Garnets or Bust by Joanna Wylde Page B

concerned, you aren’t even human.”
    “You’re right about that,” he replied. “I stopped being human a long time ago. But
    probably not for the reasons you think. You were always too smart for your own good,
    Tessa. You’re lucky I happened to go out with the scouting party that followed you
    here. Otherwise you’d be dead by now. Instead, you have a choice.”
    His words struck her hard. Followed her? How and why would Daaron Von
    Saur’rel be following anyone on this nearly empty planet in the back of beyond? And
    any choices Daaron might offer her wouldn’t be good; she knew that in her bones. He’d
    never made a secret of what he wanted from her. Sex. In her darkest moments she could
    even admit that she’d wanted him too. Every girl in their class had, and a good many
    more than that. He’d worked his way through more of them than should have been
    possible.
    But how had he found her in the first place?
    He strode into the firelight, eyes holding hers, blaster steady. He held it low, near to
    his hips, drawing her eyes toward that part of his body she always pretended didn’t
    exist. Dear Goddess, she could see his erection from here. Answering heat flickered to
    life in her own groin, he’d always done that to her. She cursed her response even as her
    mind raced. He’d followed her . Did he know about the garnets? How long had he been
    watching? Could she strike a deal with him? There were enough riches for both of
    them.
    8

    Garnets or Bust
    Although with his family, he didn’t need riches, something she’d been all too aware
    of at school. He’d been a frequent customer at the bar where she’d worked, spending
    more credits in a night that she’d earn in a month. A year.
    Money couldn’t motivate Daaron Von Saur’rel.
    He pointed with the tip of his blaster toward her tent.
    “It looked to me earlier like you’d found something,” he said. “I’m assuming
    garnets?”
    “How did you know?” she asked. “I sorted through thousands of planetary surveys
    to find them, records that nobody had accessed for generations. They’re mine.”
    “I can’t let you keep them,” he said, and for one second she could have sworn there
    was compassion in his eyes. “You don’t want me to explain all the reasons why, trust
    me.”
    She nodded toward the blaster.
    “Are you going to kill me?” she asked. “Because unless you plan to do it, get out of
    my campsite. I don’t want you here, and I won’t let you get in the way of my plans. You
    may not have ever had to do anything more important than find exactly the right suit
    for an Imperial ball, but I have commitments. To my mother. She sacrificed everything
    to give me my education, and this is my chance to pay her back. Surely you can
    understand that?”
    He nodded his head, surprising her.
    “Actually, I can.”
    He leaned one hip against her camp table, ignoring the careful piles of flimsies he
    crushed. She gritted her teeth—same old Daaron, oblivious to other people’s hard work.
    She stood slowly, eyeing the blaster as she set down her glass. Then she took a careful
    step toward him.
    9

    Joanna Wylde
    “Please don’t touch my papers,” she said, doing her best to maintain her dignity.
    She remembered him leaning that same way against her lab bench at university,
    tempting her with delights she couldn’t allow herself to contemplate.
    Daughters of bond servants can’t afford relationships with aristocrats, not if they want to
    stay honorable. And Tessa was always honorable. Honor was the only inheritance her
    mother had given her, despite the fact that most nobles thought honor belonged to them
    alone. Stupid aristocrats with their duels. Daaron had fought three of them during those
    two years they’d studied together. Each time she’d been terrified for his life. But Daaron
    simply laughed at danger. To him, life was nothing more than a game. Still, she
    wondered if playing on the ancient aristocratic code might work in