Jeannie Holmes - The Mammoth Book of Futuristic Romance

“Ms Selkirk.” His tone dripped with misgiving.

“Captain Grisham.”

Frozen silence.

Crap. First words out of my mouth, I’d messed up. As if Carrollus hadn’t warned me to guard my tongue. I attempted an innocent smile. I don’t think any of us bought it.

“Did I guess the rank system incorrectly?” I inquired. “Commodore? Admiral? Or is it that I pegged the military thing?”

“Finlay . . .” Carrollus growled.

I quelled and slid my gaze away from the older man.

“Perhaps we should refrain from interviewing academics,” the old man said to Carrollus, his tone flat.

“You’ll want to broaden that to anyone with an IQ over fifty,” I muttered. How should a captive address her kidnappers? Bravado? Caution? Diffidence? Did I know how to pretend that last one?

“My apologies if I’ve offended protocol in some fashion,” I offered. “Am I to understand that I might be permitted to ask a few questions of you pursuant to my presence here?”

He narrowed his eyes at me, then glared over my shoulder at Carrollus. “Definitely no more academics.”

The asperity in his voice made me bite back a grin.

“We require your assistance, Ms Selkirk.” Grisham said. He’d thrown his shoulders back and straightened as if trying to assume a more commanding presence.

He had the act down pat. I pasted a neutral expression on my face and nodded.

“We have need of men and women with good hearts and quick minds,” he said.

Irritation flashed through me. Quick minds , my foot . “You’re capable of interstellar travel. Yet you’ve come to a world that hasn’t managed to land manned craft on its nearest planetary neighbor, and you’ve shanghaied a high-school physics teacher. You’re blowing sunshine up my ass, not telling me the truth.”

The at-attention onlookers gasped.

I swallowed a curse. Mistake number two, Finlay .

The old man blinked. His upraised palms fell.

“Interstellar?” he repeated.

I shrugged. “It’s plain you aren’t from around here.”

Grisham tipped his head and eyed me as if sizing me up for a vivisection table. “What makes you say that?”

Throwing my arms wide, I snapped, “The fact that I’m standing a couple thousand miles above the surface of my planet was a real tip-off.”

The old man spun on Carrollus and jabbed a finger at him. “You let her—”

“There was no ‘let’ to it!” I yelled.

“Ms Selkirk discovered our orbital position on her own,” Carrollus said. He looked troubled when I tossed him a glance. “Sir, I think we’d be best served—”

“I know what you think,” the captain snapped. “You’ve been overruled. As you were, Commander.”

Fury leaked past Carrollus’s glacial mask. It made my blood run cold.

Grisham turned his rheumy gaze upon me and attempted a paternal smile. “May we first beg a single boon of you?”

Alarms rang in my head at the captain’s antiquated phrasing, painfully polite though it was.

Wary, I said, “You want to trade for information? What coin?”

“No coin, Ms Selkirk. We aren’t mercenaries. Choose a man,” he directed, waving a hand in a wide sweep to indicate the soldiers lining the tiers, “or as many as you want to sample, from amongst those assembled.”

“Not mercenaries”? “Sample”? My mind twisted in on itself. I winced. “You did not just tell me you kidnapped me for sex.”

“That is precisely what we did.”

“Wow. We are all going to be so disappointed.”

The old man blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Put me back,” I said.

“You’re inhibited?”

“What? No! Yes! Who the hell cares?” I squawked.

“We care. Let these men help you,” Grisham said, his entire demeanor overtaken by sudden concern and compassion. The old faker.

“Why?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Why?” I repeated. “What do you stand to gain from this?”

“What makes you think we harbor ulterior—”

“Kidnapping stirs up an awful lot of trouble,” I noted.

Grisham frowned at me. From the corner of my eye, I caught Carrollus studying me.

“It’s no trouble,” Grisham countered, shaking his head.

“So you burned down my apartment?” I prompted.

“Of course not.”

“Destroyed my computer files and my backups?”

“We’ve done nothing of the kind,” Grisham said.

Carrollus shifted, drawing my gaze to his. He scowled.

“Do you believe the police will secure a search warrant for your home”, he said, “where they will find your computer with your résumé files and the address of the building where we met?”

I held his gaze for several moments. “They’ll find my briefcase with my belongings still where I set it against the coffee table, yes.”

“Release your cares,” Grisham urged. “Cast aside your culture’s notions of morality. We value physical pleasure. These men want to fulfill your every desire.”

My every desire? Did I have any? Other than going home and maybe kicking Jill repeatedly in the ribs? I shook away the vision.

“Are there no women in your crew? Is that why you’re kidnapping sex slaves?” I asked.

The captain jerked upright, glaring. “That, madam, is a grave insult. We have never and will never force anyone—”

I frowned. “You put back the people who refuse?”

“No one has ever refused.”

“No one—” I echoed before clamping my mouth shut.

“Pick a man,” he coaxed. “Give us thirty days, then we’ll talk again.”

I stifled the urge to put my spike heel through his foot. Even I knew that would negatively impact on my captivity.

“‘We’ll talk’? Oh, no. You want me to play this game? Give me something to fight for. Swear you’ll put me back when the time is up, and then I’ll pick someone. Otherwise, we’re at an impasse. You’ve been kind enough to say no one will force me. I’d like to return the courtesy. I do not want to have to force your hand.”

Every man in the room stared at me. That’s right, boys . Long legs , short skirt , cute pumps . Harmless .

“You have no means to carry out that threat,” the captain scoffed.

“Look up Gandhi,” I said, pressing my voice flat. “Then look up ‘hunger strike’.”

“You would destroy yourself?”

“You’ve destroyed my freedom,” I said, “my career, and now you’re threatening to destroy my life. I’m clear that getting your soldiers laid is vital to you. It’s also clear that you won’t tell me why. I may have little interest in dying, but I’m less interested in being kept as a sex slave. So many willing, young, fertile women in the world. Why me?”

His breath hissed in between his clenched teeth.

“This isn’t slavery,” he snapped. “Thirty days. If at the end of that time you still wish to return, I swear we’ll find a way.”

“Deal.” I noticed that he hadn’t answered my question, but I had a possible road home. If the old man could be trusted to keep his word. “Tell me the rules.”

“Choose one or as many men as you please from those assembled within the limits of the oval, then enjoy yourself.”

Enjoy? Could I?

“ My everlasting regret is that I can’t have you myself .” Carrollus had said that when he’d thought I couldn’t hear.

He’d kidnapped me.

If I had anyone to blame for this mess, it was he. I could use him. I straightened and smiled.

“You’ve chosen?”

“Sure,” I said. I spun and jabbed a finger at Trygg. “Him.”

The room held its collective breath while Carrollus rocked back on his heels, shock in the widening of his midnight-blue eyes.