Ambasadora (Book 1 of Ambasadora) (22 page)

He caught her stare, but didn’t
show a response. She hesitated before turning her bared back to him.
“Thanks. I got as many as I could reach.”

His fingers brushed her skin as
he gathered her hair to the side. Her breathing quickened. She liked his large hands
and had since their first meeting when he slipped that reporter on her wrist
and ran his finger over her palm. Just like then, she was now hyper-aware of
each time his fingers made contact with her skin. He fastened the small hooks
one by one with a nimbleness probably honed from working with small pieces of
tech and engine parts. No doubt his work left some of those scrapes and
scratches on his knuckles. As he worked his way up her back, the bodice
tightened against her breasts. She fantasized about him unfastening each one of
the hooks he had just fastened, but a little more slowly, then peeling the gown
away from her body.

“I think I got them
all.” His voice broke into her daydream. When he spoke, she felt the
lightness of his breath on the back of her neck. She shivered, tattling on
herself. His fingers lingered on her shoulders, like he wasn’t ready to step
away from her yet. He moved around to face her, standing so close, his jaw
nearly brushed her forehead. He ran his middle finger over the skin just below
her right ear. Her breathing nearly stopped.

“Is your port on this
side?” he asked. The low timbre of his voice in her ear sent more chills
down her spine.

“Yes.” She tried to
sound casual, but her bio-lights said otherwise, and he noticed. She caught him
watching their quickening pulse.

“Nervous?” he asked.

“Yes. I don’t like public
appearances.” What she did like was when the fabric of his shirt pressed
against her dress.

“I avoid them myself.”
He removed the small patch with a metal pin. “But isn’t that all part of
being an ambasadora?”

“I suppose so.” She breathed
in his clean, earthy scent and had to stop herself from reaching out to touch
him.

He stepped back to pull a small
case from his pocket and showed her three small patches inside. “I wasn’t
sure what you wanted.”

“Do you have a
favorite?” she asked.

“There’s one I thought you
might like.” He pulled the middle patch out and snapped the case shut,
then put it back in his pocket. She looked at the small patch resting on his
fingertip. “It’s not flower-based,” he said. “Comes from the
Lalido tree.”

“What made you choose this
one?” She was flattered he had put some thought into a scent for her.

“My brother and I climbed
the Lalido trees in front of our house when I was a kid. He showed me once how
its clear sap turns deep violet when the tree is agitated. It reminded me of
someone.” He smiled like he wasn’t used to the gesture coming so spontaneously.

“I guess you probably had
quite a light show last night.” She couldn’t avoid talking about what
happened.

“At times.” He nudged
her head to the side. “How are you feeling now?”

“Tired, but slides will do
that, I guess.”

He murmured in agreement as he
inserted the new patch. “If you ever want to talk about anything,
including your torture—”

She almost twisted away, but he
held a finger to her neck. “Not done yet.”

“Why would you mention
torture?” She worked hard to sound like the idea was absurd.

“Because it’s what happened
to you.” His words sounded pained.

Sara stared at the mosaic of
white tiles on the floor and fought the urge to just collapse. Who knew what
she had said last night in her delirium? After all of Sean’s kindness, she may
have put him in jeopardy. And this was different than charming David for
information. David was a trained warrior who more than handled himself when she
led him straight into danger. But, Sean…he was an innocent, a Socialite mech
tech whose biggest fault was dosing.

A sweet, heady smell drifted in
on the silence.

“There,” he said.
“What do you think?”

She couldn’t look at him.
“It’s a good choice.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have
brought up all of that. What happened to you is your business.” He touched
her arm as he spoke. “I just want you to know I’ll help you if I
can.”

She forced herself to face him.
He deserved that much. The sincerity of his expression broke her. She leaned
into him and brushed her lips against his. Just a hesitant little kiss, in the
hopes that he wouldn’t pull away. He wrapped his arms around her waist and
returned the kiss just as gently. She swept her fingers up the back of his neck
into his hair line. He hugged her closer and his mouth responded with more
pressure. When she felt the tip of his tongue trace her bottom lip, she opened
her mouth a little wider. He took the invitation. For once, she forgot her
rage, forgot her fear. There was nothing in this system but their kiss.

She heard tapping on the open
doorframe, and her illusion evaporated. Sara was the one to pull away.

“My apologies.” Soli
stood in the commonway, a silver and turquoise sarong hugging her curves.
“I would have waited, but you didn’t look like you were coming out of that
kiss any time soon.”

Sean ran a hand over the back of
his neck where her fingers had been and cleared his throat.

“I take it you don’t need my
help now,” Soli said.

“No. Sean took care of it,”
Sara said.

“I noticed.” Soli was
enjoying their discomfort. “You both look wonderful.” She gave Sean
an extra long appraisal. “The transport’s waiting.”

Sean ushered Sara through the
door after Soli, then slid his hand into hers until they reached the top of the
stairs. This innocent gesture felt more intimate than their kiss. After all,
what they shared last night meant more to Sara than any tumble ever could…or
did.

When the three of them entered
the grey interior of the transport, all conversation stopped and everyone’s
gaze was riveted on Sean.

“Who’s this guy?” Geir
asked.

“Funny.” Sean didn’t
look amused.

“I always said he would
clean up well,” Soli said. “He just needed the proper
motivation.” She looked at Sara.

“Still a little more
cleaning to do, if you ask me, and you’re missing half your suit,” Kenon
said.

“I think Kenon’s jealous
that he might not be the prettiest guy on board anymore,” Mari said.

David’s head snapped around from
the pilot’s seat. Mari put her hand on his knee and gave him a knowing smile.
The others pretended not to notice.

“Those jackets look
stupid,” Sean said.

“You just have to know how
to wear them,” Kenon said.

Geir laughed. “I may take
mine off before we reach the monorail station. But, seriously, Sean, in the
three years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you so shiny and polished. It’s
because of a woman, isn’t it?”

Sean ignored them all and took a
seat between Sara and Soli.

“Someone you’re meeting
tonight, I’m betting,” Geir persisted.

Sara’s stomach twisted. She
hadn’t considered Sean might be involved with someone. Their kiss suddenly made
her feel foolish. She should be beyond these kinds of emotional fallacies. They
had her imagining a future with a man she barely knew. Worse, they had her
imagining a future at all. As the group continued teasing Sean and making
predictions about the woman who waited for him at the Tredificio, Sara regained
sight of why she was there in the first place and what she needed to do in
order to save herself.

She couldn’t be upset with Sean.
He was just a kind person who helped her when she needed it. Shame on her for
reading too much into his gesture.

The tinkling melody filtering
through the monorail made Sean want to scream. It had taken forever to transfer
from the
Bard
‘s transport to the monorail station and even longer to
wait for an available train. He should have brought an extra doser with him.
Maybe it would have helped to stave off his sudden irritability.

When Kenon started to hum to the
saccharine tune, Sean couldn’t take it. “Why do they even make music like
this? Nobody listens to it except when they’re trapped in one of these
things.”

“I think it’s pretty
catchy.” Kenon hummed louder, now that he knew it bothered Sean.

Sara’s kiss was to blame for
Sean’s current mood, or rather, how that small gesture had made him feel.

He had to remind himself that
she
felt nothing for
him
, despite the kiss, which he kept replaying in his
head until he thought he would go crazy. When he wasn’t thinking about the
kiss, he thought about her breasts nearly spilling out of the dress when he
walked in and the control he exerted fastening each one of those little hooks.
Thoughts of where that kiss could have led bombarded him until he could think
of nothing else. That’s why he chose a seat as far from her as possible during
this ride, not that she had spoken to him while in the transport. In fact, she
hadn’t looked at him, even with their shoulders and thighs brushing against each
other during the trip. Had he done something to upset her? It shouldn’t matter.
He never thought this much about a woman. It worried him.

Paranoia was setting in, but Sean
welcomed it this time; it helped him to remember his earlier meeting with
Ephemerata in the V-side and focus on who or what might be waiting for him at
the Tredificio.

“That is beautiful.”
Mari drew Sean’s attention to the opposite side of the transport. The polarized
window showed the pink setting sun falling behind three glass pyramids
suspended above a waterfall.

“The Tredificio is the only
reason to come to Tampa Three,” Kenon said. “They should just move it
to Tampa Quad.”

“Tampa Quad isn’t so
great,” Mari said.

“You tell yourself that because
you didn’t grow up there.”

“At least I
grew up
.”

Sean tuned out the snarky
comments they volleyed back and forth and watched the three buildings draw
closer. He wondered why no one had ever thought to map this place and go
virtual. The waterfall would cause some challenges, but techs liked challenges.
Maybe some architect had already done a mock up, and Sean just hadn’t run into
it yet.

The three ziggurat-type buildings
which made up the Tredificio cascaded down nine levels that were connected by
covered walkways. With the sun dipping behind the horizon, the illuminated
walkways glowed brightly. Magenta and purple hues at the top descended the
spectrum into blues and greens at the base.

“Now those are viewers! They
must have a different Media channel showing on every cantilever,” Geir
said.

All Sean could see were blurry
images flickering on the cantilever faces. Less than perfect eyesight was a
deficit inherited from his Lower Caste mother, but in the V-side he could
compensate.

“What is that?” Mari
asked, as they neared the transport monorail station. “David?”

Sean could see it now. Splashed
nineteen meters high across the third cantilever face was a vid of David and
Sara in a lavish bedroom. They all watched as David slid her dress up her thigh.
It cut to a different angle, showing him pulling her straps off her shoulders,
then nuzzling her neck.

Sean’s irritability reached the
teeth-crunching point. He stole a glance at Sara, but she stared at the viewer.
Shock registered on her face first, then anger.

“That never happened,”
David protested.

“So you were never in that
room together?” Mari looked like she might cry.

Sean never wanted to hit David
more than he did right now.

“That’s the room they kept
us in, but there wasn’t time for any of…
that
before they drugged us,”
David said.

“You were taking drugs,
too?” Kenon asked.

“We
were
drugged. By
someone else. And attacked by contractors,” David said.

This bit of information gave Sean
pause. Sara never mentioned it to him. Of course she was sliding out of her
mind the whole night, so why would she? Especially if this was part of a set up
by the Embassy. It was still hard for Sean to watch, though not as hard as it
was for Mari.

“David’s telling the truth,
Mari.” Sara’s voice was calm, almost detached, even under Mari’s accusing
stare.

The transport zipped by, but the
passengers picked up the Media action on the next building, sixth level up this
time. David’s shirt was gone, so was Sara’s dress. Her bare back faced the
camera as David lowered her to the bed.

“Is this where the
contractors come in?” Kenon asked.

David stared him down, but spoke
to Mari. “None of this happened.”

Another image showed a tight shot
of Sara’s head on a pillow, then David leaning in and kissing her.

“Well, most of it didn’t
happen,” David muttered.

Sean didn’t like the sound of
that. His imagination got the best of him, especially as the scene continued
with flashes of skin. Mari looked away. Sean couldn’t, so he was thankful when
the monorail passed under the viewer as the vid started to get more graphic.

“It figures,” Kenon
said. “Right as we were getting to the good part.” He scanned the
next grouping of cantilevers. “Maybe it’s on one of these.”

“The whole thing is a
lie,” Sara said.

“Pretty hard to fool a
voyeur,” Soli said.

Sean tried to keep quiet, but
never did have much control over his mouth. “She’s right.”

“Soli?” Geir asked.

“No. Sara’s right.” He
glanced at her. “Those shots have been mixed and painted, probably reshot
in sections with standins or a compilation of digital images.”

“How do you know?” Mari
asked, a little hope entering her voice.

The real answer was because after
spending the night taking care of Sara, watching her, and holding her in his
arms, he knew her body. Instead, he gave them the technical version.