Free The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy by Greta van Der Rol Page B

you all my life.”
    Oh, buckrats. “Marriage isn’t such a great thing.”
    “It’s a public statement, a commitment.”
    He couldn’t be serious. But he was. He spoke with absolute certainty. He hadn’t even asked her, as if there could only be one answer. She wasn’t too sure she liked that. She hadn’t even had sex with him. It might be awful. Mightn’t it?
    “It’s too soon for me, Brad. Much too sudden. I like you. I like you lots. But marriage?”
    I need time to end the last one, her conscious mind screamed. Sean. What about his debt if she
    disappeared? No, that should be all right. She’d make sure she finished the system for van Tongeren so he’d get his payment. This way she could leave and let him do whatever he wanted. And so could she.
    Love. The very thought stirred up a veritable flock of butterflies in her stomach. She could so easily fall in
    love with Brad Stone. But then, she’d thought she was in love with Sean.No, no, back off quickly,
    Allysha. Love is for suckers.
    Brad’s arm tightened around her. “You’re going to make me wait?”
    Maybe she should tell him about Sean. But then, what would he think? That she was cheating? Oh,
    buckrats. Whatever she had with Brad, she wanted to keep it. And after all, the most important thing was going to be to stop that virus. Maybe she’d keep Sean to herself for a while, until they were off the planet, at least.
    “I’m not ready to talk about marriage, Brad. Not by a long shot. Let’s take one step at a time.”
    “Yes, of course. You’re right.” He swallowed. “I’ll… I’ll see you in the control room, this evening.”
    “Goodnight, Brad.”
    One last hungry stare and he turned and went out the door.
    The room felt empty. Call him back; she could still call him back. She took a step, reached out to the door control. No. She turned around and leant her back against the cool metal. She should go to bed,
    get some rest.
    She felt so stupid, so unutterably naive. Jarrad had seemed so nice. He’d used her. This horrible virus was out there and it was all her fault. Misery rose, a cloying fog in her soul. Her fault. Around her the curved, whitewashed walls of the bedroom mocked her. She’d seen through the whitewash to the reality
    underneath. But Jarrad had fooled her, used her up and spat her out. She shook her shoulders, trying to shrug off this feeling of helplessness. She wasn’t helpless. She and Brad would end this. And then… then she’d go home. Or maybe not. Oh, buckrats. Too much to think about, too many choices.

Chapter Thirteen
    The day crawled past. Saahren spent a few hours in the staff gymnasium lifting weights, running, using the exercise machines and thinking of Allysha. He showered and spent most of the rest of the time lying on his bed, dreaming of her. He couldn’t get her out of his head. She was beautiful. Soft and warm and
    delicious. He remembered her scent, the feel of her in his arms; even if she was sobbing. He toyed with the idea of going to find her, to see what she was doing but it would have been wrong. She’d be in the control room. They couldn’t have talked, anyway. And she would be busy finding out all she could about how to activate a K-400 interstellar cruiser like the one in the mountain’s hangar. A day or so to
    Chollarc, pick up his ship and head back to Malmos. One step at a time, she’d said. He’d accept that.
    But she would be his wife.
    Except she had a problem with Admiral Saahren.Chohzu the Destroyer. She’d been so vehement about
    it. He still didn’t know why. Somehow last night hadn’t seemed like the right time. It would have to wait until they were off this planet.
    The numbers on the chrono crawled by. With an hour to go before his shift, he went along to the tavern to buy himself some lunch. The same bouncy music played but at least not as loud as in the evenings. The barmaid was deep in flirtation with a miner, whose nose was just about in her cleavage. She