geoff replied. Sopping up the last of her succulent boeuf bourguignon with a chunk of freshly made crusty bread, he belched. "Feeling better now though." He rubbed his belly while stroking his week's growth of beard.

  Sylva laughed.

  "I wouldn't get too comfortable," Jordan said, coming into the kitchen of the house where he and his sister housed Le Roi. "Pushin's already sent out your description galaxy wide--including the fact you have enough disguises to look like anybody. Crap!" he added, sweeping away the remnants of Geoff's meal with one large hand. "Damn fool. He'll have people reporting their own kin, creating suspicion everywhere. Hell, even Sylva--much as she likes Le Roi in bed--might turn him in for the credits Pushin's offering for you, Geoff. My sister could live anywhere."

  Smiling up at the giant silver-skinned Plutonian, Sylva told him, "Don't worry. Pushin would have to offer a whole lot more for me to give up your cooking."

  "I worry more about Le Roi," Geoff admitted before he thought. Sylva and Jordan were known for their loyalty to the former king. Geoff hoped he hadn't insulted the siblings by impugning their friend. Or implied he didn't trust them. "I mean… Something funny's going on with him." Like he's been hiding out here with you two while I've been chasing him all over the Jove-blasted galaxy!

  "Like what?" Sylva settled in a chair at the kitchen table.

  Jordan refilled Geoff's cup with bitter-smelling coffee, undiluted with cream. A plate full of sugarcoated doughnuts appeared along with two more cups of coffee before Jordan joined them and sat.

  "I don't know exactly, but…" Knowing Paris could have lied about where Le Roi really was, Geoff decided to take an indirect approach. "There's this girl." He rubbed his cheeks and wondered how he could describe the indescribable. "She's like the rest of us non-Marsians that Paris hires--nobody knows a lot about her. Except--Jove blast it! Paris treats her differently than she does the rest of us. She's almost gentle with her, as if she really cares about her." Which was even stranger, given Paris' jealousy of The Honey.

  "No matter what she says or how she acts, Paris cares about all of us." Sylva's voice and face revealed her fondness for Le Roi's great-niece.

  "There must be something more that's making you twitchy." Jordan blew away wisps of steam, slurped his coffee and then licked his lips. He always made a point that he liked the bitter brew. That it didn't gag him or bring tears to his eyes.

  "Yeah." Geoff took a deep breath, blurting out, "Paris paired us. Told us to hunt down Le Roi. Bring him in no matter what it took. We go to Saturnalia, but there's not even a hint he's ever been there." Geoff raked his hair. Shaking his head, he decided to keep the story simple. He raked his hair again, smoothed his beard and mustache.

  "And?" Sylva prompted after a long silence.

  "And that's when the truth came out. Keely and I--" He felt anger and embarrassment surge through his guts, rendering him speechless. Jove blast it! His rage had faded. He could almost understand Honey's longing to be human. Hadn't he sometimes wanted her to have a meal with him in his quarters? Hadn't he often wished she had a face that matched her sultry voice? During those long, lonely nights when they hovered at the farthest reaches of the galaxy…hadn't he ached for her to have a body to share her warmth with him?

  Crap! He loved her. Both of her. That sultry voice he'd recognized, but was unable to name or put a face to. The Honey's voice now named Keely and looking like only Keely.

  "Is that your lady's name? Keely?" Jordan asked, his normally booming voice low and soothing.

  "It is now. And she's not my lady."

  Sylva wondered aloud, "She has an alias? So what? We've all had occasion to use aliases. Do you know her real name?"

  "Oh yeah." Even to himself, Geoff sounded bitter. "Her real name is Honey and she used to be my--"

  "His spaceship," Keely announced from the kitchen door.

  Chin jutted, hands loose at her sides as if waiting to draw a blaster, she stalked
into the room.

  Geoff thought she looked more like a warrior than any he'd ever seen. He wanted to throw her out. Worse, he wanted to throw her on the floor and take her with all the rage and fury…with all the lust…with all the love he felt coursing through him.

  "What are you doing here?" he growled.

  Looking far too innocent for his comfort, she smiled at Jordan as she nodded at Sylva. "Come to meet your friends. Come for a bowl of stew and a cup of coffee. If that's okay with Jordan?"

  "Help yourself," Jordan said, smiling back.

  "Come to gossip with Sylva, if she'll have me."

  "How come you know their names?" Geoff demanded. Everyone ignored him. He shouldn't have bothered to ask. Keely knew things nobody else in the entire galaxy knew. Names were probably the least of them.

  Grinning, Sylva nodded and pulled out the last chair at the small table.

  After filling a bowl and a coffee cup, Keely settled with the rest of the group.

  Geoff watched her eat. Watched her lips open and close around the spicy beef and Plutonian vegetables--the uniquely Plutonian trinity of what looked like onion, celery and bell pepper, but had their own indefinable flavor. Watched those lush lips pucker to blow steam off the coffee. Watched her throat work as she swallowed. Every bite and sip awoke a memory of making love with her.

  Keely dabbed her lips with her napkin, then took her bowl to the sink. Returning with a pot crusted with murky sludge, she asked, "Coffee anyone?"

  Geoff held his cup out of reach. Sylva and Jordan slid theirs toward Keely. She refilled all three cups and went to put the pot back in the kitchen. Returning to the table, remaining on her feet, she looked directly into Geoff's eyes.

  She looked sad, but determined. Unable to pull his gaze from her piquant face, he barely felt her ring prick his neck. Barely saw Keely's tears. Was barely aware of Le Roi entering the small kitchen. At least Paris hadn't lied about that.

  He barely heard Keely whisper, "I've come to take you home, Geoff. Home with The Honey. Home with me."