“Slow down, please. These are very high heels and the gown is long. I’m going to fall.” The amusement and agitation in her voice were evident.

  He bent, shoved his shoulder into her waist and stood. She squealed as he held onto her with one hand on her ass, totally bare under the dress.

  “You two seem very fond of carrying me upside down this way. But it messes up my hair and all the blood rushes to my head. It’s not very pleasant.”

  Ash laughed and patted her ass. “You’re bare under there!”

  “Of course I am. The dress is very form fitting. If I had panties on they’d show through. Put me down.”

  “If I put you down, you’ll complain about how fast we’re walking,” Brandt said, not stopping.

  “You could put me down and stop running. That would be a start.”

  “I like you up here. At least while I’m carrying you no one is offering to buy you or asking me to send you their way when I’m done with you. As if I ever plan to be. Which I don’t. Let’s get that clear, woman. I’m not ever going to be done with you. And then some boy who’s barely left his mother’s breast tries it on with you in my presence like I’m not even there.” Brandt was working on being quite angry.

  “He was a boy, Brandt. In case your years are now so advanced you don’t remember what it was like to be his age. It’s what they do. They swagger and throw their attitude around and try it on with women who are much older and completely out of their league.”

  Her voice, muffled, was patiently amused.

  He put her down gently and hauled her to him, not so gently. He took her mouth without pause and devoured her.

  “You don’t have to be so amused by my jealousy,” he said, struggling for breath after he broke the kiss.

  “Darling, a girl has to enjoy these moments. We never know how long they’ll last.”

  “No, don’t you throw Sela in my face right now. I’m damned serious.”

  “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re in public with three spy cameras pointed at us right this very moment. Sela’s all I have to throw around myself in this situation.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Brandt, you’re going to make our lovely Sela very grumpy. So stop.” Ash sent him a look and Brandt swallowed his anger for the moment.

  He took her hand and walked back, more slowly this time.

  “It’s a lovely night. Too lovely to be so cross.” Sera’s voice soothed his edgy mood a bit. He tired of the ruse. Hated putting her on display and having her in the position of an inferior. It bothered him because he knew it bothered her and yet she did it without complaint and quite well. In point of fact, she’d proven quite indispensable. Her ability to get that data the night before had been ingenious.

  “Mmm, that looks very tasty,” Sera said as she paused before the window of a small bakery and sweet shop.

  “Your wish is my command, Freka. What would you like?” Ash kissed her lips softly.

  “One of those, with lots of frosting.” She indicated a frothy looking concoction and Brandt winced.

  Ash laughed. “I’ll be right back. Brandt, would you like anything?”

  “A mulled purri juice would be nice.”

  Ash disappeared into the store and Brandt pulled her close to look into her eyes.

  She smiled and reached up to brush the backs of her fingers over his chin. “So handsome. I like looking at you.”

  He tasted her lips because he needed to, needed to connect and know she felt the same. “I want all of you.”

  Her eyes closed for a moment before opening again, that deep blue looking into his.

  Ash came out then, holding a bag in one hand and Brandt’s drink in the other. “Let’s go. I find myself very hungry.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “I’d like to say for the record, I’d much rather be back in the cottage with my cock deep inside a warm, willing pussy.” Ash had been annoyed since Sera had grumpily slapped his hand away and buried her face in the pillow that morning when the men had awoken to leave.

  Brandt snorted. “Don’t take it out on me. You’re the one who kept her up until nearly dawn licking frosting off all her best parts.”

  “Yes, well. That was quite pleasant. But I wanted to fuck her before we came out here too. She slapped my hand away.”

  Actually, she’d slapped his hand away and told him she’d shoot him in the head if he didn’t let her go back to sleep. Good thing she’d added that bit about the shooting through the link. He’d forgotten how she could be without enough sleep. Ash smiled at how bloodthirsty she was.

  “This would be a lot better if she was here,” Brandt said.

  The conversation certainly would have been. Ash hated this sort of gaming outing. Casinos and gaming halls were not entertaining to him in the least. Men with more money than sense losing more of both than they could afford.

  And he’d have appreciated her take on the whole situation. When they’d returned to the cottage the night before, sex had pushed most discussion from the schedule but they had gone over, just briefly, the increasing evidence pointing to Giles Stander and Perry as well as the very real belief that Owen Alder and his connections with weapons runners might be the key. Whether Kira was involved was still a big question. Rina and Delia’s comments the evening and day before about Kira weighed against her. But Ash, while convinced of Kira’s general worthlessness, didn’t know if she was a traitor.

  Brandt sipped his drink. “She’s not, so deal with it. She slept in and then got a massage before heading out for a late lunch with her new friends.”

  “Lucky her. And that masseuse better have been female.”

  “Ash, you actually sound jealous over a hired woman. Have you fallen so very low since we parted ways?” Kira insinuated herself at Brandt’s elbow.

  “Kira, behave yourself,” Brandt warned her.

  The wives were on this outing, which meant Kira was there and had been skirting around them all day. Giles Stander had been glaringly absent from the gathering and all Ash wanted was for Owen to stop parading around and get to the damned point. He had a woman waiting back in the cottage and he wanted this op to be over so he could get back home and start a real life.

  “It’s so like you to play with your food,” Ash said without heat. He was bored with her blasé nastiness. It was her second nature to be a bitch and all he could do was be fucking glad she’d set him free. “What’s it to you anyway?”

  “You’re lowering yourself and because we used to be married it reflects on me. It’s pathetic that both of you are involved with her. I expect that sort of thing from a woman of her status. But you two are born better. Ash has always shown poor judgment. He has a taste for low-born women. But you, Brandt, how do you think a woman of marriageable status will look upon this,” she sneered as she waved a hand between Ash and Brandt, “thing you’re doing?”

  Brandt actually growled low in his throat and Ash touched his friend’s shoulder. “I see Owen, let’s go and speak to him, shall we?” With that, he got up, turned his back on Kira and walked away.

  * * *

  Brandt leaned over to his sister and narrowed his eyes. “Be careful where you tread, Kira. Cease with this troublemaking and communicating back home. It’s none of your concern. It seems to me, you have a bit of your own trouble to deal with.”

  “What do you mean?” Her gaze, which had glittered with malice slid from his.

  He’d known her and covert work long enough to see the slight alarm in her eyes. He had to know if she was involved.

  “I mean, the company you keep isn’t as upstanding as you portray. If you invite closer scrutiny, you should be sure you can withstand it.”

  “Are you threatening me? My own brother?” She tried to recover by using her aloofness against him but he waved it away.

  “No, Kira. I’m warning you. If you have anything you’re worried about you know you can come to me or to father, right? We’ll protect you, help you. But there are some things the farther you get into them, the less we can do. These people Perry is involved with, do you know what they are?”

  He stood, hoping she’d take him seriously and confide in him.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Brandt. I’m going to find my husband now.” Her body stiffened.

  “You do that, Kira.”

  He shouldn’t have said as much as he had, but she was his sister. He had to think if she was involved, she couldn’t know or have really thought out the consequences.

  He saw Ash with Owen and headed in that direction.

  Sera awoke alone and smelling of frosting. She smiled as she stretched, still a bit sticky from the late hours when Ash had teased her with his tongue until she’d begged. He’d tried to wake her up for yet more sex before he and Brandt had left but she’d not gotten nearly enough sleep and smacked his exploring hands away. She remembered vaguely sending a threat through their mental link and he’d smacked the bare cheek of her ass in warning. And promise.

  Not like she’d complain. Sometimes a girl simply needed to misbehave because the punishment was so delicious.

  Loving being alone, despite all the cameras and spy equipment—damned nosy little deviants, the Nondalese—she ate a leisurely breakfast before taking a long bath and heading out.

  Her chaperone stood back and let her shop without interference. She’d purchased plenty of things for herself but wanted to pick up gifts for Brandt and Ash. She also grabbed a pair of earrings for her mother. She’d send them home once she returned to Borran.

  The clerks in the shop gossiped about her, not knowing she understood Nondalese. It wasn’t anything too awful, some commentary about what Ash would be like in bed, a bit of sniffing about fucking your way into comfort when some women worked and didn’t demean themselves. It was something Sera felt an affinity with, but after taking on this assignment and having met some of the other concubines, she understood them more. Understood the lack of choices that had led some of them to the lives they led.

  In truth she felt much less sorry for those who thought it a business arrangement than those who truly loved the men they served. Those men weren’t Ash and Brandt and while she was sure many of them showed their women on the side some measure of warmth and affection, it wasn’t official. And in their world, it wasn’t enough protection.

  The vagaries of fate meant women without official status would be bound to lose any position they have when their protectors got bored or died. Sera shivered, glad this was all a ruse. She wasn’t a concubine and she had a career to sustain her no matter what happened.

  The wide avenues on their level of the city were lined with foliage. Large trees, planters overflowing with beautiful flowers. Up there, life was good. A slow moving trolley ran up and down the middle of the avenue, ferrying people where they needed to be. No other vehicles but the trolley and bicycles for deliveries ran so the streets were open and safe. In the quiet, birds chirped and the sounds of people laughing and mixing at the various outdoor cafes and small greenbelts rang through the air.

  It was as if those dark, dank and suffocating levels of the city didn’t exist. The workers for the upper level were housed in a level a few down, not nearly as bad as the others but not this good either. So if trading your body to a rich man got you into the sunshine and fresh air, was it really so awful? Could she really make such harsh judgment?

  She’d had rock-solid moral opinions and the last ten days had challenged her severely. She’d been forced to look at herself and examine her own reactions to Ash and his marriage and it wasn’t comfortable.

  “Sela, darling whatever are you up to?”

  Sera turned from the window of the shop to face Rina.

  “Hello. I’ve been shopping before I went to your luncheon. You look lovely as always.”

  Sera kissed her cheek.

  “Well do come along with me then. I’ve received a communication from Tifrit. They’re all still playing so it should be some hours yet before they return. He believes I have nothing better to do than sit around and wait for him to appear.” Rina rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t you have a chaperone?” Sera looked around.

  “No. I’m supposed to but they’d have to deal with Tifrit’s wrath if anyone harassed me. Tifrit’s wife doesn’t need an escort, why should I?” Rina sniffed and they began to stroll toward her home.

  “I imagine it becomes tedious to have to be escorted everywhere.”

  “Among other things, yes. It’s bothersome to always be on display.” Rina laughed when she caught Sera’s look. “What? Did you assume we didn’t know? Or wouldn’t mind?”

  “I suppose I figured you’d made peace with it.”

  “Have you?” Rina unlocked her door and they swept inside. The chaperone took his leave and for the moment it was just Rina and Sera there.

  “Have I made peace with being supervised at all times here in Nondal Major?”

  “Here, let’s drink while we get philosophical, shall we?”

  Well, women often knew things because men either told them or spoke as if they weren’t there. Rina was far more clever than Sera had given her credit for.

  “I like that you’re not an idiot.” Rina handed her a glass of smoky amber liquor and Sera took it, breathing in the scent.

  “Well, thank you. So tell me? Or is this not the place?” Sera wanted to hear whatever Rina wanted to share.

  “It’s as good a place as any up here.” Rina shrugged and sat. “Have I made peace with my place? With being in the shadow of another woman for as long as Tifrit suffers my presence in his life? What do you think? How does it make you feel, Sela? I see the way you look at them, this is more for you.”

  Sera sighed. “How can you ever be at peace with a tiny portion of what you should possess fully? But don’t, due to birth. Am I less worthy because my mother is unranked? Less worthy than a woman like Kira Pela?”

  “At least Tifrit’s wife is a fool. Women like Kira aren’t. But she treads dangerously and your men do as well. My Tifrit plays in waters too deep for a councilor from Nondal but his pride pushes him far from shore. And men like Owen and Perry thrive on people like Tifrit.”

  Sera wanted to tell her to get to the point she danced around but that wasn’t Rina’s style so she waited, trying hard to be patient.

  “But there are others who are in even more precarious positions, like Delia for instance. Giles isn’t a fool, he’s worse. He’s in debt and hungry for money and attention but too weak to get it in the way a normal man should. The thing about being born where you and I were, we know what it means to dig out way out, to climb and work. These ranked people don’t. And so they end up drunken, indebted messes like Giles, sad shadows like Tifrit or soulless traitors like Owen. The Brandts and Ashes of the world are rare, but even Ash dumped aside his prior love for Kira Pela.” Rina’s eyes narrowed a moment and Sera’s heart beat a bit faster wondering if Rina knew.

  “What is happening, Rina? If my boys are in danger, I would know. You said yourself you saw how I looked at them. I love them both deeply.” Sera didn’t have to act at that point.

  Rina squeezed her knee. “I know you do. Even if they’ll leave? Choose a wife from women who are not of our class strata?” She paused and looked at Sera again. “I suppose I have the answer with you sitting here, don’t I? Times are dangerous, Sela. Some associations are best severed. If I knew someone who considered getting involved with the likes of Stander or Owen, I’d tell them to get on a transport and head back toward the center. The Edge is less and less secure. The people Owen is involved with, the things they do…I’m afraid and it’s probably too late for me. But not you. Get out while you can.”

  Before Rina could say anything else, the chimes at the door rang.

  “Ah, guests. Let’s go then and have a nice luncheon.” Rina stood and Sera touched her arm.

  “Thank you. Can I help you at all? Perhaps you would like to come and visit with me on Ravena?” If things were that dangerous, Rina had just risked her life to help. Sera couldn’t just walk away without trying to give in return.

  “I may contact you later,” Rina said quietly as they went to the door. By the time she opened it, her seriousness had gone, replaced by the sultry playful Rina Sera was used to.

  “Perry tells me you’ve been very disinterested in family economics. Why now?” Owen Alder looked him over with a careful eye.

  Ash leaned back and lit the tip of a smoking stick. “My cousin has a lot to say about my motivations when he barely knows me. Why is that do you think?”

  “I believe it’s because he doesn’t trust you.”

  “Ah, honesty. Refreshing in a compatriot of my cousin’s. Unusual and a quality he doesn’t have in great portions.”

  “I’ve dealt with him, he’s made me money and helped me with problems. You’re an unknown. Why should I trust you enough to let you in on our dealings?” Owen asked.

  Ash blew out the sharp smoke and raised one brow. “I wear the marks, he does not.” The marks on the back of Ash’s head were an indicator of honor and rank. His older brother didn’t even bear them. He’d proven himself an honored member of the Walker Family and his place and rank were unquestioned. Ash had earned those marks by his twentieth year fighting in interverse wars and proving himself loyal.

  Owen nodded. “And therein lies the problem, does it not? Those marks are of an honorable man. Honor that is unquestioned. I’m not looking for honor, I’m looking for loyalty. Perry is loyal. You are honorable.”

  How could Ash argue with that? It was the truth and Owen understood the difference in a way Perry never could. Perry just didn’t like having to share the power.

  Ash shrugged. “It’s up to you. I’m sure you’re aware it’s my father’s line who controls Walker finances and not my uncle’s. One way or another, you will have to go through me because we both know Perry is weak and will create problems down the line.” He pinched out the end of the stick and disposed of it. “You know where to find me.”