Free WOLF DAWN: Science Fiction Thriller/ Romance (Forsaken Worlds) by Susan Cartwright

Captain had avoided looking directly at her face, or at her body. She, on the other hand, couldn’t take her eyes off him. So much had happened. She had been so worried, terrified of being boarded, frightened of this man. Finding out that he was more uncomfortable around her than she around him made her want to laugh out loud. It was amusing to watch such a confident man behave like an awkward adolescent.
    Captain Forseth activated his remote, mumbled the place, date and subject. “Ah … now, what is your destination, and why are you in normal space?”
    In her satisfaction at seeing Forseth squirm, Sartha had forgotten her story. She hesitated and blinked. Then she bit her lip and glanced up and to the left. What had she planned to say?
    Forseth’s expression lost all trace of uneasiness and he became abnormally still. His dark intelligent eyes remained on her face.
    “Well, Captain,” she said, “we were on our way to the holiday satellite, Seira Nuvon …”
    “And?” He straightened, his attention focusing like a missile tracking a target. Forseth’s eyes met hers.
    Sartha flushed under his penetrating regard. She spread her hands deprecatingly. “I inadvertently activated emergency purge. Since then I have been stranded in normal space until I can get to an Omni corridor.”
    “I see. And who else is on board?”
    Sartha gave him an innocent expression. “Why, no one else.”
    “You said
we
.” Forseth positively jumped on it.
    “I did? I must have meant my monkey. Poor Romeo died and left me all alone.”
    “Too bad,” Captain Forseth said sincerely. He shook his head back and forth, while looking straight at her. She felt exposed, as if he could suddenly see past all her carefully constructed camouflage — as if he knew what she had been doing, and why. Impossible. Sartha’s breath caught with apprehension. But the man had such a peculiar expression in his eyes. What was it? It looked almost like regret. No. It was as if he genuinely felt sorry for her. But not for the loss of her imaginary monkey. The man looked like he was sorry for something he
planned to do
.
    Then, just like that, Forseth relaxed completely. He smiled a self-satisfied grin and absently switched off the remote. He said in a low, soft tone, “Well, you poor thing. Have you been lonely without Romeo? It must have been difficult, travelling in a big ship like this all by yourself. You must have wanted company.” His voice was loaded with sexual connotation.
    “Oh, no, sir. I’ve been quite comfortable, I assure you, sir.”
    “My dear,” he said. He reached over and gripped her hand possessively. “I think that I will take you up on your kind offer to make a complete search of everything on this ship. Everything,” he stressed the last word as he towered over her even while seated. He looked at her in a hard, cold stare.
    “You will?” She pulled her hand in a futile attempt to get him to release her.
    Forseth tightened his grip. “I will.”
    The room seemed a frozen tableau. All the men wore weapons. One man stood guard near the exit; two men and one unarmed woman were seated at the table. The largest man leaned with purpose toward the only woman in the room, and he gripped her hand in a firm, restraining clasp.
    Amongst all these dangerous men, Sartha looked slight and vulnerable.
    Lady Sartha’s mind was in turmoil. What should she do? How had she misread the Captain of
Darla Wu
to this degree? Could she have touched someone else?
    Sartha wondered desperately what kind of trouble she had gotten herself into. More importantly, she wondered how she was going to get herself out of it!

5. Unexpected Answers
    Icom: Interface Communications Online Management. Thanks to the cortical plasticity of the brain, signals from the neural implant are handled through effector channels. Thought controls audio, visual and holovid access, creating the ability to text, read and communicate. Icom is hosted by each world, as distance